The arcane language spilled from Blackheart's mouth as she spoke the uncanny phrases in a guttural tongue to start the summoning spell. The words of magic completed a spell that forced the drained blood of the corpses in the next room to pool in a reservoir below the altar and rise into the piping that ended in the basin hollowed out in the top of the altar. The crimson claret coalesced in the stone sink, and the necromancer smiled. She craned her head back and looked into the moonlight of Rzandol, shining into her black eyes and the blood-filled basin from the faux well overhead to hear the sounds of her reckoning coming to bear.
She has done exactly as her master had commanded: sacrificed a great many on the eve of the rise of Rzandol and dedicate all their blood to her master, for it was trapped. Stuck in an ethereal prison and only able to act through associates like herself, Blackheart met her master when she was at her worst. Now, she felt it necessary to repay the gift given to her by a powerful creature from beyond that saw fit to save her life, by any means possible. The idea of such an act of justice as an appetizer to an even greater justice that would soon come, levied against the mortal world of Cordoba, made the necromancer feel as if she was in tune with the very earth itself.
The dark mage reveled in the sounds of the earth around her head as she heard the worms burrow and the roots of trees spread themselves through the ground. She could hear the dead stirring in their graves, scratching and pounding against coffins in a rhythm Blackheart found musical. The thought of even more of the walking dead at her disposal, in addition to the several ghouls that sat before her in the temple pews, was enough to make the dark necromancer's smile stretch from ear to ear as she continued to chant.
Suddenly, a shout from the upper levels of the basement broke her concentration, disturbing the chant that would deliver her master from his prison to this world. Blackheart cursed her intruders for their poor timing and stepped away from the altar. She almost tripped over the prone Inia? body as she walked out into the central aisle of the temple and stared at the front doors to the next room, where the bodies hung and bled. She looked to a couple of ghouls and said, "We have a visitor."
The necromancer didn't bother to guess who her intruder was as she looked back at the unconscious form of her niece.
Rashad. That damned male has come back to soil my home a third time, the necromancer thought. He's escaped that incompetent Doyle and now he thinks he?l defeat me. The little black bastard thinks he can just walk in here, do what he wants and take my niece away to be some breeder? Aside from the truth, she said to herself, that male will be in for one hell of a surprise.
Turning away from the door, Blackheart felt her old Adventurer's Guild medallion shift in her bosom. Touching it through her clothes, she continued her stride to the altar and took her place at the altar and continued to chant. As she chanted, voices could be heard floating in from the useless windows to the abattoir. It seems that the little male has brought friends, the necromancer mused. Her black eyes glinted with amusement as she chanted, making sure to position herself under the moonlight as she did before. As she expected, the group of intruders made their grand entrance into the temple. Blackheart had not seen many of these people before, but some she knew and one of them she knew very well.
The first of the intruders came dressed in blue armor; she could tell that from the reflections of the moon's light bouncing from the floorboards. The necromancer had not met him, but she did know his symbol: the brotherhood of Brash. Blackheart had tangled with only one Brash acolyte prior, and she wasn't satisfied. Two Enigmen--a female cat and a giant crab of some sort--stood with the armored warrior. Four humans walked through the doors. Two were dark-skinned and males, like the fool Rashad who walked with them, but of the two only one was a mage. By the look of his aura she could tell he was an ice-mage of some power, but not enough to sway her will or her master's will.
The last human was a slim woman with long black hair, carrying a satchel. A quick glance showed that the girl had no real skills to speak of, and would be no threat. Her eyes scanned over the last member of the crew--an elf, she could see by the ears--bore a strange resemblance…
Moira, the seamstress, had come to reclaim what was once hers. But from the elf's excessive cowering, it looked like the spell she put on her was still in place. The elf had cost her so much in the past, nothing would be able to negate the spell. So why was Moira here? Blackheart pushed the question out of her head and decided that the elven seamstress would die first, but changed her decision when the blue-armored warrior sealed his fate as the first to fall: he opened his mouth and spoke.
"In the name of Brash, I am sworn to strike down evil wherever it may lay! Beware, Blackheart the necromancer, for you now face Cyan--warrior of the Brotherhood!"
Only slightly aware of what he would face on the inside of the temple walls, the halfling went full tilt into his lines, remembering the honor of the Brotherhood and forgetting the full situation. While sent here on his own to deal with a claim of ghouls in the town of Karmor's Bend, many friends have joined him in his mission. No one in their party, not even the ice mage, was prepared for the scene set before them.
The temple, cold and lit only by the moonlight falling from the well above the necromancer's head, was a mockery of the temples built to Toren the Assistant and his Master Hamar. Instead of the Tetra-Sphere that would adorn the walls, that same diagram of the eye reaching skyward with tentacles took its place. The walls, adorned with tapestries bearing the tentacled eye, were carved from the surrounding stone and supported by smoothed columns. The ceiling of the temple stretched over their heads and curved upwards into the base of the fake well. Past that, a smooth wall with an arcane diagram in the shape of a circle stood out in relief with the moonlit form of Blackheart the Benefactor juxtaposed in the foreground.
The necromancer's eyes flashed in the moonlight as she looked down on the ghouls in the pews. The stinking corpses moved in response to her gaze and rose from their seats to attack the group of intruders. Charging into the pew, the first ghoul met his second death at the end of the Rock Sword. More ghouls came onward, and they were dispatched by Cyan's dancing sword. Kitty and Barcrab joined in the fray, actively going after ghouls and fighting them claw, tooth and nail. The two Enigmen barreled through the rotting wooden pews, taking whatever pieces of broken wood they could and using them for weapons. Shuya, Wyle, Donovan and Moira stayed by the door and fought off any ghouls they could, using the fire poker, Donovan's ice axe and Shuya's potions. As Shuya's potions lit up the floor around them and cast a bright blue light in the temple, Donovan's eye caught a glimpse of the circle behind the chanting Blackheart.
He had seen that circle somewhere before in a manual at the Academy, in a book on summoning, but what would a necromancer want to summon? Regardless of what the dark mage wanted to summon, he would have to stop her. "Cyan! Rashad! She's trying to summon something! See if you can stop her!"
The two nodded and cut a swath to the altar. After wading through the ichor and rotting body parts, the Halfling and human raised their weapons to strike Blackheart down. Their blades struck her arms, but were deflected by some sort of magic. Using the advantage, Blackheart thrust her arms out and the two men went flying to the floor. As they picked them selves up, Rashad noticed a curly mop of hair sticking out from behind the altar. He looked up at the necromancer with a grimace of anger and shouted to Donovan, "Inia's here! You have to stop her!"
In response, Donovan pulled a potion from Shuya's satchel and encased it in ice. He launched it at the chanting woman, hoping she would not be able to stop the projectile. Blackheart was involved with the chant, and she was struck full in the face and staggered back as the ice shattered across her nose. The necromancer rose, her face covered in the brown liquid of the potion hidden in the ice ball. She wiped her face off and looked at her hands as they burned a light blue flame from her fingertips and palms. The dark mage looked at the intruders with her black, almond-shaped eyes and continued chanting to release the ethereal bonds of her master.
She was not able to complete her chant, for a significantly large piece of broken pew came flying at her, forcing her to hurl herself away from the altar and Inia. Blackheart landed hard against the stone floor, shielding herself from the shower of wood splinters. As the necromancer began to right herself, Barcrab shouted, "RASHAD! GET INIA!!"
Snapping up and rushing to the altar, Rashad knelt by the unconscious Inia and grabbed her by the arm. He dragged her to safety, just as Blackheart lunged at the two with her silver dagger. The blade missed them both by inches, and the dark mage screamed her rage. She prepared to cast a spell, but Cyan charged and slammed into her back. As she landed on the ground, she spun and blasted the Halfling with a burst of green energy, sending him flying towards Kitty. The Enigman cat-woman was ready and caught the armored Cyan before he hit the ground completely. "No worries; I've got you," she said.
"Thanks, Kitty," Cyan said. "Are you all right?"
"Yes; more importantly, are you alright?"
"Whatever that monster's hit me with, it's made me tired." Turning to the others, he said, "We gotta stop her…no matter what."
Blackheart heard that and started to chant again. Donovan heard her chant and cast a spell that froze the pipes of the sink inside the altar. The pipes burst, cracking through the stone and toppling the altar over. The necromancer could only look on in annoyance as the intruders congratulated themselves.
Suddenly, the sound of a clearing throat echoed through the temple. "You peons have come this far to have an audience with me," the emotionally charged Blackheart spoke. "You've fought my undead minions and interfered in my current plans."
She stared at the slowly waking Inia as she continued, "You've tampered with my life's work, and there's no shortage of pain I could inflict on you all for such transgressions. Yet I believe that you all would not have done these things if there were not a reason…even in your limited scope of 'reason'."
"I want revenge!" Shuya shouted across the temple. "You killed my father, mother and brother! Your hands are stained with their blood."
"I'm sworn to staunch the flow of evil in these lands, and your time is over, Madam Blackheart!" Cyan brought his sword to bear and said, "By the will of Brash!"
"You've cost me my job," Rashad said as he held Inia, "and the lives of others have been changed or ended because of your actions! I've dealt with your kind before: mages and the powerful that thought they were beyond the reach of Good. You think you're all that matters, that everyone should follow your path or die. I am here to tell you you're wrong--dead wrong--and you will pay for your crimes against the world."
The necromancer looked over the battle-ready group, as they breathed heavily from the evening's fight. Covered in the blood of the fallen ghouls, they all meant business and brought their weapons up. Blackheart looked at the poor fools…and began to laugh. The anger that washed over her from the aspiring heroes made Blackheart smile from ear to ear. The necromancer said as she clapped her hands, "Oh, such rousing speeches, all of you. I'd spare you all for such performances, if mercy was in my nature. You must excuse my amusement; I've heard those words far too many times."
The necromancer continued with a sly grin, "Your family meant nothing to me. They were merely a sacrifice to my master. All of Sumptor, and I gave it to my Benefactor.
"As for your 'sworn quest' against evil, you backwater hirsute," the necromancer leveled at Cyan, "you need look no further. I doubt you'll be able to defeat me, because I eat misguided male "heroes" like you for lunch." Her eyes narrowed to slits as she said, "You will fail."
Turning to Rashad, Blackheart said, "And as for you, you wanna-be adventurer, you dare walk into the mouth of danger a third time? For the hand of my niece, you certainly went the distance. It was all for nothing, for you would fail, just like your hairball friend here."
"Hey I resent that!" Kitty piped up.
"Not you," Rashad spoke through gritted teeth.
"Oh."
"I don't like you. You've lied to my niece Inia and to my face! I'll not stand by as my niece becomes a breeder for some male who lies about his achievements. Adventurer's Guild, indeed; your medallion isn't real!" The Benefactor continued, "You're nothing but a one-shoe hustler!"
"By Toren, I am an Adventurer!"Rashad shouted. "The Guild has changed! I was there myself when it changed recently. Why don't you believe me? Is it because you hate me for being with Inia?"
"YOU ARE A MALE! ALL MALES LIE AND I HATE ALL OF YOU FOR THAT!" Blackheart's shout echoed on the walls. "YOU WILL NOT TAKE MY LIFE'S WORK FROM ME TO SOW YOUR FOUL SEED, FOR I AM THE DESTROYER OF ALL MEN! I WILL--"
"Auntie!"
Blackheart stopped her rant and looked down on the face of her niece. The tanned teenager's skin shone in the moonlight, her cheeks streaming with tears. "Is this how you truly are? Why?"
"It's lying males like this dark-skinned dunderhead that hurt me in my younger days."
Inia returned, "But you don't have to do this because some guy broke your heart--"
"BROKE MY HEART?!?!" The necromancer's face flushed and turned a bright purple in the moonlight as she said through gritted teeth, "Is that what they're calling it now? Is that what you've learned from the world of males? That rape--my rape--was nothing more than a matter of the heart?!
"You foolish little twit! After all the time I spent on you," Blackheart said with a cracking voice, "you turn into a blithering trollop who can't tell when a male wants you. You don't need that male."
"Auntie," Inia said, "I know. I want Rashad. It's you I don't need."
What, Blackheart heard echo through her head.
Inia continued, saying, "I'm a big girl now, Auntie. I have to go and do what I can to make it in the world. I'm a grown woman. I can't live under your wing forever; I want to see the world and its entire people--all of the MEN and WOMEN and the world they live in. The world I was meant to live in."
The rage on Blackheart's face was barely hidden. She dipped her head and closed her eyes. Bringing her face back to see her intruders, it was completely clear of all anger as she sucked in a cool breath and said, "I can see that trying to coax you from the side of your male is quite difficult, and will take more time than I am willing to invest. It's time I owned up to the fact that my experiment was a failure."
"E-experiment?" Inia stuttered. "W-what do you mean?"
Rashad took the young woman's hand and said, "C'mon, you don't need to listen to this madwoman rant any longer. You're with me now."
Rashad took her to Shuya and the others and said, "Watch out for her, this'll be a nasty fight."
As Shuya nodded, Blackheart looked at Donovan and said, "It's only natural I terminate my unsuccessful experiments. You understand, don't you?"
A bolt of black lightning shot from her hand and flew towards Inia as she stood in shock. Rashad threw himself in front of the blast, taking it full in the chest. He flopped to the ground and lay still. Inia leapt on top of him, shaking him and screaming, "NO!!!"
"HA! RIGHT ON CUE!" Blackheart laughed a maniacal laugh and said, "EVERY HERO IS THE SAME! YOU ALL GIVE YOUR LIVES FOR NOTHING! I'VE TAKEN THE LIVES OF MANY HEROES OVER THE YEARS…AND NOW YOU ALL SHALL SHARE THE SAME FATE!"
Blackheart's body became enclosed in a green aura, the tendrils reaching up to the bottom of the well opening. She spread her arms out and said, "My master would see you all dead as well." With that, the tendrils lashed out and struck at the nearest intruders: Kitty, Cyan and Barcrab.
The lash of light smacked Barcrab off his feet and into a corner, knocking him unconscious. Another struck Kitty in her arm, spinning her off her feet. Cyan wasn't about to let it happen to him as he chanted a short prayer spell to Brash. A third tendril shot towards Cyan's face, only to be deflected by a golden aura of his own. The Halfling stood and readied his sword, then charged at the Benefactor. He swung his weapon at the necromancer; only to have his sword strike sparks off an aura-coated hand.
Blackheart returned the favor and hit him with an uppercut. She drew her silver dagger and slashed at Cyan while he was still reeling from the first blow. A flurry of golden sparks bounced off her blade, turning the room into a light show. The two opponents battled and ultimately became locked in a grapple and tumbled to the floor below the broken altar. Cyan got up first and stabbed downward with his sword. The necromancer ignored the pain and rolled over the rubble of the altar to avoid the sword and kicked in the halfling's knee, sending Cyan down to the floor.
Blackheart got up and proceeded to kick the Halfling as he lay on the ground. When she went to stomp him a third time, her feet became frozen to the floor. She looked up and saw Donovan casting spells. "You meddlesome male!" she shouted. Another black bolt flew from her hands towards Donovan, but the ice mage dodged. He tossed another shot of ice and caught her in the casting hand. The burst froze her hand into a claw shape, and the dark mage screamed in pain.
The pain didn't last for long, for the unholy green aura melted the ice from her hand and feet. Blackheart smiled and turned back to fight Cyan, and received a punch in the gut for her trouble. The Halfling picked her up off her feet and hurled her into a column. She bounced heavily from the column to the floor and lay still. Cyan strode over to where she fell and picked her up by the shoulder. She looked unconscious to him, but for only a moment. The necromancer shot out a leg, catching Cyan in the crotch. He dropped her and doubled over in pain. She took advantage of the halfling's moment of weakness, reared her fist back and punched him in his head, knocking his helmet off. The necromancer jumped on Cyan and grabbed his head and beat his head into the ground. Blackheart relished the activity and said, "You're dealing with a former adventurer, boy."
"You've a short memory for some who lives in the past, necromancer," Cyan shot back and chopped Blackheart in the neck twice. Green sparks flew and she rolled onto the floor to catch her breath. The green-haired Halfling straddled the dark mage and squeezed her neck. "Let me be the last thing you remember…"
Shuya shouted her approval as it looked like the two glowing figures would find an end to the Benefactor.
"Finish her off, Cyan!" Shuya shouted.
Wyle left the bartender and Moira to check on Barcrab, when he heard Inia cry out and say, "Why? Why'd he have to do that?" She cried, "I'd have done anything for him! Why'd he go and kill himself?"
"He liked you too much, girl," the carpenter said over the fighting. "He really wanted to--"
Wyle was cut short by a thunderous rumbling in the temple as Blackheart's green tendrils of light erupted from her aura again, whipping at the walls of the strange shrine. Cyan still had his hands around her throat, throttling her as she completed the death embrace with a pair of verdant tentacles that lashed at the halfling's back. Screaming more than yelling, Cyan shouted, "Wyle! Get everyone out of here!"
Wyle moved over to Barcrab and shook him awake, saying, "Yo, get Shuya and 'nem outta here! This place is gonna fall down on us!" As Barcrab picked up the Rock Sword and ushered the others out, Wyle ran over to a still-dazed Kitty and said, "We gotta split, Kitty-Kat. Let's go!"
Kitty looked around the crumbling cellar chapel and asked, "Where's Cyan?"
"No time, Kitty! Move!!"
Before Wyle could pull her away, the Enigman saw Cyan locked in mortal combat with Blackheart and pulled away from the carpenter, yelling, "Cyan, I'm coming!"
"NO" the halfling shouted back as the green lashes ripped his blue armor apart. "GET OUT OF HERE OR WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE!"
"All of you…WILL die…" Blackheart rasped through Cyan's grip on her neck. Another green tendril of light struck the ground at Kitty's feet, knocking the Enigman back. Wyle picked her up off the floor and tried his best to drag her from the scene.
"Please, Wyle," Kitty cried, "We have to go back for Cyan!"
Pulling her out the door with all his might, the carpenter said, "You heard the man: we stay and die! The others are waiting, c'mon!"
Kitty finally let Wyle drag her past the wobbling green capsules and into the next stairwell as the foul temple began to collapse in flashes of green light. The collapsing rubble sent a wave of debris and dust into the stairwell. It all came to rest at the top of the stairs, where the rest of the survivors stood. They waited for the dust to clear from their vision and when it did, a new problem presented itself.
The area where the hallway and stairwell that led to the surface was destroyed, now part of the smoldering pile of rock, dirt and gravestones that lay at the broken edge of the stairwell's landing. The edge of where the land sat high above them, the moon Rzandol sinking behind its edge. Shuya looked up at it and said, "We're trapped! It's too high to climb!" Inia looked at the dust flowing out of the mount of rock as she held Rashad's limp body and said, "Why'd it have to be this way?"
"Why, indeed," Donovan said. He looked at the sobbing young woman and said, "The reasons are simple: they gave their lives for a chance to prevent imbalance, to right a wrong. It's all that really mattered to them." The ice mage added, "That's what I'd say if it wasn't just Cyan that died."
"Wh-what do you mean?"
Donovan looked at the night sky and said, "I mean that Rashad's still breathing. He's still alive."
Inia looked down at Rashad and saw that his chest moved imperceptibly. She shouted in happiness and hugged his slumped form. "Don't hug him too hard; he needs to breathe," Shuya said.
Barcrab came over to Inia and Rashad and picked up the unconscious man in his arm and slung him over his shelled shoulder. He passed by Shuya, who said, "So, how are we getting out of this hole in the ground?"
"Give me a moment," the icemage said as he gathered himself. "I spent a lot of energy fighting that necromancer, so I can't just up and cast things right now." He began to chant when he felt a tap on his shoulder. Donovan looked over his shoulder and saw Moira point to the nearby ladder, leading into the wrecked house. "No, dear girl, I don't think I'll mess with the structures in this house. We've done enough remodeling in the basement as it is."
"The best thing to do would be to put back what we destroyed." Looking to the edge of the ground above them, Donovan said, "I-ki-zarath-kun-viah!" A burst of ice flew from his hands in a fine mist. The mist took form and turned into a stairway of ice, reaching the lip of the hole they were in. "Everybody up that's going up," the ice mage said.
Walking over to Barcrab, who held Rashad's unconscious form, he said to the unaware young man, "That means you too, O fickle Fendo."
Inia heard Donovan say that and smiled through her tears as she rose to follow Moira as she first went up the stairs. Kitty and Wyle came up the stairs, then Shuya and Donovan. Barcrab was the last to start up the stairs, but as soon as he set foot on the stairs, the rubble beneath it shook. It felt like the stairs were responding to his weight, so Barcrab asked, "AM I TOO HEAVY?" "No, you're fine; just hurry up." Barcrab hustled up the stairs, per Donovan's request, and made it to the top. From where they all stood, they could see the town of Karmor's Bend through the hole in the wall Barcrab made. The town was quiet, with no lights on in any house or establishment.
Shuya the bartender looked out and wondered what the world would say if they knew the dead walked in this town, forever taking its people into an undying death and leaving shells of houses to be reclaimed by the swamp. Her eyes misted up over the helpless that died in this ordeal. They knew what was coming, yet could not escape. She openly cried for all those who were close to her and paid with their lives to end the reign of the Benefactor. The others turned and looked at the crying bartender, the tears streaming down her face and falling from her chin. "I got my revenge," she whispered.
"Shuya?" The concerned voice belonged to Kitty. She looked at the bartender and smelled the air. "What's going on?"
"I got my revenge, but look what it cost us all." Shuya trembled in anger and said, "Cyan's dead. Karmor's Bend is a ghost town. And Inia lost the closest thing she had to family: her aunt." Inia looked at Shuya with a confused expression. "The bitch may have been evil, but no one should have to lose a loved one. Ever. I'm sorry girl," the bartender said, "but we had to do it." The curly-haired Inia had no words to express her gratitude and hugged the bartender.
As the two women hugged before the collapsing form of Blackheart Estates, a loud crack sounded in the air and the remnants of the broken manor house fell into the deep hole in the ground. The grand mansion slid into the hole, ending in a plume of green smoke and dust that poured from the chasm and reached to the heavens. Most of the group looked on with a sigh of relief, but Donovan knew better.
He looked at Rashad's ashen skin and said, "Folks, I know you want to stay and enjoy the fruits of your labor, but we do have injured here. The closest town, I recall, is Fort Swordhome. West of here."
"Swordhome," Kitty said quietly as she touched the white stone hanging from her neck.
"Swordhome!" Wyle looked at the ice mage and said, "We could make great time with some horses…"
"Do you honestly think the ghouls left those horses alone?" Donovan said.
"Oh."
"We're better off on foot, and we need to get Rashad through the western hill-forest before he dies. We also need to get as far away from this house, this town, as possible." Turning to Inia, he said, "Your aunt was very powerful; only the gods know what artifacts may have been disturbed in the collapse of your old home."
"My home," Inia said. "I've no home or family now. What'll happen to me?"
"Don't worry, dear girl," the ice mage said. "We're all family now…or at least a reasonable facsimile of one. Alright, everyone," he continued, "we make for Fort Swordhome. We've got a long way to go." The ice-mage led the way with a brisk walk and the group followed him to the west. Donovan brought Shuya and Wyle up with him and they walked ahead of Moira, Kitty, Inia and the laden Barcrab. Occasionally, Inia would look back at the smoldering hole, thinking back on what were happy days with Auntie. She stopped at a few points and looked long and hard, thinking she saw something in the pillar of smoke. Moira came up to her and said, "There's no point in looking back now, Inia. It's all over."
The tanned teenager looked at Moira and sighed deeply, turning to join the procession to the west.
CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 12
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