by Marty Myers
Hank checked his mind just to see, he didn’t think anything like that had happened this time around. “ Nah he said, I don’t think what the Dark did to me this time was like that. I just feel more powerful, but I don’t know how or how much. Do you have any idea what they were doing carving me up like that? Hank shuddered.” Alastor said, “ it looked like they were carving something right into your bones in angelic script. I couldn’t read it, but I would guess it’s meant to fortify and empower your body to withstand the Dark Princes copious soul energies when the time comes to resurrect him. It makes sense since the Dark Prince was said to be a fallen angel that served the Darkness since before their arrival in this world.”
Hearing this Hank decided to change the subject. “ I can see more of your demonic essence filtering into me through the bond now. Maybe our teleport powers will have gotten a boost and we can reach more of the stuff we need to finish this place. I hope so anyway. I notice master Provoas is busy in there and I doubt he is going to have time to get us that list of stuff. How about we go get Birch and then try and see what our range is now. Even if we can’t get quite that far maybe we can send him there and have him bring what we need back into range?” Alastor looked doubtful, he said. “ I think we need to try this out on a much smaller scale first. Let’s send Birch down to the farmer and have him claim he and his crew found nothing unusual going on up here and let it be known they are moving on. He might even say that his cleric friend buried the castles last owners properly. That would explain why their not still laying around here and make it even less likely someone else might come looking. Then if that goes well we try sending him further. We can watch him with our scrying and see if he does well.” Hank agreed and they set out to find the wight.
Birch meanwhile had been up in the castle working on wiping out all the footprints and trails in and out of the great hall and other rooms and out in the courtyard on down through the gatehouse. His tracker’s eye now saw some disturbances but no actual tracks to tell him who, when or how many might have come this way. He also backtracked along the trail up the pass and did away with the markers he had left and checked to see if any of the scree had been left down on the pass that might show tool marks. So far it looked decent to him so he started back to the castle.
When he felt his masters calling through the bond. It wasn’t an actual summoning like Hank and Alastor had explained might happen. He hurried none the less and found Hank floating in the courtyard as he returned. “ Birch how goes erasing our presence here,” Hank said. “ Good Hank,” he said, “ I can’t read anything anymore from the tracks.” “ Good come with me, Alastor and I have something for you to do.” Hank teleported them on down to the scrying chamber where Alastor was waiting. “ Okay, first we need to do something about your appearance. Luckily necromancers have been dealing with this problem with their various minions not blending in for a long time and have developed a couple different spells to deal with it.” Hank chanted something and with a few gestures, Birch looked as he had when he was among the living. Even his clothes which were a bit the worse for wear from the battle which ended his mortal life appeared clean and undamaged. “ This charm will last until sunrise unless dispelled by something,” Hank said.
“ Now what I want you to do is go track that farmer down and claim you and your party found nothing unusual going on up here. Let it be known your group is moving on in your search. If it seems like it would set his mind at ease tell him your party buried the old castles bodies properly. Birch a lot is riding on keeping this dungeon hidden so don’t fail me.” Birch nodded. They decided on a point to teleport him to where his party had camped a couple nights ago in the valley. Then they scryed it to make sure it was empty before sending him there.
Chapter 14
Francis and Apostaphus after the Fall
“ I can not believe they just did that!,” Francis shouted as she and Apostaphus arrived upon a wide desolate field of blackened rock. Francis stomped around red-faced clenching and waving her fists. “ What do they think they’re doing anyways she fumed? They didn’t even really listen to us.” She turned to Apostaphus and saw his face white and pinched into a most desolate expression. Instantly her temper cooled. “ Oh Apostaphus I am so, so sorry! I never meant for any of this to happen.” She hugged him tightly for a while as he shook. Then she felt him stop trembling, his whole frame seemed to expand and harden against her. “ Francis, Apostaphus said, “ I am not going to Fall, I do not accept it. I will not! I do not renounce the Lords of Light. I will not pledge to the Darkness or his lesser brethren he shouted!” Then he spoke softly, “ but I do not know what to do now.” The last came out as barely a whisper against Francis’s hair.
“ We came to the Host for help to track down the demon and your Hank, now we are right back where I started at before I ever began the search, only worse off.” “ Apostaphus,” Francis said, “ I have to ask you something that may be of a real sensitive nature now. When they cast you out and said you were fallen, did that strip you of your powers?” “ No Francis,” Apostaphus said. “ An angel is an angel, whether he be of the Light or Dark. I am no longer welcome among the Shining Host and would likely be shunned or even denounced in the Lords’ of Light’s temples and churches if they were to see me there. I can no longer expect for other angels to come to my aide if I call. But unless and until I actually renounce the Light and take the Darkness into myself, I will still be as you have known me to be, a being of light and goodness.” “ That’s good, not all is lost then,” Francis said. “ Times are tough but you’ve still got me, she said earnestly.
“ If those other angels won’t see reason and help out, then we will just have to do it ourselves. You and I have the demons mark still, now why don’t the two of us go back where you originally sensed him and see if with the mark maybe you can pick up his trail. Or maybe with the Darkness stirring up trouble here it will have began doing things there again. One thing I know is that we are not going to give up. I will find Hank and you will find that demon and we will show those angels that you have not fallen. We are in the right and this whole world is just going to have to get used to it!”
Francis was shouting and waving her staff by this point and Apostaphus could see the light in her core flaring with passion and zeal. When she got done with her speech she slammed the butt of her staff down upon the ground. As she did so a pulse of golden light radiated out from the staff and raced away through the ground. Apostaphus was a bit taken back by how fierce she seemed at that moment, but her fiery speech did make him feel better. He watched and felt the light wave spreading out through the bleak and blasted rock. Only now did he really look around them to get their bearings.
The blackened rock he saw went on for quite a ways every which way he looked. There was no vegetation what so ever and just a little bit of ash or dust blew around their feet as they moved. He recognized this place. They had been transported to the last battlefield of the 2nd Great War between Light and Dark. Apostaphus wondered if this was a parting shot at him by the council because this was where the Second Ban had been created. After the Dark Prince, the general of the forces of Darkness had been utterly destroyed here and the angels had set the ban in place and left this cursed field much as it was today. Nothing they had tried then or since had managed to restore the Gallows Plains back to life after so much death and other terrible energies had been released here.
Apostaphus watched Francis and the staff’s energies race across the plains somehow gaining strength. Strangely, it wasn’t weakening as it pushed outwards. He could hardly believe what he was seeing as it cleansed the field of the mark of Darkness and ruin, abolishing the curse upon the land and restoring the balance in the ground. The blasted black rock crumbled back into soil which turned dark brown and healthy again over the course of a few seconds. Then he heard and felt when the ring of Francis’s expanding power met the ritual place where the ban had been set into the world and rang as it passed by it and the bells thro
ughout the land and beyond pealed once more. This time the sound was uplifting as if in a joyous celebration.
Francis was stunned as she finished her rant and let vent her frustration with the angels. She felt it all build up in her and felt the moment of release as she slammed the staff down into the ground. Then all the energy poured out of her and kept going on and on and on. She didn’t feel weak though, it was as if she had been carrying something heavy with her and had now set the burden down. Her staff glowed and hummed as it conducted the energies down into the earth and then slowly grew quiet once more.
She looked around as the rocky ground transformed into soil and almost without thought, she reached into a pocket of her poncho and pulled out a handful of seeds she hadn’t noticed were there. A brief flash of madam Farsi went through her mind as she flung out her hand and scattered the seeds to the wind and out onto the ground where they fell. She began walking in a spiral from their landing point and chanted a blessing Apostaphus had taught her because it seemed so right to consecrate the land here while it was in rebirth. Every few steps she would reach into the pocket once more and withdraw a few more seeds to sow upon the ground.
As she sang another voice joined her as Apostaphus rose and added his voice and power to the blessing. He followed her in their path and taught her other blessings he had not thought to show her yet. Inside he was joyous, here truly was a miracle, Francis was a true wonder-worker. If this continued carrying on outwards they might just reclaim the entire wasteland from ruin! He didn’t sense a weakening of the energies so far and he and Francis were doing well maintaining the blessings as well. He felt so good, so fulfilled as he hadn’t been in quite a while going about his regular duties. He forgot about how low he had felt just a little while ago when they had arrived here and rejoiced in his endeavors letting it raise his spirit higher and higher.
Francis continued to walk and sing and it was wonderful, she could feel the pulse of energy still expanding far out in every direction and wondered just how far it would go. Looking over she was glad to see Apostaphus singing with her and adding to her efforts to bless and restore the land. She wondered how Madam Farsi had arranged this but quickly realized magic would be the answer as it seemed it had been since she began down this path. She noticed then that Apostaphus seemed to be glowing brighter as he sang and this increased as the day went on. Francis began to wonder how long she could keep doing this, even though she wasn’t wearing out like she thought she should be, she knew there were limits to everything. If she hadn’t directed some healing energies into her feet and her throat already, she doubted she could have still been going. Finally as the sunset and the light of the day disappeared she felt the need to continue fading and motioned to Apostaphus that it was time they brought the blessing to an end. She could no longer feel the energies expanding out. They must have reached some size limit? She didn’t know but suddenly all the weariness she hadn’t felt up to that point came crashing down upon her and as the song ended she blacked out.
Apostaphus barely managed to catch Francis as she fell. One minute she had been fine singing and walking along and the next she was out. If not for his soul sight showing that she was alright, just worn out he would have been frantic. But the bound was also strong between them and he felt she was in no danger. As he caught her the staff in her hand fell to the ground and a deep tone almost like the striking of a huge bell could be heard. It was much different from the ban ringing forth earlier as they had sung. Apostaphus could feel it reverberating through the world and beyond but couldn’t tell what it might mean. He carefully laid Francis down where they were and tried to make her comfortable. The ground did seem to soften and embrace her somewhat as he did so.
Seeing she was alright he reach over a gingerly picked up the staff to look at it. Earlier he had noticed that much of the power involved in the miracle had been both channeled through and coming from the staff. Yes Francis energies and even his and the excess from their trip through the celestial choirs summoning had all flowed through it too, but more of it had come from here. He wondered what the source of this energy had been. He had looked at the staff earlier when they had met and again when they were traveling through the heavens and had not noticed this particular power held within it. It was most curious that he had not seen it. The carvings upon it too were not wholly as he remembered them being before. Hmm, it was a mystery.
He would have been more concerned but the deed that had just been done through its use spoke for itself. He decided not to meddle with it. Such a thing as a foreign good was still good after all. Splitting hairs about how a good came about was exactly the type of thinking that had begun the divide in the mortal’s church long ago and had just got him banished from the heavens. What was it Francis had said to him earlier about the advice the seer had given her. To succeed she would need to be very open-minded. That was good advice for them both as he couldn’t imagine they would succeed in the coming days without it.
Francis slept the whole night and awoke in the morning. She felt much better but was hungry. Looking around she couldn’t believe her eyes. There were already tiny green sprouts growing here and there on the ground. Apostaphus stood not far away looking around and watching the sunrise. “ Good morning,” Francis said with a yawn. “ How are you?” Apostaphus was still glowing to her eyes although it had become a bit softer than the brightness it was at the end of the blessing last night. “ I am well Francis, did you sleep okay?” He asked. “ Yes I did I am just hungry, I need to eat breakfast before too long or I’ll get grumpy. I’m not usually a morning person,” she said with a puzzled frown. “ Huh, I actually feel a lot more awake than I normally do.” She got up and stretched a bit before picking up her staff and looking around.
“ I can’t believe those seeds are already growing, is that part of the blessings we did?” “ Some of them do hasten growth and can encourage the new life in seeds to come forth, but usually not on this scale,” Apostaphus said. “ In fact, they all sprouted just as the sun rose a few minutes ago. Before that they were just resting on the ground getting acclimated, I guess you would say. Some of them sunk into small holes that opened beneath them in the night. Look at them closer and you can see they all have a lot of life energies stored up. That is probably from being in your pocket on the journey here. I imagine any seed would have had that happen. Of course, they probably would have burnt up from so much energy like you would have if not for being inside that poncho with its protections growing more and more potent as we traveled here.” Thinking about that she reached into the pocket and checked to see if she had used up all the seeds last night. She thought there hadn’t been much left in the pocket the last few times she had pulled her hand out. She found she had been right, there were just a few seeds left. She looked at them and thought for the first time about how she didn’t even know what they were going to grow into. Before putting them back inside the pocket.
“ You know we should come back here after we have found Hank and see what grows here.” Apostaphus agreed that seeing the fruits of their labors would be a good thing. Francis looked around, there was a bit of green amongst the dark brown soil each way she looked. “ Isn’t this where we stopped last night?” “ Yes, Apostaphus said, you’re almost exactly where we finished the blessing.” “ Then why are their sprouts on all sides of us Francis wondered?” Apostaphus looked at it and just smiled at the mysterious working.
“ We should go if you want to break your fast soon. I am afraid there isn’t anywhere close to this where we may get you food. Nothing would grow here before and sometimes Dark things were attracted to this place so that long ago everyone left these lands.” Apostaphus offered Francis his hand and drew her close. “ It will take days to walk out of here would you allow me to carry you away instead?” Francis felt a small thrill at those words but tramped it down and focused on how much she had enjoyed flying across space with Apostaphus. Would flying through the sky be as cool? “ Okay,” she said, “ just until
we get somewhere close enough to get something to eat. Then I want to walk, I don’t want to feel like I am being carried everywhere like luggage.” Apostaphus gathered her in his arms and smiled, “as you wish,” he said and leaped into the air.
They flew over the vast expanse of the Gallows Fields and everywhere green shoots were pushing up through the earth. “ This land was once a mighty plain full of tall grasses and teaming with huge herds of wild cattle, great flocks of birds and other wildlife,” Apostaphus said. “ A nomadic people called the Hurt lived here then. They were the descendants of many of the peoples who had fled from the old lands that were ruined in the first Great War between Darkness and Light. When the gods themselves fought each other upon the land, it was blasted much worse than what was done here in the battles between angels and demons. That’s why the first and then second bans were enacted, to keep the world from being destroyed in one battle after another.
The Hurt had settled here after fleeing across the face of the world, at the beginning of the second age. First, in ships and with the help of magic they crossed the oceans and then later took up horses and traveled here. Much later the second Great War erupted and the Darkness purposely chose this land to fight in and succeeded in wiping out all those who had escaped its wrath before.”
Francis loved flying very much, but Apostaphus story was a chilling reminder to her that they were here in this world facing a terrible threat and that Hank was here somewhere too and in the hands of a demon who might be doing the bidding of its terrible master the Darkness to him.