Chapter 8: Within Valis

Xapferey had changed his mind about going, but had sent Parn, Etoh, Slayn, Woodchuck and Ghim to get the information from Wort. Deedlit had decided to stay with Xapferey so she could spend more time with the man she loved.

Upon being asked why he had changed his mind and was not joining them replied that as a general of an army, he realized he no longer had the luxury to go gallivanting on side quests. Although with Parn taken in as his apprentice, Xapferey was able to delegate the task to the young man as a means of getting more experience.

After seeing his friends off to the Dwarven tunnel, Xapferey returned to train his army. Currently, the Linebreakers had graduated from teamwork exercises to practicing the motions that would make them feared.

"Front rank cleave," Xapferey ordered and the front rank slashed at imaginary enemies "first rank spin behind, and second rank cleave."

The Linebreakers obeyed their orders as they went through the motions, cleaves followed by spins or small jumps backwards to bring them into a protected position before repeating. Their motions were slowly increasing in speed as they gained experience with the positioning of their partners and skill with the weapon.

Xapferey rubbed a hand over his chin as he watched the Linebreakers practice. He had decided to let some things play out as canonically as possible; namely the meeting with Karla and Wort. There was an excellent chance that Wort would realize he was a plane-walker, and Xapferey wanted to keep that knowledge as limited as possible.

Seeing things well in hand under the commands of Jebra and Nethalus, Xapferey withdrew to focus on an important rune-crafting project, his most secret project. Opening his laptop, Xapferey then began a security password to protect the file knowing only his eidetic memory would possibly be able to remember it.

Xapferey locked the file and began working on it.

~~Project is ambitious, and dangerous. More research is required before construction can even begin. Construction will have to wait until I gain a secure location for testing and implementation of the foundational runic structures. Secondary projects are currently in progress. ~~

Xapferey closed the file on his computer and plugged in his headphones before returning to his almost completed shield project.

Because of the music playing in his ears Xapferey did not notice the knocking on his door but his proximity ward alerted him to Deedlit's presence outside the door. Xapferey pulled a headphone out of his ear and flicked his hand at the door causing it to open. Deedlit entered with a smile as she walked in, she realized Xapferey was hard at work.

"Are you busy?"

"No, I almost finished."

"What are you working on?"

He grinned. "It's a surprise."

Deedlit pouted playfully at his refusal but she tilted her head quizzically at the headphone coming from Xapferey's left ear, it was not something she had seen before.

"What is that?" She asked

"It's called a headphone, it allows me to listen to music privately when connected to a player," Xapferey gestured Deedlit and she held the free headphone wire up to her ear to hear the song Bed-Sitter Images by Al Stewart playing.

"Interesting."

"It's useful to tune out distractions when working on something."

"Am I distracting you?" She asked with a playful grin.

"Nope," Xapferey said as he closed the lid of his laptop to pay more attention to Deedlit.

"Good, I wanted to talk to you, and find out more about what your plans are for our future."

Xapferey nodded in agreement as he brought a chair for Deedlit to sit down.

"I am willing to do anything you wish of me Deedlit, as my wife to be I consider you my equal and I value your opinion even if I might not agree with it at times."

Deedlit smiled at that, she knew from earlier conversations that Xapferey considered himself to have a more progressive mindset.

"Do you have a map of Lodoss available?"

"Yes," Xapferey said as he pulled one out of his bag. Deedlit unrolled it and looked around before she noticed a patch of forest by her homelands but not actually included in the wards around the Forest of no Return.

"Here, it's close enough that we could visit my homeland with ease and still be able to be visited by our friends. And if your army wished to settle there after the war, the area is unclaimed."

"Then that is settled, what about children?"

"As many as you wish to have Deedlit."

Deedlit smiled and nodded as Xapferey stood up and led her out of the room for a walk. Opening the door, the two went to walk through the gardens of the city and they had dinner together before they retired for the night.

The next day

Xapferey groaned as he realized one of his most hated days of the year rang through his mind: the day of his parent's death. Xapferey threw his mental shields to maximum with a snarl as he attempted to suppress the hated memories. "I'm going out for a walk, I want to be alone," he said to Abathur as he put a note on his door without a destination.

A few hours later, Xapferey was sitting on the battlements with his eyes closed and generally ignoring the world around him. Hours later, Xapferey was still sitting on the battlements and like Parn, he was thinking about his parents. He was hoping they would approve of his choices and his future plans. He knew his father would be overjoyed and playfully annoyed that Xap outranked him as a 4-star general, and impressed by what he had done with his army.

Xapferey smiled as he knew this was the part of the anime where Deedlit would come looking for Parn with a lute over her shoulder to serenade him. Unlike the young teen, Xapferey was not going to request Deedlit stay behind. He knew how capable she was and he knew it would insult her pride to request such of her as well and Xapferey was no idiot.

'Here she comes,' he though as he caught the scent of Deedlit as she approached him with a joyful smile on her face.

"Found you," she giggled as she twirled around and sat by Xapferey's feet while playing the lute and smiling at him. Xapferey smiled back at the Elf as he enjoyed the rush of love and affection that was shaking him of his sour mood. The two sat in comfortable silence as she played, enjoying the company of the other.

"I have something for you, the project I mentioned earlier, I've only made a few as they were quite difficult, it fits into your armor and this clips over your wrist," Xapferey said as he pulled a thin runecrafted tablet and plain band out of his bag.

"What does it do?" Deedlit asked.

"It projects a regenerating magical shield around you. It has a reserve of power and it links with the bracelet to tell you how strong the shield is. I've linked several runes so that only you can see how strong or weak the shield is and it will also replenish the reserves of energy by drawing off ambient magical or other energies, but that is done slowly."

"Well that can be useful, are you suggesting I cannot protect myself?" Deedlit asked as she arched an eyebrow at him.

"Far from it my love… this is just an extra layer of security. The world is full of people that will attack you from behind, let the shield deal with that."

"How many do you have?"

"6, enough for you, me, Parn, Jebra, Nethalus and Pirotess."

"Then our closest friends and allies shall be protected. Will you be making more?"

"Soon, they take a very long time, and I have other projects I want to begin."

"That works," Deedlit said with a grin, happy she had pulled Xapferey out of his sour mood as she pulled him into a kiss.

Two weeks later

Xapferey was in the throne room, listening to Parn's report what he had 'learned' about Karla from Wort. Parn had entered the throne room and bowed respectfully to king Fahn before kneeling to make his report.

You have returned safely."

"Yes your highness."

"Tell me what you've learned," Fahn requested.

"The great sage Wort confirmed my suspicions from my research in the archives. Karla is a survivor from the kingdom of sorcery. According to the great sage Wort's exact words, "for these past 500 years in different forms and guises, when the balance of Lodoss is tipped; she appears, she uses her powers to affect the course of history, prince and peasant alike are just pawns to her… or so she believes."

Fahn grimaced slightly "so now we are all just pawns in a game."

"Is that Parn I hear?" King Kashue asked as he approached and bowed respectfully to Fahn.

"King Kashue, milord," Parn said with a smile. Kashue clapped him on the shoulder with a laugh. Fahn then presented Parn with a shield of the Holy Knights as a gift, the boy being too short to join the Linebreakers at the moment though he did have the potential to become one.

"Your army has a fine young member," Kashue said to Xapferey.

"Parn is young, but he has great potential, as he gains more experience I hope to see him take command of the Linebreakers," Xapferey said clapping the boy's shoulder causing him to turn in surprise and admiration.

"You really think so?"

"Keep growing and training and I see you even having a command of your own," Xapferey knew that armies as they gained fame would gain recruits, even an unaffiliated army like his. Parn was smiling as he raised the shield in the air in celebration.

Later that day, Xapferey and Deedlit joined Parn to see off king Kashue. The king was taking a expeditionary force to engage the Marmo.

"Parn I'll be waiting," Kashue offered over his shoulder as he rode off to prepare his army for the battle. Xapferey waited a few moments before he heard the whistle of a knife through the air before he snatched it from its flight and threw it back causing the thrower to yelp in shock.

"Who's there?" Parn demanded as a rueful Woodchuck came around the corner.

"If that was meant as a joke, it wasn't very funny," Deedlit sniped.

"Take it easy Deedlit, I just wanted to see how those two would handle it, being their first war and all," Wood replied.

"Well you can stop worrying, because I plan to protect King Fahn no matter what."

"No matter how many men you will have to kill?" Wood asked

"We can handle it Wood, don't you worry," Xapferey replied.

"Well if you're sure."

"I'm sure."

"Then good luck, we'll all need it, especially you general," Woodchuck said while teasing Xapferey lightly before he walked off.

The two embraced for a time before retiring, on the morrow they were heading to war.