Terill Estrial moved away from his home at the Ailia Court with his head sunk low. He walked past the endless rows of brightly colored flowerbeds, past the trimmed shrubs and bushes, along a narrow walkway leading away from the purest water spring the Lyyn had to offer, out of his realm with grim reality coming back to remind him how he let one problem slide so far out of reach. He was thinking of the Dark Elves. Even the name caused an ache in his troubling mind; a scar on the purest of Races.
He had cast them out of the Ailia, banned them for life, or until their wickedness stopped controlling them and they could reason once again. It had been the right thing to do, he thought. The only thing really. There had to be a law against what they were doing, a punishment set for anyone else who sought to travel in their footsteps. Things were so far out of control that a clean slate was needed. He didn’t wish to hide the blemish, just remove it until it had diminished on its own.
But it didn’t.
The problem with the Dark Elves was their constant need for raw power. Terill Estrial had been wrong to believe that it was something that the few elves fallen by its lust could overcome by themselves. Locking them away did nothing more than kindle the fire into a burning blaze.
The Dark Elves grew in power that was frightening. Trapped in the Shade of the Lyyn, with no supervision, with no one to care enough to prevent them from destroying themselves, they abused the magic to no end. The constant feeding of it only allowed them to become more lost within it. They could not save themselves even if they knew they had to.
Their power had grown so vast now, that even the magic binding them to the Shade was not strong enough to keep them. They escaped as often as needed. This was unthinkable at the time of the Shade’s creation. The Dark Elves were on the brink of being the most powerful creatures in existence.
Which is why they had to be removed.
Terill Estrial reached for the crystal laced around his neck and clutched it with promise. There was no other way, he told himself. There must be a new beginning.
Terill’s head didn’t rise as he proceeded further away from his sanctuary, heading into a darkness he could only imagine. Already his skin shivered. They would be watching for his return, waiting for a chance to make things even with the Lord of the Elves. Waiting all those days for revenge.
Terill changed his thinking, trying to gain control of his emotions. He thought then of the war coming, of what was needed. Magical instruments could be created. He had others working on what was needed already, elves strong enough to create potions and crystals and not lose themselves in the act. They would be ready for the battle when it arose. They had no choice.
He let his mind wander, to think of fonder times, but the troubles weighted too heavy for his mind to reflect. He was going to see the Dark Elves and it was something not even he could push aside in thought. It wasn’t going to be pretty, he knew. He expected a strong confrontation, a battle perhaps.
It was hard telling. The Dark Elves were still very mysterious to him. He knew what they were and how they came to be, but outside of that, he knew very little. They were not rational creatures. He knew of a few instances where Dark Elves had escaped their prison, but yet returned.
Have they come to prefer their dark cell?
His pace slowed then, as he paused to wonder just how many of them there were now. There could be dozens, he realized. A small army of the most powerful elves in existence, perhaps. Perhaps he had overlooked the obvious and his decision to find them would only end up killing him.
Terill shook his head, tossing aside the notion. He would not be killed. His plan would unfold and slowly things would be back to normal. The Dark Elves will be destroyed. They would play a role in the destruction of their own creation. It was only fair.
After walking for several hundred yards, far out of earshot from the Ailia Court, Terill Estrial slowed his pace, feeling the air about him thicken with must. He could see the rotting in the trees around him, the moss browning, branches wilting. The grass was thinning in small pockets and shallow pools of dark stagnant water were scattered about. It would be worse the closer he got, he knew. He could only imagine what lay inside.
With a sigh and a shift to his posture, holding his head up, forcing himself to not be affected by the diminishing purity, he pressed on. He wore nothing to defend himself from an assault; no magic could help him in the Shade. The crystal necklace was a powerful magic, but he was not to be wielding it. They were.
As he pressed on, passing through the dying forest, he kept his focus on the dead trees in the distance. It was there that the barrier began. Decay and rot was everywhere. Grass and bush alike were gone, only dirt and swamp thrived. Even this far from the trees, Terill Estrial could feel the magic in nauseated waves.
It had been decided that a magical barrier be created and the Dark Elves would be locked inside, kept away from everything else. Powerful elves joined Terill as they created the domain, making it invisible to others, making it forgettable. But not long after the Dark Elves were held within did their poisoning of the land seep past the barrier, ruining the area surrounding it. Even from within their prison, their dark ways were affecting the Elves.
After a hundred yards, Terill stopped walking. The trees stood only five yards away, their dead branches streaking out like wicked hands from the grave, their bark coated in rot with a smell that made Terill cough.
Terill took a few seconds as he gathered his composure, then entered past the tree-line. He stretched his arms forth, hands flat, palms exposed, touching the invisible barrier. Introducing his own magic into the shield, Terill began to open a portal, allowing entrance.
Terill Estrial took one last breath of the cleanest air he would be breathing, and then slowly entered. Seconds later, the door into the Shade of the Lyyn sealed shut.
Terill Estrial stepped into the void he had created for the banished and choked on the pungent air. The Shade of the Lyyn was dark with thin sheets of fog wisping in no certain direction. Death was clinging to everything from the dirt, to the air, to the sky. Nothing lived. He didn’t see how it could.
He could feel the Dark Elves presence threatening him right away. They had known he was coming, he thought. He expected as much. He stood still, staring out into the sheets of gloom, wondering how much of the forest the Dark Elves ruined. The entirety of it, he guessed.
Why would they stop? How would they even know how to? The purity of this world is as lost as their souls.
Instantly he felt something brush across the back of his neck, pricking hairs, chilling his skin. He turned, but saw no one. The presence was there, circling him. He held his ground, waiting for whomever to show. He could feel it, standing right in his face; he could almost feel the hot air breathing back into his nostrils.
“I need to speak with Bree.”
Terill did not let on in any fashion that he was concerned for his well-being. He didn’t feel a challenge, even though there was one. Standing erect, his face was nearly expressionless.
Seconds later, whatever was in front of him growled. Without moving his head, Terill scanned the area, but saw nothing. It was a watchdog perhaps, set to guard the door against intruders, gone now to tell its master of his arrival. Maybe, he thought. Maybe it was just something lurking about. But it didn’t attack him like it wanted to, so he was under the impression that it served a higher authority.
“What do you want?” an angry voice whispered suddenly.
Terill flinched. He saw no one, nor felt anything near him. Just as he was about to respond, a shape began to materialize in front of him. Then more, all around him. There were several of them, waiting for his reaction. Dark Elves come to answer his call.
“I need to—”
A slender girl with long black hair, pale skin and dark eyes, laughed with the cruelest tone Terill had ever heard. Her smile was crooked, the twinkle in her eyes made it appear that she was fantasizing about inflicting him with a terrible pain. Her dirty cloak was ragged and torn, tied a
bout her waist, with pockets that hid her hands and a length that ran down to her muddied boots.
Terill’s head cocked slightly. “Breedoria?” He stared in vague recognition, his heart breaking.
“Old man, you’ve chosen unwisely.” She hissed in return, standing only feet from him. The others around her moved in closer like a pack of wolves. “You should not have dared!”
The stricken girl’s fingers flinched towards Terill and with it came a thunderous bolt of green light, freezing Terill where he stood. Terill watched her pupils brighten for a second, her hair swirling like it had been caught in the wind. Her faced flushed and the magic squeezed the Lord of the Elves tight until he gasped. She held him off the ground for a second, then withdrew the magic. Terill dropped back to the ground, trying to steady himself.
“Lord of the Fools! You dare step into the world of the forsaken? Have you come to release us from your precious cage?” Breedoria laughed again, wicked and mockingly. “Or have you come to make sure we’re still here?”
Terill Estrial could smell the magic in her breath. She reeked of it. She had lost herself completely. He remembered her from when she was a girl, vibrant and young, nothing of what she appeared now.
“I have come with information for you of great importance.” Terill tried again, tucking his emotions out of sight. This wasn’t the same girl he knew. That girl died a long time ago.
Her smile was nothing more than an icy line against her pale face. “Important for who? Not we—the banished. What are your motives, Lord of Hypocrisy?”
Her voice was like snakes, coiled and hissing as she stepped closer. Terill began to speak, but saw the sudden shift in her attention to his necklace.
“I’m sure you know the fate of your love, Dren? The power that they had unleashed was so raw and the magnitude was on a level unachievable for Elves. I have—”
Breedoria moved in only inches from Terill, cutting him off as she stared fixedly at the crystal around his neck. “Dren was a weak fool! We have mastered our ambitions.”
The Dark Elves around her also began to move in closer, moaning in response to the crystal, starving to feed themselves its power.
“Give it to me,” Breedoria whispered sternly.
Terill hesitated. He could sense her addiction taking over. She was angry that it wasn’t hers already.
“The crystal is a power you cannot control. It will destroy you.”
“Give it to me,” she gasped softly.
Terill began to undo the fastening. “Dren is lost. The power they unleashed has consumed them. His spirit is battling death now within the spirit of the monster they created.”
He watched her eyes grow as the necklace was free of his neck. “The crystal was made to counter the demon’s. It will draw all magic unto it. It may be the only way to set his spirit free. If you still love him, go to him, Breedoria. Save him. The magic is too—”
Before he could think of it, the girl snatched the crystal from his hand. The Dark Elves around her groaned wildly, howling in agonizing jealousy. Breedoria danced around as she placed the necklace around her gaunt neck, her cloak shimmering in the gloom, her shrill voice singing something of praise.
Terill stepped back. He felt bad for tricking her into taking the crystal, but there was no other way. The magic would consume her, as it will Dren and the spirit living inside him.
“Go to him. Find Dren and set him free.”
Breedoria kept dancing, holding on to the crystal, feeling its power surge through her veins. “I will go to Dren, Lord of the Fools. I will do what he failed to. The power will be mine.”
She laughed and spun, forgetting Terill was even there. The other Dark Elves closed in on her, each attempting to take the crystal, each of them sent back by her magic in a continuance cycle that didn’t seem to tire.
Terill Estrial waited for a few moments, watching the madness enfold before him, holding himself accountable for their misfortunes. He had failed them. He looked around at their world, at what he had created for them, and his heart sank in pity. No redemption could be found in the Shade of the Lyyn. They never had a chance to change.
“Forgive me, Bree.”
Terill backed away, preparing to leave the forsaken to their would-be prison. He turned, touched the shield, released its lock, watching the magic fade dense enough for him to slip through. He looked back to his daughter one final time before stepping into his world.
The power of the crystal pulsated around Breedoria’s neck in warm waves. Her laughter heightened. “I am coming for you, Dren! Your power will be mine, my love!”
Through unimaginable darkness, scores of Seers were being marched by Takers through the swamp lands of Creatia, deep beneath the earth through the catacombs that held the growing Mrenx Ku. Chained and gagged they came, in an endless line with shadows darker than the sky above them leading the way down to their deaths. From a mile away screams were heard—visions coming to pass.
In the depths, glowing with power, the spirits in the Mrenx Ku fed impatiently on the power of the Seers chained before them. As they died, their bodies dehydrated of life itself, new Seers were brought into the chamber, and the old ones were filled with enough magic from the Mrenx Ku that their husks were filled with life again. This time in the form of Takers.
With bodies burnt from the searing magic as it extracted the life out of them, some still smoking from the excruciating process, the newly formed Takers lined up and filed out of the chamber with orders to bring back anyone with magic.
Massing at the outskirts of the catacomb in a nearby valley, thousands of red eyes glowed. Takers stood ready, waiting for the march on the Elves. The annihilation of mankind was at hand. There would be no powers left to stop the Mrenx Ku. None left to challenge. It had made sure of it. With the bloodline fallen, and the Elves having no magic left to aid them, the Mrenx Ku had given its enemies no way to stand against it. It merely needed time now to grow. Then darkness would fall.
CHAPTER TEN