Summon Riros
Well shit. I think as I see the terror creeping back into the girl in front of me. I didn’t expect to meet someone who could see the mana flows. That’s going to make this a little harder.
I reach out my hand toward her head. I see the fear flare up even more. Her body remains paralyzed by indecision though. The moment my finger touches her head I try to communicate with her. She stiffens up even more as the words echo in her mind.
Dralfey Altia
“Little one, I am not here to harm you, I am here to ask for your help.”
These words echo throughout my mind. My first reaction is to try and move away, but as the word leave my mind I force myself to relax a little bit. There is still a dull pounding in my head but that is probably from whatever injury I have.
The entity in front of me removes his hand and rests back on his leg. I blink a few times watching as he continues to absorb all the floating glowing….stuff….
I hear his voice echo through my mind once again, “I am Riros, I understand you’re afraid right now, but I need you to know if you can understand me?”
It takes less time to understand him. I hesitantly nod me head. I try to say, “My name is Altia.”
The moment I open my mouth he holds up his hand as if to stop me.
I hear his voice again in my head “I cannot understand your tongue, if you wish to say something you must think of it first and then imagine you are saying that toward me.”
Alright, I think to myself. I think, My name is Altia.
I look at him expectantly. He shakes his head.
I hear his voice again, “You must think at me. Imagine as if you were going to actually speak to me as you earlier but do it in your head.”
This time I build a picture in my mind of me talking to him, and I think, “My name is Altia”
Almost immediately I know it works. As I think those four words I can feel them connect in his own mind. I’m almost overwhelmed by the sensation of it. For the brief moment of contact as the words were out into his mind a felt an indescribable sensation of closeness. As if I was peering into the very fabric of who he was and being made a part of him. A shiver runs down my spine as I recall the sensation.
“Hello Altia,” He says and smiles at me.
At least I think he smiled at me. I am actually unable to see his facial features in the dark, and even with the strange glowing he remains completely shrouded in darkness. It was more like he sent me a picture of him smiling. The more I thought about it, the more confused I become.
His voice cuts through my confusion, “Now Altia, I need your help with the girl on the bench. She doesn’t appear to be breathing well and she seems to have suffered a head injury.”
I turn to look at the girl on the bench and then it hits me.
That’s what I had been forgetting. This whole time I had been trying to remember what I was missing and there it was right beside me.
Salaria.
Summon Riros
I watch as the girl Altia turns to look at the other girl. It takes her but a moment before her eyes widen and I see her body start to panic again. I can sense on the surface of her thoughts that there is great turmoil going on inside.
I remain patient and wait several minutes as the turmoil inside dies down. I use those minutes to remove the remaining shackles from the other girl. I check her pulse again, and it is faint. If it were not for the connection with her I would be more worried. But it seems for the most part whatever injury she has is not that severe.
As I am examining the girl who called me I hear the Altia girl’s voice in my head.
“Are you here for Salaria?”
I look back at her. There is still turmoil going on but she seems to have herself mostly under control.
Interesting, I think to myself. Then to her, “Her name is Salaria?”
Altia nods her head, and asks another question, “Are you her summon?”
In the darkness I can tell she is attempting to look me in the eyes.
“She is the one that called me here.”
Calamacy Salaria
Tired. I feel exhausted. It feels as if I ran across Lothelen several times without taking a single break. I feel that I’m laying down. Its uncomfortable. I try to move my body, but it’s super sluggish. I try to open my eyes, and it seems to take forever. It’s like trying to roll a boulder up a hill. Eventually I do open my eyes and I see the strangest sight.
I see Altia hovering over me, her hands seem to be wrapped around me head. Her hair is a mess and there is blood down one side of her face. There’s a white light that’s providing illumination floating just above her head.
I try to move my hand to cover my face but I find that my body is still extremely sluggish. One of Altia’s hands moves over and gently pushes my arm back down.
“It’s okay Salaria,” she says, “You need to stay still and conserve your energy. You’re apparently suffering mana fatigue.”
“What’s going on?” I mumble through sluggish lips.
“That’s a bit of a long story unfortunately. And you need your rest, just know that we’re safe now. So go back to sleep and we’ll be here when you wake up.”
“Alright,” I mumble, the urge to sleep is strong and right when I’m about to nod off, I think to myself, Wait we?
Kassari Valeria Stormcaller
The sight before me is one that would make any person shudder in awe. We’re a little ways away from Lothelen, not too far, because I can still sort of see the city in the horizon. But in front of me there is an old abandoned estate house. That’s not the awe inspiring part thought, that part comes from the fact that there are currently nine Nelselphs surrounding the house. Three of which are Priors such as the two who brought me here. Besides the Cinder Royalty there is also the Brass Royalty who came out to be a part of what was going on. Besides the Nelselphs there are also twenty Dolverans who are slowly approaching the house itself. The amount of power represented here amounts for almost all of the top ranked individuals that the Royalties have in all of Eldesaria. There are probably another score or so Dolverans scattered at the various warfronts who aren’t here and of course the other three Royalty who couldn’t make it. Just being able to see one or two Dolveran in a lifetime, would be enough to make the lower ranks weep.
Yet even with all of this individuals here, they were still under the pressure and influence of the entity that was in the estate. Even now with several Nelselphs maintaining suppression spells against the presence of the entity I can still feel its influence.
I give a small shudder and feel a hand on my shoulder.
“Are you still afraid Duchess Valeria-vim?” I turn to see the Prior to the Phoenix throne. His tall well-built frame standing a head taller than me, and I’m by no means short.
“It’s kind of obvious don’t you think,” I motion toward the surrounding weather, and the strong winds that were buffeting everyone, I look back at him and say, “Although I’m more worried than anything.”
The burning intensity of the Prior seems to soften slightly as he squeezes my shoulder. “I really wish she wasn’t caught up in this. But as far as we can determine, there seems to have been something that put Salaria-vim in danger, and it looks like your daughter was caught up in it.”
“I understand now why you petitioned all the Royalty to give her the Calamacy rank.” I shudder again remembering the bodies that were found around the building. There had been what looked like a sizable force guarding the abandoned estate. All of which had been found in various forms of dismemberment. All of them had been dead when we had arrived. As far as they had told me many of them had been Gralders with more than a few Kassari mixed in. A formidable force even for a Nelselph.
That’s what really worries me though. You don’t see a random grouping of higher level individuals all just doing guard duty. There is something else going on here. I doubt that all that force was meant to face the summon. It looks like it was more targeted for dealing with a Kassari or even a Dolveran.
I was brought out of my reverie by the disappearance of that terrible presence. Almost immediately all of the individuals around the house came to even more attention. The Phoenix Prior squeezed my shoulder one more time before stepping forward to join the rest of the group.
I heard shouts from several of the individuals in the group, yelling that the entity was on the move. The tension seemed to build as everyone waited. With the tension rising my own worries started to increase causing the wind blow even fiercer. Rain clouds also began to gather, but no rain was released.
Dralfey Altia
After seeing that Salaria, had gone back to sleep and was sleeping peacefully I finally turned the simple healing spell I had onto myself. With the last bits of my mana I managed to heal the wound enough that the pounding in my head finally subsided.
Sitting back on the floor I let out a sigh of relief. Behind me I hear Riros stand up and check Salaria again. I watched as he took off his jacket and wrapped Salaria in it. When he took it off I let out another breath of surprise. He was only wearing a vest underneath. His arms were now fully visible and they were crisscrossed with scars. So many in fact it was hard to tell what exactly his original skin color was. With the light from the illumination spell I could now make out his face better. For some reason the actual light seemed to prevent me from seeing the glowing stuff. His face was also scarred, not nearly as much as his arms but it was there. Somehow though it didn’t seem to detract from him and instead enhanced the mystery that surrounded him.
Seeing where I was looking, he gives me a slight smile.
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I look away immediately, slightly embarrassed for staring.
“Now that she is stable we should get going.” He says, the words projecting into my head, “I’ll warn you though, there appears to be a lot of powerful individuals surrounding this building. At the moment I can’t tell whether they are enemies are allies.”
I look back at him and project into his head, “Wait we’re surrounded? If so why haven’t they attacked?”
He shrugs and picks up Salaria cradling her in his arms. It is at that point I realize just how big Riros is. Salaria looks almost like a small child in his arms.
“Probably because I’m still projecting my battle presence, in any case it might be better if you walk behind me when we leave. It will be easier to assure your safety.”
Remembering the footsteps that I had heard above when I first woke up I ask him, “What did you do to the people that were originally here?”
“I eliminated them.”
“Wait, wait, you just killed them, you didn’t ask any questions or try to figure out who they were working for? Are you planning to do the same thing for the people surrounding us?” I project into his mind.
He starts to take steps forward out of the cell we had been sitting in. It is then that I notice the iron bars that were at the front of the cell had been completely ripped off and thrown to the side. The door beyond that was also a splintered mess, and part of it was barely swinging on one of its hinges. Paling slightly I project to him once more, “You can’t just go around killing everyone!”
“Why not? I already told the people of this world that if she were to come to harm then there would be consequences. This just happens to be part of that consequence.” He paused outside the cell and looked back at me.
Standing up I say, “Then why didn’t you kill me?”
“It looked like you were in the same predicament. Therefore you probably had nothing to do with Salaria getting hurt, and then I found out that you were her friend.” He shrugs again, and shifts Salaria so that she was cradled in one of his arms.
“Look, as Salaria’s friend I’m pretty sure that she doesn’t want you to just murder everyone that stands in your way.” I say, but looking at his eyes I see no change in his expression. Taking in a deep breath I project toward him once again, “I have an Idea which could help you determine if the people outside are enemies or people that are here to help.”
Several seconds pass as he stands there contemplating before finally he waves a hand at me to continue.
“Alright, how about you pull back your presence….thing and then walk outside. If you aren’t trying to pressure them, then if they are allies, they probably won’t attack.”
“So you’re saying that I should give them the advantage in order to figure out if they will attack me or not? That doesn’t sound like the smartest idea to me.”
“Look,” I say again, “just give me the benefit of the doubt. That’s all I’m really asking. Please.”
He stares at me for several more seconds before I feel his presence disappear. I actually hadn’t even realized he had his presence up until it was gone. It had been like a faint tickling in the back of my mind.
“Alright.” He says into my mind, before turning around and heading out the door. I follow him up the stairs. When we arrive at the next floor I see chaos all around. There are bodies in various states of dismemberment, and broken furniture and walls and blood everywhere. I gag at the sight. It takes all of my self-control and will just to present myself from barfing. It’s at that point I notice the blood covering his legs and the jacket sleeve I see hanging down from Salaria.
Shuddering, I ask myself, Salaria just what did you summon?
I follow behind him as he makes his way through the destroyed front door. We step out into the night and almost immediately I can feel the presence of a multitude of very powerful individuals. He stops. We both wait. Several moments pass. Finally several figures appear in front of us.
I step slightly to the side of him to get a better look, and I see three Nelselph standing about 50 feet away from us. Even in the faint moonlight and little illumination from the small light hovering above us, I can see that each of these individuals is absolutely radiating those soft glowing lights. Looking around I can spot several more individuals who outputting the same amount of glow even though they seem to be hidden.
Once again a silence descend upon the area. The only sound being the wind that is blowing through the area. It is a strong wind, enough so that at times I fear that it might knock me over, yet the moment the wind comes into contact with me it becomes a gentle breeze flowing around me.
Several more moments pass before the Nelselph in the center takes a step toward us. He calls out to us and says, “Are you Calamacy Salaria’s summon?”
I look up at Riros expectantly but then hear in my head, “What did he say?”
With a moment of panic I remember now that he can’t actually understand our language. I hurriedly project into his head, “He is asking if you are Salaria’s summon.”
He sends back, “Hmmm, they haven’t attacked us. Which would mean they are probably allies or enemies that are waiting to see. Can you translate for me? I can talk to them, but I’m not going to be able to understand their responses without actually establishing a connection.
I nod my head and project another thought to him, “I’m pretty sure I recognize one of the individuals in front of us.”
“And?”
“Probably not an enemy.” I reply.
He stands there for a moment staring at the three Nelselph in front of him. Finally he project his voice into all of their heads, including mine.
“If I recall correctly, the last time I was here, I left a warning that not a hair on her head was to be touched.”
I look at him in shock. The mental projection was much different than how he had been communicating earlier. This felt like the deep reverb of massive drums being played. It absolutely resonated inside of me to the point that it was beginning to verge on being painful. The three Nelselph I noticed seemed unaffected.
Kassari Valeria Stormcaller
Even from this distance I could feel that voice resonating inside of me. Shaking me down to my very core. Struggling to contain my emotions I look back at the scene before me. The same three Nelselph that had come to get me from the party were standing before what was presumed to be Salaria’s summon. The Phoenix Prior was a step ahead and seemed to be taking his time studying the summon. I knew with but a flick of his hand he could send everyone here towards the summon at the same time. Thankfully though he was holding off.
I say thankfully because I saw that my daughter was standing just behind the summon. She seemed to be dwarfed behind the massive size of the entity.
He looks human, I note to myself. From 100 feet away I could make out most of his features. He was holding Salaria cradled in one arm. The other arm was at rest by his side.
I hear the Prior speak up now, “For the past eleven years it has been so. Under our authority not a single person was allowed to lay a finger on her. The punishment being death. It seems though that you have dealt the punishment to those who hurt her.”
Several more moments passed as the summon stood there. Everyone remained tense.
His voice once again echoed in our minds, “I have yet to decide it that is sufficient punishment, tell me though, why are there nearly 3 dozen of you surrounding me at this moment?”
The Prior responded almost immediately, “Considering the circumstances regarding your last arrival, we though it prudent to be prepared if you were less inclined to be diplomatic.”
“HAH,” his laugh echoed out. This time the laugh was not in our heads, but actually a sound that he made. The air and ground seemed to resonate with the sound. Shaking his head he spoke once more into our minds, “I have no desire to be diplomatic. The only reason I did not come out fighting is because this child stabilized Salaria. She has earned my trust. Now if you wish to me to be diplomatic, then I will ask that you take me to a healer who can cure mana fatigue.”
He gestured to my daughter. I felt pride at hearing my daughters actions, yet at the same time I grew more worried at the fact that she was with the summon.
“That can be arranged.” The Prior said, “Would it be alright if we approach you.”
Several seconds passed before he nodded his head. The three Nelselph all began to approach the summon. As they did so, the Prior motioned for everyone to stand down. Several other Nelselph stepped out from where they were hiding and only approached to what they considered a safe distance. I rushed forward toward Altia, not quite caring about the summon holding Salaria.
When Altia saw me she too ran forward to meet me. When she came into view I saw the blood on her face and immediately a surge of emotions ran through me.
Seeing the look on my face, Altia immediately assured me that that she had healed the injury and that it had happened when she and Salaria had been kidnapped. When she had calmed me down slightly I noticed that the summon was now standing next to her. His voice echoed in my mind again, much more gently this time.
“Excuse me, but I need her to translate for me.”
I look up at him and nod my head. Both Altia and I turn to see the Prior waiting patiently. The Cinder Royalty comes up next to me and stands there, a comforting presence after the events of today.
“Summon, may I see Calamacy Salaria?” The Prior asks.
There is another slight pause, and this time I notice as Altia looks up at the summon. Only then does he respond, by shifting Salaria slightly in his arms so that she is more accessible. The Prior takes that cue and steps forward holding his hand over her head and chanting a quick spell. After a moment of concentration, his eyes open and he steps back.
“She is indeed suffering from mana fatigue. I think now would be a good time for everyone to return to their homes. I will take responsibility for Salaria and the summon.” He says. As his words echo out many of the other individuals gather around whichever Nelselph is closest and most of them disappear, shifting back to the city. After that the only ones that remain are Altia, myself, the Prior, the Cinder Royalty, the summon and Salaria. After a moment the Prior holds out his hands and all of us step forward to touch him, before we too shift back to Lothelen.
Kassari Vandel
Once again, I sigh, things did not go to plan. What was supposed to be a simple snatch and grab has turned into a mess. All because of that child.
I am sitting in my desk chair staring out the window. It is morning time now, and while there should be sunlight attempting to filter through the windows. There is just a stormy sky blotting out any attempt from the sun. From the streaks on the windows, it appears to be drizzling also. I can only see the faint outline of the Palace sitting on top of the cliffs. The same palace that for so many years now has remained just out of my reach.
With a sigh I turn around. Sitting in a chair on the other side of my desk is the same black haired Kassari.
“So you got my message,” I say.
She stares at me with those same unblinking eyes, “You said we needed to talk, so I am here.”
Leaning back in my chair I return the stare, “Are you aware of the events of last night?”
“As much as anyone would be.” She says.
Shaking my head, I say, “Someone attacked the Calamacy. That part you probably know.” I pause and she nods her head, I continue, “What you may not know is that the Calamacy was not the only one to be attacked. It seems that the Stormcaller’s child was also attacked at the same time.” At this I get a reaction out of her. Its slight, but I notice a slight tensing of all her muscles as understanding dawns on her. With a slight smile to myself, I continue once again, “I was also informed that many of the Dolveran and Nelselph went looking for the Calamacy, only to find her and the Stormcaller girl at an abandoned estate on the very outskirts of the Lothelen. Apparently the Calamacy’s summon had gotten there first. For they were greeted by the sight of a one-sided massacre.” By the time I finished the Kassari’s face had turned even paler than she normally was.
A silence descended upon us I waited for her response. It was a wait I cherished as I watched her struggle to regain her composure. When she did she asked, “We should still be covered though. There should be nothing tracing back to us from that group.”
I say, “I sincerely hope so. One of my contacts informed me that the Calamacy’s summon is not satisfied with just killing all of the kidnappers, and for that matter the Duchess Stormcaller is also apparently pressuring the Royalty to find out exactly what happened.”
The Kassari stares at me for several more moments, letting everything I just said sink in. She then asks, “So what’s the next step then?”
I laugh, a short almost bark of a laugh, as I smile at her through gritted teeth. “There is no next step for you. You messed up the one task I had given you. Now you need to lay low, and let me fix the problem. I’ll contact you once I feel I have a task that you can actually accomplish.” With that I dismiss her and turn back to the work on my desk. When I look up again several moments later, she is gone.