Disclaimer--I do not own the forgotten realms setting, but I do own the characters used within the story. In other words, DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT TOUCHING THEM! I SWEAR I'LL SIT ON YOU!
AIDEN'S FLAME
A.N.--Read the chapter before you kill me. Still an epilogue after this, too!
Chapter 11
Aiden was too shocked for a moment to do anything but cry. The drow laughed as he looked at the trapped elf. He raised his finger again, but then shrugged, deciding he wasn't dangerous, and turned away. His mistake.
Aiden felt a rage grip him like he had never known. He summoned the sword with a thought, and it appeared in the tar-like air instantly. He did not know what to do with it, or if it would help, but he didn't care. The rage held him, unchecked by his usual self-control.
The flames from the blade began to creep to his arm and farther. Slowly, as the drow began moving aside a bookcase and undoing the magical shields on it, the flames began to cover him entirely. They tingled on his skin, but did not burn him.
As soon as his entire body was covered, he directed his rage into the blade, fueling it. After a moment's buildup, the purple flames cast out around him in a circle.
They destroyed the spell holding him, then flew back into the sword. Aiden did not run, nor try to hide from this godly necromancer, for living did not matter. He did not try to control himself, for neither did that. All that mattered was revenge. Zul was going to die.
Aiden raised his sword in the direction of the drow who had just dispelled the last shield on the tunnel that had been hidden behind the bookshelf. A short burst of purple flames shot out toward the drow's back, hitting his piwafi. Zul turned as the fire dispersed, saying, "You could have lived, boy, if you would have simply waited and done nothing. Instead you would die with her?"
"Without her," Aiden called back, "I am already dead." The drow, not caring for his reply, had already cast his spell. Three skeletons came up from the ground, ripping through the floorboards to get to him. They were likely buried there as a spell component for his necromancy, should the drow need them for his defense.
Aiden sidestepped as the first one attacked, slicing through it effortlessly and leaving its two halves to crawl separately. He aimed carefully and threw fire at the other two simultaneously, leaving nay but ashes of them.
"That sword of yours is some toy," said Zul. "I will have to investigate it, after I take it from your lifeless body."
Aiden shot out waves of flames at the necromancer, allowing his rage reign of himself. A hundred of the necromancer's undead abominations rose from the ground, guarding their master with their essence. What few slivers of flame did not waste themselves against the skeletons were waved away by Zul. "Nothing can kill me," called the drow, showing his lunacy. "I am invincible!"
"Then why do you run?" Aiden shot back.
The drow did not bother with an answer as he shot a ball of fire at Aiden, who raised the blade and watched as the red fire met his purple. The fireball melded with his flames, adding its might to his sword.
Aiden remembered what the wizard had said to him in the shop, "You have the potential, but you are yet untamed." He could have been a wizard, that was what the man had meant. He hadn't been trained, but maybe he could control the weave enough still…
He closed his eyes as he tried again to concentrate his energy. The effort took years off his life, but he did not care. A few years to an elf meant little, especially when he would die otherwise. He forced the magics around him into the blade, ignoring the thought of being a profaner for treating so badly the weave. He had no choice, and the weave would continue, regardless of his small hole in it.
From his blade shot a score of flaming heads. He looked upon them in awe as they rushed toward the drow, for they were not simple flames, but living flames, who thought for themselves. The necromancer raised more skeletons, but the dragon-flames destroyed them effortlessly. He dispelled two, but his efforts were to no avail. They bit at him, ripping his piwafi off and shredding it, digging their fiery teeth into him. He screamed in agony as they sent waves of flames through his blood. One of the dragon-flames wrapped around Zul, burning through his exposed skin and coming ever so close to killing him. Aiden called them back just before the dark elf was slain.
Slowly, he walked to the crying form, savoring the moment.
"Mercy," begged the drow.
"Mercy?" repeated Aiden. "You kidnapped her, raped her, tortured her, ordered her killed, and eventually killed her. How dare you ask for mercy?"
He swung, and the dark elf whimpered a final time as the blade severed his head and devoured his body in flames.
Aiden turned and ran to Zenalic's side, the rage fading, only to be replaced by sadness.
He held her in his arms and cried, his tears falling lightly on her lifeless body.
As he let himself slip away, losing his will, he found his mind being pulled to an earlier memory. It was the day he had lost his father, who was then holding his son as he said goodbye.
"Yes, my son, I will die today," he said. "But you will live on. This blade will be yours. It will find you, as it found your grandfather, and I. I cannot teach you its secrets, for I do not know them. All I can tell you is its name is Phoenix."
Aiden's mind snapped back to the present, and he understood. Wiping the tears from his eyes, he stood.
"Phoenix!" he called, raising the blade in front of him as each syllable echoed loudly through the room. "You were forged with the life blood of a score of dragons! You have served my family for three generations, and now I say to you this: You have deemed me worthy to wield and command you, and now, I do!
"If it takes my life, so be it! I do not care. Just bring her back!" Aiden threw the blade into the air between them.
The sword hovered there, catching flame and spinning, faster and faster. The flames grew, and grew…it took on shape, hiding the blade in its chest. Then the shape gained definition, and there floated a purple phoenix.
Aiden felt his feet leave the floor, and looked to see that Zenalic was now hovering as well. He felt part of his life force drain away, into Zenalic. The pain was unbearable, to have his very essence, his life force, pulled away from him, parted like a child and his candy.
After what seemed an eternity, the pain stopped. His life force was fully drained.
He fully expected to be dead. He saw blackness everywhere, and knew almost beyond doubt that he was dead. He hoped with every fiber of his soul that his life had meant something, that somehow, by Corellion's blessing, she would be resurrected.
He opened his eyes, realizing he had closed them at some point.
The phoenix, he saw, was doing something…strange. It seemed to shift to two different shapes, both smaller phoenixes, screeching all the while. Apparently, Aiden was not the only one who had to endure pain for this exchange.
When the split was complete, one phoenix turned to Zenalic, and the other to Aiden. They flew to their targets, and into them. Aiden screamed again as the purple flames burned into him, melding its immortality with his elven life force.
There was a flash, then Aiden was falling. He landed lightly from his twenty-foot fall, as did Zenalic. He noted with satisfaction that the Ring of the Phoenix held a purple glow to it on his finger, despite the amount of energy that must have been taken from the sword to cast the incredible spell.
He turned to her and saw the breathing that meant, though she was unconscious, she yet lived.
He felt…different as he ran to her. He picked her up with ease and draped her over his shoulder, so he could carry her back out of the room while holding the sword.
All of his men stood against the door, which shook as it was battered from the other side by the drow. "Faridim, Flamecaller!" Aiden screamed over the noise. Both men immediately pulled away from the door and walked to him.
"Go," he said, handing Zenalic to Faridim. "Get your men and go. There is a tunnel in the other room. It will lead you to safety. When you come to the fork, and there is only one, go right. You will end up an hour's walk due west of Waterdeep."
Faridim raised an eyebrow and Aiden said, "Phoenix tells me this. It does not lie. Go. Do not question me, nor the Phoenix Blade, just go. Make haste, my friend, and live well. Tell her, no matter what happens, I love her."
Aiden walked over to the door and put his hand on Hammer's shoulder. "Knock down the supports after you pass, so that none may follow. Understand?" he asked the dwarf.
"Aye, but why are ya telling me this?" the dwarf responded.
"I am not coming," he responded.
"I'll not be leavin' a friend nor me leader behind," the stubborn dwarf stated. Aiden was touched by his caring, but now was not the time to be weak, or let his emotions get in the way of what he had to do. Nothing was as important as her life. Nothing.
"I am giving you an order, my friend," he said. "Obey it. Please. You must save them. Get my love out of here, and to safety. I beg of you, do this for me, Hammer."
The dwarf hesitated a moment, then nodded once. Aiden smiled and patted him on the shoulder, turning away. Faridim and Flamecaller were already organizing the retreat, and the door shook more dangerously from the blows of the drow, as the human brace was breaking away toward the tunnel instead of supporting it.
When all the humans were gone and Aiden heard the sound of the first brace breaking and a small cave-in, he steeled himself for the battle.
He knew he couldn't stop them, but nor could he let them take her. He wouldn't, if that meant is life, so be it. He had led them all into this, and so he was responsible to get them out. That was the way of a leader.
The only trick he had left was surprise, so he used it. Without a word he stuck out his hand and summoned the Phoenix Blade. He brought the sword up into a guard position, and poured all his strength into it. Surprisingly, the flames came to his call rather easily. Was this the mark of the phoenix half in him now? The flames shot out, rushing through the door, breaking it down and battering the stunned drow with pieces of wood and deadly purple flames.
Aiden ran forward, bellowing the call of the Phoenix, jumping into ten-score drow, and what could only be his death.
A.N.--R&R! There's still the epilogue, so review, and don't kill me until I've finished it! Really, review! I'm not posting the epilogue until I get at least one more review. Two preferably!