Dark Warlord Chronicles

Deception of the Soul

Part 8
"Conjurer Companion"

Cale paced across the front room. He kept mumbling something that was barely audible.
"Oh would you cut it out!" Sekhmet yelled as he shifted his head left and right around Cale's body so as to see the TV. "I mean sit down for cripe sakes!"
Cale sighed loudly as he sat on the other side of the blue couch, leaving an empty cushion between him and Sekhmet. "I just hate this."
"Understandably. Having Sage's armor running around causing havoc can't be sitting well with you.. obviously."
"It's more than that. Sage hasn't appeared. Dais is off on vacation. And then suddenly Kayura and Unacera both went into meditation this morning."
"Yes I did miss having a warm breakfast. Cereal seems so.. ordinary."
The other Warlord didn't seem to cheer up the least bit. "I dunno. I sense something faint. Like when I sensed Kento suffering in that rock. It's so faint and seemingly far away though."
"Sage perhaps?"
"Perhaps, but this seemed to start when Unacera and Kayura panicked and ran to their rooms claiming they needed to meditate over something."
"Maybe they sense it too, just more strongly. Who can ever figure out priests of any kind? Heck we have enough of a time figuring out Dais!"
"Dais." Cale sighed deeply as he placed his elbows on his knees and sank his head on his hands. He let his fingers run through his blue bangs.
"Just try to relax huh? I'm sure we'll know the answer soon enough between those two." He chuckled, but still he couldn't help feeling worried as well.
A groan tried to echo in the room, but the voice was only utter silence. Slowly the head raised to look around. It looked like a cell like any other. It's unclean but the bars are well kept. He tugged roughly. Apparently the chains are well kept too. Well at least my thoughts are still heard even though something prevents my voice. The man strained his neck to look to his left. Beside him hung another person who seemed in terrible shape. As he examined more, he noticed it was not only a man but an elf. Dais tried to groan again as he felt the weight on his body. As before the room seemed to swallow up the sound even before it reached his ears. The Warlord ached all over and something was making his movements sluggish. A drug perhaps? Still my sight is clear. A thankful gift of my armor? He sank his head down again. I wish this blasted silence would go away before it drives even me crazy.
Due to the silence, Dais could not hear the figure entering the cell and walking up to him. The figure took the Warlord's chin and raised it to look at the man's face. Dais strained to see something under that hood except darkness in the human body like creature. The figure reached its right hand to its back. Then it swung its right hand in a fist at Dais' neck. The Warlord screamed in pain, but the silence still remained only. The figure then walked out again, shut and locked the cell door.
The strange feeling of before flooded him. Dais found his consciousness slipping away again. He tried to grab on, hoping that his body learned something from the first time. Still it slipped away like sand falling through his fingers. The Warlord's body fell limp, chained to the back wall.
A figure likewise was looking off into the distance, eyes looking over the landscape. Light green hair whipped away in the cool breeze. The rays of the sun caught a few of her silver highlights. "I don't like it." Her voice whispered to the wind.
A male elf walked into the room and then walked to the balcony to the woman. "My lady. Shashzar is here."
She merely nodded silently as she looked at the mostly light green sky and the trees, grass, the dirt path, everything. The male elf turned and quietly left the room. Finally tired, the woman sat on a chair on the balcony by the edge.
"Your majesty." Another male elf appeared and bowed before her. She motioned for him to sit on the chair across from her. He moved his dark blue and gold cape aside as he sat politely. His hair was black but a few white and silver strands of old age were starting to show, but made him seem no less vibrant. His eyes were a bit hard and a shade of blue. His tunic was short dark blue with a longer black shirt underneath. His pants were also dark blue with black boots. Every piece of clothing was lined in a gold thread design. His face was a bit rough and tanned. On his back was a beautifully carved wooden long bow and a quiver of arrows over the other shoulder.
"It's good to have you here." She tried to sound cheerful. "I know you'd rather be away from here and in your woods."
"Times are carrying a greater weight as of late Fealina. My duty is to you as it was to Mekira as well, and to whom now wears the armor that I used to own." His features turned sad.
"I know it is tough, to have sworn not to interfere in the life of the ones who now wear the armors. Perhaps with the change in time, the oath must change too. As you said, time is carrying a greater weight now."
Shashzar nodded. "It's so strange. I never have sensed Mekira's death. I still believe he is still alive somewhere. He did so much more than I did." He paused. "I suppose you have started to change that oath Fealina?"
"Bending it a little. What harm is there now when the armor is theirs? Besides, the dark elf forces are said to be gathering."
"So you send him here? Do you forget that the beauty of this land can cause people who are not elves to go crazy, not wanting to leave?"
"I have not forgotten. It is a risk that must be taken. He could have refused at any time. Besides he has lived somewhere that is also beautiful in comparison to the Human world for centuries."
"And now you wait for him." Shashzar looked to the horizon. "But something has happened hasn't it? What I sensed on the ride here."
Fealina nodded sadly.
"You originally summoned me here to tell you if I shall lend my forest army of elves in a possible battle of the future. They are yours, as I shall be their General as before." He looked at Fealina as her silver eyes seemed to gaze out to nothing in particular. "I suppose you want me to find him too? Need I remind you, no matter how much I wanted to, I couldn't find Mekira?"
The elf's gaze returned to look at Shashzar. Her weight noticeably shifted in the chair. She looked at the table next to her.
Shashzar's hard blue eyes followed your gaze. "You gave your flute to him..." He sighed. "I shall not ask your true reasons behind this if they are too painful."
"I am in love with him." Fealina's voice barely whispered over the musical sound of the breeze.
The other elf's eyes widened in surprise. I didn't expect her to be so blunt and frank. "You know what that means fully right? The legend of our elven people that has always existed?"
"I know it. My father told it to me. I also know how it will sit with a few people." She rested her chin near the knuckles of her hands. Her elbows fell to rest on the arms of the chair.
Shashzar noticed how pure and young she looked now, seemingly innocent. The centuries of her life were far from showing themselves. His own eyes went out of focused as he remembered her father, the man he served in his youth. One may worry how his death hit Fealina while she was still a child in elven perception. Still their beliefs of the beauty of the beyond added much comfort. It was over 300 years ago that he went to that beyond, and Shashzar still felt a bit uncomfortable. Perhaps it was due to the obvious empty space, the disappearance of his friend Mekira. Oh how I miss that mage!
Dais was finally able to see again, but he started to mistrust it immediately. He was looking at the side wall of the cell with the bars to his left and .. his own body hanging on the right! Is this an illusion? A product of whatever that thing did to me? Or am I dead?
"Oh your not dead."
"Who's that?" He darted his vision around to find someone sitting to his left. The man was, like him, sitting with legs crossed on the floor. Dais recognized it as the elf. But his body is over there hanging on the wall next to mine!
"My body yes, but who can contain everything there is to someone?"
"What's going on?"
"It's a power of our armor. I call it Dream Sight. The ability to leave your body, as of sorts, to explore and look around. However it leaves your body unguarded, especially if one wanders too far. You can use it instead of sleep. For the moment it is the only way of communication."
"Wait a minute. Our armor?!" Dais looked at the elf sternly, trusting nothing in this place anymore.
The elf noticeably shrank back from the cold stare of the Warlord's blue eye. "Don't you remember me?"
"I'd think I'd remember an elf when I saw one!"
The other man shook his head in disbelief. "You tell me you don't remember your best friend since childhood in Japan?"
"What?! That is an outrageous lie!"
He stood up and sat in front of the Warlord. "It's really me Dais. It's Mekira."
"Mekira??" Visions of his old friend came quickly to mind. Of how he suddenly disappeared. This man before him though seemed a far cry from the Mekira he knew. The short dark hair and dark eyes were not there. The elf had fairly long warm light brown hair. The face was smooth and lightly tanned. Finally his eyes were the same pinkish purple color of his Armor of Illusion. Still something there behind his eyes started to sink through and lower Dais' defenses a little. Remembering how he was betrayed before, he grabbed a nearby stone and threw it at the elf.
The elf quickly, naturally, caught it before it hit his face in his left hand. This caused Dais' defenses to dissolve even more. My friend was left handed! Then something completely different hit him. How the heck did I pick up and throw that rock without my body?! He noticed that both of them were wearing the same thing as their bodies on the wall. The Warlord took only a second to examine his green body armor, but took more time with the elf who wore a robe.
"Dream Sight is a strange thing. Just like the armor itself it deals with the mind and what you perceive and believe is real." The elf lightly rolled the rock from palm to palm. "I used to Dream Sight often but I got bored with it over time. At first it was good for trying to figure things out, but I finally decided it was better to just sleep. This time I did it out of sheer curiosity."
The man paused as he looked from the stone in his hand to the Warlord and sighed. "You know I remember the trouble we caused together as kids. We stayed out always way longer than we were permitted. There was always this monster behind something we had to attack to defend our families. I made you study. Sometimes though those old stories and myths caused us to go out and pretend we were someone in the story. Of course you had an innate talent for magic, and you said that if you had to study so hard then so should I." The elf laughed. "It seemed to do some good. Besides the fact that I became the person you trusted and turned to first in your army. You placed just a small rank lower than yourself. I never did want to leave you, ever."
Dais merely stared in disbelief. Eventually he found his thought voice. "Mekira! It is you!"

To Be Continued...