Episode 7: Theo and the Asha'bellanar

10th of Frumentum

"Why do you need someone with knowledge of elven runes to save your comrades? It seems to me that you could do most of the work yourself. You're a military grade magician, after all." Aelita said. There was something strange about Theo, though she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

"My comrades and I were excavating an elven ruin—strictly educational, not raiding—and we came across these… letters that were unfamiliar to us. One of our younger members tried to touch them and activated a trap which trapped my comrades behind and under rocks. I only managed to escape because I fled using magic." Theo explained. "However, my military training didn't teach me how to move rocks. The elves teach it, don't they? I don't know if you yourself can but you must be travelling with your clan. Maybe your leader can help me?"

"No, I'm not travelling with my clan, but I am a magician trained in the ancient ways and I can move the rocks." She narrowed her eyes. "Why were shemlen excavating an elven ruin? Humans don't really care all that much about us, do they?"

"We were looking for an ancient tome belonging to the dragons. If it pleases you, we will leave everything else in peace. We only want the book."

Aelita studied his eyes, taking a step forward to him to look deep into his eyes. Could she trust this shemlen? Would he truly leave elvhen artifacts in peace? There was a glimmer in his eye, though it wasn't malevolent. "Very well. I believe you, for now." She took a step back. "You probably won't be able to go very far in, depending on the type of ruin you're studying. We were notorious for preparing for tomb raiders. The doors are likely closed through rites and seals, and unless you can pass through the rites you won't be able to enter the inner sanctum. That's likely where you'll find your book."

Theo blinked. "I wasn't… can you help us enter the inner sanctum?"

"What kind of ruin is it?"

"A… memorial or a grave of some sort, I think."

Aelita turned away to think. "If that is the kind of ruin that you think it is, there will likely be a water alter and a blood seal before the actual door that opens to the touch of one who is recognized. But unfortunately there is no way for me to know what kind of blood we need until we actually see the symbol at the blood seal."

"A… blood seal? Is someone going to have to die?" Theo asked nervously.

Aelita seemed surprised. "No! No. We just need a sample of blood. If we're lucky, it'll only take blood in general, and I can just use my own."

She was about to go into more detail on the seals as Ulrich approached her. "What are you still doing here? Captain Bossyboots said that its time to leave."

"Ulrich, this is Theo. He asked me to help him rescue his companions and retrieve a book." Aelita introduced the battlemage.

Ulrich looked at Theo and back to the Outcast. "Kitten, you and I are going to have to have a talk about the trustworthiness of people you meet in the shadows."

She laughed. "They've helped me before!"

Ulrich looked back to Theo. A light went off in his head. "Wait, you look familiar. Have we met?"

Theo cocked his head to the side. "Perhaps. Did you serve in the military? Or did you sail the ships to the northern colonies?" He asked.

He pondered this. "Maybe. That could be it…" He didn't sound too sure, but he dropped it. "So, what is it that you're looking for?"

The battlemage explained it again to the Mercenary, and then turned to Aelita. "Before my comrades were trapped, we saw a mural. If what you're telling me is true, I think that they might have been clues on opening the path. The one that caught my eye was—well, it was an eye. It was crossed out and there was faded paint around it that might have been red. But there were others—there was a waterfall and an ornate jug, as well as a lot of writing."

Aelita's eyes lit up and she turned to Ulrich. "That's it! Ulrich, you can open the blood seal!" When he seemed confused, she elaborated. "The crossed-out eye is the elvhen symbol for the Blind! This Asha'bellanar was likely a healer, and after so long entombed she was likely worried about spirits when she awoke. Using the blood of one of the Blind would eliminate the fear of falling to a spirit."

"I know that I'm one of the Blind, but are you sure that this is wise?" Ulrich asked. "I know that this Asha'bellanar is important to your culture, but if Jeremie finds out—"

"Jeremie doesn't need to know, and if we're fast he may barely notice we're gone. You know how he is, lethallin." She waved him off before pressing her hands together and begging, "Please? You're the only Blind person that I know and the only person in general that I can trust with this!"

Ulrich sighed, "Fine, fine, fine." He looked to Theo. "How long will this take?"

Theo shook his head and pointed with his thumb over his shoulder. "Not too long. The ruin is only a half hour that way and with your help we should be in and out in less than fifteen minutes!"

Ulrich looked at Aelita, who shrugged with a smile. Together they turned and Theo who led them into the forest. As they were walking, Theo was talking about his comrades—he was going on and on about them, suggesting they'd been through a lot together. All the while Ulrich listened, trying to figure out why Theo seemed familiar. The battlemage spoke in a tone that suggested he was of higher birth, perhaps a younger son seeking a title of his own. This wasn't an uncommon endeavor. He also walked with a limp—though Theo hadn't mentioned it, it was likely he was injured in the collapse. All signs pointed towards soldier, but Theo just seemed… strange.

The entrance to the tomb had been forced open, the scratches on the door suggesting some animal, but no wild beast was large or powerful enough to create that kind of damage spare a dragon. However, the space was not large enough to accommodate a dragon nor would a dragon have used its claws to open the tomb—fire would have been far more effective. Aelita examined the markings, trying to make out symbols carved into the cherry wood panels. Weather and violence had made the patterns and symbols almost unrecognizable.

Theo pointed at the rock pile blocking the view of the rest of the tomb. "I was the only one who managed to escape. The others are trapped on the other side." He said, motioning for Aelita to clear the rubble. She held her hands out and pulled back, dislocating some of the piled rocks, causing them to tumble down. She repeated the motion two more times, creating a hole large enough for people to crawl through. Theo climbed up the rocks, cutting his palm in his haste. The battlemage slid down the other side, relieved to find four of his friends had survived. The others had been crushed in the collapse. There was a pile of wood near the end of the corridor, and it seemed that the soldiers had begun preparing coffins for their dead.

When the two Heroes joined Theo on the other side of the rock pile, Ulrich noticed similar markings on their bodies as the ones on the door. When he questioned this and the origins of the fallen soldiers, Theo brushed him off almost diplomatically. Aelita pointed at the mural. "Is this the mural you were talking about?" Theo nodded, and Aelita studied it. She closed her eyes and listened to the humming of the runes, deciphering their translations. Next, she walked over to the end of the corridor, examining the paintings and carvings before tracing the seam in the wall. She summoned water to clean the panel, and then she motioned for Ulrich to walk over to her. "This is when we need a sample of your blood. Here, give me your hand. I promise this won't hurt any more than it has to."

Ulrich gave her his hand, and she swiftly brought her dagger across his palm. He jerked it back in pain, his fingers curled around the wound. "Ir abelas! Oh, I'm so sorry!" She apologized. He shook his head with a smile, and he rubbed his palm nervously across the panel that she'd cleaned. The stone shook for a moment before opening, but it opened, revealing an untouched elven chantry behind it.

The room was brightly lit, though there were no lamps or skylights for it to be natural light. In the center of the room was a waterfall, filling the room with a cool mist. Behind the waterfall was a tall stone door, the only dark part of the room blending in with the light beauty of the chantry. Aelita drew a sharp breath in and held it, her eyes wide and sparkling as a smile spread across her face.

But before she could move, she leaned against the wall as the blade of Erahalam pierced her chest. The staff pulled itself out of the Outcast, soaring away from the chantry opening and through the hole in the rocks.

"Are you alright?" Ulrich asked, "That looked painful." He added while sending a warning look towards the soldiers. Theo motioned for his comrades to be still.

Aelita smiled and stood straight. "Murray hates old places. He'll wait outside for us, no doubt." Ulrich looked at her questioningly, but she smiled wider with a shrug and entered the chantry.

Yumi paced back and forth nervously, and Jeremie nonchalantly asked her to stop before she wore a grove into the earth. "Where are they? They should've been back half an hour ago, if that!" She worried aloud, holding her mouth in her hand. Her fingers were twitching, and she'd pulled back her dark hair to keep it from interrupting her train of thought.

Odd looked at Jeremie. "Does this feel very familiar to you?"

Jeremie looked at him without humor in his eyes. "That's not funny."

Laura held her head in her hand. "You're giving off an aura of distress that is making me freak out. Could you stop?" She asked flatly.

Yumi crossed her arms. "Ulrich and Aelita are missing. Why aren't you worried?" She demanded. "They could be lost or dead or gods know what else!"

"I worry all the time, but Yumi, it has only been half an hour!" Jeremie said loudly. "We left them in town. Where would they go?"

Yumi was about to storm closer to him when something struck the back of her head. She rubbed it and turned. Erahalam levitated behind her, and she looked at it in confusion. She tried to grab it, but it flew out of her reach. "Murray?" Odd said, standing to grab it. The staff dodged his touch too, and suddenly the teenagers were all trying to grab the staff, even Laura. It was almost like a game; there was laughter and friendly encouragement. It was Jeremie who finally grabbed the staff, and suddenly the game was over.

The staff yanked him across camp, what had been playful teasing became suddenly violent. Laura rushed over to her fiancée and held his waist as they both tried to keep the staff from pulling the Wise Man away from camp. Jeremie tried to let go but his fingers felt as if they'd been welded to the wood. As the pulling grew stronger, Yumi grabbed Laura, and Odd grabbed Yumi.

The staff overpowered all four humans, locking them in place as it did Jeremie and beginning a violent journey through the forest. Erahalam picked up speed, its maneuvers causing the chain of people to occasionally smash into trees as it carried the foursome to its destination. When the staff arrived it released its unwilling passengers then stopped levitating, dropping to the ground just in front of them and rolling into the elven ruin. The group picked itself up, flexing sore muscles and checking what were sure to be new bruises. Jeremie spotted the staff, walked over to it and picked it up. He tied it to the strap on his mother's book bag and motioned to the others. "I guess we're supposed to go inside."

Aelita basked like an animal in the white light that seemed to come from nowhere. She twirled in the light, dust particles spinning around her feet as she danced. For a moment, Ulrich thought those specks were red, like his baby sister was dancing not in light but in blood. He scolded himself for such an image. Theo cleared his throat, pulling the Mercenary back to reality. "I see that you're having fun, Aelita, but we have a job to do."

She turned and smiled at him. "Oh! Of course. Ir abelas," She replied before gliding over to the waterfall in the center of the room. Aelita waded into the pool that had collected but never seemed to overflow until she added her weight to it. She grabbed the earthen pot sunken at the bottom of the pool. The Outcast examined the archaic designs painted and carved into it. How long had it been submerged? How had those patterns not faded in that time? She shook her head and filled the pot with water.

While Theo, his soldiers, and Ulrich stood and watched, Aelita carried the pot carefully to a wooden altar behind the waterfall. Once there, she placed it on the center of the altar, and then observed the wooden panels pressed into the altar. She took a few steps back and mimicked the position shown on the panels. Aelita pressed her forehead against the back of her hands, and she knelt with her head and hands against the floor. She muttered several stanzas from an ancient elven poem until she felt an aura of approval around her.

She stood and walked around the altar, nodding to Ulrich before she pressed her hand against the stone door. A white light illuminated the patterns carved into it and the door opened, revealing the inner sanctum. The coffin sat on an elevated platform in the center of the room, the stairs visible and located on the other side. Aelita pressed her hands together in excitement and Ulrich walked up to gawk with her.

Suddenly there was a flash of light and Aelita screamed, falling to her knees. The four melee soldiers took advantage of Ulrich's distraction and bound him, separating him from his weapon. The soldiers bound Aelita as well, and the Heroes watched as a man appeared out of the mist.

It was Thomas Vincent. He didn't carry the typical sword distributed to the magistrates, however—his weapon was curved like those the dark elves carried, and the owl embroidered on his chest had been painted over with the symbol of House Kenval. "Well, well, well. Look who you've found?" T.V said, glancing over to the soldiers. "You've done well. These two are wanted by the Matron Mother."

Ulrich scrunched up his nose in anger. "You're working with T.V?" He shouted at Theo.

Theo only laughed, looking down at his feet. He glanced up at them, still laughing. His eyes were glowing like fire, the mark of a possessed magician. This surprised the Heroes—Theo had shown no outward sign of possession, but now it was obvious. T.V walked over to Aelita and grabbed her chin. "I recognize your face. You're the bitch-born changeling who ruined everything. I'll enjoy dragging your corpse back to Xana."

Aelita spit in his face. "You won't ever get the pleasure because I will destroy you for what you did to Edna!"

T.V wiped his face in disgust, and he shook his head. "We should keep them alive until we have the tome." He commanded his lackeys. "We don't know if we'll face more tests." He added. He motioned for Theo to go back to the entrance. "Besides, it will be all the more sweet to kill them knowing they helped further the cause for the drow."

Aelita and Ulrich looked shamefully at one another, fear in their eyes and despair in their hearts.

Odd climbed over the rocks first, but he stopped when he observed a boy with spikey brown hair standing in the center of the corridor. The other Heroes joined him, the last of which was Laura. She looked closer at the boy and she recognized him. "Theo…? Is it really you?"

Theo looked at Laura. "Laura? What are you doing here?"

She looked away. "It's a long story," She muttered. "You disappeared two years ago. Your mother was worried sick about you! Is this where you've been hiding?"

Jeremie looked at his fiancée. "I'll take it that you know him?"

Laura looked back at him. "He's my cousin. We discovered our magic together, around the same time. While I dedicated my studies to healing and prophecy, Theo thought it would be a good idea to blow things up for a living." She crossed her arms. "I hope you have a good reason for hiding in a savage's cave rather than helping your country like you are sworn to do."

Theo threw back his head and laughed. "My country? My country has fallen and I have chosen the winning side. As will you. As will you all!" He looked down and began to change. He began to swell up and his teeth began to stick out in all directions. He resembled the man who had ambushed them outside of Kadic, but more frighteningly—he still resembled who he had been in sanity.

The Heroes prepared for battle as the possessed Theo charged them. Odd rushed to the top of the rock pile and fired arrows in quick succession, Yumi struck at his weak points with her fans and her staff, Jeremie distracted the monster from the others and Laura provided fire and support when needed. Theo knocked the shield from Jeremie's arms and sliced at his exposed arm. Laura used a controlled fireball to knock her cousin against the rock pile. Odd slid down the pile and fired an arrow that wedged between the crevasses, and Yumi threw her fans to slice at Theo's throat.

Jeremie stood, and Laura healed the wound. "We should keep moving. The others may be further in."

Odd stopped them. "Wait, people are coming." Yumi motioned for them to be quiet, and she slid on her mask, fading into invisibility. She drew two kunai and waited for the melee soldiers to approach her. She threw them at their necks, and then removed the mask as Odd said, "I don't hear anyone else."

The Heroes entered the chantry, and Aelita called them over to her and Ulrich quietly. "Theo is working for T.V, who is working for Xana!" Ulrich explained as Yumi began to work on freeing him from his bonds. "He's got two more lackeys in there, highly trained."

When Odd had freed Aelita, she jumped up and grabbed the earthen pot. She pushed on a tiny slab of granite that she'd 'forgotten' to mention to Theo. A small shrine rose up from the ground, made of carved white stone with elven runes decorating the base. She poured the water into the bowl on top of the shrine, and as the last drop left the jug, it shattered in her hands. The Outcast slid over to Ulrich, rubbing her fingers across the cut in his hand. She then rushed back to the shrine, dipping her stained fingertips into the cold water.

The water turned blood red, and the water drained out of the bowl. Jeremie realized too late what Aelita had done. "You're going to wake the witch! Have you gone insane?!" He shouted at her.

"No, she can help us!" Aelita shouted back. The red water followed glass veins to the coffin, and Aelita motioned for the others to watch.

The coffin's lid flew off as if pushed with great force, and a woman with long grey hair stepped out of the casket. She looked up towards the sky, decorated in black leather with mithril buttons. She looked at T.V and his lackeys, who were digging through the treasures that were rightfully hers. Her body began to glow, and the high-pitched squeal of a dragon that had been done wrong shattered the silence. The Asha'bellanar did not transform into a large dragon, but it was large enough to create a column of fire that left ash on the ceiling, and she caused the platform to quake. The Heroes heard T.V shout something, but it was drowned out by the sounds of screams.

After a few moments, there was another flash of light, and then silence. The Asha'bellanar appeared, dragging Thomas Vincent by his hair back towards the Heroes. In a crackly and exasperated voice that gradually healed, she said, "I believe that this is one of your pets, child of the invasion." She tossed a burned, bruised T.V to Laura, who back away from it. He landed only centimeters from her feet. The Asha'bellanar looked to Aelita. "Ah, and here we are! I was half convinced that the People would leave me here to rot in this place forever." The old woman shook out her hair, and it turned a yellow that rivaled the sun. Her eyes were the color of the sky after a rainstorm, and her face slowly regained youth.

Aelita curtsied, keeping her head bowed. "Andaran atish'an, Asha'bellanar," She greeted, not coming up from her curtsy until she was bid to.

"So young and bright," The Asha'bellanar said, her voice now youthful. "Do you know who I am, beyond that title?"

"I know only a little," Aelita replied shamefully.

"Much as I suspected. It seems that not much has changed since the last ones entered my tomb." She turned and mused. "The last was a very peculiar couple of elves—claimed they knew more about the things I kept in death than I did. It separated them, and caused much misery. That was… many years ago now, I think." She turned and eyed Aelita, and her attention turned to the others in the party. "I have been called many things in my lifetime. I am an Asha'bellanar, as you have seen, but that is not my only name. I have been called Junfahiilkro by the dragons, Gashkek by the orcs, Ksialaka by the spirits, Yolanda by the elves, witch by the humans…" She laughed now, "…and an old hag who talks too much by one with more intelligence than may have been wise."

The Asha'bellanar looked up at the ceiling and back to the elf in front of her. "You have done much for me, but I must ask of you another. Take this to the end of the journey. You will know what to do with it then." She handed Aelita a ribbon that had been tied around her wrist. It wriggled in Aelita's fingers, almost snake-like in its motions. "Now, it is time for me to depart, but before I go, a word of advice? There are men who struggle against destiny and yet achieve only an early grave. There are men who flee destiny only to have it swallow them whole. And then there are men who embrace destiny and do not show their fear.

"The world fears the inevitable plummet into the abyss, for it is dark and unknown, filled with hardship. But should you who stand before me chose to be men that will embrace their destiny, the abyss shall not consume a world that lives in terror." She turned as her body began to glow again. "A new day will dawn and only the strong will survive."

The Asha'bellanar transformed into not a dragon but a phoenix, fluttering its wings and soaring out of the tomb. The Heroes looked at one another. "She was… strange would be the nice way to put it, I guess." Yumi said.

Jeremie glared at Aelita. "You took a big risk waking her up. She could've been possessed."

Aelita tied the ribbon, which was light blue, around her wrist. She didn't respond to Jeremie, but rather walked closer to Laura. She kicked T.V over with her heel and forced him awake by kicking his stomach. He stared at her with fear in his eyes. She thought about what Yolanda had said, and she smiled as she questioned what kind of man T.V was. "Are you a strong man, Thomas?" She asked, "Or have you struggled and fled destiny?"

"Gods spit on you!" T.V. cursed rather than answer her question.

Aelita shook her head. "Then the die is cast and you shall commit to the flame.'" She replied, stabbing him in the gut. Laura wanted to stop her, but instead the Fair looked at her hands. Aelita grabbed T.V's forehead and used every ounce of her magic to set his blood on fire, causing the Knight Templar to shriek. His body was smoking, filling the air with the smell of burning flesh. Yumi turned away, and Odd tried to grab her shoulders. She turned and swatted at him, leaving a trail of lightning behind where her fingers pierced the air. Jeremie silenced her magic, and she screeched, resulting in dirty looks from both Ulrich and Aelita. "Why would you do that?!" She shouted, standing.

Jeremie scowled at her. "I know that you're angry, but—"

"Angry? You think that I'm ANGRY?!" Aelita roared. "This… monster killed the only people in the world who ever cared about me! Edna, Nico… everyone, even the children!"

The Wise Man took a step closer to her. "And so the best way to mourn their deaths is to set a man on fire from the inside?" He asked loudly, folding his arms across his chest.

"Why shouldn't I? He did the same to Edna!" The Outcast's eyes were filling with tears.

"Do you think Edna would want this?" Jeremie asked rhetorically. "If you kill him, Aelita, you will become him!"

"Who are you to say what Edna would have wanted, shem?" Aelita shouted. She furrowed her brows, but her expression changed as she continued to speak, "My hahren… my hahren would not want this." She looked at her toes, then glared at T.V but spoke to Jeremie. "He cannot be allowed to walk away from here."

Jeremie untied Erahalam from the strap of his mother's book bag. He handed it to her, watching her fingers as they curled around it. Aelita walked over to T.V, who was still twitching from her blood magic. Aelita lifted the staff above her head and drove the blade into the Knight Templar's heart. She then forced it inside of her chest, causing it to disappear. "Let's go. There is no tome to find here."

Ulrich looked at her in shock. "Wait… that sounded suspicious. Did you… know?"

The Outcast turned and simply smiled. Innocently, she asked, "Know what?"

"Kitten… that was devious." She shook her head as if she hadn't a clue what he meant. Aelita walked out of the room, though her stride offered no light on her thoughts.

Laura shivered. "That was kind of scary. How much of this did she plan?" She tiptoed around the corpse with marked and smoking skin. "I still cannot believe Theo turned to a demon. We both swore we'd never deal with demons."

Jeremie tried to offer comfort, though he was still trying to forget what he had witnessed. "T.V. might have forced him to do it."

Laura nodded. "It isn't outside the realm of possibility. Still… what did we see here?" She rubbed her arms. "The Veil is thin but not enough for that to have been an illusion. And the witch—Yolanda or whatever her real name was—she was talking about destiny. Can she see the future too? Like the Warrior?"

Jeremie rubbed the back of his neck. "I'm not sure that I believe in destiny, but… that was weird. It was like she knew we would be there."

Yumi turned her attention to the floor. "It seems like a lot of people know where we'll be lately."

"The way I see it," Odd said, folding his arms behind his neck, "we either follow her advice or we don't. We won't change, much. Who cares whether it is destiny or not? We're doing a damn good job at what we do."

Ulrich shook his head and followed after Aelita, who was now far from sight. "Let's just leave. I don't want to look at this place any longer."