Sentinels: Forsaken Knight

by B. H. Savage

  "Alistair," Anye said as her breathing finally slowed. "Never doubt my abilities again."

  The sword remained silent.

  ______

  “Glenn!” Anye yelled while she ran around the timeless capital. “Can you hear me!?” For as loud as she cried and as far as she ran, Anye’s companion was nowhere to be found. Even Alistair, who claimed that the very nature of his, Darius, and Legeia’s existence allowed them to feel one another’s presence, said that he could not find her friends.

  The window Kiya had opened showing Glenn’s battle with Amador had faded shortly after her life came to its end. There were no identifying landmarks shown in the bland landscape, and they were likely far from where she stood. There were no sounds of battle echoing anywhere, and although Eisenzahn and Oscar had fought in the air she could not see them above. Either the battle had concluded, or Stragus was preventing Anye from finding them somehow.

  She paused to look around at her surroundings, hoping to gain some bearings using the temple at the center of the city as a base. She had already traveled a good distance from where she left Kiya’s body and needed to keep from getting lost.

  Anye’s suspicions aroused suddenly, prompted by an unexpected sensation of magic, which faded quickly. There was still no wind, and Stragus had remained silent, but there was definitely something that had happened. It felt like a pulse, or perhaps a sudden spark of magical concentration coming from the direction of the temple. It was very brief, but it was enough to get the woman’s attention.

  “Alistair, did you feel that?” Anye asked the blade.

  “I did, but I do not know what it was,” Alistair replied. “Proceed with caution, Master.”

  Anye, determined to find Glenn, stepped towards the massive building through the frozen landscape. She hoped that whatever the sensation was would be felt by him as well and she’d find him there. Alistair remained silent, keeping watch for anything Stragus may have planned, but nothing happened. Aside from the sound of her footfalls they were surrounded by absolute silence.

  The steps of the temple, a massive square-shaped building with a tower jutting out of the center, were littered with the frozen bodies of man and demon alike, each trapped in perpetual battle. The damage to the area from the magic and steel being used was extensive except for the temple itself, which looked pristine amidst the chaotic battle. The doors were open, and so Anye stepped inside.

  The section of the temple Anye entered was shaped similar to the tower she had claimed Alistair in, though based on his description of the area there were many more sections of the structure that served different purposes. Stairs climbed upward in a spiral fashion. The condensation of magic was also just like the desert tower, only much more potent. It caused a dizzying sensation in Anye’s head that prevented her from going any further until she got used to it.

  “The center of the seal is located in the upper chambers of the temple, Master,” Alistair explained. “It is possible that the pulse we felt earlier has something to do with it.”

  “That explains this concentration…” Anye commented while her eyes remained shut. “I don’t think I’ll ever really get used to this.” When she could look straight and move without issue again she proceeded up the stairs.

  The pulse of magic Anye felt from outside came again, this time also accompanied by the light sound of feet shuffling in one of the corridors above her. The sound did not remind her of armor. Anye drew Alistair from her hip and gripped his handle tightly, ready for anything.

  After several floor breaks and having to move closer to the center of the building before climbing upward again, Anye entered a room more ornate and decorated than any other. It was magnificent, decorated with beautiful drapes embroidered with the finest looking threads. Murals had been painted on the walls by master artists, and in the center of the room on an intricate pedestal was the largest gemstone she had ever seen, surrounded by three people. There was a tall slender man with smooth long hair wearing armor just like Anye’s, a large muscular man with short hair wearing armor identical to Glenn’s, and a woman dressed in robes with long black hair tied into a single thick braid. None of them were holding any weapons, but they each looked like they should be or had been at some point. Both of the men were standing in combative poses facing the large gemstone while the woman had a single arm out, like she was holding something to touch the stone with.

  Anye was about to ask Alistair if he knew what that room was and what she was seeing, but the thought was interrupted when the magic pulse happened again. She turned her head to the side to see a shadow the size of a man rushing towards her. It made a sound like it was yelling at her, but she heard only foul demonic noise coming from it.

  Anye raised her shield and pushed back against the shadow’s attack, focusing her magic in to her shield. She pushed, using the charge to launch the creature away from her, and moved on the offensive. She raised her arm to strike when a second shadow appeared from one of the adjacent stairways. Before Anye could lower her arm, the second creature threw a sphere of darkness towards her. She had no choice but to halt her advance and raise her shield again to protect herself.

  The second creature yelled in its demonic language, visibly angry at her quick thinking. Anye turned her head to look towards it, but the distraction left her guard open, and the first shadow’s foot kicked her in the chest. She tumbled away, but the quality of her new armor took the brunt of the damage and she remained unharmed. Outnumbered two to one, Anye had to think quickly. Alistair tried to say something to her but she wasn’t paying attention, choosing instead to deal with her immediate predicament.

  The second shadow raised its weapon in the air and swung. A blast of darkness flew towards her, but to her surprise another blast also flew towards the first creature, which swatted the magic away with its own black staff.

  “They’re fighting each other?” Anye asked herself.

  Before she could think about what was happening, the first shadow leapt towards the second while it ran towards her, and she found herself in a three-way duel with the two creatures. Their actions were strange; they didn’t move like the demons she fought in her trial, but rather like particularly skilled humans. They even had the same basic shape as people. Their fighting didn’t last long, as Anye had swung her sword down from overhead. The shadow she was attempting to strike down slid away quickly, and the blue material of the blade in her hand struck the giant gemstone in the center of the room.

  Color radiated from the center of the rock, illuminating the shadows and shattering the darkness surrounding them. Both Glenn and Amadi appeared in place of the darkness, holding Darius and Legeia combatively. “Glenn!? Amadi!?” she yelled at them.

  The two fighters, both equally as confused looking as Anye, stared down at each other.

  “Anye? What is going on?” Amadi asked. “Why did you both appear as shadows?”

  “If you would have listened to me you wouldn’t have been at each other’s throats!” Alistair angrily yelled out. “I don’t know why I even bother. Humans never change…”

  “Indeed…” Darius added with his own air of annoyance.

  “What do you mean?” Glenn asked as he caught his breath.

  “The shadow forms you saw each other as were illusions generated by Stragus’ influence,” Darius informed them. “The same trick was used against us when we attempted to defeat him before.”

  All three of them visibly looked ashamed of themselves. They had taken ownership of weapons housing ancient spirits who could give them insight for nearly any situation, and they had all ignored them in favor of following blind instinct. Anye had done the same during her fight with Kiya, and her pride nearly cost her life. It would have had it not been for some quick thinking.

  “Regardless, we are at the place where the seal can be broken,” Legeia explained.

  “Yes, just as it was cast centuries ago…” Darius commented.

  “What do we need to do?” Amadi asked.
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br />   “The color that radiated from the Fularium Crystal was time being allowed to return to Del’Mond,” Alistair informed. “As you’ll recall, we are the keys to unlocking this place from its prison. Touch us to the crystal as they, your ancestors, did to reverse the effect.”

  “You mean…?”

  “Yes,” Darius chimed in. “The three people you see here are indeed Doluka Sturmwind, Armonde Schultz, and Bethany Lightstone. Preserved as they have been since the day they helped cast the spell that saved our world.”

  Anye, Glenn, and Amadi all stood in shock and amazement. Three of the heroes of legend, in one place, locked in time standing before them. They had looked up to those individuals, being told stories of their exploits during their childhoods. Seeing them in person was a feeling unmatched by anything any of them had felt before.

  “While we appreciate your acknowledgement of your forefathers and foremother, we must hurry,” Legeia urged. “Every moment we waste allows Stragus to gather more power. You must break the spell and stop him before he is strong enough to stop you!”

  Anye looked at her companions and nodded her head, taking a place in between where Bethany and Armonde stood. Glenn took a similar position between Doluka and Armonde, and Amadi between Doluka and Bethany. They each raised their weapons high and looked to each other for support. All of them looked nervous, but also dedicated.

  While in the air above their masters the three weapons began to speak.

  “In accordance with the ancient pact…”

  “…the laws of both men and gods…

  “…and the vows we swore to keep…

  “We return to that which has been locked away; the flow of time and the freedom of life and death! Lehtierra tierromeh offloucca yeehrreh omoore!”

  Anye, Glenn, and Amadi all lowered the weapons to touch the stone at the same time. A high pitched hum resonated in their ears as light washed out all around them, filling the room with color. The stagnant air blew around them as the drab lifelessness that gripped the city faded away. Vibrant colors took hold on the environment, and gave life back to those it had been stripped from.

  When the brightness faded away, Anye looked around to fully realize what had happened. The lifeless statues they stood between looked back at them in confusion. The confusion soon turned to fear and aggression when the sounds of the battle outside began to echo within the temple.

  The three ancient heroes backed towards the giant glowing stone and reached their hands out, calling the names of the three weapons Anye, Glenn, and Amadi held, but nothing happened. Their faces’ grew taught with frustration, and they yelled at them in the strange language the weapons uttered as they broke the seal.

  The spirits each replied in the same language rapidly, sounding as if attempting to calm the three legendary warriors down and convince them of what was happening. It looked to be working, because Doluka pointed to the ceiling after Darius finished talking.

  “Anye, you are going to feel something like a stinging sensation in your head,” Alistair warned quickly. “Prepare yourself.”

  “What? I-” Anye tried to ask for an explanation, but the feeling the sword warned her of came too quickly. Fortunately it faded just as fast. “Alistair, what was that all about!?”

  “You know the sword’s name?” the unfamiliar voice of one of the ancestors asked her. “Who are you?” Anye opened her eyes in shock to see Armonde was looking at her. The color and design of his armor was the same as hers, and his silver colored hair rested lightly on his head. “Is what he claims true? You’re the Sentinels of this era?”

  “You…I…” Anye was in too much shock from speaking with the man after breaking the spell on Del’Mond to be able to think clearly. If that wasn’t enough, the menacing laughter she recognized as Stragus started to echo within the room.

  The ceiling of the room somehow started to move, circling around like a giant wind-up toy as it opened a way to the roof of the temple. The floor shook and started to rise through the opening, knocking all of them off their feet. It continued to rise until the six people found themselves outside on top of the temple. Frigid wind blew around them, biting at their cheeks and turning them red from the cold. The sky was blue and cloudless above, and in every direction the distance showed nothing but the blue color of the ocean and glaciers.

  “I must thank you, descendants of the three heroes, for breaking the spell that bound me for so long,” Stragus’ voice said to them, but it was no longer carried on some supernatural wind. The voice came from above them. “Although, I must give credit to where it is due my dear friends, for your seal actually managed to hold me…mostly.”

  Anye looked up to see a balding elderly man dressed in exquisitely decorated robes of red, gold, and black, hovering above them with his palms up towards the sky. “Stragus!?” she yelled.

  “We won’t let you destroy everything!” Glenn shouted. He leapt in to the air to strike the dark wizard with Darius in his hand.

  Stragus stared down at the people below and grinned. He shifted a single arm downward towards Glenn as he approached, and clenched his hand tightly to form a fist. Glenn froze in the air and his body tightened as if tied by an invisible rope. “Destroy everything?” Stragus asked as he slowly lifted the lancer up to him. “Is that what they told you? I suppose that would have been the end result of my actions…” He stared in to Glenn’s eyes silently, watching as fear and terror filled him. “You’re Doluka’s boy…aren’t you?” he asked slowly, and looked down at the remaining people below him.

  “Glenn!” Anye shouted.

  “Yes…now I remember,” Stragus commented. “Glenn Sturmwind…Amador had much to say about you, boy.” A smile formed on his cold looking lips and pale face. “But even with all the power I gave him he was still no match for you.” The smile disappeared, and his gaze shifted down to Amadi and Anye who were both looking up at him fearfully. “Your plan was foolhardy, Sentinels!”

  “You must stop this!” Doluka yelled up at him. “All those who have wronged you are dead! Your desire has been fulfilled!”

  “Fulfilled?” Stragus asked as he dropped Glenn back down to the roof of the temple. He landed with a thud and a cry of pain. “You seem to have misunderstood my intentions, old friend. I did not want to simply kill those who wronged me. I wished to make them suffer, and make their children suffer! I wish to take from the world what the world took from me! And THAT is far from fulfilled”

  “You can’t do this!” Amadi yelled out, and summoned a fireball to fling at the dark wizard.

  Stragus absorbed the magic with a single hand without looking like he was trying. “Boy, you have no idea what I am capable of. Your pathetic attempt at magic is laughable, and you thought you could defeat me!?” he told him. “Your plan, instruments of a corrupted council, has failed you! While my body may have been frozen in your prison, my mind was free! I could see everything through the Fularium Crystal. You thought my body being trapped made me weak…well, far from it. Control over magic comes from the mind, and my time spent here without interruption has only made me stronger!”

  “No!” Bethany yelled. “Stragus, you must stop this!”

  “Be gone from my sight!” he angrily yelled at them and swiped his hand in front of him, summoning a powerful gust of glacial wind to push them off of the tower. “Consider yourselves fortunate that you will not live to witness the horrors I shall unleash!”

  The six people tumbled through the air quickly. Cold air rushed by as they fell, helpless and powerless against the gravity that willed them towards their deaths.

  “Glenn!” Anye yelled towards him, but he wasn’t listening. His eyes were closed tightly and she thought he was fearful of his own death until he opened them and yelled as loud as he could.

  “EI-SEN-ZAHN!”

  There was an exponential burst of magic that flowed through Glenn’s body as he called the dragon’s name. Below the group, above the ground where they seemed destined to meet their end, a circ
le of magic appeared. A moment later the giant dragon shattered the seal and flew upward towards them. His eyes glowed with magic while he chanted words in his own draconic language.

  Anye felt herself being pulled somewhere as the dragon spoke, but not by anything physical. She looked quickly at the others around her to see that Glenn and Amadi were glowing slightly. Doluka, Armonde, and Bethany however were not. She wondered what was happening for a second before it clicked in her mind; the dragon was sending them away and moving to catch the falling heroes. She opened her mouth to protest the spell, but Eisenzahn completed it before she could say anything, and she watched as the world around her warped away. Glenn, Amadi, and everything else faded into the light, and the sounds of the battle and wind disappeared. Anye screamed in anger, knowing that she had been separated from Glenn again. The rush of magic carrying her became too much for the woman’s mind to handle though, and even amidst the bright lights carrying her across space, she eventually succumbed to her exhaustion and passed out.

  Epilogue

  When Anye came to, she had a pounding headache. Her head rested on warm stone in a room partially filled with sunlight from above. There was no rug, not even a pillow around her. The floor on which she found herself laying on was instead covered with fragments of shattered glass, dust, and sand, and under one of her hands she could feel the softness of a leather belt.

  When she stood, her head felt dizzy and her vision was blurred. She couldn’t see where she was very well until her eyes focused, and there was a loud ringing in her ears. A voice tried to reach her, but it was lost in the echo reverberating within her ears.

  “Glenn…?” she groaned. “Is that you?”

  “Master…!” the voice cried out to her. “Master Anye, finally you’re awake!”

  “Glenn, where am I?” she asked, but the pounding in her head was too much and she fell to a knee, leaning back against a wall. She cradled her forehead in her palm. “What happened?”