He heard Rosa’s hiss of alarm a second before he saw sudden movement across his vision as soon as he stepped out of Sesuuk’s portal. He saw stone floors, cracked walls, and drifts of orange sand. He also saw a shape moving toward him.
His magical blade flickered into his hand with a burst of fire as he reacted, twisting to bring the blade up toward the figure rushing him, meaning to at least make it pause for thought, but the creature surprised him by lurching straight onto his blade.
You have struck the Level 18 Undead Lamakai Warrior for 105 points of damage.
Finn hissed in alarm and surprise as the weight of the creature, its scales torn from its head to reveal its skull, carried him to the ground with a heavy thump.
Undead! There are undead here, he thought as he saw the Lamakai struggling to push its head closer to his, snapping at his face with its needle-like teeth.
“Gah!” With a shout, he threw the undead creature off him.
Thwack!
There was a flare of blue energy as Rosa’s staff, gleaming silver and inscribed with glowing blue symbols, crashed through the creature’s skull, killing it instantly.
“The undead are here too!” Finn gasped, jumping to his feet as there was a flash of green energy on the other side of him. The Verdainian had jumped through the portal with his twin curved blades flashing as he caught the rusted scimitar of the next undead, and then slammed his second blade under its chin.
Another one down. Finn turned, his blade flashing through the air as he cleaved the last of them, his blade spilling fire behind it as it did so.
You have slain the Level 16 Undead Lamakai Warrior. Experience awarded.
The fight was over almost before it had begun, and the three were standing in a circle of the dead—or dead again. Finn raised his eyes to survey where Sesuuk’s portal had taken them and saw that they were in what appeared to be stone ruins with miles of desert surrounding it. Bleak, uncompromising mountains rose in the distance.
There was no sign of Esther or Sesuuk.
“But they must have been here,” Finn muttered as the portal closed behind them.
“Maybe this was an old tower or temple?” Rosa guessed, kicking away sand from the flagstones underneath.
“Whatever it was, it was abandoned a long time ago,” Tobias—whose people lived underground—muttered as he stooped to examine the rocks. He gestured to sand-blasted carvings still visible on the walls, his finger tracing the sinuous shapes.
Finn tried to remember what Sesuuk had told him about his home realm and his past, but he found that it was surprisingly scant.
He had been a respected leader—a prophet—of his ‘Trine,’ but the emperor god-king character, who was also apparently his father, had been cruel and unjust. So, Sesuuk had fled with his people.
There were traditionally three Trines, each led by a prophet, Finn remembered. After that, however, he knew very little.
Finn cursed under his breath as he walked toward a gap in the walls, his boots disappearing into drifts of golden sand as he sought to get some vantage point to view the surroundings.
“If I were stuck here, I guess I would have to make for the next shelter or oasis, right?” he grumbled, reaching the top of the wall. He saw dark shapes moving across the landscape, appearing at the top of a dune and then disappearing. They were moving fast, and they were coming closer. “We got company!”
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
He held his blade ready at his side. Sesuuk had, after all, said that the Lamakai were a hostile, aggressive people. Finn had no reason to presume that they would be generous toward intruders in their realm.
“That we have,” Rosa whispered in alarm from behind him.
Finn turned to see that there were figures rising out of the sand on the other side of the ruins as well. More Lamakai, dressed in yellow robes, with the sand cascading from their forms as they shook themselves free of what had been covering them.
In their hands were short metal rods with long blades, and they held them like javelins.
“How many?!” Finn hissed, seeing at least five. Easy for them to defeat, he guessed as he squinted and looked at them critically.
Level 16 Lamakai Sand Warrior.
He smiled. Level 16. That wouldn’t pose a problem.
Tobias snarled in a cat-like way, his dark eyes glistening as he readied his blades. Rosa relaxed on her back leg, her gleaming long staff lightly tapping on the sands underfoot.
“Intruders! You are trespassing on the sacred grounds of the Third Trine, claimed by the Second. State your business!” one of the Lamakai demanded.
Rosa’s eyes flickered toward Finn, whose gaze hardened. The other Lamakai, the ones he had seen approaching from the other direction, would be here soon. There had to be a dozen of them. Enough to be a problem, maybe, but not much of one…
Finn’s heart hardened. Nothing was going to get in the way of him and his sister. Nothing.
“I come seeking my sister, who was stolen from me, and her companion, a Lamakai,” he avoided saying Sesuuk’s name. He didn’t know what that name meant here, to these people, in this place.
Sacred grounds of the Third, claimed by the Second Trine, Finn thought. What did that mean for who might be Sesuuk’s ally and who might not?
The lead warrior raised his head and hissed lightly. “Prophet Sesuuk,” he said derisively, even though Finn hadn’t mentioned that name. “You are his allies? His friends?” The Lamakai’s eyes glittered as his forked tongue tasted the air.
Finn didn’t know what to say. He didn’t know what would cause them to spill more blood here this day.
“I just want my sister back. That is all that concerns me,” he said gravely and brought up his flaming blade.
The two groups were silent for a moment as they looked at each other, each clearly assessing the danger the other posed. But then, the lead sand warrior nodded slightly, and those around him lowered their weapons.
“Then you and the Second Trine must be allies, of a sort. The Prophet Sesuuk has made a move to seize the Prism of Fire, and we have heard that he brought a human girl from the New Zone with him. Perhaps our goals align.”
“Perhaps,” Finn admitted.
There was a hissing, chittering shout from behind them as the rest of the Second Trine arrived, conversing quickly with the other warriors in a series of clicks and hisses. One of the new arrivals stepped up to the wall of the ruined temple and regarded Finn with yellow eyes.
This Lamakai was taller and broader than the others, and their brow ridges were more pronounced, with a flash of viridian yellow scales around their brow and down their neck. The larger brow ridges meant that they were more important, Finn knew, as he nodded at the newcomer.
“Finn of Blackwood, I have heard of you. I am Keskul, Prophet of the Second Trine. This morning, my agents attacked the home of my father and his First Trine, and we are about to liberate the Prism of Fire,” the Lamakai said, raising his head and speaking in a slow, measured way. “My brother Sesuuk has betrayed us, just as he has betrayed all Lamakai before now. We of the Second Trine believed that he would come to our aid, but they did not, and now I believe that he is making a move for the Prism of Fire himself.”
Finn nodded that he understood. He didn’t so much care what Sesuuk did, but he understood.
“I have heard of your skill and fast ascension, Finn of Blackwood. What you have before you is a choice. Prophet Sesuuk came here with a captured human girl, whom I presume is your sister. You can come with us to defeat the First Trine and help us liberate the Prism of Fire, or you can try to oppose us. But I warn you that you are throwing yourself into the middle of a realm war that has been brewing for a long time, and many souls will die.”
Rosa snorted in disgust. She didn’t like being threatened.
Finn shrugged. “I only want my sister back. You can do whatever you want with your Prism of Fire.”
“But will you help us?” Prophet Keskul insisted.
Finn glanced at Rosa and Tobias, who each shrugged slightly.
“We’re with you, Finn. Whatever you decide, we’re there,” Tobias murmured.
Finn turned back to the Lamakai. “Anyone who tries to get in the way of me and my sister, or attempts to harm her or control her, will feel my wrath. If that means I have to wade through a tide of First or Third Trine Lamakai, then so be it.”
Prophet Keskul’s eyes glittered as he hissed. He turned and touched a silver token at his throat before throwing his hand into the air. A gleam of celestial lightning appeared, growing quickly into a twisting circle that was taller and wider than the Lamakai.
Another portal.
“That, we can work with, Finn of Blackwood. Prepare yourself for battle, because blood is already being spilled!”