Death Or Fortune

by James Chesney

  "Boy!" Khross could only shake his head. "If I know one thing it is this. A hungry dragon is just that, no amount of magic will change that. I think you would be better off keeping your sights set on something you are capable of. The things you speak of, the nature of the beast and man. This is the realm of the gods. You have the spark but I do not see the power in you to reach those heights."

  "NO!" Ramanthus shouted at his master. "I can and I will, you will not stop me. You don’t know what it is like to live with a boot on your neck. You know what it is like in Toryth Vol. I lost my entire family there due to the whim of some overlord." Khross watched as his student started to pull an item from his robes. He wasn't sure of what he was seeing at first, then it dawned on him just what it was. He remembered when he brought it home so many years ago.

  "What are you doing with that boy, you are going to hurt yourself!" Khross was in shock, he had never seen his student like this in the three years he had known him.

  "You will not stop me." Ramanthus felt a calm come over him as he lifted the wand in his hand. He saw his master start to cast a spell but it didn't matter. He was too late to do anything now as lightning jumped from the rod into the old wizard’s chest. "No one will stop me, not you or anyone else." Again he unleashed the lightning into the old man, driving him back into a wall. The final thing Khross saw was the calm look on his student’s face, just before the third and final lightning bolt tore into his body. Ramanthus looked down at his dead teacher, smelling the burnt flesh reminded him of how his own mother died. Setting the wand of lightning bolts aside he bent down next to his master. "I am sorry master." he said as his body hitched forward with a sob. The tears rolling down his face over what he had done. No matter how necessary it was.

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  Krumk roared as he pounded on his cage. The ogre did not understand what had happened. He went to sleep after eating that dwarf and woke up in a cage. He knew he was in a wagon, he could feel it moving but the tarp over the cage kept him from seeing who was holding him. He tried several times to break out of the cage but the door was too strong. He could not even make it tip over. While he continued to struggle against his confinement for several hours, he at last gave up. He decided that it would be better to wait. Better to save his strength to fight later. Yes, much later Krumk would be ready to fight. He hoped it was a dwarf that had him, he was starting to get hungry again. So Krumk squatted down in his cage and waited for his chance to be free. As it got dark and the temperature started to fall, Krumk smiled a bit. Cave, he though, full of dwarves and other tasty bits to eat. His mouth started to water over the prospect. It had been a long time since he had eaten a female dwarf. They were always fat and tender.

  When the tarp came off the cage Krumk was confused. A large stone table covered with different objects, books were stacked all over the place. When Krumk saw the man in the white robe he was really confused and just a little disappointed. Humans never had enough fat on them for Krumk. This human was thin and funny looking. Not that it mattered, Krumk knew it was only a matter of time. Human would get too close, Krumk would break him in half. It was then that Krumk smelled something he did enjoy to eat. When the funny looking human came over to the cage with the cat Krumk almost broke free of the cage. When the cage door once again held, he let out another roar of rage. Rage against the human, rage against his hunger and just rage over being locked in a cage.

  "I am sorry about this. Can you talk?" Ramanthus asked the ogre.

  "Krumk talk, Krumk kill skinny man." Spittle flew from the lips of the ogre as he screamed at the wizard.

  "If you behave I will give you this." he said holding up the cat. Krumk squinted at the skinny man. After a while the promise of the cat became too much for Krumk, he backed away from the cage door and sat down again. His hunger would not go away. Slowly the wizard approached the cage with the clearly terrified cat. As the wizard forced half of the cat into the cage, Krumk leaned forward and snatched it. Quickly ripping the poor animal in half, Krumk sat and stared at the wizard as he sucked out the warm parts. "I will not let you go hungry Krumk, we could be great friends. If you are good I will give you another cat later." Krumk squinted at the wizard again with bits of cat guts hanging from his lips. He would have been happy to kill the wizard but the cat was good. Licking the blood from his lips, he nodded his head at the wizard.

  "Krumk good, Krumk eat cat."

  "Yes, very good Krumk. I won't be able to let you out of the cage, I am sorry about this. Last time I tried to let a test subject out, well let’s just say it did not turn out very well. Still, I have made quite a bit of progress this last year. I believe my wand of attunement is now correctly working. If this works you will not feel a thing at all." Krumk watched the wizard move around the cave doing this or that. He did not trust the skinny man at all. Yet he promised more cat, Krumk wasn't sure what to do. So he continued to watch as the wizard picked up a long wooden box near one of the piles of books. He carried the box over to the stone table and set it down.

  "This is my wand of attunement." the wizard said as he pulled an object out of the box. Three feet long made of a light colored wood with a strange glowing ball near the top. "Now watch what I do now. I want you to see that this will not hurt you at all." The wizard then pulled out a second cat from a crate on the far side of the cave. He walked near the cage holding the cat up in one hand, the wand in the other. Krumk started to lick his lips, hoping the fat orange cat would be his soon.

  "Amboaeo" Ramanthus said pressing the wand into the cat’s side. Krumk saw the light change colors but nothing else happened. "Krumk, I want you to stick your foot out of the cage. If you want the cat, you have to do this for me." Krumk did not trust the skinny man, he did not trust magic. Yet in the end, his hunger won out and Krumk stuck his foot out of the cage as far as he could. "Coagmentatio." Ramanthus said as he pressed the glowing wand against the ogre’s foot. He felt nothing but watched the dancing light at the end of the wand. When the wand let off a single bright flash Krumk quickly pulled his foot back into the cage. A few spots floated in his vision but he did not feel anything. When Ramanthus set the big, fat orange cat on the floor, Krumk leaned forward to watch it. The cat looked around the cave and then looked up at the wagon, Ramanthus could see the beginning of a twisted smile on the ogres face. As the cat jumped into the wagon, the smile got even bigger.

  "Kiki!" Krumk said as the cat pressed its wide body past the bars of the cage. Now it was Ramanthus turn to smile as he watched the cat walk into the ogre’s hands. Like a mother with a new born baby the ogre picked up the cat and started to pet it. While the wizard was silent, he was cheering in his head. This was the break through that he had been waiting for, working for over the past five years. Setting the cat down in his lap Krumk continued to softly pet the cat, soon the only sound from the cage was the soft feline purr. Satisfied over his initial success Ramanthus returned the wand to its case. Yet, the test was not complete. He had to know if it would last. Turning on his heal Ramanthus walked out of the cave back out into the day light where his horse was waiting. Quickly mounting he rode back into town. He wanted to get back before the sun was down, his friend was expecting him at the inn.

  Even for a late afternoon the streets of Westheath were thick with people. There was some kind of buzz in the air, folks were excited for some reason or another. Ramanthus had not a care in the world at that moment. He caught whispers of some tragedy, an unholy terror. All of it was ignored by him, he just continued on to the Star Fall Inn. It was there that Ramanthus found his dwarven friend Baylor. After a quick count of the empty ones, Baylor seemed to be into his tenth mug of ale, not that this shocked Ramanthus. The young dwarf could drink for days and still manage to fight off a horde of creatures after. Yet Ramanthus saw something new in his friend’s eyes, a sadness that wasn't there before. He wondered if Baylor knew of Zeran yet. This thought gave the wizard a slight chill of fear.

 
; "Ram!" Baylor said with a slight hitch in his voice. "Sit down my friend, I've some bad news for ya." Ramanthus looked at the dwarf with a raised eyebrow and hesitated for a moment before sitting down. "Did you hear yet? Do you know what has happened?"

  "No, what are you talking about?"

  "Toryth Vol, seems there was another change of power. People were fleeing as fast as they could but not many made it. A lich by the name of Xcavere has taken over the entire kingdom. Where his army goes, death follows. Not just the people lad, everything is dead or dying in the wake of his power. I've never heard of anything like it. People here are scared Ram, I know that was your homeland. I am sorry my friend." Ramanthus felt a cold chill settle around his heart. While all of his family at home was gone, he still had friends there. People he cared about. How could they have let this happen he asked himself? What kind of cruel twist of fate was this? "Hey, have you seen where my brother ran off to? Zeran hasn't been here all day." Ramanthus didn’t have the heart to tell Baylor that his brother had been sacrificed to the greater good. The two friends then sat in silence for hours, seemingly on end.

  At some point Baylor stumbled up to his room, yet Ramanthus stayed behind. Lost in thought over what had become of his homeland. When the light of morning began to pour in the windows Ramanthus got to his feet. Leaving the inn behind he once again mounted his horse and headed off to the hidden cave he had been working in for the past six months. He walked into the cave to find the ogre sleeping, curled up in a ball next to the cat who seemed more than content to lie next to the horrid beast and clean itself. He watched the pair in the cage as he went to one of the many chests of items he had stored here. Most of the items he had found in his adventures with the two dwarven brothers, yet there were some that he kept after the death of his teacher, Khross. There was one item he needed, one of the wands that Khross had locked away where his young students would never find them. Only one of his students ever had.

  With the wand in one of his hands he then pulled a long dagger from the same chest. After setting both items on the stone table he walked over to the cage. Only after being sure the ogre was sleeping did he reach inside and pull the cat out. Almost as soon as the cat was out of the cage the ogre began to stir.

  "Kiki?" Krumk mumbled half asleep, reaching out to find the small orange cat. When his hand only felt the bottom of the cage he opened his eyes and sat up. "Kiki?" he said a bit louder this time. Krumk got to his feet in the cage and started to look around. "Kiki!" he shouted when seeing the wizard holding the cat down on the table. "Give Kiki!" he said.

  "Why didn't you eat your meal ogre?" Ramanthus asked with a cool and calm voice. His face showing no emotion. The ogre gave him a little laugh that sounded like rocks tumbling together down an old well.

  "Krumk not eat Kiki, Kiki Krumk friend. Give Krumk Kiki!"

  "Your friend? Do you know what it is like to lose a friend ogre?" Ramanthus asked as he placed a single hand over the dagger on the table.

  "Wat... you give Krumk Kiki now!" The ogre had started to become angry at the wizard.

  "I will not!" Ramanthus told him as he picked the dagger up, pointing it towards the cat.

  "NO HURT KIKI!" the ogre screamed, shaking the bars of his cage. "GIVE BACK!" the ogre pleaded.

  "No" was all Ramanthus had to say before using the dagger on the fat, orange cat.

  "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" Krumk wailed at the top of his lungs. He began to attack the cage door in his rage. Ramanthus stood and watched the beast trying to break free. His face had not changed since he first took the cat from the cage. He was devoid of all emotion, not even as the rivets began to break on the cage door did he so much as twitch.

  "NOOOOOOOOOO! KIKI!" the ogre cried out while continuing to pound on the cage. Even the tears on the ogres face did not affect the wizard. Leaving the knife in the cat’s now dead body, Ramanthus picked up the wand he had picked out and started to walk out of the cave. "KIKI" Krumk continued to cry out to his now dead friend. Not far from the mouth of the cave the wizard stopped, wand in hand he turned around just in time to see the ogre smash the cage door open. Krumk jumped from the cage and stumbled to the stone table picking up the cat, ever so gently removing the knife after which he cradled the cat against his chest. "KIKI! NOOOOOOO!" Tears fell like rain from the face of Krumk as he turned to the wizard one last time.

  For what seemed to be the longest time the ogre continued to stare at the wizard, the hate in his eyes growing by the moment. At long last he laid the cat down back on the stone table, rubbing his face on the bloody fur. It was then that the ogre turned and ran towards the wizard, seeking his revenge for his little furry friend. Blood was now mixed with the tears running down his face. Clumps of bloody cat hair clung to the ogre’s chest as he ran. Ramanthus, watching and waiting stood there with his wand in hand. He had to wait until just the right moment, he had to be sure that he would not damage anything in the cave when he used the disintegration ray on the charging beast. Just before Krumk saw the magical light that would end his life, he let out one last battle cry.

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  Ramanthus stood before the gathered men and women. It took him close to six years to find them all, then getting them to agree to help. Each of them were skilled in magic but there was one area where they all excelled and it was for that that he had tracked them all down. Each of them had a gift for elemental control. Thirty of them all together would help him shape what would become his dream. Many of them were like him, from the land of Toryth Vol and had a desire to see the land return to its former state, if not to improve on it. They had many tasks ahead of them, to study just what it was in the air that Xcavere had done to cause everything to die. Then find a way to remove the corruption from the air. They tried many times on the ground near a forest but it was just too much for them to hold back. There was also the problem of Xcavere himself being able to feel them as they worked. They had lost five men the first time they were attacked by a wave of undead. When they made the trek up into the mountains they found that they were able to work without drawing his attention. Some seemed to believe it was just the thin air.

  Ramanthus didn't care why it worked, just that it did. They were able to push back his corruption from one of the tallest peaks in the mountain range. They waited for the assault to come after wards but in the end it never came. They watched and waited for months to see if the corruption would return, it did not. They had found a way to poke a small hole into the blanket of Xcavere's power that he had over the land. A place where they could work in peace and a place from which they could someday take back all of Toryth Vol from the lich king. The thing they had done was just the first step. Creating a blind spot from which to strike out at Xcavere. The next step was to begin the construction of a road to the blind spot from the forest in Sanctuary. Everyone believed that even if the magic used to make the road was noticed, they would be able to escape in time. They would worry about the other two roads they needed later, after they built the citadel. It was for this reason that they had all gathered here this day. There was some disagreement as to how big the citadel should be. Yet in the end the discussion would fall back to the one problem they had not seen an answer to yet. How to deal with a nation full of undead that would fight them every step of the way.

  This was something Ramanthus had been working on in private, he did not dare share his ideas with his companions. Most of them would not be pleased if they found out he was working with clerics of Soranus. Yet, more than anyone they understood the dead. How to bind them to your will. Any necromancer could do it that but Ramanthus wanted to approach this from a different direction. With their help he began to explore the human soul and body on a different level. Beyond simple alterations to a person's behavior. Ramanthus had tried to share his wand of attunement with some of his pears in the past, most wrote it off as a simple charm, yet he knew it was much more than that. This is not something that would fade over time, this wa
s an eternal bond between two souls. No, they would not understand where it was that they must go next in order to deal with the undead. Stripping a soul from its body, leaving the body whole all the while replacing it with your desires and gifts of power. Like taking an empty pot and filling it with all that you desire a creature to be. There would be some sacrifice but in order to win, they all must sacrifice something.

  Ramanthus had sacrificed many things in order to accomplish his goals. Parts of himself, his mind even his own soul. Many times he could feel his mind slipping into the dark parts of himself. He believed this was all part of his growth and part of what he had to do in order to defeat the evil creature that had taken over his homeland. At times he was afraid of becoming worse than Xcavere. Whenever those thoughts would creep up he would just push them away. He knew he was doing the right thing. Even if his work had cost him his two best friends, the dwarven brothers Baylor and Zeran. He was sure that in the end the two would approve of his work and what he was trying to do. Even if they wouldn't have agreed with how he was going about it. Yes, sacrifices must be made to achieve the greater good. Ramanthus was growing tired of the bickering amongst his fellow wizards when he decided it was time for him to take the next step forward. He told them that he must journey back to his home in Westheath. That he would return to them soon and to continue working. "We must continue to press forward. Even if not all can agree on the steps we must take, we must not stagnate. Only by fighting to press on will we gain any ground."

  After the death of his master, Ramanthus set out on the road with the dwarven brothers. Leaving behind the mother of his child. Not that she wanted him around. Still, he did what he thought was right and when he visited he always brought with him any money he could spare to give to her. He did not want his child to want for anything, even if he really didn't know him. In the past Rosalie wouldn't allow him to see the boy for more than a minute or two at a time. She said she wanted the boy to believe his father was a strong warrior. Not some "twit that runs around in a dress." So while he saw the child a few times over the years, the boy knew nothing about him. Over the last year or so her client list had dwindled down to next to nothing, she needed the money Ramanthus brought in more than ever. The last time he was in town, she said she would think about letting him talk to the boy. It was for this reason and this reason alone that he was excited about going back to see her this time.