Chapter 10:A long awaited reunion?

The moon henge 1,010 years ago

In a place of powerful magic and great architecture there were elves of an unusual kind, and they had performed a spell that opened into another plane like they had done so many times before, exploring this new plane of existence for the first time.

But they found something in this new plane, a single horseman of Armor and a horse that looked like the devil's mount. The startouch elves were about to start attacking the rider when he fell off his mount, his Armor clattering, and they saw arrows of unusual make and even a small axe sticking out of his body through the Armor.

They rushed to him and the leader, a hooded startouch elf, bent down to the rider, "are you alright?" He asked with concern, "who? Where?" The rider asked, then passed out.


Present day the nexus

Rigran slashed his sword at a wooden post he had set up for training in the two days they had been at the moon mages home, he hugged one post then slashed at the other with his short sword.

He could hear Ezran and Ellis giggling as Azymondias chased after…something. Reaching out through the force, he sensed the small, familiar pulse of one of the moon moths that flew around the area.

Rigran spun and slash at another post nearly cutting it in half, he then heard a squeak and looked down seeing Zym curiously looking at him. He felt the corner of his mouth tilt up, and that smile soon became a chuckle, "don't worry I'm not using it on you anytime soon" Rigran said, "Witchers are not allowed to hunt Dragons" Ezran explained to Zym.

"Come and get it everyone!" Lujanne called and Zym immediately took off to get lunch, Ezran and Bait hurriedly followed, Rigran followed at his own pace.

Rigran's brow rose when he saw the food, it looked very nice looking, too nice to be true especially with limited resources this far up the Caldera, not to mention that his sense of smell told him it was not what it appeared.

"Elves and humans over here," Lujanna continued motioning to the table. "And those with three or more legs can sit over there," she pointed to several bowls on the ground, "with Phoe-Phoe."

They took their seats and reached for the food and Rigran had to admit it was good tasting, "You have the best food here," Ezran moaned, taking another bite, "what's your secret?"

"Well, my secret is…it's all fake," she smiled.

Callum stopped eating, sharing a look with the others, "What do you mean?"

"You know, fake," she repeated. "They're delicious illusions. You're actually eating grubs.", Rigran raised an eyebrow, nodded his head absentmindedly and took a bit, Witchers had to drink potions that were certain death for normal men and tasted awful so this was completely bearable to him.

The others lost their appetite quickly in the following procession; Ezran, did not pick up on the actual implications of the Moon Mage's answer. "Oh, you must mean grub. As in, wow this is some good grub!" He said hopefully.

"No…" Lujanne answered. "Do you see what Phoe-Phoe is eating?"

All heads turned to the bird. "That bowl of worms?"

Callum asked "Yes! Those are grubs!"

And they all lost their appetite except for one "I don't care," Ellis remarked, taking another mouthful as the two princes looked sick. "This illusion pie is the best I've ever had."

The brothers immediately started retching, "try going through the trail of grasses and this will become bearable" he remarked, and scorched over as the two began puking.

"Hey everybody," Rayla greeted waltzing over.

"Well you're in a good mood!" Ellis smiled. "I am! It does feel good to have two working hands again—uh, no offense Ava." Rayla said, Eliss' wolf gave a quick bark to say non taken.

"Well sit down and have a bit to eat" Lujanna said as Rayla sat down "and we can ask Rigran what exactly the trail of Grasses is"

Rigran sat up in response to her question as the brothers went slightly pale, "does it involve eating grass?" Eliss asked and Rayla was honestly hoping it was because from her experience anything Witcher involved something wretched and disgusting and she was shopping that there was at least something good they could do to make one.

"I actually think this is not a story for young ears" Rigran said looking at Eliss, "oh" Eliss said in disappointment, Lujanna looked slightly disappointed as well. Rayla scowled, her brow twitching before she looked at everyone else. "And how are all of you feeling?"

"Good!" Callum said "Amazing!" Ezran added "Awesome, cause it's time to go," Rayla started crossing her arms. "Nooo!" Callum said, "What?" Rigran asked, "We can't!" Ezran added "Rayla, we've only been here two days," Callum protested,

"Danger's coming for us, I know it," Rayla growled, "she's right those purple lights two nights ago…dark forces are coming" Lujanna said. "Who's coming?" Ezran inquired.

"No one wants to be our friend, that's for sure," Rayla answered. "Which is why we need to leave. Besides, we have precious cargo to deliver," she motioned to Zym, "War's coming the world's never seen, unless we get the wee dragon home to his mum."

"But Zym's so little. He still needs to learn how to fly," Ezran protested. "Ezran has a point I didn't get to learn all my skills by going out on adventures with no experience, even if my master later put me into learning on the job" Rigran muttered.

Lujanne chuckled, looking towards Ezran, "You seem to have a special connection to the dragonling; perhaps you could teach him?"

"Me?" Ezran blinked. "I could try.", "And I was hoping to learn about moon magic while we're here," Callum spoke up. "Rigran you coming?".

"No harm in it I suppose," Rigran said, Lujanne hummed to herself, "I could teach you some things.", "Hey! I thought you two were on my side!" Rayla protested.

"A few more days Rayla, that's all we're asking," Callum pressed. Rayla groaned, "Ugh, fine! One more day! One! But I'm serious about the danger. I'll keep patrolling, everyone else, stay on your toes."


"I can't believe I'm gonna learn magic from a real mage!" Callum exclaimed a little later as they followed Lujanna, Lujanne chuckled, leading the way, "How do you know I'm real?", "You smell real enough and it's hard to fool a Witchers senses," Rigran said.

Lujanna gave a smile, "you're just like Dravaan" she said, Rigran blinked, "you know my master?" He asked, Lujanna nodded, "looks like he did keep to his word about not letting the Witcher lineage die" she chuckled.

Striding forwards, she led the way up some steps, "This is the Moonhenge. Thousands of years ago, when Xadia was one land, the ancient ancestors of Moonshadow Elves performed fantastic rituals here." She lifted her arm, drawing a rune in the air, "Historia viventem."

Starry figures appeared all around the henge as a starry version of its former structure appeared around them. "The legends say they could use the power of the Nexus to open a portal to another plane. A shimmering world beyond life and death," Lujanne continued as they walked through the mirage.

"But it's in ruins now. What happened?" Callum inquired. "The Moon Druids destroyed it themselves when Xadia was divided in two. They decided it was safer to disable this magical place."

"That's so sad," Callum looked down. "Ever since then there's always been a guardian of the Nexus. A mage, like myself, whose duty is to prevent humans from discovering it." Lujanna explained

"What happens when humans do discover it? Do you like…" Callum trailed off moving his finger across his neck in a slicing motion.

Lujanne merely laughed, "Nah, why kill them when you can break their brains with insane illusions? I've got some real mind melters. They would completely freak your bean."

"But my master came here himself and kept a memory of it?" Rigran asked, Lujanna nodded again, this boy was quick on the uptake, "apparently Witchers are harder to send mad then one would first think" she chuckled.

"He came here looking for something, I heard him talk about Alder folk?, and a wild hunt? And is it a good idea that the portal remains closed?" She shrugged, "I guess he decided that it was better that humans didn't find this place. He let me keep the illusion and he left and I don't know what else".

"Did he tell you about any beasts from his land?" Rigran asked, "no why?" Lujanna asked, "He didn't tell you about Strigas?" Rigran asked to be sure, "what's a Striga?" Lujanna responded.

"A Wraith?" Rigran tried, Lujanna gave a confused look, "a drowner?", "a what?", "Succubus?" "Huh?"

"Basilisk?" "Now you're making things up."

"Nope it's real," Rigran said, "what about a Leshen?" "No?" Lujanna shook her head

"Be glad, the only way to kill one is with a flaming sword through the heart" Rigran audiably muttered, " finally round, a Bruxa?", "remind me what that is?" Callum asked, "a vampire," Rigran deadpanned, Callum took an involuntary step back.

Lujanne shrugged, before turning and continuing up the path. "Though Primal Energy is everywhere, it may be weaker or stronger at different times and places. The ocean is strongest at high tide, sky is strongest in a storm, and the moon is strongest—"

"When it's full!" Callum blurted.

"Please don't interrupt, but yes," she replied. "There are six special places where the magic of Primal Energies are most pure and powerful in this world. Such a place is called a Nexus." She lead them up onto a balcony, overlooking a large lake sitting in the caldera, "This is the Moon Nexus. It reflects the moon perfectly. When the moon is full, its light completely fills the lake."

"Wow." Callum breathed.

"I love this! I love learning about magic!" Callum admired. "But…I want you to teach me how to do Moon Magic. Maybe some hands-on learning? Get in there, show me how to do a moonbeam, a moon ray, a moon…shine?"

"Humans can't do magic." Lujanna pointed out, "Sure they can! I did magic!" Callum said.

"Right," Lujanne rolled her eyes, "with a Primal Stone. But then, you smashed it, so now you're just a standard human again."

"But I know other humans who can do magic!" Callum protested. Lujanne scowled, "We do not call that practice magic. It's an abomination, an atrocity."

"I was kinda talking about Rigran" Callum said, but agreed that dark magic was not a good thing and while useful would not aid in making piece, "Witchers have magic?" Lujanna asked sceptically, in response Rigran used Aard on a remaining bit of pillar turning it to rubble.

She didn't believe that humans could do the things her kind could, and if they could, they were doing something that was beneath her. And here she was going on about how fun it was to break people's minds.

Turning back to Lujanne, he repressed a smirk as he caught her shocked expression.

"I'm going on patrol," he stated coldly, "come find me when you're going to take this seriously."


Elsewhere

"So, he had a whole day of training. Can he fly now?" Rayla asked Ezran, who was with bait and Zym, "No, not yet," I'm doing my best guys," Ezran replied before turning to Zym and kneeling down, "and so are you. I know you are."

"Either way, we're leaving tomorrow," Rayla reminded. "There's danger coming. I know it. We have to get moving.", "then we should get some rest" Ezran said, "you can rest, I'm going to do a perimeter sweep" Rayla said, drawing her swords and walking off.


Katalis castle

The caws of crows echoed down the hall as Lord Viren approached a chamber in the tower he was in, entering the chamber and focusing on the figure petting one of the caged birds. "Crow Lord." The man didn't appear to hear him, causing Viren to clear his throat, "You! Crow Lord!"

"Oh! Sorry. I heard you calling for the Crow Lord," the man apologized taking a seat. "He's not here right now."

"So who are you?" Viren asked"Oh! Well, I'm…I'm the Crow Master." The crow master said."Can you still do the tasks of the Crow Lord?" Viren asked.

"Well…it's like Assistant Crow Lord—I just got promoted—" the Crow master stuttered, Viren gave him a look, "Sure! Of course!"

Viren set down a tray with four letters on them. "Good. Send these."

"Um…oh…These…these, uh, seem to have the seal of the King on it."

"And?" Viren asked "Well…uh…yikes…the King is….you know…" the crow master stuttered, "I know but I am acting as regent until the princes are found and I am acting on a very important matter" Viren said with deceptive calmness.

"Oh well if…if that's the case then uh by all means I-I'll send them right away" the crow master stuttered gulping as he took the letters.


Rigran looked around the path wearily as he had both swords out, he felt something watching him or something in the area at least, there was a shudder from a bush on one side of the path.

Rigran rushed behind a tree on the same as the bush as he head the footsteps coming closer, he readied his sword and when the steps were close enough he stepped and swung his sword and stopped dead as he got the surprise of his life.

"Kaja?!" Rigran exclaimed, Kaja had her hands raised in defence but she lowered them when her eyes met Rigran's face, "Rigran?" She asked then threw her arms around him, "I found you", "you were looking for me?" Rigran asked baffles.

"Yes because you owe me one hell of an explanation starting with the dragon egg and the elf" Kaja said hands on her hips, "Rigran we have found you at long last" said Walter as he appeared.

"Walter? What did you do?" Rigran asked, "I saw you and the others leave with that elf and so I told Kaja and we both wanted the truth so we both went over mountain and Caldera to find you and here you are" Walter explained.

"So how are the princes? Where are they? And the elf where is she? and this dragon egg?…", "I'll explain everything but first come I'm sure the others would like to see you" Rigran said, guesting for the two to follow.

"It's good to see you," Rigran said to Kaja, "and you as well," Kaja agreed.


Meanwhile Rayla was complaining to herself, "oh can't we stay a bit long so I can learn some magic trick and oh I wanna play around with the wee little dragon" she said in mock imitation of Callum and Ezra. Then scoffed, "humans, only the noble elf cares about keeping us alive apparently".

And then her sharp ears caught a noise and she raised her swords just in time to block two large hideous sickles and came face to face with the man wielding them, the man then kicked her in the gut then did a roundhouse kick to her face knocking her back.

"Elves aren't as noble as you want to believe" said Snake as Soren and Claudia appeared behind him, Claudia caste some kind of spell and Rayla began to sway left and right.

She swayed over to a rose bush and just as she fell against a rock and went to sleep she tightly gripped a single rose still suspended from the bush.

Soren drew out his sword, "do it" Claudia urged, Soren raised his sword, looming over Rayla as she lay unconscious on the ground. Soren however didn't seem to be able to do it, "what are you waiting for?" Snake asked, "she's a moonshadow elf," Claudia added.

"I just never attacked someone who is asleep it's just so unsporting" Soren said, "Damn it" Snake cursed as he raised his sickle slowly above his head as he advanced on Rayla, "first rule of the hunt kill it when it's guards down that way you can get a fight over quicker".

At that moment Rayla's eyes snapped open and she did a leg sweep on Snake, the Witcher from the school of the viper somehow manage to rotate h in self onto his front and land with his hands and without anything else touching the ground pushed himself back up into the air while kicking Rayla in the jaw and landing on his feet.

"Ow!?" Rayla exclaimed in more confusion than pain, Claudia backed up as Soren raised his sword, "how did you even resist the sleep spell?" Claudia asked, "kinda hard to sleep when you have a thorn in ya" Rayla quipped gesturing almost casually at the rose bush as she retrieved her swords.

Snake then threw a series of Kukri knives at her, the curved blades spinning through the air and Rayla barely able to block them. Snake then drew out his scythe and lunged at Rayla, Rayla barely managed to block him; he had come at her so fast.

The fight was a joy to Watch for Soren though Claudia winced whenever the elf took a hit for some odd reason. Rayla was struggling to keep up with this newcomer, he was just so fast, his feet moved perfectly like he was dancing so he would not lose balance he twirled his scythes left and right using them expertly and what was more is that he was talking every now and again as well which was a little distracting.

"Too slow" he said as he cut Rayla across the cheek, "you have a weak defence" he added as he locked Scythes with Rayla, moved his scythes and her sword spit to the sides and head butted her hard in the forehead.

She recovered and went on the offencise which was harder than defensive for reasons she couldn't fathom, "you just going for the blades go in for the kill like this" Snake hissed as he spun out of a blade lock and cut Rayla a crossed the sides.

"Yeah go get her" Soren cheered, "when you said sporting is this what you meant?" Claudia asked wincing when Snake kicked her in the shin, "oh yeah this is sporting" Soren cheered.

Rayla got her bearings and somersaulted out of the way of a slash from Snakes sickles, Rayla turned her own swords into sickles and tried to go for Snakes legs but Snake caught them underfoot, "I keep telling people Sweep the leg isn't an actually move in sword fighting" Soren said.

"Yes it is" Rayla protested and Snake clapped his hands, with his Sickles holstered back on his hips, to her ears, which were more sensitive than humans and they began ringing and her vision went all blurry as she pawed at her ears.

Now without weapons Snake grabbed Rayla and slammed his knee into her face and there was a crack as her nose broke and she coughed as blood exploded onto the Witchers knee and he then raised Rayla up and delivered a right hook.

That right hook sent Rayla to the ground coughing up blood and struggling to breath through her nose, she coughed into her palm and saw she had coughed up blood, "anymore elf?" Soren asked, leveling his sword.

Then a telekinetic blast knocked both Witcher and knight off their feet, Claudia and Rayla looked, it was Rigran with two others, "Rigran?" Soren questioned as Snake stood up quickly and tossed a knife at Rigran.

But Kaja raised her hand and the knife stopped dead for a second, the blade heating up and was sent back to Soren who only managed to block it with his sword, "Kaja?!" Soren exclaimed, his voice breaking he was so surprised.

"Since when can you do that kind of magic?" Rigran asked, "I'll explain later" Kaja replied drawing her own knife, "don't forget about me" Walter said as he appeared behind Soren and threw mud in his face before drawing his sword from his cane and the two began sword fighting.

Rigran meanwhile fended off attacks from Snake who you must remember was older and more experienced than Rigran, in fact Rigran wasn't even properly graduated, but he held his ground better than Rayla keeping almost on par with this new guy's movements.

"Good defence, footwork, and weapon skills" Snake said as he slashed at he tried the same head butt move on he had used in Rayla on Rigran but Rigran counted it with a head butt of his own to Snakes lower jaw making him stagger enough for Rigran to get the upper hand for a little bit.

However the fight didn't last long as Snake got the upper hand back by winding Rigran by kicking him in the gut, Rigran however received help from Kaja who sent a fireball at Snake and it hit the Witchers back.

The smell of burnt clothing was in the air as the Witcher somehow only managed to stagger as he turned on Kaja and Rigran then cut across the fellow Witchers upper left leg making Snake grit his teeth In pain and slowed him down for the rest of the fight.

"How did you do that?" Claudia asked Kaja who had just done a form of non Elven or dark magic, "no idea just developed it overnight" Kaja responded forming another fireball in hand, Claudia herself took some kind of ingredient from her pouch and got ready to use a dark spell.

But then the fight was stopped by Callum, "stop!" He said he had been watching the fight for about 5 seconds before intervening, "Callum?!" Claudia exclaimed in surprise, lowering her hand.

Kaja extinguished her fireball, Soren and Walter unlocked swords, Rayla sat up a little bit more as Callum rushed over to her making sure everyone had stopped fighting.

Rigran and Snake looked at each other before relaxing and turning to the young prince, "don't fight none of you are enemies" he said, "Your friends friend Broke my nose" Rayla exclaimed coughing, as she gestured to Snake "she kidnapped you" Claudia said at the exact same time as Rayla. "and I got burnt by your friend" Snake retorted, "I never met her in my life" Rayla coughed. "Walter threw mud in my face" Soren protested, he then spat out a bit of mud, "and in my mouth".

"Oh man up you're supposed to be in. The guard and if we are all going to complain then let's just head back to fighting!" Walter blurted in frustration that all of this was really confusing.

"Alright knock it off everyone and me and Rigran will explain" Callum said, "also who is your knee friend?" He pointed to Snake, "huh we'll explain later" Claudia sighed.

"Oh fuck all this" Walter cursed, "look I'm tired and we are all sore, some more than others I admit but let's all just go to bed(I can provide a nice lullaby) and then we can all figure out what shit is going on agreed?".

"Yeah let's spend the rest of the night to cool off" Callum agreed as he helped Rayla up and slung her over his shoulder, "if I can't convince you she's on our side here you can touch each other then"

"Fine" Rayla coughed, "alright" Snake shrugged, "fine" Claudia repented, "whatever, guess we are killing her in the morning" Soren said, sheaving his sword.

"Alright we'll show you where to stay the night" Rigran said as Walter fished out Raylas swords and experimented with them and finally managed to put them into their sheathed forms. Rayla was handed to Kaja while Callum talked to Claudia.

"So you can do magic?" Rayla asked as she held her cut side, "I don't know how I managed it" Kaja said then raised her hand for a hand shake, "I'm Kaja by the way." Rayla shook her hand a little weakly, "Rayla moonshadow elf assassin" she told her in a dazed state, "don't suppose you magic can heal me?"

"Actually…" Kaja said and Rayla gave her a odd look as if to say, "your serious" Claudia was telling Callum how confident he had been, Soren was with Snake who both were a little disapproving about this arrangement.

Walter meanwhile was telling Rigran about his and Kajas little adventure, "I tell you that Banther claw mark didn't even seem to have existed when Kaja worked her magic, real magic that is she seems to have developed it somehow on our journey she practiced and experimented with it more and more as it developed" Walter said.

"So I have noticed," Rigran said back, wondering what the hell has been going on while he was gone?.