Warden's Path

by Heath Pfaff

  “Korva.” I greeted her with a nod of my head as I stepped back from the door to allow her entrance into my rooms.

  “Lillin.” She wore a warm and open expression as she followed in after me. “How are you taking to your training?”

  “Well enough.” I answered, uncertain why Korva had come to see me at all. I’d figured she wouldn’t really want to call on me socially, not after that first visit. “I’m surprised to see you.”

  “You’ll be seeing more of me for a while. I’m going to be training you for the next part of your education. Arthos gave a good report of your development. He said he believes you’ll make a fine knight.” Her faded red hair was just past shoulder length and tied back with a green ribbon. In life, I thought, she must have looked as though her head was one fire, because even dimmed her hair was bright. Her eyes were probably blue at one time, though now they were just a light gray. A part of me wondered what she’d looked like before all of this, but a much larger part of me was focused on something more important.

  “What happened to Arthos?” I asked, cutting to the heart of the matter. I’d told him I wanted to be a scout, and yet he’d recommended me for the knights. He’d either assessed my skills and found me better suited to the knights, or he’d intentionally decided to deny me what I’d been working towards. I didn’t want to suspect that latter, but Arthos had not been acting himself when last I’d seen him. I had to suppress my bitterness.

  “Arthos has been reassigned. He isn't handling training anymore.” She explained. “He is heading up a team of researchers who wish to study the phenomenon that occurred on your last mission.”

  “So that’s it, then? I won’t see Arthos anymore?” I was surprised at that. It felt like my earlier training all over again. People came and went. It was like he was just gone.

  “Not for a while at least. We’ve been given a first mission, and it’s going to take us away from here for quite a long time. I’m going to help you learn to focus your Will more acutely, and we’re going to take your friend to our school in the Expanse. They’ve decided that she has shown the Will to enter if she wishes.” Korva smiled at me, and then over my shoulder at Dreea as well. Dreea had been quiet this whole time. She tended to be around new people, and I thought it might be because she was a little embarrassed by her speech. It was clear and her general grammar was improving greatly, but her vocal chords made for a deep and hard voice, one with some growl to it. I’d found that I liked the sound of her deep, gravelly tone, but it made her stand out, and Dreea didn’t like to stand out.

  “It will be her choice, though?” I pressed on my friend’s behalf. “If we get there and she doesn’t wish to join the school, she won’t be conscripted?”

  Korva shook her head. “Oh, no, that’s not how that school works. Those who train there want to do so.” She looked at Dreea. “Whether you choose to train there or not will be your decision when we arrive. The journey, though, is a long one and there is much to be learned along the way. This is also about training you, Lillin. Things grew hectic for you and Arthos and your training suffered a bit for it, but this trip won’t be quite as eventful. We’ll have plenty of time to hone your skills.”

  I felt a small surge of anger at that. I didn’t want a less eventful journey. I wanted answers, and I didn't want to just be handed off like a burden that one person was done carrying. Still, it wasn’t Korva’s fault this was happening. She was making an effort in all of this, and that was really the most I could hope for. I nodded.

  “I intend to be a scout.” I told her firmly.

  She gave a nod and the corner’s of her mouth lifted a bit. “That’s a hard path to travel. Arthos report mentioned you showed a desire for the field, but he steadfastly recommended you become a knight. You’ll need to master your Will before they’ll even consider assigning you as a scout.”

  “Then that is what I’ll do.” I answered, my conviction settling in firmly. It still felt strange to pursue this goal so fiercely when I was only doing so because Ghoul had told me that was what I should do, but it felt like the right goal for me. Maybe I was losing my mind, or maybe Ghoul really had bent my Will to his, but I intended to be a scout. “When are we leaving?”

  “We leave tomorrow, just after dawn. Your kea has already returned to the stables, and she is apparently still bonded to you, so we’ll pick her up on the way out. Get anything done that you want to today. We likely won’t be back here for a few months at the best. The Expanse is, well, expansive. We’ll be traveling for a long time.” She laughed at her own little joke about the Expanse, an honest sounding interlude that made me smile despite my dour mood.

  I felt a surge of excitement that Zara was alive and well. I hadn’t had much time to think of her after Arthos told me she’d find her way back here, but knowing that she was alright did help ease my conscience about leaving her behind in the first place.

  “I’ll be ready. I don’t have much to do here anymore.” I replied, wishing we could just leave that night. There was nothing left for me at the school, and if Arthos wasn't going to keep me with him, then I really had no reason to stay in this place. Linna had been nice to see, but it all brought back memories that I didn’t want to keep wrapped around me. I missed Zarkov keenly. I missed Ori, staying up and talking to her about what the future might hold, and I felt some closure from speaking with Shina. Mostly I felt alone, though I turned and saw Dreea still near, and that eased some of that loneliness. She could never replace those lost friends. You never replaced someone lost. Even if another could help fill the void left behind, they were a person unto their own, and never a replacement.

  Korva departed, leaving a requisitions sheet for me that I would take to the outfitter before leaving in the morning, and then I sat down on the edge of the bed and turned to Dreea. “Is it alright if I talk to you about . . . about my friends?” I was almost afraid to ask. I wasn’t sure it was appropriate, or how she would react, but it had been four days since I’d talked with Shina, and I still had much to say, especially about Zarkov.

  Dreea nodded. “You can talk with me about anything you wish. I listen well. I have good ears for listening.” She smiled and flicked her ears, which made me laugh, and it felt good to laugh. I crawled up into the bed and gestured for her to join me. Dreea hopped onto the soft surface and scrambled across to lay down next to me.

  I leaned into her. She was warm, firm and safe. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Then, for the first time in a long, long time, I began to tell my whole story, and the story of the friends I’d lost along the way. All of it, including the most secret parts.

  When morning came, Dreea and I rose and headed to the outfitting department to gather our things. We both got a pack stocked with travel supplies and a few essentials, and then we were moving out. I felt closer to my willifen companion then I ever had before. After I’d told her of my life, she’d told me more about hers. She’d talked of her sister and “Friend,” how they’d grown to love each other, and how that had made her feel as though she didn’t quite belong there with them. She spoke of how afraid she’d been when the other willifen had come and things had changed. They’d wanted to live differently, and had been unhappy about the proficiency with the human language that Dreea had attained. She talked of longing for little ones of her own, and of having to fight off advances by the males that were mean, violent, and prone to taking what they wanted.

  Her life had been easier than mine in some ways, and much harder in others. Her story was one of never quite finding a place to fit in. She wasn’t really welcome amongst the willifen, and she was always the outsider with “Friend.” It was all interesting, and just a bit sad. Though we’d both had sad stories to tell, we agreed that it felt better to have told them, to have at least one person we could confide in.

  We were headed down the tunnel through the wall, on our way to the stable, when a figure stepped out of the clinging shadows along the wall and blocked our path. I almost drew weapons on h
im before my eyes caught the familiar dark smile that I’d come to associate with the man.

  “Ghoul.” I said his name, the word cold on my tongue. I was never sure how I felt about him.

  “Warden Lillin.” He answered, bowing his head a moment. “You’ve come far, done well. I heard you were returned and I wanted to see you again.”

  “ Compelled to see me once more?” I asked dryly, not really in the mood for this meeting. I certainly didn’t hate the man. I didn’t really believe he’d used his Will to force me to make the decisions I’d made, but he was always just a bit unsettling.

  “No, not compelled this time. I just wanted to. I thought we should meet once more before things start to fall apart.” He laughed in that terrible way that he often did. “Things are changing, Lillin. The dark is bleeding in faster, rushing towards us quickly. I suspect you know why. I’m fairly certain it followed you here.”

  A cold tingling sensation ran through my body. “I don’t know what you mean.”

  His burst of laughter was loud. “You’re getting better. I might have almost believed you that time. Lying is so unbecoming, though.” He clicked his tongue. “Arthos, he brought something back through the door, something that wasn’t supposed to come here. I felt it the moment it arrived. It is like the force that draws a compass needle, only what it draws is something dark and damning. I don’t wish to be like the mad men on the streets crying out that the end is coming, but we both know the end is coming, Lillin.”

  “You can’t be certain of that. You’ve been hearing dark whispers for years.” I replied, though in the pit of my stomach I feared his words were right.

  Ghoul shrugged. “We’ve been having this conversations for a while now. Each time you try to deny what I’m telling you, and each time things progress as I’ve warned. There is no point in lying to ourselves here. We’re on the cusp of something terrible, and there is a force driving the two of us. It has forced us into the dark, but I don’t know why. I don’t know what it wants, but here we are. We both know things have taken a turn for the worse.”

  I sighed but nodded anyway. “Arthos wouldn’t listen to me. We should have left that artifact where it was. I don’t even know what it is, but from the time he saw it there was no leaving it behind. That place we were stuck in was pushing us to take the cursed thing the entire time we were there, and he just stumbled into it like he couldn’t see how obvious it all was.”

  “It twisted his mind. Confused him.” Drea said, drawing Ghoul’s eyes for the first time. He looked a bit surprised, as though he hadn’t noticed she was there at all.

  “You’ve made a new friend, Lillin.” He noted, eyes amused. “Oh, I like this one.” He seemed to see more than just the surface with his black streaked eyes. “What is your name, dear?”

  “I’m Dreea.” She answered, her voice steady despite the unnerving nature of the man in front of her. Of course, I thought, she only knew his deeds through my words. She’d never seen the darkness in him first hand.

  “Dreea.” He repeated her name, nodding to himself. “I am Ghoul. I’m a comrade of Lillin’s, though we don’t speak often. She needs strong friends. She needs the strongest friends. Will you be strong for her, watch her when she is out in the world?”

  His words were strange, and I opened my mouth to tell him as much, but Dreea spoke first. “Yes, I will watch Lillin. I will stand beside her when she needs me.” There was strength and conviction in her voice, the kind that felt like it was born of Will, though I felt no stirring of power.

  For some reason this made me blush a bit. “You don’t have to agree to such things.” I told her, though I was smiling at the gesture.

  Dreea nodded. “I do. This is what good friends do.”

  Ghoul looked pleased. “Good! You can never have too many friends. I mean, most people can’t. Friends make you stronger, add their strength to your own. I don’t keep friends myself. This place doesn’t harbor such kinships, and I have no life beyond these walls anymore.” His tone had gotten darker as he’d gone on. “I’m not sure how much life I have within these walls either.”

  “You could leave here if you wanted.” I told him, not really understanding what he meant by all of that. “Maybe you should try teaching for a while. Certainly there are enough golems in the school.”

  His laughter was sharp and harsh. “There are never enough, and they won’t let me leave here.”

  “They?” I asked, not certain how the Wardens could keep him locked up here. He was a Warden. He was powerful.

  “They.” He repeated, and I was keenly aware that he wasn’t going to embellish that. “It’s important to many that I stay here. Maybe that’s why we met. There are things that need to be done out there, but I can’t go.” He sighed heavily, almost theatrically, and his expression settled into one of near exhaustion “Maybe. I can’t really tell anymore. Whispers, dreams, visions. I don’t know what any of it means anymore, Lillin. I’m tired. Sometimes I think that what I do here has eaten away at my sanity to the point that I am all madness and Will with nothing left between. Sometimes I feel like I’m part of a great purpose for good, and others I feel like I’m at the reigns of a great wyrm set upon devouring the world.”

  In that moment I felt sorry for Ghoul. He seemed deeply disturbed and sad. He seemed lonely in a profound way, one that I couldn’t even begin to understand.

  “You should leave here.” I told him more firmly. “Maybe no one wants to let you leave, but that doesn’t mean you can’t just escape. If it’s true, and I think it is, that something bad is coming, you should just walk out of this place. No one can stop you if you really want to go.”

  “The King could stop me.” He said quickly. “He has a terrible Will, Lillin. You’ve never met him, few Wardens have met him one on one, but I have. His orders come down and we obey, because if you disobey him he will crush you. We talk a great deal of the Iron Will, but it’s difficult to express how strong that Will is. When he speaks, you do what he tells you. He exudes command in a way that is inhuman.” Ghoul grinned darkly. “I know why. We’re not supposed to talk about it, Lillin, but I know why he is as he is now. Secrets. Do you want to know a secret?”

  Tension had risen in the air. The room felt small and close, though really it was quite large. Ghoul seemed to loom over both of us in the space. I found myself nodding, though. I wanted this secret. I was a fool for wanting to know, and always had been, but I needed this information.

  “When the Blackened came back from touching the Everburn they had become monsters inside. The flame consumed them and what returned was barely human. They did what needed doing, but then they turned their darkness upon the people around them. They subjugated and broke everyone who dared come close to them. The Wardens rallied together, and then we rallied every single human body willing to stand and fight. The war that came of this was immense. Millions died here. Millions. I don’t think you understand how profound this battle was. There were so few of them, the Blackned, and yet they were like unto gods. Worse, we couldn’t kill them. Instead we restrained them with all of the force we could muster, built small prisons of steel and rock, and forced the Blackened into them. Then, with them sealed away, we pushed the prisons through a doorway to the furthest ends of reality, to the same place we sent the Everburn. Then it had to be sealed from the other side, the prisons expelled into the void. Someone had to go and do this, so we sent one of the strongest remaining of us. His name was Kelendon. He volunteered, and we sent him off to die, but that didn’t happen.

  “We sealed the doors after him and thought the problem gone for good, but Kelendon returned of his own power, ripping open a gate through reality that allowed him to cross back. At first many of us were happy he was back. We were astounded at his show of Will, but it was soon evident that he was a changed man. He was darker inside, and full of an impenetrable Will. He wasn’t like the Blackened, nothing like those who’d bathed in Everburn and returned, but he was still changed. He hadn’t been
suffused in the fires, but it had scorched him.

  “He seized power from what was left of us. There were two thousand living people at that time. That was all that remained of humanity here. Kelendon took us and shaped us, began building Black Mark and reestablishing humans. He rewrote our histories, and changed things to suit himself. We fell in line because it seemed that his decisions made sense. His Iron Will, as he called it, was allowing us to survive the tragedy that had nearly destroyed us. The truth is, though, that Kelendon was and is dangerous. He isn’t fully human, but he isn’t quite a thing of the Everburn either. He cares little for the people of this world. He just pushes us to grow and expand. He would have done so unrestrained by the world if not for the rise of the Way.”

  Ghoul sighed and shrugged. “The King and his Iron Will are a force that cannot be resisted, Lillin. Even the Way will be worn down if he is given enough time, but I fear that something far worse than King Kelendon is coming. Something worse than what Everburn was, what the Blackened were, they were a fragment of something larger and more vile. That something is what is coming next. It is seeping from one world to another, and now it has a key into ours. It could creep at the edges before, but now it’s coming. The black puddles have dried up, and something has changed in the golems. It all started when you came back. Time is trickling away from us.”