Resurgence of Ancient Darkness

by Vincent Trigili

  “Why not?” I asked the stranger.

  “Come with me. It is not safe to speak here,” he said.

  “Master, he might be our best lead. I got all we can get from this terminal, and nothing appears to be recorded about the Quillain system,” sent Rigal.

  “Lead on,” I said.

  Chapter Forty-Six

  We followed the stranger as he led us through the station and into the spaceport. Once there, he led us to a light cruiser that appeared to be designed purely for speed and stealth. There were no obvious weapons on the craft, nor any markings.

  Once aboard the ship he took us to the cargo bay and said, “In this box I have a valuable shipment. I need help getting it delivered. Once it is delivered, I will tell you all I know about the Quillain system and what happened there.”

  “Master, this ship would easily fit in the Nevermore’s hold,” sent Rigal.

  “You think we should take this job?” I asked.

  “As we walked I kept searching all the records that we downloaded, and there’s nothing about that system anywhere. I suspect someone is covering up what happened. He might be our only source of information,” he replied.

  “What is the cargo?” I asked. He hesitated and looked reluctant to reply, so I said, “Look, I will not risk helping someone deliver illegal cargo. If you cannot show me the goods, we will move on.”

  He sighed and said, “Fair enough.” He opened the cargo container and it was full of wands; all kinds of different wands, hundreds of them.

  “Where are you taking this?” I asked.

  “To the Wizard Kingdom,” he said.

  “Interesting,” I said, picking up one of the wands. It was an ice bolt, with several charges remaining. The energy pattern on it suggested that it was from this realm. “These are fake.” I could plainly see that they were real, but I wanted to draw more information out of him.

  “No, they’re not. Watch,” he said as he took the ice bolt wand, pointed at the wall, and said the command word. A bolt flew out of the wand and hit the wall. “As you can see, these are the real deal.”

  “ Master, that would make him a magus, right?” asked Ferran.

  “Apparently so,” I said.

  “Interesting,” I said again. “So, we see to it that you can safely deliver this to the wizards, and you will tell us what we want to know about Quillain?”

  “Yes, exactly,” he said.

  “Then we have a deal. How soon can you launch?” I asked.

  “Well, they want everyone off the station as fast as possible to get more ships in, so probably in a few minutes,” he said.

  “Then let’s launch,” I said.

  “What about your ship?” he asked.

  “We will catch up with it later. Just get off this station,” I said.

  “Okay, come up to the bridge with me,” he said.

  As we followed him through the ship Ferran sent, “He seems awful trusting.”

  “Yes, too much so. He is either a fool, or this is a trap of some kind,” I sent.

  He was right about how soon the station wanted us to launch. We were still strapping in when the station’s robotic arms picked up the cruiser and put us in the launch tubes. Soon we were flying clear of the station and he said, “Engaging cloak.”

  “Once you are ready, come to heading 276 mark 37 and hold at two thousand kilometers from the station,” I said.

  “Why?” he asked.

  “My ship is out there cloaked. Once we are close enough, I will coordinate a jump with it and we will meet up with it in a safer area,” I said.

  “Um, this wasn’t part of the agreement,” he said. I could see he was getting nervous.

  “You want to reach the Wizard Kingdom safely, do you not?” I asked.

  “Yeah,” he said.

  “Then we rendezvous with my ship,” I said.

  He set the heading as requested, and once we were in telepathic range of the Nevermore II, I coordinated a jump with Flame.

  As we came out of jump space he was able to lay eyes on the Nevermore II. It was many times larger than his own craft, and many times more advanced. He swallowed hard when he saw it and said, “That’s your ship?”

  “Yes, and we do not like staying uncloaked for long. I want to you to land in one of our shuttle bays,” I said.

  “Yes, of course,” he stuttered out.

  “Relax, you will be much safer aboard that ship than trying to make the run to the Wizard Kingdom alone,” I said.

  He was shaking a little, but complied with my request to dock on the Nevermore II.

  “I think he’s just naïve,” sent Rigal.

  “Yes it is starting to look that way,” I sent.

  “Master, do you think he can really help us?” asked Rigal.

  “If not, then the information about how he acquired all those wands will certainly be worth our time,” I sent.

  “Do you think he was expecting to sell them to us, Master?” asked Ferran.

  “He must be expecting something of great value for the price he was willing to pay to guard them,” I sent.

  “Initiating automated docking procedures,” said the computer as he let go of the controls.

  As the ship was locked into the bay and the Nevermore returned to its cloaked status I asked, “What is your name?”

  “Most just call me Glimmer,” he said.

  “Well, Glimmer, welcome aboard the Nevermore II, the flagship of the Wizard Kingdom navy.”

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  Glimmer had not said anything since we docked. I led him up to a conference room where Flame had a meal waiting. He took one look at the meal and paled considerably. He sat at the table in silence.

  “Shadow? Are you going to say something to him?” asked Flame.

  “I am just trying to guess what he is thinking,” I sent back and then said, “Glimmer, relax and eat. You are safe here.” He still sat there silently and did not budge. He just stared at the food and made no move towards it. Gone was all the confidence that he had portrayed back on the station, replaced by fear.

  “Glimmer, are you okay?” asked Flame.

  “Glimmer, I am Shadow Weaver, First Rank Battle Wizard. This is my wife Flame Weaver, Second Rank Battle Wizard.” He still sat there quietly. “Flame, serve us both the same thing he has, and let’s sit to eat with him. Maybe he will relax then.”

  Once Flame had put food out I said, “Do you mind if we eat with you?”

  “No,” he said quietly.

  We sat and ate in silence for a while, and then Flame said, “Glimmer, what is wrong?”

  “Nothing,” he said.

  “Then why are you so quiet?” she asked.

  When he did not reply, I asked, “What are you afraid of?”

  He looked at me and said, “Nothing. Do whatever you are going to do and be done with it.”

  “I do not know what you mean,” I said.

  “It’s obvious. You captured me with that cargo and will punish me now,” he said.

  “Oh, my!” said Flame. “Is that what you think? Well, you’re wrong! You’re our guest here!”

  He looked up and said, “What about my cargo?”

  “We are very interested in it, but you are not in any trouble,” I said. I decided to leave the word “yet” out of that statement. I needed to get him talking. He hesitantly reached out and took a drink. “Why did you think you would be in trouble?”

  “Well, it was just the way this all happened,” he said. “It kind of felt like the abductions you always hear about.”

  “Abductions?” asked Flame.

  “Yeah, you know. Ships go missing, and people talk about how some wizard somewhere captured them for experimenting. I never believed it, but … well, this seemed suspicious,” he said.

  “I can promise you, we have no intention of doing any experimenting on you,” I said with a smile. “I would like to hear more about th
ose wands on your ship, though.”

  “You can have them. I will be glad to get rid of them, finally,” he said.

  “Earlier it sounded as if you were planning to trade them for something valuable,” I said.

  “Yes - my life!” he said.

  “What?” I exclaimed.

  He sighed and leaned back in his chair. Then he said, “Ever since I acquired that crate everything has gone poorly. Good men have died, ships have been lost, and most of my fortune is gone.”

  “And you think the crate did that?” I asked.

  “I know it did!” he exclaimed.

  “Then why not jettison it into a star or something?” asked Flame.

  “I did! Three times! It just kept reappearing on my ship,” said Glimmer.

  “Okay, relax. You are safe here. Whatever is wrong with that crate, we can handle it. We just need you to tell us how you got it in the first place,” I said. “Rigal, please make sure Glimmer’s ship is completely sealed and shielded. Also, post a round-the-clock guard of magi. There could be a curse at play here. I will come down later to check on things.”

  “It was part of a larger haul that we collected a while back,” he said.

  With some prompting he told us the story. From the time he had acquired the crate, they had faced disaster after disaster. They tried several times to destroy the crate, or leave it behind, but it stayed with him no matter what.

  “So I was hoping that, if I could get to the Wizard Kingdom, I could get help,” he said.

  “Well you made it, and we will help,” said Flame.

  “If it was this bad, why were you trying to hire help?” I asked.

  “I know that was probably foolish, but I was scared. I didn’t know if I could make it alone, and hoped if I had some professional help it would make a difference,” he said.

  I leaned back in my chair and slowly sipped my coffee. I was not sure what to make of his story. If it was all true, then he was acting out of desperation and really did need our help. It seemed very unlikely, but sometimes life was like that.

  “We will certainly look at the crate and see what is going on. I wonder what you will do next when you are free of it?” I asked.

  “Restart my trading business, I suppose. I still have plenty of stock to sell. Without the crate, it should only take me a couple of years to rebuild,” he said.

  “You don’t sound very excited about that,” said Flame.

  “Well, I have been in this business a very long time, and the break has made me wonder if that is where I belong,” he said.

  We talked for a while longer about his business, and then I showed him to his quarters for the night. “Rest easy. I will deal with the problem of the crate,” I said as I left the room.

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  Flame and I headed to Glimmer’s ship immediately after leaving him. Rigal was there and seemed to be deeply focused on the ship.

  “What is going on?” I asked.

  “I have a shield up like you asked, but something is trying to get out. It tests the shields from time to time, but I have not yet figured out what it is,” he said.

  “Are your shields holding?” I asked.

  “Yes, Master, but it’s not trying very hard,” he said.

  “You should have alerted me about this,” I said.

  “I am sorry, Master. I had it under control and didn’t think you would want to be bothered by something so minor,” he said.

  “Forget it for now, but next time make sure you alert me,” I said. “I am going to board the ship and see what is happening. Do not let it out, whatever it is.”

  “Are you sure, Shadow?” asked Flame. “We don’t know what you might be facing, and if Glimmer’s stories are true it could easily be a demon or other spirit in there.”

  I decided it was best not to answer that and approached the craft. I merged my personal shielding with Rigal’s shield around Glimmer’s ship so that I could pass through it without leaving an opening.

  Once aboard I cast Weave Sense so that I could see what was really going on and noticed that the entire ship was pulsating with spiritual energy. I wanted to kick myself for not doing this before. Flying all around the ship were spirits of various kinds, far too many to count. They flew around the box containing the wands, passing through any solid barrier in their path as if it was not there.

  My personal shielding seemed to deter them, causing them to change their course to go around me as I walked through the room. “Flame, Rigal, do you see this?” I sent, along with an image of what I was seeing.

  “Shadow, I don’t like it. Come back out,” sent Flame.

  “Master, there must be something else in there. Those creatures could not be the ones testing the shield,” sent Rigal.

  “I wish Spectra was here. Flame, who else on board has Spirit as one of his powers?” I knew there were more such, but I could not think of who they were.

  Flame thought for a bit and replied, “Shadow, I think Kymberly does.”

  “Excellent. Bring her here,” I sent.

  While I waited for them to get her, I opened the box again. It seemed to be filled with wands of various types, as before. I was not sure what I was expecting to see, but I started pulling the wands out and sorting them by power. After pulling out only a few rows of wands I came across a shallow shelf that completely sealed off whatever was in the rest of the container.

  I lifted the false bottom and underneath it was a large compartment divided into three sections. One section was completely empty. The second section was filled with what might have been diamonds. The final section was filled with glowing blue crystals. The blue crystals resembled the diamonds; they might have been another type, but I was not much of a gemologist and could not tell.

  The blue ones were full of energy of some kind, and I was about pick one up when Flame sent, “She is here, Shadow.”

  “Good. I will open a gate for her. Send her through it. I will guard this side, but be on the alert just in case,” I sent back.

  Kymberly was another one of the wizards in my group who had not really fitted in before coming here. It seemed that we had a disproportionately high number of oddities and outcasts among our numbers. Kymberly was a freak and an outcast among her own people, the Zalionians. Her pure white scales and diminutive frame guaranteed that she would never be welcome among them.

  As she came through my gate, she gasped and said, “Wow.”

  “Please keep to telepathic channels. What do you see?” I asked.

  “Master, spirits, lots of spirits, and they appear to be very unhappy,” she sent. As she walked around the room I noticed the spirits went out of their way to avoid her, just as they did for me. She walked around, only paying attention to the spirits for a few minutes and then sent, “Master, some of these spirits are very old, impossibly so.”

  “How old is that?” I asked.

  “Master, I am not sure, but many millennia at least,” she sent.

  “Any idea why they are here?” I asked.

  “No, Master. I would have to try to talk to them to find that out. However, they appear to be trapped here,” she sent.

  “Trapped? By what?” I asked.

  She looked around the room again as if watching something very carefully. After a moment she walked over to the crate, gasped and slowly took several steps back, as if deathly afraid of what she saw.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “Master, spirit traps! Keep away from them! They will suck the life out of any mortal and trap it forever!” she sent.

  I used my telekinesis to put the crate back together and then weaved a spell to lock it tight. “How do they work?” I asked.

  “Master, they are designed to look attractive to anyone who sees them. They automatically alter their appearance to something which the person looking at would pick up without thinking about. Once physical contact is made, the trap is sprung,” she sent.

>   I thought about how close I had come to picking up one of the gems and shuddered. “Is that what all these spirits are, then? People trapped by the gems?”

  “I think so, Master,” she sent.

  That left a couple of questions, but I decided it was time to leave the ship before we sprang any more traps. I asked Kymberly to research everything she could on spirit traps and brief the command staff and myself in the morning. Until then, I told Rigal to ensure the crate stayed tightly sealed with round-the-clock guards.

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  Stalker, Karlith, Flame, Kymberly, and I met the following morning after breakfast to discuss the situation with regard to Glimmer’s ship. Once everyone was briefed I asked, “Kymberly, is there any way to free the trapped people?”

  “No, Master, they are dead,” she said.

  “But their spirits are trapped?” asked Flame.

  “Yes, Master, but that’s just their life force, not their identity,” she said.

  “On the ship, you said they were not happy. If they are just energy, how can they be unhappy?” I asked.

  “Master, it’s not quite that simple. A person’s soul is who they are, and their spirit is their life force, but those two are so tightly coupled that the spirit often keeps a shadow of what the person once was. The person is long gone, on to wherever they were destined to go,” she said.

  “Kymberly, you said that the spirit traps capture a person’s life force, but you didn’t mention why.” said Stalker.

  “Master Stalker, necromancers can use them to summon armies of undead,” she said.

  “How big an army?” I asked.

  “Master, with the number of traps in that box, a massive army. I am not sure of the exact count, but just one full gem could summon a legion of undead,” she said.

  “How many gems are we talking about?” asked Karlith.

  “Hundreds,” I said. “The crate itself is a trap, and I am starting to think that the crate has been traveling around for years collecting souls for someone.”