FicWad

Chapter 5 The Hungry Dragon

Shortly after the dragon came up into the air they saw a squadron of griffonriders. They moved in from both sides to cut off their escape but the dragon was much too fast for them. A while later they were thus alone in the air. The velocity of the flight was huge and the wind prevented any form of prolonged talking so they remained silent. Hour after hour the flight continued.

Ozgoth twice had to summon his magic to restore strength to his weary muscles. In front of him Hantilia didn't seem to have any trouble at all.

"/]What kind of life awaits me?[/" Ozgoth wondered. If Mar'raz's madness made him want world conquest would he really accept that his chief spell researcher was out there spreading secret knowledge about Impedia's war capability?

Ozgoth assumed Mar'raz would search for him. He had used his magic to form a shield against scrying eyes but Impedia could afford spending the resources to find him with mundane means. Would it be months or years before Mar'raz men tracked him down if he settled even in the most desolate area of the world? An eternal life of escape seemed like a grim fate.

Finally dawn came and revealed that they were flying over Elrochia in the far north, great wilderness on the border of the arctic sea, only inhabitated by a few enigmatic H'tlian elves. Even the dwarves had shrugged their bulky shoulders when hearing the idea to live so far north.

There were a couple of hamlets spread over the island but their destination was obviously Fasroth's grey marble tower in the mountains. Ozgoth knew the location since he had been on the way there once in his youth looking for knowledge. Fasroth had been gone then, away on some mission connected to dragons. Ozgoth had never bothered to look up the details; that Fasroth had been away two years and was not expected to return until much later was enough for him. He used his by then newly developed magic to search Fasroth's tower from a far. A few magic trinkets were found but nothing that could teach Ozgoth anything so he decided to depart.

Finally they saw the tower. Somehow it looked more worn than last time Ozgoth noticed as they circled around the tower. A thousand of years weather had taken their toll, Suddenly the dragon twisted sideways and dived towards one of the top floor windows.

Both Hantilia and Ozgoth screamed as they saw the size of the window; it was much to small for the dragon. In the last possible moment they felt the scales of the dragon twist under their fingers and they both lost their grip. The dragon had turned itself into draconian, that is dragon in humanoid shape. The draconian crashed through the window and then spread its wings. Ozgoth was not far behind and saved himself by a flight spell.

Hantilia and Fasroth's bodies were not so fortunate and landed hard on the floor, rolling across the room until they hit a large bookcase. With a crack the bookcase broke and hundreds of heavy tomes fell down over Hantilia and Fasroth.

Ozgoth landed and then sprinted over to drag Hantilia out of the debris but she surprised him by rising up on her own legs. Blood flowed from her scalp and her shoulder had been pierced by wood from the bookcase.

"Careful, that looks nasty," Ozgoth said. "Unfortunately I may have researched healing magic but to actually cast the spells requires that you be a priest."

"Thanks, but I don't need it for such a scratch," Hantilia responded and pulled the wood out of her shoulder with a groan of discomfort.

Ozgoth stared at the blood bursting out of the injury, his face going pale. For all Ozgoth knew she should be bleeding to death, a punctured artery was a lethal injury. The flow of blood quickly slowed down until it totally ended. Testing, he sent out his magic to inspect the injury but he found nothing. It was all natural healing but accelerated beyond comparison.

Ozgoth was about to comment on the incredible healing when he noticed that Hantilia's gaze was locked on something behind him. He turned and saw two beings watching them. Neither of them were human or elvish.

One of them was a tall woman with pale blue skin and green hair. Her clothes seemed to be done in some kind of shining miniature scales that clung to her form like a second skin. The other being sat on her shoulder. It was a miniature man clothed in green with a stray of hay in his mouth.

"Friends of yours or Fasroth?" Ozgoth asked.

"Never seen them before," Hantilia responded.

"/]Better safe than sorry[/," Ozgoth thought and around him a shimmering aura of magic appeared. There was weird magic in those two, even while it was weak he didn't want to chance anything.

The blue skinned woman laughed melodically as she pointed at his shield. The miniature man didn't even seem to have noticed Ozgoth's display of magic power.

"My name is Nag and these are my associates Hintai," the little man said and pointed at the blue skinned woman and then towards the dragon that sat in a corner still in his draconian form,"and Eltai who you obviously already have met."

Hantilia was standing relaxed, but in truth it told little. She had already shown that she could explode into action without any preparation. Ozgoth decided to lower his magic shield for now.

"Judging from the power you radiate you are weaker than my lowest acolytes but that is not the case, is it?" Ozgoth asked.

"Differ between the power we could use and what we will use," Hintai with the blue skin replied. Her face was perfectly formed. She smiled at him. Ozgoth smiled back, sending out his magic to remove the signs of the travel from his robe.

"/]What am I doing[/," Ozgoth suddenly realised and with effort he turned his gaze away from her perfect face.

"I am Ozgoth and these are Hantilia of the Ht'lians and the dead loremaster Fasroth," Ozgoth said, trying to recover the initiative. Hantilia was standing silent watching the mysterious visitors.

"We know who you are," the little man that had named himself Nag said. "The old man spoke about you some time ago."

"Did Eltai not call Fasroth for an old man?" Ozgoth mumbled.

"I am indeed talking about Fasroth," Nag answered, slowly chewing on the stray of hay in his mouth.

"You say that Fasroth spoke of me, what did he say?" Ozgoth asked.

"He urged that we had to intervene with the rest of the world again, that the world was headed for catastrophe due to your research," Hintai answered with her melodic voice.

"What was your answer?" Ozgoth asked.

"We didn't want to forsake our oath to not intervene in the state of the world and thus he went alone towards Impedia," Nag answered from his place on Hintai's shoulder.

"Who is this we group you are speaking of?" Ozgoth asked.

"Us three and Fasroth," Hintai answered.

"/They view the dragon as one of them/," Ozgoth observed. He turned to look at the dragon.

He saw the dragon sitting in a crouch behind Hantilia, still in his humanoid draconian form. His reptilian tongue was out in the air, tasting her smell. Suddenly he bent forward and licked her leg. Not a sound was heard even while Hantilia seemed to try to scream loudly as she whirled away sideways. Two steps from the wall she came to a stop, obviously in her combat stance. Her mouth moving but no sound was heard.

Unfortunately the dragon's draconian form was fast and he was not far behind. Hantilia used her knee to hit his throat but it hade little effect. Eltai was over her, slamming her into the wall, claws tearing and teeth snapping after her unprotected flesh.

"/I've got to do something/," Ozgoth realised but he had no spell that would hit only the draconian and still do any difference.

"Step aside and I will deal with the mad dragon," Hintai said. Ozgoth gave a curious glance but he had no idea himself that did not involved trying to wrestle with the draconian.

"Who said mad!" Eltai screamed as he looked up. Hantilia was pinned down on the floor bellow him but he seemed to have forgotten her for the moment.

"I did. Why do you disturb our discussion by struggling with that girl?" Hintai asked smiling toward the draconian but either out of cunning or bad luck the draconian did not look back directly at her.

"I eat legs for bringing them here," Eltai replied.

"What!" Hintai answered. "Totally out of question!"

"Why not? She is Ht'lian, her legs will regenerate," Eltai urged.

"I don't think you can reason with that dragon I think he is m...." Ozgoth said but was interrupted by the dragon.

"You promised to not call me mad!" the dragon roared and pulled in air to breath fire.

"Start behaving," Hintai ordered, "You may not burn him because he could have been on they way to call you mad."

"I will burn them all, I will kill everything, I will rule the whole north point of Kryza Mountains, I will teach them all..." the dragon screamed and the endless tirade continued and continued. Hantilia was struggling to break free on the floor but the huge strength of the draconian held her trapped.

"May I suggest that you don't say that he is mad anymore," Hintai suggested.

"Why does he allow that you say it then?" Ozgoth asked puzzled as he kept the dragon in focus to make sure it did not start to feed on the trapped Hantilia.

"He is not completely insane," Hintai answered, "He knows that I would summon Ztown in case he attacked me."

"Wasn't Ztown mentioned in the rhyme you read?" Hantilia asked from the floor. The silence spell she had been under was finally gone but she was still trapped by the draconian's claws.

"Silence, My food shall not speak," the dragon cried out interrupting the answer.

"Eltai, all the dragons think you are completely insane. I will go to them and tell them that they are right," Hintai said with a business like voice.

"What!" Eltai cried out and finally let go of Hantilia. He came rushing towards Hintai, claws aimed for her throat. A few steps away the draconian looked directly into Hintai's eyes and suddenly green mist extended from them and surrounded him. When the mist disappeared Eltai remained frozen in the air, the claw almost touching Hintai's face.

"He will be very angry when he breaks out of your enchantment," Nag pointed out from his place on Hintai's shoulder where he had been sitting silently the whole time.

"Sorry, my dear, if he bothered you. I am so used to his madness that I hardly react any more," Hintai said and helped Hantilia come up standing.

"I am fine," Hantilia responded, "just a few clawmarks that will heal."

"Good, we need to discuss without Eltai's interruptions. In the worst case scenario Nag will have to beat some sense into his head when wakes up," Hintai said.

"Is it true that you command that shapeshifter who saved Hantilia from Mar'raz?" Ozgoth asked. "It is the Ztown mentioned in prophecy of dawn, isn't it?"

"Yes, Ztown of many shapes is my champion," Hintai answered with a smile on her face.

"The power of that creature is unbelievable. How can it be able to withstand the blast from the Thorgiaden?" Ozgoth asked.

"We made the four guardians with the seal of void magic. To throw magic at Ztown, Marg, Wezar or Scarpia is like using flames to extinguish a fire," Nag answered.

"Are there no weak points?" Ozgoth answered with awe in his voice.

"Even Ztown's powers are limited. After much use of power the champions will need time to rest up before they can use their void magic ability," Hintai answered as she sighed.

"Ztown didn't seem able to destroy the Thorgiaden, but the magic that made your champion, wouldn't it be able to do the task?" Ozgoth asked.

"Most likely it would, but we can't do the magic without the wind part of the seal," Nag answered.

"It all makes sense. You are associated with elements. Nag is earth, Hintai is water, Eltai is fire and Fasroth used to be wind," Hantilia said. She got nods back from Hintai and Nag.

"Elemental gods, you are elemental gods, that is why Mar'raz used a godslayer sword to kill Fasroth," Ozgoth exclaimed."Any lesser weapon would only put out his body but left his soul unhurt. Still I don't get why I have never heard of any of you if you really are gods?" Ozgoth commented.

"At the dawn of time we chose to not intervene with the development of our peoples. We are the elemental lords but we didn't want to direct how our subjects would develop so we hid our powers," Hintai said.

"The unknown magic forces in the mountains around Thor worried you so you constructed the four guardians to act in your place?" Ozgoth asked.

"Very true. That is why we didn't listen when the lord of air asked us to forsake our oath. His claim that it had grown beyond the abilities of our champions sounded absurd. We thought that they would dismantle the Thorgiaden if the need ever came up. Fasroth was the first to pay the price for our stupidity but more will surely follow," Nag said.

"I think an important visitor is on the way," Hintai said.

The moment afterwards a ball of light came flying through the window. It landed on the floor and formed into a man. The room itself seemed to grow mundane and boring as his presence filled the room. He was dressed in a polished leather armour, white clothes and brown leather boots. In his hand he carried an ornamented staff covered with diamonds.

"Welcome Yvlum, god of justice. We had expected you to be followed by the other gods but you do nevertheless grace us with your presence," Nag said as he nodded towards him.

"I thank you for the greeting, little one, but fear that I bring a sad message to you," Yvlum said and the whole room seemed to tremble from the sound of his voice. Nag closed his mouth with a look of contempt on his face.

"Spit it out then," Hintai suggested.

"The gods of Finatchia have heard your request that we should make war against our brother Mar'raz and have decided to cast it aside since it is foolish," Yvlum said.

"Why?" Hintai asked.

"Impedia is the strongest country on whole Finatchia so to attack it is madness. If Mar'raz indeed has fallen to chaos, like Ma’Meth and Orniuk fell before him, he will send his armies out and we can defeat them away from Impedia where Mar'raz powers are just a fraction of what they are so close to the bulk of his worshippers," Yvlum replied.

"You can't be serious. Mar'raz mustn't be allowed to build his power base any more," Ozgoth objected.

"Great suggestion from the one that armed the Impedia empire. You may want to watch as your Crel Gala spell kills our servants and leave us powerless in the hands of Mar'raz. To makes things worse add what the Thorgiaden can do," Yvlum answered.

"The god is truly mad. I felt his mind when he tried to turn me to his side. You can't just ignore taking action against the threat," Hantilia said.

"Our decision has been made. The gain is too small compared to the danger," Yvlum said.

"What if Ozgoth can develop a countermeasure for the magic you spoke about and Eltai, Nag and I join the battle?" Hintai asked.

"If you think that countermeasures are possible it only raises the reasons for us not to rush to an early death at the gates of Impedion. As for help from you three I think you overestimate yourselves. You gave helpful assistance when we constructed the wheel of balance but your petty powers don't make you into real gods," Yvlum said. His last words made both Nag and Hintai furious but it was Nag who reacted on the insult.

He jumped down from Hintai's shoulder and as he landed the foundations of the tower seemed to tremble. In some way Yvlum's presence that had filled the room had been pressed back to a small area around him.

"You dare to speak about petty powers when you try to use simple glamour on us inside the tower of air. We were asked to be anchor points for the wheel of balance since you believed us to be weak, far to insignificant too pose any threat to you. We did agree but not for the reasons you thought. Be gone from all elemental places of power until you have understood that we must take this battle now or face death later," Nag shouted and Yvlum's earlier display of power was nothing compared to the glow that surrounded Nag. Step by step Yvlum was forced towards the window as he tried to resist the powers Nag sent out to send him away.

"You have more power than I could dream of, little elemental lord, but our reasoning stands firm. Let Mar'raz be the one who makes the first move!" Yvlum called out and dissolved his body and left.

"Was that a smart thing to do?" Ozgoth asked with an unsure voice.

"He didn't have authority to change the decision and in this way he at least will bring back a rumour that will disturb them greatly," Hintai finally replied.

"The problems are that they could decide that you can deal with it yourself now when you have revealed your full power," Hantilia commented, her voice somehow telling that it was more than just speculation.

"Something that is definitely not true without the aid of Fasroth. We can neither stop Crel Gala or Thorgiaden on our own," Nag said and sighed.

"/Stop Crel Gala. Like that would do anything. Shall they storm the gates of Impedion themselves/?" Ozgoth thought.

"Are we sure that there is no way to save Fasroth?" Hantilia asked.

"It is just to look at the body, he was hit by a chaos blade. The fragments of his soul are shattered and will not be able to reform on this plane as long as one of the old chaos gods MaMeth, Orniuk and the new one Mar'raz remain alive. It is the only known way to kill a god permanently," Hintai answered.

"It is ironic. If it had been anyone else you four could have used your void magic to undo the soul damage," Ozgoth commented.

"What do you mean?" Nag asked surprised.

"Ztown could dissolve the magic pattern of the chaos blade, from my current understanding Ztown does that by using your seal of void magic. Ztown is probably not able to affect Fasroth's condition because the chaos god's magic is working on world wide scale. Your ritual on the other hand would not have that limitation," Ozgoth answered.

"Are you saying that the sword that did this has been destroyed?" Hintai asked.

"Would that change anything?" Hantilia asked at the same time as Ozgoth nodded.

"In truth I am not sure but I didn't think our champions would be able to do such a thing, we definitely lack needed knowledge. Do you think this changes anything?" Hintai asked Nag who had sat down on the floor deep in thought.

"Nay, even if one of our champions did undo the godslayer effect on the body it would be slain again when the champion left. That is ignoring the problem how to the godslayer magic would prevent us from assembling the soul," Nag said.

"Are gods eternal?" Hantilia asked, remembering her strange discussion with Fasroth in Impedion. All the others looked at her in surprise.

"What do you mean?" Ozgoth asked.

"In Impedion Fasroth talked about truly ever lasting things. I didn't make any sense of it but I remembered it now when we talked about healing since he used a cut of leg that regrows as an example of something that would be eternal."

"What a fancy thought. If there did exist a thing that was truly eternal we could use it as a focus point in a ritual. The person doing it would need to be connected to Fasroth in life so his soul could find it but the ritual of repetition would do the task. The scattering of the soul could be undone temporary," Ozgoth mumbled to himself.

Hantilia didn't react on what he was talking about but Nag and Hintai stared back on him in surprise.

"How could an eternal object make any difference?" Nag asked.

"Any normal object would break and expose the user to the power of the chaos blade magic which would intercept the magic. Enough talking about this since there don't exist any such objects. The thought itself is ridiculous," Ozgoth answered.

"It can't be a coincidence that Fasroth spoke to Hantilia about this. He must have foreseen something like this would happen," Hintai said, her voice filled of awe.

"Do you know what Fasroth was talking about?" Hantilia asked.

"Hantilia are you aware that you will not ever die?" Nag asked.

"Sure, all elves live forever," Hantilia answered.

"No, not like that. Ozgoth here could live for aeons but violence can at any point end his life and he will in time be reborn as a high elf again. You on the other hand will not ever die," Nag said. Hantilia and Ozgoth stared back at him confused.

"Are you saying that she would survive if her head was cut off?" Ozgoth answered with scepticism filling his voice.

"Lesser injuries like a cut off leg is known to regenerate but it has never been attempted for a head. Anyway it is believed that even if the body of a Ht'lian is killed the soul will remain undamaged with full memories. Given enough time the Ht'lian will take form again just as a god would do," Hintai said.

"How come the Ht'lians have this incredible gift?" Ozgoth asked.

"Who would give something like that?" Hantilia mumbled.

"Fasroth used to speak about the matter. He believed that you were of the same kinds as the gods but with less power and more durability. He said that the creator must have sent you to balance the error that made the gods susceptible for the corrupting chaos force. All this is speculation but since your bodies borrow form from his people it makes sense that his thoughts are valid. Ozgoth, we can verify that she is eternal in every important sense. How would this ritual work?" Nag said.

"I devised it after an important human researcher died. The ritual will gather the soul again and allow it do its part of the ritual. We used it a couple of times but the whole soul must be in range. If anything is missing the end result will turn out corrupted with catastrophic results for the ritual," Ozgoth told.

"Ozgoth let's do this," Hantilia urged.

"No, the risk is too high," Ozgoth replied.

"It won't heal him but with Fasroth's soul joining us we could unleash the seal of void magic on the Thorgiaden," Hintai suggested.

"What good will it do even if it works?" Ozgoth asked."Thorgiaden increases Impedia's capabilities but not by much. The only thing we can be certain of after perhaps destroying or damaging Thorgiaden is that Impedia will put every resource they have towards taking us out."

"It must be done. Do it!" Hantilia ordered.

"This could be very dangerous. If we fail to gather the whole soul of Fasroth in time none may tell what will happen, dead beings can have rather confused souls," Ozgoth warned but just one look at the others told him that they didn't care.

"Let's do this. I will calm down Eltai so that he can do his part," Nag said.

"I think we should perform the magic outside the tower so that we don't get any interference from magic items around here," Ozgoth said and walked towards the stairs.

Outside he walked around until he found a flat surface that could hold the needed inscriptions. Carefully he started to inscribe the runes in the soft ground.

"/Could Hantilia really be some kind of god/?" he wondered. Somehow it seemed weird and fitting at the same time. The Hantilia that had visited his study or her reaction when Eltai attacked her seemed very far from a god but at the moments when she seemed to know the future she was indeed scary.

Ozgoth looked up as he heard a roar of anger coming from the tower. Hintai must have released Eltai. The moment after the top of the tower exploded in fire. Judging from the sounds Eltai had taken his dragon form again and tried to crush Nag and everything else against the walls.

There was occasional sounds of things being crushed until the side of the tower exploded and the dragon came falling down. It was not a graceful fall, Eltai had been thrown through the wall.

The miniature form of Nag jumped after Eltai. His green clothes torn and burnt but otherwise he looked unhurt. He landed on Eltai's head and the impact was so great that the head was slammed down into the earth.

Ozgoth stood watching the scene with an open mouth. Finally Nag came levitating up from the hole left in the ground. The hole was to deep for him to climb up.

"Everything all right?" Ozgoth asked.

"He is just being stubborn. I will need to shake some sense into him," Nag answered, gripped Eltai's claw and lifted. Obviously the miniature man found it troublesome. He could lift without much difficulty but the dragon's body was far to bulky and it did just roll over.

Cursing Nag moved around and gripped Eltai's tail and pulled. With a rumble Eltai's head was dragged up from the hole where Nag had pushed it before. Eltai got hisconscious back and twisted around so that he could reach Nag.

"You already know I doesn't taste good. Promise to behave and I will not beat you again," Nag threatened.

"Unfair," Eltai grumbled but it was clear the dragon god had given up the thought to continue the fight.

"Join us in the ritual of void to deal with the Thorgiaden," Nag urged.

"Why?" Eltai responded.

"Because it will make Mar'raz, that killed the old man, angry," Nag said. Eltai responded with a long evil sounding laughter.

Hintai and Hantilia appeared a short while later with the materials Ozgoth had requested they assemble from the tower. Hintai was obviously afraid of Eltai attacking her but this fear seemed to settle as Eltai was totally occupied with chuckling in a sinister way and cursing Mar'raz name.

"Follow my example and keep the Thorgiaden in your mind as you move around the circle and recite the runes found there," Ozgoth commanded and everyone started. Eltai had some trouble to focus but he made it up for by the magic energy he put into the ritual. Hantilia and Ozgoth handled their part in union. She may be a klutz when speaking about forming complex spells but her ability to mimic his movement was incredible.

"/Seen once and Ht'lian become master at any craft/," Ozgoth remembered. The old proverb seemed to be true outside the scope of the magic realm.

Nag and Hintai backed up by Eltai handled the more complex parts of the ritual that would invoke the seal of void magic so Ozgoth and Hantilia only had to focus on their part. If successful Fasroth himself would do his part of the real ritual being done.

After an unknown number of hours the last sibil was said. All stood waiting but nothing happened. A brief flash of magic had risen from the magic circle but the only visible change that had taken place was that Hantilia’s hair had turned white as snow. It did almost glow in the pale shadows of the evening.

"All this work and the only result is changed hair colour on the girl. We should have delivered a blast that erased the Thorgiaden," Nag said deep in thought.

"Could we be to far away to hear the blast?" Hantilia asked, clearly confused.

"We would have sensed the released magic. The Thorgiaden is far to powerful for it to be destroyed silently," Hintai answered.

Ozgoth thought about something to say but didn’t come up with anything. The whole thing felt unfair. His reasoning was bound to be correct. The only possible explanation was that they had not managed to gather all of Fasroth’s soul but everything had been looking good. He could have sworn Fasroth's spirit had been there inside Hantilia in the middle of ritual, drawing power from the rest of them to do something unknown.

"Nay, bad aim," Eltai said and pointed upwards.

They all looked upwards and saw a shinning light approach them.

"What kind of thing is that?" Ozgoth mumbled.

The moment afterwards his question was answered when a gigantic beam of light descended and hit Fasroth’s tower. It happened so fast that they had no chance to react and they all screamed as a storm of small stones rained over them.

As their vision slowly returned back to normal they saw that only a pile of rocks remained of the great marble tower.

"Why did Fasroth use his Illuminia to wipe out his tower," Hintai mumbled as she summoned her magic to remove all traces of the explosion from her person.

"I understand why he got the title lightbringer. What an awesome power," Ozgoth mumbled in awe.

"The lord of air invoked his master magic to blow his tower to dust," Nag said, shaking his head in confusion. He then suddenly sniffed, some volatile scent reaching him.

"I don’t think it was a mistake. What I felt from Fasroth seemed so focused. I think he very much intended to blast his tower," Hantilia said.

"Let’s investigate. Don’t you sense how the earth itself trembles from what lies there," Nag said and walked closer. The others followed. Every piece of the tower had turned into fine sand except one single large boulder.

It was around seven meters in length and two meters wide. The surface was covered in gigantic spikes. The only flat surface was on one of the fronts were a piece of text was inscribed. They all walked closer and read the inscription.

"This is a memorial plate over Fasroth, lord of the elfs, that died by the hands of the god Mar'raz. May his spirit guide us and let us prevail over the forces of darkness that awaits us at Impedion," the text read.

"That is a huge tombstone," Hantilia mumbled.

"Don’t you sense it? The object is pure power manifested. Fasroth gave it to us to be used against the Thorgiaden," Nag said.

"It would help if I understood what it did," Hintai commented.