by JD Franx
“Just come on,” Kyro said, leaving the barracks.
Seifer followed Kyro and Ella out of the barracks. Turning right, he walked for several seconds before his eyes caught sight of Fang Bay. Seifer stared, not quite sure what he was seeing. There had to be almost a hundred ships in the bay and just as many out in the Sea of Storms. A very distinct black ship was sailing out of the bay in the distance.
“Ella, is that the BlackSpawn Bastard sailing out of Fang Bay?’ Seifer asked, disbelief riddling every word.
“Mmm-hmm. It is,” Ella purred. It grated on his nerves. “Bauro was nice enough to offer us passage here. Don’t worry. He’s on the hunt, after a traitor. You won’t see him again.”
Seifer shook his head and refocused on the other two hundred or so ships threatening his city.
“Kyro Yorcali. What did you do?” Seifer asked. Kittrix whistled at the sight.
“My father and I called in the debt we were owed by Emperor Mero. Those ships hold two thousand Elloryan gladiators, all arena-experienced. Give me permission to bring them ashore and they will defend Dasal against further attacks.”
“No.” Slowly turning to Kyro, Seifer added, “You think I’d let you take over this city? No!”
“Go get Father, Seifer. He’ll tell you that’s not what this is—”
“Your father’s dead.” Seifer could see Kyro wince and grab at his side.
“Assassins? Broken Blade, right?”
“Assassins, yes, but there was no evidence it was the Broken Blades. Well, that’s not exactly true. The assassin used Grandscorpion poison. I can’t imagine anyone other than the Blades could get it.”
“Grandscorpion?” Ella asked. “You sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure.”
Ella sighed. “That’s why my mark of rebirth didn’t save him. He had no chance.”
Kyro shook his head. “Yeah, well, we knew it was a risk. We just didn’t expect to cross them in the process. They hit us twice in Ellorya.”
“Almost succeeded the second time,” Niko said. “Dummy here thought he was tough enough to fight two Blades on his own.”
Seifer winced. “You don’t have magic, you idiot, why didn’t you run?”
“That’s what I said,” Niko said.
“It doesn’t matter,” Kyro said, pulling a letter from his coat pocket. “Here, Seifer, this is for you. Father said if anything happened to him to give it to you. Read it and then let us dock. We have their accommodations to get ready.”
Seifer took the letter and sat down on the stairs leading to the lower markets and opened Lircang’s letter:
Seifer,
If you’re reading this letter, it means I’m dead, and you won. So, fuck you, wizard. There. Now that I feel better, on with business. By now I’m sure even your empty head has figured out that there’s a lot more going on in this world than just what happens in our little corner. There’s something heavy coming. You can’t tell me you don’t feel it.
All our differences aside, my son and I have done what we could to help you, though I apologize for the way some of them occurred. Ella doesn’t believe she will survive the coming darkness, so she asked me to bring her a young woman with Elderblood, but no magical affinity. I am truly sorry, but Katarina was the only one who fit. The Desolla bloodline originated so many aeons ago. She must train with Ella until she is able to survive absorbing Ella’s power of the White. You will need Ella’s power, and Kat must learn how to use it before the next year is up.
And now for you, you ugly bastard. My son and I have joint control over the gladiators in front of you. You reading this means I cannot do it in person, so this letter will have to do. My half of control of the gladiators will pass to you, my written Legacy Will ensures. Kyro will defer to you in all military matters and with any concerns to Dasal’s defence. The mountain canyon north of the city has already been prepared for their arrival and half my fortune will be left in trust to you through my Legacy so you can feed and train them to fight as an army.
I did this for the city we both love, even if it was in a different way than how you would have done it. Now, don’t let Dasal fall to the enemy or be destroyed. Good luck, ya miserable shit. I’ll be waiting for you in Perdition, Master Wizard.
Lircang Yorcali
Seifer stared at the letter, hardly able to believe what he read, even after a second pass. In forty years it was the only time Lircang referred to him as Master Wizard. “Fair enough, you fat Kariyan bastard—and thank you.” He stood and looked at Kyro as the young man nodded. “Unload our army.”
“Master?” Kittrix asked.
“It’s all right, Kit. It seems these gladiators are actually under my control. Right, Kyro?”
“They absolutely are. It was always the plan, especially with Father...” He stopped and cleared his throat. “I’ll act as liaison with the gladiator’s ambassadors and my crew will arrange to feed them. Their accommodations are already built in the canyon. For the most part, all of Father’s... My businesses are legit from this day forward. Most of it is tied up in pleasure houses, taverns, and upscale bathhouses—places that earn big money. We’ll need it to feed our army. You will have to find someone to train them to fight as units. They’re only used to fighting on their own or with a second or third. Father thought you’d have some some good ideas for their commanders.”
“I have a couple of ideas,” Seifer said. “I’ll send missives with messengers in the morning. For now, get those men and families off those boats, settled, and fed. And... I’m sorry about your father Kyro. Truly.”
“He knew the risks, Master Wizard, as do we all.” Kyro and Niko both bowed and headed for the docks.
“Nice to see you’ve come to your senses,” Ella said, smiling.
“If you’re lying to me, Ella, and I find out that Kael died at your hands... I will use every one of these two thousand men and every Inari who will answer my call, to hunt you down and burn you alive.” He turned and glared at her. “On my vow, as head of the Inari, I promise you.”
“He’ll be safe with us, love,” Katarina said, taking his hand. “As soon as we know he’s safe, I’ll return here to be with you. I promise.”
Seifer frowned, hoping he was doing the right thing. “I don’t need to boost your magic, Ella. Forgive me, my friend, if I’m making a mistake... Kael went north to Kazzador City. That’s all I know, but you’d better hurry. Giddeon was only two days behind when he left Dasal. You might already be too late.”
Chapter Thirty-Eight
“The Dwarven people have been gone for aeons. Very few ruins remain, but each one that is found is always an outstanding discovery.”
Kalmar Ibess, The Lost Cousins of the Elvehn 4920 PC
KAZZADOR CITY ENTRANCE
The trail leading to the old Dwarven Capitol of Kazzador City ended with no warning at a small square opening in the front of the towering mountain. Kael wasted little time and entered the doorway. Cassie followed right on his heels. Once past the entry, they found themselves in a large hall bare of any furnishings. Yet the walls were adorned in what was once incredibly detailed murals and writings. Walking around the perimeter of the room, Kael noticed that the paintings were sectioned into three areas on each side.
The west wall contained the painted mural of a massive battlefield, but age had faded the finer details. The writing was mostly still readable, but Kael only recognized one of the languages they were written in. The east wall’s mural was in terrible condition and they were only able to make out the six-pointed star that seemed to have been painted onto a land mass, like some kind of map. The writings on the first two sections were not familiar, so Kael walked to the far end of the wall to see if he could recognize the last set.
Standing and staring at the complex language written on the last section, he realized that he was looking at a dialect he knew well. It was essentially English as spoken back home with slightly different inflections similar to the common tongue spoken everywhere they had be
en. It was the language he’d been able to read only days after his arrival through the dimensional bridge. The detailed diaries and historical accounts he found in the basement of Jasala’s tower had been written in many languages, most of which he could not read. The Elvehn dialect from the Dyrranai forest was one he could, though he still had no idea how. The other was another derivative of the common tongue, the wall in front of him was written in the same and without conscious thought, he began tracing a finger along the words.
Cassie stood beside him and looked from the wall to Kael and back.
When he said nothing, she quietly asked, “Well? What does it say? Tell me,” she whined. Frowning, he continued to trace the deteriorated writing while trying to glean a translation.
“I’m not sure. It says something about secrets or a secret sealed away below. After that it’s too worn to read, but these words here say births, black, and sun, but there are words between them,” he mumbled, while trying to understand what the missing words could mean.
“It sounds like its about your people, Kael,” she suggested. Scratching his two weeks worth of beard, he shook his head.
“I don’t know, the missing words could mean anything... yet down here,” he said, kneeling. “There’s clearly a warning, but there’s not enough to know what they were warning about.”
“What do we do now?” Cassie asked.
“I guess we go down below and see if there is any more information down there. Grodin said that any knowledge of my kind would be here, that Sythrnax was looking for it.”
“Can you trust what he said?”
A darkness settled over his features. “Yes, Cassie. He was in no condition to lie to me at the time, I’m sure of that.”
“All right,” she said, smiling and full of excitement. “Then let’s head down, the exit seems to be between those two statues.”
Though he hadn’t noticed before, the exit and entryway walls had no drawings or writing, but two marble statues instead, one male and one female. All four were identical to each other and looked like what Kael guessed the Dwarven people had looked like. The statues had a strong resemblance to features that were common among the Elvehn. Carved with long hair, slightly pointed ears, and though significantly shorter than the average Elvehn, the statues shared other features with the Elvehn people. Both the male and female statues had been carved with ornately braided hairstyles Kael had seen on several of the Elvehn. The male statues were also carved with flowing beards twisted into two thick braids.
Even though the statue was only five feet, two inches tall, it radiated physical strength with a finely corded muscle structure far beyond that of the Elvehn. The statues had been painstakingly carved into the raw mountain’s marble and used for the exit’s silent guardians. Kael wondered what the extinct people would have been like as they passed by the marble stonework and headed into the depths of the old city.
The stairs descending into the old ruin were cut into the raw bedrock of the mountain. Each step was layered in countless years’ worth of dust and worn smooth by the amount of foot traffic that had clearly used the stairwell to travel into the city below, many long years in the past. Descending twenty feet at a time, the stairs turned at a ninety-degree angle and continued down another twenty steps where the stairwell turned again. This pattern carried on until Kael and Cassie arrived at the bottom of the column-shaped stairwell over an hour after they had begun.
Leaving the stairs behind they found themselves staring at the remnants of a huge underground city.
“Whoa,” Kael exhaled, his mind swamped by deja vu as memories of the underground city below Tazammor Mountain came rushing back. This city, however, was a complete ruin. Cave-ins and earthquakes had collapsed all the structures, and everywhere were fissures several feet wide and too deep to see the bottom. Small amounts of sulphur laden steam rose from the wounded earth. But just like before, not a single body or decrepit skeleton could be seen anywhere he looked.
“This isn’t natural...” He trailed off as he noticed scorch marks and electrical burns everywhere. Chunks of stone had been scoured by splashes of what could only be acid. “What the hell...”
“Kael?” Cassie asked.
“There was a battle here, Cassie. Aeons ago. Someone destroyed this city. There’s evidence of magic every place I look.”
“Hopefully they’re long gone,” she said, looking around nervously. Kael nodded and they set out to make their way through the ruins, skirting the deep cracks in the ground while keeping his focus to watch for possible threats.
It took a few hours to pick their way safely through the city even though it wasn’t that far across. Kael was losing his patience, and his anger rose at the lack of anything left standing. He feared what he had travelled so far to find would be destroyed as well. As they reached the far side, they discovered a forged metal door with a huge locking mechanism on the front set into the raw bedrock.
To Kael’s surprise and Cassie’s amazement the door opened slowly the moment he touched it. Kael pulled his reaper-blades from their sheaths, ready for an ambush as he led the way through the receding doors and down six steps. Ten feet in front of him stood a pillar of rock covered in writing from corner to corner. Kael smiled with relief. Shaped like an obelisk, the marble structure had to be the monolith he was looking for.
Approaching it slowly, Kael cursed. “God damn... I can’t read it.” He shook his head—another dead end.
“You’re sure, Kael?”
“I recognize the lettering. It’s the same as the letter Jasala left behind.”
Kael knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that the writing was the same as the letter he carried against his heart on the inside of his Orotaq cloak. He removed the letter and double-checked it against the stone engravings. The characters were identical. His heart jumped with excitement as he realized the tablet had been written by his kind, or at least for them. Cursing quietly under his breath, his temper flared dangerously at the realization that he was still not strong enough to read so much information.
“Kael?” Cassie called, from the other side of the tablet. He left the stone monument, determined to return and read it some day and adding it to the list of things he was not yet strong enough to do. As he walked around the side of the carved rock looking for Cassie, he noticed the room flared out in three other directions, in the shape of a large Maltese cross. Thirty feet away in the middle of the room, Sythrnax was standing on a large symbol carved into the floor at the centre of the cross.
His hands were folded inside his sleeves, and he carried no visible weapon, though Kael knew from experience he could summon one in only seconds. The anger that had flared so easily seconds before was now obvious. Kael’s innate hatred for Sythrnax calmed. He could control it more now. But it was far from gone. Cassie walked backwards, away from the creature who had caused Kael so much misery.
“Kael?” she said, her voice trembling with fear. Cassie refused to take her eyes from Sythrnax, as if doing so would provoke an attack. She continued to walk backwards to Kael.
“It’s all right, Cassie, you’re almost here. Just keep walking.” He turned his attention to Sythrnax and asked, “Why are you here?”
“Come now, Kael, surely you must realize that my offer still stands. Let me teach you how to use all that power that is there just waiting to wreak havoc on the world,” he chuckled. As Cassie reached Kael’s side, he quickly pulled her behind him before answering.
“My answer hasn’t changed. In fact, I would prefer to kill you here and now,” Kael barked, shaking as his anger took off on him again.
Sythrnax burst out laughing. “Surely, you’re not still angry about the death of that little vampyr, are you, Kael? Please. It wasn’t me who killed her,” he said, shaking his head. “Besides, they’re vermin, a disgrace to the true DemonKind lineage. She was nothing more than a diseased, demon mongrel. You need to learn to play with the real power here, not the bottom feeders of the Lesser races. Choose the right s
ide. Help me return this world to its past glory.”
“Arabella said the exact same thing to me once, days before I handed her every ounce of pain she ever gave me. She died screaming. Be happy to show you how.”
“You’re stronger, Kael. I’ll give you that, but you’re still not strong enough. Not even close, child.”
“We’ll see,” Kael hissed. “That vermin? Lycori? She had more soul than you could ever have. You’ll pay the balance for her death, I promise.”
Still laughing, Sythrnax mocked, “You remember what happened the last time we fought, newborn? What makes you think you will fare any better this time?”
“Because I know how to use my magic now,” Kael said, with a smile, before spinning his reaper blades and disappearing in a cloud of black shadows, only to reappear behind Sythrnax. Both of his blades entered Sythrnax’s back by an inch and then stopped as snake-like appendages slithered from under Sythrnax’s hood and wrapped around Kael’s blades, halting them from penetrating further. Kael vanished in a cloud of black as Sythrnax swung his staff behind him. The frost from his weapon sparked as it entered the black smoke left by Kael’s disappearance.
“Seems you have a lot more to learn about my kind than you think,” Kael said, re-emerging from swirls of black ten feet away.
“No. I don’t. Shadow-walking? You little... dosa. Well done, you got close enough to draw blood,” Sythrnax said, as he touched his back and pulled back fingers covered in purple-red blood. “Do you even know what you actually do when you use that type of magic? I doubt it or you wouldn’t be so damn stupid. I cannot believe one of the Lower Brethren hasn’t tried to pull your ass back into Hell after passing through their realm,” he said, laughing again.
Cold tremors rolled down Kael’s spine as he glanced over at Cassie. Fear grew in her eyes until Kael was positive she feared him more than Sythrnax. It was the same look he had seen in Lycori’s eyes long ago, but it gave him an idea.
