Chapter Six: Sabine's Resolve
Entering the Dweller Camp Logan looked at the devastation that the camp had taken, luckily the people were all unharmed having been turned Corrupted, now the Dwellers were free, confused, but safe nonetheless.
Making his way up the hill Logan tried to ignore the glares of Dwellers who recognized the former tyrant king, some even glaring at Saker who smirked, "Quite the welcome huh."
A shadow then flew above both looking up to see the dragon Percy flying in with Boulder and Sabine landing at the top of the hill, having not seen Percy before Logan spoke, "What the hell was that?"
"That would be your brother's newest ally, Percy, it was because of him that all his allies escaped," Gabriel explained.
"Of course, he bloody made friends with a dragon, why am I not surprised," Logan spoke approaching Sabine's caravan where he sat on his throne and Percy stayed behind looking down at Logan with an intense glare.
"Ah, look who waltz in here like he owns these mountains again Boulder, tell me Logan, how many lives died because of you during your reign? Do you know how many of my people died when you sat on the throne and almost destroyed these mountains for your glory?" Sabine spoke with a glare while sitting on his throne.
"It was not for glory! Everything I did Sabine, at the time, was to protect our kingdom, I was wrong to sacrifice the lives of your people to save the ones I could, I should have looked at all my options but none of that matters now Sabine!" Logan spoke approaching Sabine.
"Oh, this should be good," Saker spoke lighting a new cigar.
"Our King needs help, Samarkand needs our help! I can't fight this battle alone Sabine," Logan spoke taking a knee and bowing his head, "if I have to sit here and beg for your help so be it but I refuse to waste another minute while my brother suffers."
Pulling his beard for a moment Sabine sighed, "As much as I want to have your head for all the lives, we lost it won't change anything, the Queen is right, if we are to save our homes, we will need you."
"Get on with it old man, what do you want?" Saker spoke watching Logan stand again.
"You must go to Brightwall, free our allies, as you can see, we took a hard hit here and it is unsafe for my people to remain here where we could be attacked again, to Brightwall, free its people and convince them to give us sanctuary, then and only then can we rebuild," Sabine spoke watching Boulder pick up a wheel, "Boulder."
"Huh?" Boulder grunted dropping the wheel.
"I will," Logan spoke turning to the Dweller people who gathered, "Hear me great people of the mountains! I do not expect forgiveness or your loyalty but if not trust me, trust our King! He needs our aid; can we call ourselves the great people of Albion if we abandon our own King?! He has carried the weight of this kingdom on his shoulders for too long, I say let us help him ease the load! On this day I make a promise I will not break! I'll purge this land of the darkness that dares to harm us! Then together we shall march to Samarkand and free our friends to the West suffering in silence!"
"Ay! You heard the man! Can we call ourselves the proud Dwellers if we abandoned the King we fought alongside so long ago? Nye! Once we rebuild our strength and our armies we will march to glorious war! Are ye with me?!" Sabine yelled getting cheers from his people.
"I will free Brightwall Sabine, then we will rebuild your home back to its former glory," Logan spoke turning to Sabine.
"Don't make me a promise you can't keep Logan," Sabine spoke with Percy huffing and lowering its head arching its head to that its massive snout was in front of Logan.
With one sniff the dragon's eyes glowed, "Your blood, your scent, you are indeed the great Hero King kin, your resolve is strong, when your brother released me, he chose a form that would best suit our efforts to free the lands, what form do you seek?"
Thinking about it Logan spoke, "While a dragon does make sense for battle, travel, and might, it is not exactly easy to hide you, so whatever I say could take away your dragon form?" Logan asked.
"Indeed," Percy spoke seeing Logan think about it and smirk.
"Shapeshifter, we need a shapeshifter who can use ALL of Albion's creatures, extinct and living forms and powers," Logan spoke watching Percy's body glow then the massive serpent-like dragon shrunk turning into a white wolf with glowing blue eyes.
"How the bloody hell is a stupid wolf form gonna help?" Saker spoke watching in a blink of an eye Percy turn into a white Balverine with glowing blue eyes appeared before Saker and growled, "I stand corrected."
Percy then turns back into a Wolf followed by a white beetle testing out his different forms, then settled on a wolf form again.
"This was a smart wish, now I don't have to sit outside the castle!" Percy spoke with a smile, "If you ever need my help Logan whistle and I'll bring down fire on whoever you need."
"You're not coming with us?" Saker asked seeing the wolf shake its head.
"While my duty is to serve the Hero King right now, I sense his Will, the Queen's protection comes first, I must return to my duties, I only came to drop off Sabine," he spoke turning into an eagle and took off into the air where he returned to his massive dragon form heading for the castle.
"Well hate to be rude but that would be a lie, get your arses moving, Brightwall isn't going to save itself!" Sabine spoke.
Entering Mistpeak Valley Gabriel and Jasper watched their movements on the map table, seeing many of the mask icons darkness spread.
"Do you think they will stop them in time, Master Gabriel?" Jasper asked seeing the blind seer turn his head to the colosseum model picking it up and listening, "Is the um, young lady trapped in that arena ready?"
"She is now, what has been a day for us has been a month for her," Gabriel explained setting the model down, "she has trained and studied hard, now it's time to put her out in the field with the others."
"Do you think she ready? You are the one who sees the future and all," Jasper asked watching the man think.
"Honestly Jasper there are too many variables, too many threads, put her in directly with Logan could result in either her death or her path of a hero, other options would be placing her in another agent territory but again the results are all different, I am taking a leap of faith that the one single thread out of thousands of outcomes will come true."
"My goodness, how can you sort through such things and still guide the heroes?" Jasper asked seeing the man shrug.
"It's difficult but in times of crisis we must have hope, otherwise everything we love just vanishes, becomes twisted and corrupted, that's not a future I wanna live in," Gabriel spoke a light forming in his hand freeing Tali from the model where she appeared in the Sanctuary.
"Welcome to the Sanctuary your Highness, I am Jasper if you come this way, we can get you cleaned up and into some suitable combat-ready attire," Jasper spoke.
Raising an eyebrow questionably Tali looked to Gabriel who nodded to her and follow Jasper into the dressing room where she stripped out of her old rip-and-thorn attire putting on clothes Gabriel brought her.
Stepping out of the dressing room Tali wore Samarkand warrior attire, lightweight armor of leather, with a hood she pulled up having braided her hair back.
"What do I need to do seer? How do I help my people?" Tali asked approaching the map table her eyes widening to see the darkness that took her land spreading, "it's come to Albion too?!"
"Indeed, it has but look there," Gabriel spoke pointing to the Stalker Mask that was now destroyed, "those Agents are what binds the darkness here, the source is in your homeland, if you wish to get the aid of Albion and march to your homeland and take it back from the Empress you will need to help them."
Following Gabriel's point Tali watched the Saker and Logan cards heading to an Agent mask that was between Brightwall and Brightwood, "Wait that face...King Logan! That the scoundrel who ended the trades between our lands! Because of him my brother went to Albion to try and renegotiate the trade and came back with that BITCH!"
"Listen, your highness, angry as you are, now isn't the time, the more time we waste the more our land is consumed with the darkness that took your land, Logan is on a path of redemption, the darkness took over when Albion's people lost hope when the Hero King was captured, look to Mistpeak, do you see what has happened?" Gabriel asked watching Tali look at the map and seeing the Dweller camp form a small ball of light.
"Light but it's dim," Tali spoke turning back to Gabriel.
"That light as faint as it is was formed when Logan freed them from the Stalker Corruption but this light isn't enough for them to aid you in the war against the darkness that took over Samarkand," Gabriel explained forming a Guild Seal in his hand and held it out to Tali, "however, if Albion is set free, the people are given aid, their light will grow, their hope will grow! That light will be strong enough to push back against the darkness in your home, they need heroes to spark that light again, are you that hero we need?"
Looking at the seal Gabriel held Tali took a deep breath and nodded placing her hand on the seal, "Tell me what I must do, how can I help Albion people?"
With a smile, Gabriel pointed to the agent Logan, and Saker approached.
"There's a good start, be warned, you will have to work together with Saker and Logan, the Corrupted creatures of this land can only be weakened with a burst of light, this light can be anything, fire, sun, an explosion," Gabriel explained listing examples to aid Tali on her journey.
Thinking about it Tali's eyes widen, "My homeland! We found ways to turn gunpowder into brilliant fireworks, when the Empress took over all the fireworks were thrown into the sea, could this harm the creatures?"
"Hmm those will be very hard to gather unless you know how to make some?" Gabriel asked seeing her sigh.
"I do but we won't be able to get any of the materials here in Albion, damn!" she growled slamming a fist on the table.
Thinking about it Gabriel look into the threads looking at solutions and possibilities then snapped his fingers, "I got it! Be right back!"
Vanishing in a beam of light Gabriel was gone for a few minutes before appearing again with a Will gauntlet brushing off the dust, "behold a Will Gauntlet with no spell assigned to it, in Samarkand there are Will Spells long lost, I think you are familiar with one of these spells?"
"Oh! The Firework Spell! But I don't know how to use it," Tali spoke being handed the gauntlet.
"Ok, now focus think of that will spell in your head, how it would work from what you read in books, the hand movements, anything that connects to the spell," Gabriel explained.
Closing her eyes, the gauntlet warp to fit her hand glowing the stone on the wrist glowing a rainbow color, then Tali gasped looking at her right hand where the gauntlet began to have little firework sparks in her palm, "I think I did it?"
"Only one way to find out, test it out in the field, it be VERY unwise to use magic like that in the Sanctuary," Gabriel warned.
"I second that! Good luck your Highness, please be careful," Jasper spoke watching Tali grabbed her gear and approach the map table.
"Touch where you wanna go and the map will take you," Gabriel spoke watching Tali touch a spot on the map and vanish from the Sanctuary.
After traveling through the cold Mistpeak Mountains Saker and Logan walked across the bridge to Brightwall village seeing the doors closed Logan peered through a crack in the doors seeing the people of the village had all been transformed into Corrupted humanoid creatures all standing eerily still.
"Move let me see!" Saker spoke bumping Logan away to peek inside, "Aye that's creepy! They're like statues, oi old man what's wrong with them?"
"As you can see the Corruption has taken the Brightwall Village those who couldn't flee into the safety of the Brightwall Academy have been cursed, it appears that the creature who did this has fled it appears to be heading to Brightwoods," Gabriel spoke tracking the creature.
"Brightwoods? But the path has been blocked for years," Logan spoke turning to Saker following him back across the bridge.
"What could it want there? All that's over there are some farmlands and that tower," Saker spoke seeing Logan's eyes widen in realization.
"Garth's Tower, that's what it's heading to! It must think Garth is there," Logan spoke turning to Saker, "come on, we have to track the damn thing!"
Running Saker followed Logan to the woods around Brightwall village, "What exactly are we fighting this time? Them Dwellers didn't have many bombs for me to swipe."
"The Ravager, a monstrous brute, please be cautious, this creature is much stronger than the Stalker, one swipe of its claws can mean certain doom for any unlucky to get hit with them," Gabriel warned.