The Valharri, who were Dormas’ most powerful leaders, were instrumental in arranging for him to leave and go to ruling lands in Orloon, not in their region, as he did not fit well into their hierarchy and tended to do as he wanted, unless Lord Dormas directed him otherwise. “I will surely have to deal with the Valharri, yet I wonder why Lord Dormas has not summoned me?”Thatos said aloud. “Perhaps they are jealous of my skills and do not wish to share power with me.”Thatos admired Lord Dormas because he alone had been capable of defeating him. Thatos agreed to serve Dormas, since he could no longer serve the Ancient Ones. The alternative with no support would likely have had him eventually captured or killed by the elder Alor or by those Eldren clans he and his kin had betrayed. It was prudent to stay with Dormas, since he was, in a sense, protected to a degree by being allied to the armies of the Dark Lord.
Many of the Eldren people had been lied to by the beings of Chaos known as the Ancient Ones and taken advantage of by them during the ancient days as well as by Thatos and his kin. Some were swayed by offers of power; others were lied to in order to gain their support. Several major Eldren clans never supported them, however, nor were they swayed, including Thatos’ old rivals, Shardovan Calis and Iseldrin Vasrul, who were selected for training by the Lords of Order long ago. His first battles were with Eldren who wanted to stop the Ancient Ones before they could gain ground or anchor themselves to Illúmaril in some way.
However, to these clans’ shame, the Alor and the Eternals had to intervene, and several clans suffered a loss of face and prestige trying to hide their mistakes. Those Eldren clans allowed the Ancient Ones access to Illúmaril, first by allowing lesser entities of Chaos entrance and, later, some greater entities crossed over. It helped the forces of the Dark Lord; however, in those ancient days, the Erradan Lords were more involved in the affairs of Illúmaril and the great battles with the Ancient Ones that came across the lands between those titans and destroyed many things. Orloon was devastated, and tendrils of Chaos were able to gain hold there as well as in the Pentaris Islands region to the far west. Whereas Pentaris Island Province was isolated and secured and warded, the Orloon region was never secured to the same degree with warding barriers. It was why Thatos sought refuge in Orloon Province after Dormas was defeated during the second War of Dominion, and then, afterward, many of the Valharri high lords had no desire to deal with him as an equal.
“The recent memories of these men show me a desert above with my once great citadel, now buried,”Thatos said softy to himself. “One of them is a spellweaver and shields his mind with an active defense. If I breach his defenses now, I might give my position away, so I will wait.” Thatos began a spellweave to see the outside and, within moments, vapors swirled, forming images revealing the outer areas. Thatos saw that the lands had remained partially ravaged by the ancient war and his once great towers and the surrounding city was in ruins. He tracked the intruders for close to an hour as the trespassers finally breached an area near the temple of his father, one of the lords of Chaos and Entropy.
“I can vaguely sense the Twelve, but they are not nearby,” Thatos said, thinking aloud to himself as he walked his chambers. “My last orders had them either gaining new territory for me or assisting in an alliance with the Urshkaar generals and the Valharri as we all serve Great Dormas.”
“The intruders are closer. I think I will deal with them now.Their presence is disturbing me.”Thatos began to phase through the walls and left his chambers, all the while moving toward the intruding group. As he came close to them, he observed them, as he had already shielded his presence with an intricate spellweave.
“All I see is dust and ruin. Where did you say the treasure was?” said one of the thieves dressed in gray-colored leathers.
“It can’t be far. I saw some valuable items; they were relatively untouched in the viewing from the scrying device before we decided to head here,” said the one who had mystically shielded himself. “They must be in the next series of rooms.”
The group of five rounded the corner of the hallway and beheld Thatos standing with arms folded looking at them calmly. “You are trespassing, humans, and now that you have seen me, I must eradicate you.”
One of the intruders dressed in Ithilrein armor moved forward rapidly and thrust his magically enchanted sword into Thatos’ belly. Thatos looked down, grunted, and stepped backward, apparently not all that harmed. “The power in your magic sword is too feeble and, as you see, I am not really injured; although I will have to regenerate the pierced area,”Thatos said. His visage began to take on a much more sinister aspect. Two of the other thieves had positioned themselves on either side of Thatos. As they thrust, he used kamba, one the ancient martial arts and deflected the one thief ’s war hammer into the first sword wielding attacker, while kicking the third Ithilrein-armored man in the hip. There was an audible snap as the thighbone in that attacker snapped, and the great strength of Thatos’ kick hurled the thief into the wall.
Meanwhile, the two remaining thieves began spellweavings, but as their spells were released toward Thatos, he deflected them back at the casters. Then, as the one with the war hammer returned to strike, Thatos redirected the mace wielders strike, grabbing him with blurring speed using another kamba maneuver then tossed him several feet away and into the chamber wall. As the thief with the sword was repositioning himself, Thatos released a blast of energy at the group.
They were all struck simultaneously by searing heat, intense cold, and an electrical shock. Each fell to the ground, except the senior spell caster of their small group, who had evidently raised some notable elemental protections. Thatos moved rapidly and touched each one, absorbing their life forces as he passed, until he was next to the one who had masked his mind and protected himself with the elemental barrier. “Now that I have you, I am curious as to what has happened since my last walkabout.”Thatos breached the barrier and scanned the mind of the other, and through the fear he gathered information as he drained the fellow’s life essence. The human was desperate and even tried to spellweave a defense for his life force, but he was too late or too slow. At last, all the intruders lay on the ground, dead husks of themselves.
Before he left to go back to his private chambers, Thatos used a necromantic spellweave and, in conjunction with the fresh new bodies, transformed them into undead warriors, leaving them with instructions to guard the area. Over the past several days, his energies had been increasing, but he was still not yet at full power. “I need to create one final spellweave before I continue my contemplation,”Thatos said. “A spellweave to make sure that I will remain hidden from the Erradans, as I still need to restore my own powers and gather my military forces.”Thatos began the preparations to ensure his security as he strengthened, and then added to the present, but time-weakened series of spellweaves that were contained within the walls and doors of the ancient citadel.
Chapter Five
CONTINUED LEARNING
Gideon headed to one of the meal halls to eat. Outside, the snow was falling, and he moved quickly. He did not mind the chill and, seeing some of his classmates, he headed over to join them for the afternoon meal. Classes had been good, and he was going to alchemy class afterward. The semester was close to half over now, and that meant midterm exams and time to complete class projects that were due.
Gideon