Project 3 – Continuations – Part Three

“Are you sleeping, my lord?” a voice asked. Where did it come from? Had he fallen asleep in his armchair? The elf slowly opened his eyes and looked up to the owner of the voice. The face hovering over him was unfamiliar to him but even so he thought that he recognized it. It was a face of a simple man, not young, not old, and with no particular characteristics to speak of. It was a face that was so ordinary that it was strange. He could be anyone from almost any country in the sophisticated world. What is this man doing in my room? He sat up hastily and froze suddenly when a butterfly flew past him. He was in a forest.

The man had leaned back and sat on his knees next to him in his ordinary clothes and looked at him with a worried frown on his face. The elf looked around confused. Where by the name of all magic was he? And how had he gotten here? He slowly stood up and tried to grasp the situation as he tried to remember. His memories were a blur and he could hardly remember who he was or his name. It was like something was keeping him from his memories somehow.

“You shouldn’t sleep in the woods, my lord. It’s dangerous. Creatures and beasts might hurt you, my lord,” the man said as he stood next to him. The man was shorter than he, his head barely came up to his shoulders, and almost thin compared to the elfs heavy built – though he thought that he was quite normal built for a human. He looked down at the man and suddenly remembered something. This man had been made a familiar to him but why he couldn’t remember. From what he could remember of familiars they were often spiritual bound creatures to a mage. What he also remembered was that it was forbidden and very dangerous to bind a human, but impossible to bind an elf. No it was more than forbidden and dangerous, it was evil!

“Is there something bothering you, my lord?” the familiar asked him with concern in his voice. The elf smoothed his face and tried hard to think. Why had this been done, why had someone shielded his memories? Why has he here? “No, nothing is wrong… what is your name?” he suddenly asked annoyed over his fragmented memories. The familiar looked to him confused or maybe thoughtful, he couldn’t tell.

“My name is Brotheren, my lord. Do you wish to know your own name, my lord?” he asked politely. It seemed like he was expecting the question. Maybe the familiar knew why his memory had been left as it was. He nodded to his question and observed the familiar as he picked up a big backpack in the bushes next to him. “I don’t know my Lord’s name, my lord, but I know you have been introduced to me as Lord Lohinen, my lord,” Brotheren said. Lohinen was it? Yes, he could feel it wasn’t his true name but it was the only name he knew for now. He looked at Brotheren and smiled.

“Stop saying my lord after everything you say Brotheren, it annoys me. Why am I here and what has happened to me?” he asked hoping that he could get a more substantial answer from him. Brotheren smiled to him and turned around. “In the bottom left pocket on my backpack there’s a satin pouch I was instructed to give you when you asked that question, my lord,” Brotheren said, bending slightly forward to alleviate up the pocket somewhat so it would be easier for Lohinen to reach. Lohinen took out the red satin pouch and looked at it. It had a golden six-point star embroidered on it and it was big enough to fit two of his fists.

He opened the pouch and looked down in it. Inside was an egg shaped white stone, a piece of rolled parchment, a light blue cubic crystal and a dagger with an ornamented sheath and handle. He reached down and took the parchment and looked at it. There was no seal in the purple wax but the parchment seemed to be of a high quality but he couldn’t really tell. He broke the seal.

***

Hours later Lohinen was walking in the forest along a hiking trail with Brotheren who was walking a few strides behind him with his big backpack. Neither Brotheren nor Lohinen knew where they were but the instructions had been clear; they had to reach their destination if they were to get their memories back. Lohinen was on a dangerous mission, so dangerous his memories and his mind had been taken away for some reason, Brotheren had told him. Even so Lohinen could feel instincts and cognitive memories in his soul. He felt a deep sucking feeling in his soul, he couldn’t really put it to words but it wasn’t a good feeling.

Suddenly sunshine came down on them, the trail had led them out of the forest up on a grassy hill filled with exotic flowers and waist high bright green plants. On the top of the hill there was a big black boulder that looked jagged and unnatural. Lohinen peered at the stone wondering how it was that a boulder that big had happened to get there. Lohinen looked at the sky and tried to take in the surrounding landscape. They were somewhere exotic it seemed and with a lot of vegetation too. He could see mountains far to the east but other that that the forest was almost like a mixture of jungle and forest, and a very lush one at that.

“I believe we should take the left road m’lord,” Brotheren suddenly said behind him. They had reached the big boulder that seemed to have dropped from the sky in the middle of the trail splitting it five ways down the hill that each and every one of them snaked down the hills backside and even further into the big forest. Lohinen laid a hand on the stone to rest and enjoy the warmth from the sun.

“How far?” he asked, closing his eyes feeling the smooth stone. “Not sure m’lord,” he said and frowned. “Maybe an hour or two, I think. Hard to tell m’lord,”.
Lohinen nodded to himself and then rounded the boulder – it had to be a road sign of sorts – and started to trot down the left path of the trail. “I think it’s best if I go first m’lord,” Brotheren suddenly said to his back. Lohinen just waited letting Brotheren walk past before they went down into the forest again.

When he passed he felt a sudden urge to say something and so he let his soul speak. “You do that my friend! You are my guide after all!” he said and slapped Brotheren on the shoulder. Brotheren took a few stumbling steps before he regained his balance and then looked at him with confusion in his eyes and Lohinen stood stunned to what he had just done. What by all magic was that? Brotheren started walking again and Lohinen followed him in silence. Lohinen thought over what had happened but couldn’t make sense of it. The urge was gone and his soul was silent. Maybe that was why his memories had been sealed away?

They followed the trail for about an hour when it suddenly stopped. The trail had become very narrow at first then the vegetation had increased substantially and several times they had been forced to take detours in the forest since the trail had been broken by mere and wetland. The deeper they went into the jungle like forest it grew even more humid and lush. Now the trail had disappeared completely and Brotheren stood with his head tilted and eyes closed and try to feel where their destination was. It wasn’t far now, even Lohinen could feel it. But the strange feeling in his soul had grown to an very unnerving feeling.

Suddenly Brotheren started walking into a bush and Lohinen quickly followed him. The hadn’t walked far before they reached two high dark poles made out of a dark wood like material. The poles seemed twisted at first but when they passed between them Lohinen could see that the pole had been carved to look like strange monstrous faces. He could see symbols that he knew were magic on the foreheads of some of the creatures or around the neck in the form of a necklace of others. “We are here m’lord,” Brotheren said suddenly and Lohinen looked around.

The place they had reached was a overgrown clearing, or at least it had been one. It wasn’t much at all, it was just an overgrown ruin. One could easily mistake it for just some rocks and broken trees in a funny formation. But Lohinen could feel the strands of magic around this place. He could also feel something he could only define as pure energy and he knew this was celestial energy. His feeling had risen and he felt his body trembling with excitement. He knew what to do now. They had reached their destination.

Without a word he reached down into the pouch and brought forth the cubic crystal and started channelling. As he started channelling green steamy mist rose up from all his pores shrouding him in a green faintly glowing mist. His veins became more distinct and in his forehead six veins throbbed looking like a star. He reached out through the cube to the strands floating in the air and connected to them. He reached first after the four biggest strands and then started connect himself to every strand he could find. With extreme speed and masterful expertise he forced the strands to connect him and with each and every strand his awareness of the spirits and souls of his surrounding grew considerably. He merged with the beings and synchronised his soul with them.

Finally ready he started to probe the area and immediately found it. It was a vacuum in the jungle. A spot that had been protected by a wall of light, severing the strands from the rest of the strands – the celestial energy he had felt earlier. He was in the middle of that spot and his first task was to eliminate the light. With complex magical motions he forced strands of the surroundings to build up around the light and then he let two strands from each end of his dome of strands reach down and connect to the light, leeching its energy. With a sudden pop, the light disappeared like a bubble and he forced his strands into the spot, connecting to all the strands in the former vacuum. He could feel every stone, every leaf and every root and living being in the area and he could feel the entrance.

In the middle of the spot there was a seal of some complex strange magic but he couldn’t reach it. He had to come closer to it. He, the forest and all things connected, drew in a big giant breath and then he reached out with thousand within thousands of strands in all imaginable sizes and commanded them. He ordered the earth to loosen up and become soft, the air to blow away the now soft soil, water to wash away the dirt and animals to retreat. He lifted away the broken pillars, the loose rocks, had the jungle to give the excavation some space. Suddenly he felt another force meeting his force in the rocks. The rocks refused to budge and he couldn’t dismantle the ruins any more. He tried to connect to the force but couldn’t force his way through its shield. Suddenly it reached out to him.

BEGONE! Suddenly echoed in his mind as they touched. He felt a flick of energy graze him. He reached out to the guardian spirit. I mean you no harm, I just want to get past you. The spirit pushed back him and tried to lash out again. Lohinen fended away the angry spirits attacks with powerful strands and at the same time tried to attack it with smaller strands. The spirit though expanded its will and divided it and started to flail wildly with lethal edges of its own strands warding him off. He tried to encase the spirit but before he could manage it the spirit expanded its energy in a sphere around it crushing his strands.

Lohinen felt how a warm and throbbing feeling filled him and his mind seemed to shake uncontrollably. He felt and urging feeling from his soul that was so overwhelming that he gave in to it before he could think. The warm searing throbbing feeling exploded in him and even though he couldn’t see it his malacha turned from green to red. He felt a burst of power suddenly pulsing out into his strands and his mind somehow… changed in a way he couldn’t understand. He gathered all of his strands, spun them and formed them to a gigantic cone with an edge sharper than thousand razors and plunged it at the spirit. Just before the edge hit the spirit it raised a shield with all its energy. Lohinen was surprised that the spirit could even conjure a shield that would even momentarily hold against the monstrous force of the cones edge. But the shield wouldn’t hold for long. Slowly, but steadily, the shield was weakening. Lohinen put all his effort to crush the spirit, feeling the feeling inside his soul scream in warning and panic.

The shield and spirit shattered.

Lohinen flew to the ground, loosing his contact with the multiverse. As he tried to gather his strength and regain his senses. In the air was an foul odour and all was still. The mush ground felt sticky and slimy. He felt a wind blow over his face. He stood up.

The jungle was gone. The entire landscape was covered in a black tarry substance that laid in heaps here and there. Piles of grovel or grey earth and dust was visible here and there through the black field. He saw a backpack laying in a puddle of tar but couldn’t see Brotheren anywhere.

In front of him he saw a hole in the ground with tar dripping down over it’s jagged edges. Around the hole was pieces of a thick circular stone that probably had covered the opening. He started walking towards it, picking up the backpack when he passed it. He turned his eyes towards the pit and looked at it with red glowing eyes before he started to climb down.

And as the elf that had been known as Lohinen descended into the darkness of the pit a distant laughter chattered over the black field and he First Bell of Destiny rung.