Book 4 | Agent 34 and the Last Gem

Chapter 23 | The Black Magic Inside

After Calvin had gone back and gotten Cathy and the rest of the kids, Thad began to show them around and explain their situation.

"Basically, what's happened is Braunick won. That's it. We sent out a search group consisting of a few Destigems to get survivors and we will train them to go to war. This is our plan to recover Renya," The dwarf explained. "They should be getting back soon,"

A roar sounded in the sky. The group all looked up to see a black dragon lowering itself down to the clearing that the new Zena was being constructed in.

The dragon landed beside Thad and the rest of the group and two passengers climbed off of their ride.

Thad looked around the group with confusion. "You got back Vrängr? Where's Agent 34 and Ismara?"

Sercon bowed his head to their leader with teary eyes. "Agent 34 and Ismara...they didn't make it. Sir Isoma killed them,"

Everyone except for the returning crew gasped all at once. "How?" Thad asked.

"We were fighting the skeleton," Barjual told him this time. "They just weren't strong enough. Without a gem to support them, all they are is normal elves. They can't handle something with Braunick's strength,"

"What about Paöminar? I thought you asked for backup?" The dwarf said, trying to deny their deaths at all costs.

"Paöminar was...Isoma tore a hole in his wing and he fell into the water. Dragons can't swim," The black dragon said as he lowered his head onto the ground and shut his eyes. He reopened them and looked around at the new group and spotted Calvin and went on high alert. The dragon jumped into the sky and roared quickly. "Demon! Demon!"

"I'm not a demon," Calvin said quickly.

"He isn't a demon," Thad told his friend. "It's just a scar,"

"A scar all over your body?" Barjual said, flapping his wings. "Makes sense,"

"No, no. He explained it all to me," The were-dwarf told the dragon. "Someone used Black Magic to try to suck the life out of him and almost succeeded. However, he was saved and it caused his skin to turn this color,"

"That's not what happens," Barjual said. "When someone sucks the life out of you, it connects your souls. They reach their soul into yours to suck it out and use Black Magic to do so. Since your souls are connected and they are using Black Magic on you, and heavy amounts of it to do that, it is the intense amounts of Black Magic still left inside of your body giving your skin that shade of color. It hasn't had time to settle and your skin will eventually go back to normal. Since it entered all at once, instead of gradually like most people, your skin is gray,"

Calvin was dumbfounded, as was everyone else at this information. "How do you know this?" He eventually asked.

"Back when I lived in the Desert of Beasts, I met a lot of shady people. After I got put on the wanted list, I met even more shady people. Sadly, I had to team up with some to survive and not get turned in to Braunick,"

"I didn't know you were put on his wanted list," Thad said, surprised.

"There's a lot of stuff you don't know about me, Thad," The dragon said, turning around in the air and about to take off to wherever he nested on the island. "Like the fact that I've been to land outside of Renya,"

Barjual flew away, roaring as he did.

"Wait! What?" Thad called to him. Barjual only roared louder to annoy Thad even more than he already was.

"Just so you know," Sercon grabbed Thad's attention. "We didn't truly kill the skeleton. He just fled back to wherever Braunick was,"

"Great," Thad said. "Another problem on our hands,"

"I'm going back to the boat," Sercon said, beginning to walk away.

"Me too," Vrängr followed behind his friend.

"The boat burned down," Thad reminded them.

"Oh yeah," The elf said. "I was there!" He turned around and began walking in the opposite direction.

"Where are you going now that we don't have a place to stay?" The dwarf asked.

"I don't know," He replied.

"Sercon, follow him," Thad commanded. "The kid is an idiot after losing his memory and will get himself killed,"

Sercon nodded, running after Vrängr. Thad cleated his throat, turning back around to the new group. "Sorry about all that," He told them.

"Memory loss?" Calvin asked. "No gems?"

"Yes," Thad explained. "During the battle at the Zena, Braunick extracted all of our gems. He had all of them now and we truly might lose the war. As for the memory loss, Braunick put a curse on Vrängr that would wipe his memories and only activated if he ever tried to give Agent 34 his memories back. And guess what he did?"

"Tried to give his memories back?" Carter said with excitement.

"Correct! You are one smart kid," Thad winked as he began to turn around so they could continue his tour. However, Thad wasn't as happy and cheerful during the rest of the tour. He often kept his face hidden and stayed turned away to hide the tears rolling down his face. Thad was scared to face the fact that Agent 34 and Ismara were truly gone.