Banthus watched the silhouette of a hooded elf examine his family's pendant with a glimmer of excitement in her glowing purple eyes. Even if he could feel her breath, he could not see much more than her shadow and her gaze. The only torch on the stone room he found himself in was a wavering light at the exit of the room. His limbs were tied by solid tree roots that made their way through the ceiling and whose shadows lost themselves into the darkest part. It was there that he forcibly knelt with two of his strongest men. Though his blue eyes tried to hide his fear, he felt drops of cold sweat roll down his neck.
The Phorus had promised them a safe passage, but here they were, dragged into a trap and tied down in front of an elf that looked to be anything but sane. With only a whisper, their weapons were gone, and less than a blink of an eye later, they were tied down like prisoners of a dark stone chamber. The former leader of the El Search Party hoped that not much time has passed since they were in this cave.
He vaguely remembered that tree branches had hit them, and that the next thing he knew was that his loyal lieutenants and himself were underground. The El Shard was probably still in the carriage. It had to be. Then again, forest elves were territorial creatures that hated humans. It would not be too much of a stretch to think that the woman in front of them had taken it from the carriage.
"Your ancestors stole this from elves, humans. Your kind actually managed to get to us!" the purple-eyed elf giggled. "You have no idea how much I've waited for you to come here! I took care of everyone so you could take me to see the world!"
Right after she let out a playful chuckle, the white smile on her face vanished, and she blew over the tip of her index, forming crystal-like claws over her nails. "I waited too much, now that I think about it."
She admired her work with a satisfied smile like women would admire their manicure. Her mauve eyes glared at the soldier to Banthus's right, and she spun her wrist so the palm of her hand was no longer facing them.
An instant later, the soldier to his right was groaning in pain, and although Banthus did not dare to leave the elven woman out of his sight, he could still see from the corner of his eye the silhouette of his subordinate bend down in pain and cough until he spat on the floor. Banthus then heard the sharp breath of the soldier to his left. A short glance was enough to know that two of the claws were impaled on his shoulder. It was strange to him that the elf could have thrown those projectiles in practically two opposite directions without touching him. And the speed. No mage he had met, no matter how good they were, could fire sharp projectiles like those, impaling them so deep, without making the wind whistle.
It was simply unnatural. Just like her ever-changing state of mind. Her laugh turned to a cold gaze. Then, those same lilac eyes left place to a burning anger and a hoarse voice that shouted back at them.
"You made me do all of this when your kind already knew where to find elves. Do you even understand how hard it was to harvest this much power from lunatics who wanted to stay hidden?!"
Banthus felt an invisible hand crawl from his neck to his head and forced him to bow. He remained silent.
"You are not going to explain?!"
The hand creaked like old wood around his neck, gouging the air out of his lungs. Banthus gasped for air, lifting his head with all his strength, cracking the wood on the back of his head. He could feel the wooden shards pierce his skin, but he would never bow at the elf. The moment he took a look at her, she was forming the claws over her fingers again.
"Speak. Or I'll make your men speak for you. Or perhaps I'll aim straight for their heart. It'll be a mercy at this point."
Banthus clenched his fists as his vision was growing blurrier under the uncomfortable angle of the chain of thorns that was piercing the flesh of his neck. Once he bowed again, he could breathe better. The former captain coughed and took deep breaths; each one of them felt fresh in his burning throat. It was the same dusty, old air, but he had been too close to passing out.
"That is my family's pendant, elven woman." he wheezed and coughed again. "I was never told where it came from, only that it has been passed for eight generations. My men here don't have anything to do with it. Let them go."
The elven woman stepped further away from them to the only light that cleaved deep, dark shadows onto her pale face. Locks of her blonde hair fell to her clavicle, but her long and messy hair waved behind her back as she took her hood off. Her mauve eyes glittered with curiosity. Her clothes had perhaps been olive green before, but her long dress looked brown like the dirt all around them. Her grey cloak barely kept its colour under the dried mud.
"Eight generations? My...that means your ancestors perhaps met my parents. I would be far too young to remember."
The woman walked towards him once more and took the pendant off him. The snap of metal chains whipped the back of his neck so strongly that he could not stop a groan from escaping his lips. He was certain that the wooden shards had dug deeper as a result.
The elven woman giggled, spinning like a little girl at the sight of a new doll. "Now, this! This is what I need to go on adventures!"
Wisps of green light began to light some of the strange writings over the walls. For a moment, their beauty made Banthus forget the stinging pain that the elven woman had caused him. The voice of another woman chimed in with the soothing grace of the smell of rain.
"Tuama ársa, Doirtim mo fhuil i do spiorad chomh an a tairiscint ceann do do nádúr naofa. Lig maiteach na foghlaí, mar go nglanfaidh mé an tcúis a mhúscai do mhallacht. Geallaim é ar ainm Erendil."
The wooden daggers that had dug deep holes into his flesh simply vanished, along with the sting and the warm drip of blood. It was as if, with each word, his wounds were healing, until there was, inexplicably, no pain left.
This brief relief, however, did not last for long. The elven woman's eyes overflowed with the colour of her iris. It was a disturbing pool of lavender that spread over her face with glowing lines that followed the veins of any body. Some even exploded into clouds of black. Even so, she chanted in a maddened, hoarse voice. From her mouth, puffs of black mist spread all over the room with a hiss that, to Banthus's ears, could almost be mistaken for whispers. Or sobs. The green light suffocated under the smell of rotten fruit. The mist carried the smell all over the room; it crawled over everything it could glue its toxic touch to. The light turned purple like the eyes of madness that gleamed in this storm of decay.
As the elf finished her incantation, she screeched as if a hundred voices had screamed through her throat. The former captain of the El Search Party watched in horror as the peaceful green light was giving way to a despair made of rotten lavender. He kept watching the ceiling, praying to Ishmael harder than he had ever done in his life so that the green glow would at least stick to a corner. If Banthus had glanced at the elf then, he would've seen her mouth open far too wide, enough to let the mist itself cover the tears of unholy magic that were dripping all over her jaw, as if it were blood.
The earth shook and the roaring sound of an explosion came soon after. But there was no signs of collapse within their prison. The flickering light of the torch returned to normal, unhindered by the wet, putrid darkness that the mist had brought with it. The small gate to hell that had opened itself before Banthus's eyes was all but gone.
The elf's eyes returned to normal and she fell to her knees with a crooked smile on her face that only made the glimmer of madness in her eyes shine even brighter. She hugged herself excitedly, and her eyes darted to the ceiling of stone that the tree roots were slowly backing up from. Banthus, however, could not move any better. In fact, he felt paralyzed from his neck down. A wooden snake had wrapped him in its deadly embrace.
Something over the elf's face was crawling, but she kept her head down, and he could only see that the roots of her hair were turning to the same colour of her eyes. Whatever it was, it hid behind her hood. It had to be, since it could have certainly not gone behind her eye. Banthus told himself that there were bound to be some bugs in this underground place, and that the woman would simply not notice them.
But he had not heard a single fly nor a crawling bug in this place until now.
"She's back, my dear friend Rena made it back! And she brought such good people to go on adventures with. Rena made them a safe place, right where my palace can't reach them," the elf looked at the ceiling and chuckled, "but I know they'll come here. I'll make them see all the wonders the Lunatics hid from them."
The soldier to his left shuddered and began to quietly sob. The claws that stuck out from his shoulder had turned lilac, longer. The remains of the black mist gathered around them. Banthus glanced to his right and saw that the other was not moving anymore. He hung like an abandoned ragdoll which had been stabbed by a pair of scissors three times. The elf got up with a cheeky grin and clapped her hands.
"Well, guys, I was so glad to meet all of you, gentlemen." She pointed at the crying man to his left "Will," then she pointed at him. "Banthus," she pointed at the dead man to his right and remained silent for a couple of seconds, "...and Liam. Poor Liam, he went to sleep too early. I'm sure he'll be alright tomorrow."
"How do you know our names, you elven wench?!" the captain exploded.
Her smile did not vanish. "Banthus, it seems you forgot my name last time we had an adventure together. Or perhaps you forgot all of them. But for good measure, since this is the last time we'll see each other, I'll tell you my name again."
The elf called back the claws on her fingers and walked slowly towards him. "My name is Lua."
Now that she was close to him again, Banthus noticed that the light of one of her eyes was gone. Instead, a crawling, slushy sound intensified. He knew exactly what it sounded like now. It was the sound of maggots digging through flesh, even if it didn't smell. Or maybe, he had grown used to that putrid smell. He worried about how much time he had passed down here, cut from all light except the lavender glow and the fading orange flame. Was it winter already? Where was the El?
"Will and Liam told me, Banthus, that you stole. Well, they did the heavy lifting, but I'm sure you know they don't lie to me. My fellow comrades never lie. But you always kept rather silent. I'm glad you finally yelled. That means we've grown closer."
Lua pushed back his head, and her grip was ice-cold and far too strong to resist. "Alas, I must say goodbye. I want to go on adventures with real adventurers. Not bandits."
With her free hand, she forced his left eye wide open. "Adventurers punish bandits, don't they, Banthus?"
He felt hot tears build on his eye as she took her index and thumb as pincers. Their sharpness was only a gesture away from piercing his flesh. "I liked Will and Liam the best, you know? They'll stay and play with the adventurers. As one. Will and Liam. Hmm...William is a nice bandit name, isn't it?"
"W-what?" he whispered. "What are you-?"
Lua clicked her tongue. "You are right, Banthus. It'll be no good if they see me missing my left eye." He saw her smile again, but instead of a bright white smile, it was as grey as stone, some traces of green sticking out of it. "Thank the El that you are my comrade! You'll help me build this new adventure. You brought William here and you'll help me stay pretty for when I meet Rena and her new friends. Thank you, Banthus the Bandit."
Banthus stopped seeing the pincers and screamed for a long minute. The sloshy crawling rang in his head for as long as he screamed.
Yet, his suffering was only met by a dead silence.
Once it was over, the pain left him completely silent. He wanted to scream again as all of the shadows that the torch had once drawn were blurrier, almost complete darkness. He distinctly felt pain on the left side of his face, but Banthus feared blindness in that room. What would be next? Muteness? Deafness?
His head was yanked to the left, and he saw those lilac eyes again, staring at him with disgust. "I wouldn't have taken both of your eyes, Banthus. Don't be ridiculous. Looking at your torn flesh once is good enough. It isn't even interesting as William's. But you can learn if you observe."
The tree roots lifted him off the ground and pushed him further away so his back was completely against the wall.
The elf dragged the two inanimate bodies of his men; the shards had grown enough to cover their torsos. The striped blue uniforms that once showed their rank as second-rank lieutenants were dirtied rags, much like Lua's. The elf chanted the same words over and over again, crushing a tiny El crystal in her hands. The shards were slowly absorbed in a dark cloud, connecting both corpses together by their heads.
Banthus heard Will wheeze, gagging on the little air that separated him from death. He had barely the strength to move a finger. His arms shook as the cloud took all over his body. Then, it stopped moving.
"...You killed him."
He repeated those words to the elf; they were only a whisper, but Lua shook her head as she repeated for the last time her incantation. "No, Banthus. I am only transforming him into William."
A flash of light blinded his poor sight for a long half a minute. Once he could glance back at Lua's sorcery, he immediately regretted it. In front of him stood a rodent-like creature, as big as both Will and Liam's height combined. He saw its feet: skeletal and long with claws that were as twistedly sharp as the ones Lua had used to gouge his eye out. Its rough fur was coated with mud stains that held the same putrid smell as Lua herself.
Its face towered him and huffed a humid breath that left a trail of the same invasive black fog around him. Banthus glanced up and saw its hollow eyes look back at him, its sharp yellow teeth already rotting from top to bottom. Where its ears would be were the two cadaveric faces of Will and Liam screaming out their last breath before death.
"See, Banthus? William is not dead. He's a great foe for adventurers, isn't he?"
Liam's head moved slightly to the front and spoke. "Caap...tain. Whu…Me."
Banthus was left without any words for what she had turned his subordinates into. He stared at the monstrous thing: its rusty blade, its sharp twisted claws that held the weapon clumsily. The ripped blue rag was all that was left of the dignified uniforms of what the two knights had once been.
"Cap..tain..." Will's face echoed.
The monstrosity that took both Will and Liam stepped away, and Lua's face was back in front of him. Part of it was completely obscured by the wound she gave him. "You don't feel any pain, do you?"
He heard that she said something, but his mind would not stop seeing Will weakly fighting for his life against the curse that Lua had put on him. Liam's eviscerated corpse covered by that same black magic and the final monster. That thing was definitely a Phoru. There was no mistake about it.
Perhaps, no, it had to be the reason why those spirits had agreed to fight with them.
All those missing merchants, soldiers, even the few missing villagers had fallen to the hands of that elven witch.
"My ritual healed your eye, Banthus. I do not have any more use of you. Disappear."
He raised his head to see a light consuming his body and saw an opening in the distance. Torches lit the path enough for him to see who had broken in from above. A small white-haired girl in a blue dress had come crashing down the endless corridor. She slowly got up, still groggy from the hit. The girl had a battle gauntlet almost as big as her, but it disappeared as the girl sat down, groggy from her fall. Then, the shadow of Lua covered the entrance and she walked slowly towards the now unarmed girl.
Banthus could have screamed at that moment to get the girl out of the maddened elf's hands. Yet he was still paralyzed by how similar Phoru faces were to deformed human traits. He thought of everyone that had gone missing. He was in their shoes now, and the cruel puppeteer had deemed him useless; what would he become?
His answer was given in the oddest of ways. Banthus was prepared to die, see the light at the end of the tunnel, and face the judgement of Ishmael herself. Yet, he found himself back in his carriage, right outside the farm he and five bandits had looted.
The El Shard was next to him, and a note read in a shaky and inexperienced hand: "We've gone out ahead to clean the rest of the path. Join us in Elder."
There were provisions and the horse attached to the carriage. Banthus frowned, crumpled the note, and rolled it into a ball. Then, he threw it with all his strength away from him. Return to Elder? How could those people be so blind? He had to use the El while he still had it and reverse the curse that Lua the Witch had placed on the missing people.
Her cruel games had to stop.
Rena walked in the wake of night, the moonlight guiding her steps as she took charge of the elven scouts that took the Elders and their families safely out of the citadel through the secret passages within the crypts. Lua stood next to her with her crossbow on one hand and a torch in the other. Even if they were underground, everyone that was fleeing could hear the muffled explosions and cries of those who were not so lucky above them.
"We need to hurry." Rena said, her voice shaking as any spirit she knew refused to help her. She walked faster, her bow in hand, her heart thumping in her chest as loudly as the explosions above. Her mind screeched in horror at the thought of what she knew was happening above the crypts. The Darkness had won, but they could still flee. There was still time to save at least a fraction of their citadel. Once they reached the Northern Bay, everyone would be safe.
She turned around and saw that only the gloom of the torch-lit crypts remained. The group she led was no longer there. Rena froze in place, looking left and right, but that was no use. There were only walls around her.
"Lua? Mother? Father?"
Her quiet voice echoed through the emptiness. Each time, it grew louder. The hall stretched out in all proportions. The torches that dimly lit the place went out one by one. She stayed under complete darkness for an instant. Her shadow abruptly appears. It was surrounded by red. Rena turned around to the ghosts of Lua and everyone in the group.
"Rena, why did you leave us behind? Did you forget what the Elder taught you?" her friend asked, her emerald green eyes shining with cold anger.
"Rena...I thought you had learned what your duties were with Elder Branwen." Lilila continued.
The elf archer clenched her fists as even her father, Isilad, shook his head with disappointment. "No, Lua, mother...I did not forget. I didn't leave you behind."
"LIAR! COWARD! YOU LEFT US TO DIE!" all the fifteen ghosts yelled at her, repeating their chant as their faces deformed with anger. Their flesh melted over their faces, but even their skeletons continued to yell, getting closer to her. Their weapons rose to quench their thirst for revenge. Rena screamed, dropping her bow and covering her face with her arms.
Lua's skeleton was about to stab her with a twisted green dagger, repeating once more the same hateful words as the rest of the dead. Rena closed her eyes, almost tasting the sharp pain that would follow.
Then, her eyes opened and she got up, panting and sweating in the middle of the night. The campfire was still burning, but everyone was soundly two demons usually woke up to the most minor of noises. But tonight, Lu had to chew on wild poppies and chug a few health potions to handle the pain of her bullet wounds. Ciel was also sound asleep. As for Ain, he had just recovered from his broken bone.
The crackle of the fire barely lit the path that Lu had scorched with her flames almost two days ago. It was through that gate that she had fled so long ago, leaving her family and her friend on their own after the Darkness had even killed all of the spirits that had come to her aid. It was the fourth night she had had the same nightmare, and she knew that as long as she did not go down there and put the souls of her people to truly rest, the nightmares would remain.
She knew Lua was still there, in some twisted form, controlling the crypts like some goddess of the undead. Her friend recognized her the moment she made a pact with the resting souls, but she refused to let them pass safely. Lua held a grudge against her and, last time, Lu and Ciel got dragged into a fight that was not theirs. That could not last any longer.
Rena got up and put over her clothes a magical cloak she had carried since she left the village in the Northern Bay for Ruben. That cloak was imbued with protective spells that would hide her presence from golems and other rogue spirits she could not reach with her Nature's Force.
With her bow and arrows over her back, Rena glanced once more at the group she was leaving behind. No. That was not the right way to look at it. She had changed for the better under Elder Brawnen's guidance. This time, she would fulfill the task she had always failed until now.
Letting those souls rest was the only way no one else would get hurt.
"I'll be back by sunrise, I swear," she whispered before putting the hood of her cloak on and silently roaming through the ruins under the weak light of the moon's first quarter.
A/N: I had actually more written down for this chapter, but it felt too rushed for something as important as what will come. So, I decided to expand on that for a chapter of its own. Because of this, chapter 9 will come up sooner than the regular updates. I expect that the end of Ruben will come in about 4 chapters. Elder will be the final arc fellas and it will consume a lot more time. I hope you'll be looking forward to it.
~Kalafinn
