Fated (Chapter Sixty-Three)
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Chapter Sixty-Three
Kingdom of Kalt’on, Minecraftia. November 9, year 573. Time instance 483Z.
Iirkolav abruptly stopped, holding up a hand to make the others do so as well. They stopped, except for Nia, who advanced to stand next to Iirkolav. “What is it?”
“We’re here.” Iirkolav answered simply. “Dae’vos, capital of Kalt’on.” He pointed forward, and Nia pulled her eyes away from the older Davion to look at where he was indicated.
“Oh, wow…”
They were on a sand dune, giving them a slight amount of elevation to allow them to see the walled city that stood before them. Dae’vos was huge, just at least as large as Tirisk but smaller than Ahnrak, and it stood out against the sand like a dragon in a crowded city street. The walls were about as tall as Mokdal was long, and they were built from an interesting mixture of stone and sandstone. Towers cropped up here and there along the walls, and guards holding torches patrolled on top of the walls. Beyond the barriers, the city stretched in an organized, block-by-block pattern, with a huge citadel in the center with spikes like the claws of the damned reaching into the sky as if to tear the moon itself to shreds.
“Well, that looks cheerful.” Mitven mumbled. “Where do I sign up for the pep squad?”
“How are we going to get in?” Zel asked, glancing at Iirkolav. “Were these walls unexpected, too?”
“No. I knew these would be here.” Iirkolav frowned slightly. “I hadn’t seen them before, though. I honestly don’t know how we’ll get in.”
“I don’t think my axe can get through that.” Zekara said, sighing. “Damn.”
“I see ballistae there as well.” Mokdal put in, somewhat nervous. “I’m not a fan of that.”
“I wasn’t planning to charge in with a frontal attack, anyway.” Iirkolav crossed his arms. “We’re not here for the Kalt’onians-”
“You’re not here for the Kalt’onians.” Blade corrected. Fate frowned at him.
“…Anyway, we’re here for the Hostiles.”
Onai nodded. “I have an idea. There’s got to be a secret entrance into the city- there always is in cities this old- but I don’t know where it is. If some of us could get close enough to look around…”
“We have no idea where to look.” Marcus protested immediately. “It could be anywhere- around the walls, out in the desert…it might not even exist. The Kalt’onians wouldn’t allow a secret entrance.”
“Ask the shadows.” Katrin suggested quietly. “Won’t they tell you?”
Onai shook his head. “No. I’ve tried, and they won’t even confirm its existence.”
“Great.” Claire muttered. “A wild goose chase for an entrance into the most dangerous place in the world.”
“I think inside an active volcano is a bit more dangerous.” Zekara said mildly.
“Well…whatever!” Claire huffed. “You get it!”
Vian slowly raised a hand. “I think I have an idea.”
Everyone turned to him, and he gulped quietly. “I heard a rumor that there’s a faction of rebels trying to overthrow the Kalt’onian king. Maybe we could enlist their help.”
“How would we find them?” Nia asked, frowning.
Iirkolav’s eyes suddenly lit up with an idea and he turned to Mokdal.
Another brilliant Vexian idea.
“Mokdal,” he said slowly, “Aoxdorren once told me that some dragons have the ability to take on a human form. Are you capable of doing this?”
Mokdal’s green eyes narrowed. “…Yes. Why?”
“I need you to become a Kalt’onian human and infiltrate the city.”
Mokdal immediately shook his head. “No, no, and no again! Absolutely not!”
Iirkolav frowned at him. “Why not?”
“Because it’s horrible and unpleasant, that’s why! I don’t know anything about being a human, and I don’t know how Kalt’onians differ from other humans in appearance! I’ve only transformed once and I don’t want to do it again!”
“Mokdal.” Nia snapped. “This could be our only chance to save the world, and we’re going to fail just because you get squeamish about being a human?”
Mokdal looked down at the sand, tail twitching in agitation. “I feel so…weak. So…vulnerable.”
“You have to try.” Nia insisted. “Come on. It’s worth a shot, isn’t it?”
“If by worth a shot, you mean worth my life, no.”
“We won’t let you die.” Iirkolav assured. “It would be nice if we could send someone with you, though…”
“I am not going in there.” Mokdal growled. “Especially not alone.”
“Mokdal!” Nessy snapped, surprising quite a few people. She wasn’t exactly the most outspoken person in the group. “Are you telling me you’d rather sacrifice the world than risk yourself to find a group of rebels that can help us?”
The dragon shuffled his feet. “No…”
“Then suck it up and do it!” Nessy growled, pupils flickering between human and reptilian momentarily. Mokdal noticed and narrowed his eyes.
“Your eyes and scent are both strange, particularly for a human.”
“There’s a reason for that.” Nessy mumbled, crossing her arms.
Mokdal studied her briefly before snorting. “Fine. I will go, but only if we cannot think of a better solution by nightfall tomorrow. Deal?”
“Deal.” Iirkolav said immediately. “Let’s walk back, a ways away from the city, before making camp. We don’t want to be discovered.”
-~-
Blame grumbled under his breath as he leaned back, looking away from his orb. “I hope these guys reach Kaepravah soon.”
“At least the south group has reached Dae’vos.” Vechs mumbled, setting his orb down as his descendant was asleep. “I don’t know if Mokdal will be able to pull this off, though…shame we don’t have an orb to view him.”
“And that wasn’t an invitation.” Blame said, louder, as if speaking directly to Norazdomu. “No more fucking orbs.”
There was the sound of glass hitting the floor and rolling, and, slowly, as if taunting them, a glass orb displaying Mokdal asleep on the sand rolled across the floor to stop in front of Blame. Attached was a small slip of paper that read ‘Oops’, written in bronze ink.
Blame made a sound halfway between a strangled scream and a groan. Aureylian picked it up and shrugged a little.
“I don’t think this one can hurt, though. No one will be hallucinating about Mokdal trying to kill us.”
Just as she spoke, someone practically kicked the door in. MC almost tripped as he raced into the room, leaping onto the couch between Vechs and Blame.
“Look!”
His orb had lit up, displaying a young man of perhaps eighteen with brown hair and blue eyes.
“Oh no.” Blame whispered.
-~-
The northern group had barely gotten back to walking when a hollow laugh met their ears. Shred’s weapons were out first, but the others weren’t far behind. She turned towards the sound of the laughter and saw one of the most terrifying things that could have possibly appeared before them.
A purple shade hovered in the air, arms crossed. The red in his eyes burned with pure hatred, although a grin was pulled across his face. His lower half thinned into a tail. Beside him stood a familiar, giant tree.
“I remember you.” Samuel muttered, before noticing something else, something he hadn’t seen on first glance: the squirming, panicked human in one of Shara’s hands.
He noticed them and thrashed harder, blue eyes widening. “Help! Help!”
“Let him go!” Tranpar shouted, but quickly had his mouth covered by Tim. The older kid shook his head violently and pulled Tranpar to the back of the group.
“Oh, I don’t think so.” The hollow voice of Specterveil hissed. “You see, we require something from you before we release this boy.”
“And why do we care?” Valkan snapped.
Specterveil’s grin widened and he held up a small object between two of his claws. Samuel’s eyes widened in recognition.
“The stone!” Samuel glanced over his shoulder briefly, realizing that it had been in his bag- the one Altair had taken. As he looked back at Specterveil, the leader of the Hostiles gently touched it to the shoulder of the flailing boy. The stone lit up like a beacon and the descendants paused, realizing the situation they were in.
Not a good one.
“Cease attempting to reach Kaepravah. Turn back and we will spare this other fool of the prophecy.” Specterveil growled. “If you continue on this path, he will die.”
“No way!” Valkan snarled, raising his sword, but Samuel shoved himself in front of his more volatile teammate.
“Wait, hang on! Don’t listen to him, just...we’ll think about it, okay? Give us a day! One day, and we’ll give you our answer!”
Specterveil considered this for a moment before nodding. “Very well. You have until daybreak. We expect your decision then.” His eyes narrowed slightly. “Make sure it’s the right one.”
With a final laugh, he wrapped both himself and Shara in shadow and they vanished.
Samuel growled quietly to himself before starting to pace. “Dang it! I didn’t realize that Altair had gotten the stone… If he hadn’t, that guy wouldn’t have been found. How did I not realize that I had lost it?!”
“We’ll worry about that later.” Adrian told him. “Right now we need to decide what to do.”
“Rescue him.” Niel said immediately.
Shred rolled her eyes. “Obviously. But how?”
“Surprise attack.” Samuel suggested.
“That won’t work.” Shred argued. “They’d kill him before we got to him.”
“Then what do you suggest?” Samuel demanded.
Leave him to die. Shred thought, but she didn’t voice it. The feedback she’d get for that opinion would be…not good.
Samuel sighed. “I figured. Okay. We need to try and get him out of that tree’s grip before she kills him, so let’s figure this out…”
-~-
MC drummed his fingers nervously against the table as he watched his descendant as he was thrown against a rock and tied to it with shadowy vines as Specterveil snapped his claws. He turned to Paw’zelta and crossed his arms.
“How goes the negotiations with Kaepravah?”
Paw’zelta growled quietly and jerked a claw at the hidden cave entrance behind her. “She’s stubborn and it’s been difficult to convince her.”
“No progress, then?”
“No.”
“You need to work faster. Those damned descendants will ruin our plans otherwise…”
“She’s the eldest daughter of a creator! You can’t work quickly with beings like this. She’s lived millions of years and she does nothing quickly. In addition, if I annoy her, she could turn me and everyone I’ve ever met to dust. And-” Paw’zelta paused, narrowing her eyes and glancing at both Arcvain and Shara.
She stepped forward and motioned Specterveil to get closer. She lowered her voice and whispered to him for a moment, leading him to glance around, eyes passing over MC’s viewpoint as if he wasn’t there before landing on the squirming descendant.
“You’re right.” He finally said. “But…we’ll have to make do.” He laughed, then, and his cackling was joined by Paw’zelta.
MC shivered slightly, hating that laughter and hating the memories that came along with it.
no subject
Date: Saturday, December 12th, 2015 07:29 am (UTC)The new orb made me laugh. Especially "Oops." But I'm slightly afraid. The orbs have not been all good. At all. I'm not sure what this new one's going to do.
(::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::)
-the lurkiest lurker
no subject
Date: Saturday, December 12th, 2015 12:28 pm (UTC)Norazdomu said some about the corruption basically screwing with the world, so can't he or Kaepravah just disinigate the hostiles, leaving more time to plan for Iilthrid's awakening? Or is it like 'creators mustn't interfere with mortal matter though we will disinigate you if given the chance'?
(I feel like I'm forgetting so many things . . . Sorry if I missed a giant piece of info that made all this redundant . . . OTZ)
-Anon Cami
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Date: Saturday, December 12th, 2015 01:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Saturday, December 12th, 2015 05:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Saturday, December 12th, 2015 05:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Saturday, December 12th, 2015 05:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Sunday, December 13th, 2015 12:47 am (UTC)(I'm equating the corruption to the world ending.)
-Anon Cami
no subject
Date: Monday, December 14th, 2015 01:59 am (UTC)G.C. (::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)
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Date: Tuesday, December 15th, 2015 03:15 am (UTC)You'll see.