Fallen Sepulchre

by J D Franx

  “Good bye, Kael,” Sythrnax said and nodded to Savis.

  “No!” Ember screeched. She leapt to her feet and took a step forward but stopped as Savis plunged his blade into Kael’s neck. She knew what should have happened, but her eyes showed her something far different.

  Savis’ blade rushed through Kael’s body, and Ember’s mouth went dry as Kael’s body became immaterial. Like a ghost, he passed through Savis and the assassin stumbled as the force of his attack met no resistance. Kael reappeared in one piece behind Savis, and she immediately knew what happened.

  Like the Fae had done to their islands long ago, he had phased right through Savis.

  “Holy shit!” she exclaimed. Kael’s long scythe shimmered and appeared in his hand. Savis caught himself and quickly stood as Kael swung. The scythe whistled low through the air and easily severed the assassin’s right leg below the knee.

  Kael’s hand shot out and a black cage of sizzling energy enveloped Sythrnax, inhibiting the Ancient from moving. Kael brought his attention back to Savis but said nothing as he dragged the blade of his scythe up Savis’ back. Ember winced and covered her ears as the assassin screamed in excruciating pain, but Kael did not stop. Shifting his feet, Kael swung his scythe again and severed Savis’ right arm at the shoulder. Magic flared to life in his hand. He grasped the gushing stump and cauterized the wound, so the assassin would not bleed out.

  “God, Kael, stop! If you are really you, please, stop!” she begged, unable to handle the torture anymore. He stared her way and swung the scythe once more, almost defiant to her wishes. Savis’ left hand cartwheeled through the air as black mist rose lazily from Kael’s eyes. The man she loved was nowhere within the man standing in front of her.

  “Kael, stop this!” Max barked and stepped forward with his hammer in hand, but Yrlissa grabbed him by the arm.

  “That is not him, Max,” she said and held him back. “He will kill you. Let him do whatever it is he needs to do.”

  “How can you watch this?” he asked.

  She shrugged. “It is better than dying.”

  “Look what it’s doing to Ember.” He pointed out and leaned down to help the Fae up. “You okay?”

  “No,” she sobbed. “It can’t be him.! I can’t watch this!” Max pulled her close and wrapped his arms around, burying her face in his chest. But it did not help. With her magic, she sensed a foot fly through the air while Kael’s onslaught continued.

  “You have broken the sanctity of life,” Kael growled. Ember cringed at the sound. The voice was Kael, but it was scoured by a hollow echo that drove shivers up her spine and agony knotted her stomach. Tearing free of Max, she spun in time to see Kael’s scythe vanish. It was replaced with a shorter weapon with a reaper blade at each end—one of the weapons they had buried him with.

  Blue magic and strange symbols appeared along the blade of the longer scythe. Ember’s piercing screams filled the air as Kael plunged the weapon into Savis’s body. Sythrnax smashed his hands against the cage, but it held firm.

  “Please, stop, Kael…” Ember whispered. She would have collapsed, but Max’s arms held her up tight.

  Whether or not he heard her, Kael tore a bright blue essence from Savis’ body and the blades devoured it.

  Horror drove Ember to the brink of insanity as she understood the blue essence could only be the assassin’s soul. The empty shell of Savis’ body crumpled to the grass, and Kael’s attention rounded back to Sythrnax. All she could do was watch the nightmare unfold.

  “The sanctity of death has been restored,” Kael told him while the double reaper blade vanished. The shorter scythe appeared in his hand as if it had never left. He lunged and smashed Sythrnax in the mouth with it as the magical cage opened momentarily to let him pass.

  “You've had some practice, newborn,” Sythrnax spat a mouthful of blood into the grass as he stood, staff-in-hand.

  “Newborn?” Kael whispered. “You insult us and the gods with such blasphemy.”

  “Gods? The only gods who ever mattered are long gone,” Sythrnax replied.

  “Not any more, Sythrnax,” Kael said. Silver and purple metal flowed from his hands like serpents. They snapped at the Ancient, and one struck his mask as Kael pulled the volatile energy back.

  The display of magic drove Sythrnax into a rage. “That’s impossible!” he shouted and beat on the cage with both fists “That is our magic, our real magic! You dosa bastard! How dare you even touch that magic—let alone use it against me!” His anger faded quickly, and a smile tugged his mask. “But that means...”

  Kael shook his head and black magic drifted from his hands like worms. They raced across the short distance between them and twisted around the frosted staff in Sythrnax's hand. As Kael rotated his own hands, Sythrnax's staff twirled, and the ice-covered blades slowly rotated until they hovered over the Ancient's heart.

  “You understand now?” Kael asked. Sythrnax nodded and his tresa came back to life. Pushing from his hood, they wrapped themselves around his staff to protect him, but Kael smiled as he continued. “Maybe it would be better if you pulled that staff into yourself?” he offered and stepped forward. Coming to a stop beside the Ancient, Kael frowned. “Agree?”

  One of the scaled tresa lashed out at him, but it was too slow. Kael caught it in his hand and tore it from Sythrnax's head. The Ancient roared in agony. Pointing at the rest of the striking tresa with his finger, Kael’s magic calmed the agitated appendages, and they laid flat as he tossed the dead tresa to the ground. “Understand now, child?” Kael asked, all traces of emotion were gone from his voice.

  “Yes,” Sythrnax growled. “Now, finish this, and I'll wait for your mortal soul in Perdition. You won’t escape the afterlife a second time, and we can do this over and over for all of eternity.”

  The Ancient laughed as everyone stared at the revelation. Ember's heart skipped a beat as it hammered against her ribs. She had been right—something or someone had brought him back from the dead. Yet deep inside, she had known all along that the sadistic wizard was really Kael. She was just too afraid to believe it. There was no longer any doubt. He had somehow managed to fight his way back from death. As a true DeathWizard, he had brought back something terrible with him.

  “No,” Kael said, catching her attention. Slowly pushing his hand forward, the black magic holding Sythrnax's staff over his heart sparked to life. Kael shoved and his magic pounded the blades deep into Sythrnax's chest. The black cage evaporated, and he continued in a monotonous tone. “You will not go to the afterlife, Ri’Tek. The gods designed your people to pass their energy to those who are worthy. Your power will be given to the spirit, and you will cease to exist.”

  As he stopped short, Kael shook his head and glanced around as if confused. He nodded to himself, and the expression passed as he stared back at Sythrnax.

  The hollow echo around his voice vanished as he spoke. “I promised a Dwarven General that I’d pass along his message,” he said. “He survived the siege.”

  Sythrnax shook his head in disbelief and Kael changed, again. The echo in his voice returned, and any emotion fled from the words of the spell that came out of him. “Sai Vai'Karth Kull'Vai!”

  “No, Kael! Don't,” Yrlissa yelled.

  “Please, Kael!” Ember added, trying to save her husband one last time.

  Both were too late. The Vai'Karth appeared in Kael's hands. He gently slid the scythe-blades over Sythrnax's shoulders and guided him closer. One blade rested gently on each side as the hooked blades slid into the Ancient’s flesh and drew blood. Kael slid his thumbs along the bottom sides of his weapons, and he held Sythrnax close. Their blood mixed, and the Vai'Karth pulsated with life.

  “You are not a simple mortal,” Kael said. “I take back the life that was given by the true gods of Talohna.” As the staff stole the Ancient's life, Kael's blood-fueled blades tore Sythrnax's soul from his body and pulled it inside the weapons. The blades pulsed one last time as the last traces of Sythrnax's s
oul were consumed.

  Shocked at the display of such cruel and volatile magic, Ember gaped at Kael's back as he stared down at the vacant body of the Ancient.

  “Kael?” She swallowed hard, her voice barely a whisper.

  “No,” Yrlissa said, quietly, grabbing her arm. “We need to leave, nahlla, you don't understand.”

  “I will not leave him, Yrlissa! Jesus Christ, Kael. It's me. It’s me, Ember,” she yelled. Her heart broke as he continued to ignore her.

  “Ember, now,” Yrlissa snapped. “We must leave. He's not the same—”

  Ember tore her arm free from the assassin's grasp. “Never!” she shouted and ran to Kael. Grabbing his cloak, Ember turned him to look at her. Her breath caught as his blades appeared and slid easily into her sides.

  “Leave me be, mortal!” he snarled and pulled her close.

  Ember touched Kael’s cheek and smiled softly. The fury and madness fled his eyes. “You... found me.” She sighed. The blades vanished in a puff of black smoke, and he caught her as pain overwhelmed her senses.

  Blinking, he gasped. “Em... Ember? What happened? Who, no...no!”

  With her consciousness fading, she heard Yrlissa scream a spell through a haze of pain and felt magic slam into her and Kael. Both were knocked to the ground.

  “Yrlissa... don't hurt him,” she moaned while Kael stumbled to his feet. He stepped over her, his hands flared with black and purple magic. The energy grew quickly as it surrounded them in a shield of smoky black and purple mist.

  Yrlissa moved closer. “It's my responsibility to stop him, Ember. I'm sorry.”

  “It’s all right, he knows...” She gasped in agony. The assassin’s aura vanished, replaced by black and purple swirls of a Guardian. Yrlissa closed her eyes as if to focus, and the pounding chaos of Kael's magic increased. Surrounding him in wavering layers of smoky-black magic, he called back his hand scythes.

  Yrlissa's eyes snapped open, and her spell leapt from her tongue. “Ivey Vanahr Saleesta.”

  Like a switch had been thrown, Kael collapsed to the ground, lifeless. With no link to his power, the magical shield dissipated on the dying winds, and the wall of thorns circling the clearing retreated into the earth.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  “Reality. What is reality? Is it what we know? What we feel or experience? Or simply what we see and comprehend? I know not and for some reason it troubles my mind more than ever. I do know that my reality slips from my grasp more rapidly now. Those who write my thoughts will continue to record them until my last breath. Perhaps as these few coherent moments become even more scarce and only prophecy rolls from my tongue will the definition of true reality become clear. It gives my weakening mind something to hope for while in the throes of complete and utter insanity. The approach of it comes frightening close most d… da… daysss...”

  The prophet Zaddyk’s journal entry

  has been cut short by an unsolicited prophecy-Brother Donis Kincaid. Prophecy was recorded

  and handed to the TimeKeepers, 5026 PC

  DORMASAI

  ACROPA MOUNTAIN PASS

  Even severely wounded, Ember’s only concern was Kael’s well-being as she crawled to him. “Is he... alive? Yrlissa? I... is he alive?” she asked, struggling to catch her breath.

  Yrlissa went to Kael's side to check on him while Max hurried to help Ember, opening her cloak. The pain told her long before Max’s expression that Kael's blades had almost torn her apart. The two garish wounds had opened her sides wide. Max pressed her cloak tight against the wounds and applied pressure. Ember bit her bottom lip as the savage agony swelled

  She coughed, and blood dripped from her lips. “Max, I... I... can't… not heal... I...”

  “Yrlissa!” Max yelled. “Christ. She's not healing!”

  Yrlissa left Kael unconscious where he fell, going to Ember. “Let me see,” she said, opening the cloak back up. “It's the Vai'Karth—his scythes.”

  “Gods.” Aravae sighed, kneeling at Ember's side to help. “Who would make such weapons?”

  “You don't want to know,” Yrlissa said, looking to Max. “Bring me them, but don't touch them bare-handed.”

  Max quickly moved to Kael's side, searching for the Vai'Karth. “Sorry buddy, but we need these.” he said, sighing as his friend's chest rose and fell. “He's alive, but ah… there’s no weapons here, Yrlissa.”

  “Impossible,” Yrlissa whispered, looking back in Kael's direction.

  “The blades are gone,” Max offered. “They must have vanished.”

  “Good riddance,” Yrlissa spat out. “Tie him up. I'll do a spell to collar him once we do what we can for Ember.” Turning to Aravae, she asked, “Are you ready? We have to do one side at a time. Kael's blades slid along the outside of her ribs, but the hooks rode along the bottom of her rib cage and went deeper.”

  “I see them,” Aravae answered, nodding with a frown. “We have to stitch her inside and out to stop the bleeding. I’m ready. Thank you, child,” she replied, taking one of Ember's med kits from Cassie as the young girl handed a second to her mother.

  Max tied Kael securely while the two women stitched the ugly wounds on Ember's sides. “Boy, are you gonna have some apologizing to do, buddy,” he muttered. Turning Kael gently on to his side, he finished the hog tie. “What the hell happened to you on the other side, Kael?”

  Snapping branches and the clunk of loose armor from within the forest caught everyone's attention.

  “I got it,” Max growled and grabbed his hammer. “I need to kill something anyway.” He turned to face whomever was crashing through the forest.

  A young man exploded into the clearing. “Commander, Sir!” Dalen Toth shouted. “I found you.”

  “Dalen?” Max demanded, frowning in shock. “Jesus, man! You got more goddamned lives than a cat! I thought you were dead.”

  “You and me both, Sir! I've been killing Elloryans the whole way here. The cowards abandoned the battle. They fled the field like cowards as soon as they realized King Kohl and the Queen had retreated. But we got undead birds from Drae'Kahn, several Elloryan knights and Ancient wizards have been spotted near Garrett's Vale. I followed after you as soon as the messages were read.”

  “Garrett's Vale?” Nekrosa repeated as he approached. “You're sure the messages said Garrett's Vale?”

  “Yes, Your Majesty,” Dalen said, and he bowed, only just seeing the King.

  “Nekrosa?” Max asked, letting his hammer rest on the ground.

  “It's the location of the Human Animus Seal. The invasion was a feint.”

  “Of course, it was.” Max sighed. “What do we do, Yrlissa? Ember is no shape to jump us, and the Vale is three days hard ride on horseback.”

  Yrlissa shook her head as she tied off the last stitch and applied a clean cloth to the wounds.

  “I'll live,” Ember assured them quietly.

  “Good,” Yrlissa said. “Then, we need to bring Kael around and convince him we are who we say we are. He's the only one who can get us there in time.”

  Max smiled at Yrlissa. “Easy enough.”

  “No, Max. It won't be.”

  “That's why you wanted to run,” Ember whispered. “You knew he'd be different. You said, he was corrupted.”

  Yrlissa piled a couple travel bags behind Ember's back and helped her to sit up. “Yes. Kael has spent the last year to us in the afterlife—most of it was probably in the Nine Hells. The corruption that runs through his kind will have had no tempering in the afterlife. I imagine it will have run abundant. He clearly has no problem killing anymore.”

  “Wait,” Aravae said. “The last year to us? What do you mean?”

  Yrlissa sighed as she sank back and used a clean cloth to wipe Ember's blood from her hands. “Time passes differently in other dimensions. Earth is the only dimension I have ever heard of where time passes the same as ours, only on the opposite clock. Night-to-day and vice versa. But the afterlife? People, regardless of race or magic, are not su
pposed to come back from there. Period. One year here was probably hundreds of years or more to Kael. Ember, Max... he may not understand that only a year has passed here. Even if he does, his mind is likely twisted up from his trials in Heaven and Hell. He called you a mortal, Ember. I can’t understand that, unless he has been affected by Reetha’s Ichor or the gods’ only know what else.”

  Max jogged over to Kael and yanked his armor aside. “You’re right. That’s Kroa magic,” Max said and spat to the side. “Nastiest shit found in any dimension. He’ll be detached from reality.”

  “Yes,” Yrlissa said as she glared at Max. “We are going to discuss your knowledge of that and a great many other things as well.”

  “Fine,” Max agreed. “When there is time. First, we need to bring him back to reality.”

  Ember shook her head. “Everyone he's ever trusted in Talohna either died or betrayed him.” She struggled to regain her composure but continued. “The Kael we knew would never hurt us, but I can still reach him I saw it in his eyes right before you knocked us down.”

  Lying his hammer on the grass, Max knelt at her side. “Yes, you can. You and I will show him the way back. Like we did after he killed that punk back home. All right?”

  Ember nodded, smiling. “Okay.”

  “Then, we'd better move and fast,” Yrlissa said. “Dalen? You said our main camp and the battlefield were deserted?”

  “Yes, Mistress.”

  “The blacksmiths—did they pack up and leave?”

  “No. Those who survived the attack on the camp are still awaiting orders.”

  “Good,” Yrlissa said. “We'll need them to forge chains that I can spell in order to hold Kael.”

  “Is that a good idea?” Aravae asked, still sitting beside Ember and watching her close. “After what the Dead Sisters did to him—”

  “We have no choice,” Yrlissa argued. “We have to collar his magic, or he will kill us all the moment he wakes.”