As the cloaked figures climbed the lone hill, a warm breeze rustled through the leaves of the shrubs. They arrived at a lone tree on the edge of an overlook and removed their hoods.
The shorter of the two peered at the tree and said, “A body ingrained into the t-t-trunk? I thought their kind d-d-disappeared when they passed!”
The other replied, “Speculation. They are a repulsive race that deems themselves ‘part of the Aether’. They dream to return to it when they die. It makes me gag just thinking about it.” He gestured with his left paw and raised his right paw to the body’s head. A wave of energy engulfed him, causing his robes to blow in the torrent and a purple glow to light up his eyes.
“Reveal your secrets.” The caster demanded, causing the body to contort and wail as a torrent of energy hit it.
The kobold protested, “Surely y-y-you know they w-w-wouldn’t just cooperate-“, but kept his distance.
The body in the tree wailed and drew a pained breath. “Speak” the caster demanded.
The creature spoke slowly and painfully, “We do not cooperate with your kind-“
The caster sighed, “Oh you don’t? Well aren’t you pedantic? I never asked for your cooperation.” He clenched his fist, and the creature wailed and contorted before letting out a long wheezing breath. The glow faded, and the creature stopped moving.
The caster turned to his kobold companion, who had now taken several steps back. “Come on, we have places to be”.
The kobold stammered, “W-where?”
“There is a grove that these creatures call their home not far from here.” The caster replied, pointing to the horizon.
“The Sacred Grove? Out here, that seems-” the kobold froze, “What did you do to it?”
“We had a disagreement. Sadly for him, I won”.
—————————————————————————-
“Death, is a permanent state, the arcane arts cannot restore life to the once deceased. The restored ones are empty, soulless husks. Their memories of life remain for a time, but the body is worthless unless it is fresh. Rotten flesh, tarnished bones are of no use to our cause”.
“Restored ones that do not obey you, are grounds for using clairvoyance. If information is not given freely, extract it with due force. Be wary caster and destroy the remains. Those sensitive to the way of the aether can sense the presence of the dark magics. Burn all that remains with the dark fire and take whatever aether remains in it to replenish your own. Leave no trace of our activities”.
“The aether of the plants, animals and the ungifted is akin to our own. A caster may draw on this source to supplement their own. Be wary caster that these creatures do not possess our control of the art and may suffer and die at your hands if your extraction is not performed with the required, discretion. Unless of course, that is the desired outcome.”
The old kobold slammed the book shut: “No more of this, the ramblings of these cultists make me sick to my stomach.”
He turned away with a pained expression: “Poisoned, indoctrinated from a young age to believe such vile things and commit such despicable acts. Desecrating the bodies of the fallen ones with such callous hatred”
He turned to the young dragoness sat near the large heavy lectern. She wore a pale green cloak that complimented her emerald green eyes. He paced forward and slammed his paws on the lectern: “promise me this young Khi’nai, you shall, and I cannot stress this enough, remain as far from these cultists as you can. You do not engage or negotiate with them. Understood?”
She nodded: “Yes teacher”.
The old kobold smiled, gently stroking her nuzzle, “such a good child, you cannot fathom the kind of evil deeds they commit. My only desire for you is to grow strong and courageous in the arcane arts.”
She smiled: “I will make you proud teacher.”
The old one smiled: “You make an old one’s heart swell with pride, my dear. Noble and steadfast, just as your mother.”, he started walking off towards the exit, lit by torches burning with blue flames: “I expect greatness from you, your mother was my best student, you know?”
—————————————————————————-
Their feet crushed the dry leaves beneath them. The ancient woods casted an oppressive shadow as a frosty wind blew. The kobold grabbed his cloak and wrapped it tighter around his body: “T-t-this doesn’t seem right, the Grove is m-m-meant to be a place of life and energy, w-w-why is it so cold and dark here?”
The caster raised his left paw, holding it out, the specks of light dancing off his brilliant deep black scales. His eyes glowed a bright purple then faded. He hissed between his teeth with a sour expression, “It would seem that we are not the first to find this place-“
The kobold looked about at the tall dark trees: “A-a-are you sure?”.
“Read my lips kobold. We. Are. Too. Late.” the caster growled, hurling a ball of light in air. A brilliant purple light illuminating the trees. The kobold froze at the sight of hundreds of tree-borne bodies just like the first melted with the trees of the grove.
He gripped his head, “T-t-they were all murdered”
The caster growled: “Obviously. A minor setback. Someone is intent on ruining our progress. Frustrating, but some of these creatures probably survived and fled, it is only a matter of tracking them down.”
The kobold took rapid breaths, trying to calm himself down: “W-w-where do we start looking f-f-for them? T-t-they could have gone anywhere-“
“These creatures have special needs, a strong aetheric presence. They congregate in places with similar properties to this. Tickles me to wonders what or whom would have eradicated them so ruthlessly. Here their power would have been quite frightful to deal with.”
The caster scanned the area as he moved his right paw over the cold, damp soil: “Almost no Aether remains. A meticulous and thorough act of genocide. I’m almost impressed.”
“I’ll have to focus to channel the remaining Aether. Perhaps some of these creatures know a few interesting titbits. Keep watch”, the caster walked slowly towards a large central tree.
“Y-y-yes of course”, the kobold started to collect some bramble to start a fire to ward off the oppressive cold.
The caster ran his paw over the tree, feeling the ancient runes carved into its trunk with his claws. He took a few steps back and removed his long black cloak.
His brilliant pearlescent black scales were marred with scars and deep wounds, large sections missing and scabbed over[BK1] . His wings were tightly bound with heavy linen wrappings adorned with golden runes. The Dark Ones were sworn to be landlocked. Their wings bound until such a time as they had earned the right to fly.
He laid down facing the tree, slowly running his paws on the dirt before adjusting his position accordingly and lowering himself into the dirt as he chanted in the ancient tongue.
A bright purple glow branched from his claws into the surrounding dirt, crawling up the central tree and branching outwards. His body shook violently as he arched his head back his eyes emitting a piercing glow that lit up the surrounding area.
The kobold dropped the bramble and twigs onto the newly lit fire as a forceful wind blew from inside the forest. He looked around as the eyes of every fallen creature encased in their tree tombs started to glow. “F-f-fool will kill himself, r-r-raising so many at once”, the kobold swung his cloak over himself and darted into the forest towards his teacher.
The black dragon’s body contorted and twisted as he wrestled with the complexing of the spell. The purple glowing Aether grew up his body like vines on a tree and he let out a blood-curdling scream.
The kobold lunged at him, throwing himself at his teacher and severing his connection with Aether. They both laid in the dirt, panting heavily. The kobold raised himself up towards the black dragon: “Teacher, I would never q-q-question your judgement and I a-a-apologize, b-b-but this, is extremely unwise. Necromancy on this level is not for us to toy with.”
The black dragon laboriously pushed himself off the ground, averting his gaze from the kobold: “m-my cloak, bring it to me”. The kobold hurried to the site grabbing the cloak and tossing it toward the caster, who slowly put it back on, before turning toward the kobold with hoarse and panting voice: “what is the rule of Dark Sacrament?”. The kobold swallowed, “T-t-the handler shall not lay their eyes upon the uncloaked visage of their t-t-teacher”.
The caster growled: “and what is the punishment for disregarding the Sacrament?”.
“I mean only to p-p-preserve your life Teacher, I sensed your form was in danger and I sought to protect you” The kobold pleaded with the caster, shivering as he fell to the dirt.
“I do. Not. Require your pity nor your protection. Is that perfectly clear?”
“Y-y-yes teacher, forgive me for my breaking of the Sacrament.” The brown kobold shuddered awaiting the chastisement of his teacher. The caster tightened his cloak and walked away towards the central tree column. The kobold looked up, frozen and confused: “a-a-am I not to be punished for my disobedience?”.
The caster laid a paw upon the central tree, giving a pained expression: “I’m not in the mood to punish you right now. You’re useless to me dead and reviving you would be waste of Aether.” The kobold jumped up and scampered towards the black dragon: “I-I-I thank you Teacher. Let me t-t-tend to the fire and leave you be-“, he scampered away towards the fireplace he had made, leaving the caster to his devices.
“Their memories-” A flash of family passed through his mind.
“Their final moments-” A flash of tragedy and death.
“The answers aren’t here anymore. These creatures were slaughtered by someone they never laid eyes on. Interesting.” He ran his claw over the ancient runes on the tree, “They hoped their deity would protect them. Now they’re just rotting corpses with faded memories. Nothing left to see here.”
He turned towards the light of the fire in the distance: “The kobold will prove more useful to me than I thought, his kind, with their chubby little bodies and libraries of ancient knowledge could prove useful. A pity I’m not welcome there, but even if I was, I wouldn’t dare set foot in such a repulsive place.”
He slowly walked towards the campfire, locking his gaze upon the kobold: “Kobold, I have a job for you.” He said with dark, toothy grin on this face.
[BK1] Foreshadowing!