A/N: Sorry this chapter took so long, the computer hard drive died when this chapter was almost finished. Everything on that hard drive got deleted. So I had to rewrite this chapter again. After we got a new hard drive and the internet up and Word reloaded… you get it. Anyways, it's here now, don't panic, I haven't stopped writing.

Chapter Twenty-Two:

The Minions of Zaros

Black. Darkness. Everything was dark, a tone so penetratingly full it was more real, more perceivable than Kysin's own hands and feet. It was potent, as if full of power awaiting the signal that would unleash it. Kysin could feel it eating into him, dissolving his own flesh, bone, erasing his very existence. But he was not afraid. Instead he was calm, elated. He felt every bit as powerful as the cloud that carried him now.

A castle. Or more accurately, a room. A large, stone room of shadows. Gold, gold colour, powerful, gold pulsing through the deadly pall of black darkness. Kysin could see. He wouldn't have described any of the powerful colours as being light, yet he could see; he could perceive his surroundings. He saw the room he was in, he saw faithful adventurers like himself everywhere. Surrounding him, trapped in this hall... He saw the throne at one end of the room. On that throne sat a figure, enclosed within a robe of gold, gold that repelled yet enticed black darkness to its being.

The sight was... different. More spectacular and dreamlike in it's quality than Kysin had ever imagined. The figure on the throne, he looked almost human. Larger than life, had he been standing up he would've towered over the tallest man. It was impossible to make out anything past his general figure. The gold, black shadows hid him well.

The figure hadn't even spoken, and Kysin knew who he was.

"Charos." He murmured. The name was caught up on the lips of the hundreds of adventurers in that room. Charos, the diplomat. The skilled spokesman, the one who could charm anybody to do anything. The man who could persuade the most devout Saradominist to join Zamorak. The mortal man so skilled, he was often hailed as a god. A god of cunning, of strategy, and of lies. A god who served Zaros with devotion that matched very few others.

The ethereal gold dancing around the arms of the throne rose, and revealed two long, skinny hands, that Charos had raised for silence and attention. He got it. Not one adventurer moved.

Charos spoke. Though neither Kysin nor anyone else in the room at that time could repeat what had been said to them, they knew that their loyalty to the Empty Lord had been cemented. Charos was speaking less with his mouth now, preferring leaving the cold, heavy silence intact. He was using his mind. As one, his audience picked up, and understood. Charos addressed each one of them in turn, with the same lack of words he had used at the end of his speech. Finally he turned to Kysin.

"Staff..."

With that one word, Kysin pieced together his assignment. The staff of Armadyl. He was required to find it, and bring it to Charos.

Charos turned to Biohazardluver.

"Ring... Mine... Return..." Bio got it. The Ring of Charos wasn't in Charos's possession anymore. He had to find it, and return it to Charos.

It was a while, a few hours at least, for Charos to talk to every single adventurer individually. But in that place, there was no time. There was simply Charos, and the potent magic of his words. Kysin couldn't even begin to imagine what the Empty Lord's palace would look like, if his diplomat's place was so vibrant with black power, shot through with gold...

"Go... Emptiness sustains all..." Charos spoke in a slow voice, almost drawling, his words leaden with power.

Kysin felt himself lifted. He saw the gold and black room of Charos disintegrate. The black held him, hid him... He was moving again...

Kysin had always liked the darkness. Wherever he went, darkness and shadows had been his friend, his form of camouflage. In the shadows, he was invisible. A cobra, a lethal weapon of death for any that lacked his skill of hunting in darkness. Daylight, on the other hand, left Kysin feeling exposed, unsafe. Kysin's main enemy was always some form of human. Some form of creature that lived in daylight, and slept in darkness. In daylight, they were at the advantage. Light was their time, their element, the setting in which they felt most comfortable, most formidable. Kysin preferred those weak, helpless, broken by their deadened eyesight, jumping at every unknown sound that tends to appear at night.

The darkness now was not leaving him. In front of him, around him, turning, behind him. Ardougne. Western Ardougne. Kysin was in Western Ardougne. But the darkness was there. He could feel it. It wasn't the darkness that hid him normally. The darkness that consumed him now was powerful, potent, strong. Kysin's eyesight was tuned to the daylight that was present, but yet the darkness was there. Somewhere. Inside of him, part of him. The plague-ridden citizens of West Ardougne nervously walked away from him, staring at him lest he make any sudden moves.

Inside one of the buildings, was a cracked mirror. Kysin stopped in front of the window, and looked in. The mirror threw back his reflection, it's defects distorting the picture slightly. Kysin had seen himself reflected in a mirror before. And his outer appearance hadn't changed since then. But yet, he was changed. He looked closer. He could see the change now; see some of the dark power he felt. His eyes had lost their bored, drunken look that continuously appeared in them. Now they looked wild. The pupils were black as death. The white's had darkened, into a deepened grey. The dark brown that had ringed his pupils was gone. It was now black.

His eyes convicted all who beheld them of his true loyalty.

Similarly, Biohazardluver had experienced changes. He felt the power coursing through his veins; saw it glowing through his eyes. The Ring of Charos... That was all. Charos had told him nothing more than to get the ring, and return it to him. Despite this lack of instruction, Bio knew where to go. Somehow, he knew to walk east. Turn left and head east. It may well have been the Power within him that guided his steps, or he was drawn to the Ring of Charos.

As Bio had known in which direction the Ring was, so Kysin should've known where the Staff of Armadyl was. He knew where it was, roughly. Only the guidance was coming from three different places. Two of them to the north at slightly different angles, and one of them from another plane of life in itself. Despite this, Kysin wasn't confused. He had heard of the invisible teleportation of the elves, although he had never used it because he was not a mage. Never a mage. Kysin chose one of the places to the North, and followed it.