It was a bleak and cloudy morning when Mahar and his band of merchants arrived at the entrance of the Owl tribe, they were instantly met with suspicious glances from the guards, none of the men recognized them, but with the big operation underway, they couldn’t be too cautious, but they also couldn’t reveal that they were too cautious by capturing or interrogating them, so they simply had them wait at the entrance while someone went and consulted with the chieftain.

Alena had received news of the caravan, and was silently contemplating what to do together with two of the elders of the tribe, under normal circumstances the guards would evaluate the threat level, under special circumstances they would send an elder, but this were unique circumstances! The assault was happening in just a few days, and the collection of specters had just finished, they only needed to build the staff now, for which they needed some unique ingredients, perhaps the merchant caravan had these ingredients, but what would that matter if they were spies. Words were said between the two elders, yet before they had finished their discussion Alena had stood tall, her large figure imposing as she stepped towards the exit of the tent, the elders watched her lonely shadow step outside.

Mahar was casually sitting on the carriage conversing with one of his guards who was standing beside him, they were happily joking and cracking jokes, the mood of the caravan was a stark contrast to the Owl encampment where there was a serious and tense ambiance fitting with the bleak morning light.

He looked up as he felt a pressure, his two coloured eyes met those of Alena, with every step she took her imposing manner brought pressure, the previous jokey mood disappeared as the men looked the chieftain approach them, Mahar lightly jumped down from the wagon, his friendly smile all the same as he walked towards Alena, when he stood in front of her he felt her towering over him, she wasn’t much taller than him, but her physique was strong and robust, where his was lithe and thin, she wore thick leather skins, he wore blue pants, brown boots a sandy shirt and a dark brown open robe. Mahar wasn’t easily intimidated, but even he could feel his smile faltering while facing the Chieftain of the Owl tribe, he felt a large drop of sweat run down his bald head into his beard when she smiled to him and stretched out her hand to greet him.

Alena had intentionally revealed her Aura of a Chieftain as she had approached, it was one of her many leadership skills, yet the caravan hadn’t been too fazed, especially the leader had kept smiling and looked her in the eye, he had even approached her, her mind was racing as the two got closer, when they stopped and stared at each other she realised, this was no ordinary man! So she did the unexpected, something that few in her tribe had seen her do in recent years, she smiled!

Mahar sat silently in front of the chieftain’s seat, he was sitting on a small bear-skin pillow, and the chieftain was simply sitting there patiently, waiting silently not saying a word to the man. Shortly afterwards a bald man with a large frame and a bushy beard entered the tent, followed by a short brisk walking old lady, and so it continued until all but three of the seats surrounding Mahar were filled, each of the men and women were imposing in different manners, Mahar was feeling more and more nervous, in hindsight maybe he could’ve approached things differently, but he had always been straightforward!

Alena drummed her fingers on her chair as she usually did while looking at the merchant in front of her, her mind recalling what had just transpired, while the two had shook hands he had delivered a message to her, she had glanced at it as she had escorted him to her tent, the words had been disturbing, but she had kept her calm and continued onwards, when she entered the tent she had asked the guard to turn on the bonfire in the tent with the ‘special white thawed oak-wood’ this type of tree had a special aroma, and functioned as one of the many ways to call an emergency meeting for the tribe’s advisors and elders.

“Speak”

That was all the chieftain said to Mahar who was sitting surrounded by powerful men and women, he took a deep breath and whatever worries he had had disappeared, his green and purple eyes steeled in resolved and he met the chieftain’s iron stare with his own “as you know from my message I’m aware of the planned assault on the Sparrow’s and Crow’s, but I also know that if you cannot finish up a certain artifact in time, even with a successful ambush there’ll be many losses for the Owl tribe, correct?”

His words send a shiver through every single person in the room, how did he know so much? But no one spoke, their expressions betrayed nothing, only a slight hint passed through the eyes of the people present, Mahar was impressed.

“Correct” Alena spoke calmly.

Mahar realised that this conversation wasn’t optional and opened his mouth again while stroking his white curly beard, he wasn’t much older than fifty or so, but he liked the beard, he felt it added a sense of wisdom “My men and I wish to assist the Owl tribe in whichever way we can”

The bald man with the bushy beard felt that this Mahar wasn’t too bad, possibly because he too was bald with a big beard, so he spoke up amiably “you have few men merchant, and you yourself does not seem fit for fighting, however your words are true, so what can you offer us? And perhaps more importantly what do you want?!” many mistook the man, whose name was Ragor for a brute, but he had a shrewd mind, and was a gifted strategist.

Mahar nodded at the mind noting his glistening bald head, inwardly thinking ‘thank you brother’ the man had not asked suspicious questions, but had asked as if he already assumed he was to be trusted, Mahar knew that it wasn’t that easy, but it was a gesture of goodwill between bald bearded men “What I want is easy” Mahar spoke gesturing with his arm to the entire room, his smile devious sinking into an evil grin “Revenge” his words went from light and charismatic with his deep voice, to a coarse rivet “what I can offer? Aside from valuable supplies for your staff, and two strong guards of their third class and a wizard of the third class of the endless dunes, the green flame in his eye lit up brightly.

Silence befell the room; it was Bolis who broke it with her old wizened voice “vengeance for what?” it wasn’t that Bolis was interested in the man’s story, everyone had a story after all, no what interested her was how valid this vengeance was, vengeance could drive men mad, and would be a clear-cut reason for the man to join their ambush and take-over.

Mahar knew this of course and the flame in his eye dimmed as he began to speak of the past “As you know the endless dunes are relatively far north from here, and as you can see from the colour of my skin I hail from there as well, however I didn’t return to my homeland until I was 20 years of age” his clear eyes bathed in nostalgia as his voice captured the attention of the room, he truly was a charismatic man “from a young age I had wandered the tribal lands as a merchant’s son, we were never too far south however, but one day a valuable order came along from the Crow tribe of the Sinking Valley continental area, coincidentally he had just bought a large shipment and so we went there, the first shipment was successful, although the Crow tribe wasn’t too satisfied with the price, but we decided to conduct business again in the future, and we did, and we were introduced to the Swallow tribe as well and so our business grew larger” Mahar’s tone lowered and turned a tinge sad as he continued “My mother always felt suspicious of the two tribes, but my father was blinded by greed, when the day came that an enormous shipment was ordered my dad blindly spent all of the company’s resources, he trusted the them after having traded with them for years, yet on the night after having arrived a slaughter befell the caravan!” his voice was hardened as he looked Alena in the eyes “my mother barely escaped with me and a guard, we returned to the endless dunes in the north , however she died shortly after our arrival…” he trailed off emotionally, and all of a sudden the green flame in his eye lit up brightly as he spoke with a voice laced with hatred “that day I swore vengeance!”

. . . .

Emotionless eyes stared into a grey and black flame, in the middle part of a staff was suspended, it was constructed of six strange mystical rune-carved bones, he had gathered the remaining specters, and soon the staff would be finished, he just needed a few more ingredients to finish the ritual of the staff. The young man was the disciple returnee, the betrayer of his fellow disciple and master, his name was Cad. While he stared into the flame he was reliving the moment of killing his fellow disciple, that had been hard, difficult even, but killing his master had been easy, so very easy. Before his master had received his legacy at the Desolate Battlefield he had committed a sin, he had murdered the young man’s parents in a fit of rage, the young man’s dad hadn’t been a good person and his mom had seduced the man, in the morning the couple had wanted to rob him, yet had been met with a dagger and a spell. The boy had hidden witnessed the entire ordeal, but had been spared by the shaman, afterwards the boy had ratted out the shaman to his grandfather who was a local gang leader, it was those men that had followed the shaman into the battlefield, only to meet their demise. Who would’ve known that fate would play a cruel trick when the shaman had picked up the then young man as a disciple when he was out begging for coin. Years he had spent learning, he felt guilty for killing his fellow disciple, but that would pass, not only could he now gain power in the Owl tribe, he had even gotten his revenge. A creepy smile floated to his lips for moment, but only for a moment when he was interrupted by Alena who came to his tent with a strange looking black man, his clothes completely out of style of the tribal lands.

. . . .

The staff had been finished, now he needed to conduct a final ritual during twilight when the land of the death and living was closest.

Cad stood alone in a forest clearing during the deep colours of orange and red in the twilight, the staff lay in the middle of a flaming circle with dark painted runes in blood forming a triangle within the circle, Cad began murmuring ancient words, the flames dimmed as the runic triangle began glowing, this was the final stage of fusing the six different negative emotive specters together to form the staff of negativity, cad had always thought that the name was highly anticlimactic, yet it described the functions of the staff perfectly, soon the flames had gone out completely and the runic triangle began losing its glow as the runes on the carved staff began lighting up brightly, this was a long and slow process.

. . . .

The master burned his flesh while he helplessly burned away, how he resented the man, of the entire plethora of emotions he felt at that moment he felt resentment the strongest, and then he was gone.

Again the scene played out, yet this time the man lost some of his thoughts and emotions in the process of being burned away from his core.

This continued on endlessly until there was nothing but resentment in the man’s eyes as he felt his body and soul dissipate within the flames. He resented the man for taking his live away from him again, he resented him for taking his new live that he had fought for, he had been a simple man, he hadn’t had any goals aside from living, seeing a strange new world and doing a little good while he was there, what was so wrong with that? Again the scene played out. The man felt his body and soul burn, again and again.

All of a sudden the scene cracked like a mirror! The man’s eyes still burned with resentment, but the reasoning behind why got buried by five other emotions as the pieces fell apart and the specter of resentment appeared in a pitch-black space and began fusing with these emotions anger, despair, sadness, envy and grief. All negative emotions, but where there should be an equilibrium, one emotion towered over the other as they began fusing, had its soul power been a little stronger it wouldn’t have made a different, but it was much stronger, instead of the specters fusing and becoming a chain the specter of resentment began assimilating the other negative emotive specters, and with each specter assimilated the stronger it got, the more conscious it got, what are emotions if not memories!

. . . .

Had Cad been the shaman he would’ve noticed that something was off, the staff was supposed have a six different colours blinking representing each emotive specter, yet it only held a deep shade of blood, soon all of the runes showed this same colour, although Cad thought it strange, he didn’t think too much about it, the notes about the staff were old, and difficult to read for him, he mostly worked from the instructions the shaman had imparted onto him and his fellow disciple.

Eventually the runic triangle lost its entire colour and the staff of negativity changed colour, all of the bones changed to a deep-set ash-grey and the runic carving stopped glowing brightly, but instead had a strong subdued blood-red glow. Cad went over to the staff and picked it up, he felt the power that it held, and his eyes flickered with madness as he whispered to himself “success”.