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Chapter 6 The Tombstone

The three elemental lords and the two elves studied the large boulder. Ozgoth and Nag were the ones working while the other waited in silence. In truth the others did find it quite boring. For the last hour Nag and Ozgoth had stopped doing anything visible and did just stare on the boulder in deep concentration.

"Perhaps it is time to compare notes," Nag suggested.

"I agree. I have tested all known kind of spells and the spells fails most of the time," Ozgoth said

"I think the artefact anchors reality. It seems to prevent all manipulation of magical forces. Hintai and Eltai do you feel anything weird with our auras?" Nag asked.

"It merges with our chosen forms," Hintai answered while Eltai gave them a very confused stare.

"I would suggest you to be careful. I doubt you can heal yourself like usual," Ozgoth said.

"Silly elf. Eltai heal well," Eltai said and to demonstrate it he used his claw to rip up his arm. The draconian form didn’t have dragon scales but still sharp claws so the injury was severe.

It took a few seconds and the flood of blood didn’t slow down. With a deafening cry the Draconian raised his arm towards the others.

"Me bleeding, burn, burn, I shall burn nasty claw," Eltai cried out but the wanted fire spell failed. Instead he tried to breathe fire but the fire disappeared as soon as it left his mouth.

"Calm down. All you need is to get out of range from the boulder," Ozgoth explained, "Hintai could you follow him and investigate how far you need to go before the effect disappears?"

A while later Hintai and Eltai returned and reported that after ten thousand steps the effect of the tombstone disappeared. Slowly the group did tests and at dawn they had a fairly complete view of the powers of the anchor.

Besides from the range limitation it also turned out to be one more important limit. The planear anchor, the name they had chosen for the artefact, would only stop one spell at the time.

"This last thing is important. It should work great against the Thorgiaden since it delivers the power on one location but my creation Crel Gala, will not be stopped unless one of the source nodes is within range," Ozgoth explained.

"An unfortunate limitation but we must manage. We will need to handle the threat of Crel Gala in other ways. At least our army of elementals will be protected against their prime weapon," Hintai said as they sat in a circle to discuss their plans.

"What army? Your elementals against the Impedia empire! You will be crushed like insects. Even if you managed to recruit all dragons in the world it would still be questionable if you can win," Ozgoth said.

"Eltai, can we expect you to gather the dragons?" Hintai asked.

"They call me mad since I tried to eat Eail-ti-zil-dak’s tail. Try to kill me when they see me," Eltai answered.

"Sounds like a bad situation but I very much doubt the dragons can slay you so it doesn’t hurt to try," Hintai said. Delivering a smile that made Eltai growl in anger.

"To answer your question about what army I must point out that you underestimate the elementals strength. For instance I got a miner people called dwarfs. They are short in length but great in power. If I can convince them to take arms I think they will be very suited to handle battle," Nag said.

"I am afraid my people will not work well. My creatures of water will have great difficulty to survive the hot desert climate in the first place," Hintai said.

"On the other hand your people will be able to carry our troops to Impedia hidden below the surface of the sea," Nag replied.

"You are really serious about going to war against Impedia?" Ozgoth asked with his voice filled with doubt.

"What do you think we should do instead?" Hintai asked.

"I agree that no action will be disastrous if you look at how Mar'raz will gain power with the resources of Impedia at his hands, but a couple of earth elementals against Impedia's mighty army is a joke. The only chance to success is that Mar'raz laughs himself to death when he see your army coming to fight him," Ozgoth said.

"That is why you will go to Fazik to recruit the elves for our cause," Hantilia said. Her long silence had almost made the other forget her but when they saw her standing there with her long now snow white hair flowing in the wind her presence was suddenly not a fact that could be forgotten.

"How could I, I don't share your faith in the strength of the elementals. Do the task yourself," Ozgoth said.

"I will be needed here. My people the H'tlians must be made to understand our place in the upcoming battle. After all the message that you are immortal is hard to believe, also the Planear Anchor will require many hands to be moved," Hantilia said.

"Even if I try they will not believe me. They will think this is some trap by Impedia. They view me as the one who made some of their relatives stay in Impedia when the goddess Fylizia summoned the elves," Ozgoth said.

"He got a point there," Nag commented as he chewed on his straw.

"Hintai, your people will not need guidance in how to make themselves armour and weapons. You will follow Ozgoth to Fazik," Hantilia ordered.

"Who put you in charge?" Hintai said and looked directly at Hantilia filled with defiance.

"Sister, have you noticed that the wind moves through her hair but not ours. I would be very careful if I were you as long as you stand in range of the Planear Anchor. The old man may still be a bit upset on you because of what you said to him before he went to Impedia," Nag commented.

"You mean that Fasroth want her to be our leader?" Hintai asked with her voice filled with scepticism.

"Eltai, what do you make of her hair?" Nag asked in reply.

"White, sacred colour, prophecy says dragons follow white haired, tried for a millennia to change colour," Eltai answered. Everyone including Nag looked at the draconian in surprise.

"Have you made a prophecy? Do you know how to make prophecies?" Hintai finally asked. Eltai was too occupied to look at Hantilia's hair to hear her.

"What are the words of the prophecy? Will the dragon join us when they see my haircolor?" Hantilia asked.

"Don't remember, I fetch dragons, we find out," Eltai said and turned and ran. The others looked after him and far in the distance they saw him turn into a dragon and fly up into the sky.

"I think you should make sure the Ht'lians come to the meeting with the dragons. I am not sure he has forgotten the idea about eating your legs," Ozgoth said.

For the first time since Fasroth had been slain Hantilia smiled, but her face soon returned to the serious determination that had filled it moments earlier.

"It seems I will travel alone. There is a long road ahead for me so I would like to start on my quest. Who knows how long it will take me to find all earth elementals and teach them about weapons and fighting," Nag said with a sigh. As he came out of the anchors radius he merged with the ground and disappeared.

Left by the tombstone was Hantilia and the still unwilling Ozgoth and Hintai.

"You two have one thing in common," Hantilia said, confusion could be seen in their faces, "both of you declined Fasroth's request for help. Never shall it be forgotten but the story only ends there in case you walk away from this quest. The elves must be convinced to join our side now and not later when I have time to go there."

"I would much prefer to go alone, but perhaps you are right that we need to be two," Hintai said.

"In what way would my presence aid your try to convince them?" Ozgoth asked.

"You forget that Fylizia, the goddess of the elves, is part of the same council as Yvlum. She has already turned down the call for righteous war so what speaks for that her people should listen to me when their goddess has said no?" Hintai replied.

"Truth," Hantilia said and looked at Ozgoth.

"Let's bring them truth then," Ozgoth said and made a bow towards Hantilia before he started to walk southwards. Hintai gave Hantilia a long stare and then followed.

Hantilia waited until they were out of sight and then turned towards the Planear Anchor.

"Are we following the plan you set up who knows when?" she asked but the huge boulder just remained unchanging.

"What am I to say when my people the H'tlians get here?" she wondered. The news that she was immortal still seemed unreal to her even while two elemental gods had promised it to be true. How would the rest of the people accept the news when they only had her word for it?

A sense of dread filled her as she thought about the future. First she thought is was only a general sense of uneasiness, but then she saw small dots at the horizon.

"Griffonriders that saw the beam of light caused by the Illuminia spell," she thought. She estimated them to be six riders.

She looked back at the planear anchor, even if she somehow could fetch her people they would not stand a chance to move such a heavy boulder in time. She could still move away and hide to avoid discovery, but that would let Mat'raz's soldiers learn about the planear anchor before the upcoming battle.

Could she prevail against so many airborne opponents she wondered? She directly sensed the answer, a combat against these group of attackers would leave her beyond mutilated. The surviving griffons would feed on the remains of her body.

"There is still time to escape," she thought, yet she could not walk away from this battle. She paused complementing about her thoughts and feelings. She knew that there were no chance she could avoid the outcome of the battle if she fought, but also knew that she must fight the battle. She knew this in the same way that she had known who was enemy at Impedion.

She had heard her healing powers be amazing, if the elemental gods was right she could regenerate lost limbs without magic assistance. Yet what if no part of the body remained? Could she really know if the griffons would leave anything left?

She tried to anticipate if enough of her would remain, after the griffons was done, for her to heal. She had no success at all, beyond the end of the battle when battle crazy griffons descended on her defenceless body there was nothing at all.

"Is it that because I don't need to know or is that it fails since I have no future beyond this battle?" she wondered.

The griffonriders had spotted her, she draw her dagger and clutched it as she moved into her battle stance. They sent magic arrows down towards her, but the planear anchor erased their magic. Hantilia had little trouble to dodge the arrows when they lost their enchanted speed.

Frustrated the attackers loosened their lances and started to make dives against her. The first two believed her to be an easy pray with a little dagger and charged on without much concern for her safety. Hantila dodged the first spear, cut the rider lethally and jumped towards the other. He flinched in surprise and she trusted her sharp dagger through his bronze armour.

Distantly she could hear the cries of outrage and disbelief as the others took evasive flight paths as they evaluated the situation. She landed on the ground as the second rider tumbled from his griffon behind her.

"Surrender and we can negotiate something," a female griffonrider called out from her left.

Hantilia ignored her, she knew that they would not honour any pledges of her safety when they understood who she was and the purpose of the planear anchor.

"You can never prevail against the four of us, why don't give up?" another of griffonrider shouted.

"I am Hantilia of the Ht'lians that snatched Fasroth body from Mar'raz hands in Impedia. You lack the skill to survive combat against me," Hantilia screamed back.

One of them dived in her direction provoked by her words. This one was more careful than the previous ones and did not fly directly towards her but used his lance like a club. Hantilia recognized that he thought magical enchantments would strike her as she parried the lance. With a hint of a smile on her lips she gripped the lance and used it to unseat the griffonrider. He landed with a surprised grunt and Hantilia charged him while he was still lying down. Desperately the soldier tried to use his shield to block her attack, but she knew how he would parry and she stabbed in an angle he had not anticipated.

The moment after she heard griffons screaming as the reminding soldiers came charging from right and left and above her. Learning from the previous mistakes they came at her at the same time and Hantilia only managed to dodge two of the lances. The lance from the left impaled her and she realized she must break the lance to be able to move freely.

The next moment the claws of the griffons cut into her as the two that had missed her with lances crushed her between their griffons. In the general mayhem she managed to kill yet one of the riders, but the other one backed away before she could kill him. The third of them that held the lance that impaled her had locked his lance into a loop on the saddle of his griffon and lifted her up from the ground. Hantilia clutched at the lance in horrible pain as her body weight pulled her downwards.

Desperately she cut at the lance with her dagger and the sharp blade cut enough into the lance to make it snap. Falling down she sensed the second griffon rider passing close and she lashed out with her dagger. The cut she managed to deliver was a minor one, but she knew it would be enough for the griffon rider to lose control and breaking his neck as he fell down.

She landed in horrible agony as the remains of lance hit the ground. For she didn't know how long time the only sensation she could feel was agony. As her head cleared she suddenly felt great pain in her right hand. The hand that held her magical dagger. She lost grip of the dagger as her muscles contracted in pain.

"Not so brave now when you are disarmed," the female griffon rider called out to her. "Why does not my magic items work here?"

Hantilia felt cold metal pressed to her throat and struggled to turn her head so she could see her attacker. She had recovered enough that she could move again. Her own dagger was gone on the ground, but the enemy had one at her side. Hantilia gripped it and stabbed directly, at the same time she felt the enemy weapon cutting into her throat.

The sword of the enemy nearly severed her head. Hantilia groaned in pain as she lost the sense of the body below her neck. She lay there on the ground unable to move when she suddenly stared down into the throat of a griffon. "The griffon will eat my head," was her last desperate thought before everything became pain.