The darkness and mist pressed in on them as they ventured their way through the wasteland towards Umbra’s Veil. Spires of rock reaching up to the sky, the hard rock ground, and the occasional snake was all they had seen for the past day, and Faro was tired of it.

He adjusted Lena on his shoulder and pressed on with the others. His paws were sore from walking on the hard ground with the extra weight, and his back wasn’t feeling great either. He'd been carrying her since the lake, slowing down their progress forward, but not having a better way to carry her with them.

After the raft sped across the lake, it had smashed hard into the opposite shore, sending them all flying off the ferry and onto the muddy, black shore on the other side. Faro, Mathias, Tobi, and Thora had all gotten up, covered in muck and a little battered, but no worse for the wear. Lena, however, had spent her last bit of strength to get them across the lake, and had just laid face down in the mud until Faro rushed over and picked her up. She had been breathing, but unresponsive, and had remained as such ever since.

Now, they all padded slowly through the wasteland, still covered in the dark mud from head to toe. They didn’t dare venture back out into the lake to try and wash off, so it was their only choice to move onward, covered in muck, and hoping their friend would revive before they got to Umbra’s Veil.

The conversation had been very light, with long stretches of silence in between. They had talked briefly about the encounter, wondered whether Lena had known any of the elves they had fought, and what type of horrors likely awaited them ahead. All the talk of what lay ahead brought their mood way down, so they had fallen into silence for the latest leg of the journey.

Faro had no idea what time of day it was, or night for that matter. They seemed to be stuck in a perpetual cycle of dusk-type lighting and mist, and it drove him mad. He was tired and needed a break, and heaved a sigh of relief when Tobi’s voice cut the silence to somehow agree with him.

“We’ve gotta stop,” he said. “My feet are killing me. I’m starting to blister. There’s no way you’re doing any better there with the added weight, eh?” he added to Faro.

“Right,” said Faro, pulling Lena down slowly off his shoulder and setting her gently down on the ground. “We’ll stop here for, err, the night?” he asked, questioning his sanity. “Maybe let’s just get some sleep in shifts and then head out after that?”

They all agreed, setting down their packs and weapons, grateful for the reprieve. Faro agreed to take the first watch as he felt that he was to the point of exhaustion where he would just lay awake and not be able to sleep yet. He wasn’t sure what he was keeping watch from in the barren wasteland, but it just seemed like a good idea to have someone available in case they were beset by elves from Umbra’s Veil, a surprise from Jarl, or other lost travelers who meant them harm.

They had nothing to start a fire with, so Faro just sat in the dreary mist, grabbing rocks from the ground and tossing them at a nearby stone spire that stretched up to the sky. The spires amazed him. They were like nothing he’d ever seen before in his life, or at least remembered seeing. It was almost as if they had been ripped straight up out of the ground and stood in the air, like a sword sticking out of the ground after being embedded there.

Picking up a larger rock, he sized it up in both of his paws, and then spun around in a quick circle and heaved it at one of the spires. It knocked off of it with a loud bang, and he looked guiltily at his party, hoping he hadn’t awoken anyone. Instead what he got was a pleasant surprise. Lena was starting to stir on the ground.

She groaned as her eyes lowly fluttered open, and Faro rushed over to help her into a sitting position. “The lake…” were her first words as she sat up and looked around.

“The lake is a day or so back, by my estimate,” he said, but then he gestured around them, “though it’s hard to tell exactly in this endless dusk.”

Lena just nodded. “It takes powerful magic to mess with space and time,” said Lena, using a hand to rub the opposite shoulder. “My father must be more dark and powerful than I imagined. Obviously,” she added, “my powers are nowhere near that strong, as I can barely hold a shield for five minutes.”

Faro dismissed the thought. “You saved our lives more times than any of us could count in that situation, Lena. Amazadan alone could have done us in, let alone the hoards of other elves you protected us from.”

A sad look fell upon the elder elf’s face. “Amazadan,” she said, sorrowfully trailing off, shaking her head.

“You knew him?” asked Faro.

Lena nodded. “He was my father’s highest general and most respected friend. They had studied The Way of the Light together for centuries.” Now she looked at Faro. “If my father has fallen so far as to doom his best friend to that fate, I hate to think what horrors he has prepared for us.”

Faro’s mouth drew tight. It wasn’t going to be easy once they made it to Umbra’s Veil. Not only did they have to contend with the mad wolverine who wanted to kill him, but a mad elven sorcerer who was so twisted that he’d doomed his best friend to a watery death and a life of the undead.

“Do you have any idea of a strategy we should take once we get there?” he asked her, fearing he already knew the answer.

“Do we have a strategy for anything?” she asked, smiling. “We just kind of amble into fights and somehow work as a team to get through them.”

“Right,” he said, smiling back on the outside, but inside feeling a sense of dread. It was true that they were good at teamwork in the moment, but it felt awful never going into anything with a plan. He resolved himself in knowing that they were walking into everything blind, and it wasn’t like they had a second chance to do things over and make a different strategy.

Thora stirred behind him, and he turned to greet her. “Good, uh, whatever time of day this is! Lena’s awake!”

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

A huge smile broke out on Thora’s face and she immediately stopped rubbing her tired eyes and raced over, stooping down to hug the old elf. Faro allowed them their reunion and dismissed himself to go and take his rest. He felt like Lena coming back to them had taken the edge off his exhaustion just enough that his body would let him get to sleep quickly. Faro curled up on the cold, hard ground and just as he’d hoped, he was off to sleep in almost an instant.

***

When he awoke and they pressed on it was more of the same, and the party was starting to become irritable. Faro was in a slightly better mood because he’d gotten some sleep and didn’t have the extra weight to carry, but the rest of the party were really feeling the strain of the hard trek. Tobi would be heard cursing the fact that they’d lost the horses, only to be shushed by Thora who was feeling sorry at the poor beasts’ fate of being devoured by the lake and it’s undead inhabitants.

Mathias and Tobi were starting to argue over the morality of using poisons on an enemy, when Faro saw it. A dark ruin of a castle stood in the distant shady mist, a very dim light showing from one of the towers.

“There!” he roared, pointing out into the distance with his big, furry finger. “There’s a shimmering light in the distance.” The others followed the direction his finger was pointed and they could just see the light and the castle ruins making their way out through the mist before them.

“Oh, thank Solana!” Tobi yelled into the empty abyss. “There is something here after all!”

Mathias pulled out a notebook from his pack and started making notes, and Faro could see he was also making a quick sketch.

“Are you… taking notes?” Faro asked him, bemused.

“Of course I'm taking notes, good man. Good lion. Whatever you are,” he said hurriedly. “We are on a one-of-a-kind adventure of a lifetime. We're seeing things people have never seen before, or at least seen and lived to tell. A scholar never stops being a scholar.”

Faro looked sideways at Lena, who shrugged, looking amused. “I just live through it all and have a good memory. I guess notes are important if you only live sixty or eighty years.”

Mathias scoffed at her and kept scribbling frantically in the book. “Notes are important no matter how long you live. Details are easily forgotten later.”

Lena tilted her head as though she kind of agreed, and then her face lit up. “Speaking of forgotten,” Lena said to Faro, rummaging through her pack. “We haven't tried the cloak out yet!” From her pack she pulled a giant, white cloak. She had told Faro earlier in their quest that it would disguise him and make him appear human to everyone who saw him as long as he was wearing it. She unrolled it and tossed it around his broad shoulders. “I don't think my father will take kindly to a lion beast in his new kingdom.”

Faro felt silly, like he was wearing a bed sheet, and he could see Tobi stifling a chuckle.

“How do I look?” he asked them, not sure he wanted to answer.

“Like a cuddly little lion about to be tucked in for his wittle nap!” Tobi hollered at him, letting his laugh loose and slapping his legs.

Faro looked at Lena questioningly. “You have to put the hood on!” she barked at him, as if that was obvious. At her request, Faro slipped the hood on, and the other four gasped. He wished he could see himself. He pulled his paw up in front of his face, but it was still a paw.

“You won’t see any difference,” Lena told him. “We see jet black hair, a full face, big scruffy black beard,” she looked closer, “blue eyes, and peach skin. Is this what you looked like before?”

Faro thought back. Even in his vision in the grove he hadn’t caught a glimpse of himself in any mirror or reflection. He didn’t have any memory of how he’d looked as a human. “I imagine it’s something like this… or I don’t really know. If the spell on the cloak is more of a mask, I would think I would look different than this. Lena?”

The elf thought for a second. “I don’t know how to reverse your affliction or I would have done it already. All the cloak is doing is removing the visual facade of any enchantment of the wearer. I think this is how you would normally look.”

Faro wished he could see himself, but decided it was really irrelevant at the moment. As it stood, he had a disguise to look normal when they got to Umbra’s Veil. It was time to finish the last leg of their journey and face whatever evil lay before them.

***

They were right upon the castle now. The dark mist still covered the ruin, but they saw it all in greater detail now. From the crumbling towers down to the rubble around the base. Up ahead there appeared to be a small wall. It looked like it could have been a simple border marker, or maybe even a base of a taller wall that had once existed but since been knocked down. Either way, it was short, and looked fairly easy for Faro to scale.

When they approached it he offered to heave Tobi and Mathias up to the top, and they both happily agreed to the help. Faro picked them up, each in one hand and set them up on the wall. He then had to duck as both men came flying backwards past his head and sprawled out on the ground behind him.

“Daylight!” Mathias screamed, getting up.

“Daylight and a castle,” said Tobi, shocked. His hair was sticking up from the force of the blowback, and it was all Faro could do not to laugh at his new look.

“What are you two talking about?” asked Lena.

“The other side of that wall. This is an illusion it seems. When you’re on the wall the whole area was daylight, and the castle…”

“The castle was whole! Intact!” Mathias cut him off. “It looked welcoming after all this dreariness. We’ve been played the fool to think that this place is in ruins.”

Lena looked over the wall, but judging by the look on her face, she could still only see the ruins. “Some kind of force field?” She asked. “Is that what knocked you back?”

Tobi shrugged. “Dunno. Got up there and the air felt thick, like it was vibrating. And an insanely strong wind kicked us back off the wall.”

“Right,” said Thora, sizing up the wall. “What if Faro goes first, braces himself, and pulls the rest of us up? We can all latch together and become a bigger and bigger weight. Do you think Faro is big enough to stay up there against the wind?”

Mathias nodded, and Faro moved up the the wall, pulling himself up.

The instant he was on top of the wall, Faro could feel what they were talking about. The air moved around him like it was pulsing, a wind acting to push him back out. He glimpsed the magnificent, towering castle. It was no longer a ruin, but a full and beautiful kingdom in the middle of a lush, green grass field full of white flowers.

Holding steady to the wall he braced himself and reached down for Thora. She used his arm to pull herself up and clung tight to Faro to anchor herself down. Her added weight helped stabilize them, and they both worked to help the others up. Once they were all on top, Faro took the lead to move slowly forward and dragged everyone through the invisible barrier. Once they fell down off the other side of the wall, the heavy wind immediately stopped, and was replaced by a gentle breeze. The soft grass below them was a welcome feeling after the barren, rock wasteland. There was even a sweet smell in the air.

“Gardenias! Just smell them!” exclaimed Mathias as he bent to pick one of the plentiful white flowers from the ground. He gave it a sniff and his face lit up.

Thora followed his lead and picked one up and smelled it. “They smell so sweet!” she said happily.

The others also picked the flowers to smell, except for Lena who was just staring at the brilliant white castle before them. Faro worked his way over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder, trying to hand her one of the white flowers to break her trance. “Nervous to see your father again?” he asked her, concerned.

“No,” she said, barely above a whisper and ignoring his kind gesture of the flower. “It’s not that.”

“Then what’s wrong?” he asked.

“This place,” she said, pointing at the castle, “this entire kingdom. It looks exactly like Zelira.”