Fated (Chapter Sixty-Five)
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mindcracklovePrepare for hell.
Chapter list: http://tanadin.dreamwidth.org/382.html
Map of the continent: http://tanadin.deviantart.com/art/F
Character status spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet
Chapter Sixty-Five
Kingdom of Kalt’on, Minecraftia. November 10, year 573. Time instance 483Z.
Mokdal was not having a good day.
First he was forced into human form, then he had to walk right into the middle of Dae’vos, one of the most dangerous places in the world for a dragon. Then he had to look around the city for a symbol carved into a wall, then he went down a dark tunnel, and now he had a sword at his throat and he was pretty sure at least a half-dozen people wanted him dead.
This whole quest business was a lot more annoying and dangerous than he remembered it being.
He re-focused back on the situation and spoke, hating how weak his voice as a human sounded. “It’s not hard to spot the symbol of the rebellion on that cart or the stone wall.”
“Bullshit. They’re carved so faintly that you’d have to know where to look to find them.”
“I have good eyes.”
“Who told you to come here?” The girl snarled. “Who told you where we are?”
“Look, okay, someone just told me that you exist and we need your help for getting into the city and beating the shit out of those monsters that Kalt’on has allied with. We’re not here to fight you so either help us out or fuck off.”
The girl snapped her fingers and suddenly the torches in the hallway and in the room lit, making Mokdal blink to let his eyes adjust. The girl took a half-step back, looking less aggressive than wary. She had deep blue eyes and short brown hair. Mokdal noted that her armor seemed to be painted in a way that was reminiscent of blood splatters before glancing around.
As he had suspected, eight more people had slipped silently into the room, six of them with arrows trained on him. The other two stood back a bit, holding swords and with shields emblazoned with the symbol of the Sandbreakers.
“Who are you?” The girl demanded. “And why do you want to kill the Hostiles?”
Mokdal crossed his arms. “I’m with a group that is prophesized to kill them. Plus, if we don’t, this world’s kind of fucked. I personally would rather not watch the world end so that’s why I’m here. Why are you?” He fired back.
“We’re here to both kill the Hostiles and put someone actually capable on the throne. Kalt’on has dwelled in solitude for too long; there’s no reason to remain cut off from the world. Plus that attack against Sunspire was stupid, stupid, stupid! There wasn’t even a reason!”
“Arra!” One of the guards, a man with a sword, snapped. “Don’t you think that Geluuvoryn will want to meet him?”
Mokdal raised an eyebrow in interest at the name. ‘Geluuvoryn’ translated to ‘Icebane’ in Dranonic, and the name felt familiar somehow.
“Dramon’var var ak kek dae lei piir mayvek’ex…” He mumbled.
Dramon’s son and the end of all days. An ancient saying of the dragons, one that’s meaning had primarily been lost.
Arra’s head snapped around to look at him. “What?” She demanded.
“Nothing. Geluuvoryn is just an…interesting…name.”
Arra’s eyes narrowed and she opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted as another Sandbreaker strolled into the room. He had bright blue eyes and his black hair had a streak of silver in it, and Mokdal wasn’t sure if it was magical or dyed.
“Shriker, good timing. This man was apparently sent by some other group that wants to take down the Hostiles and they want our help.”
Shriker raised an eyebrow. “Really?” His eyes shifted to look at Mokdal and he narrowed them for only a brief moment. “How did you get in?”
“I saw the carvings on the cart and the wall. I have good eyes.” Mokdal said irritably.
“What’s your name?” He asked suspiciously.
“Mokdal.”
Shriker’s eyebrows went up in recognition before he quickly got them under control, clearing his throat. “What, uh, what group did you say you were with?”
“They’re destined to take out the Hostiles.”
“What is the group called?” Shriker insisted.
Well, I wasn’t expecting that question. Think, Mokdal, think! What could they possibly…
“The Davion Guard.” The words slipped out of their own accord. “I’m with the Davion Guard.”
“Davion Guard?” Arra asked. “Weren’t they the personal guards of Dalanian royalty?”
Mokdal nodded and quickly began to put the pieces together of what his subconscious had been thinking. “Yes. And that’s essentially what we are; we have the last Dalanian heir, Dalania Davion, with us. We had to split into two groups but she’s in this one, waiting outside the city for me to return with the news of whether or not you’ll help us.”
Shriker and Arra exchanged startled looks. “One moment.” Shriker turned and shot down the hallway, faster than Mokdal had thought that most humans could move. He glanced at Arra but she and the others seemed content to wait for him to return.
Five minutes passed before Shriker reappeared, followed closely by an older man with graying hair and brown eyes. He looked over Mokdal and asked for him to repeat everything he had told the other two.
Beginning to get annoyed, Mokdal complied, then snapped, “Are you going to help us or not?”
Geluuvoryn studied him for a moment before nodding swiftly. “Yes. You can count on help from the Sandbreakers, as long as your group doesn’t seem distrustworthy. Arra, go with him back to the Davion Guard and lead them to the entrance to our base outside of the city. Bring them in and then we can talk with them.”
Arra nodded and finally sheathed her sword. “Alright. Lead the way, protector boy.”
~~~
“Davion Guard?” Zekara demanded. “That’s what you told them our name was?”
Mokdal shrugged. “As good a name as any.”
Arra watched them with her arms crossed. “So you lied to me?”
“No, we just didn’t have an official name until about twenty minutes ago.”
“I like it.” Nia told them cheerfully.
“I do too, but my other self probably invented it.” Iirkolav reasoned.
“Can we just go?” Mitven asked. “I’m not a fan of sitting around outside of Dae’vos.”
“I agree.” Arra nodded and waved for the group to follow her. It didn’t take too long for them to reach a small patch of nondescript rocks. Arra knelt down by a rock faintly carved with the Sandbreaker symbol and lifted it, causing a button to rise. The ground rumbled and opened up, revealing a staircase going down, this time large enough to accommodate a horse. The group quickly filed in and Arra replaced the rock, sprinting into the closing entrance before it shut and vanished from the world above.
Fate placed a hand on Blade’s shoulder and lowered her voice so only he could hear. “Don’t kill everyone inside, okay? These people are going to help us. They didn’t…they’re not with the Kalt’onians we saw at Sunspire.”
Blade only nodded, but Fate noticed that his gray eyes were dull in suppressed emotion, the nature of which she couldn’t identify.
Torches lit as they walked and it wasn’t long before it opened up into a large room. Nia paused as she took in the three or four dozen men and women within, all carrying weapons and bearing the mark of the Sandbreakers. At the end of the room stood a man that Mokdal whispered was Geluuvoryn, and beside him was Shriker. Shriker whispered something to Geluuvoryn and pointed at Mokdal, causing the dragon to narrow his eyes, but then the Sandbreaker leader spoke.
“Greetings, Davion Guard. My name is Geluuvoryn, although I often go by Voryn, and I lead the Sandbreakers. I’ve heard some about you from Mokdal but I’d like to talk about your motives personally. Who is your leader?”
Nia and Iirkolav exchanged a glance before they stepped forward together. “No one is really the leader, but we’ve been acting the part.” Nia told him.
“I see. Well, I wanted to know why it is that you need our help. Mokdal explained this but I want to hear it from you.”
“We need a way into the city.” Iirkolav said immediately. “We want the Hostiles dead. One of our group members knew about you and we figured you might be interested in helping. We want the same thing, don’t we?”
For the most part.
Voryn nodded slowly. “I understand that. How did this person know of us?”
Vian spoke up. “I, uh, heard about you guys from someone I know. I’m in a lot of social circles and they’re well-connected.”
“Vian,” Zel said slowly, “are any of these circles into doing anything illegal?”
“Um…define illegal.”
“Breaking laws.”
“Well, I mean…they don’t break any of the laws from where we come from…”
“Vian, we come from the middle of fucking nowhere, we have no laws!”
“Where do you come from with no laws?” Mitven demanded.
“The southern mountains, technically on the Variat side of the border but Variat considers us separate.” Zel told her.
“Small community of earth elementalists.” Vian explained further. “Not a lot of people know about us.”
Onai cleared his throat. “Focus.”
“Right.” Nia looked back at Voryn. “We need your help. Are you willing to risk yourselves to take down the Hostiles?”
“That’s why we’re here, isn’t it?” Shriker reasoned.
Voryn slowly nodded. “Yes, but we don’t know if we can trust you. We-”
“We can trust them.”
He looked at Arra curiously. “How are you so sure?”
She shrugged slightly. “Gut instinct. I mean, just…look at these guys! A group like this doesn’t form and walk right up to Dae’vos with the intent of contacting and destroying a rebel group that one guy heard about that one time in social circles that may or may not be illegal depending on who you ask.”
“See? She gets it!”
“Enough, Vian!”
Nia hesitantly pulled the glowing stone out of her pocket and tapped Arra’s shoulder. “Could you hold this for me? If it glows when you touch it, then, well…you’re one of us. Part of the prophecy.”
Arra raised an eyebrow and took it, noting that it continued to glow.
All had been found.
Shriker stepped forward and took it as well, but it fell dim the moment it ceased contact with any of the descendants. He handed it to Voryn as well but it remained dull. He nodded, as if this made perfect sense, and returned it to Nia.
“So we were right in coming here.” Iirkolav muttered to himself. “I was wondering…”
“Thirty.” Onai said abruptly, causing everyone to look at him.
“What?” Nia tilted her head.
“All thirty descendants have been found. Five are dead, leaving twenty-five to kill the remaining nine Hostiles.” Onai crossed his arms. “And more will die along the way.” His eyes flicked from face to face, registering the expression on each of his friend’s faces.
“Cheerful.” Mitven muttered.
“Very.” Zekara agreed.
Shriker clapped his hands together. “Great! I love death. Should we find a place to get you all settled in so we can start planning our next course of action?”
-~-
“So that’s it, then.” Vechs leaned back in his seat. “All thirty descendants have been found, the group has a name, and the south group has a way into the city. Hopefully this will wrap up soon.”
“Hmm.” Aureylian leaned against him. “I hope Onai’s wrong, that other people will die. I don’t think I can take much more of this…”
“Darkness elementalists are rarely wrong, unfortunately.” Blame informed her. “Especially when they’re this in tune with the voices of the shadows…most aren’t.”
Vechs nodded and glanced up slightly as his eyes glimpsed movement. He sighed quietly, not surprised to see Etho pacing behind the couch with his orb in one hand. As time had gone on, he became more and more anxious about whatever fate had in store for Niel, and even Vechs had to admit that he was worried about the young ninja.
Aureylian followed his gaze and privately shared his concerns about Niel, but as she looked into her orb at Adrian, she knew she had more concerns than that with her own descendant. He had occasionally been looking into his bag, as if to reassure himself that Velloh’s candle was still there.
She had a funny feeling that he’d light it again that night, which, while not an uncommon occurrence, was always a disturbing scene to watch.
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Date: Friday, December 18th, 2015 12:08 am (UTC)G.C. (::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)
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Date: Saturday, December 19th, 2015 01:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Friday, December 18th, 2015 01:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Saturday, December 19th, 2015 01:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Saturday, December 19th, 2015 06:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Friday, December 18th, 2015 06:07 am (UTC)Guys . . . Shriker shares Tanadin's outlook . . .
-Anon Cami
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Date: Friday, December 18th, 2015 03:20 pm (UTC)-the lurkiest lurker
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Date: Saturday, December 19th, 2015 01:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Friday, December 18th, 2015 11:24 am (UTC)- Observing Anon
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Date: Saturday, December 19th, 2015 01:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Saturday, December 19th, 2015 03:18 am (UTC)- Observing Anon
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Date: Saturday, December 19th, 2015 04:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Saturday, December 19th, 2015 07:19 am (UTC)-the lurkiest lurker
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Date: Saturday, December 19th, 2015 04:20 pm (UTC)...plus I have a project after this that I really want to get to.
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Date: Friday, December 18th, 2015 03:20 pm (UTC)The Sandbreakers seem awesome. Hooyeah! Can't wait for more. There is the problem that we haven't seen the other group in a while...who knows what's happening there.
(::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::)
-the lurkiest lurker
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Date: Saturday, December 19th, 2015 01:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Friday, December 18th, 2015 04:59 pm (UTC)People are dying
Hostiles are flying
On days like this, decendants like you..
WILL BE LIVING IN HELL.
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Date: Saturday, December 19th, 2015 01:07 am (UTC)with me?
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Date: Sunday, December 20th, 2015 04:13 am (UTC)