“It is done, they are bonded and we have witnessed the birth of a new breed!” Gregoran elated.
The Zidu’Si, yet incomplete, also felt the addition of Moltar and his strength, to the collective.
Shuran spent the some time speaking with Gregoran and Moltar about his mother and her state before returning to the table to his ignored family of Zidu’Si. “I apologize for having gotten carried away with all this,” he said.
“Understandable Shuran Shin’Ar, it is not everyday that you find out your mother still lives, and someone gives you a sizable new pet!” Avrank said.
“You are responsible for cleaning up after this thing!” Moona said with a huff as Moltar landed with a large mountain yack in his jaws, end-trails falling everywhere. “That includes messes from both ends!” she finished before taking another puff of her pipe.
“I am afraid we did not bring a saddle, we would not have one to fit his size as it is. He is by far, the largest and now mightiest, of all the drakkon,” Gregoran said.
A puffing of pride in Moltar followed the statement, then a slap of the green drakkon’s tail.
“Do not get overly inflated, hatchling!” The green, Jade said.
“I assume you are his mother?” Shuran was answered by a proud smile from her.
“We have the materials required, I am sure the shoe maker here and myself can fashion something befitting Shin’Ar’s mighty friend.” Avrank said looking at Orian, who smiled and sent a shock of electricity into Avrank’s backside.
“Indeed!” Orian responded.
“Now shall we decide what to do about the Order and Vardoran?” Moona, of all, said. “Don’ look at me like that, he is not the sprat I raised. That sweet boy died when touched by the evil that drives what remains!” she added.
Codger remained oddly silent, Shuran noticed. “First we must worry about getting Bastien safely away,” he said.
“Fallon, my adda, plans on moving against them soon, in hopes of casting them from our lands. He hopes you might bring the force of your current Zidu’Si to bolster our forces?” he added.
“Yes, we will of course come, if you stand with us?” Shuran requested. “I would join you with us my cousin, and make you sheesh to the Zidu’Si.”
Gregoran, unable to find words, nodded his acceptance.
“I ain’ cleanin’ up after the green one neither!” Moona yelled from the end of the table.
They all gathered in the Vault for the evening and spoke on plans for the next day. The space would have allowed the bulk of Jade, but Moltar was far too large to enter through the tunnel entrance.
That did not stop him; Shuran used his connection, to transport directly into the vast Vault, though he had few places he could maneuver.
“Well, this is cozy.” Codger said after an evening of silence.
“We leave in the morning for Drakkfoth. I would add to our forces still. Codger, if I provided the crystals, would Aknard and his guild join us?” Shuran asked.
“If you provide him crystals he would follow you into Hell’s Mouth without question. But where will you find the correct type of shard in sufficient quantity?” Codger asked.
“We will stop at the Napalkua falls, Zig’Mada, on the way to Drakkfoth. They exist within a cavern behind the falling waters along with veins of gold and some other power deep in the caverns. With the added energy of the Zudi’Si we can charge enough to power his fleet for some time.”
I will send them here and you can leave for Smuggler’s Cove when they arrive. We will wait one cycle before our siege, no more.” Shuran set out the plan and they went about preparing.
“What are we to do now, Isten? What is this Shin’Ar, Shuran claims to be?” Salmetu asked. She was a bit on edge, which was unlike her normally calm and deliberate manner.
“It is of no matter. I have found a few histories of a man once calling himself the Shin’Ar, watcher of the lands. It is old tales and that Shin’Ar could not stand against the darkness then. Shuran as Shin’Ar will not stand now!” Vardoran said.
“Our first move will be to bolster your death walkers with the students of the academy.” Vardoran moved to a window and looked out to the night. There was nothing but petrified trees and rock. A lone black bird sat upon a branch in a nearby tree. “With that old witless fool Nagutan disappeared, Penelle can claim the rightful seat of the kashshaptu. Add to her my trusted followers on the council, and we have the numbers needed to take unquestioned control of the academy, and do as we see fit.”
Salmetu grinned at his implied meaning.
“What of the Ogres and Trolls?” Vardoran asked her.
“The ogres have committed to our side. The trolls have yet to respond to any requests.” she said angrily.
“Do not be so easily angered at their silence. Although they are witless creatures, they will answer once they are able to understand the request. Besides, trolls serve the needs of the Kashshaptu above all, as it was the witches of old that created them. I will have Penelle reach out to them,” he added.
Vardoran smiled maniacally as he stood over Salmetu stroking her flowing jet-black hair. “Things are moving along better than I had hoped. Shuran is but a blemish, soon enough cleared up with a well-played move. How is our guest from Birchshire?” he asked.
“He clings to life. I do not understand how, but it will not hinder us.”
***
Vardoran called an emergency meeting of the council the next day. He already had Penelle placed upon the council when Nagutan was not found. Vardoran assumed his paid assassin finally achieved his objective. Now that he controlled the majority of the members, it would be short work to move his plans along.
“Esteemed colleagues, I have called you here so that we may take decisive action against the growing threat to the realm, most importantly New Draven and her surrounding lands!” he started. “We find ourselves in a dire time indeed. Anzillu, they run rampant throughout the lands. They cavort with dwarves and elves. They cause havoc and bring destruction upon the Northern villages.” Vardoran was being purposely over dramatic.
Penelle fought the urge to roll her eyes in frustration.
“What do you suggest we do?” she asked as instructed.
“We need to take control of the situation, for that we need the Academy and all its resources,” he said with authority that found no objection.
The council had only just finished signing the documents authorizing the seizure of the academy including recruiting all students and apprentices into service of the realm, when a knock at the door came.
An inquisitor entered with a parchment baring the seal of Baron Fallon of Drakkfoth.
Vardoran opened the message and read through it a number of times before he let his anger surface. The parchment burst into flames and he howled with anger.
“What is it, Vardoran?” Penelle asked.
“That pompous Baron of the rocks, has declared the council corrupt and withdrawn from service!” It was then that Vardoran finally noticed the vacant seat where the member from Drakkfoth had normally held station. “He will pay for this when we are through here!” he spat in rage.
The Council agreed unanimously to take over the Academy as a military installation. This included all students and their instructors; they would all serve the realm and ultimately the Order of Chaos, unknowingly.
Vardoran and the Council members already in collusion with the Order, made short work of gathering all the occupants of the Academy. They tested their abilities, and loyalty to the realm. Many of the students were found only mediocre based on Vardoran’s standards.
They were sent to the lower levels and placed in cells so that Salmetu could ‘enlist’ them into the death walkers. Weavers sat in huddled groups, terrified as they heard the screams from the cells around them.
Salmetu went from apprentice to next, drawing out their shi to then be replaced with darkness. Those found strong enough, were allowed to retain enough of their spirit to then be possessed by a demon, so they might control the others. Once she completed her task, she transported herself and the new undead back to the secret keep of the Order in Drakkfoth.
Vardoran sent the Inquisitors out again, this time seeking any who had the spark of Essence. Vardoran would require all the power he could muster. Something bothered him about Shuran, though he would not admit it to the others. Outwardly he saw Shuran and his traitorous band of miscreants as nothing more than a minor distraction. Inside, Vardoran was jealous of the upbringing Shuran had with Elvaria.
In private he knew there was something more to him than his up bringing. He also knew decided his mother was in league with the upstart weaver. Did she plan to use the child she stole away from the Altar of Chaos, as a means of enacting revenge?
He felt duality in what happened so long ago, when a spell gone horribly wrong, siphoned the Essence through his mother and into himself. The effect left his mother without ability to weave, but it strengthened his own hobbled abilities. Since that day, the day his parents disowned him, he has only grown stronger. He was not about to let sentimentality get in his way.
***
Shuran presented Gregoran with the ancestral Zidu’Si gug weapon of the Drakkian, the Mi-Ib Ag, before departing the next morning. The sword of fire was a fitting weapon for Gregoran. He accepted it with grace and awe as the powers of the Zidu’Si melded with his own.
By accepting the honor, Gregoran and his drakkon, called Jade, added to the Zidu’si and profited from the exchange of energies. Immediately after the initial shock of joining their Essence wielding abilities, the Zidu’Si went about practicing their new gift.
“Can you imagine the surge when we collect a giant!” Avrank jested. “I still say this will never get old!” Avrank continued as he lit Orian’s pant leg aflame.
“I very much doubt you can expect a growth spurt, TURD!” Orian said dousing his flaming pants.
***
Shuran and his Zidu’Si arrived at Zig’Mada falls late the next day. The size of Moltar allowed him to carry not only Shuran, but Mallick and Avrank as well. Orian rode astride Jade with Gregoran.
They dismounted and as the drakkon drank deeply from the waters, Shuran led the men up to the falls and around to a cavern set behind the raging water that fell from high above.
The falls were formed in great upheaval of the land, hundreds of years past. Superstition and the jagged landscape kept all but the most foolish of adventurers away. Vessels carrying trade goods from the North stopped at a transfer port far before the waters turned rapid and deadly. Goods were then taken by land around the area of the falls to calmer, southern waters where they were loaded back on another vessel to continue on south to various ports of trade.
Inside the cavern, Shuran and his men were met by pitch darkness.
Orian conjured a ball of electric force that he confined to a sphere the size of an average man’s head. The light that resulted illuminated the vast cavern. The group ventured deeper into the tunnel leading down into the ground to find a smaller chamber filled with millions of dancing points of light and swirls of golden brilliance. The walls of the far end of the cavern were covered in veins of gold and the shards of quarts crystal speckled with a multitude of colored minerals.
Shuran inspected the shards and began selecting suitable pieces to imbue and send back to Codger at the Vault. Once he collected enough and coaxed them from the rock using the Essence, he and the others used their collective power and surged Essence into them.
It was tiring work but no longer did it require draining one-self only to rest, for the strength to continue. Shuran now found that he was capable of channeling mixed Elemental forces and funnel them through himself and into his Zidu’Si and thus the stones, without draining his own shi.
With the task completed, with extra shards to spare, Shuran transported them back to the Vault. Shuran was about to explore more; he felt something deeper in the tunnels, when Moltar stuck his sizable head into the cavern through the falling water.
“Are you done now? Can we go!” Moltar asked. He was eager to preen and prance his new form in front of the other drakkon back in Drakkfoth.
“Okay everyone back on the dragons!” Avrank said purposely misspeaking. Seeing Shuran ready to correct him he added, “You do not mind me calling you a dragon do you?”
“Not if you do not mind us calling you lunch!” Jade answered with a toothy grin.
Shuran and comrades, climbed aboard the drakkon then headed east for Drakkfoth. They traveled through the night and arrived before the dawn of Utu over the Eastern Highlands.
Shuran was feeling anxious. His mother has been alive this entire time. He felt joy and betrayal at the same time. Soon he hoped to have all his answers. As they flew for his father’s homeland he allowed himself to relax and enjoy the crisp air and wind in his face as they flew high above the clouds.
“It is peaceful up here above the world of troubles,” Shuran commented.
“Just wait Shin’Ar, when we arrive we can go through drills and see how quickly you loose your lunch!” Moltar offered.