by N. Saraven
The Master waited patiently for the Goddess to start with whatever she wanted, who just looked at him from under her long lashes with a charming smile.
“I welcome you, Halgor! It has been too long since our last encounter,” she said with a cold, yet somehow silky voice. Even if she spoke in her own language, the mage understood her without a problem.
“I can assure you that I didn’t mind that …” muttered the elven in an unfriendly manner, which made the other’s eyes flare up. Even though the Creators never actually did anything specifically against him, he shared Neila’s grudge towards them.
“Well … it is time for us to have a little chat.” Lexénia let go of the insult.
“If you say so …” he murmured; meanwhile, he started to think about how this whole issue would affect his life back in the Tower. How would he explain his disappearance to the others? To Neila …?
“I do not deserve this tone from you,” she scolded. “Yet …” She gave a sly grin, which made Halgor stiffen, and fear started to grab his heart again. Those dark eyes of hers meant nothing but bad.
“I have a little … proposal for you, my dear,” continued the Goddess of Death. Halgor only nodded as he swallowed. “I would suggest that you should stay away from Neila. Do not do anything to try to win her back, nor think about anything like that.”
“And why would I do that …?” snorted the elven. Lexénia gave a wry smile again; her eyes seemed to smoulder.
“Do you remember the end of the last wars? I promised you that someday you would have to make a choice. A terrible choice at that, and whatever you chose, the price would be high.”
The dark elven only nodded, since his voice had died. He became more and more tense.
“So, I give these two choices: Neila will stay alive until you do whatever I wish you to do. Meaning, you must not do anything to improve your … relationship with her; however, you always have to stay close. Furthermore, you cannot stop Veilon or anybody else from getting closer to Setal’s daughter. And of course, you must keep this between us.”
Halgor’s mouth dropped.
“Wh … why …?” He managed to force out the question.
“Because I want it so. Let it be enough. I think there is no need to remind you that I will monitor you closely at all times, to make sure you keep your end of the bargain.”
“This is not a choice. This is pure blackmail!” snapped Halgor. Lexénia only shrugged.
“You may call it whatever you want. It is a choice, although you may not like either paths. But you have a choice,” said the Goddess of Ruin, which only made Halgor even angrier. He clenched both hands into fists.
“Don’t try to honey-coat this! You’re simply blackmailing me, nothing more. But I cannot understand why. What do you want to do with Setal’s Chosen One? You have no real power over her! How do you want to keep YOUR threat if you cannot even touch Neila?” demanded the dark mage, although Lexénia’s charming smile made him even more grim about his situation. It felt useless to fight because no matter how hard he tried, he could only lose.
“Oh, my dear Halgor! I assume you know of my lovely servant, whom you so wretchedly call Overlord. Whose life is directly connected to Neila. Which means …” She held out her hand as she continued to talk with her calm, horribly terrifying voice.
A fire-spiral appeared in the air beside her, which started to grow bigger and bigger, swirling faster as it grew, then it formed a huge dragon-figure.
Halgor watched the appearing dragon with an open mouth. The creature was the biggest that he had ever seen, even bigger than a sunlit. It was completely made from fire and magma, yet every little detail showed just as clearly as in a real one. The swirl of the magma never stopped, making the whole dragon hurt the eye and grotesque. Its pitch-black eyes seemed as if nothing existed there, as if they were holes into the darkest abyss anybody could imagine.
“… if something would happen to him …” continued the Goddess as she reached into the creature with ease. It did not even wince.
Lexénia grabbed the dragon’s ‘heart’, then she motioned at the fountain with her head.
Halgor stepped closer to the black water with trembling legs. His heart filled with fear as he saw Neila’s picture appear in the water. She slept soundly with her blanket pulled to her neck. It was already daylight in her room, what meant that the elven had lost a lot of time.
Then Lexénia started to squeeze the Overlord’s heart, which made Neila also shiver and moan silently. She grabbed her chest under the blanket, although she never actually woke up. Her breathing became irregular as she did not have enough air. As the Goddess grasped harder, the worse Neila got.
“All right, enough!” shouted Halgor, who really did not want to find out how much further she was willing to go. Lexénia retracted her arm immediately, which made Neila calm down also. She slept further soundly, as if nothing had happened.
“I’m sure that the connection can be severed. Setal—”
“—cannot do anything about it,” she cut in. “Believe me, he tried when his precious daughter rather sacrificed herself than lose to me. Originally it was Setal who created their connection because he stupidly thought that he could use that against me in some way. I, on the other hand, discovered it, and … made changes. Although I truly did not expect this to happen. As a result, the connection became permanent. Nobody, not even one of us, can break it now.”
Halgor became paler and paler as he listened. He did not want to believe any of it, yet he knew it was true. Then something else struck him. In the current situation of whatever he came to be aware, he could do nothing about it. The circumstances seemed to be crystal clear—either he danced as the Goddess whistled, or Neila would die.
So he wanted to use this time to gain some concrete knowledge as well.
“Tell me something.” He broke the momentary silence. Lexénia nodded to continue. “Why did I become your Chosen One? What does that even mean? What do you want from me?” demanded the elven. He still was deathly pale, although his eyes showed determination.
“Well, we hadn’t planned for anything like that at the beginning. We only wanted to test our theories, so we needed specimens who could act in our name. At the end of the wars, whoever won became the winner of the theory as well. I chose you because it brought me great joy to seduce one of Arisha’s creatures and … what do you call it? ‘Bring them to the dark side’.”
“Arisha’s creature …?” gasped Halgor, rapidly blinking as he tried to follow the Goddess’ explanation. Although inability started to overcome him.
“Oh, you poor soul … you really don’t know anything, do you?” she teased, but continued. “The base-species were the same for a few of you. Setal and Arisha made changes in it because they could not bear its stupidity. Anyhow, from the former the kobolds, from the latter the elvens were born. I think this makes it obvious why a ‘dark-elven’ should not even exist in the eyes of your kind; meanwhile, the kobolds do not care what side you choose. Wouldn’t you find it fun to find an exception amidst the elvens?”
Halgor had to turn away from her, and he really, really wanted to sit down. He hardly felt his legs; his whole body shook. Not to mention his sick stomach, which was very close to emptying itself.
“There, there … this is not a bad thing.” Lexénia smiled, which she must have intended to be soothing, seeing that the mage could faint in any moment. “You truly thrived in every way, even for my expectations. Not to mention that little thing that probably I got more trouble from this whole situation than you, thanks to Arisha.”
“I … I am truuuuly touched,” barked Halgor, who slowly got a hold of himself.
“Oh, don’t be so ungrateful! Don’t you have enough power? Didn’t you get whatever goal you wanted? Who do you think helped you with all of those things?”
“I helped myself! It was all me!” snapped the dark mage.
“Of course.” Lexénia waved, almost bored. “Maybe we haven’t tal
ked much, but do not think that I’ve never cared about you. I followed your life from a distance.”
“What do you want from me? Really?” demanded Halgor, who became more and more angry. His eyes flared up, but she just smiled charmingly.
“At the moment, that you keep our little bargain.”
“You mean, that I just roll over for your blackmail …”
“These are only words, what does it matter what you call it?” She shrugged. “If you behave, you may even get a little something in the end.”
“I assume something as ‘delightful’ as this … proposal of yours,” growled the elven bitterly.
“Don’t think that whoever chose a dark mage’s life is so different from me. I am the Goddess of Evil, it is also my power from the World’s Power that flows in you and makes you what you are. Never forget that, my dear. This means that if something is important to you, it becomes important to me as well. If somebody is loyal to me, I will reward it and be at their side if needed. Even if one is not that fun anymore.” She sighed, and for a moment her gaze became foggy. Then she turned to Halgor again, stepping to him. He immediately pulled away from her.
“In any way,” she whispered charmingly, “be a good little elven and don’t do anything stupid. Then everybody will be happy in the end.” Lexénia leaned closer to the mage and kissed him on the forehead.
Halgor sat up in his bed as if he were struck by lightning. Even if he only remembered all of this, it felt as if he relived it again. He was shaking, and his sweat soaked the sheets. Not much time had passed since he had first awakened, yet it felt way more than that. His forehead was burning at that point where She had kissed him.
He fell back on the pillow and tried to calm down.
It could not be any clearer that he had stumbled into a very, very bad situation. He tried to find some loophole in the bargain, something he missed at first and of what he could take advantage. He was deadly sure about Lexénia’s promise of watching him, so if he tried anything, she would punish him.
On the other hand, it seemed like more of a compliment. The Goddess had to take such severe measures against him, so she must be threatened by him.
Halgor only sighed. It was not at all a comforting thought. This only meant that she had such plans she did not want anything to cross them.
When the elven felt strong enough, he scrambled out of bed and cleaned himself up a little. Meanwhile, he thought about what he should do next. But before he could come up with anything, Veilon barged in with Enargit on his heels.
“When I saw Nighthunter, I knew you must be back as well,” announced the dragon.
“Where in the Gods’ name were you?” demanded Veilon in his usual charming way. Halgor glanced from one another.
“How long was I away?”
“More than two days,” replied the Leader reluctantly, which made the elven mumble something. Then he said a word and disappeared.
When he opened his eyes, he stood in front of Neila, who sat at her desk. She munched some fruits with one hand as she took notes with the other. When he appeared, she slowly rose to her feet, stunned by his obvious intrusion. Her eyes flared in anger.
“What are you doing here …?” she demanded so coldly, ice could look warm beside her. But before Halgor could answer anything, Veilon and Enargit appeared behind him. The Master only became more furious about this, demanding answers from the kobold now.
“Seriously, you didn’t even know that I was missing for two days?” cut in Halgor sharply.
“Nobody cared, to be precise,” said Neila, which made the elven raise a brow.
He tried to work out when and why the Warrior appeared in those eyes. He always knew of its existence in her; he had the ‘pleasure’ of meeting it once before and could barely escape with his life …
So now his astonishment could not be bigger when he found himself face-to-face with the Warrior. He obviously ought to think carefully about his every word and move from now on.
“Well, whatever happened, you are here now. So I offer you the same choice as the others,” she continued firmly. “You may leave Varomor if you do not want to fight beside me against Indrek.”
Halgor’s mind worked hard to put the pieces together. He had apparently missed a few things. He glanced back at Veilon and Enargit, who stood there like guardians. Although he could not work out whom they wanted to protect, if things got serious …
“I think it’s obvious that I’ll stay,” he murmured.
“Very well. You will have your tasks handed to you as soon as I figure them out.” Neila nodded as she sat back down, continuing from where she was interrupted. “We haven’t got much time. We need to be ready to deal with this soon,” she said, not even glancing up from the notes. “So, please, let me work. You have enough on your hands too, I assume.”
“Certainly. We are going now,” rumbled Enargit as he quickly grabbed the elven by the arm and pulled him to the door.
After they stood in the corridor, the elven jerked himself free and turned to the others.
“So … do you have any explanations for any of this …?” he asked, glaring from one to the other as he folded his arms.
“Yes, a few things have happened in the past couple of days. As you could figure out, Neila wants Indrek’s head,” started Veilon, although he seemed a little bit confused. Maybe because he gave the answers uncharacteristically easily.
The kobold summed up the happenings, although some things he left out, like Neila’s drunken night. Enargit raised a brow at this, but he stayed silent.
“So finally, yesterday she offered a choice to everybody currently living in Varomor: either leave without any consequence, or stay and fight with her. You saw her, so you must know what the latter means.”
“How many stayed?” Halgor asked immediately, interrupting the other. If Veilon was annoyed by this, he did not show it.
“The apprentices all stayed. From the dragons …”
“Hundred and twenty-four,” answered Enargit.
“Hundred and twenty-four,” repeated the paragon. “At the moment, we all are waiting for Neila’s instructions.”
Halgor narrowed his eyes, eyeing both of them.
“All right … so this is what you show towards her. What’s in the background?” the dark elven wanted to know.
The others fell silent, then quietly suggested that they should continue this somewhere else. Halgor immediately teleported them into his room.
“Well?” he then hurried the others.
“Well what? WE are trying to keep her … how shall I put this …? Keep her from losing control,” explained Veilon, although his obnoxious behaviour started to really annoy Halgor. “YOU, on the other hand, should stay out of her way, obeying her every order,” finished the Ruler with flaring eyes, which made Halgor growl. Before anything could happen, Enargit cut in.
“Speaking of which, where were you? Nighthunter remembers nothing.”
“I have spoken with Lexénia,” replied the dark mage, hissing the words through his teeth.
“And have you learned anything new?” asked the shadow again when he saw the rivals eyeing each other with growing hatred.
“Define ‘new’.”
“Of what we still do not know.”
“Maybe that the connection between the Overlord and Neila is inseparable, even for the Gods.”
“Interesting …” mused Veilon.
“Anything else?” asked Enargit.
“Not really.”
“Anyhow, we have work to do now. We will meet up with Agony to discuss how we shall proceed with the staying dragons,” announced the reptile, then he started for the door.
“Speaking of dragons, where did the rest go?” asked Halgor, which made the others halt for a moment.
“Eteryon offered to keep them with the tribals until this is over. After that, we will return to the Homeland,” said the shadow Leader, then left.
Halgor remained alone in his room, musing on t
he forming situation. He had absolutely no idea what he should do and how.
39. A peaceful afternoon
Neila paced in her study alongside a number of chairs arranged in a circle. She waited for her friends, who arrived shortly after she started wandering around. She gestured them to sit with a faint smile. As they obeyed, everybody seemed tense as they tried to behave normally, even though nobody understood why Halgor was there. However, none raised a voice, since Neila obviously let him stay.
The Master gave a sad sigh, seeing what she was up against. Yet she could not say the words out loud which would send the dark elven away. In this case, she had to think as a warrior who needed every possible insight or idea. Just because she and the others felt uncomfortable, nobody could deny how valuable the elven could be. He was a very good fighter, not to mention mage.
As she accepted a little bowl of fruit salad from Veilon, she mused further. She put it on the desk beside her and started eating. She never asked for anything like this, yet she could not resist. She could eat any amount of fruit anywhere, in any circumstances, which the paragon, and all the other friends, obviously knew of her. At the moment she enjoyed the salad more than acknowledging the deadly glances Halgor sent at Veilon after this little gesture.
Slowly all took a seat—Enargit beside Veilon, who had Eryn on his other side. Some glanced questioningly at the wraith, but nobody said anything out loud.
When everybody had settled, Neila started.
“First of all, thank you all for being here,” she said, smiling, although it was mirthless. “I have some ideas, and I would like to share them.”
Everybody stayed silent, waiting for her to continue. She spoke very seriously; however, the picture was completely ruined by the fact that she constantly ate as she spoke, not even realising.