The battle for Moresia

"[Dell]?" I choked out a lone laugh. "Seriously?"

I couldn't contain myself & burst out laughing, I saw now that this tough guy act he'd been putting on had been nothing but a show.

I calmed myself down, "I'm sorry, dude." I shook my head, as if that would clear it. "It's just, you know, of all the people... You, here. It's.... improbable, to say the least. I-"

I looked him up & down, as if for the first time. "Man, you look like a total tool," I chortled.

I looked at Burgle skeptically. She couldn't be who I thought she was, could she?

"Look," I said. "I have a very good idea as to who you are, but I don't want to say in case I'm wrong. So just tell me your name."

I realised that I hadn't actually said who I was yet, & my momentary upper hand gave me a nice wholesome sense of satisfaction.

I gestured towards myself, "Look, man. I'm tiny & I'm green. Who's the one person you know who would be totally ok with that?"

I grinned, "It's me, [Arekku]!"

I saw [Dell]'s face & quickly added, "No, no, no, not bitch [Arekku]... Cool [Arekku]!" I made a quick Ta-da! gesture.

My face lightened as I realised that I wasn't in this alone anymore. My oldest friend was here with me, to share in my misery and misfortune.

"It's a fucking good thing, too! If you had been her you'd be levitating 50 feet in the air right now while I went on my way." Giddy with my new-found companionship, I found myself grinning. "So how the hell did you end up in this messed up place?" I asked.

I shrugged & sighed, "Your guess is as good as mine. I was mooching around on the internet then I woke up in some woods. You?"

"Well, at least you were awake. I fell asleep after work in front of the computer when I was looking at that site you told me about and I woke up running from some demon things in the forest here." I rolled my eyes. "How typical is that? People never liked me."

"However, I might have a better idea as to why this happened. If you would care to hear?"

After a long time, Loki and I got out of that twisted forest. We had gotten lost so many times since the forest began morphing all of a sudden. We were now standing before open plains that seemed endless. Loki scanned the horizon before spotting something, beginning to walk again.
"Where we going now?" I ask.
"There's a town over there," Loki replied looking back at me.
I nod in acknowledgement and start after him.

"-if you would care to hear?" Jarel finished.

I shrugged. "Sure. I mean, I don't know how much it'll help, but go for it."

"Well," I began, ordering my thoughts ready to share the knowledge that I had inherited from the body I was inhabiting, "I don't really know any details. The prophecies aren't widely known, and what little I heard was hearsay and rumour."

I closed my eyes and, with them still closed, began to speak. "The Prophecy of the Outsiders is old. It's origins seem to come from about the time that the elves as they are known today came into being, and they are tied into it. It is said that they will bring about the Coming and one of them, their 'light' will be one of those taken over. How that would be done is unclear, except that the act would be done in ignorance of the prophecy. The Outsiders will play some crucial role in the development of this world, although there are mixed reports on whether it will be in its salvation or its damnation."

My eyes opened and I looked Burgle square in the eyes. "It is said that there is no way back." I said flatly. "The Outsiders will come to fulfill their role or die. There is no return."

"Huh..." I said, taking a second to ponder this. Most of what Jarel had said had sort of been swept out of my head with the words 'no return'.

I felt kind of...numb. I was aware that I should be panicking or something, thanks to that revelation, but I found myself not really able to react. My brain was going through the same process it had done the day before when I had figured out that I was no longer in Spain: A sort of 'it's easier to just go along with this' justification.

My face became animated again as I exhaled heavily. "Wow..." I said. "Shit's heavy."

I went to push my glasses up, forgetting they weren't there anymore & disguised my action as an light absent-minded scratch. "So even if we win, we can't get back?" I asked. "That's not much incentive, is it?" I laughed.

I could almost see the thought processes going on in her head. She had never been able to hide what was going on in her head. But I knew her, she would eventually just go with whatever was in front of her.

"That would seem to be the case. But my worry is that we don't even know what it is that we are here to do. Whether or not we want to do it, or if we can even get away from it. From what I know of prophecies here, they have a way of tying you up and stopping you getting away from them."

I stopped again and slumped forwards, staring at my feet. "I... don't know what to do." The words were almost inaudible, under my breath.

I looked at Jarel starting to break down & I averted my eyes, never sure what to do in these situations. This wasn't the occasion for a dead baby joke, I could discern that much.

"Well," I offered. "I guess the first step would be to figure out what we're actually here for, you know? If there's an evil overlord or a cat in a tree or something."

Pulling myself together, I came to my feet. Burgle was right, there was no time fo such nonsense in this situation.

"Yes, the first step is to go and speak to Archalon. Then we can hopefully find out a few details." So saying, I began walking towards to opening onto the street again.

I pottered along after him, noticing that clouds had blown across to cover up the pleasantly warm sun. The streets were shadier now, & the buildings lacked the brilliance they'd had at first impression while the sun was still out.

A growing breeze whipped up the hem of my cloak & I picked up my pace a bit to catch up to Jarel, who kept seeming to forget that his legs were now twice as long as mine.

I heard a fast-paced pattering noise behind me and grinned as I turned to see Burgle hurrying along. She would get the useless body. As I turned back, a wind swept down the street that seemed to chill more than it should. It was only then that I noticed how empty the streets were and how dark.

Just as it happened I felt what was happening, and I had my quarterstave at the ready as the shadows around the entrance to the courtyard where we had been seemed to deepen and coalesced into five dark hooded figures, surrounding us. They began closing slowly and menacingly, with movements so fluid it spoke of something more than human or elf or anything else this body had seen before.

Almost anything.

Reaching a hand out, I grabbed Burgle's shoulder to stop her blundering on.

I spun around at Jarel's touch. Seeing the look in his face, I knew there was something gravely wrong.

Upon seeing the cowled figures approaching them, I felt the hilt of the sword in my hand without even remembering having reached for it.
Crap, I'm going to have to use this, aren't I? I mentally grimaced.

I watched the progress of the five figures, hoping they'd take down their hoods & turn out to be some of Jarel's friends being all dramatic. I was fairly sure this wasn't going to happen though, I had already noticed the lengthening shadows around us & the unnaturally icy breeze prickling the skin of my face. Something about them wasn't right.

Stepping in front of Burgle so that I was between her and the advancing figures with enough room to swing my stave, I assumed a ready stance, stepping back in time with the figures advance so that I could keep them all in my field of vision.

"If I say to run," I muttered over my shoulder to Burgle, "head to the centre of the city as fast of you can, it's where all the biggest building are. Go to the biggest and tell them I sent you. Make them let you see Archalon, somehow, and tell him everything I told you, everything you know."

So saying, I spun off to the left, bringing the head of my stave at the figures chest. And straight through it.

"Fuck..."

As I looked around in shock, I saw Burgle looking on in horror as one of the dark figures advanced menacingly on her, and another figure on a rooftop nearby, watching.

Loki's pace picked up as he trampled across the long grass towards the town. I had to pick up my pace, which was much faster than what I was comforable. Walking slow was so much better, walking faster made me feel like I was in a hurry. I let out a sigh as I tried keeping up with Loki's quick pace. The town seemed so far, it looked like small trees.
"Hurry up, this wide space is making me feel uneasy," Loki said looking around warily.
What's there to be afraid of? It's not like anything can hide all the way out here anyways, whatever.

Normally I would've listened to Jarél's little speech with a healthy dash of cynicism. But now, with my dented sword held out defensively & with my stomach tightening up with an unaccustomed level of fright, it seemed to make sense.

As one of the shadowwy figures reached out to grabbed me, I instinctively lashed out with the sword, even though I had already seen the futility of Jarél's attack.

There was a weird screech, like fingernails being dragged across a blackboard, & the figure withdrew, clutching its wrist. It took me a moment to figure out what had happened & I looked down just in time to see a putrid hand on the floor begin to disintegrate into a fetid black vapor that caught on the breeze.

I looked at the sword incredulously. This thing?!

I wasn't given anymore time to ponder this though, as the onslaught renewed.

I watched as Burgle's attack actually bore fruit.

That thing?! How could that be a weapon of Power?

Well, that was besides the point. If it could be hurt by that, he could hurt them in the same way. The Art of making weapons of Power might have been lost in ages past, but there were ways one could temporarily imbue his weapons with similar powers if he could wield magic and had the necessary knowledge.

However, it would mean the quarterstave would be of no use. Slinging it back over my shoulder, I drew my daggers while I underwent the task of focusing my mind to wield magic. This would be difficult, focusing such delicate Power while trying to fight, but it was the only way.

And it didn't help that the spoiling of my past spells still weighed heavily on me, making the touch of magic seem distasteful, like plunging my hand into a pit of tar to grab at it.

Pushing such thoughts from my mind, I let the Power dribble into the twin knives I now held, infusing them, as I spun into action, slicing one of the unsuspecting creatures across the neck before they knew what was happening. It wailed as dark fumes began to escape like a freshly stoked fire and it dissolved away, eventually leaving nothing but a foul taste in the air.

I knew the rest wouldn't be so easily dispatched, now that they knew what to expect.