FicWad

Chapter 7 Beyond the Borders of Civilisation

"Is this really the best way?" Ozgoth complained.

His mood had started bad and only turned worse. For hours had he been following Hintai who didn't seem bothered by the hot humid air or all the insects. The sight forward was blocked by the gigantic trees that surrounded them. Fazik was indeed different from the dry desert Ozgoth was used to.

"Yes, it is. I used to travel here before Fyliza choose this to be her home," Hintai answered for the moment lost in ancient past.

Another bug bit Ozgoth and with a curse he used a magic spell to burn all nearby insects.

"Good progress, if you repeat it a million times that beautiful bird will not have anything to eat," Hintai commented without looking back.

"Be silent and find our way out of the forest soon. I was only taking revenge on the bug that bit me," Ozgoth answered with a sharp tone in his voice.

"We will soon be there. Look it's time for the morning rain," Hintai said and laughed happily. Ozgoth remained silent.

"Shall you not raise a force field to protect yourself from the rain?" Hintai asked, smiling when she saw the sour look on Ozgoth's face.

"I need to save my strength. I have burnt many bugs today and a little rain has never harmed anyone," Ozgoth answered. Hintai didn't even bother to answer but ran forward laughing.

Ozgoth sighed and followed. They came climbing upwards for a hill and it was not until the down pour of rain increased manifold that Ozgoth realised that they had left the forest. In front of them there were a huge city and Ozgoth just stared at it in confusion.

None of the streets were straight and the whole layout of the city hinted that it had been made to resemble leaves instead of being practically straight. Still Ozgoth was awe-struck. In his mind he had interpreted Hintai's talk about a city as some group of hamlets, but it were indeed real houses made from stone and wood. It was not white marble as in Impedion with tall towers and large squares but nevertheless beautifully designed houses covered in art and statues.

"How can this be?" Ozgoth mumbled.

"Did you really think your high elves relatives that answered Fylizia's call to come here would sit here idle for three thousand years without building anything?" Hintai asked.

"How many elves are living here?" Ozgoth asked.

"A couple of thousand high elves and a smaller group of woodelves live her all the time. Most of the woodelves just come here when they need to trade or when they want to visit Fylizia's temple," Hintai answered.

"Is the temple the great building there in the middle?" Ozgoth asked.

"No that is the queen's palace," Hintai replied.

"Queen! When did the elves start to have kings and queens?" Ozgoth asked.

"When Fylizia asked them. Inanimare was chosen to be the queen and lead both her own people, the woodelves, and the high elves," Hintai answered.

"No surprise I guess. She was one of the leading voices for the woodelves when Fylizia asked them to leave Impedia," Ozgoth commented.

"Get ready to meet the meeting committee," Hintai said and pointed to a group of elves walking in their direction.

"How come that they know we are here?" Ozgoth asked perplexed.

"Their rangers have been following us for hours hidden by their magic," Hintai replied.

"How did the woodelves manage to learn magic?" Ozgoth mumbled puzzled.

"The Ht'lians came here and gave them the means. They had with them a book named ‘Splitting Magic Into Three Realms’," Hintai answered.

"My book about splitting magic," Ozgoth mumbled, "I dropped that research because of the limitations in possible power. Why would they want to use that?"

The group walking towards them had come closer but their features were still hidden by the clothes protecting them from the rain.

"The limitations also gives benefits. If your mighty spells fails you can by mistake level buildings while theirs at most will hurt themselves," Hintai answered.

The group was coming and they did thus drop the discussion. Unsure Ozgoth and Hintai waited as the leader stepped towards them.

"Greetings Ozgoth and your mysterious guide even while the signs tell us you bring ill news to us," the elf said and Ozgoth recognised the voice.

"Uncle Akandel!" he exclaimed and was proven right as the elf removed his hood.

"An unexpected event that you would come to visit us relatives here in Fazik. I never thought you would come here," Akandel said as he made a formal bow.

"May I present Akandel, the sage. One of the original elves," Ozgoth said towards Hintai.

"A pleasure to meet you. I am Hintai," Hintai said.

"I must say that you puzzle me lady. I thought that I knew all races on Finatchia's surface but I have never heard about anything with a skin like yours. Anyway, like I said your arrival does mark the beginning of bad times but the Queen still welcomes you to the capital of all elves," Akandel said.

"Don’t blame the messengers that brings truth. On the topic of race I can only say that I am my own. There shall never be anyone like me," Hintai replied.

"You intrigue me. Still the queen waits so we must save that to later," Akandel said and the group started the descent towards the elven capital.

A while later they were inside the queen's palace. In front of them a large gate awaited them. Slowly it opened into the royal throne hall. At the centre there was a wooden throne. The throne itself was beautifully carved but not really grand. At least not until you considered Inanimare sitting there.

In a blink of an eye any thoughts about her not being a true queen was gone from Ozgoth’s mind. It was a queen waiting there for them. A queen that had despised him a lot before she became queen.

"Welcome to my kingdom Ozgoth and mysterious stranger," the queen said. The sigh of awe from the other people assembled when they heard Ozgoth's name alerted the two visitors that there were other elves assembled too.

"I am Ozgoth, refugee from the evil Mar’raz and equally evil Impedia thanks you for the welcome," Ozgoth said. Hintai's response was shorter, "I am Hintai."

"I can not believe it, Ozgoth admits Impedia as wrong. Please somebody check that the sun still moves," Inanimare replied in a sarcastic tone.

"This is no time for jokes. Great trouble awaits us," Ozgoth replied.

"Are there more of your comrades that are willing to admit it was a folly to not answer Fylizia’s summon?" Inanimare asked.

"I didn’t like her proposal then and I don’t follow Fylizia now. This is about a different kind of evil than your dislike for the science of magic," Ozgoth answered, struggling to swallow his irritation.

"Have you thought about the fact that Fylizia made me queen of all elves?" Inanimare asked.

"I don’t care what Fylizia claims you to be. I don't follow her as some kind of loyal devotee," Ozgoth retorted angrily.

The elven queen gave Ozgoth a stare that promised he would regret those words but it was Hintai that replied.

"Fasroth approved she be made queen of all elves," she said.

"Fasroth, the sage from Elrochia, what does he have to do with anything?" Inanimare asked.

"Everything, the elves should woe since he has been slain by Mar’raz hand," Hintai replied.

"Has master Fasroth been slain?" Akandel asked from somewhere in the background.

"Yes uncle," Ozgoth replied, "Fasroth revealed Mar’raz’s true nature, that he has joined force with the chaos gods. The mad god killed him to cover the fact. Fortunately I and Hantilia of the Ht’lians escaped with direct and indirect help from Hintai and the dragon Eltai."

"You did not answer my question. What have the sage from Elrochia to do with me being queen of all elves?" the queen asked, her voice rang with authority.

Ozgoth was on the way to answer when he sensed something of magic form behind him. He twisted just in time to see an elven goddess, without doubt Fylizia, materialise out from thin air.

"It displeases me much that you have come here even while you know my answer to your pledge to assist you against Impedia," the goddess declared. Around the hall most elves where down on their knees.

"It graces us that you have come in person, but there is no need. We have seen the signs you showed us and will not be fooled by this blue skinned woman. Instead I intend to try to learn as much as possible from them so that they shall not return later claiming to have new facts," the queen replied.

"You don’t want them to learn about Fasroth, do you?" Ozgoth asked. His tone was sincere but hidden in him was rebellion. Fylizia’s display of magic glamour made it simple to suppress that feeling. She radiated more raw powers than he himself ever could hope to handle. Of course he doubted that she would put the powers to real use. He had more than one spell that could penetrate her defenses.

"It is of no importance what Fasroth may have been. More important are that you don’t trick my disciples with falsehood," Fylizia answered. Around the hall the assembled nodded in agreement with the wisdom of the goddess’ words.

Ozgoth studied Fylizia in silence. The situation seemed grim, it would take extreme luck to manage to convince the Fylizia followers the goddess was wrong if she did counter everything he tried to say before he was finished. In truth the goddess herself may even be unaware of what her magic aura did to her followers.

"Are you ready for a gamble?" Hintai’s voice asked inside his mind. Ozgoth gave her a gaze that told her to continue.

"I have an idea. Fylizia doesn’t understand my strength. I could trap her with my gaze and prevent her from intercepting your try to make the elves join us," Hintai transmitted.

"What is the catch?" Ozgoth asked.

"When Fylizia breaks free she will be very angry. If you can manage to move enough of her followers away from her that she is seriously weakened I will escape but else I will have to fight her," Hintai replied.

"Even if this succeed I will be travelling with her followers and thus be in danger of facing the goddess with full powers," Ozgoth commented.

"Elves are stubborn. They will be reluctant to return even if Fylizia claims she has changed her mind. I don’t think Fylizia will want to admit that I controlled her action here so the arguments for them to abandon their cause will be weak," Hintai transmitted.

"Do it!" Ozgoth replied after a few moments of hesitation.

Fylizia was standing in the middle in the hall, beaming in front of her followers when her gaze was captured by Hintai’s. Not a visible difference could be seen on the goddess but Ozgoth could sense that Hintai was using her full powers. Hintai’s eyes, were deep, very deep, with an effort of will Ozgoth turned his gaze away before he too was under Hintai’s spell.

"The truth is that Mar’raz has turned into a chaos god like Ma’Meth and Orniuk before him. He did slay Fasroth since Fasroth had understood the truth. He must be defeated before his power grows any stronger. Fylizia speak up if you disagree with the facts presented," Ozgoth declared.

Fylizia made a gesture of resignation and remained silent. Only the silent movement of Hintai’s lips as she ordered Fylizia around revealed anything suspicious was going on.

"I must be honest with you," Ozgoth continued, "We are not here to recruit you for some noble struggle where everyone assemble to party at the end. This will be war like not any seen before. If some of us still live at the end we are victorious, if not Mar’raz has won."



"Who are these we you are speaking about? Who leads the army that you want to assemble?" Inanimare asked.

"Messengers have been sent to all elementals. With luck the elementals of water will be able to bring them all to Impedia to launch a surprise attack. The leader will be Hantilia of the Ht’lians," Ozgoth answered.

"What does this have to do with us elves?" Inanimare asked.

"Have you never wondered why we hear talk of fire, water and earth elementals but never air," Ozgoth said, "The answer is quite simple. We are the air elementals."

"Can this really be true?" Inanimare asked Fylizia. Instead it was Akandel that answered.

"We used to talk about this possibility when our people first emerged. The dragons, that obviously are fire, sent a delegation to greet us and told us that we would have to go to the ocean and welcome the creatures awakening there. We thought they would live on the coast but it turned out to be the seeliving Kreóthians and Scar´diacs. These then went out to see to bring the greeting to creatures awakening in the depth of the ocean," Akandel told.

"Will you ever get to the point?" Inanimare asked.

"The point is that we know gnomes, gnolls and similar are creatures of earth. The eldest of that race is rumoured to have come to greet the dragons, that we know are fire. The water is likewise simple to fit in. The question remaining is thus who else than us can be the air elementals," Akandel finished.

"Another good supporting argument is that the elves got the same kind of innate magic as the other elementals," Ozgoth said.

"Good, for now I will accept that we are air-elementals. Still I can’t see the need for us to join this war. Even if Fylizia doesn’t forbid this war she neither does encourage us to join," the queen said. She gave the goddess a glance as she said the last words. She got a distinct nod back.

Ozgoth was instead looking at Hintai. He didn’t like how her skin had started to look dehydrated. Obviously the task to control Fylizia’s body was fast emptying her reserves.

"I understand that my advice to head for battle at Impedia doesn’t sound very convincing. You can’t stop wondering if this is some kind Impedia trap or if I have personal reasons for revenge," Ozgoth said.

"I assume you got an reply to the question too, else you have just convinced me that I can’t trust you," Inanimare said with a dry tone in her voice.

"I ask you not to come to Impedia but to travel to Elrochia to speak to the Hantilia of the Ht’lians. She has done mental combat with Mar’raz and can tell the direct reasons why you can’t be idle. The words of the Ht'lians still carry weight here, does it not?" Ozgoth asked.

"Should we accept his suggestion?" Inanimare asked. Hintai made Fylizia nod in approval.

"None must remain. All elves must assemble at Elrochia," Ozgoth said. Inanimare gave him a gaze of disapproval for interrupting, but let this disappear when she saw that Fylizia with a bit sad look in her eyes agreed to this too.

"Some of the guards must remain to guard the queen," somebody in the audience called.

"I will be going too. Everyone should include even me," Inanimare said.

While Hintai and Fylizia seemed to whispering to each other the queen issued orders to prepare the people to travel. A short while later she and everybody else departed the hall. Left were only Hintai and Fylizia.

Suddenly a scream of rage came from Fylizia. From her fingers bolts of fire launched towards Hintai. They went directly through the body, revealing it to be a fake.

"How dare you lowborn creature control a goddess like me," Fylizia shouted.

"That is firstborn not lowborn, young fool. We the elemental gods was here long before you human gods appeared," Hintai answered in a mocking voice. Fylizia hit back with a barricade of power but yet again she hit nothing.

"I am no human goddess but a elven one," Fylizia spat back.

"In time you will be, provided we can throw Mar’raz out of Impedia," Hintai promised.

"Your mission here will be a failure. I can easily fetch my followers back," Fylizia boasted.

"You will reveal to them that I had the power to subdue your will? We see about that," Hintai commented laughing by the doors. The laugh ended fast when she discovered some kind of magic force prevented her to leave. She whirled around uncertain. Had really Fylizia hidden such spell from her.

"I don’t think you will," Fylizia said, "you die here."

"I am Harinda, goddess of life and death. You will not leave until the combat is decided," a voice behind Hintai said and Hintai did not doubt it was Harinda outside the force field.

"You seem taxed by your nasty use of magic on me, but so am I," Fylizia said. "Harinda did you bring somebody to do the fighting?

"That would be me," an authoritative voice said.

In front of Hintai a male god took form. Covered in shining armour and armed with Falchion and sceptre.

"Blue skinned witch, it seems you shall fight Haz’kta, god of fighting and combat magic," Fylizia said. A tone of glee creeping into her voice.

"You must not do this, let me go unharmed," Hintai pledged as she started to tremble.

"I challenge you on mortal combat. I will cut your body into pieces and bind your soul on the most horrible place," Haz’kta stated as he entered his combat stance.

"No, you don’t understand. The consequences if your bodies are slain will be horrible. At Impedion…" she said but ended talking when the Falchion came trusting for her neck.

"You think you can slay me?" Haz’kta cried out laughing as he rushed forward. Hintai moved away but exhaustion slowed her enough that she was not clear from the wide arc of the sceptre.

The force when the weapon barely touched her was so great that her body was lifted like a ragdoll. Further injury was caused as she crashed into the throne. Dizzy from pain she tried to speak but failed. All she could focus on was the sound of the warrior god's footsteps as he stepped closer.

"Please plead for mercy as I run my Falchion through your throat," Haz’kta ordered.

"Do it cleanly, please," Fylizia urged. Behind her Harinda also complained.

"Can you hear the roll of waves speaking about your doom?" Hintai mumbled listening to the sound of the water element. Haz’kta and the others looked at her confused.

After some hesitation Haz'kth raised his Falchion to strike when Harinda spoke, "There are someone of great power approaching!"

"I got a bad feeling about this. Kill her now!" Fylizia commanded as she noted that the floor had started to vibrate.

Moments afterwards a bird came flying through one of the windows. Harinda screamed as her locking ward was brutally pierched by the bird.

"Ztown, kill them," Hintai ordered.

To his defence it shall be said that Haz’kta managed to raise his weapons to try to protect himself. In the end it made little difference as she bird grew into a dragon and crushed the warrior god between its claws in a gigantic slam.

Fylizia stumbled backwards mumbling the incantation for a protective shield. The dragon was turned in the other direction, lacking the ability to strike her directly. Fylizia formed her magic to take advantage of the opportunity but Ztown surprised her. The tail, that was a mighty weapon from the start, changed to a more scorpion like form. Not completely but enough to strike out in a weird angle towards Fylizia.

The tip of the tail passed though the protective shield and impaled the goddess. She had the time to look down in surprise before the tail expanded and ripped her apart.

"You will regret this!" Harinda exclaimed. Her body turning translucent as she shifted to the astral plane.

"Stop her Ztown, she will return with more gods to hunt me!" Hintai cried out.

The shapeshifter turned roaring in anger but the goddess was gone.

"It is okay," Hintai mumbled.

Ztown's eyes flashed in blue and over the mental plane an anguishing scream could be heard.

"You found her astral form and ripped it apart. I understand why you scare the others," Hintai said smiling. The shapeshifter was again shifting. This time turning into a small seal.

Ztown crawler closer but then growled, alerting her that somebody was approaching the doors.

Hintai turned, her features shifting into Fylizia's form. Two elves opened the doors and stared in horror on their goddess covered in blood.

"Mar'raz is a cunning enemy. I am all right, just need some rest to recover. Will you tell master Ozgoth that I will trust him to guide the elves to the Ht'lians. You have sixteen days to reach the sea. I have arranged so that creatures of the ocean will meet you there and bring you to Elrochia. Also be sure to tell him that waves protected me from injury," Hintai said with Fylizia's voice.

"High goddess we don't understand your talk about waves but we shall do as commanded," one of the elves said.

"That may be because the words are directed to Ozgoth and not yourselves," Hintai replied and dismissed them.

When they were gone she shifted back into her real form. With a wave of her hands she had the three spirits of the gods in front of her. They where invisible to the naked eye but Hintai could see them slowly gathering the power needed to reform their bodies. Fylizia recovered most for the moment but things would even out when her followers had departed.

"If I really was evil I now could bind your spirits in some place where you have no followers, like you promised to do to me. The truth is I don't have the time. Ztown here defeated all three of you but he can't affect the Thorgiaden. Mar'raz or any chaos god must not have access to such aweapon. I hope we elementals can win so that you must not be made understand the folly of your actions from the screams of your followers," Hintai said.

With yet another wave of her hands the three spirits were dismissed and gone.

"Ztown, I must retreat to Heolion, my place of power, to regain my strength. You must return to Impedia to do battle," she ordered. Ztown gave her a very confused gaze.

"Impedia, a place with evil smelling magic, the Thorgiaden that you guarded is there, evil Mar'raz reigns there," Hintai tried, creating pictures of the things described. Ztown did not pay the pictures any attention.

"I give up," Hintai finally said, "Hopefully you will be drawn there when the enemy start to use evil magic. At times like this I understand why Nag and Fasroth decided to lessen power and increased intelligence in their champions."

With a sigh of relief she dissolved her injured body and turned to mist as she entered the astral plane. Behind her Ztown started to chase its shadow around the room oblivious to the rest of the world.