Rune of Oldfyre

Chapter Thirty-Six

I didn't die. I was conflicted by this fact. When the light of the rising sun entered the caves entrance my eyes began to water. I couldn't tell if it was from pitiful sadness or just the fact that they had been open for the last nine hours. I had almost no strength left to decide.

I was put into the sled during our trek down the mountain. Every night growing weaker and weaker. There was only one thing I wouldn't have given to have even a nightmare once more. I spoke rarely and only to May. I had no idea what I was saying, I just knew words were said.

We arrived at the base of Mt. Totallyharmless in the early morning dusk. A vast plain of icy hills lay ahead of us. It was a vast nothingness for miles. The only thing from here to the horizon was snow. I don't know how long we were travelling for, days blended with nights and nights with days.

One day I felt the weird compulsion to whisper some long chain of, at the time, meaningless words. It was the only clear memory I have of that hazy period.

Some undescript time period later the sled had stopped. My tired legs shifted under their own volition and carried me from the sled out into the snow. The gang had stopped the convoy to view something. At first I thought it was a large black stone but after a minute of focussing my gaze I found the framiliar figure of an inn keep.

Prana stood in the snow wide eyed. She had clearly gone mad since our visit to the cottage.

"Ard... ack... side." I could make out one of the party members saying to me. I shuffled forward towards them, blanket wrapped tightly around my body. My bag hanging from my side for some reason. The party was waving at me frantically. I waved back to them.

"He gys." I mumbled after several seconds of looking for words. "Wha Prana ding here."

"Et... 'n... fty... sled." May said to me. I looked blankly at her.

In the misty corner of my peripheral vision I could see Prana's body shifting and twisting into convoluted shapes. When she was done she was no longer a she. I could make out a tall figure standing in her place. I heard it say some words and then I was on the ground. Whatever those words were they jolted me into reality. I don't feel rested, but I was able to think semi clearly.

I looked up at the figure, a tall man in all black with women's makeup on his face. A ruby light shone from his hand. His face was rectangular and had the goatee-mustache combo that signified clear evil. I clumsily stood up and pointed at him. I tried to come up with words but my head felt as if I had stuck it under a jack hammer for several hours. The man spoke up in a voice that also emphasized evil.

"Looks like it worked." He said.

"Wha?" I asked, still reassociating my brain with the idea of speech.

"You're now far too weak to be of any threat." He said happily.

"Wt hel taking about asshole." I said, eventually regaining the ability to tell someone to go fuck themselves with a rake.

"The poison, isn't it obvious?" He said.

"I've been awake for the past week, so I'm not up for stupid ass riddles. Just tell me what the fuck you're talking about." I told him.

"I poisoned you, you dunder head." He said.

"You did this?" I asked. "You forced these sleepless nights on me?"

"Yes." He said, glad tosee that I was beginning to understand his nefarious plan.

"Why?" I asked him.

"Do you really not get this. Check your chest." He said pointing at my heart.

The rune?

This was the first time I realized that someone might want the most powerful thing on the planet. "Okay, so you want the rune. Why poison me in, what I can positively say, the biggest dick move anyone has ever commited?"

"Because, I can't have another spell caster protecting the rune." He said.

"And why is that?"

"Because you could use the rune." He said, continuing to explain his plan like a good little bond villain. "Weak and tired, you become a non threat."

"Who are you?" I asked, deciding that this wasn't Prana.

"I," he said, "am Giaus Ortavius Mengsk." Proudly. "I have mastered seventeen schools of magic! I will have that rune!"

"Why would you poison me?" I asked. "Surely it would have been far easier to just steal it once it's been delivered to the archive."

"Because, I'm a maniacal psychopath." He explained.

I didn't argue this point. "So your plan was to follow us across a continent, eventually poisoning me, and then steal the rune?"

"You pretty much grasped this concept as well as I thought you would." He said, putting his hands together, "now hand the rune over before I have to kill you."

"Hell no." I told him.

"Suit yourself." He said, swinging his arm out. A pointed rod of ice went flying towards me. I moved to dodge.

After it had passed me, I looked at him as if to say "Missed me."

His response was a smile.

He wasn't aiming at me.

I turned around. Lying feet behind me was May, a harpoon of ice through her chest. I ran to her, stumbling.

I stared into her eyes, they were straining to remain open.

"May, do-" I began.

"Ardy," she mumbled weakly, "I... I'm sorry."

"What? Why? This isn't your fault, it-"

"No, I didn't tell you." She said.

"What didn't you tell me?" I asked her, pleading for her to remain talking.

There wasn't a reply. Her eyes stared up at me blankly.

I cradled her in my arms for what seemed like hours. It was the last time she laid in my arms, and the last time it felt like forever.

Finally I gently placed her head on the ground. I kneeled beside her, tears streaming from my eyes. My joie de vivre had just been plucked forcefully from my grasp. I felt something deep inside me break into a trillion pieces. The pieces were never reassembled. I never recovered.

Magic is an emotional energy. The more emotion you could throw into a spell, the more powerful it was. It demands a lot of fiery passion. That's why you don't see many calm librarians becoming powerful wizards. I wasn't a very passionate person. There were few things or people in this world that could make me react out of emotion. One of them was lying dead at my feet. By the time I had gotten up, I had exhausted the universe's supply of raw emotion and I was acting solely on pain now.

I stood up, wiped the tears from my eyes, and began walking up to Mengsk, him not reacting or attempting to stop me.

When I reached him there was a clear height difference. He was about a foot taller than I. I swung the punch anyway.

He grabbed me mid swing by the wrist. "This emotional outburst has been fun and all, but I really need you to give me that rune."

I said nothing, I just let the arcs of electricity spiral around my hand.

"What are you going to do, make my hair stand on its ends?" He asked cheerfully.

"No." I said, something in my voice put fear and doubt in his eyes. There was a blast of light and sound. And then quiet darkness.