The Black Knight
One Thousand Club
At the heart of the Crystal Tower sat six representatives of their powerful mage families. The first was Irina Ebonfire, grand mage of House Ebonfire, and mother of the infamous Red Sisters: Marcella, Rona, and Ibess. The second was Thelnos Petnelis, grand mage of House Petnelis, a renown elven house. The third was Pargu Maranar, grand mage of House Maranar, a renown orc house. The fourth was Jorwor Lightfeet, grand mage of House Lightfeet, a renown gnome house. The fifth was Rachmiel Rana, grand cleric of House Rana, a renown celestial house. Last was Morrigan Stoneblade, grand witch of House Stoneblade. The six sat around a lengthy elliptical table as white and polished as pearl. Leading the discussion was Grand Cleric Rachmiel. His gentle and enchanting features, which were oft bright with a warm and welcoming glow were dim and solemn. His lips were a straight line—almost a frown—as his azure eyes rolled like drops of sky over the houses gathered before him. His hand clutched a white and curvy staff. The head arched and dipped to ripple back down the staff’s arm before it curled about a sapphire-blue sphere. His white robes were as thin as silk and moved with the aura that spiraled like an invisible twister around his being. When he spoke, his voice was deep but gentle—the voice like a kind father:
“Thank you for recognizing the urgency of which brings you all here. Thank you for coming. There was no time to speak through courier, and I much rather have you all here in person to listen so that I know my words will not be manipulated. There is a warlock in the south. He calls himself Afeus, of what house I do not know. He has built himself an army and he threatens to direct it at this tower,” Rachmiel informed.
“HA!” Pargu, the giant orc guffawed. “Moths to the flame. The magic here cannot be penetrated so easily. We all know this..” Pargu said turning his head as the corner of his green mouth turned up in a smirk. “I am not even sure the barrier we created can be dispelled. The Mother Crystal is probably guarded for eternity.”
“Nay, brother. There is a way, but I dare not say it even among you. Afeus and his army have not advanced on the tower for I suspect he believes what we all suspect that The Barrier is impregnable. But I fear he may know how to destroy it.”
“Yeah? And you say you know how to destroy it? How? Why won’t you tell us?” Pargu irritably interrogated.
Morrigan beneath the wide, round brim of her witch’s hat answered, “Because Rachmiel is afraid that a traitor may be among us.”
Several heads turned toward Morrigan, watching the girl run her thumb across the black nails of her fingers. The word traitor was whispered around the table like a curse. Rachmiel felt his skin chill the more he heard it and he shook his head and raised a hand to calm everyone. “Please. I refrained from sharing my suspicions for this reason. Do not let this fear turn our houses against each other. Even if the traitor does sit among us, I ask that he or she please reconsider helping Afeus. The Mother Crystal is the very soul of this planet. She has given birth to all of us. Vespira exists as it should with the power being independent of a wielder,” Rachmiel pleaded.
Pargu’s yellow eyes motioned to meet with Thelnos’s green ones. The elves eyes quickly dropped to the table top as he bowed his head. The great orc flared his nostrils and narrowed his eyes. “Why were you looking at me with those accusative eyes?” the orc growled.
Thelnos raised his head. His blonde strands fell away from the green eyes that glared at the orc. “No reason…no reason to suspect a house of ignorant beasts could be easily manipulated by an evil sorcerer.”
“WHAT!?” Pargu bellowed. He abruptly stood from his seat as the chair flipped over onto its back. His thick lips parted around his large tusks as he bared his teeth in anger.
“The orcs have short tempers and lack the willpower and discipline to ward off manipulation,” Thelnos continued to argue.
Pargu stomped over to the elf, causing Jorwor the gnome to flee his high chair in fright. The orc grasped Thelnos’s chair and jerked it to the side so that the elf faced him. He then leaned down, wrinkling his tiny nose at the pointy-eared pomp as he growled, “You take that back! My house has earned its seat here!” His hand released Thelnos’s chair. His fingers curled partially into his palm as yellow rings of light sprouted from it, resembling electron paths around an atom. “Maybe I should remind you why Maranar is the most powerful house among the orc clans!”
Thelnos scowled, staring the giant unwaveringly into his eyes. Irina was watching the drama between the orc and the elf, and she looked over at Rachmiel as she shared her thoughts, “You seem to have quite the amount of knowledge about this Afeus fellow. You even knew that a traitor was among us. Perhaps you are the traitor and you’re trying to tear us apart with paranoia.”
Rachmiel remained quiet. He stared sadly at the floor as he clutched his staff close. This was what he feared. It was happening before his eyes and there was nothing he could do. Pargu and Thelnos gazed at Rachmiel suspiciously. Pargu then shared, “No. It cannot be Rachmiel. Angels cannot lie.”
Thelnos turned his chair to face the table once more and added, “Telling us about a traitor isn’t lying. There is a traitor and he could be putting the thoughts into our heads to turn us against one another.”
The old gnome grasped his glasses and adjusted them. “You say this after you nearly started a war with Pargu.”
Thelnos frowned. “I will be honest. I don’t like orcs. They’re noisy; they stink; and they kidnap and rape our elven women. I tolerate being in the same room as him.”
Pargu snarled again, “And your people take all the land and water for yourselves, leaving mine to starve and have to pillage! Elves don’t know how to share!”
“You gluttonous brutes would devour everything if we shared. Why do you think your lands are barren? You do it to yourselves.”
“Please!” Rachmiel pleaded. “No more. I cannot bare to hear nor see this. I will say that I am the traitor if it will make you stop.”
Irina rolled her eyes. “Playing innocent as usual…”
“All of you must be careful,” Rachmiel warned. “I have studied The Barrier and though it is strong, it exists as long as each of us are alive. If one of us were to die, then the burden of the barrier would increase.”
“So you feel Afeus plans to kill us,” Morrigan deduced. “An easy task if all he has to do is turn us on each other.” Her eyes rolled over to Pargu and Thelnos. The two lords turned their cheeks to her dismissively. “We should devise a way to warn each other if an assassin was to come. We should create a spell that when spoken we will all hear it and be able to come to the others’ aid.”
The six grand mages nodded in agreement. “Erect a soundproof barrier. Let no one hear this word,” Morrigan ordered.
Rachmiel raised his staff and a translucent pyramid flashed around the six gathered. Morrigan rose slowly from her chair and held out her arms with her palms tilted upwards. The brown layers of her hair began to rise and oscillate like tentacles as she spoke the word that resonated from her lips, Meribus. The other mages closed their eyes and repeated the word. Morrigan opened her eyes and lowered her arms. “There. Only a fool will forget, and if a fool does, The Mother willed it.”
Rachmiel lowered his staff, which caused the pyramid to vanish. Irina looked at the angel, still unimpressed. “Do you have anything else to share with us Rachmiel?”
The celestial bowed his head and answered, “I do not. May all of you be safe.”
Four of the mages vanished in plumes of smoke or beams of light. Irina remained as she rose from her seat and walked the length of the table passed Rachmiel. “My youngest daughter is somewhere in this castle.”
Rachmiel nodded. “She is safe. I assure you.”
“Do you?” Irina replied rudely. “I will find her.”
Rachmiel closed his eyes and sighed. When they opened, they darted over to a white mouse that was scurrying across the floor. It vanished through the wall like a specter and the angel gently smiled before he turned to depart the meeting chamber behind Irina. The mouse traveled through the castle, flying through the floors and descending through the crystal and stone that made up its fortifications. The mouse appeared at the ceiling above the banquet room. A red, pig-tailed girl was waiting beneath the creature with her cloak parted to catch the mouse against her bosom. As soon as she swiftly closed her cloak, her mother emerged through the banquet room doors. Irina had known where her daughter was due to their blood and bond.
“Ibess, what are you doing?” she asked.
Ibess turned toward her mother with a gentle and sheepish smile on her pink lips. “I was having tea and cakes,” she answered.
Irina glanced at the lone saucer and tea cup on the vast banquet table. She then glanced about the room, finding it peculiar that her daughter was alone and not with others. “The meeting is over. We can leave.”
As her mother approached her and rested a hand upon her shoulder, the banquet room shifted, smearing like an oil painting around them. The white, bright colors, shifted into darker ones of red, gold, and black and soon the two were walking through the red carpet foyer of Redpyre Keep. A tall, slender butler approached the two women taking their cloaks. Ibess walked with her mother from the foyer into a living room with similarly red furniture. “What happened? Rarely does Lord Rachmiel summon all six of the grand mages,” Ibess asked.
“Nothing you need to be concerned with. I am more concerned with finding you a husband, dear.”
Ibess stopped in her tracks and wrinkled her nose. “Mother, I’m not in a hurry to get married.”
“That doesn’t mean we can’t look dear. Your sisters are gone, married, and Marcella is already with child.” Irina giggled excitedly to herself. “I’m going to be a grandmother and you’re going to be an aunt. Isn’t that wonderful?”
Ibess arched a fine, red brow and responded frankly, “Uh, no.”
Irina waved her hand dismissively at her daughter. “You’re still young. You’ll know what it’s like soon.”
Ibess lowered her head and asked, “Mother, if you don’t need me, can I go to my room?”
Irina took a seat upon one of the padded chairs and crossed her legs. “Of course, dear. I will see you at dinner.”
Ibess bowed and then quickly turned to head back into the foyer and up the eastern stairwell. She raced down the east wing to her bedroom and quickly closed the door behind her. Whirling, she raced over to her bed and jumped across the mattress as the white mouse sprang from her cleavage. “Tell me everything,” Ibess demanded.
The mouse rose upon its haunches and relayed everything it had gathered to Ibess in a silent language. Ibess’s red brows rose upon her forehead in shock and she gasped, “Someone will try to kill mother…”
Ibess sat up on her bed, staring at the far wall thoughtfully. Afeus…the only way he can destroy The Barrier was to kill the grand mages. They were powerful. It was easier said than done, but she was still concerned for her mother. Ever since father passed, her magic hasn’t been the same. As Ibess continued to meditate, she remembered looking through the attic into her father’s old spell books. There was a distinct page with two magic circles crossing like a vin diagram. Around those circles was a larger one with two more circles for sacrifice. The spell seemed powerful.
“I could maybe summon a great dragon with that spell,” she muttered to herself. She glanced up at the ceiling. She had to find it. Hopping off her bed, Ibess looked up at her ceiling once again and crouched. A white circle appeared beneath her feet and her body turned translucent. The young mage jumped into the air, rising through the ceiling to the third floor where she saw some chambermaids spreading clean sheets over one of the guest beds. She continued to hop two more floors until she arrived upon a floor that was crammed and dark. “Found it.”
Salamandra, she whispered. A red lizard appeared on a chest and its body glowed like a flame. It gazed up at Ibess, blinking its ruby eyes at her. She grasped the lizard in her hand and carried it as she walked around the dusty and smelly attic. “The maids really need to clean up here,” she thought aloud to herself. She found her father’s old chest (it was the largest one in the attic). She opened it and rummaged through the scrolls, bottles, and books to find the big book she had remembered. Baring her teeth a little, she had to grapple the enormous thing out of the chest and lowered it to the floor. The salamander rested on her sleeve as she opened the book and flipped through its many pages to a summoning spell.
“This is it!” she softly cheered. As she continued to read the instructions, her cheery expression sank into a look of dread. “I don’t even know how to say any of these words…The spell wouldn’t work if I can’t say them right?”
She was talking to the salamander. The little lizard tilted its head at her. “I would have to sacrifice something…Something dear…” She gazed back into her father’s box and removed a dagger. She parted the blade from its sheath and glanced over the runic writing. Her blue eyes and fiery hair were reflected back at her. “This knife should be mine. I remember you (her father) giving it specifically to me, but then Marcella and Rona became jealous and cried to mother.” She returned the dagger to its sheath and set it upon the book. She rummaged through the chest once more and removed her father’s cloak. It was made from bear fur. She pressed the fur to her nose and sniffed it, and a memory played in her mind of her hugging her father’s burly frame in it. “You looked just like a bear when you wore this.” She placed the cloak next to the book and then gazed down at the page.
“So I just need to draw these circles and say, Quaeso fructum imperium.” She scratched her head. “Keh-so…is that how you say it?”
There was a sudden flash that made Ibess jump. The dagger and fur cloak were sucked into the book, causing it to suddenly close. Ibess sprang to her feet and backed away from the creepy thing until her back met a crate. “What is going on? Did I say something wrong?” she panicked. She grasped her salamander and clutched it in her hands in fear as the book started to shake. She soon realized that it wasn’t just the book. The entire mansion was shaking. “Oh no! Mother is going to kill me!” she exclaimed.
Ibess hid behind the crate as the book started to float. It opened and its numerous pages flipped. From it shot arcs of electricity that struck the wooden floor boards and etched into it the rune circles she had seen. The floor glowed like charcoal and grew brighter until a beam of light shot through the ceiling and rose like a tower into the night sky. Ibess squinted her eyes and used a hand to veil them from the intense glare. Within the beam, she saw stars rising and falling as though the very cosmos were exchanging. From the floor rose seven brightly glowing orbs that started to flicker. Ibess closed her eyes unable to look any further, and in a flash the beam was gone. Crates, chests, and scrolls that had been around the circle were on fire, and within the circle were what appeared to be jello balls. Ibess rubbed at her eyes and peered at the colorful gel balls curiously. What were they? Slowly, she crept out from behind the crate until the heavy thud of her father’s book striking the floor caused her to scream in startle. She clapped a hand over her mouth as she continued to stare at the blobs with wide, confused eyes.
Venchi1986
@NovaBlast @King of Theives
CystalChompound
SquishCat
Sekiranun
Tag:
Feel free to modify this tag however you like. Just make sure it says the below information.
Code:
[center][b]Name:[/b] Slime Name.
[b]Location:[/b] Where are you?
[b]Tag:[/b] Who is your slime talking to? [b]Mention:[/b] Who is your slime mentioning or thinking about.[/center]
[divide=thick][/divide]
Last edited:
