Chapter 9: The Knights Tempest

"How are you feeling?" the female priest asked Ryu.

He tried to respond but it seemed as if there was a lump in his throat that prevented him from actually answering her.

He sat up, with his legs hanging off of the bedside. His entire tunic had been removed and the burn that had been on his chest had been wrapped with a linen cloth. The burns on his hands were now covered in the same linen wrap yet it stretched half-way up his forearms. He noticed, then, that his hands still hurt slightly as he wiggled his fingers but it seemed much more likely that the soreness was from disuse rather than from the burns themselves.

There were two priests before him, a man and a woman. Both were of the Wyndian clan and, though the man was much older than the twenty-something year old female, they both wore the same white robes of the wind temple of Fou, far to the west.

"You should continue to rest," the elder cut in before Ryu could actually muster up a word. "We applied the burn ointment you carried with you. It has worked wonders but you still shouldn't be trying to move this much just yet."

He could feel the ointment under the linen as he moved his fingers. It was cold and moist underneath wrap as well but Ryu assumed that that meant that the beak salve was doing its job. The priests had likely also cried out to the heavens for help, casting healing spells upon him. Ryu knew that the race, as a whole, had a deep-rooted connection with the divine.

As his leg hung off of the edge of the bed, he noticed then that his left thigh had burned pretty badly as he tried to move it. He had apparently injured it at some point, though he could't quite recall how. Whatever the injury was from, it had since been bandaged as well. He tried to stand on it.

"Stubborn boy," the man sighed. "Very well..."

The priest handed him his tunic then, which appeared to have been extensively cleaned since the last time he had seen it. He stood there, naked, and attempted to somehow modestly dress himself. The young woman got a slight chuckle out of the spectacle.

He slipped the tunic over his shoulders and quickly pulled it over his body. He strapped his thick leather belt around his waist and tied two small satchels to it's side. He quickly went over his things to make sure he hadn't lost anything. Inside of the one satchel was the remainder of the jerky that Billi had given him and several herbs that he had bought from the Gigas farmers. The other satchel still held the flint that Baba had given him as well. That was when he remembered the Earth Key.

Where was it? he wondered as he quickly scanned his surroundings and rummaged through the rest of his things.

"Looking for this?" a deep voice said as it entered the room. The two wyndian priests that had been at Ryu's side quickly parted to allow the boy to get a better look at his newest guest. He was close to seven feet tall and very muscular. His beautiful wings were folded behind him but, much like his arms, they were so large that it was difficult for him to enter, even with the wide doorway that led into the room. Ryu had an idea of where it was he had woken up at.

The man held the large key out, easily grasping it with one hand. He displayed it to the blue-haired youth, tauntingly. The rune seemed to glow as Ryu gazed at it. He quickly tried to snatch the Earth Key out of the wyndian man's hand and failed. The muscular man laughed.

"You can have it back. We are no enemies of yours," he said, handing it over to the boy. "We found you out in the Nanai Wastes. What in the name of Myria happened out there?"

Ryu sat back down on the bedside, relieved. No Dark One would have given him the Key back. He was most certainly in Wyndia. Thankfully, they had not sided with the Dark Ones it had seemed. He decided to trust the man the moment he had actually returned the Earth Key, even if he did tease him with it at first.

"The." He coughed as soon as he spoke. "Quake... Control," he managed to squeeze out between coughs.

"What was the Key doing there?"

Ryu tried to answer the question but he had a bit of difficulty speaking. The large wyndian man eventually gave up trying to speak with him. Instead, he figured he would take the time to introduce himself and explain the current affairs of Castle Wyndia.

"So, you see, we are in desperate need of help. No Wyndian could survive the gas for long and the King could die any day. Now, the youngest of the Kings daughters has run off into Tower Karma, wanting to take matters into her own hands," Enon of the Knights Tempest explained. "Would you please help us? We have no other options left but to meet the Dark Ones demands. We would owe you a great debt."

Ryu couldn't actually answer him. All that consumed his thoughts were the words of the mysterious woman that spoke to him in Gaia Temple's prayer-room.

"Gather the clans," he could still hear her voice in his head. Just who or what was she? At first he thought it was Sara, until the voice had called him Nikanoru, the hero of legend. Sara had never called him that before, so he doubted it was her. Though the voice was vaguely familiar to Ryu, he still couldn't quite place how.

Ryu nodded to the wyndian, accepting his plea for help. Whoever it was had wanted him to bring the clans together again, like the days of old, and if he were to do so, there was no better place to start than the capital of Kah-zae itself, Wyndia.

"Thank the Gods," praised Enon. "We leave as soon as you feel you are able to."

Ryu stood back up and finished getting dressed then, as if that alone should answer the Knights question.

He put his boots on first, then tied his long red cape around his neck. The bottom of it had frayed from the fight with Jade and was slightly crooked from one of commander's sword-slashes. Several holes had now been burned into it's length as well, from the corrosive spit of the pill bugs.

Ryu reached for his sword last, ready to attach it to his belt. He didn't find it, but when he found the empty sword-sheath he instantly remember that it had broken during the fight with Jade. He held the empty sheath up, attempting to show Enon his lack of a weapon. The wyndian seemed to have gotten the hint.

"We'll fix that before we leave, I promise," he said. "I didn't think you'd be so quick to leave the Castle just yet. There is something I have to do before we head out."

Ryu unfastened his leather belt briefly, and readjusted it to hold the Earth Key. He tied it to his belt, near the two satchels that had already been attached to it. The key was much too large to be placed in the satchels and he didn't want to waste an able hand carrying it around.

The priests quickly said their goodbyes and, moments later, they headed out of the room. At first, Enon had insisted on going alone. He said he had some personal things that needed to be dealt with before he could leave but Ryu felt that he needed some fresh air so he was extremely persistent in following him anyway. Eventually, Enon conceded and allowed the boy to follow him when Ryu nodded in agreement after the Knight had asked him to wait outside the house at least.

Ryu had been to Wyndia before but the last time he had been there he had been placed under arrest by the King of Wyndia himself. He truly didn't do anything wrong at the time and was merely a victim of circumstance, getting arrested alongside two horse-men of the Equinus clan that, Ryu knew, were both a part of an even larger crime syndicate throughout the region of Kah-zae. He wasn't actually friends with them at all. He had really been their prisoner at the time and had simply been mistaken as a part of their gang. But that was a long time ago.

The city itself hadn't changed much since he had last been there either. The enormous castle, that seemed to have no front door, could be seen from all over the city. It was built with no actual door for many reasons, namely to keep out any unwanted guests. There was a roost where one would think a castles entrance should have been and if they weren't of the Wyndian clan, they would need to ride one of the King's twilight hawks in and out of the castle.

Ryu mounted one of the hawks, which had already had a rider that ferried it to and from the castle. He situated himself behind the rider.

"You guys headin' to town?"

Enon nodded, as he stretched his wings. They left immediately and Enon flew alongside the twilight hawk.

"I apologize. I have to say my goodbyes to my wife," Enon said to the boy, knowing he wasn't able to return any kind of conversation. "Just in case, ya' know? This wizard has already been dead for two hundred years and we still have been unable to deal with him. We may have trouble when we arrive."

He didn't say much else as Ryu rode atop the white and violet bird. The bird flew towards the city below them, alongside the Knight.

Ryu thought of how different his arrival in the city was than the last time he was here. He had escaped the prison with the help of a young wyndian girl. That was when he had first learned of his heritage, and that his ancestors had lived in the village nearby.

Drogen.

It was where he had met his sister and his grandmother for the first time in all of his life. That was roughly three years ago and despite the fact that Drogen was now in ruins, it was a joyous thing to know that he did have some family that was still alive. He still had no idea what had happened to his father and his younger sister, Yua, and it tore him up inside.

Ryu could completely understand how it felt: wanting to say some parting words in the event that everything didn't go as planned. He wished he could have said his own goodbyes.

The wyndian who rode atop the twilight hawk quickly ferried Ryu to the ground in front of the castle. The city below was divided into several different districts, though each were littered with windmills - the cities primary source of power. Windmills were attached to the houses and the businesses. There were even more windmills attached to the top of lamp posts that had been scattered throughout the city.

Electrical power was something that most cities didn't have, even still. It powered everything from lamp posts and heavy machinery and it was a staple of any larger city. Certain towns like Nanai even had electrical power that had been hidden away for years and other's still had none of all.

Regardless, the average person had great difficulty understanding it. Technology was an ancient relic of the past though sometimes it had actually still worked even ages later. Ryu had even met someone once that uncovered and then studied that ancient technology.

The sheer amount of windmills that there were throughout Wyndia still astounded Ryu as they seemed to be slowing to a stop near one particular residential district

"Wait right here for a moment. It'll only take a few minutes."

As Enon entered his home, Ryu was reminded of his sister Sara.

Both she and the Knight had offered up their lives for the greater good of their respective people. He couldn't help but think of the sense of honor that Enon must have kept held inside of him. He had a duty to his family and friends but above all else stood a duty to the Crown of Wyndia. Ryu realized then that Enon and Sara were very similar in their world-views.

He didn't mean to, but Ryu couldn't help but to overhear the commotion going on inside of the house. His wife was obviously not happy about him leaving again.

On second thought, Ryu felt that not having the chance to say his goodbyes might have been the easier of the two paths.


Captain Raifel and his brother had been exploring the frozen cave-like room that served as Temple Karma's first floor for the better part of twenty minutes before they had finally come to the conclusion that Nina had run off farther inside of the cavern.

The wind spell she had summoned to prevent them from entering Tower Karma behind her had kept them busy for the first ten minutes or so. Eventually though, the tempest had calmed and they were able to head in. The wind inside of the temple, however, was a completely different story. The gale-force winds, which carried snow along with them, still churned rather violently within the temple's walls.

At first, they looked in the most obvious place that they thought she would hide: behind several large rocks that would have blocked their view of her. When that turned up nothing, they searched the randomly placed patches of snow around the room for footprints but the wind was so strong that it wiped away most of their own fresh prints as they made them.

"This isn't going to work. With this wind, I'd be surprised if we find any tracks at all!" Jiiku said, finally.

"Your right. There's got to be something else here," his brother answered.

Almost as if in answer, a loud scream drew their attention and they frantically looked around the room. It was hard to pinpoint, as any sound made in the cave echoed off of each of its walls, but Raifel quickly narrowed his search down. He was certain that the sound had not come from the room. It was too faint.

His search had uncovered what appeared to be a small alcove only a few feet above them on the western side of the frozen cave. It was mostly buried under snow at that point, with little enough room for Nina to hide in. There was no way to be absolutely sure that that was where the sound had even come from but they had nowhere else to look at the time.

Their training with the Knights Tempest had taught them to leave no stone unturned and, as they had no other leads, Raifel examined the cliff-face that lead up to the alcove. He noticed several small rocks along the wall that could have been used by Nina to climb up onto the ledge.

Raifel called out to his brother then, who quickly joined his side.

"I think that's where it's coming from," he told Jiiku, pointing up to the alcove.

"Think we can fly up there and check it out?"

"Not with these wind currents. There are a dozen or so strong footholds though," the captain answered. "We can most definitely climb it."

Raifel headed up first but Jiiku was right behind him. They had no issues climbing the cliff until Raifel reached the top of the ledge. He stepped on the last stone confidently but his foot simply slipped off of the rock and the captain realized all-too-late that it was actually covered in a thin sheet of ice.

He tried to flap his beautiful wings to keep him aloft but the wind would simply not allow it. He tumbled towards the rock-hard ground but, thankfully, Jiiku had managed to grab his brothers hand at the last minute.

As the elder brother tried to regain his footing, one of the footholds broke free from the cliff and had Jiiku's grip not held strong, the captain would surely have fallen to his death. He silently thanked St. Eva for her protection.

"That could've been bad. I already have one princess to save today, 'Twinkle-toes'," his brother joked, trying to lighten the mood a bit.

Raifel laughed but it didn't really lessen his worries in the least.

The Knights Tempest were an ancient order formed during the days of old - when dragons were little more than savage beasts. Several of the eldest dragons had actually become quite intelligent by that time and they had banded together under the most ancient of them all - a dragon who had called himself Ladon.

The word meant 'light' in the Old Tongue, or so the Knights were taught, though Raifel thought it ironic. They had been told that Ladon and his dragons inevitably sparked the Brood War which ended in an all-out crusade against every last one of his kind.

They hadn't all died, that much Raifel was sure of, but the few dragons that survived were rarely allowed to grow to adulthood. Before that age, they were barely much of a threat unless they were brought together in great numbers - much like what Emperor Zoggoth seemed to be attempting to do.

As the genocide against the dragons hadn't actually wiped them all out, the Knights Tempest had never fully disbanded and had, since then, become the main military force for all of Kah-zae.

The modern Knights Tempest still hunted dragons whenever one would threaten the kingdom, though no one had seen a living dragon in the last hundred years. Until very recently, at least. None of Edenia's other races were better suited for the task. Wyndian wings, for one, were just one small feature that gave them an advantage when fighting against the magnificent beasts.

"Hey Raif," Jiiku called out to his brother from farther in the alcove. He had begun shoveling the snow out with his bare hands. "Hurry up. Your gonna' want to see this!"

Raifel hurried over to his brother, remembering to watch his step so he wouldn't make the same mistake twice. By the time he got there, Jiiku had already scooped a good bit of the snow out of the way. He had cleared some away to make a hole large enough that both his brother and himself could look through.

Raifel or Jiiku had never seen anything so magnificent.

Before them was an expansive jungle with a small temple in its center. It looked to be crafted of the purest gold Edenia had to offer and looked to be no more than three rooms, Raifel thought.

The main entrance to the temple appeared to be the largest room in the building, with two smaller rooms that were attached to each of its sides.

It was situated atop a large stone platform that was raised roughly a hundred feet or so above the jungle floor. A long staircase with the same number of steps, led up towards the golden building itself. Raifel thought it odd, as the stairway was much larger than the actual temple itself. A large open gateway stood at the top of the steps, serving as the entranceway into the temple.

Most peculiar, however, was the western end of the temple. A large pillar of a magnificent, blue light stretched up into the sky as far as their eyes could see.

The view was unreal but they didn't have much time to enjoy it. Another scream quickly took their attention away from the magnificent building.

The Knights Tempest could both hear it clearly then. The voice was most definitely female and despite having learned of the kidnapped women of Romero, they somehow knew that the voice wasn't theirs.

It was Nina and she was in trouble.


Nina's heart beat so fast and hard that she felt like it would burst from her chest. Before she could even investigate what had happened to the body, she quickly found that it had somehow raised up towards the ceiling.

At first the body just simply floated there, still laying back when it was ten feet in the air. Seconds later, a brilliant white light poured out of the room she had just left.

She turned around to see the radiant glow coming from the podium itself. Beams of white light shot out from the flame from every direction, illuminating the side-room.

Nina noticed that it pulsated a vibrant blue for moments at a time. The time between the blue flash grew shorter and shorter. Eventually, as the light became a solid blue, the beams of light focused and shot straight up through the flame that hovered above the small podium and into the roof of the temple.

It's luminescence changed the flame from the beautiful, warm light that Nina had summoned into an unnaturally cold, blue flame. She knew, deep down, that lighting the podium aflame had been the cause of it all.

The flame on the podium flickered as the wind abruptly picked up, though it refused to go out entirely. As the flame itself changed color, a shape began to take form within the flame. Suddenly, what looked to be a skull seemed to materialize out of thin air, just above the podium.

The blue flame danced around the skull but whether it actually caught fire under the heat of the blue flame or just appeared that way, Nina could not say say. It looked almost ethereal as it moved, its own after-images chasing itself, and Nina instantly thought of the spirits she had seen in Romero. This was no mere spirit of the deceased, however.

The villagers spirits, despite looking a bit on the sickly side, retained most of their earthly forms. Though they were both specters of the deceased, their similarities ended there. This was something far more sinister. A demon, Nina thought, though she had never actually seen one.

The skull opened its jaw, tiny bits of sinew barely held the thing together, and it shook as if it were laughing at Nina. A sinister cackle echoed throughout the room as the skull bounced up and down.

"My soul is free!" the skull said, as it quickly flew towards the body that was then floating in the main room. The voice had clearly once belonged to a man, though it sounded like fingernails being dug into stone.

"After two hundred years of suffering, I am finally able to stretch my wings!"

Nina saw no wings on either the skull or the body which it flung itself towards, but she didn't have time to analyze it just yet.

The blazing skull quickly closed the gap between the floating corpse and itself, its blue flames dragging behind it like the tail of some great comet.

It flew directly into the chest of the deceased. The fire surrounding the skull quickly spread across the corpse itself and seemed to vanish, along with skull, into the body as it did so.

The blue flames engulfed the floating corpse. It seemed to burn brightest at the creatures face then. Not the skull that had come from the podium, but the face of the decaying body that somehow held itself in the air of its own accord.

And then it opened its eyes.

Not actually - the creature had no eyes really - but the sockets where they should have been fueled the same blue flame that had formed above the one podium.

"W-what in the name of Myria?" the princess called out, completely terrified.

Its tattered robes hung from its torso, waving about wildly in the wind. Somehow the cloth itself didn't burn away when its body had been set ablaze.

It started to descend slowly but Nina didn't give the monstrosity any time. The princess fled the temple almost instantly.

She sprinted down the magnificent steps at the monuments entrance. She had to hold the bottom of her dress as she ran so it would not trip her up. Any slight error could send her tumbling down a hundred or so feet and that was something Nina didn't need then.

By the time she had reached the jungle floor beneath her, the floating corpse had caught up with her. It hovered there a moment, studying her closely.

"Oh, this is interesting indeed," the figure said as its eyes burned even brighter. It was only a few feet behind Nina then and she could feel the creatures frigid breath biting at her neck.

Nina spun about quickly, calling out to the wind around her. Wisps of the breeze spun around her small figure and began to take on an almost green hue. A powerful gust sent the undead monster up into the air, but it didn't actually harm it. It did, however, get the beast a few feet farther from her.

Most importantly, it gave Nina a few more precious seconds to figure out her next course of action. She surveyed the landscape quickly while she still had the chance to.

Their was little to no vegetation around the base of the steps. There was a clearing at the bottom, the same one Nina had walked through when she had first arrived at the foot of the temple. It was relatively spread out and open but behind the raised platform that the temple rested upon, the flora was plentiful.

Nina dashed towards the thick jungle canopy. She couldn't hope to actually outrun the beast - it's speed was a sight to behold - but that wasn't what she had intended to do.

She had hoped to use the jungle foliage to confuse the creature as it pursued her. Hopefully, the many thick trees in the area would make it difficult to keep an eye on her. She darted through the thicket and while she thought of what to do, it would at least offer her some cover. It wasn't a foolproof plan by any means but she didn't have very many options open to her then.

The night sky only helped her in that right though. The blue light that came from the podium had apparently shot up through the temple itself and stretched as far into the night sky as she could see.

The pillar of light cast eerie shadows throughout the forest floor and as Nina ran, she realized that an odd silence had fallen over the forest. Nina had become so accustomed to the sounds of the forest by then that it took a moment for it all to register.

It was absolutely quiet. Not the kind of quiet that relaxed and soothed a person but the kind that meant that every living thing in the vicinity had fled in fear.

Nina scolded herself then. She couldn't comprehend how much of a mistake she had made when she had called out to the burning ember.

She had seen it in her minds eye, as she tried to cast the spell and wondered where it had originated from. It looked looked to be a campfire when she saw the vision in her head as she had called out to it.

It had come from somewhere deep inside the thick canopy, behind the stone platform that supported the temple.

It was a clue. There was someone else in the jungle with her, she realized.

It couldn't have been Raifel or Jiiku. They would have searched the temple before scouring the jungle for the princess, that much was obvious, but Nina knew that they wouldn't have had time, nor much of a purpose, for building a campfire. It would only have revealed their location to the princess. It had to be someone else entirely. Someone who had been here longer than Nina.

It had to be the mercenary from Romero.

"You look the spitting image of your mother, princess! Such a shame. I will have to rend that pretty little face from your skull!" the undead figure taunted her.


As soon as Enon had opened the door, his wife jumped on him. His armor clanged as she threw herself at him and it hurt her mildly but she didn't seem to mind it too much. It had been days since she had seen him last. He hadn't been able to leave Ryu's side under his captains orders.

She wrapped her arms around his neck as he told her the disappointing news: that he would have to head out immediately but that this time, he wasn't so sure if he would return. Such was the life of someone who had been wed to one of the Knights Tempest. There loved ones would be gone for long months, home for a few days - if that - and they were never really sure if they actually would return.

"I am sorry, my love," Enon said to his wife.

"I don't understand why you still fight for the Crown. One soldier cannot make that much of a difference!" she shouted, pleading for him not to go. It pained him immensely to watch it all.

His wife had a soft spot for young children. Had she known that it was the princess that was in trouble, and the youngest one to boot, she might have been more understanding of it all. Nonetheless he kept his mouth shut and tried to calm her down.

"The Queen has promised me some extensive time off when this is all said and done," he finally said.

"When will it ever be 'said and done,' Enon?" she screamed as she stormed out of the room, crying.

She had heard enough.

Enon knew that he should have chased after her but he couldn't watch her hurt for him any more. He had long-since realized that he couldn't make her understand. She hadn't been the one to endure all of the torment of the war with Fou. She was born a while after the dust had settled.

He turned back towards the front door and walked back out to find Ryu, who was now leaning on a fence on the other side of the wyndian walkway just outside of his house. He quickly approached Ryu.

The road had been made from large slabs of granite and really only served a purpose for those that either couldn't fly yet or were simply too old to do so. While Enon had long-since grown into adulthood and could easily have flown around Wyndia, it was considered poor etiquette among wyndians to fly within city-limits for any particular reason.

It wasn't illegal by any means but it was most certainly the quickest way of garnering attention of the worst kind. Wyndia's infamous Sky Pirates always kept a close eye on those that wandered about the skies.

For that reason, the only wyndians - both men and women - who were allowed to fly around Wyndia's airspace were the guards of the Knight's Tempest. The only exception to that rule allowed for travel to and from the castle.

"It went quicker than I had expected," Enon said as he remembered Ryu wouldn't likely be answering him any time soon. "Well, I guess we should get you that sword now, huh?"

The two walked further into the residential district of the city. As Ryu headed through the bustling area, a loud bell rang out in the distance. As the sun slowly hid behind the mountains that Wyndia had been built into, the street-lights came on of their own accord.

Technology, sometimes, had a mind of its own and Ryu found it difficult to understand what was so great about it. Sure, there were many benefits from using the ancient machines that they had discovered all over Edenia. Wyndia's street-lights were a testament to that but there were many far more sinister uses for that same technology.

The thought of what had happened in Nanai came to mind.

The machine that the Dark Ones had learned to use in the dungeons of Gaia Temple had destroyed the entire city. Even then, Ryu had only wanted to turn the damned machine off!

The average citizen knew next to nothing about the ancient machines, let alone how to actually operate them. More often than not, their inability to understand the ancient machines ended in catastrophe, even in the hands of someone who had no malicious intent whatsoever.

Ryu didn't trust the machines one bit.

"We're here," Enon informed him. He had pointed to a small stone building just a little farther ahead. The building, like most in the town, had a teal-colored roof. In fact, the only thing different about this building in the least was the addition of a large forge built onto the side of the house.

They walked in through the front door, which was the same shade of teal as the roof, and the man behind the counter seemed to know Enon rather well.

"Hey!" the man said. He was nearly as large as Enon, himself, though he seemed to be much younger. The lines in his face still possessed the gentle curves that only youth would allow. He seemed rather pleased to see Enon.

"Been busy lately, I take it?" the Knight asked the man.

"Not nearly as much as you, it would seem. I haven't seen ya' in months!" he said and Enon laughed in reply.

"You should know how it is, Brim."

"That I do, friend. That I do. So what brings you here today?"

"I have an urgent mission. Can't say too much, as usual, but we need to leave immediately. And my friend here is in need of a new sword," Enon explained.

"Doesn't he talk?"

"He's tried!" Enon chuckled as he said it, but Ryu didn't find it half as amusing. "He was injured in Nanai. Hasn't said much since I first found him."

"Dark Ones?"

"Most likely."

"I know that feeling all too well," Brim told them.

Ryu hadn't noticed it before then but the man never actually stood up. It wasn't until they had actually approached the counter that he could see it plain as day.

The chair that the man sat in was no simple chair. It was forged of metal, likely by his own hand. There were four wheels situated at the base of where the chairs legs should have been. The back wheels were much larger than the front two, Ryu realized as Brim pushed himself out from behind the counter then.

He understood then what feeling the man had meant. He had lost the use of his legs and, based on how the blacksmith had said those last words, Ryu concluded that the Dark Ones had been at fault somehow.

How many lives had Emperor Zoggoth's tyranny affected.


Captain Raifel looked around the gorgeous building. Before them were two tables and one had a decomposing body atop it. Whoever it was wore a violet-colored drape over itself. It definitely wasn't Nina, his brother had agreed. The corpse was far too old.

While one worry was lifted from the Knights shoulders, the presence of the body itself didn't settle their stomachs in the least. It had a disgusting smell to it that the wind wafted around the building.

In one end of the room, they found a gateway that led into another chamber that was slightly smaller than the previous one. It had a podium in the center of the floor that, oddly enough, seemed to be lit on fire. The flame wasn't actually touching the podium but, rather, floating above it.

It flickered with brilliance and bathed the entire room in a blue light. It almost seemed to pulsate with energy. The brothers looked about the room frantically, finding several ancient characters written on the podium that neither one knew how to read.

There was no sign of Nina and so, despite the rooms beauty, they left shortly after entering. The other room had nothing of interest either. They quickly found another podium, though it didn't have the same blue flame that the first one had had. By comparison, the room was rather dark but it actually seemed more peaceful somehow.

The blue flame that glowed in the opposite room gave Raifel, at least, an uneasy feeling.

Raifel was about to inspect the other podium when he heard another wail coming from outside of the temple. It was not the same voice that he had heard screaming earlier.

It sounded male and possessed an unearthly quality to it. It sounded more like nails being dug into stone than any humanly voice the two of them had heard. Immediately afterwards, they heard another voice that they did not recognize screaming out as well.

"Watch out!" he said. Raifel and Jiiku quickly went to investigate, running down the golden stairs at the main entrance of the temple but they never reached the bottom.

The captain, with his brother right behind him, leaped from the stairs about a third of the way down. They spread their magnificent wings and took to the skies. They easily used the wind currents within the strange-looking room to keep them aloft and when the breeze let up, they simply flapped their four foot wings.

The Knights Tempest quickly scanned the jungle canopy behind the temple. The abundant plant-life made it hard to see exactly where the screams had come from but, from that height, they could both see a trail of rising smoke in the distance that seemed to come from a glowing orange light beneath the trees. It stood out among the backdrop, which was given a bluish hue from the pillar of light that came from the temple.

A campfire, they realized almost instantly.

The captain and Jiiku whipped their wings with great vigor, flying as quickly as possible in the direction of the smoke. Raifel stopped rather abruptly, throwing his wings out to catch himself. His brother followed suit instinctively. Not because they were brothers but because they were both Knights Tempest. They put their wings to use more than any normal wyndian, that much for sure. And all Knights were trained extensively in both formations and combat and, as a result, most of their order was fine-tuned to work together.

As part of their induction into the order, several of the pledges undertook three different schools of thought. They learned of the history of the order and became great tacticians of warfare. They were taught that the most sacred thing to them was the Crown of Wyndia to, which, they would protect above all others.

Engrossed in his duty, Raifel had lived a lonely life. As far as family went, he really only ever had his brother. His family had died young when the Fou Empire invaded from the west and that was why he had joined much sooner than his brother. It really only helped him to alienate himself after their parents passing.

Raifel was the eldest and he had joined the Knights Tempest to fight for his parents. Jiiku, rather, didn't really want to fight, though he had later sworn an oath to the order because of certain circumstances years later anyway. When his brother had been taken prisoner by the people of Fou and he had been kept not too far from where Winlan was now.

Jiiku, unlike his brother, had many friends that he had grown up with. Enon was a childhood friend of younger brother. He had introduced Raifel to him and they had gotten along great, in the sarcastic sort of way at least. He had hoped it would help his brothers introverted attitude but it only absorbed him further and, eventually, brought Jiiku and Enon into the order to fight in the war. Not for the sake of Kah-zae, but to free Raifel from the people of Fou.

They slowly descended through the trees but sped up when they heard Nina's voice not far from the suspected campfire, though there were two others as well near her as well. One was a darker-skinned man, who in no way looked like someone from Romero. He had short curly brown hair and wore a light brown tunic.

The other one didn't look anything like either of them. It looked to be half of a human torso, hovering above the jungle floor. The same one that the brothers had seen in the temple.

No, the captain thought. He wore a different-colored robe. From its decaying body draped a tattered, blue cloth that was almost as ragged as his flesh. The undead creature was not the same deceased body that had been laid out in the golden temple.

"Raifel!" Nina screamed out to him as she noticed the two of them descending through the trees.

"Ah... And now we have even more play things!" the screeching voice said to the newcomers. "And two of the Knights Tempest, as well. This should entertain me until my sister awakens!"

All four of them realized what the undead creature had meant almost instantly.

He - it sounded like a he at least - had meant the other body still resting atop the golden table inside of the temple. They had no idea how he had planned to awaken his sister but none of them had truly realized what they had gotten themselves mixed up into until that moment.

They were dealing with a revenant, a reaper of souls, and if they couldn't stop him soon, they would have another one to contend with.