A Regnum Tale: Exiles

[Immune]

Hey guys, sorry I haven't written in quite awhile. School and junk, you know? Anyways, I'm gonna try and pick this up again. I might be a little rusty, so forgive me if it's not as good as previous chapters, haha Enjoy!
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Fire and Ice

Ahno stared at the necromancer standing before him with a forboding look in his eyes. There was no doubt about it, this was unmistakably one of the forsworn which Nadia had warned him about. He looked at his companions again, Iris still quaking on the ground and Remus still paralyzed standing up. Ahno put a dangerous tone in his voice as he asked,

“What have you done to them?” he clenched his fists and was resisting the urge to lash out at the mage before him, in hopes that he might actually get an answer. To his surprise, his hopes were not dashed for once. The warlock smiled contemptibley again as he replied.

“Who, me? Why, nothing at all! It seems that I've simply… scared them out of their wits.” The mage snickered as he always seemed to whenever he thought he was clever. Ahno had guessed this already, a spell which induces nightmarish fear. The necromancer tilted his head to the side in contemplation and looked at Ahno. He frowned and continued, “Though you, my friend, seem as composed as ever. Why is that, I wonder?” For a minute he examined the staff which Ahno held, paying attention to the runes engraved along its length in particular. An expression of understanding gradually came across his face.

“Ah, so you’ve finally met dear Nadia, have you?” Ahno narrowed his eyes and thrust his staff toward the warlock threateningly.
“How do you know about that?” In asking this, Ahno realized that the amulet of knowledge didn’t grant instant and unlimited answers. Its true power must be much more subtle, he decided. The necromancer answered snidely,
“Oh-ho, so you don’t know everything now do you, my wise friend? I’m afraid I can’t tell you that much!” He threw his head back and laughed curtly.
'I'm really getting tired of this guy already.'

Ahno waited for the arrogant one to calm down again. After he was finished with his mocking laughter, the necromancer lowered his head again and spoke.
“But come now, let’s be civilized here. You and I both know what I want, and I’m sure you’d like to avoid a conflict between us as much as I would. So why don’t you just let me take those off your hands…” He gestured at the bag concealing the two gems, which Remus had dropped. “…and I’ll be on my way. No fuss, no muss. How about it?” He smiled menacingly. Of course Ahno wouldn’t agree to these terms, but Ahno had figured long ago that excessive talking was all a part of how this guy worked. He planned on making the most of that; wordplay was something he found himself to be quite good at.

“A generous offer, but I’m afraid I must respectfully decline. Perhaps, if you made it worth my while, however…” Ahno's expression remained nonchalant. Though it was clear that he was acting, it seemed to thrill the necromancer that someone finally accepted his subtle challenge to outwit him in a seemingly harmless conversation.
“A haggler, are we? Very well then, name your price for those lovely stones you carry.” This is basically exactly what Ahno was hoping he would say.
“Unfortunately I cannot name a price, until you name yourself. Anonymity does not sit well with me, I’m afraid.”

’He’s just as clever as expected…’ Though the conversation had been short thus far, he could already tell that Ahno was just as witty as he was. He wasn’t about to let an opportunity pass him by to test his own wits against such an opponent. He continued the exchange, though he decided that it would have to end soon.

“You put a price on your price? How absurd…”
“Perhaps you do not want the stones after all, then.” Ahno interjected.
“No need to be hasty…” ’Enough of this. If it’s a name he wants, it’s a name he will get.’ “...you may call me… Cyrus.” His voice became spectral and resonated when he said his name. Suddenly the necromancer’s ice blue eyes flashed and the ground began to tremble.

Ahno was caught off balance and stumbled backwards. To his good fortune, this removed him from the path of a large cluster of icy stalagmites which erupted from the ground where he had just been standing. Before he could do anything, Cyrus was hurling giant icicles at him like frozen javelins. Ahno dodged two of these before he fortified his barrier and began mounting his own attack.

With a flick of his staff, a large, transparent wall of energy appeared between himself and Cyrus. As the necromancer started trying to break through this, Ahno prepared for his next move. He began concentrating engery into the ground, and soon the surrounding snow and ice was swirling around Ahno. Five mounds rapidly grew in front of him, and could soon took on the the recognizable forms of a pack of wolves, made from the ice itself. Their white and light-blue figures moved as any real wolf would, their deep blue and black eyes focused on nothing but Cyrus.

The barrier finally shattered, which sounded like nothing more than the wind rustling the leafs of a tree. The pack of wolves instantly sprinted forward and toward the single enemy. Cyrus was unimpressed, to say the least. A sweep of his staff produced a wall of flames between him and the beasts. The wolf furthest in front, closest to the flames, began melting instantly and howled in pain. The others backed away, unsure of how to attack now.

The necromancer grinned and continued to take the offensive. He now began launching fireballs toward Ahno and the wolves, who were still backing up. Ahno used this to his advantage, using barriers to stop and contain the energy of each fireball. He then compressed each barrier to the size of a marble, creating extremely volatile explosive spheres. After four of these, Cyrus decided he'd have to try something else. Before he could attack again, however, Ahno threw the four energy bombs at the warlock without warning.

Cyrus had not realized that his attacks were not only stopped, but intercepted as well. The orbs flew through the wall of flame and exploded violently in midair. The force was strong enough to throw Cyrus several feet, causing him to drop his staff and hit the ground hard on his back.

With his concentration broken, the protective wall of flames dissipated. The wolves which had been watching and waiting patiently, saw their chance and charged, snarling and growling as they got closer to their target. Ahno put various protective wards on the wolves as they ran, making them even more dangerous.

Cyrus stumbled to his feet and saw the four ice wolves sprinting at him full speed. His ability to fight was significantly reduced without his staff. He outstretched an arm and attempted to stop them with a stream of fire, but the flame glided around them. A thermal shield was one of Ahno's protections. They were too close to stop now, and they would rip him to pieces if he just stood there. With no other choice, Cyrus retreated without his prize.

Ahno watched as the wolves were about to jump on the necromancer. The necromancer whispered, with some effort and audible to no one other than himself,
"Your time will come." Cyrus waved his hand in an arc, and was suddenly gone.
'Just like in the swamp.' Ahno grunted in frustration, and let the wolves disintegrate back into plain snow and ice. This was the second time he'd let Cyrus escape when he almost had him.
Somehow though, he knew they would meet again.

[Immune]

Back to Business

Ahno turned to face Iris and Remus again. To his relief, they were moving again, though they seemed tired and confused. Understandable, he didn't expect them to recover from such an experience right away. What exactly they saw or felt, he was unsure of... but he guessed that it couldn't have been pleasant.

Iris was sitting now, legs outstretched. Ahno walked over with a look of concern. She was still shaking, although that could just be the cold. Ahno doubted that though. He knelt down on one knee next to her.
"Are you alright Iris?" She looked up at him, unsure of what had happened.
"I... I think so. What happened? One moment I was walking behind you and the next..." she stopped there, a shiver ran down her spine.

Ahno was just glad that she seemed okay, for the moment at least. Whether the incident had caused any mental damage, he couldn't tell at a glance.
"I'll explain later, we should be safe for now, at least I think so. Safer than before in any case." Iris nodded in agreement, though really she had no idea what he meant. She was content to just sit there idly in confusion.

Remus, who seemed to have recovered better than Iris, walked over to them. He was carrying the sack with the gems in it again. He looked down at them both sternly.
"I have no idea what just happened, but I think we should just get out of here before more... 'weirdness' comes our way." Ahno looked up at him and nodded. This was certainly no place to be resting. They were, after all, still in enemy territory. Then again, everywhere seemed to be enemy territory.

Ahno stood up, and pulled Iris to her feet. Remus pointed at the ground where Cyrus had been fighting from before.
"What is that?" Ahno followed his gaze, and realized that Cyrus had abandoned his staff in his haste to escape. Ahno walked over to it and picked it up. He examined the weapon closely. It was made of unnaturally black wood, with a red crystal sitting on its head. Runes were engraved along the length of the staff, none of which were familiar to Ahno.

He brought it back to the other two, still examining it.
"I think we should take this, and bring it back to the island."
"You going to carry it? Remus asked transparently.
"I'll carry it." Iris offered, which caught both Ahno and Remus by surprise.
"No no, I can carry it, really, no problem." Ahno told her. Iris shrugged and didn't argue. Remus raised an eyebrow at her, but didn't say a word. Ahno put the black staff on his back through a strap on his tunic specially designed for such purposes.

Ahno glanced toward Remus, he realized he hadn't asked if he was okay... though clearly he seemed to be. He was, after all, quite fortuitous, as he had proven a few times already. Ahno decided that Remus was the sort of person who you don't ask "are you okay", because he will always say yes. Though on the other hand, he didn't seem the type who would exaggerate and say "I didn't even feel it", or something to that effect. If he wasn't okay, Ahno was sure he would know it.

With the gems in their possession and with no more obstacles in their way, they walked up to the teleporter. Ahno went first, touching the glowing light to be enveloped by it, and disappearing. Iris followed quickly after. Remus waited a moment and looked around. This would probably be the last time he saw his homeland. He sighed audibly, remembering the few good memories he had of this place. After a moment he turned to face the teleporter again. He reached for the light, and followed his allies through to the other side.

The group now found themselves on the northern end and outside of the Great Wall of Alsius. They were all exhausted, but dawn was approaching, and this was no place to stop and sleep. Alsius would be looking all over the place for the gems, and if they were found in this condition, they were finished. They each looked at one another. An unspoken and unanimous decision had been made that they should go back to the island. At least now, they seemed to know where they were going.

They silently began making their way to the south, as the first dim rays of sunlight became visible over the horizon to the east.

[Mbwana]

ooo, great stories as always

[Dohni]

love it!!!!

[Dohni]

ummmmm.... Bumpity bump bump

[Immune]

Helloooo forum readers. It's been several months since I last updated this story, sorry to those who were enjoying it. Although I may not play the game any longer, I've been thinking about picking this up again and maybe/hopefully even finishing it. So let me know if you'd like me to continue on with this.
Anyways, I've already got the next part written, so here it is. (Please note that any changes that have/will take place in-game will have little to no effect on what happens here.)
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Making Progress

The group slowly climbed through the mountains west of the crater known as Thorkul’s rage, and after about an hour came to the road between Aggersborg market and the Great Wall of Alsius. The sky was growing brighter with daylight, and the three of them were only getting more tired. Their only comfort was in knowing that any enemies they came across would likely be as worn as they were. Every realm focused a great amount of resources on the assault the night before; there was little reason for Ignis or Syrtis to commit more troops to totally missing gems, and Alsius was thoroughly beaten to the point that they had no fresh soldiers left.

They continued through the pines west of Aggersborg and eventually came to the road between the fort and Pines Bridge, thus far without incident. As they were about to cross the road however, Ahno stopped short.
“Wait…” he told them. They obeyed, and waited for his reasoning. “Do you hear something?” Iris hadn’t been paying much attention, she was tired and her head was jumbled with uncoordinated thoughts.
“Umm…” was all she said as she began listening for whatever Ahno was hearing. It wasn’t hard to miss actually; voices could be heard not far down the road.

“An Alsian patrol?” Ahno guessed.
“Most likely.” Remus agreed. The surroundings provided little cover besides the thin-trunk pines all over the place. Luckily, there was a decent sized boulder which provided a somewhat better alternative. They hurried behind it before the voices, which were definitely getting louder, got any closer.

They didn’t dare to make any noise once hidden, but they all seemed to agree that waiting for the danger to pass was the best option. Although they could now tell there were only two people talking, it wasn’t worth ambushing them. The group listened to the discussion as the pair walked by.

“I heard the gems were smuggled out by Alsians. I don’t buy that though, it sounds more like the work of an underground group or something.”
“Blasted gems, I stopped giving a damn about them a long time ago. Do you have any idea how many we lost last night?”
“I heard anywhere between a few hundred to over a thousand. We won’t have an army left to fight with if this keeps up!”
“I hear ya... I just can’t believe Darryl is gone. You knew him, didn't you?”
“What? Yeah I knew him... you mean he-?”
“Yeah… they found him this morning. Fool wouldn’t leave the fort when we started pulling back to the wall.”

The voices now moved out of earshot, and the three of them sat there for a minute longer before doing anything. Iris peeked around the rock to make sure it was safe, Ahno stood up from his crouched position. Remus however, just sat there, staring at the ground with a somber look in his eyes, as if contemplating something deeply. Ahno noticed and almost thought he had just fallen asleep. He knew better though.

“Is something wrong?” he asked. Iris looked at them now.
“It’s safe.” She said. Ahno nodded, but waited to see if Remus responded.
“Nothing's wrong. I just... I knew Darryl. Was my best friend, actually. Before I left.” He answered finally. Ahno frowned, Iris knelt next to him.
“Want to talk about it?” she offered. She still hardly knew Remus, and wasn’t much of a councilor, but she felt she should try at least.
“Nothing to talk about.” Remus sighed, “I knew his stubbornness would do him in sooner or later. Just wish I could’ve talked to him once more, or something, you know?.” Iris nodded and stood up again. “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.” He assured them, and they knew he would be.

Remus finally stood up with them. “Let’s keep moving.” He said, and they continued walking east towards the Alsian dock. The sun was well above the horizon now, marking the time to be about mid-morning. The three felt exhausted and craved sleep, none of them complained though. As they neared the docks, a breeze carrying the scent of death from the north reminded them of why they were doing any of this.

When at last they stepped foot on the dock, Remus spoke unexpectedly.
“So how do we get back? To the chamber, I mean.” The question had occurred to the others as well… how indeed?
“I wouldn’t worry about it.” Ahno said, “The spirit, Nadia… I’m sure she’ll get us back in somehow.” Remus grunted. Iris didn’t care, she just wanted to be somewhere they could rest.

They began to descend the ramps to water level, where a boat awaited them. Remus wasn’t looking forward to rowing again. Before they could get in, however, the air around them seemed to begin wavering. The landscape slowly faded away, and when it was over, they were back in the island chamber again.
“I guess that’s how.” Ahno said. He couldn’t help grinning; it seemed they had actually done the impossible. With some help, of course. Remus looked back, and as with their first time entering, saw only the chamber wall.
“Hmph… all of this magic can’t be good for me.” He muttered.

Before any of them could do or say anything else, Nadia appeared before them in a flash of light and spoke.
“You have succeeded in the first part of your journey, as I expected you would.” She smiled a bit. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d actually smiled. She continued, “But your journey is far from over. As I’m sure you are aware, this is but the first of three sets of gems you must bring here.” They remembered, but couldn’t think of much of anything other than sleep. Nadia could tell they were exhausted. It was not even noon yet, but it mattered little.

“You have all done well, and deserve a rest before continuing. Please, sleep.” She waved a hand, causing the unusual light that normally filled the room to dim significantly. The patterns covering the walls glowed and could still be seen distinctly. It seemed as if the chamber was now filled with moonlight rather than daylight.

Before their eyes, three beds made of what seemed to be water formed in front of them. Remus poked the one in front of him with his finger… it was more like rubber or jelly than water. Whatever it was, it was nothing any of them had seen before. It was, however, a much more comfortable place to lie down on than on the cold hard floor.

Iris didn’t question what the bed was and gratefully collapsed onto it, fast asleep before her bed had stopped quivering from the fall. Ahno, a bit more gracefully, slid himself onto his bed and lied down quietly, and was overcome with sleep within seconds. Remus eyed his bed one last time before taking most of his heavy armor off for sleep. Slowly and somewhat awkwardly, he climbed into the bed before him, as if expecting he would fall through the transparent material. Once satisfied that it was in fact safe to sleep on such a bed, Remus lied flat and soon drifted into a peaceful slumber.

Nadia gathered up the gems, which the heroes seemed to have forgotten about, and brought them over to the giant door. She placed them in two of the holes in the wall next to the door and looked thoughtfully over at the group once more. With that, she faded from view and let the three heroes sleep in peace.

[SirHiss]

keep it up!

[Immune]

Hello any new or former readers. The next chapter is here, you can probably expect one chapter a week from me. That's what I'm aiming for anyways. Anyone reading feel free to comment! I enjoy feedback, whether it be criticism or just a random comment on the story (Just try to be positive and non-spammish) Anyways, enjoy
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Dark Matter

Ahno awoke before the others, though it was not morning. They had, after all, returned in the morning the day after they'd left. It was now well into the evening; up on the surface, the sun had already set. It didn't matter in the chamber though, the lighting was controlled... somehow.

Ahno looked at the others, lying in their respective beds.
"Still sleeping..." He rubbed his eyes groggily and began to get out of his bed. He had a restless sleep, but it was better than nothing. Something didn’t feel right as he got up, and then he remembered the staff he’d taken from Cyrus after their battle. He couldn’t believe he’d slept with that strapped on his back, and quickly slid it out of its holder.

He looked it over once more. It was of craftsmanship totally foreign to him; he had never seen a staff quite like it. It reminded him of his own new staff, exotic and powerful… but this one was clearly crafted with dark intentions in mind. Slowly he examined the unfamiliar runes, tracing some with his finger.

He did this for several minutes, going down the length of the staff. When he reached the tip, he stopped, and did not touch the last rune etched into it. He did know this one… it was the symbol on Cyrus’ hand, the hourglass. His heart skipped a beat, and he looked around, as if expecting that someone was watching. But Remus and Iris were still sound asleep, and Nadia was nowhere to be found.

Ahno turned his attention back to the staff. He stared at the rune for a minute, before bringing his sight to the dark red crystal sitting in the staff’s head. It almost looked demonic; it appeared as if there might be blood swirling around inside the gem. It was… enthralling.

”So much power…” Ahno caught himself thinking. He couldn’t stop staring for some reason.
”Touch it.” He heard a voice not his own. It was barely a whisper, like a hiss, yet it echoed mysteriously.
”What?” He thought, to the voice apparently. He didn’t break his gaze with the crystal to look for the source of the speaker. He knew it was in his head.
”Touch it, you know you want to.” Ahno unconsciously began reaching toward the crystal very slowly. He noticed this and stopped his arm, though did not pull it back.

“I can’t.” He was whispering out loud now, his voice shook slightly. “This thing is evil.”
”What harm could it do? It’s just… an experiment.” He heard.
“N-no…” He faltered, “This can’t be safe.”
”Why worry? Just a touch… it hungers for mastery.” Ahno was breathing heavily now, though he didn’t realize it. His hand inched a bit closer to the crystal.
“I shouldn’t…”
But you WANT to! Stop this resistance!” The voice persisted.

The crystal was glowing now. Ahno couldn’t stop the unnatural force which seemed to be pulling his hand toward it any longer. His arm seemed to extend without his consent.
“I suppose if… I’m careful…” He said, he wasn’t sure if he was speaking or thinking now. The red glow intensified, and reflected in Ahno’s eyes now. There was a low but certainly audible humming accompanying the glow now.

Iris woke up to the humming and glowing red light. She saw Ahno with the staff and could see the entrancement in his eyes. She had no idea what was happening, but immediately knew it was not good. She then realized he was about to touch the crystal.
“Ahno!” she shouted, but he couldn't hear her.

As soon as Ahno’s hand came in contact with the crystal, the room was filled with a flash of red light and a loud *ZZZT*. Iris turned her head closed her eyes to shield against the light. A quiet *thud* followed. The echo of hard wood dropping onto the stone floor filled the chamber, and faded into silence.

Iris was trembling, the sound of her heartbeat filled her ears. She was too afraid to open her eyes.
”It’s just a bad dream.” She whispered, her voice was filled with fear. "It's just a bad dream."