A New Life to Live: Chapter Two
Two years, and some odd months later.
"Ow! Damnit, that hurts!" Ranma bellowed. He was bent over a destroyed column, being subjected to Nabiki's tender mercies, as she slowly cut the flesh from around a barbed arrowhead that had become embedded in Ranma's ass.
"Be still you big baby," Nabiki chided him as she finally pulled the monstrous projectile from Ranma's posterior, it's spell wrought metal undulating and giving off wave of foul energy."There, now you can heal yourself and we can get the hell out of here." Nabiki wiped her blood slick knive and hands off on her cloak.
Ranma sighed in relief even as he cast a healing spell on himself, depleting the last of his sorcerous energies, but at last relieving himself of the debilitating pain brought upon by the Aero Demon's arrow. He pulled his torn and bloody pants up just as one of the ember demons that Nabiki had set to guarding the door gave of its death scream and exploded, shaking the unstable tomb's supports.
"I'm tapped Nabiki, you think you could call up something to hold the doorway until I can manage to teleport us to safety?" Ranma asked. They wouldn't have to worry about depleted mana if the next room held a mana crystal, but the ancient map didn't indicate one where it had clearly shown where all the others in the long forgotten tomb were located.
Nabiki grinned and from behind her back pulled a small bottle filled with a glowing blue liquid. She drank half and offered the rest to Ranma. He accepted the concentrated mana eagerly, glad to be once again armed against the hellspawn that inhabited their latest vacation spot. If he had known that the touch of the zombies that infested the place was poisionous, Ranma would have came properly equipped, but the map had downplayed the dangers and he had only his most basic clothing and a few bottles of mana and health elixir. Nabiki had been even less prepared, with a single quiver of mundane arrows and a like amount of potions, or so he had thought."Been saving that, just encase," Nabiki said."If Char was here I would trust him at the door, but since he isn't..."
Ranma stood well back from his companion's conjuring, and was glad that he had when a giant amalgam of leather, steel, and necromatic power materialized where he had stood. Nabiki gave the mecha golem its mental marching orders and sent it to back up the remaining ember demon at the door."You know, it may have helped if you had let me use that when we were fighting the demon," Ranma said a bit heatedly. He had had to sacrifice a rather valuable enchanted staff in order to get enough charge to form the death ray spell that had finally brought down the hellspawn.
"It all worked out in the end, Ranma. Besides, how could I have gotten it to you? I was trapped in that cage when you broke your staff, the bottle wouldn't even have fit through the bars." Nabiki's simple explanation and patience with Ranma and the foul mood he tended to get whenever he came near death seemed to disarm the wizard.
"You're right. Sorry if I sounded a bit ungrateful," he apologized. He pushed the matter aside in favor of more important matters."Now, let's find out what in hell we nearly got ourselves killed over."
Nabiki nodded in agreement and smiled at Ranma's enthusiasm. She produced the small silver key that would unlock the last room within the temple that they had yet to explore. This was the chamber where their efforts would be rewarded.
"When the door opens, stand back," Ranma said cautiously."I still have enough energy to pull off a couple spells without depleting myself so much that I wouldn't be able to teleport."
Nabiki silently agreed, but readied herself for a spell if the need arose. Ranma was too protective and didn't trust in her abilites enough to allow himself to completely focus on the conflict at hand, Nabiki knew that there was little chance of changing that in Ranma, so she let Ranma make the combat decisions and she pretty much had free rein in the more normal parts of the relationship they shared.
Ranma accepted the key from Nabiki and inserted it into the lock, turning it and kicking open the door in one fluid motion. He leapt through the doorway and turned in midair to survey either side of the door before rebounding off the wall and returning to Nabiki's side."No obvious traps, and there aren't any zombies that I could see, but that doesn't mean they're not there."
It was obvious to Nabiki that Ranma was reluctant to trust her safety to whatever lay within the room. Nabiki shook her head at his behavior and followed him back into the brightly lit room.
The room was the burial vault of a long dead wizard who's many enchantments upon his crypt had allowed the denizens of hell to transport massive numbers of their more numerous, though weak minions, into iis depths. The elemental demons the wizard had set to guarding his rest had gone unharassed by their bretheren, a fact that both Ranma and Nabiki had learned of all too recently. The vault was in simple terms, magnificent. The demonic corruption that had turned the outer crypt into a dark realm of shadow and horror had not reached this last bastion of power. The walls gleamed silver and from torches kept alight by some long duration spell, golden light bathed every manner of beasts, pottery, and other finery, all of which was of cast gold, or fine porcelain.
Nabiki and Ranma hadn't come for the material wealth contained here, though it was tempting to pry loose a few of the fist sized diamonds and other precious stones that were peppered liberally throughout the room, but instead for the objects of power that lay within the sarcophagus of the wizard itself.
"I don't know what's keeping those zombies from dying and protecting them from my demon's fire, but the golem can't hold them all off for long and the ember demon just bit the dust," Nabiki said, letting the urgency of their situation carry with her voice.
Ranma strode purposely to the giant chunk of finely carved ivory that was their hosts final resting place. He slid his fingers under the edge of the lid and with a casual flick of his wrists and a tensing of the muscles in his arms, Ranma heaved it to the floor where it crashed thunderously and shattered like glass.
Old bones long free of flesh stared up at Ranma with the same hideous grin that an animated skeleton gave before attacking. This skeleton, however, didn't attack. Robes of fine silk and once, undoubtedly enchanted, had gone to ruin centuries earlier and no longer his within them their booty.
Nabiki peered over the edge and into the musty coffin."We had better hurry, the golem is weakening and four dozen zombies waiting to pour through that doorway when it dies." Warning once again spoken, Nabiki reached down and yanked the dried bones aside, revealing, at last, their prize, or prizes.
Reverently, Ranma picked up a heavy tome, one of the ancient grimoires that required study and practice to master its multiple spells, and stowed it away within that area of warped space that all people of Nox who were dedicated to their in life possessed. Nabiki, with the same reverance that Ranma had shown, knelt and pulled a leather bound bundle from its resting place. She balanced it on the edge of the sarcophagus and hastily undid the ties that held it closed. Inside were several scroll cases and a medium sized bow, black as cold iron and as smooth as glass, it was unstrung, but an aura of menace spread forth from it even in it's seemingly harmless form.
"Finally," Ranma exulted. He was about to invoke the spell that would carry Nabiki and himself to safety when a glint of metal within the sarcophagus caught his eye. Ranma quickly pulled another bundle from the sarcophagus and slipped it in with his other possessions just as zombies flooded in through the unbarred door.
"Ranma," Nabiki said, and that was al it took to convince Ranma to get them out of the last God forsaken hole in the ground that either of them intended to visit for a very, very long time.
****
"It is simply unacceptable, Horvath," Nester, one of his fellow wizards stated firmly."They are yet to be adults, mere children, and for over a year they have been raiding ancients tombs, forgotten temples, and abandoned Necromancer strongholds. I shudder to think of what they have unleashed into the world in their ignorance of the forces they play with. Less than a week ago I spied Nabiki summoning elemental demons that even I hadn't known existed, and Ranma, your apprentice, was blasting them from existance with Chaos spells of such magnitude that I feared for my very life!"
Horvath had never liked the little rat-faced man who everyone knew secretly lusted for power and was at the same time almost physically sick with the knowledge that others were indeed more powerful than he."Nester, your fears are unfounded, I assure you. Andwywn swears that he has never seen a conjurer with so much control over the creatures she commands, and I swear to you that Ranma is bordering on mastery of a whole new form of magic, something derived from the forces of Chaos and Order which we once used millenia ago. Of the spells I have witnessed him cast, none have gone astray, and his knowledge grows daily. You have nothing to fear from two enthusiastic youths. Now, if you would excuse me my friend, I am not as young as I once was and my old bones are weary." Horvath waited for Nester to acknowledge his not so subtle dismissal.
"Very well, but I can 'assure' you that the Assembly will hear of your pupil's craving for power denied to all men." With those parting words, Nester turned on his heel and scurried from Horvath's office.
Although there was little chance that the Assemby would reprimand Ranma for this 'craving' for power that Nester accused him of, Horvath reminded himself to warn the boy of the possibility, no matter how remote.
****
Meanwhile, Ranma and Nabiki were relaxing in the large tub that Horvath had had installed in his forest home. As numerous cramps and aches were carried away by the steaming water, Nabiki, her body pressed closely against Ranma, asked,"What kind of swords were those?"
She was referring to the twin rune swords that Ranma had found in Irtram's tomb, neither of which had been listed on the map they had recovered from the mountain temple of a once worshipped demon god."I'm not sure yet. I know that they are opposites in some way, but my experience with enchanted artifacts is pretty limited. I'll have Horvath take a look at them tomorrow." The spell book Ranma had attained also required Horvath's input since much of its cantents were in a dialect of Nox's language that he could not read. Nabiki's bow was much more straight forward, firing bolts of pure magic force, and the scrolls within the cases she had found had not only contained the proper information to summon the demon lord she had been seaking, but also the previously unknown demons that Irtram had bound to his tomb.
"I want to get back to earth just as much as you Ranma, but if we get ourselves killed in the attempt, what good will it do us?" Nabiki asked a few minutes later.
"We don't belong here Nabiki, can't you feel it?" Ranma asked in response.
"So what if I can? So what if we don't belong on Nox? We're here now and Horvath doesn't believe that we will ever be able to leavem so why don't we settle down, put out some roots?" Nabiki squeezed his encircling arms in emphasis."At the very least we could wait a few more years, build up our strength, then try to find a way back to earth. Back home we would still be in school without any responsibilities, though without our consent, here on Nox, however, we could do whatever we want, we have enough treasure to never work another day in our lives, but you keep throwing yourself into one mad quest after another looking for shreds of useless information, and I always follow along, keeping you alive as best as I can." Nabiki realized that she was crying. She never cried. Well almost never."One day one of us might not come back. I don't want to think about what I would do in grief if I lost you." Nabiki could see herself turning loose hordes of rampaging demons, all of them bent on blood and death.
Ranma was silent for only a few moments, though it felt like an eternity to both of them."Okay, you win," he eventually said."We'll find some nice little hole in the wall and make a life for ourselves, then we'll see about getting home." Only Ranma feared that Nox had become their home or soon would, and that a comfortable life with Nabiki just might be too much to leave behind.
****
Ranma unfolded the dry and cracked leather sheet that the rune swords were stored within upon the large wooden table in Horvath's lab.
"Demon's blood!" Horvath cursed in half astonishment, half awe.
"What?!" Ranma asked his mentor. From the old man's reaction he expected that the swords were very powerful or valuable in some way.
"Ranma, where did you find those accursed blades?" Horvath asked intently. If Nester knew that Ranma had returned the mythical sword 'Death Wind' and it's black brother 'Stormbringer' to the light of day, he would surely go to every effort to have Ranma punished, if simply to eliminate another individual that he saw as his superior.
Ranma shrugged."They were in Irtram's sarcophagus along with some other stuff."
Horvath fell back into his chair with a heavy sigh, wearied by the short and eventful visit of Ranma."Irtram you say? How did you locate it? I thought it's location had gone from the minds of mortal men a millenia ago."
"There was a map of the place at the Temple of Arioch."
Horvath's eyes widened and he had to take several deep breathes to steady his breathing. It appeared that Ranma had been busy lately."What else did you bring back from the temple and Irtram's tomb?"
"Arioch's Temple didn't have anything in it besides the map and a lot of demons, but Irtram's tomb had some demon scrolls and a magic bow that Nabiki claimed and I found a comprehensive book on ice magic. About the swords, what's so special and accursed about them?"
Horvath picked up the black-bladed sword with the blood-red runes carved along its surface."Stormbringer is an ancient hell-forged blade of great power that has been wielded by both the just and corrupt throughout history of reality. It devours the very soul of its victims and transfers their energy to its wielder." Next Horvath picked up the white-bladed, silver-runed sword."This is Death Wind, said to have been forged in heaven at the exact moment that Stormbringer came into existance in hell. It too steals its victim's soul, but instead of destroying them, it automatically reincarnates them without a chance of judgement in heaven. What it doesn't give it's wielder in energy, it more than makes up for with its ability to turn aside virtually any spell. Both blades are indestructible and have seen whole whole universes explode around them, yet they simply relocate themselves by some magic means that no one on Nox understands. Right now they both appear to be dormant."
Ranma's interest was enflamed. He didn't know whether or not he could ever bring himself to use such weapons that so casually toyed with a beings soul, but their ability to travel between universes could possibly be harnessed to return Nabiki and himself to earth.
"Ranma, I must caution you to keep your ownership of these swords a secret from all whom do not already know. There are people within the Assembly of Wizards that envy you your power and quick rise to wizard. They would use your possession of them as a way to harm or punish you in some way."
Ranma nodded gravely and after rebinding the swords, slipped them back into subspace."I'd better go put these somewhere safe then." Ranma stepped towards the teleport pad that led to Horvaths's other home. Then with a grimace of distaste or possibly embarrassment, he turned and said,"Nabiki told me to tell you that you're invited to our wedding."
Horvath was getting tired of these constant shocks to his system. His poor old heart just could take too many more of them. He admitted that Nabiki and Ranma made a very good couple and got along with each other wonderfully, but they were so young, and to be married..."Ranma, I'm honored and would be glad to attend your's and Nabiki's wedding, but don't you think you may be too young to marry?"
Again Ranma grimaced, and a blush accompanied the look of discomfort this time."You think I don't know that? I sure don't want to get married, that's for sure, but Nabiki said that I had to sleep on the couch until I agreed, and well, you know..." His blush deepened.
It must be in their blood, Horvath declared to himself. His late wife had done the exact same thing over seventy years ago."Would you like me to talk to Nabiki, maybe talk some sense into her?"
The look of hope and relief on Ranma's face made Horvath laugh uncontrollably."Would you, please?" he asked desperately.
"Of course, of course! Now get on out of here before your intended starts getting worried!" Horvath didn't stop laughing until Ranma was long gone.
****
Author's Notes: Hey all, hope everyone had a good Easter. I didn't, but viruses and bacteria don't work by any man made schedule that I know of, so while I was on vacation, they were hard at work trying to liquify my internal organs. I survived though, and am feeling much better. I even decided to type up another chapter of this fic. I hope you enjoy it and remember, send C&C to me at dark_phoneix@hotmail.com
Two years, and some odd months later.
"Ow! Damnit, that hurts!" Ranma bellowed. He was bent over a destroyed column, being subjected to Nabiki's tender mercies, as she slowly cut the flesh from around a barbed arrowhead that had become embedded in Ranma's ass.
"Be still you big baby," Nabiki chided him as she finally pulled the monstrous projectile from Ranma's posterior, it's spell wrought metal undulating and giving off wave of foul energy."There, now you can heal yourself and we can get the hell out of here." Nabiki wiped her blood slick knive and hands off on her cloak.
Ranma sighed in relief even as he cast a healing spell on himself, depleting the last of his sorcerous energies, but at last relieving himself of the debilitating pain brought upon by the Aero Demon's arrow. He pulled his torn and bloody pants up just as one of the ember demons that Nabiki had set to guarding the door gave of its death scream and exploded, shaking the unstable tomb's supports.
"I'm tapped Nabiki, you think you could call up something to hold the doorway until I can manage to teleport us to safety?" Ranma asked. They wouldn't have to worry about depleted mana if the next room held a mana crystal, but the ancient map didn't indicate one where it had clearly shown where all the others in the long forgotten tomb were located.
Nabiki grinned and from behind her back pulled a small bottle filled with a glowing blue liquid. She drank half and offered the rest to Ranma. He accepted the concentrated mana eagerly, glad to be once again armed against the hellspawn that inhabited their latest vacation spot. If he had known that the touch of the zombies that infested the place was poisionous, Ranma would have came properly equipped, but the map had downplayed the dangers and he had only his most basic clothing and a few bottles of mana and health elixir. Nabiki had been even less prepared, with a single quiver of mundane arrows and a like amount of potions, or so he had thought."Been saving that, just encase," Nabiki said."If Char was here I would trust him at the door, but since he isn't..."
Ranma stood well back from his companion's conjuring, and was glad that he had when a giant amalgam of leather, steel, and necromatic power materialized where he had stood. Nabiki gave the mecha golem its mental marching orders and sent it to back up the remaining ember demon at the door."You know, it may have helped if you had let me use that when we were fighting the demon," Ranma said a bit heatedly. He had had to sacrifice a rather valuable enchanted staff in order to get enough charge to form the death ray spell that had finally brought down the hellspawn.
"It all worked out in the end, Ranma. Besides, how could I have gotten it to you? I was trapped in that cage when you broke your staff, the bottle wouldn't even have fit through the bars." Nabiki's simple explanation and patience with Ranma and the foul mood he tended to get whenever he came near death seemed to disarm the wizard.
"You're right. Sorry if I sounded a bit ungrateful," he apologized. He pushed the matter aside in favor of more important matters."Now, let's find out what in hell we nearly got ourselves killed over."
Nabiki nodded in agreement and smiled at Ranma's enthusiasm. She produced the small silver key that would unlock the last room within the temple that they had yet to explore. This was the chamber where their efforts would be rewarded.
"When the door opens, stand back," Ranma said cautiously."I still have enough energy to pull off a couple spells without depleting myself so much that I wouldn't be able to teleport."
Nabiki silently agreed, but readied herself for a spell if the need arose. Ranma was too protective and didn't trust in her abilites enough to allow himself to completely focus on the conflict at hand, Nabiki knew that there was little chance of changing that in Ranma, so she let Ranma make the combat decisions and she pretty much had free rein in the more normal parts of the relationship they shared.
Ranma accepted the key from Nabiki and inserted it into the lock, turning it and kicking open the door in one fluid motion. He leapt through the doorway and turned in midair to survey either side of the door before rebounding off the wall and returning to Nabiki's side."No obvious traps, and there aren't any zombies that I could see, but that doesn't mean they're not there."
It was obvious to Nabiki that Ranma was reluctant to trust her safety to whatever lay within the room. Nabiki shook her head at his behavior and followed him back into the brightly lit room.
The room was the burial vault of a long dead wizard who's many enchantments upon his crypt had allowed the denizens of hell to transport massive numbers of their more numerous, though weak minions, into iis depths. The elemental demons the wizard had set to guarding his rest had gone unharassed by their bretheren, a fact that both Ranma and Nabiki had learned of all too recently. The vault was in simple terms, magnificent. The demonic corruption that had turned the outer crypt into a dark realm of shadow and horror had not reached this last bastion of power. The walls gleamed silver and from torches kept alight by some long duration spell, golden light bathed every manner of beasts, pottery, and other finery, all of which was of cast gold, or fine porcelain.
Nabiki and Ranma hadn't come for the material wealth contained here, though it was tempting to pry loose a few of the fist sized diamonds and other precious stones that were peppered liberally throughout the room, but instead for the objects of power that lay within the sarcophagus of the wizard itself.
"I don't know what's keeping those zombies from dying and protecting them from my demon's fire, but the golem can't hold them all off for long and the ember demon just bit the dust," Nabiki said, letting the urgency of their situation carry with her voice.
Ranma strode purposely to the giant chunk of finely carved ivory that was their hosts final resting place. He slid his fingers under the edge of the lid and with a casual flick of his wrists and a tensing of the muscles in his arms, Ranma heaved it to the floor where it crashed thunderously and shattered like glass.
Old bones long free of flesh stared up at Ranma with the same hideous grin that an animated skeleton gave before attacking. This skeleton, however, didn't attack. Robes of fine silk and once, undoubtedly enchanted, had gone to ruin centuries earlier and no longer his within them their booty.
Nabiki peered over the edge and into the musty coffin."We had better hurry, the golem is weakening and four dozen zombies waiting to pour through that doorway when it dies." Warning once again spoken, Nabiki reached down and yanked the dried bones aside, revealing, at last, their prize, or prizes.
Reverently, Ranma picked up a heavy tome, one of the ancient grimoires that required study and practice to master its multiple spells, and stowed it away within that area of warped space that all people of Nox who were dedicated to their in life possessed. Nabiki, with the same reverance that Ranma had shown, knelt and pulled a leather bound bundle from its resting place. She balanced it on the edge of the sarcophagus and hastily undid the ties that held it closed. Inside were several scroll cases and a medium sized bow, black as cold iron and as smooth as glass, it was unstrung, but an aura of menace spread forth from it even in it's seemingly harmless form.
"Finally," Ranma exulted. He was about to invoke the spell that would carry Nabiki and himself to safety when a glint of metal within the sarcophagus caught his eye. Ranma quickly pulled another bundle from the sarcophagus and slipped it in with his other possessions just as zombies flooded in through the unbarred door.
"Ranma," Nabiki said, and that was al it took to convince Ranma to get them out of the last God forsaken hole in the ground that either of them intended to visit for a very, very long time.
****
"It is simply unacceptable, Horvath," Nester, one of his fellow wizards stated firmly."They are yet to be adults, mere children, and for over a year they have been raiding ancients tombs, forgotten temples, and abandoned Necromancer strongholds. I shudder to think of what they have unleashed into the world in their ignorance of the forces they play with. Less than a week ago I spied Nabiki summoning elemental demons that even I hadn't known existed, and Ranma, your apprentice, was blasting them from existance with Chaos spells of such magnitude that I feared for my very life!"
Horvath had never liked the little rat-faced man who everyone knew secretly lusted for power and was at the same time almost physically sick with the knowledge that others were indeed more powerful than he."Nester, your fears are unfounded, I assure you. Andwywn swears that he has never seen a conjurer with so much control over the creatures she commands, and I swear to you that Ranma is bordering on mastery of a whole new form of magic, something derived from the forces of Chaos and Order which we once used millenia ago. Of the spells I have witnessed him cast, none have gone astray, and his knowledge grows daily. You have nothing to fear from two enthusiastic youths. Now, if you would excuse me my friend, I am not as young as I once was and my old bones are weary." Horvath waited for Nester to acknowledge his not so subtle dismissal.
"Very well, but I can 'assure' you that the Assembly will hear of your pupil's craving for power denied to all men." With those parting words, Nester turned on his heel and scurried from Horvath's office.
Although there was little chance that the Assemby would reprimand Ranma for this 'craving' for power that Nester accused him of, Horvath reminded himself to warn the boy of the possibility, no matter how remote.
****
Meanwhile, Ranma and Nabiki were relaxing in the large tub that Horvath had had installed in his forest home. As numerous cramps and aches were carried away by the steaming water, Nabiki, her body pressed closely against Ranma, asked,"What kind of swords were those?"
She was referring to the twin rune swords that Ranma had found in Irtram's tomb, neither of which had been listed on the map they had recovered from the mountain temple of a once worshipped demon god."I'm not sure yet. I know that they are opposites in some way, but my experience with enchanted artifacts is pretty limited. I'll have Horvath take a look at them tomorrow." The spell book Ranma had attained also required Horvath's input since much of its cantents were in a dialect of Nox's language that he could not read. Nabiki's bow was much more straight forward, firing bolts of pure magic force, and the scrolls within the cases she had found had not only contained the proper information to summon the demon lord she had been seaking, but also the previously unknown demons that Irtram had bound to his tomb.
"I want to get back to earth just as much as you Ranma, but if we get ourselves killed in the attempt, what good will it do us?" Nabiki asked a few minutes later.
"We don't belong here Nabiki, can't you feel it?" Ranma asked in response.
"So what if I can? So what if we don't belong on Nox? We're here now and Horvath doesn't believe that we will ever be able to leavem so why don't we settle down, put out some roots?" Nabiki squeezed his encircling arms in emphasis."At the very least we could wait a few more years, build up our strength, then try to find a way back to earth. Back home we would still be in school without any responsibilities, though without our consent, here on Nox, however, we could do whatever we want, we have enough treasure to never work another day in our lives, but you keep throwing yourself into one mad quest after another looking for shreds of useless information, and I always follow along, keeping you alive as best as I can." Nabiki realized that she was crying. She never cried. Well almost never."One day one of us might not come back. I don't want to think about what I would do in grief if I lost you." Nabiki could see herself turning loose hordes of rampaging demons, all of them bent on blood and death.
Ranma was silent for only a few moments, though it felt like an eternity to both of them."Okay, you win," he eventually said."We'll find some nice little hole in the wall and make a life for ourselves, then we'll see about getting home." Only Ranma feared that Nox had become their home or soon would, and that a comfortable life with Nabiki just might be too much to leave behind.
****
Ranma unfolded the dry and cracked leather sheet that the rune swords were stored within upon the large wooden table in Horvath's lab.
"Demon's blood!" Horvath cursed in half astonishment, half awe.
"What?!" Ranma asked his mentor. From the old man's reaction he expected that the swords were very powerful or valuable in some way.
"Ranma, where did you find those accursed blades?" Horvath asked intently. If Nester knew that Ranma had returned the mythical sword 'Death Wind' and it's black brother 'Stormbringer' to the light of day, he would surely go to every effort to have Ranma punished, if simply to eliminate another individual that he saw as his superior.
Ranma shrugged."They were in Irtram's sarcophagus along with some other stuff."
Horvath fell back into his chair with a heavy sigh, wearied by the short and eventful visit of Ranma."Irtram you say? How did you locate it? I thought it's location had gone from the minds of mortal men a millenia ago."
"There was a map of the place at the Temple of Arioch."
Horvath's eyes widened and he had to take several deep breathes to steady his breathing. It appeared that Ranma had been busy lately."What else did you bring back from the temple and Irtram's tomb?"
"Arioch's Temple didn't have anything in it besides the map and a lot of demons, but Irtram's tomb had some demon scrolls and a magic bow that Nabiki claimed and I found a comprehensive book on ice magic. About the swords, what's so special and accursed about them?"
Horvath picked up the black-bladed sword with the blood-red runes carved along its surface."Stormbringer is an ancient hell-forged blade of great power that has been wielded by both the just and corrupt throughout history of reality. It devours the very soul of its victims and transfers their energy to its wielder." Next Horvath picked up the white-bladed, silver-runed sword."This is Death Wind, said to have been forged in heaven at the exact moment that Stormbringer came into existance in hell. It too steals its victim's soul, but instead of destroying them, it automatically reincarnates them without a chance of judgement in heaven. What it doesn't give it's wielder in energy, it more than makes up for with its ability to turn aside virtually any spell. Both blades are indestructible and have seen whole whole universes explode around them, yet they simply relocate themselves by some magic means that no one on Nox understands. Right now they both appear to be dormant."
Ranma's interest was enflamed. He didn't know whether or not he could ever bring himself to use such weapons that so casually toyed with a beings soul, but their ability to travel between universes could possibly be harnessed to return Nabiki and himself to earth.
"Ranma, I must caution you to keep your ownership of these swords a secret from all whom do not already know. There are people within the Assembly of Wizards that envy you your power and quick rise to wizard. They would use your possession of them as a way to harm or punish you in some way."
Ranma nodded gravely and after rebinding the swords, slipped them back into subspace."I'd better go put these somewhere safe then." Ranma stepped towards the teleport pad that led to Horvaths's other home. Then with a grimace of distaste or possibly embarrassment, he turned and said,"Nabiki told me to tell you that you're invited to our wedding."
Horvath was getting tired of these constant shocks to his system. His poor old heart just could take too many more of them. He admitted that Nabiki and Ranma made a very good couple and got along with each other wonderfully, but they were so young, and to be married..."Ranma, I'm honored and would be glad to attend your's and Nabiki's wedding, but don't you think you may be too young to marry?"
Again Ranma grimaced, and a blush accompanied the look of discomfort this time."You think I don't know that? I sure don't want to get married, that's for sure, but Nabiki said that I had to sleep on the couch until I agreed, and well, you know..." His blush deepened.
It must be in their blood, Horvath declared to himself. His late wife had done the exact same thing over seventy years ago."Would you like me to talk to Nabiki, maybe talk some sense into her?"
The look of hope and relief on Ranma's face made Horvath laugh uncontrollably."Would you, please?" he asked desperately.
"Of course, of course! Now get on out of here before your intended starts getting worried!" Horvath didn't stop laughing until Ranma was long gone.
****
Author's Notes: Hey all, hope everyone had a good Easter. I didn't, but viruses and bacteria don't work by any man made schedule that I know of, so while I was on vacation, they were hard at work trying to liquify my internal organs. I survived though, and am feeling much better. I even decided to type up another chapter of this fic. I hope you enjoy it and remember, send C&C to me at dark_phoneix@hotmail.com