Soldiers of the Heavens

by Stephen L. Nowland

  “I thought you might,” Aiden muttered, walking closer to the strange device and gazing at it thoughtfully. The idea of having the sharp protrusions stabbing into him was repulsive, but he had given it serious consideration over breakfast.

  “What exactly are the risks?” Aiden asked. “If death was likely, I doubt you would be recommending me to go through with it.”

  “Correct,” Terinus replied with a slight bow of his head. “Records show adult subjects were prone to debilitating malaise, both physical and mental. Death occurred only twice out of twenty volunteers, but nobody came through unscathed.”

  “Charming, count me out,” Aiden said with a shake of his head.

  “Do not underestimate the benefits,” Terinus warned. “Your power would be magnified considerably, for you would have access to energies far greater than your body can produce.”

  “You need my knowledge more than I need to become actively involved in your battle, yes?”

  “Ultimately, yes,” Terinus lamented. “Shortly before you arrived your companions informed me of their decision to join, so we have adequate assistance in this regard.”

  “Thank you,” Sayana said, accepting the compliment whether it was intended as such or not.

  “I cannot, however, guarantee your safety should you refuse the procedure. I have no doubt it will be uncomfortable and even painful, but I calculate the possibility of your untimely death as relatively low.”

  “It’s simply not worth the risk,” Aiden answered with finality. “I’ll make do with whatever equipment you have in your vault.”

  “As you wish,” Terinus said with only a hint of disapproval. “I offered this simply as an alternative. I will leave it to your discretion whether or not to risk further transformation, should you have need of your abilities.”

  “…Right,” Aiden remarked grimly, giving the odd device one more glance before firmly deciding against it.

  “Has it even been used on a human before?” Sayana asked curiously. “History suggests only elves were ever subjected to it.”

  “Indeed,” Terinus rasped. “Your half-human heritage makes you, in fact, the only non-elven being to survive the procedure.”

  “Now I’m really certain I don’t want to go through with it,” Aiden said.

  “Don’t worry, I will protect you,” Sayana assured him.

  “Well, look who’s come down with a serious case of confidence,” Pacian remarked. “A few days ago, you couldn’t wait to get rid of those things snaking along your skin.”

  “Because now, the power is mine to control,” Sayana explained. “Nobody can take it away from me or use me as their puppet ever again, and I only hope I have enough strength to give these sa’quaarin a taste of their own medicine for the evils they have wrought upon this world.”

  “The strength and courage of my lineage lives on, it seems,” Terinus voiced in admiration. “You do our people proud.”

  “Don’t patronise me,” Sayana snapped, levelling a stare back at him. “I may be distantly related to you, but entire generations of good elven men and women lived and died between us. I carry Akoran blood in my veins, and in spite of everything they’ve done, I prize my connection to them more than I ever will to you. I despise you and everything you stand for. Had I been in your position one and a half millennia ago, I would have died rather than work for these monsters you describe. You are a coward.”

  An awkward silence hung in the air after she finished speaking, but Terinus hadn’t flinched during or after.

  “We are wasting time,” he rasped without emotion. “Gather around, and I shall teleport us to the vault.”

  Robert gave Sayana a curious look, but her attention was still focused on her living ancestor. They joined the rest in a circle, with Terinus at the centre. The wizard began incanting a complex spell and a few moments later a flash of violet light engulfed Aiden’s senses. It cleared away within a heartbeat, revealing the change in their surroundings.

  The brightness of the morning sun streaming in through the tower windows had vanished, replaced with an oppressive darkness. Nellise and Sayana quickly dispelled it with the summoning of their supernatural lights, which revealed familiar walls of a dark metal, pitted and marked with age. They were in a small, circular chamber with a single open doorway leading into a large, dark area beyond. A unique-looking sigil was inscribed upon the surface beneath their feet.

  “This way,” Terinus remarked rather obviously, leading them through the only possible path forward. The click of his staff striking the floor echoed throughout the chamber, adding weight to the impression they were deep within the earth.

  “It’s the same design as the place I saw near Feybourne,” Aiden remarked, his voice sounding cold and empty within the vastness of the chamber. “The caves in Akora are just like this, too.”

  “Curious,” Sayana remarked quietly, running her fingers along deep scratches in the arch as she walked past.

  “Sa’quaarin bunkers like this are not uncommon throughout Feydwiir,” Terinus remarked as he they passed through the larger chamber. “Long ago, they were a thriving hub of exploration and mining, providing precious metals and rare gems to our unseen overlords. Towering constructs tirelessly excavated day and night, while the primitive societies of men and elves toiled above. All of these sites are now abandoned, more or less. Extensive mining has rendered many of them unsafe for continued use, and others have been converted into vaults—”

  His voice abruptly stopped as a faint stream of misty light froze the wizard on the spot. More streams of light engulfed everyone else, paralysing them in an instant. Aiden glanced around in alarm, noticing he was the only one unaffected. The runes sewn into his robe, which had once belonged to his mentor the Archmage Desmond Foster, burned with arcane light as they countered the magical assault.

  “What do I do?” he asked of Terinus, a futile action which was met with silence. Aiden rushed around to face the wizard directly, and noticed his eyes were still able to move. They darted back and forth between Aiden and the floor directly at their feet. Glancing down, he saw a small metal device, not unlike a wand sitting at the wizard’s feet.

  Aiden picked it up and noticed the increasingly familiar language of the sa’quaarin upon it. One of the sigils indicated the word “deactivate”, but the context was baffling. Still, it was enough for Aiden to assume its function and why Terinus had it with him.

  He raised it up towards the source of the light and traced the pattern of the sigil upon the device’s smooth surface. The misty light ceased instantly, releasing his friends from its cruel grasp. They inhaled deeply and staggered around, barely conscious after being deprived of air for almost a minute.

  “Thank you,” Terinus rasped, his voice more hoarse than usual. He held out a black-gloved hand, into which Aiden placed the device. “Another minute and we would have suffocated.”

  “You didn’t mention anything about this place being trapped,” Aiden pointed out as he made sure the others were okay.

  “I am aware of the security measures in place, but they should not have been triggered in my presence. Something is very wrong here.” He gestured with the small device, causing the wall to split open. The ground vibrated as two massive doors parted, revealing another large chamber beyond.

  Their meagre lights barely showed enough to draw any conclusions, but what they saw was not promising. Towering storage containers cast looming shadows across a scene of destruction. Pieces of twisted metal and other strange materials were scattered across the floor and the air was filled with the acrid smell of something recently burnt. Terinus stared around in open mouthed shock. A number of cabinets lined one wall with their doors ripped away. He began moving from one to the next as if it were his own home.

  “I’m guessing your vault isn’t supposed to look like this,” Robert remarked blandly, as he kicked a piece of blackened metal across the ground.

  “Some unscrupulous bastards clearly broke in and stole everyt
hing,” Pacian added. “Then wrecked whatever they couldn’t take. I don’t think we’re getting any shiny presents anytime soon.”

  “People do not simply break into a sa’quaarin vault,” Terinus spat. “This edifice resides half a mile below the surface, with no connecting tunnels allowing outside access. The only way in or out is teleportation magic, which is impossible without knowing of its existence.” He turned his gaze to the far wall where a console crackled with sparks at random intervals, and began making his way there. “See if you can reset that generator, Aiden,” he said, pointing at a tall metal cylinder nearby.

  Aiden hurried over to it and pulled the Lexicon out of his pouch. The small box had proven invaluable over the years, providing him with the insights necessary to learn the sa’quaarin language, and to understand their devices as well. He had encountered generators such as this several times in the past, but had never tried to repair one.

  He spent a few moments flipping through the ephemeral pages of the Lexicon searching for information on the generator. Once he located the relevant section, Aiden quickly determined the generator’s basic functionality and pressed several sigils on its cracked surface. A side panel came away from the base of the cylinder with a hiss of released air. Attached to the inside of the panel was a metal brace, within which sat a thin blue crystal just over a foot in length.

  His knowledge of the internal workings was shaky at best, but Aiden was fairly certain the series of cracks running through the crystal weren’t supposed to be there.

  “We need another one of these, I think,” he said, pulling the crystal out and holding it up in one hand.

  “There used to be spares on those shelves, Terinus replied grimly. “I think it is safe to presume they have been taken or destroyed. I may need to return to my laboratory to bring a replacement.”

  “The crystal generates power?” Sayana asked mildly, receiving a nod from Aiden in reply.

  “Yes, but not a lot,” he mused. “There is a process which occurs inside the cylinder itself, and this appears necessary to start it.”

  Sayana peered into the open panel and after a moment of consideration, placed one of her hands inside the breach. A spark of energy flared from within, and several lights began blinking at Aiden from the panel above. He quickly tapped them and a moment later, a humming sound emerged from within the cylinder as it flared to life, shedding a faint blue radiance as motes of energy danced around inside the clear casing.

  “Clever,” Aiden remarked to Sayana as she withdrew her hand. The panel slid shut and the radiance from the generator increased.

  “I’m all kinds of useful,” she replied with a faint smile.

  “Excellent,” Terinus murmured, and the entire chamber was suddenly bathed in light. Glowing stones embedded in the walls shed a brilliant white radiance allowing them to see the entire contents of the vault. The devastation was far more complete than they had initially been led to believe, and it appeared nothing of value remained.

  “Whatever came through here had enough strength to bend iron,” Robert remarked grimly, “or whatever this metal is. Are we sure we want to know what did this?”

  Terinus remained fixated on his console, his face lit by an eerie blue light and his hands darting feverishly across the smooth surface. He held still for a long moment, then pulled himself away from the device and let out a cry of frustration. Aiden was taken aback by the rare display of raw emotion.

  “What is it?” he asked.

  “Words cannot express my rage,” Terinus rasped angrily, whirling around to tap the console with his fingers once more. Moments later, an image appeared above the device, hovering in the air much in the same manner as the pages of the Lexicon would. Instead of words or sketches, the misty image was of the chamber just outside the one in which they presently stood. The detail and clarity of the image was as good as if viewing it with their eyes. It was roughly two yards across, and the point of view was high above the ground.

  “I have altered the viewing device to show us events which took place here nearly two months ago,” Terinus grated, staring up at the image hovering above him. “Witness the culprit in action, and judge the magnitude of the deception for yourself.”

  “How—” Nellise asked but was hushed by the ancient wizard. Aiden watched the vision closely for a few moments, unsure what they were supposed to be seeing until the area depicted in the image flashed violet. In the same entry chamber Aiden and the others had used stood half a dozen men, one of whom was clearly recognisable.

  “Is that… Osric?” Nellise asked with incredulity. Aiden’s eyes narrowed with seething hatred as the young king of Tulsone walked into the room as if he owned the place. It was an eerie sensation, observing the men move through the chamber as if watching it transpire for real. Behind the men, the huge construct Aiden had seen at Fairloch loomed into view. Its shoulders scraped along the side of the arch, scattering sparks and debris across the floor as it struggled to fit through the wide door.

  “I told you there was no need for undue concern, Captain,” Osric said in accented Aielish to one of the men. They were clad in heavy iron armour and carried quality weapons, but there was an odd look to them. “My associate has no interest in sending me to my death.”

  “I’m getting sick of your promises,” the captain growled to him. “If we don’t see a payout from this place—”

  “Don’t bore me with idle threats,” Osric interrupted. “Your patience will be repaid tenfold with the bounty we have uncovered here.” He raised an arm and gestured at the great doors just outside the image’s frame. The faint sound of the doors rumbling open could be heard, and the men disappeared from view, with the giant golem close behind.

  “How did he get in here?” Nellise asked incredulously.

  “His ‘associate’, evidently,” Pacian purred dangerously. The image hovering above them changed, revealing a scene from the large chamber they now stood in, but before it had been ransacked. Osric and his entourage moved through the area, pulling a variety of weapons, armour and other strange pieces of equipment from the shelves, celebrating their good fortune.

  On Osric’s command, the construct stomped past the towering cabinets and seemed to head straight towards Aiden and the others. It loomed larger and larger, and just when it was about to blot out their view, it pulled back its tremendous fist and the image suddenly vanished. Standing in near-silence once more, Aiden and the others were left to contemplate this disturbing development.

  “Now we know where Osric found the wealth to hire all those mercenaries,” Aiden remarked absently.

  “I’m more concerned about the contents of these lockers,” Robert said. “What exactly was stored here?”

  “Most of this place was empty,” Terinus answered, “but there was enough here to outfit a small group with exceptional power. It is now in the hands of a despicable man, and his mercenaries, paid for with the extensive wealth found within these walls. I fear events beyond my current understanding are taking place, and I need to learn what is going on.”

  “None of this explains where he obtained that construct,” Nellise added. “We’re missing something.” Feeling a little out of their depth, Aiden and the others looked to Terinus for guidance. The wizard shut down the lights, leaving them bathed only in the radiance of their personal magic.

  “I know where to find the answers,” Terinus rasped reluctantly. “There are other individuals like myself, and there is one in particular who is far less reluctant to provide the sa’quaarin with what they need. I had hoped to avoid contact in case my plans are discovered, but I don’t think we have a choice. I knew there was some involvement with Osric, yet I have evidently underestimated the extent.

  “It is forbidden for us to bring outsiders to places such as this — I brought you here as an act of defiance, one I sincerely hope is not discovered until too late. Osric having access to this room months ago sheds new light on his recent appearance in Fairloch. Brace yourselves as I tel
eport us once more.”

  “Where are we going this time?” Aiden inquired cautiously.

  “To the one place I had hoped to never see again — Le Tower Noir,” Terinus answered, and then began the incantation which would whisk them to some other place.

  Once the flash of violet light subsided, Aiden glanced around at their new surroundings and was surprised to see them back in the Black Tower, only this time there were subtle differences. The mood was far less oppressive. More light shined through larger windows and there was a decidedly feminine touch to the décor.

  “Watch what you say and do here,” Terinus advised in a low voice. “Things are not as they seem.”

  “I appear to have uninvited guests,” came a woman’s voice from the hall outside. It was husky and carried a heavy Tulsonite accent to it. “Has my old paramour returned for a little entertainment?”

  “Spare me your playful banter, Veronique,” Terinus replied as the owner of the tower swayed into the doorway. It was the same woman Aiden had seen at Fairloch, accompanying Osric and the colossal golem… right before they had taken Criosa away.

  The woman, Veronique, wore a long black dress which hugged and complemented her curves. Her eyes were a curious amber colour, and her ears ended with a slight point at the top. Clearly the recipient of elven blood from her ancestors, her entire persona exuded seduction and forbidden delights.

  “My my, you appear to have brought guests to my home Terry,” Veronique remarked with disappointment. “Can I assume you are here for business, not pleasure?”

  “Quite,” Terinus said while Aiden struggled to pull his eyes from her. “We need to discuss matters of importance.”

  “When don’t you,” Veronique sighed. “Come in, I have a few topics of interest for you, as well.” Terinus cautiously entered the room, while Veronique gave Aiden an appraising glance as he walked past. There was a look in her eyes which stood out in stark contrast to her voluptuous appearance, giving Aiden the distinct impression they had just walked into a very dangerous situation.