The banshee throws aside the chunks of the ceiling that she was holding up with her magic; raising her spiky hand, a shooting pain races through my body. When Levouay clenches her fingers the agony intensifies; with each painful shock, the queen draws nearer to me.
“I want to hear you beg for your life before I pry it from your cold, dead, body,” she smirks.
A deathly hand reaches for my face; the broken pieces of the ceiling behind me explode as a monstrous abomination tackles Levouay. Genu has taken the form of a large bat-wolf beast; a strongly built body, powerful jaws, large talons, and giant wings. This must be his true form.
Banshee Queen Levouay and the vampiric-kaine, Genu, thrash about! Clawing and biting at one another. I look over at Crystalline and place my hand on her cheek, colder than the grave. I fear she is already gone, drifting alone in the afterlife.
“If any part of you is left in there, don’t leave…do not leave me,” I plead.
A screech of pain comes from the queen as he locks his jaw on her neck; digging her elbows into his back, finally releasing her. Then, she rams her spiky shoulders into his chest.
They continue to brawl until, finally, her majesty sticks her talons into his body; discharging pulses of tainted energy through him. Genu tries to break free but the banshee screams her siren song of death with all of her might right into the beast’s face. He slowly reverts into his mortal form and she hurls him into the wall. Now facing me, her eyes are filled with hunger. A defiled aura courses over her silhouette. She defies nature.
Light flashes behind the queen before coating her in a rainbow energy.
“Aarrrggg,” Levouay drops to her knees in pain.
Green and black flames rush over her body, reshaping her form into a more docile look and fastening her beauty back into that ugly appearance of hers. The fire dies and the beast within hides. As she stands I can’t help but see her for what she truly is: a fucking monster.
Turning, she yells, “you!”
Asvarp steps forward from the broken entryway. He looks around and then up at the sky as beams of sunlight pierce through the clouds.
“Back down Levouay,” Asvarp’s tone is firm.
She ignores his warning and charges him; twirling his staff, the mage smacks the queen across the face. Her body falls into a broken pillar, sliding to the floor. Raising his arm in front of him, he vibrates the very fabric of reality until a tear is torn through it. Instantly, his hand disappears inside of the miniature portal; retracting his hand, the ruvtag rest in his palm.
“How did you get that?!” Queen Levouay points her finger at the ruvtag.
“The barrier around the ruvtag was…unique. Once, I figured out how to dispel it I had to act fast. Although, I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. In order to break through the ruvtag’s shielding, I had to access the fuloque. Since that is easier said than done, I found an alternative.”
Both of their attentions turn to the three of us: Crystalline, Genu, and myself.
Asvarp places the ruvtag above the tip of his staff, its stone fuses into the crystal ball; steadily, the spiky twigs, at the top of the staff, wrap around the sphere. Tiny sparkles glimmer as the staff and ruvtag become one.
“You vile old man, I will kill you!”
Throwing his hand up, a flaming light grabs ahold of Levouay, stopping her in her tracks; flicking his fingers out, she is blown back into the pillar.
“You’re a sorry excuse for a queen. You’re a pathetic reject of a mage. You’re an old hag. You’re weak, stubborn, and broken.” Asvarp’s staff glistens with a blinding light. “You’ll never be able to stand up to my power, for I am the great sorcerer supreme of Elvendora!”
Raising his staff, he slams the end of it on the ground, expelling a wave of light that completely repairs the entire fey palace. Everything is cleaned: no blood, no cracks, nothing. Except for us. Genu still lies bloody and unconscious, as does Crystalline. Asvarp siphons some of Levouay’s power into the ruvtag, then fades away. I feel the last bit of strength in my bones slip away before everything goes black.
Chapter 11
(Genu)
Morning sunlight pierces my eyes as I struggle to wake; it takes a few moments before my mind snaps back to the present. Shifting my head, I look around the dull room. Nothing pops out, except for the banner on the wall next to me, indicating that I am back in Asvarp’s tower. I begin to stand but my muscles scream for me to stop; burning with such intense pain that I end up cutting off my pain receptors. Much better.
I reach for the door not knowing what I am doing. Do I go find Asvarp? Or do I check on the other two? Shaking my head, I walk down the hall towards the dimension door; I need to know what happened after I was embarrassingly taken down by Levouay.
I should’ve been able to take her down without any problems. Maybe…I just underestimated the situation, I reassure myself.
Approaching the door causes the animalistic instincts within me to go on full alert; multiple energy waves emit from the door, shaking it vigorously. Grabbing the handles, I forcefully open them only to be blinded by powerful flashes of light; variations in temperature burst into the hall, I attempt to push back the outburst with my telekinesis; to no accord am I able to have any effect on the outrageous fluctuations.
Quickly, the doors slam shut and are bombarded with magical chains tied together by a rather large lock. Asvarp strolls up to my side, wearing an exhausted expression on his face.
“The dimension door is out of order for the time being. I shall teleport us to my chambers.”
In a blink of an eye, we are in our meeting area. I take a seat at the table in the center of the room before acknowledging him, “what happened?”
“You shouldn’t be blocking your pain. It’s unhealthy,” he responds.
“It’s easier to block it out than to deal with it, Asvarp,” I speak in an irritated tone.
“Fair enough,” he smirks. “I brought you three back to my tower after you were all nearly torn apart by Queen Levouay. She would’ve killed all of you if I hadn’t interfered.”
“You shouldn’t have had to interfere at all,” I say.
Asvarp stares into me like an open book, he knows something is wrong but doesn’t try to pursue me on an emotional level. The one thing I like about him.
“Tell me, how did she see you through your psychic shielding?” Asvarp questions.
“She said she was able to see my vampiric side.”
Shaking his head, he responds, “just as I feared. She is growing in power. Her innate abilities of necromancy made her an outcast to the people of Elvendora and to the mage council, however, Levouay has become stronger than any of her ancestors. More than anyone could have anticipated. The black magic that courses through her veins goes against the natural order that is Elvendora—”
“But it was Elvendora that bestowed this gift upon Levouay,” I intervene.
“Along with making her the last known living banshee to walk Elvendora; thus making the banshee reign over the Fey Kingdom have an inevitable ending.”
The last of her kind. I am not particularly fond of the banshee queen but no one deserves to be alone forever. Even Zarvick and Crystalline have each other…perhaps I am more like the queen than I care to admit. It doesn’t matter, she is a heartless monster without care. At least I have a reasoning to my madness.
“Where are Zarvick and Crystalline?” I ask.
“They are in a dangerous restful state.” I confusingly stare at him. “When I brought them back here, both of them were unconscious. Their powers began to pour out of them, increasingly growing. I am assuming that it is their natural defense mechanism; most likely to ensure that their recovery processes go without interruption.”
“Why didn’t Crystalline go into this state when she was bleeding all over Levouay’s throne room?”
Asvarp stops and thinks for a moment, “over the past two weeks, I have been monitoring Zarvick and Crystalline; what I’ve concluded is that
their connection is far stronger and goes far deeper than what the naked eye can see. Zarvick giving into his own pain and exhaustion caused him to faint. When he did, it was the starting point of a chain reaction in Crystalline. Thus, pushing both of them into these defensive states. Their bodies are highly complex, more so than I can comprehend.”
“What else ha—two weeks?!” I shout. Getting to my feet, I slam my hands on the table’s surface; angrily, I make my way over to Asvarp. “You should’ve woken me up! The more time we waste, the stronger Reaper gets.”
With a flick of his hand, I am turned into a gaseous form, sent floating back to my seat; all of the particles collide together, solidifying my shape. Once I am back into my physical form, I take a deep breath, calming my nerves.
Raising his other hand, a large crystal ball, entangled by black woody vines, rises above the floor’s surface; leveling to the old man’s chest. Images flicker through its foggy scenery; coming together to reveal two people floating in the middle of separate rooms.
“Through my observations, I have concluded that both of them only have access to a fragment of their full potential. Which I assume you already knew this,” Asvarp finally speaks, “ but it’s only enough to keep them alive. They aren’t strong enough to afford to strain themselves past exhaustion. Nor are they strong enough get into one-on-one fights with beings like Levouay.”
“How about Crystalline’s wounds?”
“Before I brought the three of you back here, I extracted some of Levouay’s powers; from which, I was able to manipulate enough to temporary imbue it within Crystalline’s essence. Allowing me to heal her more serious wound and mend a few broken bones, however, out of fear of tainting her soul, I’ll let her do the rest. Which, has turned out fine so far. Their defensive mechanisms also act as a generator for their bodies to recover.”
I sit and think for a minute, “it’s a shame that the whole quest was a failure.”
“Actually, it wasn’t. I got the ruvtag and most of the information that I needed for now,” he says while pointing to his staff in the corner.
Somehow his staff has changed. It has become a tan, slender, finely crafted stick. About halfway up the staff, stone-like vines wrap around its shape and, as it nears the top, it separates, covering the head of the staff as it holds onto a clear crystal ball: the ruvtag. Embedded at the bottom, is a multi-colored rhombus shaped stone, outlined by more stone-like vines.
When I stare more closely at my old mentor, I notice his appearance has changed as well; he wears a long colorful mage robe, elven leather shoes, and a dark grey cloak. He looks just the same as he did when I first met him. Wrinkles and all. Actually, he appears a bit younger than before.
As Asvarp’s fingers brush against the staff’s surface, the ruvtag shines with life. I can sense the energy flowing between him and his staff, it’s powerful. At least risking our lives wasn’t in vain.
“Why exactly did you send us to the Fey Kingdom if you were able to get the ruvtag yourself?” I question.
“Correction, I wasn’t able to get the ruvtag without the three of you being there,” his eyes catch my gaze, “I found a way to break through the enchantments that protected the ruvtag. Yet, it required tapping into the fuloque. Which is something that I didn’t and don’t plan on ever doing again. Thus, I found a secondary option, which was out of pure luck. Or coincidence, depending on how you wish to look at the situation.”
“That would be?”
“Zarvick, Crystalline, and yourself. Obviously.”
I raise my eyebrows for I have no idea what to say. This is all just so fascinating. It is also very irritating to know I was just a pon in Asvarp’s plan to increase his own power.
“How?” I ask on the verge of yelling.
“The fuloque is the very life force of the universe; it consists of three major components: mind, body, and soul. Accessing such power is an incredible feat but not so easy to maintain. Millennia ago, it took countless wizards to do it properly and without loss of life. Which is why I was determined to find an alternative method; this determination led me to you three. You, Genu, are the mind, Zarvick is the body and Crystalline is the soul. When all of you got close enough to interact with the ruvtag’s enchantments, then it would be broken.”
Asvarp’s eyes glaze over as he thinks about his words.
“But, not all of us interacted with the enchantments,” I add.
“Yes, but the three of you being there weakened it enough for me to break through and retrieve the ruvtag,” he responds.
I sigh and straighten my back against the chair. So much to talk about, yet there is so little time to talk; I would love to just skip right to the end of everything and face my destiny already.
“What information have you gathered on Reaper?”
“I’ll start from the top: first, I managed to track down where Reaper went, however, its destination isn’t anywhere within reach.”
“Everywhere and everything is within reach,” I respond.
“I like your optimism. However, Reaper learned how to use the Rift for traveling purposes; allowing it to move through the universe through ‘pockets’ in reality. Basically a better alternative compared to the nexus. And, after some deep digging and a lot of magic, I located its exact location.”
He speaks in an exhausted tone; it reminds me that he is only a mortal elf, living far beyond what elves are expected to. An average elf lives up to three thousand five hundred years, the lucky ones live another century; Asvarp, on the other hand, is over ten thousand years old. He was barely a couple century old, practically a child when my brethren were brought into Elvendora.
“So, where is Reaper hiding?” I keep the conversation going despite my total lack of interest.
“On another planet that also has life, nothing like Elvendora; they are barbaric and mindless, nonetheless, Reaper sees potential within these creatures. With a little effort, I managed to perceive a vision of Reaper calling some of the more evolved beings: homo sapiens.”
I just gaze at him, speechless. If the dark form is on another planet interacting with its life, then, it could potentially influence that life and corrupt that world. This just gets worst and worst. Also, I am really starting to hate our talks.
The tired old man ignores my thoughtful expression, gliding his hand along his crystal ball, images flick in-and-out of focus.
“For the time being, none of that matters. We have our own agenda to deal with,” he releases a stressful breath.
“How so?” I snap back to our conversation.
“After my tracker spell wore out, I pursued the issue with Zarvick’s soul. The ruvtag has shown me quite a bit, including a solution/theory to our problems.”
“Which is?”
“Zarvick’s soul was broken apart by Reaper, using powerful magic, maybe, in an attempt to make itself immortal,” he stops to take a breath. “A piece of his spirit in each of Elvendora’s royal council members. Yet, this also including Ures and Culbur. Which means that, in order to repair his soul, we must kill each king and queen of the six royal kingdoms and the archangel and the devil themselves to regain his power. Until he does so, his powers will be forever limited, along with Crystalline’s.”
“You do realize that Ures is the archangel and Culbur, her twin brother, is the devil?”
“It must be done. Along with finding the Hwevoxa; it’s the key to fixing the time shift, however, that is all I have gathered about that issue. Nevertheless, we are going to have to go off what we have.”
I nod. The crystal ball shows Zarvick and Crystalline hovering in two empty rooms; their powers radiating in a controlled chaos around them. They appear to be in a peaceful agony.
“What happened to you in these past two weeks?” I ask.
“When my staff and the ruvtag completely bonded, I decided that I shouldn’t hide anymore. You know, I was once the archmage of the wizard council in the Tower of Arcane Magai until they unanimously banished me. These garm
ents are my last connection to my past; thus, I decided that they needed to be brought back if I am going to take part in this war.” Asvarp smiles.
Good to know that the old man still has some fire left in him.
Asvarp tells me to go rest. Before I could object, he teleports me back into my room. I gently make my way over to the bed.
This is the dawn of a new age.
Chapter 12
(Zarvick)
My eyes shoot open before I fall on the ground; I slide my upper body forward, rubbing my back. This is the worst physical state that I’ve ever been in; especially when compared to all of the past times I have woken up since the first day I met Reaper. Taking a look around the plain stone room gives me the illusion that a big fight broke out in here: ice spots, burn marks, and ruptured earth surrounds me. I must have done this; every time I faint, everything just gets worse and worse.
Looking around I realize that the room is completely empty, except for a clear window to my right. I force myself to stand but instantly fall back down. Glad to know that I won’t be getting my strength back anytime soon. I mentally raise the ground beneath me and soften its rugged structure, then lay back to get comfortable; staring up at the ceiling makes me drowsy. This is the opposite of how I wanted my life to turn out…
“Zarvick, are you awake?” A familiar feminine voice rises over my grogginess.
Sitting up, I see a translucent Crystalline hovering above the ground, she smiles and gives a small wave.
“Are you…are you dead?” My voice grows weary.
Shaking her head, she smiles, “no. If I was we wouldn’t be having this conversation. I’m in astral form.”
I give a slight chuckle before laying back down. I must be hallucinating right now.
“Lately, I don’t understand anything,” I think aloud.
Crystalline smiles, “I’m starting to feel the same way.”
“Where are you?”
Dark Form_Book 1 of the Shadow War Trilogy Page 12
