I'd awoken early that next day and spent the morning with Marley.

We reaffirmed the things we had agreed upon and the older man had warned me repeatedly to be careful.

I had eventually had to leave to go get the horses from the inn.

After they had been hitched to my wagon and as I was about to set off on my journey, Jessep had approached to give me a small cask of ale that he and the other workmen had bought for me.

It was a small thanks for what I had done for them, for putting new life into the business, for them being able to get their jobs back.

I'd been touched but thought I'd hidden it well.

I'd thanked them all and assured them that it had been not trouble, they in turn claimed it was just a bribe to get rid of me.

Naturally I had told them all I was glad to be seeing the last of them and hoped never to have to do so again.

Such is the way of men.

I'd put the cask away in the back of the wagon then finally headed out of the workyard.

I had a little trouble manoeuvring the wagon through the town but I eventually managed to break free and get out onto the western road, then it was just myself, my horses and the wagon.

One of the first things I did, when no one was within sight, was address a problem I had with a temporary solution.

A lord needed attendants, he needed those who he could set tasks to be carried out in his name and in this case, a lord needed someone to drive his wagon for him.

Thus Tep was born just as soon as I created him.

I closed off the partition to the inner part of the driver's cabin, as if Lord Al Edo was within and simply wished for privacy.

The illusion washed over me and my features changed but the good quality work clothes I wore remained the same.

I was now Tep, my own driver, or rather I was in service to the mysterious Lord Al Edo who, for all anyone else would knew, was probably behind and inside the cabin enjoying his privacy.

I exchanged nods with several passers by, partly to be friendly and partly because I felt that a mere driver would have no problem doing so socially.

I was more conscious than ever before that as I travelled, I would have to be Tep when Tep was called for and I would have to be Lord Al Edo and all that he should be too.

I had been very free and easy with my role as Lord Al Edo during my time in Moreland's Rest, I hadn't really considered my time here as a beginning to my plans in that regard. It had been more like a place to finalise my preparations than a place to grow into my role of Lord Al Edo.

Lord Al Edo might be a mysterious and strange foreign lord, he would have his own quirks and 'customs', but he was still a lord, one who would not drive his own wagon, nor would he be nodding a greeting to every passing farmer on his cart.

The customs and behaviours I would have as Al Edo were half based on reality, albeit a reality of the past.

I had pulled most from my knowledge of Orlette, the place that Althalan had called home.

Not all of the ways and customs I would display were from Orlette, some where of my own design and hopefully would be to my advantage. I hoped that they would cover for any missteps I might make as I brought life into Lord Al Edo.

I had had a lot of time to consider my role and would have even more as I travelled, and travel is what I did.

As Tep, I followed the long western road and didn't stop until the sun began to set.

While the wagon was designed to fit a role, I cannot say I was disappointed at having such luxuries to myself.

That first night, I had pulled into a roadside clearing, one of the many on the well maintained and more well travelled roads in the kingdom of Gresh. I had first cared for the horses, they were tied out and given food and water.

I'd then retired to the back of the wagon and set about feeding and watering myself.

With the vast amount of food and drink I had hoarded away into the wagon's hidden chest, I dined as a nobleman would that night.

Rich cuts of pheasant, fresh bread, a selection of cheeses at my disposal, far too many sweet cakes and some wine to wash it all down.

It was only my first day of travelling but I felt surprisingly exhausted, I had snuffed and covered the lights after pulling down the bed and had been out in minutes.

The next day was much like the first, though there were less people on the roads and I had taken my lunch from the cabinet that was housed within the cabin. I had eat a more reasonable amount of food for my evening meal that second night and continued to do so as I went on.

The days went by and were filled with a monotony that, at first had been a refreshing change. I had enjoyed the journey, watching the trees sway gently in the wind as the road lengthened behind me. I spotted the occasional rabbit scurrying away but soon enough I became bored with the tedious repetition

I understood why those who drove wagons would stop to talk or freely take on passengers, they were desperate for any kind of distraction.

The pleasant landscape changed as the farmlands were left behind and I entered the Moreland Forest in truth once more, what had been large cleared landscapes of fertile farmland were replaced by the huge and ancient trees that my road cut through.

I had to pick and choose my stopping times as the cleared waysides by the sides of the road were more infrequent here, if I found one anywhere within sight of sunset then I would stop early and pull my wagon into it, rather than risk having to struggle leading the horses through the darkness in hopes of finding the next.

I had only seen one other travelling wagon the past few days and it had been heading back the way I had come.

It was one night when I had stopped for the evening, though the sun had only just been setting, that something out of the ordinary occurred.

I had decided that after tending to the horses that I would spend my evening outside of the wagon, with a small fire and a simple meal as I had done all those years ago.

I'd taken some time and I had gotten my fire going.

Then I'd set a small pot of rice and vegetables to cooking and I had dragged out from further within the forest to sit on.

I was still close to the road, but just inside the treeline behind my wagon.

For the last ten minutes or so, while the sun had begun to truly leave and give way to the night, I had been trying to read while my food cooked.

At first I couldn't get comfortable enough, and so I'd shifted around a little.

Then I found myself having to reread the words on the page because I wasn't truly focusing upon them.

Then I noticed that horses seemed slightly restless tied to their spot, but there was something more, something that was unsettling me. It was only now that I realised it, that I also realised that this feeling had been creeping up on me for a while.

I felt a frown on my face as I set down my book and stood slowly.

I looked around into the dark trees but didn't see much of anything, I strained my ears and tried to ignore the unsettled huffs and snorts of the horses.

When I let my other senses flow out from within myself I cast my awareness out in all directions and still there was nothing.

No person was lurking behind the trees, no animals or dangerous beasts were creeping upon me.

I stood still for what must have been five minutes, my mind beyond my body, my body attuned to the mundane.

I began to notice what was wrong.

The magic in the air was off.

It was hard to understand what I could feel at first but I eventually came to the realisation that there were empty places.

Small motes, like spores almost, that held none of the raw forces of the world.

They seemed to flow slowly to me, moving gently before simply vanishing?

Being empty as they were, it was probably more accurate to sat that they unvanished.

As if they were suddenly filled and so ceased to be the empty drifting motes that they were.

I realised that these odd specs of emptiness seemed to be drifting their way not in my direction but simply drifting out from further within the trees, I just happened to be here.

Now that I knew what I was looking for, or rather, what had unsettled me, I was able to pull back my focus and come back to myself.

I took a moment to take my food off of the fire and to pat and murmur the to horses in an attempt to reassure them.

Then I turned to face the deeper forest.

The Moreland Forest was vast.

I was travelling through it on one of the many roads and soon I expected to come upon another one of the villages or towns that were within it's expanse.

These towns and villages weren't quite in the Moreland Forest though, not really, because each town or village had several things in common.

The people who lived there or had founded their homes had cleared out to trees around them.

They had needed to to make space for crops, this left each town or village with several miles at least of cleared land surrounding them.

Adding to that, there were the roads, while the roads themselves were usually well maintained, at least most of the larger ones were, they too were just more space that had been cleared of trees and were usually well traveled.

They had no real order in their placement though, instead they were more reactionary and had been cut out as needed simply to connect one place to another.

This ended up leaving Moreland Forest, the giant expanse of ancient woodlands, with roads cutting through it at seemingly random places.

It provided a way to travel freely from one town to a village but left a lot of the Moreland Forest entirely untouched.

Without any real need to go there, why would a humble villager want to traverse into it's true depths?

It was also less safe the further in you travelled, as the deeper parts of the forest were left unclaimed by any peoples of the world, they were left as wild places.

There were your more mundane animals and beasts through all of the forest but as you went deeper into its depths, you would encounter stranger, more dangerous things.

Even some of the plants were known to be threats to those unfortunate enough to encounter them.

I didn't really expect to find anything I couldn't handle, not being so close to the road as I was, but this magical disturbance was out of the ordinary.

As I wandered in deeper into the dark trees, the spots of emptiness became more common, it was easy to follow them from where ever it was they were coming from.

I was just too curious and wanted to discover the source and so I should have been more prepared than I was.

Instead of stopping to think things through, I pushed on, my boots crunching and rustling as they carried me over the under brush and leaf-litter

It was becoming increasingly difficult to see and so I raised a hand, a small orb of light coalescing to hover over my palm, then with a gesture, I flung it out to hover in the air some distance in front of me.

It kept it's distance in front of me as I moved forwards and I made sure to avoid looking directly at it, not wanting to blind myself to all else.

I moved through the trees steadily after that without anything to imped my progress, time went by with nothing but the increasing number of empty spots to mark any difference.

Then I started to smell something.

It was a sweet and sour smell, faint at first but as I kept my course in following the empty motes as they moved in my direction, the smell increased in intensity.

My inner mind recognised what it was before I did, I became slightly nervous even before I realised that the smell was the smell of death.

The smell of rotting flesh, of something foul.

I stopped in place and the only sound I could hear was my own breathing.

I listened hard for any signs that I wasn't alone and after several minutes I had almost convinced myself that the smell might simply be a dead animal, something that happened naturally out here in the woods.

Almost, but not quite, even as I forced myself to acknowledge that these empty spots weren't just something to be dismissed, I spotted something.

On the ground, about ten feet away from me, I saw a boot.

That wasn't all though, I could clearly see that the twigs and other small forest fall had been disturbed enough to reveal the loamy earth beneath.

This wasn't the origin point either, I could see now that I was looking for them that something had been dragged through this place, dragged from back in the direction I had walked but clearly had not noticed the signs.

Either someone dragged something through here and lost their boot, but inside, I knew that really, it was the other way around.

It had been something that had dragged someone through here.

A someone who had worn boots, a person.

My heart began to pick up its drumming in my chest and I licked my suddenly dry lips.

Rather than follow in the general direction the empty spots seemed to be coming from, I instead moved to follow the tracks.

The stench grew thicker as I moved under the dark trees, so much so that my eyes began watering.

I didn't even need to cast out my senses to feel the empty spots in the air, they were everywhere, almost too many of them to be comfortable.

I froze in place when I spotted something else.

My first feeling was one of rising horror at what I thought what a man-sized spider clinging to the side of an enormous tree trunk.

As I held still, my watering eyes eventually let me see what was truly there.

It wasn't a spider but was in fact a humanoid creature clinging to the bark of the tree trunk, I'd mistaken it for a spider because it's grey-black coloured limbs were long, thin and spindly.

The position it held left it's joints sharply folded as it hunched up against the tree.

It was then that I realised that it wasn't alone either.

A second was on another tree, it was actually much closer than the first I had spotted. I could even see that where a person would have fingers that ended in nails, these... things, had fingers that ended in talon-like tips.

Tips that they used to dig into the bark of the trees to hold them in place, tips that were no doubt extremely strong and very sharp.

I saw a third much further back, only discernible by it's odd shape against the tree. I then spotted the movement of yet another, it's silhouette standing out starkly because my floating orb of light was some distance behind it already.

I felt the hairs on my neck stand on end, not just at it's unexpected proximity but at the way the creature moved.

There was something distinctly unsettling in the inhuman movements, almost spasmodic, jerking movements, that didn't seem wild or uncontrolled but instead closer to something more insect-like.

The moving creature that was walking towards me, it stood probably four feet tall, it's head was too large for it's thin body and even though it was simply a silhouette to my eyes, I could clearly see the pointed tips that the fingers ended in.

I made a mistake, one that I didn't figure out until later.

I pulled my orb of light back to me, wanting to illuminate this thing, wanting to dispel that instinctual human fear of the dark, that fear of the unknown.

As my pale orb moved back in my direction, it had to pass by the creature and as it did so, the orb of light, my magic orb of light simply vanished and plunged me into darkness.

There was complete and utter silence in the darkness, I realised that for some unknown amount of time that even the normal sounds of a night time forest had been absent.

No insects, no shuffling of nocturnal animals, absolutely no sound at all save for the gentle rustling of the leaves high above.

Then a horrifying sound rang out, one that was quickly echoed several times over by more than the number of the creatures than I had actually spotted.

It was a sound that what somewhere between that last stuttering gurgle of water empting from a basin and the hiss of an enraged snake, only the volume was far far louder.

It was the hunting cry of these forest horrors.

I reacted as I thought many would have done in my situation.

I wanted the light back, something deep inside that made me human instantly rejected the darkness and made me grasp for illumination.

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I was also absolutely certain that one of the creatures was already diving towards me, I expected to feel the sharp talons sink into me in an instant.

It was something I just felt in my heart.

As I jumped backwards my arms lashed out and with their movement a red hot woosh of flame flew out from me, throwing the darkness of the forest into an orange glow for a moment.

I was able to see that the creature hadn't moved towards me much further before my thrown burst of flame burned out.

The flame seem to vanish too quickly, much faster than it should have done.

I turned my palms upwards and instead of wild flame, two concentrated balls of swirling fire appeared above them.

The light they gave off was enough for me to see by, at least to see my immediate area.

I could see the closest creature in more detail now, the most startling thing about it's appearance was it's enormous eyes.

They were the size of my fist and I could see the glow of my fireballs reflected in their completely black and glossy surface.

Even as I met it's eyes, it moved forward in a more aggressive way and I knew it was attacking in earnest now.

I threw both of my flaming orbs at the thing and something unexpected happened.

Rather than the two orbs of condensed flame hitting the creature and burning it, as my orbs of flame were just about to make contact with the creature they somehow untangled, as if they had lost their cohesion.

The condensed orbs fell apart into a wild roar of loose flame, a flame that singed the creature but didn't even slow it down.

Panicked, I threw two more fireballs as I backed up hurriedly.

The same thing happened again, only the creature let out another horrifying cry, one that I felt was more anger than pain.

With another gesture, I threw more magic at it, but this time rather than flame I sent out a razor sharp blade of air at the creature's chest.

Again, what I expected to happen, didn't.

I expected the blade of air to cut neatly through the thin abdomen of the thing, I expected it to drop dead in two parts that would fall to the forest floor.

What happened instead was that as my deadly blade of air was just about to cut into the creature, it fell apart rather than the creature.

What should have been hard and sharp enough to bisect the creature ended up coming loose and a half condensed mass of air impacted like a blunt object against the creature's chest.

It knocked the thing back easily enough, it tumbled backwards but was almost immediately scrambling back upright.

I raised both my arms and an explosion of lights shot out from me in all directions.

Pale orbs of light flew out and stopped randomly in place, some floating in the air, others coming to rest against the underside of the canopy and some, some simply vanished.

I was left with more than enough light to see by though.

I took in my situation in an instant, even as the foe I had been trying to fight was moving towards me once more, screaming out it's horrifying cry.

More of the creatures than I had seen before were in sight now, and at least three of them were moving in my direction while others scuttled about but hung back.

I threw out a single large blade of air at the creatures that were coming at me, and like before, as soon as it was just about to hit them, to cut into the things, it unravelled and became simply a blunt club of air instead of the sharp killing blade I had intended.

All but the furthest of the creatures went down, having been knocked over by the unintended lance of air. The furthest simply screeched out a noise as it stumbled slightly and then sprinted faster than any of the others had, in my direction.

Even as I was still stumbling backwards in a panic the thing ate up the space between us.

I raised one of my hands about to send another ineffective blade of air at the thing, if only to buy some more time and distance between us when I thought struck me.

I reached down with my other hand and pulled out the knife at my belt.

I sent out more air but rather than a blade of air to cut the creature and presumably send it off it's feet and flying backwards, I sent out the lance it would turn into instead.

It was even less effective than the other attempts but as the creature was almost upon me, the lance dissipated quickly but had enough force left behind it to slow the creature almost to a stop.

It gave me enough time to bring my other hand swinging down and sink my belt knife into the top of the thing's skull.

The sound of the blade stabbing through it's skull was a sickening crunch, like the sound made when you stepped on a bug, only louder.

If I hadn't had more pressing problems, the feeling of the bottom of my hand as it gripped the knife, sinking slightly into the shattered head that gave way under the force of my blow, would have made me vomit at any other time.

As things stood though, I had only enough presence of mind to watch as the creature's screech was cut off and the thing dropped lifeless to the ground.

As I continued to back up I realised three things atop of one another.

Firstly, I realised what these things were.

I had read about them though I never hoped to see one in person.

They were known as Geliks, small humanoid creatures that fed on death and magic.

I didn't know much about them other than the basics that had been written in one of my books and what had been written there was not much more than a mere footnote.

The second thing I realised was that my magic would be almost completely useless if I used it directly on them, the reason my magic failed as it got close to touching them was because the magic was being consumed by them.

More mundane methods of attack would work just fine though, assuming I wasn't swarmed by the things, my belt knife had proven that much to be true.

That brought me to the third thing I realised.

As I had backed up I had foolishly left my knife stuck in the skull of the gelik I had killed and now I was surrounded by the things without a blade to strike them with.

I turned and ran.

As I ran, I threw out orbs of light, better to see where I was going rather than trip on a tree root in the darkness.

Better yet, if an orb winked out into nothing it would tell me that clearly there was a gelik close to that place.

In between casting out orbs of light, I threw out blades of air in random directions.

I hoped that I could hit any geliks that managed to get close to me, if not to kill them then to at least throw them back as my magic lost it's power upon finding a target.

I was stalling to give myself time to think.

Running through the forest, the darkness surrounding me as I desperately tried to illuminate my surroundings and at the same time throwing out deadly but ineffectual blades of air that I heard smash into the bark of trees more often than not, was not the best situation to try to think of something that might save my life.

My heart was pounding in my chest, my breathing was heavy and I stumbled more than a few times before something managed to form in my mind.

I quickly changed the direction I was heading and sprinted back towards the most brightly lit part of the forest, the spot I had first come into contact with the geliks.

I kept up my steady stream of light orbs and air blades as I ran, trying to ignore the ever tightening noose that the creatures were forming around me.

I blocked out their screeches and just kept moving.

I burst into the lit area and had enough room to sprint to my fallen foe, I reached down and gasping for breath as I ripped my belt knife from the crumbled skull of the dead gelik.

I spun in place, throwing out powerful blades of air, far more power than I had earlier.

The first few geliks to catch up to me were thrown backwards and completely off their feet while the next ones were simply pushed backwards into a stumble.

Looking up, I sent out another blade of air into the canopy above and moved out of the way as a thick branch fell down to thump loudly onto the earth.

Throwing out more blades of air in all directions, I moved to the fallen branch.

I spotted an offshoot that was the right size for my purpose and sent one of the powerful blades of air that I had been about to throw at the geliks, in its direction instead.

The blade was far too powerful for the purpose I needed it for, it did cut through the branch, which is what I intended, but it continued through the branch and cut deep into the earth below.

It gave me another idea.

I spun around, making a punching gesture with the hand that wasn't gripping my belt knife, my will sinking into the earth and smashing up huge chunks.

The soil, stones, twigs and leaves sprayed out in all directions as I turned and hammered my power down into the ground at an angle.

The debris flew out to the encircling geliks and pelted them.

No magic was in my flying weapons to be dispelled, simply fast moving earth and stones was all that there was and they could do nothing but screech, be hit or try to dodge.

I yanked up the limb of the branch I had cut, a sharp gesture with the hand holding my belt knife, sent a circular blade of air along it's length, cutting off most of the offshoots and leaving me with a gnarled staff of sorts.

Three more blades of air directed at the tip of the wood, in between three other powerful but wild blades sent out to my foe and I had a rough but useable spear in one hand and my belt knife in the other.

It wasn't ideal but I hoped it would be enough.

As the first gelik came in range, I thrust out my wooden spear and the starkly sharpened tip sank into it's oversized right eye.

I pulled it back and spun in place, my arm already swinging with me and in a downwards arc to sink my belt knife into the skull of the gelik that had almost reached me from behind.

I spun again, throwing out a single continuous blade of air, pushing back all the approaching geliks then with a gesture the earth erupted to my rear, showering those behind me.

I thrust forwards with my spear into the thin neck of another gelik, it's screech cutting off but it held my weapon with it's taloned grip.

I let go of it for a moment, stepping forward to sink my belt knife into the top of it's skull.

I had only enough time to yank my wooden spear out of it's neck before I had to throw out more magic to push away the rest.

Again and again I threw magic out as air then down into the ground to keep the geliks at bay at one side to give myself just enough time to fell one or two who came from another.

The screeching, the sound of my own roars of defiance along with tearing earth and shattering tree bark was all a haze.

I had to use small but quick blades of air to resharpen my crude spear three times, each time my spear decreased in length and my reach was shortened.

It was during the third sharpening that I took my first injury, one of the screeching creatures coming up beside me and digging it's talons down my arm viciously.

I struck out with my belt knife, a slash across it's face then back around with a heavy stab into the side of it's oversized head.

I fought on, my use of the earth had torn out a small ditch surrounding me, having to spin and lash out in all directions had left me with a small encircling moat, it was my only real line of defence and I ended up fighting on a small, self-created island beneath the trees.

I pulled my spear out of the guts of another gelik when I caught the movement of another out of the corner of my eye, unable to do anything else I swung my spear at it in a clubbing movement.

I hit the thing, a loud thwack as the wood impacted against the side of it's head, but it was followed instantly by a crack as my makeshift wooden spear snapped.

I felt talons rip down my back and I screamed in pain.

I spun wildly, throwing my shoulders around to dislodge the gelik that was clinging to my back.

It held fast and I had to jump into the air and intentionally down onto my back, my weight coming down hard onto the ground with the creature trapped between.

It was enough to stun the thing and I rolled away.

I looked around to see perhaps twenty more of the horrors still up and rapidly closing in.

I made a desperate move, I threw a huge amount of power into one of the nearby ancient trees. I sank heat and air deep into it's thick trunk, an overwhelming fury of power for the solid tree to hold.

At the same time, I scrambled forward into the ditch I had torn up during the course of the battle. I held over me an almost solid sheet of air and even as I closed my eyes and put my hands up shield my head, the sound of the tree exploding was like the world coming to an end.

I screamed both at the noise and at a sharp pain ripped through my left leg and I felt my hasty shield of air vanish. I was pelted by what I thought must have been falling chips of sharp and jagged wood and I curled into a ball in my ditch.

When I stopped screaming and unfolded myself long enough to look over the lip of my ragged ditch, I saw that the surrounding area was a ruin.

There was a small crater where the shattered and blasted stump of the tree remained, the earth around it was torn up and twisted.

Beyond that were the bodies and parts of bodies of the geliks.

Almost all of them were still but some of them, even some of the now unattached parts were twitching or shaking.

I saw three of the creatures that still looked mostly unharmed though two of them seemed as dazed as the things could be.

They were on all fours, blinking their enormous eyes rapidly.

The third was some distance away and looked to be trying to scramble up a tree.

I threw out a blade of air at the thing, which turned into a club as it was dispelled.

It was enough to knock the creature down and away from the tree through.

I got to my feet, or at least I tried to, as soon as my left foot tried to take any weight I was assaulted with pain than shot up my entire leg from my ankle.

I cried out and ended up on my knees.

After an unknown length of time, the sounds of the remaining geliks managed to snap me back into focus. I saw that my knife was close by and rather than reach for it, I used my magic to pull it to myself.

It twitched then snapped across the space between us and into my waiting palm.

I forced myself to kneel upright, wanting to finish this I wrapped my knife in air.

I took aim and sent my small belt knife flying through the distance between myself and the furthest of the creatures.

The magic was dispelled, but the knife wasn't.

Pulling the knife back to myself as the gelik dropped dead, I did this twice more until I was left alone, surrounded my ruin and death.

I just held myself still for a long time, the only sounds that accompanied my laboured breathing were the occasion scuffle of a twitching limb and a falling chip of the destroyed tree dropping down from the canopy above.

I eventually sat down and focused through the pain enough to send my magic deep within my injured leg.

I could feel the numerous other cuts and slashes over my body and while some of them really hurt, it was my leg that needed the most attention.

Slowly, ever so slowly, my hurt and resisting leg seemed to allow power to sink into it.

Begrudging at first, as it always was with healing, then slowly the magic worked around my snapped bone, I groaned aloud as I felt the bone move inside me, as my body used the magic to move it back into the correct place.

I could feel the sweat running from my hair, down over my face, down the sides of my cheeks and over my closed eyelids.

I endured and simply tried to keep breathing.

I was light-headed and faint by the time I felt my bone start to harden and rejoin but I didn't have to focus any more, I simply had to wait and so that is what I did.

In the ruin of the small battle I had had, I sat there and waited until I felt strong enough to move once more.

The boot I had found, the mess of the forest, the dead and dismembered geliks were all forcefully pushed out of my mind as I stood.

It could all wait for now.

I had a single goal in mind, I cut myself another length of wood, another staff but instead of turning it into a spear, I cleaned it up as best as I could and used it to support my still healing leg.

I slowly and laboriously made my way back through the forested battleground in the direction of my wagon, dispelling the mess of bright orbs as I moved.

It felt like snuffing out the candles in a room before you left.

I left the forest in darkness behind me as I made my way back out of it's depths.