Our story begins like any other, in an underground crypt. Among the olden bones and the dust covered coffins, a daring wave of sound and light breaks through the eternal darkness of these holy resting grounds.
“Are you sure this is the way?”
“Of course, it’s right here on the map. It says Jordine's coffin is here somewhere, if we find it, then we can find his treasure.”-An unsure adventurer said to his female counterpart as they shook their way through the damp and claustrophobic corridors.
“Elin, I don't like this… It ain't right.”-The adventure worn woman said as she trembled with her torch on her right hand and rusty old sword on the left.
“We can! I know we shouldn't steal from the dead, but if we can get it we can finally leave this country and move somewhere else… somewhere better.”-The young man said to his loved one as she still shook unsure of herself.
The woman nervously agreed, and the duo continued their journey through the cluttered and unkempt bone yard.
After a few minutes trekking through the moist and vermin infected tunnels, the couple arrived at a decently sized chamber. In its center lied a great marble coffin, decorated with various stone engravings that depicted battle scenes with both men and strange looking creatures, but greatest of all, was a beautiful scene of a plate-armored knight on his own, facing off against a dragon.
“This is it! It's Jordine's coffin, hurry!”-The man said as he cast away his map to the wet floors.
The woman followed and with surprising coordination and strength, the couple lifted the lid and gazed upon the armored skeleton inside.
Most of the plate and chainmail had rusted away; only the helmet, gauntlets, chestplate and greaves remained on the body of the once proud knight, but most important of all, so did the treasure:
Around the skeleton's neck, laid dormant a beautifully crafted emerald encased in a golden ring.
“Sir Jordine's jewel! I always heard he found it inside the stomach of the dragon he killed.”-The man said as he let himself be hypnotized by the gem.
“It's amazing.”-The woman held her breath, as she too stared at the green jewel.
“And it’s our ticket to freedom.”-The adventurer proclaimed with an adoring look to his wife, grabbing the jewel as he smiled profusely.
With a quick snap, the man snagged the jewel, but once he held it in his hands it started glowing.
The couple stared at it for a few seconds in confusion, but before either of them could realize it, the empty sockets of the skeleton of Sir Jordine started to glow with the same sickly green color as the gem.
A terrifying screech sprang from the jaws of the heroic remains, cutting through the crypts silence as the bones slowly rose from the coffin.
The couple held each other in horror as they saw the bones arranging themselves.
“I knew we shouldn't have done this!”-The woman said to her scared counterpart as the bones finally finished attaching.
The skull creepily turned to them and said, in an old raspy voice: -”Oh, hello.”
The couple's scream echoed in the dark crypt and before either of them could properly react further, they ran back outside, stumbling on each other as they yelled for help.
The skeleton was aghast with such a rude introduction and scratched his skull in confusion to such a strange beginning to the afterlife.
“Wait a minute.”- Jordine said as he looked at the remains of his once muscular hands and exclaimed, realizing his condition, -” What in the Dreggers? Why am I all bony? The Outerplanes aren't meant to be like this.”
Jordine released a disappointed sigh and as he stepped outside his coffin he grabbed his belongings: his old longsword, heater shield and sidepack. - “Those damned priests got it all wrong. Saying we get to keep everything we die with, yeah right. Where's my flesh then? Useless bookworms.”
The skeleton rattled his way through the crypt, talking to himself as he noticed the various coffins. -” This sure ain't a forest, unless you consider a bone orchard and a normal orchard to be the same.”-The Skeleton Knight said as he passed through the graves of heroes of long forgotten wars.
“What were those two doing here anyway? They had flesh on them, why did they get to keep their flesh when they died, and I didn't?”
The old knight became so occupied thinking about why his grave robbers still looked human, that he hadn't realized yet that his most precious treasure had been stolen.
After trying for a few hours to find his way out, the wandering skeleton finally found his way to the outside world, where the sun still brightly shone over the mortal and material world of Vaelia.
The crypt’s exit lead him to an olden road, and as he gazed into the sun, Jordine expelled a sigh of relief. -” Well at least I ain't in the Null Desert. But, I thought the Outerplanes didn't have a sun or moon, were the priests wrong about that too?”
Before Jordine could dwell too much on this question however, he was beset by the sound of galloping hooves approaching, as he noticed a patrol speeding towards him.
“Oh, thank the One, a knight escort. At least the priests got something right.”-The skeleton said to himself as he waved his bony hand towards the approaching riders.
Upon noticing the signal, the knights drifted towards the wanderer, but as they got close enough to see what stood in front of them, four of them got knocked to the ground by their horses.
Jordine approached the riders and hailed them. - “Great skies to you, my Knights, would you fine gentlemen please escort me to Levan's hall?”
The guards who had not been knocked down looked with shock towards the rotting undead soldier in front of them.
“I dedicated my life to him you know? With him being the god of war and fighting and whatnot, I just wish to rest now.”-The old skeleton said as his friendly words clashed with his rasping voice and unnatural state.
“What in the God’s name?! Begone, you devilish creature.”-The patrol master said as he unsheathed his sword.
“Devilish? Do you know who I am? I'm Sir Jordine, defeater of the great dragon commander Jargolataur!
I saved the fifth Lenian Legion at the battle of Goatpass. As far as I know you should be showing some respect to me!”-Sir Jordine yelled with a proud and heroic posture.
“You are an undead creature, we may not be paladins, but you are unnatural… an agent of a necromancer, no doubt.”-The patrol master said as he ordered his men to surround the skeleton.
The walking corpse became confused at what was happening, and as the horses encircled him, he exclaimed. -” Paladins? Necromancers? What the Dreggers are you talking about?
I can prove that I'm Jordine, my jewel is unique. The ring that encases the dragon's heart was a gift from empress Gwen herself, look.”
As the skeleton instinctively tried to grab his amulet, however, he noticed that it was gone, as if the light from his eyes pierced his non-existent brain, he realized the couple had stolen it from him.
The patrolmen prepared their crossbows and aimed them at the skeleton, as he looked back up at the patrol squad.
“I'm still in Vaelia, ain't I?”-Jordine asked as he looked down with anger with a defeated posture.
“Yes. You said you wanted us to escort you to the Outerplanes, right? Then be it! Fire!”-The patrol master made a swift hand motion and the bolts pierced the skeleton; some of them flew through the open ribcage, while others impacted him and sent a few bones flying off.
Jordine's left arm was pinned into the ground, but as the bolts met his ancient bones Jordine realized he didn't feel any pain.
Instead, he saw as he controlled his arm that had disassembled because of the bolt and rejoined it with himself.
The patrolmen shrieked when they saw this and unsheathed their swords affrightedly.
“G-Get him!”-The patrol master shouted as his band swarmed Jordine and tried, in vain, to hack and slash.
“You fools, I'm a skeleton!”-Jordine's eye glow changed from a sickly green to a rageful red as he detached his own left arm once again, and bashed the surrounding patrolman with it. Individual bones started to fly everywhere and Jordine hit them with such strength that some patrolmen became unconscious, and upon seeing the horror that the skeleton was unleashing on their band, the patrol master steered his horse and dutifully galloped away from the accursed scene.
“Oh no you don't.”-The Skeleton knight said as he detached his own skull and launched it at top speed against the patrol master.
The skull knocked him off his horse, and as he was still dazed from the impact, the skull bit onto his clothes and dragged him back towards Jordine as the head was pulled back by the curse to the rest of the skeleton’s corpse.
Jordine put himself back together, and with some rope from the fainted patrolmen he tied the entire band together, while some of them were still in great pain from the wounds from the piercing bones.
“Now tell me, where am I?”-Jordine said as his face got closer to the frightened men and his red eyes stared into the depths of their souls.
“T-The c-c-county of Ornen.”-One of the men said in both horror and pain.
“Ornen? That was my village, it was still so small when I died.”
“It's a booming town now! Please don't kill us!”-Another frightened patrolman answered.
“Who's the current emperor?”-Jordine said as he tried to remember the figure of Empress Gwen.
“Ow...there's no emperor. The count is independent. It's been like that since the Gods left.”-The patrol master said as he recovered from his impact with the olden hardhead.
“Wait, what?! When did the Gods leave?!”-The skeleton asked as his voice faltered in astonishment.
“I... I don't know, a long time ago. I'm not a scribe.”
Jordine contemplated his situation for a few moments and wondered if the Gods departure was related to his predicament, then as his eyes changed back to a sickly green, he asked the patrolmen -” You lot said something about paladins and necromancers. What are those?”
“The paladins are a holy order, they are wandering knights and monks that have sworn to protect and help whoever needs them, be it monsters, criminals...”-One of the younger patrolmen said, as he eagerly hoped to be freed soon.
“And the necromancers?”
“They're the worst type of wizards! Not even the wizards from the Thalian academy like them. They are terrible spellcasters that bring back the dead to serve them, they corrupt entire lands to extend their own life!”-The young patrolman continued.
“Hmm, so I see magic users still exist. They have definitely become stronger since the last time I was here… you call them wizards, huh?.”-Jordine tried to conjure images from the few magic users he had known in his lifetime.
There were very few of them and their powers were near useless, but the frightened look on the patrolman's eyes as he talked about them was all the evidence Jordine needed to know how powerful they had become...or maybe he was just terrified by the fact a skeleton was right in front of him.
“One last question, did you see a couple about this tall, with some scrappy looking clothes and weaponry coming out of the crypt? They have my jewel.”
The patrolmen looked quietly to each other for a bit, trying to remember any sort of detail, until one of them spoke.
“Yeah, I saw them a couple hours ago, they were running for their lives towards the village of Flori, it’s to the east of here.”-The patrolman said as he nodded with his head in the general direction.
Jordine looked in the way the patrolman nodded and noticed in the distance, hidden away below the base of a mountain chain, a peaceful looking village and its surrounding flat farmlands.
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“Thank you for the help, boys.”-Jordine said as he gave them an imperial salute.
He tried to mount a horse but gave up when he saw no horse even allowed him to get close to them.
“Aren't you freeing us? We answered everything you wanted!”-The patrol master screamed at the skeleton.
“Of course not. You attacked me, do you think I would release you after that?”-Jordine turned his spine to them and started walking towards the village.
“Humanity sure has gotten stupider since I died.”-Jordine exclaimed to himself as he walked through the old county dirt road, towards the small village.
“You bastard! Come back here, I still have a bone to pick with you!”
“Hah!”-The young patrolmen exclaimed to his superior’s accidental pun, as the master groaned in anger when he realized what he had said.
The walk towards Flori took only about an hour, and during the trip Jordine noticed the unusual silence of his homeland.
“It's so...peaceful. No monsters running about, no dragons, battles or armies marching.
By the Gods, Gwen...did we really win?”-Jordine thought about his upbringing on the village, how he had raised himself as a great fighter by battling the great monsters and wild beasts that periodically attacked his then small village of Ornen.
“They all came through that mountain pass; the Stone Slithers, Warchargers and Gnomers.
If they have built a village there then it must mean they haven't been back for a long time.”- The skeleton wondered about what could have possibly stopped the attacks of the creatures, even if the area had been pacified and the people were prepared, it would still be an enormous effort to hold them, let along clear them completely from the region.
It took two legions back in the day to just drive them off for a couple of months.
It didn't make sense, no matter how advanced the humans might have gotten in the time he was away.
His thoughts would need to wait though, as the spooky skeleton had arrived at the entrance of the village.
“Crap!”-Jordine swiftly hid behind a tree, almost forgetting that he was now a skeleton.
If what the patrolmen had said was true, then no matter how friendly he showed his intentions to be, the people would assume he was an agent of a necromancer.
He could defeat them easily, but these were his own people, and no matter how childish they acted he could not bring himself to hurt them or startle them.
“I'll need to find a way to search for that couple...I wonder.”-Jordine thought for a bit, then an idea sprouted in his hollow skull.
“Of course!”-Suddenly, Jordine dismembered himself, loosing every single bone into a small pile.
“I'll sneakily slither my way through the village.”-The skeleton thought to himself as he became a pile of bones that rolled its skull on top of it.
The village was somewhat small and Jordine thought he wouldn't need much time looking for the couple; from bush to bush, he rolled his weary bones between the ferns and junk piles.
The only time he was in danger of being found was when he overlooked the village from within a few bushes and a nosy dog poked his nostrils between the ferns, before running away in fear from Jordine's green eyes.
The village seemed normal, the people toiled away working on the farmland during the afternoon hours, the elderly ladies of the village sewed and cooked their family’s dinner, and the old master craftsmen repaired and made new tools and instruments both for the village and to be sold on the city.
“Some things never change, do they?”-Jordine thought to himself as he felt somewhat nostalgic to the scene in the village; in fact, he wasn't even sure how long it had been since he died, but since the patrolman didn't react to his name he thought it probably had been a long while.
For just a second Jordine thought if he really wasn't on the Outerplanes, maybe this really was his afterlife paradise, he could feel like he could just walk up to the common folk and join them in their daily struggle. In the end, that was what he died for.
He fought to be able to live a humble and stable life like they had now.
But as he started to roll over, he looked at the himself and realized this was impossible, if anything this wasn't his paradise, it was his hell.
If Jordine's expression could change, it would change to one of sadness. Washed away by desire of a simple life, Jordine continued to look for his jewel and the couple that possessed it, always in the shadows.
It took a few minutes, but from the yelling it didn't take long for Jordine to find the crumbling house where the couple were staying.
“Elin, he's coming after us! He's coming after us, I know it!”
“Calm down woman! We'll be fine, the priest said he knows how to deal with it.
Once he gets the money I'll give him the jewel, he'll take care of those rattlebones and we are gonna go to Goldswill to live far away from here.”-The man said as Jordine peered through the cracks in the thatched roof.
“I don't know, Elin...”
“Think about it, the food! The clothes! The gold sprinkled roads and houses of Goldswill, the most beautiful city in all of Vaelia, and we can live in it! We'll be able to afford it. To live in it as dukes, without needing to work.”-The adventurous grave robber said with a royal posture and inflection.
“Away from all this dirt and grime, right?”
“Of course, my sweet spring rose!”-Elin muttered to his wife as he held her hands.
Jordine heard the words from the couple and he became furious, they did not know how much he fought for their lands peace, how much blood had been spilled for the floor they stood, how many legions gave their lives to defend their families, only for their descendants to move away from it.
And to move away to Goldswill out of all places, Jordine knew it well, it was already a prosperous city during his time, home of Aurelius, the God of gold and greed. It was a center of luxury, hedonism and decadence of the greatest expenses, and Jordine could only imagine how much it had grown since his death.
Jordine could feel his rage boiling and filling his hollow body, he wanted to jump in and discipline these children, for it was all he could view them as, just misguided children.
But the immortal skeleton gathered his old discipline and calmed himself. -” I can't act now, they would run away or scream for help. I need to wait.”
He stood guard atop the roof and waited for Soren's Sun to slowly sink below the horizon and give way to the broken double moon of Thalon. He however did not notice the fact that the moon was now broken to pieces, his desire to be get what was his, fixated him on his goal.
The common folk finished their work and returned to their houses.
Throughout the entire afternoon the woman kept nervously running in circles, unaware of Jordine atop their house.
As the broken double moon asserted itself over the sky, the people lit their house torches and the craftsmen closed their shops. From atop the roofs, through the smoke of the villager’s dinners, Jordine saw a hooded figure approaching the village mounted atop a donkey, with a heavy looking bag on each side.
The brown hooded figure stopped in front of the grave robbers’ house and knocked on their door.
“It's him!”-The man said as he quickly opened the door and let the man inside. -” Welcome, priest.”
“Thank you for having me. You have the jewel?”-The still hooded man asked in a low tone.
“We have it right here.”-The woman said as she grabbed the jewel and gave it to the priest.
The figure inspected the jewel, it was still glowing with a flashing green color and the man placed the jewel around his neck with a small chain of his own, all while he sprouted a smirk of fulfillment. -” Yes...This is Sir Jordine's jewel. You two did very well, this will suit me just fine.”
“And our payment?”-The man said, expectantly.
“Ah, of course.”-The priest said as he went outside and brought the two heavy looking bags.
He threw them to the floor, and from it came many gold bars sprouting out.
“It should last you for a lifetime, if you are smart.”-The priest said as he left the house.
“Thank you, thank you, you helped us a ton!”-The man said as he frantically counted the gold bars.
“No, thank you.”-The priest said as he closed the door behind him.
“Time to go.”-Jordine thought to himself as he slipped down the house and sneakily followed the priest on his mule. -” They’re not worth it.”-Jordine thought, as the idea of punishing the couple that had stolen from him crossed his empty skull.
The skeleton followed the slow-moving priest outside the village, always slithering through the ditches and the bushes on the road.
It took the olden knight a few minutes to notice where they were headed; they were going up to the mountain chain. Jordine knew the path well; before it was a dirt road, it was a sheep pass that the monsters from the mountains exploited with frequency to attack Ornen.
The retired commander wondered if it was safe, but from the harmless look of the priest, he deduced that maybe the old monsters had moved away a long time ago.
The path up was uneventful, and the only sounds Jordine heard were the crickets in the grass, the wind carving his way through the mountain stone, the steps of the donkey and the rocks that followed the beasts’ step.
These sounds of nature clashed with the unnatural sound of bones rolling up the hill.
Eventually the priest stopped his donkey outside a suspicious looking cave in the mountain and entered it, mixing himself in with the darkness.
It was not unusual in his time for priests to become hermits and seclude themselves on mountains and caves, but either way, Jordine had no other options, he had to go after the priest now.
He was alone and secluded, so this was the perfect time to question him about everything.
Why he wanted his jewel, how he knew him, where he had gotten so much gold, and maybe the priest would even be able to help him with his condition, after all, he at least knew who he was.
Jordine entered the dark cave and assembled himself back into his full and armored self when the cave entrance collapsed behind him as he heard the priests voice. -” Welcome, Sir Jordine. I have wanted to meet you for a long time.”
“How did you know I wa-”
“You are a skeleton! You were rolling your bones up a mountain while carrying your armor. I'm not deaf!”-The priest interrupted Jordine and lit various torches on the cave, with a simple click of his fingers.
The cave was now well illuminated. It was generously sized and various scribbles were chiseled on the walls in a script unknown to Jordine and behind the priest was a great iron gate.
A rudimentary stone table raised itself on the left wall with various glass bottles full of strange colored liquids.
“Who are you?!”-Sir Jordine asked as he brandished his sword.
“My name is Teon, I'm a rogue wizard from the Thalian academy. A Necromancer and once we are done, a Lich.”- He revealed as two dark orbs sprouted from his hands and circled him.
“A magic user...but why? Why do you need me!?”-Jordine asked as he prepared to fight.
“Liches are the masters of the necromancers; they are immortal, but they need a soulbag for that… a living support soul to feed them, if you will.”-Teon spoke as he started his incantation, the orbs floating above him.
“But I'm not alive! You stole the Outerplanes from me!”
Teon chuckled as he continued. -”But I didn't Jordine. This jewel of yours, its not a blessing from your empress, its a curse, from the dragon you slayed.”
“A curse?!”-Jordine exclaimed as his eyes changed to a rageful red.
“Yes, dragon magic is complicated and has many facets, but this jewel is made from a dragon's soul. The spirit of the great dragon commander you defeated, still lives on it.”-The necromancer said as the stone pulsated at his words.
“Jordine, I didn't pull you from the Outerplanes, you can never go to them. You see, you yourself are a soulbag.”
“What?!”
“Your soul has been the nourishment for the dragon that inhabits within it, that is why your soul is trapped here. If this dragon soul dies, it will ascend to the Outerplanes, but you, you were doomed the moment you wore it to your death.”
“Enough!”-Jordine charged against the necromancer, but before he could even get close, Teon raised his hand and with a quick incantation, pushed the skeleton to the wall and trapped him within a rock cacoon, leaving only his skull open.
“Jordine...I know that Wizards weren't that strong back in your day, but really? A charge? I thought one of humanities greatest commanders would come up with something better than that.”-Teon said as he held the jewel encased in a golden glowing orb above his hands.
“Let me go!”
“Ha, no. I have spent the better part of my life studding on how to cheat death, I wont let you ruin it now.”-The necromancer said as he walked back to his wizard's table.
However, after a few steps he slowly turned back to Jordine, and asked him with a starry and idol worshiping look in his eyes.-“Still, I am a pretty big fan, so I will let you enjoy your final moments with a good spectacle. I majored in with the Illusionists back in the academy after all.”-Teon said before he spoke various magical words.
“What will happen to me?”-Jordine asked with a fearful tone as he struggled.
“You will cease to exist, your soul that is. Nothing more, nothing less, just, gone. In a moment everything will stop.”
“Then...can you answer me something before I'm gone?”-Jordine asked as he tried to buy time.
“I don't see the point, but, sure I'll indulge you. It would be a shame to let one of my idols hanging like that.”-He said as he snickered at his own joke.
“Did we win the war?”
“Against the dragons? Well, yes. You don't see any do you?”
“Huh what about...”-Jordine tried to think about something else and he remembered. -”The, the Gods! I heard they were banished, but how?”
“Oh, that was us! The wizards I mean, I never paid much attention in class to that, but it was a Wizard named Thalon, servant of the gods.
He, became aware of their exploitation of us humans and went on a quest to expel them from this plane, he wound up creating the wizard order and we occupied their palace which is now the wizard academy.
Anything else you want to know before you're gone? I'm getting impatient.”-Teon said as the jewel awaited its final incantation.
“Uh, yes. Whats behind that gate?”-Jordine said as his skull looked towards the great iron gate.
“Oh that! I'm really proud of that one. You know how back in your time this area was infested with monsters? Well, the only reason why people have settled villages outside Ornen recently was because of me! Look.”-Teon then moved towards the gate and while he still held the jewel with one hand, he pulled a lever and the gate opened.
Stuck inside various cages were disease ridden Gnomers, Stone Slithers and Warchargers.
Each of them groaned with great pain as their skin and muscle slowly rotted away.
“When I was just an apprentice necromancer I came back here, and I designed a special disease that targets only these beasts, within a few years they were gone! I captured the last ones and now everyone can safely live outside Ornen.
Not too bad for a single person right?”-Teon said triumphantly as he stared happily at the giant beasts.
Jordine looked astonished, he had no idea what to think. Those creatures had given him and his people so much trouble back in his youth, he was happy to know they wouldn't be a problem anymore, but to see them in such a vulnerable state, to know they would never exist again.
He wondered what it could entail for his people, would they be better off, or would they not appreciate their own land anymore without a need to defend it, for Jordine it certainly had been like that.
“I know what you are thinking Jordine. Don't worry, things are much better like this, trust me.
These people are not the same as the ones you knew before. Things have changed.”-Teon said with a saddened tone and gesture.
Finally, he prepared for his final enchantment.-”The time has come, I shall defeat the Pale God of death.”
Whilst Teon prepared the final enchantment, Jordine quietly moved his skull to his side and without the necromancer noticing, slipped his hand from within his rocky chains.
As Teon spoke the last words, the skeleton carefully placed his skull on his hand and after a clumsy aiming attempt, he launched himself against the necromancer.
The skull hit the wizard right in the side of his head and stopped his magical incantation, it too broke his concentration on the spell that held the rest of Jordine's body restrained and the bones came loose.
The old skeleton knight quickly pieced himself together and kept hitting the necromancer, he did not know why he had attempted to escape, maybe it was payback for the diseased animals, maybe it was just a desire to survive, maybe he just hated Teon and wanted to finally slap some sense into someone again.
Teon was surprised as he got repeatedly punched by the skeleton, he had no time to cast any protective spell, neither had he enough focus or training to cast spells without a verbal component, so instead he tried to fight back the skeleton with his own strength.
The weak punch from the scholarly necromancer matched the experienced, but muscleless fist of the skeleton knight.
The inexperienced Teon fought with his own hands, but Jordine let a few of his bones loose and grabbed his sword, while he distracted his opponent with his bone punches.
Suddenly, Teon felt the cold steel pierce his back and in a flash, the necromancer died to the blade of his idol.
The necromancers body fell to the cave floor, defeated and his soul harvested by the Pale God who he had spent his life avoiding.
Jordine sat for a moment in the cave floor and he thought to himself.-”I killed you...but you still won. You get to go to the Outerplanes child.”
Jordine lifted himself and picked up the jewel, as he looked at it, he said to it. -”Jargolataur, you old bastard...I should have known you still had a final trap ready for me.”
The old knight cleaned his sword and as he saw the diseased creatures that had given him so much trouble, he sat with them outside their cages.
The skeleton knight sighed and once more talked to his old nemesis, trapped within his jewel. -”Now I don't know if what he said is true or not, but as far as I can tell, until I can come with a better solution we are yet again on an stalemate...just like old times huh?”
Jordine looked at the diseased ridden creatures and said to them. -”Now you lot are bad, but what he did to you, it's not right.
You lot made a man out of me. I'll make you some company before you go to the Outerplanes, when you get there, say hi to Empress Gwen for me. And in a way...thank you.”
Jordine gave a half-imperial salute to the creatures as to dismiss them.
He then pondered his fate as he looked to his jewel and he said to himself. -”I guess until I decide what to do with you, we won't go anywhere, but don't you worry. I got a long time to decide.”