"When the men of Guldem bind the dragons to their will Urhim will fall and never rise again." With those simple words uttered by a Deva sage, the doom of the kingdom of Guldem was sealed.
"We must hurry"
The night was dark, too dark. The few lights that battled against it in the city seemed pale, insignificant, not worthy of the darkness's effort to squelch them. The cracked dry earth that served as a road was hindered by old cobblestones poking out of the dead ground.
Two pairs of hurried footsteps tread lightly and quickly as they flew from the darkest hidden corners to shadowy alleyways as fast as they could. Their stifled haggard breathing told of their urgent need to move.
They wore dark hooded robes that swept over their shoulders and fell down to their fine black boots. Under their cloaks, well cut clothes of black and blood red with gold stitching would appear and disappear with the swishing of the dark cloth, grabbing for attention when stealth was needed. The taller, and broader, of the two carried a bundle in his arms while the more lithe of the two carried an intricately carved staff and a small pack on his back.
The streets were empty and dead. The cold, once white, walls that lined the road stood as gloomy monoliths to the once proud, but now fallen makers that had lived there. High arches crossed over the street, covered in brown dead vines. Across the faded walls echoed yelps, screams and moans, coming from the opposite direction that they two were heading.
The two travelers paid no heed to the impressive sites that they passed. They darted on the edge of the shadows with purpose, glancing around frantically to see if they were being followed.
"There it is!" said the shorter of the two in a rushed whisper, as she pointed around a corner and across a now deserted grand plaza, to a large domed building with wide doors smashed open. The Doors themselves must have been an impressive site when they were functional. The smashed wood was roughly pushed to the side to clear a wide pathway that three horse carts could pass through at the same time. That being as it was, the crude path through the rubble was less than half as wide as the archway that held the once proud oak doors. Three such wide entrances could be seen from the vantage point of the two cloaked figures as they made a mad dash to the closest gaping entrance way.
No one followed them into the night.
They dashed through the impressive archways with no more head than they had given to the rest of the blighted city. Into a dark passageway they ran, up a curved shallow ramp and along a dark corridor.
They rushed passed torn tapestries and knocked over statues. Their half hidden, grimy, images looking evil and twisted in the dark.
Bursting out of the corridor, they found themselves in a large central chamber.
Whispering to the staff, the shorter of the two called forth a faint light that glowed at the rod's end. It cast light around the chamber revealing piles of wood, stone, and bones. They were scattered about as if dropped from the sky.
The two of them trudged forth, clambering carefully to the center of the room. Making as little noise as they could. In the center of the room was a small stone arch. It was barely the height of a horse, and wide enough for two people to walk through side by side. The arch seemed to serve no purpose, but its central location drew questions of its importance.
When the two panting runners approached it, the light from the staff illuminated a circle of runes carved into the stone of the floor. They were scribbled in a wide circle around the archway, Time had almost obstructed them with a layer of dust.
Breathing heavily the two put down the pack and bundle and began to look at the circle of runes, searching for the one that could mean their freedom.
After a moment of searching, one of them fell to his knees and quickly began clearing away a layer of dust.
"Look," he said. "Here it is! quick bring the sand"
The shorter one nodded and returned to her pack and rummaged through it for a small glass vial that could be easily be concealed in the palm of a hand. The clear vial was filled unnaturally bright red sand.
As her hand retreated from the pack, vial in hand, her hood fell away to reveal her red face. The sharp angles offered a deadly beauty and her yellow eyes glowed faintly with power. Two short horned swept back from her temples over her long midnight black hair.
She hurried back over to her companion without replacing her hood.
She brushed aside her companion and pulled the cork out of the vial. Muttering to herself she sprinkled the red sand over the rune.
When he was done silence filled the cavernous chamber.
"Did it work? Why didn't it work?" asked the taller one, his teeth flashed impatiently as he spoke.
The woman let her eyes flutter about, clearly nervous. Was all their effort wasted?
As thoughts of doom almost took her mind, the rune let of a faint blue glow. It grew in power until it was bright enough to blind them.
the power ebbed and it slowly drained away in lines that reached toward the arch. Flowing like water downhill, the light formed into two pools by the bases of the arch.
With a loud crack a shimmering portal opened in the archway, reflecting images from a hundred different locations with a chaotic beauty.
They both let out sighs of relief that they did not know they were holding.
A slight hiss filled the air. It was barely noticeable at first but it grew as it echoed across the vast chamber. The darkness billowed and rolled as the hiss echoed back and forth across it, like a storm clouds of filth blown by the wind.
The two figures looked about in alarm as the darkness became more and more solid.
An oily voice creeped through the billowing black. It filled that back of their thoughts with bile and pulled pulled their minds in painful directions.
"You didn't think it would be that easy did you?" it hissed.
"Reita go!" yelled the taller one.
Reita turned herself around to run toward the back and bundle they had left on the other edge of the the carved circle of runes. Before she could take a second step in that direction a billowing cloud of darkness shot out the ground between her and her goal. The darkness evaporated around the new form of a mangled decaying body with green glowing eyes.
She let out a sharp cry of startlement and horror. She pointed at the undead corpse and called fire to burn it to ash.
Fire burst from its chest, evaporating its form.
All around her she heard moans as shadows became walking dead who approached her from all sides.
"Reita!" her companion yelled as he pulled out a wickedly serrated blade and began to hack away at the approaching horde. His hood had fallen back to reveal a complexion and face similar to hers, but masculine.
He was going to be overwhelmed. She needed to get to that small bundle.
She yelled, cursing in every language she knew as she ran to the small cloth wrapped packages.
She jumped, hand outstretched, reaching.
As her hand fell to the cloth another hand made of long sharp shadows reached out of the shadows and tore the bundle into the darkness beyond.
Her hand slammed into the stone ground as she stared at it is disbelief. She looked up slowly at the long limbed shadow that stood in front of her held the bundle close to its face. It traced a line down the center of the cloth which burned away at its touch.
Layers of thick finely woven cloth fell away to expose something small. Something red.
A child.
The shadow glanced from the baby to the prostrated woman on the ground. The look of absolute despair filled her eyes and tore at her face. The demon's shining violet eyes betrayed amusement as he held the child up higher like a hard won trophy.
He let out a low rumbling crackle.
"You think this is the worst fate your life could hold? You are mistaken. You shall see that death is a gift, handed out by saviors. Oh, but no savior is coming today. No nothing can stop my hand from achieving. Nothing." It laughed more maliciously now. "My touch shall scare him. My touch shall burn his soul and he will serve me for an eternity!"
The shadow traced one sharp finger over the infant's head. The baby began to scream as greenish gold flames covered its body, tracing symbols that could drive a mortal mad over its tiny body.
Reita screamed even louder. She called molten fire out of the air behind the dark demon and poured it onto the shadow creature's back.
"Imbecile!" the shadow screamed. It brought its free hand up for a backhanded slap the threw her three feet in the air and covered her vision with blood.
Her mind groggy, the shouts and noises filling the air were forgin to her. Their urgency growing.
The red shadows she saw now slowly cleared. She could see her companion, Iados run to the gate. His blade had been dropped somewhere, and he held the still screaming child.
He was so close!
At the last moment, when he seemed sure to leap through the portal's glimmering surface, a shadowy rope lassoed up from the ground. He let out a cry as he tumbled down, child still in arm.
The tall shadow walked forward into view, hands outstretched, ready to tear.
"Light find you!" Iados screamed as he tossed the child into the portal.
Desperate to cling to some hope Reita rose and called on her powers once again. This time she had a different target.
She called an orange gas to seep out of the ground around the portal, it grew thick and the smell of sulphur seeped into the air. The gas burst into flame around the archway, melting stone. The effort made her head spin.
Once again, she fell into the black.
The next thing she saw was the shadows glowing eyes as it approached her, Iados's body hung limply from his head, clutched tightly in the shadow's hand.
The shadow laughed again and she saw no more.
