by Karleigh Bon
“Armies can be rebuilt, priests can be bought,” he sneered triumphantly, “...but you have only one life elf, and I am now going to take that away from you!”
The thick black stream of the monster burst out of Roevash’s throat like a swarm of mad bees. It surrounded Eijlam like a black cloud. He did not try to flee. It formed into a dark snake-like tendril that gripped him tightly. The fallen Lord could sense Eijlam’s fear as it poured into his gaping mouth, and down his throat, drowning the breath from his body.
Ej heard a voice inside his head cackling in the blackness as it pressed further into his consciousness. It confirmed his worst fear as he fell to his knees in the assault.
“There is enough blood here to sustain my power, you insipid elf ... my own dragon’s blood, and you gave it to me, hahahaha!” Laughter echoed in the darkness.
Eijlam’s body was paralyzed in Surmanos’s grasp as the evil Lord took him. The monster pressed its vile intrusion until Eijlam was gone entirely. Surmanos sat on his knees, staring in amazement at his outstretched hands. Something unexpected was happening. He burst into more hysterical laughter at his sudden realization of what he had just possessed.
“The body of … a Lord!”
Roevash was no longer under the control of the fallen one when the black swarm of lord Surmanos entered EJ’s body. Roe suddenly became aware of all that was happening.
His worst nightmare was that he would bring more harm to the life of his younger brother, and he was witnessing the same evil he had suffered, overtake him.
Roevash howled in terror-filled rage, hitting the limit of the rope hard. Blood streamed down his arms and neck as he strained frantically with all his might to free himself. In those moments, Eijlam’s magical rope loosened on its own accord, merely falling away, as its owner’s life faded, and his body was no longer his own to command the knots.
In another split second, Roe realized what his brother had done…
“NOOOOOOOOO!” Roevash hollered as he jumped forward, tackling the possessed body that was kneeling on the floor before him. They both went crashing down hard onto the flagstone floor.
Surmanos reached up and grabbed Roe around the neck in a chokehold, in an attempt to stop the sudden attack. Roevash heard a distinct pop, and the air jelled. Everything began to move in slow-motion. The momentum of their struggle sent swirling waves of bubbles around them as the two fought for domination. Roe understood that all he had was the advantage of surprise, so he held on tight. He was not going to let this monster have his little brother! After what seemed like a long time, his brother’s body fell limp in his grip. Moments stood still as he floated free in a warm ocean current.
“I know this place…” Roevash didn’t panic as the scene shifted in his memory. He was an expert swimmer, and he found his brother in the deeps. EJ’s body dragged on his strength as a younger version of Roevash brought him swiftly towards the light that meant the surface of the water was near.
“You need to learn how to swim,” Roe muttered to himself calmly, brushing the seawater off his face with a free hand as he dragged his unconscious elfling brother, like a sack of rocks, back up onto land. With one high lift and release of his strong arm, Roe slammed the limp body down hard on the shore. The curly-haired elfling gasped, choking up saltwater and sobbed mournfully as his big brother patted his back. Sighing in frustration, he made EJ sit down on the sandy beach next to him.
“Our mother would perish if anything should happen to you. Why do you always jump in so deep?” Roe wanted so bad to keep scolding his brother’s pouting face. He put his arm around his small shoulders as he glared back into EJ’s stubborn set eyes.
“Our kind does not live underwater EJ,” Roe tried again to make him understand.
“You should be nicer to your little brother,” some girl said to him in a strange dialect that he only partly understood.
“I just saved his life again did I not?” Young Roe looked up annoyed but then was stunned by the most beautiful pale green eyes. “Naalin?” his voice trailed away as he watched his memory of the young girl with glowing gold-brown hair run slowly down the beach.
“She was here…” Roevash could not take his eyes off of her. She stopped at a distance and looked back at him. Their eyes met. She smiled before turning and disappearing off into the tree line. Roevash turned and was not surprised to see his fully grown brother sitting next to him on the warm sand.
“Yes, this is your memory of young Naalin. It was the first time you spoke to her.” EJ chuckled to himself. “And you did save me, brother. I knew you would.” EJ sounded wistful as he threw a larger flat pebble he had found into the water and watched it skip away.
“Where are we?” Roe asked. He looked at his hands and found that he too had changed back into his normal shape and size. He sat squinting in the bright sun, looking around at the familiar scene before him.
“We exist here in the place of light and dark, life and death, the path of dreams that leads to my father’s house. We are in the hidden threshold that leads into Ilmatar. This place seems like a dream, but make no mistake, it is real. The Lords make it so. See there,” EJ pointed without even looking up from finding another pebble to throw, “a stairway that will take you to wherever you want to go.”
When Roe turned to look, an elegantly curved staircase appeared out of nowhere.
“Am I dying?” Roe asked.
“This time... we both are,” Eijlam said flatly.
“Oh,” Roe frowned as if that was the finality of everything. After a moment of lingering thought, Roe looked at EJ again and said, “I do not want you to die.”
“Sometimes there is no other choice,” EJ sighed. He looked up at Roe sadly.
His long hair was sparkling gold and orange in the swiftly coming sunset. Roe could not imagine a life without his brother, and he felt a pang of sadness.
“Where should we go then?” Roe asked eyeing all the sand. It seemed unending in the distance, and though familiar to his senses, he knew this was not their place. The light was leaving. Shadows of darkness crept in painting everything a muddy brown color.
“We need to find the High King,” Eijlam’s eyes were pleading as he said it. “The darkness is closing in fast,” he looked down sickly at the sand as he spoke. “Please ... nîn hawn. We must hurry. Will you help me?”
“Yes, you know I always would,” Roe spoke in a whisper as he hugged EJ’s head into his big shoulder.
Roevash stood up and helped his younger brother to his feet. Eijlam hunched over in pain as they moved towards the staircase. He could only walk in silence under his brother’s strong-arm as they climbed the first steps together. Halfway through the landing, EJ collapsed. Roevash cradled his fallen brother in his arms and continued the climb. He somehow knew there would be help for them at the top, but the narrow path he walked seemed to wind on forever.
+++
The sounds of a struggle and shouts came from inside the ranger outpost. Dakein and Fionna could only wait from a safe distance. Fionna had her hand on her blunted dagger in case they would meet with a possessed EJ and had to subdue him. When it all went quiet, they entered and found the bodies of the two brothers fallen silent on the wet floor.
“There is not time,” Fionna yelled to spur on the men. They quickly carried the two outside and laid them next to each other in the back of the waiting wagon.
Fionna climbed in and sat next to EJ and held his cold hand. She could feel his connection to her heart being slowly stretched in her chest as he passed away into Ilmatar.
“Hurry,” Fionna cried as her breath came shallow; her face turning dark with anguish.
"He is fading,” she keened in her deepening grief, “stay with me...” were her last words as she twined their fingers together and leaned over to kiss EJ one last time.
Dakein drove the horses north. They were running through the Autumwood to King Ellinduil. The Darjal’n was expected, so the enchanted road opened up to him. He cracked t
he whip again to spur on the mad galloping team of horses until they finally came to the bridge that quickly ushered him forward towards the green gates of the palace.
When he arrived, he ran around the back of the wagon and found Fionna had fallen unconscious across EJ’s chest so, gathering up the smaller bundle, he carried them both together. The door automatically opened, and he followed the path to the throne room where there was a cushioned bed waiting for them.
“I will keep these two alive as best I can,” King Ellinduil spoke in his commanding voice as he concentrated on the appointed task.
Dakein quickly went to retrieve the unconscious Roevash from the wagon, but when he got there, he found Roe missing.
“Where is he?” he cried angrily, up into the twisted canopy above.
Dakein ran frantically searching the edges of the gated yard, but there was no place he could have gone!
He hurried back into the palace to demand answers. He found Ellinduil still standing over the couple just as Eijlam faded, and disappeared. His heart crushed in despair as he ran to Fionna’s side.
“Then, the worst has happened? They have both entered into Ilmatar’s judgment,” Dakein asked.
“I am afraid you are right,” Ellinduil said, shaking his head as he concentrated. His face betrayed the strain he felt as he focused his magics. Ellinduil had poured his own life's essence into Fionna’s body to keep her alive and protected from decay. Now he was locked into keeping them both alive. If the brothers did not succeed, there was no coming back from this.
“Now it is up to them to return ... if that would even be allowed,” Ellinduil said, quietly resigned to his fate.
Fionna had become still as death. Dakein picked up her hand and found it stiff, and icy cold. A Bright blue glowed where her heart should have been, as she slipped deeper into a coma. All Dakein could do now is pray.
Light of Justice
Chapter Fifty One
Roevash heard ethereal music. It reminded him of the glynnath voices he’d heard before in long memory. The tones swelled at each new landing as he ascended the long path to find the High King. That’s all he knew. The quest seemed simple enough. Soft phrases flowed into waves of harmony, and the song was somehow comforting, but with each step, his burden felt heavier. Below him, he glimpsed churning darkness. He faltered, as the weight of this burden taxed even his great strength. He kept his eyes looking forward, daring not to look back.
“I will never fail you!” Roe kissed EJ’s forehead as he hugged him tightly against his chest as he had when EJ was an elfling.
“If only someone would send down help,” Roe gritted his teeth, but he was alone in this, so he marched on.
“Never lose hope,” words repeated in his mind.
He feared the dark boiling emptiness that had been dogging them, but more than even that, he feared losing Eijlam.
Roevash shook in pain and weakness as he came to the ninth landing of the long path. The solemn Lords of Ilmatar greeted Roevash. They gently took Eijlam and covered him in wrappings. Roe thought it was to heal his brother, so he let them take control. The processional moved forward to the reception hall. The body of his brother was kept at the front of the line as the bearers carried it high over themselves as if he had no weight at all.
Roe found himself among the throngs of spirits that inhabited the place. He gently pushed himself through the crowd, trying to keep up. He made his way to the open auditorium. It was the seat of power. The many faces looked on as the court was set for the trial of the fallen-one. Roe could see the wrapped body lay silent in the middle of the court on a low pedestal.
“Lord Surmanos!” The High King’s voice rolled like thunder as he appeared before them. He called forth the prisoner by name. “You have been caught by your own web of deceit. Your evasion of this council throughout the ages has finally come to an end. It is the Light of Justice whom you will answer now.” There was silence for a moment as the High King’s thunderous voice echoed into the distance. The high king’s face, though one of solemn power, showed signs of grief, or maybe it was remorse he betrayed for the task at hand.
“Reveal yourself!” The king’s eyes flashed with lightning as his demand flowed out over the gathering. The assembly let out a gasp as the wrappings fell away. They recognized the smug lord as he stood up, glaring defiantly at them, unable to escape the pedestal.
Roevash felt the heavy weight of loss at what he’d just witnessed. A wail of sadness keened through the air until his voice was the only sound left echoing in the place.
“Why do you cry young one,” the king’s voice seemed to speak close in his ear.
“My brother is lost, and I cannot find him,” Roe said, angry and exhausted at his apparent loss. The crowd gently pushed him forward to the front edge of the platform.
“I have been alone… I have lived in desolation for more than five hundred years! I searched everywhere.” Roe shook his head. The story he told filled the place with strains of joy at meeting Fionna and finally finding his younger brother. Life was so wondrous with them both. Then his thoughts turned to Naalin. She was the light in his heart. His true beloved, and too soon his life broke into waves of pain not just for himself but for Naalin as well.
“She should never have been made to suffer so,” he raged at the prisoner.
With every uttered word, Roevash changed in appearance. Wounds and scars bubbled up across half a millennium, mutilating his face, and arms, and torso. His eye socket grotesquely sunk and scabbed over, revealing his long life of hardship.
“The wars of the sorcerer Surmanos took my eye and took my life away from all that I loved!” The assembly murmured at the sight of him, but that was not the end of it.
Roevash fell to his knees, begging his Lords for the true death. He did not know how to live with the atrocities he was made part of during his captivity under the fallen one’s perverted dragon.
“See how this life has been so shattered at the hands of Lord Surmanos in all his many forms,” silvery words echoed through the auditorium.
"His life seems beyond all hope! However, I know my brother is made stronger than metal by our mother’s grace.” Eyes peered around, trying to glimpse where the voice originated.
When Eijlam appeared among them, the assembly gasped and bowed down in the presence of the Lord of Light. He was clothed in the shimmering robes of a Lord of Ilmatar. Acknowledging the other Lords and spirits, EJ bowed graciously to them as he strode past to stand by his brother.
“What say you then?” The High King’s voice was soft.
“My brother’s life bears witness to the truths I have found. There is nothing this evil would not do to force his will upon the mortal realm and beyond. His only purpose is to destroy all we hold dear.”
EJ looked down and spoke quietly," The song of your life seems broken, my beloved brother, but there is one you have not yet considered.” Roe’s face turned to look at Eijlam.
“You have a son. His name is Elgelion.”
With these simple words, a gasp rose up around them as the song of the little one resounded across Ilmatar. Eijlam reached out with both hands and helped Roevash stand to his feet.
“So the witness has spoken,” the High King said soberly, looking to Eijlam and Roevash.
“You are but one voice speaking for millions who throughout all the ages have cried out for such justice. It has been far too long for our ears to finally hear it.”
Voices of Ilmatar’s Lords chanted in deep rumbling tones as the king pronounced sentencing.
“Your atrocities have named you!” The king turned towards Surmanos. A loud cracking of blue lightning filled the room. “There is no escape for you this time! Your name will bind you to the veil beyond the Black Gate, where you will wait for the final day of eternity. When all that is known shall be torn open, ripping you asunder, and sending you back to the chaos!” Thunder boomed as the king made his proclamation. The waves of Ilmatar rose into a jubilant spire of exulta
tion as two lords stepped forward and took the prisoner away.
+++
EJ and Roe found themselves transported away to the front of their tree home in Eldelórne. The familiar expression of their mother, Thendiel, appeared before her two elflings. As they stood transfixed in the presence of their lost mother, unrequited memories were made whole in the blink of an eye. It was a perfect life told in a dream. Feelings would linger on, but details would not last upon waking.
“What bounty might I give my beloved sons?” Thendiel asked.
Eijlam spoke first. “We wish to be granted our own time as a family in the mortal realm.”
“You are so full of the fire of life my son.” She turned and smiled softly. “The Edhellen have gone from that place now. You would be alone as would be your young ones. What will they do, when you pass on into the future," she asked solemnly, making sure he knew what he was getting into.
“We have each other.” Roe was unwaveringly. She turned a warm gaze upon her eldest son. “Thank you for fulfilling the life we had lost as youths, but we have families of our own now mother.”
Ej quickly spoke again, “Naalin must be restored and her clan given rest... and their Eldar’s curse removed from our homeland. It is only fair...” Eijlam looked hopeful after he made these second, third, and fourth demands.
Roevash's breath hitched in his throat at hearing EJ’s words.
“What has happened? Where is my Naalin?” Fear instantly ignited in his gut.
Thendiel regarded her eldest son sadly, “She has rested here in the true death for some time now.” The air pulsed as the visage of their mother’s face spoke its warning, “Such are your desires, but she may not want to go back.”
“Then they will have to decide that together,” Eijlam stubbornly added. He looked over at his brother’s face that was rising in anguish. EJ put his hands around Roe’s arm to steady him.