The pebbles along the path

by Ethereal311

After two and a half millennia of imprisonment, Xerath breaks free from his supposed tomb. The world has changed significantly since he was first incarcerated and there is more to this world than meets the eye. This is a small part of his story to power and the stories of those who stand both with and against him. Rated T for violence, mature themes and innuendo.

7. Chapter 7: Intervention

Chapter 7: Intervention.

The plaza outside the temple was cast into turmoil as the Council's forces had struck at the Disciples, sending them into disarray. Those who had retaliated with stones had been turned into pincushions by arrow fire, while fireballs and lightning bolts had wrought havoc on the crowd.

Nrazin, the worship master, had been captured. Most, if not all, of the Disciples had been captured, save for several individuals who had managed to escape.

When there was no possible threat of attack, the High Seer Baltzin appeared.

Baltzin looked upon his brother Nrazin with a grim smile, to which Nrazin responded with an equal smile broken by the blood that dripped from his nose and mouth.

"Hello Brother, I hope the Council has treated you well." Baltzin's smile would have sent shivers down the necks of any lesser men.

"The Council has treated me well, for those that are claimed to be heretics." A small globule of blood welled in Nrazin's mouth forcing him to spit it out onto the stone pavement.

Baltzin's smile broke and anger gripped him, kicking Nrazin's face onto the spit. "Don't you dare do such barbaric acts in this civilized city, Brother."

"Necessity requires foolish acts to continue comfort." Nrazin quickly declared.

"There is no necessity in worshipping that harbinger of doom! You should know what it did to this ENTIRE LAND!" Once again, Baltzin stamped on Nrazin's head, which was followed with a cry of pain and a stifled scream from one of the captured Disciples.

"Who was that?" Baltzin demanded, his eyes scanning the Disciples for any sign of the perpetrator. His eyes met with a woman with her mouth clasped by a young man. "Bring them here! NOW!" Baltzin bellowed.

The two were dragged before him, with the woman sobbing slowly and the man appearing to be resigning to his end. The two were quickly executed before the Disciples, which were followed by a younger woman openly breaking down.

She was a dragged again before Nrazin for execution.

"BROTHER! DO NOT KILL HER! She is my only family now. I beg of you as siblings, DO NOT KILL MY DAUGHTER!" Nrazin's tears had streamed out since his wife and son had been picked out. They would not stop.

"You are still my brother, so I shall honor your words. After all, they will be your last. SERGEANT! Pass me a sword so that I may kill this insolent heretic!"

As one of the Council guards was about to pass his own sword, a magical bolt pierced his hand, destroying the scabbard as well as reducing his hand to a cauterized stump. The man roared in agony and fell to the stone pavement screaming.

An immense glaive cut down the two guards that had been dragging the girl forward. The girl was paralyzed with shock, struggling to move away from their corpses.

"High Seer Baltzin! What in the Devs is the meaning of this ridiculous slaughter!" the Prodigal Explorer demanded, his magical armlet poised against the Seer. Sivir caught hold of her glaive as it returned back to her, then remained poised to launch it at any foe that would dare interrupt the two.

"This is a domestic affair, Master Explorer, this is none of your concern."

"The Mistress and I think otherwise, High Seer. We cannot simply sit by while someone is orchestrating a massacre!"

The tension between the two parties only grew fiercer and fiercer.

All the while a small spark was discharged from one of the bronze incense burners at the entrance of the temple.