Fan Fiction ❯ In the Service of the Red Lady ❯ Frozen Death ( Chapter 3 )

In the Service of the Red Lady

By: bsmart

 

Disclaimer: Why the hell am I writing this? Nobody reads them and they have no legal weight. It's a complete waste of time and bandwidth and yet I'm still typing. I'm going to take a shot in the dark and rate this fic R, violence and language, the good stuff.

“…” Normal Speech

`…' Thought

 

Chapter Three: Frozen Death

 

"Samael you know we can't let him into the mine so would you please just shut up!"

 

"Kiori, such a tone is uncalled for and Samael you know why we can't allow him into the mine."

 

The young apprentice's face screwed up in defiance before Ollif's word had even left his mouth. "The mine is enormous; even you admit that you've never seen all of it. How could allowing him in cause any harm. One of us will always be with him and we'll make sure that he only goes in places we know are safe." Samael swept his arm over the pile of spell scrolls and grimore he had dumped on the table, his dark blue sleeve dragging over the ancient looking tomes. "Look at what he offers us!"

 

Kiori stood up hard enough to knock her chair over backwards. "You had no right to accept them from him! Can you not see that you are beholden to him now!?"

 

"I took them to show the two of you the light! He has offered us the materials we need to help our people prosper for generations."

 

"He has offered us the chance for our own destruction! This will come with a price! Not even an archmage could call this a pittance; he is after more than he lets on!"

 

"And I say he is harmless, if he is powerful enough to offer us all this then why even offer? He obviously has the strength to take what he wants."

 

Kiori snatched one of the ancient tomes off the table and hurled it across the village council's private chamber. The leather bound book smacked solidly against one of the old oak columns around the room's perimeter and slid to the ground in a rustle of bent pages. The look on Samael's face had been worth it though; it looked like she had just slapped his mother and every one of his sisters. "You're as stupid as you look! You have no idea what any of these do aside from his word, a known liar I might add, and it would take months to research them all by which time he'll be long gone! Everyone of them could be useless scribles!"

 

Ollif's staff came down with a preternatural thunderclap startling both Kiori and the apprentice. "Enough! The both of you sit down now! Kiori I would mind you, AGAIN, to watch your tone with other members of this council, we three must be able to reach a decision based off of logic and reason, wisdom and foresight, not cursing and fighting." Ollif rarely raised his voice, regardless of the circumstances, but when he did only a fool didn't pay him mind. The old gray wizard's gaze turned to his apprentice and chided, "And you Samael have shown remarkably bad judgment in accepting these gifts regardless of what he told you they were or for." Ollif settled back into his chair and considered his next words. "That mine is our charge and our curse, no one may enter but with the village wizard. I have only rarely taken you or Kiori into it and nowhere in the village history does it ever mention taking an outsider in. The runes on the amulet and on the golems are not explicit about whether or not that is allowed."

 

"If we try to take him in the guardians might simply kill him," Kiori explained.

 

"If the runes aren't explicit in their instructions then the golems won't act, they can't." Samael said. "They're just brutes."

 

"They are an extension of their master's will," Ollif said. "And if their master's will when they were created was that only members of the village could enter then the constructs will know it and act accordingly. The runes are nothing more than a crude...instruction scroll, and where it is unclear we must err on the side of caution."

 

"Why? So what if the golems kill him, it is no loss to us."

 

"Aside from having the blood of an innocent man on our hands," Kiori sneered.

 

Samael locked eyes with her said, "You yourself have called him a liar Kiori!"

 

"Lying doesn't merit death!"

 

"We're chasing our tails," Ollif declared with enough authority to silence the council's two junior members. "My decision stands and is final. Trogan will not be allowed into the mine, Samael you will return the gifts he gave you and apologize for taking them. Tomorrow when he returns we will pass our judgment and we will be united in it agreed?"

 

"Yes," Kiori said smugly.

 

"Fine," Samael snapped while he glared at Kiori.

 

****************

 

The passionless way Kiori told the story seemed to be the only way she could stand to hear it, like telling it with the fire she had at the time would only reopen the wound. Tyyrlym could still feel that particular injury upon the girl, the great gaping hole in her soul that would suck in her whole being if she wasn't careful. Tyyrlym wanted to help her, to comfort her but she barely knew her. Instead she decided to help the best way she could at the moment, listen, and help Kiori excise some of the poison of the wound.

 

****************

 

"Damn you foolish runts! You have no idea what you are doing!"

 

"We've shown you every courtesy we can, we would hope you could show us some," Ollif said calmly.

 

"I have no courtesy for fools and idiots!"

 

"Then your business is done, begone."

 

Kiori wanted to smile at the way Trogan raved as he left, only the desperate and powerless behaved that way but something nagged at her, some detail that she had missed. As she watched Trogan's dark brown cloak fade behind the foliage she steeled herself, she would stay on her guard for the next few days. Nothing was likely to come of it but she would still be careful.

 

"If there's nothing else to discuss I must get back to my studies, I'm very close to being able to improve the yield of our cotton crops but unless I finish within the week we won't be able to make use of it until next year," Oliff said.

 

Kiori's kept watching the path to make sure that Trogan had indeed left. "No, no more, and I have things to do as well."

 

"Very well, come along Samael, I'll need your help."

 

"With your leave there's something I uh...must uh, attend to," Samael stuttered.

 

Kiori glanced at him suspiciously but the apprentice didn't seem to have any mischeif in his eyes, he was probably still angry at being chastized by Ollif and wanted an hour or so to vent.

 

Ollif sighed, "Very well, but be back after lunch, this really can't wait."

 

"Yes sir."

 

Kiori and Ollif stood comfortably next to each other as Samael scurried off to where ever it was that he went to fume. "I hope your little student isn't as willful as mine is."

 

"Breeann is a good girl, she minds what I say and she has the proper temperament...," Kiori let her voice trail off rather than finish her sentence.

 

"Unlike my own apprentice? Hmmm?" Ollif asked with a trace of mirth in his voice. "I wouldn't expect such circumspection from a sorceress."

 

"Samael's...impetuousness...will get him into danger. The arcane arts aren't something to be trifled with."

 

"Again such words from a sorceress, I must say Kiori, that's very unlike you. I don't think I've ever seen you crack open a grimore in your life."

 

As old as he might be Ollif had never stopped poking fun at her arts, often referring to one of her spells as 'a magical fit,' but then she had never stopped teasing him about being an absent minded bookworm. "He's not fit to lead the village Ollif, you know that, the whole town knows that, Samael knows it, even if he still wants the position. This business proves it."

 

Ollif sighed; Kiori wasn't going to let herself be distracted with a little playful banter. "Then perhaps you should be the one who inherits leadership."

 

"Me? The wizards have led the village for four centuries..."

 

"And before the wizards there were mayors and before them a ruling council, this would hardly be the first time the leadership of this village has changed."

 

"I'm not a leader Ollif...."

 

"On the contrary my fair sorceress, whether you realize it or not your opinion is valued only second to mine in this village, I dare say more so than mine by some. You are perceptive and intelligent, quite a bit more wise than typical for one of your calling; though that is all tempered by a hotheadedness and complete lack of tact that many find off-putting."

 

Kiori quailed a little at Ollif's frank assessment.

 

"In time you'll be more than ready to lead, I have no doubt of it, but enough talk of the future, cotton concerns me in the present. I will leave you to whatever hedonistic pursuits occupy the mind of a sorceress."

 

Kiori smiled, "I'll see you tomorrow Ollif."

 

"Yes," Ollif agreed, "tomorrow."

 

When Ollif crossed the threshold back into the hall Kiori turned away and headed for home, just not very quickly. The day was bright and sunny, the first chills of winter were already on the air but the cloudless sky let the sun shine through so it still felt pleasant to be out an about. The hardwood of the deck in front of the hall was nice and warm beneath Kiori's feet as she trotted down the steps, she was still a bit worried about Trogan and Ollif had given her much to think about but for the moment Trogan was gone and it would be a few decades more before she had to worry about being responsible for the whole village.

 

She walked through the bustling stone paved square in front of the Great Hall and made a bee line for her favorite merchant stall, her purple dress rustling about her feet as she went. She had smiled as she moved, dodging the occasional child who was too busy playing with their friends to watch where they were going, overhearing snippets of gossip from the mothers who sat on the edge of the fountain in the center of the square while their children played together. On the other side of the square she could see Merin striking a deal with one of the big folk from Arlyon, she had been nervous about the man when she had first met him but he had turned out to be quite trustworthy, and he also provided Merin with the occasional interesting trinket. She made a mental note to stop by Merin's tomorrow after council and see if the human had traded anything that tickled her fancy.

 

Kiori stopped for a moment to let a large dog lumber by just below eye level along with the three children chasing it before finally stepping up to the counter of an open aired bakery. "Well if it isn't the ruling elite come to slum with the common man," the portly owner of the bakery sneered as Kiori hopped up onto one of the stools.

 

"Once in a while I find it necessary to debase myself and mingle with the low born to keep them in line."

 

"Kiori!" A young boy yelled gleefully as he ran towards her from the back of the bakery and its ovens.

 

The baker rolled his eyes, "Eh, children," then he turned to the boy, "Jorin mind your manners, its Ms. Wendt to you."

 

"It's alright Egerd," she said quietly enough for only the eldest Wilderthrow to hear while his son scurried out under the counter and ran up to hug her side."Shouldn't you be in school with Breeann?" she asked with mock suspicion.

 

"I'm in sixth group, not third like Breeann," Jorin said indignantly. "I have school tomorrow."

 

"And you have work today," his father admonished him. "If those loaves burn it's your bottom." Jorin gave Kiori another squeeze and hurried back inside to the ovens. "That boy's taken almost as much of a shine to you as Breeann has."

 

"I hope having her as my apprentice isn't a problem, I mean if you need her around the shop..."

 

Egerd waved his right hand while he scratched his thin brown beard with the other. "Bah, I don't even need Jorin to run this place it just keeps him out of trouble and teaches him the trade for when he's older. 'Sides, if my girl has a gift she needs to learn how to use it and not squander it kneading dough. Now I know you didn't come here just to talk."

 

Kiori grinned, "If you have any left..."

 

"I always have some left," he said with a smile and produced a plate with a pair of sugar and creme glazed sticky buns half the size of her head.

 

****************

 

It was the silence that woke her, a silence so pure that when she snapped awake she thought that it had to be the result of a spell. Her own raggedly drawn gasp put an end to that idea but the silence remained, heavy and oppresive. Her ears struggled to pick up any sound, any sound at all but there was nothing but the silence. She strained ever harder to hear anything but her own heartbeat joined her breathing as the only sounds present.

 

Nervously she cast her sheets and blankets aside, barely feeling the chill winter air rushing in to replace the cocoon of warmth she had built up that night. Her bare feet padded quietly across the hard wooden floor to the window by her door; she cautiously reached up and pulled aside the drapes that covered it. The small slit didn't allow much light in but it was enough. The village was still just as it should be in the dead of night, but so was everything else. She moved across her house to another window that opened out on the opposite side, towards the fields and forests to the south. Nothing moved in the moon light, no people, no animals, not even the blades of the grass or the leaves in the trees.

 

A chill far deeper than the night air crept into Kiori's chest as she let the heavy drapes fall closed. As the light from outside faded everything washed out to black and white again but she didn't need to see colors to locate her clothes. Pulling on a simple pair of breeches and a shirt instead of her normal dresses she glanced at small chest atop her dresser that held the many enchanted odds and ends that she owned but she dismissed them, telling herself that she was over reacting. Without bothering with her shoes or a cloak she moved towards the door. She told herself that she was imagining things and a quick look outside would allay her concerns and she could get back to sleep. Gripping the door handle she took a deep breath and stepped outside.

 

*****************

 

"I was stupid," Kiori whispered. "Just a minute to put them all on but I told myself nothing was wrong."

 

The urge to comfort the girl was almost overwhelming to Tyyrlym but she fought it off, telling her story was something Kiori needed to do if she was going to heal. As she listened with rapt attention she didn't ponder the reason why she wanted to comfort the little halfling so badly, to reach across the bed and hold her, but she stayed where she was, sitting on the foot of the bed. She was focused too much on Kiori to pay attention to her own thoughts.

 

*****************

 

With each step out of her door Kiori's anxiety skyrocketed. Her palms were sweaty before she had even let go of the door handle and a faint tremble had taken hold of her before she made it down one wall of her home. Something was very very wrong; she could feel it, like a wet blanket had been thrown over the entire village. The cloying wrongness of the night pulled at her, filled her lungs with every breath, and tried to drown out every other thought in her mind. When she came to the small path between her house and her workshop she darted across the open space quickly, her feet barely touching the ground, and she sank into the shadows against it, pressing her body against the hard wood trying to keep every bit of herself concealed in the darkness.

 

She tried to move as silently as possible but in the oppressive silence of the night every bent blade of grass sounded like a hammer falling on stone. Her eyes darted back and forth trying to take in everything but failing, when ever she focused on one thing something else would move in the periphery of her vision only to stop when she turned to look at it, and then something else would move, the cycle was endless. Kiori hissed quietly when a splinter dug into her hand but she only paused for a moment to pull it out. She brought the wound to her mouth and sucked on it for a moment but she didn't stop moving until she came to the corner of her workshop.

 

With agonizing slowness she peeked her head around the corner of her shop to peer into the alley behind it. The alley, it wasn't paved but it was too narrow to be anything but an alley, between her workshop and the Brumbledown cottage was deserted, absolutely deserted. Not even the faintest whisper of a breeze disturbed the trampled grass and dust and not so much as an ant trapsed about. Steeling herself Kiori stepped out into the alley and moved towards the center of town.

 

As she slipped quietly between the buildings Kiori took notice of the cold night air, winter would be upon them soon but the first blasts of arctic air were already here. Everywhere she looked shutters covered windows and drapes tried to keep the cold out. No lights shone in any windows or under the bottoms of any doors. Even in the dead of night some fires should have been burning to warm cold halfling bodies. Forsaking her darkness underneath the overhanging roof of Cale's mercantile Kiori darted out into the street, her small feet padding quietly on the frozen flagstones as she tried to get a view that would let her see the roof tops around her. There wasn't any smoke from any of the chimneys.

 

The worry that had been gnawing at her suddenly bloomed into full blown terror. For an instant she remained fixed in place in the middle of the street, the cold stone leeching the warmth from her body as her mind tried to supply a reason for what was going on, and it failed, but she was frozen only for an instant. Ollif, Ollif would know what to do, lunging for her shadows Kiori half ran deeper into the village, snaking around buildings and through shadows she hurried for the town square. Ollif lived in the back on the second floor of the town hall; he would know what to do. She avoided the open square in front of the unlit hall and instead made her way around to the side of the dark building by moving between the shops that surrounded the square.

 

The heavy side door of the hall wasn't locked, none of the doors were, in fact she didn't think there was a single lock on any door in the entire sleepy village. Kiori easily slipped into the hall. She passed through the main chamber and its high vaulted ceiling, really on the bottom of a thin thatched roof, and made for the stairs to the second floor. Like almost every elder before him Ollif lived in the spacious second floor apartment and like all the town's folk he didn't have a lock on his door. Kiori let herself in. Every available surface in the apartment was covered with books and knick-knacks, bizarre spell components and foci, and various baubles that he had collected over the years. Kiori had tried to convince the old wizard that he should have a proper workshop like hers built but he had balked at the idea of not having everything around him in easy reach, so she found herself weaving her way in between piles of dust covered tomes and scrolls and jars of the gods only knew what as she moved through the entrance into the sitting room.

 

The fear Kiori felt came within a handbreadth of panic when she saw the dark fire place in the sitting room. She had often joked with Ollif about him being colder than a yuan-ti because of the way he kept a fire burning all winter and every night, even in the summer, now that fireplace was empty. Not caring what she knocked over Kiori rushed to Ollif's bedroom and flung open the door. The thick wooden door rebounded off the wall with a loud rattle but Kiori ignored it, her eyes went immediately to Ollif's bed, but it was empty. She might have found the way her eyes darted back and forth across the sheets funny at some point in time, looking desperately for someone who obviously wasn't there like he could somehow hide beneath a pillow or under a fold of sheets. She caught sight of his staff leaning beside the bed and his personal spellbook resting on the bedside table but of the old wizard there was no sign in the dark room. Until something moaned.

 

Her throat constricted in panic Kiori's question came out as a croak, "Ollif? Are you there?" Her eyes darted about trying to locate the source of the sound until she saw a shadow move in the darkest corner of the room. Half hidden by the bed between her and it she hadn't noticed it until just now, her excellent vision allowed her to see in the starlit room but it wasn't sharp and very washed out. The dark form slowly grew upwards; its form grew more distinct as it rose, some of the dark mass splitting off to form arms and ears. Finally it stopped growing and Kiori recognized the shadow draped form of the village's resident wizard. "Ollif, what's going on?" she pleaded, but got no reply. "Why won't you answer me?"

 

Very slowly Ollif began to turn around, each tiny step was shaky and halting, several times it looked as if he was going to tip over and fall to the floor but he caught himself each time. Kiori couldn't understand what was wrong, Ollif was old, well past a hundred and sixty, but he wasn't a creaking old man, not yet. The old wizard's robes hung loosely around him, their voluminous folds easily swallowing his small body and hiding everything but his head from view. As he turned more and more of his body came into the light and Kiori was able to make out details again, and she wished she hadn't been able too, her blood curdling scream was surely heard for miles.

 

Ollif's skin was shrunken, sunken and sallow, even in blackness and starlight there was obviously no color in his face. There was a deep cut across one of his cheeks, a wide dark line ran from his mouth almost too his ear, the wound was deep but it wasn't bleeding. His eyes locked onto hers but there was no way he could see her, one eye was a ruined mess, pulped flesh and nerves filled the socket and the other eye was clouded over, sightless. Another low moan filled the air but Ollif's mouth didn't move, the flesh around a rent in his throat vibrated in time with the sound. Kiori took a step back, her mouth agape, stunned, but Ollif took one hesitant step towards her, another groan fluttering the ripped flesh of his Adams apple. He brought a hand up, reaching for her, his hand was skeletal, the pale skin pulled tightly around the bones. It looked as if he'd been dead for weeks, but he kept moving, shambling towards her.

 

“Oh gods….what happened to you?” Ollif's corpse staggered around the end of the bed, his other hand coming up towards her, the skin on this one had started to peel back in ribbons away from the tendons and bones. “Ollif stop, please…I'll help you but you have to stop.” Kiori took another step back, trying to stay away from Ollif's decaying grasp. She took a step back, and her old mentor staggered forward again closing the distance; then she felt her back hit the door jamb. Ollif lurched forward and she tried to slip around the door jamb to get away but the older halfling tripped and dove forward, his hand touching her shoulder as she fell back into his great room.

 

Icy searing wrongness ripped through her shoulder and down into her chest, a cold hand gripped her heart and Kiori shrieked in pain not even feeling herself fall to the floor as she arched up in agony as the feeling from her shoulder made its way through her body like a cold flame. The pain blanked out any other sensation as it flayed every nerve in her small body. She could barely comprehend that Ollif was still staggering towards her but she still had the presence of mind to point her hand at him and will a bolt of blue lightning at him. Arcane power crackled through his body and the smell of burning flesh and ozone filled the air, Ollif's body crumpled to the floor with a wet thud.

 

Kiori gasped as the feeling of his touch clenched her lungs in its dead grip, squeezing her throat shut, flattening her chest. She pushed herself back along the floor struggling to breathe as whatever it was surging through her frame tried to kill her. The first cold wisp of air whistled down her constricted throat and the adrenaline singing through her body took over. Brightly colored spots were dancing in her eyes but she still rolled over and began to crawl towards the door. The floor boards were smooth from years of living but her nimble fingers found the cracks between them and pulled the rest of her along. As quickly as it came the horrid feeling that had accompanied Ollif's touch was gone and she could draw in air again. She got her feet under her and scrambled towards the door. She was still unsteady on her feet and when she got to the door out of the apartment she had to grab the frame to stay on her feet. Her momentum caused her to spin around and she could make out the still form on the floor, small crackles of energy still racing across it while the smell of ozone stung her nose. She didn't bother to check on Ollif; no matter what her spell had done he had been dead long before she had shown up.

 

She took the stairs down two at a time, leaping over the last few and landing hard, going down to her hands and knees before she lurched up and ran for the door. There was only one thing on her mind, she had to get home and get her things, something bad was happening and without Ollif she was the town's only defense. She ran quickly through the dark hall, ignoring the rich tapestries and decorations that so often caught her attention in other less pressing times. She rapidly made her way to the door she had entered through and didn't slow in the least, crashing through the door and sending it banging against the wall of the building. Her foot missed the first short step out of the door and fell to the ground in a roll. Wet grass and twigs slapped against her face and stones dug into her hip but she ignored it, shooting to her feet as quickly as she could, then she froze. Down the alley towards the open square, precisely where she wanted to go stood several dark hunched forms. Kiori didn't need her improved vision to know that they were the reanimated bodies of other villagers, their stilted walks and droning moans told her that. Her vision let her see their twisted ruined bodies though, and she ran.

 

She sprinted away from the great hall as quickly as she could, her lungs fighting to bring in enough of the cold winter air to keep her moving. She ran between buildings, down alleyways, and across streets but everywhere she ran more and more of her dead companions blocked her way; their lifeless groans filled in the unnatural silence that had descended upon the town. Kiori panted desperately as she turned another corner, running towards the most important house in the village to her, only to have to pull up short as a single adult and two smaller undead halflings lurched out of their house and into the street.

 

Kiori fought to keep her bile from rising as the smallest of the creatures drug along a small wiggling stuffed animal; the plushy golem Kiori had animated for little Breeann Wilderthrow's last birthday. The small stuffed construct tried to twist around in the dead girl's gaunt, lifeless hand; futilely attempting to snuggle up to her cold dead body like it had been designed to. The reanimated body that clutched its leg didn't care though, and the dead girl trudged after her equal dead father and brother mindlessly following the commands of whoever had animated them. Breeann's clothes looked to be new, still clean and in good shape, except for the tear in one of the sleeves that led to a deep gash down the girl's arm, dark red dried blood crusted around the wound and coated her free hand but nothing leeched out around the sliced muscles, her heart had stopped sometime before. Jorin looked much the same as his sister except that he had several deep gashes across his head that left a large chunk of his scalp dangling from the side of his head, covering his left ear. Their father led them both down the street and Kiori could see a gash in Egerd's back so wide and deep that she could see his organs, all of them black and decaying inside his body.

 

When the trio turned the corner Kiori let out the choked sob she had been holding in as she fell to her knees. Breeann had been her apprentice, at only nine the child had been too young to start teaching but Kiori had called Breeann her apprentice anyways. On days that she didn't have school she would sit on her stool in Kiori's workshop, playing with weak potions too watered down to even rate as cantrips and clutching the little plushy golem Kiori had made for her while the sorceress went about her work. Tears burst forth in Kiori's eyes as she remembered the girl's smile, her happy laugh when she mixed a potion and it burst forth in a cloud of colorful smoke, but most of all she remembered the way she had carried her fuzzy golem around all the time. There was no stopping it this time and acrid stinging bile poured forth covering the ground in front of her with the contents of her stomach. The burning pain of her belly emptying itself into the alley muted the memory of the little girl and her family as her body's expression of disgust and horror ran its course. For two minutes her stomach turned itself inside, stinging her eyes, burning her nose, making her feel like everything inside her was trying to burst from her mouth. Even when there was nothing more to expel her body didn't give up, continuing to retch even longer as her entire being tried to expunge the thought of what had happened to the Wilderthrows.

 

*******************

 

Marik watched Kiori grimace a bit at the memory, her mouth moving about as if trying to rinse out a bad taste. He could sympathize with her, he could remember the first time he had seen something like that done to a person, and it had made his gorge rise, but to see it done to a child? A child and a family that you cared about? The thought alone made his stomach roil.

 

*******************

 

Crouched over a pool of her own vomit she panted, praying for her stomach to settle, she heard it, a deep low boom that traveled through the ground, shaking her weakened arms. Again the low rumble sounded, a little harder this time, and a little closer. She thought she had heard something at the same time as the rumble, something so low that she thought her ears were playing tricks on her, and she strained to hear it again. For a third time the ground shook under her, harder this time, closer, and louder, she distinctly heard a thud accompanying the rumble. Rising to her feet Kiori tried to find where the noise was coming from, the thud came again and again but it was too low for her to pinpoint, it seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere all at once.

 

She decided that if the all the corpses were moving towards the middle of the town then she should avoid it if she could and move around the perimeter of the village to get to her shop. Whatever was making the thuds would probably be where the dead were going. Until she had her things it would probably be best to avoid it all. She took off in a run, staying off the road to prevent her bare feet from slapping on the paving stones and staying in the dewy grass where her footfalls were muffled. She ran as fast as she could, dashing past empty houses and darkened windows, trying her best to avoid her former friends in her mad dash. She didn't know what she could do to help them, nothing she knew how to do could right any of the wrongs that she had seen tonight. Ollif might have been able to, he could have found something in those books of his, something that could fix things, but he was gone, maybe forever.

 

She turned another corner and slowed, she was almost home, and she didn't want anyone to hear her coming.

 

****************

 

"I almost made it home," she said softly, "I was almost there but when I turned to move around my workshop when I almost ran into a leg."

 

Marik looked at Tyyrlym and raised an inquisitive eyebrow but she stopped him with a flick of her hand.

 

"It was huge taller than either of you, taller than a three story building, I guess the buildings hid it. It was huge, green, disgusting. It smelled like rot and decay but it wasn't dead. I hid behind my shop as quick as I could, the thing didn't see me.

 

****************

 

Kiori's heart was slamming in her chest hard enough that she was sure the thing could hear her, how could it have missed her, another step and she would have ran into it. Her muscles locked down so hard that they started to burn right away; she didn't realize she was holding her breath until the aching in her chest forced her to open her mouth. Immediately she regretted it as the stench of the creature filled her nose and lungs, she could taste it on her tongue, like a fruit that had rotted days ago. Peeking back slowly around the corner she could see it again, the huge foot, the green skin of the calf, black hair and warts covered all of it, her eyes continued up noting the rudimentary armor that had been strapped onto the beast. Pieces of plate and mail in a dozen different sizes covered the monster but roof of her shop hid its shoulders and head, it was waiting for something, and since it was here it had to be her, she didn't believe in coincidences.

 

Suddenly the sound of something wooden crashing to pieces against her door could be heard, someone was already in her house and they weren't happy. She leaned around the edge of her workshop, looking between the great green leg in the street and the wall she was pressed against to, trying to get a look at what might be going on.

 

"Incompetent fool!"

 

The door to her house exploded off its hinges, shattering into kindling as a small body was thrown through it, the halfling landed hard on his side in the middle of the street and rolled once before crashing into house across the way with a thud. Kiori almost lunged into the street to help until she saw the distinctive blue robes the halfling was wearing and held back. A figure in red robes of his own ducked through her door and strode out into the street followed by a woman in black armor. Kiori's hand flew over her mouth as she stifled a startled gasp when she recognized the crimson man. It took her a moment to completely process that it truly was him, when he had first appeared Trogan had worn just a simple brown robe and looked, old. The man in the alley was far from old, after stooping to get out of her door he stood up proudly, towering over Samael's body in the street. His dark crimson robes looked like they'd been dyed in blood and starlight gleamed off of his clean shaven skull, the scraggly beard he'd worn was long gone and only faint green tattoos traced across his face and skull. The woman beside him was even more physically intimidating, only half the hair had been removed from her head; all of it from the left side, what purple locks were left were tied into a braid that fell back over her ear. The hairless left side of her head had been covered in what looked like runes, a motif carried onto her spiky black plate armor and gigantic tower shield. Her pale white skin and milky eyes were a strange counter-point to Trogan's deep tan.

 

"You stupid little halfling, you had one thing to do, ONE!"

 

Samael groaned as he rolled over, from the angle his leg was turned Kiori was certain it was broken.

 

"Now they're both just mindless zombies, useless to me!"

 

The heap of blue robes and wood in the street moaned. "...sorry..."

 

"Stupid useless halfling," Trogan snarled as his hand started to work a cabalistic pass, "it's sad that you're more use dead than alive."

 

Samael's pained groans became shrieks of agony in an instant, his body thrashed on the stones as a sickly purple light crawled over his body, enveloping it. Beneath the skin of negative energy Kiori could see Samael's robes deteriorating, his skin crackling and hardening as his sobs became more and more pitiful, his voice cracking and fading out as the air was torn from his lungs, and his back arching in a final spasm of pain. Then he was still. The negative energy that gripped the dead apprentice's body didn't stop working even as the young man died, in seconds decades of aging took hold of the body, muscles deteriorated, skin shrunk over bones and pulled taut, rents in his flesh open. Finally the spell ran its course, the baleful conjuration from the negative energy place sank into Samael's body, disappearing into the crevices and cracks it created. For a moment the street was nearly silent, Trogan and his companion looked on, the wizard smugly; the woman in the black armor with a hint of disinterest, the great green thing in the street made the only sound, its deep phlegmy breaths rattling in its chest.

 

With the creak of dried tendons one emaciated hand rolled Samael's body over. Another limb protested as the corpse drug itself to its feet, except that one foot refused to work. Samael's body lurched to one side as his broken right shin gave out with the sickening crackle of bone splinters in meat, the creature caught itself and managed to stand back up, unsteadily, but good enough to satisfy its creator.

 

"Begone you worthless thing," Trogan sneered.

 

For the second time in ten minutes Kiori had to fight back the urge to vomit. Imagining what had happened to her friends and fellow villagers had been bad, horrific, but to see it done, it felt as if the negative energy that had consumed Samael was clawing at her heart. Turning away from the gruesome spectacle Kiori tried to slink away, ever conscious of the giant beast only a few feet from her. She slunk down an alley and turned a corner, down another street and another corner; she didn't know where she was going or how she would get there but she had to go, now. Trogan had killed the entire village and reanimated everyone all at once, there was no way he should have been able to do that but he had and Kiori had no idea how to fight someone who could do such a thing. Her only option was to try and find someone who could.

 

All around her the dark windows and doors of the village loomed over her as she ran, what had been worrisome and frightening before was now terrifying; each darkened home was another dead family, a family whose bodies had been brought back to a kind of unlife by whatever foul magic Trogan had used. And it was her fault.

 

Kiori stumbled as the thought struck her with a physical force; it had been her decision, hers and Ollif's that had turned Trogan away. If they had listened to Samael maybe everyone would still be alive, maybe Trogan would have taken what he wanted and left them in piece, but an icy dread gripped her at the thought of letting Trogan take what he wanted. No, giving him what he wanted almost certainly would have been worse, she needed help, and she needed it now.

 

Making one final turn Kiori raced behind the village's mill and burst out into the open field between the village and the forest. The cold wind whipped her hair as her legs carried her ever closer to the woods, a few more seconds and she would be in them. Cold needles pricked her exposed skin as she ran, sleet was starting to fall.

 

She was already dodging the first bits of underbrush when a great dark shape loomed out of the tree line ahead of her. She started to make for a bush but stopped short when an inarticulate snarl was followed by the beast changing its course to come right for her. Shouldering aside a sapling the troll emerged into plain view. Kiori's hands were already moving as she looked the beast over, long lanky arms that came within a few feet of dragging the ground, the sickly green pallor of its skin, and its hideous face told Kiori what it was even if she had never actually seen a troll before, but she didn't know what to make of the hodgepodge of armor it was wearing, or the brutally simple sword it gripped in its misshapen right hand.

 

Two thunderous steps brought the beast within striking distance and its sword arm came back slowly, obviously expecting this lone, unarmed halfling to offer little resistance, until the bolt of arcane electricity rippled across its chest. The troll's roar of pain nearly deafened Kiori, the bellow had certainly been heard across the valley and it would only be a matter of time before Trogan arrived. Kiori scampered backwards as quickly as she could and gaped; the creature's mouth had barely closed but already the burn marks on its exposed skin were starting to heal over with fresh pale green growths. She knew that the beasts could regenerate but she hadn't expected it to be so quick.

 

Reacting as quickly as she could Kiori thrust her left hand out at the troll, snapping off a word from a language that had been long dead when the lands were young and willing a pair of fire elementals into existence between her and her foe. Her right hand followed suit and an arrow of seething green liquid shot from it and flew between the two burning outsiders to splash against the troll's unprotected left shoulder; the acid arrow quickly began to eat away at the troll's body and armor.

 

The two burning elementals rapidly advanced towards the troll, from what looked to be their waists up the elementals weren't that different from the troll, long thick arms, what looked to be their heads crushed down atop their shoulders, and a broad chest, but below their waists they were columns of pure flame. They effortlessly floated across the ground making no allowances for what was in their way, brush, saplings, and grass alike withered and burned beneath the elementals as they closed quickly with the troll.

 

For a split second the armored giant was taken aback by the sudden appearance of the two outsiders but it only lasted a split second. The troll's brutal looking sword caught the elemental on the left on its shoulder, tearing into the burning elemental's insubstantial body before being withdrawn. The troll's sword arm came back for another blow while the wounded outsider let loose a blast furnace like roar of pain, but it was now the troll's turn as the wounded elemental's partner crashed into the troll. Bright orange flame licked across the green giant's torso, enveloping the beast in the essence of the plane of fire. The troll turned his blade, aiming now for his attacker now rather than his prey but it didn't make it. The wounded elemental surged forward, its arms enveloping the troll's sword hand in otherworldly fire.

 

The sickly stench of burning hair and flesh, brimstone and sulfur assaulted Kiori's nose as she watched her summoned minions follow after the staggering troll. Blackened charred flesh smoked and curled as it smoldered on the trolls frame, blisters covered its left side where the unharmed elemental had slammed into it and its right hand was a ruined mess that looked more like charcoal than an appendage. That morning seeing and smelling something like that would have turned Kiori's stomach, but now, now after seeing her village dead...it made her heart sing a gruesome song. Her lips pulled back in a wicked grin as the troll pulled a club from its belt, again striking at the wounded elemental. All thoughts of running for the woods left Kiori as a bit of psychic backlash flayed her consciousness with the destruction of her minion. Kiori spat the words of power out and another acid arrow and a ball of fire erupted from her hands to tear into the troll as it turned to face the second elemental.

 

This time the troll didn't survive, Kiori's attacks tore into virgin flesh and armor on its right side but the elemental again ripped into the trolls left side. Unnatural flame scorched already burning flesh, the fire elemental's essence flowed in around the troll's armor and into its ruined body, burning and consuming everything it touched. The troll roared in pain as the gleeful elemental's body consumed it from the inside out, immolating it; flames erupted from patches of burnt flesh incinerating the crusted leather and cloth bits that were holding the beast's armor on. With a final hiss of boiling blood the troll collapsed in a pile of ash and armor.

 

Kiori smirked triumphantly as one of the things responsible for this night died painfully, and then the world went flying. Kiori's body twisted in midair, treetops and stars whirling through her vision before the ground rushed up and cruelly slapped her in the face. She yelped as something sharp tore at her sleeve and the arm it covered. She rolled through the ground cover with leaves and twigs slapping at her she finally came to rest with a face full of dirt and a root stabbing cruelly into her ribs. She threw herself over onto her back and started to scramble backwards when she spotted the second troll.

 

Even bigger than the first the second troll stalked towards her, showing a small bit of intelligence in ignoring her summoned elemental and coming straight after her. She sent a mental order to the fire elemental even as she readied another brace of spells. The elemental raced towards its newest piece of prey, eager to destroy more of the Prime Material with its heat, but it didn't make it. Before it could make contact with the troll the summoned creature disappeared in a flash of light and wreath of flames as for an instant the Prime Material and elemental Planes of Fire coexisted.

 

Kiori couldn't understand what had happened to her elemental, it hadn't even been a minute but already it had disappeared. Her spell casting faltered halfway as she reflexively brought another trio of elementals to her defense but each of the disappeared just as quickly as they snapped into being. The gravely bass rumble that echoed out of the troll's belly twisted her gut into knots as it came towards her, every horror and terror of the night came rushing back into her consciousness as the beast advanced on her, the faces of the dead and the faces of their killers playing through her mind's eye. Kiori ran.

 

In open ground it would have been doubtful that she would have even gotten twenty feet before the troll had ran her down but she had been on the edge of the forest when she fell and she was able to dart into the thick trees where her size was an advantage as the troll tried to maneuver its bulk amidst the trees. Every few yards she spun to throw another ball of fire or acid arrow at the troll while racking her mind for something she could do to slow the troll, with the monsters ability to resist most kinds of damage many of her spells were useless and half of her spells weren't even connecting because of the trees, but then she spotted a small clearing and the answer presented itself.

 

The troll slowed down as it approached the moonlit clearing. The little spellcaster it had been chasing had stopped on the far side of it and was waiting for him. She was probably tired of running and was going to try and fight him, patches of burned skin across his body attested that she was far from defenseless but she had already fought one of his companions and thrown many spells at him, she couldn't have many spells left. She'd die quickly and then his clan and him could reap the rewards, he confidently stepped forward into the clearing, smiling.

 

Kiori stared down the troll as he walked into the clearing, waiting until both of its sandaled feet crossed into the space that glowed faintly orange in her sight. The troll chuckled softly and the Kiori shouted out the command word. A half dozen delayed fireballs exploded to life around the troll's feet, arcane flame rippled up the green humanoid's body engulfing it completely. The troll's howls of pain barely pierced through the roar of the arcane fire, it took a shuddering half step, in too much pain to do anything but stagger and scream, another step followed but it was the troll's last. The body of the giant collapsed to the ground in a clatter of metal armor and bone.

 

Kiori sagged as the last of her fireballs dissipated, it had taken all of her remaining store of arcane power to manifest the horde of fire but she had managed it, barely. Now there was a gaping void in her chest where she was used to feeling her power reside, she was completely spent, but she still had to find help. The sleet was starting to fall harder, the chill was eating at her body but she had to find help, she concentrated for a moment to get her bearings, then she was off at a run towards Arlyon.

 

In the distance another troll roared, accompanied by something else, something big, something not of this world.

 

*******************

 

"What is so important about this mine?" Marik asked. "What does Trogan want?"

 

Kiori looked back and forth between Marik and Tyyrlym, she wanted to tell them but she waited for the dread to grip her like it always did. She focused on Tyyrlym, wondering if this woman could actually help, and she waited. It didn't come, the dread didn't compel her to keep quiet like it should have, something about these two was holding it off. Whatever it was she wasn't going to loose this chance, if it was only a passing moment she might never be able to convince someone in time to stop Trogan; but she still had to focus to make the words come out, the dread had established a hold on her long ago and her body wasn't going to chance it unless she forced the words out. "...Mythallars..."

 

"Myth what?" Marik asked, but Kiori didn't look at him, her eyes were locked on the rapidly widening eyes of her rescuer, she could see the realization dawning on her face.

 

"Mythallars," Kiori croaked a second time, the words were coming easier. "Physical manifestations of the Weave."

 

"The Weave...you mean magic...like a scroll?"

 

Kiori knew that Tyyrlym understood just by the astonished look on her face, she would have to explain it to Marik though. "No, they amplify...amplify arcane magic, they make a caster stronger than they should normally be. The small ones can make an apprentice a match for an archmage. The big ones..."

 

"Can make a city fly," Tyyrlym finished. Kiori nodded.

 

Marik's eyes went wide. "Netheril?"

 

"They were the secret of the Netherese Empire's strength, everything they accomplished was because of the mythallars. They allowed their mages to rise to incredible heights, to mold reality to their will, and they destroyed them."

 

"The mages destroyed the Empire?"

 

Kiori nodded to Marik. "They became intoxicated with their power, obsessed with it. They stopped caring about how what they were doing was affecting everyone else. Their powers grew but their wisdom didn't, cities were destroyed in experiments, citizens ravaged by summoned creatures discarded after a mage grew bored with them." Kiori paused and sighed. "Finally one of them went too far, he tried to unravel how the mythallars worked and in the process he wounded the Weave."

 

"How could you wound the Weave?" Tyyrlym asked.

 

"I don't know, but he did. In an instant all the magic in Faerun unraveled, Netheril's flying cities fell to earth, towers and walls held up by force of magic crumbled, tens of thousands died as summoned creatures and slaves were freed from their bonds and ran amok. Almost half the empire's citizens were dead before night fall, many who survived the day didn't survive the night. A few outposts were relatively unscathed but without their mages to come to their defense the small garrisons were crushed by those they had oppressed, Netheril was dead within a tenday."

 

"What does this have to do with the mine? How many of these things are down there?" Marik asked.

 

"Thousands, from little shards that look like emeralds to ruby red ones huge enough to fill this room. They formed down there because two streams of power converge under my village. During the height of the Netherese empire my village was enslaved and quarried green marble, then one day a worker discovered a mythallar, the quarry was abandoned and a mine dug."

 

Tyyrlym laid her hand on Kiori's knee and asked, "So why has no one tried to take these gems? Netheril collapsed millennia ago."

 

The words came more easily for Kiori now, "When the wizards lost their power we revolted, we killed all our masters and for a time we tried to live our lives. The he came. The scrolls say he looked different to every person, old beggar, rich young dandy, different to everyone. None of us knew what was in the mine, the Netherese never told us and all we knew was that we hated it. The wizard promised to help us make sure that no one would ever come for them again, would never hurt us again. He constructed golems to gaurd the mine, wards to prevent anyone from locating it, he taught us how to use the magic that was returning to Faeurun, how to use it to protect ourselves and make our lives better. The last piece of the puzzle was a trick though, he said he would cast a spell over all the village that would make people forget about it, that would allow us to live in peace without any greedy bigs coming to take what we had. He lied, it was a gaes." She shook her head. "It's nothing horrible but...it's there, always in the back of your mind, whispering to you that the village is perfect, wonderful, that you never want to leave. Have a child or two, be happy, be content, never leave, and never, ever speak of the mine to an outsider. I had even tried before, to tell an outsider, the merchant who dealt with Merin, I tried to tell him once, to see if I could but I couldn't. As soon as I tried I was more terrified of it than I have ever been of anything, there was no reason, no threat, just terror at the thought."

 

"Then why could you tell us?" Marik wanted to know.

 

"I don't know, but I need someone to help me.”

 

Tyyrlym looked at Marik and waited for him to nod. “We'll do what we can,” she said.

 

============================================================

 

Author's Notes

 

Acknowledgements:

 

It gets repetitive but as always Lighthawk, psianogen, Warpwizard, and this time otakunomike, they fielded some stupid questions and listened to me rattle on about this story for longer then they should have.

 

Notes:

 

1) War Trolls have an intelligence equal to a normal sentient humanoid.

 

2) Yes Kiori has a lot of firepower, she's flirting with being an epic sorceress.

 

3) The story of Neteral is as close to D&D canon as I can make it, the mythallar mines are my own addition.

 

You don't need to tell me I suck, I'm well aware of that.