Month: July 2022

Annastaria maintains her alias as “Erene” even to her new friends as she is guided by Gerdan through the surrounding forests to the place he says the Black Priest once battled an ancient terror. Is it tied to her clan’s recent discoveries? What will she find there? Meanwhile, Annastaria’s alias has consequences among her new friends.

As Gerdan predicted, it was cloudy and rainy, from the sunrise into the morning. The rain was a gentle sound on the window, trickling lightly, rather than pouring violently, and an occasional thunder gently rolled through. Annastaria was up and already tightening her boots; her mind was fixed on the words Gerdan spoke to her last night. She barely slept over it. The only thing more pressing on her was what to tell Oden, Rolek, and of course Bastillina. She couldn’t let any of them know of this; it was far too close to her quest. Even Rolek, who figured out she was not a neutral elf, but of the clans, could not know about it.

A knock came at the door, and Annastaria almost gasped. “Erene?” It was Oden, to her dread. She hoped to be gone by the time he was up. She opened the door to an uncomfortably happy Oden. But that wasn’t the worst part. Bastillina was with him.

“Erene!” Bastillina said, her face brightening as she went in for a hug. Annastaria ought to have been glad to see the girl, but it only put a knot in her chest.

“Did you sleep well?” Annastaria said as they let go to look at each other.

Bastillina nodded. “Thank God you’re okay! I thought you were dying.”

Annastaria cracked a smile. “Maybe I was, if only for a little while… But I am okay, and I am glad to hear you are okay.”

The two smiled at each other for a moment, a smile which Annastaria forced, and the more she looked at Bastillina, the more her heart twisted.

“Hey!” said Oden, “We’re gonna have some breakfast. I know you’re probably ready to head out, but I think we should wait at least until the weather clears up. Better for all of us.”

“That is a good idea.” she said.

Oden felt as though he tripped. He had to pause to take in the comment. “Really?” he said, “I figured you’d be ready to go.”

“I am… But you are right, the rain is not good for us to travel in.”

“Alright… Cool.” he said, looking at Bastillina with excitement for a moment, “Well, we’re downstairs, except for Rolek, although I’m sure he’s around here somewhere.”

“You go and enjoy yourself.”

“You’re not coming with us?” Bastillina asked, her smile fading.

“Maybe in a little while. Right now I must look into something.”

“Like what?”

Annastaria began to curse herself for where the conversation was going, and she searched her mind as quickly as she could for a good answer. “It is not easy to explain.” she replied slowly, “But it is better this way.”

Both Oden and Bastillina paused, unsure of what to say or think. “Well,” Oden began slow and awkwardly, “Why don’t we all have some breakfast and we can go together? I’m sure you can explain to us what it is then.”

“It is raining, Oden. It is not good for you and especially Bella to be out.”

“What about you?”

“I am an elf. We thrive in the woods, even in rainy weather. Gerdan and I will go and scout out our path to proceed forth in.”

For the first time, Oden became uncomfortable at the mention of Gerdan. Why was it okay for him to go out in the rain but not Oden himself? “If he can go, can’t I?” Oden asked.

“I can handle the rain, too!” Bastillina insisted.

Annastaria paused, but only for a fast moment to think, “No!” she snapped. She was half-shocked, and couldn’t believe she did it. “Oden, Bella, please believe me… It is better this way.”

“How’s it better?” Bastillina argued, “If you’re scouting out a place to leave from, why can’t we come?”

It was as if a blast of wind struck Annastaria, silencing her and leaving her to collect herself. She swallowed as the air became tight, looking down at an angered Bastillina. “Lower your voice.” Annastaria said, “We do not want to wake people around us.”

“Where are you going?” Bastillina interrogated, ignoring Annastaria’s command, “I want to go with you! I’m tired of being left behind!”

“You cannot come with me for this.”

“Why not?” Bastillina whipped back, daring to challenge Annastaria. 

Annastaria went silent again, trying to recollect her thoughts, which Bastillina scattered like a tray full of food. “Because I said so.” was all Annastaria could say, and this time, her kindness towards the girl was pushed aside by her direct tone. Bastillina looked on with despair and then at Oden. Without another word, she stormed off. Annastaria felt an impulse to go after her; she wanted to scold the girl, and she wanted to comfort her, and she wanted to apologize–three conflicting impulses that only confused her, ultimately leaving her standing still. Oden watched Bastillina storm off, back downstairs, and an unwelcoming silence came between him and Annastaria.

“I uh…” he said, looking down for a moment, “I’ll go and talk to her.” There was despondency in his voice as he spoke. All the energy from only a moment ago was drained from him.

“Oden…” Annastaria said, with a plea in her voice, “I am sorry about this. Please understand that I appreciate the things you have done for me… But–”

“I get it, Erene.” he interrupted, “Do what you gotta do. I’ll go and… see if I can talk to her… You better get going.”

There was passive aggression in those last words of his. Annastaria wanted to say something–she had to say something, but didn’t know what. It was like a spell had forced her mouth still, and the next thing she knew, Oden was starting down the stairs after Bastillina. She felt a part of her go with him, leaving herself incomplete, standing in the doorway, but she forced the feeling down and tried to focus on what Gerdan had to show her. These aenmen were friends, but they could not be family. She had to remember that; her clan was her family, and this was for them. That was her home, they were the ones she needed to please, and to prove herself to be more than a simple, walking relic to the elvish people, and to remember the words of Innadur: her aenman side did not define her.

She went to the stairs opposite Oden and Bastillina, intentionally distancing herself from them and walked to the front door. She knew the eyes of Oden were on her from the bar counter, but she wouldn’t look and went out the door to feel the cold air from the cold rain pattering on the ground, ceiling and trees. Gerdan was to her immediate right, waiting on the inn porch. 

“Ready to go?” he asked, drawing her attention. She noticed a leather jacket he had in his hand, but he himself already had a poncho on.

“Let us get this done with.” she said, with contempt in her voice.

Gerdan smiled at the tone she delivered the words with, stepping forward. He lifted the jacket up to her, “This is for you.”

Annastaria looked at it for a moment. It was a ‘modern’ jacket, something she wasn’t accustomed to. She always preferred the clothing of her people and their culture. “What is this for?” she asked.

“The rain, of course. You can’t go out there like this, nor with any normal jacket. This is a particular leather; rare actually, and will keep you dry out there.”

Annastaria hesitated, not wanting to take aid from a stranger, even one as charming as Gerdan, but she took it. She was surprised to see the inside insulated with a kind of fur. She looked up at him, and threw it over her shoulders, pulling her arms through. It fit tight, but not restrictive. “Well,” Gerdan said, getting a look at her, “I must say Erene, for a wood elf, you fit well into westernized clothes.”

Annastaria refused to entertain the compliment, still twisted about how she left Oden and especially Bastillina. “Can we go now?” she said, “I have at least two friends in there who… who need me back soon.”

“Of course… Follow me.”

Oden watched Annastaria walk out of the inn entrance, and he knew she knew he saw her, but she wouldn’t look. He was confused and angry, but he tried to push it down for Bastillina’s sake, who sat with her back away from the entrance, unwilling to look. She only looked down at the table surface, which had nothing interesting happening on it, but it was better for her to look at than anything else. Oden gave out a sigh as Annastaria left, and watched a despondent Bastillina stare into nothing. There was only one thing for him to do.

“You hungry?” he asked, and waited, but got no response. “How about… eggs?” he said. Again, nothing. “Pancakes?” he tried again, waiting through another pause. “Orange juice?” She looked up at him, and the smile he gave seized her sadness, tempting her to smile back, but she refused. “How about… powdered toast?” he asked again, “Waffles? Milk? Chips? A chocolate something?” Bastillina couldn’t help but smile now at his relentless attempt to invoke a word from her, but she resisted to speak. “How about…” he said, pausing for anticipation, “Cinnamon roll?”

Bastillina couldn’t keep her amusement from showing anymore, and the smile cheered Oden up, taking his mind off Annastaria. “Eggs sound fine.” she replied.

“You bet, kiddo. I’ll be right back.” He stood up and went to the bar counter to make their order.

Rolek came to the table only a few seconds after Oden left, seeing Bastillina laying her head in her arms on the table. “This seat taken?” he asked Bastillina. She looked up at him only to confirm in her own mind he was there. He smiled and sat down, “I’ll take that as a ‘no’.” he said. 

He looked at Oden at the bar, talking to the waiter, and back at Bastillina in an awkward moment of silence. “So…” he began, “Do you not talk much… or are you not supposed to talk to me?” He waited to see what she would say, or do; she did nothing except to look at him for a moment. Her silence only amused him further, “I guess the elf tells you to stay clear of me, huh?” Again, Bastillina wouldn’t interact with his questions. Rolek sat back in the chair, setting a foot on the chair Oden was sitting in to tie his boots, “That’s too bad,” he said, “you might learn something from talking to a guy like me.”

Bastillina looked at him tying his shoe, with a question in her narrowed eyes. “What could you ever say that was good for me?”

Rolek didn’t see the question coming, and stopped his shoe-tying in a brief moment of pause as he looked at her. “You could learn a lot of things.” he said, “Things about the world outside Oenkev, the world inside Oenkev,” He finished tying his shoe, setting his foot on the ground and leaning towards her to continue, “and things about friends.”

“I don’t know what that even means.”

“Of course you don’t.” he said, leaning back into his chair again, “Because you’re a kid, and you likely haven’t even ventured outside of… whatever city or town Erene saved you from.” Bastillina’s head came out of her folded arms, aroused by that statement. “I know about you, kiddo.” he continued, “I thought maybe you and the elf went back a ways, but… well, I know you two haven’t known each other much longer than you’ve known me.” He looked at Bastillina, and she looked at him. Her eyes showed doubt, while he presented a smile that shadowed over her uncertainty. “You know what I don’t get,” he said, “is how you trust the elf, who’s not aenman, by the way, over someone like myself, when you haven’t known her much longer than me.”

“She saved my life.”

“And I didn’t? I may have been with you guys for only a day, but I’ve helped you dodge several bullets. I got your elf friend out of the hand of that Ryker fellow, I kept Oden out of their hands, and I help lead you guys here. Have I ever asked you to just trust me?” He waited to see what she would say, but she had nothing. “Of course I haven’t.” he answered, “I show you who and what I am… And as much as wonder boy over there is nice and buys you breakfast, he did lie to you. When ‘ve I lied to you?”

Again, Bastillina didn’t know what to say. But she was certain he was wrong somehow. “You haven’t said anything about who you are.”

Rolek raised a finger of point, as if he was ready for the objection. “But,” he said, “I told you I wasn’t going to. I didn’t try and sell myself for someone I wasn’t.”

“Erene hasn’t done that.”

“You sure about that?”

The quick retort sent Bastillina into a stuttered pause, as if she had been tripped. She tried to respond, but knew she had little to counter the question. How did she know that Erene was being honest with her?

Rolek sighed and leaned back into his chair once more as Oden was coming back, “All I’m saying, kid… Is the first lesson for you out in the world like this, is people earn your trust, and you likewise earn theirs. Be careful about who your friends are.”

Bastillina wanted to ask another question, completely disregarding Erene’s command to not talk to him, and she didn’t know which to ask. But Oden came within hearing distance before she could, greeting Rolek. “No breakfast for me?” Rolek asked, humored.

“You’re a big boy.” Oden said, “You can get your own stuff, right?”

Rolek chuckled off the jab. He seemed incapable of being agitated. “So,” he said with a sigh, “where’s pointy-ears?”

Oden and Bastillina looked at each other in silence, which told Rolek plenty. They both knew, and weren’t sure how to say it. The thought was too much for Bastillina. She stood out of her chair. “I’m tired…” she said, “I want to be left alone.”

“Bella, wait.” said Oden, putting the plates down.

“Let her be.” Rolek said.

“But… She could run off.”

“She won’t… She’s going to her room. Give her a little while. It’s a lot to cope with when her only idol out here continuously leaves her alone, with no explanation.”

The words drew Oden’s attention to Rolek. “What the hell are you talking about?” he asked.

“I think you know as much as I do, my friend. The elf’s left you two here, and it’s clearly put a hole in whatever you guys got going.”

“Why don’t you mind your own business? We’re all going through a lot, and we don’t need the cold words of some punk bounty hunter who’s only been with us for a day.”

Rolek set his feet up on the chair Oden was originally sitting in once more to get comfortable before he replied, “Once again, everyone always thinks because I’m ‘new to the crew’ I know nothing… I’m honestly amazed you guys ’ve managed this long.” 

Oden refused to sit down with him, but his attempts at showing Rolek contempt didn’t seem to have any effect on him. He wasn’t concerned at all that he may have been stepping on toes. “You wanna know what I really think?” he said after biting into the apple he had with him, “Believe it or not, little man, I’m a guy who believes in loyalty and honor.” His words invoked a chuckling scoff from Oden. “Laugh all you want,” Rolek replied, “but it’s true. Like I told the little girl, I haven’t lied to any of you. You’ve been caught lying once already, and the elf?”

Oden’s scoff evaporated. “What are you talking about?” he asked, “Are you really suggesting Erene’s lying to me?”

Before Rolek could entertain a reply, wood and debris blew out from the second floor in a white flash, and a gut-pounding “boom!”, sending Rolek and Oden to the ground. As fast as it came, there was silence, and Rolek and Oden could hear people inside the inn screaming and shouting for one another. Another explosion burst across the room, sending strange surges of what Oden saw as electricity through other strange white, glowing particles that floated about the room. 

“What’s happening?” Oden said as he and Rolek huddled under the table, “Some kind of… bomb?”

“No.” Rolek quickly replied, looking around the room with his eyes wide, “That’s a magic explosion. Some kind of… destabilized magic burst.”

“What? I’ve never seen magic do that!”

“I’ve seen it several times.” Rolek braced himself enough to stand out from under the table, looking around the area, and then at the top floor, where the most damage was seen. “It happened upstairs.” he said.

Oden froze, but only for a moment. “Bella.” he said. He practically flipped the table over as he sprang up, running with Rolek upstairs, telling people to stay down as the electric charges surged around the air. They flew up the stairs and down the hall to Bastillina’s room, where there was nothing left of the roof or wall. Oden dreaded what he was about to see, and stammered for a moment, but Rolek pushed on, through the smell of burning wood and electric charges bursting around them, which seemed to be dissipating by now. 

He worked up the courage to run after Rolek, and they beheld a room engulfed in chaos. The wall into Annastaria’s room was destroyed, as well as the wall to the outside. Rain poured into the room, putting out small embers of flames in the mangled wood. Bastillina’s bed was obliterated; Rolek and Oden searched left and right for her but saw no one. Oden ran his hand through his hair as he looked out to the trees in the east. “Oh my god.” he said, “Oh my god–what the hell am I going to tell Erene? Bella!”

Rolek was looking around the room, still sensing the heat from the magic radiation. He examined what was left of the walls, and scanned carefully, listening also to the people below begin to make their way upstairs. For a moment, there was a strange silence after the chaos, even among the shouts and cries of the people below, and the trickling rain above. Then he heard a whisper, which he could not pinpoint. It wisped by like the wind, somewhere behind him and he turned quickly to find it. There was nothing, but he saw in the corner of the room, opposite where the explosion happened, Bastillina huddled, and her face tucked into her arms and knees.

“Bella?” he said quietly as he approached her. Oden turned around and his eyes widened as his heart sighed and panicked all at once. He ran over to her, and was stopped by Rolek, “Take it easy!” Rolek said. Oden stopped and recovered himself, and this time approached Bastillina carefully.

“Bella?” Oden said quietly, “Bella talk to me… It’s Oden, I’m here… Come on, kid, I need you to help me out. We need to get you out of here.”

Rolek stepped out as Oden tended to Bastillina to make sure no one came in and overwhelmed her more than she was. Oden sat on his knees in front of her. He didn’t want to tell her, but he felt most of the heat now coming from her. Finally, she looked up at him, slowly, and there was terror in her weak eyes, and they seemed to glow. It made Oden almost move back, as it unsettled him, but he fought the impulse. “Oden…” she weeped, “What’s happening?”

Oden had to say something, but he didn’t know what. Being honest felt like it would only make it worse for her, but not being honest would only mislead her. “I don’t know,” he said, hesitant, reaching a hand out, “But let’s see if we can figure it out together.”

She looked at his hand, contemplating it. Oden feared she wouldn’t take it, but she reached out, and he saw another thing startle him, and it startled her as well that she pulled her arm back. The veins in her arm seemed to darken, even in the overcast above them. “What…” she stammered, “What’s happening to me?”

“I don’t know, Bella,” Oden replied, fighting the panic in him that wanted to burst out, “but we need to get out of this room right now. I promise everything will be okay.”

Again, she sat still, and wouldn’t move. She looked to the opposite corner of the room, which was completely gone. “Did…” she began slowly, “Did I… do that?”

“Hey!” he whispered loudly to her with a finger snap, “Look at me–okay? You’re fine. Everything’s going to be okay… Come on, we’ll go downstairs, have some breakfast–maybe–and find Erene.”

Bastillina’s eyes began to fill with tears when he said Erene’s name. The only person she trusted wasn’t there when she was lost and scared. She didn’t know how it made her feel, and she didn’t know what was happening to her. It was like her feet were planted in mid-air, falling in limbo. At least Oden was there. It was that small truth that gave her enough strength to take his hand, giving Oden a sigh of relief as he took Bastillina in his arms and carried her downstairs.

The rain persisted throughout the woods as Gerdan led Annastaria on, deeper and farther away from town, and there was no sign in sight that it would let up. The thoughts of the whispers from last night still surrounded her, and the more she dwelt upon them, the more she felt as though the thunder rumbling through the land contained more than simply thunder. It was as if some kind of creature murmuring deep in the woods, telling her she was not welcome. And more than this, Bastillina was constantly pricking her mind. Every step forward felt like a mistake–a step in the complete wrong direction. She kept justifying herself with the reminder that Bastillina was still very young, and needed to learn proper manners and discipline, especially given the girl grew up in the untamed and outrageous ways of the aenmen. But her attempts to beat back the guilt of leaving her once again needed constant fuel from her mind, which only exhausted her mind further.

On top of all this was Gerdan, who she kept in front of herself to maintain a watchful eye. She still wasn’t sure if he was on her side. “Not interested in talking, are we?” Gerdan suddenly said.

Annastaria wasn’t sure how to interpret his words, which he uttered with a smile. “I do not talk much.” she answered.

“Is that why you’re walking behind me? Keeping me in front of you in case I do something?” Annastaria said nothing, which gave Gerdan the sense that his assertion was accurate. “Don’t worry, Erene,” he said, “I’m no enemy. And I wouldn’t dare try anything on a wood elf, trained in the clans, especially by myself in the woods.”

“How about we do not speak of where I am from?” she jabbed, “It would seem better to speak about how far until this place you speak of is.”

“Of course. Just over the hills to the southwest; there is a grove and field where the alleged ‘battle’ took place.”

It was another fifteen minutes of endless woods and endless rain, as well as silence that Annastaria insisted upon, with her mind conflicted; the last thing she wanted during such stressful moments was someone starting small talk with her. She kept Gerdan in front of herself, in case there was more to any of this than she perceived. If for nothing else, it was instinctive of her own training. 

A short but steep climb over a hill slope took them to a flattened ground with light grass. Ahead only some forty feet was what appeared to be an opening to the treeline, and a set of large stones to the northern end of the open area. Gerdan led Annastaria to the treeline and they stood in view of an open patch in the woods that had grass rising up to their knees, and Annastaria got a clearer look at the large stones that stood in the northern part of the area, yet still centered. The field itself extended west to east about thirty yards, and north to south some sixty or so yards.

“Here it is.” Gerdan said, “The place that people believe is where the battle with the necromancer began.”

Annastaria scanned the lifeless area, animated only by the rainfall. She stepped forward into the field, with Gerdan following her, and took notice of something she could not see looking at the field from the outside. “There are tree stumps.” she said to Gerdan, “In patterns just like the rest of the woods… This used to be another part of them.”

Gerdan nodded, “At one point it was, and still is, really.”

“Whatever happened here consumed this area.”

“The people here tell me after the whole incident, they came here as the magic radiation subsided, and cut down the remainder of the devastated foliage. They didn’t take the trees out completely, as they hoped they might grow back and… erase what terrible memory this place had to haunt them.”

Annastaria knelt down to one of the stumps, brushing two fingers across its smoothly-shaven surface. “It would seem that these trees died from the magical devastation.” she said, “Never to grow back again.”

“It seems so… Looks like the memories have chosen not to die.”

Annastaria caught an idea then and stood up to look around. “But you said this was ten years ago?” she asked.

“Just about, yes… Why?”

“Even new trees would begin to grow back by that time. There are none here.”

Gerdan was partially embarrassed that he only just now realized what she said. “I suppose that’s true… Why would there be no trees growing here anymore?”

Annastaria looked ahead to the large stones that stood to the center-northwest part of the field, and setting her focus on them, made her way closer, through the grass and around dead tree stumps. Gerdan followed, sensing she caught onto something. She stopped in front of them, and realized they stood at least ten feet high, and were narrow in their width. They stood unnaturally.

“Ah,” Gerdan said, “the Stones of the Galssan Grove.”

Annastaria looked back at him, “You have named these stones?”

“Of course. These are what I wanted to bring to your attention.”

“How did these come to be here?”

“No one knows how they got here; I was sort of hoping you might know more… People ‘ve made up stories about them. Some say they’re some kind of religious thing, and others say they’re a shrine. All I know is that many times we will pick up magic energy from it. I can’t say why, and the surges come randomly.”

“Did the recent spike–one of them–come from these?”

“Yes… The one five days ago.”

Annastaria looked back at the stones for a moment, with thoughts and theories running through her mind. There was no doubt in her mind now as her thoughts zeroed on these stones; this was the source of what her people detected. Dark magic must have come from this place. She recalled what she had read in Istvan’s book, and in the books she had previously read. 

Gerdan watched her carefully, and saw her thinking. “What is it?” he probed, “If you know something I don’t, you need to share it with me.”

“These stones.” she began, “They are not here naturally… Someone put them here.”

“Obviously… No one knows why, though… Unless you do?”

Annastaria didn’t answer immediately. She couldn’t believe in her own mind what she was even contemplating. She looked at Gerdan, “These magic readings you speak of… Could it be that the unknown ones of last night you detected came from this?”

Gerdan paused to think for a moment, “I don’t think so. The magic energy spikes we get from this are only momentary, and random. What happened five days ago was the closest, and it caused a stir in the town, one which the people hoped to forget as quickly as they could. We investigated it the following day, but as always, found nothing different than what you see now. What we picked up near to your location where we found you was another anomaly, and especially that close to Mennix; we had to get to that spot at once.”

 Annastaria looked between two of the stones. There were five in total, and they all seemed to circle around one small area that was only about three feet in diameter. Yet there was nothing to notice in the midst of them. Only a patch of dirt and strains of grass. Annastaria stepped into the center of the stones, looking at each of them, drawing curious eyes from Gerdan. “Three…” she said quietly, placing her hand on one of the stones facing the east. She turned to the west, “And two…”

“What?” Gerdan asked.

Annastaria almost froze as the thought dawned on her, like an eclipsing shadow of a great and terrible truth. She stepped out of the center next to Gerdan, stepping back with him to get a look at them. “I know what the voices were saying to me.” she said as she pointed at the three stones that faced east. “Three to the east,” and then at the two facing the west, “And two in the west.” Gerdan still didn’t understand anything she was saying. She looked at him, “It was repeating those words to me in Nagush–Three to the east, two to the west.”

“I thought you said it was telling you that you belonged to it, and that ‘it’ was one.”

“That was in the dream… I do not know if that was the same as the whispers I was hearing in the forest… But as I stand here and look upon these stones, it came upon me.”

“What is it about these stones that you’re not telling me, Erene?” Gerdan pressed, “You just made quite a leaping connection between these stones and those voices you heard. Either that is sheer coincidence or there is something about these stones that triggered your memory… Do I need to be concerned about these stones and the voices?”

Annastaria looked at him with uncertainty in her eyes. “I do not know… But I think…” she hesitated, still unwilling to bring herself to believe what her mind was moving towards, “I think these stones are here for the purposes of a spell.”

“A spell?”

“What do you know about stone magic?”

Gerdan paused, looking away to think. He hummed aloud before stuttering his response, “Not much… I don’t think I’ve heard of such a thing.”

An unnerving silence followed from Annastaria. “Erene,” Gerdan pressed further, “I need to know what you’re thinking.” 

She sighed as she came to a conclusion in her mind and looked at him to speak directly, “What I am about to show to you, you cannot speak of to anyone else.”

He hesitated, and nodded an unsure agreement. One that Annastaria didn’t trust, but she felt she had no choice–she needed to confirm her suspicions. It was important to report to her elders. She rolled up her jacket sleeve, removed her right-hand glove, and then the sleeve, revealing the enchantments on her forearm and hand, drawing Gerdan’s attention to them. She reached out to the stones with her right arm and closed her eyes, letting out the air in her lungs. Gerdan stepped back when he saw the enchantments on her arm begin to glow, and he could see her eyes glowing behind her closed eyelids. Then the cubical-shaped enchantments on her forearm began to turn clockwise and counterclockwise on her arm, in some kind of mechanical order, as if they were unlocking. He was frightened and fascinated, rubbing his eyes even to make sure he was seeing what he was seeing.

Annastaria opened her eyes, and the light from them seemed to burst out for a moment, and she closed them to focus again. Gerdan looked around, feeling as though he could hear people around them watching, but no one was to be found. He waited, wondering what was going to happen next, instinctively taking a few steps back. His mind raced about trying to understand what he was seeing, but nothing gave him answers. Suddenly, Annastaria’s eyes flew open, the glowing having dispersed completely, as well as the enchantments on her arms as she gasped and pulled her right arm away from the stones, almost falling backwards onto the ground, as if she pulled her arm from the snap of a snake. 

“Erene!” he said as he came close to her, “Are you okay?”

She was battling for control over her breathing, like she came up for air from being submerged in water. She gripped her right arm, looking at it closely for a moment, examining it for any kind of wound. None were found.

“Erene?” Gerdan pressed again, “What happened? Is everything okay?”

“No.” she answered, “It is not okay.” She looked at him then, “It is as I feared. These stones are a part of a spell; they are containing something within it.”

“Containing what?”

“I do not know, but it is black magic… I used my abilities to create a breach into the veil, and see what was within… Something… something reached out to me, and tried to grab hold of me.”

Gerdan stepped towards the stones. “Wait a minute,” he began, “you’re telling me that there is something… trapped inside these stones? How can that be possible?”

“As I said, it is black magic; an ancient art that I did not believe I would ever see be true.”

Gerdan had to pause to absorb what she was saying. He was unable to believe it, and he looked to the inside of the stones, seeing nothing there. “I don’t understand.” he said, “How can these be holding something?”

“It is not a physical prison.” Annastaria said, finally able to fully control her breath, “It is a spirit prison. Stone magic deals mainly with spirit energy.”

“I don’t suppose you got a good look at… whatever in the world it was that reached for you.”

Annastaria shook her head, recalling the brief second she felt it and replied, “No… I did not see it. I could hear it, however. It wished to seize me.”

“For what purpose?”

“I do not know… But I suspect it wants to be let out.”

“Can it get out?”

“No. It is trapped between our world and the eternal realm.”

Gerdan felt his heart begin to race, and these ordinary stones felt unwelcoming. He couldn’t help but hear whispers himself now. “What in the name of the gods,” he said as he brushed his hand through his hair, looking upon the stones in horror, “this has been here this long? And we didn’t know? Can’t we… toss these stones at the bottom of the lake?”

“No. They will not let you. I know this spell, it uses the life of the surrounding area to maintain its strength. Removing the stones before the curse is lifted will destroy the forest, and likely let out whatever is trapped inside.”

“Then what do we do?”

“We must return to Mennix, and tell people what we have found here. Something haunts these forests; it cannot come into the world, but it can disturb it… I believe it is what I heard in the forest.”

“Then let’s go.” Gerdan said, ready to be out of here, leading the way back, “Get the others and figure out what to do about this.”

Annastaria followed, but her mind was overwhelmed. She looked back at the stones again, and it was as if they were staring back at her, daring her to come back and be among them. Yet they were the same as before, still and lifeless. An evil was trapped there, not banished, but trapped. Who could have done it? Could it have something to do with the Black Priest?

The air was still thick with burnt wood, even with the inn now calm. Patrons and deputies worked to close the roof with tarps while Oden and Rolek attempted to explain to the other deputies what happened. Rolek had, by this point, taken control of the conversation. “I thought you said you folk were not going to be trouble,” said one of them.

“And we intend no harm to any of you.” Rolek responded, “I swear to you, we’re as clueless as you about what’s going on.”

Rolek continued to argue, while Oden sat with Bastillina, who he noticed covered her left arm while she ate. She had finally stopped crying, but the fear never left her eyes. “What’s on your mind, kiddo?” he asked. Bastillina looked at the plate of pancakes in front of her, and listened to Rolek continue to argue with the others, wondering if she would answer Oden’s question or not. 

“I just…” she began, “Want to get away from here.”

“I hear ya, kiddo… We’ll be leaving soon. We need to wait for Erene to come back… I know you may not be happy to hear about her right now, but she’s the only one who’ll know what’s going on.” Bastillina went silent, leaving Oden hanging on the conversation he tried to start with her. He sighed, “How’s your arm?” he asked. Still, Bastillina wouldn’t answer, nor look at him. “Bella,” he insisted, “if it’s bothering you, please tell me.”

“It’s fine!” she snapped. Oden fell silent, and pulled back. He didn’t want to provoke her further.

Rolek came to them with the other three deputies. They surrounded Oden and Bastillina, making the girl feel even less comfortable than she was. “They just want to ask some questions, Bella.” Rolek said, “They’re not going to hurt you… We need to know, what happened up there?”

Bastillina looked at Oden then, who gave her the look of approval to talk. She didn’t know where to begin, what to say and what not to say. “I don’t know what happened.” she began, “All I know is… I went to my room, I was mad and… trying not to cry. I was looking out the window and… and I felt… warm. There was… a bright light around me somewhere in the room… My chest started to hurt, and my shoulders and hands.” She paused in thought, and looked down at her left hand that she kept under the table. She looked back up at them, “I felt… hot in my hands, and all around me… It was like it was going into my hand… The last time I felt this was months ago, but this never happened… I don’t remember much else, except for the explosion, and I think I saw lightning in the room.”

Rolek looked at the others, who didn’t know what to say. “You’re sure there was nothing else?” one of them asked her. They waited for another few seconds, but Bastillina wouldn’t speak further.

“I think that’s all we got.” Rolek said before he called the three of them away from Oden and Bastillina.

“I don’t know what to do with any of this.” one said quietly to Rolek and the other two deputies.

“I do.” Rolek answered, drawing their attention. He looked at Bastillina once more, who was being continually consoled by Oden. “It was a magic blast.” he asserted.

“Obviously. But what form of magic?”

“No, I mean it was pure magic. It wasn’t elemental, it wasn’t some form of combustion, it was pure magic energy. Her chest burning up, her shoulders and hands… that’s an indication of magicka points heating up, generating massive energy that pushed itself out of her hands.”

“I’ve never seen anyone do that before.”

“It’s not uncommon for that to happen. Lots of masters can generate pure magic energy for power. What’s unheard of is that a kid her age did it, and to such a degree that she blew up half her entire room; what’s more, is the residual magic radiating, and all she’s suffering is a mild case of Corruption. She should be dead; she used so much magic energy, the pure radiation remained for a time after the explosion.”

“I saw her arm.” one of them said, “She may not think we noticed it, but we did. Her veins are darkened… Is it Corruption?”

Rolek looked back at her again, “It is…”

“I thought it takes time for Corruption to take hold of a master, and any magic source. You’re a master, you ought to know.”

“You would be correct.” Rolek affirmed, “It takes a lot of magic to generate that level of Corruption. What you saw in her arm is something that normally would take at least two months of unattended magic usage to develop.”

“Well I feel as though a fool to ask, but what in the name of the gods is going on, then?”

“That I don’t know… We’ll have to wait for Erene to come back. She’s the only one around here who’ll have any idea.”

Jodel and Dean stood on the hill overlooking Mennix looking down at the town, with the towering figure of Jorum behind them. “This is the place?” Jodel asked Jorum.

“It came from here.” Jorum replied, “I sensed it… But I do not believe it was the elf. The power surge was greatly different.”

“Whatever you say, big man. What matters is that they’re here. Let’s get Ryker on the line… We’ve found them.”

Finally, a night of rest, at least before her work begins in investigating what lies within the Mennix surrounding forest. For once, Annastaria finds herself able to take time to get to know her aenman friend, Oden, who is far more than she thought he was when she met him. But as the night closes, Gerdan has something to tell Annastaria…

Later that night, Annastaria had found the girl called Jennice, and was able to have a bath. Though she had a shower just the night before, this one seemed different. For the first time, she didn’t feel rushed, she didn’t have Oden’s burdensome and troublesome partying be as a thorn in her side. This was a refreshing one, and allowed her to think and reflect on the quest thus far. But this led her to the realization that no matter where she ends up, she would have to explain this to her elders, including her father. How was she going to explain the clear violation of credal law never to get personally involved with aenman affairs? And what would they think of Bastillina? She could conceal this entire part, or manipulate it, and say she used them, but she knew it would be a lie, and if it was a lie, it meant that she was not using either Rolek nor Oden. They became more to her. 

She shut out the thought, and tried to rationalize it away, trying to convince herself she was only using them for her ultimate end. But what did she need either of them for? There was no reason for her to continue with them. She had the artifact, and Oden was a no-good thief; he deserved to be captured and taken in by Rolek, of whom Annastaria owed no favors. She couldn’t find an answer, and tried not to think about it anymore.

Once she finished, she stepped outside, and went to the room Gerdan told her Bastillina was in and opened the door carefully. Tucked comfortably in the covers of the bed was Bastillina, with her brown hair loose and scrambled over the pillow she was sleeping on. The girl was indeed very tired; all Annastaria wanted to do was to make sure she was safe and comfortable, but she didn’t want to disturb her. Annastaria slowly closed the door to let her sleep. She stepped back over to the railing again, looking down to the crowd, whose energy did not change a single bit. Oden was back at the bar, talking with the bartender and others, while Rolek went back to his card games and cigar. Surprisingly, to his word, he still only had the one beer.

She stood, leaning on the balcony, wandering into thoughts of this night, and the strange things Gerdan said, as well as what Rolek said, and of course, what she experienced. “Three to the east, two to the west” she constantly went over in her mind. What could it mean? She became convinced that something spoke to her in the woods. How, or what it was, she didn’t know, and she knew even less how to find out. Could this have been what her people detected days ago?

“It’s much more fun to be down there than it is to be watching up here.” a voice said behind her and to the right. She turned and saw Gerdan smiling, drying his hands with a white towel.

“To some it may be.” said Annastaria, simple and distant.

“Not for you?” Gerdan said as he stepped towards her to see down to the inn floor himself.

“I desire a quiet evening before I go to bed. Such energy as seen here is not good before it.”

Gerdan couldn’t help a smile, “Is that why you are out here watching? Forgive me if I’m poking my nose where it don’t belong, but it seems like you’re tempted to go down there.”

“Do all you aenmen have the gift of reading minds?” Annastaria asked, and with a snark. 

Gerdan smirked off her remark. “We like the challenge of it, anyway.” he said, “Do all you elves look down on the rest of us?” 

Annastaria was taken aback by the question. Surely he couldn’t be serious. She never considered that she or her kind, except perhaps the high elves, ever looked down on the aenmen. They were by nature simplistic; it was not a matter of subjective prejudices. Still, the more she pondered, the more she began to wonder if he was right. 

Gerdan took advantage of the silence, “You should go down and hang out for a while.” he said, “From what your friends told me, you’ve all had a hard few days. I think you’ve earned a night of relaxation… I know you and your kind are not fond of the usual drunken or drugged-up aenman who dishonors himself in these kinds of celebrations, but that’s an overblown stereotype. We’re not all a bunch of drunks. The men here are fair people, trying to make a living, and having some fun at the end of a hard day of work. The entire region here is their workplace, and this is their place of relaxation before they go home. No one gets crazy drunk, no one hurts anyone. We’ll be doing songs here in a little bit, in fact… You might enjoy it.”

Annastaria didn’t know why, but Gerdan’s words had a way of taming her growing anger. There was something in his voice that convicted her of her own judgment, and her attitude. She was tempted to take up his offer, which was unheard of; she never dreamed of the day. If anything, she looked forward to the day of being proud to have ‘resisted’ the temptation to enjoy aenman customs. 

Still, Annastaria had remembered their previous conversation, and she could not shake her curiosity over his knowledge of not only these parts, nor only his notable interest in her “dream”, but also his statement about black magic in these forests. An idea came to her mind. He had to know more, and she needed to get it out of him.

 “Fine,” she said, “I will go down and… say hi.” Gerdan smiled at her statement, “But on one condition. In our last conversation, you mentioned necromancy, or some form of black magic.” 

Gerdan did not expect a return to that, and his smile faded. “According to some reports, yes,” he said.

“Do you have any more information regarding these… these sayings of people?” 

Gerdan’s face didn’t change, though his eyes narrowed slightly as he pondered the question. “If I’m going to answer that question, Erene,” he replied, “I need to know… What’s your interest in the subject?” 

Annastaria felt like a spotlight had suddenly caught her snooping in foreign lands. She could almost begin sweating. She went through in her mind what to say. For a moment, she felt like she could trust Gerdan with the truth, and that lying to him, more than she already has, would be too much. This man was no fool, and he clearly had an interest in the safety of the people here, or an unusually nosey attitude. 

But that he even questioned her own questioning suggested that he knew more than he originally let off as well. “I am searching for someone.” she said, pausing for a moment after she gave up that information to ponder if she should give up more, “Someone who is related to incidents such as what you described earlier.”

While this was only a partial truth, revealing only that Annastaria was searching for someone related to these, it provoked more questions for Gerdan. “For what reason?” he asked.

“To eliminate him.”

“And what are you, exactly… a mercenary? Hired agent?”

Annastaria almost heistated, but felt like this was a way to conceal herself and said, “Yes… I was hired to find a man who does things like you described.”

“Did you suspect that he would be here? It was many years ago that this happened.” 

Gerdan seemed to know how to ask all the right questions that kept Annastaria on her toes. She had to think quickly again; and again, a half-truth was her best way out. “No.” she replied, “I am passing through to where my target was last known. But I nevertheless stay aware of black magic activities wherever I go for the possibility of finding him there.”

“I see…” Gerdan said, seemingly giving way to his guard of Annastaria’s questioning, but she couldn’t tell for sure. “None that I know of.” he plainly stated, seemingly without a second thought, and to her surprise. He was almost defensive a moment ago, and inquired of her own questions. Even if she answered his questions any other way, what difference would it have made if he didn’t know anything? 

Him needing to know why she was interested kept her skeptical of what he may know more of. But she didn’t want to push him further, and came up with a different idea then. 

“Come on,” Gerdan said with a smile, “let’s go downstairs and just enjoy the rest of the evening. It’ll help you be seen in more friendly terms with the people here if they see you and I comfortable with each other.” Annastaria hesitated still, but decided, for some reason, to go.

Gerdan walked with her downstairs, and they entered the main floor once more, to the same smell and chaos, where Gerdan received a warm welcome from the patrons. “So I suppose the elf girl is okay?” one of them asked him; they all had some form of Oenian, northern-Enussian accent. 

“She’s fine, Prayton.” Gerdan answered, “She’s a traveler passing through, is all.” 

The men trusted Gerdan. He must have been a very respected deputy in this place. When he said Annastaria was not a threat, they practically took it as dogma, and the cold faces turned warm towards her. A few gathered around the young elvish girl, like she was an exotic animal from a distant land, making her feel intensely uncomfortable. 

“So are you from the woodlands out east?” one of the men asked. 

“Do you elves have that abnormal hearing and seeing I always hear about?” another asked, “And what about the elvish language? I’ve always heard the young elvish girls can sing heavenly songs in elvish.”

Gerdan stepped in quickly, smiling but also knowing that the men were getting too friendly. “Come on, boys,” he said, “leave the young girl alone. She’s not that friendly. Especially towards you Bennkr!” A chuckle rang out from the crowd. Oden watched from the bar, smiling as he did. Somehow Annastaria made eye-contact and rolled her eyes with a smile of her own, with her cheeks warming. Oden could tell she was trying to be annoyed, but couldn’t seem to get there. 

“Of course, Gerdan!” one of the men said aloud, “We love to have the young lass here! We’re just honestly curious, that’s all!”

“I’m sure you are. But let’s give her some breathing room, aye? She’s come a long way.”

“Well come and sit, young lass,” one patron said, scooting over for Annastaria to have room at his table, “and tell us of your long journey. We always like to hear the stories of those traveling through. Many of us are travelers ourselves.” 

Instinctively, Annastaria pulled away, and to politely reject the offer, “Oh, no–I cannot.” she said, “I would not know even where to begin, and it cannot be so interesting.”

“Oh bother!” said one of the men at the table, “My first encounter with elves in these parts and I’m already seeing that annoying modesty I hear too much about! Nonsense, girl–sit!” The others cheered on, pressuring her, almost making her sit by their voices alone. As she stood stiff in hesitation, one of the ladies there came behind her, gently but assertively placing her hands on Annastaria’s shoulders, cheerfully taking her to the table to sit. 

Though startled, Annastaria was too overwhelmed with the volume of activity to respond, and the next thing she knew, she was plotted at the table in the midst of what seemed to her giants of men. Gerdan disappeared into the crowd to go on helping the others while Oden came to the table, and just in time. Annastaria had never been so relieved to see Oden in her life, and quickly scooted over to let him sit to her left. The woman who pushed her to sit sat on her immediate right flank. 

“So what’s your name, dear?” the woman asked, “My goodness, you have such lovely hair!”

Annastaria blushed and hesitated, but not just because she was being bombarded with questions and attention like never before, but because she was finding herself conflicted with lying repeatedly to people who, although seemed to have no sense of respect towards personal space, were nevertheless the kindest she had ever met. 

“My name is… Erene.” she said, forcing herself to lie for the sake of her mission. 

“A lovely name!” one of them said. It seemed like no matter what she said, it was met with praise. 

“Unlike your name, Salmon!” one of them poked at another, “You ugly fish!” 

Laughter burst out immediately, bombarding Annastaria’s sensitive elvish ears, but she smiled nonetheless. 

The one being insulted came back, “Bah! I’m named after the king of the salmon of the Ouyok lake, I’ll have you know! And you couldn’t catch more than a little tadpole with those wee stick arms of yours, Radic!” they all laughed again in the other way. 

Annastaria laughed as well, but the sheer volume of the others drowned out hers, which was the only thing that was unfortunate for Oden. He at least saw her laugh like he hadn’t before. He could almost swear that every time she smiled, her face lit up like sunlight to a beautiful valley, and whoever said it was right, her hair was beautiful when allowed to rest softly around her head and neck, like tender waves greeting a beautiful seashore.

The table quieted down somewhat, and one of them asked Annastaria directly, “So, Erene, where are you from? Are you part of any of the clans by chance? You certainly have an accent to match.”

“She can’t be part of the elvish clans, you twit!” one of the others rebuked, “If she were, the blasted Enussian Union would be crashing this place to the ground to arrest her. Don’t you know about the wars and violence in the past? Those damned snakey wood elves are not welcome here.” 

Despite all the warning signs, everyone seemed to ignore the possible connections she might have to elvish clans, including the fact that they caught her accent as having clear elvish ties. But this of course, was not too unusual. Many elvish communities not connected to the clans resided even in Oenkev. But while they had an accent seasoned with elvish, it was mixed with central Enussian accents as well. This was the accent Annastaria trained herself to have, to mask her own. 

“I come from a small community from the eastern part of Oenkev, south of Levaan.” she answered.

“Huh,” one patron said as he pondered, “I wasn’t aware of any communities that way.” 

Annastaria froze, her heart racing in her chest. But another of the men seemed to save her by insulting the one who just spoke, “You’ve never even been to Levaan you goof. Of course there are communities there, where do you think the refugees go who can’t afford to move any farther west? Or north? The EU gave them a nice piece of land there in the hills.” Annastaria’s heart rested, and her stiffened body sigh.

Another question came at that point, “So where’re ya headed, Erene?” 

Annastaria felt like she ought to have expected that question, and she had her standard answer that was so rehearsed and easy to utter at this point. “I am seeking lost family in the west.” she said.

“Oh dear,” said the woman at her side, “that must be awful! How did you lose them?”

“It is a long story…” Annastaria said, as her eyes drifted away. The lying was eating at her. She couldn’t take any more innocent questions that forced her to lie to such friendly people. Still, some part of her questioned what was a lie and what wasn’t. Since she was a girl, in the care of the Sarke elves, she wanted to know her real parents.

“Gentlemen!” a voice cried out over all other voices in the room, drawing everyone’s attention upon a man standing on a bar stool, “It’s time for some songs!” Everyone immediately erupted into shouts, “Hooray!”, cheers and joy. It seemed like the later it got, the louder they became. That was good news to Annastaria in a strange way. The focus was taken off of her as everyone at the table was instantly drawn to the singing of songs. She and Oden looked at each other, and he could tell she was ready to step aside. He gave a nudge of his head, indicating to her an opportunity to leave the main floor, and she didn’t argue for a moment.

The two of them walked back upstairs and outside on a balcony rise once more. The singing went on downstairs, while the outside air was quiet. It was a good opportunity to talk. At least for Oden it was. Annastaria hoped for something else at this point. 

“I think it is time I go to bed.” she said. 

Oden smiled at her comment. “Still trying to bore away some fun, are we?” he joked.

She smiled back, looking away. Oden could get used to this side of her. “It has been a long day.” she replied.

“But you were enjoying yourself. Admit it, I saw you in there. Surely not all of you elves are so up-tight. You’re not one of those zealots, are you?” He uttered the last question with a teasing smile.

Annastaria forced a smile, though her heart skipped a beat. It only seemed to drive a knife deeper in her heart about her lie. Rolek’s words earlier began to eat at her; she demanded Oden be honest with her, and she was being the most treacherous of all, the most hypocritical of all. The elven scriptures spoke deep rebuke to hypocrites; but her elders taught her and her pupils that the greatest hypocrites were the aenmen, not the elves, and the high elves were apostate traitors. 

Yet this did not remove from her mind what even Gerdan told her earlier, that she looked down upon them. Did her own people do the same? Were the wood elves excused from hypocrisy simply because they were the preservers of the ancient covenant made with Artheros and the gods? Many of the prophets seemed to disagree.

A question formed in her mind, and she feared to ask it, unwilling and indeed without the strength to tell him the truth. “What would you do…” she began, “if I were a part of the zealots? What would you think?”

Oden paused. He hadn’t expected the question. “Not sure,” he said, “I never really thought about it. I’ve never actually seen any of the zealots, as they’re called… All I’ve heard about them are second-hand, which are not really all good… But I’d have to wait and see for myself, really.”

“You are not at all disturbed by these reports?”

Oden shrugged, “I mean, yeah, kind of… But can I really just judge an entire people that way? Doesn’t that kind of defeat the racism battle? I’ve got lots of friends who are kamorjien, and I‘ve even met other elves. And of course I got lots more aenman friends. Every single one of them have let me down, and ‘ve also been there for me. We don’t deal with each other based on whether we have fur on our faces, or larger ears than the other. I’ve always believed that–not based on what people told me–but my own experience. It would kind of betray that philosophy if I suddenly started judging an entire group by its physical appearance now, wouldn’t it?”

Annastaria asked the question to test what he would respond with if she were to be honest with him, and she couldn’t believe what she heard him say. It made perfect sense. And now the weight of conviction grew heavier about her own people. She couldn’t reconcile what she was told the aenmen were like with what she was seeing this very evening. They were good people, and Oden was the best, most honest thief she ever met. She didn’t like these thoughts and this uncomfortable moment. “You are a strange man.” she said.

As if the first question she asked was not surprising enough, Oden felt as though he had just been ambushed with a slap. “What do you mean by that?” he said with a smile.

She tried to formulate words to convey what she was thinking, but it was harder than she thought. “I mean,” she began, “I did not expect you to be… how you are.”

Oden concealed a desire to laugh, and only an eyebrow went up with his amused smile. “I see…” he began, “Well, I am actually me, and if I were anyone else, I would be them and not me. Pretty amazing, isn’t it?”

Annastaria chuckled. Now Oden heard her laugh without it being drowned out by others, and it was pleasant in the cold night. But he wanted to tell her something, sensing the clear confusion she was dealing with. “You know what I think the problem is?” He began, drawing her eyes to him, “I think that maybe, just maybe, you like this night and you don’t know why… I know elves tend to think black and white, and that’s what I think the problem is… No disrespect of course. People aren’t constructs, Erene. They’re not simply black and white. People are strange, people are complicated. I think that’s the big problem with society today, honestly. We want to put everyone in boxes. That’s what school taught me to do. But when I got out in the real world, it just wasn’t true, and you want to know the main reason why?” He waited to see if she would inquire. But she listened quietly. He put his hand on his chest, “Me… I’m the reason why. I thought that I had the smarts and the good will to make a good life for myself. But when I was put to the test, I proved I didn’t know myself like I thought I did. I couldn’t so easily fit into one box of virtues.”

Annastaria had never considered this kind of thinking before and now her mind raced with it. Bastillina was a thief, but she wasn’t utterly evil. She cared for people, especially Annastaria, and the reason she stole was not because she liked it; it was the only way to survive. Oden was a thief as well, but he cared for her, and Bastillina. Rolek was a man who hunted other humans to make money for himself, but he was also a man who honored a deal, who was merciful, kept Annastaria out of trouble in this place, funny even, and he apparently cares about the threat of dark magic. Were people really so simple, as she was raised to believe they were? 

She began to think about her own elders. Gennades was brilliant, a man of deep literature and thinking, a respected champion of the law, and yet, he was one of the most arrogant men she ever knew. His son, Earnos was a strong, brave and encouraging warrior, but was prideful, dismissive and even as egotistical as his father at times. Though he did not relish in great wisdom like Gennades, he saw his combat capabilities as far greater than anyone else in the clan.

“Thank you, Oden.” Annastaria said, “for everything you have done, especially for Bella. I shall not have you go unrewarded.”

Oden’s smile grew again, “You don’t have to repay me. What was I supposed to do?”

Annastaria couldn’t take the kindness anymore, but she didn’t know what to say. Only one thing was clear for her. “We can talk more in the morning.” she said, “But I truly must go to sleep.”

Oden agreed, and walked her to her room, but he never went farther than the door, and didn’t dare try to go farther. This girl was different than the others. She didn’t deserve to be treated like them. He said goodnight to her, and she closed the door. 

Alone at last for the evening, Annastaria’s tired eyes grew weightier. So much to think about, but few hours to sleep. She went to the bed and sat on it, preparing herself to fall on the pillow. She wanted to sleep, but the strange, yet welcoming sense of bliss she had this evening still permeated in her mind, encouraging her to ponder further on it.

Before she could settle in to think, a pair of knocks came to the door. She paused, and wondered if Oden may have come back, and the thought scared her. But she stood up and walked to the door, opening it slightly to see who it was. 

“Gerdan?” she said, opening the door more to see him.

“Can we talk?” he asked.

Annastaria only wanted to go to bed, but there was an urgency she sensed in his voice that she couldn’t ignore. “I suppose so.” she said with a stutter and hesitation, “Should we go for a walk?”

“If it’s not too much trouble, can we talk here? I apologize for this, but it’s important.”

“I truly must be going to bed.” she said, about to close her door.

“You know Istvan, don’t you?” he said, causing her to stop and open the door again.

Annastaria froze, and her eyes narrowed. She didn’t know if she should say yes or no, but something pushed her to tell him, “Yes… How do you know him?”

“I can’t say more unless you let me in. I know it’s strange, but this is something I can’t risk just anyone hearing.”

Again, Annastaria hesitated. She wasn’t sure if she cared enough about Gerdan knowing Istvan, but given the strangeness surrounding this place, something compelled her to hear him out. She let him in the room, and closed the door behind him. He walked to the window and looked outside, as if searching for someone, or something.

“How do you know Istvan?” she asked.

He turned to her, “I found Istvan a few years ago. He and I are good friends.”

“How do you know that I know him?”

“A book you have with you.”

Annastaria knew what he was talking about. “I thought no one went through my things.”

“And no one did. Your book fell out as we carried your things. I almost stopped in my tracks when I saw it. But I know only one man in Oenkev has a book like that, and with the markings it had. He and I’ve had a correspondence, but haven’t talked in some time.”

“What is your interest in such things?”

Gerdan paused for a moment at the question that was difficult to even begin answering. “Did you take the book from him?” he asked.

“No. He gave it to me.”

“Then he trusts you with it. I’m sure you can read what’s inside. If you know Nagush, you know basic elvish… I’m not going to ask you where you’re from, elf, or even if Erene is your real name. You’ve got your reasons, and truth be told, I don’t mind.”

“You still have not answered my first question.” Annastaria said, becoming more suspicious of Gerdan.

“My point is, you know these things, and you took an interest in the magic activities we spoke of earlier, especially your friend Rolek. I don’t know who he is, though, and so I don’t trust him.”

“You do not know me much, either.”

“But Istvan gave you that book. That’s enough for me. I think I know what it is you seek, elf. I think you are from farther east than the others believe. Even the common elves in Enussia don’t speak the ancient language of the Nagush dark elves, the language of curses. I know what haunts the elves in the east… I know of him.”

Annastaria’s head tilted and she never was more tempted to expose her true intentions for the sake of information than now. But she wasn’t ready to give it up just yet. “I have a question for you.” she said, “Why did you not tell me these things earlier?”

Gerdan smiled, as if caught in a moment of embarrassment. “I don’t know, really.” he answered, “I suppose I didn’t actually expect anyone to ever come through here like you. I’m used to telling people the same thing about the stories in these forests. I actually froze for a moment when you inquired, and resorted to downplay it as I always do.”

Annastaria paused and thought. It was a simplistic answer, but it attempted nothing that bent logic. He seemed as straightforward as before. “I am from farther east,” she said quietly, and reluctantly. She felt as though she was quickly struck with a lash for it.

“Then your secret is safe with me.” he said.

Another aenman who knew about her, and another who wouldn’t tell. What was it with these people? She remembered what Innadur told her: the aenmen always have angles. Rolek hoped to use his knowledge of her against her, as did Ryker. But only Gerdan and Istvan didn’t attempt one. “Why?” she asked.

He shrugged, “As I said, Istvan trusts you, and so do I.”

Annastaria didn’t know where she wanted to direct her next question; either at him and his relationship with Istvan, or at the ‘him’ she was intensely interested in. She didn’t have all night, and went with one, “What do you know about him?” Gerdan’s response would tell her if he really knew who she was referring to or not. Istvan did, why wouldn’t he?

“I’ll start by telling you what I don’t know. What I don’t know is what happened here ten years ago, with the supposed necromancy. I don’t know if there is actually a graveyard at the bottom of Galssan Lake, and I don’t know if he was actually here. But I know that he is real.”

“How?” Annastaria asked, finding herself struggling to believe him, though there was no sign of deceit in his voice. He spoke as a man haunted by a specter. 

It seemed as if Gerdan took a long pause again before he said what came next, which Annastaria never thought she would hear, “Because I saw him.”

She felt like she had been struck across the face, spun around and left to rediscover north from south, and up from down. Could it be possible? No one has dared to even make such statements as this. “How can you be certain it was him?” she asked, “Not even we know what he looks like. We do not even know if he is actually a man at all.”

“I believe that he is. I became interested in him as a boy; that’s when I first saw him over ten years ago. He killed a fiend outside Anerrece, southwest of here in Febia, back when we were still recovering from the Uprising that engulfed Febia along with Berchazan. From the moment I looked into his eyes, I knew it was him; it was the one from the stories I heard since I was just a boy. I didn’t believe they were real until I was staring into the eyes. The ones they say were eyes that seemed to pierce through your very soul. They were eyes like fire.”

Annastaria wasn’t sure what to think of any of this. How far did the credibility of this man even go? But he knew Istvan, and that had to mean something. “Is he even a man?” Annastaria asked.

“As ordinary a man as any other you see. But he’s much more. What more, I don’t know… but this man had a stare unlike anything I had ever seen, and he is a master of a power that I have never witnessed before. Even now, with what I know compared to back then, he displayed powers that no black magic had any leverage over. The darkness fears him.”

“But he has been a blight on our people for at least a decade now. We can trace goblin attacks to him. Why would he do such a thing?”

“I have no idea. I don’t know what drives him. He’s done much good, and they say he’s done much evil… I guess that’s why they call him the Black Priest.”

“And you believe it is possible that he came to these lands during the time that he saved you and your home?”

“I do. Not more than two months after the incident with the fiend in Anerrece, I heard the stories of what happened here in Mennix. A great terror was banished from these woods. Many believed it was the work of your average monster hunter, or just rumors that it was scared off. I am not sure what is true, but if you are looking for this man, I believe he was here, and I can show you why.”

“How so?”

“We’re in for rain tomorrow, which means you and your friends will likely be stuck here another day. I can’t recommend you go out in rainy weather and risk it. It will be cold and wet, and you could get sick, forced to stop in the forest for a night, and I can’t in good conscience allow you to take that risk. Tomorrow, you and I can go and see what I mean personally.”

“Is there something in these woods?” Annastaria asked, bluntly, and almost carelessly.

Gerdan sighed, as though he had been tired of that question. “I don’t know.” he replied, “But something has happened recently. You aren’t the only one who’s been hearing voices, and strange sounds in the woods. Five days ago, we detected a massive magic spike in the forest, about eight miles southwest. Since then, some spots began to pop up, seemingly random. They never came close to Mennix, however, but once.”

Annastaria was afraid to ask, but the question burned in her mind. “When?” she asked.

“Tonight, where we found you.”

Annastaria swallowed, as the hair on the back of her neck stiffened. “We rushed to the spot,” Gerdan continued, “and found you… I must say, Erene, I had not been so scared before as when I saw you there. I don’t know what other than God in me that pushed me through the paralyzing fear, to get you here and cared for. The others may not want to tell you just how terrifying it was, but it was. You weren’t foaming at the mouth or becoming violent or anything like that, but your eyes went white, and you were sweating as though in the desert, yet it was cold out.”

Annastaria thought for a moment, remaining silent. She didn’t feel any different, even though it seemed obvious that something took hold of her. It was a horrible thought to even entertain. But it brought her to the vision again, and the words, “Three in the east, two in the west”. This was the last thing she expected this night, and it consumed all her previous thoughts. “Why tell this to me now?” she forced herself to ask.

“Because I want to warn you. If you came here for him, if you came here for whatever happened here the other day, you must be careful. I don’t think this man, whoever he is, is any normal man, nor any normal master. All I know about him, other than what my own eyes saw through the flames of a burning forest, are the stories and legends. I don’t know who sent you on this quest of yours, but I fear you’re ill-prepared for what lies ahead.”

“I am well-equipped, Gerdan. I have been trained in both combat and magical arts. I also have a few tricks unknown even to him.”

“I’m not talking about plain mastery vs mastery, Erene. I’m talking about mind, spirit and knowledge. I’ve no doubt you’re very capable, but even a skilled master is nothing to a skilled thinker.”

Annastaria paused for a moment to think about those words. “What do you mean?” she asked. 

“They say he never appears by accident. He always seems to know where the evil forces are going to show themselves. It’s like he knows their moves before they make them.”

“What are you saying, that he has some kind of… seer’s stone?”

Gerdan chuckled, “Even I’m not gonna go so far as to say that. No, I think it’s more simple and complex than that. I think this man is not just a master of magic and combat, but a master of strategy. You said you’re tracking him?”

“… Yes.” Annastaria said, hesitantly.

“And how do you know you have his trail?”

“I cannot reveal to you that information… But we believe he has appeared in Febia, as well as here.”

“And you’re certain?”

“Just underneath certain. Myself and others have been sent in the greatest secrecy to find him.” 

Gerdan grinned, “See, I find that hard to believe. This man, if ever any trace of him is found, it is not ever so clear. I doubt you have really found him, unless it was deliberate.”

“Are you truly to say that he… intends to be found?”

“I wouldn’t put it past him. I know you guys are hunting him relentlessly. A man like this does not go this long unknown to anyone, and is able to find the latest most catastrophic black magic outbreaks, all while knowing how to keep himself from being found. And especially if he can keep from being detected by you and your wood elf clans. That’s either fifteen years of dumb luck, or he knows what he’s doing. Which do you think it is?”

Annastaria took a moment to think. Gerdan had a point. The Black Priest had remained extraordinarily anonymous and utterly untraceable, essentially a ghost haunting the underworld. So much so, that even amongst her own clans, there was disagreement on whether he even existed, and that if he did, that he was really a corporate body or organization, not a single man. The fact that the intelligence network Annastaria was part of existed at such a high-level of secrecy testified to the fact that the Black Priest must have an unprecedented spy network.

She remembered Istvan’s own cryptic words regarding the parasitic weed that consumed a garden. Everywhere one turned to find shelter, it seemed to have already been infiltrated by the plant. This only further made it apparent that the way her clan detected him seemed far too uncharacteristic, given his reputation. 

Gerdan could see in her silent reflection the conflict in her mind. “See what I mean?” he said, “I really doubt you’ve found him unless he wants to be found.”

Annastaria pushed the doubt out of her mind, refusing to capitulate to his reasoning. “I have a duty, Gerdan.” she said, “And it is to investigate what we have detected with our intelligence network, both here and beyond. I must proceed forth, whether you tell the truth or not.”

“Do what you must… But watch yourself, Erene… something is not right about this.”

He left her alone for the night to sleep, but now she didn’t know if she could. Thunder was heard somewhere outside, which likely meant rain. It would seem she had her prayers answered. She laid her head on her pillow, heavy with thoughts, and especially, the thought and hope that she was careful what she prayed for.

After a horrifying dream consumed Annastaria in the middle of the Rueldof, she awakens in the small town of Mennix, her destination. As she awakes, she meets a mysterious man named Gerdan, who along with his men, helped save her and her friends, bringing them to town for the night, and allowing them to stay for free. There, Gerdan and his people offer their best hospitality, allowing the group to rest for the evening, but Annastaria knows that in spite of its appearance, there is something lurking in the shadows and forests surrounding Mennix, and it perhaps grabbed hold of her…

Annastaria awoke slowly, in darkness, awakened mostly by a noise somewhere nearby. It took a few seconds for her to know that she was even awake, and after that, that she was not where she last remembered herself to be. She gasped as she stood up out of the bed she was in, and took in the dark room. To her right was a window, but no sun to give light. The only light she had was a kerosene lamp, but with an electric, yellow-tinted light in it, dimly illuminating the room; it sat on a wooden chair in the far left corner from where she lay. To her left was a door that was closed, but light coming from underneath it, and the faint, muffled sounds of voices and commotion, or a kitchen of some kind.

Memories began to piece themselves together. She was last outside, and there was still a dimming sunlight in the west–and she was with Oden, Rolek and Bastillina, on a hill just as dusk was settling in, looking down to Mennix. She also realized that she was not wearing her body armor, nor her hair tie. Her feet were cold–even her boots were removed. She began to dread the idea that maybe more clothing had been removed that she didn’t even know about. 

But her mind raced to Bastillina’s whereabouts, who seemed nowhere to be found, and then to the strange vision she saw before she fell unconscious. Was it a vision, or was it real? Before she could think any farther, the door came open, letting in the loudness from outside, and blasting away the silence she was in. She turned to the door and saw a man walk in, carrying a metal bucket in his hand. He stopped as soon as he saw her, “Oh.” he said, “You’re awake.”

Annastaria turned out of the bed to square with him, “Who are you?” she demanded.

He set the bucket down, which sounded as thought to have water in it, and put his hands up slightly, “Don’t worry, I’m not going to hurt you.” He then placed a hand on his chest, “My name is Gerdan.” 

Annastaria noticed his Oenian accent; he must have been a local. But she was not convinced to let her guard down by his introduction; she looked at the bucket then. “What is that for?” she asked further.

“The bucket? It’s just cold water, nothing more, nothing less, and a rag. You were burning up while you were sleeping.” There was irony in his statement that Annastaria recalled in the dream she had as her eyes drifted away to the lamp in the far left corner to ponder. He had no idea just how much she was burning up in the vision. “May I come in?” he asked. Annastaria looked at him again, and he wasn’t sure if it was a good look or a bad one. “I just want to place this bucket in the room for you.” he continued, “I was gonna check on your fever, as I have been, but if you’re awake, I’m sure you can do that yourself.”

“I am fine.” she quickly corrected, “Only… I am just not completely clear in my mind, is all.”

“That’s good. I mean, not good that you’re a little dizzy, but that’s normal. You were quite out of it for a while back there.”

Annastaria began to realize that at least up to the point that she blacked out, it was all real. She just didn’t know what was happening before that. “Where am I?” she asked, “And where are my things? And where is the little girl that was with me?”

Gerdan pointed to a chair next to the one with the lamp on it, “You’re in Mennix. Your shoes, backpack and body armor are over there for you. And your friends, including the girl, are all here. The girl, however, is sleeping; she’s very tired. If I may say, she’s tired from constantly watching over you. I finally convinced her to go to bed, and wait in the morning for you. She’s in the room just next to this one. The other two gentlemen you came with are downstairs. You may want to go down there and let them know you’re okay.” 

Annastaria paused, absorbing the information given by this man. Once he finished, he took his leave, allowing Annastaria to gather her thoughts.

Among all the unsettling thoughts, she had the sinking thought that someone, likely Rolek, went through her backpack and took the artifact, or that even Oden did, or that they went through it at all. She jumped from the bed and to her things, scrambling through it, finding everything, including the artifact in its place, still within her backpack. 

But as her heart and mind began to cool, she realized she was searching her backpack with two bare arms. She saw the enchantments on her right arm, and her right hand. Someone removed her sleeve and glove. Gerdan didn’t appear alarmed by it, and surely he saw her bare right arm. What about the others? There was only one way to find out, and that meant she would have to endure the unyielding commotion outside the room.

She put her boots on, and opened the door, being immediately rushed by the loudness of the men somewhere below her, and the light coming from the main floor. To the left and right were more rooms, and just a few feet ahead of her was a balcony railing made entirely of smoothened wood. She looked over the railing to a large inn floor below that was as full as an inn restaurant floor could be. 

Opposite to her, on the second floor, were more rooms. On the inn floor, to Annastaria’s left was the main entrance, which was two wooden doors. To her right, opposite the door, was a U-shaped bar counter, and an impressive rack of alcoholic beverages behind it. Behind that wall was likely the kitchen. On the wall opposite Annastaria, on the inn floor, was a large fireplace that gave considerable light to the whole room, and to the left of it, a small stadium where a kamorjien violinist played music that matched the energy of the people.

Most of the lighting came from the large chandelier hanging from the ceiling. The roof had a pointed arch down the center from the door to the back, and the walls were decorated with Oenian shields and war artifacts. It had an old-world theme to it, which strangely dazzled Annastaria. The commotion on the inn floor was so chaotic, that there were not even tables organized properly. It appeared as though the tables were moved around to the liking of the patrons, who themselves, though mostly men from the backwood parts of Oenkev, did not appear to be unfriendly. There were some kamorjien among the crowds, and of course dwarves, but most were aenmen–and there were also many women, laughing and joking with the men as well.

It was like an entire city crammed into a small building. Oden and Rolek were supposed to be among this crowd, but she had a hard time even focusing on finding them. She took a few careful looks around the bar and caught Oden with her wandering eye, sitting and talking casually with some men she did not recognize. Now for finding Rolek. A large burst of laughter came from somewhere to the left, towards the door, drawing Annastaria’s eyes to it, and there, in a group of gathered tables filled with patrons, she spotted Rolek in their midst, laughing and playing a card game with them. He was fitting right in with this crowd. Somehow, Annastaria couldn’t help but smile at it. But she found her two persons of interest; it was time to go down and talk to them.

She walked to the left, where there was a staircase she saw people coming up and down from, and went towards them to walk down, and passed one or two people, most of which stared at her more than someone ought to. It made her stiff, but she pressed on, as none of them did anything but stare in silence. She came to the floor, and it seemed as though the obscenity got even worse. She could smell the alcohol, and some other not-very-pleasant smells. She did her best to move past patrons sitting and moving, as well as waiters and waitresses carrying food, drinks, trays both full and empty, and she tried her best not to touch any of them until she managed to weave her way to Rolek, who spotted her just a few feet before she got to him.

He was in the middle of joking laughter as he saw her, and once he did, he threw his arms up and said aloud with a cigar in his mouth, “Ah! There she is! The elf-lady of the hour!” The others looked as Rolek deliberately made her the center of attention, which she was hoping to avoid entirely. Their laughter seemed to subside as an uncomfortable Annastaria stood next to Rolek with eyes on her. Rolek continued his loudness, however, “You guys think you’re a bunch of boozing shiners, you oughta get a load of this chick! I told her we were almost at Mennix, just one more hour and she couldn’t wait to start boozing.” He started to laugh, and Annastaria began to panic, “She didn’t even make it to town! Ask Gerdan and his boys, hahaha! We had to carry her drunk ass all the way in!” The others burst out in laughter, and some raised their mugs to Annastaria. “I tell you what!” Rolek said over their laughter, “You ain’t gonna meet another elf like this!”

The warmth that flustered in Annastaria’s cheeks was so intense, it sent waves of the same warmth through her entire body. She wanted to correct the record, but there was no way she could even yell louder than they all laughed. She tugged at Rolek’s shirt and said in his ear, “Can we please talk? Now?”

Rolek set his cigar down, and excused himself. Annastaria took him, as well as her crippled pride to the side, where it was somewhat quieter. “What in Eldreon and heaven are you doing?” she scolded.

“I’m doing you a favor, that’s what.” Rolek said, “Nice to see you up, by the way–and also, by the way,” he smirked as he gave her a thumbs up, “I dig the hair loose. You should let it fly more often.”

Annastaria looked at her hair for a moment, and realized she forgot to tie it back up; it was messy, but still wavy and resting around her neck. She pointed at him, “You are telling these fools that I am a drunken harlot? Why would you say such a thing?”

“First, I didn’t call you a harlot. Second, because people around here aren’t fond of elves. Apparently, this is an area that doesn’t care much for them or masters.”

“Why?”

“Don’t know,” Rolek answered, his tone more serious now, “but I’d like to find out. Either way, if they know you’re an outsider, like I know, that’s not going to bode well for you, and especially me. So, I’m selling you as a partying elf with no affiliations to either the zealots, or the high elves.”

Annastaria tried to lash out at him, but her mind caught the rebuke, and she stuttered. That made some sense, even though it was a lie, and she didn’t like it. Rolek put a hand on her shoulder and continued, “Trust me, pointy-ears, you don’t wanna be standing out in a place like this.”

“And what about you? I hope that you are not actually drinking yourself into oblivion.”

Rolek nearly chuckled, “Pfft! Relax, I’m fine. If you didn’t notice, all I had was one beer at my seat. I can take care of myself, and I know when I’m having too much. I’ve got a game to get back to, if we’re done here.”

“We are not done. What happened on the hill earlier?”

“Ask Oden, he’s probably worried sick about you. And don’t worry, the brat’s sleeping right now. Probably good for her, instead of being down here, anyways. Now, if you’ll excuse me.” He walked off, but Annastaria still had a nagging question on her mind.

“Wait!” she said, stopping him. He turned and waited as she hesitated. “The artifact is still in my pack. I know you had a chance to take it… Why did you not?” she asked.

Rolek looked down, and seemed as though he was stumped for a moment. “We still got a duel to do, remember?” he said, smirking at her.

“And what about this deal about me giving up the artifact? You know I am still not going to do that.”

Again, Rolek paused, and Annastaria’s curiosity was aroused. “We’ll see.” he said, “Go check on wonder boy.” and he walked back to his table, leaving Annastaria in a pool of questions. The only thing she knew she had to do before she went to talk to Oden, was that she needed to tie her hair up, which she couldn’t do, given she had nothing on her to tie it with. So be it, she made her approach to Oden.

When she came to him, he knew she was coming not out of some heightened awareness level he did not have, but merely by the fact that the bartender saw her and pointed her out. He turned around and was surprised to see her coming up to him, but more glad than anything. 

“Erene!” he said, stepping off his seat and going for a hug. Before she could even rebuke him, he wrapped his arms around her. Yet somehow, she at the same time felt like she was sort of okay with it. She gave a small hug back to him.

“I was so worried about you.” he said as they let go, “What the hell happened up there?” 

Annastaria didn’t answer him immediately. “I was going to ask this of you…” she said, “So what happened on that cliff was real?”

“Yeah. We were looking at this place and you suddenly were having some kind of panic attack.”

“Is that when I collapsed?”

“Not right away. Rolek, Bella and I were calling and trying to get your attention, but it’s like you weren’t even there. Finally you started screaming, and that’s when Gerdan and his men showed up.”

“Gerdan?” Annastaria asked. The man who brought her the bucket of water in her room a few minutes ago?

“Yeah. He was out there with his group. Turns out they were the ones you were hearing the whole time, and the ones tracking us. They’re hunters and deputies here.” That made sense, as Annastaria pondered on it for a moment, and explained why Gerdan and these countrymen were interested in finding the three of them. But it didn’t explain everything just yet, such as why they were looking for them, and how they tracked them. 

Oden continued, “Rolek nearly blasted the dudes away; thank God he didn’t. You were freaking out on us, your eyes rolled back, and your breathing was out of control. We had to take Gerdan at his word that he could get us to safety.” Oden looked around, and as if to try to keep his next words between himself and her, “Erene… he was talking kind of funny. Not in the sense that he was bad, he’s a great guy, and he’s letting us stay here free… but he was very adamant on us not being out there at night.”

“He is not charging us for being here tonight?”

“No. He and his folks who run this place all agreed that we could stay the night–on the house. But I don’t think it was out of sheer courtesy.”

“What do you mean?”

“Like I said, he insisted. He wasn’t specific, but he almost didn’t give us a choice except to come with him to town to stay the night. Rolek and I weren’t in a position to argue. I thought you were dying right in front of us, and Gerdan was the only one who seemed to know what to do, so we brought you here.”

“And my things?”

“I carried your things into town for you. Don’t worry, I didn’t go through them, and no one insisted on going through them.” 

Annastaria was stunned. For a moment she didn’t believe it. Only one thing seemed to suffice. “Uhhmm… Thank you.” she said, stuttering at first

“Of course. It’s one thing to go through a guy’s stuff, it’s another to go through a lady’s.” Annastaria smiled, almost cynically. Oden read her face and responded with his own smile, “Hey, look, maybe where you come from, men don’t treat the ladies like that, but here, we do.” 

Annastaria didn’t want to acknowledge Oden’s charity beyond that. It felt too uncomfortable. She shouldn’t be getting this close. But in spite of all of this, and so far good news, there was a particularly nagging question eating away at her. “So…” she said slowly, and nervously, trying to formulate her words properly, “No one had to…” she began to gesture, “remove anything from me, other than my shoes and hair tie, did they?” She dreaded the question, and even more the answer that she no less needed.

Oden could see the concern in her face, and he nearly laughed. “Have no fear, Erene.” he said, “No removal of clothing was necessary except your body armor. You were burning up and they were trying to keep you cool. Gerdan checked on you every so often with cold water to keep your fever down, and Bella didn’t want to leave you. She eventually agreed to go get some sleep; poor kid was exhausted. But other than that, you were left alone.” 

Once again, Annastaria had only one thing to say. “Thank you… I do not know what else to say.” 

“Don’t thank just me.” Oden said, “Gerdan and his guys did most of the work. I just held your things and looked like a lost boy most of the time.” 

Annastaria gave a small giggle, and Oden reacted with a chuckle himself. It was obvious who was the next person to talk to at this point, which was Gerdan, who just happened to appear from behind the bar to help customers. He and Annastaria made eye contact, and she could see him more clearly in the light coming from the chandelier above. He was a charming man, she had to admit, but only in her mind. “So how long have I been asleep?” she asked Oden.

“About three and a half hours.” Gerdan answered, drawing both her and Oden’s attention. He leaned on the counter to talk to them with a welcoming expression. Annastaria looked around and approached him, accompanied by Oden. “You look like you need a drink.” Gerdan joked. She gave a small smirk, but had serious questions on her mind. 

“That is the last thing I need right now.” she answered.

“Of course. Maybe you need answers, first.”

Annastaria looked at him quietly, but affirmatively. He looked at both of them, and his smile faded. “Follow me.” he said.

The two of them did so as Gerdan led them upstairs and to a balcony view where they could see the rest of the main road that went progressively downhill to the rest of the town, which from what Annastaria could see, seemed to be going west. They could still hear the constant socializing downstairs in the main floor, but now with the cool calm of the night sky and crickets in the distance. “If I have been sleeping that long,” said Annastaria, “then it must be very late.” 

Gerdan shrugged casually as he leaned on the wooden railing of the balcony edge and said, “Depends on when you define bedtime. For most of the guys in here, bedtime is still a long way off.”

“Where I am from, bedtime was at least an hour ago.”

“A lot of people around here would like to know where you’re from.”

Annastaria was silent for a few seconds to think about why that was. Maybe that was why people were staring at her. “Why would they want to know where I am from?” she asked. 

Gerdan was humored by the question, as if it was a silly one to ask. “Is it not obvious?” he said, “We don’t get a lot of elves through here for one, and elves always mean magic.”

“Surely there must be more.” said Rolek, who startled them as he appeared from where they came from, “Don’t think you guys can have a little meeting about what the hell happened a few hours ago without me… Oenkev is no stranger to magic in the world. Why is a little town south of Cymroyl different?”

Gerdan looked at each of them, as if to hesitate, or feel the pressure of Rolek’s probing. Finally he spoke, “Because magic has, for a good while now, been a cause for great fear and unease in these parts… Ever since the events that happened in the past decade, magic has been unwelcomed. And especially with the Febian uprisings taking place, the influence of anti-magic ideals is making its way to these parts.”

Annastaria felt as though she sprang fully awake then. Magic? Estranged in this place? Gerdan knew something; he may be her key to understanding the readings her people found in this place. Nevertheless, she calculated in her mind how to get the information out of him, careful not to give anyone any impression about her intentions here.

“What kind of incident happened a decade ago?” Rolek probed further.

Gerdan took a deep breath, as if to be tired of explaining the story. “It involved dark magic here in the forests.” he said, “This part of the countryside was once very popular until we had a necromancy incident.” Annastaria and Oden were almost stunned at such news.

“Seriously?” said Oden, “Can that really happen?”

“Depends on who you ask.” Gerdan answered.

“What’s that mean?” Rolek asked.

“It means that to some people, it was necromancy, and to others, it was just sick human sacrifice in the name of magic. But no one knows for certain.”

“Why would such an incident not be found in the news?”

“Honesty? Because people just wanted to forget about it. No one wanted it to be true, so they just stopped talking about it. But they also stopped coming to these parts. Even the authorities are reluctant to come out here. So, we watch our home ourselves.” Gerdan looked at Annastaria and said, “And that’s why we were following you.”

“You must have some way of tracking us, then.” she answered, “And I believe you may have magic-detecting equipment on you.”

“We do, actually. Earlier this morning we had gotten readings in the east. So, I took a group to check it out. We found little, except a pair of campsites that were fresh. We had begun to pick up magic activity to the north, but as the day ended, we got readings far too close to home, and so we rushed back. That’s when we stumbled upon you.”

“The campsite was us, for sure.” Oden affirmed, “But we didn’t use any magic, except for Erene using some restoration on a wound she had gotten.”

“Where did you do this?” Gerdan asked them both.

“By the fallen statue, where you found our campsite.” answered Annastaria.

“And you are sure that you did not use more magic after that?”

“Yes… Why?”

Gerdan looked at all three of them as a creeping silence rose among them. “If we didn’t use magic anytime after that,” Rolek said, “and you’re picking stuff up in the north, and then right here near town… who the hell did that then?”

Again, Gerdan was silent. It was like he was shut up by a spirit of silence somehow. He hesitated to speak what they all knew was on his mind. “You know something, Gerdan.” Rolek pressed, “Something not right about this place.”

“Does it might have something to do with the necromancy you spoke about?” Annastaria asked.

Gerdan didn’t expect the question, but gave a few seconds to think, looking out to the town below as he did and said, “I consider myself an honest skeptic. We’ve had some weird things go on in the woods here over the past few years, but nothing that makes me think we have a necromancy problem. I’ve only actually lived here for about five years, far later than what allegedly happened. But, I’m open to the possibility. It isn’t like it’s never happened before.” A moment of silence followed Gerdan finishing his statement. He decided it was an opportunity to ask his own question to Annastaria, “So what exactly happened on that cliff?” She looked at him, almost wanting to glare. “I have to ask,” Gerdan said, “it’s part of my job as a deputy here. Plus, people here know you’re an elf, and elves are always magic-capable, and that in these parts doesn’t bode well with the locals. If you want to clear your name, be straight with me and I’ll make sure everyone else knows.”

Annastaria looked to Oden for a second, to see what his body language was saying. It seemed like he himself was waiting to see what she would do. Would she be up front? Oden certainly wanted to know what happened. She looked back at Gerdan and began, 

“I cannot explain it fully. Everything was going well until… until I heard a loud, piercing sound. It was as if a needle in the form of sound was being pressed into my ears. It became so intense that I could not hear, nor focus on anything around me. I was becoming lost. It was not like anything I had ever experienced before.” Her eyes drifted off, recalling all that happened, “I cannot tell when I went unconscious or not, only that suddenly I was not where I was. I was before a great city… Then the sky in the west seemed to explode in a great blaze of fire that consumed the whole land… It was like the sun itself had come crashing down into Eldreon and utterly consuming everything. The strangest thing of all was that it was as if this great fire… it was as if it was not simply an explosion, but something that was alive, had a mind to it, and it spoke. It was like it had a malice; not like an ordinary flame that consumed by its own nature. It consumed out of hatred… And it spoke. A great chant of some kind came from it, a chant I began to hear after the strange voices whispered to me.”

“What voices?” Gerdan asked, intensely interested in Annastaria’s story.

“I cannot say for sure. Along with you and your men, I heard a voice whisper to me this morning… It was saying something with… numbers, and direction. If I recall, it was saying… three in east, two in west. It was originally what caught my attention. I heard it in the midst of your movement. It is what I heard just before I was being overwhelmed a few hours ago by… gods know what. But I could not make words, not until the great flame came upon me.”

“What did it say?”

Annastaria gave what seemed to be a long, suspenseful pause before she finally gave up the words, “‘You are mine. I am One.’ It spoke in Nagush, an ancient, elvish language.”

“And you know this language?” Gerdan asked, his eyes narrowing. 

Annastaria felt her heart pulsate, realizing she just gave away information she was not supposed to. She stuttered to try and explain, “A little… I learned some of it as I grew up… I had many books in my childhood.” Gerdan stood silent, but his expression hardly changed. 

“So what do you suppose this voice meant with those words?” he asked.

Annastaria sighed, “I do not know. None of it makes sense, and as far as I can tell… it was but a nightmare.”

“From the way you describe the dream, it doesn’t seem like it was just a nightmare.”

Annastaria went silent. She wanted to downplay it, but she couldn’t find a way to argue against what Gerdan said. He was right, it didn’t seem like a meaningless and irrational dream. The voice she heard in the dream was the one she heard that morning while she was conscious and clearly awake. The only difference was the voice whispered and was so unintelligible the first time. 

Gerdan wasn’t sure what to make of any of this. He had to tell the people something, but he felt like while this helped him understand more about this elvish girl and her friends, it still managed to provoke more questions, questions he wasn’t sure how to approach. There seemed only one simple, cut and dry question to ask. 

“So…” he began, “I guess my next question is, are you a danger to the people here?”

Annastaria almost wanted to sarcastically ask if that was a trick question, but she was not in the mood to behave in that way. “No,” she said, “I am not. My friends and I are merely passing through. We needed to find a place to stay the evening… We promise to leave by morning.” The last line was uttered hesitatingly. She couldn’t leave just yet. There was something here that she knew she needed to find. Her people identified a spike in dark magic in this place somewhere; she heard voices in the woods, and nearly died by the sheer power of a vision that ravaged her mind. If Gerdan was as vigilant as he was giving himself to be, he had to know more.

“That settles it then. You’re free to stay here for the evening.”

“Why are you not charging us to stay?”

“You were in grave need. That’s not something I can exploit for money. And around here, while I’m not a superstitious man, I’m not an ignorant person, either. We don’t like leaving people out here in the dark at night… In the morning, I’ll personally see you all on the right track through the woods. Your friend Oden here says you guys are looking to go west, to Stouarch. I can help get you in the right direction. You’re better off not staying in these woods after night. Trust me.” 

Annastaria trusted him more than he knew. But there was little else for her to say at this point, except, “Thank you, Gerdan… You have been far too gracious to us.”

“You can thank me by enjoying the rest of your evening.” he replied with a half-committed smile, “Go downstairs, have a few drinks, talk to your friends, make new friends. We’re all friends here, and if I tell them you guys are okay, they’ll believe me.” 

Annastaria gave a smirk to Gerdan’s offer, “I greatly appreciate it, Gerdan… But I think I would best have a bath.”

“We can help with that. Talk to Jennice, she will help you get a bath or shower ready.” Gerdan then took his leave, allowing the three of them to talk among each other.

Rolek waited until he was gone, back into the inn and they were alone before he spoke. “So,” he began, quietly, “what do you guys think?”

Oden and Annastaria looked at each other, and had to refresh their minds. “I think he’s a good guy.” Oden replied, “Helped us out when we need it.”

“Obviously. I’m talking about what he was saying to us.” Rolek looked at Annastaria, and she knew that he was the only one who knew who she really was, and she would surely know something. “What about you, Erene?” he asked, “What do you think?” She didn’t answer him. “You didn’t tell us the whispers were in Nagush.” he added.

“I did not say because…” she began, hesitating, “I did not know if they were true or not. I was greatly confused.”

“Well, we all are right now. Something’s not right about this place.”

“Are you some kind of detective now?” Oden asked.

“I’m a guy who likes to know what he’s walking into, and I have a hunch.”

“Like what?”

“I told you guys I came through this region once. I’ve never been to Mennix before, but I did hear about what Gerdan was talking about. Supposedly, as the legends say, spirits came out of what people claim is a graveyard at the bottom of Galssan Lake.”

“That sounds creepy.” Oden said, “And hard to believe.”

“I’m not asking you to believe it–I sure as hell don’t. But whatever’s going on here, it’s enough to bubble up some urban legends. And that guy Gerdan seems like a serious dude. If someone like him and his gang of ‘deputies’ are this paranoid of magic in their area, something has to be going on. Something’s got ‘em spooked, and you guys saw the reluctance to speak in his eyes.” Rolek looked at Annastaria then, “And you heard voices in the woods. How often does that happen?”

She looked at him and almost froze. “It never has.” she answered.

“Well look,” Oden said, “I’m getting creeped out here, and I’d rather us have just one stinking night of relaxation, which we were doing real well with for a while. Let’s end the night on a high note, shall we? We’re gone in the morning anyway, so it’s not our problem.”

Rolek didn’t say anything, and Annastaria was perplexed by his interest in the entire thing. His bullying demeanor seemed almost entirely nonexistent. But she agreed with Oden at this point. All she wanted to do was to forget about this and go to bed. But morning would come, and she had to find a way to learn more before she left.

After escaping Ryker’s grasp, the group rests in the mystical Rueldof Forest, now with an unsettling new ‘friend’ in Rolek, the bounty hunter. Is he a friend, or is he a foe? Annastaria struggles to figure it out as he tries to hold her identity over her. Meanwhile, someone or something in the forest stalks them…

Annastaria didn’t sleep much as the pain from the gunshot returned to twist her side. She got out of her small place to sleep as the sun was coming over the horizon in the east, and listened for the river nearby. Bastillina and Oden were still sleeping, but Rolek was nowhere to be found. Annastaria didn’t know if she should be troubled or relieved. She only knew to check and make sure that the artifact was still in her possession. She looked into her backpack, and found it still there, to her relief. Rolek’s things were also still in the campsite however, which meant he was still around, and intended to stay around.

She would worry about that later; the river called to her, somewhere southwest, to refill her water container, and perhaps provide aid to her gunshot wound. It was the one thing stinging her more than any of the ice shard wounds she had gotten. Quietly she walked, slowly moving downhill, and the sounds of the trickling water grew louder and louder. She came over a steep hill and saw below, some thirty feet away, a decent-sized river moving north. Towards the north, her eye caught a statue that was not standing up right, but on its side, apparently sitting in the river.

She carefully made her way down, trying her best not to disturb the wound. But moving downhill forced her to tighten her core muscles, which stung the wound repeatedly, no matter how hard she tried. She gnashed her teeth and seethed as quietly as she could to get to the river below. She tried to lessen her descent, which made her slower, and thus the whole ordeal more torturous. Halfway down she wondered if it was best to just swallow the pain and fly down the hill. It was one of the hardest descents she ever made, but she got to it, tired, and with her heart throbbing in her chest. 

She found a spot near the statue, and got a better look at it. It was a human warrior, and if it were upright, it would likely stand up to twenty feet high. The shield upon the statue’s left arm blocked much of the natural water flow, creating a small pond.

She refilled her water, and stood up to look at the hillside to the east she came down. There were pieces of concrete scattered about the hill at a certain point, and what seemed to be a man-made section of the hill that was shaped into a platform just utop, supported by large rocks forming a cliffside. The statue must’ve been up there somewhere and fell. 

“Wondering if he’ll suddenly start talking to you?” a voice asked from behind her. She knew it was Rolek.

“No.” she replied, “Only trying to understand how it came to be here, in the river.”

“Why don’t you ask him?” Rolek said with an amused smile on his face as he bent down to wash his face with the water, “Maybe he’ll tell you.”

Annastaria turned to his unwelcome presence. “You are not as clever as you think you are.”

“How do you know how clever I think I am?” he quickly said back, standing up and brushing his damp hands through his short, dark hair. Annastaria didn’t know what to say. She was stumped by his quick, and indeed clever replies. When he saw she couldn’t answer his smile only grew bigger.

“What is funny?” she said.

“You really wanna know?” He waited for a moment, as if he actually expected her to answer. “Alright,” he began, “the truth is you… You’re what’s funny.”

Of all the possible things to come out of his mouth, Annastaria thought this was the least-expected. She almost tilted her head at the silly comment. “I do not see how I am funny. And if I am so funny, why can you not beat me in a fight, and you are so determined to have another one that you would follow me across Eldreon?”

Her comment only provoked a chuckle in him, “That’s not what I mean. I mean you, and your whole…” he gestured, “persona. You think you’re fooling everyone with this gimmick of a simple wandering elf.” Annastaria stood still, unsure of what to think. “You can fool the lover boy over there… but you don’t fool me. You’re a zealot.”

Annastaria froze, but fought the feeling as though she were fighting off a paralyzation spell. “What would make you to consider such a foolish idea?”

Rolek chuckled again as he walked past her and towards the statue and looked at it as he continued, “I had my suspicions when we first fought back in Whitehold. Didn’t want to believe it at first. After all, there’s still plenty of reasons why some elvish girl can do what you could do.” He paused, and Annastaria only waited. She knew he was onto her, but she didn’t want to admit it. Then he turned to her to continue, “But what I saw you do in the Rueldof Forest… No way even a semi-trained, random elvish girl–of your age–can do that stuff.”

“You underestimate us elves… and females.”

“Like I said, I have vast respect for the female–especially the female fighter. But I’ve never seen a single elvish female able to do what you were doing back there unless she had a zealot background. The way you moved, and your awareness level was unprecedented. No one’s ever been able to match me like that… except the zealots.”

Annastaria began to wonder about this man’s history. He had to know something about her people. “And what would you know about the zealots?” she asked.

“I’ve come into contact with them before, way out east. Those bastards are clever, quick, and extremely adaptive–especially, especially–in the forest and woods. And you move and act just like them when you fight.” Annastaria said nothing, and Rolek could tell by her silence that she knew he was right. His smile grew into another chuckle; he seemed excited and pleased with himself. “I knew it!” he said aloud, before clapping his hands together and pointing at her.

“Keep your voice down!” she whispered loudly, instinctively approaching him a few steps before she stopped herself.

“Hot damn!” he continued, “And I bet boy-wonder up the hill over there has no idea, does he? If one of you guys is way out this far west, you can’t be coming this way telling people who you are. Holy damn… Do your elders know about you and him? How the hell are you gonna explain that to them?”

“You know nothing of what you speak!” she slammed, while trying to remain as quiet as she could.

“I know a lot, pointy-ears. Like I said, you fool Oden, but you don’t fool me.”

“What do you want? Did you come all the way down here to disturb my morning of peace–the only peace I am able to find out in these cursed lands–to toute your cleverness?”

“No, actually, I didn’t–although that is one reason.” He stepped towards her, and Annastaria took one step back. He smiled, “Chill out, elf–I ain’t gonna do anything to you… I’ll make you a deal.” Annastaria only became more defensive, and didn’t reply, afraid to even entertain whatever he had in mind. She knew it wouldn’t be good. With a smirk on his confidence-blooming face he continued, “You give me the artifact, and I won’t tell Oden the truth.”

Annastaria’s eyes went wide as the proposition entered her brain. “Elgashthe!” she rebuked, “You may drown yourself in this river!”

“Fine.” he said, putting his hands up in a fake surrender notion, “Then I guess Oden’s going to know more about you than you’d like… You know, it’s really going to be even more messed up when Oden learns the girl he’s tripping over his feet for, who lectured him and punched him in the face for not being honest with her, is herself not being even remotely honest with him.” Annastaria again went still, and her heart raced. “I bet he doesn’t even know your real name, does he?” She glared at Rolek, tilting her head down slightly. Rolek wasn’t intimidated. “You can force Oden and the brat into submission with that stare of yours, but it don’t work on me, pointy-ears. So what’s it gonna be? The artifact, or your cover blown?”

“If you tell Oden and Bella anything–”

“Whoa-whoa-whoa–wait! Bella? The brat?” Rolek’s excitement was energized, “Ho-ly crap! She doesn’t know either? You guys aren’t actually some type of duo, are you?”

“Quiet! By the gods, I will have you killed if you say anything!”

“Sorry, been threatened by your kind before, and they couldn’t kill me. And you? In the shape you’re in? I could beat you right now without a hand of my own… Come on, elf, the other two will be up soon; what’ll it be?”

By now, Annastaria’s threatening face changed and she began to plead, “Stop! You cannot do this!”

“You can make it stop with one little word; it starts with ‘D’ and rhymes with meal.”

“If you know about me and my clan, then you also know that we cannot allow artifacts to fall into corrupt hands.”

“Ah, yes, I remember that loathful self-righteousness that permeates from your kind. You guys think you’re entitled to every special magical artifact in the world. Sorry, pointy-ears, but I’m not interested in the wood elves and their delusional crusade to restore a long-lost elvish kingdom. If you haven’t noticed, the elvish empires fell a long, long time ago, and you people need to learn how to move on–the gods ain’t coming to the rescue. So once again, the artifact, or your cover blown. Let this one go, and let it go the easy way, and I don’t care if you’re here to assassinate the president of Oenkev, I’ll let you go unnoticed.”

Before Annastaria could think further, she heard voices over the hill; faint, but they were conversing with one another. It was Oden and Bastillina. “Erene!” Oden’s voice was heard echoing across the forest.

“What’s it gonna be, Erene?” Rolek mocked.

Annastaria’s attention returned to Rolek, and her contempt for him with it. “I swear to you,” she said, “I will kill you if you–”

“You’ve got till the end of the day to decide.” Rolek interrupted, “The artifact, or your cover.”

Oden and Bastillina emerged from over the eastern hillside at that point, and called her alias name again. “I am down here!” she said back, “And keep your voice down! How often must I tell you this?” She looked back at Rolek to speak personally to him, “I am going to apply some restoration aid to my wound. Would you mind giving me some privacy?”

Rolek smiled again, “Sure thing, elf.” He stepped away and towards the others, telling them to give her some space. Still, Annastaria didn’t feel comfortable doing what she needed to do with them around. She went back behind the statue, where she had to remove her shirt and body armor to apply the restoration she needed, which involved water. 

Her shirt was the only protection from the cold she had, having lost her jacket back in the fight with Jorum. Her shirt getting wet out here in the cooling weather was only going to intensify the cold. Shirt and body armor removed, she began to focus upon the water, taking a portion of it with her water manipulation, and began to focus, mixing it with magicka, and the orb of water began to glow.

“She’ll be fine.” Rolek said to a concerned Oden, “She’s just fixing up her wound is all.”

“We did that last night.” Bastillina said.

“Well, she’s doing something a little more special with restoration magic. It’ll speed up the healing process, as well as help with the pain.”

“Won’t she at least need help bandaging it again?”

Rolek stuttered to answer. The girl had a point. She hastened past him suddenly. For a quick moment, Rolek was about to stop her, but stopped himself. Oden went after, and Rolek threw his arm up and grabbed him. “Whoa! Take it easy, wonder boy.” he snapped.

“Don’t they need help?”

“The brat can go; you’re staying here.”

Rolek and Oden waited, while Bastillina helped Annastaria for the next twenty minutes. Oden took his mind off the frustration he felt of not being able to help Annastaria by making morning breakfast, reheating some of the food from Cymroyl they had last night. Most of it was considered dinner food, but out in a place like this, breakfast was not a luxury. Once Annastaria and Bastillina came from around the statue, the four sat and ate. Rolek ate his own food he had with him, and maintained a certain distance from the other three. Annastaria kept her eye on him, knowing that he could at any moment give her away, while Oden and Bastillina casually and blissfully conversed.

She took a moment to pull the now worn and beaten map out of her bag to review their location, and what to do next. There was no point going to Cymroyl anymore; Mennix was just a few miles away. It was time to head straight there, and she now began to wonder how she was going to investigate it without any of the others knowing. 

It was hard to believe she was this close to her objective. The forest surrounding Mennix seemed so calm and ordinary. The birds sang blissfully; the trees brushed against each other from the cool wind, and the rivers ran with tranquility. But there was supposed to be dark magic activity here–not more than four days ago it was. The only explanation she had was that she herself had never encountered the darkness before, even given what she had experienced with intruders into their lands. But that wasn’t a comforting explanation; all it meant was that she had no real idea what to expect.

The restoration spell Annastaria applied to her abdominal wound began to take effect, and she was able to sit up more freely, and she lightly stretched herself, strangely at peace with Oden and Bastillina’s innocent conversation. Then, her ears caught a sound, like footsteps crunching leaves. It was difficult to hear with Oden and Bastillina, sometimes even laughing; it seemed obscured, and she thought at first all it was was more of the forest sounds. But it had intelligence to it, patterns, and something more. 

Annastaria perked up, but she didn’t want to unnecessarily disturb Oden and Bastillina’s bliss. Rolek noticed that she was onto something, and watched quietly, until she began going back up the hill. “What is it?” he asked quietly. The question caused Oden and Bastillina to go silent and look at Annastaria, who was a few feet northeast of the camp now, looking around.

“I heard something.” she said.

“Like what?” Bastillina asked.

Annastaria didn’t answer for a moment. She wasn’t sure enough yet; she was still trying to figure out where it was coming from. “Footsteps.” she said. But then something else came into her ears that she couldn’t understand. “And…” she said, hesitating, unsure if she should believe it, “and voices… whispers.”

“Do you know where they’re coming from?” Rolek asked.

Again, Annastaria paused, trying to collect an answer for him. She shook her head, “I do not know where the voices are coming from… But the footsteps are northeast… And they grow closer.”

“Are they just one set?” Oden asked as he got up with his bag.

“No.” Annastaria replied, “They are many.”

“How far?” Rolek asked.

“They cannot be more than half a mile away.” The whispers were gone by now.

“Well,” Rolek said as he hastily began packing his things, “we don’t wanna be around here whenever whoever gets here.”

“He is right.” Annastaria said, turning back to them, “We must leave now, and quietly.”

Bastillina panicked, but did as she was told. Oden stomped out the small fire, and grabbed his bag. Rolek took the lead, suggesting getting across the river by the statue. It was risky, but the most effective way. The four of them, one after the other, carefully but as fast as they could, climbed up and went across the statue, and continued on west, into the treeline as cover. Annastaria stopped at one tree to look towards the hills to the east that went down to the river, hoping to catch a glimpse of the men.

“Erene!” Oden whispered loudly, “We gotta go!”

“You go.” she said, not turning her eyes to him, “I will catch up.”

Rolek agreed without hesitation, and had Oden and Bastillina reluctantly follow him. He knew Annastaria was a trained wood elf; she thrived in the shadows of the forest. She waited a few more seconds, still hearing the men, who were talking to each other over the hill. Then, there was movement, off to the right. 

She saw two men emerge, wearing long coats, one carrying a bow, the other a long rifle. They were searching and scanning the area, and spotted the now put-out fire Oden made near the river, signalling the others. Annastaria tried to look carefully to see if she recognized them, but couldn’t. At fifty yards away, they were difficult for her to see. There was nothing left for her to discover, and she turned and disappeared into the trees, catching up to the others. 

“Did you see them?” Oden asked.

“Yes.” she replied, “And I do not recognize them.”

“Intero?”

Annastaria didn’t know much about the customs of aenmen, but she was confident in her conclusion. “I do not think so.” she replied, shaking her head, “They wore long, brown coats. Some carried bows, and others wooden long-rifles. They did not appear to dress in any formal way.” Everyone looked at each other for answers that no one could give. “I do not know who they are or what they are searching for.” Annastaria continued, “But they are clearly looking for someone. They took interest in our campsite.”

“Whoever they are,” Rolek said, “they must know a thing or two about tracking, and they’re tracking us.”

“How can we be sure?” Oden asked.

“I’m not about to find out the hard way. We’re better off moving on.”

Annastaria turned her head again north, hearing something again, and drawing everyone’s attention to her. “What is it?” Oden asked.

“More groups of people.” she said, “North of us.”

“Dammit.” Rolek said, “Whole damn search party out there.”

“I think I hear them.” Bastillina said, “I heard something over there.”

“They are getting close.” Annastaria said.

“That’s because we’re talking and not moving.” Rolek whispered, “Follow me!”

Annastaria hesitated, but followed as they wisped through the trees and brush, Rolek taking the lead, and Annastaria following him, while Oden made sure to keep Bastillina in front of himself. After a few seconds, they saw a large cliffside appear to the west that went as far right and left as they could see. Rolek didn’t stop however, and began to run north along the cliff that stood up to fifty feet high, until he came to what appeared to be a cave entrance, or a tunnel. “Through here.” he said.

The others followed unhesitantly, until Annastaria saw the black tunnel entrance staring at her like the mouth of a monster ready to swallow her, and came to a complete halt. “Wait-wait-wait!” she said, causing the others to stop and turn to her.

“What’s wrong?” said Oden.

Annastaria looked around with an uncertain look on her face before speaking, “I think we should… find another way around.”

“We can’t.” Rolek said, “This entire cliff runs ten miles north and southwest. Those guys ‘ll catch us well before we get around it. The only way out is through.”

“It is dark!” Annastaria snapped, “We could fall and greatly hurt ourselves. I certainly do not need more of that… Plus it is probably wet, and cold, and we could get lost.”

Oden and Bastillina couldn’t understand what they were hearing. Why was Annastaria not unwilling to deal with the common dangers they have been facing this entire time until now? What was it about this tunnel that sent a chill through her? Rolek smiled as if a lightbulb came on. “I don’t believe it.” he said, “Are you… scared?”

“What?” Annastaria replied, “Do not be foolish!” She paused as her moment of resentment faded at the sight of the cave again, “But do you not think it is a little…” she stopped, trying to find the right words.

“A little what?” Rolek said, “Scary?” Annastaria glared at him, which only amused him further.

“You mean…” Bastillina said, hesitating for a moment, “You’re… afraid of the dark?”

“I am not afraid of the dark.” Annastaria said defensively, “I would just prefer not to enter into these horrible caves.”

“Well,” said Rolek, “scared or not, this is our only hope. You’re in no condition to climb, I ain’t carrying you–that’s for damn sure–and going around is going to get us caught; those guys are honing in on us fast. Come on, pointy-ears, we all gotta do stuff we don’t like sooner or later.”

Annastaria sent another glare at Rolek. He was a truly detestable human being.

“We’ll go in together.” Oden said, stepping towards her, “We’ll stick close; Rolek seems to know what he’s doing. We can lock arms if you’d like.”

Annastaria recoiled at the idea, and rolling her eyes, walked past him, “Let us just get this over with.”

Rolek took the lead, and Annastaria insisted on going behind him. But the tunnel drew nearer and nearer, and blacker and blacker until she was swallowed in it, as if she had just been eaten by a beast. Rolek pulled out a flashlight to illuminate the path ahead. “These used to be mines.” he said, “Been abandoned for some time.” His voice echoed in a way that unsettled Annastaria. Immediately her mind aroused the idea that they disturbed some dark creatures that stalk the shadows and any who would dare enter.

It only took less than a minute for there to be no morning light, no trace of its warmth, no birds to sing to her, and instead only pitched black, cold darkness. Her eyes darted to wherever she thought she heard the walls move, but nothing was there. Then again, she couldn’t see anything. Her ears were confused at the vibrating of even the tiniest sounds, and her eyes could see almost nothing, save for the unsettling, jagged walls of the rocks, which seemed to slither to the glistening light from Rolek’s flashlight as they proceeded. Oden began to notice that she was slowly moving towards him; Bastillina had passed her up by now, who didn’t seem any more frightened than Rolek did.

A strange sound of squeaking and pattering erupted from the dark somewhere, and Annastaria let out an embarrassing gasp as she almost fell into Oden’s arms. It was only rats, but it was enough for her that she clung to his arm the rest of the way through the tunnel. Oden couldn’t believe she was clinging to him, but she seemed so consumed with the anxiety that shook her, that she didn’t seem to notice she was unashamedly wrapped around his arm. He smiled, but didn’t fight her insistence, nor tell her what she was doing. He rather enjoyed the moment. 

Progressively they were going up, until they came to an old, wooden ladder. Rolek went first, and opened the hatch that blocked their way out. Annastaria never thought she’d value the sunlight so much, going right after Rolek until she emerged into more forest and woods. She fell to her knees, trying to compose herself, while also trying to keep herself appearing calm. Bastillina came next, and then Oden.

 “See?” Rolek said, “That wasn’t so bad. I think we made good time, too.” He turned to Annastaria, “Hear any more voices, elf? I mean, other than the rats.”

Annastaria glared at him for a moment, but still, she needed another few seconds before she felt safe to even speak. At least his question took her mind off of the cursed tunnel. She looked around, and concentrated on the sounds of the forest. “I…” she began, “I do not hear anything apart from the forest.”

“Sounds good to me.” Rolek replied, scanning the area.

“But we should not think we have so much time; we must press forward.”

“The Spear of Halgarden is about twenty miles west of here.” Rolek said, “I say we make for that, take a break and plan our next move. Keep west, but take the way that goes uphill instead of straight. That’s how you’ll know you’re getting to it.”

“You seem to know these areas well.” Oden said as they continued on.

“Hey, I don’t ask you where you’re from, you don’t ask me where I’m from. But, I’ll just say that this isn’t my first round-about in Oenkev. I came here years ago on a hiking trip.”

“A hiking trip? That’s it?”

“Yeah, that’s it. What? You think guys like me can’t enjoy a little outdoors? One of the reasons I got into this business is because I get to travel all over these massive regions. Hunting’s my favorite thing to do.”

“And so you’re a hiking hunter turned human hunter?”

“I hunt humans, I don’t gut them and sell them in the local food market. But like I said, I don’t ask you for your life story, you don’t ask me about mine.”

Annastaria took the lead, guiding the four of them west, keeping eye of the position of the sun and the northern winds that came from the sea, some one-hundred or so miles to the north, considering all these things to ensure she was going in the right direction. The woods continued, as well as the hilly land for at least another forty minutes, and perhaps an hour, with the company of a few casual conversations between each of them. 

Bastillina did well not to engage Rolek in any conversation, keeping the bias she had against him from Annastaria, who herself kept an eye on Rolek as much as she kept it on the sunlight, knowing that the later the day grew, the less time she had to decide what to do about his ‘offer’ to her. After some time, they were moving uphill. The higher up this hill they went, the more a sense of swelling came over Bastillina, like that of a music piece ready to drop her off the edge of its great climax. This hill was different than the others, and the group was deliberately climbing up it, over some rocky areas, until it finally began to smoothen out. By now, they were above the trees and as they came to the top, the cool wind from the northwest rushed them like a great wave. It was the climax to the masterpiece; Bastillina’s eyes were awakened, trying to capture the whole sight in one look, but failing mightily.

Standing on a jagged cliff edge facing southwest, the view gave way to a whole grand mountain range that stretched from south to north as far as she could see some fifteen miles west. To the south, it gradually hooked to the west, and the farther north the mountains went, the higher they were, and their peaks coated with white. The limit of her view was only the horizons she saw north, south and east, and she could even see the buildings of Cymroyl in the distant northeast and an entire forest between them and the city, surrounding them in every direction. Between the cliff they stood on and the mountains ahead to the west was a valley going down to a large river that began from a large lake to the south, and went north, eventually to open to the Rip that went through Cymroyl, and more forest leading to the mountains in the west.

“Here we are.” Rolek said, taking in the sight, “The Spear of Halgarden… Ah! It never gets old.”

Bastillina had no words. Even Annastaria had to pause at the sight. “We will rest here for lunch.” she said, “And move on.” She pointed down into the valley, “We must carry on, that way; cross the river and into Mennix for the night.”

“Wait, hold on.” Rolek said, walking next to her, “Mennix? What for?”

“To rest the night, of course.”

“Why stop there? We can go farther, and get closer to Stouarch before we call it a night.”

“I am not going to Stouarch.”

Rolek paused, reminded that Annastaria was not who she said she was. He was tempted there to tell the other two that she was a zealot, but remembered his deal with her. “Where exactly are you headed?” he asked.

Annastaria nearly went silent that he dared to ask that question. “I am eventually moving south.” she said.

“Into Febia? Why in the world would you go through there?”

“I am not going through Febia. Forik is where I must go next.”

Rolek couldn’t believe what he was hearing, and he was nearly paralyzed silent. Still, this elf’s strange journey made him more curious about what her tribe was up to. “Forik’s surrounded by mountains.” Rolek said, “There’s almost nothing there. Why?”

“That is not your concern.”

“I’m ready for the mountains.” Bastillina said, leading to a moment of silence from everyone.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about, kid.” Rolek said, “I doubt even pointy-ears here does. Autumn is only weeks away, and as bad as the Foregoth mountains get, the Halgador mountains still get pummeled.”

Annastaria stepped towards him, with the intent of confrontation. “I am going to Farik.” she answered, “Whether you like it or not. You have till the end of the day to decide if you will come with me.”

His words used against him, and he knew what she was doing. But he wouldn’t show weakness in front of her; he only smiled, partly because he knew she was trying to counter his own deal against her, but mostly to conceal his contempt for her stubbornness. The elves permeated with it.

“Well look,” Oden said, sensing the tension between them, “whatever the case, Mennix is just down the valley. Whatever we decide, we aren’t getting farther than that… I think it’s best we head there, find a place to stay, and decide then. And yes, I got the money to get us a hotel. Unlike last time, the Intero won’t be owning any hotels there. As for right now, my feet are killing me, and I’m sure Bella would love to rest and take in the nice view, so let’s take it easy for a few minutes.”

To that they all agreed, even Annastaria. Mostly, she wanted Bastillina to enjoy some solace, which she was clearly getting with the view. The girl sat on a rock, staring at the mountains, feeling the never-ending breeze brush through her hair. It was a front row seat to the greatest orchestra she had ever experienced. The winds never changed, continually blowing in from the north, cool as ever, balancing the heat from the sun which was only some three hours from setting by this point. Oden was right, even if Annastaria was to go to Forik, she would not make it through these forests by the end of the day.

Annastaria went to sit next to Bastillina, while Oden and Rolek bickered over food and sports. “What do you think?” Annastaria asked, half-smiling.

The question excited a smile from Bastillina, whose hair was constantly blown into her face. She shrugged as she scanned them again, trying to catch the entire mountain range in one sight. “It’s just… It’s like they’re not even real.”

Annastaria smiled. “It is okay if you do not know what to say.” she said.

“I wish I did… I’ve never seen mountains so close before. I always saw them in paintings and on the television… but this…” Words escaped her to explain.

The mountains were still a good distance away from them, but for Bastillina’s tender eyes, it gripped her. Annastaria caught a thought as her memory was jogged from something she read once. “There is an old legend,” she began, “that many of the mountains we see are the graves of fallen gods… When a god dies in battle, he falls and his remains give way to the mountains.” Bastillina looked at her, curious as much as she was struggling to believe such a thing. “It is only a legend, though.” Annastaria added.

Bastillina looked back at the mountains, and scanned them for a few more seconds. “How is it possible for a god to die?” she asked.

Annastaria didn’t consider such a question, and didn’t know how to answer it. “I do not know.” she said, looking at the mountains.

“I mean, aren’t they up there? And we’re down here? They must be massive, and powerful… It seems like the only one who could kill a god was another one.”

“That is often what the legends and myths claim. The divine cannot be slain by ordinary mortality.”

“Are they the reason it rains and thunders?”

“I believe they are, yes. But especially the God of gods, Artharos. He sits at the center of the council of the gods, what we call the Circle of Kadros.”

“Can he be killed?”

“No… No one can kill him. He is the center of all the council, and it is by him they have become gods. Some even say that Artharos made the world.”

“Really? That’s… hard to imagine. How can you make something like this?”

“It is difficult for us to know of course. We are like the dirt to him.”

Bastillina heard thunder come from the dark clouds that stood over the far northern mountains, and her attention was drawn to them. Annastaria saw the fear and uncertainty it pressed on her. “I hope he’ll keep those nasty clouds away from us when we get up those mountains.” Bastillina said.

“I pray he will as well.”

“So tell me, Erene,” Rolek said, interrupting their conversation, “you obviously read a lot; I bet you read the elvish scriptures a lot since you know the language: what do you think about the theory about the Phoenix Child and the Emperor Armadon?”

Bastillina looked at Annastaria with the same question on her face now, wondering what any of this was about. Obviously somewhere in their bickering about food, Oden and Rolek’s conversation took a strange turn towards history and prophecy. At least they were talking about a more thoughtful and meaningful topic. 

Annastaria pondered her reply for a moment and then began, “There are many who believe the princess was truly born to the Emperor Armadon, who perished during the Uprising that destroyed his empire. The elves seem to be divided, at least in the high elf world, as we know little of what the wood elves believe. Clearly Armadon had a daughter, who many believed was pure due to her apparent line that Armadon claimed came from the ancient elves of Aunden. And yet, there are still others who believe she could not have been, mainly because she was aenian, and not elvish; the prophecies assume that the child must be of elvish blood.”

“Something tells me you’re of the ladder opinion.” Rolek said with a smile. Annastaria knew what he meant by it, and she knew he was playing games with her.

“What I believe makes little difference.” she answered.

Oden decided to try his chances at the subject, “I’m not all that conversant in the elvish scriptures, but I think the theory is pretty interesting. We do know that Armadon had a daughter, although we don’t know what happened to her.”

“What’s all this about?” Bastillina asked.

“Prophecy, kid.” Rolek answered quickly, “Supposedly, there needs to be what many call ‘The Phoenix Child’ that the elvish scriptures speak of, who comes to end the blight of Corruption on Eldreon. Lots of people, especially in the scholarly world, argue she already came in the Uprising.”

“When did that happen?”

“About fifteen years ago. If Armadon’s daughter was about two years old at the time of the Uprising, that would mean if she were alive today, she’d be seventeen years old. If you believe that’s how old she was, that is.”

“You think she died in the Uprising?” Oden asked.

Rolek shrugged, “No one knows for sure. She disappeared right as Dongerden fell.” Rolek leaned forward from his seat upon the rock he was on, as if he was letting everyone in on a secret, “The big theory that everyone talks about is this: supposedly the princess disappears at the same time that the supposed ‘Fire’ disappears.”

“What’s the Fire?” Bastillina asked.

“No one knows for sure. Mixed reports came out of Dongerden regarding many things, the Fire included. Some said the Fire was a human, others said the Fire was a different name for the Uprising rebellion itself that overwhelmed the city, forcing the newly-formed Enussian Union to intervene. But I think there’s too much that goes against the ladder theory. Lots of people think that the Fire was actually a human, and that the princess was the Fire. That’s why people began to believe she was the Phoenix Princess–or the Phoenix Child. She was known to already be magic-sensitive. Most believe she suddenly tapped into her mastery, and became the Fire. Filled with rage, and a propensity towards fire that consumed the whole land, and killed her father as she herself perished in the fires her anger fueled.”

“Is that even possible?” Bastillina questioned.

“Of course it is not.” Annastaria interrupted, “It is a foolish notion; one that ought to be completely abandoned for the obvious truth that it is impossible for any master to be able to achieve such power at only the age of two years.”

“That’s why no one is sure if she was actually two.” Rolek answered, “I personally think she was probably around six. Besides, even if she was only two years old, so what? The elvish scriptures ‘ve made even weirder claims. They say dragons can talk, and that a man who wasn’t even a master learned how to use magic.”

“That is not so unordinary.” Annastaria objected, “Any human can use magic scrolls; the power is not in the human but in the scroll itself that was enchanted. I did a similar thing in the forest against Jorum when I used a spell of fire against him to escape. That did not require me to use my mastery.”

“So you’re telling me that a passage in one of the scriptures, which explicitly says that a man used magic while not a master, and treated the event as a miracle, was just using an ordinary means everyone knows? Doesn’t that make it not a miracle?”

Annastaria’s irritation for Rolek’s critique showed visibly with her eyes glaring at him, but internally, she was stumped and surprised that someone like him was even semi-prepared for something like this. “What, are you some kind of scholar of the ancient scriptures?” she said.

Rolek’s smile didn’t waver as he replied, “Not at all… I just like to think I take the scriptures at their word, is all. You don’t seem to wanna do that.”

“You speak as if I am supposed to be some devout wood elf.”

Rolek chuckled, but said nothing. Oden could almost feel the anger radiate from Annastaria. “Hey, come on guys,” he intervened, “we were just having a conversation, that’s all. I thought it would be cool to discuss some theories about the Uprising.”

“All I’m saying,” Rolek said, “is that there have been much stranger things in the past. I actually think my theory, which is shared by a lot of people, makes more sense than all that other stuff. We know a figure called the Fire was roaming around Auserkesh during the Uprising fifteen years ago, we know this figure had to be a powerful master, and we know that when the princess disappeared, the Fire did as well. Come on, weirder things ‘ve been thought of.”

Annastaria said nothing. She folded her arms and looked away, refusing to entertain this conversation anymore. Bastillina remained curious about it, wanting to know more. But she also knew she wasn’t supposed to be interested in talking to Rolek, and so she didn’t ask further.

Once rested, they had to move on. They followed Annastaria back down from the Spear of Halgarden, and into the forest again. The sun was in its final stages of the day, facing them and telling the group that they were still moving west. The mountains to the west and northwest caused dusk to come early into the forest. Though they were down from the high point of the Spear of Halgarden, they were still moving through hilly lands, and they came to an overlook that gave them a view of the town below, and the sun just setting over the trees in the horizon. The whole time, Annastaria expected to see something strange, unordinary, and out of place. Yet all she saw the whole time was the wilderness of northern Enussia. 

Birds sang, the trees cleaved against each other as the wind brushed through, and the sun glittered through the branches. Streams poured through natural creeks, drawing the attention of other wild animals. There was no sign of Corruption anywhere. She began to wonder if the original reports were simply wrong. It made things even more unnerving for her; the idea that not only was her role in the whole quest puny and insignificant, but that the whole thing was a farce in the first place. She at least hoped to return home with something to offer her elders. Now she began to dread the thought that she would return home to tell them that it was a complete waste of time. Soon enough, they came to the end of a cliff, and looked down to Mennix.

“There it is.” Oden said, “Mennix. Nothing too fancy, unfortunately.”

“That’s probably a good thing.” Rolek said, “The cities have not been kind to any of us here.”

It was difficult to see the buildings with the growing darkness; the sun was not fully beyond the horizon, but its light rays were no longer illuminating the lands. All they had to understand the town were the yellow-tinted lights emitting from spots scattered about the trees below them, and concentrated in an area they presumed to be the central downtown area. From there, the lights slowly spread from each other until there was only the darkness of dusk.

“Hopefully we’re not too late in finding a place to sleep.” Rolek added.

Oden was standing next to a silent and observant Bastillina. “Ready for a goodnight sleep?” he asked her.

She smiled at him, “More than ready. Sheesh! I’m sick of sleeping on rocks.”

Oden was about to respond, when Annastaria gasped and fell to her knees with a hand gripping the right side of her head. “Erene?” he said, looking to her, and his heartbeat increased. 

Whispers amidst a stinging sound needed her ears. The voices seemed both far and near, unintelligible, and impossible to trace. Everything around her began to teeter and sway like a boat in the beating waves of the ocean; maintaining balance was like trying to stand on a ball. She could faintly hear Oden, Bastillina and Rolek call out to her, and try to help her up, but the needling sound pierced her brain, and the whispers that she heard once before consumed her as reality began to slowly fade into darkness.

Just as the darkness dragged her into its deepest point, a blinding light flashed in the west; was it the sun somehow coming up over the western horizon? She looked up, and it was not the sun, but an inferno exploding in rage out of the west, consuming the whole landscape and rolling towards her. 

The town that once stood below them was now like a giant city, like Levaan or Cymroyl, but yet its greatness could not withstand the blazing wall of fire that swallowed it. This fire was no accident; no result of the blind forces of nature. Annastaria could sense it’s wrath as intensely as she could the blistering heat, blowing its hot winds into her face. The inferno was alive! And it was filled with rage. 

By now Oden, Bastillina and Rolek were gone, as were the whispers; yet a chorus of chants was heard coming from the inferno. The consuming fire was too intense for her to discern what the chant was saying, or what language it was spoken in, but it was some form of chant like the ancient Nagush performed, or of the primitive Boudorian tribes. The chants grew louder and louder as the fire came closer and closer, until her skin began to boil and smoke, and it too caught fire and burned away. And just before the blaze finally reached her, after it consumed the city and the mountains, darkness and silence.