Malcor's Story

by Eric K. Barnum

  Tembri, feeling the shift in conversation, flowed with it. "Yes, I will never forget it. I can still see Bostic guarding the beer against the horde of zombies. I don't remember ever having laughed so hard in all my time there."

  They started swapping other stories and a healer brought them food and refreshment while Tembri finished packing. Several hours later, the Apprentice found Tembri and they bowed to each other.

  The Apprentice held out a ring and scroll. “The ring will make you into an invisible gas. The scroll will summon an elemental of air to transport you to where Malcor lies. The elemental has been instructed to take you where you want to go “with all due haste”. That means very quickly. The world will pass by as a blur and only your willpower and focus will take you to Malcor. Since we and the air elemental do not know exactly where he is, the elemental can only use your desire as a guide.

  ”So, that being said, if you pass through the actual treasure room where the soul gem is, or you pass by the lich and you feel you could take him by surprise, or you encounter the Jade God’s wand… any of these things, if you even notice them, will cause the air elemental to drop you. As a priest, I expect you have an ability to stay focused. The issue will not be that so much as if you see these golden opportunities and the Queen’s voice begins speaking and you listen, you will be dropped where you are. Do you understand?”

  Tembri nodded. “Yes, I must remain focused on Malcor, no matter what. I can do that. Tell me, what will I find when I reach the boy?”

  “It depends,” the Apprentice shrugged. “We have excellent records of Lord Kell’s challenges. It is very early and so he should seem normal enough. The issue will be when he rages, or despairs, or sees some goal he cares about slipping away. In those moments, if he asks the shadows for help or overly-relies on them, he will begin feeding the shadows' dominion. Cor'tanos is after all, an eldar. He has felt the power of worship from Kell and hungers for more no doubt.

  “Malcor is travelling with the original group of Imperics, though we do not know how many remain. I suspect that you’ll find him looking tired, haggard, and travel worn. The regenerative ring is not the same as the Queen’s healing. He will have scars that will never go away. Kell said he looked 'ravaged' was the word I think he used.”

  “Will I need to kill the Imperics?”

  “I doubt it. They seem fascinated by Malcor. Tell them you were captured by the lich from the Tanian group in Ori, and managed to escape. It’s not the best story, but it’ll explain how a powerful battle priest is in the Fortress. My opinion Tembri is that they will be so grateful to have another member of the group that it will not be an issue.”

  They discussed the general tactical situation and then Tembri asked, “I have one last question. You said that the loss of a desired goal could trigger Mal. He has a strong desire to be a knight. Though not yet fully a knight, I’m curious. How did Dar Kell handle the loss of consecration?”

  “Well said. The shadow dragons never joined the Queen and She cut them off. In spite of the emperor’s attempts to win them back, they are not back yet. As such, you should look at shadowshifting as a desecration of the soul. Malcor is not yet powerful enough to feel the consequences, but Kell? He was a mighty and high-ranking paladin and then became a priest capable of defeating the most powerful priestess of our generation. His desecration pushed his insanity to levels you’d expect from a demon. With the boy, until he understands what is happening, he may not even notice it at all. The exception will be the River, which he moves freely in. That will change for him and I’m sure he will notice that. Hopefully, he confuses it as part of his progression rather than an obstacle. But, Tembri, Kell stopped shifting years ago when he understood the consequences. Only the shadows coming back to the Queen will fully restore what he has lost.”

  “Will his father help him I wonder.” Both men looked at each other, neither knowing. Tembri let the silence hang and then speculated, “Kell visited him though when scrying failed. So, I would guess yes. The shadow dragons, they are not a doctrine I have studied very much. There is a story of Kell when he attacked one of the provinces and their armies. He dragon shifted and destroyed the entire army. Is that possible? To do so without being wounded?”

  “It is for a shadow dragon. Their realm is far past the River’s ending. As such, they exist at the end of Time and the end of life. They are anti-life. Darkness is their cloak but light, especially in this realm, gives them power. While it exposes them, they do not have bodies the way we do here. Here, if I cut you with a knife, you bleed. The shadow dragons do not as there is nothing to cut. To hurt them, you must have weapons that reach into the shadow realms where they actually are. That being said, their time and function in this realm is limited. Their powers change with the light, almost at random. When possessed fully, Dar Kell described it as if he watched the dragon and it felt like reading a book about the events he did. He had no control and did not care.”

  “If he did not care, how did he create so much death?”

  “They cannot seem to help it. This world is the opposite of everything they understand and believe in. Consider this, the fire dragons they see us as creatures of emotion. That emotion can be beautiful by virtue of faith, commitment, and devotion. It can also be beautiful by how quickly it flares and then drowns in the River. The shadow wyrms, they do not see it or even care for it. Uncaring, they do not restrain themselves. They are terrifying all the time. They are dragons all the time. They do not shackle their powers the way the emperor and his children do. As Kell once told us, “I could speak, but why would it matter what you might hear or say back to me? If you heard my words, why would it matter at all?” So, you see, if Malcor does this, your only real options are to remove him to a safe place, knock him out, or remove yourself to a safe place away from him.”

  Chapter Fifty Eight - The Attack Begins

  Back at camp, the group had assembled, ready for war. Tembri and the Apprentice joined them as Kenda and General D'Rath led their briefing. “Order of Water, your earrings are updated with the most current maps prepared by our thieves and scouts. We will enter the southern side of the mountain and take a short cut to a main tunnel. We also have word that the Sorian knights have reached the main entrance. We will be breaching the fortress just before they do. This creates a two flank approach. Once inside, we will divide into two groups and sweep the fortress slaying anything in your path, dividing in half at each branch to unit size. Thereafter, the units will determine their own approach. There are three exceptions: the lich, the sceptre, and Malcor. Dar Blade, the Apprentice, and I will circle the mountain and be ready. Contact me when any of these are found. Come now, we pray and say farewell to R’Dar Tembri who is tasked with the objective of finding and securing Malcor.”

  All present clasped their hands on their weapons and bowed their heads. The prayer, a hymn comparing human desire for glory to a dragon’s lust for treasure rose and ebbed through the night. As they sang, Tembri slipped on the ring and vanished followed by a stiff breeze that tore through the trees around them and darted towards the lich’s fortress.

  The Apprentice then began casting a teleport spell. When the hymn ended, the entire group of warriors stood at the base of a granite cliff. A small crack opened into dark wall in front of him. Blade dragonshifted behind them and took Dar Kendra onto his neck. The Apprentice walked to the small crack and began another enchantment and then pushed his hand forward against the rock wall. His hand pulsed and when it touched the wall, the wall disintegrated in a straight line opening a circular tube almost thirty feet in diameter that stretched into the mountain.

  He slumped back on his staff and a nearby paladin caught him. “The tunnel,” he choked, “should remain open for the next quarter hour.” The paladin helped him walk back to Lord Blade, where a giant dragon claw scooped the Apprentice up and placed him in Dar Kendra’s care. Battle priests prayed and silenced the entire group, which came alive with Tanian hand signing. As one, row by row, the
Tanians ran into the magical tunnel.

  Blade flexed his titanic wings and the heat generated by his body set the ground astir with clashing wind currents. He jumped and spread his wings and soared into the night sky. Down below, the left side of the Tanian knights peeled off to the left tunnel as the right did the same. As they ran, the battle priests behind the knights readied themselves for combat even as the healers readied themselves to heal, and if needed to fight. The Queen’s Prayer lent speed to their movements and each column fell on scattered patrols and wandering monsters with swift and sudden execution. Their surprise attack would be total. Their victory, as always, would be flawless. Girded in their faith, they knew this.

  At almost the same time, Blade came around the front of the mountain and they saw the Sorian knights break the war band at the mountain’s entrance. Unlike Malcor’s group, they fought with battle-hardened determination and slew the entire band before entering. Down in the plain by the river bridge, another small band of so-called heroes crossed the bridge and tried to ignore the taunts of the towers’ armies.

  Unseen, Tembri had blown past the Sorians just before their fight and proceeded at a dizzying pace through chambers and side tunnels that left torches sputtering behind them and knocked patrols and undead to the ground. Just now, they dove down a humid tunnel and through a water sodden chamber full of some kind of worm creatures. Through it, they blew passing up into better maintained chambers. They hurtled around a bend and saw a group of Imperics fighting an army of goblins in front of oversized golden doors. Some type of undead, mighty, stood in disguise watching the combat and for just a second seemed to stare right at Tembri. He steeled his resolve to Malcor, and they gusted through a crack in the door to the other side.

  The signs of combat showed in this next space with fragmented walls and fire-scorched ground. Moldering corpse fragments waited for something and then they spiraled to the side around some other mighty undead that also seemed to sense them. Up ahead another group of adventurers fought a horde of undead seeking to overwhelm them by numbers.

  Tembri turned to watch wondering if it was the lich and then caught his focus almost too late. The air elemental wavered and then continued in its spiral down into a hole that lasted forever. When they came back into light, gold coins, dust, and fragments of treasure littered the floor but grew more frequent till at last they came to a round seal imprinted with purple-glowing eldar runes. The air pressed against the seal, reaching for cracks and then smashed again and again into any likely candidates. When none presented themselves, the elemental began swirling around the edges of the seal and the surrounding walls, floor, and ceiling.

  Eventually, some openings were found that entered into unformed caverns of crystal and ore, or into hidden storerooms, and some into ambushes set to entrap those looking for riches. Malcor was not here though and so the elemental blew out the way they had entered rising up through the pit and back into the tunnel where it came to a large open room full of stone rooms carved into the side of the cavern and lit by quartz crystals near which lanterns had been hung. In the center of the room, a small band of heroes stood against a rising tide of skeletal warriors and even as Tembri recognized Malcor, the air elemental stopped moving and then vanished as a light wind. Tembri deactivated the gaseous ring took note of his position several hundred paces from the main fighting.

  Chapter Fifty Nine - Tembri Joins Malcor's Party

  Malcor stood between the horde and the three Imperics at his back who launched attacks and tried to protect Malcor’s sides. More and more skeletons pulled out of the walls and rose up from the ground and moved forward. Though Malcor hewed them as if with a scythe, Tembri saw the exhausted fatigue of a knight stretched too thin. He had the same spastic movements he had witnessed during that five day long Rite of Pain.

  Watching his ward, Tembri felt the Queen’s Voice rise up in his heart as if it would burst him asunder with sorrow; no paladin should be so abandoned. He choked it back saving the power for the coming battle. His mace dropped to his hand and a shield to his strong left arm. The shield and mace emblazoned with the Queen’s insignia started to rage fire against the undead, but Tembri held that back as he charged.

  He rolled into the back of the horde like a boulder and when his momentum slowed, he unleashed the Queen’s Voice. A column of fire leapt up from his feet incinerating the enemies around him and then the flame strike pulsed outwards in its width dropping every skeleton within ten paces of him. As the flame column died, Tembri cried out to Malcor and in the Queen’s Divine Name commanded the skeletons between him and the boy to “Die!” Against the Bloodstone veteran’s command and faith, hundreds of skeletons puffed into white powdery dust.

  In the space, Malcor looked up with a measure of hope and saw Tembri. Unconsciously and as per his training, he hand signed for healing and Tembri pointed his mace at the boy and poured his soulful prayer to the boy. Like a dragon awakening from a long sleep, Malcor felt the Queen’s power and as it swelled his muscles with health and vigor, he charged to meet Tembri. At the distance though, he saw Tembri continuing to pour his healing energy even as the horde finally recovered and turned on the priest. With perfect execution, Malcor saw Tembri neither flinch nor deviate from his master’s command for healing even as swords, spears, and razor claws began tearing through Tembri’s armor and unprotected flesh.

  Malcor signaled for a defensive position and like a machine, Tembri unleashed another flame strike. The skeleton biting through his helmet scorched away to dust and in the space, the two met clasping hands. “Tembri,” Malcor said his voice choking with emotion. “I had almost forgotten what this is like.” He called back to the Imperics that help had arrived.

  Tembri whirled and swept the oncoming wave of undead back with shield and mace. “Sir Malcor, we can catch up later. Kendra sent me and I know where we must go. What is your situation?”

  Back to back, they fought working their way towards the others. Hiroshi’s training and skills mattered for nothing against an enemy like this and they saw him pulled down under that relentless tide of clutching white bone stabbing down and rising red. Jaga and the others saw them and began working towards them. Malcor called out to Tembri, “We need to get out of this. Lead on Tembri.”

  Tembri nodded and stepped back behind Malcor, his voice already rising in prayer. In moments, both he and Malcor grew to the size of hill giants. Fortified by strength and size, they swatted the skeletons aside and ground them to dust. Malcor picked up Sako and Noboyuki while Tembri grabbed Jaga and then they sprinted, scattering their foes as they ran. Both placed the Imperics in the passage leading towards the pit and then grabbed shattered stone tiles and hurled them at the overhead ceiling. A deadly rain of debris and boulders would not stop the skeleton tide, but it would buy them time. They then turned, grabbed up the Imperics and sprinted to the pit.

  In giant form, they dropped down into the pit bracing their hands and legs against opposite walls and began climbing down. “We have to hurry,” Tembri said. “Soon the horde will sense us. Priest of Imperius, are you able to mask us?” he called to Noboyuki.

  Noboyuki looked at the newcomer with suspicion and then nodded. “I can, if that is what Jaga or Malcor desires.” Jaga nodded and he began praying to Imperius as the giants shimmied their way down.

  Sako touched Malcor’s face and whispered to him, “Malcor, who is this?”

  Malcor shrugged. “He’s Tanian, I recognize him as a hero of the realm. Beyond that, he is someone who is helping us.” She nodded and Malcor said, “I’m sorry about Hiroshi. He was an excellent thief.” Holding his face, she began crying her tears leaving clean streaks down her face.

  It took almost an hour to climb to the bottom of the pit. When they at last reached the bottom and returned to normal size, Malcor was relieved to hear Tembri formally introduce himself to the others and Malcor. “I am Tembri, a battle priest of the dragon queen Takhissis and a citizen of Morbatten. I was part of the group sent by the emp
eror at Ori’s request for aid, but were driven out by the lich and I was captured. The lich has been holding me as a hostage, but I managed to escape. It seems you aren’t the only ones in the mountain these days.” He hefted his mace. “Are any of you in need of healing? The Queen urges me to secure the group.”

  Noboyuki had exhausted his power during the horde attack and everyone had suffered terrible wounds in addition to fatigue. Tembri healed them all as if they had never been hurt. Malcor saw their amazement and said, “I knew you are a hero of Tania. I recognize you from one of my reviews. You are stationed with a group of paladins?”

  Tembri nodded. “Yes, I joined with Dar Kendra and a few others to come and help Ori. It will not surprise the priest here that my leadership had a falling out with the royal family over what approach to take. I went out to the southern wall before we left and was ambushed by vampires. Next thing I knew, I was here and the lich was asking me all kinds of questions about Morbatten, Ori, the Isles, everything.”

  They began walking and when Malcor moved in front of Tembri, Tembri gasped. “Boy, your back, what happened?”

  Malcor looked over his shoulder, “We had a fight with some pretty powerful undead.” Before he could say anymore, Sako began telling Tembri the entire story of how Malcor had defeated multiple ogres and then dropped the two wraiths and the vampire.

  Tembri stopped and demanded to see Malcor. He noted the dragon tear, now scaled over with lightless void black scales. Malcor had puncture, burn, acid, amputation, and several other scars but the worst by far was the jagged cut from his hip over his spine to the back of his head. “Your name is Malcor right? If you want, I have some of my Tanian gear that might fit you. Armor, things of that nature.”

  Tembri took out Malcor’s armor and standard paladin gear. Being his, it fit perfectly and Malcor flexed feeling its might and remembering how well it protected him. “My thanks.”