Author's Forward:

Here is the first Chapter of my second major story. As you have probably read in the Prologue, it looks like things are beginning to happen in Elversult, the home of Renley and his friends.

If anyone would like to volunteer to beta the coming chapters please email me at concerns and questions are welcome comments deemed malicious will be filed in the appropriate place.

Disclaimers

The concept of Immortality as used here is originally the property of Panzer/Davis and Rysher, I may have altered it a little to suit. Forgotten Realms are owned by TSR publishing. The Cleric Quintet is a series of books written by R.A. Salvatore and set in the Forgotten Realms. The character of Kendall Sackett is loosely based on the Sackett family first introduced by Louis L'amour in his western novels. No copyright infringement is intended. This story is free to read, and to share as long as my pen name is attached to it. It is not intended for paid publishing in

any way.

Chapter 1:

For such a small person she certainly was an aggressive fighter. I quickly dropped into a defensive stance. She came in fast and hard, our arms met in a flurry of punches and blocks. I dropped quickly doing a reverse leg sweep, which she jumped over easily. I figured on this of course, after weeks of sparing with Danica here at Spirit Soaring, I knew she would easily avoid something like this, but in doing so she moved perfectly into position for my real strike.

I reversed the kick and struck upwards, striking the woman on her descending left thigh. I would need to capitalize on this quickly, because I knew from experience that she could recover from a strike like this extremely quickly. In a flash I was back on my feet, Danica was recovering, but not as quickly. Now I went on the offensive, Danica was still favoring her left leg slightly I managed to sneak one or two blows through her weakened defenses before the fight was over. I realized it was over because I was suddenly looking up at the sky as the ground rushed up to meet my back, and the air was forced from my lungs as I struck the ground. That supposedly weakened left leg struck me right in the jaw.

In an instant, Danica was over me, her open palm stopping an inch from the bridge of my nose. The message was clear. I lost, again.

"I yield." came a gasping voice I recognized as my own.

I stood up, slowly suddenly feeling every one of my advancing years. Danica smiled at my apparent stiffness. I may only look 33 years old, but in reality I just turned what should be an impossible 153 years old on my last birthday. Well not so impossible if you are an Immortal like me. My name is Kendall Sackett, I was born in Tennessee 153 years ago, and that's part of a country called the United States on another world called Earth. I've lived in many different places during my life, the most unusual of which was this magical forgotten realm, which I found myself in now.

"That's three falls out of ten," Danica said. "I never used to have this kind of workout before you arrived here." Danica belonged to the order of the Talbot monks. This order was this world's answer to the Shaolin monks of Earth. Danica was a master of their Open handed fighting style. She first came here to spirit soaring to study the ancient writings of her Order.

Actually, Spirit Soaring was a place of scholarly study for priests and followers of many of the religions of this world. The place was actually a temple dedicated to the God Denier, but the main feature that drew so many from so many different faiths was the great library.

The library was the centre piece of the whole place, a huge circular building of multiple levels with flying buttresses and huge windows to catch the sunlight. And all through out there was literally hundreds of book shelves, containing books and scrolls from all over the world all meticulously filed and maintained by Denier's priests, and open nearly all of any faith who agree to come here for peaceful study.

My companions were actually coming to this place from their home city of Elversult, on a quest of some importance. Apparently a group, called the Cult of the Dragon, has been attempting to seize control of that city. The Cult as I understand it is a group fanatics dedicated to the worship of Evil Dead Dragons. Now I'd never seen a Dragon, and normally I'd be skeptical about such a beast, but since landing in this world I've witnessed real magic that's not quickening related, I've fought several different types of monsters including a half-demon Cambion, and I've even met a real God. So I suppose something like a Dragon shouldn't be that much of a stretch of the imagination.

"Yeah, thanks," I respond. "But let us not forget that's three falls for me, and seven for you."

Danica laughed, "That may well be, but your fighting style so quite different than anything developed by my order, I've learned quite a bit at your hands."

"As have I from you," I respond.

"Shall we try again," I invited. The good thing about an immortal healing factor is that things like a little shot to the jaw like I just received tended to be only a minor inconvenience.

"Thanks, but I think our time for this morning, is drawing to a close." Danica said as she glanced past me.

Looking in that direction I was greeted by the sight of Renley leaving the main guest dormitories, armed, armored and carrying my accursed mail shirt, and shield over his arm. Don't get me wrong, my armor wasn't carrying a magical curse or anything like that, quite the contrary, indeed the enchantment it did carry added to the protection offered by the platemail itself. It was both lighter and more flexible then the same armor would be without the added enchantments. I just hated wearing it. It shifted my center of balance, and many of the sword moves I perfected over the last century and a half just could not be carried off wearing it.

I had to admire Renley though; the Paladin took it upon himself to see that I was properly familiarized with the care, maintenance, and use of such armour. Actually the armour itself came from my battle with that Black Demon warrior knight, which was actually called a Cambion I met on the trail to Spirit Soaring. Renley showed me how, by using a mixture of sand, water and vinegar in a barrel, that black paint could be stripped from the armour to reveal a shimmering coat of mail underneath. How I felt about the demon knight's sword on the other hand was a different story.

The sword itself also had to be cleaned of black paint, but underneath the paint it revealed a beautiful blade of mystical origin. It was a longsword the same length as the blade I brought with me from home. The workmanship of the blade was as good as anything that could be made back home, but with the added bonus of being enchanted. The blade would never dull or nick as long as the enchantment remained strong, and it was especially enchanted to battle dragons. On top of all that the sword was also sentient, it could speak it to me through throbs and tingles when I grasped the hilt. The sword had the ability to detect both evil and good, but was neither evil nor good itself, and would reject anyone that was too pure either way, a fact it painfully demonstrated to Renley when he attempted to grasp the hilt. The sword seemed to accept me as its master without a problem.

"Kendall Sackett," began Renley formally, "It's time for us to practice sword work using your armour."

I sighed heavily. I really disliked this stuff, but I suppose that I should get this over with, because it looked like that armour and I would have a long relationship together.

"I can appreciate your dilemma," chuckles Danica. "But luckily for me our order prohibits all but the most basic, padded armour, and then only for training and for initiates and novices."

Danica turns and reaches for a package she brought with her to our morning sparing session. "I've discussed this with Cadderly, and by way of thanks for all the training, I've brought you a little something."

She hands me the package, it's wrapped in oil cloth and tied with a cord, and weighs a couple of pounds. I look at her speculatively.

"You didn't have to do this," I said. "I learned just as much from you if not more then the other way around. I was honored to be given the opportunity." And I was too Danica's skills on open hand techniques easily rivaled that of Chin-Pao, my first teacher.

We first started sparing together a few days after my companions and I first arrived here at Spirit Soaring. I came out of the guest dormitories early one morning to notice Lady Danica practicing some rather unique martial arts katas. After observing for a while I offered to join her. We soon became good friends, and later when Denier departed his mortal avatar signalling the end of the Time of Troubles, I became a friend of her husband Cadderly as well.

I untied the string binding the package, and unfolded the oil cloth. Inside was what appeared to be a heavy coarsely knitted sweater of some kind. Only it wasn't made of wool, the thread appeared to be fine strands of metal knitted together like someone would knit a wool sweater. As I unfolded the sweater armour, for lack of better term, I could see that it was originally designed for someone of shorter stature then I but who was much thicker and broader then I was through the chest and shoulders that I would probably ever be. The sleeves were probably mid length, probably only coming to the middle of my forearm. There were two tails on the left and right hand side of the shirt that hung down with laces on them, probably for wrapping around the wearer's legs. The v-neck also had laces allowing the wearer to close the shirt right up to the neck, and short collar that offered some protection to the throat.

"Cadderly tells me that the sages who researched this item back when it was stored at the Edificant Library determined that this was probably constructed by the Duergar, the Gray Dwarves of the Underdark. It was constructed of pure mithril, and offers all the protection a full suit of field plate armour would." Danica said. "They believe that it is supposed to be worn it under your normal clothing."

"A princely gift, Lady Danica," said Renley whistling. "Ken, why don't you go and try the armour on?"

I nodded numbly to myself, and after thanking Danica for the gift, I returned to my room to try it on under my clothes but over my small clothes. As I suspected, there was lots of room in the chest and shoulders, so much so that the sweater hung down almost to my thighs. I laced up the tails loosely around my thighs, and got dressed once again. While I could feel the armour on me, it didn't seem to restrict my movements much at all. I suspected that the armour would offer someone of dwarf stature protection from the neck to the wrists and down to the ankles. On me the armour reached down just below my elbows and just below my knees.

I returned to the training field where Renley and Danica were waiting for me. I performed a few stretches, and some open hand katas to test out my range of movement. It would take a little getting used to, but I could definitely live with this.

"This is great, Danica!" I exclaimed. "I simply cannot thank you enough for this. Not only is this a great gift, you've freed me from the burden of that awful mail suit."

"What do you plan to do with this platemail?" Renley asks. "It is yours you won it fair and square by defeating the Cambion. An enchanted suit of armour such as this would fetch a good price at market."

"Actually, I thought I would give it to you," I said to Renley. "You've done so much for me since I arrived here, not to mention all patience you've showed me while trying to teach me about armoured combat. I think it is a fair repayment."

"I am honoured," said Renley as way of thanks.

With our early morning sparing sessions now completed, the smells of dawnfry are heavy on the air. I walk with my friends over to the dining hall, for an early breakfast. As we enter the hall, the Bouldershoulder brothers, Ivan and Pikel, are there serving out the morning meal to a long line of Priests and Brothers from various religious dominations. There is fresh bread, eggs, fried pork, as well as apples and oatmeal.

I gather together a tray of food for myself and go over to long table where the rest of our friends are seated. I take a seat on the bench beside Morgellyn, the beautiful Elvin woman that I have grown so close to over the last few months. Her half brother Stannul is seated across the table from me. Beside him is Marin the priestess, and Lucuis the bard. Dorien the mage is seated on the other side of Morgellyn. Renley sits down on the bench next to me, and Danica takes a seat next to Stannul.

"Good Morning," Morgellyn says to me in that musical voice. "How was your workout this morning?"

"Great, three falls out of ten," I said.

"I thought the idea was to get better," chuckled Stannul. "Didn't you get five or six falls when you first started working out with Danica?"

"The first few times Kendall Sackett and I worked was unfamiliar with his fighting style," Danica stepped in. "Thus he was better able to surprise me and take the advantage. But since then I have learned much about his fighting disciplines."

"Disciplines?" asked Dorien. "I thought there was just one type of Open hand fighting."

"Saying that is like saying there is just one type of sword, or one type of magic." I responded, "Personally I have studied three different open hand styles, four not counting what I learned here from Danica. Back home I've studied Tai-chi, Kung-Fu and Aikido."

"Indeed," Danica said. "If Kendall wanted to, I imagine that if he devoted himself full time to the study of his disciplines, he would very soon hold the rank of master. In what ever martial order would have him. Unfortunately, he seems too attached to his sword for that to happen."

The rest of my companions reflected on Danica's words for a minute. Then in a change of topic Morgellyn speaks up.

"There is word from the alchemist," she starts, "The potion is complete, and he will be bottling it today. Once it is bottled, we should be able to return to Elversult."

"That is good," remarks Renley, "We've been gone a long time, and it will take nearly a month to get back."

"Yeah," replies Lucius, "Things were starting to get tense before we left, now with the Time of Troubles and everything else, I hope we won't be too late."

The trouble in Elversult they were referring to was a perceived attempt by the Cult of the Dragon to seize power in the city. Rumour had it that the Cult had moved something called a Dracolich into the area, in order to succeed in their attempt to seize control of the city. Renley and my other companions were dispatched by the leaders of that city in an attempt to discover any useful information or if possible a weapon that could be used against the Dracolich.

Now don't ask me what a Dracolich is, because I have no idea. When I asked Morgellyn, she told me that a Dracolich was an undead evil dragon. Apparently normal dragons were practically un-killable when they are alive fighting them when they are already dead is something all together worse.

In any event, research here at Spirit Soaring uncovered a useful potion that could be used against such a beast. Apparently an apprentice of Sammaster the founder of the Cult, devised a potion that would destroy a Dracolich. The works by splashing some of it on the beast, and it thereby creates a link between the undead creature and the positive material plane. Which as I understand it is supposed to be very bad for the undead creature. The potion itself is difficult to brew, contains a number of rare and expensive ingredients and requires nearly a month to complete properly.

I think magic is starting to give me a headache.

Originally, there was supposed to be enough of the potion created to fill 4 potion bottles, unfortunately one of the potion batches fouled before it could be completed and had to be disposed of. That left three bottles of the potion that Cadderly would be presenting to Renley this afternoon.

Now that the potion was ready, everyone in the party was chomping at the bit to be on the trail once again, even Dorien.

"I'm finished here," Dorien said. "I've added several new spells to my spell book, now I need to time to properly absorb them. Besides I've had just about enough of all this religious mumbo jumbo to last me for a while." The egotistical mage, made no secret of the fact that he believed the road to true magical power lay with being a mage. While he sometimes found clerical magic useful, especially when it healed his wounds, he still considered priests such as those in Temples like this one cheaters at magic. True practitioners such as him didn't need to beg or borrow magic from greater cosmic beings like the Gods, a true practitioner wielded magic himself.

After further discussion, we decided that we needed to get back to Elversult as quickly as possible. We all knew that the date of our departure was rapidly approaching, and we started preparing for the journey over the last few weeks. Saddles were repaired, horses where examined, their shoes replaced where needed. Travel clothing was repaired or replaced.

In my case, I purchased a brand new mount, saddle, tack and harness. My new horse, a gelding, was the colour of buckskin I named him "Buck." Buck was trained to be guided both by the reins and by knee pressure for when you needed to keep your hands free for combat. While buck was not nearly as massive a steed as Renley's heavy war horse, Buck had long legs and was built for speed. I had spent the last few weeks getting to know Buck, and I think we had become good friends.

After I had expressed interest in learning to use a bow, Stannul took it upon himself to teach me everything I needed to know about archery. We travelled to the nearby town of Caradoon to purchase a bow. There, with Stannul's advice, I purchased a long composite bow, and a score of arrows. While what I purchased was the best of what was available, Stannul merely called it "serviceable."

With Stannul's help it wasn't long before I was a fair hand with this bow. I've always had very good hand eye coordination, and I was very good with a pistol, my .357 still sat securely under my shoulder, or any type of long gun.

"So it's agreed then," Renley said, "we leave tomorrow just after dawn for Elversult."