Ellas Past
Anna
Be ready! I thought, sending my message to all those waiting for the moment he would appear. I come now… and he will be but moments behind. ‘Open the way, Father. I will walk a distance from you before I use the rod. He must not know of you, nor any of the others. Not yet.’
‘Careful, Daughter. Weakened he may be, but do not underestimate his strength. You alone cannot defeat him.’
‘I could never underestimate him, Father. But now, it is time. Open the way.’
Blue sky appeared above my head as the stone and soil above us melted away, and a gentle ramp leading to the surface formed under my feet. With a last smile for he who had been father to me, I turned and walked up into the sunshine.
The great tower was but a hundred yards away, its summit long since destroyed by Dar’cen’s pets as they tested his weapons.
I walked to the arena, his arena. A foul place created in the shadow of the great tower where his favourites sat in tiers of seats to look down upon the life and death contests that he ordered.
A fitting venue for what is to come, I thought, as I strode forward to the high arched entrance to the circle. ‘And so it begins,’ I said, under my breath as I pressed down on the button that would transport me forward the fifty yards to the very centre of the circle.
As I materialised, I turned full circle, taking in the many tiered seats that looked down upon where I stood. Empty now. None to witness what we do this day. All his minions and pets consumed by his hunger. I turned to face where I knew not a half mile distant Kane stood mere feet below the surface awaiting what we, what I, would do to him this day.
Pain and shame lanced through me at the thought, and my resolve weakened, threatened for an instant to undo all we planned. And then she came, grasped at my mind and hardened me. Erithain, I now knew. She who had been my guide since the childhood I never knew. She who gave me the strength I needed. It will be well, a voice spoke in my mind. It must be.
Before I could voice a reply, a cold, terror filled wave of compulsion swept across the stadium, filling my my very being with dread. Not ten yards away, dark mists swirled, quickly coalescing to form a man shaped outline.
A voice boomed out, compulsion riding on each word. ‘You hold that which belongs to me, Child. And I would have it returned.’ An outstretched hand formed from the darkness, quickly followed by a man who could only be described as a god. Tall he was, and handsome beyond imagining. His voice, replayed in my mind, was melodious, filled with kindness and compassion for all things.
Doubts again assailed my mind, as I pitted my feeble magic again his strength. Not feeble, his deception only makes you believe it so, came Erithain's thoughts. Push back, and see again the hideous creature that hides beneath his magic. Strength filled me as Erithain’s words took hold, and the god like man before me dissolved to reveal the hunched and gnarled gnome figure that had hunted us in Falhar.
‘I see you, Dar’cen. I see you for what you truly are,’ I said, my words filled with the revulsion I felt at the sight of him. ‘Your compulsion, your very magic, fails on me. If you want this rod… the rod I took from Jalholm before I sent him beyond your reach, then you will have to take it from my corpse.’ And with those words, I unleashed a wave of white hot fire toward the horror before me.
Dar’cen laughed, a laugh filled with derision and contempt, as the flames extinguished before they came within a foot of him. ‘A corpse is it? Yes, a corpse it shall be,’ he said, as he raised his hand.
Darkness leapt forward from his crippled and bent fingers to tear a hole in the very air above where, only a split second earlier, I had stood. Again I unleashed flames, but now from where the rod had taken me behind him.
Those too failed to touch him, but his scream of frustration at my escape filled me with hope.
More darkness was cast my way. A darkness that drank the very light surrounding it, the darkness that Kane had held in his palm. The darkness that all our hopes depended on this day. Again, I shifted, and from the edge of the arena, I used my magic to blasted away the very ground that Dar’cen stood upon.
Forgive me, Father. Forgive me Mother Ellas, I thought, as I again shifted position before he destroyed me with his dark light.
His rage then was a palpable thing, his already twisted visage, contorted into a horror beyond imagining, as he screamed and ranted at how I would face torment for all eternity.
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A dozen times I shifted, taunting with smiles and jeers as I did so, knowing that all I did was to enrage him further and drain from him as much of his strength as I could before the next phase – I alone could never hope to withstand him, let alone defeat him.
Once more, I struck, this time with bolts of lightening, all arcing away from him and hitting only the ground to either side. But this time he did not turn to face me, did not raise his withered arm to lash out. Instead he laughed his maniacal cackle of a laugh. ‘You seek to taunt me. Me! I who am as a god to you puny humans,’ he said, as he slowly turned to face me, his two arms rising up toward the sky.
He comes, I sent to all those that lay in wait, and then I pressed down on the button one last time as a wave of black destruction engulfed the whole arena.
I reappeared on the other side of the great tower, in what had once been a lush and verdant park for the use of all at Falhar. Now it was grey and desolate, all sign of its former use obliterated by his minions and the toys he gifted them.
Once more, mere yards away, darkness coalesced into the gnome-like figure that was Dar’cen. ‘Why do you not flee, child,’ he cackled, as blackness sped from his hands toward me.
I did not press down on the button. There would be no more shifting. Now was where it would end. Arms raised, and a twist of a finger brought forth a magic that I did not know, with a strength that I did not possess. A shield of white light rose up before me and repelled his darkness, threw it back at him.
But even as he looked upon it bewildered, the darkness dissipated, first becoming mist, and then fading away to nothing. ‘What is this? You have a magic that does not belong to you, Child… a magic not of this world. And I would know how you came by it,’ he said, his voice a sneer, but there was a hunger in his eyes. ‘And you will tell me!’ he screamed, as black fire leapt from his hands.
Again the shield held, but I knew that it had weakened for I felt the heat of his flames as if my very skin blistered. If I was to retain strength for what was to come, I was done now. Now! I screamed, in my mind, sending the message to all who waited, all but Kane.
The ground around us erupted as all our wise ones, all those with any magical strength no matter how small, rose up from their hiding places, all instantly hurtling flames, lightning, binding magics and all forms of destruction at Dar’cen, who looked about with astonishment plain on his twisted face.
‘You dare!’ he cackled, as wave after wave of magic fell away from him. Then, as he raised his arms to strike back, two huge arms reached out of the ground at his feet, the blades at the end of those arms slicing deep into the flesh of his legs before vanishing again into the ground below. Dar’cen screamed, even as magic again tore at him, some small amounts battering past his magical defences to burn and rip at his body. Then the ground below Dar’cen fell away, and though he did not fall, dozens of bladed hands thrust at him, some repelled by magic, others cutting deep, as he screamed in rage and pain.
His body became a tattered ruin, flesh and bone falling away, as the giants struck again and again, new replacing those he turned to ash with his dark flames.
Ella’ren poured from their hiding places below the earth to leap upon Dar’cen, stabbing at him with their small knives, and tearing with tooth and nail.
His magic lashed out in all directions, seeking the magical ones who continued to assail him, and the giants and Ella’ren who destroyed his flesh. And find them he did. One by one, wise ones died as his dark flames took them, giants fell as ash, and Ella’ren were thrown off his body, their child-like figures bursting into flames.
The air was alight with magic – buildings crumbled and toppled, the very sky writhed with thunderheads, black burning rain fell all around, and the very earth itself shook and tore apart as fissures ripped across its surface.
Falhar was in ruin, and yet still his tattered shell of a body stood before us laughing with glee at the devastation and death he wrought.
I knew then that we had done all we could, and I prayed that it was enough. Now, Kane, I sent as I readied myself.
Kane silently rose from the ground some ten yards to the right of Dar’cen, but even so I saw a look of surprise, wonder perhaps, cross the gnome’s twisted face, and for an instant his assault upon us slowed as he turned his head to toward Kane.
He feels you, Kane. Be ready, my friend.
‘Who? What, are you?’ Dar’cen demanded, confusion and perhaps the beginning of fear tinging his words, even as his assault began anew.
Kane said nothing, his face a mask, as he slowly walked toward Dar’cen.
‘Speak or become dust,’ Dar’cen commanded, even as another bladed hand hacked away the bottom of his one leg, black blood gushing from the stump.
‘We have him!’ I shouted, for all I was worth. ‘See how his body fails. He can be destroyed.’
Dar’cen laughed even as he screamed in pain. ‘This!’ he mocked, ‘This is but a shell. Who are you that stands before me as kin? Speak!’
Kane stopped, not three feet from Dar’cen. ‘My name is Al’kar,’ he said, his voice even, with not the slightest trace of fear. ‘I come here today to destroy you.’
‘Al’kar? Yes, I have heard that name spoken. You… and this witch before me, have been as a thorn in my side a while now. For you both I will reserve a more deserving fate than these fools you name Wise Ones.’
His voice, faltered as another blade slashed at him and magic struck from all sides. He laughed then as he looked down upon the remnants of his body, now little more than bone covered in shredded flesh.
‘But perhaps, for you, Al’kar,’ the name said with a sneer, ‘Kin though you might be, I shall put to better use. Yes… you shall be my new host,’ Dar’cen said, giggling, as he raised his hand toward Kane, the tips of his fingers emanating a darkness that drank in the very light that surrounded them.
Tell me when, friend. And may the gods bless you for what you do this day.
Kane made no reply to my words. To Dar’cen he taunted, ‘You cannot take me. What I am will consume you.’
Dar’cen laughed then, the most terrifying laughter I had ever known. My every fibre rebelled at the sound he made, and I wanted to use the rod to flee.
But Erithain steadied me again, held me fast against the power of his evil, and as I looked again upon Kane, I saw his eyes widen, saw terror fill them even as his one thought filled my mind, NOW!
And that thought I repeated as command to all that still stood, all that could wield magic or blade.