by Philip Blood
Turning to the crowd, Elizabeth raised her voice, so all could hear again. “My friends, I have hidden something from you so that I could meet you on your terms. I wanted you to choose me on merit, not by royal decree. I am Elizabeth Ember Ardellen, ruler of Lindankar, and the royal blood of the Hevarnan line runs in my veins! And I swear on this day to rid my country of the evil presence of the necromancers, will you join me?” She said, holding up the very aurora stone that she had once lain on Michael’s chest. It burst into light at the call of her powerful aura.
Cheers rocked the valley.
After a moment, Elizabeth replaced the stone in its pouch.
“My friends, we have much to do.”
G’Taklar sat by a fire holding his head in his hands, he could not believe he had lost the Ardellen cathexis ring. Jatar had trusted him and now he had failed that trust.
He decided he had to get it back before he could face Elizabeth. Three knights had given their lives to ensure his escape with the ring, he had to find it or die trying.
“I swear by my family’s honor I will not return until I bear the ring,” he said to himself, giving an oath that could not be broken.
Then he spoke to Rachael, “I’m going back after the signet ring. I’ll take you to Myrnvale before I start my search.”
“There’s nothing for me in Myrnvale, I have no other family and you are my only friend. I want to come with you,” she stated softly.
G’Taklar didn’t actually want to search alone and he had decided to accept her help, but only if she really wanted to join him in his quest.
“It will be dangerous, we might not survive.”
“I have no home. I will stay with you, G’Taklar, if you would have me... for I love you,” she finished quietly.
RIveK entered a hotel and she was furious at her inability to locate Lady Ardellen. She wanted to confirm her death before taking credit for it with the other necromancers. She took a room upstairs and sealed it with her powers so that no one would disturb her body while she traveled by projection.
Before she continued her search for the body of the sorceress and her child, RIveK needed to check in with Wernok to give him his final instructions on how to deploy his bandits during the upcoming ambush. She had her troops positioned perfectly to destroy the bandit army and now it was time to bring in the sacrificial animal.
Stepping from her sleeping form the necromancer slipped into the Dark Plane and headed for the bandit camp. She found her point of exit and stepped into the valley just behind Traitor's Tree. Two things greeted her sight, the first was Wernok’s dead body strung up by the neck and hanging right before her eyes. The second was a large gathering of people around a wagon holding two women, one of which RIveK thought to be dead. She had found Lady Ardellen, and she seemed to be quite alive.
Elizabeth was concentrating on addressing the crowd, so she didn’t pick up the weak smell of RIveK’s projection standing behind Traitor’s Tree.
“Before tomorrow we must pack up and move our camp, this one served well but is now compromised. Wernok has given its location directly to our enemies, the necromancers, and when they discover their agent us dead they’ll know we are on to them. They’ll waste no time in sending the Usurper and his army to destroy us. They can’t afford to have their anonymity ruined; the necromancers like to stay hidden, like a spinner in its web.”
RIveK stepped out from behind Traitor’s Tree and began walking toward Elizabeth. The crowd parted before the beautifully gowned woman.
Poison spoke quietly to Elizabeth, “This is the female necromancer who destroyed the other one who attacked me, and then planned on killing you later.”
RIveK’s glance of hatred was aimed at Poison, who RIveK still thought was Elizabeth. She spoke as she drew near, “So, Kirnath, you have some power, at least enough to heal yourself, but you are a disappointment; I’d heard you Kirnath had talent. Now I see your only talent is disrupting my carefully constructed plans. I’m rather upset with you for killing my servant, Wernok. He still had some use left. For that, I’ll finish you off, painfully.”
Elizabeth stepped forward and raised her chin, and her eyes narrowed as she said, “Your evil here is through, I lead now and we will no longer move at your evil guidance, be gone dark shade!”
RIveK smiled and raised her hand casually and then said, “Whoever you are, you're playing in a game where you don’t even know the rules, ah the price of ignorance,” she lamented sarcastically, then launched a bolt of intense purple energy from the Dark Plane.
The purple bolt crackled through the mountain air and struck Elizabeth’s shielded body. The energy split into a network of crackling lines, surrounding and outlining her body in a sphere.
Elizabeth smiled and extended her hand, the energy began to collect in the palm, where her aura flared white. Soon all the purple energy was compacted into a small ball the size of a marble.
The Kirnath sorceress dropped the ball to the ground and stepped on it, crushing it to powder.
“I think I know the game,” she answered calmly.
“Who are you?” RIveK asked, totally puzzled.
“Elizabeth Ember Ardellen, care to try me?” the sorceress asked, then spread her hands from where they were clasped before her, palms inward. When the hands began to separate, a line of aura energy expanded between them. Then as they pulled apart each hand had a vertical sheet of energy attached. When her hands reached their maximum spread, the sheets began elongating toward RIveK, angling back toward a meeting at her precise position. They started slow but gained speed as they approached.
RIveK’s eyes widened in sudden fear, and she hastily cast up a purple energy shield between her and the approaching sheets of light. The aura power cut right through her shield like it was paper.
With a clap of thunder the accelerating aura extensions met where RIveK had stood moments before, and then the aura power retracted to Elizabeth’s body.
RIveK’s eyes opened in the Dark Plane and she screamed in fear before realizing she had escaped unscathed. She vowed that never again would she face that Kirnath bitch only as a projection, she would need her full powers to defeat that sorceress. How had she made such a mistake? She didn’t know, but now she had to get back to her body and then go back and admit her defeat, and SCorcH’s destruction. The council would not be happy, and RIveK wondered if she would ever have the chance to take revenge on the Kirnath sorceress. First, she had to survive the meeting with the necromantic council.
The Riond Mountain bandits stood hushed by Elizabeth's display of magic. “She destroyed the necromancer!” a voice called out.
Elizabeth answered the outburst, “The necromancer was not destroyed, but I promise you this, if a necromancer comes to this valley, they cannot hide from me. The evil one who came today was, but a projection, her real body was hidden somewhere else. In the future, I will not allow them to haunt us, and if they come in the flesh, I will face them, you have the word of Lady Elizabeth Ember Ardellen, Kirnath Adept,” she promised her people.
As Elizabeth finished her promise, her thoughts went to a far place; to the son she missed terribly. “Grow strong Michael, and learn well. I am preparing your army for the day of reckoning. We will make them pay for what they have done to our friends, our country, and our family. The war against our enemies begins… now.”
* * * * *
In Cathexis Volume II, Conspirator’s Coin, the adventure of the Ardellen family continues with the forging of a young sorcerer, Michael Ardellen.
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Without Wax,
Philip Blood
