Shortly thereafter all but the russet wolf departed into the woods, I could now sense them out there, but even with my helm, I rarely spotted them. It was genuinely frightening that beings so immense could walk so unseen and unheard so close by.
Zehal and the russet wolf remained close to each other for the rest of the evening and when I came back from my final patrol of the perimeter I found Zehal sleeping against the russet wolf who was curled protectively around her.I smiled at the sight as I noticed the wolf’s green eyes flickering between me and the treeline.
“Always watching, aren’t you?” I asked it.
I felt an image, a memory projected from the wolf’s mind and I realized it was one of Zehal’s memories. An image of me leaping at the creature that had reached for her in the tunnels, of the lightning in my hands that had burned the creature to ashes.
“Guardian.” I heard the word project from the wolf’s mind to mine, an actual word. “Guardian.” I realized it wasn’t just referring to itself, it was also referring to me, as though I was a member of its pack. Zehal sharing this memory with it had cemented that. What’s more is, I realized it had learned the word from her, she viewed me as her guardian, and now, she viewed the wolves that way as well.
“Well, aren’t we one strange family.” I chuckled as I looked over them.
That was when the wolf's ears flicked to the side and I saw its eyes staring off into the woods. I turned to follow its gaze when a blinding light emanated from that part of the perimeter. My calydris crystal eye lenses prevented any excess light reaching my unprepared eyes so the flare of light didn’t cause me any harm, but I couldn’t say the same for the one caught in it.
I chuckled again as I stood and made my way to the figure currently crouching under the bright flash of daylight that shined down on him as if it were noon day without a cloud in the sky. I saw the figure was carrying something, something it held under itself as if to shield it from the daylight before even itself and this was while I saw its flesh was burning under the withering light. Most curious.
In this moment I felt a temptation, I had the creature right where I wanted him, I could slay him with little effort now, a shalyr in the sun was deprived of most of their powers, left almost totally helpless I could end this now and who would even care that I broke an oath to a shalyr? But even as I considered it, I could not even so much as reach for Talth. My word was my word and it didn’t stop mattering just because I had given it to a creature of darkness.
I released the ward and the world returned to its nighttime darkness. In that moment the shade let out a pent up breath and fell to the ground. I could see what literally looked like smoke rising from his skin where it had been exposed to the light.
“So good of you to join us.” I said. “We were getting worried.
The shade looked up at me, a slight smile curling at his lips. “A clever trap, I didn’t think to look for it. A ward is one thing and I sensed it right off, but hiding earth bound runic warding of light under each of your detection wards, now that is clever. I think I’m starting to like you.” He said.
“I don’t need to be liked by you shade, let us be done with our bargain so you can be on your way.” I said uneasily. This things manner put me off, it was nothing like what I had been taught the shalyr were.
“Very well.” He stooped down and picked up the pack he’d been carrying and as he stood again he came face to face with the russet wolf who had come padding up silently to him. The smile vanished from his face as he stared into their green eyes, what had at first been alarm in his eyes was quickly replaced with fascination and his pack fell from his hands to the ground again as he stared at the creature open mouthed.
“I’ll be…” He whispered as the wolf sniffed him. I half expected it to kill him on the spot, but instead it simply turned and returned to Zehal who was now watching us expectantly from where the wolf had left her.
“Right.” Said the shade, giving me another smile as he recovered his composure. “Well, that doesn’t happen everyday.”
“No.” I replied, still surprised the wolf didn’t at least take a very large bite out of the shalyr before it had simply turned and walked away. “It really doesn’t.”
“So.” The shalyr went on. “A few experiments and I believe we can part ways.”
“Indeed.” I said. “Be advised, I have warded the wagon heavily, one wrong move from you and you’ll cease to exist, understand?”
The shalyr nodded. “I expected nothing less.”
I led him back to the wagon and, after inviting him inside and following him in, I gave a final nod to Zehal who nodded solemnly back before I closed the door.
Turning around I guided the shade to a table inside of the wagon, then I turned and found the chest, opened it, then removed the inner chest. Turning I took it over to the table and set it down. The shalyr was busy opening his own pack, taking out devices that I definitely did not recognize. After he had finished he began to combine several of the devices, until he assembled some odd contraption with a circular indent in the middle that looked like it could hold the Tagarius snugly within it. Asking me to open the chest he began to make small alterations to the device. I did so then picked up the Tagarius and held it gently in my grasp.
Eventually he finished and looked back at me. “Please place the Tagarius here.” He said.
“What does it do?” I asked.
“It is simple really.” The shalyr responded, seeming to actually warm up to my question. “It taps into the potential of whatever object that is placed within it and as I’ve found with most of these artifacts they all have an awakening cycle. Depending on when they were last used and what they were used for they have a cycle in which the potential they have for use peaks and falls, somewhat like the moon in its own cycles, except that the Tagarius and its kin have much longer cycles. This will see where the Tagarius is in its own cycles so that I can start to figure out just how long it will take to bring it up to full potential.”
My gut told me he was still being honest with me so I slowly lowered the Tagarius into his device. As it neared the shalyr lowered his head close to where it would make entry, made last second adjustments to the size of the niche the Tagarius would go into before I finished lowering it into place. When it came to rest I heard a low humming sound start to come from his device, followed by a deep sigh from the shalyr who smiled deeply.
“What is it? That sound?”
The shalyr looked back up at me, smiling even wider. “Its good news my friend, very good news!” He clapped his hands together and began to fiddle with even more things on his device. “You see, what it means is that the Tagarius is not only functional but that it is deep into its potent cycle. What we have to tell now is whether it is expanding in potential, or waning. Depending on which will spell out just how long I am with you.”
Watching him carefully I saw just how focused he was, how excited. It was strange to think of it, but he seemed somewhat like a child, with his open excitement and careful study, marking an occasional note down on a paper book he had brought with him that looked like it had seen better days, weathered and worn, the cover looked a little like tree bark.
Finally after what felt like hours he seemed to come to some sort of conclusion. He clapped his hands together and cried out. “We are in great luck my friend, not only is it expanding in potential it is nearly done! I’d say we have a few months at most and then this Tagarius will be at peak potential! I would say that this is a wondrous coincidence but in all my time I’ve never been one to believe in coincidence even in the smallest measure. Afgara has a tune of his own after all.”
I did a double take to hear him refer to Afgara with not only no sign of derision in his tone but outright reverence. That… unnerved me.
He reached down into his pack and began to remove even smaller devices then began to attach them carefully to each other. To my surprise I found these ones to be made of glass, dark glass that was almost black but still somewhat see through. After he was done creating this device it was even larger than the first, seemingly built to occupy the first within itself. Before I could ask what this one did the shade was excitedly speaking again.
“This is my own creation, it’s what I call a Thelz Incrone, don’t ask about the name, it has a deep history that goes back very far and I could spend all night talking about it, just know it has a lot to do with this device because it was one of my greatest creations.”
After he finished with this last statement he took out several more glass tubes, these ones however were not part of the Thelz Incrone, but instead turned out to be vials containing some sort of liquid. When I bent in closer to examine them I found the liquid seemed to actually splashing around the vials of its volition, as if it were a living thing. Repulsed by this I looked to the shalyr for answers. Seeing my expressionless helmet fixed on him again the shalyr sighed as he peered over at the vials.
“Well, this is one thing I wish wasn’t necessary, but for the activation to work, something of absolute darkness must come close to the Tagarius so that the absolute light within it will be triggered.”
“And you’re planning to bring that in close proximity to the Tagarius… and you think I’ll just permit that? Why?”
The shalyr pressed one hand to his forehead and sat back in his seat. “Well, it’s simple really. The stuff contained within these vials is darkness itself and not just any darkness but it is the very stuff that the nether realm is made of, or shadow realm if you will, harvested from deep pools within those dark realms, pools that were said to have birthed the first of the evil creations that were used to invade our realm now.”
“And by bringing it into close proximity to the Tagarius while it is so close to its full activation cycle…”
“Exactly!” The shade crowed! “Just as I am an avatar of darkness so are you an avatar of the light! You were forged to protect, to serve! To enlighten and teach! This stuff was made to pollute and destroy and in its own way is intelligent enough to wish to fulfill its purpose! The Tagarius is no different! It cannot stand to be within the very presence of darkness! The darkness you see within these vials senses the pureness of this realm around it which is why you see it constantly moving, it seeks to pollute and corrupt all around it! As the Tagarius will react when in proximity to such a thing!” He clapped his hands together, smiling joyfully. “So it is by this way that we can activate the Tagarius, but if we can fully awaken it to its full potential! The darkness will be utterly contained within the Thelz Incrone and it will not even be able to sense the Tagarius but the Tagarius will be able to sense it when I release into the Thelz. No danger to the Tagarius, the only danger is to the darkness! Which is one of the primary purposes I gathered it in the first place.”
Listening to the shalyr I became fascinated with his thoughts and wondered ever more so at his purpose and still my instincts told me he was telling the truth, I decided to proceed. Glancing once more at the vials containing that pure darkness, I slowly nodded to him. He moved with haste now, taking each one of the vials and attaching them to the Thelz Incrone. Once they were all connected he then opened the dividers keeping them from entering and their contents began to slowly seep inside. It was at this point that I understood why the glass was so black, what wouldn’t be died so black in such proximity to pure darkness?
When he finally finished he simply sat back and waited. Slowly but surely the darkness seeped throughout each corner of the Thelz Incrone, filling each crevice and cranny but I could almost feel disappointment from it when it filled all the space within and found nothing to corrupt and no way out. I shivered involuntarily as I thought of just how horrible it would be if it had found a way out, if what the shade said was true than this stuff was from the deepest, darkest realms, corruption incarnate. Deciding that when this was over I was going to insist on the destruction of this vile darkness I watched the shalyr precede to his next step. At this point he asked that I pick up the first device containing the Tagarius and carefully while he watched and made adjustments, placed it within the Thelz Incrone. After several painstaking moments, several of which were taken up by him simply asking me to stop right where I was while he made yet further adjustments, the first device finally was lowered perfectly into place.
Afterwards the shade stood and circled the table and I several times, inspecting every detail, every facet, making sure nothing was out of place. At this point he made only three last minute adjustments to both devices; finally he stood back and nodded. “We are ready to proceed.”
“Okay, do it.” I said with a nod.
He smiled. “Let us cast our fates to the wind and hope that we have luck on our side today.” And with that he made one last adjustment to the machine and we waited in silence.
At first nothing happened, the hum from the first device continued, the darkness within the Thelz Incrone continued to bubble and slurp through the glass tunnels, but nothing happened. Frowning, the shade sat back in his chair, running his hands through his hair as a worried look entered his features. His eyes glanced up at me, a look of despair in them. He opened his mouth to speak, but instead of words I heard nothing but a deep rumble enter the wagon and our eyes fell upon the Tagarius again.
The Tagarius itself was indeed almost perfectly clear, yet without really being able to see it we could tell that it was twirling perfectly in place. It was the strangest thing yet I could sense it. Then I saw it, a light within it, seemingly far, far away, but growing closer. Slowly the light expanded further and further, reaching out to us as it did so. I heard a strange sound at this point, I looked up to find it was the shalyr making it. He was laughing. He had gotten up and out of his chair and had now pressed himself against the far wall but he was laughing, hysterically so. As the light increased I could see it was burning him more and more and yet it only caused him to laugh harder. A part of me began to wonder if the shalyr had simply gone mad.
The light from the Tagarius was beginning to become so bright that it was hurting even my eyes despite my calydris crystal eye lenses.
Finally I began to see the light was actually expanding forth out of the Tagarius, expanding further and further. I began to feel somewhat alarmed until I noticed the light began to envelop the Thelz Incrone, encompassing it, as it did so I could see the darkness within the Thelz begin to squirm and writhe as it sensed its imminent demise and was utterly unable to escape it. In its last few moments when the Thelz Incrone was almost completely encompassed I almost felt pity for the writhing darkness being burned away.
Finally the wave of light fully encompassed the Thelz Incrone and in that moment I felt a wavering point. The Tagarius had sensed the close proximity of the darkness, it had sensed something so utterly evil so close to it as to awaken it from its deep slumber, but now it sensed something else, something else dark, not as dark, but nonetheless dark. The light slowly began to expand even more so, approaching the shalyr who even now had his back pressed against the wall of the wagon behind him.
I began to feel a measure of alarm as I reached out towards the shalyr. He had a great deal of answers, answers I wanted, needed even and to let him perish even though he was the opposite of everything I was wasn’t something I could just stand by and permit.
I stood and circled the table, the light not yet full encompassing it but that wouldn’t take much longer. Looking at the shalyr I no longer saw joy in his eyes, but nor did I see fear of pain.
Even as the light expanded further and his exposed skin and even his clothing was truly beginning to smoke I only saw peace on his face.
“Shalyr!” I cried out, using my peoples name for shade out loud for the first time. “How do I tune this thing, the Thelz Incrone so that it will stop the Tagarius from sensing you?”
The shades eyes flickered to mine, a light smile entering his face even as it burned and discolored. “I’m sorry my friend but it’s far too late for that. The path is set and my fate is decided one way or another.” He flinched in pain as the Tagarius began to expand faster and the light became almost palpable. He forced his eyes open again, staring directly at me. “I must tell you, if I do not survive this you should know that…” He trailed off as he closed his eyes in pain
“Shalyr, you must-.” I was cut off as the field of light began to reach me, passing through me. A curious sensation passed through my entire body as I felt all the pain and all the suffering I had ever felt pass away in that moment. I felt strange comprehension, eternity stretched away beyond me in every direction, a void of space with the stars themselves as my kin. The field fully expanded through me and I felt something in my mind, a sensation of something being stripped away… I fell to my knees as I began to feel utterly overwhelmed, my mind whirring, making me feel dizzy.
Through it all I forced my head up so I could gaze at the shalyr. In those final moments I watched as the field of light overtook him, burning first his clothes and then his flesh as it fully encompassed him. I saw his mouth open in a soundless scream, his eyes screwed shut and then every inch of his dark flesh caught in a celestial fire that truly blinded me and I screwed my eyes shut. Finally, I felt the conscious world slipping away from me as I passed into the void
ns 15.158.61.8da2
