The Ten Guardians: Sacrifice©

Chapter Twenty-Two: Are we there yet?

Colson released the water he had been holding on Donner, letting it wash over the smoldering corpse of Regnan. Sparrow and the Phoenix landed near the party, each turning into humanoid forms almost instantly. Before anyone could speak, Jaya ran up to the group carrying the Druid in her arms, covered with bleeding wounds. If he was alive, it was barely. Jaya looked panicked as if she had known this person her whole life, and saving him was extremely important.

Without saying a word, Grey raced to Jaya, who saw her coming and laid him down at her feet. Grey looked at her scythes for the first time since shooting the bolt of lightning at Regnan, and she could see that the runes were all black, completely burned out of their power. Panicked, she spun the marble under her thumb, expecting all of the runes to be burnt, but with joyous relief, she saw the whirlwind of colors. Only the lightning runes had been destroyed, the others were still whole. She made the runes white, turned the scythes over, and touched them to the druid while willing him to be made whole.

“Oh my …” she said out loud.

Instead of seeing the body of a man in her mind with injuries highlighted that needed to be attended to, she saw what appeared to be a small bird superimposed over the body of a man. The man’s body was not that of the druid, as he had no injuries. There was also a bright glow coming from near his heart.

“What is wrong? Why aren’t you healing him? Do you know who this is?” Jaya demanded.

“There’s nothing to heal! All I see is a bird and a man without injuries, just some glow coming from his chest,” she replied with confusion, her voice raised in panic.

Sparrow held his tongue, trusting that they would figure it out, but ready to step in if they could not. Grey had forgotten about Biggs but was reminded of his presence when his laughter rang through the crater, mocking her ignorance. She held the weapons in the air, her eyes blazing, and swept around looking for the wretched creature.

“This is the bird! Heal the bird!” Jaya shouted.

Grey gave up looking for Biggs and placed the scythes back on the druid’s body to do as she had been instructed, and once again, she could see the man and the bird. She could tell the bird was injured terribly this time, and she willed his body to heal him. There was a long pause where nothing happened, and everyone held their breath. Then the wounds on the body of the druid began to close. It took several minutes before all of the wounds were gone, but the druid was sleeping peacefully when it was over.

Colson used water from his sword to wash some of the blood off the druid’s body, floating the blood away and into the grass. Flamme approached the group, taking care to stand well away from Colson and his sword.

“I can never tell with flesh and blood creatures, but is the shapeshifter dead? I pray to the great flame he is not, for my debt is not fully repaid,” Flamme said, his voice regal but with the occasional hissing pop of a campfire mixed with his words.

“He lives, Flamme. He is just asleep,” Jaya said, slowly rising to her feet as she spoke.

“Very well. Forgive me, but I am quite anxious to return to my own plane of existence. Might one of you carry him back to the tent he found me in? I do not wish to harm his flesh, and in the tent is the means of his repayment,” Flamme said.

“I will fetch your previous prison, your Majesty, please remain here,” Sparrow said with authority but also as if he was speaking to an equal.

“As you wish, Lord Ultaris,” Flamme returned with a slight nod, indicating a similar concept of social equality.

Sparrow ignored the name, not wanting to explain the situation or his resolution to abandon the name “Ultaris,” and folded space so he could quickly reach the tent on the outer edge of the crater. He would have to walk the body back, but that wouldn’t be a problem. As Sparrow winked across the field, Izreea approached the group, stretching as she did so. She had seen the battle’s outcome from across the crater, where she had awoken and started walking to the group. She slipped an arm around Jareth, who looked at her with an odd expression.

“Oh no! Did she tell you already?!” Izreea said with a small bite to her voice.

“Who tell me what?” he asked with sincere confusion.

“Nothing, never mind. Why the scowl?” she asked, hoping to change the subject.

“Look at the druid. Look very carefully,” Jareth said slowly, pointing at the sleeping man’s face.

Izreea stared at the man for some time before things clicked into place. As if a spell had been lifted from his face, she could see Jonathan lying on the ground before them. Not Jonathan as a bird, but Jonathan’s body.

Izreea’s eyebrows shot up, and she gasped when she realized what she was looking at. “Does he know?!” Izreea asked

“Oh yes! Yes, he knows, and he is absolutely freaking out about it. I mean, you should hear him going on and on,” Jareth said.

“I’m surprised he has not tried to … you know … take over,” Izreea said with surprise.

“My too. I’m not sure if he’s nervous, or in disbelief, or what, but he’s is puzzling over possibilities and swearing a lot right now,” Jareth said with a small chuckle.

Grey returned the scythes to Izreea, who gave her a genuine smile, much to Jareth’s surprise, he being completely unaware of what had transpired between the two women. Sparrow approached the group with the body that Flamme had been trapped in over his shoulder and laid it on the ground.

“Thank you. Can you wake him, please?” Flamme asked Sparrow in his popping voice.

Sparrow placed a hand on the druid’s head, and a moment later, the man woke up. He sat up and looked around at the dead dragons before coming to his feet. He first bowed to Sparrow and then Flamme.

“Lord Time, Lord Phfffhshhhhhhheeeeeflashaaa,” the druid said.

Flamme gave him a genuine smile at the human attempt at his actual name. “Well met. Call me Flamme for now,” Flamme said.

“As you wish, Lord Flamme,” the druid responded.

“Are you prepared to be rewarded for the service of freeing your new prince?”

There was a small commotion from Jareth which gave the conversation pause as they turned to regard him. Jareth had his hands on his head and was speaking quickly.

“Jonathan, calm down. I know it’s important, I won’t fight it! I’m just asking that you be careful.”

That was all that Jareth could get out before he transformed into Jonathan, his thin, transparent skull showing an angry expression with a wide toothy snarl as he floated off the ground.

“That is my body, you thief, and I want it back!” Jonathan shouted as he looked around for his staff that Jareth had lodged in the ground some paces away.

The druid spun around and angrily shouted at Jonathan. “You kidnapped me, experimented on me, killed me, and then trapped my soul in a human body that I did not know how to use, and you dare call me a thief!”

Jonathan paused his search for his staff that he subconsciously knew he wouldn’t use on his own body. His face had a puzzled look, and he tried to respond, but the druid was not finished.

“Your body gave me a self-awareness that I had previously been without, an expanded intelligence that you apparently lacked when you decided my life was only worth your … experiments. Your body prevented me from going home, home where I was whole and complete instead of limited by the body I had been assigned to in my exploration of this physical plain. I have spent every day since then trying to find a way to restore our bodies to their proper form, including the muck up you created by entering your brother’s body. Now be still while I fix your grievous chain of errors,” the druid said with an air of righteousness.

Jonathan looked completely taken aback. It had never occurred to him that the familiar who had taken his body had done so by accident … and didn’t want to be in his body in the first place. He always assumed being in a human body was preferable, and the concept of how ignorant and prideful he had seemed to pacify his seething frustrations.

Jonathan folded his arms across his chest and gave a small nod of assent as Flamme took over the conversation.

“Then let us proceed. Forgive my rudeness, for I do not know your name …” Flamme said to Izreea. She tried responding with her name, but he cut her off when he continued speaking “… you have an incubator on your person. Will it pain you to part with it?” he asked with an outstretched hand.

His tone of voice suggested that he would have whatever this seed was, regardless of any protests she could have made, but it also held no threat to it. It was as if Flamme was used to having what he wanted, and the concept of being denied his request was foreign to him. She also realized that he wasn’t apologizing for not knowing her name. He was apologizing because he had no interest in knowing her name. She was annoyed but understood he had been imprisoned for quite some time and wanted to go home and that they would most likely never see one another again. So she let it go.

“If you need them to help make Jonathan whole, then they are all yours,” Izreea said, holding her scythes in front of her.

“No, I mean the seed from the parasite you collected from the vessel in the void,” Flamme said.

Izreea was still not understanding, but she holstered her scythes and put her hands in her pockets, and pulled out the only thing she could find, the barb from the tail of the mimic she had pulled out of Drock.

“Yes, that will do,” Flamme said as he waved his hand towards her, and a gush of warm air pulled the seed into the air in front of him.

Then he seemed to be pulling at the air towards the Druid. After a moment, the druid leaned back, closed his eyes, and a small light seemed to pour out of his mouth like glowing fog. The light streamed into Flamme’s outstretched right hand while he reached up and plucked the smallest flame from his chest with his left hand. Then he pressed the two of them together. The light in his hand turned into a small golden flame, flickering and twisting as if it was alive. Then the floating seed from the mimic floated over to Flamme, who pressed the golden flame into the seed until the seed became a glowing ember with a golden flame harmlessly floating around it. The ember shot down into a knife wound in the chest of the body on the ground.

The druid was now within the fire demon’s body, who stood up with a renewed pit of fire burning in its mouth and eyes. The fire demon started leaping up and down with excitement and joy, then fell on his knees at the feet of Flamme to grab his legs, his body seemingly immune to all forms of fire.

              Many hissing and popping noises were intermixed with a few of what sounded like forced grunts, passing between the druid and flamme. After a moment, it was apparent that they were communicating in a fire-elemental language that the others could not understand.

“He says the seed must be removed before Jonathan can go home and act quickly before the body dies,” Flamme said.

Then they were both gone, disappearing in a white portal that showed no information about their destination.

“This is going to hurt,” Izreea said, hardly waiting for an answer before she brought her scythe up to Jareth’s chest.

To Izreea’s surprise, Jonathan did not react as she made a small incision in his left side just below his ribs. Then she turned the scythes around and touched them to his body and willed the body to push the seed out of the gash she had just created before healing itself. It took a minute before the glowing seed was pushed out of Jareth’s body, falling into Izreea’s waiting hand. The moment it left Jareth’s body, he started returning to his normal self.

Izreea ran to Jonathan’s body, falling on her knees beside him, and placed the seed on his chest. Immediately, the glow separated itself from the seed until a golden haze floated over the body. The haze became the transparent shape of the body below it and slowly sank into its mirror image. Jonathan opened his eyes and sat up. He looked around as if he was seeing for the first time, looked down at his open hands, then looked up at Izreea’s beaming face beside him with wonder and elation. He reached for the sister in law that had stood beside him for years, trying to help him fix the disaster he had created for himself, and he wept into her shoulder as they embraced.

A sudden bright light shone on the adventurers, and they all looked up to see two entities made entirely of light in the air over the bodies of Donner and Regnan. The entities seemed to embrace in the air, then turn and float to the ground beside Sparrow. Just before they touched the ground, they transformed into the radiant bodies of the warlocks as they had previously appeared. All of their makeup and body paint were gone, and they wore white robes which seemed to match the ones the group had seen Life wearing in the realm of darkness. As they landed, they greeted Sparrow with open arms, laughing and joking with each other as if they were long friends finally reunited. They spoke in a language the others could not understand. Majestic, guttural, and laced with power in every word, as if their words alone could alter matter.

After conversing in their unknown language, they turned to the group.

“Izreea, I have something for you which Life imparted to me. Please come and take it. You will know what to do with it,” Sparrow said.

Izreea helped Jonathan stand on his feet, leaving him in his brother’s embrace as she walked over to Sparrow. Sparrow reached into his pocket and handed Izreea the seed with her family crest. Izreea looked at the seed, and a small smile spread across her face. This had been part of what Life had told her in their private conversation, but she had not understood her words until that moment.

Izreea immediately bent to the ground with a green scythe, using its abilities to part the earth. She placed the seed in the ground and covered it with loose dirt.

“Colson, water the seed if you will,” she asked the older man.

Colson did as requested, streaming water from his sword to the dirt until it was soaked. A shockwave of green energy shot out in a ring from the group, disturbing no one but undeniably powerful. Immediately vines and roots seemed to leap from the ground, wrapping themselves around revenant bodies, warlock carts, tents, plots of damaged earth, and the bodies of the dragons nearby. Anything that had resulted from the great battle that had taken place here was being wrapped in vines.

With a rumbling earthquake that again did not seem to disturb the adventurers, the earth parted below each vine-wrapped object, dragging the objects into the ground to be consumed by the natural decay of the planet’s soil. As the vine-wrapped objects were being lowered into the crevices beneath them, the crater floor seemed to lift from its center as its rim sank, leveling itself to remove the crater from the meadow. After several minutes, the group stood in a large and beautiful meadow with no crater, bodies, or debris in sight.

Jonathan was surprised to find a staff protruding out of the ground beside him made of some form of redwood with dark runes on it. He held up Life’s gift in his hands with a grateful smile.

Then a single plant shot up from the dirt where Izreea had planted the mysterious seed. A large, closed flower bud appeared at eye level with Izreea on a massive stem. The petals of the flower bud opened to reveal a pink carnation.

“It’s a girl,” she whispered to herself. “Jareth, we are going to have a girl!” Izreea shouted as her husband’s dumbfounded face stared back at her.

There was a short delay before the impact of what Izreea was saying hit him, that she was pregnant after so many years of expectations. With tears in both of their eyes, they embraced.

“Biggs! Show yourself at once!” Sparrow commanded.

With bright red eyes, the creature appeared in the air before Sparrow, hatred and death etched across his face.

“Grey, did you ever dreamwalk and find yourself attacked by a creature that stung you with something?” Sparrow asked.

“Yes, a very long time ago, when the gift first manifested itself, that was one of my first dream-walking experiences. I thought it was a nightmare,” she replied.

“A nightmare in the worst possible way, I’m afraid. The place where you dream walk and can peer into people’s dreams is called ‘the void.’ This is the same place that others call the shadow realm. I’m not exactly sure what the void is, but I do know it is a byproduct of my body and soul fracturing when Ultaris and … Sparrow … were separated. There is much symbolism involved with the void, so it is difficult to explain, but know that reality, distance, and time can be bent and altered within this place. Things can happen or touch you in the void and appear next to you when you awake. Much like this seed which Life gave me,” Sparrow said as he handed her a seed.

“Biggs is a product of my fracturing. He is the equivalent of a virus for me, but a lot bigger and nastier than the ones you are used to. Because of his link with you, I cannot destroy him without hurting you. Know that you would lose your immortality, but Life’s seed can rid you of him if you wish?” Sparrow asked while pointing at the seed in her hand.

Grey felt the impulse to swallow the seed hit her when Sparrow had finished speaking. She did not hesitate as she threw the seed into her mouth and swallowed it whole. She felt a warmth in her stomach that moved to her heart. There was a slight amount of pain, and then it was gone.

With a howl of absolute rage, Biggs convulses in the air, thrashing and tearing at his fur. He started to molt and change and fell from the air as if floating was no longer an ability he possessed. A long tail grew out of his rear as his face changed. Within a few moments, Biggs stood in the meadow crouched on all four legs as a massive mimic, much larger than the ones the group had run into in the void.

Biggs seemed to be holding his breath as he quivered everywhere with rage. He waved his hand, and a portal to the void appeared next to him. He turned to race into the welcoming darkness but halted mid-stride in surprise. Rather than the endless nothingness with its haze of darkness that would keep him alive, there was a massive, hilly, grass-covered forest with glowing trees dotting the horizon. Biggs could not breathe, and he had nowhere to go. He turned in a rage and attacked Grey, leaping through the air as his tail lashed for her heart, intent on reforming their connection with another sting.

Sparrow didn’t have time to react before Myrum brought the beast down with a green runed arrow between his eyes. Biggs landed in a heap next to the large pink carnation. The flower detached itself and floated to the ground as the stem of the large plant lashed down, wrapping itself around Biggs’ body, and dragged it into the divided earth as if he had never been. Izreea retrieved the flower as the earth closed itself again, knowing it would be a poignant gift to her child … to her daughter.

“Forgive us, Lord Ult- I mean Lord Sparrow, but we are eager to return home. May we impart our gifts and be on our way? We will pass your message along to Essen,” Donner said to Sparrow.

“Of course, brothers, of course,” Sparrow said while waving them forward.”

Rather than responding, the two guardians rose into the air while turning back into their natural forms as beings of light, and each dashed towards a member of the party.

Donner, the Guardian of Lightning, passed his stewardship and gifts along to Grey, the product of his demise and ultimate restoration.

Regnan, the Guardian of Water, felt it was only natural that the hermit, who only knew how to control the elemental of water, should become its keeper.

As the two forms of light shot through Grey and Colson, runes of power sparked into being along their bodies, covering them from head to toe. Grey’s runes were light blue, and Colson’s a deep blue. Their eyes seemed to match the color of their runes, glowing with an ancient power. Grey had energy pulsing through her body, matching the beat of her heart as tendons of electricity darted from rune to rune. Colson’s skin appeared to have water flowing along it even though his clothing and the ground beneath him were not wet.

In the blink of an eye, the beings of light were gone.

Grey and Colson each had a torrent of knowledge pour into their minds. Not only magical abilities they could not have done before, but technical information as well. They knew how their elements interacted with other elements in each season and temperature. They understood how global patterns of behavior for their elements impacted the world and all life within it. A great responsibility was being laid at their feet.

After a moment, the outward indicators of their newfound gifts and responsibilities seemed hidden from view, including the runes on their skin and their unnatural eyes. Besides the aura of increased knowledge that seemed to hover around them, there was no sign that they were anything other than two normal humans.

A silence seemed to come over the group as they huddled in a circle. Myrum put an arm around Jaya’s waist to support her; she having refused healing from Izreea by insisting she was only tired. Colson and Grey’s newfound mantel of responsibility seemed to make them kindred to one another, and without a word, they moved to stand side by side in the circle. Jonathan, Jareth, and Izreea all clustered together, each beaming with joy as they looked at the others around them.

Sparrow took command by saying, “My friends, I would not be here without every single one of you. Thank you for standing by me. I know asking more of you is ludicrous, but if you are willing, I still need your help to stop Ultaris.”

“I thought us stopping Donner and Regnan … was stopping Ultaris,” Jonathan said.

A refreshing lack of the usual attitude accompanied most of what Jonathan said, and many in the group who know him well enough as a bird could sense it.

“Donner and Regnan were not working with Ultaris. They were working against him,” Jaya interrupted while leaning on Myrum for support.

Sparrow turned to Jaya and gave her a nod with his hands spread wide.

“Between a conversation I had with the simulacrum of an ancient seeker and the familiar, which helped me fight the she-warlock and her army of minions, I have pieced much of the story together. This will not answer all of your questions, but we would be here for hours if we puzzled over every aspect of history that led us to the point we are at, so it will have to do.

“After the guardians of life and death were killed, they disappeared without passing their stewardship to others. Because of this, the souls of the dead were left to wander instead of being collected and formed into new life forms. The desire to live again was strong, which led to the rising of revenants as corrupted, unliving creatures with twisted bodies and souls.

“At this time, the dardwain had created a mighty empire spanning the continent, and they took it upon themselves to deal with the revenant threat. Through years of research and study, they figured out what revenants were, how to harness their souls, and how to store those souls so they could not live again. This means that the dardwain created the first seekers, not the kanidian’s as our history teaches us.

“With the loss of his lesser half, Ultaris and his corrupted mind became a twisted form of dark light, able to possess the bodies of others like a revenant, which brought the attention of the seekers. It took thirteen dardwain Seekers working together to stop him. These seekers sacrificed themselves to create a prison powerful enough to hold Ultaris. Something went wrong, however, and instead of one strong prison as they had intended, they had to create thirteen weaker ones.

“Eventually, the dardwain people had a massive civil war between two royal sisters vying for the throne. During that war, one faction enlisted the help of a tribe of kanidians to fight with them, and they trained the kanidians in the ways of magic and combat. The war was costly, and the remaining dardwain decided to build a home in the sea away from the influences of the rest of the world. Before they left, they bestowed the mantle of seeker upon the kanidians and gave them stewardship over Ultaris’ prison.

“At some point in history, Ultaris escaped one of his prisons. Before he could be recaptured, he helped create the first Jackals specifically to hunt down the other guardians, to remove threats for when his other half would reveal itself. The jackals knew no other purpose than his, so they did as he commanded. The guardians went into hiding to avoid the Jackals, so Ultaris sent the Jackals to eradicate the humans, thus the great war with the Jackals.

“Donner and Regnan were hiding from Ultaris and his Jackals amongst a remote faction of warlocks, mimicking their lifestyle and becoming their leaders. When they learned that the other part of Ultaris had been found, they communicated with Ultaris in his prison through an ethereal cube within the castle at Dule Van and reached an agreement. They agreed to drain Sparrow’s soul into the void and give his body to Ultaris to possess … in exchange for immunity from the Jackals. Since the void is the third part of Sparrow and Ultaris, they would eventually become one again.

“I suspect they were going to double-cross Ultaris and take Sparrow’s body for themselves, believing it would give them the gift of time. Either way, they communicated with the council of Dule Van as warlocks, playing on their fears, promising to end the threat to the human race once and for all if they would only bring the sacrifice to them.

“At the time, Jareth only suspected that Sparrow was the righteous half of an ancient being prophesied to burn or save the world. When he found out that they were going to give Sparrow to the warlocks through High Elder Marcus, he took action to save him.”

“I don’t understand. Why would Ultaris want to become whole again? Wouldn’t that take away the energy from his sacrifice, which he still needs to cast the spell to go back in time?” Jareth asked.

“Not if he had found another energy source powerful enough to use instead,” Sparrow said.

“Several thousand years of seekers collected the souls of the dead into a single location. That would be powerful enough to destroy the world ten times over, and unless I missed something … I believe it’s my fault that he knows about it, isn’t it?” Jonathan asked softly.

The silence from Jaya confirmed his suspicions.

“I don’t know what you created or why Ultaris can communicate through it, but your cube allowed him to see and hear much of our conversation in the castle. I believe that the coin purse we placed it in blocked his ability to eavesdrop, but before it was in that bag, he heard your story about Katerina and how she was taken by what we now know is the trapped souls of this world,” Jaya explained sympathetically.

“So, what now?” Izreea asked.

“Sparrow can’t impart his stewardship over time to another while he and Ultaris exist separately. I will travel to Dule Van to collect Ultaris in his prison. If possible, I think one of the guardians should accompany me in case something goes wrong,” Jaya said.

It was obvious that Jaya was not talking about Sparrow when she said ‘guardians.’ She was referencing Colson and Grey.

“I believe your granddaughter would like to spend some time with you and to know more about how you survived your battle. She should accompany you as well,” Colson said.

“Wait a minute, shouldn’t Sparrow go directly to Ultaris’ prison and merge with him as soon as possible?” Jonathan asked, his critical tone of voice creeping back into his voice.

“Oh, how I missed your questions, Master Jonathan,” Jaya said sarcastically but with a smile to soften the sting of her words.

Jonathan’s handsome young face blushed suddenly. Izreea began to laugh, remembering that as a bird, he would have ruffled his feathers and maybe hopped from one foot to the other, which she had been expecting. Sparrow explained the problem to Jonathan.

“I know it is confusing, but there is a dominance to our merging, similar to genetic traits being passed on from parent to child. Some traits are more dominant over others, and even caged as he is, he is by far the stronger of the two of us. His mind and his will would supersede my own if we merged now. I can’t go anywhere near him until I grow stronger or he is made weaker. Otherwise, he will absorb me while conquered by his grieving madness … instead of me saving him from that madness by absorbing him.”

The group did not know what a ‘gene’ was, but they understood the reference to dominant traits well enough to grasp what the guardian was saying. Jaya seemed to take over suddenly, speaking in a rush as if she needed to get the information out quickly.

“Whoever is traveling with me will leave for Dule Van. The rest of you have two tasks that must be accomplished, and neither will be easy. Some of you need to find the other Dragons and convince them to pass their stewardship to one of you, and then they must leave our world. Since the guardians do not remember their previous home … I suspect your conversations with them will only end in blood, so be prepared.

“The rest of you must find out where Ultaris can access the Well of Souls beside the access point the kanidians already use. ‘Well of Souls’ is the kanidian name for where we store the souls of the dead, which seekers collect. The dardwain first created it, so you must travel to the sea to find answers.

“We should have a guardian in all …three of … our grou-.”

Jaya’s voice trickled off as she collapsed into Myrum’s arms. Myrum waved off Izreea’s attempt to put her scythes on the seeker as she cradled her grandmother’s head in her lap.

“She needs natural rest. We all do, especially you and your little one,” Myrum said with a toothy smile.

“She sustained us as we traveled through the darkness, fought an army for us, traveled non-stop without resting from that battle to reach us, and saved us again when she arrived. I think she has earned her rest,” Izreea said as she put her hand on Jaya’s sleeping form.

 “And she’s a grandmother to boot,” Jonathan joked, receiving a smile from his brother and several growls and eye rolls from the others.

“Let’s make camp, then we’ll discuss who will go in which group this evening … where are our bags and bedrolls?” Jareth asked while looking around at the transformed meadow, which no longer had a crater in its center as a reference point.

As the group turned to look around for the pile of their bags they had made after leaving the void, they saw two figures standing in the distance. Near the pair was a mound that appeared to be their bags. Myrum picked up her grandmother, and the group collected their weapons and began walking towards their bags as one, unsure what to expect.

As they drew closer, Myrum could see who the pair was with her kanidian vision and said, “The one on the right is Drock, who we left with the packs. The other one is a Jackal,” she said as if this was an everyday event.

The three guardians seemed to take the information in stride, but Izreea, Jareth, and Jonathan immediately hefted their weapons.

“Don’t worry. I still carry the glyph I placed on him. I can feel his presence now that I’m not distracted by a battle,” Jareth said.

“You linked your life to a jackal’s!?” Grey asked with a horrified expression on her face.

“Peace, friends. The jackal’s weapon is protruding from the ground ten paces from him, and he is seated in submission. Let us hear what he has to say,” Myrum said, recognizing the kanidian version of a waving white flag.

As the group approached the jackal, Drock’s dead gaze seemed to flit between Sparrow, Colson, and Grey, unsure of which guardian to stare at as they all radiated magic. He was true to his word, though, and didn’t move to interact with the immense sources of arcane power he was staring at.

“I am Lone Wolf. I have brought a peace offering, cousins, that we might nourish our bodies as we converse,” Lone Wolf said.

Sparrow noticed that the Jackal looked exactly how he had when he first saw him through the portal in his bedroom in Dule Van, down to the satchel at his waist. He spoke in a clipped voice, biting off the last part of his words as if he was not used to speaking. Behind him, a firepit had been dug deep in the ground, which is why they couldn’t see the flames before. Level with the ground was a dozen rabbits, skinned and on sharpened sticks. Ringing the fire at the bottom of the pit was a circle of some form of tuber root.

“Your offering is well accepted, Lone Wolf. I assume you know who we are?” Myrum asked the jackal as she laid her grandmother softly on the ground by the warmth of the firepit and started passing the food around to the group.

“Deeply. Creator seared the information into my mind, so I would never forget it. I see your faces in my mind the same as eyes see scars on the body,” Lone Wolf said.

“What is it that you want?” Jonathan asked cautiously. He was not eating and was instead leaning on his red and black staff in such a way that you could not be sure if he were relaxed or ready to spring into action.

“Creator bid me fetch what he called a false image of himself’” he said while pointing a finger at Sparrow. “He said this false image would kill my people, making it as if we had never existed. My people are few now; I did not wish this to happen. I followed the Creator’s instructions, waiting in the meadow for eight seasons until the false image would come to me,” Lone Wolf said.

“Two years?” Colson asked with some surprise.

“Creator has the gift of foresight. He knew the time for the false image to arrive was close but did not know how close. I had many seasons to think on the matter before you first appeared as a humanchild. This surprised me as Creator looks nothing like a humanchild,” Lone Wolf said.

He said human child as if it was a single word, slurring the words together.

“Is that why you left the meadow? Because you were surprised by my appearance?” Sparrow asked.

“Yes, I wanted to learn more about this false image which did not mirror the image of the Creator. I sought advice from a member of my tribe, who had much to say concerning his motivations for our existence, how we were made, and our true purpose in life,” Lone Wolf said.

“So, you discovered your creator’s true purpose for your people … what did you do after that?” Myrum asked.

“During a full moon, like the one on yestereve, a golden doorway appears in the stone forest at the foot of the mountain. This is where I received my instructions from Creator, and this is where I went to kill Creator so he could not undo my people,” Lone Wolf said casually as if he had not been suggesting he could fight Ultaris single-handedly.

“I see that you are still living, so did you kill your Creator?” Colson asked.

Rather than responding, Lone Wolf removed the satchel at his waist and set it in his lap. He reached into the satchel and brought out something wrapped in a cloth. He placed the cloth on the ground and unwrapped it to reveal two halves of a silver sphere with jagged black marks along its center as if it had been burnt from the inside out by a powerful force.

“Creator has escaped. We must hunt, cousins. We must hunt.”