The Illusion of Shelatores

I had fallen many years before to Harris. With the throne, I have lost the connection with various forms of ancient magic to him. And yet, he was never one who was talented in controling the subtle powers that surrounded all beings.

Therein lay his weakness.

In order to free the children of my dead comrades from the false king's artful manipulation, there needed to be more gingaros resisting him. I plotted to rescue my cousin, Mandy, from the castle's oubliette. She was a skillful soceress who had once served under The High Priestess

No doubt, the castle was the most well-guarded place in the kingdom. But I had planned a diversion. A diversion that took advantage of the false king's weak magic.

This day, I invoked a powerful illusion of Shelatores. I made Harris and his men see the armies of Shelatores marching towards them to attack. And they took the bait. The castle was now empty of guards. With immense sadness, I watched the dead magistrate's son from afar, shooting arrows at the illusions.

In any case, I did not watch for long. I headed towards the now empty castle. Yet, I had one last obstacle to overcome. At the perimeter of the castle walls were stone guards. Once a foreign presence was detected, they would be poised to attack with a dreaded form of ancient magic.

I took my chances at the Eastern gates, where the statue of the goddess of justice stood. In old times, it was said this goddess had an oath to uphold justice. I moved forward as she raised her sword, upon which I uttered the ancient words to her. "You who have failed in your duties to justice, how dare you raise your sword at the old king's presence."

Tears of blood fell from the statue's eyes and the sword of justice fell to the ground. Having crossed the barrier, I raised my arms to detect any signs of Mandy's magic. Initially, all my attempts failed, and then it struck me, I was above the oubliette where Mandy was entombed.

I blast opened the stone hatch and traipsed along the dingy stone corridor. The stench of rotting flesh accompanied me. This time, I raised my arms to feel my cousin's magic and there it was. She was behind the iron doors.

Forcing my magic in front of me, I walked through the doors. At this point, I saw her crouching in the darkness, her eyes were empty. I called out to her, and she seemed not to have heard.

I gathered an orb of light on my left palm to better see in the dimly-lit cell. And there it was, embeded on her arm was a seal that robbed her of her magical powers. It was now clear as to why she could not escape from her plight.

After I had removed the seal, some measure of her emotions returned. But she fainted a few minutes later. It was obvious that she hadn't eaten for a long time. The power of the seal ensured she survived, by converting her powers and the subtle magic into food. But the very same seal cruelly took her emotions and magic that she needed.

At the very least, I was finally able to rescue her. And our resistance, would continue after she has recovered.

The Dark Bomoh

Double it!!

The preparation at the town of Kuchalkive had seen a vast improvement over the week that had passed. The men of the town were finally looking like soldiers, defenders of the town they called home. They were now furbished with armors, hand knitted by their loved ones. Some weren't even fit to be called armors, with each piece glued together with melted candle wax. Bala didn't seemed to mind at all. given the time to prepare the men, any covering was better than no covering at all.

The day dawned with dark clouds surrounding the sky. vH felt something was amiss in that particular morning. Everything seems to be calm. There was neither a sense of urgency, nor were there any trouble to begin with. The mood was especially somber.

As vH continued to inspect and monitor the progress, light water droplets falling from the sky started to shower the town. vH stared at the hill north of Kuchalkive. Kai, Yu, Bala noticed the King's action and followed suit. They could hear a little melody being played from over the hills. They knew what was coming. vH pulled his sword from its sheath and brandished it menacingly.

"Get to position, double it!" he shouted out.

They whom were once peasants, quickly got to their stratergised formation on their feet with a sword and shield on each hand. All the other knights were ready to support vH's call. Bala was first on the scene, his sword drawn as well.

From a somber town to a chaotic one, the song of the siren was pretty obvious by then. There up the hill, shades of a creature could be seen running, no, tumbling down. The population of Kulchalkive who were ready at arm was close to five hundred. Those creatures could be seen coming in thousands. Kai took aim at a distance north-east of the town, and released a shot from his bow with an outstretched arm.

"Arrows at will!" commanded Kai, as the arrow left the bow.

All present could hear the shriek that came after the shot seemingly disappear from sight. Apparently, Kai had took down a shelatore, a banshee-like creature from the land of Xuvarya. It was known that the shelatores are able to create a melody-like charm, which can bring illusions of anything from total despair to ever calmness.


To be continued. .