He awoke in the morning to see Sean standing at
the edge of the campsite. That was nothing new - except the expression
on Sean's face was. The warrior was, for the first time in quite
some time, smiling and looking rather happy. As Nathan slowly managed
to get to his feet, Sean turned around to greet him.
"Ah, Nathan - good to see you awake. You can
see our destination much better in this light. It raises the spirits,
it does!" Sean pointed his sword at the barely-visible spire to the south.
"Soon, we'll be there. Help me pack up the camp, and we can get moving
again."
Half an hour later, the two were back on their journey.
Nathan didn't know what had changed the warrior's disposition, but he was
thankful that it had happened. It had begun to be unbearable - walking
along with a man who seemed to have homicidal tendencies. Not, Nathan
supposed, that Sean appreciated having to walk along with a prince that
had a tendency toward mental problems. At any rate, the going was
much better than before. Sean even seemed amiable to conversation.
He had been talking of his exploits for quite some time now - various adventures
he had embarked upon and survived (against terrible odds, of course) to
return to his home.
They were fabrications, of course. Nathan
had enough tact not to point this out, but it did make him wonder.
Why was it that Sean was telling him these stories if they were all false?
Why bother to create a false life? Nathan decided to just keep quiet
and pretend to be interested in the stories.
The real object of his interest was ahead of them.
The Spire - only marginally closer now after hours of walking -was a beacon
for Nathan. His legs hurt, he hadn't eaten enough (Sean stressed
the need to conserve what little food they had remaining), and he was still
unsure of his sanity, but that structure ahead was something he could count
on. It was no mirage - its very presence seemed to radiate realism
- the fact that it was there. The surrounding scenery seemed
dim - even partially hallucinated - in comparison. The Spire was
reality. The Spire was the answer. The Spire was what he had
been seeking all this time. He had known logically that right from
the moment he started upon his pilgrimage, he had stood little chance of
survival. But he had also known, within himself, that it was his
destiny to arrive.
Time passed slowly. Nathan's mind would usually
go off and think upon other subjects, usually home, but now he found his
whole attention riveted on the structure that he was slowly moving closer
to. As near as he could tell, the reproduction done in the Scholar's
city was correct down to the last detail. He found himself wondering
how it had been done, since nobody had ever been here and returned.
More than likely one of the spirists had been granted a vision. Nathan
closed his eyes and continued to walk, just feeling the presence of the
Spire. He wasn't a magic-wielder, if such people even existed any
longer. He had never been particularly sensitive to extraphenomenal
events. This, however, was the source of all life in the world.
One could not help but to feel its power.
Sean cursed and Nathan's eyes flew open, immediately
trying to discern what had happened. Sean's free arm was holding
a rag of some sort to his sword arm, which Nathan could tell was slowly
dripping blood. Despite his companion's earlier demeanor when he
had been injured, Nathan could not help calling out.
"Sean, are you all right?"
Sean whirled around and for a moment Nathan was
sure that the warrior was going to strike out at him. Then his face
cleared. "Don't worry about it... I'm fine. It's just one of
the old wounds from the earlier battles opened up. We don't have
too much further to go, I should be well."
Nathan nodded rather than give an actual vocal answer.
He was simply too dumbfounded by the warrior's actions. Sean hadn't
even been acknowledging the presence of wounds earlier, and now he was
freely alluding to them! The man was strange, that was certain.
The prince was beginning to get the feeling that Sean was attempting to
make him forget all about the earlier hostility. Such an action made
Nathan suspicious.
Nathan shook his head, to clear it of both his odd
thoughts as well as his paranoia. He hadn't been this suspicious
of people in the past, had he? Then again, he had never undertaken
something so serious or important as this. Perhaps the strain of
everything was too much for him. He sighed, and turned his attention
back to the Spire. It was definitely closer now. Maybe if he
was lucky, they would reach it that evening. That would certainly
be a feat - one he would appreciate greatly. The sooner they arrived
at the spire, the sooner this whole maddening journey would come to an
end. Nathan didn't personally know how many people had already perished
in his homeland - the blight was probably causing riots as he walked -
but it was far, far too many. This would end it. Scholar Vencam
had said so.
Nathan turned his attention back to their goal and
started. There was something else there!
"Sean, look!" Nathan cried out, wondering why the
other man hadn't spotted it.
Sean squinted and then breathed in suddenly.
"It would appear we have a visitor." he glanced over at Nathan. "You're
still not armed, are you?" he muttered a curse before the young prince
could answer. "I guess it's just me then. Stay out of the fight
- but if I get hurt..." his voice wavered, and he looked away. "I
might need your help. I don't want a repeat of what happened last
time, if it's at all possible to avoid." he continued not to look
at Nathan. What was this? An admission of weakness? Nathan
was really beginning to wonder what had happened to the man. It unnerved
him more than anything else - Sean was going to go into this fight usure
if he would win. That could be the only reason that he would ask
for Nathan's assistance. He didn't like it.
"So what do we do?" He asked quietly.
They hadn't stopped walking - Nathan was unsure whether coming to the enemy
would give them the advantage or not. The enemy appeared to be coming
to them as well....
"We keep walking, that's what we do. He looks
to be about half an hour away." Sean glanced over at the sun, which was
starting to head into evening position. "We've made good time today
- the spire won't be far behind him. We can't waste time. Let's
go find him, and get this over with."
Nathan nodded his assent.
The figure, which became clearer as they got closer,
appeared to be a man in an enormous suit of armor. Sean was a large
- if somewhat lean - man, but their enemy appeared to be an armored hulking
giant. That was a bit of an exaggeration - Tallows Kingdom had a
few guards that size, but not very many. A large saber was clutched
in its right hand, and it walked directly toward them without any attempt
at signaling them to show its intentions. Behind it, the Spire hung
in the background. They might reach it by that night, if this encounter
did not slow them down too much. The guardian - if that was what
his function was - drew closer at the same steady pace. Sean slowed,
and finally stopped altogether as they neared.
The man in armor stopped five yards from where Sean
was standing, and spoke.
I am Ezrenecan, guardian of the Axis roads, and
caretaker of the Spire in absence of its masters. Nathan shuddered to himself - the speech
of this armored being was like that of the creatures - it seemed as though
it was not spoken at all, and yet resonated throughout his mind.
He actually saw Sean flinch at the creature's speech.
"I-" Sean began, seemingly recovering from his initial
shock, "am Sean of Celon Alliance, and he-"
Sean was interrupted by the armored creature.
YOU are no such thing, dark one! That my
masters have permitted you to go this far shows more mercy on their part
than I would grant to you. But they have ordered it stopped - your
plan has failed, and by tradition you must now withdraw. Nathan's mind was whirling as he struggled
to figure out what the armor was speaking about. Suspicion gnawed
at his inside as it began to dawn on him the nature of the conversation...
the creatures had said nearly the same thing as the armored man was - and
after the incident with the creatures....
"I have no knowledge of what you speak, creature."
Sean replied, hands steady on his sword. "I and my companion seek
audience within the spire. And we do not intend to be stopped by
you."
You will not pass here with your life.
Go back. "I will never do so." Sean's eyes narrowed
to slits as he leapt forward and struck the armored man a hard blow to
his side. There was a resounding ring that confirmed one of Nathan's
suspicions - the armor was hollow. It reacted swiftly, however, not
seeming at all dazed by the warrior's attacks. Dodging to the side,
the giant sliced a gash into Sean's non-sword arm. The young warrior
hit the ground bleeding, but sprung back to his feet quickly, as though
nothing were bothering him at all. Nathan was backing away during
all of this, moving off of the Axis road and watching. There was
little else he could do. Sean's earlier words came back to him -
"I might need your help" - but what was he supposed to do?
Sean cried out hoarsely as an attempted feint failed,
and his torso was cut deeply. "I'll destroy you!" he cried, with
more fury than Nathan had known the warrior possessed. Sean closed
his eyes, apparently in concentration.
Nathan nearly cried out as the air near him was
drained of warmth. He suddenly felt faint. Not again!
This had happened with the leader of the creatures as well.... Nathan
closed his eyes tightly, then reopened them.
The daylight seemed gone from his surroundings,
and shadows were everywhere. Sean was no longer himself - as before,
he seemed more real than the surroundings. The warrior leapt ahead,
striking at the armored being and opening a large tear in the front of
its armor. Not even that, however, stopped the being. Raising
its rusty saber quickly, it struck Nathan's shadow-wreathed sword and knocked
it from the warrior's hand. Then, with another quick turn of the
sword, Sean was knocked to the ground, a broken and bloody heap.
Some amount of normalcy started leaking into the
surroundings as Sean's sword clattered to the ground, mere feet from Nathan.
The armor turned slowly, and faced the young prince impassively, not saying
anything.
Nathan bent down and took Sean's weapon into his
hand, ignoring the deadly cold that lanced through his arm as he did so.
Slowly, he walked onto the axis road, and faced both the giant and his
fallen comrade.
I might need your help. You are no such thing, dark one. I was saved from dying by that man.... ... Dark One ... Cannot abide... "Help... me..." the fallen form of Sean croaked.
Nathan looked down into the warrior's eyes.
And saw nothing. The realization came to him
fully then - as he raised the sword up high - Sean was not a man from Celon
Alliance. Sean was not a man at all. The warrior that had 'protected'
him all this time was a creature of the void. The creatures had known,
and had tried to drive the warrior off. The warrior had died at the
hands of the leader, and somehow he had been healed - probably by the same
forces that had spawned it in the first place. And this close to
the Spire, an agent of the void would have some considerable problems staying
coherent... doubtless this explained Sean's sudden wounds.
Sean's face changed from one of pleading to one
of anger, as though he knew what was about to happen. Before the
fallen warrior could say anything, however, Nathan brought the dark sword
down and severed Sean's head. Disgustedly, Nathan threw the sword
to the side.
Shaking, the young prince looked back up at the
metallic giant standing between him and the Spire. The giant nodded,
and stepped off of the Axis road.
Nathan shut his eyes, then reopened them. Slowly,
he began to walk toward the Spire which loomed closer with every step.
