The Birth

by Paul Kite

  Suddenly, a strange roaring sound was heard and we both turned. The thief stood near the wall not far from us, making the characteristic motions of someone in such a situation, emptying his stomach.

  “Oh Gods, you are like children,” the short drow, unwashed and dirty, approached us. “Drink these potions,” he handed me two bottles, “and everything will be fine. You will feel nothing! Including pain, hah,” he grinned cheerfully. “But you will stink anyway.”

  “Are you with us?” I asked Dazrael, although it was made clear by his appearance that he wasn’t planning to join us in any way.

  “No, I’ll get out the other way. Before you ask, I will answer it—no, you cannot leave Siaren the same way as I will!”

  “And are you sure that he...” I pointed imperceptibly at the drow who’d given me the potion, “he won't surrender us to the Guards?”

  “Yes,” the Master of Shadows replied shortly. “Stop questioning me, let's not waste time!” The elf went to the wall of the barn, picked up some rags and handed them to me with the words, “Wrap yourself in this tightly and climb into the wagon. Do not forget to drink the potions before you do! And then, when you are out of the city, do not go far, I’ll find you later,” he continued to instruct me.

  I handed some rags to Vanrag, and put the rest to use wrapping myself. Of course, I could ask the elf not to rush us and do everything as it should be done— remove the armor, put it in the bag, put on these rags, but we’d have to wash later regardless. Well, I had a few scrolls of household spells, they would be useful. The thief, who looked like a pale scarecrow (especially his face, it was twisted and he even had tears running down his cheeks), came up to me, showing that he was ready too. I handed him one of the bottles, explaining that it should be drunk right now, took one big gulp from mine and, holding my breath, climbed into the wagon. Vanrag followed me. We burrowed into the... it would be better not to say a word about what exactly, and almost immediately fell asleep...

  Awakening wasn’t the best feeling. I regained consciousness in a deep, fragrant pit, gurgling in a stinky slush. And my whole body ached and hurt, as if I had been beaten like a red headed stepchild! I had no wounds, so either we’d just been lucky, or the guards hadn’t checked the wagon as thoroughly as they should have. How long have we been lying here? And what the hell kind of potion did he give us? The system is keeping quiet about its effects. But the effect of this potion can be seen on one’s face. We haven’t suffocated or choked, despite being so long in this pit of liquid and semi liquid waste.

  Why hasn’t Vanrag woken up yet? His body floated nearby without a single injury, although I wasn’t sure whether he was okay or not. But the main thing to keep in mind was that he was alive—I saw his chest rising and falling. I pulled the thief closer to me and began to make my way to the gently sloping incline. With difficulty, stumbling, falling into the mud and nearly sending myself back down, I pulled the thief’s body out of the pit and immediately fell down next to him. I had no desire nor the energy to move away. I would lie here and just wait for Vanrag to come to his senses, and then we wouldn’t go far from the pit, clean up with the help of the spell scrolls and wait for Dazrael.

  About half an hour later, the thief finally woke up.

  “Kray! What do we do now?”

  “Hmm, what,” I muttered, getting up. “Okay, so… We are waiting for the elf, and then we’ll decide from there. Especially since it’ll be dawn soon,” I glanced at the sky. It was beginning to brighten.

  How nice it was to be clean! The spells perfectly handled all the dirt and filth that was on us. I put on my armor, feeling a radiant purity and freshness. The thief touched his clothes with surprise.

  “What spell is that?” Vanrag asked me.

  “I have no idea, he gave it to me in the form of a scroll,” I replied quite honestly.

  “Who gave it to you?” The young thief asked.

  “The elf,” I answered shortly, without specifying that this wasn’t exactly the elf about whom, upon hearing my answer, Vanrag would presume had done so.

  The Master of Shadows, Zorkhan, was also an elf, although a dark one.

  The boy realized that I didn’t really want to talk about myself and my strange acquaintances, and stopped questioning me. He sat down on the grass, leaning his back on a tree trunk, showing with his whole appearance that he wasn’t satisfied.

  Well, can’t blame you. Of course, I understand your curiosity, but there are things about me which I am not going to tell anyone. Sorry my friend!

  Dazrael finally came back, appearing as if out of nowhere. He wasn't there a second ago, and a moment later, he was right in front of us, throwing off his invisibility.

  “We're leaving,” the Shadow Master ordered me.

  “What about me?” the thief immediately jumped up.

  The elf flashed him a murderous glare.

  “You're not coming with us! We got you out of the jail, and we helped you get out of town, too. You're free now!” Dazrael hissed.

  “Kraven!” Vanrag cried, offended. “At least give me a couple of portal scrolls!”

  Damn it, I'm starting to regret helping him escape! I thought.

  The elf froze in surprise and stared at me in a daze, his eyes wide open. His hand gripped the hilt of a sword. Yeah, he’d decided to get rid of the squirt.

  Well, considering how much one scroll was worth, and, most importantly, that it opened a free portal to anywhere in the world that you've ever see with your own eyes, except for some restricted areas, the elf’s desire was quite understandable.

  Did Dazrael have such scrolls? I definitely didn't have any! I had personally collected and put everything given to me in a bag-stock. And there hadn't been any scrolls.

  “I’ve changed my mind!” the thief waved his hands, noticing the elf's movement and the half-drawn blade. “I don't need the scrolls; I'll get out of here somehow.”

  “Dazrael, wait!” I hastened to calm down the Master of Shadows. “Give him one scroll, please. Vegor's with him. Don't kill him, please. I mean, did we get him out of jail for nothing?”

  The elf sighed deeply, his eyes closed. After a few moments, he abruptly drove the sword back into its scabbard, and then he just pulled out one scroll and handed it to me.

  “Catch,” I threw a teleport scroll to the thief.

  Despite the fact that the boy was scared, he deftly caught the scroll.

  “Uh, thanks.”

  “I hope that's all?” the elf asked angrily. “Can we go?”

  “Yeah, sure!” I agreed in a hurry.

  The elf silently turned and walked away from where we were standing.

  “Bye, Vanrag. Don't get caught,” I said goodbye to the thief and hurried to catch up with the elf.

  “Good luck...my friend,” he said from behind me.

  We went deeper into the forest. The leaves of the trees rustled and some birds sang the song known only to them. A mob, a large wolf with black fur, peeked out from behind the bushes, howled, bared its jaws at us and looked at me with greedy eyes. But seeing the light elf walking slightly ahead of me, he retreated back cautiously. Maybe the mob had decided that the elf didn't look like a victim; it was better for the wolf not to mess with the strange biped who was as dangerous as the forest hunter himself.

  “Where are we going?” I broke the lingering silence.

  “Hunting,” the elf said curtly. “We need to keep training.”

  “Yeah, seems like a good plan,” I agreed.

  Even if I couldn’t understand it! What was the connection between hunting and training? I was a Shadow, not a Forest Ranger or a Hunter. Why the hell would I be killing mobs? Maybe it was necessary to do so for the experience.

  “Well,” I asked again. “Where are we going to hunt?”

  Dazrael muttered some curses regarding me and the gods all over the world, but answered me.

  “A small dungeon isn’t far away; we'll start with that. Try to move quietly, you're making too
much noise!”

  I wondered if he was referring to the fact that I was talking a lot, or referring to my inability to walk silently through the forest.

  * * *

  “Arthur, you're finally here!” Livion exclaimed delightedly, upon seeing the player-mage on his doorstep. “You've been gone a long time!”

  “Hello,” Arthur greeted thoughtfully.

  “Have you learned anything?” the necromancer noticed the state of his partner and made sure to ask gently.

  “I’ve gotten some information,” he said, walking into the house, “but I don't know how to tell it to you.”

  “Start from the beginning,” the magician advised.

  Then they went into the living room, Arthur sat down on one of the chairs at the small table and Livion began to kindle the fireplace. When the fire happily came upon a small piece of wood, the necromancer pulled a bottle of light wine and a couple of glasses out of the cupboard, and sat on the second chair.

  “Well, his real name…” Arthur began to tell the story, taking a small sip from his glass.

  The story dragged on for a long time. The second bottle was opened, but only the magician drank the wine, the necromancer was thoughtfully stroking the cover of a small notepad made of black leather. The habit to record thoughts and basic things during a conversation had transferred over from his real life to virtual reality. Of course, it seemed old-fashioned, especially considering to the fact that the game character was able to recall any memories from the moment of immersion onward, but Livion didn’t think about the opinions of others.

  “That's strange,” the powerful necromancer whispered. “He is the son of the Director of the Technical Department at ‘Life’ Corporation. That's interesting! And lady Kiera is his girlfriend. That's doubly interesting! How did the Duchess of Scanura allow her beloved daughter to get together with the son of some upstart from the Corporation she so dislikes? That's something I don't understand. But I know that earlier, her relationship with the people of the Corporation was like they were personal enemies of her ancient family! Then her daughter and the son of the Director start a relationship. The world is really going crazy. I was hoping to involve the Duchess in the destruction of the Corporation! We'll have to change our plans,” Livion shook his head, annoyed.

  “What should I do next?” Arthur asked. “And what should I say to Verlain? She has already sent me a lot of mail. It’s difficult to explain anything to her. Add to it that it’s dangerous to deceive her; I don’t live in here ya know,” the magician added, hinting at possible problems from Lady Kiera in real life.

  “No, no!” The necromancer exclaimed. “We won’t deceive her! Make an appointment with her, we will honestly tell her where Kraven is right now.”

  “Where is he anyway?” Arthur wasn’t aware of what had happened lately.

  “He’s on his way to Harith-Hodor. He will be there in a couple of days. However, I think we will speed things up slightly,” Livion said in a sly voice. “Lady Kiera doesn’t need to know the fact that he is still traveling there.”

  “Is that the huge island that belongs to the kingdom of Nazkhar, where only humans can get in, and only with documents signed by the king?”

  “Yes, that one. So our dryad can’t get in there. Neither can I. But you…” And the necromancer looked at his guest with a smile.

  “I think I can guess where you're going here,” Arthur sighed in frustration, suspecting that he would soon have to travel there as well, but why?

  “I need my own eyes and ears in Harith-Hodor,” Livion confirmed the magician’s hunch. “As you can understand,” he spread out his hands, “that there is no one else. You will also be able to help and support Kraven’s cover, if that’s what he needs. Do not reveal yourself! Be his shadow, his guardian angel, and even the devil. Reveal your identity only as a last resort! Do you understand me?”

  “Yeah, understood,” Arthur said dejectedly.” And what is an ang…”

  The magician had repeatedly heard new and strange words from the old man. Sometimes he explained where and how these names and concepts had come to be, and sometimes he just waved it away—forget it, it’s not really suitable to discuss it right now.

  So, this time, the necromancer interrupted his interlocutor with a gesture, “I’ll tell you later. Just listen to this and remember it please! You will get the king's paper in…”

  Their conversation lasted until the evening. Livion, as he’d promised, told him the whole plan. Now he needed Kraven as well, but not because he wanted to return him to Lady Kiera. No! Such a person, as the son of the director of the ‘Life’ corporation was too valuable a bird, he wasn’t going to let it go free at all.

  Chapter 15

  “S

  o how did you manage to get out?” I decided to ask Dazrael, when we stopped for a short rest. I wasn’t sure if he, of course, would deign to answer.

  Sitting on the trunk of a fallen tree, the elf didn’t seem to have heard the question. He took out one of his swords and studied the sharpness of the blade. Although the weapon was in perfect condition. I wisely moved away, just in case.

  “Wolf-rats,” the Master of Shadows suddenly said. “Do you remember the guard mentioning them, threatening me with a terrible fate? In fact, my cell was completely different from yours. It had a special passage, connecting to their den, so they could get to me at any time. But, for some reason, the guards hadn’t taken into account that I was not only a light elf, but also a former Forest Guard!” Dazrael emphasized the last two words. “And we have a special relationship with many animals. Probably an even better one than druids, who boast about it. And what's most important, it’s not magic! The creators of the cell had thought about almost everything, but not quite. It doesn’t block the innate abilities of some races. So, guess what I did?”

  Everything was clear. He took control of one of these creatures and used it to ... Stop!

  “But I don’t think that these wolf-rats can move so freely about the prison. I understand that you took control of one of them, but what about the key, or rather, the whole bunch of keys?” Of course, I’d immediately asked about what I didn’t quite understand, as the elf seemed ready for a normal conversation and to respond to my questions.

  “Oh!” Dazrael drawled, removing the first sword and taking out the second one. “In that prison, there aren’t only secret passages, created during the building’s construction and known only to a small circle of people, but also a multitude of holes, which a small wolf-rat, not very different in size from a normal rat, can use. Thus, the main thing was to steal the keys unnoticed. A wolf-rat attracts more attention than its younger counterpart. But, as you can see, I successfully dealt with this. And then... there is absolutely no difference from which side you open the door of the cell.”

  “And that guard, he's dead, isn’t he?” I hadn’t seen the body when we were running away, but you never know where the elf could’ve hidden it.

  “Nope,” Dazrael grinned merrily. “Why would I need to take his life? I left him in my cage. As for the wolf-rats... well, I don’t think they touched him, there was enough food there.”

  Yeah, but for some reason, he’d killed that other man. What a strange way to be selective. However, what do I know about Dazrael? Almost nothing! Therefore, not all his motives are going to be clear to me. But why I have stuffed my head full of unnecessary things. I already have enough to worry about.

  “That’s enough, the break is over,” the elf drove the second blade into its sheath and rose from the fallen tree. “Come on, it's not that far now.”

  What a beautiful, though slightly strange, forest this is, in the land of the dark elves. There are deciduous trees, mixed with some coniferous ones as well. There are also clean, oh so clear streams.

  Yes, the nature in this game is amazing! Not like in the real world. There, before the complete unification, many countries had managed to ruin their forests, poison the soil with waste, and exterminate many species of
animals. And now everything is being restored, but with such great difficulty and slow progress.

  Suddenly, the Master of Shadows stopped and motioned for me to do the same.

  “We are near the dungeon. Stay here, and I'll go and look around,” Dazrael said in an authoritative tone.

  “Yes,” I said to his back, hiding behind the nearest tree, “I’m waiting.”

  Ten minutes later, the elf returned.

  “Tell me, Kraven, what kind of creatures are you, eh?” Dazrael grimaced angrily. “The immortals are everywhere! Even there where you can’t be.”

  What? What is going on there, near this incomprehensible dungeon?

  Meanwhile, the elf continued to rant resentfully, “How can one stumble upon a hidden passage without knowing its exact location?! But, no! They’ve found it. And besides that, even guard posts have been set up. Who are they afraid of? Elg krins arn rial!” The elf began to swear.

  “What’s happened there?” I interrupted the flow of his curses.

  “There is a small group of immortals, about eight people, right next to the entrance,” the Master of Shadows explained. “Four immortals are on patrol.”

  “The plan has now changed, hasn’t it? We won’t go there, will we?” It was same to me, whether we went to this dungeon or another one, or none at all.

  “The plan has changed, you're right. But we need exactly this dungeon!”

  “We can wait for them to leave,” I suggested.