“Quite alright,” Rift replied, laying back in his bed. The mentor was already over the subject. “Now, do you have any questi—.”
“What is the black stuff? What type of sorcery is that?”
Xep’s head shot towards the Elder, his face very serious. Esh could see his breathing had increased and his fists were clenched.
“It’s true… The lad has demonic capabilities.”
“Conjuring or… possession?”
“Neither,” the Elder said, closing his eyes and shaking his head. “It seems Esh here can control the dark powers through embodiment.”
“How is that possible? I have never heard of embodiment sorcery before.” Xep had a skeptical face as if he were hearing a bunch of gibberish.
“I saw it with my own eyes, Xep. The lad can call upon the powers and command it at will. Now the question is, can the embodiment turn to possession?”
This was becoming too much for Esh. He had only known about sorcery for two sun-cycles now and the two males in front of him were throwing around words as if they were every sun-cycle occurrences. He had questions upon questions floating inside his head and with every word spoken from either his mentor or Xep was just adding to the pool. He was becoming more frustrated and more fearful every time the word ‘possession’ was brought up. Was he already possessed? It certainly felt that way whenever the goo had been called out. He could feel it trying to talk him into things he knew the normal Esh wouldn’t have wanted to ever have desired to do. That side of him had different appetites. Dark appetites.
The two agents started to talk back in forth, conversation turning to arguments and then back to normal conversation. And on and on it went. They were using terms that were out of Esh’s league and finally he had to stop them.
“Excuse me,” he called out. They both turned to him with genuine interest making him almost forget what he wanted to say. He took a deep breath and decided it was best to spill his guts. He explained to them how the darkness made him feel when it had been brought out from inside him. He told them how it had felt to control this dark energy… or how it had felt to be controlled by it, he couldn’t tell which. He even told them how immensely hard it was to keep from eating the Elder alive.
“I didn’t want to tell ya this,” his mentor said, holding a hand up. “but you did take a little bone off while you were cleaning me up.”
Xep gave the Elder a confused look.
“I’ll tell ya later. Continue, lad.”
“I think that’s about it,” Esh said, shrugging. The talk had taken a lot of energy from him and he wanted a nap very badly.
“Any ideas, Xep?”
“I have a few, actually,” the guest answered. “I believe the lad is not possessed at the moment… but that there is the possibility for sure. He needs proper training and…” Xep looked to Rift for permission to say what he had been about to say and Rift nodded, “and to start the trial by serum immediately. Take off your chest armor, Esh.”
“What? Why?”
“Just do it,” Rift said.
Esh tried to unstrap the armor but found he couldn’t do it alone. Xep walked over and helped him. The armor fell into the sand with a silent thud and the Elder gave a loud whistle.
“That’s no good,” he said, looking down at Esh’s waist.
The young male looked down and gasped. There was a large dark brown bruise that wrapped around his entire waist. He poked at it lightly and was met with pain. Without any shame, Esh ripped off the rest of the armor as fast as he could until he was completely nude. His body was bruised all over.
“What is this?” Esh asked, pointing at the strange lines that were on each hip.
“Those are stretch marks,” Xep answered. “Bruising and stretch marks are very common amongst younger sorcery manipulators who have the power to utilize capability." Xep eyed the young one carefully up and down. He then turned to look back at Rift. “Was this power similar to that of a capability sorcerer?”
“I would think so. He was moving at the speed of a warlock who had mastered capabilities. But I don’t think this sort of, err, power has ever been recorded.”
“What do the stretch marks have to do with me moving fast?” Esh asked, putting his underwear back on.
“It means you were moving too fast for your skin to handle. The bruises mean your blood flow was either irregular or your muscles had become too efficient for the body.”
“So—.”
“It means you could have died, Esh,” the Elder said, swinging his legs over his bed. “Your body isn’t ready for the sort of power it can produce.”
“When is the first time you experienced this dark magic?” Xep asked.
“That was the first time,” Esh answered.
Xep shook his head as if he could not grasp what was being said. “This is impossible. Your power seems very similar to how someone would describe a Wisp.”
The room was quiet as the words sunk in. The Elder shook his head slowly. He had already known.
“What if you, um… swallow a piece of Wisp?”
“You’re not making any sense,” said Xep, “The Wisp isn’t a true element, it’s… well, it’s nothing. Just dark energy.”
“Well now wait a minute,” Rift butted in, “We don’t exactly understand the link between hybrids and Wisps, now do we?” Xep opened his mouth to argue but shut it quickly. “Think about it, Xep. We still don’t truly understand why some hybrids can actually speak to them through dreams.”
“Why do you ask this question? Are you saying you actually consumed a piece of Wisp?”
Esh nodded.
“I still do not see how that is possible.”
“It is possible because it happened! Back when we first ran away from the Wisp that murdered Mehch! It flew at me and, well… I opened my mouth trying to yell for my mentor and it flew right in.”
The room went silent again and everyone just stared into the sand, deep in thought. They obviously didn’t really believe what he was saying. Esh was starting to question his own sanity when his mentor broke the silence.
“I believe you, lad,” he said. “After what I saw… It is impossible to doubt what you have inside of you.”
Xep made no comment, a fist below his chin, still thinking hard about something.
“And that is why I think you should immediately go into the trials.”
Xep’s eyebrows furrowed and then relaxed, “I agree. He is a danger to others and especially himself. I am surprised he is even alive at this moment, truly the spirit of his father.”
“But doesn’t that mean that I have to go to sleep for a month?”
“That is basically correct, yes,” answered Xep.
“Well wait, I wanna know more about my father and mother! Mentor Rift never finished the story.”
“Which one?” Xep asked, a hint of curiosity in his voice.
“The one when he meets my mother in the Green world."
“Ahh, that’s a good one.” Xep closed his eyes and smiled, most likely remembering the times of old. “I miss your father. Very talented and… eccentric male. We shared many exciting missions together. You’d look almost exactly like him but your mother’s ears are very prominent."
“Well, looks like we aren’t doing anything too special at the moment. How about I finish that story while Xep here cooks us your last meal.”
“I’m an alchemist, not a cook."
“You telling me you spend all that time behind a cauldron and haven’t learned a single edible recipe?”
Xep sighed. “Fine.” He turned and walked towards the secret room.
“Alrighty, where were we?”
“They just killed the commander humanoid and Xep had poisoned the entire squad of soldiers!” Despite his exhaustion, Esh yelled all of this while jumping up and down, his long dirty purple hair rising and falling on his shoulders.
They could both hear Xep laughing in the secret room.
21 - The Warlock
; Barda and Xep watched as the elves fled through the trees like blurred ghosts with only the sounds of rustling leaves to give them away. Chesna must have been successful in warning the village. As the elves passed over head, many of the children stopped to aww at their large enviro-suits only to be swept up by their parents.
Barda gave the signal for them to move and Xep nodded. As they jumped from tree branch to tree branch neither spoke, deep in thought on different tactics they could pull on the next enemy squadron. No matter how skilled an agent of the order was, no one could forecast how a battle would turn out.
They were moving as fast as they could in the direction they thought the next squadron would be, that was until the silence of the forest was killed by screams. Both agents stopped. Their ears were met with an explosion coming directly from the village.
“Not good,” Barda said and they both changed directions towards the village.
As they moved closer to the village they could hear more and more cries of pain and the familiar sound of destruction. By the time they had made it to the outer limit of the village they were too late. They peered down to the forest ground and saw it littered with humanoid corpses, mouths open in terror, males, females and even children.
“They must have changed plans,” Xep said under his breath. “Orders, Captain?”
Barda merely looked down upon the bodies with great remorse.
They both jumped down to the ground, somersaulting to protect their joints and sprang up already preparing their weapons. Xep pulled back his robe over his shoulders revealing the many throwing knives that embroidered his chest armor. Barda used some of his energy to conjure up a long bow and a quiver of arrows.
“Lookie what we got er!” said a large bearded male coming from around a tree followed by twenty or so other soldiers doing the same thing. It was a trap.
“You fell—,” the bearded male was cut short as Barda released an arrow directly into his mouth, piercing the soldier’s brain stem. His eyes went white and the conjured arrow disappeared.
“Kill the bastards!” yelled another and the soldiers charged through the forest towards them.
Xep sent three flying daggers in half a second sticking their targets in the throats. Before long both agents had been surrounded.
“How the—.”
“Look, Captain!” Xep called, pointing towards an elderly elf in the tree, his hands moving in a circular motion. “He’s using sorcery to mask their sound!”
Barda recognized the pattern of the Warlock’s hand motion. There wasn’t time to ask why an elvish humanoid was aiding the army of Reah
“Move!”
Barda and Xep separated running in opposite directions just as bolts of lightning struck where their feet had been moments before. The Warlock’s power was strong, strong enough that a single electric bolt of his sorcery could have easily fried whomever it hit.
“Take him out before we finish the others!” Barda commanded. He thought about trying to hit the Warlock with an arrow but knew his skills weren’t up to the task. He took a quick mental note to train more with the bow when he made it home. If he made it home.
Barda turned his attention back to the platoon that now surrounded him. He hit one of the oncoming soldiers in the eye with the edge of his bow while simultaneously shooting an arrow into another’s forehead.
“He’s disappeared, Captain!” Xep yelled from above, jumping down from the branch directly onto the shoulders of a rushing soldier. He slit the throat and back flipped off of him. How Xep had made it up a tree that quickly, Barda would never know. He was always full of surprises.
They would worry about the Warlock later. Although they had been momentarily outnumbered, it wasn’t long before the two had slaughtered each and every one of the ambushing soldiers with only minor damage to themselves. Barda was forced to relieve his shoulder pauldrons and his left leggings which had taken too many hits. Xep had used all of his throwing knives and his satchel had been slit open spilling all of his alchemy supplies. He chose only the few essentials he could store on his armor.
They didn’t hesitate to run towards the village. Flames were now visible on the tops of every hut, house, and building. Barda could see the flames reaching out unto the trees and spreading. Xep barely had time to side step a falling piece of debris out of which came a severed elvish hand that tumbled in front of his feet.
Screams and smoke filled the air and Barda knew they were too late. The village was turned upside down and all was in chaos. The elvish females grabbed their children and took flight at the sight of Barda and Xep’s armor. He tried telling them he was on their side but soon gave up.
“Captain, there,” Xep said, pointing towards the top of one of the larger houses.
Barda looked up to see Chesna leading an entire pack of small elvish children out of the house and onto one of the many wooden bridges that connected the entire village.
“Don’t tell me…”
“That must be their school,” Xep said, confirming Barda’s fear.
The two raced off to give aid to Chesna. As they began to make their climb, Barda scanned the area behind him and could see the skin of many of the elves already beginning to blister under the extreme heat. Flames were going up everywhere and he noticed that many of the soldiers had taken up long spears so that they could pierce through more than one humanoid body at a time without having to get too close. After stabbing three or four elves, the soldier would raise the stake in the air like a steaming kebab of flesh.
As Barda and Xep finally reached the school the children cried and fled behind Chesna. She eyed them carefully as if she still didn’t completely trust them, but she changed her mind when she saw how badly they had been beaten. She turned to the children and calmed them down with assuring words.
“We heard the screaming. They must have changed their plan of attack,” Barda said, ushering all of the kids along towards a bridge that had connected the school to the exit of the village.
“I noticed!” Chesna said, running passed him with the children crowded around her.
“Xep, you take care of the elves who are still alive on the ground. I’ll help escort these children.”
“Yes sir.” Xep turned his back to the edge of the bridge and let himself fall backwards into the midst of burning chaos.
Barda looked ahead. Four soldiers were coming their way with sick smiles on their faces. The children halted and Barda and Chesna took the front.
“Get behind me,” Barda said.
“YOU get behind ME,” Chesna answered. He eyed her uneasily but then saw the small dagger she had pulled out from her hip and remembered how she had tactically captured him.
They faced their opponents and both moved at the same time before their attackers got any closer. Barda watched as Chesna jumped feet first into the first soldier who stumbled and fell onto his back. She quickly recovered and preceded to shove the dagger in and out of the soldier’s neck, drenching herself in his blood.
Barda nearly took a clean hit to the face but dodged a half second before. He swore under his breath for yet again losing his concentration and jabbed an arrow inside the male’s temple.
The two remaining soldiers decided to jump off the bridge to find easier targets, however, Barda did not let them go without parting gifts. He sent two arrows into each of their backs.
“Go, go, go!” Barda yelled at the kids in their native tongue. They looked at him in utter shock but began to move as Chesna yelled the same thing.
As soon as they were all in the clear and out of the smoke, three elvish humanoids appeared and took the children without a word. Barda bowed to their little cries of thanks and made his way back into the dying village; he could hear Chesna on his heels. They jumped without any plan into the pit of hell and fought back to back.
Hot blood slapped Barda in the face as he killed one soldier after the other, stopping only to peel the drying blood out of his eyes. He gained momentum, turning around only to stick an ar
row into a soldier Chesna had not seen. He was surprised when she returned the favor, throwing her dagger into the face of a soldier that was about to shove his sword deep into his ribs.
They fought for only twenty minutes, but it felt like hours. Barda released the bow and arrow, exhausted from the long duration of the sorcery and picked up a greatsword from the weak grasp of a dead soldier. He had not expected to get into any long winded fights on this campaign.
The village was now completely destroyed and they were forced to escape. Barda hoped Xep had made it out alive. He went to move his feet but they would not budge. That’s when he heard laughing.
He looked up to see the same elvish Warlock looking down from a charred tree branch. Behind him was a sky that was no longer blue, but a mean greyish orange. The Warlock’s arms were crossed over his chest which Barda knew to be a control spell. He looked over at Chesna. She could not move either.
“This isn’t good,” she said to him.
“You know that male?”
“I do,” she nodded, but before she could elaborate a large piece of house fell on top of them, trapping them under its debris.
Barda could hear the Warlock’s now muffled laughing. He went through a certain diagnostic of his body and was relieved that he could actually move his feet meaning the Warlock had released his spell. Through a tiny hole in the debris he could see Chesna standing up. She had survived.
He pushed the pieces of house off his sore body and sprinted after her, but again, they were trapped by the Warlock mid stride.
“And where are you going?”
The Warlock stepped out of the smoke, his face becoming visible. Over his shoulder laid a limp Xep whom he threw at Barda’s feet. “You forgot something!”
The Warlock spat on Xep’s body and stared menacingly into Barda’s eyes. Barda had never felt such anger in his life and met the Warlock’s gaze. One eye was blind and milky while the other was completely black.
Before Barda could get a better look of the Warlock, he saw the old elf pull out a small blade from under his garments, effectively releasing his holding spell on them. The Warlock then leapt towards Chesna with an unnatural agility.
The Four Territories Page 12