Chapter 4: Betrayal

Kaeryd moved warily through the narrow tunnel. He could barely see a foot in front of him. The group went on and on for what seemed like hours, with Zarin in the lead. Then, the passage widened, to the point that they were able to walk four people side by side. Then they arrived at an enormous room. The chamber was full of gold and jewels. Zarin looked around delightfully. The others were awestruck and walked silently around the vault examining the artifacts. Zarin immediately went to the center of the chamber and picked up a shiny smooth talisman of some kind.

"What's that?" Kaeryd asked him.

"I don't know…but it looks powerful don't you think?" the King said keeping his eyes on the talisman.

"Hey look at this!" Jasmine said, holding up what looked like a staff. She held it out and tossed it up a few inches and caught it.

"It's so light…" The staff was the polar opposite of Jasmine's wooden staff. This one was shimmering smooth and measured about five feet long. A pointed emerald was mounted at one end, and three small columns jutted out to hold an even bigger emerald on the other.

"I'm keeping this!" Jasmine exclaimed gleefully. Then Kaeryd remembered.

"Hey Jas?"

"Yeah?"

"How long do you think that firewall of yours will last?" Kaeryd asked.

"Dunno. As long as the roots don't disintegrate, it should last forever," Jasmine replied not entirely focused on Kaeryd's question.

"Well those roots will disintegrate," Aghamand said holding up a golden chalice.

"Shoot, then we don't have much-"

"Aahhh!" Tysan screamed.

"Take that!" Etherian/Sifias punched Tysan to the ground. A couple more soldiers and knights followed him in. He raised the Chaos Reaver above his head and brought it down swiftly. Zac was quick though and he threw a knife across the room, which pierced straight through Etherian/Sifias' hand. Sifias gave a yell in agony and dropped his legendary sword. Tysan kicked it away from him. He then rolled away from the Misthalin scouts and stood up next to Zac.

"Thanks."

"No problem."

"You're too late, Ancients…" Zarin announced suddenly, a peculiar edge creeping into the jocund king's voice.

"What?" Kaeryd said confused. Did he just hear the word, Ancients?

"No…" Sifias said gripping his injured hand, eyes affixed to the king.

"Your time has ended," Zarin said, now with a hint of insanity.

"What are you doing?" Kaeryd asked completely lost now.

"Hehehe…" Zarin started to laugh maniacally. The talisman began glowing in his hand.

"Even though this artifact is not yet strong enough to cleanse the whole world…it's certainly strong enough for a small cave…" Zarin snarled, eyeing the talisman with glinting pupils.

"What are you doing?" Kaeryd demanded.

"NO! This is what we we're trying to prevent!" Sifias roared.

"Prevent?" Jasmine asked, looking at Sifias.

"We must stop them!" Sifias barked to his scouts. They charged full force at Zarin.

"Wait!" Kaeryd and Jasmine absorbed a few air runes and pushed back the scouts with a wind blast.

"No!" Sifias screamed in desperation.

"Thank you for that…now you will be rewarded," Zarin's eyes rolled up into its sockets, showing nothing but white, and he raised his hand. Jasmine was blown back full force into the wall of the vault. Her body bounce viciously before collapsing in a heap.

"Jasmine! What was that for?" Tysan screamed at Zarin.

"You fools…I thank you for taking me this far. Now, there is no one who can stop me!" Zarin was completely insane. Sifias rushed at Zarin with his fist raised. Zarin let out a shrieking laugh and the talisman shone even more brightly. A huge shockwave shot out of the talisman and knocked down every standing person in a twenty-foot radius. Sifias screamed and so did the other Soul Reapers.

Through it all, laughter echoed off the cave walls, multiplied, and achieved unbearably loud volume. Kaeryd was still barely conscious but his head was bruised. The others were all out cold. A small silvery stream of light rushed out of Etherian's mouth and he crumpled to the ground. The Misthalin scout team was completely obliterated. Their bodies lay scattered and broken. Similar lights came out of the black knights but faded away as soon as they escaped.

"Hahahah! Feel my power!" Zarin screamed at the top of his lungs. He shouted a spell and the vault started to rumble. It was caving in.

"You will all be cleansed!" Zarin cried. He then used a teleporting spell and vanished from sight.

Kaeryd couldn't move. He knew he must get up and get everyone out of the vault. Slowly, painfully, he rose, rubbing his head. He stumbled over to Eclipse and gently shook him. Eclipse came to and bolted up, but immediately regretted the sudden movement.

"What happened?" Eclipse said unsteadily cradling his head.

"No time to explain! We need to get out of here! Help me wake everyone," Kaeryd said urgently. Eclipse complied and quickly went over to Tysan and Zac. Kaeryd ran to Hale.

"Come on…wake up!" Kaeryd said kicking Hale's body.

"Huh? What?" Hale shot up instantly.

"Come on wake the others! The vault is gonna cave in!" Kaeryd yelled and darted to Jasmine. He shook her awake.

"Ouch…that hurt," Jasmine said clutching her side.

"Yeah, come on we need to get out!" Kaeryd helped her up. They turned around and saw the others all awake. Eclipse had Etherian's body on his back. Together they made for the exit. The tunnel was narrow so they had to run in a single file line. Rocks from the ceiling fell down narrowly missing Kaeryd. They reached the entrance, but it was blocked.

"Shoot! Now what?" Brian said coming up to the boulders.

"We'll move 'em."

Jasmine and Kaeryd absorbed a few earth runes into the palm of their hands and lifted the stones to the ceiling. The others quickly moved under the rocks and got out safely. Suddenly, more rocks fell down.

"I can't hold it!" Jasmine said struggling.

"Me neither!" Kaeryd shouted, before a stray boulder knocked the boy out into darkness.

"No!" Jasmine cried. The giant boulders were too much for her and she too blacked out from the strain.

When Kaeryd came to, he was halfway under a few small boulders. He pushed them off and stood up.

"Ouch," He looked around and found himself trapped. The quake had stopped, barring any exit. Then Kaeryd saw a boulder move from the corner of his eye. The boulder plopped down near his feet. Jasmine's blond head popped out from the rubble.

"Hi…are you okay?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. How are we going to get out of here?" Kaeryd asked.

"I don't know…help me push these boulders."

Kaeryd started to help push the rocks out of the way. Soon, they were back in the chamber with enough space to stand.

"Jeez, we're stuck in here without any food or water…we're doomed," Jasmine despaired, with no little frustration in her voice.

"Crap," Kaeryd muttered, sitting down on a rock. Kaeryd was worried. He didn't know what to do now. But mostly, he was just confused. Who was the enemy? Zarin? Sifias? Sifias called them defilers, and King—no, just Zarin—called them Ancients.

Ancients? Whoa, hang on… Vault of the Ancients? Was this their vault? As much as Kaeryd was worried about Etherian, now he was doubly confounded. Thinking hard, he remembered the light he had seen come out of Etherian's mouth. That was probably Sifias, Kaeryd deduced mentally, Guess Sifias died then.

No, I'm right here.

"Huh? Who was that?" Kaeryd said aloud.

"Who was what?" Jasmine answered.

Me, Sifias.

"Are…are you in my head?" Kaeryd said, scared that he was hearing voices.

"Uh…no," Jasmine said looking at him obliquely.

Yes. There was a voice talking to him… and its name was Sifias…Kaeryd lost it.

"GET OUT! GET OUT! GET OUT!" Kaeryd screamed.

"Uh…I can't…that's exactly the problem. Are you sick?" Jasmine said coming over to Kaeryd.

No. If I leave then I will die. And that's not something I wish to do at the moment.

"Crap, when Zarin used that talisman…he must have killed all the Soul Reapers!" Kaeryd said to Jasmine.

"What?"

Soul Reapers? I am an Ancient.

"Sifias is inside my head!"

"WHAT?" Jasmine repeated aghast.

"Hold on. Shut up for a minute. Did you just say you were an Ancient?" Kaeryd asked.

"No," Jasmine screwed her eyebrows together in puzzlement.

"Not you, I'm talking to Sifias," Kaeryd answered.

Yes. Did you not know?

"No," Kaeryd answered.

"'No' what?" Jasmine said suddenly backing away from Kaeryd.

"I said shut up!"

Fine.

"Okay!" Jasmine said.

"Not you Sifias. I meant Jasmine."

Oh.

"Okay from now on what I say is to Sifias…okay?" Kaeryd said.

"O-okay," Jasmine had stopped backing up, only because she had nowhere else to go, what with the wall there.

"Now, what the heck are you doing inside my body?" Kaeryd demanded.

Well you see, we Ancients have no corporeal form. We must enter inside another's body to do…well, anything.

"So…you possess people?"

Well we do not define it in such a way. We do not like doing it but we had to in order to stop Zarin from destroying the world.

"Destroying the world?" Kaeryd asked raising an eyebrow.

Yes. He is evil. He works for a great and evil demon, who wants that talisman to destroy the world. You see, the demon is corrupting the planet's resources, sucking the life force of this world little by little. And my master sent us Ancients to stop him.

"Uh…huh…so your not trying to kill us?"

No. But we only fought you because we thought you knew what Zarin was doing and were supporting him, but, since I'm in your mind, I have learned that you had no knowledge of his motives.

"Of course not! Do you think I'd actually want to destroy the world?" Kaeryd asked defensively.

Now that I can read your mind…no.

"Okay let me ask you this. Why didn't you take full control of me? Why can I still move and stuff?" Kaeryd asked him.

Because the second I went into your mind, I sensed that you were not corrupt. I knew then that you did not work for Zarin.

"I see."

"What's he saying?" Jasmine asked cautiousy. She had inched closer despite her fear, probably out of curiosity. Then Kaeryd's eyes started to glow red. Just like the black knights that had possessed the Misthalin people. Jasmine leapt back instantly with a yelp.

"It is I. Sifias," Kaeryd's mouth moved, but spoke in Sifias's voice.

"Okay…" Jasmine said backing up faster, hitting the wall once more.

"Do not fret. I am only taking control for awhile. I want to tell you that I am not what you think I am. I can transmit the truth into your mind. If you let me," Sifias explained.

"Umm…I don't really trust you right now…" Jasmine said doubtfully, "How can I be sure Kaeryd is still in there somewhere?"

"Jas, trust me," Kaeryd in his own voice, "I know his feelings are sincere. He's in my head after all, however weird this is...but if he was evil, I'd probably be trying to kill you right now."

Jasmine hesitated for a moment eyes focused intensely on Kaeryd's, and then nodded slowly, "…Alright then."

Sifias closed Kaeryd's eyes and concentrated. He took all of the information he had just told Kaeryd and sent it to Jasmine's. He then let Kaeryd take control again.

"Ugh. That doesn't exactly feel pleasant," Kaeryd said wincing.

"Wow. So the Soul Reapers – I mean Ancients – are actually the good guys?" Jasmine breathed.

"Looks like it," Kaeryd said.

"But how are we going to tell the others? We're trapped in here!" Jasmine complained throwing her arms up in despair.

We are not trapped.

"We're not?" Kaeryd asked.

"No. We are!" Jasmine screamed.

"Shush." Kaeryd said to her.

Don't you sense it? This place. This vault. It is made of Rune Essence.

"Rune Essence? So we can make runes out of it?"

Exactly. Then we can teleport out and find the others in your group.

"Good idea!" Kaeryd said excitedly. Maybe this voice-in-the-head thing wouldn't be so bad after all.

"What's a good idea?" Jasmine said feeling completely left out. Kaeryd jolted up.

"The walls! The rocks! They're Rune Essence! We can make runes and teleport ourselves out of here!"

"That's a good plan…but we don't have any talismans! Let alone Mystic Ruins!" Jasmine said.

"Oh…right."

Tell her to turn around.

"Er…turn around Jas," Kaeryd relayed the message. Jasmine turned around and saw an etched symbol on the wall.

"A law rune symbol!" Jasmine said and fingered the emblem.

"But we still need talimans."

Behind you. There is a chest.

Kaeryd turned around and opened a dusty golden chest. Inside laid many talismans. Each represented all the runes around the world.

"Here! Talismans!" Kaeryd exclaimed.

"Yes! Now we can craft some law runes!" Jasmine said hopefully.

"All right let's get to work," Kaeryd said. Kaeryd picked up a law talisman. He walked over to the wall and unsheathed his sword. He picked at the wall carefully, carving out a crude circle, not the best quality rune, but it would suffice. He then carved out another one and moved over to the law rune etched into the wall. He lay down the two Rune Essences on the ground and held up the talisman. The symbol gleamed and shot a blue beam at the two Essences near his feet. The symbol was now carved on the newly made law runes.

Kaeryd grinned and picked them up and turning to Jasmine, who had already crafted some wind and fire runes.

"All right then," she said as he turned around, "Let's get out of here!"

They laid all their runes onto the ground. Both closed their eyes and absorbed the runes into their open palms. Together, they invoked a few incantations, and just as Zarin had done, vanished with hardly a flicker.