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| The Ancients of Magic - Chapter 3: The Moon, The Swamp, and The Castle - By The Shepherd |
Chapter 3:
“Ah. No moon!” Rath mumbled
frustrated to himself. The LoMet family, as magi, always
recognized the moon as a balancer of white magic. The more
full the moon, the more white magic could be used to off set the
evil ebony magic. However, once every 10 years, there is a
night wherein there is no moon at all, and that cursed night was
this night! As Rath walked on in the darkness, he could
feel the ebony ethereal energies swirling about him. The
dark magic was enticing him, and calling to him to abandon his
Ancients of Magic form and indulge in the twisted form of Ebony
Magic. As he walked on, Rath half closed his eyes and
concentrated trying to push that abominable thought out of his
mind. There would be no conversion today or any day!
The black void, where the white moon would
usually be hung, was slowly rising into the night sky. As
Rath was leaving the small village the void was 3 fingers off
the horizon. Some grey clouds broke up the starry heavens
above him. It was not a night to be out and about, but
Rath remembered the promise his father had given him.
“Your Great Great Grandfather LoMet Gath,
will be there to assist you,” LoMet Zar’s words echoed clear in
Rath’s mind.
These words comforted Rath and he pressed on all the faster.
The armies of the Queen had worn well the
paths to and from the Castle Jhil-Rmar. Jhil-Rmar is the
center-force of XenShr’s awe-twisted powers; and as the
spider has her web, Jhil-Rmar serves as XenShr’s lair.
Legend holds true that the castle itself lives a life of death,
and is part of the warped world the Queen has dominion over.
It is a horrifying beacon of death to all who behold it.
Despite the terror to come, Rath had to
return his concentration to the task at hand. The path
slowly bent away from the little village and began to weave back
and forth between trees and boulders as it traversed its way
into and through a small wooded area. Rath was very
careful not to break branches or move bushes as he was walking,
for the slightest movement would start a chain reaction of
commotion. That commotion might alert a near-by guard or
sentinel, and he couldn’t afford that now. As the path
began to clear the woods, Rath was able to start making out the
definition of the castle and its formidable wall against the
dark purple sky. As he finished around the bend coming out
of the woods the castle and bulwark came into full view and Rath
paused to clear his mind and consider the situation ahead.
In a very light whisper that faded into the night air, Rath
hummed, “A garrison at the front gate.” He should have
expected that on the eve before the sacrifice was to take place.
More than once, attempts have been made on the Queens life, all
to no avail, and the would-be assassins died ignominious deaths.
“I’ll have to go around the back and enter through the South
Gate,” came the guttural follow up thought. The south gate
would have a much smaller garrison guarding it, for the castle
sat backed up to a deadly swamp. So deadly was the swamp
that its own name meant death, Zeir Swamp. Queen XenShr
didn’t even bother to post guards there during non-threatening
times, because no one dare try to brave the swamp. This
Shorn forsaken bog was disease infested, the gas was venomous,
and the mud in some place was deeper than an elf. Swamp or
no swamp though, Rath knew what he must do.
Rath left the beaten path and stayed to the
thicket as he made his way toward the swamp. As the
terrain changed tall trees and no underbrush, turned into
smaller trees and some bushes, which gave way to knotted and
twisted oaks with under brush, and finally to the wretched Zeir
trees covered in red moss and sticky under brush. The
ground softened and the dirt gave way to mud, muck and loose
sand. The pleasant smell of the small village and forest
was raped and pillaged by the stench of deadly gas. Zeir
swamp was as blasphemous as the Queen it harbored.
Staying to the dry sand, Rath made his way more
slowly through the swamp until the gas became so overpowering
that he could not stand it any longer. His lungs were
beginning to fill with fluid from the irritation of the gas, and
it was getting hard for him to breath. Finally Rath
stopped in his tracks, stood with his feet shoulder width apart,
threw his shoulders back, and let his arms dangle gently at his
side. Then, bending his right arm at his elbow with his
palm facing up, Rath brought his hand up till it was right
adjacent to his chest. Mustering up a resolute but soft
voice Rath evoked, “An Sheng Xi!” A small orange tinted
sphere appeared around Rath’s head and then the sphere faded
away, and Rath knew he now only had 30 minutes to get inside the
castle walls before the spell of purification would wear off.
“With luck I did not cast the spell too soon,” he thought to
himself. Rath now was torn, he had to pick up his pace to
make it in time to the bulwark, but he also had to worry about
alarming any sentinels that might be on post. Either way
he had only 30 minutes and the spell would dissipate, and the
gas would choke him to death, so Rath picked up his steps and
moved more swiftly.
It had been 20 minutes since Rath cast the spell
of purification and already he could feel the shield begin to
wear.
“Will I never reach the wall?” he thought to himself. No
sooner had he finished the thought then the formidable site of
the castle bulwark began to crystallize though the mist of the
swamp.
“As expected,” Rath thought as he saw only one sentinel standing
a lone guard. The sentinel stood with his back against the
bulwark, any farther out and he would be outside the protection
of Queen XenShr’s spell and the deadly gas would choke him.
Rath paused for a moment and bent down on one knee behind a
large bush. Although Rath could see the outline of the
sentinel against the stone wall, he believed the sentinel had no
idea he was being watched. Rath thought fast, he needed a
swift death move, but it had to be stealthily. A bolt of
lightening would kill the sentinel, but it would be too loud; a
fireball would be quiet enough but wouldn’t kill him on first
contact. Time was running low and out for Rath. If
he did a head on charge, the sentinel would sound the alarm.
Then even if Rath could kill him, others would be there soon and
it would be all over.
“Enough!” Rath thought. He needed to clear his mind if he
was going to get past this sentinel alive… Then it
came to him, make an illusion, not so scary that the guard will
call for others, but enough to make him leave his post and come
into the swamp. Rath would only have seconds to act then,
for the guard wouldn't stay in the swamp for very long. So
Rath began to conjure…
“Les Quem Orf-th, oct Meskr,” came the focused words. Upon
finishing the ancient phrase there appeared next to him a sickly
marsh goblin.
“Would he believe a goblin got this far?” Rath wondered.
It was too late, he had to go through with this plan, praying to
Shorn that the sentinel would come after this illusion.
The swamp goblin was a little smaller than
most elves and it began to limp in a sickly manor over toward
the sentinel. Upon seeing the creature, the sentinel drew
out his sword, then gargled out a deep evil laugh. The
guard used one arm to push himself away from the wall to boost
his speed and ran toward the goblin with his sword brandished
high! His armor joints were clanking louder than
Rath hoped for, but the guard was charging into the swamp.
The guard threw his upper body weight into the swing and came
down hard on the illusion. The sword passed right through
the illusion and the guard fell off balance, for he was
anticipating some resistance between his sword and the goblin.
**SLAM**
The sentinel went smashing to the ground onto his shoulder then
rolled onto his stomach. He laid there for a second, dazed
wondering what happened. That brief moment became his
last, as Rath jumped out from his place of concealment and took
his imbued dagger and thrust it into the spine of the guard.
As the dagger tasted of the guards blood and bone, he glowed a
faint color green for a second, then the glow faded away and the
guard lay silent and dead. Rath looked toward the bulwark and
the partly opened gate. He removed his dagger, put it back
into his sack, and walked toward the South Gate… |
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