Chapter 26: Discovery

The Tomb of Valdamar Valerian

Heroes. Many people aspire to be one but very few actually managed to become one, and both humans and elves have that in common. Heroes were rare amongst elves but downright unheard of in human societies; and whenever one did come along, Xadia always held out hope that maybe just maybe the animosity and hatred between the two sides could be talked away. So they could instead bring about the belief of many oracles that had come about since humanities birth into Xadia. The 'fostering of understanding and love', the supposed spoken words of Licht before he disappeared into the stars.

Yet, heroes came and went, and wars kept occurring. No such person; human or elf ever achieved such a title as hero in the last two hundred years. The last human hero had been the king that had spilt the original human civilisation into the five independent nations that became the Pentarchy. He may have been human but the elves did in some small way respect him for his actions. Weakening the exiled humans, meant that they would be divided and far less likely to desire revenge against Xadia.

The greatest elven hero was a Skywing Arch Mage who later became a reclusive High Oracle. Risen to prominence during the arrival of the Urskeks, thousands of years ago, he was the best friend of the leader of the elves: Licht. He had tried to warn his leader about the potential duplicity of these 'space travellers', and not be 'beguiled by the stories of stars, galaxies and universal stratagem'.

Valdamar Valerian became the de facto leader of the elves when Licht chose knowledge of the universe, abdicated his position and gave the UrSkeks the Crystal of Truth or as elves called it 'the Heart of Xadia'. The Orrery that was built, and still stood, on the highest peak of the Atlas Mountains was where Licht took up dwellings and began learning from the UrSkeks. Projecting his aura throughout time and space.

It was Valerian that led the elves into battle against the UrSkeks, and then once the elves had been thoroughly defeated, he dissolved the singular elven civilisation, decrying it. From there he abandoned his people and went into self imposed exile, leaving six High Elf Lords to become and found the six arcane tribes.

When Valerian died his body was interred in an Arcane Sky Temple, as befitting a skywing elf. The last elf to be given a traditional Temple Burial. As such, when humanity was cast out of Xadia, Valerian was never reinterred in the elven controlled East. As elves considered it sacrilege and extremely taboo for a Temple lain elf to be disturbed, especially one of such high regard. And the familiarity and adoration that his presence still gave rise to, so many centuries after his death, only symbolised how much of a hero he was to all elves.

"I'm sorry if I'm frustrating you", Zeren spoke lowering his head, so that his eyes became hidden behind his dark brown fringe. "I know you want me to explain... things to you, but I-I-I don't want you to be threatened by those people because of me".

The four young knights had been following a set of runes, copied down by Sarai and then translated by Zeren, marking the way through the maze of columns toward the treasure vault. In silence for most of the trek, since discovering Zeren's knowledge of the elven language and his positive outlook of humanities oldest enemy.

Looking towards their forlorn leader, the other three frowned but said nothing. They wanted to say something positive that would bring him out of his moodiness but at the same time they wanted to know the truth about Zeren. Not some collections of half truths.

Finally, Sarai broke the silence. "Can I just say this", she began, "Zeren... you are my first friend who is not my sister. I really want to continue this friendship... but you have to be open me". It was not hard to, despite the low light, to see that her words had made the boy even more crestfallen than he already was. There was a conflict building up within Zeren, his desire for human friends and his will to ensure that Xadia and humanity were set on a different path.

Zeren remained silent, focusing on translating the runes which Sarai had copied down and moving the group forwards. However, unknown to him, his continued silence was begging to grate on her nerves of Thorfinn and Sarai. Only Jorvik seemed to be giving him space for the moment, yet Zeren knew that even he would ask for the truth soon. Suddenly sensing something descending from the ceiling, Zeren came to a dead stop before spinning around and looking upwards into the darkness.

"What is it?" Sarai asked, annoyance replaced by concern in her voice. "Something's up there", her friend whispered back, "it's been tracking us since we reached this level of the Temple". A thought entered her mind as she followed his gaze upwards. "Is it the same thing which Jorvik spoke of, the thing which sounded metallic?"

"No this is different... its probably some sort of giant arachnid", Zeren guessed. "I can hear a faint singing of strings. Although we should move on..."

His words were suddenly cut off but a series of razor sharp spines shooting down, from high above, and impaling themselves in Zeren's right arm. Immediately flinging themselves into action, Thorfinn and Jorvik bolted forwards and used their shields to protect the group whilst leading them towards a pair of huge oaken doors in the distance. A loud hissing sound reached their ears as one by one six giant spiders with spines protruding from their backs landed on the ground and began to run towards them, spitting silken webs and baring four large fangs in their mouthes.

"Shit, shit, shit... shit!" Thorfinn growled as he drew an arc of runes with his sword and then lashed out with the sole dark magic spell he knew, resulting in the ground beneath the spiders eight legs turning to sand. "That won't deter them for long", Thorfinn yelled, moving forwards to support Zeren, "we need to reach the end of this damned hall". Hurrying onwards, they heard increased hissing coming from behind them followed by the soft moving pads of eight footed spiders.

"They smell the blood..." Zeren wheezed, feeling an intense pain in his right arm. "Yeah well..." Thorfinn responded. "If that's your way of trying to subtlety suggest I 'leave you behind', you can bloody well forget it! You may be a noble but you're still my team leader and I'm not leaving a team mate behind. Especially as you haven't explained yourself yet".

"It's not that", Zeren answered, remembering one particular spell that Eris had taught him, "I can..." a coughing fit abruptly stopped his words, and a small spattering of blood oozed from his mouth.

Turning around, Sarai and Jorvik, who had reached the oak doors, saw what was happening. "He's been poisoned..." Jorvik uttered, "and those spiders are closing in!" Sarai felt as if her heart was constricting. She tried to move back to help the others but was grabbed by Jorvik. "You can't... you'll only hinder their progress if young back", the dark haired boy spoke. And then it occurred... a blinding flash of silver ice erupted from a silver rune, seemingly, written by Zeren and freezing the spiders in an ice strike.

"Aspiro Frigis!"

Thorfinn was stunned by the power of the spell as it tore through the spiders entrapping them in solid ice. "Bloody hell..." he muttered, his eyes went towards Zeren who had managed to stand on his own to cast the spell, but now looked haggard and very weak. "Okay then", he began, "now you really have to tell us who you... what wait!" Moving forwards he caught Zeren as he collapsed to the floor, looking at his leaders right arm Thorfinn could see a dark purple rash spreading upwards to his main body. "Crap!" Turning his head to call out to Jorvik, he jumped as he saw Sarai their worry etched on her face.

"He needs medical attention", Jorvik stated, helping his childhood friend support Zeren towards the oak doors, and the chamber within. Clutching her spear tightly in her hands, Sarai forced herself to not think negatively about potentially loosing a friend. "He will get through this", Thorfinn murmured, "you didn't see it just now, but I saw a fire in his eyes that showed his fighting spirit. Admittedly I wasn't expecting him to unleash primal magic on those spiders".

Sarai and Jorvik were jolted out of their worry by another tidbit of information about Zeren. "Primal magic... that's not possible, you must have his heard the dark magic incantation", Jorvik remarked. "I know what I saw. And I know what I heard", Thorfinn restated, "he said Aspiro Frigis, and then wrote some sort of silver coloured rune in the air upon which he blew, and where the ice came from".

As the three knights and their unconscious leader entered the chamber they were immediately stunned by the mounds upon mounds of ancient Xadian treasures. And at the centre of the circular room was a rectangular sarcophagus, upon which fell a single beam of sunlight. "Whoa..." Thorfinn exclaimed, as he and Jorvik, carried Zeren over to a space that was fairly free of treasure and laid him down. Walking over to him, Sarai flinched at the sight of his bloodied and rash covered arm; still with a few spines embedded. Kneeling down beside him, she gently reeves his jacket and rolled up the sleeve of his tunic before getting to work cleaning the wound with water from their drinking supply.

"You so owe me after this is over", she whispered to her unconscious friend, "not to mention Thorfinn and Jorvik". It was then that she saw a leather cord around his neck from which hung three things: a shard of purple crystal, a small silver tag; upon was engraved a portrait of his family, and lastly, a small golden sphere which opened up to reveal a small purple stone inside. Looking more closely at the engraved family, Sarai blinked as she saw the horns on top of their heads and the wings, a young woman, possessed.

"You have an elven family..." she had intended her words to be quiet but unfortunately due to her nature of this finding, her voice was full of shock and surprise. She attempted to not draw the attention of the two other boys by slapping a hand over her mouth but it was too late. Her surprise had drawn them over to her. Looking down at the etching on Zeren's necklace, Thorfinn frowned whilst Jorvik sighed; almost understanding of their leaders reticent behaviour.

"It makes sense..." Jorvik spoke finally. "And this picture proves it, Zeren must be the child of a human and an elf. It would explain his knowledge of elf culture and language. Not to mention his use of primal magic, and his reticence to explain himself".

"Well I'll say this much", Thorfinn replied, grinding his teeth together. "If he didn't have much to explain about before he certainly does now!"