by J C Maynard
“For the weapons;” said Selenora. “the explosives you want us to destroy when they’re shipped through the Great Gate.”
“Not exactly. However, we have confirmed that operation.”
“And are we notifying the Ferramish government?”
“We can’t.” he said.
“Why?”
“President Nebelle doesn’t trust King Tronum.”
“That’s true. But concerning Roshk, you said I was not fully correct?”
“Indeed. I believe the Queen is after something different. There was a confirmed break into the Network by the Cerebrian Guard in the goblin capital. They raided the library there. It was actually the week you were gone in the fjords. Take a look at the summary.”
Selenora hesitated. “What is she after?”
Mordvitch looked at the crimson and violet torchlight. “I don’t know, but I think President Nebelle does . . . give this a read.” With that, he left the room. A minute after, Grennkovff entered and sat down at the desk facing Selenora, who read the summary in front of him.
After she finished, she looked up. “Were you listening like I asked?”
Grennkovff leaned in closer. “Of course.”
“Thoughts?”
“The distrust amongst the leadership of the Evertauri is growing. Their thoughts and emotions betray them, and their Taurimous are unstable.”
Selenora played with a little crimson flame in her hand. “You see, when they are unsure of themselves, when they lose their confidence, we strike. The Taurimous is a manifestation of one’s soul, is it not? When they lack confidence, they are less powerful.”
“And you haven’t lost any confidence, Miss Everrose?” asked Grennkovff, wavering a bit on the words..
Selenora stared at him. “No. I know that Madrick will not be able to defeat us. We now have turned a third of the Evertauri to our side. We have an army of hundreds of powerful sorcerers. The Evertauri leaders sense something has been happening, and they are scared and confused.” She handed him the parchment. “Read it as you walk with me.”
“Where?”
“To my garden.”
The two walked for over an hour into the deep tunnels of the Network, far away from the Nexus. Here, the tunnels moved with the terrain of the underground; they winded and plunged and rose, taking them through caverns and across subterranean streams. Here, strange creatures clung to the ceiling and emitted a soft blue light, allowing them to walk without the light of their own Taurimous.
The two stopped where four stalactites hung in a perfect square. Grennkovff asked no questions and stood silently as Selenora held a small flame in her hand and pressed it against the cavern wall. Unlike the entrances to the Network that permitted the sorcerer to pass after a few seconds, Selenora held her crimson flame to the stone wall for what seemed like an hour; all the while, they remained silent.
The stone began to shimmer like water in moonlight, and Selenora turned her crimson flame white. The white fire left her hand and disappeared into the wall. After another minute, the white light returned, and Selenora, followed by Grennkovff, stepped through the stone like it was mist.
They had entered a cavern that went on endlessly, seeming to have no height or walls. The only light came from a faint red glow in the distance which illuminated the stone in front of them. The two walked toward the light. Grennkovff, having not heard a sound for two hours flinched when Selenora spoke. “I have brought you here because we are ready to take down the Evertauri. Our army of sorcerers is now large enough to take down Madrick Nebelle and form a New Evertauri.” As they walked, a strange presence grew inside of them, a feeling of both humility and power. Sensing the strangeness and sacredness of the cavern, Grennkovff dared not speak unless asked by Selenora. She stopped. “Remove your shoes.” Grennkovff obeyed and slipped them off as a flame from the ground underneath Selenora wrapped around her feet, causing her boots to vanish. They continued walking forward, barefooted on the stone. Grennkovff paused when he felt a blade of grass beneath his toes, and as they continued, more and more grass bent beneath their feet.
Up ahead, illuminated by the soft crimson light, small bushes appeared in the dark, and farther on, trees grew. From the smallest riverside sapling to towering pines. A strange force filled the air and coursed through their feet whenever they stepped. The two walked on the blanket of grass and through the subterranean forest, always toward the crimson light. The leaves and needles on the trees seemed to move toward Selenora as she walked. The light became brighter up ahead, and then they were there; beneath the canopy of trees, a bed of roses lay before them glowing bright crimson.
Selenora put up a hand, and Grennkovff stopped as she stepped forward into the bed of roses. Her feet passed through the roses as easily as the air as she walked to the center of the glowing bed, at the center of which sat a swirling pool of crimson light. As she walked she produced a crimson flash of light and cut her finger. Slowly, she reached down with her bleeding wound and touched the roses. The blood and cut vanished.
Selenora closed her eyes and stepped into the central pool of light where she spoke to Grennkovff, but not out loud; her words were in his mind. Do you feel it? The power and knowledge the Evertauri lacks. I have found it and created with it. This is purity. This is light and dark and the energy of everything. This is why we will overthrow them, to start anew and let the whole world see the power of this magic. The whole world will bow down to the Evertauri; the whole world will bow down to the power of the Tenebris.
The Battle for the Nexus
Chapter Seventeen
~Afternoon, October 1st
“Alright,” said Sir Kishk, the Evertauri trainer with the lazy eye. “Calleneck and Tallius have done this exercise before, but the rest of you are new to it.”
Calleneck, Tallius, Lillia, and Dalah, along with two other Evertauri stood in a semicircle around Kishk. Filling the dark cavern in which they stood was a massive goblin building from years ago. Half in ruins, the marvelously crafted building stood four stories tall and connected with many other tunnels to the Nexus. Sir Kishk had asked Calleneck and Tallius to join them in a game of “Find and Stun” to model for the newcomers to the Evertauri.
“The rules are as follows:” said Sir Kishk, who stood only a little over five feet tall. “You will enter the building one by one and hide until I send out the signal, then you will try and find your team and disable the other. I said disable, not hurt — I’m looking at you two.” he said to Calleneck and Tallius.
Kishk continued, “Use non-burning flames and sparks to fight each other. If you hit your opponent with your Taurimous and they can’t fight back, you win, and the loser exits the building and comes back down here. Last one standing wins for their team. This is to practice using your skills in combat.”
Sir Kishk looked to Calleneck and Tallius. “Since you two are veterans of this, I want you to be on separate teams — you’re captains.” Calleneck and Tallius smirked at each other, excited to compete again.
Calleneck noticed Tallius looking at Lillia and before he opened his mouth, Calleneck blurted out, “I call Lillia.”
Tallius looked at him with an open mouth and Calleneck grinned, having no reason to take Lillia other than to make Tallius jealous. Tallius chuckled and mouthed, “Watch your back.”
Calleneck laughed at Tallius and Lillia shook her head with a grin, perfectly aware of the two’s back and forth. Lillia had since been appointed to a position of overseeing supply shipments. Her training in sorcery from Kishk had gone well, and she had advanced far more quickly than most did in the realm of producing and controlling her Taurimous.
“Fine,” said Tallius, “I choose Dalah.”
Dalah furrowed her eyebrows and smiled. “Oh, don’t make that seem like I’m a burden.”
Tallius laughed, “Of course not, we’re gonna run circles around those two, Dalah.”
Kishk then put the remaining two Evertauri on each of their teams — Calleneck�
��s team member a young, freckled boy who currently had the hiccups, and Tallius’s, a man with a massive scar running from his eye to his chin. Kishk nodded, “Alright, let’s have the ladies enter first, and then you boys can figure it out.”
After a few minutes, Calleneck was the last to enter the goblin ruins. Walking up a staircase in near pitch black darkness to not give away his location, he stepped over the rubble from fallen pillars and walls. He turned into a side hallway and then into a small alcove between two pillars. Thirty seconds later, a bright purple light filled the entire cavern, the signal from Kishk to begin.
Calleneck closed his eyes and strained his ears to try and hear for anything. Tempted to move, he decided to wait until — there it was, a hiccup in the distance. Calleneck chuckled and rolled his eyes — the freckled boy on his team was close. Slowly, he crept out into the hallway and followed the faint noise of hiccups. After a few turns he settled on the room where the freckled boy was. He stepped in and the boy gasped.
“Hey, it’s me.” Calleneck said.
The boy sighed. “Do you know where anyone is yet?”
“No, you’re the first-” Calleneck dropped to the floor when he saw a stream of gold light blast through the room.
Turning around, Calleneck saw Dalah launch a golden fireball at him. Not having time to put up a shield, he rolled over and dodged it as the freckled boy panicked and tried to run past Dalah, who tripped him with a golden stream of Taurimous. Calleneck stood up just as Dalah sent another stream of light to tie up his hands.
Calleneck laughed, “You sneaky little-”
Dalah smiled and shot a stream of sparks at Calleneck, who created a shield of crimson light and pushed her over, tackling her.
Dalah too put her shield up and laughed from beneath Calleneck. “No fair, you weigh like a thousand pounds!”
Calleneck grunted and forced his shield around hers, bending hers and shattering it. Before she could retaliate, he used Dalah’s same trick and tied a stream of light around her torso, pinning down her arms. Calleneck stood up and smiled. “Hah. Now both of you get out of here, you lost.”
“Ugh.” Dalah grunted and followed the freckled boy out of the building.
Calleneck quickly left the scene and headed up another staircase to try and see if he could find any flashes of light. He stuck his head out of a half-crumbled stone turret window. Looking around the ruins, it was mostly dark. Then a flash of white light. Lillia is still in! Calleneck traced a quick line in his mind through the ruins and then set out toward it.
Running over a little bridge and through several corridors, he rounded a corner and emerged in a stairwell, where Lillia stood above him battling the man with the massive scar. “Lillia!” he shouted and he began running up the stairs. But just when he was about to reach her side, a giant wave of sapphire blue light threw him into the next room.
With a bruised shoulder, Calleneck stood up just in time to block another one of Tallius’s blows.
Tallius laughed. “Caught you off guard!” The two of them stood in a large rotunda with a domed roof and stone columns encircling them.
Calleneck smiled back at Tallius, grimacing as he shot a cloud of embers at Tallius like a thousand red fireflies.
Tallius pushed them aside with a tall and bright waterfall of light flowing upwards and charged at Calleneck with a spinning disc of Taurimous. Calleneck quickly dove down behind one of the stone columns. As the disc of Taurimous hit the column, it severed a crack halfway through the stone.
Calleneck stood up with wide eyes. “That could’ve killed me.”
Tallius grinned, “But it didn’t.”
Calleneck swirled fire around his fist and shook his head chuckling, “You son of a-”
“Wait! Ceasefire!” said Tallius.
Lillia entered the room with her hands up. “I lost to the guy with the scar. Sorry, just passing through.”
Tallius pointed at her. “You better not be lying and trying to sneak up on me.”
Lillia’s mouth dropped at the playful accusation.
Calleneck smiled at Tallius, “Looks like someone’s in trouble now.” He turned back to Lillia, wondering why she was still there. “Great Mother, Lillia, we’re still in the game.”
Lillia giggled, “Oh yes, sorry.” and left.
Almost immediately, Calleneck and Tallius launched equally, definitely unsafe, fireballs at each other. In total disregard to the rules, both launched another round of Taurimous embers at each other, resulting in burns on each of their arms. In an attempt to find back-up, Tallius spun away from Calleneck and ran down a side hallway to try and find his teammate with the scar.
Calleneck raced after Tallius with a crimson flame lighting the way. Following the sapphire blue glow of Tallius through the building, Calleneck was nearly out of breath when he heard Tallius’s scream.
Calleneck sprinted forward after he heard it and came to a dead halt behind him in a corridor. In front of Tallius on the ground, lay the man with the scar in a pool of blood. His chest cavity was open, and blood was spurting out.
Calleneck’s blood felt chilled. “What the hell did you do?”
Tallius shook his head in shock. “I didn’t do anything, he was just lying here like this when I found hi-”
“Watch out!” yelled Calleneck as a wave of orange sparks soared right between them. Calleneck looked down the corridor and saw a figure in a crimson red cloak with a horrifying black mask hiding its face. The masked attacker lifted its hands and orange embers slid along every wall toward them like a swarm of ants. The sparks filled the hallway with a burning heat as they approached from ahead and behind. Calleneck and Tallius stood back to back to produce massive waves of energy that burst all the embers.
The masked sorcerer sent another fireball towards them, which they blocked with shields of light. Tallius sent a disc of glowing Taurimous towards the crimson-cloaked man which bounced off the wall and sliced open his chest.
Tallius and Calleneck ran over to the man and grabbed him by the collar, ripping off his mask. As the sorcerer coughed up blood, Tallius pounded him into the ground. “Are there more of you?!” he shouted.
The sorcerer just laughed and coughed up more blood.
Tallius yelled again and smashed the crimson-cloaked sorcerer's head into the ground. “Tell us, dammit! Who are you following?! Is this Xandria’s work?”
The man smiled. “Even if you kill us, we’ll live forever . . . we’ll come back.” The man coughed up another spurt of blood and then fell silent, eyes glazed over.
Calleneck looked at Tallius with a horrified face. “We need to find the others.”
The two boys ran away from their attacker whose orange embers beside him fizzled out and died, leaving a corpse behind. Faster than Calleneck thought he could run, he and Tallius sprinted out of the building to find Lillia and Kishk fighting off a group or Evertauri with crimson cloaks and masks.
As they ran toward them, the boys sent two massive shockwaves of Taurimous light that rippled through the ground like lightning and sent the group of attackers flying. As soon as they hit the ground on their back, Sir Kishk finished them off with an enormous burst of lilac light.
Tallius hugged Lillia and Calleneck ran up to Sir Kishk. “Where is Dalah?!” Calleneck said breathlessly.
“I never saw her come back.” said Sir Kishk. “She and the boy probably just ran when these people started attacking.”
“Who are they?” said Calleneck, heart pounding nearly visibly. As soon as he finished his sentence, a massive, harmless wave of silver light filled the entire cavern — Madrick. It was the alarm system for the Network.
Kishk looked to the three of them, “Be cautious, they could be anywhere. You three get to the Nexus, I need to send for Mordvitch’s help.”
Tallius, Lillia, and Calleneck all looked at each other in fear.
“Go!” said Kishk.
The three of them took off through the tunnels toward the sounds of explosions. The
goblin halls rang with thundercracks of Taurimous hitting Taurimous. Shouts and flashes of colored light shot out from every tunnel. Calleneck’s heart began to pound even more. He began to run. “Shit . . . shit, there are more. We're being attacked from the inside!”
Lillia ran after him, followed by Tallius. They turned a corner and in front of them were two Evertauri, one in black, and one in a crimson cloak and a haunting mask — Crimson cloaks? Are these Selenora’s followers? The man sent a stream of orange flames into a younger man, throwing him against a wall. When the younger one tried to defend himself against his attacker, the crimson-cloaked rebel launched a ball of orange embers into the chest of the young man, bursting his ribcage open.
At the same moment, Calleneck and Tallius put their hands on the ground and sent crimson and sapphire bolts of Taurimous shattering through the rock until meeting the traitor, where the floor of the tunnel drove spikes of rock into his feet, lodging him in place. From behind them, Lillia sent a coiling stream of pure white light toward the attacker, who, stuck in place, deflected the stream, exploding a glass window.
As the glass rocketed from the window, Tallius produced a sapphire field of his Taurimous, which deflected the shards from hitting them. Tallius sent a huge sapphire blue fireball toward the masked Evertauri and he fell dead on impact. Not knowing why everything was happening, they pushed onward through the tunnels toward the Nexus
Calleneck and Tallius ducked as a sheet of aquamarine light shot over their heads from an adjacent tunnel. The light rebounded off a glowing shield of golden Taurimous, knocking out the masked attacker. The golden shield dissipated, revealing Dalah, who reached down and pulled up Tallius. Calleneck quickly hugged her, relieved that she was okay, and then ran over to the unconscious crimson-cloaked Evertauri, whose aquamarine flames still writhed around him. Calleneck knelt, ripped off the traitor’s mask and sent a flash of light into his head.
“Dalah, you need to go back.” said Calleneck.