Chapter 16:  A Knight of Sorrow

 

What is humanity?  Not the race, but the nature of the mortal races.  In this world where society is composed of more than just humans, we refer to it as concordia.  A better question would be “What would cause someone to lose their humanity?”  

There is that feeling of belonging when you are part of a society, even living on the fringes or despising your people as a whole.  You still cannot deny that you are a part of them, and you follow their laws and conventions, even when you delude yourself into thinking you are breaking them.  Even deviants and criminals are considered part of society, and even deviants and criminals know that the rules are there.  They have no problem breaking laws, but the rules of humanity are rarely broken.

But in some cases, humanity or concordia is lost completely.  Any concept of good or evil, right or wrong, crime and justice is completely gone.  A person who has lost concordia will act only on purest instinct, and is no more human than an animal or beast.

Philosophers have said that there are five primary forces that will cause someone to lose concordia.  Five emotions that when taken to their extremes can turn even the most stalwart or righteous man into a beast.  There is hatred and yearning, two emotions that are common enough, but when left unchecked will drive destruction and chaos outward.  Then there is fear and sorrow that turn the destruction inward.  Finally there is madness that can do either.

There are creatures in this world, dark creatures, that amplify and feed on these emotions.  Twisted abominations that breathe in hatred and exhale madness.  Creatures that consume fear and drink the bitter nectar of sorrow.  

And they are always hungry.

***************************************

-Thane-

-Several weeks ago in Verda-

 

Thane showed the sword to Gailwyn and she was unable to hide her surprise.  “You said he just traded this to you?  Even just looking at the materials I can tell you got the better deal in the exchange.  This is enchanted mithril, wait... more than that, this is osmotic mithril.

“What does that mean?”

“Well, enchanted mithril is obvious, it is mithril that has been enchanted through magic.  Osmotic mithril is mithril that has been exposed to a large source of mana over many years to the point it has absorbed the characteristics of the mana.  This alters the properties of the mithril based on what type of mana was absorbed and makes it far easier to enchant and sturdy enough to take stronger enchantments.”

“Can you tell me more about the weapon, is it cursed or does it have any dangerous enchantments to it?  I am asking you because I want to keep this somewhat private and I know you can see more than just the properties of the item.”

She smiled, “I’m glad you remembered.  Yes, not only can I see what it does, but I can find the weapon’s name if it has one and get a little bit of its history.  Let me see…”

She set the blade on a table and opened her book.  The usual haze formed over the pages and she stared intently at the sword.  “Let us start with the non magical part.  Red mythril is...bloodthirsty for lack of a better word.  It takes an edge easily and is easy to sharpen, almost like it wants to cut.  Forging it into armor or blunt weapons is a bad idea since it performs worse than regular mithril in that case.  The history…”  

She was obviously surprised, and she rubbed her eyes and recast the spell to check again.  “This...I can tell this was made over 300 years ago for the great war.  Corvus commissioned it for one of his sons and it was enchanted by the boy’s mother. But this...how...this is impossible...unless the other is a fake?”

“Is there something wrong?”

“No I will...I will have to do some research.  The spell isn’t 100% accurate, there are many weapons that have similar stories.  Corvus had many sons and not all of them survived the war. I can’t say for certain which of his sons held this blade.  Now, as for what this weapon can do…”

---------------------------------

-Thane-

-Present time in Troya’s Manor-

 

 “So you like to cut?” Thane said as he raised the blade, he channeled mana into it until the surface of the red mithril shimmered and hummed with energy.  Then he brought it down on the arm that held Kisha by the throat.  The chains did nothing to protect it this time.  The force of the blow pushed them aside or cut through them cleanly.  The sword passed through the arm smoothly, as if he had only cut air.  The unearthly scream from the other side of the wall and the arm that fell to the ground at his feet, however, told him that he indeed cut something more substantial than just air.  Since Gailwyn didn’t tell him much about the person who owned this sword 300 years ago, he had asked the storyteller they traveled with, and was surprised when he not only got an answer, but a rather odd quatrain.

Brave Seren the warrior, to save his beloved cut through a hundred foes.

He pulled Kisha away from the chains that had fallen to the ground and shouted back to the others.  “You two, grab Evelyn and pull her out of here, get everyone back to the main hall.”  The two of them snapped to attention, any fear, doubt, and distraction was purged in an instant as if by magic.  In fact it was magic, Thane used the first ability of the sword he carried.

Wise seren the leader, whom all harken, and of his cunning sing praise.

He half assisted/half dragged Kisha down the hall and heard the chains move and they lashed out at him.  He moved the mana that he channeled into the blade and discharged it.  The mana formed an invisible barrier between him and the chains, causing them to bounce off.  The chains retracted into the wall and disappeared.  The sword seemed to groan in protest.  It almost seemed to scold him for taking such a perfectly good mass of lethal mana and using it as a shield. 

Invincible Seren the protector, shielded his lord, pierced by countless arrows.

He pushed Kisha ahead to join the others, watching behind him as he backed up, looking for any sign of the creature.  It didn’t take long for it to appear.  It dropped from the ceiling and glared at Thane with intense hatred.  It was tall, a full 2 meters in height.  From its feet to its bald head it was covered with the same grey scarred skin as the severed arm.  At least the parts that were visible.  The man was wrapped in dirty, rusty chains from head to foot that acted like some sort of clothing. Even parts of his face were covered.

The creature didn’t move, it just stared at Thane who was holding the sword defensively.  The chains slowly unraveled from the torso of the creature and scraped the floor, picking up the severed arm.  The chains held it up to the stump at it’s shoulder and the flesh of the torso seemed to reach out and grasp for the missing limb until it connected.  The arm was pulled back into place and fused back to the main body.  Thane got ready to fight.

Ferocious Seren the red demon, strong and noble until his final days.

The grey man sneered at Thane and the chains shot up to the ceiling, they latched on to the floor above and with a quick tug, sent the creature lurching up onto the second floor.  

The sword wasn’t magically sharpened or strengthened like enchanted weapons usually were.  The unique material did that enough on its own.  When he remembered that the sword was enchanted by the original owner's mother, the powers on the blade started to make sense.  Make sure people listen and don’t leave the boy abandoned on the battlefield, and give it the ability to turn the user's mana into a wall of force to keep him safe.  Or it could just as easily project it as a blade of force to slash foes at a distance.  The only problem with the projection was that all the mana that was channeled into making the weapon stronger and sharper would be lost and it would have to be channeled again.  

Still, the red demon?  If he was an actual demon, that would make him a cambion if he was really Corvus’ son.  Wouldn’t that mean that one of Corvus’ wives would have been an true demon?  He didn’t remember reading that in the history books. 

With the creature gone, Thane came out into the main hall.  They were down to four now with a heavily injured Evelyn.  He called for Kisha to come help heal her and kneeled down next to her.  Her shirt was shredded and the slashes were deep.  Sarah was trying to press down on the wounds to slow the bleeding.

“Damn it,” she said, “I had to leave my armor behind.  Things wouldn’t be so bad if I had my armor.”

“That boiled leather piece?” said Thane,  “It might not have helped so don’t blame yourself.”

“Yeah, but I look damn good in leather.  If I am going to die, I want to at least look good while I bleed to death.”  

“You’re not going to die.”

“Who is going to heal me then, do you have a Theurge hidden somewhere?”

“You’re almost healed already, didn’t you notice the pain lessening?” He nodded over to Kisha who was in the middle of healing her.

“Huh?” she looked down to her stomach and saw the flesh slowly mending itself back together.  She still felt light headed from the blood loss, but he was right about the pain going away.  The way her flesh seemed to crawl to mend itself was a bit unsettling to her.  “That looks disgusting, but it’s working.  Thank you.  Now I feel like an idiot for trying to lighten the mood with a joke.”

Thane was tired.  He wasn’t certain of the exact time, but it couldn’t be very far past midnight.  He cast a quick illumination spell and cast it to the ceiling where the chandelier used to hang.  “We need a plan.  I don’t know what that thing was, but it's obvious that it is what is keeping us locked in.  We either need to find a way out of here or-”

“Kill it.” Sarah interrupted, “We’re not running, we’re going to kill it.  If cutting off its arm doesn’t hurt it then we just cut off its head.  If that doesn’t kill it we keep cutting off pieces until something does.”

The shock from seeing her brother’s body had finally worn off, and she was angry, or sad, probably both, but the anger was winning at the moment.  “What is it?” Kisha asked.  “I saw it’s eyes and it looked...sad.”

“It has to be some sort of undead,” Thane replied, “It had no blood and a pale grey body covered in scars.”

Sarah pulled out her silver coated dagger, “Good, then this should work nicely.” 

“We need to…” Gavin spoke up, “We should find my master.  Head up to his study.  It is surrounded by a warding circle so unnatural things can't go in.  If he is anywhere that is where we will find him.”

“I think your master would have found us by now if he was here and alive.  We shouldn’t waste our time looking for him.”

“But...there is also his alchemical storage.  His second name is Firestarter.  Many of his mixtures are flammable or explosive.  They might help us.”

“Are you sure that's a good idea?”  Evelyn asked.  She was trying to twist and tie the front of her torn shirt together to prevent exposing herself, “I mean, this place is made of wood and all the curtains and carpets seem flammable too. Being trapped in a house with some creature is bad enough.   I’d rather not have that house be on fire.”

“No,” said Sarah, “We should grab whatever we can to help.  If Stone can’t smash through the door with his axe, what makes you think a little fire will hurt this place?”

“She’s right, at least the walls won’t burn, furniture and decorations will though.  We should find a way upstairs.”  He looked over to the shattered staircases.

Thane sheathed his sword and secured the sheath before motioning to Sarah, “Right, let's get up there.”  Sarah linked her hands together to use as a springboard for Thane who jumped up to the second floor railing.  He climbed over the rails then kicked them down making it easier for the next people.  He laid down and let Sarah jump and grab on to his arm to climb up, then the two of them pulled up the rest of the group one at a time.

Gavin led them down the hall to a locked door.  “The only way up to the third floor is through this door.  The floor is warded against any other entry and will expel unnatural creatures.”  He produced a small key and inserted it into three separate locks on the door, turning them different ways.  Finally the door opened.

“That is unusually secure for being in such an isolated place.”

“He liked to build things just to prove he could, there is nothing really important here, Just a lab and research area.”

Evelyn paused and looked around, “Kisha, could you stay here with me? We should watch the door.  If this door is really the only way in, it might try to get in now that the door is open.”

Thane, Sarah and Gavin began to climb up the stairs to the third floor, Gavin began to shout, “Master Troya, are you here?”

The only response was the creaking of the floorboards as they climbed the stairs.  When they finally reached the top they found his atelier, a one room attic in the large manor.  Unlike the rest of the building, this attic was well lit, even though there were no obvious sources of light.  There was a central writing desk and an open area with many cylinders, flasks and alchemical equipment to the right.  To the left were several bookshelves, writing slates and stacks of parchment.  Dozens of half completed and experimental magical circles were discarded and scattered all over the floor in that part of the room.  

Thane was immediately drawn to the writing desk and began to look at some of the letters on the desk.  Sarah made a line straight to the alchemical supplies while Gavin stood dazed in the middle of the room for a while.  “Gavin,” she called, “tell me what these are.”

While he was explaining the volatile mixtures and potions to her Thane dug through the desk.  He started flipping through the letters when he noticed that some of them bore the sigil of a tipped chalice, the Syphus family crest.  The notes were from Evelyn's father.

“Destroying the orb is impossible,” it said in one of the letters, “but it is possible to seal and transport it. Estimate the size of the orb to the best of your abilities and I will bring the seal myself.  We can enclose the orb in a box made of special materials for transport and I will take the dangerous orb off of your hands until we can find a way to dispose of it.”

Underneath the letter were notes written by Troya, “Sealing the thing should be impossible.  All previous observations of it have shown it will immediately destroy anything that touches it.  But I saw it with my own eyes.  He simply brought a box and placed it around the sphere.”   Scrawled over the page were various notes and theories to what the box actually was.

“Non reflective silver surface.  Mithril/darksilver alloy?”

“Must suspend objects inside, repulsion enchant?”

“Space magic impossible, Already confirmed the orb breaks down spatial barriers.”

Some notes were magical or geometric formulas that Thane couldn’t quite make out, but the last note was circled and underlined three times:  “Void magic???”

“Gavin, do you know anything about some sort of dangerous orb your master had?”

“I...yes I think so.  Hang on.”  He walked over to the bookcases and a storage cabinet and pulled out a few papers. 

One was a speed calculation.  “It took me 6 hours to move it from the atelier to the basement” followed by distance calculations to figure out the speed at which the object moved.

One was observation notes on what could be destroyed by the orb. Several lists of objects and materials, each with an X next to it.  The page ended with a single word circled and underlined three times which seemed to be a habit of the man.  This time the word was “Everything???”

The rest of the notes were coded or contained large undecipherable formulas and magic circles.  Extremely complex magical geometry that appeared to be some form of creation magic.  Around twenty ended with the word “FAILURE” but a single one ended with “SUCCESS”.

The second to last note had a series of short thoughts written haphazardly across the page.

“Basement tomb breached by orb.  Magic, metal and stone all destroyed.”  “Inner chamber remains sealed.  Destruction of inner wall could collapse the tomb. Relics recovery on hold until a proper breach method is obtained.”   “Chained knight found.  Mummified and in good condition.  Probably valuable to a collector.”   “Orb reacting strangely, bring upstairs as soon as possible.”

“What is a chained knight?” Thane mused.

Gavin turned away from Sarah and the vials she was sorting,  “A chained knight?  It was a practice around 300 years ago during the great wars to chain up potential death knights and bury them alive.  Knights who break oaths to the gods are cursed and rise as Death Knights.  There was so much betrayal and death back then that if a knight broke his oath he was often bound in iron chains and buried with the one he betrayed.  The knight would starve to death and if he rose as a death knight he would be unable to escape.  The curse of undeath would end due to mana deprivation since the new undead could never get out of the dry tomb.”   

Thane read the final note, written similar to the previous one.  “Etherscope reading 0.4.  Removal of the orb did not stop ethereal decay.  Shadow rupture is inevitable.  Can be easily repaired once broken.  Like breaking a poorly set bone a second time to set it properly.  Heading to the basement to break it myself.” The lines were followed by a series of three magic circles that Thane couldn’t decipher.

He shook his head putting together the pieces based on what he saw and the notes left behind.  He couldn’t decipher the magic involved but at least he had some idea of what they were up against.  Although he had never heard of a death knight that could control chains like this thing could.  “Sarah, did you find anything we can use?”

“A lot actually.  The old wizard was kind enough to dye his creations.  The red ones burn when exposed to air, the purple ones explode, and the blue ones harden into a solid after they splash.  There are also a few acids and one vial he described as being ‘The most foul smelling concoction in all five realms.’  There are also a dozen magical potions that I have no idea what they do, we will have to get them identified later.  And two dozen large flasks of something called forge oil.”

Sarah tossed one of the red flasks up against the wall and watched it erupt into flames that spread over the wall and continued to burn brightly for about fifteen seconds before dying out.  Gavin shouted, “Wait, what are you doing!?” 

“I just wanted to see if you were right, if the wood in this building did burn or not.”

There was a shout from downstairs, “Thane, come down here, you need to see this.”

Thane rushed down the stairs and Sarah and Gavin followed soon after carrying crates of flasks and vials.  When he was back on the second floor he saw Kisha pointing over to the end of the hall at Evelyn, who was looking around the corner.  He walked over to her and looked in the same direction she was.  There was a lot of blood on the floor, and it looked like something had been dragged across the floor over the puddles of blood.  “That had to be the mage who lived here.” she said.  “Unless there is someone else we don’t know about.”  He looked and saw a series of four symbols he didn’t recognize scrawled in blood.  ‘What is written here?”

Evelyn replied “It’s on obscure language, the text is phonetic, it means ‘sorrow feeder’”

Things were starting to slide into place now and Thane had a good idea what was hunting them.  “First question Evelyn, do you know what is in the box your father is having us deliver?”

“No, I don’t.  What does that have to do with anything?”

“Whatever is in that box is what caused this mess.  The owner of this manor described it as an orb that destroyed everything it touched, even to the point where it started breaking apart the barrier between this realm and the shadow realm.”

“Even if there was a breach, only weak creatures or hollow dead could pass through, unless there was some sort of catalyst.  Nothing that would be as strong as this thing.”

Thane had no idea what a ‘hollow dead’ was but he doubted it was important at this point.  “What about a 300 year old chained knight?  Could shadow energy bring back a Death Knight that was destroyed by a lack of mana?”

“Sorrow feeder…  With a Death Knight as a host?  That would explain its behavior.  It wants us to feel helpless and mourn the death of our friend so it can feed off of our misery.  It wants us to lose hope.  If we don’t give up it will try to kill more of us until we do.”

“We’re not going to give it that chance.” said Sarah, “we are going to kill it now.  Where is it?”

“Probably in the basement,” said Thane.  “All of the mage’s notes point to the basement as being the source of the trouble.”

“Basement?” said Gavin, “This house doesn’t have a basement.”

Thane sighed, “Your master was quite clear in his notes.  This house was built on top of some sort of tomb.  He was experimenting with the orb and the tomb in the basement.  Are you telling me he kept it’s existence secret?”

“Y-  yes?  I’ve never seen it or heard mention of it.  I’ve explored the first floor and have never seen any stairs leading down.”

“Hidden door then?  Hidden physically or magically.  Gavin and Kisha will look for magical concealment.  Sarah and I will look for anything more mundane.”

“Evelyn, do you have that hole thing with you?  I have some supplies I need stored.” said Sarah.  She and Gavin had tied flasks together with leather straps or twine, enough for each person to carry one of each.  An exploding, a burning and a hardening. The rest was being shoved into Evelyn's storage.    

They walked back towards the first floor when suddenly Thane stopped them, “Wait, the ceiling.”

“What about it?  I don’t see anything.”

“Exactly, the last time we were here, there were dozens of chains hanging from the ceiling, now there is nothing.” He paused, he thought he heard something.  There was only one way to be certain.

Thane pulled out his sword and forced mana into it until it began to glow.  He gave a few quick hand gestures to Sarah and she nodded and slowly crept forward.  He planted his feet ready to swing and just as he predicted, as soon as Sarah got close to the edge of the balcony, a bunch of rusty bladed chains curled up from below and prepared to strike the girl on the second floor.  “DUCK NOW!” Thane shouted and swung the sword horizontally, sending a wave of force out of the sword and knocking the chains back. They broke off from whatever they were attached to and scattered across the main hall and draped over the broken chandelier. 

Thane immediately ran towards the edge of the balcony and jumped off to the first floor.  He turned around and saw what was behind him and immediately shouted to the others, “Stay back!  Don’t approach the edge of the balcony.” There were still over a dozen bladed chains attached underneath the balcony, ready to lash up at anything that approached closely.  He had to think, anyone who approached the edge of the balcony would get torn apart.  The chains were attached to the walls and underside of the floor, not the creature, yet somehow they moved as if guided.  The creature was watching from somewhere.    

Something was off here.  Thane stopped looking for the creature and instead was looking at the chains.  There was something wrong, the Knight itself was wrapped in chains, but where did the rest of these come from?  There had to be over a hundred meters of length if you were to combine them.  He suddenly had an idea, Mahs could have pulled it off easily but…

“Kisha, can you do a wide area mana purge?  I think the chains are magical constructs and there are dozens of them right below where you are standing.”

“I can try, it will take a while so give me some time.”

“Thane, behind you!” Evelyn shouted and ran to the edge of the balcony, she jumped after Thane while the chains hanging from below lashed up trying to slash her.  She twisted her body when she jumped, doing a slow flip to keep her vulnerable legs out of range.  She managed to deflect one of the chains with her sword while the others slammed into her torso.  Once she was out of range she continued her spin to land on her feet.   Thane didn’t get to see her landing as he was turning around to see what she was warning him about.  The chains that he had knocked loose onto the floor were moving.  They writhed like bladed metal snakes and were preparing to attack.  

He took a step back and a defensive stance as he tried to fill the blade with mana one more time.  He was starting to get light headed, the sword was demanding and he was running low on internal mana.  However it should give the blade enough of an edge to cut through rusty metal.  He brought the blade down on one of the chains, chopping it in half, and to his surprise it stopped moving.  He had a feeling he didn’t actually “kill” it but simply stopped the knight from controlling it for a brief moment.  Evelyn was next to him, and the two were defending themselves from the animate chains until finally there was a pulse that seemed to suck the air out of his lungs.

The light on the sword flickered but didn’t go out, and the chains that were next to them suddenly disappeared, flaking away and vanishing like a pile of dust that got caught in a strong gust of wind.  I guess that proved that these extra chains were actually magical constructs.  He looked to Evelyn, “Are you all right, you took a few hits back there.”

Evelyn stood up proud tapping the hard boiled leather she was wearing, “See?  I told you, much better with armor.”

“Right, you look damn good in leather, I remember.  When did you put it on?”

“That's not what I meant, I meant it was sturdy enough to…” she sighed.  “I changed with Kisha while you guys were upstairs.”

He suddenly realized something, “Kisha….damn it, that pulse was too strong, more than she can handle.” He looked up on the balcony and yelled, “Kisha, are you all right!?”

“She’s down and in bad shape,” Sarah replied, “we need the potions that Evelyn has in her storage.”  Thane ran over to the balcony and Sarah handed the younger girl down to him, he laid her down on the floor.  She was pale and her skin was slightly cold, he had seen this happen before.  She had used too much of her own internal mana and could no longer stay awake.  It could knock a person out for days when they were drained this much.    

“Her soul is empty…” he heard Evelyn say.  That was an odd way of saying things, but she wasn’t far off from the truth.  She brought out the rack of vials that Sarah had her store away in her pocket dimension and looked through them. 

“Which one do I give her?”

“The black one,” Gavin replied, “The white one is for injuries.  Those are the only two I know.”

Thane took the cork off the vial of black liquid and poured it in Kisha’s mouth.  “How does this work exactly?”

“Um, it activates the mana channels and prana, and charges them with energy.  It basically makes your natural mana restoration a hundred times more effective for a few seconds.”

“It’s like a full night's rest in a vial huh?”  He uncorked a second vial and swallowed it immediately feeling its effects.  The lightheadedness from mana usage was gone immediately and the mental stress and fatigue was gone as well.  He still felt a bit of physical fatigue from exertion and lack of sleep but his mind was as sharp as ever.  “That’s some good stuff.”

“Yeah but if you drink too much, it’s like setting your own prana on fire.  It can heal over time but if you keep it burning for too long, it becomes ash.  You won’t be able to replenish your mana any more and you will slowly die.”

“A hollow soul,” said Evelyn.

Thane simply stared at the empty vial in his hands.  “Oh…”

 “So how do we find the basement?”

Thane walked over to Kisha and set his hand on her forehead, she didn’t feel as cold and the color was starting to come back to her skin.  “We need to wait for Kisha to wake up, then the passage to the basement should be over there.”  He pointed under the balcony, behind the ruined staircases.

“Wait,” Gavin said, “how do you know it is there?”

“Because that Death Knight is getting desperate.  He knows we can hurt him, we’re not giving up or despairing, his ambush failed.  All those conjured chains he had were moved to that area, like he was trying to protect something.  If I’m wrong then we just have to widen our search.” 

Thane went to the back wall that the chains were surrounding and began to search.  He ran his fingers over the wall panels and knocked on the walls while searching.  While he was doing this Sarah was prodding Kisha awake and wasn’t being very gentle about it.  Once Kisha had opened her eyes Sarah looked over to Thane,  “Find anything?”

“Yes and no, every wall is hollow, like there is a space behind it.  If there are spaces like this all over the house it could be how the knight has been watching us and guiding his chains when we cant see him.”  He finally found a hole, near ground level and grabbed a large beam from the ruined staircase.  Using it like a battering ram he began to smash the wall until a section gave way.

“I thought the walls were enchanted and hard to break.” said a bleary eyed Kisha.

“Master fortified the walls around experimental areas and the outer edges. Not the inner walls.  They still have fire and water resistant enchantments though.” 

Thane peered through the hole he made and then looked to the left and right.  He moved a few steps to the right and started pressing on the wall and kicking it.  He stuck his head in the hole he made once again, further this time, trying to look to the right.  Suddenly he had an idea.  “Hey Gavin, your master specialized in enchantment and transmutation right?”

“Yes?”

“Do you know the basic enchantment circle for empowering objects?  Nothing special added, just the featureless circle.”

“I do.”

“Good, form the circle and place your hand on this wall and discharge it.”

“But that won’t do anything without an accompanying circle.”

“I know, just try it.  I don’t want to damage my sword by breaking this wall apart.”

He did as he was asked and they heard a grating sound as stone and gears began to move.  Suddenly the wall slid a few inches back and to the left, covering the hole that Thane had made earlier and revealing a set of stone stairs that descended into the darkness below.

“Is everyone ready?” asked Thane.  He removed the greatsword from it’s sheath and shifted the sheath around so he could access his bow more easily if he needed it.  The group nodded and after sending a pair of light motes forward, they descended the stairs.

It was quiet, no chains and not even a whisper came from the basement below.  When they reached the last step they found themselves in what looked more like a cave than an actual basement with a dirt and rock floor.  In the far end of the room there was the tomb.  The front door to the tomb was missing and the old letters around the edge were unreadable.  On the left wall there were a few barrels as well as a large number of flasks filled with purple and red liquid sitting on top of the barrels.  It looked like Troya was getting ready to blast the tomb open.

All of them crouched, ready to fight as a voice was heard echoing through the basement.  “Cruel. Woman. Heartless. Woman. Brother. Dead. No. Grief.”

“There will be plenty of time to mourn once you are dead,” Sarah replied, “until then you will have to make due with my anger.”

The voice laughed with a raspy cackle, “No. You. Will. Suffer. All. Will. Suffer. As. I. Have. Suffered. All. Mourn. As. I. Have. Mourned. All. Die. As. I. Died. Hopeless. And. Alone. Suffer. And. Sate. My. Hunger. Drink. Sorrow. Eat. Pain. Drink. Blood. Eat. Flesh.”   

The five of them were in a circle now, backs facing each other.  Gavin was beginning to panic, “Wait, why am I here I don’t even have a weapon?”  

Sarah hissed back, “Just shut up and use the flasks and whatever magic you can, fool!” 

The knight took the momentary distraction as its signal to attack.  Suddenly dropping from the ceiling, it attacked the two who were arguing.  Two heavy chains lashed out, one crashing down on Sarah, it was aimed for her skull but she barely managed to dodge.  Instead the blow glanced her head and struck a heavy blow on her shoulder and wrapped onto her back with a heavy thud causing her to fall to the ground.  The second one wrapped around Gavin and tossed him to the side like a rag doll.  

Kisha, who was standing next to Sarah spun around to the left bringing her shield across the Knight's face and thrusting her sword at his chest.  The shield struck the skull of the undead but it didn’t seem to do much damage, the sword was blocked.  There was a layer of chains protecting its chest and a second layer formed over it as the sword struck.  The two layers were too tough for the young girl to penetrate and the Knight simply laughed at her.   

She quickly jumped back and pointed her hand at the ground chanting a quick spell.  The earth beneath her split and a large rock came flying out of the ground to hit the creature in the chest.  It staggered back and Kisha prepared another spell that took a few seconds to prepare. She pulled another rock out of the ground, but this time flakes of stone chipped off the rock until it formed a long pointed spear.  She aimed the spear and launched it at the creature.  

Several of the heavy chains converged at a single point and slammed into the stone missile mid-flight, shattering it.  Several tiny chunks of rock flew into the creature and embedded in its face and torso but it didn’t even flinch..  Thane was running in right behind the missile, his sword was already glowing and charged with magical energy.

The Knight deflected the blow away and leapt to the side.  It took a moment to flick away a chunk of gravel that was embedded in it’s eye and the bloodless wound closed almost immediately.  The chains shot out of its body, leaving the torso of the creature almost completely exposed.  Instead of attacking, they attached to the support pillars and wooden beams running across the ceiling of the basement.  The chains tugged the creature around, launching it across the room.  He laughed and put all his focus into controlling the chains wrapped around it. The body of the undead was completely limp as it tossed itself around like a puppet swinging by its strings. 

It lashed out at the attackers as it passed  So far they were able to defend against its strikes but couldn’t mount a good counter attack.  When Thane tried to cut it down as he rushed past, it simply tugged another chain, rapidly changing its direction with enough force to snap its own bones.  Thane heard the sickening crunch and couldn’t hide his shock, the thing was destroying its own body to fight them.  

“We need to stop its movement.” Kisha shouted using her magic to cause stone pillars to erupt from the ground.  She was trying to predict its movement but having little luck.  The way it was tossing itself around made it nearly impossible as it could change its movement in any direction in an instant.  Since it was already dead, it didn’t have to worry about whiplash or any of the damage it dealt to its own body.

Sarah had pulled herself up on her feet and spoke to Thane.  “We just need to force him to go where we want.  You’d better be ready to protect me.”  Thane looked and saw her stand up.  Her left arm was hanging limply by her side and there was a small trail of blood running down her cheek.  She had one of the flasks of purple liquid in her right hand.  

She taunted the Knight, “I heard that oathbreakers were spineless.  The way you are whipping around like a ragdoll, I guess it must be true.”

The creature paused for a moment and swung to and fro mockingly.  “Should. Have. Stayed. Down.”  He pulled himself to the side, dodging one of Kisha’s rock missiles.  “Could. Mourn. Now. Will. Be. Mourned.”

He launched himself towards Sarah, and was watching for any sign of Kisha’s earth pillars.  However, he didn’t see the invisible barrier placed by Thane.  The barrier only lasted a couple brief seconds, but it was enough.  The chains that extended to Sarah coiled up first when they hit the invisible wall, giving the knight a fraction of a second to realize what was coming before he collided with the wall giving a sickening crunching noise.  Once the wall was down, Sarah stood up straight, and threw the flask.

When it cracked open on the creature's head, the contents exploded, sending it flying backwards and tumbling across the dirt. Thane’s greatsword was ripped out of his hands.  He didn’t notice that the creature had wrapped a chain around it in the brief moments before it got blasted back.  He instead grabbed his bow, and pulled out one of the silver arrows that he had left.  One was consumed in the flash of light, two more dissolved in night creature blood, so he was left with three remaining.

Evelyn tried to finish the creature off, but was warded away by the chains.  It was less controlled now, and it looked like it was frantically flailing.  Thane took a quick glance around the room.  Kisha was exhausted, she had used up almost all of her mana again and was breathing heavily.  Gavin was using some sort of magic to support her, standing behind her with his hands on her shoulders.  He couldn’t see Sarah after the explosion, she was probably behind him but he didn’t want to check and lose sight of the knight.  

The explosion didn’t kill it, but large chunks of its grey skin had turned black and small chunks of its body were falling off, pushed away by newly formed flesh.  It was regenerating even now.  It made a desperate lunge at Evelyn but she sidestepped and slashed it across the back with both swords.  It looked like this fight was over. 

“Not. Yet.”  The knight shot his chains out towards the beams and pillars, trying to regain its mobility but was stopped by two blue flasks that flew in from Kisha and Gavin.  They shattered and covered the creature's legs with a sticky blue liquid that soon hardened and pinned it to the ground.  The creature pulled with all its might, and grabbed on to one of its chains to try and generate more force with its arms.  The solid substance pinning it to the floor began to crack.

“No.” Thane said as he fired a magically charged arrow.  The combined force of silver and magic buried itself into the arm of the undead creature and the flesh began to sizzle and pop.  For the first time, the Death Knight screamed in pain.  From shoulder to elbow, the arm disintegrated and the remaining forearm and hand fell to the ground.  

The creature lashed out again, creating a whirlwind of bladed chains around itself, trying to slash the humans that had wounded it.  Thane managed to get his sword back as he retreated but quickly put it away in favor of his bow and the last two silver arrows.  The sword just took too much mana to use properly.  

“Why won’t you just die!?” Thane shouted.

“No. Death. Only. Suffering. Only. Hunger.”

Gavin and Kisha threw two more flasks at the wall of chains.  They shattered against the writhing metal wall and the red liquid inside poured through the gaps onto the knight inside.  The liquid ignited into a hot green flame and the knight once again screamed.  When the flames died, the chains fell to the ground and the death knight stared at the ones who had cornered it with an intense hatred.  It was weak, the missing arm was gone and might never be recovered, it’s gray skin was now charred black, and it seemed like it didn’t even have enough energy left to move.

Thane walked closer, pulling the string on his bow back to finish off the creature with magic and silver.  After a few steps, the creature grinned wickedly.  One of the bladed chains lashed up and Thane barely had enough time to defend himself.  He covered his face and neck with his forearms and the blades scraped against his metal bracers.  The tail end of the attack shipped over the top of his bracers and opened up a large gash on his forehead.

“It can still fight?!” Evelyn was once again deflecting chains with her swords.  Thane was wiping the blood out of his eyes and trying to shake off the blow.  He tried to aim his bow but the chain had severed the bowstring and snapped the wood in half.  He was thinking of what to do next when suddenly the chains froze in place. 

Sarah appeared like a mirage behind the death knight.  She had disappeared a while ago and her magic had finally worn off.   Her left arm was still hanging at her side, and she was holding her silver coated dagger in her right hand.  The dagger was buried deep in the neck of the knight, slipped in between the neck and collarbone, poking down into the creature's heart.  The silver began to eat away at the creature, disintegrating its flesh.  He gave out one last pained scream.

“Die already.”

“We. All. Die. Together.”

Thane’s head was clear enough now to shout orders, “Everyone, run into the open tomb now!”  He stood up and ran and it didn’t take long for the others to see why.  The death knight had somehow grabbed one of the flasks of red liquid with it’s remaining hand and tossed it towards the stockpile against the wall.

They ran as fast as they could as the bright green flames enveloped the barrels and licked the flasks resting on top.  Once they were all inside they huddled against the wall covering themselves.  One second, two seconds, three…

It started when one of the purple flasks cracked from the heat. The resulting chain explosion was deafening and shook the manor, and likely the entire hillside, like an earthquake. Thane coughed as dirt, dust and smoke filled the shelter that seemed to be falling apart.  “Get out…*cough*, the tomb is collapsing.”

They ran to the stairs, barely able to see anything, barely able to breathe.  Their eyes and lungs were burning, but they made it up the stairs.  They heard a part of the building collapse behind them and saw the flames begin to climb the walls.  Whatever magic that had once protected this place was gone.

They ran to the front door, the chains that were so tight while the death knight was alive were now hanging loosely on the door and were easily pulled off.  The wind had died down, but the snow was still falling and was up to their knees.  It was still dark but a faint light signaling the approach of dawn could be seen.  They dragged themselves forward, away from the house and met Stone and Amara who had come from the stables after they heard and felt the explosion.

Thane was dizzy, it was like all the tension had suddenly left his body as soon as he saw the two that were stuck outside.  His head was bruised and bleeding but he was alive.  The young girl and the large man guided them towards the stables to take shelter. “Where is Mahs?” asked Amara.

“My brother is gone.  But...but I got the bastard.  I stabbed his neck and watched him die. He is… he is…”

Up until now they had been in danger.  There was no time to stop, no time to mourn.  Now it seemed like everything that she had no time to feel until now was coming out.  For the first time in his life, Thane saw his childhood friend break down and cry.