Chapter 5

The next morning…

-ooOoo-

Larin woke exhausted after a night full of nightmares.
He had to do something this morning to satisfy his craving for bloodshed.
He stalked precariously out of the fortress.
Before long he found himself standing in the middle of a field of Wyvern.

So what if he was just a scout.
A scout was meant to scout out things not kill.
"Bah!" He thought. "I can kill a whole lot of things, people included." He said to himself as he watched a lone Wyvern drift in his direction.
And maybe, if he fed his new found desire, just maybe, the voices would leave.

He lined up a shot and let the arrow flow towards the beast.
It slammed into its ear and the animal gave a loud shriek of annoyance.
It reached an arm up in an attempt to pull the embedded arrow from its right ear but was unable to grasp the think pole.

Instead, it turned around and stormed toward the Larin.

Larin laughed maniacally, then turned and lured it towards the gates of the large castle.
As he half-ran and half-walked, he let off snap shots.
The Wyvern swung carelessly at these, as if they were flies.

As it charged after the archer, it's left shoulder slammed into a guard tower.
The gaurds began to ring the alarm bell and Larin could here the sound of people screaming and crying out in fear.
Larin began to grin evilly as he watched the angered Wyvern trample the helpless crowds of onlookers.
As the beast became lost in the chaos of the town square with all its shops, tents and people, Larin silently slipped into a dark alley way.
He watched from the shadows, enthralled as the the Wyvern wreaked havoc on the people in the fortress.

Moments later, a fighter intervened and slayed the angry beast.
Larin began to fill with rage, but did not allow it to boil over.
He surveyed the damage left in the Wyvern's wake and was quite pleased to see how destructive it had been.

Satisfied with his doings, he ran back to his room, the voices softer in his head.

-ooOoo-

Alteos closed his eyes and began to cast his inner vision around Deepen Mait.
In a bit, the magic barriers will be back up and much stronger than before.
He chuckled as he sensed Lyria, Kaiven and Jadynn make their way through the secret tunnels below Deepen Mait.
I will find them later…when they are truly needed.

As Alteos continued to check the area, he suddenly felt a change in the fabric of life.
Something was very wrong.
He noted that the blessing of the goddess had not been granted recently.
There must have been a shift in power.
How odd.
Normally there was a balance in the granting of the blessings upon the followers.
What has that fool goddess done now?! He thought angrily.

Alteos reached out his hand in the direction of his halberd and it flew from its mount straight into his waiting grasp then he turned and headed to his scrying room.

She didn't succeed in her idiotic plan did she?"
Alteos mused over the Furian Goddess as he headed up a twisting staircase.

"She better not have."

He had known of her attempted plans for a while now, but had not thought that she would go through with them. Or at least not any time soon.

The battle with the Cryptic One's aspect tended to wear him out quickly, but this situation needed his attention immediately.

Alteos crested the ever rising staircase and reached for the handle of the door before him.
It opened easily for being such a heavy door and he rushed through to stop at the glassy scrying pool.

Is there another outside influence? One other than the goddesses and the Dark One? Alteos wondered to himself.
"No, it must just be bad timing." Alteos replied out loud to his own thoughts.

He waved his halberd over the water and it clouded over then cleared to show a battle scene then shifted to show a brilliant blood red dragon flying peacefully over a mountain range.
There was Lyria and he band of renegades also my heroes.
The vision continued to change until it stopped on something odd.

A Wyvern attacking a castle. Those creatures are strong, but not stupid.
They wouldn't just attack the castle without being antagonized.
Something set it off, but what?

He watched as mayhem broke out amongst the citizenry.
Casting his Alliance of Light glamour over himself once more, he looked in an oval mirror mounted on the wall and Raven Darkslayer stared back.
He was ready to intervene.

He gave one last look at his reflection then shook his head.
"I don't have time for this," he said angrily.

Focusing on the image of the Wyvern, Alteos raised his halberd, now a fancy looking staff, above his head and teleported with practiced ease to the chaos therein.

In a blinding flash of light, Alteos entered the chaotic atmosphere of the village.
The piercing sound of the screaming villagers greeted his ears. He walked out from the alley way he had teleported to and watched as guardsmen endeavored fruitlessly to stop the powerful creature.

He raised his staff as the Wyvern turned abruptly to see him and as it began to charge, a fighter clad in Myth Armor began to attack it.
After a few skillful attacks, he thrust the blade where its heart should have been and it fell over, blood dripping from its mouth.

Small fires burned everywhere.
Alteos looked around and the destruction left in the Wyverns wake.
He zapped the flames with elemental bolts of ice.
They smoked profusely before going out completely.
He watched, pleased, as healers and guards began to take control of the situation.
The fighter turned to look in Alteos's direction.
They nodded in greeting then the fighter moved to help a woman up from the ground.

"Master Raven, thank the goddess that you arrived." Said the Captain of the Guard as he walked up to him.
"Why did that Wyvern attack the fortress?" Alteos asked.
"We are unsure as to why it attacked. But it is odd how one minute it was frolicking in the field over there," he pointed in the direction of the field of brush and dirt, "and the next minute it was over here attacking the castle." He said in a country twang.
"Can I have a look at it? Maybe I can figure out why it was driven to attack."
As they walked in the direction of the dead beast, Alteos looked to see an arrow embedded in its ear.
"See the arrow embedded in it's ear? It's not enough to kill it, but enough to enrage it profusely."
He raised his impressive staff over the creature and closed his eyes in deep concentration.
He sensed a magical residue.
He drew closer to the being and examined the arrow.
Definitely an archer's arrow, but the magic used to shoot it was wrong….or tainted.

"Captain," he said, motioning for the captain to draw near.
"Has anything odd been going around here?" He queried.
"Nothing odd, but we have not been granted a bless since this mornin' which is very unlike the goddesss. " Replied the plump captain.
"Hmm….Nothing else? Are you certain?"
"No, nothing else has been reported." He answered with a worried look on his face.
Tossing a Vox Crystal to the Captain, who expertly caught its shiny form, Alteos said, "If anything out of the ordinary occurs, no matter how insignificant it may appear to you at the time, contact me immediately."

" Yes sir." The Captain replied.
His face suddenly very pale and aged.

"I'll take care of the beast for you before I leave."
He raised his staff and hit the corpse with a powerful bolt of lightning.
It burned quickly and all that remained was a pile of ashes.

-ooOoo-

Back in Karis Castle, Denzel stood with a lady magister.

-ooOoo-

After careful consideration of the lady mage's proposal, Denzel had made his decision.

"Yes," he said. "I will help you. But know this. I go for Kaiven's sake. I believe he is in great danger."

"Good choice," replied the elf with a smile. "Let us be on our way. We have already lost precious time."

Just as they turned to enter a portal, Laran the archer sprinted through the front gates into the center square.
Denzel thought of stopping to ask him what was the matter, but he was too far away and didn't feel like yelling.
Suddenly, a large Wyvern crashed through the wall.
Shocked and awestruck, the priest and mage could do little but dodge the raging beast's fireballs.

Wham!

A fireball hit the ground a few meters from where they both stood.
The force of impact caused Denzel and the mage to be thrown backwards.
As one, they slammed into the wall behind them and then Denzel began to sink into blackness.
Before Denzel's eyes closed completely, he saw a curious flash of light and…"Raven?" he spoke in a weak voice.
Then all went black.

When Denzel came to, the elf mage was slumped awkwardly on top of his lower body.
His body resting in a sitting position against a wall.
She must have slammed into me after I hit the wall, he thought.
He winced in pain as he gently tried to push the mage off of his aching body.

Broken pelvis, he noted as he rolled into a sitting position. He cast a powerful healing spell on his body then on the mage's sleeping form.
As he got to his feet, the mage woke and looked about in a daze.

"Mmm... what happened?" she mumbled as she sat up.

"Good question." Replied Denzel as he surveyed the destruction at the center square of the fortress.
"Can you stand?"

"Yes, just give me a moment."
He reached out an arm to her and she grasped it gratefully as he pulled her light frame to her feet. "Thank you." She said with a smile.

Denzel looked around once more then rested his worried eyes back on the mage.
He watched as she carefully dusted off her skirt.
"If you can walk, we should probably depart before some else attempts to stop us."

-ooOoo-

Later that evening…

-ooOoo-

Traveling through a small canyon, Denzel looked over at his companion.
She really was quite beautiful.
"I don't believe I got your name." He said with a smirk.

She chuckled. Her laugh reminded him of bells tinkling.
The perfect sound for such a lovely lady.
"I didn't give it," she said with a smile, "but you may call me Zaieda."

"Call you...Zaieda?" He repeated the name, testing its pronunciation.
It left a tingle in his lips as he spoke her name. "What do you mean…call you? That is your name, is it not?"

Again she chuckled and the tinkling sound gave him goose bumps.
"No, not really. But I like it. It makes me feel...human." She said as she gazed up at the sky.
Her eyes began to glimmer with unshed tears.

"Human? But, you're an elf."
Her gaze shifted to the ground at her feet and an odd expression of irritation flitted across her face.
"I know!" She said sharply. "But I'm not completely elf….I'm….a half elf."
"Half elf?" he repeated bemused.
"You see, my father was an elf of noble standing, but my mother was a simple peasant from Beika, the human village.
Their meeting was...accidental, to say the least.
From what mother told me, Father stumbled into one of Beika's pubs one night, quite drunk and very disoriented.
Silly fool thought he was in Aelbeageu.
One thing led to another and, well, here I am." She finished with a slight smile.

"Yes, so you are" Denzel replied giving her a look of kind understanding.
They held each other's gaze for a long moment then were interrupted by the tumbling of a stone.
It fell from the cliff next to them.
They stood about a foot or two apart from each other and the stone stopped oddly in-between them.
Denzel's instincts were suddenly on high alert. He quickly looked up to scan the cliff face.
A faint flash of red flickered once in the back of his perceptive mind then was gone.
He looked back at Zaieda who opened her mouth to speak but he shushed her with a slight gesture of his hand.

Grabbing her arm, he pulled her close against his chest and whispered in her ear.
"Don't move."
He watched as a blush spread across her pale cheeks.
She shied away from his face, embarrassed by his closeness.

Denzel took one step back from the half elf and expertly began to cast a spell.
He let the spell go and his vision was suddenly brighter and more in focus.
He looked around at everything as it glowed with an unearthly brightness.
This light was invisible to the naked eye but with his powerful spells, he could see it.
He could only see the light when his eyes were closed, but even though they were closed he could still see.
It was as if a vail had been removed from his eyes.
He quickly surveyed the surrounding area looking for the danger that he knew was there.
He spotted it quite quickly.

Denzels eyes snapped open as he targeted the assassin hidden by a stealth spell.
One shot and the Vail's stealth guise dropped.
The impact of his spell knocked the Fury from his perch on the cliff and he tumbled to the ground to stop at the feet of both magic users.
Zaieda was already casting a rooting spell before he climbed to his feet.
Deadly vines entwined around his legs and feet causing him to fall again.
Denzel ,seeing his advantage, slammed the assassin with a high energy sonic bolt.
Zaieda began to ready another attack but Denzel raised his staff to stop her.
She stopped.
"Kill him!" She blurted impatiently.
He ignored her.
He reached down, grabbed the assassin's tunic and pulled him to his feet.
He aggressively pressed the tip of staff against the enemies neck just below his lower jaw.

The assassin glared and snarled at the priest, but Denzel did not even allow himself to flinch.

"If you value your life then you had better answer me quickly! Where is Kaiven, the fighter, tell me! Tell me NOW!" He shouted at the laughing assassin.
The assassin sneered back a reply in his heathen tongue then spit in Denzel's face.

-ooOoo-

Zaieda watched, unable to understand the conversation.

Whatever Denzel was saying, he certainly got the tone right, the strange words made her skin crawl and the assassins beastly cackling didn't help.
"Why doesn't he just kill the thing already?" She wondered, slightly annoyed.

They exchanged a few more harsh words and "the thing" spat at Denzel's angry face.
The assassin's words were ugly and filled with bloodlust.
"Very impressive for one with such a small brain", the thought with a smirk.

The assassin began to laugh maniacally and Denzel glanced at her, a look of displeasure upon his face.

He looked as though he were about to give the rude assassin a final blow when his evil laugh was cut short.
As it sputtered and sunk to the ground with a final screech of anger, Denzel turned to stare at her in shock.

An arrow jutted out from his back and crimson blood began to soak the assassin's white tunic.

Her eyes slowly moved from the dead Fury to meet Denzel's shocked gaze.
Her mouth gaped open and she raised a hand to her head.
She began to get dizzy from shock and disbelief.

-ooOoo-

Denzel dropped the sputtering captive in surprise.
He turned to stare in shock at Zaieda.

After a few seconds the shock wore off and his training set in.
He stepped back and began to scan the area. His eyes laid to rest of their mystery archer.
On the cliff opposite from the assassin's most recent perch stood Larin.

"Larin!?" Shouted Denzel.

The archer jumped from his vantage point, landing gracefully a few meters from where they stood.
The two magic wielders hurried over to him with cheerful greetings and relieved sighs.

"Hey guys! I hope I didn't just interrupt anything important."
Larin smiled at the couple.

With Denzel's detection spell was still activated, he stopped abruptly.
His spell was picking up an odd aura around the archer.
He recognized him to be the archer he had attempted to heal earlier in Karis Castle.
Then he had looked fine and healthy, now he stood before them with a dark shadow lingering about him like a cloud.
"How odd", he mused.

Zaieda, at the sight of the archer, halted near them forming a perfect triangle.
She acknowledged the archer with a slight nod then they both turned as one towards Denzel and spoke as one.
"Friend of yours?"

Denzel flinched at the sound of their query.
Shaking his head once to clear the fading effects of the detection spell, he replied, "Uh..yea. Zaieda, this is..."
"Larin." Said the archer.
"Yes, Laran," he paused, "Laran, I'd like you to meet Zaieda. She's a half-elf."

"Half-elf eh? Pleased to meet ya m'lady." He said with a smile. "So, where are you two going," he paused, "all by yourselves?"

Larin smirked mischeviously making Denzel begin to squirm.
"Zaieda and I are going to Maitreyan. She thinks we might find Kaiven there."

Larin's playful expression oddly disappeared as Denzel spoke.
It was replaced by grave look, too serious for this once cheerful archer.
"Kaiven," He repeated.
His voice sounded strangely hollow.
"Is that so? Well then, do you mind if i join you?"

"No, not at all! Please do!" Quickly replied Zaieda cutting off Denzel mid breath.
"We could use all the help we can get. There's no telling what we might run into along the way."

Larin turned his immediate attention to Zaieda.
As she spoke, he boldly gazed at her with hungry eyes and a cold, lifeless smile.
"Thank you. I'm looking forward to a good fight." He said to her.
His stare shifted to Denzel on whom he fixed the same cold smile.
Denzel shifted his weight from foot to foot anxiously.
"Why does he look at me that way? I have a bad feeling about this. Goddess help us all." He said to himself.

-ooOoo-

Larin walked with his new friends, or so they thought.
However, he didn't quite trust the half-elf, then again, he really never trusted anyone, but that was his job as a scout.
"Never trust anyone," was what they told him in training.
He followed this principle well.

He was pleased to see the priest again.
Not because he was a priest and friend, but because he too sought out the one he was meant to kill.
This made his job easier.

"But, if Denzel becomes a nuisance after my goal is complete, I will simply destroy him.
I may end up being marked as a traitor, but I would rather save my goddess." He thought to himself.

The half-elf, standing to his right, turned to look over at Larin who quickly flashed a smile in her direction.
She smiled back warmly then returned her attention to the map she was intently studying.
With a short, "Ready?" from Denzel, they were off.
Heading towards their goal...or possibly their doom.

-ooOoo-

Vvvvrrrrroooooossssssh

In a flash of blinding light, Alteos teleported to his study back in Deepen Mait.
He walked to his chair and sank onto its hard leather seat setting his staff to lean against his desk.
A deep slumber began to engulf his mind and in moments he was dreaming.

He dreamt of a library.
The Lilipus library.
Long and forgotten.
Hidden somewhere in the territory of the Light.
As he dreamt about the library, he suddenly felt a deep sense of purpose.
I must get to that library, he said to himself.

"Master Alteos. Sir?"
Alteos woke with a start, awakened from his deep slumber.

He looked up to see his Captain of Magic.
She stood there respectfully, waiting for his response.
Her query still hung in the air.

"Yes?" Alteos said as he shook the fatigue from his mind.

"We have just recieved word that a small party intends to breach Maitreyan within a few days.
It was also reported that there seems to be something odd about them."

"Odd you say? Interesting. Shall we go to my scrying room?" Alteos replied as he stood. He reached for his staff and proceeded to head to the room with the captain in tow.

As the captain shut the heavy ancient wooden door behind them, Alteos began to wave his staff over the scrying pool.
An image began to form within seconds.

The odd trio, made up of an elven archer, a half-elf mage and a battle priest trudged through the endless desert of the borderlands.

"I see what you mean," He said as they watched the trio.
"There is something odd about them." Alteos confirmed.
He used his mind to search them out.
When his thoughts reached the group, he examined each one in turn.
The archer seemed to emit a taint. An evil taint,he thought as a chill went up his spine.

"We need to keep an eye on them. Especially the archer." He said to his captain.
"Captain see to it they find their way to our Crystal Chamber and make sure nothing happens to the battle priest and mage. I sense that there is something amiss with this bunch of travelers."

"Yes Master." The Captain of Magic bowed then left the room allowing the heavy door to close on its on behind her fleeting form.

Alteos continued to stare at the trio, meanwhile, forming a plan.
That archer may be very useful to me.
I definitly have a use for this battle priest and mage.
These two would be a great addition to my forces.

Alteos turned from the scrying pool and headed back to his rooms.

I need a meal and some sleep.
As he walked, he pondered the taint he had seen surrounding the archer.
That taint was the same that covered the arrow I found embedded in the poor Wyvern's ear this morning.
"Odd," he said quietly to himself.