The Summoned
Nexus
The Light Plane: Halo Temple
It took both Paul and Leo to hold Asa back.
"Let go of me!" Asa yelled, trying to pull
away from them. "Elayna, explain to them!"
Elayna looked up at Asa as though she didn't recognize
him, and then looked back down at the ground. Finally, Asa stopped
struggling. "Fine, you can let me go, I'm not going to do anything
stupid." After a brief moment of indecision, Leo and Paul stopped
restraining him. Asa stood where he was, staring at the sword.
"Paul, what happened to her?"
Paul paused, unsure of what to say. "I- I'm
not sure. It is powerful magic at work here, and so it is difficult
for me to classify."
"Paul! Tell me what happened to her!
And then explain to me why I shouldn't destroy that sword." Asa snapped.
Paul, looking a bit flustered, tried to continue.
"I do not believe that she was destroyed." he said simply.
"Perhaps only... imprisoned."
"Imprisoned? Where, inside the sword?"
Paul nodded. "That is what is said happens
to those who fall victim to the sword's power."
"So... if I had destroyed it... Jamie would be gone
forever." Asa finished.
"Yes. As it is, there may be a chance to get
her back, but it is far beyond my ability. My master may be able
to do something, however, I cannot."
"Then it is settled." Leo said. "We
will bring the sword with us."
Paul looked toward the warrior quizzically.
"That's not what I was suggesting."
Leo returned his gaze. "I know, but we have
to make sure that this sword is not taken - it is our only chance of getting
Jamie back. If we leave it here, someone else might take it, or worse,
destroy it." He turned and took a step in the direction of the sword.
"No!" Elayna, previously docile, suddenly
sprung up and nearly tackled Leo. "It'll take you too! And
then Sir Paul, and Sir Asa! Then who will be left!?" she nearly shrieked
the words.
"Elayna, I have to do this. If this sword
vanishes, so does Jamie." With that, Leo stepped forward and grasped
the sword.
The same low-pitched rumble sounded and the light
intensified once more to the point of blindingness....
The light ceased suddenly, as well as the sound,
and everyone was plunged into darkness. Asa's eyes took a few moments
to adjust to the weak green light radiating in from the corridor outside
the room. What he saw surprised him - Leo stood, whole and intact,
in the center of the room, the Halo sword in his hand.
Paul was the first to react. "Leo! You
have it! I knew you would do it!"
Asa looked over at Paul. "What? Are
you saying that you knew he could take the sword? Why didn't you
say something?"
"If I had told him, it would have runied it.
You can't want the sword for yourself, you have to want it for some other
reason. Remember the inscription on the walls? 'The Strong and Noble
of cause?'" Paul seemed utterly overjoyed at this development. It
took a great deal of Asa's will not to knock the man out with his staff.
Didn't he realize that Jamie was gone!?
"Paul, Jamie's dead and you knew something that
could have prevented it!" Asa spat. He was feeling more anger than
he had thought himself capable of - how could Paul be so callous!?
"What? No, she acted too quickly, I didn't
get the chance to warn her!" Paul's expression saddened deeply.
"It's terrible that we had to gain the sword this way. Believe me,
I grieve for Jamie. She fought valiantly against the Lich, for no
reason other than it needed to be done. She accepted me as a friend."
Paul fell silent.
Asa said nothing in response. His anger was
cooling - Paul was right. Jamie had, despite her claim to only be
along for money, fought for them and stood by their sides. And now
she was gone. It would be unfair to take his anger out on Paul.
Elayna walked up to Leo, touching his side briefly,
as though to confirm that he was still there. She then turned to
Paul.
"Paul, what would this blade do against Norax?"
she said, her voice trembling.
Paul seemed to consider. "I don't see why
Norax would be any different - One strike with the blade, and he'd be gone."
Elayna nodded and looked back at the Halo Sword.
If she got the chance, she would use the blade, and avenge Jamie's death
upon the person who she blamed for it.
Norax. He had taken away her father, and now
he had taken away Jamie. If not for Norax, none of them would be
in this position right now. Elayna vowed once more to see him pay.
Leo said nothing. He didn't need to.
He had been fully expecting to be pulled into the blade and trapped there.
His plan was to then do his best to rescue Jamie, if he could. The
fact that he had not, as he had believed he would, become part of the blade
threw his plans into disarray. After a moment of thought, he decided
that he would go ahead with what he had originally told the others.
He would hold the blade in safe keeping, until they could locate Seeker.
Hopefully, Paul's master would be able to do something to help. He
had one thing to take care of first, however. He needed to free Asa
from his summons. And this sword would more than likely help.
"Listen!" he spoke finally, breaking the silence
that had fallen after Paul's last comment. "We have the sword that
now holds Jamie captive. We are near the Nexus and I think that,
even if he wanted to, Asa couldn't turn back now. So I propose that
we finish this business with Norax, and then locate the Seeker."
It was a simple speech.
Asa nodded. "You're right Leo. I couldn't
go anywhere but toward that Nexus. I get a headache just thinking
about going anywhere else." It was true, though he had said it jokingly.
The call of the Nexus was growing more and more insistant in his mind.
He supposed his earlier summoning had tired him out sufficiently so that
his ability to fight the call was weakening. Elayna's spell should
be holding on, though.
Paul was the one who actually started moving out
of the temple, and the others followed him readily enough. Without
the mysterious shaft of light that had illuminated the sword, this room
had taken on the look of all the others in this temple: cold, dreary,
and abandoned. They all would be glad to get out of this place.
After a few minutes, they were back outside the
temple. The bleak forest was a paradise of light compared to the
tomb that they had just exited. It didn't take them long to realize
that it was much later in the day now. They all agreed that they
should make it to the Nexus by nightfall, and proceeded along the trail
in that direction.
Half an hour passed. The going was easier
than it had been - the path was wider here, and three people could pass
abreast if needed. There was no undergrowth - this area of the forest
seemed older than the rest. The party said little, each thinking
their own thoughts on the matter.
Paul was thinking about Seeker. Could his
mentor free Jamie from the sword? Paul supposed that Seeker might
be that powerful, but these swords were artifacts from another time - forged
to win a war against demons. Their power might be more than any wizard
today, even Seeker, could manage. Paul kept trying to reassure himself
that his master was equal to the task. But he had doubts.
Leo, too, was thinking of the sword. Was he
really any of the things that the engraving had described? It seemed
like only the most innocent, worthy, and holy of individuals would recieve
that sword. None of those titles really applied to Leo. He
had, after all, got his entire Light Guard wiped out. But the sword
had chosen him. Or he had been allowed to choose it. If there
was a fight, and he had no doubt there would be one, he would use the sword,
but only with reservation. For its brother was the Tomb Sword, that
much he knew without having to have Paul tell him. Norax had been
searching for the Halo sword for years, and had planned his attacks upon
the Light Plane in the hopes of finding it, and destroying it. For the
members of the Light Guard, it had become a sort of holy symbol.
If they had it, they could defeat Norax and free the Dark Plane.
And now, Leo had it. But the Tomb sword had become corrupt with the
power of the being trapped within it. Could the same happen to the
sword he now wielded? Leo had his sword, but he also had his doubts.
Elayna's thought was alternating between Jamie,
her father, and Norax. She had known Jamie since she was a child.
Jamie would stop by Robert's house often - he and Jamie got along well
but there was always some sort of tension. Her stays were never long.
Elayna would sometimes, when she had her father's permission, go down from
the mountain and visit Jamie. Those stays lasted as long as a week,
and Jamie would treat her well. Growing up raised by only Robert,
Jamie was the closest thing to a mother that she had. And now Norax
had taken them both away. And if she ever saw Norax again, he would
die. Of that, she had no doubt.
Asa couldn't think. The pounding in his head
had reached a crescendo that, had it been audible, would have been ear-splitting.
He could see the Nexus, even though they were not in sight of it yet.
He could feel the rift in the universe that linked the three planes to
each other pulling toward him. He had only one goal: the Nexus.
Some lost, half-reminded part of him restrained him from just running ahead
in a dead sprint. Asa hoped, in a vague way, that he would be able
to control himself once he actually saw the Nexus. But he doubted
it.
Not a minute passed before the party stumbled out
of the forest and into a large clearing. In the center of the clearing
was a building of such size that it seemed to vanish into the sky itself.
It was the Nexus. Leo recognized it instantly. The others, who had
never seen it, recognized it anyway. The Nexus was unmistakable.
There was one other person in the clearing with
them. She wasn't one of the caretakers - Leo had noticed that they
all had worn the same style of clothing. This woman was wearing something
that looked like it was from the Dark Plane, and she was leaning on a staff
that looked suspiciously like a summoner's rod. Leo stepped forward,
in front of the rest of the party, and brandished the halo sword.
"Who are you?" he demanded coldly.
She looked at him, and he realized that she was
trembling. "I- I'm sorry...." she said, her voice nearly a whisper.
"I don't want to do this... but I must...." she raised her rod and whispered
something unintelligable.
Leo sprung forward, and was thrown back by an invisible
hand. The wind suddenly sprayed dust in all directions, whirling
dirt, stones, and loose branches everywhere. The woman had raised
an air elemental that put Asa'a abilities to shame!
The woman, unharmed from the maelstrom that her
elemental was causing, turned toward Asa and whispered something else.
Suddenly, Asa could not hear anything. A high-pitched
keening sounded in his ears. Unknown to him, blood began to trickle
out of his nose. All this time, he had thought Elayna's spell was
protecting him from the call of the Nexus. When he call began to
become more insistant, he had just thought that Elayna's magic was failing.
That was not the case. The call of the Nexus
had been growing stronger. And this woman, whoever she was, had just
broken Elayna's protection against it.
Bright lights danced in front of Asa's eyes.
He staggered drunkedly, screaming incoherently, his arms flailing in all
directions. His rod clattered to the ground. He looked up...
And saw the Nexus. Its pull seemed to wrench
every organ within him toward it. The Nexus - his only reason for
being.
Screaming words he did not know the meaning of,
in a language only he could understand, Asa raced toward the tower that
housed the Nexus. His eyes did not linger on the bodies of the caretakers
that littered the floor inside, instead he just raced up the stairway.
Dizziness continually overcame him, and his vision was beginning to fade.
His stomach churned violently, it felt like he was breathing fire, and
his muscles were cramping repeatedly. Through a haze of pain, diziness,
and madness, Asa raced to the main chamber of the tower. The Nexus
was open, inviting him. For one fraction of a second, rational thought
prevailed in his sickened mind - he must not do this! - and then
it was gone. Asa stumbled into the Nexus.
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