Chapter 9: Betrayal

Leo stole a glance at Jasmine. There was a dark look in her eyes that made it obvious she had received the message as well. Leo considered Akili's message. What he wants to say could be important. Or maybe he's trying to finish what the sniper started? We could be playing straight into his palm.

"Jasmine?"

"We don't have much of a choice, Leo. What Akili has to say must be important enough for him to request a meeting rather than just tell us telepathically. Besides, if El Nath really is gone, the information we've learnt is useless. There's no more El Nath to… to fight for." Jasmine choked back tears. For so long El Nath had been their home, their shelter. Leo felt it too. All their friends, family, everyone they had come to know and love… Fled, dead or enslaved by Ergoth?

"I'll… I'll tell him we'll see him then, eh?" Leo's voice was stony as well. There was a lump in his throat he could not suppress.

Leo closed his eyes, willing his mind to find Akili's, probing, searching. Something connected.

"Are you done deciding whether or not you trust me, Leo?"

There was a pregnant pause as Leo killed off the last instances of hesitation in his mind. "All right, Akili. We'll meet with you."

"Good. I have many important things to tell you, and very little time to do so. Meet me at the Sharp Cliffs within an hour. I trust you are familiar with the area?"

"I am."

"Excellent. I will be waiting for you at the apex of its opening. Do not be late."

Akili materialized exactly one hour after their correspondence. Jasmine had teleported Leo and herself back to the mouth of the Cliffs, the empty plain where they had sat and talking about the Dragon Knight legend. Akili looked worn, his face a little more lined and his scowl a little more disgruntled than usual. It was like he had not slept properly in days. Leo could not fault him. As the leader and command giver of the El Nath military faction, dealing with the incessant waves of creatures assaulting El Nath must have taken quite a toll on Akili.

Leo took a deep breath, cautiously eyeing Akili. He half expected Akili to pull out a crossbow and start shooting Blizzard arrows at them. Leo nodded in greeting. Even under suspicion that the man before him had ordered his life, he still held a great deal of respect for the old man. "Akili."

"I have a great many things to tell you both, Leo." Akili sighed wearily and sat down on the log in the exact same spot Leo had been sitting the night before. It seemed so long ago now.

Akili had changed his attire since the last time Leo saw him, before he and Jasmine had set out on their quest. He had swapped his dark robe for a deep blue cloak. This new cloak had an armored chest piece of gilded mithril as well as gold trim running along the length of the cloak. It matched the gloves and boots Akili was now wearing, both in the same shade of blue and gold. His light brown hair was streaked with white, falling past his shoulders, with a golden circlet bearing a Dark crystal now sitting upon it. Akili set his staff into the snow. Leo had never seen a staff quite like Akili's. It was more like a Chinese polearm than a staff with a huge blade set upon the top, looking more like a warrior's weapon of choice than a mage's.

"First," said Leo. "I have a question. How can El Nath have fallen? The Dragon Knights aren't the only line of defense. What happened to the-"

"It was only a matter of time, Leo." Akili cut him off. He sounded agitated and impatient. "Ergoth commands too big an army against us. The Knights and Crusaders had no chance. Even our Death Squad Assassins are useless seeing as there is no leader, no commander to take down and no head to sever. Their only instruction was to steamroll El Nath at all costs."

Leo narrowed his eyes suspiciously. He had been waiting for that word to pop up. "How do you know about Ergoth? No one knew about it and if you did why didn't you tell us? We only found out about him from the Holy Stone. In fact, the Stone was about to tell us something about Ergoth when you sent us that message."

Akili seemed mildly fazed. "Some scriptures contain lore about the stone. They say any attempt to contact one in correspondence with the Stone will result in it ceasing all dispersal of information. It was supposed to be a security feature to prevent those who were not worthy from asking the Stone questions. Still, the location of Holy Stone has been lost to history and even then the test is known to kill people. How in heaven's name did you do it?"

Leo opened his mouth to respond, but Jasmine cut in. "Long story, Akili. What we want to know is how you learned about Ergoth."

Akili sighed. "I was going to tell you about that, but I was hoping it wouldn't come up so quickly. Slip of the tongue. Truth is I haven't been completely honest with you two."

Jasmine shot an accusatory glance at Leo, but he missed it, being too busy glaring angrily at Akili.

"Meaning what, exactly?"

"To cut a long story short, I've betrayed everyone. Yes," he said, looking sadly at Jasmine's reproachful eyes, so full of hurt and loathing that he could not bear to look at them. Instead, he began examining his staff with apparent great interest. "Before either of you say anything, there are reasons. I had no choice."

"So it was you who sent the sniper? You tried to kill us?" asked Leo incredulously.

Akili shook his head. "Ergoth sent him. However, I was instructed to send you along to meet him." He did not meet Leo's eyes but stared blankly at the reflection of his own eyes in the blade of his staff. Leo felt rage arising in him. The man he had respected and trusted for so many years and who he had defended against Jasmine's accusations had tried to kill him, sent him on a mission from which he was not meant to return. He felt like screaming. Leo grabbed Akili by the throat and slammed him against the cliff wall. Akili made no movement to defend himself. The broken katana Leo had retrieved from the fight against the bandit was drawn from its sheath and poised to kill in an instant, inches away from Akili's throat.

"Leo, don't!" Jasmine shouted, grabbing his arm in exasperation. The memory of his sister's death flooded Leo's mind and the fury vanished from his eyes immediately. Leo shook his head, desperate to stop the anger from consuming him. No. Not again.

"Look, Leo. I had no choice. Do you hear me? I HAD NO CHOICE." Akili shouted, flecks of saliva hitting Leo's face.

"We always have a choice, Akili." Leo growled. "There is always another path you can take."

"You idealistic fool. I am bound to Ergoth, linked to his will by an age old blood agreement. Believe me, this is the last thing I would want. I have worked so hard throughout my life, searching for a way to break the enchantment, but it is not possible. It is only broken when the conditions of the contract are fulfilled, or either party dies. I have thought about suicide many times, but El Nath needed me. If I were to have taken the coward's way out, Ergoth would have struck much earlier. I was able to delay his plans for as much as I was able while staying within the boundaries of the contract."

Leo lowered the katana and relaxed his grip. "How can we be sure you aren't here on Ergoth's command?"

"You cannot. But there is a reason why Ergoth singled you two out particularly. Tell me, Leo, what do you know about Zakum?"

"A fair bit, thanks to the Holy Stone. It tried to tell us something about the three people who first sealed Zakum and their descendants before it was cut off."

"Simple. Ergoth thinks that you two are descendants of those people. He wanted you out of the war for two reasons. Firstly, he needs to bring the blood of those three, or the blood of their kin, to the altar of Zakum to break all the enchantments binding Zakum's full power, so he had to keep you from the battle where your bodies could have easily been thrown aside and lost. He was afraid your powers would manifest during the war as well, throwing off his plans of conquest altogether."

Jasmine frowned. "Powers?"

"The three who sealed Zakum were among the most skilled of their time. They created their own spells and techniques while improving on existing ones. Those in their bloodline share their natural talents, albeit at a lower level, the gift passing through each generation. Based on the skills invented by the original three, all three would have one common gift: the potential to harness the spirit of the Dragons and use it against their enemies."

Leo's mind flashed back to his battle with the sniper at the mention of the Dragons. The image of the terrifying green dragon's head forming on the crossbow of the sniper and the awesome power of the arrow fired from it had both shocked and impressed him.

"Then the third person is-"

"That sniper. I know very little about him, except that he is bound to Ergoth much like I am, having been gambled away by his parents." Akili's eyes filled with a flame that Jasmine recognized. It was remarkably like that which filled Leo's eyes after the Stone's trial.

"These powers lie dormant in the individual until moments of great stress, usually manifesting at most once. The few instances I know of people in the past showing such power all resulted in the same thing. The power overwhelmed them, was too much for them and burned them out, ending with death. Since most of the general public did not know about the three who sealed Zakum, they passed it off as a freak accident or an isolated phenomenon. Because of this, I was unable to track the ancestry of those people. However, Ergoth has trained the sniper such that he can utilize his Draconian skills as and when he likes, making him one of the deadliest assassins in Ossyria. He is highly sought after by leaders of criminal factions to eliminate their foes."

"That sniper almost killed us both. He used some green dragon arrow thing that very nearly pushed me off the cliff."

"Yes, Dragon Pulse. That's one of his Draconian skills. The Dragon force has enough power not only to propel the arrow, but to keep it going even after it has struck. You are very lucky to have made it out alive."

Leo kept silent. He remembered how the arrow struck his shield and continued pushing, startling him even more than the appearance of a skill he had never seen before. He hung his head as he remembered that while he had not suffered any lasting injuries, Jasmine had very barely made it at all.

Jasmine spoke, skepticism and distrust evident in her voice. "But Dragon Knights all can harness the Dragon Spirit, but that doesn't mean that they have some special power, does it?"

Akili gave a wry smile. "Dragon Knights can indeed harness that. However, the warrior among the three heroes could harness not only the Dragon Spirit but the skills of all the other warrior paths as well. That, together with the unique skills that he created, made him the most powerful warrior to ever live. No one has ever come close to matching his strength."

"But what about priests, then? All priests learn to summon a dragon." Jasmine countered. Leo remembered the tiny blue dragon she had summoned in that very spot. Some of the firewood was still lying there.

"That is merely the magical energy of the priest summoning the dragon combined with the latent energies of a Summoning Rock, taking the form of a dragon. The true Draconian Skill for the priest is the Bahamut Dragon, which is the summoning of a huge red dragon. Now, the Draconian Skills alone do not grant absolute power. When the Draconian powers manifest, there is a massive boost in power, so much that it can burn out the person and kill them. However, if it is true that you two are indeed the descendants of the original three and you do manage to control them, you two may be the key to defeating Ergoth once and for all." Akili still did not look them in the eyes. Truth be told, his hopes were not high.

Neither Leo nor Jasmine said anything, so Akili continued.

"Look, just because I'm forced to betray you does not mean I want to continue doing it. Ergoth sacrificed his soul in exchange for the Dark powers of necromancy. He was stripped of his humanity and is nigh invulnerable. He suspects that you two are the people he needs to complete his ritual and has to procure your blood, whether you are dead or alive, in order to completely free Zakum and attain ultimate power. However, even at this stage, Zakum has allowed Ergoth access to some of its powers, in order to help him finish the ritual. Zakum itself wants to be free of the magical bindings as much as Ergoth wants to conquer Ossyria. This is why he is able to control not only the zombies but the wildlife as well. I want him dead as much as you do. Believe me." Akili looked straight into Leo's eyes now, completely sincere. However, Leo still felt like Akili was withholding something.

"Stop it, Akili." Jasmine spoke softly, thin streams of tears flowing down her face. "Stop it. I know you're not telling us everything."

"Jasmine, I-"

"Tell us, Akili!"

Akili's face was contorted with regret and pain. "I've told you, I'm bound to Ergoth. As much as I loath him and the idea of serving him, I have no choice. None."

Akili's hands sparkled suddenly with electrical energy, lightning crackling across his palms as he raised them with blinding speed.

"I'm sorry."

Jasmine raised her staff at the same instant Leo raised his spear, but it was futile. Akili's hands were positioned before either of them had reacted.

A tear ran down Akili's lined face as a bolt of lightning jumped from each extended palm, one aimed and Leo and the other at Jasmine, directly at the spot where the sniper had hit her with his Blizzard arrow. The bolts grew thinner as they sped toward Leo and Jasmine. For a split second, they were recognizable as spears.

Leo felt a burning pain strike his chest, searing through him like no weapon could. He could not tell what had happened to Jasmine. His insides burned as his limbs jerked with involuntary spasms. The Fairfrozen fell from his twitching fingers as he fought to keep conscious. As the entire spear entered his body, he fell to the ground as he felt his concentration fading.