STORMLESS

by

Nick Stitle 

Part I: The Blood Sorcerer 

Chapter 3: The Shadow-Swift

Two years ago…

The cold mountain air was quiet this evening. Frozen winds howled through The Highlands, echoing across the countless peaks around him. There was a sort of silence tonight, a kind of silence that only exhibited itself on nights of bloodshed. A shame, truly.

Lucien had no intentions of killing these men, but the storms did not lie. A few weeks of distant kinship could do wonders to one’s bloodthirst. Lucien had been following these soldiers for quite some time now, though it was only recently that he understood their purpose in venturing so close to his home.

A Silver Sun… Violet wings… Lucien shook his head slightly, pushing the thoughts away.

A half dozen soldiers wandered the slopes of the mountain, aiding their scholars in the search for a secret door. They had spent nearly two months searching The Highlands, uncovering clue after clue. Their investigations had led them to this very mountain, a mere half-mile from Erydon.

The soldiers and scholars alike were unaware of Lucien’s presence, just as they always had been. If they were to find him, they would likely assume him to be an Arvendi spy, and Lucien wouldn’t blame them. The Arvendi had been sticking their nose in Freyfall’s research for almost a decade now, trying to determine what it was that the Northern City found so fascinating about The Highlands.

The Silver Sun glowed solemnly overhead, emanating a soft white light. It was barely enough to see by, but Lucien’s enhanced eyes allowed him to pervade this issue. His heightened vision was a gift of Izara’s, as were all of his abilities. Unsurprisingly, it was these same powers that allowed him to follow the soldiers without being noticed.

At the present moment, Lucien was levitating above the mountain, watching the soldiers through the inky air of The Unbound, peering between Realms. Only Shadow-Swifts could Transcend to The Unbound-a hidden plane of reality that mirrored Auris. It was here that Lucien hid, watching the translucent shadows of the soldiers as they milled about. Lucien could still interact with the real world from The Unbound, meaning that if he were touched he would be discovered; hence why he opted to levitate rather than stand.

“I’m still not seeing anything,” one of the soldiers said in Utryan. “Are you sure this is the right mountain?”

“Positive,” another voice called back. “The writings all point to this location, it has to be here somewhere.”

“Damn scholar,” the soldier grumbled. He spoke softly enough that the other man-the scholar-had not heard.

“Tyrs,” the scholar called, shouting the name of one of the other researchers. “Anything over there?”

Lucien shifted his gaze, allowing his body to drift through the shadowy skies of The Unbound toward the other scholar. He found him quickly, exploring another landing a few dozen feet below.

“Maybe,” Tyrs shouted back. “There appears to be some sort of… oh I don’t know.” Tyrs trailed off. “Whatever it is, there’s something down here. The stones aren’t cut naturally.”

The first scholar, along with the other soldiers who had been on the upper landing, made their way down to Tyrs.

Lucien watched curiously. Indeed, the stones were perhaps a bit too flat for something that was supposedly formed naturally. Strange how these academics picked up on things that Lucien and his kin had ignored for centuries.

One of the men shivered, though Lucien felt only warmth within his black Shadow-Sand armor. The man, who was a scholar judging by his uniform, was approaching a cleft in the face of the mountain. He seemed to take a few more steps, and then he disappeared.

Lucien advanced, dropping to the ground a few feet behind the soldiers.

The man reappeared-the third scholar of the nine-person crew-and started waving the others over. He was saying something in Utryan, but his words were too bent with excitement that Lucien could not comprehend them with his minimal understanding of the language.

The six soldiers and two remaining scholars walked over to the man, who was eagerly motioning for them to follow.

Striding forward, Lucien kept pace. If they had looked back, they would have seen the snow parting to make footprints of a man they could not see. Blessedly, they kept their eyes forward.

Indeed, as Lucien neared the cleft, he found that it was not a cleft at all, but instead a passage. What had seemed to be nothing more than a crack in the ice was in fact the entrance to a small cavern.

Trailing the rear soldiers, he passed through the wide crack, entering the small chamber beyond. The soldiers and scholars stood quietly for a few seconds as Lucien searched for a hiding place.

“Light the torch,” Tyrs said in the darkness.

Lucien backed into the corner nearest to the exit, nestling into the shadows of the small cavern. He raised his eyes as the torch was being lit, his enhanced sight uncovering something remarkable.

The spark caught flame, igniting the end of the wooden torch, revealing the secrets of the chamber.

A large stone door stood at the far end of the chamber, a soft arch lying in place of the upper-right corner. Hundreds of lines were carved into the wall, seeming to flow like rivers across the entire cavern. They twisted and turned relentlessly, passing by strange markings at every junction. Complex symbols were chiseled into the stone door. Runes. The Runed-lines wove themselves all throughout the intricately carved door, each of them linking back to a distinct, square symbol in the center of the construction.

Runes had been forgotten by mankind, though the power that they were imbued with persisted, even centuries after their creators had vanished. These Runes were square, meaning that they served as locks for the door.

“We found it,” one of the scholars breathed. She stepped forward, dragging her gloved fingers along the delicate twists and curves of the Rune-Door. She paused at one of the smaller square Runes, staring at the symbols inside. “All of our work, everything that we have done…”

“It is all paying off,” Tyrs said, tugging at his beard. He took the torch from the soldier, then approached the door.

“I can hardly believe it,” the third scholar said. “We’ve been searching these damned mountains for months, and we’re finally here.”

“Yes,” Tyrs said. “Though now it is simply a matter of getting inside.”

“This is what we practiced for, isn’t it?” the first scholar asked. “We’ve been picking our way into Runed lockboxes for years now, how could this be any different?”

One of the soldiers approached Lucien’s corner, rubbing his eyes. His hands dropped to his waist, his fingers fiddling with his belt.

Don’t do it you damned fool, Lucien thought, willing for the man to turn back. 

The soldier continued forward, seemingly preparing to relieve himself in the corner. He started whistling while the others talked, finishing the belt, unbuttoning his coat, and loosening his pants.

Lucien cursed him silently, readying his Shadow-Sand swords. If the soldier took any more steps forward, he would bump into Lucien. There would be no turning back if that happened. All Lucien could do was pray that he stopped.

The man paused, seemingly having trouble unbuttoning his pants. Lucien let out a sigh of relief.

The soldier chuckled to himself, freed the button, and took that final step.

Lucien closed his eyes, feeling the man’s left foot bump into Lucien’s shin. He knew that he had not misread the winds. The scent of violence was in the air tonight after all.

“Well… shit,” Lucien muttered.

The inky film that coated the world shattered as Lucien crashed back into Auris, Phasing out of The Unbound.

“Arvendi spy!” the soldier screamed. His eyes went wide as full moons.

Lucien grunted, ripping his curved black blade across the man’s chest. Lucien drove his other weapon—one that was shorter, and straighter, perhaps more akin to a dagger than a sword—through the soldier’s throat.

Blood poured out of the wounds, covering Lucien’s pristine armor. The man fell to the ground, slumping across Lucien’s now dark-red boots.

It didn’t take long for the rest of the party to notice him.

“Spy!” someone shouted, but his words didn’t matter, for anyone whose ears they could reach would be dead before the minute was out.

Lucien worked with surgical precision, weaving in-between Auris and The Unbound as he danced through the chamber. He took one man in the chest, using his long-blade to sever the head of another. Phasing into The Unbound, Lucien easily passed through the ax that one of the soldiers swung at him. Lucien dashed forward, moving with inhuman speed through The Unbound before Phasing back to carve through the attacker’s chest.

Lucien sensed the whish of a flying ax, and Phased once again. The weapon passed through him as if he were nothing more than air. Lucien whipped back to reality, sliding towards the man and knocking him down with a swift blow to the stomach.

One of his Crystals emptied.

He was going to have to hurry. Phasing expended a tremendous amount of energy, and if Lucien wasn’t careful, he wasn’t going to have enough power remaining to return to Erydon.

A scholar charged him from the left, wielding nothing more than a dagger.

Lucien plunged his long-sword into her heart, killing her instantly. Blood showered him as he pulled the sword back.

Growling, Lucien hurled himself at the next man, not even bothering to Phase. He expertly avoided the Utryan’s ax, delivering a firm blow to the man’s sternum while driving the other blade through his neck.

Sensing another blow from behind, Lucien ducked. The ax missed, and Lucien quickly stabbed the man in both knees. The soldier dropped to the ground, which allowed Lucien to finish him off with ease.

Lucien rolled to his feet, hurling his dagger at one of the few remaining soldiers while impaling another with his longsword. A cry of fury sounded amongst the screams of pain. Lucien whirled around, facing the final man-Tyrs-who was charging towards him. With both of his weapons lodged in the dying bodies of other men, Lucien was left unarmed… At least, that was what the soldier must’ve thought.

Calmly, Lucien raised his hands, pressing them together as he called upon his divine abilities. Just as the burly man was about to reach him, Lucien opened his fists.

Darkness exploded from Lucien’s outstretched hands. It hit the scholar with a sickening crunch, shattering the man’s bones and flinging him backward. He crashed into the far wall of the cavern and slumped to the ground, unmoving.

Lucien breathed heavily, allowing himself a moment to recover. To his horror he found himself smiling. His sentiments regarding violence had been subtly changing over the past few years… but smiling? Smiling felt wrong.

Either way, what’s done was done. He had been left no choice. He had eventually been caught, and mistaken for an Arvendi spy-just as he had predicted. But he had what he needed. Not only was the party taken care of, but they had led Lucien to one of the most significant discoveries of the last century. Asteros would need to hear about this, whether Lucien wanted to tell him or not.

One could only imagine what was beyond that door. Knowledge that had been lost for over a millennium could finally be recovered. The scholars had been guided to this cave by clues-inscriptions left by the ancient Stonemasters who had colonized these mountains. If the Stonemasters left clues to one of their hideouts, they had likely left clues to all of them.

It was not lost on Lucien how significant this discovery was. Whatever lay on the other side of that door would be felt all across Auris.

The Shadow-Swifts themselves had been searching for chambers like these for centuries, chasing ghosts and following rumors. They had assumed that the fabled Stonemaster Strongholds were nothing more than a myth. But tonight… Tonight, the Freyfallion scholars had found one, and they had led Lucien right to it.