Blade of the Priestess

by Sarkes99

This story doesn't really belong anywhere as it is an original. It's really good, i reckon, and it took me ages to write. Other chapters are coming later. Please read and review. Enjoy!

4. Chapter 4

Into the Den of Evil

Into the Den of Evil

Chyemme

I awoke early the next morning to the sound of armor being strapped on. My assassin tent mate, Maria, was fastening the clasps on her midnight black quilted armor. She looked up.

"Well, well, decide to finally join the world of the living? I hope you're up for a long day," she said as she tossed me my red-tinted leather armor. Vendra, my other roommate, I saw, was busy in another corner of the room, pulling on her robes. I hurried out of bed and to finish dressing; it looked like I had slept in a few minutes. Sleep on something immobile had felt so welcoming, especially since I had spent the last few weeks sleeping in the back of a moving caravan. When I had fastened the last buckle on my armor, I grabbed my boots and reached for my spear and javelins.

Maria had already finished dressing, and was outside, flexing with her katars. Vendra also had finished dressing, and she joined me on my way out of the tent.

"That felt really good, to sleep on something that doesn't wobble or shake," she said with a laugh, getting an appreciative nod from me, "I get that you know the feeling?"

I nodded again, as I held up the canvas tent flap for her to pass under. From there, I made my way through the camp to the campfire pit, passing several of the people I had met the previous night along the way. The druid, Cloudyous was untying his raven from its perch and feeding his wolf. Alminus, the barbarian was sharpening his axe, and his friend Ryelass was nearby, talking to Kashya. Sovellis was talking to Vendra a short ways away, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Piricus off in a corner by himself. Continuing on to the campfire pit, I spotted Scorpious the paladin enjoying his morning meal. He looked up from his breakfast as I approached. He swallowed what he was chewing and greeted me.

"Good morning Lady Chyemme. You look well-rested? Did you sleep well?" he asked in his velvety tenor. He was a real gentleman.

We had men back home of course, and there were a few that always caught my eye in the aspects of courtesy and respect, however, in general most men were more or less rude and arrogant. Therefore, meeting a man like Scorpious was a rare treat for me.

"Yes, and you?" I replied.

"As well as came be expected for one who must fight demons in the morning," he replied. We both laughed.

It was then that I noticed that Piricus was watching us. I looked away. The steely, piercing gaze from his cold emerald eyes was too much.

Scorpious smiled at me and tore off a piece of bread. "Here, you'll need some sustenance," he said, offering it to me. I accepted gladly, happy to have anything to look at but Piricus. My amazon innersight told me that he was still glaring at me. I didn't turn to look. For some reason, I suspected that he might actually have an innersight of his own. Not to mention, from what I'd heard about necromancers, direct eye contact made it easier for them to put curses on people. Scorpious noticed my inner discomfort.

"What's wrong, Chyemme? You look troubled," he said softly.

I figured I could trust a holy man, so I shared my thoughts. "It's Piricus. I've been traveling with him for a while now, and even so, I still don't know much about him. I don't know, there's just this . . . mystery around him."

Scorpious gave me a look of contemplation. "Hmm . . . that one has a darkness about him, an emptiness. He seeks to be efficient in all that the Priests of Rathma do. He focuses only on death, never life. And that, I think, is part of his problem. I think time will tell. Yes. We shall see . . . But everyone, every soul has a chance at redemption, no matter how slim," he said trailing off in thought. He suddenly shook his head. "Sorry, just wondering out loud. Well, we may need some antidote potions, while I'm thinking about it. I've heard even the river water is poisonous now. I'll have to see Lady Akara. If you'll please excuse me," he said politely, dismissing himself and leaving.

I looked to Piricus again, still seemingly feeling his eyes upon me. Oddly enough, he motioned me over to him. I had no clue what he could possibly want, but I went over anyway. Piricus crossed his arms and leaned against the encampment fence.

"Whatever that sentimental fool of paladin told you about redemption or anything about me, don't believe a word of it," he said unemotionally.

That is not possible. How could he have heard us?

"What Scorpious and I speak of is none of your business. Even so, we said nothing about you," I lied and turned away. I gave a small gasp when seconds later I was seized in a firm and painful grip. Piricus had grabbed my shoulder, and he turned me around, forcing me to look at him once more. His glare could have been a demon's . . .

"Lying to me, of all people, really isn't smart, amazon," he said gravely.

I grabbed his hand and pressed my fingernails into his skin. He immediately let go, more out of surprise than pain.

"And grabbing an amazon warrior is not exactly the smartest move either," I shot back.

Piricus laughed.

"Is that so? I don't think you'd last ten seconds against me, especially if all you can do is squirm like you just did."

"You think too highly of yourself," I replied , as I punched at him, to catch him off guard.

Piricus merely raised an eyebrow as he caught my fist in his palm. He pushed me back. He gave me a sarcastic smile and then tossed me a black vial out of his pocket.

"That's an antidote you'll probably need the first five seconds outside of this camp, girl," he smirked then added, "We wouldn't you to die fighting your first opponent, now would we?"

I wanted to slap him, but I heard Alminus roar,

"EVERYONE TO THE FIRE!"

Piricus rolled his eyes. "Looks like the nanny wants to see us," he said sarcastically and walked in that direction.

I looked down at the vial in my hand. It was ebony black and fizzy, and looked more like poison than an antidote. Nevertheless, I'd keep it and use it later, either way. I followed after Piricus to the campfire pit. Everyone was gathered there, and I took an open seat next to Maria.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"Planning," she remarked simply.

Scorpious entered the circle, and walked to the center of the campfire pit where everyone could see him.

"Well, the plan is simple. We search for this den, and then cleanse it. We stay together," he said simply.

Piricus raised an eyebrow.

"What? That's it? No speech of nobility, no long, lengthy spiel on the virtues of demon hunting that put everyone else to sleep? You disappoint me, Paladin."

Scorpious sighed. "Your impertinence is less than enjoyable, Piricus," he said matter-of-factly.

Piricus gave him a mocking grin. "I'm just getting warmed up, paladin."

Scorpious just sighed again and good-naturedly bore Piricus' harassment. Scorpious, in my mind's eye, was a very open and patient person. Just putting up with Piricus' blatant disrespect of him was a feat in itself. Scorpious had already gained a strong amount of respect with me. Piricus, on the other hand, was getting on my nerves. Hopefully all the Priests of Rathma weren't this smart-mouthed.

"Very well, so besides sarcastic commentary, does anyone have anything else to add?" Scorpious continued.

Ryelass looked up from where he was starting into the dull fire embers.

"I heard about a zombie that can cast ice magic from some of the rogues. They call it CorpseFire," he announced.

"Whoa! What? Why wasn't anyone else told about this little bit of information?" Vendra asked suddenly. This new bit of information seemed to have grabbed everyone's attention.

"Probably because we not ask," Sovellis stated in a soothing manner to Vendra, whose quick temper was beginning to brew.

Maria stood, grasping her katars. "Well, we can spend all day sitting around talking about it, or we could just go now and deal with Corpsefire when we reach it."

There was collective agreement among the group, and without much more to say, we all gathered our equipment and headed out to the Blood Moor Bridge. Everyone around me, including Piricus, looked high with expectations as we gazed out onto the landscape beyond. We all knew, the minute we entered the moor, there'd be no turning back.

We all took our first steps out onto The Blood Moor.

"And so it begins," Cloudyous sighed.

I will purge this land of all evil, I thought to myself.

We didn't walk more than ten feet before we heard a strange growling noise. I turned to find myself face to face with a very odd creature. I looked like a mutated porcupine. It was green, with a long, pointed snout. It had long, sharp reptilian claws and lengthy needle-like quills along ridges on its back. It let out a low hiss and then flung some of its quills at me. I Move out of the wayed and then hurled a javelin into its neck. The creature spouted blood from the wound for a number of seconds before falling lifelessly to the ground.

Piricus, whom had been in front of me, turned around and looked on the scene. He smirked.

"Oh goodie. Our amazon has just slain the first demon." He then proceeded to walk over to the corpse. I thought he might be checking to see if it was truly dead, so what he did next surprised me. He passed his hand over the corpse and then raised his hand while muttering a few unintelligible words. A thick, eerie-looking yellow-green mist arced out of his upturned hand downward onto the corpse like a water fall. Seconds later, the corpse exploded from the inside out. Right in the middle of the entrails stood an oddly-arranged skeleton, with a bone axe.

My own surprise slightly shocked me. In the time that I had been traveling with Piricus, I had known he was a necromancer, but I had never seen him use necromancy before, save the one curse he put on me when we first met. I had not fully known what to expect, so I clasped my javelins and kept them close. The creature was so evil-looking in and of itself, that I expected it to attack me. To my surprise, however, it walked straight past me and stood placidly at Piricus' side. Slightly disturbing, was the fact that as awkward as the creature was, it didn't even look remotely out of place standing there beside him.

Alminus looked on.

"Interestin'. Is that the extent o necromancy?" he asked.

Piricus rolled his eyes. "You wish. This is barely scratching the surface."

I shivered involuntarily. The fact that he managed to take a non-human creature and derive a human skeleton from it already showed a tremendous amount of skill. But truth be told, I actually found this demonstration of necromancy to be impressive, as simple as Piricus claimed it was. I mean, how many people could understand death enough to harness a power such as that? But in the same way, it was also frightening. Tampering with death in such a way was bound to have some sort of consequences.

I had always been taught that life and death were equilibrium; that without death, life could not exist, and without life, neither could death. By reanimating the dead, the Priests of Rathma tampered with a delicate balance. They were playing God. And no story of mortals playing god had ever ended well. But then again, after centuries of performing their art, the necromancers must know what they are doing. . . .

Another surprise came when Scorpious said nothing about this. Piricus didn't stop there. I saw Cloudyous frown when Piricus continued his summoning, this time upon the ground itself. Another bizarre creature, this one looking like a mass of walking mud, emerged from it. This time Scorpious frowned.

"Well, while we're here, Cloudyous you might want to summon your animals as well."

Cloudyous nodded and cupped his hands around his mouth. He made a squawking noise not unlike his raven. Soon, we had been joined by five ravens, and Belthem, Cloudyous' wolf familiar.

After this, Scorpious knelt for a prayer, but was rudely, although not unexpectedly, interrupted by Piricus.

"Save it for the chapel, Paladin," he said with a disdainful scowl as he and his necromantic companions walked ahead.

I offered Scorpious an apologetic smile and a hand up. He regained his feet and seconds later we heard Maria let out a loud battle yell. She had just kicked what appeared to be a walking, rotting corpse.

I immediately looked to Piricus, as he looked at the creature with keen interest. I expected it to be of his doing, but he looked just as surprised as the rest of us.

"Zombies . . .," he muttered more to himself than anyone, "the taint has reached farther than they expect if . . ."

I didn't hear the rest. I was distracted by Ryelass, who suddenly did a driving roll under another zombie's punch, and then removed its head from behind in one clean swipe.

When we were sure both of the creatures were dead, we stood over them, examinating them.

"Tell me those aren't what I think they are," Vendra said slowly, quickly averting her gaze from the grotesque creature.

"I'm afraid so," said Maria, standing from where she had bent down to examine the corpse.

"But how? The rogues, they told us, that this area was mos ly jus animals. There aren even any graveyards here," Alminus remarked.

"That just goes to show how much you know," Piricus snorted.

Scorpious shot him a disapproving glare. "It doesn't matter how they got here. The fact is that they are here, and they are something we'll have to deal with. For now, let's just keep moving."

"Wise, paladin. Like we couldn't have come to that conclusion on our own," Piricus retorted.

I sighed. I could tell this was going to be a long painful day.

We continued to wander the area, for Lady Akara wasn't able to give us a precise locale for the Den. We killed more zombies and quill rats (the name which I had discovered was used for the weird porcupine mutants) in that time, and even encountered a few scattered chests and abandoned dwellings in which we were able to salvage a few useable items, including spare gold pieces here and there. Other than this, the only other thing of interest we ran across was a large, totem pole that gave an energy boost when you touched it. Scorpious called it a stamina shrine.

About mid-day we stopped to rest in a small clearing along a sort of rocky wall that had probably been built by the rogues long ago. We had yet to find the Den of Evil, but I did not believe it was for a lack of trying. The Rogue lands were vast and unfamiliar to us. A guide would have really been of use, although with the shaky defense of the encampment and demons on the loose, the rogues probably couldn't have afforded to lend us even one person. I was not discouraged, I had faith we would find it soon. But at the moment, we had more pressing matters to attend to. We were quickly beginning to observe that staying stationary in the rogue lands for too long of a time was a dangerous folly.

A couple of quill rats had wandered into our presence, immediately becoming savage without provocation. It was nothing to be too concerned about, for they were easy to kill, but wait too long and the dying cry of one would most certainly attract others.

Vendra sighed from where she leaned against the stone wall, and twirled her hands around in a circular motion at the wrists. A red glow began to emerge around them, and she suddenly let loose a sizeable inferno of fire from them when the quill rats came close enough. They were immediately scorched to death, and nothing but badly charred bones remained behind when Vendra was finished. She turned around, right into the chest of an on-coming zombie, and let out a loud shriek. I didn't blame her, zombies were grotesque creatures to everybody but Piricus, it seemed.

Sovellis came to her rescue, shooting a bolt of lightning out from his short staff. Even though it was dead, the creature was still affected by the shock. It died in a spark of electricity, falling short of Vendra's feet, causing her to hastily move back. She brushed herself off.

"My hero," Vendra said sarcastically to Sovellis, although I could detect an undertone of true gratitude most would have looked over.

Sovellis merely shrugged.

"I should think you'd be a little more grateful," Maria grumbled.

"Move out of the way, Maria," I warned, as I flung a javelin into a zombie that had been creeping up behind her.

When we were completely free of adversaries, we resumed walking. Scorpious, however lingered beside the corpses for a moment, apparently thinking of something.

"Wait a moment. I have an idea," he announced, "Cloudyous, your wolf, Belthem, can he track a demon's scent?"

Cloudyous considered to himself for a moment.

"I'm sure he can if he's up to it," he answered, stroking Belthem's head, "Let me ask him."

"Oh, so now you can speak to beasts, druid? If this is the case, why the hell haven't you decided not to tell your little mutant friends not to kill us?" Piricus scoffed, as his golem lumbered aimlessly beside him.

Cloudyous sighed.

"If only I could. It's not that easy. . . This land, it has twisted the creatures here. They can no longer speak to me, and I wonder if they can even understand me . . . But that's for another time," he said, and knelt down in front of his wolf.

Cloudyous looked directly into Belthem's eyes, and Belthem locked gazes with him. Both of their eyes started to take on a subtle golden glow, before it faded and their normal eye colors resumed.

"He's wondering what these creatures are . . . He says they smell wrong. He also says that he could definitely smell a large group of them, and will find them if we ask," Cloudyous concluded.

"Remarkable," Ryelass stated in bewilderment, speaking for mostly everyone in the company.

"You've got yourself a real special beast ther," Alminus agreed.

"Can you really speak with him? Is it some type of magic?" Vendra asked in a respectful manner.

Cloudyous nodded.

"More or less we can read each other's mind. Our speech comes mostly from thoughts, feelings, and images. There really are no words. Wolves are very intelligent. He saw what I wanted him to do in my mind, and from his I saw him doing it. You might find this a surprise, but it isn't magic any more than our speech to each other is," he explained.

"Very useful talent. I bet it take long time to learn," Sovellis replied with an amused smile.

"It does," Cloudyous answered, and nodded to Belthem, who took this as some kind of signal.

Belthem put his wet, cold nose to the dirt and began sniffing. He wrinkled his nose and then howled. Everyone covered their ears and above the piercing howl, Piricus yelled,

"Good work druid! Now even Andariel in hell shouldn't have a problem finding us!"

Belthem took off running to the west, with everyone following closely behind. It wasn't long before we found ourselves staring at a large hole inset into an outcrop of rock. There was a grisly-looking banner hanging outside, flapping in the wind. The hole was an entrance, leading into a cave.

"Looks like we've found the Den of Evil," Vendra remarked.

"And what would make it more obvious sorceress? The big banner with the impaled skull or the demon footprints?" Piricus replied, gesturing to a grouping of odd tracks in the moor's mud, leading into the cave.

Scorpious looked around at the group and nodded, letting his gaze linger on Piricus and his undead companions with mistrust before disappearing into the cave.

Maria gave a little grin before following after him. "It's going to be an all or nothing kind of day," she said with a slightly righteous zeal in her eyes.

Vendra and Sovellis shared a quick glance between them and Sovellis placed a hand reassuringly on her shoulder they before walked in together.

I followed in after them. Here we go, I thought to myself. I expected the den to be a cave much like the ones found anywhere. Closed and confined in most places. But what I found upon entering, was that in actuality, the Den was comprised of large, open space. There were walls and stalagmites of course, but they seemed few and far between. How could such open space exist underground? This place was like an unnatural underground palace. Limestone walls held the place up, and solid rock was the carpet. Ice and rock stalactites hung from the rocky ceiling, like menacing chandeliers. All of these features were natural to caves. The strangest feature of this open space, however, were the torches on the walls. Something was obviously living down here. And I could feel that it was something evil.

"We'll split up. We'll cover more ground more quickly that way," Scorpious decided. He seemed to be the unofficial leader of this roughly assembled 'team', so we seemed to follow his plans.

"Chyemme, Piricus, Vendra, Alminus, and Maria go west. Myself, Cloudyous, Sovellis, and Ryelass will go east. We will meet back here when the den is cleansed," he announced.

Piricus seemed put in a better mood by this decision."Finally," he muttered under his breath.

Scorpious either didn't hear him, or pretended not to, and motioned for his team to follow his lead. Our party broke apart, with Vendra and Sovellis sharing a quick glance and nod between them. It may not have been obvious to them how much they cared about each other, but it was plain as day to the rest of us.

Once we split up, Maria took the head of our group and we began moving westward throughout the tunnels. Piricus actually grinned for a second when I looked back at him.

"If there was a God, I'd probably praise him right now. I thought we'd never get rid of that pompous sword-slinger. Just maybe, with any luck, he'll find Corpsefire and die the horrible death that all paladins deserve."

I saw Maria twitch up ahead, but she seemed not to want to get drawn into a fight. I believe everybody else just chose to ignore his comment, although not without some gesture of disapproval. Alminus frowned, Vendra scowled, and I just shook my head. I didn't yet fully understand why necromancers and paladins, or maybe just Piricus, hated each other so. It was a discussion I knew I would undoubtedly have with Piricus sometime in the future, but I wanted to better understand before I did. So I let his remark slide for the present. After several moments of tense silence, Vendra found a way to break it. She changed the topic back to one of pertinence.

"I personally don't want to face him," she began, with a reference to Corpsefire, "zombies are nasty enough already, but one with extra powers? But then again, I really hope the others don't run into him either."

"Are you afraid of zombies, Vendra? You should probably get used to seeing them. Rumors have it they are appearing all over the sanctuary in some form or other. I could tell you some of the horror stories I've seen involving them. They aren't pretty. Most involve necromancers," Maria said with a sudden ice in her voice that was directed at Piricus.

Vendra didn't respond. From what I gather, the fact that Maria was a supposed "mage hunter" made Vendra very stiff and hesitant around her.

Piricus, however, answered readily."Sounds to me like you're the one who's scared, Assassin. Although I'd have to say, you're probably not nearly frightened enough. If you'd encountered a true necromancer, I seriously doubt you'd be standing here today."

"You over-estimate your Order. And you all forget your place. But I don't have to justify myself to you, and I won't bother. God knows what the lot of you are like anyway . . . Of all the mage orders, yours is the darkest. Assassins have been forced to put and end to more corrupt necromancers in the course of our history than all the other orders combined. I think that says all that needs to be said right there," she said bitterly, apparently deep in some type of remembrance.

I saw Piricus' eyes flash dangerously in the dark, and thought for a brief moment he might attack Maria. Oddly enough, the dangerous glare turned into something I swear was a flicker of knowing. It wasn't just Piricus the tension was building with either. At the mention of 'ending' mages, Vendra had tensed up considerably. This conversation wasn't going to end well if it kept going. Alminus must have taken note of it as well, for he took this opportunity to end it.

"I say we jus try to work together and do our share o cleansing this cave. Vent whatever anger you got on the demons. We'll be done faster," he remarked in his thick dialect.

Maria nodded, apparently calming herself. "You're right, Alminus. I forget myself."

"Hey, what's that sound?" Vendra asked suddenly.

"You're righ I hear it too," he exclaimed, with his ears perked, straining to find the source of the sound.

I closed my eyes and focused. I felt my inner sight go to work in finding the source of the strange noise. A picture of something that resembled a red version of a Carver demon filled my head. The noise came through clearly. Rakanishu. It was some sort of demon word, and these creatures were yelling it like a battle cry. Clearly they had sensed our intrusion into the cave.

I opened my eyes and found a familiar sight. My inner sight had left a trail of sparkling stars leading around the corner.

"What are those stars?" Vendra inquired in a state of semi-concern, "Where did they come from? They just suddenly appeared."

"They don't feel evil," Alminus remarked in addition, reaching out with a finger to prod the star closest to him.

"They are a sign of Amazon Inner Sight. A pathway of energy, really. The creature is a Fallen. We can follow the 'stars' to find it," I answered.

"Well, they certainly are a shine, aren they," Alminus remarked as he covered his eyes. The star he had poked erupted into a bright light upon his touch. In this dark atmosphere, all of them where pretty bright for that matter.

Piricus took the lead, and followed the star trail around the corner, without so much as another word, evoking a scowl from Vendra. We all walked around the corner to find a small group of fallen. However there was one in particular that stood out above the rest. It was two feet taller than the rest, wore a straw loincloth, and wore skulls over its shoulders as armor. Its horns were longer and more pronounced than the others, and it carried a long wooden staff. They picked up on our presence instantly, even in the near-darkness, and one immediately charged Piricus' skeleton with a loud screech.

"Kill it," Piricus ordered apathetically.

The little demon closed in from its charge and slashed the skeleton's thigh bone with a miniature scimitar. It didn't even leave a scratch. The skeleton didn't take to this too well and brought it's bone axe down on top of the creature's skull, cleaving it in half while the golem crushed another underneath its foot.

About that time, Alminus let out a piercing war cry that shattered our eardrums and those of the fallen. He charged forward and slashed a Fallen's arm off, then slashed its head off. He let out another thundering cry and threw his hands up in triumph.

His victory was short-lived. The large fallen raised his hand, with an upturned palm, not unlike what Piricus would have done. An evil yellow glow appeared around the three Fallens' corpses. The Fallen that Alminus had just decapitated had its head re-attached to its body along with its arm. The one the golem had crushed stood up again, completely whole, and the one the skeleton had split in half pulled itself together.

"What in hell!?" Vendra squeaked in surprise.

"The large one resurrected the others," Maria growled and readied her katars.

"It's a shaman. Golem, take care of it," Piricus commanded briskly.

As if it had been waiting to be introduced, the shaman shot a fireball out of its staff, which hit Piricus' golem head on and caused it to superheat then explode. Piricus had an absolutely sour expression on his face, as he drew his dagger and prepared for battle.

The Fallen Shaman looked around at us, before zeroing in on Vendra. It yelled something that sounded like 'Booga', before charging after her. The rest of the fallen swarmed around us. Each of us responded in our own way. Alminus was jumping over nearby rock, trying not to become cornered. Maria had jumped up and grabbed a low-hanging stalagmite, swinging to kick her attackers with her feet. Over in another corner, Piricus was beating them off with his wand in one hand, his dagger in the other.

Two rushed me, hacking air zealously. I flung a javelin straight through one's chest and yielded aside while the other ran straight past me and almost collided with Vendra who was trying to run from the shaman while dodging fireballs.

"I didn't ask for this!" she yelled miserably.

Piricus had gained some sort of red aura when I next looked at him, and so had the fallen around him. It was strange, whenever he hit one of the fallen they seemed to take twice the damage. Maria had just finished off one of her attackers with a powerful kick and dropped gracefully to one knee, thrusting her katars into the abdomen of another. Alminus had wasted no time in slicing another fallen in half before finishing off two more with smooth strokes of his axe. The Fallen that had run past me circled round and swung it's scimitar at me. I stepped back swiftly, causing it to miss. Then, using my short spear, I stabbed it through the neck. Fortunately, none of them were resurrected this time, due to the fact that the Shaman was still chasing Vendra, who was now trying to parry blows from a small knife it had donned.

"A good warm-up if I do say so myself," Alminus said with gusto as he made his way over to me.

Maria, whom had finished dispatching the fallen around her, immediately turned to help Vendra. She placed two of her fingers from both hands on either side of her temples, and then focuses her eyes on the Shaman. She thrust her head slightly forward in a controlled motion, like a cobra, and the next thing we knew, the fallen shaman had been rammed sideways into a cave wall by some unseen force.

No longer being chased, Vendra turned around, panting heavily.

"Die you little . . ."

The rest of her statement was followed up by a string of rather vulgar words, before, now at a safe casting distance, she unleashed a bolt of pure lightening from her hand. The spell hit the shaman full force and electrocuted it on the spot. With sparks still flying, it fell to the ground dead, never to raise another fallen. When it died, it dropped a flask of some type of gooey, red liquid.

"What is that?" I asked as Vendra picked it up.

"A healing potion. A minor one, but it might still come in handy," Vendra answered, regaining herself and putting the potion in one of her robe pockets. RAKEVER. We all turned around to see Piricus' skeleton slash the one remaining fallen so hard that it spiraled in the air before landing on the ground, dead. That particular fallen had dropped a flask of thin, blue liquid.

"A valuable thing too," said Piricus, as he also picked up and pocketed the vial.

"Mana potion," Vendra said to me simply.

"Tha was an adventure. Let's go on," Alminus remarked to no one in particular and walked ahead down the winding cave path. The rest of us followed suit. The next passage lead to an even larger room filled with more fallen and three shamans. I saw Piricus roll his eyes as he surveyed the scene.

"And how the rogues didn't perceive an army of this size sneaking up on them . . ." he muttered in annoyance.

"Take out the shamans first this time," Maria instructed before she darted towards the first shaman.

"I got the one in the corner!" Alminus called with the same battle zeal as before.

As they rushed off, I took notice of the twenty or so Fallen that were encircling me, Piricus, and Vendra.

"Go on amazon, we'll hold them," Piricus commanded harshly, but assuredly.

I was the closest to the third shaman, so I didn't question his logic. I ran towards the third shaman, roughly brushing some of the closer fallen away. The creature's evil, red eyes locked on me. It waved its staff around in the air and sent a huge fireball casting towards me. I quickly dodged aside and then resumed my path towards it. When I had gotten nearly four feet away, it drew a crude, rusty knife and swiped at me. I Move out of the wayed in the nick of time as the blade sliced the air where my neck had been only seconds before. Luckily for me, in it's attack the creature had leaned in closer to me, leaving it open to my counterattack. It was completely off balance. I quickly kneed the shaman in the abdomen, causing it to ooze blue spit from its mouth, before shoving it back and spearing it through the heart.

Over in another part of the room, Maria had her target shaman backed into a corner. She swung her arms in wide, circular motions, and one by one, she gained white orbs around her body. She paused when the orbs reached their peak in brightness, and somehow channeled them into her katars. Her weapons took on a creamy white glow, before she jabbed them into the shaman's body, causing an explosion of white light.

Similarly, Alminus finished up effectively dealing with his assigned shaman. He decapitated the creature with a mighty roar.

"This is the life!" he yelled with mirth.

Vendra, Piricus and his skeleton had ten fallen still rushing them over the corpses of their comrades. Piricus looked be considering summoning another golem, but Vendra quickly put her arm out in front of his chest to stop him. She pulled back her sleeves and walked towards the rushing demons, turning her hands over.

"What are you doing?" Maria cried out to her in alarm, as Vendra was encircled by the fallen, whom all raised their scimitars to strike.

Vendra didn't seem too concerned, as she shouted a spell in some strange tongue. An icy blue ring erupted outwards from her around her middle, becoming larger in diameter the farther it traveled. Some of the fallen might have detected her magic, and tried to run away, but it was to no avail. They froze into crystalline statues momentarily before shattering whenever a part ring touched them. Five small healing potions had been randomly dropped by the fallen killed by Vendra's spell. Maria muttered something about it being called a Frost Nova.

"Can we each have one?" Alminus asked, eyeing the healing potions.

"Fine by me. I just hope we won't need them," Vendra answered, picking up one of the potions.

I picked up the vial closest to me, and while bent down, I heard what sounded like the buzzing of flies close by. Strange, seeing as we were underground.

"I'll be right back," I said to everyone in general, before cautiously walking that direction. In the dim firelight I could make out a mass of what were definitely flies, swarming over some large mass on the cave floor. The insects scattered as I drew closer.

"Oh my God," I gasped in alarm without meaning to. It was more out of surprise than anything.

The mass on the floor was a dead rogue. The sight before me was grim and probably one of the worst I had seen in a long time. Her body was decaying, bones were showing through gross clumps of tissue covered in blood. In fact, most of what was left of her and her armor looked like it had been drenched in blood. There were little slash marks in her bones, little chips missing. It was undeniable that she had met a grisly end.

The others must have heard my shocked exclamation. Maria and Alminus quickly hurried over, while Piricus walked over calmly, and Vendra remained where she stood. Alminus was the first to reach my side.

"What is it Chyemme? Are you alrigh?" he asked.

I didn't have to say anything. He looked down and saw the scene for himself.

"Whoa nelly! It looks li she wasn't havin such a good day," he said gruffly, but not without an undertone of respect in his voice.

"A dead rogue . . . this one was most likely one of the warriors Kaysha sent down here before us. Be on your guard, we don't know what it was that killed her," Maria said with a note of concern.

"Is this is what all the fuss is over? A dead rogue? There's probably a lot more of them down here, seeing as that Rogue Commander doesn't have the common sense of a zombie army combined," Piricus said, clearly unimpressed.

"Yeah, well some of us aren't as fond of death as you are, and leave her body be, do you understand me? She deserves to rest in peace!" Maria growled, glaring directly up at Piricus as if she expected him to act.

He just scoffed. " I don't take orders. Especially from you. I'll do as I damn well please. But consider this, she got herself killed down here. She was weak. And you know what happens to the weak," he said darkly, evoking a pained and angry glance from Maria. " But, not to worry, assassin, her corpse is of little use to me in her current state. So I can't do much anyway," he added, accenting the word assassin very strongly.

I had no idea what Piricus was driving at, but evidently Maria understood it perfectly well.

"It's not like that," she said powerfully.

Isn't it though?" Piricus replied sarcastically. For a moment they shared some sort of dark glance between them, and I thought another argument was coming up.

Luckily, Vendra intervened by calling, "What is it? What's wrong?"

"It's a dead rogue. We're coming back over now, let's keep moving," Maria called back, and went to join her, although not without a scowl at Piricus.

Vendra looked a little green when her face was visible again, and she looked grateful to be moving on. I could understand why. Seeing a good person fall to the darkness was troubling in my opinion, and in the case of the Rogues, tragic. I kept my eyes downcast as I thought to myself. I had unknowingly taken the lead of the group.

If not for my inner sight, I would have been dead. Something that resembled a huge, furry fist swung at me. I had just enough time to realize the creature was there and turn aside, but not enough time to react fully. I had walked straight into whatever it was.

I suddenly felt a tremendous, fiery pain in my side, and I heard a loud cracking sound. From what it felt like, several of my ribs had just been broken with one blow. I soared backwards and my back hit a wall near Vendra. I felt warmth rushing out of my body through my side, and as the world started to go black, I was sinking into a pool of my own blood. I heard Maria scream something illegible, and Alminus yell from somewhere far away. I vaguely felt something lift my head, and something bitter was poured down my throat.

I instantly began to feel warmer, as my ribs reset themselves, and blood was somehow restored to my body. Slowly, the hazy world came back into focus. Vendra's concerned face peered down at me.

"Are you alright? Can you hear me?" she asked, as I pulled away from her and sat up. From there, I shakily found my feet.

"I hear you. Yes, I think I'm alright. What happened?" I asked uncertainly, as she steadied me.

"A Gargantuan beast just came out of nowhere. I mean, nobody saw it until it hit you. It looked like it got you pretty good. You were bleeding pretty badly, and you were blacking out. I gave you a few healing potions," Vendra relayed.

"What about the creature?" I asked suddenly, "Where is it?"

"Alminus hacked it to bits," Vendra answered, and gestured towards the barbarian as he picked up several things off the ground.

When he finished he walked over to me.

"That beast dropped all of this armor. You want it? You're's is stained pretty bad," he offered kindly.

I looked down to my armor. It was true, it was stained, but it was nothing that I couldn't wash out.

"You keep it Alminus, you deserve it," I said with a grateful smile. On this note, I turned to Vendra. "Thank you Vendra, I owe you my life," I said, putting my hand on her shoulder.

She squirmed a bit and pulled back from this awkward moment."You're welcome, just don't make it a habit."

"Are you feelin' up to continuin?" Alminus asked in concern.

"She should be. As amazon she ought to be tougher than that," Piricus remarked.

I frowned as he lead the way ahead. He was right. I should have been paying better attention. I would never let it happen again. Vendra noticed my frown and smiled slightly.

"I'd have liked to see him take that punch. To bad he wasn't in front," she said regretfully, trying to ease my mood.

We entered the next hallway and found a cluster of zombies. I heard Vendra groan.

"Move out of the way," I told her, and threw a javelin overhead that impaled a zombie.

Piricus had grabbed his wand and muttered a spell that sent three twisting, blue bolts of unearthly magic eating through the remaining two zombies. I heard a small ching, before Piricus walked over to where the zombies had fallen and picked up two severely chipped emeralds.

Continuing on in what felt like an endless cave, we encountered a huge horde of demons in the next room. In a quick glance, I counted fifteen fallen, five shamans, three gargantuan beasts, and five zombies. In the dim firelight, I could also make out the bodies of several more rogues on the floor. This must have been where a major fight took place; one the rogues lost.

Maria had made the same observation and frowned deeply. "I'll take care of the shamans," she announced and ran ahead, flipping over a group of fallen on her way.

"Ill kill the fallen," Vendra volunteered.

"I'll deal with tha zombies," Alminus affirmed.

That left me and Piricus to take care of the gargantuan beasts, which we now charging us. He looked to me, as I hurled a javelin into the breast of the first. It gave an elephant-like bray, pulled the javelin out, and tossed it aside. I aimed a little higher as it quickly encroached on my personal space, and this time I hit it in the head. This time the demon died.

As the two others advanced, Piricus commanded his skeleton to attack. It boldly, or perhaps recklessly, ran up to the two demons and began slashing wildly at both. It managed to shave off a great deal of fur before a powerful punch from one of them shattered it back into the separate bones it originally was. I cringed, remembering how that felt. Piricus, on the other hand, cursed.

"Damn it!" he swore loudly.

I reached for a javelin from my stack, and found there were none. I had used them all.

"Oh damn is right! I'm out of javelins," I said in frustration and quickly grabbed my other weapon, my short spear.

Piricus grabbed his dagger. "Well, amazon, it looks like we're reduced to melee combat."

"Can't you summon any more skeletons, or something?" I asked quickly.

"And waste more mana? You saw what just happened to my last one. These creatures are superior in strength."

"You have that mana potion," I reminded him.

"True, but I'm saving that for a real need," he answered simply.

The demons were dangerously close to us now. I would have called being forced to fight them in hand to hand was a real need. But then again, I had faced worse before.

"In that case, I guess we just have to live that long," I answered him. I did a one-handed cartwheel to the side of the creature charging me, then, using my spear, I vaulted behind it. From behind, I rapidly employed a skill I had learned at home. It was called jab. I rapidly plunged my spear in and out of the creature's body in several different places, and it fell dead in twice the time.

I looked left to see Piricus finish his attacker by slashing its exposed throat and then stabbing it through the heart. Meanwhile, Vendra had cast four frost novas, completely obliterating the small army of fallen. Maria was still battling with a remaining shaman, but she finished it off with some kind of spinning slash. Alminus, as I expected, had proved too much for the zombies by a long shot, and he was already making his way towards us in the center of the cavern. When we had all gathered, it was clear that we were tired. To be of any further use to anyone, we needed to rest for the moment. This seemed to be a general agreement among the group, and each of us took a moment to regain our energy.

I leaned up against a nearby wall, looking into the ominous darkness ahead. It was then, my innersight acted again. This time I heard someone yelling and what sounded like zombies grunting. The picture of a large, teal zombie, two times larger than the rest, revealed itself to my mind's eye.

"Look. More of them star-things. What is it Chyemme?" I heard Alminus ask me. His voice seemed to snap me out of my trance-like state.

"I don't know for sure, but I think I'm picking up on something. I think it might CorpseFire," I said plainly.

"Oh joy," said Vendra, breaking the silence that had ensued.

Piricus just shrugged and starting walking forward, in the direction of my inner sight.

"Well, we came to fight not sit. Let's go already or the damn thing will probably come to us. At least we'll have the element of surprise," he said emotionlessly.

Sure enough, as we rounded the next curve, we were face to face with a large, teal-colored zombie, wandering aimlessly about.

"Is that CorpseFire?" Alminus asked, clearly unafraid.

Even I had to admit, the thing did look slightly docile with the sluggish, heavy way it moved.

Piricus raised an eyebrow.

"Is that it? It doesn't look tough at all," he scoffed.

He had spoken too soon. Before we could really register what happened, the creature had cast and flung an ice spire with amazing speed. Piricus, who hadn't been expecting it at all, was hit straight in his shoulder. I expected him to give some sign of pain, seeing as the spire had embedded itself deeply in his shoulder. But he didn't. The only sign he gave of being hit was dropping to one knee from the force of the blow. I was at his side before I realized it.

"Piricus, are you--"

He reached over and grabbed he ice spire, pulling it from his shoulder with a short intake breath.

"I'm fine. That's more like it. I was about to say that is the most pathetic zombie I've ever seen," he said with a laugh, although there was a slight gasping for breath in his speech. He stood up gracefully, although blood continued to drip off his shoulder. He would show no weakness, even now. I thought it was especially since he was in Maria's presence.

At that exact moment, Maria leapt nimbly in front of me and deflected an oncoming ice bolt with her right katar. The weapon immediately became covered in frost, and cracked.

"Blast him Vendra!" Maria yelled.

Vendra whirled her hand around, creating a red aura, then blasted a jet of flame towards CorpseFire from her fingertips. The zombie gave an odd sort of grunt before the magic bounced off of it.

"It's fire resistant!" Vendra hissed in surprise.

"Well that much is obvious," Piricus growled, and I noticed him reach ever so slightly towards his heavily bleeding shoulder. At this time, the zombie had broken a large stalagmite clean off the floor and hurled it at us, sending our party dodging in all directions. I was closest, and shouted out a loud war-cry as I performed three front handsprings toward the creature and jabbed my short spear deeply into it's body when I was close enough.

"Whatr we waitn for?" Alminus roared from behind me and I heard the sound of him charging forward. Corpsefire seemed unfazed by my attack, and incredibly, it cast another ice spell while I was still on the offensive. This spell wasn't aimed for me, but for Alminus, who shattered the ice spire into shards with a swing of his axe. Some of the shards sliced across his arm, but he seemed unfazed.

Maria took this opportunity to jump at Corpsefire, with her arm poised to slash. With the other arm it was not using against me, it swung at her. She twisted her body mid-air to adjust just in time. The zombie's ice-enchanted fist smashed into one of her katars and broke it in half. She managed to refold her attack and land gracefully on the cavern floor.

"Damn it! No way Charsi can fix this," she cursed and tossed it aside.

Vendra, whom had also attacked, didn't have much luck either. She struck out at the creature with her staff, which began to freeze upon impact. Like Maria's katar had, the staff cracked as well.

It was at this time, I felt a cold sensation wash over my own hand, before I realized that my weapon was freezing too. I hastily pulled it away, but to my dismay, my jab attacks had only done half the damage I had wished for. I fell back with the others, all of us readying our weapons for another strike. A thought occurred to me as I looked around at the others. It was so simple, I didn't know why I hadn't seen it before. Perhaps it had been the adrenaline of battle. . . . I noticed that when we attacked, although it had been in succession, it had been individually. If we attacked all together, we might have better luck.

"We need to attack together," I said suddenly, making the others turn to me. "On different sides. Maria, Alminus and myself will take different sides, and Vendra, you and Piricus can stand back and cast on the remaining side. There is no way that it will be able to deflect all our attacks."

Maria looked at me, then looked around. There seemed to be no objections. "Sounds good," she affirmed, and then the three of us ran at Corpsefire, diverging to different sides at the last minute.

I Move out of the wayed under an icy punch and plunged my spear deep into the creature's left side. Maria had darted to the right, and impaled the creature under the ribs with her remaining katar, while Alminus embedded his axe into it's backside. Vendra's hand sparkled with electricity before she shot a bolt of lightning, and Piricus released what looked like white-blue barbs of energy from his own hands.

The force of our combined powers were enough to drop the creature almost effortlessly, and within moments it lie dead at our feet. A bright ray of sunshine broke through a crack in the cave ceiling and shone down upon us. A feeling of warmth washed over me, and the feeling of darkness was no longer immediately present.

"The den is cleansed," breathed Maria.

"Yes. Perhaps now the sisters will trust us," I added softly. We all turned our attention to the body of the fallen monster. Corpsefire had dropped some unusual objects from its body. Among them, a black plate of quilted armor trimmed in silver and gold, a yellowish-tainted hat, a long staff with sockets, a small purple chipped gem, and a very strange amulet that looked like a dream catcher within the mouth of some type of animal. We divided the loot amongst ourselves; I received the small gem. After doing this, we retraced our steps back to the cave entrance.

The others were waiting for us there. They all looked relatively unharmed, save some scratches and bruises. Ryelass had a black eye, which was saying something if I could see it in the dim light, Scorpious had a bloody scratch on the side of his neck and Cloudyous had a slight limp. Sovellis looked fine from what I could tell. As they approached us, Scorpious looked us over, assessing our conditions as well. He eyed Piricus's shoulder, probably determining it to be the most serious of our injuries.

"What happened?" he asked pointedly, although there was actually an undertone of genuine concern in his voice.

Piricus just scowled at him. "Corpsefire," he said simply, which was more than I thought he was going to say.

Scorpious didn't mock him, and not surprisingly, offered to help him as well. "I can try to heal your shoulder if you'd like."

As expected, Piricus practically spat at the offer, even though I could tell that he was in some manner of discomfort.

"I don't need your help, Paladin," he growled and walked up the stairway, clutching his dripping shoulder.

Scorpious just shook his head. "So be it. I can't force him to take my assistance, no matter how much he may need it. I only hope he'll let Lady Akara take a look at that wound, for his own good."

Vendra upturned her nose at Piricus' retreating outline and then walked over to Sovellis. She gingerly brushed her fingertips across his cheek and smirked.

"What happened to you?"

Sovellis smiled apologetically. "Bush demon. Is very good thing I have hard skull," he joked.

Vendra laughed. "That's for sure."

After a brief report on our happenings from Maria, Scorpious lead us up the staircase into the Blood Moor. In the fading daylight, Sovellis' wounded cheek became more noticeable. It was severely bruised and looked like he must have taken a right hook from an enraged grizzly bear.

I saw Scorpious pull a small scroll tied with a blue ribbon from his belt, before calling out to Piricus, who had gotten a sufficient head start on us.

"Piricus, wait!" He opened the scroll and then tossed it onto the ground, saying some strange phrase in a language I've never heard. A large, shimmering blue portal suddenly appeared before us. "Just step through to return to the encampment," Scorpious informed. As an example, he stepped through first one foot after another and disappeared entirely into it.

I reached out curiously to touch it. Although it did not look it, the portal felt surprisingly solid and cold to the touch. Almost like an actual door. I could see a reflection of the rogue encampment on the other side as I looked in. It was a strange thing, I had never seen anything like this before on the Amazon isles. However, if Scorpious had done it and come to no harm, neither would I. I trusted him, and besides, in the months since I had left my home, I had encountered far to many strange magics for this to be really something that unusual.

I felt a cold sensation as I stepped through. It was an odd realization to me that I was actually walking through space and time. Almost in the blink of an eye, I found myself safe within the walls of the Rogue camp. Once everyone was through, Scorpious said another phrase and dismissed the portal.

Rewards

Chyemme

Akara and Kashya were the first to greet us upon our return. "It is good to see you, my young warriors. Is all well?" she asked with a voice full of expectation.

"Worry no more, honorable Lady Akara. The den is cleansed this day," Scorpious announced, as he respectfully bowed to her. The old Rogue's face brightened with a large smile.

"Wonderful! You have done very well, all of you. Thank you for what you have done, it is greatly appreciated. Kashya, if you please," she said simply.

Kashya silently and emotionlessly removed a small leather pouch from her belt and wordlessly handed it to Akara. From the bag, Lady Akara pulled nine rings, each with a different gemstone set into the center of the band. Among the gems were a sapphire, an emerald, a diamond, a yellow topaz, an amethyst, an orange opal, an onyx, and a pink agate; all of them were framed in platinum. I noticed however, that she left one in the bag.

"Each ring has a special enchantment upon it, as well as their own unique properties that are attributed to the stones. I couldn't remember them all off the top of my head, so I wrote a list. Take a look and choose one," Akara instructed. "In addition, you may all receive training from me in the skill of your choice. Don't worry. I am old and thus have seen many disciplines that may be of use to you, though you are not rogues. It is my way of showing my gratitude and that of my sisters as well." Akara then handed the list to me, being as I was the closest to her. It read:

Ruby- fire enchanted

Sapphire- ice enchanted

Emerald-Poison enchanted

Topaz- lightning enchanted

Diamond- blessed

Amethyst- enhances strength

Opal- enhances vitality

Agate- enhances speed

Onyx- enhances mana

I looked among the list and glanced over the beautiful gemstone rings in the bag. No doubt these were some of the last remnants of the once abundant wealth of the Order of the Sightless Eye. As such, we must have done Lady Akara an enormous favor for her to be giving them to us. My final choice was to take the sapphire ring. I took the ring and handed the bag to Piricus, who took the emerald without delay. Maria took the agate, Vendra grabbed the ruby ring, and Scorpious chose the diamond. Sovellis took the topaz, Cloudyous took the onyx, Alminus wanted the Amethyst, and Ryelass claimed the opal.

I placed the sapphire-platinum ring on my finger. I felt a cold tingle flow through my body momentarily before it abated. My attacks would now have the power of ice. I was sincerely pleased, and couldn't wait to seek out Akara for training. I had heard many things from my people about the skills of the Rogues. Looking around, my comrades seemed to share my disposition.

Alminus stepped forwards toward Akara.

"I've already decided what I'd like you ter show me. I'd like fur you ter teach me ­

better axe mastery, if you know how."

Akara nodded to him.

"Very well. If you'll wait just a moment Lord Alminus, I'll attend to your request. Is there anything else that I or one of my sisters can be of service with before I take my leave?" she answered, looking around at us.

Maria nodded.

"Yes, three scrolls of identify if you have them," she replied, handing the old woman a handful of gold coins. In return, Akara handed her three scrolls tied with red ribbon. Maria then walked over to Alminus, handing him one and kept one for herself. The last one she grudgingly tossed at Piricus, who raised his eyebrow at her.

"Don't get smart with me," she said to him in warning, " I'm not trying to do you any favors. I'm only giving these to you because we might need to use these items we received today in the near future and to do that, we need to know what they are. Provisions of all kinds, especially of the magically variety, are in short supply here, so we don't know when we'll come across them again. Best to buy them when you can. Read them, then place your item on top of them. When you pick them up, they'll reveal what that item is," she explained. "Revlena scrollus," she muttered and placed the strange necklace we had acquired earlier upon the scroll.

There was a clicking noise, then she removed the necklace. I briefly saw the paper, and it read:

Rainbow Amulet

Increases all elemental resistances

The necklace suddenly gave off a rainbow-colored glow, although the piece itself remained pure gold as Maria placed it around her neck.

Alminus followed her example, and used his scroll on the skull cap Corpsefire had dropped. His scroll read:

Tangerine Skull Cap

Increases lightning resistance

Durability: High

Lastly, Piricus used the scroll on the armor that was his bounty from the morning. He read aloud:

Quilted Armor of the Wolf

Durability: High

Increases Vitality

He sighed in appresiation.

"Finally, an armor upgrade in this forsaken place," he said somewhat sarcastically and somewhat truthfully. I wished he hadn't said that in front of Lady Akara, that comment caused a look of despair to cross her face momentarily. Though we had lessened the load for them today, the Rogue sisterhood was by no means on the way to recovery.

I saw Akara's ears suddenly twitch. I understood in an instant, I heard it too. It was the sound of footsteps, human footsteps. They were frequent and hard. That meant whoever was taking them was running, and running fast. My inner sight peaked and revealed two rogues, one badly injured, and one darting around desperately firing shots ­ trying to protect them both from a horrid-looking band of monsters.

I was running to the gate before I realized it. In the dim starlight, I could vaguely make out the figures as they approached. The demons following them were in very close proximity, it would be almost impossible to target one of them specifically without hitting the rogues. I was glad to see that none of the rogue guards were firing. In the confusion and the darkness, they could have shot their sisters. Kashya was right behind me, and she wasted no time in taking action when she saw how close the demons and her warriors were getting to the camp.

"SHOOT!" she yelled at the sentinels at the gate. They turned to her in confusion, and I could see their faces. Both were very young and obviously just recruit level. They were also scared. Though they were rogues, they hadn't had time to master archery yet.

"But m'am, we might . . ."

"We have no choice, we can't risk those monsters getting close enough to enter the camp! Fire!" She repeated with fury building.

"No, wait!" I yelled and snatched a bow from the hands of one of the stunned sentries. I raised the weapon up to eye level and pulled back the draw string, the position of it all being like second nature to me. The young rogues may not have been skilled enough to have hit the creatures in such conditions, but I was. I could see the red gleam in the eyes of one of the demons as I released the string and arrow. The lethal projectile flew through the darkness silently and landed into my target with perfect precision. Mindlessly and effortlessly, I reached across the rogue and pulled another arrow from her quiver. I prepared to fire again, this time I concentrated on the warm feeling of fire in my mind. I could feel my body heat flow out softly through my hand and then onto my arrow. As I fired it, the arrow burst into flame and flew forward, leaving a trail of smoke in its wake. It hit and instantly killed a demon that had been reaching out to grab one of the rogues. By this time, Sovellis had appeared behind me.

He glanced over the scene and his large chocolate eyes widened in surprise.

"Not good. Very bad!" he said simply in utter seriousness. He pulled back his sleeves and dispatched a strange yellow ring from his hands that immediately encircled the remaining horde. He simply snapped his fingers and a charge of electricity rippled out within the ring, shocking the demons to death, but leaving the rogues completely unharmed.

"What type of magic is that?" I asked in surprise.

"Lightning magic. It is called static field. Shocking, yes?" he joked, trying to make light of the situation and ease the tension.

I took the opportunity and laughed. The joke was funny to me and it greatly helped relieve the immediate tension. By now, a large gathering of people within the encampment had heard the commotion and left their posts to come see what was happening. Several rogues were now running out into the field to help their sisters. Kashya growled as she turned to me.

"Just where do you come off commanding my warriors, outlander?"

I was not afraid of her, and matched her glare. "Since I think your orders could have gotten them killed. I mean no disrespect, but your sentries are young and inexperienced, and would have fired out of fear. They could and most likely would have missed the demons and possibly killed your allies. I have experience as an archer, it was better that I should do it," I reasoned. This logic only made Kashya angrier. See probably ­

felt that I was a threat to her command or to her sisters at the same time.

"The arrogance! How dare you outlander! The Sisters of the Sightless Eye are renown archers! All of us, even those new to the practice! This is our land and these are our enemies! We know them and their ways better than any Amazon upstart! We don't need you to fight for us!" she hissed vehemently.

"Don't talk that way to Lady Chyemme. She only trying to help," Sovellis interjected from beside me on my behalf. "I am outlander too. And I think you use all help you get. The demons are many and you are few. You are like a fish trying to swim up waterfall. No matter how hard you push, you always fall down and water still comes down as always. What good come of this for fish?" he reasoned.

Like before, Kashya took this advice as an insult, and I'm sure she would have continued arguing against us, but the two rogues from the field had reached our side escorted by a group of their sisters.

Kashya stormed past us, over to the healthy one. "Eryn, what the hell happened?"

" Lyshira just came running out of nowhere, with the corrupted ones chasing her. She was already badly injured when she reached me. She kept saying something about the others. I don't know what she meant, but she was the only one there," the blonde-haired rogue called Eryn answered, apparently still in shock over what had just happened.

"Corrupted ones? Those are corrupted rogues? Those beasts? No, surely not," Sovellis exclaimed in shock as he looked back out onto the field where the bodies lie.

"Unfortunately yes. She what Andariel's evil has done to us?" Eryn said, choking back tears.

"It's horrible," I said quietly. Inwardly I was appalled. What kind of evil could do that to a person? Turn them against those they once loved and called friends?

"And if you're not careful, you may fall victim to it as well, seeing as how you seem to be so rogue-like," Kashya growled.

"Thanks for the warning," I said somewhat coldly in reply, and walked away, not wishing anymore strife for the moment. My mind was already troubled enough, especially with the newly acquired knowledge that those demons I just killed had once been rogues. Their look was still fresh in my mind. Their skin, from what I had seen, was a putrid bluish-grey and their bodies had unnatural spikes growing out of elbows, knees and limbs. They wore a strange metallic material that looked somewhat like moss as armor. It barely covered their deformed bodies. They had almost no human features about their faces anymore either, save for the original shape. Their eyes were red and slanted, their noses had become jagged, and their teeth were now elongated and razor sharp.

They all had straight, sharp horns and all of them also had black hair. Any individuality they may have once possessed seemed to be gone. I guessed that only those that knew them well before they turned would be able to tell them apart, and even then there would be difficulty.

I hastily tried to put this image out of my mind, I would probably dwell on it again sometime in the future anyway. I then made my way to the central fire pit, which was unusually alive with activity. News of our victory seemed to have spread through the camp like wildfire, and everywhere the rogues were speaking of it. All this excitement was due to the fact that this was the first true victory they had had in a long time. Many of them waved to me or acknowledged me in some other form as I walked by, taking a seat around the fire itself. A large bull was roasting over it, I assumed it was our evening ­

meal. The fire was warm, and the smell was comforting, so I decided to say for a while, relax a little, and listen to the stories of the rogues as they talked.

It was not long before I noticed that the others were here as well. We all looked at least partially happy, even Piricus, whom as usual, was off in a shadowy corner by himself, observing the happenings. It seems that Akara had healed his shoulder and it was now wrapped in bandaging cloth. Among the sea of faces, I saw Scorpious across the fire from me sitting on a log that overlooked the entire fireplace area. I saw him raise a wine glass up in one hand and then I noticed that everyone in the circle had a glass of ale situated at their feet. In my preoccupation I had overlooked it. As was custom, I followed suit. I reached down and picked mine up to join in the toast.

"TO VICTORY!" I heard one of the rogues, evidentially one in charge, yell over the noise. Everyone, save Piricus raised their glasses in salute, before the celebration continued. He merely shook his head and averted his eyes, and when moments later Alminus had begun to sing some foreign drinking song entitled "My Lady Rose", he sighed heavily in annoyance and took his leave.

Minutes later, Alminus was on his tenth ale and was still going. I looked on in interest. Evidentially Alminus was used to a party. On Skovas we threw feasts and festivals, but usually drinking was kept in check. I silently pondered many explanations I had to come up with as to why he wasn't getting drunk in the slightest, as he threw aside his glass and called for another. I must admit though, it was good to see everyone this high in spirit. That high spirit died instantly when Kashya approached the area. The grave look on her face had silenced everyone immediately. With all eyes on her, she took a deep breath and then forcibly spoke, aiming her speech at me and my companions.

"My rogue scouts have just reported an abomination in the monastery graveyard! Apparently Andariel is not content to take only our living. Blood Raven, one of our finest captains in the battle against Diablo at Tristram, was also one of the first to be corrupted by Andariel. Now you'll find her in the monastery graveyard, raising our dead as zombies. We cannot abide this defilement! If you are truly our allies, you will help us destroy her. Of all the scouts I sent, only one survived. And that is Lyshira. She says the need is urgent, and that there isn't much time. If you want to help us strangers, destroy Blood Raven, and put our dead back to the peaceful rest they have been so-long denied," she announced. Something seemed to pain Kashya, for she didn't say anymore, but turned away, shaking her head and left.

"Well, we're going to have to go stop er then. It seems we've got ourselves another quest," Alminus said aloud more to us than anyone else. I was still surprised that he could form coherent sentences after all that ale, and amazed that he seemed unfazed at all. What a constitution! And still, he thrust his mug up into the air and called for another round.

Maria had taken a seat beside me after the toast and at the moment, she was flexing her remaining katar in the firelight, looking it over with a frown. She made to stand.

"Where are you going?" I asked curiously.

She turned to me.

"I'm going to see Charsi. My katar is looking pitiful."

"Who's Charsi?" I asked.

"She's the resident blacksmith," she answered simply.

I remembered that I was out of javelins. With any luck this blacksmith might have ­

some to spare. I wasn't looking for anything fancy, just plain would do for now. I also knew not to expect too much, for my Amazon weapons were exotic here and might be beyond the skill of the rogues to create or repair.

"May I join you?" I asked politely, for I did not know where I could find her. It would be a useful thing to know in the future, I decided.

Maria nodded.

"Of course."

Maria and I rose from the campfire and left towards the back part of the encampment. It wasn't long before we came upon a half-tent stall lined with weapons and armor. Behind the display, I could see half of what looked like a large anvil. Looking around, I was pleased to notice that there was a rack of spear-class weapons off to one side. At the base, leaned up against the rack, were a pile of silver javelins that caught my eye. I walked over, and carefully picked one up. It was surprisingly light, and the moment I touched it, a strong zeal flowed through my arm. Far better than I had hoped to find, these javelins were expertly crafted and would fly far and fast.

"Do you like them?" a voice with a country accent asked me.

I hadn't been expecting it, and I had tensed at the sound of the voice. I turned around, javelin still in hand. A large blonde woman in a soot-stained apron was standing there. She noticed my momentary unease.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to surprise you. From what I hear you've had a pretty excitable day. Feel free to look around. By the way, I'm Charsi," she said, extending a hand and a friendly smile.

I gave her a firm handshake in greeting with my free hand.

"A pleasure to meet you, I'm Chyemme," I replied, returning the smile. "Your silver javelins are very well made. I'm impressed. I didn't really expect to find weapons common to my people here," I said, twirling the javelin around in my hand, testing out it's motion. It was almost flawless.

"I'm glad you think so. I made them myself, back at the monastery, before, well . . . You know what happened. Anyway those were some of the few weapons that I managed to carry here. Your people, huh? So it's true then, I heard that there was an Amazon among us. Your people's skills in archery rival our own, from what I hear, and that's saying something. However us Rogues aren't too instructed with spears and javelins. Oh don't worry though," she added upon seeing the curious look on my face, "I have plenty of experience fixing foreign weapons. I should be able to take care of any thing you bring me," she said confidently.

I nodded appreciatively. I believed her. If she could make javelins and spears this well, I had no doubt that she could repair them equally well.

"Ah Charsi, there you are," exclaimed Maria as she walked around the corner.

Charsi apparently knew Maria already and greeted her with the same friendly smile. "Greetings Maria. Good to see you. How can I help you?"

Maria held out her one katar, then gave it to Charsi to examine. "That zombie you call Corpsefire had some type of freezing power. I deflected an ice bolt with it and it cracked. My other one broke in half. I don 't suppose you have another available?" she explained.

Maria must have been in a similar situation to mine. If my weapons were exotic, hers must have been completely foreign. I had never seen katars before I met her, and I ­

knew that they weren't common weapons. True to her claim, Charsi really did seem to be able to fix just about any weapon. She nodded to Maria.

"As a matter of fact I do. I managed to trade for one with Gheed, don't ask me where he got it from. He has all sorts of things I've never seen before. Anyway, I looked it over and managed to upgrade it a little. It should work fine. It's on that rack over there, if you want to look at it. As for this, I'll have it fixed in no time," she assured.

"Thanks," Maria said gratefully and walked over to a rack of swords nearby. She found the one katar among them and looked it over carefully. Meanwhile, I saw Charsi move over to a coal-pit fire and smelt some iron ore into an unshaped mold. Then she removed it, walked over the front half of the anvil and poured the red hot liquid into the crack of the katar. Before too long, the metal cooled and hardened, and Charsi hammered it smooth. When she handed it back to Maria, it looked almost brand new.

Maria looked it over and nodded her approval.

"Excellent. I've decided to take the other katar as well. It should work just fine until I can get back to my order," she replied, and handed Charsi a handful of coins.

I decided to purchase the javelins and after doing so, left the area with Maria. They had cost a fair amount, but they were well worth it. After all, they were made of pure silver and had been seemingly enhanced somehow. But they were worth their weight in gold to me, for on the battlefield, there was no substitute for a good javelin.

On the way back to the tent, I recognized the wounded Rogue from earlier, Lyshira, making her way towards us. Akara's healing skills had done wonders, and she appeared perfectly fine.

"Are you alright?" I asked her as she halted in front of us.

"Thanks to you," she said before handing me a piece of parchment with the Amazon seal on it. "Thank you," she added with a grateful smile before she walked away.

"What's that?" Maria asked curiously from beside me.

"Looks like, a letter from my homeland," I answered with disbelief. I hadn't exactly been in the best of standings with some of them, especially my mother, when I left.

Maria sighed.

"Ah. Well it's most likely a private matter and I won't ask. I'll take my leave then. Good night," she said politely, and dismissed herself. I wandered back towards the tent us girls were sharing, reading the letter as I went. It read:

Dearest Chyemme,

My heart knew good and well that this letter would eventually find you, as well as the fact that you so longed for battle. A chance to prove yourself. I could see it in you, day by day, as you grew more and more discontented with the passive life of a priestess. You always wanted to be more, to do more. And now your chance has come. Although I disagree with you on the methods to which the powers of the goddesses and gods should be used, our aim is a common one. To protect and serve those most in need. Succeed in what you set out to do, and you may yet convince me of your point, daughter.

However, as you well know, I am not merely writing as a means to try and settle ­

our personal disagreement. At this point, that is irrelevant to the overall objectives of our people, though I personally feel remorseful over some of the things that transpired between us the night of your departure. I am writing to tell you, what you in your desperation for action did not hear. I feel it is key to inform you that while it is true that the Queen and her high council did indeed know of these happenings, our inaction was not due to the fact of lack of knowing what to do, but rather who to send. I must also admit, that I have not been entirely truthful with you. Ever since your childhood, you have shown amazing prowess and dedication to the warrior arts, and to the powers that come from the blessings of the immortals. This dedication did not go unnoticed, but rather was the topic of much discussion among myself and the council. The council argued when the happenings began, that you should be the one we sent to the Sightless Eye's aid. They argued that a new combination of priesthood and the warrior's ways, of which you are the prime example, would be most effective in the aid of others. You know my stance on this and I still hold firm, so I will not burden you with it now. I argued against this decision, but alas, I must submit to the will of the queen, as must we all.

My innersight as well as intelligence from Lady Akara, has allowed me to know where it is you have found yourself now, and know that I will try to write as often as is necessary to inform you of the island happenings and the will of the council. Currently, it is the Queen's wish that you aid the Sisterhood in dispersing their troubles, as they have long been our distant allies of inner sight, and the loss of the Monastery pass would be a great blow to trade and civilization. This is all I wish to say, save one last thing. It seems demons are becoming more and more common on the island as of late, something that hasn't happened here since the age of the Horadrim. We are not seriously concerned at the moment, giving the happenings elsewhere, but I did hear rumors that their was a necromancer on our island. I am greatly perturbed by this, seeing as rumor also states that you might have given assistance to one on your journey. The necromancers are a sly and devilish order, what they do is unnatural and disrupts the spiritual balance. They are also said to be merciless killers, especially to outsiders, and there are few tales of dealings with them that ended well, for anyone. They are not to be trusted, therefore I urge you, not to get involved with the likes of them. Other than this, I wish to send the greetings and well-wishes of the tribe, and let you know that you have our support in this calling.

Love Always,

Sheltia

I sighed. I was glad for the support of family and friends, and glad to know that mother had apologized and dismissed our fight in her way, but something still wasn't right to me. I was surprised to learn that my skills had been observed outside the temple, and pleased at the same time. I was honored to have been chosen by the high council for this task; only the highest of warriors were usually sent. However, I had the feeling that there was still more to this, still more that disturbed my mother, that she wasn't telling me. I put it aside for now, and was about to walk away, when I heard someone shift in the ­

shadows behind me.

"How precious. A letter from mommy, Amazon? Blames necromancers for the troubles on your island, does she? I must say, how sorely they underestimate us is insulting. If we, or in this case, I was the source of your troubles, you'd know it without a shadow of a doubt."

"Piricus. I should have known," I said simply, and at the same time, I inwardly kicked myself. I must have been mumbling the letter aloud as I read it. Either that, or he had incredible night vision. "My business is none of your concern," I said stiffly, turning to look at him. His face was half-hidden in the shadows, but I could still see the icy glare in his eyes. Even in the darkness I could see them, it was almost as if they were glowing in the dark.

"If that's the case, I wouldn't be mumbling it aloud for the whole camp to hear, amazon," he said simply.

"And if I were you, I wouldn't be sneaking around in the darkness, spying on people. It's a good way to get harm," I growled in return.

He raised an eyebrow.

"Is that a threat, amazon? If so it wasn't very menacing. I am were I choose to be, and in this instance, were you choose to be as well. It is amazing the things fools will say when they think themselves alone. You can learn a lot by simply walking by. In this case, I have learned how ill-informed and so like-paladins the amazons are. You think you have things figured out, but in reality you don't have a clue. But I will say this, this mommy of yours has got one thing right. Necromancers aren't good people to get involved with. If you enrage one of us, you're likely to end up dead and have your corpse following us around like a newborn pup," he said darkly.

I scoffed.

"Is that so? If that was the case, according to you, everyone in this camp should have died by now, but we're still standing," I retorted, "Or is the fact that we are still alive proof that you actually admit that you need us, as least for now, to survive this place?"

Piricus' emerald eyes flashed, though there was no light around.

"A necromancer doesn't need anyone. Comradely behavior is something the paladins like to sit around and tell tales about, when in truth they can' t even refrain from killing each other, much less anyone else," he said with an undertone of knowing.

I had no idea what he was talking about, but he was obviously alluding to something. I'm not sure I believed him anyway. I definitely couldn't see Scorpious raising swords against another human being, much less another paladin.

'Oh yes, we all have skeletons in the carvan, even him," Piricus said in distain, with reference to Scorpious, "and as for vengeance, there are other ways to strike back, Amazon. The water viper bides its time and then strikes when its enemies least expect it. I'm just biding my time," he said with a dangerous glint in his eyes.

I shivered, the way he sounded, it was like he was actually serious . . . Like he had done it before . . .

"You're lying," I said bluntly.

He laughed darkly.

"Am I?"

"I wouldn't put it past you," I replied honestly.

­

"We'll see then won't we? Anyway, I have better things to do than sit around trading ambiguities with you, Amazon. Sleep well, Trag Oul knows what nightmares you might have tonight," he said tauntingly, and swept past me on his way to god knows where.

"Fool," I growled under my breath once he was safely out of earshot, "As if." I seriously didn't think that Piricus was a danger to anyone or anything at this point, save maybe Scorpious' sanity, and I really didn't think he was planning to kill anyone, but deep down I wasn't quite sure . . .I shivered. The uncertainty was troubling. In the time that I had been around Piricus I had learned to recognize his bluffs, but there were times when I honestly couldn't tell and that he sent shivers down my spine. This was one of those times.

I went back to my tent without delay and walked inside. My bed was the furthest to the left of the four. I placed my javelins next to my trunk at the foot of my bed, next to my short spear. I began removing my outer armor, and pulled off my boots before climbing into bed. As I lay down, I could still hear music coming from the campfire. Some of the rogues were playing flutes and string instruments, and Alminus' hardy voice was still bellowing into the night. I heard a whimper from the tent entrance, and saw Cloudyous' wolf, Belthem, as he entered the tent, more than likely to beg for table scraps.

I sighed and went to my trunk, pulling out a small scrap of bread from the evening meal that I had tucked away. I put it in my palm and offered it to the wolf, who approached me cautiously, with wild golden eyes. He sniffed my hand curiously, and then very gently took the morsel from me. After the wolf had finished, I returned to my bed, to find with surprise, that he jumped up there with me at my feet. I heard more footsteps, and then someone parted the tent-flap. It was Cloudyous.

"Belthem, there you are," he said, and gave a light whistle. On command, the wolf jumped down and returned to the druid's side.

"I'm sorry for the intrusion, Chyemme. He doesn't usually act like this. He must really like you," Cloudyous apologized.

"It's fine," I assured him.

He nodded.

"Rest well my lady," he said politely before leaving.

Belthem had paused at the door on his way out to look at me. He whined slightly, before Cloudyous whistled for him again and he left completely. I shifted in my makeshift bed, trying to get comfortable. It wasn't long before I realized how exhausted I was. I closed my eyes, falling asleep as I listened to the fading music, images of my family and my home shining in my dreams.