Despite my good fortune, I think I was a bit disappointed that the gift I had intended to give was not mine to grant.
I cleared my mind and started over.
Instead of the present or past, we could speak of what was to come.
I regrouped.
“Lucius has promised to introduce me to some companions to travel with us to Kerraboer. He thinks we—I—could use some more companions on the way.”
Mistress Alyendra smiled archly, knowingly. “Would those companions be perhaps in a sword, Lucius, or will they be flesh and blood, or something else entirely?”
If rocks could blush, I would say Lucius blushed, but he could not, so he did not.
But he certainly acted like he could.
Turning her attention to me, Mistress Alyendra said, “You will not be disappointed with Lucius’ choice of friends. You may, however, be a bit surprised.
“Surprises are one of life’s great treasures.” Here Mistress Alyendra smiled at Lucius. “Like friends, they keep us alert, energetic, and never quite sure what may come next.”
After the success of my introduction, I could be certain of that.
“I wish to hear of your evolvement as you move forward, Ilya. Do keep me updated on your progress.”
Before we ended our conversation for the evening, I did just that. “I empowered a spring with self-sustaining song, Mistress, and planted seeds that the area may grow and thrive. I think I may be able to do so on a much wider scale with the help of the Empyrean Knights.”
Before she could offer any questions, I added only somewhat hesitantly, “And we defeated a juel’soth.”
My teacher’s gaze flicked to Lucius, her eyes filled with admonishment and expectation. “Already? Why am I not surprised?”
Lucius looked suitably chastened.
But I knew her rebuke would not stop him from doing what he felt was right and true in the future.
That was what he did.
Like the weather, there was no denying it.
Lucius knew right and did no wrong.
Or at least he did his best.
“Remember, Lucius, Ilya is not just any wera’dun, she is my wera’dun.
“Do everything you can to see that she realizes her destiny…intact.”
Not only was she admonishing him, Mistress Alyendra was teasing Lucius.
Mistress Alyendra did not tease.
She was of the sun and moon, as untouchable as the stars, ineffable in her ethereality, and as deep and unflappable as the void itself.
She did not tease.
Did she?
I obviously had a lot to learn.
I could not wait for this conversation to end.
Maybe the next one would go better.
But I doubted it.
I doubted it very much.
With a deep sigh, I waited as patiently as I could for the long-lost friends’ discussion to end.
It took some time.
In Perspective
The homeland of the dragons grew progressively lusher, filled with more and more fey creatures, from flitting sprites to variform coralesque abstractions, the farther in we moved.
I had not imagined such variety and richness was possible, but it was.
I blamed my sheltered upbringing, my lack of exposure to the outside world, and a demonic invasion that had impoverished a once treasure-laden planet over many too-long years.
Lucius, in contrast, seemed unaffected.
I should not have been surprised.
He was a living rock that was probably old enough to remember the world’s birth, if he had not helped bring it into existence.
A few more living things, no matter how marvelous, were just more objects on his path.
I know that I was not being fair; I could sense Lucius’ deep gratitude for the world around him, but his single-mindedness of purpose certainly belied any greater sense of curiosity or appreciation.
I suppose my mood was still a bit darkened from the introductions that had gone awry the night before.
I was too old to be pouting.
Wasn’t I?
In leaving Kun’Daer, I had made my Choice.
I had a purpose as important as Lucius’.
In fact, he was helping me with my purpose.
So why did I still feel petulant?
I shook my head.
Sometimes we do not control our emotions. We accept what comes and make the most of it. Once we understand this, we can change our feelings for the better.
Even if doing so was not quite as easy as we—I—would like.
So I did my best to recognize my unhelpful feelings and use them as fuel to move ahead.
If a few hard feelings were the worst obstacle I faced on my journey to Kerraboer, then I truly had little to be upset about.
Part of dealing with feelings like these, no matter how justified they might be, was putting them into proper perspective.
Given the tenuous nature of my status and life in general on Uërth, and the challenges ahead, I could see how truly inconsequential and unneeded my feelings of disappointment were.
I had more important things to focus on and work toward.
Like Lucius.
Dragon’s Teeth Dulled
As much as I longed to lay eyes on them again, I did not see any more dragons as we walked and climbed through the forested glens and mounts of the Dragon’s Teeth range. I could feel the great wyrms’ presence all around, their magic a song enlivening and enabling so much in the shrouded lands of their home, but this was but a reflection, not the thing itself.
Even so, I had caught a glimpse of the dragons’ majesty and could yet feel their song. That experience was gift enough. The resonances of their beings would continue to echo through me so long as my mind held on to memory.
I hoped that would be for a long time indeed.
Traveling north and east, we trekked through densely forested peaks shrouded in fog, past surging cataracts and the birthplaces of streams, across serene valleys, over alpine meadows, and past yawning caves.
The chance to see such places, to take part in their existence, was another reason I had left Kun’Daer.
Though the city and its environs were amazing, filled with opportunity and security denied to most of Uërth, even extended by magic as they were, my home was limited.
I could live a life in Kun’Daer, but I would not relish it.
Perhaps I would return one day with a different perspective, but, for now, I did not wish to be constrained by the limitations of home.
The farther northeast we moved, the less pristine the landscape became. If I had been a healer, I would posit that the early symptoms of disease were expressing. Portions of valleys were browned and dead. Mountain slopes had been slashed by abnormal fires. Whole landforms were warped and twisted. Entire regions were covered in nightmarish formations erupting from otherwise placid environs.
Though fires, shifting rocks, and dying vegetation were often part of natural disturbance, the signs we saw were anything but natural.
The land itself cried out, reverberating with discordant notes and unnatural, disturbing frequencies. These places were instruments out of tune or entirely broken and in need of repair, and my spirit shuddered and recoiled at the feelings.
These areas were signs of demonic occupation and damage.
Upon seeing the first of these tainted regions, a valley so benighted by demonic energies that I had to shield myself from the fell forces lest I risk some horrendous fate, I stopped to ask Lucius, “What is this? What happened here? How prevalent is the damage? Are the demons still near?”
Lucius drew up beside me, radiating calm and confidence where I felt disquiet and anxiety.
Trees were withered and broken, disfigured and perverted. The land was strangely silent, all animals having died or fled. The very ground itself was discolored and weeping, suffering from some virulent pox.
The land was strangely wrong on levels beyond the
physical. There were gaps and irregularities in the landscape, as though the setting had been painted in lurid hues and strange abstractions. My vision recoiled, rebelling as I laid eyes upon these features. Though my eyelids closed instinctively upon first glance, those phantasmagoric symbols were emblazoned indelibly upon my mind’s eye. I felt queasy and soiled, as if the merest glimpse of the arcane sigils and forms had somehow sullied me.
And the visions persisted even after I had opened my eyes and looked away.
Lucius took some time in answering, not because he did not know how to answer but because seeing the damage touched him deeply.
“Though we defeated the demonic hordes at Noema’jin, many juel’dara wreaked havoc on their way to our home. So, too, many juel’dara fled after their defeat on the field of battle. These infernals, if not destroyed, continued to wreak havoc wherever they went and wherever they will go.
“Whether from before or after, the damage you see is a result of the demonic forces trying to destroy the home of the el’amin, one of Uërth’s last refuges.
“If our home fell, the dragons’ was to be next.”
Which also meant that demons could still be roaming in the dragons’ home. This would explain both why we had not encountered any dragons directly and why the dragons had not turned their attention on healing the desecration caused by the demons’ presence.
The wyrms were otherwise occupied.
Until that changed, the land would remain debased.
We steered clear of these blighted regions lest we ourselves be directly exposed to further corruption.
And any lingering demons.
A Remembrance of Things Past
Luecaeus cringed.
The devourers of heart-essence were ahead.
That his brethren, the el’amin and their allies the vuermua’di, had not already come to strike down their dread foes only indicated the degree to which the infernal debasement had spread, masking the juel’dara’s vile presence.
That his kith and kin had not swooped down from on high and ground the devourers of living essence into the earth only showed how thin and depleted the forces of the el’amin had become.
That there were no defenders of the land here, now, only showed how weakened the forces of Light were, how close to defeat they had been after ousting the juel’dara from the valley of Noema’jin.
He could sense the mua’di, the land’s very life-energy, recoiling in disgust, rejecting the extradimensional corruption of the swarming juel’dara.
Swaths of power shifted unnaturally, currents and eddies developing where before there had been only stillness.
The juel’dara devoured the land’s living energy just as they adulterated it.
He would be wise to go around the soul-eaters, to ignore their presence and report their position.
He never had been particularly wise.
Nor had he ever been able to ignore a wrong that needed to be set aright.
Unhallowed Hollow
When we crossed the next ridge, I knew we were in trouble.
Before this valley, we had seen signs of demonic incursion but had not yet seen any demons themselves.
All that changed as I looked into the hollow folded into the broad valley below.
As we approached, I could feel a growing dissonance, discordant notes screaming against one another in horrific patterns that shocked the mind, crushed the soul, and weakened the heart. If ever a heavenly chorus had echoed across these peaks, this was its opposite—vile, vitiate, and full of hate.
I wanted to cover my ears and close my eyes to keep this accursed music out, to protect myself from its influence, for I shrank away from the sounds as much as the land itself.
As the discordance grew, I wrapped myself in a protective sheath of music, a swirling rush of song that would channel the fell influence and power of the place safely away from me, for I could not tolerate its presence even from afar.
Extending my Voice outward, I wreathed Lucius within the song’s mantle as well, sheltering him in an enlivening wall of arcane oscillations.
Following much grueling climbing, we finally stood upon a rocky escarpment, high atop the vertiginous peak of one the Dragons’ Teeth’s many sky-scraping prominences.
After many long days of travel, Lucius had assured me that we were finally nearing the homeland of the el’amin.
As I looked down into the vale, whatever excitement I had once felt quickly faded.
There was, if not a demonic legion, then at least a demonic contingent gathered below.
This was the heart of the dissonant vortex of horrendous sound and energies.
I gazed upon a lifetime of nightmares.
No, that assessment was not fair.
I looked down upon a lifetime of nightmares, an entire legion of atrocities, birthed into the waking world, ones that had been allowed to breed, multiply, and mutate into far worse entities than would ever have been dreamt into existence.
Living shadows pooled between the boles of trees grown sickly and weak. Chitinous insectoids, ranging from the roughly humanoid to those not even remotely painted in Uërthly analogues, swarmed across the mountainside in frenzied numbers. Hulking behemoths, oozing power and cloaked in fell black armor, unholy weaponry at the ready, lumbered through the gathered masses, towering above most other juel’dara. Monsters cloaked in flames, flickering hues covering all the shades of night, flitted sinisterly within the ranks, ready to light the world on fire. Abominable entities, the very essence of filth, oozed disease-ridden pus from boiling suppurations, spreading pestilence and decay in their wake. Squamous beasts with glaring eyes, fanged maws, burning eyes, and leathery wings slithered and flew within and around the mob. Monstrous brutes, leviathans cast up from the shores of darkest horror, thundered across open ground, evoking almost as much fear in the gathered demons as they had in their erstwhile foes. Wretched sorcerers dripping twisted arcana wrought undulating tapestries of benighted enchantments over the gathered host. Eldritch duaga, mighty lords of Chaos, guided the seething masses from above, their great atramentous wings bathing the gathered horde in profane shadows darker than the void between stars.
There were others, so many others, but I had to look away.
I had seen enough terror for a lifetime in but a single glance.
Swallowing my fear and revulsion, turning to Lucius, I managed to whisper, “Is this the army you defeated at Noema’jin?”
Lucius’ answer was as simple as it was direct. “Part of it.”
Part? If there were hundreds of demons below now, there must have been thousands at Noema’jin.
“A small one.”
A small part?
I did not want to imagine worse.
Or more.
But the truth of the matter was, Uërth had seen far worse. Damned legions had brought the world to its present state of disorder and decay.
And, if left unchecked, would do far worse.
Such was life after Heaven’s Fall.
As if I could release my fears and anxiety through questions, words spilled out of my mouth unchecked. “How could you face those things?”
Could I have done so?
Would I be able to do so?
For I would certainly need to be able to do so if I were to help the world in its eventual restoration.
“How did you manage to defeat them?”
Lucius’ answer was simple. “We did what we must. There was no alternative.”
I accepted Lucius’ answer, for it was true, if unimaginably improbable. He had no alternative. If the elementals and dragons lost, they would all die, their homes would be forfeit and worse, and Uërth would lose more bastions of security.
“If the demons were defeated at your home, how have these managed to survive so long?”
Lucius looked at me, his gaze asking if I was truly serious.
I shrugged.
I was not experienced in the ways of war.
I could not imagine sta
nding face-to-face with foes such as those. Gathering the courage to fight, much less defeat, the demons seemed beyond question or possibility.
But if the elementals and dragons had managed to overthrow a massed gathering of juel’dara much larger and more potent than this group, how were these here, still alive?
“Time and opportunity,” was Lucius’ reply.
He said no more.
I thought about his words while I surveyed the seething pack of monstrosities below.
Maybe the elementals and dragons were actively hunting the demons that had fled the battlefield. If so, they would need time to track down and wipe out surviving groups of demons individually. If the el’amin and vuermua’di were divided, challenged, depleted, or presented with unfavorable circumstances, they might not have the opportunity to find and kill the fleeing demons quickly, no matter how much the allied forces might desire to do so.
So Lucius’ answer made sense.
But it was not the kind of sense I wished for. I wanted the demons dead, defeated, and gone and the homelands of the elementals and dragons safe and restored.
“Shall we try to go around? Should we alert your brethren?”
We had already come farther than we should have.
Once again Lucius looked at me as if to ask if I was serious.
His glance said to me, “Of course we should let the elementals know about the gathered demons, though they probably already knew, and we most certainly will try to go around. What else would we do?”
Not everyone had a death wish.
Most especially me.
But Lucius was not me.
As we stood surveying the hellish legion, I sensed in Lucius a gathering energy, a dynamo gathering momentum intent upon release.
Perhaps this was a natural reaction.
Mayhap he had no choice.
Perchance he had had enough.
But, whatever the reason, he was going to charge the demons.
Alone.
Was he crazy?
How had he managed to survive so long, if he acted so rashly?
Maybe he had not always done so.
Perhaps this was a recent development.
Legacy of the Blade: The Complete Trilogy Page 42