Chapter Fifteen

Igneous’ foot steps echo on the stone floor as he paces up and down the temple aisle, nervously biting his lip, his darting to Yasevl’s kneeling form every few seconds. When Yasevl hadn’t awoken right away, they were all worried, but Thomas had convinced them they just had to wait. After the sun had risen, Nora had taken Nelly to get some sleep in one of the empty priest courters, Mitch and Korren had gone to the Guild to get their reward for their mission as well as to sell the wolf pelts, Thomas and Marigold went to make sure no one came inside while they waited for Yasevl to wake up. The waiting was really getting to Igneous, what if his brother never woke up? What if it was his blood that had hurt him? What if they had been too late? Tired of just pacing and waiting, Igneous stomps over to Yasevl and places his hands the sides of the spirit’s wooden head. He knew that it was dangerous for him to mix his center with his brothers, but he had to do something. Threading a strand of spiritual energy along his arms and into his palms, Yasevl’s mana resists at first, but Igneous is able to connects to itand uses it to guide him to the center. When the tips of Igneous spiritual energy touches Yasevl’s, his vision goes black and his head hunch forward.

Igneous eyes pop open and he finds himself back in the forest. Looking around he spots his brother standing next to a tree. With a shout of glee, Igneous rushes to his brother, throwing his arms around his side, “ OH brother you’re finally awake!”.

Yasevl bends down and returns the hug but cuts it short gently pushing Igneous away and smiles, “ Not quite, little brother.”.

Looking at his brother with confusion, Igneous asks, “ What do you mean?”.

“ We’re in my center and I should probably introduce you to some…. people.”.

Standing, Yasevl gestures over, Igneous’ gaze following it to two people standing only a few feet away. One looks to be human, a middle-aged man wearing bright and expensive garb, who smiles as him, with kindness and understanding. The other is made of vines and grass in the shape of a woman, her emerald eyes borrowing hole into him, as if she is trying figure out if she should eat him or not. Igneous looks up at Yasevl with uncertainty. Yasevl gives him a reassuring smile and says, “ This is Dorean, and Gaia.”.

The names click in Igneous’ head, Dorean is the guy that Marigold is always praying to and Gaia is the one that sent Lupin to test him. Dorean hadn’t tried to harm him, but Gaia had tried to have him killed. Anger fills Igneous, baring his teeth, Igneous steps toward the vine woman has flames engulf him. Growling Igneous fixes his gaze on the woman, “ You almost got me, and my friends killed.”.

Yasevl tries to hold him back, but Igneous shrugs him off and takes another step forward still glaring at Gaia. Dorean steps in front of Igneous, his eyes glowing, with a voice like honey he says, “ I wouldn’t do that little imp. She could easily end you. Now calm down.”.

Igneous stops in his tracks, he tries to fight against Dorean’s words, but soon finds his anger subsiding and his flames retreating. Igneous takes a deep breath and release it, he feels much better, relaxed even. Igneous knows that that the man had done something to him, but he wasn’t sure and for some reason didn’t care. Dorean smiles and gives Yasevl a nod while stepping back. Yasevl turns Igneous to him and fixes a concerned look on his face, “ Are you okay?”.

Igneous nods and says, “ Yeah, I’m calm now.”.

Yasevl frowns at the words and looks up at Dorean, “ What did you do?”.

“ It is temporary, I just made sure he wouldn’t do anything drastic.”, Dorean says holding a hand up. Gaia stares at Igneous and smirks, “ Tell the imp about our deal.”.

Igneous looks at Yasevl, “ What deal?”.

Yasevl shoots the woman a dirty look, but recovers and smiles at his brother, “ Gaia and Dorean have agreed to help the wood elves, making them stronger and more secure, but in return, I have to work for Gaia. There will be a temple to her in the village, and they have to worship her. Dorean will have a temple too, but the elves do not have to worship him, he only wants his priest to be allowed to be there.”.

Igneous absorbs Yasevl’s words and as they settle on him, the calm Igneous had been feeling begins to disappear and replaced by shock and anger. Fixing his eyes on Yasevl, “ You agreed to this without talking to Nevil, or Corma, or Heva, OR ME! YOU JUST DECIDE FOR EVERYONE THAT THAT THEY WILL WORSHIP THAT… THAT…...URRGGAH I DON’T EVEN KNOW THE WORD FOR IT, BUT SHE IS AWFULL! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?”!

Yasevl gives Igneous a sad smile, but then it turns in to a frown, then anger spreads over his face, “ I was thinking THAT MY PEOPLE KEEP GETTING KILLED AND THAT I CAN’T STOP IT! AND I WAS THINKING THAT THERE IS SOMETHING OUT THERE THAT IS NOT ONLY COMING FOR THEM, BUT YOU!”.

At these words Yasevl stops yelling, the anger resides and shame rushes over him, then he looks at the two gods that had been watching the family squabble with embarrassment, “ I wasn’t supposed to tell him that, was I?”.

“No.”, Gaia answers with no real emotion. Dorean gives Yasevl a kind smile, “ It’s okay. He would have found out sooner or later.”.

Igneous whirls around fire flickering across his skin, with annoyance in his voice, “ Find out what?”.

Dorean looks to Gaia, who doesn’t acknowledge the other god, then back at Igneous. With a sigh he tells Igneous, “ The darkness that attacked the wood elf village, he is also a god, an evil one. His name is Nevoid, he is the god of suffering and emptiness. He wants to increase his power, to do that he needs to cause suffering and one good way to do that is to get a servant to help with it.”.

Igneous takes a deep breath, and then replies, “ Okay, that sucks, but what does that have to do with me?”.

“ He wants you. You are growing at an alarming rate, only a month ago you were a new born wisp, you flew through being a sprite, now you’re an imp. Given sometime, we have no idea how much you will grow. He wants to latch onto you and use you to grow his strength.”, Dorean tells the imp.

Igneous studies the god for a moment in disbelief, turning back to Yasevl, Igneous asks, “ Brother?”.

Yasevl nods slowly, “ Yes.”.

Igneous begins to feel sick, his face contorts into anger, sorrow, and confusion, “ So its my fault that people died. My fault that Nevil lost his leg. My fault that You and Nelly got infected.”.

Yasevl goes to comfort his brother, but is cut off, “ N-,”.

“ Yes, this all happened because he wanted you.”, Gaia voice rings out like a crashing tree.

“ Gaia, I do-,”, Dorean starts, but stops when Gaia holds up a vined hand. Walking up to Igneous , Gaia kneels down and takes his face in one hand and the other placed on his heart, “ But, it is not your fault. It is Navoid’s. He tried to infect you with his darkness, and instead you consumed it and made it yours. Be proud and grow strong.”.

After saying all of this, Gaia stands and backs away from Igneous, the slightest smile on her face. Igneous wipes tears from is eyes and looks at Gaia with a respect and gratitude, “ I will. I will grow strong and destroy him.”.

The four of them stand in silence, when Igneous tilts his head then looks up at the much taller beings, “ What I don’t understand is why he would want me, when Giblex is the one that created me. Why doesn’t he want him?”.

Gaia, and Dorean, look at each other then look back at Igneous with deep confusion, speaking up Dorean, “ What do you mean?”.

“ Yeah, Giblex said he had summoned me.”, Igneous says as if it was the most common thing in the world, then adds, “ Ask Yasevl.”.

The two confused gods look at the wood spirit, who looks down at Igneous then back at the gods, “ Well, I did find Igneous in a cave surround by goblins, one being a shaman. I had been jumping from tree to tree out of boredom, when two goblins snuck up to the tree I was being at the moment and cut of a small branch. And out of curiosity, I tagged along. After a few hours of running through the forest they came to the foot of a mountain. They climbed up to a cave where three others were waiting. Heva, Giblex, and Kexel, to be precise. Kexel, the one that led the attack on my village, snatched the branch I was in from the two goblins and hit them over the heads with it. After words he order the shaman, Giblex, to do the magic thing, his words. Giblex rubbed some weird paste over me, then chanted a spell and waved his staff over the branch, me, but nothing happened. Then they cut me up and through me into the fire, where I heard Igneous talking to himself. After deciding to help Igneous, I jumped out of the wood I was into a nearby twig, I transformed into my usual form, but much smaller, ran down the mountain, jumped into a tree transformed again, ran up the mountain and picked up Igneous by turning my hands into shovels to hold him and the dirt below him. Then I ran through the forest back home and the rest you all know.”.

“ So Giblex didn’t create me?”, Igneous asks, slightly sad now not knowing where he came from.

Yasevl shakes his head, “ Nope, you just appeared, like I did when I was born.”.

Igneous nods his head, “ Okay.”.

Dorean clears his throat, bring all eyes to him, “ I hate to rush everyone, but we need to get a move on. It’s going to take a while for you to get back to your village and for my temple to find people to go into the middle of the woods. The faster we start the better.”.

Yasevl nods and turns to Igneous and smiles, “ I will wake soon, and we can talk more then , okay?”.

Igneous reluctantly nods, “ Okay.”.

At this Igneous felt his brother push him out of his center. Igneous’ eyes opens and he stands back in the temple, standing before an unconscious Yasevl. Smiling sadly, he steps away and sits down on a nearby pew and waits. Before long Igneous’ eyes close, his tired body and mind finally succumbing to sleep.

Mitch , Korren, and Marigold sat around a round table at the local tavern, The Drunken Axe”. Korren had his face down on the table his face red and eyes heavy, even though he kept declaring he wasn’t drunk. Mitch was on his eighth drink, keep up with Marigold, who by now was on her twelfth and showed no sign of stopping. Sloshing his drink while pointing it at Marigold, Mitch slurs out, “ Ho-shw coome yo-u donnut ceem dunk?”.

Marigold smiles at Mitch, “ What are you talking about? This isn’t even that strong.”.

Marigold punctuates this by downing her whole mug in one large gulp, and with a satisfied sigh wipes her mouth. Holding her empty mug up she calls for more. Suddenly feeling sick, Mitch pushes what’s left of his towards her and allows his head to hit the wooden table with a thud.

“ Gee, thanks.”, Marigold says before repeating the process of downing the whole mug, then holding it up to signal that she wants more. A bar maid walks by the table and sets a mug full of dark brown liquid in front of her. Confused she looks up at the barmaid, “ Hey, Leddy I didn’t order that. I’m drinking Sap Root.”.

Leddy, the barmaid, smiles and tilts her head in the direction of the bard playing in the corner of the tavern, “ From the bard, I think he fancies you.”.

With a wink she walks away to deal with other customers. Marigold grabs the mug and holds it up towards the bard with a smile, the bard smiles back and gives her a wink. Taking a hard sip, Marigold wrenches back her face twisted, and exclaims loudly, “ WHEW! That is some could stuff!”.

The bard smiles even harder when she does this and gestures at her table, she smiles and gives a nod. After the bard finishes his song, about what Marigold can’t remember, he makes his way over to her table, when he gets closer, she takes a better look at him. He looked young, maybe only a little older than her, he had a broad-chin with a little stubble growing in, he had a defined nose, and piercing grey eyes. He was tall and athletically built. He holds out a tanned hand and says in a smooth baritone voice, “ Hi, I’m Vance.”.

Marigold holds out her hand to him, “ Marigold.”.

He takes it in his and kiss the top of her hand with soft plump limps. She giggles and gestures to a seat not taken by a passed out drunk. Vance smirks flirtatiously and takes a seat having to move Mitch’s arm to allow him lean forward. The two sit and talk and drink for hours, until Nora bursts through the tavern doors and after spotting, Marigold, rushing over. Marigold looks up at Nora with a smile and a slight slur, “ Heeyyy, Nor-Nor. This tis Va-,”.

“ Nice to meetcha! Marigold we got to go, he’s awake!”, Nora says quickly not giving Marigold the chance to finish. Marigold eyes light up and she smiles, then remembers Vance. Turning to look at him, she gives him a sad smile, “ I em so surry, but I have to go.”.

Vance shrugs and smiles , “ That’s okay, who have somewhere to be.”.

Giving her hand a squeeze, he gets up and winks, “ I’ll be seeing you.”.

As he walks way, Marigold stares after him, until Nora snaps her fingers in front of her face and says, “ Hey, snap out of it. Wake those two and hurry back to the temple.”.

With these words, Nora rushes out of the tavern. With a longing sigh, Marigold begins the task of waking the two slumbering drunks. Raising her hand in the air to signal the barmaid she says, “ Leddy, can I get two buckets of water.”.