It took many hours for the carnage of the gnoll raid to subside. Most of the buildings had been completely ransacked or simply demolished. Nearly half of the civilians had been murdered along with all the town guards, however their numbers were few to begin with.
The sun rose to the sight of a half ruined town with corpses lining it's streets. Once the gnolls were either killed or fled, the citizens came out of their shelters, most of which with injuries of varying degrees.
Darris had soon reconvined with Gregory and Susain as they began giving aid to the injured. After a bit of guidance through Susain, Darris began using his souls, in substitute for mana, to heal the wounded. Although, even with the souls of the gnolls he’d killed and Dax, a fellow reaper, he couldn’t heal the more severe wounds such as shattered bone and dismembered limbs, no matter how much he tried. The best he could do was close the major wounds.
“Is there anything that I could possibly help with?” An elderly but stern voice rang out as Susain was just finishing wrapping a bandage around someone’s injured shoulder.
Her head turned as she jumped up in surprise to see a woman wearing the royal colors of house Grimhul. “Yana,” She shouted before running and hugging the mage.
“Where were-” Susain was cut off as another thought flashed in her mind. She unwrapped her arms from around Yanavik’s back and took a step back to look into her eyes. “Where’s dad?” She asked with a new worried expression. Her eyes began to glisten in the sunrise as tears began to gravitate towards her eyes.
Yanavik opened her mouth to speak before reading Susain’s expression and frowning. She glanced down at Susain’s feet before glancing up to meet her tearful eyes. “Your father…” She began as her eyes began to glisten with tears as well. “He was dead when I found him. Gnolls killed him.” She said before putting a hand on Susain’s cheek as tears now began flowing endlessly from her eyes.
Susain was speechless as her vision became blurred from tears. Her kind facade broke down, revealing nothing but stress, fear, and now, sorrow as she stepped forward and sobbed into Yanavik’s chest.
Yanavik quickly cast her arms around Susain and began caressing her back in a futile attempt to comfort her. “I’m sorry child. I wasn’t fast enough to save him. Blame me for the fault.” She said softly.
Yanavik heard running footsteps near her and turned to see a large man with an ax strapped to his back. He bore the same sorrowful expression Susain had, although his features were much more hardened.
Gregory’s body tensed as he glanced at Yanavik's regretful face, then to the figure of his sister crying in her arms. He hung his head, glancing down, as his body relaxed in acceptance.
Keeping his head low he walked over to Yanavik and simply set his forehead against her shoulder as he forced his eyes shut. Regardless, tears still fell from his face.
He recalled a similar event when he was younger, much younger. He saw himself as a small child, no older than 10, in the same position. Everytime he felt like crying he searched for Yanavik before simply resting his forehead on her and letting his tears flow.
It had been so many years since he’d done it, not since the death of his mother. His mind had been so hardened that he never cried, or much less felt despair, about any mundane thing. But losing his father let his hardened facade break as hundreds of thoughts boiled to the surface and spilled out in the form of tears.
Gregory bit his lip to keep himself from wailing out. He clenched his fist as hard as he could to keep himself from collapsing. But nonetheless his body shivered as tears began to fall from his face. Finally, he took a step forward and wrapped his arms around both Yanavik and Susain.
Susain glanced up to her brother. Their teary eyes met for a brief moment before they moved their arms to embrace each other.
Darris watched from a distance, leaning against one of the many abandoned buildings. He watched as the three comforted the other in their arms. He had completed the healing of the citizens as best he could. His mind throbbed as he looked at the three.
His mind wandered to his own family. He’d never experienced the loss of a loved one since he’d first lost Elrik, and soon his entire team, in the ziggurat.
His vision flowed to the silver ring on his finger, then he suddenly noticed something. Silence. The silence he’d had in his mind since he entered the forest to hunt wolves. He hadn’t thought of it at all since he’d been occupied with so many other things. Now, however, he remembered the voice of his dead captain in his mind.
As if on queue, Tempest’s voice rang in Darris’s mind. “It seems your bloodline has made some excellent people.” He said.
An image of Tempest standing at attention next to him, gazing at the three embracing, waved over Darris’s mind. However, when he glanced next to him he saw nothing but ruined buildings.
“Why’d you go away for so long before? I haven’t heard anything from you since I began killing those wolves.” Darris asked, glancing toward the ring on his finger.
Darris heard a low chuckle in his mind before Tempest spoke. “I have been speaking to you, trying to at least. It's a bit odd to explain, but it's hard to communicate with you if I am not at the forefront of your mind. Think of it like searching for a certain page in a spellbook that lets me communicate with you. However, every time your thoughts change, so do the pages in the book. So its very difficult to acquire a mental connection with you if your mind is elsewhere.” He explained.
Darris nodded slightly. “I guess that makes sense.” He muttered.
“What should I do from here?” Darris asked.
“Hmm… Well, that is up to you for the most part. That elf told you to follow him, yet you could also stay in your hometown and help rebuild.” Tempest suggested.
Darris thought for a moment, glancing around at the ruined building around him. His mind faded back to an image he’d seen just after absorbing Dax’s soul. A man with amber skin and an emerald green robe had his hand outstretched to Dax. The moment he’d become a reaper.
“I think I’ll go with Svalken. I still have a few things to do… and people to find.” he said.
“Don’t let revenge rule your decisions.” Tempest suggested. He’d known exactly who Darris was referring to.
Darris simply sighed. “Yeah I know.”
Suddenly, a stern voice rang out from directly above Darris. “Who are you talking to?”
Darris glanced up to see Svalken sitting on the roof of the dilapidated building. His legs hung off the side and he was leaned forward with one hand propping up his head. He simply looked at the citizens with a stale expression.
“A ghost.” Darris replied, semi-sarcastically. Svalken just mumbled something under his breath before speaking.
“We'll be leaving by sundown. So I suggest you get everything in order.” He suggested; standing up on the building and walking out of view.
* * *
By that afternoon, most citizens had been healed enough to begin clearing the streets and building of corpses, although most of the blood had dried into the stones. Some of the buildings in the town had been repurposed into small houses for many of the citizens.
The Rusty Cup, oddly enough, hadn’t changed much despite the raid. The only difference was that it served most of its food for free. Interestingly, in a stroke of creativity, it also gave its more expensive meals for free to the citizens who fought back against the gnolls. Although Darris expected that most people had simply lied about their actions during the raid.
Darris walked up to the forge after he had gotten a meal from The Rusty Cup. Gregory had asked for him to come see him there, although he didn’t yet know why.
Darris walked up to the wooden and iron-reinforced door before pushing it open. As the door swung open the top hinge fell forward and the door geared forward as it swung open with a horrid screech.
Inside Gregory was bent down slightly, looking into a burning forge. He turned when he heard the door open. “It'll be ready in a minute. Don’t bother with the door, it's been like that.” He said as he noticed Darris attempting to re-align the door to it's frame.
“What’s almost ready?” Darris asked as he stepped into the workshop.
“Something for you. I saw you using a pair of scimitars during the raid. That gold one is magical, but the other one isn't.” He explained, not taking his eyes from the forge.
Darris blinked a few times. “Oh… wait, are you making me a sword?” He asked in surprise.
Gregory shook his head. “No, the blade is right there. I didn’t make it.” He gestured to a wooden table where a finely crafted silver scimitar lay on the table.
“This is a well crafted sword.” Darris mentioned, picking up the scimitar and swinging it about the air a few times.
“Set that down, I need it for something. Also, you can ditch that disguise; I know who you are.” Gregory waved his hand dismissively at Darris as he finally took his eyes from the forge and stood up.
Darris set the scimitar back on the table and stepped away from it. He broke focus by keeping the thin layer of souls across his body. His skin shimmered for a brief moment before turning corroded and lifeless; turning back to its true form.
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Darris watched as Gregory grabbed a large pair of tongs from a table next to the forge and used it to grab what was inside.
From the forge he took out a black rock pulsing with red and orange embers. Several specs of glowing ash fell to the ground as Gregory set the stone in a stone bowl at a table across the scimitar.
He then grabbed a hammer from next to the bowl and proceeded to smash the ashy stone into dust.
He then took a pinch of the dust and turned to a piece of parchment next to him. “What command word do you want?” He asked, taking a quick glance at Darris.
Darris’s brow quickly knit in confusion. “Wait, are you making me a-”
“Yes, now give me a command word. This stuff is hot.” Gregory said, the bit of smoldering dust in his hands beginning to steam.
A faint smile crept across Darris’s face as he thought of a suitable phrase. “How about ‘For Fame and Glory’?”
Gregory mumbled something under his breath before nodding slightly and tracing several runes on the parchment using the dust.
He then picked up the paper by either edge and carried it to the scimitar on the table before spreading the dust onto the scimitar’s blade.
The silver steel of the blade seemed to glow with embers as the smoldering dust coated across the blade. He then turned the scimitar over and coated the other side.
Darris began to reach for the blade when Gregory held his hand up to stop him. “It's almost done.” He said before grabbing the scimitar and sticking the blade into the forge, leaving its leather-bound handle hanging from the entrance.
Finally, Gregory crossed his arms and leaned against the table nearby. “So why the phrase?” He asked, nodding to Darris.
“What phrase?” Darris asked, still staring at the scimitar within the forge.
“The command word you chose, ‘For Fame and Glory’. Why’d you choose it?” He asked again.
Darris rubbed the back of his neck, embarrassed at the implications of the phrase. “It was the phrase of the guild I used to be a part of.” Suddenly he looked up at Gregory. “Wait, is the Fame guild still around?” He asked.
Gregory just shrugged. “I don’t know much about any of the adventuring guilds, so I can’t say. Although I don’t know them.”
Darris’s face softened. “Ah… well it has been 200 years.” He mumbled, glancing to the entrance of the forge. “How did you become a reaper?” He asked, meeting Gregory’s eyes.
Gregory just shrugged, still staring at the forge. “Just discovered I could see souls when I was young.” He said. “Took me a while to understand what I could do with them. Though, I probably still don’t know the half of it.”
“How did you manage to consume so many souls?” Darris asked, taking a seat on the table the scimitar had once rested upon.
“Went hunting. Killed deer, wolves, and rabbits.” His face dulled slightly, seemingly only being lit by the light of the forge. “And some people too.”
He glanced up to Darris who kept his eyes glued to him. “We tend to hang criminals a lot. And, for whatever reason, my dad always wants… wanted me to do it.” He corrected, staring into the fire of the forge once again. “Last night was the first time I’d ever killed so many things at once before. Come to think of it,” Gregory shifted his weight against the table. “I’m not sure why the gnolls suddenly decided to attack us now. Their camp isn't too far into the forest, and we’d made a truce with them so they wouldn't hunt on our land as long as we gave them food now and again, which we had plenty of.” He explained, putting a hand on his chin in thought.
Darris’s body fell cold at the realization. He’d killed a gnoll in the woods only a few nights ago. He recalled one of them repeatedly shouting ‘truce’ at him, but he didn’t listen. Then his hands began to shake in panic. Just as fast however he was snapped out of his thoughts by Gregory walking to the forge.
“Well they're all dead now so who cares.” He mumbled, although an aura of sorrow still clung to his words. “Your blade’s ready.” He said in a more upbeat tone.
Gregory stuck the white hot blade in a nearby barrel of water as bubbles and steam quickly began covering the water's surface. After a few seconds he took the blade out and presented it to Darris.
The blade, once a sleek silver, was now a mix of metallic gray and black. Along the edges of the blade he could faintly see runes he couldn't read etched into the blade.
Darris took the blade and studied it closer in his hands.
“Say that phrase. Just not near anything flammable.” Gregory specified, taking a few steps back.
“‘For Fame and Glory’” He called out, holding the sword away from him.
Suddenly, the blade burst into orange flames as the runes along the blade glowed red-hot. A smile spread across Darris’s face as he looked up at his new weapon.
“Say ‘release’ to turn it off. Otherwise the fire lasts a minute or so. But don’t use it too much. I could only use so much obsidian ash on the blade. Although as long as you wait a day between every few uses it should be fine.” Gregory explained.
“Release.” Darris muttered as the blade suddenly extinguished in an instant. Hesitantly, Darris touched the blade, expecting to have to pull his hand away. However, to his surprise it wasn’t that hot. It might get painful if he kept it there too long, but it didn’t burn him immediately. The smile on his face grew as he turned to Gregory. “Thank you.”
“Eh, don’t mention it, but one last thing,” He gestured to the blade. “It's a bit experimental cause I’ve never worked with it before, but if I did it right, you should be able to summon that thing as you would that other scimitar of yours with souls.” He explained. “All ya gotta do is shove a soul in it and, tada, ya got a new weapon.”
Darris looked down at the black and gray blade before letting wisps of golden mist flow from his hand and up the handle of the blade. To his surprise the runes on the sides of the blade began absorbing a portion of the mist before pulsing with dim light and fading again.
Then Darris dropped the blade. It burst into golden mist and disappeared before it even hit the floor. Then he opened his hand again and the magical blade appeared in his hand.
“Thanks for helping us, Darris.” he said as he began towards the exit, patting a heavy hand on Darris’s back as he went.
Darris smiled before following him out, the magical blade disappearing in a burst of mist as he left.
“Where did you learn to enchant weapons?” Darris asked as he followed Gregory down the street.
Gregory simply shrugged his massive shoulders. “Well I learned how to forge weapons first. Then once my sister got into arcane magic, she’d shown me this book on enchanting items. I don’t know a ton about it. In fact, that was the first time I'd ever put an enchantment on an actual weapon before.” He said, gesturing a head back in the direction of the forge which was now long out of view.
Darris nodded in understanding. “Thank you for making that for me. I’ll be sure to use it.” He said with a kind smile.
Gregory chuckled. “I sure hope you use it. I’d suck for you to get some fancy new blade then immediately die from some random beast.”
Darris shared the chuckle. “Yeah, that would suck, wouldn’t it?”
“What do you planning on doing from here? I assume you don’t plan on staying here.” Gregory gestured a hand to the dilapidated buildings around them.
Darris just shook his head. “I’m going with Svalken eastward. We are stopping by the capital for something; he hasn’t told me why yet though.” He said.
“That Drow? He’s like us right?” Gregory asked.
Throughout their time helping with the injured civilians, Darris had told Susain, Gregory, and Yanavik- when she was around- about him and Svalken. Having known a little about his nature already, Susain and Gregory weren't too surprised. Yanavik, however, needed a bit more explaining to understand the situation. Which, fortunately, with the help of Susain and Gregory, wasn’t too hard.
Darris nodded again. “A reaper? Yes. And, not that I’ve known many reapers, he’s definitely the strongest warrior I’ve seen. He might even be able to become a 5th-stage member if he were in Fame.” He mumbled.
Gregory knit his brow before looking at Darris. “What?”
“Oh, nothing. We should probably go see Susain and Yanavik.” Darris suggested, looking up at the sun as it lowered past the horizon line. “I will leave soon.” He said solemnly.
Susain and Yanavik were still handing out various supplies to the citizens who hadn’t yet gotten any. However they had to constantly take a small amount from someone else to give to another citizen in order for everyone to have an equal amount.
Susain’s face lit up when she noticed Darris and her brother walking toward them. “Hey, where did you two run off to?” She called with a smile.
“I just showed him around the forge.” Gregory sighed, although he couldn’t contain a smirk on his face at seeing the bright smile on his sister’s face.
“We just came by so I could say my last goodbyes. I should be leaving within the next hour or so.” Darris said.
The smile quickly faded from Susain’s face. “Oh,” She looked to the ground for a minute before looking back at them, her smile returning, yet not half as bright. “Well, I guess you wouldn’t really want to stay here now anyways, it being half-destroyed and all.” She said with a light chuckle that sounded partially forced.
“Well we were leaving anyway.” A voice said from directly behind Susian.
She jumped, and quickly turned to see Svalken standing behind her. “How did you get there?” She asked quickly, taking a step back from Svalken as if he were an angry lion.
“Because no one stopped me.” He said before seamlessly turning to Darris. “We are leaving in a moment so best say your goodbyes now.”
“Yeah, I expected that.” Darris sighed. He then looked between Susain and Gregory. “Well it was nice seeing the two of you. You as well Ms. Yanavik.” Darris nodded to Yanavik, which she then returned. “It was nice to see what my bloodline has become, and, for what it's worth, I think your ancestors would be proud.”
Gregory smiled and just barely suppressed a chuckle as Susain smiled as if she was looking at a cute puppy.
Suddenly, Darris felt his cheeks flush in embarrassment.
“Well if you're leaving then I'd like for you to have this.” Susain mentioned as she reached into the satchel on her side and produced a small notebook and a pen; the same she’d used to take notes on Darris’s abilities. She held them forward toward Darris and smiled sheepishly as she handed them to him.
He took the small notebook and pen before flipping through some of the pages.
“After the raid, I'd asked Gregory about his powers, cause they looked similar to yours. I’d written them in the journal along with anything I remembered about magic manipulation to help with your control. I also added a few personal notes that I think could help you. Although I’m not extremely studied in your type of magic so it may be a bit inaccurate.” She explained. “I hope it helps.”
Darris smiled and hugged Susain; her cheeks turning a light shade of pink as he did.
Darris then felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned to see Yanavik’s kind smile facing him. Her hands were neatly behind her back; her royal blue uniform had been long soiled by dirt and some light spatter of blood.
“As the guardian of the Grimhul Estate, i would like to give you this.” She put a hand forward to see a small pin of a silver eagle mid-flight. “I would be elated if you were to officially be a part of the Grimhul family. Well… of this generation at least.”
Darris cast a delighted smile at Yanavik before taking the pin and inspecting it. It was very finely crafted from pure silver. He could make out nearly every feather on the small avian’s wings as it cast out its feathers to catch the wind. He held it in his hands a moment, simply enjoying the sense of finally being apart of his new family. Then he attached it to his pale tunic and looked at Yanavik.
“Thank you, all of you.” He glanced around to Susain, Gregory, and Yanavik. “I’ii be sure to stop by from time to time.” He turned to Gregory. “I’ii be sure to use that blade,” Then to Susain. “And study the notes you’ve made.” Then to Yanavik. “And to wear this symbol with pride.”
Svalken stepped forward and groaned. “Alright enough with the sappy talk, we need to get going.” He said.
“Alright fine, well goodbye you guys. I look forward to seeing you all again.” He assured as he followed Svalken as he started toward the road leading out of the town.
The group all waved goodbye to Darris as he left.
Yanavik stood in the middle of Gregory and Susain and put a hand on each of their shoulders as they waved goodbye. “You two are very lucky to be related to such a kind man.” She said with a light chuckle.
Darris took one last look at the next generation of his family, seeing their smiles even in the chaos of the ruined town, a smile spread across his face.
Then he noticed Svalken staring back at them too. “What? Never seen a happy family before?” Darris said with a joking smile.
It was then that he noticed the solemn expression on his face, as if he was relieving a painful memory, and Darris’s smile faded.
“It's nothing, c’mon.” Svalken said as he turned and walked away.
Darris made one last glance at the three smiling faces as they went about helping the citizens. The light smile returned as he turned and followed Svalken out of town. Out to travel eastward and begin an adventure. While he didn’t quite know it yet, this adventure would turn to be much bigger then he could have ever imagined.