The Paladins of Naretia

by TP Keane

  *

  Ol?rin found the edge of the dancefloor and did one last twirl before stepping off. He watched Aramus and Aria dance together, and admired his handiwork with a large amount of pride swelling his chest. 'I knew there was a reason their paths had crossed.' Taking another sly sip from the contraband in his hat, Ol?rin sighed with contentment. Aria had been the only girl who had not feared Aramus, the only one to have ever spoken to him in a kindly manner, or as kindly as she could have manage. Although he couldn't be certain, he was hopeful that she was also Aramus's chance for true love. His only wish for them now was that they would have enough time to realise this before it was too late. 'Love can be so stupid and slow sometimes.'

  Despite the young man's fixation with Sudia, Ol?rin knew his lust would only ever end in obsession, not love. Being the son of Dantet, the elf would never love him in return, nor would her puritan community have allowed it either. No, it was definitely best to steer Aramus in the right direction, toward the queen. Even if that meant making a fool of himself on the dancefloor so that Aramus would feel compelled to rescue her from his floundering.

  For the rest of the evening Ol?rin watched as Aramus and Aria glided in each other's arms. She laughed as he dipped her unexpectedly, and Ol?rin had never seen the young man so happy in all of the time he knew him. Their eyes only left each other's when the solemn, warm tone of a hollowed horn brought everything to a halt. The music stopped, and everyone turned to face the matriarchal elf, Mirathall. Even the bats, that had been clicking high above their heads in the old wooden tree, became oddly silent.

  "My family," she said, raising her hand. "It is time for the awakening."

  Without needing another word, the elves cleared the dancefloor and formed a circle. Ol?rin was ushered forward by random hands that disappeared when he looked. He soon found himself at the edge of the circle beside Aria.

  "Where's Aramus?" he asked her.

  "Gone to get a drink," she replied with a flush in her cheeks and a coy smile.

  Ol?rin looked over the sea of silvery hair and saw Aramus's black wings hovering next to the food. Sudia stood beside him, and Ol?rin couldn't help but feel slightly annoyed he was still staring at the elf despite his obvious connection to Aria. But he was grateful that the queen wasn't tall enough to see Aramus over the crowd.

  "The time of dying is now over," Mirathall began, drawing Ol?rin's attention back as she paced around the inner circle. "Soon the abundance of life will break free from its icy grip, and once again the world will be filled with colour and the coming of new souls. So too will our time of rest come to an end, as we see that this new life is balanced."

  Mirathall chose five elves, some of them young, some of them old, to stand in the centre of the circle. Each of the elves joined hands and began to chant a haunting lyric that reverberated within the old wood of the tree. Ol?rin felt strangely peaceful when they did, as though he was once again standing in Darzithal.

  "It is our duty to see that the world Edwina created does not do itself harm," Mirathall continued. "With Vesta's endurance we syphon the darkness from those who would destroy the kingdom, and with Amor we draw off the light which would blind us. Buried for so long in a place that even we cannot find, we ask that the light and the darkness come forth from the soil, and grant us the ability to safeguard this world."

  The chanting crescendoed as the entire elf community joined in the chorus. Beneath his feet, Ol?rin felt the ground rumble and move as the inner circle of five elves lowered their hands to the mossy surface. The soil in the centre of their circle began to bubble as though a moleman was making its way up. Without warning, the mound of dirt burst open and a crystalline object shot out of the ground. Two glassy spheres, each the size of an ogre's fist, joined together at the centre, sparkled in the night like a star. One side of the object was brilliant and white, like Ol?rin's staff, while the other was smoky and black. The Geminum hovered in the air for a moment, before gliding gently into Mirathall's outreached hands. The Elder elf gazed into the brilliance she held, as though it were a new born child.

  "This season, however," Mirathall said, turning to Ol?rin, "the Goddess asks us to give our most sacred possession to a wizard who says he is to save the kingdom. We trust in our Goddess, that she knows more than our mortal minds could fathom. We are, therefore, compelled to obey."

  Mirathall walked toward Ol?rin and presented him with the Geminum. Ol?rin could feel hundreds of silver eyes watching his every move. Fearing that the crystal would shatter the moment he touched it, Ol?rin took hold of it gingerly. It felt both cold and hot to the touch, but it didn't burn. Mesmerised by the swirling light and darkness within the crystal, which never crossed into the others sphere, Ol?rin wasn't quite sure how long he stood there holding what was left of his precious Goddess's children. There was a certain morbidity to the whole ordeal, and Ol?rin couldn't help but feel like he had perpetrated some kind of crime just by being there.

  "Take with you one warning, old friend," Mirathall said. "If the Geminum should shatter, then the world would fall to chaos. If it should find its way into Dantet's hands, then he would surely snuff out all of the light, and we would be lost to the darkness. Protect it and return it quickly, because time is not a friend of the equipoise our world has obtained."

  "I will guard it as though my life depended on it," Ol?rin replied, placing the crystal into his wizard hat where it disappeared from sight.

  "Good, because your life, and the lives of everyone in the kingdom, may very well depend on it," Mirathall warned.

  At that very instant, the hollowed tree was filled with a terrifying shriek which echoed and reverberated against the ancient wood. All eyes turned and faced the direction it came from, and Ol?rin's heart beat ferociously in his chest when he realised what he was seeing.

  Sudia was grabbing her head between her hands as if it would explode. She doubled over in agony as her hair began to turn black and dark veins ran the length of her body, turning her skin a sickly grey colour. Large talons erupted from her fingernails, and her slightly pointed ears now protruded grotesquely from her head. Sudia screamed again and it filled Ol?rin with a primal terror. Her cries bore only a slight resemblance to her former voice, as the deep, foreboding sounds of a Dark One took over.