Dark Form_Book 1 of the Shadow War Trilogy

by M. A. Da Costa

  I’m lost and can’t figure out what I am to do. I need you to wake up, Crystalline; to tell me that you are okay.

  As if she heard me, she shifts her body towards me; I place my hand on her cheek and feel energy surging between us. There’s some kind of connection between us that I can’t explain. It empowers me.

  Slowly, Crystalline places her hand on mine; a scorching heat begins to rise from me and I pull away. I carefully watch as she sleeps; every time I am around her I feel…complete. Yet, this isn’t the main reason I am sitting by her side. Asvarp believes that she knows something about me that they haven't yet figured out. Something greatly important.

  What could possibly be so important about me that I am worth saving? Crystalline is far more powerful than I am. Why isn’t she being chased by Reaper? Better question: why is Reaper after us in the first place?

  A tingling sensation numbs my hip and it soothes the soreness within my body from the battle. I reach my hand into my armor’s waist belt and pull out the glaive. I glide my fingers around the leather bound handle. At both ends of the handle is a small golden ring that indicates where it stops; both dragons heads press against those rings and appear lifeless. The heads are golden with a mixture of colors that outline the edges of every curve; the eyes, however, are shiny black stones.

  After carefully studying the glaive, I decide to extend it to its full length; with a twist of my wrist, the glaive shoots open. The dragon heads spin around as a pole extends from inside of the handle; when it stops extending the top of both heads face in opposite directions. Etched into the metal, is a carving of a dragon's body on each bar that leads up to the dragon heads; the carvings themselves are just as shiny, black, and lifeless as the stone eyes. The blades slowly slide out of the now open dragon mouths once the glaive stops extending. The point of both blades faces in the direction of the heads and are each half of the length of the glaive. Both blades are wide and have a platinum strip that runs along the edge of the blade. The rest of the blades are golden with four unique runes engraved on one side and four different runes engraved on the other side; they are black like the dragon eyes. Although, two of them don’t fit in with the rest.

  From the corner of my eye, I see a finger trace the edge of the blade closest to the bed. When I glance over, I see Crystalline staring at the glaive as sparks lick at her fingertips; she smiles when our eyes meet and starts to sit up.

  “Crystalline you should rest,” I urge her to lie down.

  She waves me away, “I’m fine. Besides Genu and his friend must be dying to hear what I have to say.”

  I give her an astonished look. “I figured they’d ask you about what happened and I knew you wouldn't be able to give them the whole story,” she replies.

  After a silence flushes over us, I help her to stand and give her the glaive to use as a walking stick. We make it to the door before she stops cold in her tracks. Instantly, she hands me the glaive and limps over to the other side of the bed; after a few seconds of searching, Crystalline pulls out her bow and quiver from beneath the bed. I look around the room and notice a banner beside a bookshelf; it’s a mixture of all of the other banners from Asvarp’s meeting room put into one. The window opposite of the door shows the blue-white sun beginning to rise over the horizon.

  “What is that?” I ask pointing to the banner.

  “That is a mixture of the six kingdoms’ symbols,” Crystalline reaches for the door as she answers.

  We head down a seemly endless stone hallway. I twirl the glaive in my hand as we walk and he fixes her bow and quiver onto her back.

  “Aren’t you ever worried about running out of arrows?”

  “No, this is a magical quiver that possesses limitless arrows. It replenishes whatever is lost.”

  I smile at how impressive magic is. There’s a lot of that Elvendora has to offer.

  We continue walking until we reach an old lonely wooden door. Crystalline stops me before opening the door and looks at the glaive.

  “I know you haven’t gotten all of the answers that you want. I also know that you still don’t understand anything about what’s going on. And that you wish everything could just go back to the way it was from the very start, however, that will never happen. But I want you to know that I will be by your side all the way through the very end of time.”

  I slide my free hand across her side and around her back, bringing her in for a tight hug. Next, we open the door and everything is a complete disaster; it’s as if reality was torn apart and is just floating around. Crystalline quickly points to a distant image of the meeting room. Asvarp’s and Genu’s silhouettes emerge at different corners of the room.

  Together we reach out for the image and are instantly warped into the fractured reality and transported into the room. They stare at us as we come bursting through the doors and slide across the floor after tripping over each other. We both give off a slight groan mixed with a little laugh once we get to our feet.

  “I should’ve warned you that using the dimension door is dangerous when more than one person goes through at a time. It could’ve ripped one of you apart.” Asvarp says annoyed.

  Genu flicks his finger and all of the chairs slide out from beneath the table. We all take a seat, waiting for one another to begin the conversation.

  “We don't have much time so we have to be quick about this,” Genu starts off, “what happened the night of my castle’s destruction?”

  Crystalline clears her throat, “I’m sure that Zarvick told you his side and now you are wondering what I know. Well, somehow, I managed to bring spirits into the physical plane. Although, Zarvick wasn’t able to interact with them unless he was touching me. Later, I learned—” she pauses to stare into my eyes, “I learned that Zarvick’s soul has been shattered and only a small piece remains. It’s probably why he is so weak.”

  “Correction, that’s why you are both weak,” the mage responds.

  “Who are you exactly?” She cocks her neck.

  “His name is Asvarp and he is a friend,” I reach across the table for her hand, “just hear what he has to say before you attack him.”

  After my short plead, she nods and turns back to him. Genu smirks at the little scene and begins to speak before shut down by a quick death stare from Crystalline.

  “Before someone is killed, you two need to be filled in on all of the details. Also, there are other things that we need to discuss.”

  Genu nods, “let’s begin. First, we need to think about everything that we have gathered about Reaper and any connections it might have to the time shift.”

  Suddenly, realization strikes me, “wait, are we just ignoring the fact that my soul is shattered?”

  “We will come back to,” Asvarp says.

  “Really?! My soul is possible floating around in other beings and we are just going to ‘come back to it’.”

  My mouth is left open after realizing what I just said. I’m honestly shocked by my outburst. They all stare at me as I turn pale; all of them wear a very intrigued/shocked expression on their faces. I am slowly dying on the inside as their eyes drill through the last fragment of my soul.

  “I’m sorry. I don’t think I heard your right. Did you just say that your soul is floating around and other people?” The vampiric-kaine finally speaks with a heavy tone.

  I simply nod with a stupid expression on my face.

  “How long have you known about this?” Asvarp asks.

  I am reluctant to respond, “s-since the castle.”

  They all just look at one another as if this changes everything. I doubt it makes any difference. Reaper is still too powerful.

  Crystalline leans back, “that’s impossible.”

  “Not quite,” Asvarp inputs his knowledge, “a sentient being’s soul can be broken apart and reassembled into objects or other life for multiple purposes, however, the rituals needed to do so requires tremendous power. That’s not including the factors of the extra power needed to cast the en
hancements necessary to place the soul fragments inside of other objects or people.”

  She looks a both confused and agitated, as do I. “Shouldn’t he be dead? I mean, there is absolutely no way Zarvick should be alive right now. Especially not with as many missing soul fragments that he has. Looking at his soul, it would have to be more than three fragments. That alone should kill almost anything.”

  “A) neither of you are technically mortal, so let’s not go jumping to conclusions right now. And B) I think I figured out who exactly possess pieces of Zarvick’s soul.”

  All of us follow Genu’s gaze: the banners around the room seem to answer an unasked question. If this holds true, that means that my soul is split apart amongst the leaders of the six eleven kingdoms.

  “This is beyond anything that I have ever seen,” the old man breathes.

  “You’re telling me that my soul has been split up and placed into each of these kingdom’s rulers?” I ask the unasked question.

  “It’s the only theory that makes sense,” Genu exclaims, “however, we can’t prove it until we retrieve Asvarp’s idiotic crystal ball.”

  Crystalline looks at him in bewilderment and it takes him awhile to understand her expression; once he figures it out, we explain the whole situation that was discussed earlier.

  “There is more yet that needs to be told,” Asvarp adds, “if we are to be prepared we must know what we are up against. First, I would like to start with the barrier around the castle: that spell made the shielding excessively powerful, however, in the event that it was broken. I had a contingency plan. Without Genu’s knowledge, I placed a deadly counterspell over the castle.

  Anyone who broke or dispelled the barrier would active that counterspell; the magic would reflect the strength of the barrier itself at the attacker(s). Meaning that, when Reaper broke through the castle's defensive, it must have been badly wounded.”

  “So, it would have to go somewhere to recover,” Crystalline says.

  “I don’t think Reaper took the entire effect of your counterspell,” I add.

  When they all look at me again, I explain to them about how I felt the kings’ and queens’ presence around the castle yesterday. Well, I’m assuming it was them based on our recent theories of my soul fragments’ locations

  “Reaper must have used them as a shield to absorb some of the impact,” Genu speaks.

  “What’s the plan?” Crystalline eagerly questions.

  “I need you three to retrieve the ruvtag. Next, I will work on my tracker spell that I placed upon Reaper’s portal before it escaped. That should hopefully tell me its whereabouts. Then, when you return, I will look into the ruvtag and piece together the connections between the time shift and this spirit scatter theory of ours. Finally, we train the both of you to use your powers properly whilst figuring out a plan to fix everything.”

  Once Asvarp finishes speaking, the three of us just sit there and bath in his aura of leadership. Genu smirks and slowly gets to his feet. I can’t connect the history between this two but they don’t pose as the likeliest of friends. Anyways, he walks over to the doors behind me and flicks his finger; his cane flies across the room and into his hand. Opening the door wide enough for him to get through, he takes a small step forward. Disappearing into the chaos.

  “You two get ready, I’ll wait for you,” Genu says before he is gone. The door closes after he leaves. Crystalline and I just look at one another.

  “Genu does this often doesn’t he?” I ask.

  She nods and Asvarp answers, “he likes to be in charge; he also likes a good battle. I’m sure he went ahead to scope out the place first before making any serious moves. He was trained by Elvendora’s finest warriors and learned to control his powers under my wing.”

  We laugh at the thought of Genu begin Asvarp’s apprentice.

  “Anything else we should discuss?” Crystalline questions.

  The mage looks at her, “do to the natural balance of life, neither of you has access to your full strength. I suggest keeping a low profile. Also, the theory about the six kingdoms is very intriguing. Yet, it doesn’t fit completely.”

  “How so?” I ponder.

  “If your soul was distributed among them, that means that most of your power is inside of each of the kingdom’s leaders. However, why didn’t Reaper take the power for itself? There is also the hidden factor: why kill Crystalline’s parents but not take her powers?”

  We look at each other as these thoughts sink in. I never once considered any of these possibilities. Also, I had forgotten her parents were killed by Reaper. Nothing seems to add up in my mind, all I know is for certain is that Reaper is at the center of it all.

  “We should go,” I say as I retract the glaive and place it back into my waist belt.

  “Before we leave, there is just one thing that wasn’t mentioned,” Crystalline adds.

  “What is that?” Asvarp looks taken back. He has been the one basically dishing out all of the answers.

  “The exact location of the ruvtag,” she answers.

  Asvarp scratches his head, then draws a sparkly orb of light from his staff; he hands it to Crystalline and she conceals it within the binding of her armor.

  “That will guide you to it.”

  She then walks over to the door and turns to see if I am following. I begin to but stop when I realized that there is still one more thing that I haven’t gotten answered: Reaper’s voice.

  “Asvarp, before I told you that Reaper spoke to me but neither you or Genu acknowledged it. Why?”

  “Time is moving on, we will discuss this when you return.”

  Crystalline opens the doors and grabs my hand; Asvarp tells us to focus on where we want to go. Then realizing that we have no idea where we are going, he snaps his fingers. We instantly disappear and find ourselves in a beautiful forest that shines with grace. As we begin walking forward the orb of light floats out of her armor. Within a few minutes, we find ourselves ducking behind a bush as we gaze upon giant doors shrouded by vines; at the center, it bears a large symbol of the Fey Kingdom: an image of a dragon-like beast with fairy wings. However, it isn’t one of the six symbols on the banners within Asvarp’s tower.

  Once we feel that the coast is clear, we start to stand. As we do, we are forced down by Genu’s powerful hands. He signals to the right as multiple guards begin to float by. Crystalline seeks out anything hidden within the trees and Genu scopes out the area around for any more guards.

  I, on the other hand, feel a sudden prickling sensation through my body; my first thought is that I am going to faint again but then my vision clouds with a different energy. Suddenly, images flicker into my mind of two otherworldly silhouettes. The images fade when Crystalline pats me on the shoulder, signaling everything is clear.

  The three of us stand and hastily make our ways to the giant doors; the vampiric-kaine begins to move the doors open with his psychokinesis as we draw near. The instant we step inside, it’s almost as if we have entered a whole new world.

  Chapter 9

  (Crystalline & Zarvick)

  The Fey Kingdom is far different from anything I have ever witnessed before. The wildlife and beauty seem to surpass that of anything Elvendora has to offer. Everything has a hidden wickedness to it that’s masked by an unexplainable aura. It’s unsettling.

  We stealthily make our way through vines and duck behind trees as patrol groups stalk the grounds. The guards wear silver helmets and breastplates that cover their entire upper body, with green sashes in the front and back of their leather covered legs. Each holds long pole-arms that have two side blades and a large spike for the spear-head. Sprouting through the back of the guards’ breastplates are midsize iridescent wings with a high forewing and a low hindwing that are comfortably suited to their medium bodies. I admit they are sculpted perfectly.

  Genu is in the lead and Zarvick takes the rear; he appears to be deep in thought and constantly rubs his hands against the ground as we pursue forth th
is jungle-forest in a constant crouching position (which is starting to take its toll on my knees); the energy I sense from his essence dwindles the further we delve into the Fey Kingdom. I simply hate being here, something about this place gives me the creeps. My father, on the other hand, has a certain glow within his spirit ever since we’ve been here.

  Closing my eyes, I see the kingdom’s aura radiating in a constant current throughout every single living creature and plant that thrives here. It all circulates back to one place, the fey palace. A large marble structure built into the trunk of a giant tree: the huge twisted wooden gates are guarded by a marvelous silver portcullis at the tree’s base; the castle is held up by the bulky roots breaking through the earth beneath the tree; its structure is molded around the of tree’s trunk; pillars and other constructs make-up most of the castle’s shape.

  Yet, the one part of the palace that stands out the most sits above its gates. A large platform extends about fifty feet above the gates, at the top, lies an elegant courtyard. In its center rest a white stone statue of a delightful looking woman. Behind the statue is the biggest section of the fey palace—possibly the throne room—and above that is a large cone/cylinder shaped turret that is twisted into the tree. Off in the distance, I spot a faint light. Wonder what that could be.

  Sunlight peaks through the treetops and glistens against the fey palace. I am so mesmerized by its beauty that I don’t realize that we have come to a stop. As I look around I see we are at an intersection between different paths chopped into the forest. One path leads back the way we came, two of the paths lead to who knows where, and the front path leads directly to the palace.

  Telepathic voices race across the surface of my mind and it takes me awhile to realize that Genu and Zarvick at crouching on either side of me.

  “There aren’t any guards around, so how do you want to approach the palace?” Zarvick questions.