The Eight Pillars of Magic (The 8... of Magic Series 1)

The War in the North 1

... The Stranger was at home. Downstairs at the table. It was a small house not the sturdiest but it was a home. He had it let furnished nicely and could see the stairs from your seat through the door into the sitting room. As he read the papers, he felt a rumbling beneath him. The lights that were dangling from the ceiling and a metallic and dusty taste entered the air around him. The Stranger quickly stood on his feet and ran to the window at the front of the house. It was hard to see as it was ashy and dirty on the outside of the window but he coulf make out a rushing motion.

The Stranger got dressed from shorts and a loose vest to some combat pants that did fit more tightly his physique yet still allowed flexibility. On his torso a black jumper that had been previously weaved with Edrine to add insulation and protection usually used for horse-riding. He attached a utility belt too, arming himself with a short stilett. And a basic wooden crosbow that he had once recieved from his late grandfather. The Stranger exited the house into the street. It was hard to see and there was a strong wind from Sudri blowing the soot and ash into his face and down the street. So the Stranger swung his heavy cloak with the re-inforced leather hood around his shoulders. It was dark but not because of a lack of sunlight but because of the air itself blocking it. There were shadows and figures in the distance strong looking and bold. That he noticed as he experienced the buildings around him collapsing and breaking. It had always been a calm and quiet area. "What could possibly be going on?" he asked himself.

He began searching through the rubble of the neighboring houses and saw the Indolay family, who had fed him through a whole winter with their bread. Now the two little girls and their father were crushed beneath stone and metal and glass of their own bakery. Their limbs torn from their body under the pressure and the dark red blood staining the ruins. The mother however was nowhere to be seen but a faint breathing could be heard further away a couple of metres. As he rushed to it to lift the stone from her leg, she sat up and pushed past him. Giving him no chance to heal her. Thanking him for freeing her was the last thing on her mind. And as her eyes met with the devastation, she melted to the floor and was in an inaudible shock. Not a single sound. No scream, unlike what the Stranger had expected, who thought that the baker woman would break into a flow of sobs. Just the constant need and desire to inhale more and more of the soot filled air. She coughed it out of her lungs and then she screamed like a banshee filling his ears with sorrow and dread. It rang like a bomb had gone off. She stood finally up and stumbled into the ash-filled street and was then lost within the the shadows and the silhouettes of the dust.

The Stranger increased the distance between himself and the supposed perpetrators. Walking briskly into a jog into a run and then into a sprint. Looking back he saw how they get smaller by the distance. As he get to the outside of the village walls, he followed the cobbled stoney path watching ervery of his step as he navigated it. The Grassy Hills of Nagush became visible now as he escaped the clouds of dirt and debris. For a brief moment the Wanderer lay on the grass and used it to catch his breath, finding it easier to breathe up here. He thought to himself for a moment: "What is going on? Who are they? Where to go now? The guards must have evacuate the village nearby first?" As though they had been warned and knew in advance what trouble was awaiting.

He caught a pale mare that must have freed itself from his iron shackles and run off from a stable, with the horse the Wanderer rode to the centre of the city. It seems the city was yet still unaware of the trouble even though the villages were in crisis. The villages that surrounded the city Kwarth, five to be exact. His home Northdale got hit first and from his position, he could se how the villagers of the neighbouring Boridrink was preparing to also leave everything behind. As he rode further into the city there was no one there. It was empty, the shops were closed and the offices were empty, it felt like a ghost town to him. There were those dark figures again close by not so much shadows now but skeleton looking skinny but dressed in iron boots and shoulder pads. Flesh still on the bone slightly but decaying yet they stood strong and bold. The Stranger counted five, in front of them the sun burned into the stone, but where they sat in their saddles on their skelettal horses, there was only darkness.
Heavy storm clouds hovered over their hoods, lightning struck left and right of them but no lightning dared to strike a rider. And most noticable they had no heads. Still there was some kind of emerald glow from where their eye sockets would be and he could see how they were slowly riding away from him, accompanied by strange sounding thunder. As he slowly went to follow them there was a grip on his leg that yanked him of the pale horse and pulled him  in a nearby hedge. An older bearded man and gestured to be quiet. The Stranger saw the machete connected onto the utility belt of the bearded man as they stepped back into one of the buildings.

The Stranger decided to follow his saviour instead of the dark riders. Together they retreated into the safety of 4 walls and divulged information that may prove useful. "I am Brother Oecleus, the last of my Order, as I am aware. My Order have been preserving and recovering artifacts. There is an ancient artifactthat was uncovered by the Eldar Brothers of my Order, two stones that I presume are the same made by Duke Vallonde of the Ljósálfar. But they were using the stones recklessly as they had no idea how to use it. It reanimates lifeless vessels and possibly destroy civilizations but the archives are incomplete about that. But the catch is once the vessel is destroyed they can't be reanimated again the same way someone dead can't suddenly spring back to life. Once the energy is gone it's gone."Brother Oecleus told him that his crossbow bolts wouldn't do any damage to them unless he upgraded it. The Stranger asked what could damage them and he told him it would require the ancient enchanted stones that were located in each of the chapels in the villages around the city. And that the Stranger would only need one but that he would also need a compatible weapon. For that reason Brother Eclinides, who was a dwarf had forged a sword that could handle the Àlfar stone but it was back at Monastery near the outskirts of the most northern village Malgug.

The Stranger accompanied the monk to the Chapel of Malgug and told him that his name was Flakkandi. As Flakkandi got there it seemed more like a monks hut in a swampy area. Brother  Oecleus took him in and put his keys down on the side as he went to grab the Sword. He stopped for a moment and looked at the Stranger, directly in the face and was met by the soul-piercing icey blue eyes. The monk looked at a couple different objects in the house and then mouthed to Flakkandi "someone was here" as he did. A Hgh-Frwr in silk came through the doorway with a few other men behind him, he pulled on his cuffs and his men witheir bows pointed at the Stranger and the Bearded Monk. He was forced to his knees by the notion and the Feiyr Priest interrogated his new friend Brother Oecleus for the weapon. Unfortunately it didn't go Flakkandi's way and it was the eye movement of his friend that gave the location away. One of the Priest's Proctors brandished a great sword with a slot for one of the stones in it. This gave Brother Oecleus the confirmation that Brother Eclinides ewas truly dead. When they got what they had come for. Feiyr Priest ordered his men to strike Flakkandi's new friend over the head and knock him out.

The Stranger stood still and while they left. His mind replaying what had just happened. He crawled over the floor to the injured monk and carried him to a bed. He was about 5 years older than him, bearded and fairly well built. But the Stranger could tell that he was probably stubborn. The Stranger sat beside him, pulled a wine jug out of his sleeve and began to drink like his teacher Samonicus would often do. Later as he got hungry he went searching for something edible, findin biscuits and wafers, that were originally given out at religious ceremonies. The monk awoke eventually and immediately got to work. Telling Flakkandi that he needs to get the sword back and prepare. They went to fresh up and cleanse thyselves. When Flakkandi was done Brother Oecleus gave him some spare clothes and some gear to help him on his journey to Beloredargrad. He also told him that the Stranger would recieve help in the form of strange white-haired witch...