The world went dark for Firien.
On some level he was aware that the pain had stopped but he was too preoccupied to notice. Once again he found himself deep underground in the cavernous maze of tunnels the Sarnak monsters called Chardok.
His party had been on the run for a total of four days now and they were all at the brink of total exhaustion. Firien staggered slightly as he struggled to keep his vision from blurring. Behind him, Flak and Beaumont shuffled blindly after him. They were so physically exhausted that they could no longer cast their spells.
Even Alsymaya was barely able to keep moving. Her weariness was compounded by the fact that she bore the brunt of their last fight alone and Flak could no longer heal her.
Short respites were their only comfort in the everlasting darkness of the caverns. Somehow the Sarnaks always found them. It was uncanny. Something was definitely wrong, how could they track them so effectively despite the fact that he was covering their tracks?
Firien made a mental note to ask everyone the next time they stopped, if anyone had picked up anything along the way besides his new sword.
A few moments later he forgot about it.
Thirty minutes passed and there was no sign of pursuit. Firien called for a rest in a long straight tunnel that stretched on and on for some distance. Beaumont and Flak collapsed where they were and fell immediately to sleep. Firien trudged on a little further and sat down.
"ohhhh" He groaned as he sat. Every muscle in his body ached badly and he was mentally at the end of his wits. Supreme force of will was all that kept him awake.
"Sleep Fir" Alsymaya said to him as she limped over to where he was sitting. "The next fight will be mostly yours so you should be rested. I will stand guard."
"Alsy, I fear our next fight will be our last." Firien croaked, his voice was gravely and parched. "You go ahead and…"
Firien heard the faint sounds of footfalls in the distance. Something was coming down the tunnel from the direction in which they were headed. It was faint, but he definitely heard it.
"DAMN!" Firien whispered harshly. "They've found us again! Alsy get them up! We need to move! Now now now!!"
Alsymaya and Firien slapped, shook, and heaved Flak and Beaumont to their feet again and they all retreated down the tunnel as quickly as they could manage. Their retreat wasn't fast enough though, for whatever it was that was following them was coming on fast.
"No good Alsy." Firien called to her. "We're going to have to make a stand."
"Aye Firien." Alsymaya replied as she drew her thin blade. "It has been my honor to serve you, my friend." Firien placed his hand on her shoulder and she nodded at him. "Lead on."
Grimly determined to fight till the bitter end, Firien and Alsymaya advanced up the tunnel, one careful step at a time. Somewhat rested from their short sleep, Flak and Beaumont prepared the last spells that they would ever cast.
"Heal for Alsymaya" Flak said softly and soft bluish glow enfolded Alsymaya. She looked a little better. "Invigorate for Firien" Flak said, his voice a hoarse whisper. Suddenly Firien's body was covered in sparkling golden shimmers which refreshed his exhausted body but his mind still ached with fatigue.
Flak fell to his knees, and sat there breathing heavily. The others paused to wait for him. A short moment later he forced himself back onto his feet and drew his mace with a dark and determined scowl upon his face.
"Firien!" Firien heard a female voice call out his name from somewhere ahead in the darkness.
He watched in a mindless daze as puffs of dust appeared from the cavern floor for no reason. His mind struggled to contemplate how something could be running at him without physical form. Had he snapped under the strain?
Suddenly Shadowkat appeared before them, resplendent and fresh in her shinny metallic robe.
"Oh please don't let me be dreaming!" Firien cried out as tears filled his eyes.
Firien could hear the sobs of his companions as they staggered forward to embrace the welcome wizard. He found himself hugging the back of Flak who was hugging Shadowkat who was being held by everyone at the same time.
She smiled sadly at them and touched them each in turn. "Come to me now, and away."
Firien's dream faded in the bright colors of Shadowkat's teleportation spell. Slowly the lights dimmed till he was alone in total darkness.
"HOW ODD." He thought to himself. The sound of his thought boomed and faded away into the vast and infinite nothingness. What was this place? It was strange here. The darkness was so solid he could almost feel it pressing against him, yet he could feel nothing in any direction, not even a floor. It was as if he had no space and all space around him at the same time. "OBLIVION?" He boomed, and it faded.
To quell the rising sense of panic that was forming within him, Firien latched his mind on to the thought he had been thinking before.
"How odd, that I never remembered to look for what lead them to us." The sound of his thoughts changed as he neared the end of his sentence. The space around him conformed to his will and solidified into a scene from his memories. The solid-ness of the rock cavern walls of Chardok formed out of nothingness and surrounded him once again.
This time it was different. He was a non-corporal observer, floating somewhere near the ceiling of a large cave. He looked down and could see himself crouched near an entranceway. Behind himself he could see the shadows of the others.
The scene played out exactly as he remembered it. Mortal Firien looked back over his shoulder and motioned the others to silence as a group of high ranking Sarnaks entered the room from one of the two doorways at the far end. Without stopping, they proceeded to pass through the chamber and exit through the other passageway on that side.
One Sarnak was well behind the others and it grimaced and limped slightly as it walked. As it passed through the center of the chamber it stopped to lift it's left foot and extract a sharp stone from between it's large toes. Having done that, it quickly straightened up and ran down the corridor after it's companions.
As the Sarnak straightened, Mortal Firien noticed that the sword it carried barely clung to an open loop of leather that served as a holster on the Sarnak's belt. The loop had a snap to close it and somehow it had come undone while it was crouching. The cross guard of the sword rested upon the open ends precariously.
As the Sarnak ran off, the sword fell from it's hip and landed silently in the ground tip first. It sunk slightly into the dirt floor and stood there alone as it's owner trundled away, none the wiser.
As soon as the Sarnaks were a safe distance away, Mortal Firien and his companions entered the room and he took up the sword.
"Wow! What luck!" Alsymaya smiled happily at him and clapped him on the shoulder. "Congratulations Firien!"
The others added a chorus of congratulations to Alsymaya's. Mortal Firien removed his old battered sword from the sheath he wore over his shoulder and tossed it to Flak.
"Hold that in the supplies for me would you Flak?" Mortal Firien slid the new, shinny. magical sword into his sheath.
"STOP!" Firien boomed.
Everything and everyone in the room stood motionless in time.
Firien floated down from his perch near the ceiling and circled the group of adventurers with Mortal Firien at their center. The sword was only an inch from being completely encased in the sheath.
"IS THIS WHAT LEAD THEM TO ME?" He eyed the sword warily. It's gleaming steel blade shone brightly and it's golden pommel glimmered in the frozen torch light.
"BACK UP!" Firien boomed and the scene reversed itself. The old sword flew back to Mortal Firien and Alsymaya un-clapped him on the shoulder and they backed out of the room and crouched down and the Sarnak ran backwards into the room and stopped in the center and inserted the sharp stone and then limped backward out towards the other door.
"STOP!" Firien boomed.
The Sarnak was just entering the room. A pained grimace was upon it's face and it looked like it was favoring it's right foot. Firien approached the Sarnak and circled it, only to discover that the back half of it was flat.
Apparently things were only three dimensional from one perspective, the perspective Mortal Firien was experiencing. It was interesting, but unnecessarily distracting.
"Fill that in!" Firien commanded. The scene obeyed his will and the Sarnak was now whole. Firien assumed that the room was using the best of his ability to extrapolate what the rest of the picture should look like and filled it in accordingly. Half of this picture was fact, and half of it was assumption. It was a fascinating thing to contemplate, but he would not let himself be sidetracked from his goal.
Firien circled the Sarnak, scrutinizing him from head to toe. He played the scene forwards a little to watch for any indication that the Sarnak caught sight of them out of the corner of it's eye.
"WAIT." Firien boomed to himself. "EVEN IF IT DID HAPPEN TO CATCH SIGHT OF US, WHY WOULD IT BE CARRYING A SWORD THAT HAD BEEN SPECIFICALLY ENCHANTED TO KEEP TRACK OF OUR MOVEMENTS?"
While he was considering that his eye caught sight of something that made him gasp.
"THERE!" He boomed and floated around the far side. He pointed at the loop of leather that held onto the sword tightly and then clenched his fist till the knuckles turned white.
The snap was secured.
"MAKE IT FLAT AGAIN!" He roared. "PUT IT BACK EXACTLY THE WAY IT WAS!"
Quickly he flew to where Mortal Firien was hiding and slowly made his way back to the Sarnak in a straight line so the perspective would be the same. Sure enough, when he got near enough to see it clearly, the loop was secured.
He played the scene forward again but whatever happened on the far side of the Sarnak while it was crouching was out of Mortal Firien's view. It was only when it straightened again that he could see that it was now open.
Merely crouching down like that should not have caused the loop to open. He studied the Sarnak carefully. Even crouched at it's lowest, the swords tip did not reach the ground.
"SO IT WAS PLANTED." Firien boomed, the realization that he had been carrying his enemy's greatest tool weighed heavily on his mind.
"BUT HOW!" He growled. "HOW DID HE KNOW WE WOULD BE HERE!"
Once again Firien flew back to where Mortal Firien was hidden and scanned the open cavern from end to end. After several minutes of searching, Firien found what he was looking for. Near the ceiling, in a tiny crevice of rock, a small red orb was lodged. He flew up to the take a closer look at it, part of the picture was missing, but he knew what it would show.
"FILL IT IN." Firien commanded and a disembodied "eye of Zomm" wedged in the little opening could be fully seen.
"DAMN YOU TRAKANON!" Firien exploded in rage and slammed his fist into the rock wall causing a two foot circle of destruction, three feet deep. Rubble fell to the ground far below him.
Even realizing that this was not real, Firien could not help but feel a little better.
"BACK IT UP!" Firien commanded and followed Mortal Firien through the tunnel in which they came. Along the way he found the other Eyes in the walls that he and his party had missed seeing along the way. Apparently, the entire inner sanctum was covered with them in this way. As mad as he was, he had to give the Sarnak's credit for thinking ahead.
So now he knew. But what could he do about it?
He was trapped here in this place, could he escape it?
And why had he forgotten about the sword until now? And why had he forgotten to follow up on this place again?
The whole reason why they had come here in the first place, all those many years ago, was because the ancient balance between the Sarnaks and Goblins had been thrown out of balance and suddenly the Sarnaks were incredibly powerful. He suspected they had pledged allegiance to Trakanon but wanted to find proof of it to be sure. So he had put this little expeditionary force together and…
forgotten all about it…
The only thing that made sense was that the sword must have had two powerful enchantments cast upon it. One to betray his position and the other to blur his memory in all matters regarding exposing the true nature of the sword itself.
"This STRANGE place must be shielding me from the swords INFLUENCE, either that or I no longer possess it." Firien mused to himself.
*GASP*
Suddenly Firien was awake again and gasping for air and coughing. The sounds of battle rang in his ears and the modestly attractive face of Rebeka hovered over him.
"You were very close to Death friend Firien" Rebeka spoke to him in soothing tones. "Breathe and be well, the loving power of Tunare has healed your wounds completely."
Firien rolled over and continued to cough violently, he felt sick and the world was spinning.
Before him on the ground, he could see his sword lying where he had dropped it. Unconsciously his hand moved to grab it but he stopped mid way. Slowly he closed his hand and pulled it back.
"Never again." He gasped weakly. "Never again…"
