MARXIS

A whole day! Marxis thought furiously,

He'd expected derora to drag the unconscious body of the prince through that door, but so far nothing.

He paced around the room anxiously, he had nothing to report to herega. Now he heard the prophecy that she'd serve illumino, he had to find a way around it.

Thunder rumbled in the distance, he turned in fear to the doors as they swung open forcefully, pain shot through him making him fall and twist in agony,

"How dare YOU?!!" Heregas voice screamed, the voice of the goddess vibrating his very being, teeth grit as he tried to withstand the force,

Frankly he would have had a better chance withstanding an hurricane,

With the force of chaos he was blasted right through a stone pillar, his reinforced body, the only thing to save him.

He clenched his hands in anger, is this what he had become?, he who took over the realm in a day, forced to serve this witch,

He found himself being flung to the wall, again, he coughed out blood, he couldn't prove himself to be weak.

Standing up with the last strength he had, he faced her squarely in the face,

"Do you know what you just did?!" She screamed,

"I've secured our position!" He replied, and got another round of pain,

"And when where you planning to tell me?" She said,

He frankly couldn't understand why she was agitated, he knew derora matched up to her, but being subject to heregas will of course, she locked derora up easily,

unless that wasn't true?,

"When she returns with the prince" he replied,

"And then what?, what do you hold against her?" She said,

The sky flashed with lightning; she really was angry.

"Just the promise of power" he lied,

She came closer, her dark grey eyes searching into his soul,

"You're lying, what do you have in store?" She said,

It was amazing how neigh omniscient the deities of aratia were, the one thing they could not mess with was the soul of a mortal. Of course they could prod and get impressions of it, but to know what contained individually?, quite laughable

He had to come up with something fast, or maybe he could tell her the truth a little,

"A battle to the death" he said,

She just stared at him to continue,

"An elixtu can kill a warrior of the abyss, you know that don't you?" He said,

She scoffed in an obvious tone while waiting for him to continue,

That's when it clicked, a smile appeared on her face, his heart relaxed a little,

"Killing two birds with one stone" she said, and at once her face became rock solid,

"Even though I have half a mind to turn you to dust, I will see if this plan of yours will work" she said turning away to leave,

She strode to the door and stopped,

"If this proves to be a waste of time, I will make you know why shadow warriors fight to leave the abyss" she said with a note of finality and disappeared with the clap of thunder.

Marxis moved to the mirror and muttered the same spell as the glass shimmered and showed derora, she turned to him,

"Do you have him?" He asked with anger in his voice,

"Almost, lord marxis" she said spitting out the last part,

He grinned a little, even though she didn't like him controlling her, she had no choice, as long as he had the parchment that bound her to him,

"You are behind schedule derora" he said when he noticed a figure at her side,

"I see you enlisted the help of the fey prince, any other updates that you would love to share?" He asked,

"No, nothing," she replied,

"Very well then, I better leave you to your hunt then" he said waving his hand as the glass settled,

She had no idea of the prophecy, he would wish it remained like that, till his plan worked anyway.

Rain poured down in sheets, like the sky wept the foredooming death, he stretched his hand and watched the rain drops land in them, he clenched his hand tight in anger,

Very soon elixtu, very soon....

******************

JASON

Jason stared in wonder at the size of this place, it seemed like a place only a few people knew of due to the little amount of people we saw around, he removed his thoughts from the bonding case, frankly jason was still baffled though at what she said,

She wanted the bond…

Daren entered a street that seemed quiet, the roads were lined with cobblestones and there was a lamb that shone in the distance, the air was fairly cold and the sounds of wolves howling filled the night sky.

The streets were made with what seemed to look like cobbled stone glazed over with tar, gutters line the road side with shops already closed or in the process of closing for the night. Daren drew up his cape and they followed suit as they viewed a regiment of soldiers in black with wisps of smoke wafting out of the metal masks they wore.

These were now defunct shock troops of marxis invasion, now reduced to a policing force that spanned the realms, acting as a supposed force of order. Jason snorted at the thought of that, from what he had noticed upon his return, they might as well act as referees to the subtle chaos going on around, only the threat of total eradication by marxis kept the façade of order alive.

Finally turning into an alley where broken looking statues adorned the streets, daren proceeded towards a small looking door where a statue of what looked like a short man holding a ladle stood beside. Jason gave the odd statue a once over and stared around the alley, eyes glancing over the destruction that seemed to have blown past this area, destroying what little beauty this place might had beheld a long time ago,

Jason looked around and saw the statue at the same position without the spoon, jason glared at it, something wasn't right.

He moved closer to it till he saw it blink, that's when jason let out the most bloodcurdling girl scream he had ever done, it fell back and changed into a man with shaggy beards,

Daren and terra came hurling down the porch, the man knelt and begged,

"Please don't kill me!, I promise to bring the gold on the next full moon!" He screamed,

Jason raised an eyebrow at him, here he was being scared to his bones by a man that was a statue and here he begs?, jason turn to daren who came closer,

"Taret?, is that you?" He said,

The man turned to daren, a look of confusion on his face, it changed almost immediately,

"Daren?, is that really you?!" He said jumping, hugging like they were old friends that jason presumed they were,

After terra cleared her throat, they stood apart,

"Yeah, this is terra and my friend jason, we just want to sleep the night" daren said,

"No problem old friend, come in!, the streets are not what they used to be anymore" He said,

"Might i ask why you were hiding at the gardens?" Daren said,

He just shrugged,

"Money matter, no big deal" he replied and daren chuckled, it was obviously a normal matter,

As they entered the house, jason stared in the horizon and couldn't shake the feeling of trouble coming, whatever it was, he hoped it never found them.

************

Derora

The mud trail finally stopped at the wall of a village named vulpix, hidden really, but not to the eyes of derora who tore through the veil disguised as a brick wall. detox stopped the music from his harp, his eyes blood red with walking through the night.

"He's in there, somewhere" he said,

"Are you sure?"sheI asked,

He gave her a look of anger and hatred, two very dark feelings all in one,

"Yes, he's inside, we better move in" he said,

"And do what?, burn the whole place and notify him of our existence here?" derora said,

He gripped the harp harder, little veins popped around his head, the veratus shifted closer to her, amusement dancing around her eyes, like she needed their help,

Finally, his grip loosened on the harp and sat on a boulder,

"What do you have in mind?" He asked,

No doubt the prince would put up a good fight, he could even have allies in the town. Derora shifted on the reptile, the moon was bright, an idea ccoming to her,

"Do you by any chance have a tune that puts mortals to death?" she asked,

She had heard that they fey possessed a myriad of tunes to invoke different sadistic pleasures, surely they would have one to suit her growing plan

He stated at her for a minute till it finally clicked, a dry smile formed on his lips,

"You really are evilly smart and beautiful" he said,

she glared at him making him chuckle,

"No harm included" he said standing up,

"Let the melody flow!" derora whispered to the winds,

***************

Jason

The living room was spacious, the floor was made of dry wood that slowly began to lose its strength and made a creaky noise when they moved on it. He ushered them into the dining area and they sat on the chairs,

He and daren went to the kitchen and brought out meals ranging from the normal medieval breads, to the soups with a brownish look and other things that would create a whole case of diahorrea back at earth, jason sighed,

Good bye McDonald's, hello mcpoison! he thought,

He told thejason to eat and I grabbed the bread, unfortunately terra grabbed at the same time and sent waves of electricity down their body, he removed his hand hastily,

Damn bond!! he shouted inside,

She took the bread and looked back at her soup like she found something interesting in it, he saw daren laughing with his friend. It went on for a while till Taret turned to us,

"So, daren here told me you to did the bonding after getting engaged" he said,

That left jason coughing seriously, who said anything about being engaged?!,

he could see daren suppressing a laugh, and terra blushing

seriously?!,

"Um, you see, it's a very complicated issue" jason started as he waved his hand,

"He told me all of it, and now you want it released, may I see them?" He asked,

He and terra both stretched our hands at him, the mark shimmered sending the other half. He leaned closer and stated at it in awe,

"Impossible" he muttered,

"What is it?" Terra and jason chorused,

He began laughing joyfully, evidently finding something that fascinated him,

"This isn't just any mark, you have the twig of frera!" He said,

"The twig of who now?" jason said already feeling a headache on its way,

"It's only bestowed by frera once in a century!, normally only the royal elixtus had it but seeing they're gone" he said with sadness in his voice, and then he became happy,

"So, can we break it?" jason asked,

Terra flinched and he raised an eyebrow at her,

"Why are you scared?" jason asked through the bond,

"Nothing, just remembered something" she replied,

"Normally, two people have to be really devoted to each other to have the twig, that's what I don't get" he said,

"To break the bond, you'll have to lose every shred of feeling for each other" he said,

The whole room was speechless, jason turned at terra, she just kept on chewing on a loaf of bread,

"Terra" he called In the link,

No reply,

"C'mon terra say something" he said,

She just kept on chewing in silence,

Jason sat back on the chair,

"So, did you know the elixtus personally?" Terra asked,

"Oh yes, I supplied flour to the royal family" he started,

"And one day I was robbed and almost beaten to death when going to supply"

"The king kelin elixtu, saw me and was also leaving the palace, he personally put me on his horse and rode for the palace, paid my debts and made me the chief supplier of the palace," he said scratching the table,

"I only wished the family would go on, his son take over as he was old, but marxis came along" he said sighing,

He stared at me for a while, jason shifted uncomfortably on the chair,

"You bear a very similar look to him," he said,

"Me?, I don't think so" jason reply quickly,

"I'm just saying, with the brown hair and muscle, the blades that were the mark of..... Illummino save me!" He whispered standing up,

Jason sighed, he had to admit that was faster that he predicted

They shifted on the chair standing up also,

"Taret be calm!" Daren said,

This should be interesting jason thought,

He started whispering till we heard a bang at the door, jason on reflex hid behind the kitchen door, terra ducked under the table, daren morphed to a dog.

Taret held a broom and walked slowly to the door, the blades appeared in jasons hands, he opened the door and someone fell on Taret, jason jumped out to see a woman on Taret, blood leaking from her mouth,

"Veratus" she said,

They all froze, had they gotten here so fast, and at the porch stood the veratus with the fey prince, jason held the blade tighter,

"Ikir, may I introduce you to your death, the demon" he said,

And from the back came a female in armour, eyes hot red and blazing, a smile on her face,

"Hello ikir" she said,

I rolled my hands as they charged,

Here we go again....