Raska Tales: One Small Gift

Her life was almost perfect, and all of it was owed to Him. An Elf pretending to be of no importance as he stood grinning in a crowd, letting his eyes meet with hers in a wordless congratulations before He disappeared again.

Rubbing the dimly glowing mark on her hand that resembled five bolts of lightning converging upon an archway, she forced herself from her memories and took another glance at her surroundings. Bodies were all gathered and buried since the battle, and the most damaged structures had been knocked down, but yet the whole of the ruins themselves... they still remained untouched by any but nature. Not even the vagabonds or roamers dared settle here.

All because of that thing that attacked.

Through the machinations of a deranged cult, a horrific creature unlike any she had ever read about had descended upon Agdent. The city was quick to begin an evacuation, but its military reaction wasn't enough to buy them time to do so. Arrows and spells failed to pierce the monster's hide and mats of thick, brown fur. It moved too quickly for ballistae to move into position. No group of swordsmen could survive long enough within its reach to seriously harm it.

She remembered how it stood as high as a house on its four legs, with a serpentine body covered in fur save for its head, arms, and tail. Four, two-jointed arms ended in talons with clawed thumbs. Three, burning orange eyes sat on the top and lower sides of its head, each centered on one of the three independent jaws of its mouth that peeled open like a demonic flower beckoning for prey to slip between those petals flush with rows of razor teeth. Adorning the end of its tail were eight bone-spikes jutting out from the tip that quickly proved as effective as a mountain giant's mace.

Nobody had known what it was; nobody knew how to kill it. It tore through the streets with its wild-swinging tail collapsing buildings and its enormous talons throwing horses and carts with ease. A split maw opened wide to devour guards and fleeing citizens whole and end their lives upon the roiling channel of sharp teeth within its throat. Gryphon riders meant to defend the city in the direst of times tried to swoop in, but the monster had another trick up its sleeve.

With a guttural chant, it unleashed a sickly green beam of energy from its mouth that tore into the sky and withered those majestic beasts to dust. Their riders were helpless to counter the assault and soon fell to their doom.

Like many of the other sorcerers of the Guild, she was quick to rise to the city's defense the moment they were called. Dozens of casters of varying strengths unleashed waves of debilitating magic upon the terror, but the beast did not care for anything with which they struck. Fire spells fizzled, beams of ice were shrugged off, lightning crackled and dissipated across its thick fur.

When the more powerful offensive magics were being prepared, it retaliated. One powerful beam ended several of her close friends and colleagues. A spray of acid from its mouth turned one of her old instructors to a puddle. A pair of her former students were crushed by the building in which they took cover.

Those last two deaths had hurt her something fierce back then and still did to this day. But that knife didn't cut nearly as deep as the knowledge that hope was lost. That they could not fight it.

At least, not until she witnessed a tremendous clap of thunder and flash of light from a teleportation spell.

Stones used to pave the road were tossed to the air as a blinding-fast figure shot down the street at a speed beyond that of sound. Its magical shield collided with the monster to throw it a full two blocks down with a significant chunk of flesh and fur missing from its belly. And standing at the point of impact, unscarred by the damage he had just done, was the man who had changed her life.

Her Elven Hero.

A new scar ran down the left side of his ever-youthful face, starting just under his eye and stopping a thumb's width past the corner of his mouth. There was a shock of white cutting through his shaggy black hair across the right side of his head. His long ears were pierced with a total of four gold rings, and his leather jerkin and steel cuirass were replaced with a set of beautiful, yet battle-worn half-plate armor. The fine-crafted alloy glowed with runes of all sorts of shapes and colors, with more engravings and glowing script decorating his sword.

Even with all these changes, she still recognized the man that had saved her so long ago. She wanted to call out for him, to run to his side, to hug on to him and cry with joy that he still survived, but that moment passed. The monster rose up to readied to charge at him, and with her savior flourishing his blade, the fight was on.

She did what she could, she and the other casters that still survived. With a guard captain taking over their group to apply his military training to their abilities, they were able to act appropriately. With the hero that had joined them, they knew they had a chance.

If only they knew what to expect.

The creature proved its intelligence far beyond what they had expected. It began to cast more of its own spells and counters, refusing to be cowed as they maneuvered to force it where they wanted it. It got its upper hand back when another spray of acid killed off several more of the guards that had come to join the fray. The morale of their group nearly broke with their dying screams, their hope nearly gone as the monster aimed to end the rest of them.

Until He came to deliver a devastating blow that severed one of its legs at the ankle. Crippling it. Sending it into a rage.

The next clash that happened ushered in a new wave of destruction that leveled several buildings in moments. The monster charged after the Elven warrior as he cast a spell that allowed him to run faster than most birds could fly. The pursuit had the creature bouncing off buildings as it tried to round corners, crashing through even more as its target slipped down alleyways too narrow for it to squeeze through. When it finally caught up, He was waiting. Challenging it to what had been a ferocious fight in the old square far away from any civilian populace.

Between his magic shield and incredible speed and dexterity, her hero had hacked and slashed while avoiding every attempt upon his life. He used the monster's size against it and offered it no avenue of escape while he cut at its belly. It took a wave of flaming magic to force Him out from underneath, and as he fought to extinguish his cloak, its tail finally scored that one lucky hit.

The blow could have been considered a graze, but it was all it took for him to go down with his belly sliced open. The armor sundered like cloth. Never in her life had she felt so cold, so overwhelmed, so overtaken with her emotions that she let her limbs crackle with bolts of lightning.

She dashed out into the square while screaming his name and He saw her, his eyes wide with recognition. The creature saw it and moved to target her next. But before it could kill her, He sprang back into action. Downing a potion and casting a spell, he blinked into the air above the monster and put his entire mass behind his sword. The roar of agony that came next shattered several windows nearby as the weapon sunk into its back to the hilt.

Deep violet and crimson bile dripping from its mouth, the monster twisted its head around on its serpentine neck to face the Elf impaling its spine. That sickly green light illuminating its opening maw.

In that moment, He said something. Something that made the monster chuckle.

They understood each other.

Her hero answered that chortle answered with his own. A broad grin wrinkled his Elven face as he then drew a cloudy, white gem from his belt. The monster went silent as its eyes widened with terror, its lips moving to finish that chant required for its disintegrating beam. But it was too late.

Both it and He were winked from existence.

...

Three years after that day, the Empire's finest gave up on trying to find him as the war drained their resources and focus. As others moved to the front or did their best to coach the next generation, the burden was left to her and a few others to unravel the mystery. But even her handful of assistants would soon dry up, and what many called a "pointless investigation" was formally brought to an end.

Only then did she find her breakthrough. One lost text scroll had a reference that trailed her back to another in a dusty corner of the archive. Cross-references with His known movements and tracing of scholars he met on His journeys brought a fresh lead that she pursued with every resource she could personally afford. More than one buried tomb or abandoned temple found itself as the target of her studies. Several boons of buried treasure had been revealed to her along the way as she chased the greatest one of all.

For the past year, she'd been preparing every relic and material needed to reverse the spell, for the past month she'd been riding back across the continent to get here. And now, she was ready.

Uttering an incantation to imbue the ground she tread, she drew a rough circle around the cenotaph in the square and sprinkled powdered gemstones that had been soaked in the blood of Phase Beasts. Her magic would temporarily keep these ingredients safe from the drops of rain that could wash them away, but she had to be quick lest the coming storm picked up before she could complete her ritual.

Reaching into her pack, she retrieved a small hand-mirror embedded with a brilliant diamond in its center. With this mirror she produced the petrified rag she recovered from the sewer and placed it upon the polished silver. A few words of power and channeling of her magics and the one physical remnant she had from His body vanished in a burst of flame that went on to consume the diamond in a brilliant blue light. The mirror's reflection clouded over, and she held her breath.

The reflection then returned, although within it she did not see herself. Holding it at the right angle, she could see a repeat of the past. The image of Him as he drew that gem of his from his belt and spoke the ancient phrase necessary to activate it. The critical words required to undo this curse that he placed upon himself and that monster; to bring them both back from the ethereal plane the gem had banished them to.

If her studies were correct, he wouldn't know that any time had passed at all. To Him, it would seem as though his spell failed. Just as it would for the monster that would still be attempting to unleash its beam of disintegration.

She needed to be ready.

Withdrawing another diamond from her pack along with several rare minerals and bits of rarer components that she had gathered, she worked to spread the ingredients evenly over the ground within her drawn circle in preparation the next step. Utilizing spots upon the cenotaph meant for candlelight vigils, she positioned several enchanted tablets bound to the magics she was undoing and drew a small vial from her belt.

Pulling the stopper, she downed the simple concoction meant to soothe any soreness her throat may incur from what came next.

Standing at the edge of her circle while facing the monument, she opened a book retrieved from a lost temple locked away in a monster-infested cave far off in the north. Each page was turned with significant care, with her pausing every few moments to recheck the presence of the alchemical concoction she purchased to bring strength back to the pages and hold it together. Satisfied it wouldn't turn to dust in her hands, she hastened her search and flipped over several pages to the one she needed most. Mentally translating a language known only to some of the most well-studied sages, she began yet another incantation.

Twisted, guttural words left her lips in short sentences. Trails of a black fog rose from the ground around her feet before she shifted to a second language in which she had to sing. Magical energy-turned-ribbons of golden light flowed from the rune-carved tablets as her angelic tone broke the deathly still of the square. The components she purposely scattered around her circle, with their monetary value far past tens of thousands of gold pieces, were engulfed by the fog and erupted into flame or glowing bits of energy in some variety of colors as their essence was consumed.

There was no going back now. Everything, or nothing.

The magic in the space around her swirled, first in her senses, but then literally. The golden trail of light from her celestial song encompassed her circle as dust kicked up around her knee-high boots. The air around the entire square spun into a torrent just as the overcast above formed a maelstrom echoing with thunder that sent every bird in the city scattering for safety.

A violent gust more powerful than any other tore through the square to collapse a ruined building some blocks down. A white light lit up the soles of her boots to anchor her in place as her maroon cloak kicked up to reveal the purple waistcoat she wore over a steel breastplate and white, silken shirt. A brilliant, yellow gem burned with magic on the buckle of her belt holding up her black, leather pants. Another blast of wind and her hood was thrown back with the wind to billow out her long, chocolate hair streaked with pale blue highlights.

With dust and small debris battering her body, she refused to cease her verbal chanting. The brand on the back of her right hand turned a bright white as bolts of lightning erupted from the clouds above her.

Curiously enough, however, these bolts of energy did not strike the ground with the fury of a god. Nor did they vanish in an instant following some random act of destruction. Like beads of water down the windowpane, the crackling lines of energy descended from the sky at a horse's pace until they made landfall at four points around her circle. Tiny arms of lightning reached out from the main arc toward the cenotaph until their grasping fingers touched at its peak and assumed a more solid form.

It started with an arm-like shape, complete with an empty hand holding the air where there had once been a gem of god-like power. From there the lightning continued to fill an unseen mold with a torso attaching to the arm, simultaneously growing a head that bore the long, distinctive ears of an Elf. As features could nearly be distinguished with the filling in of the cracks and gaps in His form, a new change began.

Flesh and bone materialized right before her eyes followed by the enchanted half-plate that once protected it. In mere moments she could clearly make out the details of his face. The wells of his eyes and flow of hair. That new scar below his eye she never learned the source of.

A tear traced her cheek as her heart skipped in excitement; nearly making her song falter. It almost did so a second time when that same magic began to form the monster he had been trying to slay. Even as she continued to sing and undo His curse, she had a new spell tingling in her hand and a new incantation being mentally prepared in her mind. Once this first spell was done, she was to be ready. At least as much as she could be while still focusing on bringing Him back and watching the monster reform exactly where it disappeared...

With that stone cenotaph dead-center in its midsection.

She sang louder. Pouring her heart and magic into the celestial words that promised to return Him home. With the final lines of the chant coming, she thought quickly back to the command word he had chanted to initiate the curse. His exact wording as she had heard through her Mirror to the Past.

"Scortesti morij ri pexcotivoe!" She shouted, summoning an eruption of purple energy from the ground that consumed the formed lightning.

A battle cry was the first thing she heard, but that was drowned out by a thunderous snap of bone as blood spattered her body and poured over the square. Stumbling back two steps, she blinked and wiped the gore from her face as the monster hit the ground in front of her. A silence sweeping over the square as the air went still.

Blinking several times over to bring the moisture back to her wind-burned eyes, she looked down at the monster lying in front of her. All three of its furious eyes blinked and quivered with disbelief as its tri-split jaw breathlessly mouthed words of anguish. Looking to the source of the crack she heard, she saw the severed lower half of its body on the other side of the cenotaph. The legs twitching on the ground in a growing mire of its insides.

"I... will... killl yooou..." it groaned, its eyes illuminating with the magic of its disintegration ray.

"No, you won't," she stated matter-of-factly while waving her hand over its head to dispel its ray. With that source of destruction purged from its mouth, all the beast's hatred was swiftly replaced by a true show of terror as she raised her branded hand to the sky. Summoning the power she earned in her travels, and calling upon her namesake, she clenched her fist as though to grab hold of the storm above. With a short chant in an ancient tongue, she snapped her hand toward the ground with the air cracking around her.

There was an explosion of flesh and bone as the wrath of the heavens themselves descended upon the square. A bolt of lightning more powerful than any natural surge severing the beast's head from its neck and vaporizing several paving stones at the point of impact. A very final ending coming at last to a threat that had killed so many.

Protective magics fading from her senses and her breath growing heavy, the woman stumbled on wobbling knees to turn toward the focus of her quest. Her mouth falling agape with a growing smile as she laid eyes upon the one she had given so much to save.

He stood in the gap between the two pieces of the monster's body, leaning against the cenotaph as streams of rainwater fell from the plates that protected his arms and torso. One hand still gripped his weapon as the other clutched the open gash in the armor over his stomach to conceal the darkening skin beneath. She had to remind herself that he had just been healed by a potion mere moments before his disappearance all those years ago. That the effect may have not had enough time to come to fruition. Or even succeed given what he did immediately after.

Even with his standing between the scattered pieces of his foe, his head continued to dart about and scan the area around him. The ruined buildings, the arriving storm, the maelstrom above that was just starting to grind to a halt. When no further threat was perceived, his sword clattered to the ground and his attention fell to her. Chest heaving as he spat blood onto the blackened street.

"Visseny?" He called out, taking a short step toward her.

Her lips broadened into a smile reaching nearly from ear to ear. The bits of dirt and monster that covered her vanished with small sparkling trails of magic as she stepped forward.

"Rolyen."

She wouldn't give him another chance to say a word before she darted toward him, the Elf stumbling back as a step as she threw her arms around his chest and drew him in tight. He was still taller than her, still smelled of sweat and dust from the battle, but these were things she cared nothing for. Because he was still alive.

There was a moment that he just stood there, blinking dumbly, before she felt his arms raise to return her embrace. But as they closed in around her body, they drew back at the slightest touch as though to test her material nature before his hands prodded at her cloak. Coming to rub against the cloth to confirm that this person hanging off of him was indeed real, even as she closed her arms tighter in around his chest. Huffing with either amusement or satisfaction that he wasn't handling a twisted fabrication of his mind, he pulled her in against him and wrapped her in his presence.