Unknown POV

Long ago, in the days before even the histories were kept by storytellers, there were the tribes. The tribes roamed the lands, living on the gifts of Shalora and maintaining balance in the world. One day, fire leapt from the sun and came crashing to Vitae. The sun elves claim this was caused by their vessel, bringing them from the sun itself and proving their race was a celestial one, and thus their right to rule was ingrained from birth.

Whether or not this is true, well. That has long been lost to history. What is known, however, is that the remains of whatever crashed into Vitae remains to this day. Deep beneath the Ziggurat, in a hidden chamber, lies a roughly teardrop shaped rock with horizontal striations on it, as if the front melted and was forced toward the rear tip under tremendous force. In the days before the curse, this chamber was always illuminated during the day. The crystal at the top of the Ziggurat would be the first thing in the city to catch the rays of dawn and the last to catch the rays at dusk, and would funnel them into the chamber to illuminate the rock.

Since then, darkness is the only thing allowed to dwell within this once sacred chamber. The corrupted crystal still channels energy, though they are far darker than the cleansing rays of the sun. Inside the chamber, several beings immediately notice a shift in the shadows, as someone new enters. Soundlessly, the High Priest floats just above the ground. A trivial thing for one of his power, but necessary since his legs ended at the knee. He was a Fate Warper. An incredibly rare undead, they were an evolved form of banshee with the corrupted powers of a priest. His tattered grey cloak flapped in an unfelt breeze, and his once golden staff now seemed a black so deep it drank in the light. While the top should have been crowned with a diamond stylized as the freshly risen sun, it was now streaked with the dull reds and oranges of the setting sun. The colors on his tabard were inverted, the rays of the sun pointing inward instead of outward.

“Marcossss hasss fallen.” His whispery voice spoke to the darkness. Had anything living heard it, they would have felt shivers down their spine. “Hissss slayer hasssss gotten ssssloppy, heading ssstraight back to hissss basssse. Follow, and drink the esssssence of him and hisssss accomplisss. I have watched through necrominationsssss, and in hisssss hubrisssss, they never ssssset trapsssss. Claim their ssssoulssss, and drag them back to the city.”

Twelve shadows detached themselves from where they basked in the shadow energy, relishing the carnage to come. Once the most powerful drow in the city, when they were alive they were whispered as warnings to misbehaving children. “Do you want the Clock’s Shadows to take an interest in you?” would be the threat, as each assassin made their name by killing their target as the clock struck the hour. What the public didn’t know was that the assassins were merely positions, with the most powerful among them getting the lower numbers. The curse transformed them from assassins who could seemingly meld into the smallest shadow, into true shades. Beings of pure shadow, they could now travel through even solid walls, adding to their fearsome power.

“Odd numbers with me, we shall take the man.” Number one telepathically spoke. “Evens shall take the woman.” The two groups would be fairly evenly matched in power, with the slightly more powerful odd numbers taking on the stronger leader. Assent flowed through the connection, as the group left before spreading out into a wing formation. Silently they flew through the city, their enemy’s location a gleaming tower in their minds eye, implanted by the fel magics of the High Priest. No wind announced their passage, no footsteps were left to follow. Silently through the night they flew towards their target, moving so swiftly a blinking eye would miss them. It took but minutes for them to arrive, instantly circling the slight hole in the ground.

“Wait. I scout.” Number One ordered, slipping easily through the serpentine entrance. Molding itself to the ceiling, it took in the scene below. Things weren’t right. Life sense notes two beings, but normal vision shows an empty chamber. Number one activated its mana vision, watching for traps. Two bodies, lightly covered with mana. Such a weak illusion, easily bypassed with no clue to the caster. Flame cantrip burning in the middle, caster was careless. Used too much mana for one night, unless they were weak to cold. Soft prey, unused to hard living. Number One returned to examining the room, melding its three forms of vision. Two living bodies lay next to a flame, though they kept a slight distance between. Far enough not to entangle themselves should an enemy appear, close enough to protect each other. One approved. This prey was finally showing worth. No unusual shadows. A slow trip around the cylindrical room confirmed sight and touch were in agreement. No illusions based on different forms of sight. Overconfident? Or a hidden trap?

Prey was contradictory. Bundled up, they couldn’t withstand a cold night. And yet, they were strong, they took out Marcos and his mech. Their lightning tower trap indicated planning was possible, though it was more geared toward in the moment rather than three moves ahead. Evidence, the city towers. Directed falls of objects were difficult and tedious to set up. This prey had the power to overwhelm the tower in an assault from a distance and still have more than enough left over to take out the siege platform behind it. Prey returns directly to their base, and only offers physical and monster protection. Conclusion. Prey assumes lack of attack indicates undead can’t leave the desert. No traps inside geared toward undead, as prey assumes their protections are adequate.

Number one returned as silently as it left, sending its thoughts to its compatriots. The brighter light would be the male, the weaker the female. Slaughter both at the same time. One per limb, one per head. I will take the male heart, Two will take the female heart. Orders and acceptance flew through the link at the speed of thought. Overwhelm a powerful opponent while they sleep to minimize retaliation, synchronized killing to avoid unexpected rage skills. Clean. Efficient. Simple.

The shadows flowed through the entrance, crawling as one partially submerged within the wall. Even the most powerful of senses can’t sense the shadows within the walls after all. Rising up from the ground, ten shadows fell as one, binding limbs and heads. Before the prey’s eyes could even open in terror, two more shadows made solid pierced through their chests, spraying blood everywhere. As the shade’s reveled in their victory, their world turned white.

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

Sean’s POV, just after the defeat of Marcos

“Sean, are you sure we are safe here?” Elendria asked as we landed in the clearing where we had made our base.

“Yes? Why do you think we wouldn’t be?” I asked, admittedly a bit more curtly than I wanted to. “Sorry, I didn’t mean for it to come off that grumpily. I’m a bit sore from the fight, and annoyed at myself for losing concentration.”

She glared at me, then relented almost as quickly. “It’s ok. We took that big hit because you were worried for me. You have to start trusting in me and keeping your eyes on the fight, but that’s not the main issue here. We’ve come back to this place several days in a row. Do you think they’ll send someone after us?”

My initial impulse was to simply deny it. After all, the undead couldn’t leave the city or the desert around them. Or could they? “I want to say we are fine.” I said slowly, “But. Now that you mention it, I don’t think we are. Why would they bother sending attackers out on the initial assault? A horde of ghouls is likely to be sufficient defense against most groups. Besides, patrolling outside of the desert might be viable for them, but it doesn’t net them any gain, does it?”

She exhaled in relief, “Oh Shalora, I’m glad you see it! How are we going to do this then?”

“Well, let’s set a trap for any attackers. Here, let me make some modifications first.” I said, dropping down into our lair. I made a hole in the wall, and a tunnel leading away from the main room. After about thirty feet, I expanded the tunnel into a room that mirrored the first room. I took a bit more care in crafting the breathing hole, threading it through the roots of a dead tree and having it exit in the middle of the hollow trunk. By the time that was done, Elendria had carried all our stuff in.

“I assume we are staying in here?”

“Yep!” I said fairly cheerfully. “We’ll leave a trap in the other room. You can cast an illusion spell over everything, right?”

“Easily.” She nodded.

“Perfect! Now, let me go get some replacements for us and I’ll be back.” I said, taking off and heading through the jungle. It didn’t take me long to find a pair of chimp like creatures, and a bit of gravity magic pulled them from their tree, letting me bind them up with some mana bands.

“And these are?” Elendria asked when I got back.

“Oh, these are our replacements. They didn’t quite volunteer for the position, but that’s ok.” I said, closing up the top portion like I normally would. I used a favorite cantrip from Carrigan that would allow mana to be burned instead of the logs for the fire. This not only let us keep the logs for another day, but it put out the same heat with no smoke. Layered on top of that was my trap. It was a simple thing, really. I just put enough mana to create an instant miniature sun in the middle of the room. It would only last for a second, but so did a flashbang. It was set to go off when both of the chimps died.

“Alright, all set here.” I said, ushering Elendria into the tunnel. As soon as I was in there, I sealed it with a foot of solid earth, making sure to grow it from the layers of the soil already present. Once that was done, I released the chimps and herded Elendria away. “They are probably going to rage for a bit. Let’s go eat dinner, then we can finish the trap.”

“Sounds good.” She said, pulling out some steaks. “I’ll do the vegetables if you want to do the steak.”

“Perfect.” I nodded, taking them and seasoning them with salt and pepper. I let the skillet heat up for a second, before removing it. “I have an idea. How long until the vegetables are ready?”

“Half hour?” She guessed.

“Sounds good to me.” I nodded, getting our pans preheated. I would honestly have preferred to reverse sear the steaks, but we just didn’t have a proper oven to do it in. Once we had eaten, we headed back to check on the chimps. Luckily for us they had calmed down and were laying down to sleep for the night, a bit of distance between them.

“Can you make it look like they are us? I’ll smooth over the walls where they tried to dig out.” I said, having made a small window for us to look through in the wall separating us. Elendria nodded, and I could feel her magic flowing as I went and did my part.

“How are you going to make them look like us to life sense?” Elendria whispered.

“Spirit.” I whispered back, sending two packets of spirit to coat the chimps and hopefully complete the illusion. After that, we headed to bed for the night.

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

“We’re under attack!” We both practically shouted, leaping up from our beds and heading down the tunnel. I had felt my trap activate, and Elendria must have felt her illusion shatter. We shot down the tunnel, and I immediately disintegrated the wall ahead of us. It was a bloodbath. Both chimps had their chests destroyed, whatever had done it had come through with enough force that the ribs were all broken. There was blood on the walls, but of the perpetrators there was no sign.

“What in the world happened?” I asked, slowly moving around the bodies.

“Check your notifications.” Elendria said, and I looked up to see her face was pale. Rather than pester her with questions, I went ahead and took a look.

Hidden quest started: Free my soul

You have stumbled upon a hidden secret of the Curse of the Solaris Empire. Should an undead be destroyed while outside of the curse area, the bindings of the curse will not be strong enough to prevent the soul from moving on into the circle of reincarnation. This is an ongoing quest, and awards will be given based on the number of souls you manage to save.

Requirements:

Complete destruction of the undead body

The undead must be slain outside of the curse area

Total souls saved: 12

Shade assassin x 12 slain

Level up!

Exp to next level: 24%

“Shade assassins?” I asked, looking at Elendria.

“Incorporeal undead. They specialize in draining attacks, but light is their bane. Your flash spell must have been too much for them.” She said, slumping down into a chair of ice she conjured. “It happened so fast! Sean, that should have been us!” She said, arms shaking.

“Shhh, it’s ok.” I said, leaping across the room and pulling her into a hug. Her slight tremors turned violent as she clutched me as hard as she could.

“We almost died.” She sobbed. “I’ve been close before, but after evolving I felt so. So. Powerful! Invincible! And I didn’t even notice the undead souls as they neared us! We would have stood no chance!”

“But we didn’t.” I said, squeezing her gently. “And do you know why? Because you had the foresight to see that they would send someone after us. So it doesn’t matter that they tried to attack us, we were prepared. And from now on, we will continue to be prepared.” I said, gently stroking her hair. “Come on hun. Let’s head to bed. I’ll try and set a few different traps, and we can take turns sleeping. That way someone will be awake if they try again, and we will be prepared.” I gently ushered her back down the hallway, sealing it behind us. It was a long rest of the night, but eventually Elendria calmed down enough to get some rest. It helped that I was able to hide my own nervousness from her. Instead of sleeping, I spent the rest of the night wracking my brain for all the different forms of undead that I knew of, as well as how to kill them. With holy magic off the table, a lot of it was going to come down to either light magic or decapitation.