Ander stressed the need to start leaving in good reason. King Ralthus's hunters were already searching for them. Flyte expected to be found within the week.
"We should pack up camp," Flyte said. His point was proven as the Horn of Borigan sounded. 'Shades, it's as I feared, they sent Borigan after us.' Borigan was the king's lead hunter. Flyte had often heard that he could be just as ruthless as a desert maneater and hit twice as hard. He'd never seen one of these maneaters, but they sounded scary.
Flyte and Ander began to run through the open fields that they had camped in. The two of them had bonded a little over the few days they had been forced to hide out together. Flyte had decided that he could count on Ander as a friend.
So, as the sound of galloping horses arose behind the pair, Flyte tuned in to Ander's words.
"Come on, let's go," Ander said as he pulled out his sword. "Those trees are our best shot. Those horses won't make it through there so easily."
While running, Flyte saw the large clump of trees that marked the entrance into the forest. As he changed direction, an arrow sliced through the air, just missing his head.
Flyte heard the clatter of horse hooves right behind him, but they seemed to be headed straight for Ander. He sped up to his limit, but being a slow runner, at least compared to a horse, the horseman quickly passed him.
Ander sped up and threw the horseman off his steed and got on. He rode it to Flyte and told him to get on, which he happily did. As he jumped on, the pair of runaways dashed off into the woods only a few days' worth of supplies lighter.
----------------------------------------
Will Karn was a ghost. Sentries and hunters looked for him but couldn't find him unless he wanted them to. Will hid at the citadel of Tebes in plain sight of everyone looking for him. He had been walking and hiding for days and was sick of it. His inner voice told him to make the world his, and that if he didn't, he would be wasting the power given to him.
He didn't want to disappoint the voice. It had been quite helpful to him, after all.
It told him that this was his chance, his opportunity. Tebes was a stronghold made for holding the king's soldiers and weapons. If he eliminated this stronghold held by the Ralthus, he'd be a lot closer to reaching his goals.
As Will's mind drifted to all of the years he'd suffered, he began to burn up with rage and finally said "Forslo."
That one word quickly caused a panic in Tebes as metal twisted, stone was made to be ashes, and the dark of night became as bright as day. Soldiers rushed out to confront Will as their town burned, rather than to try and aid the injured.
Seeing this, Will silently vanished. He snuck behind the small army and said: "Foulos", causing lightning to strike in a chain reaction.
Archers shot at him, but couldn't hit, swordsmen swung, but when they hit him, they would be cut instead.
Will had become a bringer of death, leaving corpses in his wake. It would be nearly impossible to kill him, a fact he relished. Will grabbed a nearby soldier and dragged him to a close farm, not caring about the many blows directed at him. Will quickly grabbed a sickle and embedded it into the man's chest.
As it turned out, to give an item some sort of magical effect, all someone had to do was bind another's spirit to it. It took a sizeable amount of concentration to keep the spirit from drifting off, but not any more than Will could muster. Using every bit of his mind he worked to bind the dying soldier's spirit to the sickle. It took quite a few tries for Will to make his first magic item, but eventually one soldier's spirit bound to it correctly.
"Good work," the voice told him.
When Will's goals were complete, he pulled the sickle out of the now-dead man's chest. As he inspected it, he saw that the blade was entirely blood red, yet completely dry, and the handle was pleasantly cool to the touch. Will couldn't muster the desire to let go of it, as its touch appealed to him too much.
Carrying the empowered sickle, he dashed off into the night.
----------------------------------------
Honorious, the king's high guard, heard the news about Tebes first. "Bring me the survivors" he said to Elliot Candrei, his second in command.
Elliot was off in a shot. He was used to the castle, and almost felt like he belonged there, so he had found out where everything was very quickly. Now that he had been living here for several years, he was able to cross over to the castle entrance in a matter of minutes. He soon came found the soldiers of Tebes. "Come with me" Elliot said quickly.
When Elliot had brought them back to Honorious, who quickly thanked him.
That was not a good sign. Honorious was generally too caught in thoughts to note Elliot's deeds, good or bad.
"What happened?" Honorious asked the nearest survivor.
After gulping down some water the soldier quickly rasped: "all I know is that some man came up, used magic, and destroyed the most fortified outpost this side of the mountains." The other survivors muttered in agreement.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
"How is this possible?" Elliot whispered. Nothing of the sort had certainly never happened before, especially with the king's ban on magic.
"I have no idea," Honorious said. "Get the dark circle."
The thought made Elliot feel uncomfortable. The dark circle was very powerful and very mysterious. Elliot walked through the forbidding halls with a heightened awareness. One could never be too wary, especially around such mages.
As Elliot entered the chamber of the dead, he noticed that something was off. The chamber had been magically silenced so no one could hear outside sounds, as that helped the circle mages concentrate, but Elliot could hear birds chirping outside.
"What is happening?" Elliot asked aloud.
He charged out of the room and the instant he had left out the room, barely avoiding the molten stone pouring in through the ceiling. It soon covered the room's floor, filling the air with an acrid smell as noxious fumes filled the air.
Elliot heard screaming, so he valiantly ran towards the sound. A thing like a shadow jumped into Elliot's way.
'A shade? How does that make sense?'
Shades were monsters made when mages wove the people they killed with shadows. They were unable to speak, and the only sounds they could make were blood curdling screams from their old life.
The mage who had slaughtered his friends at Tebes was here.
He reached for his sword, but it was too late. The shade pounced on him and pinned him to the ground. It screamed at him; mouth wide open with sharp teeth displayed as purple spit slowly dripped from its disfigured mouth. Elliot did what few sane people would.
He bit its hand.
The shade recoiled violently, not expecting the attack. While it was on the floor, Elliot unsheathed his blade and stabbed the miserable beast.
Something dark, though controllable, small, but powerful welled within him.
Elliot pressed onward, bothered by the emptiness of the castle.
He got to the armory, where three shades waited hungrily. One leapt as Elliot grabbed a torch, so he swung the glorified club and the undead disintegrated at the touch of the flame.
The remaining two shades eyed him carefully, almost intelligently. They quickly grabbed weapons of their own and came for Elliot's blood.
The first reached Elliot almost immediately and tried a clumsy swing. Elliot hit the sword out of the shade's hand and promptly stabbed it. He threw a helmet at the second. The shade recoiled and then flew across the room in a single stride. It punched Elliot who in return head butted it. As it fell back, Elliot kicked down a brazier and hit it directly.
As the shade turned to dust, Elliot grabbed a shield, filled his sheath with flammable oil, lit a torch, and grabbed three unlit torches. Suddenly drained of energy Elliot could only walk to the room Honorious was in.
'Honorious! If I can find him, we could find some way out of here. Maybe then, we could put an end to this hoard!'
Elliot reached the main hall of Ithiles and saw what might have been the worst possible situation. He watched as his clearly demarcated life started to fall apart all around him.
The king was surrounded by shades and his only support was one minor mage, ten members of the honor guard, and a beat up looking Honorious.
Elliot dipped his sword in his sheath, lit it, raised it in the air, and yelled. As all the shades turned towards him, he charged. Flying from shade to shade, he chopped them down left to right.
"March forward friends, and we shall show this mage the true might of Chraith's finest!" shouted Honorious as he threw his spear into the nearest shade. He then unsheathed his longsword, pulled out the spear, and used the falling shade as a jump to the next shade.
Then, a man entered the hall and uttered a strange word. Effervescent, purple armor and weapons appeared on all of the shades. The honor guard was pushed back and then, soon after, silenced. Honorious stayed up a while longer, then fell just as the others before him, was buried in a pile of shades. Only the king and his last mage were left standing.
"Honorious, no!" Elliot screamed. His blade stopped burning, but that didn't matter so long as it still cut.
Elliot spun his sheath around, dousing shades in oil. In sheer anger he threw a torch at one, burning many. Sheathing his sword, he pulled out yet another torch instead. Using his shield to block, Elliot charged out. Whenever he struck a shade, embers would fly out, sporadically injuring many more shades.
Then rose Honorious, walking bold as ever as flames whirled around him. Elliot was furious, seeing his former friend a slave to the dark magic his soul was bound to.
Elliot threw a torch at Honorious, who easily blocked it. The young fighter redrew his blade and started hacking at any and all shades in his way. One grabbed his blade and with its inhuman strength turned it until the blade was shattered.
Elliot twisted his sword cutting the shade's hand badly. It let go and Elliot stabbed it with quick painful force. He flung his blade to the side knowing that depending on it would only be a danger to him.
Honorious walked over to Elliot, his dark features glistening in the light coming through the cold bared windows.
'Oh, this is bad. I really could use a sword here.'
Suddenly, a purple sword, like the shades', formed in Elliot's hand, with the same size and weight as his other sword had been.
Although confused, he was ready.
"For Ralthus," Elliot falsely shouted as he charged. He didn't care too much about the king, but he simply couldn't tolerate Honorious's image to be ruined here.
Running through his numerous opponents, he finally got to Honorious. Honorious, with dual scimitars, looked forbidding and horrible. Honorious, the mentor and the only family Elliot really had. The monster of Tebes would die here if Elliot could help it. He would not stand for his long-time friend to be defiled in death.
Honorious swung a blade just too slow to hit. Shades were stronger than their living counterparts, but their muscle density slowed them down.
Elliot rammed his shield straight into Honorious as fast as he could, knocking the bigger man off balance. As Honorious tried to get up a blazing ball of flames hit him in the back, ending Elliot's true friend's undeath with an ashy display.
"That minor mage," Elliot remarked, hardly able to believe it. "Thank you," Elliot yelled awkwardly to the mage.
Elliot charged in a warpath to the mage. Upon reaching him Elliot asked what the plan was.
"We get out and bring the king" the mage said. Before Elliot could say anything a roar louder than a thousand drums sounded. Immediately the earth shook, and a wall got demolished. Inside crept a dragon-like shade.
"Maybe the king's not worth the trouble," Elliot said quietly, terrified. The dragon shot black flames, and though Elliot tried he could not shield himself completely. "Do you think you could get us out?"
"I can get you out, but I don't think I can get myself away," the mage said sadly. "There's not enough time left for me to make a more powerful portal."
"Then we'll keep going," Elliot proclaimed.
"No," the mage whispered. "We won't." Trying to spare Elliot's conscious and physical wellbeing the mage smiled as he sent Elliot into the strange, glass-like gate of a portal, barely allowing him to avoid the black flames that ate up the oxygen in the room.