Disclaimer: I do not own Fablehaven.
Seth panted hard as he sprinted down the jagged stone corridor. He quickly made a sharp turn around a corner and dove behind a large boulder attempting in vain to breathe quietly. Seth pulled his Shadow-steel sword out from his back scabbard and tried to make as little noise as possible. He wasn't sure whether he had lost the creature that had been chasing him or not.
After the longest minute in his life he could not hear anything chasing him and he had managed to get his breathing under control. He gently got up from his prone position and peered around the stone boulder he had hidden behind.
Only to find eight eyes looking right back at him.
Seth screamed and let go of his sword in his surprise. The creature facing him was the one that he had been running from: An Arachnid the size of a minivan with eight razor sharp hairy legs and pincers big enough to easily wrap around his body.
Before Seth could react the Arachnid grabbed him around the torso with its incredibly powerful pincers and slammed him against the wall. He was face to face with the eight eyed Arachnid and could see flecks of blood in the hair around its face which was likely due to other things it had killed. Seth could hardly breathe because of the pincers forcing all the air out of his lungs and it was only thanks to his shadow steel chain armor that he was still alive. He would not be alive for much longer though unless he did something but it was hard to think when face to face with an Arachnid capable of taking down a bear.
Concentrate Seth. Focus on the Power.
Seth heard his brother speak into his mind and it helped bring everything back into focus. Ronodin was right; he needed to focus to survive. Seth stopped thinking about the fact that in all likelihood he was about to be crushed and eaten by a giant spider. Unless Seth could get his mind under control and focus he was about to die.
Seth stopped thinking about the imminent danger he was currently facing. He let his fears, doubts, and current circumstances fade into the background of his mind. He felt calm descend over his psyche as he took control of his thoughts. He was the master of his own emotions and not the other way around. Seth let his mind spread out from himself to feel the life all around him.
Or more accurately the lack of life around him.
So many living things had died here deep beneath the Earth. Mostly spiders, insects, and bugs but also people and other magical creatures. He felt the coldness of the death of all these organisms that would never have a chance to live again.
He felt the warm and powerful life of the spider in front of him. It was a smart, ancient, and powerful predator. Using the power and coldness of death all around him Seth attempted to extinguish the Arachnid's life like he would extinguish a torch.
The Arachnid screeched in surprise and its death hold on him weakened slightly but the Arachnid was still very much alive.
Harder Seth, you are stronger than that. Don't give it the chance to fight back.
Taking another deep breathe Seth used his rage like a tool to focus on the spider's life force. Seth was a prince; not some weak prey to be hunted by a simple spider no matter how large it was. He was destined to rule all and not to be killed by some nameless bug in a small cave deep beneath the Earth. Seth focused all this rage and the coldness of the death around him on the spider's life force.
Seth felt the Arachnid's life wink out like a candle. It never stood a chance.
The spider's pincers let go of him as its lifeless body crumpled to the ground. Seth looked at it with distaste as he brushed off his clothes.
Ronodin suddenly strode into the small cavern with fluid grace. Of course Ronodin chose that moment to arrive when the danger was already past. Ronodin looked at the crumpled Arachnid on the floor and then at a very exhausted Seth.
"You're a bit late," Seth said dryly.
Ronodin winced. "Sorry, I got a bit held up with some undead, but it looks like you had the situation handled anyway."
Ronodin was a very handsome young man around the age of eighteen with dark hair and a strong jawline. He was well dressed in a black robe traveling rob and a smug smile that seemed to always be on his face. But his most defining feature definitely was his intense dark eyes tinged with purple. He was Seth's brother and currently his only friend and ally ever since Seth's life began a month ago. Seth had been tricked into turning a lock that erased his mind by his once trusted friend and ally, Kendra. Prior to that fateful day one month ago Seth had no recollection of his life or even who he was.
Luckily his brother Ronodin was filling in all the blanks. Seth was glad he had someone he could trust while he was trying to regain his memory. He had also been tutoring Seth in some of his abilities as a shadow charmer and about his heritage as the Underprince.
"You are getting better at the eternal oblivion spell. Taking out an arachnid the size of a car is quite a feat," Ronodin said proudly.
The first of Seth's abilities as a shadow charmer that Ronodin had taught him involved used the cold power of the plants and animals that had died in the area to extinguish a flame, lamp, or leech power. Or even to extinguish a life. Extinguishing a life with the oblivion spell took a lot of power though and had left Seth exhausted. He was only able to do it because of how much death and darkness there was here giving him a lot of power to draw from.
It was more difficult to extinguish larger creatures' lives and almost impossible to extinguish the lives of intelligent creatures like a human. But Ronodin said it was possible with enough power.
Seth shivered thinking about his destructive capabilities. He didn't ever want to hurt other animals, much less humans. He even felt sick looking at the dead body of the spider he had killed even though the spider had been trying to kill him.
"Well since you are obviously tired and we made pretty progress towards Shadowvale today I say we set up camp here."
Ronodin tapped the dead spider corpse with his foot and it burst into purple flame that created no smoke. The purple flame quickly devoured the spider and there was nothing left but ash. Seth and him both set out their bedrolls on the smoothest ground they could find and Seth plopped down on his bedroll.
Before he could lie down Ronodin threw Seth's sword at him from where he had dropped it when the Arachnid had attacked him. Seth reflexively caught it by the hilt. The sword was a work of art with a hand length grip embossed with silver and a small amethyst studded the hilt where it connect with the dark blade comprised of shadow steel. The shadow steel was the hue of the darkest black and would have been difficult to see if not for the patterns of silver going up and down the blade.
"Fancy a match before we go to bed?" Ronodin said confidently while he smirked holding his own blade which seemed to be made of pure darkness rather than any material. While Seth's blade was a work of art Ronodin's blade seemed to be alive and carried a dark malevolence with it.
Seth groaned. Ronodin had been training him in the sword for the last month telling Seth it was a crucial skill for him to remember from his past and that it might save his life someday. Seth's body had bruises all over it from their nightly sparring sessions.
"I can barely stand I'm so exhausted, much less do sword play," Seth whined.
"Your enemies won't give you time to rest when you are tired and neither shall I," Ronodin replied while going in for a quick jab with his sword.
Seth was forced to parry his jab and to stand up despite how much his muscles protested. Angry at being forced to duel when he just wanted to sleep he attacked in a barrage of blows. Ronodin effortlessly blocked every one and did not counter despite Seth leaving himself of wide open.
"Sloppy. Reckless. Pathetic," Ronodin parried every blow while insulting Seth.
Seth realized that he would have to do better than that if he wanted to get some sleep. Seth started making more coordinated attacks attempting to find weak points even though Ronodin's form was perfect. Ronodin had the same smirk on his face he always did as Seth tried desperately to find a weakness in his defenses. Seth seeing that Ronodin was merely defending himself used that to his advantage by doing reckless moves that would never work in a real duel. Seth finally got close enough to Ronodin on one of his swings where Ronodin was forced to parry at an awkward position which made Ronodin go on the offensive.
Seth moved to block Ronodin's first blow before he realized it was a feint and Ronodin hit him with the flat of his blade on his arm giving Seth a brand new bruise to match the countless others on his body from his nightly sparring sessions with Ronodin.
"Slightly better, but you still have a lot of work to go. An Underprince is expected to be perfect in everything he does including swordplay. You need to get better before we get to Shadowvale. But, I see that you are tired so you may rest now."
Seth grumbled to himself. Ronodin could be pretty bossy. He plopped down on his sleeping roll just glad to be able to finally get some rest. It had been a long day traveling deeper into the Underdark and fighting monsters. He wondered how much longer they had to go before he got to see his people again.
As he drifted off to sleep, Seth thought of everything he had learned about his past since his memory was erased. Ronodin had told Seth about his history and heritage as the Underprince. Seth was the son of one of the five great monarchs that ruled the world: The Fairy Queen, The Demon King, The King of Dragons, The Queen of Giants, and of course the Underking. Ronodin was not Seth's blood brother, but had been adopted by the Underking. Despite this Ronodin told Seth that they were brothers in everything but blood. Since Ronodin was Seth's pretty much only friend in the world at the moment, Seth thought of him likewise. Even though Ronodin was older Seth was the true heir to the throne since Ronodin was adopted.
Seth had gone missing when he was five years old from his father's palace in the Underdark. The Underking searched for him everywhere he could, but could not find him and many believed him dead. Until Ronodin had found him being used by the evil traitor Kendra who had once pretended to be his friend and sister but really was just using him to get what she wanted erasing his mind in the process. She had made him turn a key that erased a person's identity to try to get an incredibly valuable artifact: The Wizenstone. Luckily Kendra did not have the Wizenstone because once she realized it was impossible for her to get it, she banished it so her enemies couldn't get it like Celebrant: The King of Dragons.
Even though Seth knew he should hate Kendra for her actions, as Seth fell asleep all he could do was feel a sense of peace while he thought of her. What was wrong with him?
Seth woke up to water being dumped on his head. He shot up instantly and put his hand on the hilt of his sword only to see Ronodin laughing while holding an empty bucket. He was laughing so hard tears were streaming out of his eyes.
"You should have seen your face," he choked out between fits of giggling, "you thought you were under attack or something."
Seth got up groaning, he was still sore from yesterday and pretty annoyed at how rudely he had been awoken. He watched Ronodin as he shook the water out of his soaked hair. This was nothing new; Ronodin tended to get a lot of joy out of teasing Seth. Luckily Seth knew how to hold his own: the key to psychological warfare was to never let the enemy know when they got to your feelings because that was basically admitting defeat.
Holding a straight face like he wasn't the slightest bit perturbed at being woken up so rudely and then being laughed at he replied, "You sound like a dying chipmunk that inhaled helium and is having a coughing attack."
This comment made Ronodin's laughter turn into a smirk. "Thanks, I was doing my best imitation of when you fell in the lake last week," Ronodin replied.
Seth scowled. He hadn't 'fallen' into a lake. They had been training by a lake while Ronodin had been testing Seth's shadow charmer abilities when Ronodin had said that he thought he saw a mermaid in the lake. When Seth ran to look Ronodin had pushed him in the lake much to Seth's surprise.
Ronodin had won this round, but Seth was already planning on getting him back. Ronodin handed him a few granola bars and a bottle of water from his pack.
"We have got more ground to cover today. We are getting closer to Shadowvale but we will soon be getting into the more dangerous parts of the Underdark. It will be a good chance for you to train your other abilities. The Drow will expect the Underprince to be powerful, elegant, and capable."
The Drow were one of the main denizens of Shadowvale: the capital of the Underdark and where the Underking resided. Long ago the ancestors of the Drow had been members of the Fair Folk, but a splinter group of them had experimented with dark magic and made deals with demons. Their transgressions had caused them to lose their innate magical talents. All fair folk were born with an innate magical talent, but experimenting with dark abilities that were never supposed to be theirs had caused the splinter group to lose their special abilities. The splinter groups were forced out of the Fair Folk cities and were shunned by all so they took up refuge in the Underdark. They took to calling themselves the Drow and their appearance changed due to living underground for the last several millennia. Seth had never seen one (at least not since his memory had been erased), but Ronodin had told him about their history. Ronodin had also explained how it had been wrong of the Fair Folk to force them out of their cities for merely experimenting with other magical powers.
Seth shouldered his pack and chewed on his granola bars ravenously. Ronodin and him left the cavern where they had spent the night. Seth spared one final look at the ashes of the Arachnid that he had killed the night before. They entered a stone corridor just wide enough for two men to walk abreast. Small stalactites hung from the ceiling dotted with small sparkling crystals. The deeper they got into the Underdark the more frequently small crystals were dotting the walls, floors, and ceilings.
"I thought you said that you could travel very quickly around the world using the Underdark," Seth told Ronodin. "We have been traveling for three days, this is not very fast at all."
"I said that it was easy to travel quickly around the world if you knew the Underking," Ronodin replied, "Shadowvale has many magical portals connecting to key points throughout the world. These portals can only be used with explicit permission from the Underking. I have permission, but you don't so we will need to take the long way to Shadowvale through the Underdark."
Seth sighed loudly. The Underdark was an extremely treacherous and mysterious area of the magical world. It was not simply underground, it was deeper than almost every human had ever gone. Even though the Underdark was still in the Earth's crust, it went as deep as the Mariana Trench. Humans thought it was nearly impossible to get this deep even with the most powerful machinery, but they didn't know of the secret magical passages made by other denizens of the Underdark. In some places the Underdark pierced through the barrier between the Earth's crust and the Mantle using the heat of the Mantle as a source of energy.
Seth and Ronodin continued to walk down the stone corridor as it got deeper and deeper into the Earth. They chatted off and on while Seth asked questions about his past as he often did. As they got deeper the passage got more and more until they soon had to walk in a single file line. After about an hour of walking they noticed a turn in the tunnel directly ahead.
Seth's jaw dropped as they rounded the turn in the stone corridor and the path suddenly widened considerably into a very large underground room the size of a football field. The entire room had giant stalactites and stalagmites made of blue and red crystal. Brilliant Blue fairies flitted to and from moss and several beautiful iridescent mushrooms and flowers. Ronodin turned to Seth and watched his reaction.
"What? Did you think everything in the Underdark was dark and dreary? This is nothing, wait until you see Shadowvale," Ronodin said while grinning, his dark eyes flashing.
Seth watched as a few fairies saw him and Ronodin and immediately hid as soon as they saw Ronodin's face. Ronodin had that effect on fairies for some reason that Seth couldn't explain. They all seemed extremely afraid of him. Ronodin never seemed to be bothered by this though. Seth started to take a few steps into the cavern when all of the sudden a large chunk of crystal began to move. It was alive!
Seth used his mind's eye that he used when attempting to do shadow magic to feel the life and death around him. He could definitely tell that many of these crystal lifeforms were very much alive. More than that though, Seth could tell that they were extremely intelligent. The crystal mass started moving towards them and Seth's hand reflexively strayed to the hilt of his sword which was on his back. Ronodin stopped his hand though and made a motion for him to be calm.
Ronodin confidently walked towards the crystal mass and said, "Greetings, honorable Uvian, I am Ronodin, servant and adopted son of the Underking. Doubtless you have heard of me?"
The Uvian turned around with surprising speed for such a large life form and Seth could definitely tell it was humanoid. It was stocky and made entirely of beautiful blue crystal. Its eyes were nothing but glowing cavities in its head which were red in contrast to the rest of iridescent blue body. Its had a nose and mouth all made of crystal. It was probably about eight feet tall. It looked incredibly strong. Seth would never want to start a fight with an Uvian.
In a deep a grating voice the Uvian said, "Well met Ronodin, counselor to the King. I am Tar-gal, lowly crystal farmer of the Underdark. May I ask you what brings you to these parts of the Underdark?"
Ronodin motioned to Seth. "I am escorting the lost Underprince back to Shadowvale to be reunited with his father."
Tar-gal's massive jaw dropped which looked rather comical. Tar-gal immediately got on his knees making him almost Seth's height (he was still a little taller than Seth) and said "Forgive me for my disrespect high prince, I did not know of your identity." Seth thought this was rather ironic because up until a month ago he did not know his own identity either.
Seth smiled mischievously and said, "Maybe, I'll forgive you if you grovel a little more."
The Uvian needed no more encouragement repeatedly bowing on his knees and saying, "A thousand praises to the high prince greatest above all." Seth would have been happy to let him continue but any more of this and Tar-gal would probably cause a cave in.
"All right, all right that's enough boot licking, Prince Seth Duskryn is needed in the capital as soon as possible," Ronodin said.
"Of course," said the Uvian, "the fastest route to Shadowvale is through this cavern as I'm sure you know. But beware that path takes you awfully close to the Necromancer's lair."
"Thank you for the advice, but we can handle ourselves," Ronodin said.
He motioned to Seth and they continued walking through the large cavern. Seth looked at the different Uvians, most of them were made of blue crystal but some were made of red crystal and one was made out of a bright yellow crystal. Several fairies darted with crystal wings of various colors. They all eyed Ronodin warily.
"How many different intelligent magical species live in Shadowvale?" Seth asked.
"There are five different main magical creatures that live in Shadowvale and the Underdark. The Drow and the Uvian are two of them. I would tell you the other three, but I think I will let it be a surprise. The Underking does not have to be a specific one of the species, but the current one is a Drow. His name is Elluin Duskryn."
Seth stopped. "Wait… that would mean that I am a Drow. You told me I was the Underking's son."
"Indeed you are the son of Elluin Duskryn. However, your mother was human. You are half Drow."
Author's note: This is a bit of a sudden moment to suddenly end the chapter, but don't worry there will be more next week. If you liked it feel free to favorite it and leave a review! I intend to update every Friday with whatever I completed that week. Support would definitely motivate me to write more faster, but I will probably write more regardless of how many reviews I get because I have really enjoyed writing the story so far and I want to be an author someday so its good practice. Also feel free to ask questions or leave suggestions. Thanks for reading :)!