My record for longest chapter yet! I know it doesn't compare to alot of other stories on here, but I'm proud of myself!
Only one chapter left so please, enjoy!
"Land ho!" Valmiro called as the ship approached the docks of Cassardis. He jumped of the boat and tied it down.
Olra carefully stepped of the boat, clutching Alixx's hand. Julien smiled at her.
"It's okay, Olra," Julien calmed. "You're okay. You're safe now."
Alixx turned to her friends. "I need you three to stay here. I don't know what is going to happen in Gran Soren."
"What? No!" Valmiro protested. "We literally went to hell, killed the devil, and lived to tell the tale, and you want us to stay here?"
"You two are then only ones I trust to watch over her," she explained. "Riven and I have proven more then capable to take care of ourselves."
Julien opened his mouth to say something, but she cut him off. "And before you say anything about me being with child, we still are unsure of that. Salomet could have just been toying with me."
She led them ashore and they were greeted by the same dark haired girl Alixx encountered upon her first arrival.
"Greetings, dear Arisen," Selene greeted. "You have been gone for quite awhile."
"How long?" Val asked.
"About three months now."
"What?! How?"
"Time must have progressed differently on the isle because we angered Daimon," Alixx explained. "What felt like days turned into months."
"My uncle must be so worried!" Valmiro ran across the beach. "I'll see you guys later."
"Selene, I must ask aught of you," Alixx said. "Can Jules and Olra stay with you until I return? There's something I must do before I can rest peacefully."
She bowed, "Anything for you, Arisen. Prey, come with me. I will see to their safty. You need not worry."
Selene led Olra and Julien away, but he stopped in front of Alixx. "Promise you will come back unharmed. Prey, I know not what I would do if I lost you."
"I promise."
He kissed her deeply and bid her a final farewell, for now. She and Rivem headed for the front gate. The guardsmen of the city bowed as Alixx and Riven passed through the gates of Gran Soren. The whole city laid in ruins. Patrons gathered what they could from the streets. Bodies of men, woman, and children lined the streets. Alixx felt as if she was going to cry when she notice a body on the ground. Her face grew hot at the though of a dear friends death, by the wrym in death.
"Mason." She dropped next to his body and closed his eyes. "May you find peace in oblivion."
"Master, what do you make of this hole?" Riven was leaning over the edge. "I can't see the bottom."
Alixx joined at his side. "Lets take a look."
She took one of her arrows, tied an extra long rope to the end, and stabbed it into the ground. Both her and Riven started to climb down the rope. There was a small tug.
"Was that you Riven?"
"No."
And with a snap, Alixx and Riven began to fall down the hole. They passed a ledge, then another, and another.
"I feel like I'm half falling, half ascending," she heard Riven said.
Alixx reached out and caught on to a ledge. When she climbed up, Riven joined her and they heard a voice in their heads.
"If you would heed my call, prove now your worth." "Show that you've the strength to break the yoke that binds you."
When Alixx turned around, a fair dark skinned woman stood behind them, startling them. The woman just stood there.
She raised her hand, and her pawn print glowed. "I would ask aught of you, Arisen. Please, take this." She handed Alixx a red and brown glowing stone. "My mistress gathered their like as she sought her way through these depths. She died ere she was done. If you would take up her task, prey bring them back here to me. I trust that you will see my mistress' will done. I shall await you further on."
Alixx looked the stone over. "How many of these do you require?"
"Twenty of them."
"Twenty?! Can't anyone solve their own problems around here?"
"'Tis a wakestone master. One can use it to revive the dead."
She handed it to Riven. "Then we best get started."
Alixx dove off the platform and caught on to the ledge just blow her. Riven followed and pushed open the door. Two other people stood in the middle of the room, completely oblivious to her presence. They went through another door. A huge creature hovered in the middle of the room.
"An Evil Eye master! Strike when it uses magic!"
It didn't take much for the two to defeat the beast. Alixx searched through the remains and found three more wakestones. They left for the next level and pushed the door open. The room was full of ogers and the undead.
Alixx sighed. "This is going to take a while."
The unsheathed their weapons and stormed the halls.
Alixx pulled herself up onto the platform Quince was on a few hours later, beaten and battered, covered in blood. She brushed herself off and helped Riven up on to the ledge. Quince did not move an inch from where she was before. Alixx handed her all of the wakestones they had collected.
Quince smiled. "Yes, at last. At last you've gathered the whole of them. With them, you can summon fortha rift of considerable power."
The wakestones began to glow and float around Alixx and Riven. They went into a line and fell down towards the bottom of the abyss. A great white portal opened in front of their own eyes.
"This rift, born of the Wakestones power, will guide you Arisen. End this, Arisen. May the world be put right by your hand."
Alixx looked at her companion. "What should I do Riven?"
He pointed to the portal. "Go master. I shall await your return here." He hugged her. "Be careful."
Alixx laughed. "Since when do you know me to be careful?"
"Master Julien will be awaiting you as well. You must not be reckless."
Alixx drew a 'X' on her heart. "Cross my heart."
She then turned away from Riven, and once more, dove off of the platform into the bright portal.
When the light dimmed, Alixx found herself in a place that reminded her much of the rift. She looked around, franticly.
"Well met, Arisen."
Alixx whirled around. A glowing figure sat on a throne in front of her. She couldn't see his or her face.
"I'll not waste time on rhetoric: Defeat me, and take my place as keeper of this world. You saw it awaiting you at the end of your descent. Aye. The same world you've traveled to arrive at this place. A world you may well now inherit. It is a simple proposition. No different than any you've faced. You need only the will to claim what is offered you... The will to survive!"
The glowing figure threw a bright beam of light at her, causing Alixx to be thrown back. She took her bow and loosened arrows at the figure.
"Yes, fight, Arisen, as you ere have fought in coming here! What is it that impels you? What force spurns you on? What sustained your wanderings and led you here? I ask you: What is it that makes you alive? 'Tis volition. Unbending will. You are here because you willed it, Arisen. That alone has brought you here."
Alixx fired one last arrow, and the figure Alixx went to investigate, she rolled the figure over. It was herself. She recoiled in shock, and the same figure stood in front of her, unharmed.
"Consider the infinite potential." The figure held up a black ball looking thing, and dropped it. The ball then became a perfect clone of Alixx. "Just as you call forth pawns, so I command all life into existence. Call it divine creation if you must. But expect none of the mercy men seek in their gods. This is cold truth. The unbending reality of a world without compassion." The figure shot a ball of fire at the clone, and it laid charred next to Alixx. She looked on in horror. "The world and all its denizens are but empty vessels. In that regard, no different than the pawns. Without volition, there is no true life. The world falls stagnant, dead as an ocean with no current to guide it. That volition is tempered by the struggle for survival. The decision, just like yours, to fight. Just as the pawns need a master's command, so the world thirsts for the will to live."
Another ball of light threw Alixx back, and she fought back with a volley of arrows. The figure just laughed.
"Let us continue, Arisen. Show that you are more than an empty vessel, animated by forces unseen. Show that the temper of your soul is strong enough to command far more than mere pawns. Show that your will is fit to bind the fraying circle of this world and hold it fast. Fight tooth and claw, Struggle now, and cling to life. Show that living holds worth enough to fight for!"
There was a bright flash, and the figure looked as if it was miles away. The clone then stood behind Alixx. She still could not find words.
"It is time to decide. Will you claim your right as Arisen? Or shrug the burden and seek peace in oblivion? Just so. One foot after the next, come what may. That is what it means to live. Turn back now and I will grant you a merciful death. The choice is yours, Arisen. Yours alone. 'Tis a simple choice, Arisen. Step forward, or retreat. Accept the quiet emptiness of a false peace. Of false life."
Alixx turned to the clone, and it smiled ever so sweetly at her, "So you would choose peace? That to is a valid fate. Leave now, and you will never again, come to see this place."
"No," she managed to say finally. "I will fight."
The figure appeared in front of her. "You are close, now... So very close to me!" The figure tore of the robe covering them. A handsome younger man stood in front of her. "Come, Arisen. I shall meet you on your own terms, joined by my own companion of old. You stand now at its end, Arisen. See your journey through!" His pawn appeared behind him and Riven joined by her side.
Riven focused on the pawn as Alixx attacked the man. He hit her with is light stream and she slid back.
"Yes, stoke the flame of your will to survive. To be victorious! Temper your soul in its heat! The forge of my heart grows cold, and the world shivers for it. Know this, Arisen: The world is merciless... Cold and empty, for all its beauty. It is an ever-turning wheel, perfect beyond compare. I stand at its center, as you may come to stand in turn. It is my will that keeps it spinning. My will that urges time onward through eternity. Our kind must fight, and through fighting prove the temper of our will. It is a fight that knows no end. It repeats upon itself, that all the world may repeat with it. And so the cycle continues, forever and ever and ever."
After Riven took down the pawn, he held the man and Alixx delivered the final blow. The man disappeared and reappeared on his throne.
"What's your name?" Alixx asked.
"Savan. Arisen... Forgive me. All I've done was to test your will. It is the fate of all Arisen." He stood and walked around her. "You and I are swept up in the current, same as the rest. Each tempers the volition of the next, and the endless cycle continues. And so, until the coming of a new soul fit to craft the will to live; Someone like you." He knelt before her. "Until that day, may you guide the world ever justly." Savan then reached into his own chest and pulled out a blade, handing it to Alixx. "I present you with the Godsbane blade... Those who arise to oversee this world are undying, save by this brand's kiss. I ask that you, as the world's new Seneschal, use it now to vouchsafe freedom to your weary servant."
Alixx took the glowing blue blade from him. It just hovered in her hand.
"New-crowned sovereign and keeper of eternity, grant me now this single boon:. The fire of my life is spent and guttering. Give me freedom with the kiss of the Godsbane blade. If there is aught you wish to know afore my death, you need but ask." He bowed is head. "My knowledge, and my all, is yours to take. What would you hear of me?"
"What is the Seneschal?"
"The Seneschal is steward to the world... The world you traveled now rests in your care. Just as the Arisen calls pawns into being and sets them to motion, the Seneschal holds dominion over all living things. There are those who would call such a being Maker, or God. I cannot deny the claim, any more than affirm it. In the end, they are but words. Call it what you will, such is the office I have served, just as those before me and you beyond, unto eternity..."
"How is the world composed?"
"The pawns exist astride the rift. They speak of a multitude of worlds, each infinite unto itself. Limitless in span and lost to time, these worlds extend in an eternal, perfect loop. Just as a ring lacks start and end, so this world has no origin, no final terminus. If it does, they lie beyond our ken. We are prisoners of unpassing time, wandering an unending land. What lies beyond, we cannot know."
"What is eternity?"
"Aye, there is life in the world, and with it death. Naught lasts forever. Each rises and falls in its time. But such is a death akin to that of pawns. They appear in this world, then vanish only to appear again, like bubbles in a mountain spring. As so it is with all that lives within this eternal world. In time, you will come to see it happen under your watch as Seneschal. Each beast, each blade of grass, each human life is born to die and be born again in endless rhythm. Naught lasts forever, yet all persists unto eternity."
"What is will?"
"Will is that which led you to this place, and that which turns the eternal wheel of the world. Along the endless string of life and death, there are some born with a hunger. They yearn for some other, better place. They are the Arisen, nascent fountainheads of will. And so the dragon is sent into the world to guide the Arisen, and refine them. To temper their wills into aught capable of sustaining the world. And so the cycle of our world has e'er continued."
Alixx looked at the blade again, then thrust in into Savans chest. He seemed welcoming of his second death.
He smiled. "Mourn me not, for I welcome the release. At long last, I am free of eternity... Of infinity... Free of the cruel, unending ring!"
And he disappeared before them. Riven looked concerned for his master.
"What are we to do now?" Riven asked.
She stared at the Godsbane blade. "I think I have to kill myself, and take my place as god of this world."
He held back his tears. "Are you going to?"
Without even thinking, she stabbed the blade deep into Rivens chest.
"Master, what are you.."
"Giving you life."
Tears rolled down his cheeks as a bright light surrounded them and Alixx fell through a hole. she landed right in the ocean, right off the shore of Cassardis. She swam ashore and she saw Julien running towards her. He held her tightly.
"I didn't think I would ever see you again," he began to sob.
Alixx wrapped her arms tightly around him. "I could never leave you."
Julien helped her up and turned away. "We have our whole lives ahead of us." He looked at her and extended his hand. "Shall we?"
She took his hand. "We shall."
Without warning, an arrow struck right at Alixx's heart. Time seemed to slow, Julien didn't know how to react. She collapsed in his arms and her blood soaked his armor. He looked around, but no one was in sight. His hands stained as he held her wound and she looked up at him weakly, and smiled.
"Jules?"
He took her hand and tears streamed down his face. "Yes, my love. It's me." He looked around. "Someone help! She's dying!"
She tired to squeeze his hand, "Jules.. I.. lo..." The life lifted from her eyes and her hand dropped.
Julien clutched her and cried harder then he had ever cried before. The only woman he had ever love, died in his hands.
A bright light appeared before him, and a figure hovered above the water.
"Riven?" Julien asked.
He nodded. "'Tis me." He was holding a small white blanket.
"You have to save her, you are a mage."
"I am the Senechal now, but I can not."
"Why not?!"
"A life for a life. She was not going to survive past the birth of your son, ser."
"What do you mean then? A life for a life?"
Riven handed Julien the blanket. Inside, was a slumbering baby boy. Juliens face instantly lightened.
"You saved my son?"
"It wasn't an easy decision, but it was the best one. Better to have my master next to me, a capable woman, then a child to die."
He knelt and took Alixxs hand. Her spirit lifted from her body floating upward, but catching on Riven to stay down. She looked at him aghast.
"Riven?" she said. "Didn't I just kill you?"
Julien looked at her, and tears swelled in his eyes. "My love..."
She looked at the ground and saw her own body. "Am I.."
"Yes," Riven answered. "Mercedes seems to have shady friends."
"I am going to find that bitch, and haunt her ass for the rest of her life."
Julien brought himself to laugh.
"No need," Riven continued. "Because of her actions I have intervened. She will not be a bother."
Alixx walked over to Julien and looked at the bundle he held.
She smiled. "I really was with child."
"Alixx," Riven called. "We must go."
She looked back at her son, then at Julien. "Take care of Olra and our son." She kissed his forehead, then took Rivens hand. "I'll always be watching."
And before he knew it, they were gone. He stood on the beach holding his son, with Alixx's lifeless body in front of him. He looked at the sleeping child.
Yet he still felt alone.