The Summoned
Betrayal
The Light Plane: Outskirts of Nexus Forest
Asa regarded Paul solemnly. "So Norax wasn't
always this way..."
Paul nodded. "Norax used to be honorable.
My guess is that your ancestor, Tonir, gave permission to summon him before
Norax became the monster that he is now."
Asa wasn't sure what to make of the story.
Norax seemed more of a victim than a villan, but that didn't change the
situation: Asa was still being summoned by the warlord. Leo
had, no doubt, thousands of stories about the atrocities that Norax had
committed. Why else had he been fighting so hard against him?
Asa had seen Elayna's dead father, slain by one of Norax's minions.
Is that what he would end up doing? Would Norax use him to
destroy the father of some other innocent person?
Asa's thoughts were interrupted as Leo rode up between
him and Paul. "We should stop here momentarily." Leo said.
Asa looked toward Paul quizzicaly. The wizard just shrugged and stopped
his horse. The rest of the party followed his example, looking toward
Leo for explanation.
"My friends, I am happy to announce that we are
almost there." He said, looking toward them. He read visible
relief on their faces- nobody else in the party had been to the nexus before
and so they had no idea how close they really were. Leo recognized
the forest that they were approaching, and decided that it might be a boost
to morale to let them know. There was a growing sense of unease within
him- something didn't seem right. Ever since his voyage to the Light
Plane, everything had been easy- notifying LePaige, stumbling upon Asa...
there hadn't been any challenge or danger at all. He was vaguely
aware of the peril that Asa and his friends had been through prior to their
arrival, but ever since they had departed from Darren's keep, nothing had
happened. Leo had the feeling that something was about to.
"It's about time!" Jamie yelled from the back.
"How long have I been on this trip?"
"Leo..." Paul spoke up. "Did you notice anything
while you were going through the forest?"
Leo shook his head. "I'm not quite sure what
you're getting at, but no."
"That's alright, nevermind. If we stick to
the main path, we should be fine."
"Main path?" Jamie pointed in the direction they
were heading. "That's a cemetary over there, and beyond that is a
narrow, weed-choked, poorly-maintained dirt road! That's the main
path?"
"No, it's not." Paul said. "The main
path is to the east. It's brick and is about twelve people wide.
It's also warded against the various... residents of the forest."
Paul seemed reluctant to discuss the denizens of
the forest, so Leo didn't pursue the matter. Instead, he said "I'm
fairly certain that's not the path I took."
"There are many paths through the forest, some of
which are warded, and some of which are not. I don't think that one
is. I reccommend that we take the main road." Paul argued.
"Taking this road may be our demise."
"What? We're almost there and you want us
to go even further out of our way?" Jamie was less than pleased at
the wizard's suggestion. "No! I say we go right through that
graveyard and take that path! I'm tired of journeying. I want
to see some action, not to mention some wealth. I believed that I
was promised fabulous riches?" She glared toward Asa.
"Paul's right!" Leo spoke up again. "I was
lucky, I guess. I must have chosen one of the warded paths.
Paul doesn't want to go into detail about exactly what's in that forest,
and that's enough warning for me. The main entrance is out of our
way, but it's the safest route. Besides, in order to pass through
that small path, we'd have to leave the horses behind."
Asa dismounted from his horse silently and began
walking toward the graveyard. Dennen, showing his first awareness
that anything at all was happening, dismounted clumsily. "Asa!" he
yelled, running after the summoner. Elayna dismounted from behind
Jamie and ran toward Asa as well, before any of the others realized what
was happening.
The Nexus....
The thought echoed through Asa's mind.
He had felt it as far away as Darren's keep, but he had been able to ignore
it there. He was closer now. He was almost there, and he had
to go to the nexus. Something in the back of his mind was tugging
at him, trying to pull him back to himself. Asa walked in a near-daze
to the entrance of the graveyard, his perceptions dimming. The nexus'
pull seemed like a physical force, drawing him toward it. Some fragmented
portion of his mind realized that he was caught up in the summon that had
brought him here, but he was powerless to do anything about it. The
Dark Plane called him, and he was powerless against its call.
Elayna sprinted past the wheezing Dennen, closing
distance with Asa quickly. If Asa had been running, she wouldn't
have had a chance. The summoner was walking in a disturbing shamble,
weaving drunkedly, however. Elayna jumped and tackled him, colliding
with the middle of Asa's back and bringing him to the ground. Before
Asa could react at all, Elayna had brought up her magic. Her hands,
clasped around Asa's waist, glowed a brilliant white and Asa emitted a
momentary scream and then was still.
Everyone else stared toward her in shock.
Jamie was the first to recover. "What did you do to him??" She said,
suddenly afraid of the child. It was an irrational fear, but after
witnessing what she just had, it seemed justified.
Elayna stood up and then turned to face the rest
of the group. "He'll be okay..." she said quietly. "I cast
a spell to protect his mind... the summoning magic was pulling him too
hard."
Paul suddenly understood what had happened.
"Of course! This sort of thing hasn't been tried before. Blocking
a summon as we have for such a long time can't be healthy... I think Asa's
mind may have been affected. The closer he gets to the Nexus, the
more he's going to be affected by it. We may have to sedate him if
we don't want him to just run into the building the moment he sees it."
Elayna simply stood where she was, as though fearful
of attempting to rejoin the group. Asa made a muffled noise from
where he was. "I don't know how long it'll last" Elayna added.
"We should take the most direct route to the nexus. I can recast
the spell, if needed, but there might not be time."
Leo nodded. "I guess the main path's out then.
Warded or not, we're going to have to take the narrow path."
Jamie was about to comment when she glanced toward
the graveyard. "What the..."
Three human skeletons were walking unsteadily toward
Asa. Elayna turned when she noticed Jamie's expression and froze
at the sight of the undead. Leo dismounted from his horse and drew
his sword, running up to defend Asa. Jamie followed an instant later.
None of them noticed Dennen, who was slightly behind where Asa lay.
The wizard seemed lost in concentration.
"What? What's going on?" Paul said, dismounting
and readying his magic.
"Are you blind? Look!" Jamie yelled
back to the wizard. The skeletons had closed half of the distance
to where Asa was and hadn't even seemed to realize the presense of the
two warriors.
Asa stirred and sat up, gathering his bearings.
He was surrounded by his friends, and they seemed tense. The call
of the Nexus was lodged somewhere, but was a great deal weaker than it
had been. It was controllable now. Asa looked toward where
Dennen stood.
"Who are you?" Asa asked, confused.
Suddenly, it made sense to Paul. Summoning
up his magic, he created jets of flame and sent them searing...
Toward Dennen. The small mage managed to dive
out of the way, his tunic becoming singed in the process. Leo and
Jamie looked from the oncoming threat to the now-smoldering Dennen.
Jamie brought her attention whirling back to the threat at hand, mentally
cursing herself for being distracted so easily.
The skeletons were gone.
Leo hadn't looked back to where the skeletons had
been. He hadn't needed to. Dennen didn't appear to be Dennen
anymore... he looked like someone else, who Leo recognized.
He looked like Korenor.
Leo stepped forward, swinging his sword toward the
mage. Korenor screeched and jumped back, looking about wildly.
He raised his arms and vanished, reappearing twenty feet back from where
he was.
"What's happening?" Asa asked, standing up slowly.
"That." Leo spat "is Korenor, Norax's top wizard."
"That I am!" Korenor yelled, glaring over toward
Paul. "How did you see through my disguise?"
Paul smiled, his magic at the ready. "I never
saw your disguise- none of your illusions worked on me. You created
those skeletons to distract us while you took Asa away, no doubt.
But Asa had his mind shielded by Elayna's magic. It worked against
the summon, and it worked against your illusions. I had my suspicions,
but when Asa didn't recognize you, I realized that you had been trying
to fool us all along. I didn't know who you were, but now that Leo
has enlightened me, I will gladly rid this world of you."
Korenor backed up some more. "Fools!
My magic is strong enough to destroy you all!" He raised one arm
and the earth in the cemetary moved, bursting upward. Skeletons,
one for each plot in the entire area, lurched upward. "I assure you,
these are no illusions!"
Jamie jumped back as a skeleton clawed her leg,
swinging her warhammer toward the derelict warrior. Asa found himself
confronted with five skeletons, all trying to pin him. He noticed
the undead trying to kill everyone else- they were just trying to keep
him still. No doubt Korenor was going to bring him back as a trophy.
Elayna leapt forward, touching the first skeleton
she found. The skeleton emitted a loud cry and disintegrated.
Three more jumped forward to challenge her. She walked backwards,
destroying the nearest ones to the best of her ability. Elayna had
already used a considerable amount of magic helping Asa... her ability
to deal with these fiends was dwindling quickly.
Paul saw the skeletons, and so they weren't illusions.
As much as he wanted to kill Korenor right then, he knew that a battle
between him and the other wizard would take a very long time- more time
than his friends had. So he jumped into the fray, spewing fire into
the midst of the skeletons.
Leo stood by Asa, striking at the skeletons that
managed to get close to the summoner. If the skeletons got ahold
of Asa, then their entire quest would be in vain. Still, there were
many more skeletons than there were people to defend Asa. "Asa!
Do something!"
Asa was watching the battle unfold with shock.
Dennen was actually Korenor? Leo's exclamation startled him back
to reality. He turned, startled by the sheer enormity of the force
confronting them. Raising his summoning rod, he called the first
thing that came to mind.
There was a silent shockwave of light and heat as
Thalla appeared in the midst of undead. Each skeleton stopped battling
and turned to face the new arrival. Thalla regarded each of them
solemnly.
"Rest..." she whispered, her voice barely reaching
Asa's ears. In unison, the skeletons fell to the ground, as lifeless
as they had been moments before. Thalla walked toward Asa.
"How may I help you?" A pale blue light seemed to eminate from her.
Everyone else in the party just stopped what they were doing and stared
toward her. Paul couldn't bring himself to feel angry with Asa for
summoning the demon, though he would later, he was sure. Jamie watched
in wonder as she witnessed the reappearance of Thalla - the demon had done
so much damage before, but she seemed to want to help them. Leo watched
uneasily. The spirit, at least it seemed like a spirit, reminded
him of something in his past... some story he had heard about as a child.
Elayna cringed in terror- she hadn't seen the first appearance of the thing
and she had no desire to see another. Elayna saw something within
Thalla... something that made her want to run as far as she could.
Asa felt better than he ever had. It seemed
that his strength had returned, and all confusion had left him. The
Nexus did not pull at him at all. He was strong again. He turned
to Korenor, who had witnessed the destruction of his undead army with something
approximating complete shock. "Korenor!" he yelled, his voice meanacing.
Thalla, reading Asa's intent, began to travel toward
the illusionist slowly. Korenor backed away, his mind too busy attempting
to control his panic to bring his magic to bear, not that it would do any
good.
"Korenor..." Thalla said, seemingly recognizing
him. "I know your master"
Korenor was rooted to where he was, pleading incoherently.
"No! Please!" the wizard looked over to Asa pleadingly.
"Don't destroy me! PLEASE!!!" Korenor was about to panic.
"Thalla, stop for a moment." Asa said.
Thalla obeyed, smiling in Korenor's direction as though she would enjoy
eradicating him.
"I have a request." Asa said to Korenor.
"Anything!" Korenor screamed. "Spare
me!"
"I would like your permission to summon you."
Korenor stood where he was for a moment, not quite
comprehending what was being asked of him. "I can't!"
Asa made a gesture and Thalla began moving forward
again. Korenor started screaming incoherently.
"Yes! YES! You can summon me!
You can summon me! No restrictions just DON'T KILL ME!"
Thalla stopped again, halted by a command from Asa.
"Very well. Now go."
Korenor seemed to regain enough presense of mind
to teleport himself away.
Thalla turned back to Asa, walking slowly to him.
"Asa..."
Asa just stared at her... he felt drawn to her as
he had felt drawn to the Nexus earlier. She seemed his purpose.
His quest was to find her, and he had finally arrived. "Thalla..."
The two stopped when they were less than a foot
from each other, each staring into the other's eyes. Asa's hand found
Thalla's, and they stood like that for nearly a minute. Somewhere
in his mind, he remembered something that he had to finish.
Without realizing it, Asa whispered the necessary
words and released Thalla. Almost instantly afterward, his world
went black.
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