The True Tales of Minoes, The Master Mage

[Daevor]

I posted some of this in a Bijou thread months ago. I have since added a couple of chapters, and figured it belongs in the FanFic section. Anyway, here it is. I hope you find it at least somewhat entertaining, dear reader.

The True Tales of Minoes, the Master Mage


Written by DaevorTheDevoted

The fine print: All characters are purely fictional and any similarities to real persons are purely *cough* coincidental.

Chapter 1

Once upon a time there was little girl with magical powers. Her name was... something beginning with an "m"... Let's call her "Minoes". She ventured forth through the lands of Isya, exploring, discovering new things. She befriended many people and they nicknamed her "Min-min". Then one day while roaming the lands of Isya, she met the most awesome and handsome archer she had ever laid eyes upon. And he was named Zegaii, so Min-min affectionately called him "Zeg-zeg". So Zeg-zeg and min-min very much enjoyed each other's company. They would spend a lot of time together, exploring the beautiful, but also dangerous, lands of Isya. Then one day says min-min to Zeg-zeg "Dear, we spend so much together and we enjoy each other's company so much... we are almost always together (and besides, I have a thing for you *cough*), should we not, you know..."

Yes, too modest and shy was our dear min-min to actually propose. However, Zeg-zeg felt likewise, and responded: "Yes my love, I feel exactly the same way, and was but waiting for the right moment". And down on one knee he went, and spoke the words that would make any woman tremble with happiness:
"My love, will you marry me?
Will you give yourself to me,
whether poisoned, diseased or debuffed?
Whether healed, scrolled or buffed?
To have and to hold,
for my love is now all told.
For to you I pledge my love (and my lust *cough*),
in you lies my hope and my trust.
Yes, with you I want to spend the rest of my life,
so, Love, will you be my wife?"

And Min-min, totally overcome with joy, simply fainted! Zeg-zeg naturally got very worried, and called the DTD ambulance service. A member of the ambulance service pitched up, cast revive, and Min-min was immediately recovered. The DTD member then left the scene (this was, after all, a private moment between Zeg-zeg and Min-min). Then said Min-min unto Zeg-zeg: "My love, I just now had a dream, and my fear is near insurmountable."
"What bothers you, Love?" asked Zeg-zeg.
"I dreamt that we were married, happily, actually blissfully."
"That is my dream too", said Zeg-zeg.
Then Min-min spoke the words that knotted her tummy with fear: "and then you disappeared, out of the lands of Isya."
Zeg-zeg was shocked, for he could never imagine leaving Isya, not ever. At first he simply stared, not knowing how to respond. "But-but... Love, why would I ever leave these beautiful lands?" stumbled Zeg-zeg.
"I know not," replied Min-min, "but the dreams of the magi are dreams of truth." Saddened were the couple, for they knew it was indeed true: the dreams of the magi are dreams of truth.
Then said Zeg-zeg: "Love, though it be truth, I would rather spend what time I have with you as your husband, than to never be your spouse for fear of leaving these lands."

Min-min considered these words, and they were indeed wise words. And she considered his (rather lengthy) proposal too. Finally, she said: "My love, I can think of no better person to be wedded to." And then she spoke the words which later became immortalized by the citizens of Isya, for many a lover can still be heard reciting these words to their beloved today:
"You are the zenith of my desire,
you evoke my passion and my fire.
You take me to places of gold and beauty,
you take me to places higher and higher."
And so the two decided, at last, to bond themselves in holy matrimony.

[Daevor]

Chapter 2


The two lovebirds had been enjoying a blissful marriage life, spent mostly in the wild Ancient Elven Woods. The weather was always fair, the fruit ample and juicy; in fact, the very air seemed to be filled with love and serenity. So much so that our lovebirds wasted no time in expressing their love for each other, to the point that strict Elven traditionalists would frown upon so much marital activity in such a short space of time!

It was not long before Min-min's tummy started expanding with... uhm, the fruits of their labour. The principal member of the DTD ambulance service (that is, Daevor, The Devoted, with whom Min-min had become fast friends after her fainting incident) assigned one of his staff, Lynneh, to keep a close watch on Min-min and her developing baby. The couple was positively radiant at the impending birth of their child. Zeg-zeg was often seen dancing the Dance of Gratefulness at the lake's end, while Min-min looked upon him with her smiling eyes, sitting with her feet dangling in the cool waters.

As the time approached for the baby to enter the world, and the cramps of Min-min started in earnest, Zeg-zeg contacted the DTD ambulance service and bade the mid-wife Lynneh to come with all speed. And as Daevor happened to be on duty that night, and was such good friends with Min-min, he decided to accompany Lynneh.

The labour was long and taxing, and it was a good thing Daevor was at hand: he had to cast many heal spells to keep up the strength of mother and child. Eventually Min-min was ready to give birth, and the two men were sent out of the room. Such was the Elven custom: no man is ever to be present at the birth of a child, lest the child be cursed with a taste for violence.

"So, what do you hope it to be," asked Daevor, "a son or a daughter?"
After a few moments thought, Zeg-zeg replied: "While tradition wishes for the first born to be a son, my heart desires only that the child be healthy, and honourable. And I wish for the child to be proud to be an Elf, and to make the Elves proud."
Daevor marvelled at these deep and wise words. So spirited and highly unconventional - even coc ky at times! (thanks for the censorship, OS) - was this talented archer, but he was also an endless source of wisdom. He was mid-way through casting an AoE heal spell when the archer suddenly gripped his own chest and contorted his face in an extreme look of pain. Daevor was so shocked he lost his concentration on the heal spell, but then quickly cast his strongest heal spell on Zeg-zeg. But it seemed to have no effect. He tried rejuvenate. That was just as ineffective. He went from spell to spell, but nothing seemed to work: heal, rejuvenate, recover, restore, even invincible had no effect! After what seemed like an eternity, Zeg-zeg finally collapsed to the ground, unconscious, but breathing strongly. Slowly, sounds of a crying baby filtered through to Daevor's mind, and he realized that the baby had been born!

[Daevor]

Chapter 3


There seemed to be a power at play beyond Daevor's skill to counter. He was fast losing hope, but decided to give revive one more try. Surprisingly, Zeg-zeg returned to consciousness, bearing a puzzled look. "Zeg?" queried a much relieved Daevor, "Are you alright?".
"I'm... fine. I don't know what happened. How long-" and then the baby wailed again. "My child!" he exclaimed in wonder. Then he turned once more to Daevor, and said in a serious voice: "Please, do not mention any of this to min min. I do not wish to burden her unnecessarily", to which Daevor nodded gravely. No more passed between the two on the subject, for Lynneh was already beckoning them to re-enter the abode.

"Are they ok?" asked Zeg-zeg, his concern evident.
"Mother and son are doing very well." replied Lynneh, a smile crossing her face. Daevor thought he detected a hint of unease too, but the moment passed and soon they looked upon zeg-zeg's newborn son.
zeg-zeg then recited the Sire's Prayer upon his son:
"May Health and Strength aid you,
may Humility and Generosity befriend you,
may Honesty and Truth speak for you
and may Courage and Wisdom inspire you."
And ended off with "I name thee Zen-Saii." And thus Zen-Saii, son of Zegaii and Minoes, was born.

"The hour is late, and our work is done; it is time we left you to rest." said Daevor, upon which he and Lynneh bid a brief farewell to the elven couple, and started their trek back to the High City of Uruga.
"Something strange happened as the babe was born," confessed the mid-wife, breaking a long silence.
Daevor looked at her quizzically. "You know that crossbow Zegaii has? It glowed, a bright golden colour, just as the child was born."
This was perhaps another piece to the puzzle of Zegaii's affliction earlier, Daevor pondered, but it simply raised more questions yet answered none. "Go on.." he urged, in as calm a voice as he could manage.
"Go on? Is that not strange enough?" Lynneh shot him a questioning glance.

Daevor was silent for a long moment. There were simply too many strange occurrences surrounding the birth of the child: first zeg-zeg's chest pain and fainting, and now his crossbow glowing brightly, both at the exact moment of the child's birth? There was much to think on, but the knowledge had to be contained, lest the rumours spread out of control. Eventually he said: "Speak of this to no-one. I shall take council with Zegaii in the morning."

********************


Why could Daevor not just let him be? Exasperated, Zegaii finally said: "I have not suffered the affliction again. We are fine, and my crossbow is no different. I have a wife and child to take care of; I will not concern myself with something that happened once, and not again. Nor do I wish to upset Min-min with this knowledge. So please just let it be!"
"Alright," conceded Daevor, "on one condition: if the spell should return, we must consult with the Council."
Zeg-zeg had no great love for the High Council of Elders, those who professed to keep order, as he was by nature a rebel. He found them to be too stuck in their traditions, slow to adapt to new situations. He was often shocking them (sometimes deliberately so) with his unconventional ways. However, nothing he did went directly against the Great Laws of Isya, so he was still a Full Citizen in Isyan society, and thus privy to their council.
"You know I don't like them." said Zeg-zeg.
"I know. And you know how serious I think this is."
"Yes, fine. If it happens again, we'll go to the Council."

Though Zeg-zeg pretended to be fine, he could not forget the affliction he had suffered, nor Daevor's words about his crossbow. He was indeed concerned about these incidents. Yet the more he pondered upon them seeking a rational explanation, the more uneasy he became.
Min-min, being acutely attuned to Zegaii's moods, sensed that his thoughts were troubled. He had become more withdrawn since the birth of their child, and she could not fathom why. Normally he would not take longer than a few days to open up to her, but it had now been two weeks, and still he remained silent on the matter.

This caused Minoes to become anxious, and when she could bare it no longer, she finally blurted out: "Are you not pleased with our child? Is that what troubles you?"
"No, Dear, I am most pleased about our child. Nothing could bring me greater joy. And I love you all the more for being the mother of my son." He paused for a long moment, gathering his thoughts. Finally, after a deep breath, he continued:
"What bothers me is that I have been having strange dreams that I cannot remember upon waking. They disappear like wispy clouds, yet somehow I sense they are important."
Min-min gave this some thought. She wished she could help him, but how could she make him remember his dreams? Eventually she simply said: "Perhaps you need to just give it some time."

There was not much Zeg-zeg could do about his unease, and he took to spending many nightly hours wandering through the woods, or sitting secluded polishing his Golden Crossbow. His weapon was an item of wonder across the lands of Isya, for none had seen the likes of it, or even the tree from which the golden coloured wood used to make it was obtained. He vaguely remembered the mysterious Elf who gave him the crossbow when he was but a few years old. His adoptive parents had given him a good scolding for having wandered alone into the woods that day, but, after careful examination of the crossbow, decided to let him keep it.

********************


[FONT=Palatino Linotype]It was a dark moonless night. Zeg-zeg was once again out seeking solace in the quiet woods, when he stopped dead in his tracks. His keen Elven nose had picked up the scent of a foreign animal. Being the expert tracker he was, he knew the scent of every animal of Isya, and this was not one of them. He instinctively notched a bolt to hi

[Daevor]

Chapter 4


Instinctively he estimated the distance between himself and each of the beasts. Oddly, it seemed one of them had a different gait, but he had no time to ponder on this. He ran with all the speed he could muster at the closest one. As a hunter himself, he knew very well to try to not face all of them simultaneously. Soon the first beast was in sight, and Zegaii charged directly at it. He noted the slim build of the creature and its sure-footed paws. Here was a creature built for speed. His attention was drawn to the slightly overlarge fangs protruding from its slavering mouth. Yes, thought Zegaii, it will leap at me and attack with its fangs. He glanced at his crossbow, ensuring the bolt was properly notched: he would have only one shot at this creature. When they were only a few metres apart, just as he had anticipated, the creature leapt at him. He rolled under it and, aiming his crossbow upwards, he sent the bolt under the creature’s chin, penetrating its flesh, with the point of the bolt coming to rest just under its skull. A sharp screech from the creature was abruptly cut off, as the life force rapidly flowed from it.

One down, three to go, thought Zegaii, as he retrieved the bolt from the slain creature. He was shocked as he realized the bolt was unable to penetrate the creature’s skull. He could not try the same stunt again, as he would be facing more than one at a time.

********************


He was Urz’gul, a bounty hunter for the Ungreath. This hunt was not going well – judging by the screech, he’d just lost another Morgel, to a lone elf. And he’d already lost four to that cursed assassin. Thinking of the assassin made his blood boil. If only I can get my hands on him, he thought, I’ll tear his limbs off one by one, and make him watch the Morgels eat it. But wait, time to think of better things: his last two remaining Morgels were fast approaching the target. This will be over in a matter of moments, he thought, and then I can collect my payment. His thoughts wandered to the amulet in his pocket.

“Think of it as a tracking amulet,” the warlock had said. Urz’gul hated the warlock. He hated everything to do with magic: it was abnormal.
And so he despised this particular job for two reasons: the target was a mage, and the target was a woman. He was a hunter of men and monsters, the kind that strike fear into simple folk. There was no honour in killing a woman.
But the warlock promised him an astounding sum of gold coins for this task, and he intended to claim it. He needed to claim it, so he could pay off his gambling debt and reclaim his sister. That was a day that he will forever rue: never before had he gambled, but overcome was he with the House Master's promise of instant riches. It went well at first, and then rapidly downhill thereafter. He just needed one more lucky round to make up what he had lost, but it never came. And thus he owed far more than he could afford to pay, so they took his dear sister and gave him three months to settle his debt.

He thought back to the warlock and his payment.
“Much rests on the death of this elf, my little Urz’gul.”
He seethed at being belittled so, but dared not show it. “I have never failed in my job, that’s why you recruited me for this task.” He replied, soothing his bruised ego.
“Yes, yes,” continued the warlock, dismissing the hunter’s impressive record with a wave of his hand, “but this is a task in which you cannot fail.” Turning away from Urz’gul, the warlock ended the conversation with: “Take the 100 gold coins, and when you bring me her head, there will be 900 more for you. Fail, and you will know true pain to the ends of time.”
He took the sack of coins and scurried out.

********************


The two beasts were approaching him, one from either side. Without hesitation, Zegaii drew a bolt from his quiver and, with his crossbow in one hand, and a bolt in the other, he charged at one of the beasts. Eventually they met, leaping at each other. Using his crossbow to fend off most of the beast's attack, he drove the bolt he was wielding through the creature's eye, killing it in a matter of seconds. His exposed side exploded in pain, as the beast's claw still managed to cleave into him, and raked three long cuts along his ribs. He landed hard, losing his crossbow while rolling to absorb the fall. By this time the last beast was upon him, snapping and ripping at his forearms, trying to gain access to his throat. He knew it was but a matter of moments before the beast would tear his throat.

"Stay!" shouted Urg'zul. The Morgel stopped attacking, but still loomed menacingly over its prey. Urg'zul was very puzzled. "You are not a woman."
Though Zegaii was just spared from certain death, and hardly had the breath to whisper, his natural defiant personality made him force out through clenched teeth: "Good of you to notice."
"You are not a mage either."
"Aren't you just the bright one."
"Do not mock me, archer! I seek the female mage that this amulet was supposed to lead me to." He held the amulet aloft. "She is my target, but I have no problem killing you too if you don't know how to show respect to your betters."
A deep knot of fear gripped Zegaii: the hunter could be talking about his beloved Minoes, and if so, he was helpless to protect her. His train of thought was abruptly cut off as a bolt of lightning came flashing out of the trees and struck the Morgel on its side. It yelped loudly, momentarily stunned, then charged at the unseen assailant. This time a firebolt came blazing out of the trees, striking the Morgel squarely in the face. It fell mid-stride, writhing on the ground as its life-force seeped from it.

The sudden attack caught Urz'gul by surprise. Now he held his shield protectively between himself and the unseen attacker. "So, assassin, finally we meet. Show yourself and face me with honour, or can you only shoot lightning while hiding in the trees?" He taunted.
An elf stepped out from the trees, wearing heavily travel-stained clothing. His cloak was torn, his hair an unruly mess, and, surprisingly, he sported a beard. Elves are incapable of growing beards. This then must be a half-elf, Urz'gul realized. But most surprising was that he bore a shield on his left arm and wielded a spiked metal staff in his right hand.

The assassin sent a bolt of lightning at Urz'gul, which rebounded off his shield and shot back at the caster. The assassin was so startled he just barely managed to catch the bolt on his own shield. Urz'gul smiled broadly; while he hated magic, he was smart enough to protect himself against it. He had paid a pretty penny to the master dwarven smiths of Mithril Mine, the only smiths skillful enough to produce anti-magic armour and shields. The armour was priced completely out of his budget, but he could just about afford the shield. He could thus take jobs where the target was a renegade mage, while his fellow bounty hunters were simply too afraid.

The assassin cast a fireball at him, which he simply reflected back at the assassin, also to be absorbed by the casters own shield. The mage cast another spell, and Urz'gul felt an overwhelming fear grip him. He knew this trick, and fought back. He concentrated on his outstanding achievements: he knew he was the best bounty hunter, he had never failed. He focused on how powerful he was, and managed to keep the fear at bay.

At last the assassin spoke: "Your shield is powerful, and your willpower is strong. But I will still best you."
"Come then, show me." Urz'gul challenged him.

The assassin approached him, and, wielding their weapons and shields, they circled each other. This was the kind of combat Urz'gul liked, and excelled at. He had effectively neutralized the assassin’s magical attacks, and forced him in to a straight duel.
Urz'gul launched an attack, his blade a flurry of movement. The assassin just managed to hold off his attack, and they broke away and started circling each other again. In that single confrontation Urz'gul knew he could best this assassin. He launched another skillful attack, forcing the assassin back, but this time pressing his advantage until he opened the assassin up enough to land a slicing, but shallow, cut across his chest. Though magi can cast fear spells, Urz'gul thought, he also knew how to work with it: he stepped back from the assassin, letting the knowledge sink in that he was outmatched, giving time for the fear to build. They circled each other again.
Finally Urz'gul launch a ferocious attack, his blade a blur of movement, eventually opening up the assassin again in an identical manner, and slicing him more deeply across his chest this time.
He back away from the assassin, letting the fear build again. "So, assassin, are you ready to die?"

[Daevor]

Chapter 5


He was clearly outmatched: he simply could not compete with the bounty hunter's swordmanship. But he would not be beaten this day. He was RanMan, skilled in swordmanship, archery, and both the magical arts of healing and destruction. He had allowed the bounty hunter to open him up in an identical manner each time, so he could be sure of landing his own blow.
"Death comes whether we are ready or not, but today is not my day." he replied, and readied himself for the bounty hunter's final onslaught.
A mighty clash of weapons and shields followed, the assassin desperately trying to fend off the attacks. Eventually the bounty hunter opened him up again, but this time as the blow was about to land, RanMan aimed his spiked staff and sent a fireball at the hunter's helmet. The fireball struck just a moment after his opponent's sword sliced into him, sending both combatants to the ground. The bounty hunter screamed and shook violently on the ground, while RanMan lay nearly motionless, his life's blood flowing from deep cuts across his chest.

********************


Daevor's eyes flared open: a Summon Amulet had been triggered. Summon Amulets were rarely given out, for there was great potential for abuse. Daevor himself had only ever given out one such Amulet during his time as head of the DTD service, and that was to Min-min while she was heavily pregnant. However, that Amulet had recently been returned, yet this Summon call came from the direction of the Ancient Elven Woods. He had no clue who had triggered the Summon Amulet, or why, so he prepared himself as best he could for the unknown: he dressed in full armour, and bade his servant to summon his two most battle hardened followers: Argonos and Chikyuu.

Daevor was no less puzzled than his two companions, but they kept peppering him with questions: who triggered the Amulet?how did they get an Amulet? why was the Amulet triggered? Finally he said: "I don't know, and that's why I asked you two to accompany me. You are both level-headed, and have been in many battles against the monsters of Isya. We have to be ready for anything."

********************


The scene was nauseating, especially with the smell of burning flesh permeating the air. As far as the three clerics could tell, the dead creatures were foreign to Isya. They quickly made their way to the elf, the half-elf and the human. All three were still alive, but suffered grave wounds. Daevor's heart sank when he saw much of the flesh had been torn off Zegaii's forearms: the archer had fought the creatures bravely. He attended to Zegaii himself, and poured of his own life force into the archer, to keep death at bay. Chikyuu healed the worst of the half-elf's wounds, while Argonos tended to the swordsman. Argonos noted that the swordsman's helmet was hot to the touch, but was unable to remove it, as the skin beneath it had melted onto the inside of the helmet. He sent a soothing spell to the swordman's face, easing the burns and partially repairing the skin.

Daevor submerged his consciousness in Zegaii's wounds, repairing them to the best of his ability. Oddly enough, some parts of the wounds simply would not be repaired. Upon closer inspection, Daevor noticed an unusual discolouration at the centre of these trouble spots. Normally a poison shows up green when using this technique, and a disease is an orange-red colour. However, these were purple blotches, and try as he might, he could not heal those areas.
"Argonos, Chikyuu, come here, quickly!" Daevor called urgently. "Use Mind Heal on his arms, and tell me what you see."
"Purple?!" exclaimed Chikyuu.
"It's spreading," said Argonos.
"We must stop it!" said Daevor, his voice betraying his desperation. "Come, let us join our minds and purge him of this affliction."

With their minds merged, the three clerics set their collective power to work. Long and hard they laboured, and when Chikyuu was on the brink of passing out from exhaustion, they withdrew, unsuccessful.
"We can't-" Argonos started, breathing heavily. Chikyuu simply hung her head, too drained to speak.
"It's too powerful;" conceded Daevor, "there is only one thing we can do now."

[Daevor]

Chapter 6

“We have to use Death Sleep.” Daevor declared.
“You can’t be serious!” protested Argonos, “We don’t have the Council’s permission. Besides, our energy has been sapped trying the joint Mind Heal.”
“We don’t have a choice. It’s that, or he dies.” Daevor replied, while digging around in his backpack. He pulled out 3 small bottles of bluish potion and offered one to each of his companions. “Drink this.”
The three quaffed their potions, and within seconds felt the exhaustion leaving them.
Chikyuu assumed a highly concerned look. When Daevor cast her an enquiring look, she replied flatly: “I don’t want to be put to death.”
Daevor hung his head and sighed deeply, muttering under his breath: “We don’t have time for this!”
He fully understood her fear. This ancient spell had been lost for many ages, and rediscovered by Daevor’s mentor. There was still much debate on whether this spell was Dark Magic or not, and thus the High Council declared that this spell shall not be used without their permission – on pain of death.
Finally he looked up and proclaimed: “I take full responsibility for the casting of the spell. No blame shall fall on you.”
The other two visibly relaxed, but were still a bit hesitant – someone was still going to have to own up for casting the spell, and that someone was Daevor, their mentor. However, they were committed to helping him, and thus they focused once more, joining their minds to perform the ritual.

An hour later the three clerics slumped to the ground, exhausted. They were beyond the regenerative powers of potions – the severe mental drain of the spell casting could only be restored by sleep. They had successfully sent Zegaii’s body into the icy state of Death Sleep. In this state, his body would not grow old, would not change; but most importantly, the evil spell of affliction would not be able to spread. Zegaii shall live, was Daevor’s last thoughts before the blackness enveloped him.

********************


RanMan woke with a start to a cool, predawn breeze. Lying flat on his back on the hard ground, he was momentarily disoriented; then images of his battle with the bounty hunter flooded his mind. Involuntarily he grasped at his left ribs, where the lethal blade had cut him. Only a dull ache, he mused. Slowly he sat up, taking in his surroundings. His left side stung a little with the movement. He noted the clerics laying close to his charge, Zegaii. High Healer Jen must have sent them, he reasoned, subconsciously clutching the Summon Amulet. He hurried over to Zegaii, and saw that his body was cold to the touch, and his breath came not. Damn that bounty hunter! RanMan had failed.

He thought back to that fateful day, the day the Haldaére elves fell. He vividly remembered King Galdin The Wise handing him the king’s prized crossbow and quiver, and the king’s personal spell book. The king then ordered him to take to the escape tunnels, and get Prince Zegaii, then barely 2 years old, to safety. He had sped down the tunnels, the crossbow and quiver slung over his back, the book in a sack, and the toddler in his arms, putting as much distance as he could between the Haldaére stronghold and himself. The look in the king’s eyes left no doubt in his mind as to the king’s intentions – he dared not slow down. Even so, he was not fully prepared when it happened: it felt like the world was being torn apart. The king had unleashed his most powerful weapon: a doomsday spell. The king had taken the invading army down with him. When the dust had eventually settled, he found that Zegaii’s body was cushioned under his, but that he was pinned down by the caved in tunnel. He had lost the sack containing the king’s spell book. Back and forth he had wiggled, and realized that it was actually the crossbow and quiver that were stuck. Quickly he slid his hunting knife out of his boot, and cut himself free. After displacing some rocks, he managed to pull the crossbow free, but try as he might, he simply could not dislodge the quiver. He had then worked his way out of the tunnels, leaving the quiver and spell book buried behind him.

Two months later he arrived in the Ancient Elven Woods, where he arranged for a childless elven couple to find the “abandoned” boy. He travelled back to the Haldaére lands, to see what he may learn of the warlocks who had led the invading armies. He had discovered that the warlocks answered to a far more sinister force, one they feared as much as they revered. He had returned four years later to check up on Zegaii, and to give him all that remained of his inheritance: the Golden Crossbow. He had continued his investigation then, seeking to learn what he could of this evil force. And thus he came upon the warlock and the bounty hunter, both working for the evil god, known simply as Dark Nik.

********************


She flitted from one rooftop to another, barely raising a whisper as she neared her destination. This was the riskiest job she had ever been on. In fact, no-one had ever tried to steal from the High Councilor before. According to tradition, she should not even be thieving anymore, being the guild master of Thieves’ Guild. But she simply loved the thrill of breaking in, claiming the treasure, and exiting safely, all while the inhabitants of the abode snored the night away in blissful ignorance! She arrived at the High Councilor’s triple-storey house – silly old rich fools, she mused: the bigger the house, the easier to penetrate. A quick tour of the windows revealed they were all enchanted, probably to sound an alarm if anyone tried to break in. She had no magic-casting abilities, but she was well trained in all the skills a good thief needed (she told herself, yet again), and magic detection was quite high up on that list. The chimney again, she sighed. She did not really expect to get in through a window, but couldn’t these rich fools make it easy for her, just once? She was small for an Elf, but even so, it was still a tight squeeze getting into the top of the chimney. Down she climbed until she silently dropped onto the dead coals. She slipped her black “socks” out of her bag and over her boots. These socks ensured that her passing was soundless so that she did not disturb the peaceful sleep of those she robbed, and that she did not dirty the floor with black coal marks. She giggled silently: the socks had nothing to do with considerations for her victims! – she used them so that her victims (and future victims) would not think of enchanting their chimneys as they do their windows and doors.

Like a shadow she made her way to the master bedroom, and listened intently to the sounds inside. All she heard was the rhythmic snoring of the old High Councilor. She carefully inspected the door, but found no enchantments on it. Slowly she raised her hand to the door handle, then froze in place, just as she was about to grasp it. A moment of panic shot through her: she hadn’t put on her second pair of gloves! Silently she berated herself for being so careless, then slipped on the second pair of gloves – like her socks, these gloves ensured she left no clue of her manner of entry. After calming her breathing, she listened once more – all was as it should be. Gently she turned the handle and opened the door just enough for her to slip in, all the while listening to make sure there was no change in the High Councilor’s breathing. She glanced around the room, taking in everything of interest: the High Councilor was (as she expected) fast asleep; his expensive robe was draped over a chair in the corner of the room; there were two gold candle holders on the dressing table; there was a silver goblet on the pedestal next to the bed; and, most importantly, the prized gem she had come to steal was on the same pedestal, right next to the goblet. Oh, how easy! she silently rejoiced. She tip-toed over to the pedestal, and, hardly daring to breathe, she picked up the gem.

As she turned for the bedroom door, she noticed a wig on the dressing table. The rumours where true: the High Councilor was a cross-dresser! She inwardly giggled at her discovery, and wondered how much he was willing to pay to keep it a secret. She tip-toed her way over to the dressing table and examined the lustrous strands of hair – it was even more beautiful than her own hair! She forcefully stopped her train of thought: did she actually just feel a bout of jealousy for a cross-dresser?! But she had to know one more thing about the wig: what colour was it? The room was simply too dark for her to discern the wig’s colour, and so she decided to test the power of the gem she had come to steal. She brought it up to her face, and, looking at it intensely, she took a deep breath and gingerly pushed the gem against her forehead, and then into her forehead. At first nothing happened, and then she almost gasped with surprise: she could see everything around her as clearly as if it were in daylight! Even more surprisingly – and how confusing it was! – she could also see everything behind her!

A change in the High Councilor’s breathing sharply reminded her of her situation. Quickly she willed the gem out of her forehead, and, standing on one leg, she expertly slipped off the sock on her raised foot far enough to gain access to the secret cavity of her boot, and placed the gem inside. On her way back to her guild in the Abyss, while running on the rooftops once more, she wracked her brain, trying her utmost to remember. Eventually she whispered to herself: “Light-green”, grinning from ear to ear. The colour of the High Councilor’s wig was light-green.

[Daevor]

Chapter 7

RanMan was furious. His investigations had revealed that it was King Galdin’s lineage they wanted to wipe out, whose safekeeping the king had entrusted him with. And now he had failed. He felt his anger building, anger at the warlocks, anger at his failure, and anger at that damned bounty hunter! This was a dangerous state for him to be in, he knew, as all his magical abilities – especially the strength of his evocation spells – were heightened by his anger. He looked at Zegaii once more, and now noticed the unmistakable shimmering of magic all about him. Zegaii is under some magic spell! was his immediate thought, and he realized the prince might still be alive.

As quickly as he could, and holding his desperate hope in check, he cast a Life Detection spell. The spell showed him the 3 bright forms of the clerics, and a much dimmer life force representing Zegaii. He is alive! His relief was so overwhelming he could hardly stand! Think, RanMan, think! he told himself. What enchantment was this on Zegaii that made it seem as if he was dead? He needed help: he would settle for nothing less than the best healer for Zegaii. High Healer Jen was an excellent cleric: she could heal Zegaii. No, if the warlocks already knew Zegaii’s location, then he had to move the prince, and hide him far from here. The Blue Lady! The name leapt to his mind. The famed Blue Lady of Halfway, reputedly a miracle worker, could heal Zegaii. And he could easily hide Zegaii in the large city.

With his mind made up, he moved into action. He gathered Zegaii’s crossbow, and his travelling bag in the woods, and claimed the bounty hunter’s travelling bag and mover (his own mover having run out of floatation stones 4 days ago – he’d left in too much haste to try to catch the bounty hunter to think of restocking). He saw the bounty hunter was still breathing, and toyed with the idea of finishing him off. No, the bounty was but a pawn in this: killing him would not hurt the warlocks.

He felt a twinge of guilt as he sped away with Zegaii without having at least left a message for the clerics who had obviously tried to help them. But the less people who knew where Zegaii was, the less chance the warlocks would have of finding him, he reasoned. Zegaii was his charge, by the order of the king himself. He would do whatever he could to keep Zegaii safe, and if that meant taking Zegaii beyond the lands of Isya, all the way to Halfway, then so be it.

********************

{Author: “And this, dear readers, is the fulfillment of Minoes’ dream: Zegaii disappears out of the lands of Isya. What do you have to say about that?”
Readers: “zzzOMG WTH?! It can’t end like that!!!”
Author: “Okay, fine! Fine! I’ll continue the story.”}

********************


She tossed about in bed. She slept restlessly these days – besides her baby needing to feed every three to four hours, Zegaii’s mood and late nights in the woods made her extremely anxious. Also, she had been working very hard on her new spell: a spell that would enable her to help Zegaii remember his dreams by having her enter his mind to show him his own memories. For 3 weeks she had laboured on the spell, and now it was almost ready. She took comfort in the knowledge that she needed just two more days to complete the preparations of the spell, and she would be able to help Zegaii unravel the mysteries of his unrest. The crying sounds of Zen-saii brought her out of her reverie, and she rose to feed him.

********************

He led the contingent of soldiers, 15 men-at-arms and 5 magi, to the scene of the crime. He was Rhetos, a Councilor of the High Council, in charge of the Proper Use of Magic. He had worked and politicked endlessly, and this was the useless position the Council had rewarded him with. Save for the minor infractions of young students playing pranks on each other, no mage had used magic inappropriately, and thus his station had become little more than a joke!

But now, at last, the alarm had been triggered: someone in the Ancient Elven Woods had dabbled in Black Magic. This was his chance to show the Council how important his station was. In fact, he would show them how important he was: he would handle this situation strictly according to the Law, and he would prosecute the case that resulted in a death penalty judgment. That would show the Council how important he was – he’d be that much closer to reaching the coveted position of High Councilor.

She crouched low on the roof. Did they already know the jewel was stolen? Were they looking for her? There were many hiding places on the rooftops; they would find it hard to catch her. Silently, unmoving, she watched until the soldiers marched out Uruga’s northern gate. She allowed herself a few moments to feel the relief, and then hurried back to the Abyss. She had a beauty treatment later that day with Vietree, but what good would it do her if she didn’t first get enough sleep!

********************

Argonos was the first to awaken. His stamina, even better than Daevor’s, was well-known amongst the clerics. Taking in his surroundings, he noted that Chikyuu, Daevor and the swordsman were still passed out, but that the half-elf and Zegaii was missing. He roused the other two clerics.
“Zegaii’s gone.” said Argonos.
“What? How? You let the half-elf take him?” demanded Daevor.
“They were both gone when I woke up.” he replied evenly. “Their tracks lead to the west.”
“We must go after them! Chikyuu, take care of the swordsman; Argonos, come with me.”

They were about to mount their movers when soldiers approached out of the woods.
“Halt, by the order of the High Council!”boomed Rhetos, in his most authoritative voice. “Which of you have been casting Black Magic?” he demanded. Then he noticed Argonos next to Daevor. This was even better than he had hoped! Not only will the death of the transgressor increase his power on the Council, but now finally he could pay back his childhood rival. “Aah, cousin,” he cooed, “you disgrace our family.”

Daevor slowly walked up to Rhetos, his mind racing: he could blame the casting on the half-elf. That would force the soldiers to chase the half-elf and bring back Zegaii. However, when the truth came out – and it always did – his word would be discredited and some of the blame might fall on Argonos and Chikyuu. Best to be honest from the start, he resigned.

“I take full responsibility for the casting of Death Sleep,” Daevor proclaimed, “but we don’t have time for this. We have to go after Zegaii! A half-elf-“
“Silence! Criminals have no right to order the Council about.” His eyes never left Daevor. “Seize him.” The soldiers moved in immediately.

“I shall go after Zegaii.” offered Argonos.
“You shall go nowhere!” Rhetos gloried in his power. How long had he been stuck at this useless station, this pathetic reward for all his hard work? He would show the Council how to take charge of a situation. “Take them all in to custody, the swordsman too. They need to be properly questioned.”

[Daevor]

Chapter 8

Everything was a mess. Daevor, the man who had raised him since he was 10 years old, was in jail. The irony was not lost on him: the very reason his parents had sent him to live with his (much) older cousin in the first place was because of his juvenile delinquency. He had been much larger than the kids his age when her was growing up, and he was well built. Thus at the young age of 9 he was easily mixing with friends aged 12 to 14, the wrong kind friends. They were the ones who had turned him into a “haler” – someone addicted to inhalants.

He had nearly been driven mad when Daevor had kept him physically locked up and away from the inhalants. In his rage he had torn to shreds every piece of furniture in the room.
Three days later, when at last his lack of food intake had caused his strength to fail him, Daevor had held his shivering and bloodied hands, and had cried. And he had cried too. And in that moment he had promised himself he would not disappoint Daevor, he would not disappoint his parents; and immediately he felt some of his urge for the inhalants leave him. Many months passed before he trusted himself to be able to turn away from the inhalants completely.

No school would accept him, as he had been a haler. Deavor had then started instructing him in the ways of the cleric, and taught him the basics of the healing herbs and about the make-up of his body. Eventually, at age 12, the Weapons Master allowed him to join the fighter training classes; and as Daevor had a fixation with collecting rare and powerful weapons, he had the opportunity to train with real weapons in Daevor’s weapons storage room.

Four years later, when he had come of age, he started looking for work.
“I’m sorry lad, I don’t need any extra hands”, blacksmith Hans had said.
“This is such a small shop, and you’re quite a large person: you would just get in the way” was Furniture shop owner Tim’s response. The city Watch turned him down without even giving any reason. It was only in the city of Elderine, when Kyle informed him that “under the circumstances” he could not employ him because then no-one would use his business to store their goods, that he understood what was going on: the stigma of haler would never leave him.

Eventually he had joined the Thieves Guild, or, as it was publicly known, the Abyss Guardians. It was pretty much an open secret that it was the Thieves Guild, but as their stronghold was in the abyss and they kept the abyss monsters at bay, they were dubbed the Abyss Guardians. No-one wanted a repeat of the abyss monster uprising of 15 years ago, and so the Abyss Guardians were tolerated. Also, foreigners who were thieves would not dare ply their trade while there was an active Thieves Guild patrolling the streets. And thus the merchants were happy paying a small fee to the Abyss Guardians to “keep the thieves away”.

And now Minoes had asked to meet with him. He hoped she had a plan to get Daevor out of jail. He was losing his patience with that annoying Rhetos, and if Daevor was not released soon, he would likely “do something drastic”, as Daevor always liked to say.

There was a light tap on his door. Opening it, he saw her standing there.
“You brought da tchild?!” Slasher exclaimed in his flat accent. He had never adopted the accent of this part of the land, and his muscular nature ensured none of the kids ever dared to poke fun at him.
“I’ll not let him out of my sight, not after…” was all Minoes could manage.
Her hoarse voice startled him, and upon looking at her more closely, he realized she had been crying.
“Come. Sit, sit.” He waved her to a chair in his small room, then poured them some tea he had prepared.
Her trademark purple dress flowed behind her as she entered the room and took a seat at the tiny table, where two candles gave the room its only light.
Slasher had placed the chair so that it faced the bed, where he now sat. “So… you wanna’d ta see me ‘bout Daevor?” He said, sipping his tea.

“Actually, I…” she trailed off again. She huddled the sleeping Zen-saii protectively, took a deep breath, and made a visible effort to steady herself. “After Zegaii, you’re the most skilled tracker.” She said, then fell silent.
It was true, inside the abyss, he was the most skilled tracker, and on the surface, he was second to only Zegaii. But how would his skill in tracking help get Daevor out of jail?
When there was no response from Slasher, she concluded: “And that’s why I have come to ask you to help me find him.”
Slasher was completely taken aback. At first he just stared at her, not knowing how to respond. How could he leave town while Daevor was in jail?
“No, no, no. You wan’ me ta ‘bandon Daevor? He needs me. Da on’y time he ever need me, and you wan’ me ta ‘bandon him?!”
“He- he sent for Lady Boots,” she sniffed, and wiped a tear from her eye before it could run down her face. “There is no better person to represent him at the trial. She will get him out of jail, Slasher. There is nothing you can do for him, but he would want you to help find Zegaii.” She looked at him pleadingly. “Please, Slasher, I’m begging you. Please, help me find my husband.”

He set his jaw and stared at her, trying to work out what he should do. If anyone could get Daevor out of jail, it would be Lady Boots – everyone knew how clever she was. And Daevor would want him to help track Zegaii. Urgh! He shook his head in frustration. This was why he was happy being an Abyss Guardian – when faced with a horde of abyss monsters, there were no difficult decisions: he simply had to fight.
Finally he replied: “I mus’ ask Daevor, and I mus’ ask my guil’ mastah for permissi’n ta leave.”
Minoes visibly brightened. “Thank you! Oh, thank you, Slasher! I will get ready and inform-”
“No, you don’ unnerstan’,” he cut her off, “if I go, I mus’ go alone. Two dayss lead dey hev, I mus’ trevel fas’, or I fall behin’ an’ lose da trail”.

And now it was Minoes’ turn to reason this through. She, with her baby, would definitely slow Slasher down. “But I have some friends who are willing to go after him too. Eldirecto and SBR are eager find him. Linuxia and Severian as well. They’re not good trackers, but you could lead them.” she said. “Even if I don’t come with you, they could help.”
“Dey will slow me down.” Slasher proclaimed with finality.

********************


Daevor was grateful that the cell he was assigned to was neat and clean. He was also grateful that Argonos and Chikyuu had been released on bail. However, he was still bitterly disappointed with Rhetos’ lack of concern for Zegaii. It seemed as if Rhetos was dead set on doing everything according to the letter of the law. Daevor used to be like that too, during his teenage years, but the reality of life soon caught up with him: he didn’t even object when Slasher had joined the Abyss Guardians! Thinking of Slasher made him realize how alone he was. The previous day Slasher had asked him for permission to go after Zegaii. Though it pained him to grant it – Slasher was his only family in this part of Isya – he knew Slasher could be of no help to him in this situation, and someone needed to rescue Zegaii!

He looked once more upon the unconscious swordsman. Where did he come from? How was he involved in the fight with Zegaii and the subsequent kidnapping? Daevor was at least happy that the swordsman had been assigned to his cell. It was actually quite a straightforward decision for the High Council: the ingenious Chikyuu had secretly told the clerics of Sick Bay Hall not to accept the swordsman, and claim that they were not equipped to deal with “an unknown threat”, but that the swordsman needed a cleric’s constant attention to keep him alive. Chikyuu had then “innocently” suggested to the High Council to put the swordsman in Daevor’s cell, so he could tend to the swordsman without endangering anyone else.

Thinking of Chikyuu made him wonder where she was. She was late for her daily visit. He hoped Rhetos was not up to his tricks again. Oh! How he wished he could bash Rhetos’ face in with one of the powerful hammers from his weapons store! Immediately he felt ashamed of his thoughts: how could he want to harm a citizen of Isya? After all, Rhetos was just doing his job.

********************


“Hi Master Daevor,” Chikyuu greeted him with a cheerful smile, startling him out of his light nap, “how is our sleeping beauty doing?”
The guard unlocked the jail cell, let her in, then locked it again before departing.
“Hi Chikyuu,” he replied. He wasn’t sure if the “sleeping beauty” Chikyuu had referred to was the swordsman or himself, but chose to interpret it as the former: “There’s been no change in the swordsman’s condition. But… where have you been? You’re nearly an hour late.”
“All in good time, Master Daevor,” she said, flashing him another disarming smile.
Master Daevor? That’s the second time she’s referred to him as “Master”, he realized. The clerics he mentored only ever referred to him as “Master” if they were trying to soften him up because they were in trouble with him.
“Wait… ‘Master’? What did you...?”
She gave an awkward laugh and replied “In a minute, Master. But first,” she grinned mischievously, and, twirling her index finger in the air, said: “turn around.”

Daevor flushed with embarrassment while turning his back to her. Chikyuu then fumbled around in her clothes, making audible sounds of struggle. Finally, with a triumphant cry of “Gotcha!” she produced two small parcels of dried food wrapped in paper and cloth.
“Here you go, Master Daevor.” she said, offering him the parcels.
Daevor flushed once more while accepting the parcels, then hid them under his mattress with the other food parcels.

This was the plan Chikyuu had come up with when Daevor had explained his problem to her: when the swordsman eventually returned to consciousness, Daevor would need some time to nurse him back to health, and to get answers out of him. He feared that Rhetos would have the swordsman moved to a new cell as soon as he awoke. He needed extra food on hand, so he would not have to ask the guards for additional food rations, which would alert Rhetos. Thus each time Chikyuu came to visit him, she hid the food parcels on her person in places “the guards wouldn’t dare search”.

“Now, tell me, what did you do?” queried a very worried Daevor.
“Well, you see, Master Daevor, I was just helping a fellow cleric. And, Master, you taught us to help all citizens, especially other clerics. So, Master, I was actually just following what you taught us, Master.” Chikyuu rambled.
Daevor stared at her blankly, waiting for the rest of the explanation. She merely returned his blank stare, as if she were waiting on him to explain himself. Eventually, very slowly, he said through clenched teeth: “What. Did. You. Do?”
This seemed to bring some animation back to Chikyuu’s face, and she responded with: “Well, you see, Master Daevor, she was going to go after him one way or the other. She was not going to let him get away. But, you see, Master Daevor, you know her armour and weapons were not really that good, certainly not good enough to go chasing him across the wilderness. So I loaned her some of the rare items from your personal store, Master. She could not-“
“Wait a minute, who is ‘she’ and who is she going after?” Daevor interjected.
“Tachio has gone after Slasher.”
“What?!”
“Calm down, Master Daevor, please, calm down.”

He took a few deep breaths, while trying to digest this information. It would be good for Slasher to have some help, especially from a cleric. And he was not too concerned about Tachio using his items from his personal store: she would return everything when she got back. He was, however, a bit concerned about her safety. Though she was an accomplished battle-cleric - she could swing maces with the best of them – out alone in the wilderness there were many dangers.
“She’ll not be safe out there alone.” He voiced his concern.
“I gave her the Power Mace, Master Daevor, and the Blue Tin-Can Armour Set.” Chikyuu responded.
Daevor nodded his approval. The armour was extremely light, but offered great protection in battle. The mace was also light, and magically enhanced. Tachio would be fine.
“There’s still one problem: no-one travels as fast as Slasher. How is Tachio ever going to catch up to him?”

[Daevor]

The last bit of chapter 8
(apparently we're restricted to 15k chars per post, including formatting characters)

“All taken care of, Master Daevor. Do you remember The Tukester?”
Daevor shook his head with a blank face.
“He had that little accident with one of his experiments two years ago,” she prompted. “Tachio was the cleric who tended him.”
“Ohhh, yes: the one with all those tattoos.” Daevor shivered at the thought: he did not approve of tattoos and strange body piercings. “Back in the day of the Abyss Uprising he had been a respectable young mage. Now he calls him an… ‘engine’, or something silly like that.” Daevor shrugged.
“Well, Master Daevor, this engineer is working on a new type of mover – one that travels at a little more than thrice the speed of normal movers.”
“Thrice the speed?! Wow, that’s amazing!” Daevor exclaimed. “But wait, he just gave one to Tachio? What did he want in return?”
“Actually, Master, the one Tachio has can only go twice the normal speed. And she didn’t have to pay anything at all, Master: when she asked him for one of his movers, he was delighted to help out the cleric that had nursed him back to life.”
Daevor took another few deep breaths. It seemed Chikyuu had everything covered. Now that he thought about it more clearly, he was actually quite relieved Slasher would not be alone. Oh, Slasher could certainly handle himself in the wilderness, but Daevor felt a little more at ease knowing Tachio would be with him.
“Alright, alright,” Daevor sighed, “you did the right the thing. Now stop calling me Master. You make me nervous when you do that.”
“Yes, Master.” Chikyuu replied, grinning, and, eventually, they both burst out laughing.

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Chapter 9




“You have to save him, Ath. He’s a good man.” Vietree whispered in her ear while applying a layer of Vitree’s Perfect Skin lotion to her face. The recipe for this lotion was Vietree’s secret – after many nights of snooping around Athemis was still unable to figure out the recipe, and she eventually resigned to pay for the beauty treatments she needed. Besides, she liked the beautician, and having to come for the treatments gave her an excuse to spend some time with Vietree, from whom she also extracted a fair amount of gossip.
“Me? What can I do? I’m no lawyer!” she protested.
“You are Athemis of the Abyss, leader of the Abyss Guardians. And we all know what you guys really get up to.” Vietree countered, then mumbled in a barely audible whisper: “Thieves’ Guild”.
“Well that’s exactly it!” Athemis returned: “We’re not the Jailbreak Guild. In fact, our policy is: if you get caught, you take your lashes and do your time, and life moves on. We’re not into breaking people out of jail.”
“How easily you forget he nearly died saving your life!” Vietree stared at her menacingly.

That was a memory she would rather forget. It was at the time of the Abyss Uprising, and they were driving the monsters back into the abyss. Then a large lizard-like monster, a kind they had not encountered before, spewed a large dose of poisonous acid on her dear brother, Conjy. As she turned to aim her crossbow, she got a small amount of the deadly spray square in the face. She was in sheer agony, and soon thereafter it felt as if her head was going to explode. Daevor, then barely 20 years old but already renowned as a great healer, had been the first cleric to reach her on the battlefield. He had immediately set about soothing her pain and countering the poison. But the poison was extremely potent, and, in order to save her, he had kept working his healing magic on her long after he should have. By sheer force of will, he had continued healing her way beyond the point of exhaustion, to the brink of his own death. It took three other clerics to keep Daevor alive, and High Healer Jen had eventually managed to revive him. But when he awoke, he had lost much of his extraordinary healing power.

As for Athemis, she had lost her brother that day, and her face had been horribly scarred. For three years she had skulked around in the darkness of the abyss, which earned her the name “Athemis of the Abyss”. Soon thereafter she joined the Thieves’ Guild. Here she could keep her face – and horrible scars – permanently covered without drawing attention to herself. Then Vietree had developed the precious Perfect Skin lotion that returned her face to its former beauty. At about the same time, the public funds for the official Abyss Guardians had been dramatically reduced. How quick the Isyans were to forget the tragedies of the Abyss Uprising! But she would not forget, she would never forget. And so she concocted a plan to ensure the abyss would always be guarded – and she would pay back those lizard-like monsters for what they had done to her and her brother.
She steadily worked her way up in the Thieves’ Guild, gaining the admiration of her peers through her excellent thieving skills. To further gain their favour, she even taught them some of the simpler tricks of the trade she had learnt – an unheard of generosity amongst Thieves. Four years later, she was ready to act.

First she proposed to the High Council to disband the official Abyss Guardians, and instead allow her band of volunteers to make the abyss their home, and thus guard it. The Councilors’ decision was unanimous: those realizing the importance of having the abyss guarded were happy to have a larger group doing the job (the official Abyss Guardians had been reduced to a mere 4 teams of 2 members each by this time); and the rest of the Councilors were quite happy being able to free up the public funds for projects of “more immediate” concern. The only condition she placed on the offer was that any Isyan not of her group would need their permission before entering the abyss. She was sent out of the room while the Councilors hotly debated this condition. In the end, however, they agreed.

Then she had lobbied for leadership of the Thieves’ Guild. She had promised her fellow guildies a home in the abyss, where they would not be disturbed by the lawmen of Isya, and contrasted this with the random police raids they were subjected to. Then she pointed out that she had lived alone deep in the abyss for three years, observing the monsters there – she had learned how to hunt them, and she had learned how to defend against them. And thus she had promised to share this knowledge with them, if only they would follow her as the leader of the Thieves’ Guild. Many of them, mostly the males, lived in dilapidated shacks in the poor quarter of town, and were eager to move out, but to move to a place of such high danger?
Athemis had anticipated this, and had then challenged them with: “What? You men are afraid to go where a woman lived alone for three years?”
Their egos had left them no choice: nearly the whole guild had defected to her side. And thus Athemis of the Abyss had become the leader of the Thieves’ Guild, as well as the leader of the new Abyss Guardians.

She realized Vietree was still glaring at her. “Thank you for reminding me of the worst day of my life.” She responded with equal menace.
Vietree’s expression softened immediately. Conjy had been a well-liked lad, and for him to have died such a horrible death! It must pain Athemis deeply to have lost her baby brother to that evil monster, and then to have had her face so horribly disfigured by the same monster.
“I’m sorry, Ath,” she apologized, “but you do owe him your life.”
Athemis took a few moments to compose herself. “I know,” she finally conceded, “if they decide to hang him, I’ll get him out, ok?”
Vietree nodded solemnly, then said: “Come, let’s talk of lighter things. Want to hear the latest gossip?” Without even waiting for a response, she continued: “Apparently that swordsman in Daevor’s cell is a thief. He stole some expensive jewelry from the High Councilor. It was not on the swordsman when they searched him, but they found some strange pendant which the High Councilor claimed. Anyway...” Vietree rambled on and on but Athemis was not listening anymore. The swordsman was being blamed for the theft, and thus she was home free! Oh, what a wonderful coincidence that the swordsman turned up the same night she had robbed the High Councilor.
“… talk of possible torture. I hope that-”
“What?! What’s that about torture?” queried Athemis.
“Well, my niece has been telling me that the High Councilor is pretty angry about his missing jewelry, and he might resort to having the swordsman tortured into giving up the stolen jewels.“
Now Athemis felt guilty. Could she really allow the swordsman to be tortured because of her actions? “You are sure about this?” she asked.
“Heard it from my niece, who heard from her friend, whose sister’s pet’s previous owner works right in the High Councilor’s house. That’s some pretty reliable gossip, I tell you.” Vietree flashed her a triumphant smile.


********************


They sat in a circle on one of the thickest branches of the tree Minoes and Zegaii had made their home. There sat: Eldirecto, the gruff mage who excelled in fire and lightning based spells; SBR, who sacrificed his tracking skills to spend more time training his ability to shoot accurately while running; Severian, the lean fighter, as skilled as he was handsome, and every woman’s dream; Linuxia, the battle-healer who specialized in healing multiple allies simultaneously; and Minoes, who had called the meeting.

After welcoming them and thanking them for coming, Minoes cleared her throat and formally opened the meeting.
”My friends,” she said, “out of all those able to go after Zegaii, you four have shown the most desire to do so.”
“He was the best archer in our class at archery school, and he was always willing to help the rest of us train our skills. Zegaii is a good man.” Said SBR, to which the others nodded.
“Yet the High Council has refused to send soldiers to find Zegaii: they seem far more interested in that swordsman and in the alleged Black Magic casting.” Minoes continued.
Eldirecto tensed up at the mention of Black Magic. He still could not understand how clerics, who usually only ever casted White Magic, could have dabbled in Black Magic. Minoes claimed that those clerics had only casted Death Sleep, but surely they must have casted more than just a borderline spell to have been arrested?

“Daevor is in jail, and his two best battle-clerics are out on bail and may only travel between Three Towns *. Slasher, Bijou bless him, left yesterday to track Zegaii. He’s probably deep in the Forest of Slumber by now. But my friends, I cannot sit idly by while my husband is taken further and further away from me. I have wept, and now I am done weeping. But I swear, while the magic still courses through my blood, I will not stop until I find my husband!”
“And I shall accompany you.” Piped in SBR, and the others also pledged their support.
“I’ll happily join you, Min, but how will we know where to go? None of us can track very well,” Linuxia purposefully avoided looking at SBR when she said this, “and the trail is a few days old already.”
Severian, who, except for the exchange of basic pleasantries, had been silent up until this point, responded: “I’m guessing that is the purpose of this meeting: to brainstorm a few options and decide upon a way forward.”
Minoes nodded at Severian’s words, and somehow her facial expression seemed to be both challenging them and pleading with them.
The group was silent for a while, then Eldirecto proclaimed: “It’s obvious: we get a skilled tracker to join us!”

This seemed like a really good suggestion. The group plunged into a discussion on which tracker of Three Towns would be the best choice. However, the discussion soon turned into a debate, and eventually into an outright argument.
“Bah! What does a mage know about tracking?” exclaimed Linuxia in outrage. “You just want Ezprit with us because she’s so pretty, and you always think with your hormones!”
Eldirecto jumped up and opened his mouth, but found he had no response to the allegation, so he promptly sat back down again, hanging his head in defeat.


*Three Towns consists of Roumen, Elderine and Uruga

[Daevor]

(The last bit of chapter 9)



“The logical choice is Vertrouwen.” Linuxia continued. ”He has done quite a bit of tracking. Besides, an extra cleric could be the difference between life and death, especially out there in the wilderness.”
“This is so silly," said SBR. "Obviously the person should be an archer, one who has actually been trained in the art of tracking! The best choice is Misaki. Certainly no mage” he smirked at Eldirecto, “or cleric” he gave Linuxia a sidelong glance “could track better than an archer.”
Now both Linuxia and Eldirecto jumped up. However, before they could explode in anger, Severian held up his hands and bellowed: “Hold! Hold your peace!” and beckoned them to sit down. “We all want to save Zegaii, but we’ll not be able to do that if we don’t learn to work together. Both Linuxia and SBR have valid points: an extra cleric would be useful, however, archers in general have been specifically trained to track. We already have both Minoes and Eldirecto who are magi, so another mage is superfluous.” He went silent for a moment, then spoke as if to himself: “If only we could speak to that swordsman and find out what happened.”

Minoes had started the meeting with high hopes, but the heated arguments had quickly dampened her enthusiasm. But now she suddenly beamed at Severian and exclaimed: “Of course! Of course! Why didn’t I think of that?” She turned her gaze to the rest of them and said: “My friends, thank you for coming. I have work to do. I will call upon you again in two days.”
With that, she got up and departed the group, leaving them very confused.

********************


Slasher sang an old travel song as he made quick progress through the Forest of Slumber:
“I see the road, the road is long.
I feel my legs, oh Bijou! My legs are strong.
From dawn to dusk, I go where I must,
In my mover I trust, as it kicks up the dust.

Do I seek fortune? Do I seek fame?
Oh Teva, I seek only a beautiful dame.

To the North are the warlocks and the witches,
To the South lie abundant riches,
To the East roams the striped beast,
And to the West lay all the rest.

But love, Oh Teva! Love is everywhere,
And my beloved, she could be anywhere!

Do I seek fortune? Do I seek fame?
Oh Teva, I seek only a beautiful dame.
Do I seek fortune? Do I seek fame?
Oh Teva, I seek only a beautiful dame.

Oh Teva, tell me her name,
Oh Teva, show me my beautiful dame!”

Slasher wondered at his insistence on speaking in the accent from his hometown, yet when he sang he used Three Towns’ accent. “It don’ soun’ right otherwise,” he told himself.

He came upon the teleportation gate which would take him straight into The Swamp. He considered camping for the night in Forest of Slumber, but there was still about an hour and a half of daylight left in which he could travel. Besides, the four rabbits he had snared last night would keep him two more days, so he would not need to hunt tonight.
He dismounted from his mover and donned his full armour. He could still hear Master Dai’s voice from his fighter classes: “Always go through gates fully prepared. You never know who or what you might find on the other side.”

As he came through the gate, Slasher nearly fell off his mover with shock: this was not The Swamp! He was expecting to see an endless expanse of forested land with soft earth, large ponds and grazing herds of the fierce rhinoce. But the utterly bleak land he now looked upon shook him to his very core. It was a barren land with hard ground, littered with large rocks and dotted with small pools of lava. The hot air was uncomfortable, and the skies were darkened with smoke. What dismal place is this, he wondered. He knew he should immediately return to Elderine and report this to the Council, but what would he tell them: that The Swamp gate does not lead to The Swamp, but to some strange, forsaken land? No, the Council would need more information so they could decide what to do about this. And what of his search for Zegaii? He knew they had gone through the gate, but the ground here was too hard for him to see any signs of their passing. He would scout around the area and see what he could learn. Only then would he return to Elderine.

[Daevor]

Chapter 10


“Boots!”
Daevor woke with such a fright that he tried sitting up so quickly he actually fell out of the bed. As he picked himself up, he first saw her feet, or, more accurately, her boots. As his eyes travelled up her long and perfectly toned legs, his mind wandered slightly. Unlike the clerics he tutored, he was no longer in his wild teen years, nor was he in his prime tween years, but he was still a man. He wondered –
Oh Teva forgive my base thoughts! he quickly prayed.
“Forgiven, young Daevor.” Lady Boots replied.
Daevor blushed a deep red. Had he just whispered the prayer, and so loudly that Lady Boots had heard him?
“I, eh, I...” he faltered. How could he think something like that, especially about Lady Boots? Sure she wore the visage of a strikingly beautiful 20-something year old woman, but everyone knew she was much older than that. In fact, as far as Daevor knew, no-one really knew how old she was. She was the enigma from the lands just beyond Alberstol, the frontier village. She referred to everyone as “young” or “my child”, and everyone feared the amazing magical powers she was rumoured to have, though no-one had ever witnessed her using it.

And then he saw a young woman standing next to Lady Boots. She would have been quite attractive, but for the disturbingly wild look in her eyes, and her generally dishevelled appearance.
“You remember Sisi?” Lady Boots indicated the young woman.
How could he possibly forget her? She was just as eccentric as Lady Boots. However, while conversations with Lady Boots were merely confusing and frustrating (sometimes even leading to headaches), interaction with Sisi, especially during her time at Mage School, was just plain dangerous.

From her earliest years Sisi had been prone to emotional outbursts. Thus when she was orphaned at the tender age of twelve it was simply too much for her to handle. And the teasing of her peers only aggravated the situation. She would often retaliate by saying “Make my day” (earning her the nicknames “Make” and “Day”) and then attacking whoever was teasing her with evocation spells. One day, when she was 15 years old, one boy went too far: he implied that her parents actually wanted to die to get away from her, because she was “wacko”. This drove her beyond being merely ‘emotionally unstable’, straight into the realm of ‘mentally insane’. In her state of insanity, she flung a most unusual fireball at him: it was much smaller than the normal fireballs, but it was far more powerful. The fireball easily pierced the boy’s shield, and went on to burn his face, blinding his left eye. One-Eye Felix got his nickname that day.

If society had given her a wide berth before, they outrightly ostracised her after that incident. She was expelled from Mage School, and “let go” from the orphanage. When High Healer Jen came to hear of this, she had pleaded with the Cleric Council to grant the girl shelter in Cleric Hall, but she was overruled: they feared for their lives. High Healer Jen then sought out the girl herself, but Sisi had already taken to the streets, and could not be found. The High Healer then prayed to the goddess Teva, begging her to save the child. The next day Lady Boots arrived. Within an hour she found Sisi, and took the child back with her.

“Err, yes, yes, of course, I remember her.” He quickly tried to straighten the bed covers of his unmade bed. “Please, have a seat.” He motioned them to the bed, while taking a seat on the single stool in the jail cell.
“So, “Lady Boots took a deep breath, “you’re in jail.”
And this was the problem with Lady Boots: either she was stating the obvious, or she was saying something completely nonsensical.
“Well, yes, yes I am.” He was not sure how to continue the conversation. “I’m… I’m so glad you came, Lady Boots. The runner must have made excellent time, and you must have come with all speed. I’m so-“
“Runner? No no, young Daevor, there was no runner.” Lady Boots interjected.
“But if you did not get my message, then how did you know I needed your help?” asked Daevor.
“I smelled it.” Lady Boots replied, nodding her head solemnly.
“You… what?”
“I smelled it. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark, young Daevor.”
Right, thought Daevor, she’s doing her eccentric thing again. “Okay, you smelled it. But, Lady Boots, can you get me out of jail?”
“Oh, my child, there is much that I know, and more that I don’t. And who’s to say if what I understand I understand correctly? The Planes, young Daevor! The Planes have been torn. Subtle magic, yes, but not completely undetectable.”
Daevor looked at her intently while nodding solemnly, though he did not have a clue about what Lady Boots had just said.
“Come, child, tell me what happened.”

And so Daevor proceeded to bring Lady Boots up to date on the events since the Summon Amulet was triggered.
The mention of Death Sleep in Daevor’s narration seemed to unsettle Sisi, causing Daevor to stumble over his words. “But we only casted it because we had to, or Zegaii would have died.” He directed that at Sisi, in a rather pleading voice: he’d hate to share One-Eye Felix’s fate.
“It’s okay, child.” Lady Boots comforted Sisi. Then, turning back to Daevor, she said: “Death Sleep, hey? Is your former strength returning?”
“Hardly, Lady Boots. Argonos’ strength was largely responsible for the success of the spell. Besides, I’ve already accepted a long time ago that I’ve lost the better part of my powers.”
“How easily you give up, young Daevor.” Lady Boots chided him. “But do continue.”
Daevor then informed her of Zegaii’s disappearance, Rhetos arresting them and putting them in jail, and Argonos and Chikyuu subsequently being released on bail.
“So the half-elf has Zegaii, and it seems this swordsman was involved in a fight against a mage, possibly the half-elf?” Lady Boots asked.
“That’s what we think, from the way they were laying on the ground.” Daevor confirmed.
“I see, I see, said the blind man.” Lady Boots responded. She went silent for a few moments, then continued: “There is much afoot, young Daevor. Important events are taking place. ‘Clerics holy hands of healing’”.
“What? A nursery rhyme? What has that got to do with anything?” Why could she not just speak plainly?
“Everything! It has everything to do with this. But first, tell me what you didn’t tell me.”
Daevor flashed her a puzzled look. Tell me what you didn’t tell me? “Ehmm, I- I don’t understand, Lady Boots. That… that is everything, isn’t it?”
“Nik is always in the details, young Daevor. There his evil is to be found. Come, think. What came before, what came after? Anything that could be related to this.”
Zegaii’s fainting spell, and his crossbow glowing! That could be significant. He related this to her, and it seemed to interest her more than what he had said before.
“Oh, and Minoes asked Slasher to go after Zegaii. He left a couple of days ago.”
“He- oh no!” Rarely did anything alarm Lady Boots. “Don’t go through the gate, Slasher, don’t go through the gate!” Lady Boots got up and called to the guard to unlock the jail cell. “Come, my child,” she said to Sisi, “events have moved ahead of us. We have to stop Slasher.”
“Lady Boots! What’s going on?” his voice bordered on hysteria. “What danger is he in?!”
“We have no time to lose. Be strong, young Daevor, and find your powers. You will need them before this is over.”
And with that, Lady Boots and Sisi departed, leaving Daevor to his panic.

********************


Who are you, swordsman?
Where… where am I? Urz’gul asked.
We are inside your mind , Minoes responded. I am Minoes, the mage. Now tell me: who are you, and what did you do with my husband?
I-
And then it came rushing back to him: his hunt for the female mage that lead to a male archer, his fight with the assassin and the fireball. My face!
Minoes glimpsed some of his memories as he flashed through them. Show me the archer, she commanded. By now Urz’gul had regained enough awareness to realize that Minoes was able to read his mind, and he immediately projected a blank wall at her, blocking her access to his mind. How dare you enter my mind! Filthy witch, you shall gain nothing from me!
Minoes had had enough. She had been under immense strain recently: the birth of her baby, Zegaii’s strange mood, his fight in the woods and subsequent disappearance. Now her best lead to her husband’s whereabouts had cut her off. She could feel her rage building, and she drew strength from it to project her will onto the swordsman. How dare you! How dare you keep me from my husband? Show me the archer! She demanded.

A mighty battle of wills followed: Urz’gul blocked off his mind, while Minoes tried to gain access to it. Urz’gul had strong willpower, and he knew it – to hunt renegade magi, he had to protect himself adequately against their vices, and having a strong willpower was part of that. However, never before had he faced a mage of such strength, and he found himself strained to the limit – he just barely managed to keep Minoes’ will at bay. On and on the struggle went, but eventually he felt the pressure receding.
Urrrgggh! Minoes cried out in frustration and despair. She realized that she could not overpower the swordsman, and decided on a different tactic. I am sorry for having entered your mind without your permission, but you are the only lead to my husband’s whereabouts.
She wondered what would be enough to convince the swordsman to give her more information on Zegaii. You are in jail in Elderine, one of the towns of Three Towns. We will find out what happened, but if you tell me now, it will go easier on you. She paused, allowing the swordsman to absorb what she had said. Now tell me, where is my husband? This time it was more a plea than a demand.

Keeping his wall of defence firmly in place, Urz’gul tried to work through his thoughts. This was clearly the wife of the archer his Morgels had attacked. On his honour, he did at least owe her an explanation of what had happened. Also, if he really was in jail, how would he save his sister? He needed help, and so he needed to make this woman understand that his attack on her husband had been a mistake. But perhaps he could leverage off her desperation to get her to help him save his sister, he pondered.
I will tell you everything I know , he said, but in return, you must give me 500 gold pieces, and get me out of jail.
Minoes was not sure whether she should be angered or relieved. 500 gold pieces was not a problem for her, but how would she get him out of jail? She would need the help of a professional, she realized. Athemis of the Abyss! The name leapt to her mind. Yes, Athemis and her Thieves’ Guild could get him out of jail. Minoes shuddered to think how much that would cost. At this rate, the small fortune Zegaii had amassed from his unequalled tracking and hunting abilities would be depleted rather quickly, but this was Zegaii’s life! She would do whatever was necessary, and if that meant she had to spend every copper piece she had, then so be it.

Agreed. She conceded, Now tell me what happened. Remember, in this state I will know when you are lying, so don’t test my patience, swordsman.
I know. He acknowledged. Let me show you my memories.

Minoes saw the image of a grown boy of about 15 or 16 years old, and a little girl of about 8 years old standing next to him. That is me, and that is my dear sister standing next to me, he narrated.
I am not interested in your childhood! Minoes protested. Tell me of my husband!
Bear with me, woman. I fear you would think the worst of me otherwise. He returned to his memories.
My name is Urz’gul, and my sister is Little Mo.

[Daevor]

Chapter 11


“Are you lost, little axeman?” the woman’s voice cooed at him tauntingly.
Slasher spun about and held his axe defensively between himself and the woman. He’d been exploring this strange land for hours, trying to figure out exactly where he was and if Zegaii had passed this way. He had noted, and carefully avoided, the many bands of militia that had gone through the gate to the Forest of Slumber. And now this woman had somehow managed to creep up on him.
“Who goes dere?” he challenged. Flanked by two men, the woman stepped in to full view. “Kitone!” Slasher gasped.
“Well, well, well,” she said, “if it isn’t the Brainless Brute of Three Towns. Tell me, do you still follow that worthless Athemis?”
“She is my guil’ mastah. She takes good care ‘f us.” he replied defensively.
“She is a backstabbing scumbag!” Kitone roared. “I am the rightful leader of the Thieves’ Guild!” she took a few seconds to compose herself. “Tell me, little axe man-“
“My name’s Slesher.” He interrupted her.
“Slesher?” she paused, “Oh, Slasher! Yes, of course, tell me, Slasher, did you take the Thieves’ Oath?”
“Aye.” Slasher nodded.
“Then you are bound to me, for I am the true leader of the Thieves’ Guild!” Kitone exclaimed gleefully. “Join me, Slasher, and forget that imposter.”
Slasher slowly shook his head: “Athemis of da Abyss is my mastah.” He responded.
“I will make you greater than she” – she spat the word – “ever could. Join me, Slasher, join me on the path of power!”
“No.” He replied with finality.
“Then you will die!” she declared, drawing her huge two-handed sword from its sheath.
Her two henchmen, who had merely been observing the exchange, now drew their weapons and advanced on Slasher.

********************


She gasped loudly as her mind re-entered her body.
“Minoes!” Daevor exclaimed, “are you okay?”
Minoes realized she was seated on the bed next to the swordsman, leaning over him, and tears were streaming down her face.
“He- he killed Zegaii. His beasts…I saw… they killed-“ she sniffed.
Daevor rubbed her back gently and spoke to her soothingly: “No, Zegaii lives. I cast Death Sleep on him myself. He lives, Minoes, he lives.”

Minoes took a few moments to compose herself.
“Did you learn anything from him: what’s his name? where is he from? why is he here?” Daevor asked.
“Aye,” Minoes replied, “I know everything about him.” She took a deep breath to steady herself, and then narrated the story of the swordsman.
“His name is Urz’gul. He comes from Lothkor, the cold mountains to the far east of the world. Their land is a harsh one filled with many hazards: icy winters, ferocious wild beasts and the ever present danger of criminals from Kalhar, the city at the foot of their mountain, coming to raid them. Therefore, from a young age, all Lothkorians are trained in the arts of cattle-tending, beast hunting and swordsmanship.

He was the best swordsman of his class since he was 8 years old. He was introverted, and was known as Lonely Urz’gul when he was growing up. His best friend is his sister, who is six years younger than him.
When he was 15 years old, his parents were murdered by criminals from Kalhar. He and his sister were to be adopted by another family since he would only attain manhood upon reaching his 16th summer. But Urz’gul ran away and hunted his parents’ killers. He captured the two men and brought them back to Lothkor to exact justice on them.
According to their custom, he was supposed to publicly torture the killers to death. But when they begged him for mercy, Urz’gul decided to kill the murderers painlessly: he used his father’s axe to behead them in clean strokes.

And so he became known as Urz’gul the Axe Executioner, or UAE as he prefers to be called. On account of his actions, the village elders granted him manhood status, and he became a bounty hunter.
He took his sister with him, travelling from city to city plying his trade as a bounty hunter, and sometimes as a guard for travelling merchants, but mostly he worked for the Ungreath. Nearly 10 years later, in Kellum* he played a game of chance, and lost more than he could pay for with all his possessions, so they took his sister hostage until he settled his debt. At first he begged them to release his sister, but they flatly refused. Then he begged them to give him his weapons and armour back so he may take on some bounty hunter jobs in order to pay back his debt. This they agreed to, but gave him 3 months to settle, or they would sell his sister into slavery.

He completed 2 jobs in 3 weeks, but the reward money covered less than a tenth of what he needed. In the fourth week, however, a warlock sent for him.”
She proceeded to tell Daevor of UAE’s meeting with the warlock and of the events that transpired since.
“But Daevor,” she said, “UAE did not lose that game of chance: he was tricked! They fed him a potion to muddle his mind, then convinced him to play, and cheated him. I saw it in his memories.”

Daevor nodded solemnly, and then went quiet for a long moment. “He was sent here to kill a female mage. Do you..?”
“Yes,” replied Minoes, “I think he was sent to kill me but the amulet somehow malfunctioned and led him to Zegaii.”
Daevor pondered on this, and then an idea struck him: “Minoes, when did UAE meet with the warlock?”
“A few weeks ago.” She replied. “He has about a month left to claim his sister.” She added.
“Yes, yes,” said Daevor, brushing her observation aside, “could this meeting have taken place at about the time of Zen-saii’s birth?”
Minoes scrunched up her face in puzzlement: what could Zen-saii’s birth have to do with all this? She filtered through UAE’s memories trying to figure out exactly when the meeting took place.
“Uhmm…” she pondered, “I think it was shortly after his birth. But what has that got to do with anything?”
Daevor pushed on: “Has Zegaii’s crossbow exhibited any magical properties?”
Minoes was growing impatient now: where was Daevor going with this? “I- I don’t know. I sometimes thought I detected a benign spirit in there somewhere, but I can’t be sure.” And before Daevor could ask another puzzling question, she said: “Now tell me what’s going on!”

“Well, we’ve been keeping something from you." Daevor reluctantly admitted. "On the night of Zen-saii’s birth, Zegaii fainted. It seemed as if some strange spell had afflicted him. He had not experienced it again, as far as I know. Also, according to the mid-wife, his crossbow, which he had left in the chamber you had given birth in, glowed brightly just before Zegaii fainted. I’m sorry to have kept this from you: Zegaii made me promise not to tell you as he did not want you to worry needlessly…” he faltered.
Now Minoes was very angry: “My husband is missing and you were keeping information from me that might be the key to his disappearance?!” She stormed, instinctively snatching Zen-saii from Daevor’s arms. “How dare you! I thought you were my friend.”
“I- Minoes, I… he made me promise not to tell you. And I had only thought about it now when you mentioned the amulet malfunctioning. Would you have had me betray Zegaii?”

She realized Zegaii had placed him in an awkward position. “Okay, fine, so what do you think it all means?” she asked, and it seemed that the strained moment had passed. However, an element of mistrust now creeped into their friendship: what else was Daevor keeping from her “for her own protection”?
“I’m not sure,” he replied, “but I suspect you were the target of the tracking spell. Somehow the crossbow deflected the spell and it landed on Zegaii.”
Minoes nodded.
Daevor continued: “And when Zegaii fainted, that could have been the tracking spell taking a hold on him.”
“No, tracking spells do not work like that: the target usually just feels uncomfortably warm when the spell lands.” objected Minoes.

Daevor could offer no insight into this: this was Minoes’ forte.
“Unless,” she mused, “unless the tracking spell was laced with another spell! Some kind of curse spell… a dangerous thing to attempt – the potential for backfire is very high when casting a double spell, and over such a great distance! That warlock must be extremely powerful, or perhaps more than one of them joined their skills.”
“This curse spell: could that have been the reason we could not cure some of Zegaii’s wounds with Mind Heal?” Daevor asked.
“Yes!” exclaimed Minoes, but then reality subdued her: they might have figured out what had happened, but Zegaii was still missing. “None of this will help us find Zegaii.”
“No, but UAE has shown us exactly how to find him.” Daevor responded, smiling at her.
At first she was confused, and then it dawned on her. For the first time since her husband’s disappearance she had a realistic chance of finding him. She smiled back at Daevor and whispered: “The amulet.”

*Kellum is a city in the northern parts of the world, about 1 month's journey by standard hobby from Three Towns

[Daevor]

Chapter 12

“No! This one’s mine.” She said to the two men. “I will hear the sweet sound of his voice begging for mercy before the end.”
“Are you sure, Master? He seems strong and-“ Kerash, her mage accomplice, swallowed the rest of his objection upon receiving an icy stare from Kitone.
Garlyle, Kerash’s rival in seeking Kitone’s favour, sheathed his sword and intoned: “We are always ready to follow your orders, Master.” Kerash glared at him with absolute hatred. He smiled inwardly: he had won this round, and he was a little closer to becoming Kitone’s sole right-hand man.

Slasher assumed a fighting stance, his axe poised to receive Kitone’s attack. But she did not rush in; she advanced slowly and steadily, with all the grace of a hunting cat. Slasher noted how effortlessly she held her large sword. He had heard of Kitone’s expert swordsmanship from some of the older guild members, and he realised he was about to find out exactly how formidable she really was.
She threw a taunt at him every few steps: “So much strength and so little brains: I’ll easily outsmart you”; “Axes are only good for chopping trees – trees that don’t fight back!”; “Your muscles are for strength, but you have no speed. I bet you’re as slow as a slime”; and the one that stung the most: “Not even in your dream world can you beat me, haler”.
She stopped a couple of paces from him, touching the tip of her sword to the blade of his axe.

And then she attacked. She chopped her sword against the bladed edge of his axe, opening his defence, and followed with a backhanded slice to his neck. Slasher tried to duck under it, but he was just a bit too slow: with a loud clang, the sword glanced off the top of his helmet, and it stung!
“Aww, did I just knock some sense in to you?” she taunted.
Slasher then understood his guild members’ awe of Kitone’s abilities with the sword: she was fast, accurate and powerful! She whipped her sword about with the ease and speed of a one-handed weapon, but the force behind her blows was like that of an axe.

He retaliated with some of his most skilful moves: changing the angle of his attack midway through, feinting and attacking, jumping and delivering a spinning kick. Eventually, however, he was forced to admit to himself that she was simply too fast for him to successfully attack her.

But Master Dai was not only a skilled swords master, he was also a wise one: “Learn to adapt your fighting style”; “Don’t fight the fight your opponent wants”; “We don’t only win because of our strengths, we can also win because of our opponent’s weaknesses”. And this last bit of advice was what Slasher needed. His strength was the power in his attacks, as well as – contrary to Kitone’s taunting – his speed. However, she was only slightly less powerful than him, and she was certainly faster, thus he needed to find and exploit her weaknesses instead.

She launched another attack, using the greater reach of her weapon to full advantage, but only managed to score a glancing hit off the spiked armour on his forearms.
He noticed how she always kept him at a certain distance from her, giving her the advantage as her sword had a further reach than his axe. And that was his clue: he had to get closer to her; he had to nullify her range advantage. His mind made up, he advanced on her faster than she expected.
She tried backing up at first, but realized she could not match his speed and still maintain her optimum fighting stance. She lashed out at him instead, making him pay for every inch he gained on her.

Slasher was waiting for this: he blocked her shots with his armoured arms, and accepted the painful body blows, but eventually he managed to catch her sword between the spikes on his armour on his left forearm. He twisted his arm, loosening her grip on the sword, then grabbed the sword with his right hand and tried to yank it away from her. Desperately she clutched her sword with both hands, but the force Slasher had exerted caused her to stumble forwards. She landed hard on her hands and knees, causing her to let go of the sword. It took her only a fraction of a second to realize what had happened. Quickly she made a grab for her sword, but Slasher’s boot came down hard on the pommel, and then she felt one of the spikes from his armour pressing against her neck.
“Athemis of da Abyss is my mastah.”

Her mind was racing. How was she going to get out of this one? It had been a long time since someone had beaten her in a duel.
“Enemies approaching!” screamed Kerash. In all the excitement of the fight, they hadn’t kept watch, and now a band of militia was approaching them.
Garlyle moved to cover the mage with his shield. They may be rivals, but now they had a common enemy – and they faced overwhelming odds: a band of about 30 men-at-arms with 4 archers were rapidly closing in on them.

Kitone and Slasher exchanged quick glances with each other, an agreement being reached: we fight together now, and settle our differences later.
She retrieved her sword and sprinted over to her two companions. Slasher made a run for his mover, strapping his axe on to his back as he ran.
“You coward!” an angry Garlyle shouted after him.
Upon reaching his mover, he hastily retrieved his one-hand sword and shield, then ran over to the other three.
“Oh, sorry. I thought you…” Garlyle blushed.
“Right!” Kitone got their attention. “Form a line. Garlyle take the right, Slasher you take the centre. I’ll take the left. Kerash, 2 paces behind Slasher, and aim for those damn archers first. When they flank us, form a triangle around Kerash. Let’s show that rag-tag army what we’re made of, ladies!”
Kitone knew she was born to lead. She always knew what people should be doing: Slasher was the largest out of the three fighters, and offered the best protection for Kerash; she was ambidextrous and would thus be able to cover the left flank better than the other two.

Within moments their enemies were in range. “Kerash, hold.” Kitone commanded.
He could not understand why she did not want him to attack them yet – he could probably have killed two, maybe three, swordsman before the two sides engaged in close combat - but he had learnt to obey her (and he was still smarting from her earlier reproach). Besides, she always knew what she was doing.
“Use your Lightning spells on the archers when I tell you to.”
“Yes Master.” He replied, though again he did not understand: though they were instantaneous, Lightning spells were far less accurate than Fireball spells. He started focusing his mind on angry clouds. He had found that personifying the elements of his evocation spells with strong emotions increased the potency of those spells.
Just as Kitone had anticipated, when they were in range of the archers, the opposing army slowed down and spread out. The archers formed a line and took aim.
“Kerash, ready… ready…” said Kitone.
The archers drew back on their bows.
“Now!” ordered Kitone.

Three Lightning Bolts exploded at the back of the opposing army. None of the archers were hit, but one lucky shot landed on a swordsman in the back ranks. The Bolts had also given the archers such a fright that all their shots were far off the mark: one arrow flew far to Kitone’s left, landing in no-man’s-land; two shot high up into the air, landing amongst the enemy army but missing the soldiers; but the last arrow took the swordsman right in the front of an archer squarely in the back. The two swordsmen next to the felled one looked at him in dismay, then advanced angrily on the archer who had shot him. The archer held up his hands pleadingly, but the only forgiveness he received were two swords piercing his torso.
“Three down.” Kitone smiled.


She surveyed the opposing army, trying to figure out their best strategy. She noticed an unusually large fighter amongst them, who also seemed to be their leader, though he kept to the back ranks.
“Kerash, keep those archers occupied.” She ordered, “ Don’t waste your mana on the fighters.”
Though the odds were still stacked against them, as the two sides approached each other, Kitone noticed something about the band of fighters that gave her more than a glimmer of hope: “Look at their dirty clothes; some of them even have rusted swords. This is no army, “she sneered, “this is a band of rejects! We’ll carve through them like a hunting knife through a juicy archon jr. You just keep those archers off us.”

Seeing the truth of Kitone’s words, Kerash realized he didn’t have to try to kill the archers: he only needed to distract them long enough so that the trio of fighters can deal with the enemy fighters. Low powered, instant spells it’ll be, he told himself. He could keep casting such spells for a long time before depleting his mana store.

Eventually the two sides met, and, just as Kitone had foretold, they easily slashed through their enemies. Five of them fell within three seconds, then two more, then another, and hardly ten seconds had passed. The opposing fighters were quickly losing their desire for battle, but then a feral roar, deep and deafening was heard from their back ranks. This was the kind of roar that struck fear into the hearts of men, or morale into an army about to flee; such was the effect of the bloodlust roar. The source of the roar was the large fighter Kitone had noticed earlier: a half-ogre brute, about seven feet tall, heavily muscled with a naturally thick hide, and complete with a large spiked club.
“Heh, how cliché,” Kitone sneered, “Fat Face is mine.”

Now the army fought with redoubled determination. Their swordplay skills were no more than before, but they fought hard, most scoring a couple of minor hits before being slain. Then the tide turned again: Garlyle took a heavy hit to his leg, forcing him to drop to one knee, and losing his sword in the action. The enemy fighters howled with glee, and moved in swiftly, like a pack of hungry wolves closing in on injured prey.

Even though Slasher was fully engaged, he tried to make his way over to Garlyle. However, the enemy fighters fought furiously to cut him off, and Slasher was not able to come to Garlyle's aid. Kitone was even further away, and had no hope of reaching him either. They watched helplessly as Garlyle bravely fended off two attackers with his shield, and Kerash finished them off with well-placed fireballs. It seemed almost as if the duo would be able to hold long enough for Slasher to break through the wall of fighters, but then a sword found its way past Garlyle's shield, piercing his ribs, and another stabbed him in his good leg, and, in utter dismay, the rest of the defenders watched helplessly as the final, fatal blow was delivered to his chest.

“Garlyle!” the anguished scream from Kitone rang out. Though she considered emotional displays to be a form of weakness, and though she treated her followers as mere tools, Garlyle had been one of the very few people who had stood by her unconditionally. Even when that conniving Athemis stole the Guild from her, Garlyle had been one of a handful who had remained loyal to her. And now he was dying. Kitone felt the anger building in her, and she gave a guttural roar of her own.

She fought with such ferocity, the enemy fighters refused to approach her, and then they were once again retreating. She made her way to Garlyle and knelt over his supine form. He weakly coughed up some blood.
“I -” he coughed again.
“Don't try to speak.” she croaked, her voice breaking with emotion. “Your lung is...”
,“I love-” he tried to speak quickly, but again the coughing cut him off. He could utter no more, and he knew it. Instead he stared intently at her, letting his eyes do the talking, desperately trying to convey his suppressed feelings for her. And then his eyes spoke no more.




********************

[Daevor]

Chapter 13


“Five gems?!” Minoes practically screamed her outrage. “This is daylight robbery!” Zen-Saii woke briefly, moaned into her chest, and went back to sleep.
Minoes sat at a table opposite Athemis in the latter's reception room in the Abyss. Unlike Slasher's room, this room received a fair amount of “visitors”, and was thus well lit with glow worms.
“Daylight robbery? What did you expect coming to a thief?” she laughed, though it lacked any mirth. “And not just any thief, the best thief in all of Three Towns. One who's coming out of retirement to do this job for you.” That last part was not at all true, considering that she had just done her own private job relieving the High Councilor of a magic gem, and that she had been planning to do at least part of this job anyway - but no-one needed to know that.
“And this is no normal job. Do you even understand how high risk this job is? No-one has ever even attempted to break someone out of jail. There's a lot of bribing to be done.” She paused for effect, then drove her argument home with: “I'm guaranteeing success.”

She let Minoes absorb what she had said. She could, of course, be so confident since, shortly after her conversation with Vitree, she started laying the groundwork to break Daevor out of jail. She knew Rhetos well, or, at least, well enough. As guild master of the Thieves' Guild, she had to understand the personalities of all the power players (and wanna-be power players, as in Rhetos' case). She had to understand what motivates each of them, so that she could use it to her advantage if and when the time came. Thus she knew at worst Daevor would be hanged, at best he'd have to spend the rest of his life in jail. She had to rescue him, and getting the swordsman out as well would require only minor modifications to her plan, especially considering the two were being held in the same cell. And now that Minoes was paying for it, she could make a reasonable profit on a job she was going to do anyway!
“Five gems it is. And that's just to get the swordsman out of jail. To get the amulet, I need another three-”

“Why are you being so indifferent?” Minoes cut her off.
That gave her pause. Why was she being so indifferent? She remembered her life before the Abyss Uprising: she had always been free spirited, good natured, always laughing, if not outwardly, then certainly privately at her own little jokes. Losing Conjy had changed her, and the only thing now that sometimes set her free was the thrill of being on the job.

Thinking of Conjy softened her. Minoes had lost someone dear to her too, and Athemis understood all too well the hardship she was experiencing.
“To get the amulet, I need another three hundred gold pieces.” She was actually going to say three gems *. “Half by tomorrow, and the other half when I free the swordsman and deliver the amulet.”

“Fine.” Minoes relented.
“Then leave me, I need to think on things.” Athemis quickly got up from the table and turned her back on her visitor.

Minoes stood up, made sure the baby blanket covered Zen-Saii properly, then quietly left. I hope I played that right, she thought.

She remembered Edirecto's advice: Object to her first offer as if someone else is wearing your trademark purple dress.
When she had reconvened the meeting earlier that day at her tree-house and explained the situation to her friends, Eldirecto had immediately proclaimed himself an expert on the more questionable activities of Three Towns.
There is one other thing you will have to do, but you won't like it, he had said. Remind her that, like you, she has lost someone. It'll make her all emotional, and she'll go easy on you. But be subtle, very subtle, or she'll throw you out of the Abyss faster than a lightning bolt can travel the same distance – and that's if you're lucky.

She did not miss the brimming tears in Athemis' eyes at the end of the meeting, and she hated herself for having caused it. However, she had a long journey ahead of her. Exactly how long it would be she did not know. And so she needed to hold on to as much funds as she could, to support herself indefinitely in the search for her lost husband.

********************

High Councilor Malau Knight sat at his well polished desk, in his comfortably padded chair, sipping from a mug of steaming herbal brew. The concoction was meant to relax him, but how could he relax under the circumstances? During the Abyss Uprising he had acquired quite a reputation – both for his personal heroics against the monsters of the Abyss, as well as for his natural leadership skills. He was, in short, a charismatic icon. It was no surprise then that he was elected High Councilor shortly after the Abyss Uprising.
At first he shunned the extravagances his new position allowed him, but temptation overtook him, and within a few short years he was, in fact, indulging in the decadence of his station.

And now he was on the brink of losing everything, all because of that cursed swordsman. He squinted once more at the sheet of paper in front of him. If he held it at a certain angle to the light, and at a certain distance from himself, he could just about make out some of the words written on it: “There… disturbance … Alberstol … request for …”
“Damn you!” he cursed the swordsman under his breath, slamming his fist onto the table, and splashing some of the herbal brew onto his embroidered gown.

He knew he couldn't keep up the pretence for much longer. Already the documents awaiting his attention were piling up. He was running out of time: without his full eye-sight he would not be able to hold on to the position of High Councilor.

********************

“Dere's more 'f dem. We have ta get out 'f here!” Slasher beckoned her.
The fighting had drawn the attention of more bands of militia, who were rapidly advancing on them.
Kitone blinked back her tears. “Let's go,” she ordered, then realized that Kerash was standing still, leaning on his staff, and bleeding heavily from his right leg, where a rusty sword had pierced him.
“Kerash, no , no!” she cried, “Not you too!” Such emotional displays were very much out of character for her, but her world was falling apart. This was even worse than when Athemis had betrayed her and stole the Guild from her.

“Forget about me.” The determination was all too evident in his voice. “That gang,” he pointed at a band of militia “will get to our movers first. Leave me and go with Slasher's mover instead.” There was some wisdom in his words: to get to the movers of Kitone, Kerash and the now fallen Garlyle, they had to run towards a band of militia, who were also advancing on their movers; Slasher's mover, however, was parked in the exact opposite direction, away from all the enemies. Unfortunately, while a mover could perhaps carry two people, it could never handle three.

“I'll get there in time.” She took off at a dead run. She was not going to lose Kerash as well. And even if Slasher had offered to go in her place to get one of their movers, he would never have made it in time with all his bulky armour. She exerted herself to the limit of her capacity, judging that she would get to the movers a full fifteen seconds before the militia – more than enough time to start one up and speed back to Kerash.

But it was not to be. She was a little less than halfway to the movers when Kerash's fate was sealed: the half-ogre she had noticed earlier casted a mighty fireball, which exploded into the movers, damaging them beyond usability. She sunk to her knees in utter despair.

“Master! Please, come back!” Kerash yelled at her. She saw Slasher was half-dragging, half-carrying him in the opposite direction, towards Slasher's mover.
She got up and ran back to them, but now her movements felt sluggish under the weight of her despair.

“Slasher, let go of me!” She heard Kerash protesting as she approached them. “Save yourself, and save my master, please, I beg you.”
“Kerash... I” she was breathing heavily when she reached them.
“No Master, I, we both -“ he glanced at Garlyle's slain form. He drew a deep breath, straightened himself as best he could, then said: “It is an honour to die for you, Master.”
“We mus' go, now!” Slasher beckoned.

Kitone hesitated. She didn't know how to say goodbye. Sure she had lost members of her band before, but she had never left them for dead. How does one say goodbye to a close companion you know is about to be killed, in order to save you? This is not a time for thinking, this is a time for action! she berated herself. She leaned in to-
But then Slasher was already dragging her away, toward his mover, toward safety.

Leaning on his staff, Kerash surveyed the hordes approaching him. He saw the half-ogre was deep in concentration, incanting another spell. Kerash realized the half-ogre was intending to blow up Slasher's mover as well! He had to break the half-ogre's concentration. Immediately he cast lightning bolt after lightning bolt. None hit his target, but the sixth one landed close enough to achieve his goal. The half-ogre glared at him, then started incanting furiously. Kerash at first kept up his lightning bolt assault, but the half-ogre simply ignored them, so he stopped, preparing his defence instead. He guessed the half-ogre would cast a fireball at him, so he started casting his counter spell. A second later he saw that he had guessed correctly – a fireball was flying directly at him. He released his own spell, a frost nova, that would freeze the air around him. The fireball met his nova, and though the nova diminished the power of the fireball, it could not neutralize it – he was badly scalded.

Kerash fell to the ground, coughing and retching. Thoughts of his Master steadied him, and he clutched his staff, gritting through the pain. There is only one more thing I can do now, Master, he thought to himself, I hope it is enough, and he started casting his last spell.

As they mounted the mover, Slasher and Kitone looked back at Kerash and saw the fireball hit him.
“No!” Kitone cried in anguish. She made as if to run back to Kerash, but, seated behind her so his armour can offer them both some protection, he was able to hold her firmly on the mover.
“Come, da portal's jus' over dat hill.” he said solemnly, as they made their way towards it.

“Come on, come on,” Slasher urged the mover on, but under the combined weight of two bodies, climbing uphill, it was labouring hard. In a few seconds they would be over the hill. There were now bands of militia flanking them as well. He looked behind them just as they were about to reach the top, and saw a fireball headed directly at them! He veered sharply, unsuccessfully trying to avoid it. Upon the impact of the exploding fireball the mover was sent spinning wildly. Kitone lost her grip on the mover and rolled halfway back down the hill towards the enemy, unconscious.

Slasher, however, was flung over the hill. He landed hard, then rolled part way down. He was not sure how many bones he had broken, all he knew was that just about every part of his body was in sharp pain.

And then the earth shook. Kerash had completed his final spell – a doomsday. This was not his speciality so it was not as powerful as the doomsday spells some of his peers could cast, but it was, nevertheless, devastating. The bands of militia close to him were obliterated, as was he. Those flanking Slasher on the opposite side were thrown to the ground as they ran, some even breaking bones or twisting ankles.

Slasher was sure that he was dying. Daevor had once told him that all life was a journey, and death was merely the end of one kind of journey, and the start of a new one. Then let me sing the end of the travel song to mark the end of this journey, he thought. In his mind he sang:

Oh Teva, I seek only a beautiful dame.
Oh Teva, tell me her name,
Oh Teva, show me my beautiful dame!

Slasher blinked, or tried to (he wasn't sure): in front of him he saw a bright, all-encompassing Light. And out of the Light stepped a beautiful dame.

* 1000 copper = 1 silver, 1000 silver = 1 gold, 1000 gold = 1 gem

[Daevor]

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[Dragonfly77]

Aw nice little story. I'm interested in seeing what is going to happen.

(And due to our agreement...I hafta update Abyss guardians now...don't I? >.<)

[Nenova]

You gonna keep updating this? Seems like you have awesome plans with it, considering the huge amount of saved posts :P I can't wait!

*hops up and down excitedly*

[Daevor]

OMG! The legendary Minoes herself posted in my thread. I'm so... honoured! :o

Yes yes, this past weekend I thought up some plots for the way forward... it's finally time for Minoes to become a lot more active in a story about, well, Minoes :D (well, maybe not in part 2 of chapter 6, but certainly in either chapter 7 or 8).

[Nenova]

I can't wait :D

[Chaola]

Finally !!!!

Good job, as usual, but...

WE WANT MOAR !!!

>:3

[Odrioll]

DTD ambulance = LOOOOOOOOOOOL epic win

Nice powsts :p

[stefanni]

I loved this story a lot <33 Are you going to continue the whole thing ? x3

[Daevor]

I loved this story a lot <33 Are you going to continue the whole thing ? x3

(Thank you, thank you *takes a humble bow* :D)

Aye, I have much planned :D

The pace might slow down a little, as I "fill out" the story a bit more, but I think (I hope!) it'll still keep you interested. I'll also be making (minor) changes to part 1 of chapter 6 - I wrote it many months after chapter 5, and didn't remember everything properly :o

[Daevor]

Sorry for double-post :o

Anyway, part 2 of chapter 6 has been added. Also note: a minor change to part 1 of chapter 6 has been made.

Happy reading! :D

[Nenova]

Moar moar moar MOAR MOAR !!!

:D

I know who the High Councelor is tehehehe! But not who the thief is ... *ponders*

[Chaola]

I know who the thief is

lalalalalallalaaaa~~~~~

MOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR !

>:3

Edit : And now, I know who is the High Councilor too :3

[Callypso]

This story is great! I can't wait for more. ;D

[Dragonfly77]

O.O CALLY~ *tackles*

It's Seamist!!;D

Edit: post number 2323 o.o

[Daevor]

Moar moar moar MOAR MOAR !!!

:D

I know who the High Councelor is tehehehe! But not who the thief is ... *ponders*

I know who the thief is

lalalalalallalaaaa~~~~~

MOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR !

>:3

Edit : And now, I know who is the High Councilor too :3

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you: (drum roll) MOAR! (symbols clash!) :D

(That means chapter 7 is posted)

[Chaola]

*squeals*

A new chapter !!!

("\(^__^)/")

But we still need moar o.o

[Dragonfly77]

Yesh!! This is getting really good! And who is the high Councilor? O.o

[Daevor]

Hehe, why don't you ask Honoured Little One or Min? They seem to think they know who the High Councilor is.

hmm, everyone seems to want to know who the High Councilor is, and almost no-one enquires about the thief's identity. I wonder why...

[Dragonfly77]

Because the thief is too awsm ~.~

[Nenova]

Haha after this chapter I'm pretty sure who it is :P

Keep it coming Daevor :3

[Dragonfly77]

No fair! I still don't know who's the high Councilor!

[Aieral]

Absolutely wonderful, Dae. ^___^

*gives lots and lots of hearts*

[Daevor]

LADY AIR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG

I... I am SO HONOURED!

Wait, I need a moment to absorb this...

[cruel-angel]

*tapping foot* U got joor moment! I want more to read! o.o

If I could write better english I would write some of my own stories here but no point doing it in finnish so I just ENJOY the stories you guys write for us to read! ^^

[Aieral]

LADY AIR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG

I... I am SO HONOURED!

Wait, I need a moment to absorb this...

XDDDDD Hey hey.

Holly mentioned this and I asked her for the link so I decided to real this. =] It's very good. =D I can't wait for the next chapter.

[Dragonfly77]

Come on Daev! We wanna read more!!

[Chaola]

We do want moar !!!

[Aieral]

XD Writing chapters to a very good story takes time...lots and lots of time.

*...hasn't updated a chapter from original story since last December* =]

And yet...I'm okay with it. XD *Writer's Block FTL!*

[Daevor]

Part 1 of chapter 8 has been posted.

Part 1 is mostly about introducing the back story of a new character in the story, and making mention of a few more characters to join the story.

Part 2 will likely introduce some more people.

I decided to make this a mostly... "slow" chapter (some may find it boring), but just bear with me, we can't have nail-biting stuff 24/7! I need to give your hearts a rest :p.

Anyway, I need some chars to play the bad guys. Anyone may volunteer. For now, I'll just need 1 character, and bit later I'll probably need two more. Note: you will probably not appear much in the story; you will be a baaaad guy/girl; you will likely be killed off by the good guys.
Okay, if you still want to be a bad guy, leave your character name, and a short description of your personality.

[T3h_SyN]

Part 1 of chapter 8 has been posted.

Part 1 is mostly about introducing the back story of a new character in the story, and making mention of a few more characters to join the story.

Part 2 will likely introduce some more people.

I decided to make this a mostly... "slow" chapter (some may find it boring), but just bear with me, we can't have nail-biting stuff 24/7! I need to give your hearts a rest :p.

Anyway, I need some chars to play the bad guys. Anyone may volunteer. For now, I'll just need 1 character, and bit later I'll probably need two more. Note: you will probably not appear much in the story; you will be a baaaad guy/girl; you will likely be killed off by the good guys.
Okay, if you still want to be a bad guy, leave your character name, and a short description of your personality.

Oi, I heard you were looking for a bad girl and since this story is so good (srsly, I'm hooked. Oh, and *sticks my Seal of Approval* you're welcome) and I personally don't mind being the villain I think I'll sign up. If you kill me off I won't mind, it's one of the things that happens to bad guys, so I'm always prepped for it.

The name's Kitone, wielder of two-handed swords. As a villainess I'm arrogant, crafty and dangerous. Not one to shy from a fight but personally I'll delay a battle as long as possible to intimidate and get into my opponent's head. I try to either enrage, scare of just plain mess with my victims so that they won't fight with a level head and thus not to the best of their abilities. Just because I talk a lot doesn't mean I'm a worthless fighter, in fact it's all a cover for my swordsmanship. I wield a two-handed sword with the power of an axe and the speed of its one-handed counter-part. I also put myself before all others, because that way I get what I want and if I want something and you're in my way I will eliminate you, regardless of what has to be done.

If you want anything else you know where to find me ;3

[Daevor]

Oi, I heard you were looking for a bad girl and since this story is so good (srsly, I'm hooked. Oh, and *sticks my Seal of Approval* you're welcome) and I personally don't mind being the villain I think I'll sign up. If you kill me off I won't mind, it's one of the things that happens to bad guys, so I'm always prepped for it.

The name's Kitone, wielder of two-handed swords. As a villainess I'm arrogant, crafty and dangerous. Not one to shy from a fight but personally I'll delay a battle as long as possible to intimidate and get into my opponent's head. I try to either enrage, scare of just plain mess with my victims so that they won't fight with a level head and thus not to the best of their abilities. Just because I talk a lot doesn't mean I'm a worthless fighter, in fact it's all a cover for my swordsmanship. I wield a two-handed sword with the power of an axe and the speed of its one-handed counter-part. I also put myself before all others, because that way I get what I want and if I want something and you're in my way I will eliminate you, regardless of what has to be done.

If you want anything else you know where to find me ;3

Hey that sounds very interesting. It should be fun working with such a character. ;)

[power_ness]

I know who the thief is I think athemis *cough*

and great story, get a move-on already we want moar! *rawrs*
*calms down* only kidding, we do, but we know it takes time ^^

[cruel-angel]

*checking up 5th time today* No. No next chappie. *gets more coffee and tries to find something else to do than keep waiting more to read*

[T3h_SyN]

Bump for goods?

[Daevor]

Hi hi dear readers.

The rest of chapter 8 is posted. Apparently we're only allowed 15000 character per post, including the verbose formatting strings, so please note that the last bit of chapter 8 is a separate post.

Happy reading!

[Dragonfly77]

Nice..very nice...now, when's next chapter? XD

[Nenova]

Nice! The tension D:

And you captured Chikyuus character very well >: P

[T3h_SyN]

I'm gonna note this down for posterity cause this is the first time a 'bump for goods' ever got me goods... Other than that I'm still liking this, and I can't wait to see what you do with my character :3

Keep up the good work!

[Chaola]

Ahahah awesome !

Sneaky and funny Holly =D

Hehe moar ! =3

[Daevor]

Dudes and Dudettes,

We are proud to announce that part 1 of Chapter 9 has been posted! :cool:

*waits for raucous cheering*

*waits a little longer*

*waits even longer...* :(

Well, anyway, application for the role of another evil character is now open. This particular character can be male or female (but preferably not both, especially not at the same time!), and plays the role of an annoying, but rather sadistic, minion (as opposed to an influential boss-like evil character). If you feel you're up for the role, please send your application to this thread :)

Kitone, I already have much of your role mapped out. It's just a matter of time before your character makes her debut :)

Happy reading!

[Dragonfly77]

*reads chapter* My face!!
*keeps reading* MY BROTHER!!!

...


...



.....

Slasher and Daevor are gonna get it in AG...

But on the flipside, awesome backs tory. XD Leader of Thieves guild...hehe ;D

[T3h_SyN]

*Reads* Ath's face!
*Reads more* Conjy!

*Starts cheering* This was an excellent chapter, or rather, part of one.

[Nenova]

Loved the chapter! Especially the last lines of Vietree made me snicker, haha! Besides that it was quite serious and dramatic .__. But you captured the atmosphere of the story very well! Very well indeed....

[Daevor]

Loved the chapter! Especially the last lines of Vietree made me snicker, haha! Besides that it was quite serious and dramatic .__. But you captured the atmosphere of the story very well! Very well indeed....

Why thank you, Dear Min min! :o

*takes a humble bow*

[cruel-angel]

Good work once again! <3

And how long do I have to sit here waiting for more? Do I maybe need food and drink while checking 5 times per day? o.o

[Daevor]

Dear Readers

Part 2 of chapter 9 has been posted.

Go read. Go go go!

(Comments always welcome)

Happy reading!
Daevor, The Devoted

[Dragonfly77]

*Goes read* ^^

[Nenova]

Another masterpiece!

It's amazing how you can keep making me crave for more -.-

[roxca]

*starts reading for the first time* Let me get back to you :D

EDIT: I read 'em all and I like it! O.o Get some more chapters up soon! (Yes, I am a VERY fast reader. :P)

[cruel-angel]

*clapping hands, jumping on chair and falling down with terrible noise*

I ish very VERRY *awkward silence* errm... ME LIKES ME WANTS MORE! *holding head and noticing the pain* More... pwease? o.o

[setsunaxii]

awesome chapters daevor =D you gotta write FASTER ._. so we don't have to wait too much for the next chapter x3

[Chaola]

Nice Nice !!!

Things start to move :3

MOAR !!! \o/

[Orchids_Mantis]

still lurking in the forums, Chaola?

[Chaola]

still lurking in the forums, Chaola?

Yeah, to read this awesome story, and this morbid curiosity that seems to get me back here and observe what's going on in Fiesta and OS...

[Daevor]

Yeah, to read this awesome story

:o

And on that note, Chapter 10 is posted :D

Feel free to leave your comments (good, bad, ugly and alien, all welcome).

Happy reading!
Daevor, The Devoted


(the fine print: if you like this story, feel free to vote for it here (http://outspark.com/forums/showthread.php?t=232284).)

[nevermesswithme]

Awesome... just... plain... awesome. I'm going to sit here and stare the screen, hoping the next chapter will just... *plop* out.

(fine fine, take your time and write, I'll wait without complaining)

The story is getting SO exiting... what happens to Slasher? How about Mo, is she safe? Oh noes how can I SLEEP before I know... o.o

[Nenova]

I LOVE it!! The characters of Boots and MMD are so awesome haha, it made me laugh so badly XD

And cool, I'm really powerful and RICH! I've never been rich! *puffs up chest with glee*

[Dragonfly77]

Yes...Min is rich...wonder if she's rich enough for my expertee... *grins*

Btw, does anyone else see a pattern here? Morilea get's checked out, Bloody loses an eye, Sissy is an orphan, Mo loses her husband, Tuke is poked fun at, I get my face burned...

hello...? XD

[Daevor]

Yes...Min is rich...wonder if she's rich enough for my expertee... *grins*

Btw, does anyone else see a pattern here? Morilea get's checked out,


She's hot. 'nuff said.


Bloody loses an eye,


He should never have made fun of Sisi.


Sissy is an orphan,

The poor child. Let me give her a hug.


Mo loses her husband,


:confused: What story have you been reading?


Tuke is poked fun at,


Engineer. Engineer. I got it.


I get my face burned...


I gave up the better part of my powers saving your life... and nearly lost my own life in the process! Now you're upset with me because I couldn't heal the cosmetic damage to your face?! Why you ungrateful little...


hello...? XD

Hi. :p

[setsunaxii]

another great chapter up x3~ but I'm gonna be gone till somewhere in January so I s'pose there'll be alot more to read then, eh? >:D but seriously, can't wait till you get more chapters up =D Keep it up, Dae :3

[Chaola]

*squeals*

LOVE IT !!

Mori and Sissy are great ! =D

And I'm in it !!!

\o/

[Dragonfly77]

:confused: What story have you been reading?


My bad. I meant Min.


I gave up the better part of my powers saving your life... and nearly lost my own life in the process! Now you're upset with me because I couldn't heal the cosmetic damage to your face?! Why you ungrateful little...

Well what about my brother?! He died!!!

[Daevor]

My bad. I meant Min.



Well what about my brother?! He died!!!

You'll have to take that up with the lizard monsters of the abyss.

Let's have a minute of silence for Conjy.

...


...





...

[silverwindofearth]

Gee, thanks. I really appreciate that.

And stop calling me Conjy!! >.<

[T3h_SyN]

Second page? I think not...

*Saving Grace Bump*

[Daevor]

Dearest Friends, Family, Fans, and everyone else:

Chapter 11 has been posted!

Happy reading, and don't be too shy to leave a comment.

~~Daevor, The Devoted

[Nenova]

How dare you manage to make it more and more exciting?! It's impossible!

I want moar. MOAR YOU HEAR ME?!

Really, good chapter. Nice play of words with UAE there *grins*

[Dragonfly77]

Ahaha!! The plot is getting thicker and better...

But no!! Don't use the amulet!! Hire me.. >.>;

[Chaola]

Urz’gul the Axe Executioner, or UAE as he prefers to be called

That one was very very good, nice work !

Things are coming up nicely, everything is like falling into place, it's awesomely thought !!!

Like usual awesome chapter \o/

NAO MOAR !!!

:3

[cruel-angel]

More? Please? Fast?

I -like everyone else- just love this story. And if you need more bad guys in there, feel free to use my charachters if needed... You guys met Make My Day first, but she was still my little one those days. Even she is threathing my archer, that will not too long prolly be my main anymore... o.o

Thank you Daevor, for writing this story for us. Reading all these awesome stories here seriously saves my poopy day... every time I open these threads. No matter how big disaster I have met in real life, if a new chapter is posted, I know the day is saved. So once again... THANK YOU.

[Daevor]

More? Please? Fast?

I -like everyone else- just love this story. And if you need more bad guys in there, feel free to use my charachters if needed... You guys met Make My Day first, but she was still my little one those days. Even she is threathing my archer, that will not too long prolly be my main anymore... o.o

Thank you Daevor, for writing this story for us. Reading all these awesome stories here seriously saves my poopy day... every time I open these threads. No matter how big disaster I have met in real life, if a new chapter is posted, I know the day is saved. So once again... THANK YOU.

Awww, Valorous Vixen <3
*wipes tear*

Dear readers (especially Valorous Vixen :))

I'm terribly sorry I haven't posted in a while: I have been rather busy with work lately (often working until 2am the next day!) and thus haven't had much time to write. I have completed (approximately) half of chapter 12, but seeing as I haven't updated the story for such a long time, I decided to post "Chapter 12 - Part 1". It's not much, but I hope it entertains you none-the-less.

Happy Reading!

~~Daevor, The Devoted

[Nenova]

So exciting! *squee*

You're good with action scenes... TEACH MEH.

[T3h_SyN]

Omg I failed... How did you let him close the distance Kit...

If that's the start I wanna see the rest :D

[cruel-angel]

Well well! Marvellous job once again! Like my best friend would say: Reading this story "makes me pee pure honey". More effective in my own language but... I think you get the picture! XD

[Daevor]

lol @Valorous Vixen

Well, dearest readers, part 2 of Chapter 12 has been posted. Apparently there's going to be a part 3! (It seems fight scenes consume a lot of words :p)

Happy reading!
~~Daevor, The Devoted

[T3h_SyN]

I agree, people should listen to my battle tactics more than they usually do...

[cruel-angel]

*trying to get her pulse down again* MEEE LUBS IT!

*clapping hands in teletubbie-style* Again!!!

[Nenova]

As said before, you are really good with action scenes. There's not much else to say really, keep up the good work :)

[Dragonfly77]

Sweetness..I can't wait to read more! Hurry! Type it up!! XD

[cruel-angel]

*pokey-pokey' Where ish the rest? Me wants more. ME WANTS! *puppydog-eyes* Pwetty pwease?

[cruel-angel]

DAEEEEEEE! I am waiting! STILL! D:<

[Dragonfly77]

*Follows up in little girl whiny voice*

MEEE TOOOOO!!!!!

[T3h_SyN]

*clears throat*

More please Mr. Daevor :D

[mandylynns]

* smiles and says good job Deav i was actually drawn into this story keep up the good work . i will be checking back but wont tell you to hurry up because in hurrying you make mistakes. tc and best wishes on finishing it reads like a great story so far .

[cruel-angel]

*looks at the thread, notices no new chappie, walks away and sheads a tear* I... will be ok.. I pwomise. :,(

[Daevor]

Dearest readers

Forgive my lengthy absence. First I had a bit of writer's block, then I moved house, and now I'm living on a smallholding (in the bush :eek:) with hardly any internet connectivity :(.

Anyway, yesterday I got to thinking about this story again, and spent some time reading it (to refresh my memory!), and (this is the part you've been waiting for) I definitely intend to write more on the story. So, to whet your appetites, I posted a bit more on chapter 12 (chapter 12 is getting a bit long now, don't you think?)


Also, I hereby dedicate the continuation of the story to Valorous Vixen (aka cruel-angel, MakeMyDay, etc). You're a fabulous woman, and don't let anyone ever tell you otherwise.

Happy reading!
~~Daevor, The Devoted

[EriAeris]

Dearest readers

Forgive my lengthy absence. First I had a bit of writer's block, then I moved house, and now I'm living on a smallholding (in the bush :eek:) with hardly any internet connectivity :(.

Anyway, yesterday I got to thinking about this story again, and spent some time reading it (to refresh my memory!), and (this is the part you've been waiting for) I definitely intend to write more on the story. So, to whet your appetites, I posted a bit more on chapter 12 (chapter 12 is getting a bit long now, don't you think?)


Also, I hereby dedicate the continuation of the story to Valorous Vixen (aka cruel-angel, MakeMyDay, etc). You're a fabulous woman, and don't let anyone ever tell you otherwise.

Happy reading!
~~Daevor, The Devoted

I can't wait XD Mish ya Master Daevor :p

[cruel-angel]

Also, I hereby dedicate the continuation of the story to Valorous Vixen (aka cruel-angel, MakeMyDay, etc). You're a fabulous woman, and don't let anyone ever tell you otherwise.

Happy reading!
~~Daevor, The Devoted

Thank you dear Daevor... I promise I remember this when I next time get called a mean bish with a nasty attitude :D

And thank you for writing more. I have been waiting for this.. so so SO long. Good work Dae, marvellous piece of the story. Love you.

[Daevor]

Dearest readers

Chapter 13 is up!

Hi hi EriAeris. Trust me when I say: I miss you all terribly as well.

Happy reading!
~~Daevor, The Devoted

[T3h_SyN]

Heh, tis good to see you've returned Daevor. Funnily enough I reread this story not too long ago on a whim, glad I did.

And I lost my few allies in this fight? Oh they're gonna regret that when I'm done being emotional, cause I don't take kindly to losing, especially when what I lose is a friend.

I'll be waiting for more with baited breath. Keep up the awesome work!

[Daevor]

Dear readers

In the story, the monetary system is slightly different to that in the game. In the story, we have 1000 copper pieces = 1 silver piece, 1000 silver pieces = 1 gold piece, 1000 gold pieces = 1 gem.

Thanks to Valorous Vixen for bringing this to my attention.

As always, all comments/queries/questions/criticisms/insights/etc are most welcome.

Happy reading!
~~Daevor, The Devoted

[nevermesswithme]

*cheers* yaaaaaaaaay more story! =)

[Chaola]

Happy Birthday Daevor !!!

And wow, nice chapters ! Didn't see the cliffhanger coming, and was like "Nooooo!" when I realised there was no more to read !!

HOW DARE YOU ?!

Go write moar nao !!!

=D

[Daevor]

Happy Birthday Daevor !!!

And wow, nice chapters ! Didn't see the cliffhanger coming, and was like "Nooooo!" when I realised there was no more to read !!

HOW DARE YOU ?!

Go write moar nao !!!

=D

Awww Honoured Little One. Thank you for the birthday wish. And how could I not end it on a cliffhanger? It just wouldn't be right if I didn't :p

And I am writing more! I promise! I'm about 25% through the next chapter, but since I'm going on holiday for a week (starting tomorrow), I'm putting this on hold until I come back.

Happy reading!
~~Daevor, The Devoted

[cruel-angel]

It's been a while dear Daevor. Where is the next chappie? *purses lips and gives the pouty-face*

[tristene123]

Hi Daevor, thanks for posting on my fan fic , people never do that except my brother

[cruel-angel]

DAEEEEEEEEEE! *throwing a tanty*

[Dragonfly77]

DAEEEEEEEEEE! *throwing a tanty*

VOOOOOOOOR!!!! *sadface*

Get it? She says Dae, I say Vor, so - meh.. >.o

[angelofstone]

Me no happy. Me wants more story. Me me me. Plox.