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The snow had begun to die away as Evander and Onyx trudged through the snow in search of their grieving companion. The massive hoofprints of Tolish were close together as it was obvious he had been more wandering rather than walking in any chosen direction. He was lost in his grief and thought nothing of his self-preservation being out here in the frigid forest.
The tracks were beginning to soften around the edges as the snow had been filling them in partially. Evander knew not when Tolish had wandered off but from the looks of it, it couldn't have been more than a couple of hours. He had been so selfish in his own sorrow that he forgot of anyone else around him and now Tolish had gone missing.
Onyx stayed behind his master as he knew what Evander was doing; tracking. They had done this countless times before in the past and it was nothing new to him. Evander knelt to the snow and scoured it carefully. The tracks were only barely visible by this point as they were the oldest ones that Tolish had left.
The shire horse hadn't gone far as it only took about half an hour to find Tolish standing in a small clearing, head still hung low as he slowly dragged his hooves forward. Each step slower than the last.
Evander trudged through the snow and up to the left side of Tolish who still paid no attention as he was still in his own world. His grief encapsulated his mind and made it near impossible to care little about anything else.
The Hunter laid a hand on his friend's shoulder and spoke gently, "Are you alright, boy?" Obviously Tolish was not alright, far from it, but he could think of nothing else to say. He was mostly trying to get some reaction out of him. Any reaction.
It didn't work.
This is when Onyx cautiously approached his friend and nudged his nose with his own. Attempting to lift his head even just a little bit. Tolish finally responded to this as his head began to lift higher. Onyx backed up a bit and he could feel the emotion that his companion was feeling. He also realized that Tolish was ready to go. He was ready to be free.
Onyx relayed this to him with a look that only Evander knew. The Hunter looked to Tolish now and knew in his heart what he wanted. He smiled. It portrayed understanding but also deep sadness that Tolish was leaving. There was no stopping the horse of a Hunter once their mind was made up. "As much as this pains me, Tolish," Evander said solemnly. "I know you need to be free."
Tolish responded with a gentle nod of the head. He walked from the two souls he had known since birth. He headed for the tree line opposite from the clearing and away from the hut he had grown up around. Away from all of the painful memories that lay dormant there. He headed out for the unknown and a life of his own making.
Tolish looked back to his friends and Evander gently spoke, almost inaudibly, "Take care of yourself." The massive chestnut brown horse returned his sight to the trees and strolled between them. After a few minutes, his shape was lost in the depths of the woods.
Evander looked to Onyx who only stared after his friend as he disappeared out of his life. It was a heartbreaking sight for Evander to see Onyx this way and for Onyx to see Tolish gone forever.
"It will be alright, my boy. Let's head back to the keep so we may bring a swift death to those who have wronged us," Evander began walking without seeing if Onyx was following. He would give him time to come around on his own terms.
Eventually Onyx did move again and he met his master around the front side of the hut. Evander stood with his arms folded across his chest, surveying the tundra between them and the keep. Onyx approached him on his right side and they both stood there for a time. No words were spoken but questions circled the air between them like flies buzzing over a corpse.
None of it made any sense. This was not supposed to happen. Alrid should be alive and Tolish should be in high spirits. At any rate, these were the cards they had been dealt, even if the cards were bent and torn.
"Are you ready?" Evander asked his steed, turning toward him.
Onyx made no acknowledgment and Evander understood. The saddle was tightened around his belly and the Hunter mounted. He waited for Onyx to begin walking when he was ready to and after some time of standing and waiting, the Hunter's steed moved gently onward.
Understandably, Onyx did not feel like moving any faster than a casual walk. So for the duration of their trip, silence was their companion in place of the familiar. The snow had stopped almost entirely by the time the two made it to the keep.
As they entered through the gates, the weight of the suffocating sorrow still hung heavily in the air. The townsfolk moved about their daily activities in defeat as if they had completely given up hope. It was clear that this war would be decided within the coming weeks. There was not much time left to prepare.
Evander would see the king to discuss the next steps but first, he wanted to reclaim Alrid's journal from the Hunter's room. He would read it later or perhaps he would leave it closed and allow it to tell their story should they fail, if there would be anyone left to read it that is.
Either way, he had not decided what to do with it, in fact, he had only just remembered that it even existed. So much had happened since Alrid had told him about the journal. So much had been lost, including the one it had belonged to. And now it would never feel the touch of ink again.
Evander begrudgingly moved down the corridor that led to the Hunter's room. A hollow whooshing sound came from within it, as if the oxygen was being forced from the space through a small hole.
"Who's there?" Evander called out, not entirely sure why though.
"Won't you come and see for yourself," a calm, sinister voice leaked from the room like a poison. Evander stood still in the cold hallway for a moment longer before his legs found the will to move.
He turned the corner to find the Hunter's room not as he recalled it to be. The room lay abnormally dark even though the winter sun shown in from the only window.
"I have been so very anxious to meet you," the voice dripped from the abyss. "You, who has undone more than your fair share of my plans. I spent a great long while breaking your brother and you ended his role much too soon."
Evander scanned the room for the one who spoke and found naught but vacancy. "Show yourself, coward."
"Here," a sharp whisper was only inches from his face and it startled Evander backward as two deep black eyes encircled by irises of bloodshot crimson appeared before him. The eyes exhumed a deep yearning for blood and the death of those he deemed lesser than he. Slowly, Lord Varamont was revealed as the pitch black smoke around him faded away into the room.
Evander couldn't see much detail but what was visible was more egregious that he had remembered. He had seen Varamont before during the Great War, but not like this.
Lord Varamont now towered over the Hunter in his lean, frail body, blood-colored skin stretched far too tightly over bone. He wore a cloak that covered most of his frailty but his torso was exposed. A darker red cloth belt sat at his hips and in the center was the skull of some creature, perhaps human or animal, he could not tell. Small chains hung from the belt in drooping loops and upon the center-most one hung a small vial.
The skull of the blood mage sat within a hood that allowed his two curved horns to reach for the sky. His wings mindlessly sat upon his back. Two crimson orbs of, what looked to encase flames, hovered on either side of him. What looked to be living blood saturated his cloak as it moved and swirled within it. It's viscosity appeared more like melted wax than anything belonging inside of an organic creature.
Evander had to take a long time collecting his thoughts at the new sight of his mortal enemy, "You certainly haven't aged well."
The tight skin of Lord Varamont's skull shifted as if he were trying to smirk, "When one advances to a level such as I, one tends to lose bits of the physical body." A light chuckle this time. "No matter, for I do not require physical strength, this is only a vessel in the end. Besides, I have my slaves to doy bidding."
"Like my brother, perhaps?" Evander found a courage that he had not felt in far too long. "And what about Melganoth?" He was shouting now with a burning hatred that had been reserved since the death of his son. "And what about my son?! Was it your plan to take him from me?" His fists grew tighter as his anger burned within and exploded outward. It was such a an intense hatred he had never felt before. Although he had every right to feel as such he started to realize it was not his own anger.
"I'd wager you'd hate to know that the death of your offspring was a happy little accident." He leaned back into a chair that swiftly materialized underneath him, one elbow on an armrest, "Too bad, though. I was so looking forward to breaking him." He sighed deeply as he spun an orb around in his hand, "Rather a pity, one might say." Lord Varamont exhausted an aura of thick arrogance. "In hindsight, I would say it was a fair trade. I put great effort into molding your brother into my little pawn." His gaze pierced Evander's brain as he spoke, "O'Leander, was it?"
"You bastard, you know very well what his name was," Evander forced through gritted teeth. "I ought to end this here and now."
"I admire your initiative but you see, you are alone in this room. My appearance before you is merely a projection of me." Lord Varamont studied Evander for a moment, "But I insist, try your hand and see where it gets you." He was trying to enrage Evander and open his mind to corruption but it seemed the Hunter could sense this attempt.
Evander stood where he was, cooling off most of his rage, but not all of it.
"No?" Lord Varamont finally said after seeing that the Hunter remained firm. "Then shall we speak plainly?"
"We have nothing to discuss"
"Why of course we do. I am giving you the opportunity for your surrender and undying servitude to me." Lord Varamont said matter-of-factly. "You have lost everything already. What more could you lose? You might as well give yourself over to me."
Evander scoffed, "You speak as though it has been decided and has already taken place."
"You know, your brother said you were intelligent but all I see here before me is a child playing at the role of a man." Lord Varamont taunted the Hunter, trying to pull more rage from within.
"You shall not win," Evander said with conviction. "You will fail again just like before. Only this time, we will not allow you to live. The snow will harbor your innards and the rest of you will be cast into a blazing inferno."
"Now it is you who speaks as though the war has been won but I assure you, Hunter, I am The Inevitable." Lord Varamont quickly evaporated into a plume of impossibly black smoke. The room gradually regained its life and light again. So much so that Evander had to shield away his eyes as it blinded him.
His eyes adjusted and he stood there in the shattering silence. "The Inevitable? What the hell did he mean by that?" He asked the vacant room.
The Journal, he thought and swiftly moved over to Alrid's desk. He opened the top left drawer and there it lay in the last place that Alrid touched it. Such a silly little thing but it held his son's final thoughts and perhaps there was something in there that could help. A different viewpoint from a young elf that was wildly smart beyond his years.
He would read it.
And so in the dying light of the winter sun that cast in through the window, he read on. He noted on Alrid's handwriting, it was slow and calculated, polar opposite to his own. But he also noted some key points amidst the calm calligraphy.
Alrid's view on their position was a purely analytical one. He believed that the castle could very well hold off on the account that the walls held. With enough forces to repel the enemy, they could see it through. By using fire as the main weapon, Alrid believed they could prevent Varamont from using the dead. Now the only issue was the dead from their own forces behind the wall but Evander had an idea for that.
Just as he was leaving, loud marching, armored steps could be heard traversing through the snow and up to the castle gates.
The cavalry has arrived, Evander thought to himself with welcome excitement and he briskly walked from the Hunter's room. He was beginning to hope that they would see this war to the other side. And that was going to play an important role because the time for war was upon them.
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