Eli

  I stand on the wall, chuckling at the absolute catastrophic amalgamation of flesh, congealing in the gateway. When a bang rings out, my attention is drawn away.

  I swing my head dramatically, to spot Ivan. lying on the ground, his back pressed against a hunk of the stone. He heaves in, and out. The armor around his face has been torn away, revealing his haggard face, his previously beautiful beard patchy, and his skin sags, his wrinkles, and liver spots suddenly accentuated. Above him stands his foes. Two, monstrous Orcs, each one just as haggard as Ivan, but not yet defeated.

  My eyes grow wide at the sight, and with a scream, I panic. I jump from the wall, the few undead minions I have quickly attempt to follow me, as I drop down the wall, easily 15 stories high, I scream. I close my eyes, crammed close I push my mana out, I need something, I need to find something! SOMETHING!...

  There.

  I feel something. Thousands of little something, congealed in a mass below, and leading all through the valley. Then I feel it. I can pull them. With a primal scream my eyes fly open, and 30 or so Orcs directly below me, collapse into a pile, and their souls tear free from their flesh. They are born as ghostly apparitions, barely visible as faint white wisps, but they fly upwards, and they rasp, and mumble. They grab onto my arms, and trail behind me like wings. They begin to pull me up. I feel it. I feel myself flying. “Take me to them!” I rasp, and point at the two orcs standing above Ivan. They stare, amused at my antics.

  At my word though, we begin to fly faster, and faster, and faster, and in an instant I'm standing before my ghostly friends disappearing into the aether. One of them chuckles, and turns to Ivan, who sits pale faced, staring at me in awe. He raises his cleaver to attack Ivan, but I dive in, I must stop them. My belt bites upon the beast's arms, and he is pushed to the side. He turns, and glares at me. With a shove he pushes me towards the other orc. Than, I hear something. A wet crunching. Like… Biting in celery, or a cucumber. I spin.

  Alistair. He stands over me, his arms spread wide, and a hole in his heart. The other orc had sent a blast of energy to deal with me. But Alistair got there just in time. To take the blow in, my stead. With a growl, he throws me to the ground, and tears my belt off my body, crushing the skull between his palms. He grabs my hair, and forces me to watch, as the orc,raises his cleaver to deal the killing blow to Ivan.

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  As my vision becomes blurry with tears I reach out. A red blur appears in my vision. Blood. I try to blink it away, but it doesn't disappear. In fact it grows larger. I close my eyes, and shake my head, flinging the tears away, and when I open them again it’s accompanied by the sound of Theo forcing the tip of his sword into that Orcs guts. Theo slams into the bastard, the pommel of his sword held close to his gut, and his shoulder rams into the orcs chest, and his sword, straight through his stomach. He leans back, and pulls the sword along, opening the beast's gut with a primal scream. “HOW DARE YOU!”

  He swings the sword above his head in a blur, and rushes forward at the remaining orc, who drops me in fear, and quickly backpedals. His hands go forward, and he blasts at Theo again, but he isn't dumb, he swings his sword low, and with the flat of his blade he smacks the blast aside.

  Theo closes the distance between the two in a beat, and swings his sword over his head down upon the bastard. He raises a vaguely umbrella shaped shield to deflect it, but, simultaneously, the belt of blood Theo wears around his waist congeals, and thrust forward like a spear, with a barbed tip, slipping into the bastards guts before tearing free, dragging the noodle like intestines along behind it, than again, and again, and again, until he collapses to the floor, his body, unable to bear the trauma. Theo stands above him panting.

  All the while I have crawled my way to Alistair, and my head is resting on his face, while I sob. I cry out, begging him to have some trick. Some way to escape. But he is dead. Theo walks close to me, and pats me on the shoulder. “Look. His constructs are still here.”

  I sigh, and sniffle. “So what?” I ask petulantly.

  He chuckles. “So he's not dead.”

  My eyes fly open. Maybe he did have some trick. “What do you mean?”

  Theo smiles. “He’s hibernating. I’ve never personally seen it done before but… I've heard that the most powerful of the dark knights, can trap their souls within their bodies, that way if they take catastrophic damage, they will survive, as long as the bindings aren't destroyed, or their body is completely incinerated. You need to find someone to stitch a heart back into his chest. The only place I know of is… Blight.”

  I glance up at him. “Explain.”

  He sighs. “You’ll need to take his body to God's Rest, if you can get there… You need to find Father. Not my father. Just father. He’s a capricious, unstable old beast, but he will be able to do it. Or at least be willing to do it. You may not leave that place alive, and you most certainly won't leave unchanged… But, it's the only chance. He is the head of the dark knights, and Alistair is a Cadre. He will save him.”

  I glance up at him. “How long do I have until he kicks the bucket?”

  Theo sighs. “I dont know.”

  I glare at him. “Whatever. I'll do what needs to be done.”

  End of Arc 1