Malcor's Story

by Eric K. Barnum

  “Arise! Come! Feed!” the lich shrieked at the rising undead as the treasure trove’s floor shifted and swayed as if a stormy ocean.

  A passwall tunnel suddenly opened with Dar Kendra and the Apprentice standing there. Seconds after it opened, molten glass began trickling down from the fortress’ main gate. Verit alight with black ash that sizzled and popped walked purposefully towards the lich again. “We have fought and defeated and captured the likes of you before Ram. You have no hope here.” He raised his sword to cut down into the shield, the floor erupted as bony hands broke the surface of the treasure. Verit fell backwards into clutching hands with dagger sharp finger spikes. Beneath that seething mass, things much larger began snapping together knit by leather tendons and animated by spite.

  Malcor saw Kendra point at him and then she and Apprentice stood by him. Though skeletal hands clawed up all around them, none reached for him. Kendra removed her gauntlet and touched Malcor’s pain-creased brow. “You have done well squire. Here, let me help you up.”

  He tried to say thank you but found he had almost no energy left. The lich’s touch had ruined him. “You’ll need more than my touch Malcor, but remember, the Order would create the opportunity to fight the lich, not the wand. This is different. Let it go. Your second rite has changed and you passed! Do you hear me? You passed! Now, together, as one of us, you will stand with the Order and we will either capture the wand or destroy it.”

  Tembri struggled to fight his way to them. "There is another way!" he called. Over the din of combat, no one heard. “Malcor! Kendra!”

  She helped him stand and signaled all the others to make ready. The lich spun to look at them all as they dropped down to the floor. Though the summoned undead were mighty, as soon as they appeared, they disintegrated away under the focus of the battle priests and their healers. Their awakening though made the combat floor a chaotic place and the Order struggled to advance.

  Chapter Sixty Two - Tania Raises the Stakes

  Far to the north, in Morbatten, Daryx sat with the king and the dragon emperor. The emperor’s scrying ball had suddenly reactivated. Already other members of the Circle began to teleport in. They saw the lich taken by the sceptre. They saw Verit and Malcor try and fail to attack the lich. Dar Kell, Shara, and Reznor all studied the ball in silence. It centered on Malcor. Another one near it watched the emperor’s son Blaze where he continued to slag the mountain and pound it to boiling mud. A third watched Dar Kendra. At Daryx’s touch, a fourth one lit to life. That one centered on a small spider, so small it would barely catch notice. “Hello my beauty,” the dark elf whispered. The spider wiggled its legs. Just out of the spider’s view sat the slowly spinning abyssal gate.

  Each of the scrying balls focused on a different member of Morbatten. Their surroundings could be seen, and Daryx touched the sphere and whispered to the spider in the harsh-sounding language of the drow. The spider shifted and reappeared closer to the portal, but in the background of the portal’s reflection, the empty plain and a small black speck could be seen. Then another black spec appeared.

  Reznor touched the Kendra view and shifted it to his apprentice and then to each of the members of the Order until at last Verit came into view just about to strike down on the colored shield glowing around the lich. They noted the wand had interlocked with the lich and appeared to totally dominate. Verit brought his sword down and black dragon energy splashed against the magical shield hissing and popping, and then the color changed from gray-green to black green and the sword and its wielder where thrown back by a powerful explosion.

  “At least two hellhounds have answered the wand’s summons,” Daryx said observing his golem spider.

  “Do it,” the emperor ordered.

  Daryx whispered to the spider and in a blink of an eye, thousands of phase spiders appeared around the gate, and then on the plain, and then in unison, they bit poison fangs into the ground. They all vanished just as the scrying ball went completely black. “It is done Alerius,” Daryx reported. Thousands of poisonous fangs awoke the beast of the abyss, Demos-Gorgos. And, the beast fell on the hellhounds.

  The emperor nodded and asked Kell, “How fares our next king?”

  Watching Malcor, Dar Kell reported, “He struggles with letting go of his original mission. He, not Verit, was to face the lich. The boy does not understand the changed mission nor how dangerous the wand is. But, he understands Dar Kendra’s orders. His heart wonders what it all means, and the shadow dragons call for him to act. He aches to face the lich and prove himself to us. He knows that his human body is broken, but Cor’tanos whispers that if he dragonshifts, even his arm, he can rejoin the battle.”

  “Reznor, send word to Kendra. If Malcor chooses poorly, he is to be slain.” The emperor’s command reached Dar Kendra and suddenly, all four of the scrying balls came alight with her face as she took control of the scrying. She looked very angry.

  Reznor touched one and refocused it on Verit to have a view of the combat, and then another burst afire as Blade spoke through it. “Father, the woman desires that Malcor must live.”

  “Silence,” Alerius breathed in draconian at his son. He turned back to Dar Kendra. “Kendra, I see your rage and love you for it. Aid the boy in choosing wisely. Or he dies. We cannot afford a shadow dracolich. We cannot risk a shadowtouched hound that would then draw Cor'tanos' clan to the Necromancer. My enemy must not become aware of the shadow realms. You know it will trigger a Cascade Kendra. This is NOT Bloodstone.”

  Her face went poker flat but the anger still burned in her eyes as she returned to combat. Alerius turned his head slightly to one of the priestesses always watching, "Bring R’Dar Ora. Now."

  The other paladins surrounded the lich and with holy avengers burning with the Queen’s zeal, they advanced one step at a time. The lich had exhausted his normal magical attacks and grew increasingly frustrated as the knight’s immunity protected them from things that should have slain them. Worst, the knights taunted him observing that the Jade God had ruined his powers. The lich felt his free will slipping away, exactly as Daryx had said it would.

  Behind the knights, the battle priests and clerics advanced calling for his banishment. While any single one of them could not touch the lich, faced with so many and some very powerful, even the sceptre questioned what would happen. It poured information into the lich's mind identifying the known fighters of Tania that had thwarted Orcus too many times already. And of course, there stood the Apprentice by the leader of this group – Kendra. At least the one called Reznor was not here. Oddly, it noted that Kendra stood by what looked like the youngest and weakest of the bunch. Though he had nearly defeated the Wand’s prior host, the boy hardly warranted the attention of the Order’s leader. Seeing the Wand looking at them, Kendra blew it a kiss and ignited her holy sword.

  Malcor felt Kendra’s heat next to him and blinked through vision growing dim. Though the room burned with fire, molten treasure, and the knights themselves, a dark veil had fallen across his sight and his teardrop ached. Kendra strode purposefully towards the lich and Malcor struggled to follow. He knew that if he could get close enough, he could score a dragon claw attack. It had turned the tide of his previous battles - he found Tembri taking his right arm and helping him walk. “Be strong Malcor. Remember, you are a knight. This is a knight’s task. You are a knight in the Order of Water. This is what you have trained and lived for and dreamed of since you were small. You do not need the shadows. You need to continue your faith in the Queen.”

  He nodded and choked. Wiping his mouth, he felt something weird and looked at his right hand. Dark grey non-reflective scales covered it and his finger nails had shredded through his gauntlet. Tembri grabbed the dragon hand, “Malcor, you must resist this. It will sever your connection to the Queen. Listen to Her voice. Just listen.”

  Malcor looked at the claw and barely-remembered visions of his storeroom fight flashed through his memory. “Can barely see,” he mumbled. “So dark.”


  “Join me by the River,” Tembri urged him.

  Malcor tried to fall back into the River, to feel the familiar sensation of changed time. It happened and then stopped and then something caught him and pulled him through. So bright here that it made him wince, he registered that half his head rose out of the River, held by Tembri. The brightness felt terrifying and behind it, something dark and awful watched. He felt madness claw at his mind and Tembri grabbed his face and turned his eyes from the darkness to his own. “Malcor, you’re a good man. You have dreams. Your dreams are not shadow! It can be a blessing, but it is mostly a curse. It is a curse Mal! It takes you away from your dreams. Right now, here is your destiny as a paladin. Let it be glory to the Mother. Look,” he heaved and turned Malcor to look at the lich. The lich looked like black crystal, fragmenting and crackling apart as it moved to fend off the gloriously bright paladins and their entourages ringing it. The Wand, like a fractured green wound had infected the lich. “You want to be a glorious paladin! What do you see Malcor?”

  Malcor tried to answer, tried to say about the infection, how it made him ill to look at it. His mouth though drowned in the River and he felt despair. Things grew dimmer. Against the despair, Malcor fought with all his might to remember something, anything, about those dreams but they felt so far away. Something else touched him and he felt Sako’s hand in the real world cradle his head. Then he heard it, the Queen’s Voice. No, not Her voice but R’Dar Ora’s voice reading the draconian scripture to him from that sunrise just two months behind him. Her voice, sweet and crystal clear hurt but he could not deny the scripture. He felt a spark of hope and seizing it, he lifted himself up from the River.

  Tembri whispered, “Dear Goddess, you are awesome Malcor. It can be a blessing, but your faith must equal the darkness. It must.”

  Malcor nodded and looked back at the lich. “Look Tembri, I see it now. The lich’s soul gem – it is not with the lich. We can still win!”

  Tembri nodded, "The other way. We can do this. I will help you Mal."

  Air rushed back into his lungs and he lost his footing, falling backwards into a pile of treasure. As he exited the River, he heard a divine female voice say, “My children, so clumsy…”

  Sako caught him. Above them, the circle of paladins closed and simultaneously their avenger swords struck the barrier. Half of them exploded backwards, were caught by their battle priests, enlarged, and thrown back at it. Safe in the barrier, the lich could do nothing and the gate opened by it to summon hellhounds remained barren. The wand shrieked and attacked one of the paladins, but its own barrier caught the blast. The paladin laughed and taunted the ram head.

  Malcor stood up on his near shattered legs and dropped his armor. “Tembri, I miss my rings.” Tembri shrugged keeping an eye on the lich. “We need to find it, fast. Sako, the lich’s soul gem… get Noboyuki; use your magic ask his god Imperius. Anything. We need to get it.”

  Though his arm still ached, Malcor closed his eyes and with more focus fell back out of the River. Though not as smooth as it had always been before, he rose up by himself and looked at the treasure. Beneath the floor, the undead seethed upward only to be destroyed by the divine might raging against the lich. The frightening darkness around the edges of his perception still waiting, watchful, but no longer consumed him with terror. Some of the treasure, as he focused on it, glinted with sparks of energy. Then, Tembri rose up from the River. There on the banks, Tembri called to Takhissis for divination and cried out, “Our Queen, our mother, Takhissis god of the world, Malcor your son seeks answers!”

  From the River, from somewhere all around them, a female’s voice closer and more sensuous than Malcor had ever heard it before replied, “Let him ask.”

  Tembri pointed to Malcor who said, “Great Goddess, I seek the soul gem of the lich. Where will I find it?”

  The female exhaled perfume and exotic smells and yawned as if stretching, “You will find it in the pool of blood before the lich’s throne.” Malcor had the sense of a titanic form leaving and then that voice pierced him through again, “You will suffer my son, and my heart aches for your pain. Remain true to your dreams and they will not fail you. I love you.”

  The voice, so beautiful it made his heart weep, left. Tembri’s tears ran down his face and he whispered, “Great Queen Takhissis, we thank you for your grace.”

  They returned to the real world. Sako spoke urgently with Noboyuki and he nodded back at her and gave them a thumbs up. Tembri made a hand gesture Malcor had never seen and suddenly he became acutely aware that they were being watched. Speaking up into the air, Tembri hissed in draconian so quickly Malcor could barely follow, something about the lich’s throne and could [some lord] move them to [water]…? Tembri seemed satisfied and called Sako and Noboyuki over. “Clasp hands, quickly,” Tembri said grabbing Malcor’s still partially transformed claw.

  A second later, Dar Reznor appeared in their center. His sudden appearance caused the wand to lose focus and attack him again, only to be restricted by its own force wall again. At the same time, the paladins and battle priests increased their hammering of the barrier and Apprentice joined in. With it distracted, they almost broke through.

  The five of them blinked and found themselves standing in a torchilt room. Reznor vanished saying, “I cannot linger. The risk of a cascade is too great right now.”

  Rock and debris had rained down but for the most part, it was intact. A large throne of melted waxen stone slightly angled forward to look down into the pool. Ripples skipped across the pool’s surface as Blade assaulted the mountain. Malcor walked out into the blood anticipating some kind of trap or safeguard. It arose up in the form of spectrally-armored wraiths. Unlike last time, Malcor had Tembri and Tembri dismissed them. Though not powerful enough to disintegrate them outright, the wraiths fell back into the shadows and watched and waited. One tried to leave and Tembri ordered it to stop. Pushing his luck, he asked it, “We are looking for a large gem that burns with magic. We think it is in this pool. Is it?”

  The wraith nodded. When Tembri asked it to show them, the wraith moved forward and pointed. When it drew close to Malcor, it tried to break free and attack, but Tembri asserted his control and it fell back. Malcor moved to the area and found, laying at the bottom of the pool’s exact center, a bracer in which rested a purple gem the size of an egg. Though it appeared just under the surface of the pool, Malcor realized the depth had increased to his hips.

  Malcor tore part of his cloak and dropped it over the bracer to pick it up. Just as he bent over to grab it, struggling as his various broken bones and other wounds made it difficult, the wraiths all around surged forward to attack. Tembri felt their malign intent and called out warning, and then struggled to control so many. To his horror and dismay, a wraith rose up from behind Malcor in the pool. Formed of the blood holding so many souls, this wraith had a nearly demonic appearance and its face split along its mouth to its ears full of rows of fanged razor teeth. As it lifted its arm up, its taloned claws split and superimposed into many arms bearing many talons. Surrounded by the other wraiths resisting Tembri, Malcor felt nothing amiss and picked up the bracer.

  Sako and Noboyuki screamed for Malcor and both dove into the pool. Sako caught the many talons in her chest as Noboyuki tackled and dragged Malcor under the surface. The Tanian felt so frail but feeling his bones shift and crack as Malcor screamed in agony, seemed surreal immersed in blood. Noboyuki struggled to regain his footing and lift Malcor up to breath.

  Right next to them, Sako struggled against the blood wraith. Tembri had dropped his warding of the other wraiths to send his last healing spell to her, and he caught her on the brink of death. The wraith screamed into her face opening its maw to bite her head off. To her credit, and never having had Tanian combat training, she held on to her focus and hit the blood wraiths eyes with magic missiles. The others slammed into its mouth. Its scream changed tenor and it threw her back.

  Noboyuki began praying for her health even as
the other wraiths moved into the pool to attack. Just four peeled off to intercept Tembri with one of them scoring a hit as the battle priest raised his holy symbol to control them again. For Malcor, it all seemed to happen in slow motion. When he had fallen into the blood and submerged, he had felt it like when he moved in and out of the River. It felt easy this time, seamless and effortless. The Queen’s Voice there welcomed him, “Though not the heroes I would have chosen, this baptism works. Take their knowledge, their experience; I caretake it all to you Malcor Kell’Tayris.”

  With the Queen’s words echoing around him, the River froze still. Mal pulled his legs out noticing how it crackled and flowed for a mere moment before those parts stilled. He felt all kinds of knowledge suffusing his mind and realized, I understand ogre, goblin, orc, and hobgoblin languages now? His vitality surged and though still broken beyond magical healing, he felt renewed in a way that healing never did. He saw the layout of the pool, the room, and how his friends all struggled in the most dire of combats. Ten wraiths and this blood wraith all froze in their attacks against the dim candles of his friends’ auras. They would die; I will die. Thinking this, Malcor’s arm seethed with power and the ever present shadow watching from the River smiled. It seemed about to say something but the Queen hissed at it and the shadow left.

  The Goddess’s voice came more his way and She commanded, “Recover your breath Malcor my son. You know what you must do when you re-enter the throne room. Your breath weapon.” So speaking, the Queen left. All across the River, Malcor saw the battle against the lich with its stunned sceptre. He felt great enmity radiating at him and the others from the wand but some tremendous pressure and force from very far away made the wand and its master impotent. Looking at his hands, he noted how they trembled frightfully, but it was nice to catch his breath. Through the River’s frozen pane, he saw himself rising up with Noboyuki’s grip on what remained of his armor. Blood colored his skin and the whites of his eyes alone made him recognizable. The temptation to close his eyes and sleep beckoned seductively. That was when Ora appeared on the far banks of the River. Her otherworldly beauty and the kiss she blew him reminded him that he had not yet finished. He waved and reached out for her hand, and fell back into the River.