36: Legends: Nemesis
The giant dragon skull rested on the ground in the peace of ancient death.
Not Akravator's skull. Escad had seen what happened to the dragon's corpse, it disappearing, the only remains being the bone he had already hacked away; one of those Mana things, he thought, but it didn't really matter to him. Though he was grateful that the bodies of the Windcallers had disappeared as well, for Ariesa's sake; she had seemed glad to not have seen their corpses on the trip back down the mountain.
A quick warp spell once they were out of the range of the mountain's Mana, and here they were. This dragon skeleton was… something else. The skull itself was as big as a house, and the skeleton… led into a fortress beyond, a fortress Jajara called home. "Even the foliage houses Mana, and Jajara hoards it for his own plans," griped Larc.
Escad wondered about the ancient dragon whose bones lay before him. Or was it a Wyrm, what was the difference again? Was it like Lucemia? A force that promoted destruction so avidly, it ended up destroyed itself?
No matter. The thing was dead now, and their job was to get inside. Escad joined Larc's side to peer at it more closely, no obvious entry presenting itself. Larc grunted. "It's a dragon. Dead or not, it should have the manners to obey a dragoon." He kicked the skull irritably. "One way or another, we'll get inside."
"I cannot allow that," said a voice, dry as dust.
Escad turned to see… what could only be called a slit in reality. The air itself seemed to tear, revealing an odd darkness beyond, and from that void stepped a skeletal soldier.
The Empire recycles now, he thought sarcastically. He had fought the empire in his youth, but those were just regular soldiers, garden-variety grunts. By the uniform, this was… one of Deathbringer's elite lot, trash brought back from the dead.
He motioned hastily to Ariesa, who slipped neatly into position on the ghost's other side, her slender, lightweight sword already braced for action as he reached to heft his heavier two-handed blade.
Larc scored the first clean hit, his heavy axe smashing into that night-black armor, leaving a sizable dent. It flinched, but showed no visible signs of pain. The dragoon drove it forward towards Escad, his weapon inflicting brutal damage on the otherworldly suit of armor.
Grimly, Escad braced himself, and smashed his own weapon into the soldier's back, sending the armor crashing to the ground with a clatter. Its metal arms struggled to right itself, but Ariesa dove in, neatly severing the links between the pieces, revealing… nothing… inside.
Escad shuddered, but pushed the feeling away as he brought his sword downward with tremendous force, metal ringing off metal as his weapon broke the thing apart to send pieces flying in all directions. Eerily, disembodied metallic limbs twitched slightly, until all the pieces disappeared as one, vaporizing into a black smoke that the wind quickly carried away.
The stone jaw of the dragon head dropped to the ground, shaking the earth with the impact, and revealing a hallway beyond. Escad was the first to step inside that bony jaw, blood running and eager for more action, tearing towards the dimly lit rooms beyond as he heard Larc and Ariesa following more slowly behind him.
"I smell a trap!" growled Larc, running to catch up to Escad.
"Escad!" Ariesa called in concern, and he turned to catch the barest glimpse of her, before he felt the ground shudder beneath him.
Daena always told me I was the impulsive one, he thought to himself randomly, as he crashed through the floor to the depths below.
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They were well and truly lost. Elazul had been absolutely certain that he knew which way to go, but suddenly it felt like the trail had jumped, in a completely different direction. He was trying to make his best guess as to where they should be going now, but he had the feeling he wasn't fooling anyone.
Where they had ended up, was certainly not where they had been trying to go. The "Graveyard of Artifacts", it was officially called, but really, it was just a heap of junk. Elazul puzzled over the mound of trash that was all that remained by which to honor Anuella.
The woman had been near insane near her death, everyone knew that. Then again, after all she had been through, it was perhaps not surprising.
She had been one of the critical figures of history, and Elazul couldn't help but feel that it was like being inside her head, looking at the miscellaneous remnants of her creations and contemplating the broken items surrounding him. Lisa and Bud, with that natural curiosity that all had at that age, poked among the wreckage.
"What brings you here?" boomed a voice suddenly. Lisa and Pearl emitted very similar squeaks in surprise, and Daena's hand flashed to her flail.
The creature that lumbered towards them was sort of… demi-human. It walked towards them on two feet, wearing an odd pair of pants, but its chest was grossly exaggerated, covered with some grayish fur, ending in a head that might have passed for something more human had it not been for the lack of neck.
"I am Fernando, and I demand an answer," he continued. Elazul relaxed slightly, hoping Fernando – what an odd name for a monster – wouldn't be offended by whichever female he heard giggling behind him.
"We're lost," Elazul finally admitted, ignoring Daena's smirk.
"Oh, is that all?" Fernando replied, the harsh, guttural voice settling into an ordinary and positively cordial one. "I can lead you out. Follow me. I wouldn't recommend touching anything, though. The things here do not like to be disturbed."
A quick chide from Daena pulled the children closer, and Pearl walked beside him, absolutely silent, the look on her face telling him that she was quite lost in her thoughts, but told him nothing about how or why. She ran her gaze over the rotting bits of garbage around them, residues of Mana still there for them both, but the true power gone now that the structure of the things had fallen apart.
They came to an odd open area, and Fernando paused. "Wait here. I have to make the path appear," he said, then suddenly ran off, leaving the puzzled group to look around uncertainly.
Elazul sat on a dried-out tree stump, figuring that at least was safe, and put his head in one hand glumly. Pearl joined him, still not saying anything, but placing one small hand on his shoulder. He closed his eyes, and rested his head on that hand wearily.
"Hey, guys, look at this!" came Bud's voice.
"Bud, no!" came Lisa's shout as Elazul jumped up, but it was too late. Whatever item Bud had been tugging on came loose, and an entire pile of objects avalanched after it, crashing to the ground, some breaking even more than they were already broken.
Bud looked at the mess, abashed. "Oops," was all he said.
"Who dares to disturb our rest?" hissed a demonic voice.
Over the wreckage came floating a small figure, barely larger than a fairy and looking something the same, like a doll version of one, but with glaring red eyes. "I am Magnolia, and this is my domain. What are you doing here?" she demanded in that same raspy voice.
Daena opened her mouth to say something, but Magnolia interrupted her. "No," she uttered. "I want to talk to that one." She pointed at Elazul, who balked slightly, but stepped forward at the doll's summon.
"Why did she come here?" Magnolia asked.
"Who? Pearl?" Elazul asked, now thoroughly confused.
"No. The Artificer. Anuella," she finished, pronouncing the name almost like a curse word, then laughing maniacally. "I destroyed her here, you see? Just like I destroyed the girl I was given to. Destroy, destroy, destroy…" she finished in a sing-song voice, slightly off-key.
"I have no idea," said Elazul, hand reaching for his sword stealthily.
"Liar!" Magnolia shouted, suddenly diving for him. Elazul's sword was raised in a flash, and Magnolia thought better of it and stopped, backtracking a small distance away. "You knew her, you did. I see her mark on you."
There was a brush against his cape, and he realized Pearl had stepped behind him; her core told him she was completely freaked out. "Eyes of Flame," she whispered suddenly, inexplicably.
Well, those eyes sure did look like flames. Their burning redness made Elazul profoundly uncomfortable, but he couldn't afford to be truly afraid. "It's fine, Pearl," he said soothingly, and she seemed to relax.
"You knew her," insisted Magnolia.
"Sorry to disappoint you," Elazul said, as casually as he could muster, "but Anuella has been dead for hundreds of years."
Magnolia looked, of all things, confused by that. "Centuries? Truly? Has it been so long we have been trapped here?" Elazul nodded, and she seemed to deflate. "You should not be here, in the past. Very well, then. I will lead you through."
"But Fernando - " protested Daena.
"Shush," Magnolia admonished. "The creature is stupid and knows little. Come this way. It is the only way, but the things here will be out to get you if you don't know where you are going."
Magnolia flitted a short distance away, leading them down a path where the heaps were so tall that they cast shadows over the path. Elazul faked confidence for the sake of the others, but truthfully, he found himself hoping this was indeed the way out.
The twins did not need to be told this time to stick together, they walking side by side, unintentional mirrors of one another as Bud looked left and Lisa looked right, both fascinated and terrified. Pearl's spacey expression was replaced by alertness, and Daena had not let her guard down once since they had entered the place.
Magnolia seemed to bring life to the objects as she passed. Murmurs seemed to come to their ears, from where, exactly, they could not say. Voices told of pain, of desperation, of death. Stories of fighting for, against the fairies, the mages. Memories of the war where Mana had become a weapon, and Elazul felt sudden pity for those who had endured such a corruption.
He was not the only one who sensed it. "All this angst, all these memories, all this pain," Daena mused. "What was it all for?"
"You know it all means something different to me, right?" Elazul replied. Pearl nodded vigorously in understanding.
"What do you mean?" she asked him, puzzled.
Elazul sighed. Sappho had seen to it he knew his Jumi history, but it never failed to make him angry. "The Jumi did not take sides in the war. They brought the powers of healing to both sides, but people were more interested in finding out if Jumi could be used to gather more power. Eventually, they no longer cared if the person was attached to the core, and that's when the hunting began."
"Oh," Daena said, looking suddenly embarrassed. "I forgot. I'm sorry."
"Don't worry about it," Elazul brushed off, distracted by the pain that had begun to form in his core. He could only assume it had come on when he got himself so worked up; it was nothing like the sharp, wrenching pain that had brought him to his knees earlier.
Pearl grabbed his hand. He tried to keep it from her, but the bond let her know, of course. The bond was another thing that was worrying him; ever since his core had been injured, it was… less. Still there, but not the same, and he experienced it as a loss.
"The wars didn't really help anyone in the end, did they?" Daena said.
"No," Elazul agreed, looking forward at their poltergeist guide. She seemed to feel him, and turned to address Elazul once again.
"I saw her, you know," Magnolia told them. "After the wars. Our creator. She gave us life, but our life was only death. It wasn't her fault, none of it was, really but I hate her for it all!" She hissed, a high, whistling sound. "She was able to die. We cannot die. I am haunted by the Underworld, filled with its power, but unable to go there."
Pearl reached one hand forward, sympathy welling in those blue-gray eyes. "Nothing lasts forever," she said gently. "The Goddess will be back someday."
"They told us that, too. But… I think perhaps you are not so twisted as they once were," mused the doll. "I only wish… that I was free, the same as everyone does. They say that those who die with desire in their hearts will wander the earth forever, but what if all you want is revenge?"
Magnolia made an abrupt turn, revealing a passage Elazul had missed completely. A forest was visible, and the Norn Peaks, their original destination, beyond. "You go this way, now."
"But - " Elazul protested, feeling the pull of Ariesa in the opposite direction.
"You go this way," Magnolia insisted. "That was where you were heading. You should remain true to your goal. It might not be what you think you need, but you will find it soon enough." Elazul looked doubtfully at the path before them, but when he looked back, Magnolia had disappeared.
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Ariesa woke staring at the ceiling. How many times could one reasonably be expected to be knocked unconscious, she wondered. The thought slowly brought her back, and the reality of the situation returned.
"Escad?" she called. "Larc?" There was no answer from either.
How long had she been out? The last thing she remembered was the floor caving in under Escad, taking her down with it. She didn't think they would have left her - definitely not Escad, and oddly, she thought Larc neither - which left only one possibility.
They had been taken.
And that meant she was not alone.
Panic welled briefly, but she was practiced in ignoring it. It would go down soon enough, if she replaced it with rational thought. So she took a deep breath, and composed herself to the surroundings.
Bones formed the arches and supports of the room she was in, and rooms and hallways were vaguely visible beyond. Where to go first? "This way," she told herself, and set out with no further thought.
She had guessed wrong, she realized soon enough, as the corridor dead-ended in a mock graveyard of miscellaneous bones and some skull of an animal she did not recognize. The bones didn't even bother her anymore, as she took a seat on the skull to ponder her dilemma.
"Hey! Watch it!"
Ariesa jumped straight up, looking around in confusion, but the room was as empty as when she entered. The only other possibility... "Did you just talk to me?" she addressed the skull, thinking she was losing it completely.
The skull's eyes lit up, and the response reassured her… briefly, before she realized it was a skull talking back.
"Now, what's a pretty girl like you doing lost in a place like this?" the skull continued.
"You can see? You think I'm pretty?" was her gut response. Possibly she was running short on compliments, if she enjoyed receiving one from what was essentially an inanimate object.
The skull laughed, the eye-lights flickering. "Well, I can hear you're female, and after all this time, can you blame me for hoping an attractive woman would show up?"
"Oh." Ariesa couldn't think of a response.
"Well, seriously," the skull continued. "I remember what it is like to think the fortress has me trapped. The bone dragon made it that way, a prison for those unfortunate enough to step inside. But I can help you, now. I've had plenty of time to figure this castle out."
"Okay, would you tell me, please?" Ariesa knelt to make eye contact, such as it was. She could at least be polite to a spirit who called her pretty.
"First, push on that wall over there," the skull instructed. "You'll find a new passage. But don't try to leave without the rest of your party, or they'll be stuck here forever."
"Thank you," Ariesa replied. Stepping towards the wall, she paused to turn. "One more question. Is there a Mana Stone here?"
The skull paused before answering. "There is," it replied, "but you'd be lucky to live to see it. I sure didn't." And it laughed again, a brittle, rattling sound that gave her chills down her spine.
That was enough. She pushed on the wall as told, and the bones clattered to the floor, revealing the opening beyond.
A man paced in the shadows of the room beyond, strangely familiar, but too short to be Larc or Escad. It suddenly dawned on her. "Thoma?" she said incredulously.
The young man started, then pulled off his helm to reveal the same face she had seen in Polpota, but now somehow looking a little older and much more haunted. "He brought me here," Thoma said, "to find out what I had discovered. But he wasn't happy that the core had escaped him. He left me down here and said he'd deal with me later… I've been here ever since…" His eyes wandered, as if they had not needed to focus for a long time.
"Who?" asked Ariesa. "Who would do such a thing?"
"The Emperor. Deathbringer," he finished, whispering the name as if he expected someone to hear.
Anger welled within her, fury at the Empire rising once again. "You can't stay here," she said.
"But… where do I go? How do I get out of here?" Thoma asked, slightly confused and disoriented.
"Come with me," she told him commandingly. He started slightly, clarity seeming to return to his expression. The slightest light of hope was seen, and he nodded, as she turned to go.
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Escad allowed Ariesa to help him up grudgingly. He was embarrassed about falling for such a trap, and he knew he shouldn't take it out on her, but he brushed off her concern curtly nevertheless. "I'm fine," he protested, as she offered her hand to support him.
But his composure dropped, and he practically jumped, startled, when he saw the other figure with her, and the armor he was wearing. "Why do you have a soldier of the Empire with you?" he demanded.
Thoma opened his mouth to defend himself, but Ariesa waved him off. "I know him, Escad," she said determinedly, "and I say he goes with us." Escad still was wary of the man, but he had never heard her take that tone with him before, and it was a tone that deflected all argument.
Perhaps she had a little spine to her after all.
"The Empire seeks only to restore Mana to the world," Thoma said, puffing up, reminding Escad of the young man he himself had once been. Unable to admit he was wrong.
"That's what you imagine will happen," Escad berated him. "Your illusions will be destroyed soon enough."
Once, he had allowed himself to imagine only ideals. Now, he knew better. Imagination could be dark as well, he thought to himself. And perhaps sometimes it should be. That was one of those things the Underworld had taught him, that both dark and light in balance made the world of the Goddess. And those poor fools who only expected the best…
"We should go," he said brusquely, in Ariesa's general direction. She was too preoccupied to notice, staring at the walls in contemplation. "What?" he asked.
"Go where? In this castle?" she replied. Hastily she briefed him on her experiences in the basement. Talking skulls and secret passages… Escad whistled. Jajara didn't mess around.
"The only question is," she finished, "how do we get back up?"
"Elevator," he replied simply. She followed his arm to a bone-blocked gate that he had seen just as the floor crashed in on him.
He walked over, pulling on the bone with all his might, stopping to splinter it sporadically with his sword until, eventually the thick bone cracked. This would have been a great time for Larc to be here with that axe of his, thought Escad sarcastically, moving to the next one.
Ariesa got the picture quickly enough, and she started in on the other side, helping hack through the barrier until they cleared a space large enough to squeeze through to the room beyond. Wisps of flame greeted them, flitting through the air above. "Where to? Where to?" they seemed to cry, the voices high and shrieking but reminiscent of those incredibly irritating Shadoles nonetheless.
"Where, indeed? Larc must be here somewhere," said Ariesa.
"When all else fails, start at the top," Escad suggested. "Isn't that always where the bad guys hide out? I think they do it on purpose."
"That's the home of the bone dragon," Thoma whispered.
"The third floor, then," Ariesa agreed, and the wisps of flames danced in agreement, as the room began to rise up through the fortress.
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They disembarked at the top, only to find out they were not alone. Recognition clicked instantly this time, as Ariesa recognized the woman they had seen at the base of the Norn Peaks.
"You again! I thought I had you trapped in the basement!" cried Sierra. "Are you looking for Larc?"
"Why, yes, we are," Escad replied, and for once Ariesa was forgiving of his arrogance. "You have anything to do with his disappearance?"
"Below. Safe. I checked for him first, naturally," Sierra replied. "Unconscious, or I would try to reason with him again. For him, there is some excuse, but why are the two of you helping him kill the dragons? Not that I would miss Jajara, but I know my responsibilities."
Ariesa felt rage burning within her once again. "The dragons, that try to hide away the power of Mana from the world? The power that could help my friends?"
Sierra looked at her point-blank. "Child, you know so little, but I see you will not listen to reason. Well... without you Drakonis will give up... and I will not have to kill Larc." And then she struck.
Her first attack was directed towards Ariesa, perhaps thinking her the weakest link, but the young woman was more than prepared to prove her wrong. "Child?!" she snarled, her blade whipping up to block first one, then the other, of Sierra's sharp knives.
The wolf-woman was fast, and her short weapons flew, leaving Ariesa pressed to keep back. Thoma wisely held back, and Escad tried several times to step in, but the mass of whirling blades prevented him from finding any opening. It left Ariesa one-on-one with her obviously skilled opponent.
Battle-madness had overtaken her, and her body moved of its own accord, the sound of metal clanging upon metal marking the progress of the fight. Sierra's knives barely grazed her, and when they did, she ignored them as she might a splinter. Her own sword jabbed, defended, feinted, swung, dealing as many if not more blows than she herself received.
She knew as soon as she hit. The blade cleaved into the back of Sierra's leg, and she crumpled to the floor, hamstrung. Ariesa stopped, unsure of what to do next, having no real desire to do more than end the fight.
The decision was taken from her. "Vadise, remove me!" Sierra's voiced boomed out, and in an instant, she was gone.
"She didn't even tell us where Larc was," griped Escad.
"He wasn't in the basement," Ariesa said. "Where else could he be?"
"That woman," Thoma began hesitantly, "said below… maybe the second floor, then? I think there's a secret room just off the main room."
They tumbled back into the elevator, and the dancing flames took them one floor below. Thoma led them to a room that appeared to be a dead end, but he stepped to the wall, fiddling with switches nearly invisible to Ariesa's eyes. A creak, and the wall swung open, to reveal Larc, prostrate on the ground.
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Larc woke shakily, the sprits of the castle swimming through his head. When you were technically already dead, or at least in some sort of post-life existence, all the other undead seemed to assume you wanted to hang out with them.
"Right where Sierra said he would be," noted the voice of Ariesa approvingly.
Her words hit Larc. "Sierra... she was here?" he asked, forcing himself to concentrate.
"That white-furred dog-woman with attitude to spare?" answered Escad. "Yeah, she was here too. We drove her off."
Larc felt pained. If he could have completed this without her being involved... "My sister... I'm sorry... I should have known she would lay a trap... it's the sort of thing she would do." Ariesa laid a compassionate hand on his shoulder, and that on top of his worries for Sierra made him feel worse than ever for those he was using and fighting.
He disgusted himself.
Truthfully, they were all trapped, and he knew how that felt. She would be released at the end of this - if she even knew she was held at all. He had no choice, though, than to follow the will of Drakonis, until he could figure a way out. Willing or not, he was a dragoon, and his dragon controlled him.
Despite it all, he blamed himself. If he only had a little more strength… Sierra always had something within her he envied, a sort of brazen determination that he had never been able to emulate, and he wondered if it was that critical difference that had ultimately led them to their different fates now.
Not that it changed his desire for revenge. At the top of this fortress resided his nemesis. Or possibly two, depending on how you looked at it. The visit to the bone fortress was special, indeed.
"Next, the Throne of Corpses," Larc proclaimed. "Where we find the bone dragon." Determined, he led them back to the top floor, tensing in anticipation of meeting Jajara's dragoon. One who he had not seen in a long time.
"Wait!" Ariesa suddenly cried, and Larc reached a dead halt.
Before he could say anything, she had made a sharp right off the main passage, and suddenly he remembered what was in that room. He followed her into the side room to find her already leaning over the basin, it glowing softly pink then purple, radiating with a calmness seen nowhere else in the fortress.
"What is it?" asked Escad, leaning over the side as well.
Ariesa seemed entranced. "There is light within the darkness," she murmured, hypnotically, her eyes not breaking away.
Larc could feel the Mana rolling off the basin – a sort of balanced Mana, surprising to find in this home of death. It rolled off him, corrupted as he was, but it seemed to wrap gently around her despite it all.
That was what he had needed her for, after all – the balance that would let him approach the Mana Stones. They would reject him, reject even Escad, but he had been told that those stones would reach for her, seek her. There were few others for which this was true; he knew that much, though not the why of it all.
He couldn't bring himself to force her away. Instead, he stood there, a bit of jealousy creeping up for the things she still had the luxury to feel. He waited patiently, until eventually, she rose, a dreamy, clear-eyed look on her face.
"Let's go find that dragon and his Mana," she murmured peacefully.
Her mood clouded over soon enough, breaking as they stepped out onto a bridge of thick slabs of bone, held together by some sinewy component. Besides being fairly disgusting, the crossing was rickety, and made even more uncomfortable by the blue sky visible between the bones below and at either side, through the open windows of the fortress, letting winds whistle through.
They stepped onto the bridge with trepidation, making it halfway before a voice erupted to echo through the passage, more deathly that Drakonis's voice ever was.
"Intruders! Bring a whole army if you wish! You will not pass!" it boomed, the echoes shaking the bony bridge. Thoma cringed, knowing as well as Larc who awaited them; but Larc himself was some combination of indifferent and fiendishly eager.
"Deathbringer," he said, letting the venom drip from his words.
The voice was surprised. "Larc the Conqueror!" it cackled. "Ah, it all makes sense… So you are the servant of Drakonis. I always wondered where they shipped you off to. A long way from who we were once, yes. You should be quite an opponent. The dead killing the dead. To think we would meet again like this, after a hundred years..."
"And you, Irzoile," Larc said scornfully. "Serving the bidding of the dragon of death. Slavery in the afterlife. A fitting end for you as well, perhaps?" The only response was a snarl.
"How did we miss this guy earlier?" wondered Ariesa.
"Sierra probably wanted to keep you away. You won't stand a chance against this guy without me." Larc felt a stab of pain. "It's the sort of thing she would do."
Ariesa nodded slowly, considering, as Deathbringer made his appearance.
Deathbringer was larger than life, but seemingly fragile nevertheless. The onetime emperor was now a pathetic shade, his drawn skin making him seem as skeletal as the bleached bones of the fortress. That decayed face, however, was still able to smile an evil grin.
Larc had his axe out, his hand gripping it until his knuckles turned white. He stepped forward, a man determined. He spoke one word. "Nemesis."
Deathbringer laughed then, a hollow, rancid sound. "Perhaps. The Underworld is no friend of mine, trapped in servitude as I am… But I cannot help but respect the power of death. And I will bring it to you!"
The enormous dragoon bore no visible weapon, but it was quickly apparent that whatever powers death had given him, he didn't need one. Long, knife-sharp claws emerged from his hands, and Larc dodged awkwardly from those quintuple blades.
A second swipe would have neatly cleaved into Larc, but Escad was already there to block. The muscles of his arms strained to hold his sword against those razored talons, giving Larc enough time to stumbled out of range before Escad dropped his sword, dodging himself.
Deathbringer lost balance momentarily, recovering and retreating. Larc knew immediately what was happening. "He's going to attack with magic!" he shouted.
Barely on the end of the sentence, bolts of deathly energy rained down on them, purplish-black crackles of energy darting forward, only to steer neatly around the trio of warriors.
Their enemy looked surprised. "So," he mumbled. "Your connection to the Underworld protects you some. The men, there is some explanation, but you - " he said, turning to Ariesa – "what do you have to do with the Underworld?"
She had rolled out of the way of that magic attack, but it might have caught her nevertheless had it not been deflected. Now, she stood, confused, and obviously considering the question, as Deathbringer's eyes bored into her. "Ah… I see…" he said thoughtfully. "How many lies did they tell you, girl, to bring you here?"
Ariesa only stood her ground, weapon in hand and anger contorting her face.
"But I sense another," Deathbringer continued, turning to where Thoma cringed back against the wall, trying to avoid the self-proclaimed Emperor's view. "Minion!" Irzoile roared. "Have you no respect?"
The only reason his claws did not end Thoma's life then and there was Larc's swift dive to block and repel the attack. The young man seemed more afraid than ever. "I can't fight him," he whispered urgently. "He holds me still…" As he said it, his hands seemed to fall without his will, and he took steps toward his former liege, his eyes suddenly focused forward. "It's stronger this close to him…"
Escad grabbed him from behind, and Thoma resisted, pulling his sword to flail it randomly at the older man. "Fight it, damn you!" Escad yelled, struggling to subdue Thoma.
Deathbringer only cackled. "That's it, my servant," he said soothingly. "Destroy my enemies."
"We have to finish off Deathbringer to break the bond!" Larc shouted. He caught Ariesa's eye, and she nodded.
She was facing Deathbringer's back, and with a tremendous leap, planted her sword firmly in his torso. Odd, whitish blood spurted out in front of him, as her sword poked out where the heart would be found.
Larc knew. "You've hit it!" he called encouragingly. For the undead, the organs were still activated, now in possession of their master, but vulnerable nevertheless.
Thoma screamed as he was freed from his bond of servitude, and Escad let him go as he tumbled to the floor. "The ghost of the emperor," he groaned. "The one that controlled us, caused us so much pain…"
The ghost had crumpled forward, and Ariesa yanked her sword out, twisting it sadistically for good measure. Irzoile's lifeblood dripped out, slipping between the gaps of the bridge to land somewhere below in the fortress, among all the other death that lay there. Even in the obvious throes of death, he laughed, a hollow sound resonating in that skeletal face.
"Most impressive, girl," he complimented Ariesa. "There is something in your blood, something you do not know yet… Jajara should have taken you himself before Drakonis found you. But he will make up for that mistake soon enough, I'm sure."
"The bone dragon?" she asked uncertainly. "Why? What does he want? Who is he?"
"Someone who carries the burden of death upon him." An ironic comment, coming from the one known as Deathbringer, and ironic laughter followed. "You will discover what that means soon enough. And the burden of death on you if you lose… as if you didn't already have nothing to lose. But then again, none of us do, don't we, Larc?"
Larc stepped forward, a dispassionate expression neatly concealing his fury at the taunt. The last pretense at life left the body of Irzoile Enshaalac, and Larc stood for a moment, contemplating the sequence of events that had led them both to meet again.
But that was not the end of it. The one that had condemned him to his servile existence still waited.
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Ariesa tried to reach forward, trying to detect the Stone that lay before them with her newly-unleashed sense of Mana. But even had she been able to sense it, it was heavily compressed under a thick layer of foreboding as they entered Jajara's throne room.
The Throne of Corpses. That was what Larc had called it, the domain of the dragon of darkness and death, and she understood well enough why. Skulls of various creatures littered the outskirts, impaled on spikes for maximal display, and nondescript bones littered the floor.
This close, Ariesa could feel a bit of the Stone of Darkness, but it was… odd. She strained to get closer, to understand its power, but it felt slippery, falling out of her grasp every time she nearly made the connection. And in those instants of contact… it was a maddening conglomeration of duality and opposition, cohesion and separation, a hodgepodge of conflicts all rolling over each other to sync and diverge once again…
Her ability was limited, but Larc raised his snout as if sniffing the air, every muscle tensing in response to the Stone's power. Escad seemed perturbed, and even Thoma caught the mood. "Jajara!" Larc roared. "I know you're here! Come out to meet us, and answer for your crimes!"
"You would be correct, dragoon." The voice resonated across the caverns, not the harsh scraping of the dragoon, but something ancient, deathly, and terrifying. Before them, Jajara came into view, blackness seeming to follow him, his form distinguished by the negative space around him, and Ariesa saw the truth of the name bone dragon.
"Were you waiting for us?" Escad demanded rashly.
Nothing was left of the dragon but his skeleton, it frighteningly animated as if it was a whole being still. Hollow eye sockets turned to focus on Escad. "Of course," that even, nearly velvet-smooth voice replied, in stark contrast to the rotted vision before them. "My dragoon's death throes alerted me to your presence quickly enough. Then again, he was technically dead already, so I can fix him up anytime." He laughed, the sound echoing mockingly across the chamber. "But why are you here, Larc? Does Drakonis think he can escape my control, that he can gather Mana once again, after all the bloodshed he caused a thousand years ago? Does he still pretend he is the Dragon Emperor?"
Larc's jaw clenched. " I have little choice. You know that well."
"This is true," Jajara acknowledged. "My dragoon once wished to call himself Emperor as well. He learned his place, as Drakonis will soon enough. I hold the leashes of both." He paused, and when he spoke again, his voice resonated across the chambers. "I am the one who rules. I have the powers of light and dark, here in this fortress. I have survived the powers of Shade as few others have. And you, dragoon of Drakonis, come here to challenge me?!"
Ariesa was tired of standing back, and she wanted some answers. "How could you!" she screamed, not sure where the words were coming from. "The emperor who destroyed the Jumi and half the world looking for more power… how could you let him live, to control his soldiers living and dead, and let the Empire survive?"
Jajara looked at her as if he had only just noticed her. His gaze was penetrating but there was nothing of Akravator's wisdom in it, mere driven passion. "So..." the dragon said, and Ariesa flinched at the sound coming from that bony, dead jaw. "So this is what Drakonis tries. Perhaps he was more slippery than I thought. The only question is, did he send you here for the Stones, or something more?"
"Answer my question." There was a pit in her stomach, but she gazed down Jajara defiantly.
"Do you really want to know?" he asked, not waiting for her to nod. "The Empire receded. Is that not enough?"
Ariesa stubbornly maintained the gaze. "Very well," Jajara sighed. He floated eerily above, out of reach of all their weapons. "It will not hurt you to know. He was once my nemesis, but as my servant and ally, his subjects are mine. Rather than let him free to find what may be called the ultimate weapon, I use him to reach it first. A devil's bargain, so to speak."
"Polpota!" Ariesa cried. "The soldiers…"
"You knew of that?" Jajara questioned. "No matter. The dead are mine anyway, not Drakonis's. Nor Olbohn's, or Aion's, or anyone else's who think they are in charge of the Underworld. How could a wisdom compare to the Dragon of Knowledge? It doesn't matter what they pretend, I know I am the true power."
"What do you expect to do with the Sword?" demanded Escad.
Jajara swiveled. "You don't get it at all, do you? I thought you, at least, might understand the powers of dark. The Goddess is our savior, and our nemesis. We will have to fight her as well as to love her. Only by understanding Her darkness can we hope to bring her to life once again." The thought gave Ariesa chills.
Larc snorted. "Excuses."
"You say so, servant of Drakonis?" Larc flinched at Jajara's method of address. "You will never understand why I sent you to the Underworld, and kept Deathbringer here, what sort of balance must be maintained. You think you can know everything?" the dragon said, scathingly. "The Goddess's plan is complex, and it is not for the likes of you to know it all."
"I know well enough," protested Larc.
"Do you?" Jajara's voice, his dead, bony gaze turned sinister. "The dragons, the wisdoms, they will not tell you all. It is not a matter of good and evil. Some crystals glow with the light that many believe is the Goddess; some, like mine, hold chaos, and that is of Her as well. I am the challenge of everyone who thinks they can control that chaos. I am their nemesis."
"You are a pathetic shade of a dragon who used to be great," sneered Larc. "Your time is up. In the stead of Drakonis… I have come to slay you!"
"Then let it begin!" Jarara boomed, crashing to the floor, rattling the piles of bones all around him and shaking the skulls loose from the walls. They struck the ground, shattering in all directions, as the bone dragon struck with a roar.
Akravator was nothing compared to Jajara, as weapons clanged uselessly against the dragon's bones. Jajara only laughed, swiping skeletal claws towards them almost scornfully, broadsiding Ariesa and sending her skidding across the ground. She groaned, pulling herself to hands and knees and blindly grabbing for her fallen sword.
The only real advantage they had was in numbers. Escad feinted on one side, and Thoma dove in on the other, his lighter sword scoring against the dragon's leg with an ear-splitting squeal. Jajara whirled to combat the new nuisance, and Larc's axe caught a rib, cracking the bond cleanly in half.
The dragon reared, and screamed. Larc jumped backwards. "Look out!" he shouted, and Ariesa dove for cover a split second before waves of that dark energy, the same as Deathbringer had used but a hundred times more powerful, exploded from the dragon in all directions.
It was a thousand strikes that they were using to wear their enemy down, splintering, shattering bones wherever they could find them. Ariesa began to have hope they could win still, when with a crack, Jajara wrenched off one of his own rib bones, it eerily rejoining to connect the leg that was hanging limply.
"Larc!" she cried, but the dragoon already understood, and gave a nod in her direction. She dove forward, her stroke awkward, but she knew it was only a feint. Escad followed right behind her, and the dragon's head swung wildly between the two, deciding which to attack first.
It did not matter. Ariesa saw Larc reach the Stone beyond, and Jajara emitted a final, splitting shriek as he was cut off from the source of his power. His skeleton crumpled into pieces before their very eyes.
His skull still spoke, the disembodied jaw forming the words. "Drakonis! The monster who tried to destroy us all once already, so long ago," the bone dragon sputtered. "He will find his nemesis soon enough." With that, the skeleton faded, dissolving into motes of blackish-purple light, and an eerie silence settled over what had once been his throne.
Ariesa stepped delicately around the remaining stones littering the floor, to where Larc stood behind the Stone. Its feeling was already fading; Larc had nearly finished draining it. That made her sad, in a way she couldn't entirely explain.
Larc himself stood with head bowed, one hand on the stone as its light faded. When he spoke, she wasn't sure if he was talking to her, or to himself. "We know Mana has power," he began, "but why does it exist at all? Why does one seek it, only to have another wither and die?"
Ariesa had no answer, and an uncomfortable silence descended. "What now?" she wondered out loud, mostly to break the moment.
"Next, Vadise," replied Larc. It wasn't really the question she was asking, but she supposed the answer would have to do.
"Can you find her? She's a slippery one," Escad asked.
"I don't need to." Larc looked at him witheringly. "I can find Sierra easily enough, and I'll be damned if they aren't together."
"Aren't you already damned?" Escad asked, grinning, and even Thoma chuckled, but Ariesa paused in thought. Sierra… the wolf-woman lower in the Fortress… someone important to Larc. There was still much going on here that she did not understand.
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Bud scampered along, his steps positively whimsical compared to Elazul's determined strides, as they traveled towards the base of the Norn Peaks.
The Jumi Knight was troubled. He had been receiving the oddest feelings from his core since they had left the junkyard, first gentle and peaceful, then chaotic and troubled, but both powerful enough to cause him pain. Similar to the pain that had crumpled him before, though not as strong; perhaps he was getting used to it. He tried to hide it, but there was no concealing things from Pearl, and every time she looked at him with concern covering her pale face.
They entered a village, a strange village of treehouses on stilts, but the village was not only deserted, but decimated. Houses had been ripped into shreds as if by an enormous wind.
Almost deserted. One person remained. In the middle of all the wreckage, bowed towards the ground and so still she could have been mistaken for scenery, was a woman of the wolf-clan.
Elazul ran to her, protective instinct kicking in. "What happened here?" he asked, dropping to the ground by her side.
The wolf-woman raised a mournful face. "I tried to stop them at the fortress… but I was driven off… and I returned here, to find… this." She began to cry, turning her head as she tried to hide it from the newcomers. Slowly the story spilled out, leaving them all slightly incredulous.
Bud inched slightly closer to his sister, wanting the comfort of her presence but trying not to make it obvious. "That's definitely Ariesa," Elazul said grimly. "But why would she do such a thing?"
"Does it matter?" the woman who introduced herself as Sierra replied. "There is only one hope, and that is to return to the White Forest, and protect Vadise."
"We'll go with you," replied Daena.