Prologue

 

"Hard to imagine it is, dear Natasha. Very hard indeed it must be to realise who you really are, what your powers are and what you can do with them."

The young girl looked up and heard a voice unknown to her. She wondered if this was all a dream, that she was still sleeping. She recognised her sur­roundings still as her own bed room in the tower far from other living beings.

She knew that those close to her were still around.

Yet this voice, neither male or female, penetrated her mind. She was pretty sure it was not even an audible voice yet she heard it perfectly clear.

"Nor will you be able to ever fully understand the plans those who have made you have for you. It is your heart and theirs asking for forgiveness when you know what they would do to you."

"Who are you and what do you know about me?" the girl asked, holding on to her tough but soft dark pillow, her fingers digging in it in an attempt to restrain her anxiety.

"I am but your own heart talking, talking to you. I know who you are, Natasha One-Donthiac. And I know what lies con­cealed deep within you, the heritage of those who made you." "Even if you are my own heart, do not insult my mother!" she said now in a warning defiance, as she was sure this was not her heart. She had learned more than enough in her seventeen years to know that this could not be possible. This had to be an intruder, maybe even a mind bender like Uncle Jon, who tried to win her over for himself. For what?

"I would not win you for anything for I am you, and you are me. I merely want to show you the world outside, the things you were forbidden to watch as even those who made you fear you as their combined powers they invested in you and that is a combination of a magnitude the world has scarcely seen before."

"I know my mother is a powerful sorceress, I know my father was a respected warrior who taught pupils here. Then why do they fear me?"

“Your father, dear Natasha, was more than a warrior or a trainer. Have you ever wondered where he went last year, and why he never returned?"

"My father travelled into the stars, my mother said. Up there we can see him shine, as radiant as a god."

"Your father is a god, my dear. He is the Ultimate One, the last survivor of the old class of masters in Body Life magic and the creator of the new class."

"All this is known to me. If you are my self, then why do you tell me this?"

"You do?" the voice asked, and Natasha could almost visualise the person behind the voice frown.

"Of course. My mother is powerful, second only to the High Sorcerer. She knows the value of knowledge and she has always been true with me. You are not my self, who are you then? And why did you lie to me?"

"You could say I am your conscience, your guide. For you will need me when you grow up. Do you not see the power that is standing behind you, daughter of the second most powerful person of the will and a god?"

"The powers will undoubtedly be within me, but not have I felt the need to exploit them."

"Ah, but time is catching up on you, my dear. And while you say you did not exploit your powers you have already developed a physique that would easily able you to master the techniques of Body Life magic. Your body is one a man would adore or repulse for its muscularity and litheness, the female counter­part of what your father once was when he was mortal. You best even the females he has trained himself before he ascended, and you know it."

"Of course I know. I have worked hard on this body and I still do. I am proud of my physique, and I have good reason to. A man who would be repulsed by my body would not be one fit to be around me anyway, so little I care."

"It is not only your hard training, it is also your natural build and talent. Would you exploit your powers fully you would not only be a mistress of Body Life magic but also a powerful sorceress as the powers from your mother also flow within you."

"I know. Yet what does it all mean?"

"It means you will grow to be the single most powerful human being in the world. And therefore one who will be wanted by many, much like your parents. Your powers might change the shape of the world at your will. And I am here to guide you through your own desires."

"And why would I want you around?"

"Ah, that is a question I expected. You see, everybody, up to the gods themselves, fears you. They want to put you in a position where all you can do is watch and let things go by. That would of course be the biggest waste of latent power we could imagine. You are on the big crossroad of choice, my dear. Would you let the gods have it their way? Would you use your powers for others? Or would you go out and explore the world and have a good time yourself without any regard of those weaker than you? For remember that this category will once include the entire world."

"I cannot respond to this now, as that would be too impuls­ive."

"Of course not, my dear. You are smarter than that. But do not worry, I will always be there."

When the voice faded away, Natasha felt that promise only increased her worries.

 

        Chapter One

 

"Seventeen years of age, yet bearing powers we cannot hope to comprehend, let alone achieve. You knew this was going to happen, Griwalda. You and the Ultimate One knew she was going to inherit both your powers. And while you have talked a lot about her position, do never forget that she has a will of her own, the will of a stubborn man who has always done what he only wanted and a woman who used to be quite the happy-go-lucky type before she met power."

"I can see what you mean, High Sorcerer. We have known this all along but I see there is little we can do about it now." "Again, I have to remind you that I will be called Antharion by you, dear Griwalda. My title is not for one who has known me for eighteen years, the one who grew into power by my side."

"The aid for which I am still grateful to you, Antharion. Many things have changed since. First the Ultimate One rose to his position, then the High Sorcerer stepped down and appointed you as his successor. And you made me your second. We all grew but I am not sure this was good."

"We all have our questions and doubts, Griwalda, and it is our duty to overcome the doubts and answer our own ques­tions. And while still young by all standards, I know your daughter has already felt the chill touch of her own ques­tions and doubts. Maybe living in isolation has made her curious about the world beyond the tower."

"Yet what could I do? The Ultimate One used the tower as his base to train the new masters of Body Life magic, and I would be around him. Do you mean I should have sent her away to grow up with other children her age?"

"That I have always seen as something immensely cruel and a way to forsake children. Nay, I would not have you do this. But it may be time she learns more now."

"You mean I send her away for... adventure?"

"Adventure is a big word. But she might want to learn more about the world and decide some things for her own. She cannot grow up much longer in your tower, as it now feels familiar but uncomfortable to her nonetheless. She has a strong feeling for being out in the open."

"As powerful as she may be, I cannot release her like the Ultimate One released his pupils."

"I am not talking about completely releasing her, and she would not have this as she loves you more than anybody and clings to you as is natural for a daughter to her mother. But send her away to explore the world, together with some persons she is familiar with."

"The Ultimate One has always called you Wise One, Antharion, and once more you prove that has not been exaggerated."

"Be thoughtful with your decisions, Griwalda, for the fate of the world may depend on it."

"I hate it when you scare me like that." the red-haired woman sneered and then she left with a short courtly nod. The High Sorcerer, his face hidden in the folds of his hood, watched as she walked out of his private room.

"Hard it is not, Griwalda, to scare with the truth."

 

"It is really hard to imagine what life as a master used to be like. The Ultimate One has told us that his life used to be sombre, travelling alone because he could not trust anyone. Still he worked his powers in perfect harmony with nature and his body and soul while his mind was bitter and self-centred." a woman with long dark brown hair and light green eyes spoke.

"The Ultimate One bitter and self-centred. It almost sounds like blasphemy now." the other woman, with dark curls and penetrating black eyes, spoke.

The two women, in their late twenties, had come to the tower fifteen years ago as mere children, offspring from wealthy families who had planned the brightest futures for them, setting up marriages with other prosperous nobles. The youngsters had decided different when they heard the silent call from the Ultimate One, and in all silence they had run away to be trained in the ancient and enigmatic ways of the Body Life magic. After their master had released them three years ago they still frequented the tower even as the Ul­timate One had ascended into the stars where his real home was. As much as it had been an honour to be trained by a god, even though the Ultimate One had never liked being called one, they had enjoyed the hardship of training and they were proud to be the first female masters of Body Life magic in history.

Their physiques in perfect shape like all of their kind, they had forsaken their previous wealth and now lived with the term "enough" when it came to their material prosperity. Like many other new masters, they travelled together.

They read their books of experience and wisdom and trained together with fun and the comfort of company.

"Times must have been entirely different then without the rest of the world noticing it. The Ultimate One spoke of Dark Bodies, he himself slew the last one. How can one call himself a master or a mistress without finishing the complete training, including the Pits?"

"They were foul, but dangerous men, Ledda. And the Ultimate One must have been glad to see that none of us has chosen the dark path."

"It is rather unimaginable for me. Not to speak of that strange habit of ignoring names. It must be confusing." "Which is probably the reason why he did not teach us to do the same. We are his creations, improvements of himself, all his own present or former flaws he never gave us."

At that moment they saw a familiar girl enter the living room.

"Hello Natasha, how are things going today?"

"Terrific! My mother has sent me to Grimloth to visit Uncle Jon and to have a good time in between."

"That sounds great, since you have never been out on your own. Not for voyages like this, I mean."

"You are right Agnes. But I would not go alone, the road is a little too dangerous for that. May I invite you?"

"Of course, it has been a while since we last saw the old psychic." Agnes responded, her dark eyes flickering up for a second.

"Well, Uncle Jon is not that old. He must be around fifty." "Is that not old compared to the three of us?" Ledda grinned and together they started preparations for the trip.

 

"See they fear you? She sends you away." came the voice.

Meanwhile Natasha had figured out she could communicate with the voice mentally as well.

"Are you trying to make me angry? Who are you then? You say you would see the best for me but when you are trying to talk me into hating my parents I think you only want the best for yourself, marking you as evil. You said yourself that I should go out and see how I want to live my life, and now my mother gives me the chance to do exactly that and she knows it. The trip to Uncle Jon is just an excuse for me going out, she wants me to do as you told me last time." "That is correct, I did not look at it from that side. My most sincere apologies, young lady."

"Since when are you so polite?" she asked with sarcasm in her voice.

"Since you think I am evil, I have to prove the opposite." "That is true, I guess."

"So what do you expect going on this trip with your two power­ful friends?" the voice inquired.

"I expect nothing, for I do not know what to expect."

"That is wise. That way you can never be disappointed."

She ignored the voice and looked at her friends, who were leading three mares out of the small stables. They were sad­dled and looked fit.

"The trip will be long but as long as the weather holds I think we can make it in three days." Agnes said, her penetrating gaze on the young girl.

But Natasha had learned that the gaze meant nothing, the woman always seemed to look in scrutiny. Apart from that she had beautiful eyes that were hard to look at, even for other women. Like Natasha, she was well-built, slim and lithe. She was armed only with the legendary sword of Body Life magic, the one that had a dull point on one of the edges, and wore a light coat-of-arms with the ever-present insignia of Body Life magic on her left breast.

Ledda was dressed likewise, with the difference that she wore her hair braided while Agnes wore a small leather head band to keep her bouncing curls from blocking her vision.

Natasha herself wore a light sabre that was however good for slicing as well at it was a weapon made out of the purest silver.

She was dressed in carefully tooled leathers and a bordeaux tunic. She detested armour but knew she would need some protection.

"With your powers, protection?" the voice came back.

"You can protect yourself with the sorcery you have at hand! Simply focus your will on any weapon and it can never harm you. Your companions have their speed, you have your will." "My will is that you leave me alone." she spat in mind and it seemed to work as the voice did not respond.

When they were about to take off, her mother appeared in the gate.

"Will you be careful, my dear? I know there are dangers on the road but do not seek them on purpose."

From her horse, she hugged her mother and promised she would try to stay out of danger, with a glint in her eye betraying different wishes.

Griwalda, of course, saw right through it but did not mention it. After all, were the young and the imperfect not to learn through hardship?

        Chapter Two

 

"Why would we stay at an inn? I mean, it must not be too hard for you to stay out in the open."

The two mistresses of Body Life magic looked at each other. It was obvious the girl wanted to sleep in the open, seeing this as a new experience. But then again, staying at a rough inn in the middle of nowhere would be something new as well. "It is not hard at all, especially as the weather is as good as it is now. But I would prefer a little comfort tonight. This place seems to be pretty rough and things like that but I would prefer to sleep inside now that this inn is here. For the next one we will have to ride hard all day or leave extremely early. Okay, there is one in between but I would not enter that place voluntarily." Ledda said.

"Had some bad experiences there?" Natasha inquired.

"The two of us came there last year. Remember that night Agnes? It was nearly impossible to keep the men away from us and when we finally got to our room men tried to sneak in thrice. They think women are only for one thing."

Natasha shook her head laughing.

"And the people here are better? Surely, the two of you must look like a couple of pretty women out on their own."

"Do not forget, the three of us are that right now." Agnes said. Sometimes Natasha felt bothered by the woman who always tried to look somebody in the eye when talking to somebody, with those eyes.

"But you must be more used to it."

"Of course. We are not shy of company, but we stay away from people who only come to take us to their rooms and drunken sots. Naturally we do not drink alcohol and this seems to disappoint a lot of men who want to see women drunk." Ledda chuckled. "Remember that man in New Albados who con­tinued to buy us drinks while we would not take a sip of that darn ale?"

"I do. Oh, was he crazy! At the end of the night our whole table was filled up with flagons of ale, all full and un­touched. When we left I think he started on them himself, because we have not seen him afterwards." Agnes laughed.

"Do you drink water only, because my father ordered you to?"

"No, the Ultimate One never was this way. He only said that the body needed constant care as we draw our strength from the perfection of our physiques. Beer and spirits harm the mind at once even as it is only temporary, and it also hurts the body, slow but steady. The risk of alcoholism is always there, and when you drink too much the body becomes sloppy. My father, prime lord of Honthal, used to drink much and he was very fat and he put a lot aside for the booze. You could ask your mother when we are back, she has told us about her bad ex­periences with a drunk. And this is why we live on fruit juice and water only, can you blame us?"

"No... of course not. After all, it is what I do."

"With the difference that we have a choice." Agnes said.

"Of course, but what kind of choice? Of forsaking over ten years of hard training?" Natasha retorted.

"You are right. We responded to the mystic call, we only had a vague idea but we did not know what our lives would really be like." Ledda said.

"Though anything was better than the life I had." Agnes said with a sigh while spurring on her horse.

"What was it like then? If I recall correctly you were only ten or so when you came to the tower."

"Twelve I was. During my training, when I stayed in the Pits, I looked back at my life as it had been and I thought it was terribly boring. I spent my days in ennui as there was little I was allowed to do. My parents would see to it that no harm could ever come to me, they would simply forbid me to play other than with dolls and things like that. While I know that they would even throw a doll away when they saw it had a sharp edge somewhere. Already they were planning to couple me to a man who was well over twice my age when I would become of age, some wealthy man from some unknown town. I would get married, have some children and be wife to my husband. Already I was thinking about running away from home when I would become older because I knew there should be more to life than just this. And so when I received the call I packed some practical items -though I could hardly understand what was practical and what was not- and I came to the tower. I came alone and now I cannot understand how I survived. After all, I rode a horse and this was something I had never done before, apart from the small ceremonial leisure trips, and the roads are dangerous. But most of the time I believe that the Ultimate One saw to it that I did not get hurt or worse, as he wanted to save me as his pupil."

"I believe that. When you read the books you see that he wanted us. He wanted female pupils, and he wanted us to be the first mistresses of Body Life magic." Ledda added.

"Your life was the same?"

"The same as Agnes, if that is what you mean. But the same is also what my entire life has been all about. Every day the lessons from Miss Jovella, boring as they were. Then I was fetched for exercise, mostly horse riding and a bit of archery as this is called sports for elite rather than a way of pos­sible survival. It is why I did not need much extra physical training when I came here. The call came to me when I was understanding what was happening to me: I was growing into a position where I could hardly escape. My parents were also already setting me up for a wedding and I saw that I would be traded like a cow by my parents, to a man I would not see long before the wedding and they would never ask me if I would agree with this. And I felt like a pawn of my parents and that feeling started to eat at my inner self. And that is why I did not hesitate when the call came, I took my horse and rode to the tower."

 

The call, they always called it. In his mysterious ways the Ultimate One had sent out a call to people he had chosen as his pupils-to-be. And in satisfaction he had watched how they all came, and all of them had proved to be good choices as they all succeeded. Natasha had watched as a child how the pupils trained hard. In fascination she had watched as they filled the sky with their chosen colours, dealing with power that everybody had but few could use.

After all, Body Life magic was not much more than the ul­timate way to work with body, mind and soul in perfect harmony. And because the masters had physiques that came close to perfec­tion they could use their bodies in their Moves, much like the sorcerers use their spells.

But the masters drew their powers from their own life ener­gy. They threw with their energy or their great speed, reaching the extremes as they could move faster than the eye could follow. And while the Ultimate One and his old class had relied on himself only the new masters also drew strength from love, company, compassion and friendship. If needed, they could use their concentration to achieve intrusion of the mind. They were able to manoeuvre in the air like giant birds or dig themselves into the ground like moles. And they could endure more as their concentration could prevent feeling pain to a high degree.

 

Natasha looked up as the women stopped their horses and des­cended. "Making camp already?" she asked, puzzled.

It was not even dusk and they would go to an inn.

"Our evening practice is waiting for us." Ledda explained.

Natasha smiled, shaking her head for forgetting.

Rapidly the women made a fire and then disappeared, for they would not work out near the horses who would be frightened by the lights and the sounds.

Each master had to practise at least five of the one hundred and seven Moves every evening, Natasha knew.

She positioned herself near the fire as it was cooling down rapidly on this autumn night and the clouds were closing down in the sky.

She rested for some time and was glad when the women returned. Quickly they rode on and entered a small village. At once they stabled their horses and entered the inn Agnes had talked about. When they entered, Natasha saw the faces of many strange men who looked excited as three good-looking women came in.

A big, rotund man walked over to them at once.

"Lady Agnes, I am pleased to meet you here again. And it is always good to see that a satisfied costumer brings along new people."

"Very well Ronald. Meet Ledda and Natasha."

The innkeeper spotted the similarities in the armour of the two women and took a curious look at the short girl.

"May I offer you a table, mistresses?" the innkeeper asked politely. The women accepted heartily and when they sat down they ordered some food and fruit juice.

"How come we seem to be the only women in the inn?" Natasha inquired.

"It is this way in most inns. These are townfolk while their wives stay at home and look after the children and the work housewives do." Ledda said with a small hint of disgust in her voice.

"And there are a couple of adventurers over there. So to see some big braggarts who would not last long in the jungle."

"Which ones do you mean? Over there where that big warrior is?"

"Aye. His brains are probably in his sword arm, and he has already drunk a lot."

Suddenly another band entered the public room. Natasha saw at once that this was a band of nomads from the south, famous bards and fortune-tellers.

The innkeeper welcomed them, one man and five women, and talked to them. Not much later the man installed himself with a music instrument Natasha had never seen before and started playing.

The instrument produced strange sounds that enthralled the crowd, including the three women. But quickly the attention was focused on one of the women who started dancing, dressed exotically and moving with grace. After a while she slowly started to undress in her dance, showing more and more exposed flesh. The men in the room were cheering loudly, banging their mugs on the tables and clapping their hands to the rhythm of the music. They offered the woman coins and valuables would she come a bit closer to them and she lis­tened as much as she could, collecting many coins in her high boots that seemed to have small pockets for that very purpose.

"Isn't this disgusting?" Ledda scorned.

"The woman has absolutely no body to show. Her legs are fat and her waist is more in front of her than her breasts."

Agnes added.

"Then you do better." came an invitation from the next table.

"No, thank you." the women said with a grin, obviously used to all this. They had long noticed that big warrior who had tried to move closer to them without being noticed.

Natasha was looking at all this in amazement. Obviously this woman was not enjoying much of her dance even though she looked as excited as she danced. Natasha had the ability to see right through that coyly smile and saw that the woman was tired.

"Why is she doing this?" she asked Ledda.

"For living. Her husband, the sitar player, is taking his wives on a tour through many public places and this way they earn their money. It comes very close to blatant pros­titution but it is rather innocent. They live in wagons all the time and roam the lands like most of their people. We would see this as poor and disgusting but for them it is the normal way of living. Have you ever seen the gypsy who accompanies Uncle Jon? These are much like him, only sooth­saying is not their occupation."

"I see. It is a strange way of living, though."

"That is what we say. They think the people who come here every night are fools because all they do is sit and drink in time that can be used much better."

"I fully agree with this. Well, people are different. Would we all be the same life would be terribly boring." Natasha said with a smile.

"I think it is time to see to our rooms now." Agnes said while slowly rising.

All three of them saw the eyes of the big warrior follow the contours of the female body when she rose and they laughed heartily about that.

"It has been a quiet night." Natasha said when they arrived in their rooms.

"That is because we went up early. And I would be glad if it remained this quiet. I suspect that thick-sculled warrior to come up here."

"You never know with men, but normally things are quiet here. That is one reason why I like this place."

 

In her room Natasha pondered about the striptease dancer she had witnessed. All but enslaved by the man who made her work despite her fatigue. Her husband he was, but he looked more like her owner who did with her as he pleased. Had this been the result of a marriage of love or one her companions had run from? She knew her mother would never allow her to be married to somebody she did not choose herself, she did not even know if getting married would be something for her. As a matter of fact, she had hardly known any men at all, she had just seen the many pupils in the tower and they were too old for her anyway. She realised that she had seen the stable boy as the first boy her age.

She was tempted to go back into the public room and see what would happen but decided against it for it had been a decision made by the women to go up, and they had taken Natasha upstairs with them so they wanted her to go to bed or at least stay in the room: she knew from experience that Agnes and Ledda would not need much sleep as they could concentrate their rest into a sleep of three hours where a normal human would need eight hours.

"So you let yourself be commanded." came the voice as she had expected.

"Of course. I know they are wise and obviously they know more than me about places like these."

"They refrain the possibility that you learn more about men downstairs because they would not mingle with them themsel­ves."

"I thought different when I came here. And what could I pos­sibly learn down there? I could feel the eyes of men upon me, of men who see me only as a fresh chunk of meat. Or I could watch how women are enslaved by their husbands calling it their way of living."

Suddenly she heard some commotion outside and she opened her window to see the proud band of adventurers she had spotted in the inn leave. She also noticed the innkeeper.

"Of course, when everything is paid you are free to go wherever you want. But I still advise against leaving town at night, gentlemen. There are dangers on the road."

"Danger we dine on, keep. We have heard some things about the roads here and we are not afraid. I bid you good business." the big leader said, brandishing his big sword in salute. The innkeeper shook his head as the horses galloped in the direc­tion of the main gates and he walked back in­side.

"Will they be in danger?" Natasha asked the voice.

"How should I know? They choose to live in danger, it is well possible that they find it."

"That would never be a choice for me." Natasha said.

"Would it not? Then what if you choose the quest for power, my dear? Power will not come by itself, you will have to fight for it. And fights are fraught with danger."

"I know, but at least I would have the power as a goal. These are going out for riches and fame only."

"Indeed, you do not have the mentality of an adventurer.

But you will learn, my dear, and you will make the choice." "I know that. I will have to make a choice, and since you say time is not on our side here I think I need to make it quick­ly. But how quickly is that? I need to know everything before I choose, you know."

"I do. That is why visiting Uncle Jon is good. He is a mind bender who has seen a lot of this world. He knows pure good­ness, pure evilness and pure neutrality. You should ask him, since your company is built of people who have already made the choice to live in neutrality forever. They cannot tell you what is good and what is evil, since neutrality is all they have lived to know."

"I am fully aware of this, and I will ask Uncle Jon for help since both my parents trust him."

Suddenly the young girl felt a wave of fatigue falling over her and she did not mind and therefore did not resist as she fell on her bed and closed her eyes.

 

        Chapter Three

 

"Leaving this early, ladies?"

The innkeeper spoke softly not to wake the few drunks who had fallen asleep on, over or underneath the tables.

"Early? The sun will rise in an hour or so. We have far to travel and as pleasant as your inn is, we have to travel fast so we cannot waste much time." Agnes spoke politely.

They greeted him and paid him generously, then they walked to the stables to fetch their horses.

Natasha looked around as she felt a pair of eyes watching her but somehow she was not surprised to find out the stable boy was staring at her.

She shrugged and ignored the giggles from the women who left town without looking back.

 

"A fight going on, two miles ahead of us." Ledda warned.

"Wait, I want to be there!" Natasha said, drawing her sabre. The women nodded and they spurred their horses.

They were there soon and discovered it was the party they had seen the other night in the inn. They were facing a large band of thieves and it was easy to see they were in trouble as they were losing ground, covering each other from the many attacks. Natasha counted twenty opponents and with a ferocious cry the three women engaged the enemy.

Lights flashed and swords swung in a pace human eyes could not follow and a few seconds later all the ruffians were dead.

It was not after this that they greeted the party and helped up one fallen man while they saw that a second one would never rise again.

"We are sorry for your loss, we came here as fast as we could." Ledda told the men.

"That is not true. They could have saved that pour soul would they have gone into battle their way." came the nag­ging voice. A flush of guilt crossed Natasha's face but only Agnes noticed that.

"Ladies... many thanks for your help we... poor Molo. He got shot ten minutes ago in the ambush, we have been fighting all the time and I know that we could not have survived without your help..." the big man stammered.

"You liar! I am not responsible for his death!" Natasha yelled inside.

"This time you got away lucky. But learn some more about responsibility here. You were not too late but you might. Do you understand that?"

Natasha nodded silently.

"Think nothing of it, we happened to be around." Ledda said and Natasha saw the men, six in total, look at them with something rather uncomfortable in their eyes.

It was something strange, something she could not place, what she read in their eyes.

Then they had been men of the jungle, other men than she had seen but still the look in their eyes made her look around, all the more because she realised that it was more than a pleasant study of female features. She was not ashamed of her muscled body and her flowing auburn locks, and she knew her companions thought likewise. But if it was study nor ad­miration, then what was it?

With a shock Natasha realised: it was fear she could read from the eyes of the men.

Then what do they fear? Certainly not the women who had saved them. She looked around to see if there were more attackers near but as far as she could see they were the only ones around.

Do men fear this strange then? Being gifted with natural talents, Natasha noticed something peculiar about the feelings of fear she could feel inside the men. It was not pure fear, it was sort of combined with... shame.

Shame? Were they ashamed because they could not defeat the attackers on their own? They had been outnumbered by far and though twenty to seven or six was nothing for masters of the Body Life magic it was a lot to normal fighters.

Then her gaze met Agnes's and though she had never liked to look into her eyes now the gaze suddenly made her understand everything.

Apart from the fact that the men feared the enormous powers Agnes and Ledda possessed, they were ashamed of being res­cued by women.

So these must be the kind of men who treated women as being unequal, weaker. And now they felt the embarrassment because women had proven to be stronger.

She silently shook her head and listened to the big man who was talking to Ledda.

"Grimloth is also our destination. Word goes around that the lord of Grimloth offers fair money for those who enlist. We have been travelling a lot to make some money on the road but a more reliable duty would be welcome."

"Killing for money only is so senseless. But you may come along if you want." Ledda invited them.

The men agreed with more than a fraction of hesitation.

 

And so a party of nine entered the quiet town of Grimloth, situated in the eastern mountains. Castle Grimloth towered over everything, the ancient bastion being the residence of the lord of Grimloth, a man from an old family line who had always been known for the great care he showed for the in­habitants of his town.

"Welcome to Grimloth, company." the town guard spoke.

"Please state your names and business."

"I am Agnes, and we would visit Jon Man, the mind bender." Agnes said and the rest also introduced themselves.

"Second street on your right, eighth house on this side." "So you are going to a mind bender?" the big man, whose name was Bran, asked.

"Aye. Well, we will also find some other things in this town to keep ourselves busy but that is what we come here for." Automatically the men followed the three women and so it was quite a party that arrived at the short man's doorstep.

"Natasha, welcome to my humble place. And who did you all bring with you? Please, enter, there is room enough for everybody!" the man said jovially after opening the door.

It appeared to be quite a large building as Jon also used it as his school. But now there were no pupils, just his gypsy apprentice Bals'zr who stayed around the short man almost permanently despite his heritage.

"I know why you have come here, Natasha, and I think I can help you." Jon spoke after Bals'zr had helped all the guests.

"Why I have come here? Uncle Jon, I do not know myself! My mother sent me here. Or do you mean she sent me here with a purpose?"

"Aye, aye, she did send you here for a purpose. But not for the purpose you came here. She sent you out just to be out, to discover the world and to see what you think of it. You came here with many questions in your mind, questions that not everybody could possibly answer. I am going to show you more than you could see in years of this world and I can let you answer your own questions."

"Wow, how do you do that?" a young man from the party called Jansko, asked.

"The ways are mystic and not for everybody, young man. Would you become a pupil in my trade, I would reserve time to teach you everything."

"Still chasing anybody who might become a pupil, Jon?" Ledda smiled.

"Well, I am closed for a few months now, until winter has ended. And I know that at least seven will be coming. That is a lot if not enough, but during the year, some will lose the will to continue."

"Why would they quit something as occult as this? It sounds exciting."

"Jansko, don't bother the man with your silly questions!" warned Bran.

"It is quite all-right, mister Bran, there is no such thing as a silly question unless the question is unasked." Jon said with a warm expression on his face.

"The boy can not be expected to be determined to become a mind bender just because it sounds exciting." Bran scoffed. "True enough, and this is why more people start the year than finish it. After some time they become scared of the virtually un­limited possibilities while it is not half as exciting as they would have expected in the beginning. And the prime source of power is determination, so one can only finish something successfully when he is fully determined to do it."

"You speak true words, mister Man."

"You will need to be fully rested first, girl, before we can start your mind journey. So please retreat in one of the guest rooms and I will see you tomorrow."

"Tomorrow? Why, it is still early in the evening?"

"I know, my dear, but still you need to rest. It is better for you, for the events of tomorrow will require you at your fittest. Trust me."

Natasha obeyed much against her liking and found an empty room with a soft bed.

Closing her eyes, she tried to visualise the ceiling she could not see through closed eyelids, as a mental work-out. "So what is going to happen tomorrow?" she asked the voice.

"I think you have a pretty good idea of that."

"No, I have not! Tell me!"

"Not so hasty, Natasha. I know what is going to happen tomor­row but I would not tell you."

"Why not?"

"Because that would prepare you for it in more than one way and that would nullify the effect of most of it."

"The most of what?"

"Your mind needs to be blank, open to receive the thoughts from Uncle Jon. Would you know what is coming, you would prepare for this, automatically putting up a barrier for Uncle Jon. He would not want this, so I will not tell you." "You sort of play together with Uncle Jon?"

"You could say that, aye. In this case only. Would others need my assistance for your well-being, I would help them. After all, you are the one I watch."

"You are a strange voice, but one day I will figure you out." she murmured.

When sleep overtook her, she could swear she heard mocking laughter in her head.

        Chapter Four

 

She looked around in confusion as she found herself back in the ancient sorcerer's tower she had called home for all her life.

Surely she did not remember waking up or leaving Grimloth for that matter. Yet here she was, and those who had accom­panied her were still with her. She rose from her bed and heard soft laughter somewhere downstairs. She wanted to rush down and see what was going on as this laughter had to come from Agnes and it was a kind of laugh she had not heard much from the serious mistress of Body Life magic.

She flushed and ran back into her room to slip in some satin robes the colour of rubies, trimmed with a black sash with freckles of light blue in it. Slipping in comfortable san­dals, she descended the long spiral stairs leading from her room to the main hall where she found the rest of the com­pany.

Jansko welcomed her heartily and explained that they had captured a wild hart outside with a fine bow shot from Linden, the tall archer.

"And now Bran is buying as he lost a bet. You see, miss Ledda said she could catch one with her bare hands and of course we did not believe her and so she demonstrated it. Bran wagered some silver on it and he sure got the short end of the stick. And of course we have two fresh harts and Unthor is currently roasting them."

Natasha looked at the tall blond man from the northern tundra who was working on two big lumps of meat over a large fire, continually turning them around and around and shif­ting them up and down to avoid the meat to burn black.

The man had never spoken a word, and Natasha did not know whether than was because he did not speak the language or if he was a mute. Or maybe he was just a very quiet man, she knew little about the north.

Agnes and Ledda were sitting in comfortable chairs, smoking familiar pipes with a sort of particular weed that people of their kind usually smoked to strengthen their concentra­tion. This time, however, they did not seem to be concentrated at all as they were chatting with Bran and Linden about light subjects.

Llujan, the bard in the party, played a happy melody on his flute that made the young girl feel warm inside.

"Would you like to dance, my lady?" asked Jansko in a very polite and cautious tone.

"But of course!" Natasha cried out happily and she took his arms and they danced to the music.

"Life is wonderful." the boy whispered into her ear and his soft breath in her ear made her giggle nervously.

When she looked up again, she saw that the rest was dancing as well, except Unthor, who was still busy with the meat but doing a little dancing alone, and Kantquiz, the stocky war­rior, who was drumming on the rhythm with two daggers on the marble table, tapping his feet as a bass drum.

In the wild and exciting dance, Natasha suddenly felt her mood change and before her very eyes, everybody halted in their moves as a lone figure entered.

 

Natasha assumed it was a man, though none of his features were shown as he was dressed in black robes from top to bottom. He withdrew his hands from the large cuffs and slowly pointed a finger at Unthor and Kantquiz.

A deep, hollow voice called their names and spoke a long sentence in a language she had never heard before.

Yet she could feel the voice spoke of doom, the words sounded like an accusation and judgment.

One next word followed, and Natasha could swear she could translate it into 'guilty'.

The two men backed down against the wall and lunged for their weapons while the rest followed.

Not exactly sure what to do and thrown a bit off-balance by the sudden intrusion into their happiness, Ledda and Agnes hesitated. "What? What is he saying?" Agnes asked.

Her eyes were dull all of a sudden, and Natasha took that as an ill omen.

The figure suddenly turned his head to the three women and spoke another word.

"Run!" Kantquiz suddenly exclaimed.

Gripped by fear of this unknown man, Natasha knew that her companions would never do such a thing. They would not give an inch without a fight and they were so powerful! But she had not fully exploited her own powers, and when the stocky war­rior told somebody to run, even after the displays of power the women had given, it had to be genuine.

So Natasha turned around and ran, up the stairs to the highest tower without hesitating. She worked her own small powers to check if there was anybody in the great casting room and to lift the magical locks on the door. She entered and was almost disappointed to find it empty.

She quickly shut the door behind her and pushed a lever that would re-install the locks.

"I should be safe for now. Or did I do the wrong thing? Maybe I left them here to die. I should have brought them all with me. Who was that?" she asked aloud, hoping the voice might be present.

"The sorcery in this room hinders me." it came, a bit strange.

"So you are a sorcerer."

"The sorcery in this room hinders me." it repeated.

She realised it had sounded strange because she could ac­tually hear it aloud. It sounded like the voice had implanted this message in the room in case she would come there and seek its help, to tell her he could not help her.

"Damn you!" she said and lay down on the floor crying.

In her imagination, she could hear shouts of terror and agony from downstairs.

 

When she finally opened her wet eyes again, it was quiet. Strangely quiet, too quiet. Gone were the happy tunes and songs, gone the cries of agony.

Something must have happened, she realised.

After all the power she had witnessed from the two women, she still felt genuine concern as she jumped up and opened the door.

She ran down the stairs and the fall was inevitable. She bumped down but knew how to fall and planted her hands on the cold stone in order to control her fall. She somer­saulted and in mid-air she could grab the railing, made of the finest steel and covered with soft cloth. Then she planted her feet against the wall and hung in the air horizontally for a frac­tion of a second, then she could balance and put her feet down again.

Proud of her skills, she wiped off some dirt and continued her way down, this time a bit more carefully.

 

When she finally arrived in the room again she saw the fire had gone out. There was an unearthly chill in the room and no sign of life. She drew in a breath when she saw the mutilated bodies of the party while the two women were nowhere to be seen.

"Agnes! Ledda!" she shouted and then her attention was drawn by a soft moan.

She turned around and discovered to her horror that Kantquiz was still alive, if barely.

She hurried over to him and covered her eyes in dismay as she saw that he was gutted from stomach to throat with some very ugly weapon.

"What happened? Who was that? Where are Agnes and Ledda?" she asked in a frenzy. Kantquiz, however, did not seem to be able to speak. He raised his right index finger and started to draw a symbol on the ground with his own blood.

"I need to know one more thing Kantquiz! You cannot leave me now! What did he say to me? What did that word mean?"

With his last breath, blood seeping out of his mouth, he uttered one word.

"Virgin."

 

"I have to find them."

It was a statement as solemn as she had ever made.

"But I don't know where to find them. What does this sign mean? It is obvious this has something to do with the place where they took Agnes and Ledda. Can't you help me? Or is there sorcery hindering you again?" she asked sarcastically.

"You can't blame me for not being able to speak in a room protected by the most powerful sorceress in this world." the voice returned, sounding a bit hurt.

"Then you must be a sorcerer."

"I am not."

"Then what are you?"

"I am many things, yet I am nothing. I am dead nor alive, man nor ghost, good nor evil nor neutral. I am me, I am you. I am light, I am darkness."

"Okay, okay, I've heard all this before. Or something like that anyway. But what does this symbol mean?"

"You really should explore the library. Your mother has a lot of books concerning runes and symbols. My knowledge is about you and life."

"I have to find out. Yet is it wise to go after someone or something that captured two trained mistresses of Body Life magic? It must be powerful."

"Your powers are unmatched even as you do not know them. Yet determination will bring up the best in you."

"Easy it sure is for you to talk." she remarked.

"Of course, I am a voice, so talking is what I do best." With a short giggle Natasha walked to the big library, climbing thirty-six stairs again.

 

"Maybe they are not even taken, maybe they are chasing that creature. Yet I must find out where it has gone, I must see what this symbol means. Let's see, this one is about symbols and the rest of this row. That means I must read for ages." "Though you are not seeking pretty runes and friendly signs. Whatever that was, it was not good."

"You are right. I must check for dark magic and stuff like that. That limits the amount of books. I think this one must be the one I am looking for."

She sat down at the reading table and flipped through the pages. The sign she had memorised even as she was afraid it was not very accurate because the artist had been dying when he drew it. The pentagram with the broken leg and the dot in the heart had to be in this book, she kept on telling her­self. "Pentagrams, now I must be getting close. Hey, there it is! The shadows of Horneng. Sounds like some sort of cult if you ask me. No, more information on page 182, volume five, entry three. Where are those volumes?"

She rose once again and quickly spotted the book she was looking for.

"The shadows of Horneng, the remains of what was once a big and valiant group of warriors until they got shattered by a force of skeletal warriors. Vowed to destroy everything that was dead but rose from the dead instead, lead by a vampire lord called Marzún. Are rumoured to be around Horneng still but nobody can say for sure. The lord does not take prisoners alive." she read.

"Horneng. Sounds alien. Some kind of map now."

Carefully putting the books back on the shelves where she had taken them from, she walked over to the other side of the library where maps were stored.

"The northern tundra. I should have known. That is quite a trip. Not to mention I must dress very warm because it seems to be very cold there."

"As cold as the grave." the voice confirmed.

"Couldn't you phrase it a bit more off the point?" she said accusingly, feeling the chills inside her body.

The mocking laughter of the voice followed as expected.

 

Before she knew it she was there. The long days of travel had not worn her out half as much as she expected; in fact, she was feeling well and fit when she arrived in the north. The chill was slowly seeping into her body, but she did not care to think about it. All she could think of was Horneng and this lord Marzún. She felt the energy tickling inside her, she knew that she would do everything she could to destroy this vampire lord, even if she had to use powers she did not even know of.

"Then who do you think you are, Marzún, to attack those I care about? Don't you know I am the single most powerful human being in this world, my mother a sorceress and my father a god? You'd better return Agnes and Ledda else I will be forced to take proper measures."

She was not sure the vampire lord could ever hear her, or anyone else for that matter.

She did not even think about the voice in her mind, the voice that had told her about her powers.

She knew who she was and she knew what that meant.

She looked down to see that her horse, partially covered with warm blankets to protect it from the cold winds that raged up here, was also still fit as it galloped steadily as it always did.

But suddenly the horse halted, waking Natasha from some sort of trance that she sometimes fell in when riding for a long time. She looked up and saw it had become twilight.

"Getting dark so soon? The days must be short here." she whispered. But then she looked at her horse and saw it had frozen in place, the eyes locked in a stare of terror. "Seems you will not take me any further. Fine with me, I know the way." she said indifferently and dismounted, car­rying only her small pack and her sabre.

"It seems the lord is inviting me. He may underestimate me, think I am not ready for him or that he is more powerful than me. I will teach him."

And then she froze, as her own behaviour was surprising her more than anything else in this strange part of the world. This was not her, this braggart who was walking up to a mighty vampire lord while she was nothing more than a seven­teen-years old girl who hardly knew how to control the enormous powers she possessed.

The vampire would probably laugh in her face before he destroyed her.

But what was happening then, when the circumstances could change her this way?

Was this because of the evil surroundings that the only things she could think of was revenge and a battle of power? She realised that she had to play this game a bit smarter. Of all things, she had to control herself before she could even think of controlling the powers concealed within her.

        Chapter Five

 

She sat down on the cold and hard ground in meditation and hummed to strengthen her concentration.

She did not know what had brought her into the stress she felt right now, though she thought it was most likely the new things she had been experiencing in such a rapid pace had become too much for her.

Just the thought of confronting a powerful vampire lord had made her think deeply about herself. Suddenly all the normal fears that should have crept into her body were gone, replaced by sheer boldness. After all, had it not been the voice inside her who had told her she would be the single most powerful human being in the world? Had it not told her that the gods themselves were afraid of her and her powers, the combined powers of a sorceress and the god of Body Life magic, the Ultimate One?

She had never thought much of her possibilities, her life had been one of learning elemental things about life, all within the confines of the enchanted tower.

She had gone out to Uncle Jon just to be outside, to learn more things about life in the world. But never had she ex­pected to find the extremes she had found when she would return to the tower. She had not seen her mother, but this was normal as she spent much time in solitude when studying or she was spending time with the High Sorcerer who had appointed her as his second.

But now she noticed she had not seen anybody except the com­pany with which she had entered the tower.

It was the lack of company she now felt, and she gritted her teeth.

"I can manage things on my own. I don't need people to fight my battles." she said to herself.

She stared into the darkness and slowly nodded.

It was the evil atmosphere that had penetrated her mind.

There was something very evil about this place and that had brought up the worst in her.

"But there is nothing wrong with that. I can be soft and friendly, yet now is not the time for that. I am on a tough mission. My first battle will be with a powerful unliving lord. His name is lord Marzún of Horneng."

"Marzún!" suddenly came a hollow voice from the north.

"Marzún!" answered a second hollow voice, freezing the blood in the young girl's veins.

But once again anger overtook her and she put her hands to her mouth.

"Yes, it is Marzún I am coming for!"

Instinctively she drew her sabre and looked around her to make sure nobody was close to her.

She walked on with determination on her face and was not surprised to find an iron fence encircling a large area. "The cemetery that holds the shadows of Horneng. I should have known."

From dark tales she knew that she had to watch her steps carefully for the dead could smell her living flesh and blood and hunt after it. But even as she remembered this a body hand shot out of the ground in front of her.

One slash of her sabre was enough to cut it down.

However, as she feared this was only the start of things, she concentrated on rising off the ground and though she had never done this before it worked perfectly well as she moved along six feet above the ground. Skeletal arms that reached out on her way to the heart of the cemetery could not reach her, and when she encountered a full army of dead warriors she could fly right over them even as the cold of the grave chilled her to the bone.

She found a sepulchral building in the heart of the cemetery just as she expected, but found her way blocked by a full battalion of skeletons.

One sharp command sounded all of a sudden and the skeletons backed off. The voice was unmistakable, a voice that had been in her mind when that other voice was not there.

Then the figure appeared, and she had no doubt; this was the creature that had taken Ledda and Agnes, the notorious vampire lord Marzún.

"Marzún!" shouted Natasha.

The figure moved its head ever so slightly to see the girl in a standing position six feet off the ground.

The word the lord spoke was in a language she did not know but for this one word: virgin.

"Yes I am a virgin, yet I am nothing for your sleazy plans! I am here to stop you, no matter at what cost, and to get my friends back."

One more word of command and before her eyes the skeletons sank into the ground without a sound except for the rattling of their bones. When the area was clear, the vampire cocked his head and stared at the girl. Now she could see his face: terribly pale, with big eyes the colour of coal with long traces of red in them. His mouth was not, as she had always read, long-fanged but perfectly smooth. Neither did he have the notorious black hair, as his head was bald.

"Inside." he suddenly spoke in her language.

"You should really be taught some manners for women." she boldly replied. "You do not seem to know who I am. I am Natasha One-Donthiac, daughter of the Ultimate One and the second to the High Sorcerer. You cannot harm me."

"I know." the vampire spoke to her amazement.

"Come inside. Please, since you insist."

Fully alert, she slowly descended and followed the vampire inside, always staying three steps behind him in case he would turn around abruptly, hoping to catch her by surprise. "Maybe an opponent of worth but low is the desire from my side for battle." the vampire lord spoke in an ancient voice, hollow and bare of emotions.

They entered a room illuminated by a grey candle that seemed to cast a shadowy light, but as she had expected the vampire did not cast a shadow on the ancient brick walls, adorned by the signs of the dead and some obscure metal objects that looked like manacles of some sort.

"Would you not expect battle when somebody has come to free the living and to avenge the dead, Marzún?" Natasha asked critically.

"Death is a process irreversible, when you are lucky." the lord spoke in an enigmatic tone.

"Revenge is only a living failure of one' s own ideas of what is right and what is wrong. As for the living, little is their need for the help of a teenage girl of power as their con­dition does not allow me to feed on them. It is not what I expected when I broke the two of them, but a power greater than mine is blocking me."

"Most certainly not my father. He has trained them for long years so that they could take care of themselves."

"Your... father is not interfering here, as I feel the powers radiating from their own veins."

"I suggest you let them go and have this thing over with." "Let them go? And be punished for letting go two virgins? You have no idea what the unholy life of one of my kind must be like! I cannot let them go!"

"Yes you can. Maybe you will be punished when you let them go, by some dark force, but then you deserve it! Because if you will not let them go, you will also be punished but then by me!" she shouted, feeling the anger in her swell again.

The vampire raised a hand in silence.

"It is our duty to do what we do. A mortal cannot stop me. It is the curse of this unholy life that binds me to this plane. A duty I cannot forsake. The lives I took were those of grave robbers, people who came to Horneng only for the riches to be found. As I am lord of this domain, I cannot allow robbers to get away with it."

"So you are happy as a commander of a bunch of mindless skeletons? The guardian of long-forgotten soldiers with the only goal in life being to stay here until you rot like the rest of them?" she asked, casually planting herself in an old yet beautiful chair.

"It is not my destiny to rot. Once, aye, once I held my des­tiny in the palm of my hand. But that was well over three hundred years ago, when corruption still ruled the lands of the living. Until I met one woman I would die for. And die for her I did, after I was tried for murder. She died in my hands and I washed my hands in her blood. And when I was buried, I felt myself coming alive. My soul taken by the Guardian of the netherworld, I was once again roaming the living planes. Revenge I felt back then even as I loathe it now, and in person I destroyed the town I had known as the one where I lived my life."

"But the Guardian had other plans for me, and he sent me to Horneng to be lord of the graveyard."

"Why?" she simply asked.

"It is a good question. I always say to myself that the Guar­dian fed on the blood I shed as he fed on the people of Hor­neng. After this he probably knew what was going to happen to a powerful vampire lord roaming the lands. So in order to keep me in line he sent me here, where the dead are my only com­panions."

"And why... did you take them? And kill the men? Is it true vampires need to feed on virgins?"

"There is no place here for those who commit sacrilege. They had no right of trespassing here or taking my gold. It is my right to reclaim what is mine, as Horneng is my domain and mine only, the Shadows my slaves. And there is a certain need to keep up my unholy life, the need to feed on those of the female gender. Would they be virgin they would replenish me double."

"So you willingly prolong your... life, knowing it is a horror only."

"Yet what choice do I have? The good will not help me, they would only destroy me. After which I will burn in torment eternally, punished by the Guardian for failing my task guar­ding the Shadows. The evil would only use my powers, and the loss of my powers would be a loss for them. While the neutral do not care if I exist or not."

"Yet who is truly good, evil or neutral? Who of the living, in any way." she questioned.

"It is a question, young lady, but one I cannot answer. I only know it is the combination of the three alignments that can wretch my soul away from the Guardian to transfer it to better places. You have come here in mind, and in you I see one who holds neither alignment yet all. All I need is the coming of the Pre-bearer. Would he have come he would an­nounce the coming of the Bearer. But that is no longer needed, the coming of the Pre-bearer will do. Because the Bearer appeared before the Pre-bearer."

"When did this happen?"

"This Bearer, young woman, is you."

 

And then suddenly the tone of the mighty vampire lord changed. He stopped pacing and suddenly fell to his knees. And if there was one thing Natasha was not used to and one thing she had never expected, it was this.

"Release me, Bearer! I know the prophecies, the exact words as they were passed down through the mouths of the Immortal Gods in the Heavens and the Hells. I know it is within your power to send the Pre-bearer and fulfil the prophecies, even as the order is upturned. See the living nightmare my world has become. See!"

And before her images appeared, of mindless skeletons roaming the cemetery. Bugs and maggots were all over them, their bones creaked with their every move.

They had no eyes, and yet they saw.

They had no ears, and yet they heard.

They had no muscles, and yet they moved.

Only staying clear of the large building where the lord stood, overseeing the cemetery impatiently, yet the lack of patience was the worst of feelings that could have fallen upon him because time would not have a meaning for him except for the time from dawn to dusk when he retreated to his coffin, being a creature that could not stand the light of the warm sun.

Natasha could see his emotions even as he was denied most of the more pleasant emotions a living being could experience in normal life.

And when searching deep within the lord, she could see all this was genuine, and she was overcome with feelings of pity for him.

She could almost hear the man snorting that pity was not what he needed for he had chosen his doom himself. It was just that it had been centuries ago and through the years he had grown to regret his mistakes and deemed himself worthy of another beg of mercy in the eyes of the benevolent gods, as the Guar­dian he had once revered turned out to be a slave driver only.

"Yet who is the Pre-Bearer?" she asked, frantically sear­ching for answers in her own mind.

"One quarter of good, three quarters of evil. That is all the prophecy tells me. Open eyes, not knowing what he would see. Soul of dark, held up by light. One quarter evil he travels with, three quarters good. Open eyes, willing to see everything but unable to as his mind does not understand the mystics.Soul of light, held up by dark."

"You mean this Pre-Bearer is really two persons? Are they coming together? What happens to the other one? I know nobody fitting that description."

"But you must, if you are willing to release me!"

"What must I do then?"

"Find the Pre-Bearer and return to Horneng! Meet the Pre-Bearer and I will be released when he comes!"

Suddenly she remembered something.

She had all but memorised everything the lord had said and one thing bothered her.

"Wait a minute. You say I have come here in mind. I am not here! This is all a dream, bestowed upon me by Uncle Jon! Everybody is safe, and you probably do not even exist!"

Then the wailing cry of the vampire was all she heard as she woke up, sitting straight in her bed, the concerned eyes of the mind bender looking at her.

"It is sure good to be home." she grinned.

        Chapter Six

 

"It is indeed a bizarre situation, Bals'zr. This has never happened to me. In fact, this should have been impossible."

The faithful gypsy apprentice nodded slowly.

"You say woman has powers. Maybe powers do this." he spoke with the thick accent Jon had grown used to. At times he even caught himself copying it and he realised that did not look very friendly.

But he could trust that Bals'zr would not be offended. The young man had been bought in when Jon first started his school, his family gave the short man a small fortune and instructed him to help the young Bals'zr become a psychic. As if it were that easy, Jon has thought by himself. But he had been convinced that the gypsy had a natural talent like most of his kind and he had taken the boy in. But when his parents had come to fetch him it had been Bals'zr himself, twenty years of age then, who refused to go as there was so much more to learn. His father objected that he could not pay for the studies anymore and that was where Jon had offered to keep Bals'zr and let his work as an apprentice pay for his studies. Always the bargain drivers, the elder nomad had agreed at once and almost immediately turned around after speaking some harsh words to his son in their own language. But Bals'zr had only smiled happily and gone back to work. Now he was more, he was the apprentice, the stand-in for his teacher if he had other occupations at the moment of teaching.

Of course, not all his duties were high and important, but he did the dirty work happily and he never complained. "Master?" Bals'zr asked.

"You are right Bals'zr, I was just caught in thoughts. Who knows if something comes from her powers? She is unique, we have no example to tell us where this will lead."

"But this vampire... who could have thought this would happen? Maybe it is her own imagination, she is only a girl of seven­teen and maybe she used to have nightmares about a vampire or something like that. We know that dreams are not always of the dreamer's own making, sometimes they predict the future. There is no telling what this one meant."

"Maybe we study, find out what means."

"We do not have time on our side, Bals'zr. Of course we can study on the matter, but meanwhile she thinks it was just an example of the evil in the world, something I did to her, and she cannot know that this was something beyond our control."

"Then we tell her."

"We have to, aye. But this is a delicate matter, as I can tell you what she will do then."

"Of course you can, master. That what we are psychics for." the apprentice joked. Jon smirked at his apprentice's wit and looked at the ceiling.

"Master, why always look at ceiling? Ceiling does not speak, does it?" Bals'zr asked.

"The ceiling does speak, Bals'zr. It speaks because it does not speak."

"Master?" the youngster asked, puzzled.

"Because the ceiling is really nothing. You focus your vision on nothing, thus concentrating your thoughts where they belong. This is what I picked up from an old friend of mine, the Ultimate One."

Suddenly he turned around and saw that the young girl was approaching slowly.

"Uncle Jon? I would thank you for the wise lesson. How did you ever create wonders and horrors like these?"

"Dear Natasha, please sit down. There is a lot I should tell you."

Natasha, who had her experiences with times when she was called dear, sat down on a small stool, looking at Jon in anticipation.

"What you saw was not something made up by me. Surely, the first part was from me. The dancing and the feast in the castle. But did you not feel something happen just before that vampire entered?"

"I felt a chill, the chill of death. But my instincts always warn me when danger is coming."

"Of course, this is something given to you by your father. Though some others would simply call it female intuition. Something did happen alright: somebody took over control."

"You lost control? How can this happen?"

"Normally it would be impossible. I have faced the Dark Body and I could control him. I have manipulated many minds and they all fell for my powers. Yet this time somebody came in between and to my surprise did the very same to you that I wanted to do, he just used something entirely different, something more real."

"So... you mean this Marzún is real? The shadows of Horneng are real?"

"Come to the living room, dear. You will find the others there, well and fit. That will warm you."

"I sensed their presence already, Uncle Jon."

They entered the living room where they saw the company and the two mistresses again. Immediately Natasha saw their pale faces and the hidden horror in their eyes, even in the eyes of Ledda and Agnes.

"What... what happened?" she asked, uncertain how to react. "They all shared the dream, Natasha. They all did. But add that they saw themselves die and then they followed the rest of the story through your eyes or watching you from a dis­tance, powerless to intervene."

"So, are you grave robbers? Have you disturbed Horneng?" "We... we were challenged by another small band and they talked about the enormous riches there and that they would not go there for all the gold in the world. We said they were cowards and that sort of obliged us to go there. But we found some gold and discovered later it was meant as bait as we took it and dead bodies started to shoot out of the fields. We dropped the gold and ran for our lives. But we never saw anything like that vampire creature, I can assure you that." Bran told, his voice quivering.

"And we have never been that far north." Ledda added.

"Of course, it is all a perfect blend of the actual situation and the knowledge invested in you when the dream began. But somebody had been watching my work all the time and this is the reason why you all shared it." Jon explained.

"Master, this shared control and view what you mean?" his apprentice asked.

"Indeed, Bals'zr. A mind bender feels it when another is at work and he can watch what is going on or try to take over control. Now the latter is very hard but even when viewing the other one used the projected view to project it on others, in this case this party and the ladies."

"Why?" Kantquiz asked.

"Because you were involved in the part?"

"Master, you think vampire is other one?"

"Now Bals'zr, that is something I cannot know. After all, I told you I could not see who took control, I could only watch along with the rest. But this is not important to your studies, Bals'zr, psychokinetic powers have nothing to do with the art of fortune telling."

"Is true master, I just interested."

"Still the question was a good one." Agnes stated.

"You mean... this Marzún can be real?" Natasha asked, a bit befuddled.

"I do not doubt he is real. And I even think the apprentice showed a lot of wit coming with the vampire as the one respon­sible for the turning of events. And I may even say he was a great help as he showed dark horrors mister Man might not be able to portray."

"That remains to be seen, mistress Agnes. After all the dark side is an important part of the mind bending business, and in the fight against the Dark Body there have been many horrors I could use against him. It might sound silly but what I did then felt so extremely horrible and now it is more something of the standard package for horrors; a man who killed people is held tight and forced to watch how all these people died."

"Did that shock the Dark Body?" Ledda asked. She had heard a lot from the Ultimate One but not everything.

"It sure did, especially because he was held against his will and this is something you just experienced in the dream, the moment all the powers you so strongly believe in are gone. Then you are vulnerable beyond your own belief, I assure you."

"I believe that. But what should be done next? Is there some way to investigate this situation?"

"There sure is." Natasha said, rising slowly.

"I am going to Horneng."

"You are what?"

"My mother sent me here, she sent me because she wanted me to have experiences of some sort, to make me grow up after spen­ding seventeen years confined in the tower. She knew that once I came here things would come by itself. And I did get something I believe in, and I have made up my mind. This Marzún called me, he used heavy powers to break through the powers of Uncle Jon to bring a message to me, and the wail I heard when I woke up was his cry of agony because I left him, realising it was just a dream. I defied the power of the dream and lost contact with him. I know I have to go back, I have to free lord Marzún from his anguish."

"Help a powerful vampire lord?" Jansko asked in disbelief.

"Sure. He may be powerful but he cannot be happy as he only wants rest like the rest of the dead. And one way or the other he saw that there is a power in me to break his spell of continuing life and so he asked me to come to Horneng and free him. I could confront him, and he knew he could not hurt me."

"This could be a trick, however. In this part he controlled his own character like you did yours. He could say he could not hurt you, knowing you were only there in a dream."

"Why would he want to hurt me then?"

"A virgin." Kantquiz whispered just loud enough for all to hear. Natasha looked at him with a hurt glance.

She decided not to reveal her true powers as she knew little about them herself, but she knew her heritage and she knew she had many powers concealed deep within her.

"It is a long ride to the tundra." Agnes spoke, knowing that Natasha had made up her mind.

"I know. The time I can use to think." she just said.

Ledda looked at her with her bright eyes showing concern.

"You want to go alone!"

Natasha bowed her head in acknowledgement.

"Outrageous." Bran mumbled and was not surprised by the poisonous look Natasha sent him.

"I can take care of myself, a whole lot better than some of you can. And I have made up my mind, and I have my own guide and can protect myself."

An awkward silence filled the room; the company did not know her and just saw a seventeen years old girl who wanted to venture to the darkest parts of the world alone, Ledda and Agnes were used to travelling in company of others and were surprised that Natasha, raised while they were there, chose otherwise and Jon recognised the need for solitude of her divine father when he walked the world as a mortal. Poor Bals'zr understood nothing of the whole situation, he was surprised about the turns this routine event had taken and knew he was not welcome to express his opinion, if he had one.

 

It was Jon who broke the silence.

"You are free to do what you wish, Natasha. If you cannot withstand the urge to go to Horneng then there is nobody who can stop you. You may leave whenever you want, and know that you go with our blessings and our concern."

Now the girl smiled happily. "Do not be concerned about me, Uncle Jon. You know I will be all-right."

"The priests say your fate is in the hands of the gods, and in your case we know exactly in whose." Jon smiled wearily.

"Well then, I will rest here today, I have to buy some provisions of course and prepare myself for a long journey. I will leave tomorrow for Horneng."

Proudly she stood there in the room where again a silence fell.

 

        Chapter Seven

 

Natasha looked at her horse, pacing around the muscular animal restlessly. "It is a long distance we have to cover, Milena, but we both know you can manage."

The large brown eyes looked in hers calmly, as if the mare confirmed that she could gallop a long time.

She double-checked the necessary equipment, such as the sad­dle, the provision bags, her sabre and her warm clothes. Then she mounted her mare and took off.

From a distance, a short man and a woman with long dark curls were watching her leave.

"You think she is strong enough?" the woman asked, her eyes digging into those of the short man.

"I don't know. I know her parents and I know they are strong yet this is not the adventure you would send a seventeen years old girl on, Agnes."

"I know. Yet if we do not venture, we never reach our limits, at least that is what I have been taught."

"It is not reaching the limits I worry about, Agnes. My fears are more about crossing the line."

"Ah come on, she is a strong girl. She will manage."

With a warm grin the woman turned around, wrapping her arm around the psychic and nudging her face against his.

 

"Will you stop?"

For well over half an hour, the voice in her mind had been scolding her for taking off so quickly without seriously considering the dangers she was going to face.

"You know you have tremendous powers at your disposal, yet you do not know how to use them. Then you fully expect to walk up to a dangerous and bitter vampire lord just hoping his dreams did not betray you? What if you are just a very gullible girl who falls for the experienced vampire's tricks? After all, he told you a vampire needs virgins to feed on. A sad obligation, really, but he cannot beat the Guardian. He is not destined to be free of his ill fate."

"That is what you say. But he tells me I am the Bearer, the one who bears the power to unite three alignments. And even the Guardian cannot defeat the power of the All, the com­bined forces of the three alignments."

"The three alignments cannot rest in you. Aye, they are there, all three of them. But none have you declared yours. You are out to help somebody, which would bill you as good. You help a creature of evil, disqualifying you as good. You do not watch only, so you would not be neutral."

"What makes you think neutrality is all about being not good and not evil? My father always taught that there is no pure good or pure evil, there has to be both. Did you not hear what the vampire lord said? The combination of the one who is three quarters good and one quarter evil and his own counterpart and of course myself, who has a bit of all but not one to claim my own alignment. I am somebody who can stand above alignment, and I do what I want to do."

"Selfishness would be billed as an evil feeling." the voice retorted teasingly.

"Like my contributions to the poor and the ones in need would be billed as a good feeling. And my knowledge about what I could do if I were to be won by either side, and what would happen to the world, would be considered a thought of neutrality."

"There is no sense in talking to you when you go on like that." the voice said, sounding a bit tired.

"Good, 'cause I never asked you to talk to me in the first place, especially not when you' re intruding my thoughts and criticizing my every move or thought."

The voice kept quiet and Natasha rode on, overlooking the quiet road and the surroundings.

All was quiet, a bit too quiet.

"Though I would not regret it when I reach that inn."

 

She was crossing the quiet woods of the north-central district of the lands of the knights, a quiet realm where peasants and knights lived. She knew that things would get worse as soon as she passed the Great Borders, the range of mountains where civilized world as good as ended and where the prairies of the barbarians slowly froze up to her final destination: the tundra in the north.

All in all, it would be a trip of three weeks if she rode on hard, and she intended to do just that. But she knew that with a long journey strange things could happen and the delay would come, no matter how hard she tried to prevent it. And she also knew that she would probably be asking too much of both her­self and her horse if she would ride on until she dropped. She had enough money, since her mother had given her enough means of support. And Ledda had also supported her with money, as the mistresses of Body Life magic seemed to have a knack for earning money whenever they needed it. There were also rumours that her father had always donated his spare money to charity simply because he couldn't carry his own wealth anymore. All his adventures had made him large sums of money.

Another foe gone who happened to be rich; so much the better for him. A dark, lonesome man he had been, always out to find something that would keep him occupied for a while. And if he had found it, he dealt with it and moved on. Until he met her mother and all the things that happened shortly after that. The result was now that his bright blue star shone at night, and that he was no longer in the planes of existence with the mortals.

"All his great skills he invested in me." she spoke to herself "It is about time I use them."

She slowly rose from her saddle, her eyes closed for con­centration. Then she opened her eyes again and saw that the road was long and straight so she focus her vision on the horizon. Within moments she was in the state of mind that she wanted, the state of mind where she could call upon the powers from her father.

Her feet left the buckles, her body rose and hung suspended in the air. Like this she floated just above her saddle in full motion, in the same pace with her horse.

The mare had experienced more things with her and did not miss a single step noticing that her rider was no longer on her back. The intelligent animal knew her mistress was still close to her and would return to the saddle eventually and so nothing happened. Meanwhile Natasha sent invisible waves of energy into the sky, giving them no colour because she was afraid to draw any unwanted attention.

Difficult moves she performed, drawing out energy for her eyes only, using the power of her mind to attack the air and the clouds with webs, clouds, balls and beams of the energy of Body Life magic. In mid-air she practised with her sabre and moved with the speed of sound. There was nobody to witness the spectacle after all, only the horse and that was one who just ran on in the same, steady pace.

 

The sun was almost down when she entered a small town. "We­lcome in Voldair, stranger. Your name and business please." the senior town guard welcomed her.

"Natasha One-Donthiac, traveller passing through and looking for a place to stay the night."

The guard looked surprised to hear a woman's voice, all the dirt in her face had hidden her features and her body was hidden behind the great animal and her armour.

"Welcome again, mistress. I can recommend the Three Eyed Giant Inn, first street to your right and then on the first left corner. The establishment also has stables."

She nodded shortly and led her horse through the town. She found the inn with the strange sign and went to the stables first.

"Comin' from a long journey I see. Never mind sir, I 'll take the horse for you. Any special instructions?" a young boy asked.

"Just the regular. Clean and feed and prepare for tomorrow morning." Natasha answered, ignoring that she was seen as a male again. Also the stable boy looked surprised but then he smiled and went right to work. Before entering the inn, however, Natasha first quickly splashed the mud and dirt from her face in the water basin meant for the horses. Using a clean tissue to dry her face, she hesitatingly opened the door of the inn. Here she was, in a strange inn, and this time all alone.

And at once she saw the stares, the stares from the men in­side. Beside the serving maids there was no other female in the establishment but her, and the men in the common room did not look too clean or decent. She walked as calmly as possible to an empty table near the fire and sat down. At the same moment she knew this was a mistake as there would be more who would want to sit near the fire but she decided not to look afraid by moving away again. She had always been told that innkeepers were big, rotund men and so she was surprised to see a tall, lean man move over to her, a towel tucked in his pants.

"Welcome to the Three Eyed Giant inn, mistress. What will it be?" he asked politely.

"Some food and fruit juice, please."

"Food? We have chicken, boar and deer tonight, mistress."

"I will have the deer, with some potatoes."

"And the juice? I have lime, mango and strawberry juice."

"I 'll have the lime."

"Coming right up."

The innkeeper disappeared into the kitchen and came out a short while later, returning to his usual business after giving the cook his instructions.

She looked around anxiously and spotted some men looking at her. Well, she thought by herself, it was a bit strange to see a lone seventeen years old girl in a strange inn.

She remembered the words from Ledda and Agnes about the men in places like these and her hand silently went to her belt to see if her sabre and her machete, which she used as a tool more than a weapon, were still there.

 

And so it felt quite strange, her feelings of anticipation and excitement almost turning into disappointment, that she was left alone by the patrons. She ate and drank and looked around a bit. It looked like the only patrons were the usual clien­tele, ordinary townfolk. She was almost hoping for a band of nomads to show up like last time, if it were only for the diversion. With nothing to do, she decided it would be wise to retreat to her room early because she needed to be rested. She talked to the innkeeper about breakfast and he promised her some provisions for the road.

She felt it easy to rest on the hard bed as she had never enjoyed the luxury of soft beds. After all, she knew that soft beds were for soft people and trained muscles and backs could obtain serious injuries.

She paid the rest of her room no heed and fell asleep.

More long days would follow.

 

The next couple of days, Natasha started to become hard on herself, travelling on as fast as she could and resting within the comfort of an indoor bed only if she saw that her horse could use rest in a barn.

She knew that it would grow tougher once she passed the Great Borders. Travel would become harder, the climate would change dramatically and the people would be nothing like the ones she used to know. From barbarians to the pale, blond-haired northerners. All with their different cultures and probably not much knowledge of the lands south of the Bor­ders. So far the people had been nice or ignorant to her but she had no idea how the barbarians would react.

Unthor had told her a little about the northerners but all she knew is that they were not fond of people who were not like them, and she expected trouble there.

But, she said to herself, that was a long way.

First things first.

 

        Chapter Eight

 

The days were growing shorter, and during her long ride she had practised many different skills and she had been excited to see that she could do things she had seen masters of the Body Life magic do with ease. Her concentration was so strong that she could easily fly or focus it into a ball of energy which she could throw around at will.

Also the invisible moves through sheer speed were not half as difficult as she had always thought and slowly she learned the Moves, one by one. She found it easy to con­centrate her will and before she knew it she could also use some rudimentary sorcery.

The voice had been encouraging her all the way, guiding her through the various stages of exercise and it seemed it also knew exactly what she was doing. The knowledge of Body Life magic was inevitably there, as the voice could correct her stances and manoeuvres if she did anything wrong.

It had also been the voice who had hinted that she would want to buy extra canteens because the plains would be dry. And he had been right because the places where she could find water were scarce in the plains and the days were lonely as she only saw an occasional barbarian village and she chose to leave them behind.

The journey seemed to last forever and she was happy to see some signs of climate change as the dry plains became colder and turned into steppes and the tundra.

Meanwhile she has experienced how hard it can be being out on your own, with nobody but a horse to talk to, and nothing to do except to ride and to practise.

But it had almost been two months now, and there was no easy return. She realised that her horse was tiring but refused to sell the mare to buy a fresh one.

But the horse, as strong as this one was, simply had to col­lapse under the heavy pressure of constant journey and chan­ging climates, and so it came that Natasha cried of dismay when the animal gave out. After all, she had learned to ride on this mare and she had trained it to a perfect physique. But then she realised that it had been too much and learned the valuable lesson that one should never ask too much.

She burned the carcass carefully and then looked at the sky. She looked up to find the light blue star that belonged to her divine father and rose her sabre.

"Why would I need a horse anyway? I can fly to my goal from here." she spoke aloud and then rose.

 

From the air she had a great view and she realised that flying was beautiful. She talked to the birds in the sky and learned that birds would never trade their wings for sturdy legs to walk. And apart from that, travelling went much faster than riding. And so it came that it took only three more days to arrive near the notorious cemetery.

She was shocked to recognise some places from her dream and this confirmed that it had been real.

And then she found a lone figure, dressed in full armour and a light tunic. He was built massively yet slender in the waist, a big sword hung at his side.

"What does a lone warrior do here? Robbing graves like the party I met?" she wondered. She did not approach the man however as she was not sure what to expect.

Then she remembered something. "The Pre-Bearer!" she said and hurried over to the man. He turned around hearing her footsteps and she was surprised to find a young man, maybe only a few years older than herself.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"My name is Natasha One-Donthiac, from the Authon Towers in Arnesia."

"Clynck Gunthar-Roth, from Grimloth in Arnesia."

"You are from Grimloth? Why, I just came from there!"

"Oh well, we have been gone for quite some time now, my brother and I. You have friends there?"

"Only Uncle Jon Man, the local mind bender. I got a dream from him but then something got twisted and a vampire lord came into my dream, begging me to release him. Called me the Bearer, for I would bear the powers to release him. And I had to unite three alignments for I am all and none. I would find the Pre-Bearer who would appear in the cemetery over there and then he would be free. I know it sounds a bit fantastic but I swear it is the truth."

"I think so, aye. For my brother is preparing to enter that graveyard for he has said a few things about being the one who bore some kind of power."

Suddenly Natasha remembered. Quarters of evil and good, that could only mean that there would be one brother aligned to evil while he gets the influence of good from his brother who in turn would feel the influence of evil while he was good himself. Open eyes, the evil one did not know what he was looking for and the good one could not comprehend what he saw. The souls held each other up, naturally as they were kin. This Clynck was the one who would not understand as he was taught only to fight while his evil brother would be a young sor­cerer.

"Your brother is a black sorcerer?" she asked carefully.

Clynck nodded, without any feelings of shame or something else one would expect when somebody you love is marked for evil. "It is the dark side that has always fascinated him, the ever-lasting quest for power with no compassion for the weaker ones. Except me, of course. We travel together and everywhere we get those weird looks but my brother is loyal to the Coun­cil and pledges to the High Sorcerer."

"My mother is the High Sorcerer's second."

"Is she? That should interest my brother. I think you want to meet him. Don't give his black sorcery too much thought, he's really a nice guy." Clynck said and motioned to a small tent.

"In there? There is nobody in there." she said after a short glance at the tent.

"What do you mean there is nobody in there? My brother... how would you know?" Clynck asked, puzzled.

"I can feel the life beat and I can see the radiance of the living. Unless something happened to your brother he is not in there. No, he is not dead, for even the ones who died of recent have their auras still."

It was obvious the young warrior did not buy her explanation at once for he ran to the tent and opened the flap.

"He is not here!" he said to Natasha, who had also ran over to the tent, if it were only to hold up the conversation.

She had already seen she could easily outrun the heavily armoured fighter.

"So he has probably already taken off to the place he was bound for anyway."

"You mean he went to the cemetery? Without you? But then you must hurry! You have to stop him!"

"Why? He was to go there anyway without me, I have already been there in mind and lord Marzún said he could come alone. I am not even sure if I am supposed to go there again."

"You don't understand. My brother is only twenty years of age. He is not powerful yet, and he may not know the perils waiting for him in that graveyard even as the dead would be ones of his alignment. Maybe the Shadows do not care about alignments as long as there is warm blood on their lips." "Makes sense. Though sorcerers are usually not so stupid to go unprepared. Well I must hurry then. Stay here, for I am pretty sure it will be too dangerous for you in there. I know you care for your brother but leave this to me."

Clynck nodded but Natasha did not see it anymore as she hur­ried towards the cemetery.

 

Dressed in dark blue robes of the finest velvet, covered with black fur to withstand the cold of the north, a figure ap­proached the gates of the dark cemetery.

"I have come as I has been summoned." a dark, young voice spoke aloud.

"Aye. But were you not summoned to meet me first?" came a second voice surprising the young sorcerer.

"Are you the Bearer? Why, a woman!" he exclaimed.

"Woman? Well I can't help being only seventeen. I have been instructed to meet you first, to give you the power to release the vampire lord."

"Lord Marzún?" the man asked, surprised. But she could hear the undertone of verification in his voice.

He jumped back when he heard the name repeated by dark, hollow voices, just as Natasha had heard them in the dream. "You call yourself a dark sorcerer? You should be used to this then." she remarked cleverly. The sorcerer gave her a shy smile.

"It is not the darkness I am accustomed to; it is the power of this side I would discover. Please do not be taken aback by my alignment for I am not as bad as I look."

"I have already met your brother Clynck, and he also wanted to apologise for your alignment. Well do not worry, I say each to his own."

"Then you are the one of all alignments and none!" the man exclaimed. After all this, he still seemed to be surprised that the young girl was not an impersonator.

"Of course. Actually it's a nice name. My real name is Natasha One-Donthiac. Where did you make up that name?"

"I am Vooys Gunthar-Roth. I did not make up the name, it came to me in a dream."

"A dream? One Marzún sent you?"

"Did he? I do not know, I only recognised the truth in the dream and I was told to find the Bearer, the one who bore the power to release the vampire lord. And because the lord is said to be around here I figured this Bearer would also come to this rather sinister place."

"But... you are from Grimloth, and I left that very city the day after I got the dream! Then how come you and your brother came here so fast?"

"Actually we were home when we got the dream, and we also left the same day. We have been here for almost a week."

"A week? Then you were very fast!"

"Not that fast, we travelled on horseback all the time and we regularly slept in inns, especially here in the north where the nights are cold, as you will undoubtedly have noticed."

"I... I have been riding on very hard, I even exhausted my dear horse to death. And I flew on with arcane means after that. It is rather impossible that you left on the same day or only a day earlier than I did. When did you get this dream?"

"Let me think... it was on the fifth day of the waxing moon two months ago."

"Are you sure about that?" Natasha asked in disbelief.

"Sure. Why? Did you get your dream later?"

"Actually, fifteen days later."

"This is strange. The lord appointed me as the Pre-Bearer, he could tell me you, the Bearer, would come. Yet he ap­pointed you as the Bearer many days later."

"So he must have foresight."

"Something like that, I guess. Where did you get your dream?"

"When I was in Grimloth, I was staying at the mind bender's. He is a friend of my family and I was sent by my mother to meet him. But that was just to have me out in the open!"

"Do you think your mother set you up?"

"I do not believe that, nor do I believe my mother would have anything to do with an evil vampire lord."

"Your mother would be billed as 'good' then?"

"I am not exactly sure. I think her position would restrain her from dealing with one side only."

"Her position? And your mother's maiden name is Donthiac? Could it be then that your mother is the High Sorcerer's second?"

"So you have heard of her."

"Of course. Every sorcerer knows of Mistress Griwalda, the one who..." and then the young sorcerer hushed, paling.

"Who what? Something I should know?"

"I mean... you are a half-god!"

"Oh, bother! I am as mortal as any other girl on this plane, my father was mortal when I was conceived. And my father, the Ultimate One, doesn't even like being called a god, and only few people know even of his existence."

"I do. I have confronted the astronomists with the changing of the yellow star in the skies, the one right there. And someone said that a god had been slain and replaced, a god known by few but respected by all who knew him. And later, purely by chance, I found out that the second of the then newly ap­pointed High Sorcerer was this new god's wife. I do not know what this god stands for, however. And it is the first time I hear his name is the Ultimate One."

Meanwhile they had advanced almost carelessly and they were standing right in front of the cemetery before they knew it. Natasha noticed just in time.

"Now it is time to move a little bit off the ground so that the Shadows can't reach you."

"Move off the ground? You mean to levitate?"

"Exactly. Just like this."

"How did you do that so easily?"

"It is something different than sorcery but it holds at least the same power. Can you do this by means of sorcery?" "I think I can. I must concentrate."

It took more time than Natasha had imagined but finally Vooys came off the ground. Together they floated to the building that was indeed there and again it was blocked by a horde of skeletons. They waited patiently for the command by the lord to slide back into the disrupted soil and after a few moments it came as expected.

"You have arrived just like you came last time." came the sepulchral voice from lord Marzún, looking up to see the twosome in the sky. With a short gesture he invited them in and they followed with more than a fraction of vacillation as they knew this was not a dream but the real thing, and their lives were at stake still, for who knew the dark mind of a powerful if unhappy vampire lord?

 

To their surprise the vampire seemed to have been prepared for the meeting for the floor was vastly different from the one they had seen in the dream. There were signs on the floor, drawn in black charcoal. Candles of the arcane sort that burned yet shed no light were all over the room and Natasha noticed the cold radiation of black light.

"I feared I could not convince you to come when you dis­covered it was a dream when you first visited my tomb, yet you found the courage to come." the lord spoke.

"You want to be free, to rest like most of the dead. And you told me I had the power to release you, and so I came."

"The sending of the Pre-Bearer would have been sufficient, but all the more chance we have right now since you are not only the Bearer of all alignments and none, but you are also one of considerable power, the one once to be the most powerful creature in the world. And that increases our chances to defeat the Guardian. Long I have studied on this matter as rest is indeed my only goal in the unholy life I have lived. Please, soul of dark, step into the sign that holds one quarter of you. Be lead by the feelings of good you harbour because of the one who came with you."

Reluctantly Vooys stepped into the sign of the light, and he felt a sensation he could not possibly describe but would later explain as the crossing of the line where he did not belong, at least not the biggest part of him, while holding on to it with the part of him that belonged to his brother.

"Please, soul of everything and nothing, step into the sign that holds me."

Natasha pointed at one sign and a nod from the young sor­cerer confirmed this was the sign of the dark. She did not feel a thing, however, as she had harboured feelings of the dark ever since she had come near this place.

"Now, I myself will step into the sign that I would hold if the chance be given."

The vampire stepped into the sign of the shadow and could not suppress a shudder, as unnatural as that seemed for one who could not feel cold.

The vampire instructed them shortly and then Vooys began chanting, his hands raised high.

"I defy thee, powers of the universe. I am a man of the dark, yet I stand in the light and the light cannot reject me as it will certainly recognise the part of me that clings to the light. For I am the Pre-Bearer, the soul of dark, held up by light. My dark powers defy thee, listen to the ones who defy."

Then Natasha raised her hands.

"I defy thee, powers of the universe. I am a girl who holds all alignments and none, yet I stand in the dark and the dark cannot reject me as it certainly will see the chance I will turn to them once more some day. For I am the Bearer, the one who holds all alignments. My powers defy thee, listen to the ones who defy."

Slowly, his dark eyes burning with intensity, the vampire lord rose his dead arms, his hands almost diaphanous.

"I defy thee, mighty Guardian. I am a vampire of the dark, yet I stand in the shadow and all I can do is hope that the shadow does not reject me, for I am one who desires only rest in the shadow. For I am lord Marzún of Horneng who pleas for final alleviation. I have served under the Guar­dian for long years of pain, now I seek to be relieved from this burden. My powers defy the Guardian of the netherworld, listen to the ones who defy."

Suddenly darkness and light seemed to surround the three standing in the signs, and loud thunderbolts were to be heard and while they seemed to come from outside they could almost feel the impact in the building. The ground seemed to shake, and they could feel the wrath of the Guardian.

"We defy thee, Guardian!" Natasha suddenly shouted.

"For we are all and we are none. You have tormented this soul long enough, as for us, the lower life forms, time passes by. We feel your wrath and this only shows you are suffering from defeat. Be not ashamed of being defeated, for you know who and what defeated you. It is the legend that has been written down a long time ago, and not do we seek to destroy your imperium of death. This does not mean we seek final rest for all the vampires and other creatures of death under your control. Life is a balance, and there has to be both dark and light, and a neutral side to hold the very balance. There will undoubtedly be enough people dying every day, so release this one!"

A few seconds later it was over. The waves of extreme ten­sion were gone, the shadowy light returned to the room, the ground was not shaking anymore and even the dark candles had gone out. And when Natasha looked at the young sorcerer, she saw he had fallen down in exhaustion.

But what was more important, the vampire was no longer there. And she knew the Guardian had released him, she would have felt the pain of torment herself would he have taken the lord to eternal torment. And with that she finally understood the risk of undertaking the actions she had just undertaken: the wrath of the Guardian.

Quickly she looked up to the bright blue star that shone lonely but solemnly between two powerful constellations.

And she remembered the words of the mind bender when it came to her divine father, but she could not know how far his powers went, there in the universal home of the gods.

After all, he had been there but for a short time and like life on the planes of the mortal, he would have to establish himself in the eyes of the other deities. And the Guardian of the netherworld was surely one powerful foe, an ancient one at that. She realised that it was she who had caused all this by helping the vampire lord, and so she was the one to deal with it.

 

Slowly the sorcerer came to, and he was helped to his feet by the girl who had been standing over him. With newfound respect he embraced her, and it was a rare sensation for the young girl. "We made it. We have to get out of here as soon as possible, you know. This place will not be safe for a very long time now that the Guardian has been defeated." "Are you strong enough to levitate?"

"I think so, aye. The exhaustion was only in mind, and my sorcery was not drained. Let's get out of here, quickly." They left the sepulchral building and discovered to their horror that the weather had changed dramatically: a violent thunderstorm had hit the lands and in these cold parts those came with blizzards and hail storms. Bolts of bright yellow lightning soared through the skies, illuminating the lands for miles for seconds.

The wind had grown in force considerably and now reached speeds of over seventy knots. Vooys yelled something but Natasha was only able to hear him by utter concentration as the roaring wind blew away the words as they were spoken. Yet the face of the dark-robed sorcerer said more than enough, more than those two words could ever have said: "My brother!"

 

Frantically Natasha waved her arms, motioning for Vooys to fly a bit closer to her. To her surprise she found the man to make the same gesture and, battling the storms, they flew toward each other.

"I will make a force field, that should protect the two of us." the sorcerer yelled. Natasha managed a wry smile: that had been exactly what she had planned to do, but then quite another way.

Holding on tight to the man, Natasha fought to maintain control of their position, thus giving the sorcerer the chance to gather his will and create the field of power to protect them both. But no sooner had he finished his spell or the two of them became a toy ball of the storms, bouncing all the directions the wind wanted them to blow.

"This backfires. Control the storms!"

"How? These storms are demonic!"

"Fight them!"

Vooys tried to control the storms but failed just like he had predicted in his own mind. Then Natasha raised her arms, letting go of her companion who quickly threw his arms around her waist. She did not say anything, but her eyes were ablaze with determination, anger and concentration when she also raised them towards the stormy skies.

Vooys felt the energy surge through her body, and could not withstand taking a small test to see how much energy she possessed and could not suppress a shudder when the quick result made itself obvious.

Then he felt the warmth he would have felt sitting at home in front of the fire. The rain did not get through and even the storms seemed to be unable to reach this small spot of the world. When he opened his eyes again, he saw that a huge area of dry air was slowly expanding, and he could detect the energy in the air, creating a growing globe of powerful air around the two of them. It looked the same as the force field he had failed to put up yet this was much bigger, even as it had no colour. He had sought only to save himself and the girl, as was usual for people of his nature, but he realised the girl was trying to do more: she was trying to overpower and overcome the storms. And where his field had become a toy ball for the winds, she was simply banishing them with the force of nature, as he was convinced these storms had little to do with nature.

Actually, she was using nature itself to help it regain the balance and clear the skies for the weather nature had planned itself. And while sorcery worked in harmony with nature, this was something the youngster had never even heard of. And with a shock he recalled that it was only a seventeen years old girl he was holding here, a teenager who fought demons for fair weather.

Seventeen years, and she may claim to be mortal, Vooys thought bitterly, growing a bit jealous of the enormous powers Natasha was dealing with. Closing his eyes, he heard the deafening wind lie down slowly but steadily and when he looked up again he saw the storms had died down. It was still drizzling a bit but this was natural, it had not been exactly fair weather when they had entered the cemetery anyway. Then they landed at last and looked around.

"Clynck! Where are you?" came the magically enhanced voice from Vooys. The place where the small tent had once stood was now no more than a small pile of rubble and upturned soil like most of the lands. Even the cemetery was destroyed but then again, maybe especially the cemetery.

And the warrior was nowhere to be seen.

 

Chapter Nine

 

"So, it is the two of us." she coldly stated.

"We have to find my brother! No matter if we found him whole and healthy or... "

"You have the powers of a necromancer?"

"Not quite, but I would see what has become of him. You see, my brother is everything to me. He holds my powers, and he has the power to hold me. I rely on him. Do you have brothers or sisters?"

Natasha shook her head.

"Then it will be almost impossible to understand. He and I are one, even as we are two. You talked about me being a soul of dark, held up by light. And now the light has vanished, and I am not held up anymore. He is not there to hold me up anymore!"

"We should scan the area. Somewhere his heartbeat should be heard, signs of life should be detected."

Natasha rose slowly off the ground and when she was well over thirty feet aloft she spread her arms. Vooys felt a soft tingling in his veins and discovered Natasha was ac­tually searching for living things and his body simply reacted to her search. The darkness had parted now and the view was clear for miles. Yet she descended with her head down, indicating that her search had been unsuccessful.

"That can't just mean that he's been thrown away by the forces of nature! Or the forces of the Guardian, for that matter. He must have been abducted by arcane means!"

"I am afraid so. And then we must handle things with a bit more care, for even as it is your alignment, it is also your brother. I fear the Guardian has taken him."

"The Guardian? My brother? Why?"

"Because we bereft him of a soul, of course! You saw the chaos he created in his anger! We took something from him, the soul of the vampire lord. And he demanded something in return. And he took the soul of light who was willing to see everything yet could not comprehend. As he was the weakest part of his downfall."

"He... " Vooys began but then lowered his head, feeling that the girl was right.

"But then... what can we do?"

"He has challenged us, Vooys. He challenged the twosome who defeated him, Pre-Bearer and Bearer, to come to his realm." "You were not actually planning to enter the Halls of Doom were you?" he asked with a shocked face.

"Is that what the netherworld is called? I intend to do not just that, but I intend to take you with me."

"Why? It is my brother, I know. But this is something far beyond our capacities! This is a deity we are talking about and not even your divine father would travel into the lands of the dead."

"We came here didn't we? And the cemetery is only a small replica of the world we are about to enter. We survived this small part and we defeated the Guardian on his own unholy ground. And we want to save your brother and the only way I can think of is to go where he is most likely to be. And if that is the netherworld, then the netherworld is where we will go."

"It is a crazy plan. Together we are only thirty- seven years of age, and we would challenge an ancient deity on his own ground."

"It is what you want to try for your brother."

"Stop rubbing it in, I know by now. But this is not a decision I can make at once. If my brother is there, he will be there for all eternity unless we free him. Could you just give me a few minutes to compose myself a bit and think?" "Naturally. I must do a bit of thinking myself."

Vooys moved away only a few yards and sat down on the cold ground, using a small cantrip to warm the ground.

Natasha did nothing, she knew the voice would come to her. "So you remembered me! You surely showed some guts both inside there and out here, Natasha! You challenged the Guardian himself, the dangerous arch-fiend. And you suc­ceeded by cal­ling upon your confidence, the given rules and the power of nature. A job well done, but the enemy you have chosen is not one defeated facilely. Things have hap­pened as you said they have, and the solution you brought is the only solution there is. You will not be able to shoo the sor­cerer, but he had better stay out of this. The call of his brother may be too strong for him, the force of the Guardian will be too much."

"You mean he will die?"

"It is that the Guardian has invited you to the realm where everybody and everything is dead already else a lot more living creatures would have found a merciless death at the hands of the fiend. With your greatest effort you will be able to make it out of there alive, possibly even with the young warrior, but the chances for the sorcerer are close to naught even would you protect him."

"And protect him I will, even if I have to leash him like a dog." she said in mind, then she giggled at the thought.

 

When Vooys came back he looked determined.

"If I have to descend into the Halls of Doom, so be it. The only problem is that I have no single clue of how to get there but I will have to entreat the help of a friend of mine. Well, friend is not the appropriate word but it will have to do for now. He lives in the badlands but for me it is not difficult to find him. He is, however, one you would not like to meet."

"A creature of the darkness you mean? Well I am not really good, nor am I of any other alignment. To be exact, I am one who has not chosen an alignment so encountering people and creatures can only enlighten me."

"Actually he is a werewolf, but quite a peaceful one. He kills when he prowls the lands but does not kill for reasons of pleasure, more for reasons of plain nature. He is the shaman of his pack and he knows a lot."

"So we will undergo black werewolf rituals? Sounds rather exciting. But is it not wise to talk to the High Sorcerer or my mother for advise?"

"Your mother is a woman of neutral and she cannot be inquired about the darkness. Besides, she is your mother and she would do everything to stop you from putting yourself in peril. If any sorcerer, we will want to talk to Lachman, the dark one of The Three, the advisors of the High Sorcerer as the Great One himself is sort of immersed in the balance of nature and living people wanting to cross the threshold of death will not be something he would be for."

"I can imagine that. So what you say is that following the darkest ways is the only way we can get into the Halls of Doom."

"It is merely what I suggest for I have not learned the other ways. I think my ways work so I suggest them."

"I can understand that. Where does this werewolf shaman live?"

"In the badlands, the plains of the barbarians. We will have to find some means of transport and travel south, though I fear it will be difficult to find a place where we can buy fresh horses."

"Where is the need for horses if we can use our own bodies to travel through the air, much faster at that?"

"You mean we fly the same way we levitated? But that did not go very fast."

"Of course not, you are not one like myself. Though I have had no formal training, I am one through which the power of Body Life magic runs and we have the body and spirit to defy the rules of gravity combined with the power to direct our energy the opposite way so that we eventually achieve the ability to fly."

"I am afraid I don't quite follow you, Natasha. You say you use power behind you so that you are pushed forward?"

"Exactly. Maybe you can get the same result with sorcery. It goes quite fast, much faster even than riding a horse."

The sorcerer suddenly stopped paying attention to the girl and started rummaging in his rucksack.

"I wonder if I brought this thing along. Never used it simply because Clynck can't stand it but right now it should be useful." he muttered as his hands ruffled through his belon­gings.

"What is it you are looking for?" Natasha inquired.

"Found it." he said and gloatingly showed an amulet with a silvery stone, meanwhile checking certain things and casting a short spell to detect the gem's power.

"What's that?"

"An amulet of transportation. With this we can teleport away from here and straight to the barbarian planes."

"Now that is something you could have thought of before. But why doesn't your brother like it?"

"For military reasons. This amulet can teleport a maximum of two persons beside the user and is not able to teleport hor­ses. And Clynck always referred to the use of horses in times of combat and this is why he never wanted to use sorcery for transport."

"He was such a nice boy, and despite all that armour and that big sword it is still difficult for me to see the fighter in him. He almost looked too nice to kill."

"He is a nice, caring and charming man. But when he fights he gets into a battle frenzy even as he fights controlled and well. He seems to be calm and collected when he cuts a man in half and his eyes show the same expression when he charges in with his sword as when he wants to capture some serving girl's heart."

Then he looked down at Natasha.

"How many people did you kill with all your powers?"

"Only two, when we were helping a band of adventurers with Ledda and Agnes, when we were on our way to Grimloth. And I used my sabre then. Shall we get going? How does this amulet work?"

"Hold me." he instructed when he slid on the chain that held the amulet. She wrapped her right arm around his waist and did nothing as he started chanting in the language of sor­cery. She felt a wave of energy coming over her and then they were standing in the middle of a desert.

"That is surely a handy amulet. Where did you get this?" "One of the relics in my father's castle. He used to collect items with magical powers even as he is a knight. And when the two of us went out he insisted that I took some of the items with me."

"Your father's castle? Then your father is the lord of Grim­loth!"

"Indeed he is. Not that it matters much, mind you. Clynck and myself are middle sons. That is, we have one older brother and my father has insisted that he becomes the lord of the town when he dies and neither one of us has real aspirations to become lord of a town. We prefer life out in the open. Now I think we should rise and get a good overhead view of the area. We must find the pack of werewolves."

"Do they come out in daylight?"

"Usually they don't but they can be spotted anyway."

They levitated a good fifty yards above the ground and looked around for many miles. The air was hot and dry and the sun burned down on them. They felt the heat seeping into their bodies and hurriedly descended to take off the warm clothes they had worn up north.

"I forgot the climate change." Vooys grinned and ascended again. Natasha followed suit.

 

The pack of werewolves was nothing like what Natasha had actually expected. Where she had expected a travelling pack, always looking out for game, she found a small barbarian village in the middle of nowhere. The houses were built of clay and covered with large leaves, as if they were built around giant palm trees. Still Vooys said this was the place where they had to be.

"But I have heard that werewolves are cannibals!" she said with more than a fraction of hesitation in her voice.

"Usually they are but this is a peaceful pack that eats man only when man threatens them. They are involved with dark forces and ally themselves with man sometimes when peace in the planes is at stake. They have been known to fight for a dark wizard called Vinthraght fifty years ago when he tried to conquer the place until they found out his true plans. But while they align themselves to the dark side, they have no real quarrel with the rest of the world."

They descended slowly and discovered that the population of the village had run out to see who was coming through the air. Vooys directed them towards a man-beast dressed in strange robes and a painted face.

He made a sign to the shaman who in turn invited them to descend and enter his hut.

"Young master Vooys," the werewolf, in his human shape, spoke in a deep yet rich voice, "good it is to see thee again after such a long time. Yet the one at thee side is not thine brother. I hope no ill fate hath befallen him." Natasha was surprised to hear the feared creature speak in the old tongue, which was supposed to be used only by the ancient, civilised people.

"An ill fate hath befallen mine brother, shaman Razdee, and it is ways to retrieve him that I wouldst talk about with thee. Meet mine companion, Natasha One-Donthiac. Natasha, this is shaman Razdee." Vooys spoke, also in the old tongue. "Pleased to meet you, my lordship." Natasha spoke with a courtly nod, stifling the words 'I think'.

        Chapter Ten

 

"Shaman Razdee, it is the impossible thou ask of us!"

The voice of the young sorcerer rang out in desperation.

"Impossible it might look to thee, my lad, but the real impos­sible thing should be the fulfilment of thine quest. After all, it is thou who wants to enter the realm of the dead. What I ask of thee is simply to intrude and to steal a wand. That could not be the biggest problem, especially if thy lady is the woman of power you want me to believe."

"Why is this wand needed? What is thy use of it?" Natasha wanted to know. The werewolf shaman had just asked them to intrude the camp of the unknown army of the dead, an army led by a powerful necromancer, and probably another protege of the Guardian.

"It is the world of the dead thou want to enter, and it is only logical that thou rob the living master of the moving dead to achieve the wand. After all, the one I am talking about raised the dead troops all by himself, and I know it could only be his wand of power that would allow him to com­municate with the realm of the dead. Wouldst thou enter the Halls of Doom, thou needst the wand to create a portal between the realms of the living and the dead. And if the act of burglary is one too hard for thee, then entering the most dangerous plane of existence for any living being will surely be."

"Somehow he makes sense." Vooys whispered.

"But all this sounds so surrealistic, I don't know if we can do what he wants."

"I know!" Natasha said, suddenly bursting with confidence. "I agreed to challenge the Guardian, and if this shaman speaks true then this is only a small warning for the Guar­dian that we are coming. However, shaman Razdee, I am not one of the trusting type. Wouldst thou trust thine own words thou wouldst send with us a battalion of thine finest troops to accompany us, then we will accept the mission and we will steal the wand."

The shaman, still in his human shape, suddenly growled and Natasha watched in fascination as she saw the hair stand on the back of his neck while his face turned into the hideous visage of a werewolf.

"You angered him." Vooys warned her.

"I merely want to know the truth. If this wand is valuable to us, and not only to him, he would send his finest troops with us. After all, he will most certainly benefit from the posses­sion of the wand and if he means us well then he will support us any way he can." she spoke as if the still transforming werewolf wasn't there.

With an insolent stare she faced the werewolf.

"So what will it be, shaman? Thine troops or our words?" Meanwhile she noticed that others had followed the lead of their shaman and were also transforming.

"Have you ever encountered a pack of angry werewolves?" asked the sorcerer, looking around suspiciously.

"No, but I have promised myself not to be afraid of anything as it is an arch-fiend we want to confront and if we want that we can hardly be afraid of living beings, even if they are as notorious as these."

"You might have lost their help."

"I might. But more can handle a powerful wand. I have learned that some people, man or beast, want to reach their personal goals first before they start thinking of helping others. We can do something the shaman wants, and the shaman can do something we want. It is a fair bargain, I say." "Though thine approach could use a bit of finesse, my lady." came the voice of the werewolf, who had calmed down and transformed back.

"The words thou speakst are true beyond doubt, and not are we known to be the most helpful kind of species without aught in return. But thou hath convinced me, and I will give thee a battalion right away."

"Now we are talking." she grinned gleefully.

 

"But why? Apart from irritating the powerful shaman, I still do not see the use of this battalion." Vooys spoke under his breath, out of earshot for the werewolves even as their hearing was many times sharper now that they had transformed.

"It is the truth in the words of the shaman I was seeking, not really the help of a pack of wolves. This way I know the words the shaman spoke were true and not only for his own personal gain. We can trust nobody here, and we have to put people and creatures to the test sometimes."

"It is a dangerous game you play, Natasha."

"I know, yet we are on a quest more perilous than I could ever imagine before leaving the tower I call home. And still, I might add."

They had travelled on foot, using their powers to stay ahead of the wolves even as those ran fast.

"The army camp should be close now, if the shaman spoke true. Then we must find this necromancer and if possible stay away from his minions. We must find the wand and get out of there as fast as we can." instructed Vooys.

Natasha nodded. It had all sounded so strange to her, this constant battle for survival. Despite her hard training she now felt that she had been spoiled in the tower, shielded from the many perils this world offered.

But deep down she had felt her instinct take over, even without the help of the voice inside her. And this time the voice did not even protest, it had even helped her on some occasions. So the voice seemed to encourage her actions and as the voice seemed to belong to someone who knew a lot of the world, that only warmed her inside.

Still she did not understand the dark ways of her slightly older companion. The good did not steal, and if they did they did not steal from the good. Yet the evil stole, and stealing from the ones who swore to the same dark gods seemed to be no problem whatsoever to this sorcerer and the werewolves. Here the goal counted, and the ways to achieve the goal were insig­nificant. The quest for power was break­fast, lunch and dinner for these people.

But as she was reminding herself that this could be her life in the future, she recognised the feelings inside her and she knew that it was the force of darkness they were fighting, and this time the logical opposite would not help to win the battle. She had to ally herself with other forces of darkness, even feared and notorious creatures as werewol­ves and dark sorcerers.

She looked at Vooys with a hint of affection in her eyes, and understood that also people who aligned themselves to the dark side had their charms. In the past she had always thought black and white, that the good people were the charming prin­ces on their white steeds and that the evil people were grim-faced people who destroyed everything they could destroy. Yet this Vooys was an attractive young man, lean in figure and handsome in face. He had gone to the dreaded cemetery to free the vampire lord even as Marzún had said those would not help him break free. As one who should have feared the powers of the god of the netherworld he had defied his powers by stan­ding in the sign of the light and thus creating the defeat of the Guardian. Would this young sorcerer die he would certainly fall prey to this same Guardian who would remember and he would suffer in the Halls of Doom eternally. Yet Vooys did not think of this, he could only think about the one who had preceded him in the darkest journey of them all: his brother. And Clynck should be alive as his body had not been recovered. He had been abducted into the dark realm body and all. And, she first realised now, he would be kept there until the ones who had been responsible for the Guardian's defeat, had come in attempt to free him. Clynck was being used as bait.

Suddenly she saw through the whole stratagem: the cunning lord of the dead had abducted the one the sorcerer cared for most, thus necessitating him to come and try to free his brother. Then the Guardian could have his revenge and he would dine on both brothers. And it was not even sure what he had in store for herself; her powers were still limited as impressive as they looked and not even her father would be able to intervene there, as the terrain of the dead was not his. And for some reason, she would feel a lot better if she came out alive without any help, as she was trying to build her own self-confidence.

"You think this necromancer guy would be convinced with some cunning from our side?" she asked.

"Not really. What we actually want is the object that allows him to work his power over the dead, the threshold between the world of the living and the Halls of Doom. Would he give the item willingly he would give his very power away and I don't think he would give a damn about us and our quest. After all, he worships the one we are after. It is the Guardian who gave him this power."

"Right. So what do we do?"

Vooys opened his palm and revealed a rod shining the light of darkness, the light that could freeze even the dead, or rather especially the dead, like normal light could warm the living.

"This will keep the minions at bay, if needed. Then we must deal with the necromancer. I think there is only one option for him. He must be destroyed."

The not so sophisticated werewolves stood still in an­ticipation for commands. Unlike their shaman, they did not speak though they could understand the simple commands in the human tongue. These were the type that seldom trans-formed into human shape as they preferred their wolf-hide, the grace and keen senses and the lifestyle of wolf-kind. Without the intelligence of their shaman, all they could do was battle and obey the orders given to them by their interim leader, and Vooys had been appointed as such by shaman Razdee.

Natasha paced the small clearing they had chosen as their campsite in thought.

"Kill the necromancer? That would send him straight to his master!"

"Aye. So?"

"Why would we send him into the realm where we are also going? That would only result in a second clash and at that time we should have to concentrate on the Guardian himself, we cannot be hindered by his latest minion."

"So what is your plan then? Do you want to sneak in and steal the wand? We don't even know what it looks like! And that can only mean we can either put pressure on him to tell us where it is or take every wand we see. We need to capture him for that!"

"It is an idea."

"How do you plan to take a powerful necromancer alive, with thousands of minions surrounding him?"

"I thought your rod would keep them at bay."

"Not eternally, you know. The dark light is burning only for a preciously limited time."

"Great. Well then we have to deal with it some other way." And with that the girl started calling out, drawing the attention of both the living and the dead, to the horror of the young sorcerer, and the suspicious growls of the werewolves also made clear that they, too, did not like the idea of being besieged by an entire army of zombies and skeleton warriors.

But like in the graveyard in Horneng, the undead were called back by a single command and they froze in their places as if the life had been taken from them in an instant.

"Who wishes to trespass my domain?" called out a magically enhanced voice.

"One who means to negotiate." answered Natasha.

"Stubborn little bitch." mumbled Vooys in a tone not too unfriendly.

Then a man dressed in black and purple robes, marking him as a master servant of a dark god, came out, riding a horse of fire.

"You, who wishes to negotiate, explain." came the clear voice from the necromancer. He spurred his horse and to her fas­cination she saw that the steed was as black as the darkest night of the year, seemingly ablaze with arcane energy. Its hooves were a fiery red, spitting flames as it trotted up to the two humans and the unnerved pack of werewolves.

"We want something you have. Or at least we would utilise it for a few times."

"What do the living want of one who controls the dead? I cannot give or lend you any of my minions since the battles that will shock the civilised world will be great and will require every soul the Holy Guardian can give me."

"Is it not just the bodies you have? Animated meat?" Natasha asked, intrigued as always with something new.

"Who controls the body, controls the soul. And with this wand here, I can temporarily control the souls of these poor creatures and thus their bodies as they are temporarily re-united, even as their life now is a poor version of their undoubtedly rich lives. The power of controlling the dead I prefer over the power of controlling the living any day. After all, an army of living can be killed, and an army of dead can't since they are already dead."

Then he looked at the young sorcerer and could immediately see from the runes on his dark robes what side he was on. "Then is it this wand you seek, sorcerer? Would you venture into the dark realm of the Guardian, the Halls of Doom? Woe thee then, for this will not be taken from my live body." "It would not make sense to kill you, either. After all, we would kill you and move into the Halls. The Guardian would not even take us, he would give you the pleasure." Vooys answered as they had discussed.

"Well spoken, young lad. And on top of that the wand has a small security measure added to its enormous powers. Would somebody steal it from me, the ones it controls will con­tinue to oblige me for a full day and night, and during that time they would find the thief."

"So, alas, you will give me no assistance in raising a small band of feared creatures to terrorise the town that cast us out. Then we will leave, powerful one, and leave you with your minions hoping the day will come soon when they in our stead ruin the town." Vooys spoke and bowed his head in respect.

"The whole of Arnesia will suffer as well as the rest of the civilised world." the necromancer spoke and then he turned his horse and disappeared.

Natasha shook her head but then saw that Vooys walked away quickly and she followed him, followed in turn by the werewolves.

"Now what was that all about? Why retreat? I was just about to talk him into borrowing the amulet without him even knowing it!"

"You made him talk and he talked more than enough for me to work on something nice. In fact, he talked too much, he gave us a time span of a day and a night, twenty-four hours, before he loses control of his minions."

"So we have to put him to sleep for this time period and steal the wand, and when he wakes up he has already lost control."

"Something like that, aye. I will tell you more when we are at a safe distance."

But when Natasha wanted to know something there was no holding back from her and she focused her mind on his. And when floating through his mind she saw he had already stolen the wand. In fact, it was in the pouch draped over his right shoulder. He had replaced it with a rock that looked like the wand and put a strong illusion around it so that it even felt like the wand. The necromancer would be able to control the minions, using the worthless rock, as he would maintain control for twenty-four hours and he would not notice it was a fake unless he used a special spell to detect illusions and Vooys took the risk that he wouldn't as he would not suspect anything. They had treated the necromancer with due respect and told him they needed troops to gather a fearsome army, and the werewolves would be the first recruits. A story Vooys would have fallen for, too. The illusion would fade after more than twenty-four hours and then it would be too late, the minions would no longer obey him. This way, he had used Natasha's proposition to use cunning and he had succeeded even as he had not thought much of the idea in the first place. But since the girl had chosen her way anyway he had given it his best shot and it had all worked out fine. Suddenly Vooys giggled.

"I was just thinking about you. You would dig into my own mind to find out what happened if you could, wouldn't you?" Natasha started to laugh.

"So it views from both sides. I didn't know that. It was actually me inside your mind. You can't hold me off when I am curious."

"So now you are a sorceress, some kind of druid who works with nature and a mind bender? Did you pick up something from the Grimloth psychic?"

"Well he is a friend of mine, but no. This is but a small part of my natural power."

"Coming from your divine father?"

"And my own work. After all, the mind works in harmony with your body and your soul, and when one fails to provide its part of the power, everything fails."

"You do have a well-trained body. Add a fighter, then."

"I know my way with this sabre though I do not carry the legendary sword with the dull strip."

"Dull strip? What is that good for?"

"There you can hold the sword for the Move that is called the Sharp Missile."

"What does this sharp missile do?"

"Split a man in half." she said casually.

"As if it's nothing." Vooys mocked.

"Well it is only a small combination of speed, the ability to fly and holding a sword. You lunge at your opponent from the sky, holding the sword horizontally at great speed."

"You mean there are even more dangerous powers? Like the one you demonstrated at Horneng?"

"Restoring nature is also relatively easy since nature helps a hand or two as well."

"Everything is easy for you, isn't it?"

"I do not know how to perform all one hundred and seven Moves of Body Life magic, but I know the major part and when you control those you see things a bit easier than they really are."

"Body Life magic! I have heard about that! In my first lessons as an apprentice I heard that we sorcerers should all strive to keep the balance in the universe since there would be no Body Life magic to correct or counter us for some years."

"It is back since my father released his first pupils."

"So your father, the Ultimate One, is the god of Body Life magic then?"

"He doesn't like to be called a god but if he is, he is the one of Body Life magic. He was the last surviving master and thus inherited the position of Ultimate One, the one to create a new batch of masters."

"How did he inherit the immortality then?"

"By killing the former Ultimate One."

"Did he have no name before that?"

"I was born three months after he became the Ultimate One, and I have learned his old name is not to be mentioned, not even by my mother."

"But it is only recent then! Sure there must be records!" "And in all of them his name is changed into his new one, or 'he who is now the Ultimate One'. He did that, himself, through the mysterious ways the gods work."

"Like he doesn't want his old name to be known?"

"Exactly."

 

At campsite, Vooys first drew out the wand. He studied it carefully when he was disturbed by a loud series of growls. He jumped up and turned around only to see the werewolves, their teeth exposed and dripping with saliva, their eyes red and filled with blood thirst.

Suddenly one of them transformed and became shaman Razdee to his surprise.

"So you have brought me what you want, fool. It is the Halls of Doom you wanted to go to, and me and my pack will take care of that. You will only not be coming back!" he laughed and with a growl he commanded his pack to charge.

"Traitor!" Vooys yelled, knowing that there was nothing he could do since the werewolves were already within striking range. In vain, he covered his face with his hands as he would not see how the werewolves he had trusted would sink their long and sharp tusks in him.

 

Natasha, who had walked off for practice, heard the growls just in time and immediately understood what was going on. With the speed of sound she returned to the camp and was just in time to pick up the sorcerer and take off into the air just before the first of the werewolves could touch him. Vooys had been standing near the fire and with perverted satisfaction she watched as the wolf-creature burned in the flames, yelping in pain as it died a horrible death.

"You have the wand?" she asked, but the sorcerer was not able to answer. To her relief she saw that he was clutching the wand for all his worth and deposited him safely in a nearby cave, then rose again into the air and brought her hands together as pure body energy was concentrated between them. The result was a beam of body energy that struck the werewol­ves as they never saw it coming, since it had no colour like all the energy Natasha wielded. She would find out about that later but she saw that only one of the creatures that were said to be immune to magic survived the blast. She dived and finished it off with her sabre, cutting off its head. Then she returned to Vooys to see if he was safe. She found him still in a shock and when he opened his eyes they looked straight into her bright eyes.

"Are you all-right?" she asked in a friendly tone.

"Are we dead?" he asked, his voice quavering.

"Of course not, we will tread the Halls of Doom alive. So we can't have you killed by some werewolves can we?"

He saw her sword dripping with the dark blood of the last surviving werewolf and closed his eyes again.

"Natasha, I am so glad I have you I could kiss you."

"Then why don't you?"

The voices died in the dark cave as two figures came together in the silence of the night.

        Chapter Eleven

 

Vooys woke up and saw that he was alone in the cave. Natasha had left, and he knew she would return. So he slowly rose but then fell back, he felt a need to think and experience had taught him that lying was the best position to ponder. He had already understood that he was accompanying a very special girl, one who had almost all the powers one could possibly dream of. But she had also shown that no matter what powers were concealed inside her, she was still a girl. And while she had not allowed much more than a long kiss, he had felt the emotions he had always thought to be immune to. Aye, he was in love with this strange young girl, and yet he knew she would be no easy catch, like the regular wenches he and his brother had picked up in bars only to love for a night. And she would see right through him when he tried his regular tricks on her, and she would probably laugh in his face. Feelings of affinity she could understand but love was something entirely dif­ferent. She had stopped him resolutely when his hands were going a bit too low to her liking, and he had decided not to push. This girl was his only chance when it came to getting his brother back, and he would not upset her. She had already saved his neck from the treacherous werewolves, giving him time to think over his failure. After all, one who had always been proud of the fact that he never trusted anyone had been cheated by a creature of the night. He had been tricked by someone whose faith had already been doubted by Natasha, and he had fallen for the trick of trust. Again she had saved him, but now he did not feel ashamed anymore about being saved by a girl for he knew this was no ordinary girl.

He rose on some strange noise and saw that Natasha entered the cave.

"Finally up? You sure sleep late, you know. Here, drink this." she said in a cheerful voice, handing him a large clay cup he had never seen before.

"What is this?" he asked as he scented the odour of alien herbs and saw and felt the steam coming from the hot water. "Some kind of tea?"

"Actually it is a concoction of some special kind of herbs, one that is used by the masters of Body Life magic. They use it to relax and to strengthen their concentration. I figured you might like some after last night."

Did she mean the encounter with the werewolves or his at­tempts to win her over? Probably the first, this girl was innocent.

Natasha giggled as he grimaced in thoughts and he wondered if she was in his mind again.

"Well no mind travelling is needed to guess your thoughts this time, master Vooys." she smiled and produced a second steaming cup.

Totally weird, he thought by himself. She drinks no alcohol but uses some strange drug without hesitation.

But he knew it wouldn't harm because the powerful masters would not drink it if it would.

 

"So I think I need to see the sorcerer Lachman, he is the most powerful one of our order and he would be a great help when we venture to the Halls of Doom. And he stands under the High Sorcerer who is in turn assisted by your mother so it will be relatively safe to approach him."

"I don't know Vooys. I want to get out of here and consult my mother or even the High Sorcerer himself. And above all I want to see my mother no matter what. I have not seen her for a few months now, or at least it feels this way."

"Getting homesick huh?" Vooys grinned but nodded nonetheless as he opened his pack and took his special amulet out of it. "Ready to travel fast?"

"Always."

They arrived at the gates of Authon Towers where her mother rushed down to meet them.

"Natasha! I thought you would never come home! Where have you been? Who is this young man? Have you had a good time in Grimloth?"

"Aye, and a much better one after that."

 

It looked as if the second to the High Sorcerer had aged a dozen years in mere minutes.

"Apprentice Vooys, could you please excuse us? If you wish to have a bath, the bath room is on the second floor. Your room is the second one on the left of the bath room. Well left or right doesn't matter since it's the middle one. You will be called for after you have had your rest, now I must talk to my daughter." Griwalda spoke. Vooys made a bow of respect and said in a courteous voice : "As you wish, Mistress Griwalda." and then he left the room.

Arriving at the staircase, he grunted and used a small spell to move upwards.

"For one reason, I would not believe a word of this. But then again I know whose flesh and blood you are and I have also run into some strange things before and while I met your father. I sent you to Grimloth to learn about yourself and you end up in the badlands and the tundra and now you are about to challenge one of the most ancient arch-fiends." "Oh, but I have learned a lot, mother. I have discovered I have the power to call upon some moves of Body Life magic and some things happen at my will. I think I can even do that small trick of yours you used to entertain me when I was just a child!" she said and with a smile she focused her will on the table and let it come to her. Then her plate of food rose to her face level and her fork fell in her hand automatically. Griwalda smiled, remem­bering the old days, but shook her head nonetheless.

"What kind of Move did you use then?"

"Well, when the Guardian caused the storms Vooys tried to make a force field but I called upon the power of nature to restore itself and in a swiftly growing ball around me the normal weather returned until finally the storms died." "That is truly impressive, I am not even sure I can do that. Well, I probably will be able to do it but I have never encountered storms created locally by a foul demon. Yet this proves you have enormous powers. What about the other Moves of Body Life magic?"

"I have performed some Moves I have seen the pupils do when they were pupils, and I also shot a beam of energy just like my father did when he faced that army, like you told."

"You mean you went into the inner dragon?" Griwalda asked, her face shocked.

"No, not the inner dragon, just the Dragon Maw. But it kills swiftly, it even affected werewolves and they seem to be immune to sorcery."

"Someone or something can be immune to sorcery, my dear, but what you fired at them is your own life energy and nobody and nothing can withstand that."

"Is that why I was a bit tired after that?"

"Of course, it is your own energy. When you use too much of your own energy you will be worn out quickly and then you must rest. Your father was even able to concentrate his rest and he would be totally fit after three hours of sleep this way. I thought he also taught this to his pupils."

"It is what I need to do mother. I need to become a master of Body Life magic. That is the power I am going to need when I descend into the netherworld."

"You are not going to give up on this, are you?"

"No. And you are not going to stop me, are you?"

"I wish I could, but I know you have a will of your own and the stubbornness of one who became immortal because of that among other things. But I must tell you that if you want to be a true mistress of Body Life magic, then you will need long and rigorous training that will take years, and then it also depends on your father, because he will be the one who has to train you and I am not sure if he wants that. The gods up there have made plans for you, and they would not see the daughter become at least as powerful as her father as he is already an enormous power to be reckoned with due to his unique class and style. He is a man of the balance between good and evil, and if I have understood him right he is an important pawn. You say you know most Moves but do you master them? And are you ready to go into the Pits?"

"I do not master the Moves, not all of them anyway. Well actually I just imitate what I have seen. But I know this journey has to be made soon, and I know I must be ready. I will not descend as a master -or mistress for that matter, but I will descend into the Pits."

"Now why would you do that?"

"You have seen how the pupils come out. They have learned something, something they do not talk about but it changed them for the better. And I got the feeling that in order to become strong enough, I must spend time in the Pits."

"You know that it is impossible to leave the Pits before your four days and four nights are over. And you also know that the Pits are notorious, many have never left them alive in the time your father was mortal, in the old class. And I am sure the Pits are no less deadly now."

"But I am strong enough. And if I am not strong enough to survive four days and four nights without water I will cer­tainly not be strong enough to fight the Guardian." "There is truth in your words, daughter. But what about the young ap­prentice? He will undeniably not be ready to descend into the netherworld. Or do you also want him to enter the Pits? You know that is not possible."

"Well it is possible, just not very smart. But Vooys must come with me, I think. The power of the restored link of two brothers will give us an edge. He is attracted to his brother and I think the two of them are more powerful when together. And of course he won't enter the Pits."

"As if you have studied years on the subject." Griwalda smiled.

 

"The Pits? You mean that horrible cave you talked about where you have to spend four days and four nights without food or water? Why would you go there?"

"I told you, to purge my mind and soul. That is what the Pits were made for anyway, or at least that is what I have been told. And I have seen the effects on men and women who have been in the Pits and they come out stronger. And I must be as strong as I can be if I want to face the Guardian. You will be able to pull your strength from your brother, I need some more drastic things."

"And when will you descend into those perilous Pits of yours?"

"Tomorrow at dawn."

"That quickly? Why not wait until you are ready?"

"I am as ready as I ever will be, and every day we delay is a day something horrible could happen to your brother."

"I agree. So how do you prepare?"

"In the company of a good friend and my mother. After all, I will be alone for four days and four nights, so I could use some company while I still can have it."

 

To the surprise of the young sorcerer, Natasha did not eat much, nor did she devour gallons of water on this last night before she would have to deal with hunger and severe dehydration. "It is only logical though. I must last four days and four nights without food or water and would I eat or drink much tonight then the hunger and thirst would come early to me, making the stay more painful and perilous." she calmly explained as if she had nothing to lose.

"A mistake that seems to have been made quite often, if I must believe your father. He did not, however, tell me what happens once you are inside the Pits, when the magical Halls of No Return have closed behind you. They were forbidden to speak of it, and so he taught his pupils."

"Why would he not tell if he is the Ultimate One? Does he not stand above all rules?" Vooys inquired.

"Nay, the art of Body Life magic is much older than himself or almost any other creature alive today. He respects the old laws to a certain extent and he claims that once it is known what will happen people will prepare for it, thus nullifying the normal effects." Griwalda explained.

"Much like what Uncle Jon did. I was not allowed to know what was going to happen to me for then I would block my mind from it."

"Exactly. The Pits are mysterious and deadly and only the ones strong enough survive. It used to be the last test before the Releasing or the final fight in the early days. The ones who went in there were masters of the Moves. Which you are not, I might add."

"Oh, but I am sure I can master the Moves quickly enough if I wanted to, and I sure want to. But this is something that cannot wait, dear mother."

"Yeah right. I know everything about your mission and I must say I admire you for what you do, my daughter. Yet I am not sure you are ready for your job even as you are boasting with confidence. Maybe I should consult your father."

"Don't, mother. If my father is regarding my every move, and especially this one, I think he will come to me rather than to speak through you. For if I must believe you, and I am sure I must, he is not one to hide behind somebody else or to speak through someone else's mouth."

"I believe you, my dear. And I think you made your point. Not that it would have mattered much, but I give you my leave to descend into the Pits when you feel you are ready." "And that is just a formality, mother. I know I am ready." "You say you are, but all you really are is in a hurry for you want to save the young fighter as soon as possible to save him from the torment he is suffering from at this very moment."

"I have dealt my blows to the Guardian, mother. I have defeated him when it came to saving the vampire lord Marzún, I have defeated the storms of wrath he threw at us. And even as he countered the latter by kidnapping Clynck, I am sure I can defeat him again when I am strong enough. And I am strong, I just need to be stronger."

"Who told you about your powers, who inspired you to under-take the perilous adventure to the ground of Horneng, where so many never returned alive, and who told you about the powers at your disposal?"

"It is myself in one way, mother. I know who I am. Vooys speaks of me in awe, the daughter of the second of the High Sorcerer and the god of Body Life magic. The powers within me are those of both your classes, and I have experienced that I can almost wield them at will. I have seen my father train the well-shaped pupils and I have seen the pupils when they became masters. They have the confidence and above all the deter­mination to do the best they can. And I have copied that determination and I have tried to copy the Moves as I have witnessed their power."

While she talked enthusiastically, she noticed that she was hiding the voice from her mother. And she knew she was not going to talk to her mother about the mysterious voice in her mind that had encouraged her when it came to trying out her powers but scolded her if she used those same powers at the time she needed them. The voice in her mind was some­thing she could not share with anybody, not even her own mother. And that distressed her. She had always told every­thing to the one person she fully trusted on this plane: her mother. Yet the voice was something else: was she afraid to be laughed at? After all, voices in the mind were something for crazed people, not for a healthy and sane young girl. And she knew she was not a psychic like Uncle Jon, who was probably hearing strange kinds of voices all the time. While Griwalda noticed she was drifting off in mind, Natasha thought about the voice. Who was he - or she, she had not figured out yet - to intrude into her life?

"One who only means the best for you." came the response of that same voice, startling her visibly.

"You think it is unwise to go into the Pits?" she asked, not sure whom she was talking to.

"I would say you have the power and the determination you referred to earlier, Natasha. It is experience you lack. And if the Pits can make up for a part of that, then go. But do never forget it is a risky operation." her mother said, her eyes studying the strange expression on her daughter's face. The voice didn't answer, it seemed it had only spoken to defend itself.

"Then my decision is made. I will enter tomorrow."

        Chapter Twelve

 

It was a quiet and sombre ceremony: the respects to the one who was about to enter the Pits. Traditionally this ceremony passed in silence, because the chance was there that the descending one would not return, and because once he or she would return, a whole new person would have been created: stronger, ready for the world.

The only master of Body Life magic present was Martin, the young squire turned master and the son of one the Ultimate One had known. He had initially protested against the whole procedure because Natasha was not a mistress but he had swal­lowed his objections because she was a case of her own. Natasha was dressed in robes only, a bordeaux belt holding them together. Vooys was not present at the ceremony, and neither was her mother: after all, sorcerers were not al­lowed to witness the finishing of the creation of a master of Body Life magic, though this was not the case here and now.

After her last small bite of food and her last sip of water enriched with fruit juice she descended as the Pits waited. As soon as she had passed the opening of the cave, an enig­matic dark blue barrier blocked the entrance and it would remain blocked for four days and four nights. There was no other exit, she knew, and this was it. She had to fight the natural feelings of hunger and thirst as well as other side effects for that time, and she was confident she would survive.

She passed the Walls of Ancients, where countless masters- to-be had written their names on the walls. They had either carved them into the rock or used their body power to burn them in. She wondered at the age of the first names near the entrance and knew they had been written down eons ago.

Unlike her father, these people had used their own names, or so she presumed. And the names were well in line; she could not know that the name on the right of the previous one was the previous one's pupil turned master. Some lines ended too early, she noticed, and some were re-opened after a distinct clear area. Here others had continued on the broken lines. She read and read with interest: there had been so many! She was eager to run to the end of the lines, knowing her father's name would be there, but she knew she had to save her energy and well, the inscription would not run away, as the saying goes.

 

This way the first hours passed unnoticed, until she sudden­ly detected an empty line that was never filled again.

Only small straight lines indicated something had carved or burned in his presence. And when she did reach the end of the wall, after many curves and tunnels, she was disappoin-ted not to see her father's name. But then she suddenly understood as she noticed the new names, on the clear wall opposite the end of the long empty line, the line of the stripes. These were her father's pupils, and now she under­stood why everybody wrote down one name beside the other. These were the descen­dants in term of teaching, the pupils who were about to become masters. And all the masters of the new class owed their powers to the Ultimate One, the last empty line. She went back and discovered that a master named Genther had stopped using names, because after him the lines started. So the pupil in the Pits could not write his name down because he didn't have a name. She remembered her father telling her that he just picked up the name to have some sort of identification, it was a term used by someone he had travelled with a long time ago.

She remembered the sparse time her father had spent with her, because he always had to teach his pupils, day and night. Her mother also had little time but what time she had she reserved for her daughter. The Ultimate One had trained well over sixty people, all at the same time but one by one. Classes would miss their effect, he had always said.

About a decade and a half, it had taken him. Then all the one hundred and seven Moves of Body Life magic had been mastered by all his pupils, all of them had stayed in the dreadful Pits where she now was and all of them had been released by the Ultimate One. The Releasing, they always called it, and they noticed it had been something odd: in the old days, one could only become a master by slaying his own master after the mastering of the Moves and the time in the Pits, the reason for this being that every master should also be master of himself, answer to no one and do whatever he wants to do, living life the way he wanted to live. And after so much time of humble training some pupils would always be the pupil to their master, and so the only way to become a master is to rid yourself of the man who would always control you. Many times it had resulted in the master slaying the pupil instead, and this must have been a great burden to the master.

Natasha could understand why a master would be a sombre per­son, being one who had killed the one who had taught him everything. She had only briefly touched the power of true Body Life magic, but she already enjoyed it and couldn't imagine surviving without it.

Thinking about all this, she fell asleep among the Walls of Ancients, but not after she had used a bit of her power to burn in her name as well.

 

She awoke suddenly, hearing a small tickling noise.

Surely there was no other sign of life in the Pits, there was no water and no vegetation. And would there be life other than the temporary occupant it could be killed and used for food or, in bad cases, the drink of blood.

Still she heard something, but something withheld her from investigating.

"There can't be anybody here, nor anything, for that matter. I am alone here in the Pits, it must have been my silly imagination." she mumbled, and then she lay down again.

But still she could not close her eyes and her ears were focused on any strange sound coming from the deadly silent cave. But this time she could not hear anything, and so she fell asleep again automatically, considering sleep as the best pastime in this dull cave.

 

Still in her mind the tickling went on, but now she knew one way or the other she was dreaming. She started to think of things that could possibly make such noise.

Inadvertently she sank into a trance to strengthen her con­centration as well as to sense life around her. She discovered that there was no life but still some alien presence around her discomforted her. She pictured herself back in the tower, ironically the same place in her room where she had entered the dream Uncle Jon had placed her in when he bestowed his dream upon her. In her unconsciousness she walked around the room and suddenly experienced a strong feeling of déjà-vu when she saw herself walking. She had been walking around like that a few years ago and in her vision she suddenly changed: she shrunk a few inches, her hair was much longer and her breasts were smaller. With a shock she recognised herself four years ago, when she was only thirteen. She stared out of the closed window and saw the multi-coloured lights in the sky, like falling stars of all the colours of the rainbow. She knew her father was training one of his pupils outside, and the colour beside the distinct light blue would tell her which pupil it was this time. She saw it was Rann, and somehow that managed to upset her, yet she couldn't figure out why. After all, there were so many of them. But then she clearly remembered this single occasion: then there had been another pupil training with the Ultimate One, it had been Khlan, the bar­barian. Unlike the lean Rann Khlan had been built massively, stan­ding well over six feet tall and barrel-chested. Then why was it Rann this time who was training? Or was she mistaken and was this another period in time? A queer sensation crept into her sleeping body as she continued to watch herself, her mind digging for more details on this seemingly unimpor­tant episode in her life. But suddenly, as young Natasha was watching the flying colours, a small object fell down right in front of the window, breaking her line of vision and replacing it by a close look at a hairy creature with tall, slender legs and a hairy body. Small but apparently sharp fangs were visible to her keen eyes.

She shrieked in surprise and fear as she flung herself back to the other end of the room where she had covered herself with a blanket before she realised that it had only been a small predator insect: a spider.

While the life of an attacking human being or monster was nothing special to take for a master of Body life magic, they cared a lot for the normal wildlife and would not swat a fly when unnecessary. Natasha, however, had not learned these rules yet and used a small leather pouch to crunch the insect to death. In her intent to do so, however, she used too much of her strength and went straight through the glass window. She shrieked again as the glass shattered and watched as her hand bled. While she carefully removed the splinters, she saw to her horror that the spider was still very much alive and crawling over the back of her hand. She slapped her hand with her other hand and saw that this time she had crushed the small creature. With her silk handker­chief she wiped off the remains, barely paying attention to one of the hairy legs that was still moving.

 

She awoke from her sleep and looked around her in distress. Where did this dream come from?

Suddenly she remembered the strange sound and thought about that tickling coming from eight large, hairy legs, stalking her. Though she never admitted it to anyone she had been afraid of spiders ever since that dread incident. Having lost track of time completely, she scanned the cave for faint noises and glimpses of movement but found none. She walked around quietly and suddenly fell upon a corpse.

She jumped back in alarm when she saw the exposed grinning teeth in the bare skull, all firmly in place but rotting slowly. From the shape the skeleton was in she figured it had been lying here for a vast number of years.

"Why wasn't it buried?" she wondered. She had encountered some shallow graves in the Pits, dug with bare hands and covered with soil. She knew that these were the graves of pupils who had not outlived the days in the Pits without food and water, and they had been buried by other pupils who had stumbled across the bodies much later. She decided to do what was expected of her and started to dig a grave for the body she had found.

Looking up, she found a drawing on the wall of a small man and a much larger one, probably a giant. This giant was about to attack the man with some sort of weapon. It was not very detailed and there were strange spots all over the drawing, as if they had been drawn by a big quill that was constantly needing fresh ink. Yet this was not ink, she suddenly realised, and there had been no quill. The artist had drawn this with his finger and the dark brown liquid was blood.

"Kantquiz!" she suddenly yelled, remembering how the warrior had drawn the sign of the Shadows of Horneng in his own blood when he was dying in the dream.

Like this one, Kantquiz had drawn the sign in warning, to let someone else know a great danger was coming and knowing full well that he was dying, most likely because of this same danger. But this time it was no arcane symbol, this time it was the picture of a man much larger than himself. She figured that the artist had been the one she had just buried and saw that he - as all former masters had been male- had died finishing the drawing as a trace of blood had fallen down in a vanishing line to the ground.

In some way, she considered this warning valid but could not comprehend what this had to do with the dream she just had. She could not see what the incident with the spider had to do with this attacking giant.

And then it all came to her.

The tickling in the cave, her fear of spiders.

The dangers of the Pits.

 

For a long time she had thought that the stay in the Pits was a test of endurance, the mystic cave was just a place where trainees could certainly not have access to any kind of food and water for four long days and nights.

She had always thought that no normal human could walk out of the Pits because of their normal dehydration levels, while people who trained Body Life magic were supposed to refrain their feelings of hunger and thirst by focusing their minds elsewhere, just like how they dealt with pain. But there was more to this occult place.

Here people would not be disturbed and therefore they had all the time of the world to think about everything.

And some part of the strange atmosphere in the Pits generated the thoughts about fear.

The masters of Body Life magic were known to be absolutely fearless, they took on every opponent they saw, no matter size or number.

They believed strongly in their own powers, knowing full well that they were unmatched.

But the ones who had entered here were not the perfect and polished masters yet, they were trainees who were facing one of their biggest tests. Or maybe it was the biggest one now, since in the old days the pupil had to kill his master in a fight to the death to become a master himself.

Now they were released by the Ultimate One if they survived the Pits and could demonstrate all the Moves flawless.

Here the trainees came to be exposed to their well-hidden fears, to show them they were not perfect yet. And here their fears came to haunt them.

This came from the moment when the trainee passed the first gates, where mystical runes had been branded into the stone walls. According to popular belief the runes had been writ­ten by the first Ultimate One, the Arch-father of the Body Life magic. The runes would scan the person who passed and brought out the fears inside the soul. Natasha was quite confident that this had also a purpose to keep the wrong persons out or even worse, keep them in. As the people of the soul, as masters of Body Life magic were also called to counter sor­cerers who were called people of the will, were the only ones strong enough to withstand four days of star­vation and dehydration and still have enough strength to battle their own worst fears. As the portal to the Pits would open, but when opened it would not open again for four days and nights.

With a shiver, she gathered her robes around her and walked on, peering around every corner, half-expecting to see a spider falling from the ceiling.

 

        Chapter Thirteen

 

The first night had passed in sleep again, but it had not been a particularly restful sleep. In her mind one vision after another came up with spiders of various sizes and shapes, and they all seemed to move towards her whenever she saw them. She saw herself caught in a sticky web and felt like she had shrunk to the size of a mosquito. The spider, on the other hand, seemed to have grown out of proportion and was now moving over slowly, thin legs wobbling over the web towards the trapped girl.

With a start she opened her eyes and shook her head.

"The power of the Pits cannot tell me lies. I know it is plain silly to be afraid of something as small as a spider and I will conquer this fear." she said to herself, or maybe even to the powers of the damp cave.

Her eyes adjusted to the darkness quickly and then she drew in a deep breath to get her thoughts together. The breath came out in a heart-piercing scream and her eyes showed the intense fear in her mind.

Looming over her was a giant spider.

The thin legs were encircling her like the bars of a cage, and from above her a mean-looking head came down with large eyes focusing on her. She had never known these insects actually made a sound but this one made a strange kind of whispering sound. It hissed and revealed large, pitch-black tusks, drip­ping with saliva. To her horror, the saliva that dripped on the ground seemed to explode upon impact, scat­tering rubble everywhere.

She dived out of the way quickly and braced herself as she landed against a cave wall.

She quickly rose and started to run, anticipating the moves from the giant creature.

But to her surprise it had disappeared.

She looked at the ground where her robe still lay, as she had used it as a mattress. It lay still, nothing moved and she could detect no presence of life in the cave, nor did she hear any sounds. She fetched her robe and looked at the spot where the creature's acid saliva had touched the ground but also there she noted nothing strange: in fact, the ground looked undamaged and nothing seemed to have happened. She started to doubt herself now: had the giant spider been there or had it been only her imagination?

A loud moan suddenly disturbed her thoughts.

The sound was inhuman, yet too low to match the spider's hissing whisper. More fears of herself coming to haunt her? Apart from spiders, she could not remember being afraid of anything. She had faced up to the powerful vampire lord and his undead legions dauntlessly, she was about to challenge the arch-fiend of the netherworld and knew she was going to face dire perils there, yet she could not be afraid.

Would the Guardian know of her fear and use it against her when she arrived in the dark world of the afterlife?

She shook her head. She was not going to leave the Pits without conquering her worst fears.

She understood this was why masters came out different.

Their worst fears came to haunt her, challenging their powers, their beliefs in themselves and their sanity. Losing either of them would be fatal, and masters of Body Life magic were always the best of the best fighters.

Her father would not have wanted it otherwise.

Maybe he even was the very one who sent the spider after his daughter to test her. In any way, she would survive the test and prepare for the worst.

The first feelings of thirst started to creep into her body as the dust of the cave entered her mouth but with a smack of her lips she shook her head. She would not give in, the perils of the body would be the easiest ones to overcome, she kept telling herself, as her body was in perfect shape. She was looking at her naked body and suddenly another vision came.

And again she saw herself many years younger.

This time she was watching events in a large arena, with her mother, Ivan and Agnes. Ivan was also a pupil of Body Life magic then and he came from the northern plains. He suddenly reminded her vividly of Unthor, or had it been the other way around? After all, she had known Ivan for years.

Athletes were competing in running events on the outer track and wrestling in the centre of the arena.

It was the Women's Games, an event in south-western Arnesia that took place every two years.

"How different they are." Ivan spoke in his rich but harsh voice.

"What do you mean?" Natasha asked, looking at the tall man. "Compare those runners and wrestlers to Agnes here. I don't understand that the runners are as slim as she is and the wrestlers as muscled while they have no femininity left in their bodies."

She looked at him in surprise.

"What do you mean?"

"He means that those women are all bones and muscles while they have no breasts left, if ever they did have them." Agnes said boldly. Her mother flushed and looked at the young Natasha but Agnes just shrugged. Ivan was known to be very easy about sexuality and more than once had he tried to seduce either Ledda or Agnes, without any success though Agnes was not exactly shy of him at times.

But to Natasha the question was a good one.

"Yeah, how come?"

"How should I know? These athletes have a different kind of training but we both work hard on our bodies. The amazons of the south who are competing here say that breasts are signs of laziness. These women can easily run thirty miles and they do not have a gram of body fat left. They will be running in the biggest runs, those that last hours. It is something I can do but I am not one who can be called lazy. I can't help having breasts." Agnes said.

Natasha giggled and looked at the wrestling ring.

Two sturdy women were battling each other with wrestling techniques, not giving each other an inch. Finally one flipped over but it appeared to be a trap as the other one followed and got slung overhead, out of the ring. The winner took the cheers from the crowd and left the ring after being declared winner.

"Maybe the Ultimate One wants his masters to look good and if they are female he wants them to look so. Or is it just your natural build?"

"Again, I don't know. I came here when I was a bit too young to have full-grown breasts. I never cared a lot when I was training on my physique, I just wanted to be strong."

"Would the Ultimate One approve if you competed in any of those games?"

"I don't think he would." Griwalda said.

"You don't get your skills to show off."

"That is true." Ivan said, looking down in thoughts.

 

Natasha woke from her trance and saw that she was still looking at her own body. Hurriedly, though there was nobody to see her naked, she wrapped her robe around herself.

Strange vision, she thought, but probably just another side-effect of the magic inside the cave.

She flexed her muscles even though they were feeling a bit too stiff to exercise as the cold stone floor of the cave had not quite been a good ground to sleep on.

She grimaced in pain as her bones hurt and the dry lump in her throat could no longer hide her thirst.

She swallowed and wet her lips but all she could feel around her was dust. And then she started as she heard a sound that was now all too familiar: the giant spider had returned.

She growled strangely as she saw the huge monster ap­proaching from deep within the cave and clenched her fists. With a roar she lunged at the monster after a brief moment of hesitation, knowing that it had disappeared before. But she believed in her own powers, she would not crash into the stone walls for nothing.

 

Eyeing the monstrosity, she flew at great speed, fists in front of her and arms stretched.

With a thunderous crash she connected with the creature which made a terrifying howl in agony while Natasha had to bite her lip not to scream herself: the blow had made a small dent in the spider's head while it hurt her hand more, or at least so it seemed. And it was supposed to be one finishing blow! Gritting her teeth, she repeated the move, then charged in underneath the creature and rose to deliver a kick in its weak belly.

Now the sounds from the horrifying monster seemed to change, into wails of pain and begs of mercy.

She regarded the beast with pity now, as she could feel the pain it was in. But then she shook her head resolutely.

"I am sorry spider, but I cannot let you live. After all you never really lived, as all you really are is the embodiment of my own worst fears, and therefore I have to ban you." she spoke softly.

The creature bowed its head remorsefully and Natasha dealt it another blow, this time using a technique of Body Life magic to split it in two. And at that same moment it disap­peared wholly.

Natasha could not move for minutes, thinking about everything she had just done and witnessed.

Never would she be the same again, for she had succeeded where the man she had buried had failed: she had conquered her own worst fear, and with that all her fear.

Normally she could go on for days without any kind of rest or sleep, but the Pits had their own ways of making people feel weary, as again she fell down and almost slept before she hit the ground.

 

"Is she ready, old friend?"

"Well, I think she is. Or as ready as she could ever be, to be exact. We have followed her from the beginning and now she has passed the trial of fear. She has not made the choice yet but she knows her ways. I have guided her where I could yet I could not stop her if her mind was on something different. Yes, she is ready."

"But what should I tell her? It is not our ways to say what to do or what not to do. She set her mind on the perilous quest and even I am not going to talk her out of that."

"Oh, she is stubborn enough to go on with it, that is why she is down there in the first place. Talk to her like a father should, I say. Since you cannot talk her out of it then see to it that she does not descend unprepared."

"There must be a thing I can do."

"You could do something, aye. You could talk to the master of the netherworld, whose name shall not be pronounced here, or you might even talk to the Guardian. But would that be what she really wants?"

"What she wants, Ultimate One, is to free the young warrior from his dread fate. I am not sure if she cares how. Tell me, did you feel the satisfaction of victory when you had a goal to achieve and somebody else achieved it for you? Were you the grateful one then?"

"She is not me. I never allowed things like that to happen. I always went as straight to my goal as I could."

"But she is you, my good friend. After all, she is doing just that! It is only that you never had a divine father watching over you, for the old Ultimate One would never interfere with the old masters."

"Is that what I should do then, not interfere? Just sit and watch how she fares?"

"She is not a pupil of yours, Ultimate One, she is your daughter. You may act different, and you want to act dif­ferent so there is nothing to stop you. You may be able to prepare her for the horrors she will face, the ghosts and ghouls from the netherworld. Why did she not get a vision of them instead of the spider?"

"You know as well as I do that the powers of the Pits are made of wild magic and cannot be controlled by anyone but the entrapped soul. She feared spiders worse than ghouls and so her visions of spiders returned for her to conquer her fears."

"And she did just that. What are you going to do next? Or can't you disturb anyone during the stay?"

"I cannot break into the Pits, but she can break out. And she will if she has the power."

"Break out of the Pits? That should be impossible."

"Hey, you call yourself the god of knowledge, you should know what I mean."

"Down there they call me that, aye. And I see what you mean though I must say not many have accomplished the astral es­cape."

"True, but she is strong enough and her own powers will suck her out, so to say. She will come to the place of the white landscape, so soon before she will descend into the darkest of places."

The Ultimate One stroke his dark moustaches and waved the long, curly hair from his severe face.

"Aye, she is ready."

 

Imagine that you find yourself bathing in white, warm, liquid light. You can see nothing else, you can feel nothing else. Complete and utter peace. Warmth everywhere, white fluorescent light everywhere. You have no notion of time or physical suffering.

Soon you may like it there, though you have no clue where you are. But that is all-right, because you feel like you have been there all your life. Everything is the same and everything is at peace.

That is why you might get rather upset when you see and feel the warm, liquid light extinguishes and everything you have seen and felt turns dark and cold.

To your surprise, you realise those feelings are not new to you, you have dwelt in darkness before.

And then your whole past comes back to you. You look at the things you considered good, you remember the times when you were ill, behaving strangely with the chance to see what you did wrong so you wouldn't do it again. And when you have finished your journey through your own memories you turn back to yourself only to see you have become a whole dif­ferent person.

This is what happened to Natasha.

She had experienced the feeling that had become known as The Bath. It was something that masters of Body Life magic ex­perienced after a tough and difficult fight they had survived and emerged victorious from. Now was the time to heal all the wounds inflicted on body, mind and soul.

She felt like she was bathing in the brightest of white lights, energy surrounding her touched every part of her body, its soothing energy surging through her skin, touching her bones and muscles deep inside, penetrating her mind, cleansing her soul.

Even though the light was blinding it could not harm her, her eyes were closed but did not blink and the eyelids were not shut tight to ward off the light.

This time the battle had not been physical, yet the muscles enjoyed the light which could not replace any kind of healing or massage. It had been her soul that had been attacked, and she had defeated the ultimate assault of her inner feelings.

She felt as if recharged, and she could not feel the extreme cold of the Pits, nor could she feel any hunger or thirst even though she was in the second night already.

And it was then, when she felt totally fit again, that her astral body was sucked from her physical one and she soared up, through the ceiling of the cave with amazing speed, es­caping the confines of the dreaded Pits with no effort, flying at great speed through the universe, wherever it took her. And though the experience was new to her and definitely frightening, she could not scream.

All she could feel was relaxed, and calm.

 

        Chapter Fourteen

 

"And so, my daughter, you have come."

She looked at her undefinable surroundings and tried to locate the stran­gely familiar voice. Then it hit her, like a tidal wave.

"Father!"

Now the deity showed himself, and he was every bit of him she remembered: tall and imposing, muscled and lean.

She also remembered his face: long moustaches, severe dark eyes that suddenly reminded her vividly of Agnes though these eyes seemed to be demanding respect, and she could imagine he had almost inspired respect upon being seen.

Even though no mortal could ever hurt him, he was still dressed in his black plate armour with the recognisable sign of Body Life magic on his left breastplate, in dark silver. It had been well over a year since he had ascended for good, and he had never been able to be a good father to her since he had his holy job of training people as the new masters of Body Life magic. Still she felt his affection towards her­self all the time but she couldn't help wondering why he had descended now, and how he could have penetrated the Pits.

"I have not penetrated, Natasha. You have escaped." came the harsh but nevertheless gentle voice of her father.

"Escaped? How is this possible?"

"You escaped with your astral body, your consciousness so to say. This is what happens after you have felt the Bath when you have defeated your own worst fear. Still some people experience the Bath they don't all reach this state of nothingness. Normally they come to this realm here and meet somebody they would want to meet but normally never could. Most of the time it's dead people they want to see. And I figured you would see me."

"As I have always been glad to see you, father, this time my need for your consult is great."

"Of course. You are about to descend into the gravest place of them all, to undertake a kind of action people would call you simply and utterly crazy."

"So you think I should go on with this?"

"I will not stop you, and since your mind is set on going I don't even have a right to stop you. Even though you do not master all the Moves you are on your way to become a woman of the Body Life magic. Not a mistress yet, but that will be a mere formality after you have survived the Pits. Because then you will only have to learn the other Moves."

"I know I master most of the Moves and have experimented with others. I have learned how to concentrate my power into raw energy and I can use it to levitate and penetrate people in their own minds. There must be only two or three Moves that I do not know yet."

"Five there are. And they are five of the most fearsome Moves you could think of. Yet I was already amazed that you could wield the Ball of Nature so easily in that graveyard. But the Inner Dragon and its likes will be different."

"You started teaching me small things, father. Would you continue your lessons and teach me what I do not know?" "Time is not on your side, Natasha. But all the knowledge is inside you. And well, for you the official rules do not count as all the power has been inside you all your life." "So I am told. Father, you know where that mysterious voice in my mind comes from, don't you?"

"I do. Listen to that voice, Natasha, your life may very well depend on it. He is wise and just and thinks to know what is best for you. And on most accounts I agree."

"But is there a chance I could beat the Guardian for the warrior? And what role should Vooys play?"

"The young Casting One should stay out of this. If he comes with you he will most certainly fall into the claws of the Guardian and even if you may claim his brother, he will not go back with you as a living person. And he will have the power that links two dear brothers, but that is as far as it goes for him. The power can be transmitted through a large dis­tance, even between worlds. Right now the warrior stays alive by love for his brother alone, as the sorcerer keeps his sanity by love for his brother alone. Down there, his sanity will be eaten away and the terrors would conquer the place in his mind he now reserves for thoughts of his kin. And then the link will be broken and they will both die.  What's more, I could not even foresee the results for you." "It's going to be impossible to keep Vooys from coming with me."

"I know, but you will think of something. Knock him out if you must."

"Father... "

"I mean it, Natasha."

Now the voice sounded stern and this time is was her turn to understand there would be no negotiating.

Suddenly she felt the image of her father was wavering.

"I must go now. After a short time you will return to the Pits and time is your opponent now. But you are stronger than ever now, I am sure you will manage."

"Do you really have to go back so soon?"

"As a matter of fact, you have. What you are feeling now is the pause in time you normally feel after experiencing the Bath. Soon your astral body will return to yourself and you will wake up."

"But where am I then?"

"If you really want to know, we are in what we call the white landscape, the land behind the mystic barriers we break down after we experience the Bath. But I see your physical body is pulling at you, Natasha. It would be wisest to follow its urges and return to it. I know you would not have me interfere in the coming matters and I respect that. I will, however, descend myself and see what the place is like. And if pos­sible, I can see if I can arrange some clemency from the one who rules there."

"Father, if I need help, can I call upon you?"

"You can, though you may not like the idea. Now go."

For a final time she hugged her father. She resisted the urge to kiss him on his cheek as she had always done, she thought one didn't kiss a god, even if the god was her own father. Then she relaxed and felt that she was pulled back to reality. With amazing speed her astral body soared through space and time, yet the journey seemed to last forever.

 

When she opened her eyes again she felt she was not simply hungry but she was famished! Her throat felt dry from the dust and her tongue felt like a lifeless leather flap dangling out, licking up more dust. Her stomach seemed to turn sour like two months old milk and she felt like vomiting even though there was no food left in her. She clutched her stomach in pain and lay down.

How easy it was now to give in! To let death overtake her swift and painlessly, instead of who knows how many more hours of suffering? How many hours left, or was it even the third day? Was it day or night, afternoon or evening? Day two, three or even four? Desperately, she looked at the dark curtain of arcane origins blocking the only exit from the dark Pits, knowing it would open only at the sunrise after four days and four nights.

Yet she struggled for her consciousness and crawled her way to the part where the runes had been carved in. She could no longer see the names on the stone walls of the Walls of An­cients, yet she saw two exits, two curtains of magic.

The whole world twisted in front of her eyes, and she fell down purely out of weakness. Her knees would not support her any longer, and her eyelids were too heavy to remain open. She had drained her last life energy, or so it felt, and she had used up all the reserves built by food.

Yet she struggled, if it were only to keep her eyes open and seeing, as she studied the veins in her arms. The tanned skin that once covered it seemed to have paled in her eyes and blue veins were running clearly, and she realised she must have lost pounds of body fat so that her body was now literally only vein, muscle and bone.

Her father had been confident she could make it, but her astral body had been stronger than her physical one. There she could not feel pain, because she had just experienced the Bath. Now she was back in the tough, real world and pain she certainly felt!

Memories returned, the memories of her very few fights. The fight with the werewolves was the most recent one but apart from the battle for nature and the soul of the vampire, what had she established in her short life? Nothing! She had been sheltered from the world, kept within the confines of the tower, the structure of stone far away from the normal, civilised world. She had been able to witness how others grew to great power courtesy of her divine father, and how they used their extraordinary skills now. She had seen how Agnes and Ledda fought faster than the untrained eye could follow, she had seen how Martin en Rann could hit a target with a rock from half a mile away. They were the proud and powerful masters of Body Life magic, the first ones of the new batch, and they would show the world that they could keep the balance between good and evil steady, as young as they were! And what could she do? Who was she, a young girl with little experience and no real lessons who was dying here in this dark cave, alone?

Where was the voice even, who had tried to help her as much as it could? Or was it blocked again, because then she would not be really alone like the laws of the Pits prescribed? How cruel could a ritual be, knowing that it would create a lonesome and self-centred person, now that her father had discovered that company is a strength?

Why weren't the pupils sent into the Pits in groups, so that they could help each other in difficult times such as these? Why? Why?

 

Suddenly there was a hint of light, coming from the dark blue curtain of magic. And she could hardly realise what that meant: four days and four nights had passed, and she was allowed to leave the Pits. With her last strength she con­centrated to concentrate her powers, and she could drag her­self across the narrow strip of cold rock. She could not mind her body now, and she hardly felt the cold, rough rocks of the cave floor scraping her soft breasts. The entrance was all she really cared for, to get out of this cave of death and decay. But somehow there was something wrong, as the arcane energy tingled as she approached she curtain, and with dismay she felt the energy and realised the curtain was still intact. The entire vision of the curtain fading had just been either a hal­lucination or it was just her vision that was fading. She blinked and now she could see the same dark blue light, for­bidding, daring her to throw herself into it, death and even entire vaporisation being the punishment. Not that Natasha had the strength left to throw herself into anything now, as she felt she was completely drained of all that had anything to do with strength, power and energy. The very essence of Body Life magic had run out of her in these past gruelling days. And with that, life. Or at least that was how she felt. She knew that her power should restore it­self, she should be able to concentrate on her own healing. But the drain had been too much for her. But yet she could not close her eyes to rest, as she was afraid she would never wake up again. The cruel vision of the laughing god of the netherworld came to her, mockingly laughing at her because she had proven herself to be too weak to endure a challenge as small as this.

The laughter seemed to go straight through her head, and as she put her hands over her ears the volume only seemed to intensify. Was this the punishment she got for all her stub­bornness? For believing in powers she had not fully exploited, driven by time? Had entering the Pits been, as her mother had said, been a rash act because she had been feeling the suf­fering from the dark young sorcerer rather than common sense? Had she been blind to the fact that she was not ready yet, and that it might even take years to be ready? Who was she, then? She had not even chosen her align-ment, dark nor light nor neutrality. Was this the point where she had to choose or die? Should she turn to some god and pray for herself? With this she suddenly opened her eyes and stared at the dark blue curtain.

"You can't make me. I am independent, the child of my father, whose feelings for independence made him a god. He never let himself be controlled by anybody, and this has always been his greatest strength. Some demon thinks he has beaten me, just because I am tired. But no! You don't beat me, Natasha One-Donthiac, so easily."

And with that she rose, easily using new-found powers to support her body. She had seen something like this before, she thought by herself, when masters started concentrating to work their powers. They had started to glow in their own chosen colours, so everybody could see he or she was working the most powerful powers in the universe, the powers of the body ener­gy. But she was different, she did not glow. Was there something she did wrong? Then it came to her: in her first days of practice, she had given her energy no colour not to attract attention, when she was on her way to Hor­neng, and so the colour she had actually chosen had been no colour at all. So her powers were present but invisible. Actually not bad at all, unsuspecting enemies would not see the power coming before it was too late. So she would have a distinct advantage over anybody. Then why was not everybody doing this, why did everybody choose bright colours?

 

"Yes, why?"

"I don't think it makes much of a difference, Knowing One. We have been taught to pick a colour and we were afraid of nobody but each other. And if we work our powers, there is no real difference if you can see it or not. We can feel it, we don't need to see it. And anybody who can't? Well that does not matter, either, for then they are too late anyway."  The two neutral gods watched as the young girl relaxed and con­centrated to restore her powers, both in a pensive mood. Since Lorean was called the god of knowledge, this was nothing special for him, but the Ultimate One always had something to do or to say. So it was not long before he broke the silence.

"After all, the glowing of the body is very impressive, and we do like to show off sometimes."

 

Now there was no real test left for the girl, and she knew it. She had battled not only her worst fears, which had turned out to be something ridiculous really, but also the powers of the body: hunger, thirst and exhaustion. She knew it could not be long now, and she even enjoyed the surprised look of Martin when at last the curtain faded and Natasha walked through the cave entrance, a satisfied smile on her face.

"It is good to be out." she said, but that was as far as the masquerade went. The crash was inevitable, and she slumped to the ground, not even noticing that Martin dumped the contents of a bucket over her face and her mother was run­ning towards her quickly.

 

        Chapter Fifteen

 

The strain had been hard on her, but somehow she could no longer be bothered by the pain that had pushed her to the limit for four long days. She had drunk some water enhanced with fruit juice and she had eaten a well-balanced meal and rested for half a day. She had taken a bath in a nearby creek and then she had stated that she was ready for the events to come. Vooys would not believe her, her mother had seen this happen many times, with the others who had emerged from the Pits. Martin presented her a new weapon, the legen­dary sword of Body Life Magic, and with him she studied the last Moves she did not master yet. Martin had been surprised by her fast learning but then again, she was who she was and it could have been expected. He even felt pity for the girl, when she was struggling to control the Inner Dragon, the most dreaded of Moves, as he remembered well the pain he had felt when he first set himself ablaze with his own life energy only to become a dragon of light. But he had been surprised when she suddenly disappeared from sight and had to adjust his senses to make sure she was still there, as her powers were invisible to the normal eye and as was normal in the Inner Dragon, the energy blocked out the vision of the body itself. But when he was fully con­centrated he could see her again, and he could only nod in acknowledgement when she completed the Move.

"Congratulations, Natasha. You are now a master of all the one hundred and seven Moves of Body Life magic." he said solemnly.

"Doesn't this mean I am a master of Body Life magic then?" she asked. Martin could only shrug.

"You can hardly call me your teacher for supervise you when doing the last five Moves, the rest you did yourself. But you have mastered the Moves and you have spent time in the Pits, so I guess you are." he said, though she could feel he was not exactly happy with the way things had gone.

She could understand, as Martin had been training for so many years to accomplish what she had accomplished in mere weeks, apart from her long physical training and her severe diet. Before this, he had been a promising squire in the famous Fort Vioris, the main training camp for knights. His father had been a low-ranked but well-respected knight in the town of Vintel, where the Ultimate One met him and even befriended him, not long before the town was wiped out completely by the last Dark Body, also killing his father. When the Ultimate One rose to power he and his brother had been among the first to respond to the call, resisting the urge to stay in Fort Vioris and become a knight, a man of honour and heroics. His training had been a time of serving, and he knew that once he had completed his training and become a knight he would be low-ranked and serving his superiors. Now he was his own master, and he had nobody to answer to. And while he had not been used to it, he had learned to deal with it and like it, like the other masters. Natasha considered all this when she returned to the tower where she found Vooys talking to an impressive man dressed in black robes.

"Ah, you are back at last. Natasha, meet Lachman, one of the Three." Vooys said politely.

The Three were the senior advisers of the Sorcerers' Coun­cil, the ones who advised the High Sorcerer and his second. Each one represented a council of nine from their own alignment, and the Nine observed and controlled their part of the world of sorcery. Most sorcerers in the world obeyed the Council, seeing that the Council was made of sorcerers who did their job for sorcery itself, people who would keep track of the latest events, correct wayward members where needed, and would teach, train and advise anyone who needed it. Of course there were also renegades, but most of them were watched closely by the Council or brought to justice. The sorcerers knew that they could have the destiny of the world in the palms of their hands if they let chaos take over, and because sorcery was, like Body Life magic, one of the forces to keep the balance in the universe, they sought to control it.

Natasha bowed to the sorcerer and sat down in a deep chair. "The young apprentice Vooys Gunthar-Roth has told me of your plans, Natasha One-Donthiac, and you realise well it is not without danger. You have the required amulet, already op­posed a powerful necromancer and a pack of werewolves. Already I am impressed with your prowess but what lies ahead of you is something entirely different. We were disturbed to hear of the plans of the necromancer and are glad you could prevent his schemes. The amulet will able you to travel to the Halls of Doom, though you should remember that is more than just a name. You have an idea of the fate the warrior met, and you know that this can happen to you. You will be off even worse than the souls tormented there, for you will be alive. That is because of the rules of the universe, created by the immortal gods. The ones who enter the Halls of Doom are the dead, not the living. That is the standard procedure anyway. This is the reason why nothing can die in there, because they are already dead. So it is safe to assume that the young warrior is alive, but not well. The Guardian of the netherworld is a foul creature, one who takes pleasure in torture and pain. Yet you seem to be determined to go, the two of you, so I will learn you how to enter and, if possible, how to leave."

"Master Lachman, I am glad you are willing to help us. However, I should inform you that I will go alone. My friend Vooys is in no position to undertake such a perilous journey and if one of us is likely to fall prey to the Guardian, it will be him." she said politely. As was expected, Vooys rose in anger.

"What are you saying girl? Listen to yourself, you are only seventeen years old! And I must go, it's my brother, not yours!"

"I am afraid she is right, apprentice. You have not been casting spells but for two years, and you hold no real power yet, unlike this girl. Especially not compared to a mighty arch-demon. The link to your brother may be a strength, but it can just as easily turn out to be a weakness. I cannot describe the state you will find your brother in, and it may fill you with disgust. It may unnerve you and, what's more, distract you. That will be when the Guardian gets you, and chains you right next to your brother."

"It is a risk I have to take, master Lachman. I cannot sit idle while Natasha ventures into the Halls of Doom alone."    "You have no choice, Vooys. I have... " she started but then she realised that the conversation between her and her father was not something to discuss, as she was now a master and masters were not allowed to talk about things the Ul­timate One had said to them personally. Even though he was her father, she was now also the Ultimate One to her, and she knew she could only discuss it with her mother.

"You have what? You know something that I don't?" he snapped.

"Unless you really don't know that your life will be forfeit when you come along." she retorted, knowing that it would be impossible to make him understand. She remembered the words of her father: "Knock him out if you must." and she knew she might have to do just that.

But it was Lachman who made the decision.

"The girl will go, and she will go alone. She is not a real sorceress though she has powers of sorcery, but this is only natural since her mother is a powerful sorcerer. As for her other powers, well we know where they came from. There is only one amulet, and only one can hold it. When you travel together one would have to depend on the one who holds the amulet, and that would be a weakness, one the Guardian will certainly try to use. It is in your best interest, young apprentice, as well as your brother's, that she succeeds. So support her any way you can. After all, she does this for you."

Vooys seemed to surrender to the words of his superior and bowed his head. "The best of luck then, Natasha, take care of my brother and come back." he said, his voice suddenly darkening. Natasha, however, could not be discouraged.

"Don't worry Vooys, if anybody can bring him back, I can." She did not notice the dark sorcerer's face become severe, and she probably didn't even realise she was challenging Lachman's powers.

 

Suddenly a dark-robed man appeared in the classroom of the psychic. Bals'zr dropped his broom in surprise and yelled before dashing off.

"Master, master! Dark man has come! Dark wizard man!" he shouted. Jon hurried over and tried to calm down his appren­tice. "Dark wizard man? Did he scare you? Come on, where is he?"

"I am right here, mister Man. I am sorry I frightened your apprentice, but I come from a long distance and had to teleport straight to your chambers, for I would not be seen by anybody outside. My name is Vooys Gunthar-Roth, and I may need your services."

"You are the youngest son of the lord! And obviously you don't want your father to know you're in town, very well. How may I help you?" Jon asked.

"You know the girl known as Natasha One-Donthiac, and I remem­ber you also know that she went to Horneng. My brother and I met her there, and we accomplished our mission. In the chaos that followed, the Guardian of the netherworld took my older brother Clynck and abducted him into his dark world. A world Natasha is about to enter in order to free him. I ask of you to foresee the outcome. And of course absolute secrecy for I don't want anybody in this town to know that Clynck has been abducted, least of all my father."

"I have my well-known code of silence, mister Gunthar. That girl! Already she surprised me when she went to Horneng on her own, and now this? Where is this going to end? You sure made one like your own, Ultimate One! Well then, I need something of the girl. Well I have that still, of course. Bals'zr, could you give me that sample from Natasha One, you know, the girl with the powers?"

"Yes, master." the apprentice said and ran off to find the required sample, a lock of hair and a finger nail.

"You use samples for foresight?" Vooys asked, amazed.

"It is a bit like you may use for your voodoo-practices if you are into this kind of sorcery, really. Last time she was here in person, and that made it a lot easier. But because she is one I care about, because I have watched her grow, I wanted to have a sample of her to check on her from time to time. Now, if you allow me to concentrate... "

The young sorcerer kept quiet as he watched the short man sit down in a strange chair, his legs folded and his eyes staring at something in front of him, wide open. Even he could feel the air thicken in the room as the psychic was building up his concentration. He could almost envision the waves of energy floating around him, as the man started to hum softly, then it suddenly grew louder and louder. He didn't even notice the gypsy apprentice who had entered the room again, watching his master at work. It did not take long before the man opened his eyes again. Then, to the sorcerer's surprise, Jon asked his apprentice for some books, a quill and ink and some paper.

"What is going on, what have you seen?"

"Patience, lad. I have seen enough, I only don't know yet how to interpret it. You could say I have had some sort of dream, and telling about dreams is risky business as you can be lying when you don't know for sure what you are talking about. So I will have to study on what I have seen and then I can give you a result. Come back tomorrow and I can tell you everything."

"I don't know if there is time! She may be leaving before tomorrow!"

"There is nothing I can do, young man. These things take time or there is a chance I say something wrong, and I do not want to tell you things I am not entirely sure of, for I don't want to risk any harmful misinterpretation. I have built up a good reputation because of my accuracy and I would keep it that way. The longer you hold me up, the longer it is going to take." Jon said resolutely, this being the way he normally shooed eager costumers.

"What is your fee, by the way?" Vooys asked.

"I will tell you when I am finished, so far I've done nothing that can help you so I can't charge you anything yet. Tomor­row, lad."

Vooys bowed his head and left as sudden as he had appeared. The apprentice could not suppress a shudder. "Master, this be evil man, why we help him?"

"This may be a dark sorcerer but he is as young as you are and his father is lord of this town. What's more, he came here to inquire about Natasha, and Natasha is also my own concern. Now what I saw was very complicated. Could you hand me the volume about darkness and light?"

"Here go, master."

 

"Experiments like this one have not been uncommon, to travel between the worlds of the living and the dead. But the realm of the easy spirits and the Halls of Doom, that is something entirely different. None have seen much and returned alive, I must warn you. Now there are two theories about the Halls. One is that the Halls of Doom are made entirely out of wind and air. That is because one who made the same journey you are about to undertake, and who returned, saw nothing but chaotic storms and varying air, thick and thin. You know of course the difference in types of air, when you climb a high mountain the air will be much thinner than in a valley. The other theory is that this is just the beginning and that the Halls are made out of the elements: air, water, earth and fire. We call it the diving theory. Like you dive off a high cliff and sail through the air, you splash in the water, hit the earth on the bottom and dive through to the fire that is the heart of the planet, the magma. This theory is the most popular because the degrees of torture for the doomed spirits go this way: the ones who get the least punishment are blown away by the storms, others drown eternally, others rise from the earth as skeletons, much like the Shadows of Horneng you encountered, and the worst off are the ones who burn eternally. You must be prepared to descend into the deepest of pits, the fiery part, for this is probably the place where the young warrior will be punished for the crime the two of you committed. This very amulet brought back the sorcerer who descended from the windy realm, but I can only wish for you it will be powerful enough to bring you back from the fire." Lachman told.

Natasha nodded confidentially. "This one was strong enough to raise an undead army, from the earth. So one more level should not be much of a problem. Master Lachman, is there aught else I should know?"

"You want to go at once, for you are in a hurry to save the young warrior, the apprentice's brother. I cannot blame you, Natasha One, and I am sure I have told you everything I know on the matter. Please be so kind to give me a report of the things you have seen if you are able to return, for studying purposes only. I ask you this in the name of the Council." "That's all-right, master Lachman. You told me so much, so I think it's only fair to tell you what you want to know, for the Council or not."

When the girl started her final preparations, the sorcerer could only smile.

 

"Where is Natasha?"

"You have come too late, apprentice. She was very eager to leave at once, two minutes after I said I had told her everything I could tell her she was gone. You can now only hope for the best. But she is strong and confident, you should have a bit of faith in her, as formidable as her opponent may be."

Vooys could only swear.

 

 

        Chapter Sixteen

 

The void she was sucked into seemed to be a bottomless pit, and she had to take her time to adjust her senses to the completely new surroundings. She understood that this was the transformation she was undergoing herself, and that she was no longer completely herself. She was now a shell around her soul more than a living and breathing person. For it would be her soul that would have to endure the most in this dark world, the term 'Halls of Doom' appearing suddenly very appropriate to the young girl.

But she remembered herself of being a master of Body Life magic now, someone whose soul was now the heart of her whole being. And so she should be the one who would have the biggest chance of escaping with her life, soul and sanity. No sor­cerer, a man or woman who relied on the will mostly, could best her in this.

A wave of energy soared past her, and the blood chilled in her veins when she heard a wailing cry, partially torn apart by the storms she had been warned about.

It's somebody who just died, she said to herself, and who was making the same voyage she was about to make, with the dif­ference that she had booked a return ticket, and this one would be going nowhere. But then the words of the sorcerer came to her: these were the ones who were not allowed to rest quietly but were punished in the least severe way.

But Lachman had not been able to tell her about any dangers these halls might pose, and she could not know what to expect in this world of the dead. But there was only one thing she kept reminding herself of: she could not die. Nothing in this world could die, because most of it was already dead. They could try to harm her soul, but her soul was stronger than that of an average man or woman. She was only not sure of her power so she made a small light using sorcery and gathered some life energy around her to see if the Body Life magic was still working. She saw it was all working perfectly still and so she travelled on downwards, as the void seemed to suck her in deeper and deeper. Her left hand was on the hilt of her new sword, and her eyes and ears were focused on her surroundings. It was very difficult to actually hear anything as the storms were making more noise than she had ever heard. These were worse than the storms in Horneng! Yet she did not fight to control them, for they were not bothering her and she knew she had to save her powers.

Now that she was getting in deeper, she could see all the hovering souls around her, their faces as they remembered them, in all in agony and despair, even as they were resting in there fate, or at least seeming to. There were so many of them! Their screams now got through to her, and they seemed to come closer. She drew her sword, ready to strike down any image within range, as she knew these were out for her warm blood. Even though it was nothing more than a fairy tale that a dead man could return to life after drinking the blood of a live being, many people had grown up and died believing this. And so she had to slash out a couple of times, even though the dead souls didn't seem to feel anything. Fortunately she seemed to be the only one who could withstand the winds, as she was solid, and so no soul could stay close to her. They were replaced by new ones, however, who literally came blowing by as she descended, finally slowing down. And then she was there, she felt, as she ceased to descend. But when she looked underneath her, she could see nothing. No floor, nothing solid underneath her booted feet. But she could stand and walk anyway, so she merely shrugged and wondered where to go.

"You are going nowhere, mortal being." came a sudden voice from out of nowhere.

Natasha looked around but she could detect no life, nor did she see any tortured soul. But then she detected movement, and she concentrated to see through the blinding storms. What she saw she could only describe as a living tornado: a wind elemental was approaching her.

 

"Surely, you will understand that you have bestowed a very difficult task upon me, young man. I have deciphered the dream but there are complications. You see... do you know anything about this?"

"Not much, I am afraid." Vooys said as he studied the sym­bols on the paper.

"Natasha's well-being is something you do not need to con­cern yourself with. Here is says that she will tell her story, and that provides us with the information that she has someone to tell it to. Which is not likely to be anyone in the nether­world. Gri.. Mistress Griwalda would be more likely to hear her stories. So she will come out alive." "With all due respect, mister Man, I am more concerned with my brother."

"Of course. Now here lies the tricky point. Her fate, and his, are interwoven in your structure."

"My structure?"

"Aye, it is what we call structure. It is the way you will act that will give the outcome to this story."

"It is more than a story."

"Of course it is, just a manner of speaking, I assure you. You see, Natasha will tell her stories, but I do not know what she is going to tell. She can look either sad or happy at the time of telling, and it seems to be you who decides what she is going to tell."

"Me? How can be?"

"I do not know. I happened to find some hair of you on the ground after your last visit and I used them to implement another dream, this time about you. And it seems to me that you will be torn apart mentally, by feelings of anger and joy. What this means I can only guess. Are you in love with Natasha?"

"Love is a big word. Let's say I am attracted to her, but I also fear her and her powers. I could imagine seeing her back again in the world of the living would feel me with joy. I do not know where the possible anger may come from. Because she will not be able to rescue my brother, and that I overes­timated her?"

"Possibly. Though I don't think so. You see, I have seen this girl grow up and I have known her parents for long years. I don't think she will return without your brother, as she is not the type to give up on something she has set her mind on."

"That much I thought. But you say you knew both her parents? Also this god, this Ultimate One?"

"Aye, I knew him. But let's not drift off, please. What it all seems to come down to is that you must control yourself. Don't let any negative feeling influence you, even though this is difficult due to your nature."

"What do you mean my nature? My father is lord of this town!" Vooys almost shouted.

"True, true, but he is an honourable king-knight and you are a dark sorcerer."

"Which is exactly the reason why I don't spend much time in this town. But I see what you mean, please continue. So you think Natasha does something wrong, that she will be the one who will anger me?"

"Anger, young man, is a wide expression. You can make anger out of shame, disappointment, jealousy, determination and utter hatred. What will make your adrenalin flow, only time can tell."

"Such a powerful girl, and her fate will be in my hands." "Well, not exactly, but you do have something to say in it. And don't forget that as powerful as she may be, she is still a seventeen years old girl who has not seen much of this world."

"When she returns, she will have seen more of that world than of this." Vooys predicted.

"Don't make it any more horrifying than it already is."

"I suppose you can't see what is happening down there?" Vooys asked, knowing the answer.

"That the gods will forbid me, lad. I have done all I can." "An excellent job for which I will reward you well. I have now a good idea of what to do and, what's more, not do to." the sorcerer said and handed Jon his fee.

"Take care of yourself, young man, and of those around you." Jon said but Vooys was already gone, using his amulet to teleport back to the tower, hoping he had gone and returned unseen.

 

She had no idea how to battle an elemental, especially not one made out of air. She grabbed her sword in vain and searched her mind about any information about this kind of enemy. She remembered the voice and asked for help.

"Now, this elemental is made out of air, and you know how to deal with air. The Ball of Nature or whatever you call it does not work here since the tornado is nature here. But you know how to withstand a storm." the voice came.

She nodded confidentially, as the voice had been right: she knew. The air was much thicker here than it had been when she started falling into the void, and she knew the tornado would feel much weaker there. So she fought to rise into the emptiness above her and as expected the elemental followed. She managed to reach a point where it could no longer attack her, but then she stopped her ascent and looked down. This would not work, as all she had really done was run away from the elemental instead of defeating it. Below it would be just as strong as it had been the first time. The idea had been nice but the tornado would not fight her when it was weak. It would not be lured into a trap this easily. She went down and up again, watching the elemental, studying how far it would go. And when she saw its limit, she started to concentrate to gather her energy around her. When she felt she was powerful enough, she again drew her sword and started to rotate, making overhead swings with her mighty blade and speeding up fast, going anti-clockwise, against the rotation of the tornado. Then she moved forward, sailing through the air while still rotating, towards the elemental. She executed the Rotating Feet while she was still twirling her blade and to her satis­faction she could see the elemen­tal backed off. Now was the time to press forward, she knew, and using a globe of energy around her and feet and sword twirling, she collided with the tornado. The energy clashed, nature against life energy, and both started to slow down. Finally the tornado ceased, and Natasha knew she had defeated it. Wiping some sweat off her forehead, she looked in the distance, wondering where to go, when suddenly the tornado grew again in intensity and started to move again. Her life energy had been transported back to her body, and already she started to concentrate to bring it out again when the tornado went the other way. Natasha understood she had defeated it and it understood it as well, and it decided not to bother her again.

Satisfied, she sheathed her sword and flew on, until a second void trapped her. She understood that the theory of the elements had been the right one and holding on to her sword she dived head-first as she entered the water realm.

 

        Chapter Seventeen

 

It was a rare experience, to dive into the water like a giant fish, but she knew that she would be able to breathe under water as well as in the open air. She adjusted her senses again and inhaled the water, checking the water in her lungs for the presence of sufficient oxygen. Never having done this before except for her practices, she was surprised how easy it all went. Moving was more difficult though, as she was a creature of the land and was not used to all this. And she fared much better than the souls around her who indeed seemed to drown time and time again. Some of them had been sailors, she could see from their attire, others had experienced deaths that must have had something to do with water. Most of these had actually drowned, she could tell from their distorted faces, and the afterlife had not been much of a relief to them. After all, sailors could be very nasty people. she had heard. And the corsairs from the far west were notorious all over the world. They lived lives of sailing, fighting, drinking and raping women in the harbours. They had been evil, and they had wound up here. Natasha could not feel sympathy for these, as she had been horrified by the wild stories about these corsairs. She swam as fast as she could without using her powers, for she knew that something was guarding this realm as well, perhaps another elemental. But she knew just what to do here if she faced another elemental. Like air, water would rise when it heated up, and so she would fight a water elemental with heat, driving it out of her way. Strengthened by this knowledge she swam unworried. This was not going to be a very difficult level.

 

"I must say I am truly amazed, my friend. She does not know much, but she is very ingenious when it comes to finding solutions. The anti-clockwise tornado of her own was really a brilliant idea, I myself was thinking more about something entirely different, like using your Sharp Missile to cleave the tornado."

"I think that would have worked, too, but she found this good alternative all by herself. Have you had any children on the world below, Knowing One?"

"One, aye, many eons ago. As you know, I am one of the original gods who created this world, and so I have not had a time of being mortal. But once I walked the lands below, in the time that this was more usual for the gods, and I fell in love with a woman. She was a mortal woman, much like your own wife, and our son became a wise man, as was ex­pected as I was his teacher. He brought philosophy to the world and taught the humans to talk for other things than just conversation."

"You mean he invented politics?"

"Not really, though later politicians had him as their example, I must confess. He was the first one who taught people to stun somebody with words, and he was the first sophist. You should have seen them those days, the world was a place of war and conquest, battle prowess and strength the only standards for mankind. And here comes this man with his words, embarrassing the not so sophisticated warriors, negotiating for peace rather than fight a bloody war. With success, I might add."

"What happened to him?"

"Naturally, all this backfired, and he was slain brutally by a fighter who got fed up with his words. But he left many students, and those have learned more about the art of the word. They invented the script as we know it today, they made records, both historical and religious. Without them, the mortal would maybe still not be able to read and write. I am rather surprised that you did not know this, Ultimate One, as you are well educated."

"Can't know everything when you are only as young as I am, compared to you anyway."

"You would still be young in mortal terms, you would be just a little bit over fifty years, of which you spent eighteen in immortality. Don't worry, after the first century or two you will stop counting the years, as time doesn't matter for us."

"So you know what it's like to be proud of your child."

"Of course I know, and that's why I understand how proud you are of your daughter. She has withstood the first test and is now on her way to her second, though that will be much dif­ferent this time. The first two halls are really simple to pass if you have the nerves for them, the earth realm is difficult to get through but not so difficult to pass, but then the biggest of all challenges will come: the fire realm. It will seem unending to her, and she must not forget about her powers and her former achievements. The Guardian can be intimidating, and it is not known how the dark god himself will think about this."

"And if you don't know that, nobody does."

 

Suddenly she found a huge, strange creature blocking her way. It was an imposing sea dragon, fifty feet in length, covered from head to tail in dark green scales, pitch black eyes and horrifying tusks. She had never seen anything like this creature, she had only heard about it in legends, and she could not help stopping to watch and admire the grotesque shape of the monster. The dark shape lumbering towards her through the neither salt nor sweet water could only be defined as awesome. Yet she was not afraid of this creature, as she could only see the beauty of its shape. This the sea dragon felt, and it was an unusual experience to actually feel something else than fear radiating from one who laid eyes on it. Yet it had been warned: this was not one who belonged here, this was one who sought to defeat its unholy master. Yet it was not sure this was really the one: this female human was very young and did not seem to be afraid of the creature from nightmares. Nor did she seem to have any hostile intent towards the dragon, it was actually admiring it. The sight of the girl brought back painful memories to the sea dragon, who was not only serving this plane as the main guard, but also to haunt the souls of the people it had killed in the thousands of years of its life. It remembered the battle between itself and a strong sailor, one who would never give up and openly taunted the sea dragon. No longer could it remember the name of the sailor, but it could remember the power of the thirty foot lance when it was driven through its head. The pain, the wild thrashing in the sea, trying to get rid of the giant weapon, which was also covered by some very strong poison from the lands. It had jumped up into the skies, only to dive down hard until it hit the bottom of the deepest ocean. And it had remembered a small girl child, watching in terror but seemingly calm, on a deserted beach, an iron bucket and a small spade frozen in her hands. The child had watched the dragon as it frothed with frenzy and dark blood, crashing down again, sending waves up to thirty feet to the beach where the girl child was standing, unmoving. One of the giant waves surprised the girl child, and her body was sucked into the sea. The dragon had noticed this, and at that moment it had given up its resistance as it saw the lifeless form of the child, no older than ten human years, float by, and death took over quickly.

 

Natasha watched all this in wonder: from out of nowhere a giant lance appeared in the head of the mighty sea dragon and it suddenly started to thrash around. Probably remem­bering its death like so many here, she figured, and quickly she slipped past it. After all, it was always better to avoid a fight whenever possible, and she could save her powers for later. She was confident that this had been the guard of the water realm, and that she should find some way to go to the next one, probably the earth realm. She remem­bered what Lachman had told her: this would be the place where people were really punished, far worse than the previous planes. Here she would face souls no longer separated from there bodies, but still mindless. Which made them strong enough, as the bodies could only work well together but when more than one element was together it could already be dangerous: the soul stood for the power, the mind for the intelligence and the body for resis­tance. Only with these three things one could call itself alive, she had always learned. These had no intelligence, but they did have power and resistance. This she considered as she swam by the mindlessly moving body of a dolphin, its body partially eaten away, probably by cowardly sharks.

This hurt her, as she had always learned that dolphins were the humans of the water world: friendly and intelligent. To see such a gracious mammal here touched her deeply.

Had this been an evil dolphin then, did creatures of the water world also have their alignments?

But there was no time to give this more thought, she saw, as the bottom of the water world came into sight. A small portal was laying on the bottom, and she decided to open it at once. After all, there was no time to waste.

 

The world was changing before her very eyes, as colours started to swim in front of her. The water seemed to thicken the moment she entered the portal. In the distance she could still see the sea dragon, and a poor soul drifted helplessly in the distance. She knew she was going to enter the earth realm, but she had no idea what this was. And so she was very much surprised when she found a world much like her own, cloaked in grey twilight, when she could finally see clear again. She vomited the water out of her lungs in order to be able to breathe air again and the air also felt normal for a cold winter night. But now she could almost feel the presence of a powerful being in this area of doom, she could sense the Guardian and his powerful minions. She quickly searched for any sign of life, silently hoping that the warrior had not been put to torture in the worst of the four realms, but she found nothing. But then she saw something that disturbed her: the body of a man-like creature, torn to shreds, face-down on the hard ground. With a shock she recognised the cloak, the proud dark cloak she had seen only around the shoulders of...

"Marzún!" she shouted frantically. She now realised that she had failed after all, the enigmatic procedure had only suc­ceeded in the vampire being taken back to the world of the dead, only to be punished by the Guardian. Then the creature rose, and the bald head appeared, with those hor­rible eyes.

"So you have come to see how much I suffer!" the voice she had last heard in the dark cemetery spoke, hollow as ever. "That is not true, I never expected to see you here! What happened?"

"The prophecies... lied. The neutral gods I never saw, as the Guardian took me back the minute you had completed the spell of defiance. The powers of the universe did not listen to the ones who defied, and you knew it from the start. And so did that fool sorcerer, who just happened to be there at a very wrong time. You are the cause of my misery, and I will punish you for that!"

"Stop it Marzún, you know it is a lie! You sent us those dreams, you told us to come to Horneng and you gave me the instructions! Do not blame me for your own wrongdoing which also proved your undoing! You tried, and you lost. Such things can happen!" she shouted at the vampire, anger buil­ding inside her because she hated twisted truths. But the vampire lord was way beyond reason now. He started a battle for her mind, like he had done when she was in Uncle Jon's dream, and then he had won. This time, however, he would not send her a dream and a call for help, this time he would win over the young girl's mind, feed on the virgin and destroy her.

Natasha felt the power coming at her and tried to fight it with all her might. She concentrated and again formed a globe of energy around herself, creating a barrier for the vampire's mind-twisting attack. She managed to hold him at bay, and then she could straighten herself out.

"It simply can't be. If the Guardian would have taken you he wouldn't have taken Clynck. He does not take a living soul just because somebody tried to free a vampire, I am sure even gods and demons have laws against that. The dead belong here, not the living. This is why nothing can die here, as the wise dark sorcerer Lachman told. We completed the spell of defiance and you disappeared, Marzún, and the neutral gods can be forgiving, as my father is among them."

She did not know this for sure, but she had learned a lot about theology and she knew that the neutral gods were sup­posed to be the wisest of them all, watching the world with interest and open minds. There was Khion, the lord of the grey world of the dead; Lorean, the god of knowledge and the writ­ten word, the omniscient wise old man; Levenaar, the goddess of sorcery; Wahltor, the god of conflict and trade; Ankier, the god of the thieves; Kroll, the goddess of weather and of course The Ultimate One, the god of Body Life magic, her own father. Who might have had something to say about the success of his daughter's first real mission. But Khion would be forgiving, as his world would take not only the true neutral ones, but also the fallen good and the risen evil. And Marzún had belonged to the last group. Knowing and remembering all this, she could only draw one simple conclusion.

"You are not the real Marzún. Maybe you are an animated corpse, maybe just an illusion. Know then that I am Natasha One-Donthiac, daughter of the Ultimate One and Griwalda Don­thiac, second to the High Sorcerer. I will not be fooled by cheap tricks!"

To her satisfaction, the vision of Marzún vanished at once, only to show the real form of the creature that had been approaching her: another vampire, this one not known to her. "So that's the trick. You probably see Marzún as a renegade vampire. You really like being what you are then?"

"You don't know what you are talking about, little girl. To serve the Guardian is the highest honour a man can get after he has already died. Maybe you will consider it after your death, but think fast!" it hissed, and then it attacked. Natasha saw that her sword went through the vampire harmlessly and quickly retreated. But the creature followed her, trying to overcome her quickly. But now Natasha was fully con­centrated, and she put the palms of her hands together. When she opened them, a bolt of energy shot from her hands, also called the Dragon Maw, and the vampire never saw it coming as it was invisible and creatures of the night could never sense life energy in this form. With a high shriek it dissolved in a cloud of nauseating smoke, and Natasha held her breath before quickly moving on.

Was this already the guard of the earth realm? She shook her head almost at once. The first two levels had been so easy to pass, it would become more difficult as the levels she had passed were the parts for light punishment by a cruel god: the planes of heavy punishment would be considerably bigger.

 

The plane she was walking through was like an endless cave: tunnels forked everywhere, there was always a bend after at most a hundred feet, and there was something strange to this. It took her a while to notice what: there was no obvious source of light, yet there hung a suspended grey sort of twilight everywhere. She could see perfectly well and she didn't even had to adjust her sight to see in the dark, something all masters of Body Life magic were able to. Sudden­ly there was a voice, a voice of a man in pain. Her first thoughts were about Clynck but this voice sounded too old. A scream was followed by a heart-piercing wail of agony, coming from another voice. And another, and another. She said to herself that these souls meant nothing to her, and that she should not be distracted. She was not here to help every damned soul in this world, she was here for the living body, mind and soul of the young warrior. And she was really just passing through, though the Guardian would not let her pass easily. The fact that the fake Marzún had appeared was just a sign that the Guardian had spotted her, had seen her enter his world. But that was only logical, a living being in the world of the dead would always be noticed immediately, as she did not belong here.

"Clynck does not belong here, Guardian. Release him!" she shouted in vain, knowing that it would not be that easy.

 

Far away, though not very far away, a horrifying creature heard the shout of the young girl.

"Isn't this cute? A little girlie comes here, alone, with only one goal in mind and that is to rob me of a soul, one I took in exchange for one of my most powerful but rather rebellious vampires. How she managed to pass the first two planes, I can only guess. But I know how she got here, and I know how she can return to the world of the living. Now wouldn't it be nice to prevent that?"

The one he was talking to, a human soul, nodded solemnly. "You fool! How could you be tricked this easily by some young, unexperienced sorcerer and a seventeen years old girl child?" the Guardian shouted. The soul ducked to avoid a mighty blow from the arch-fiend and put its head between its knees, hoping to ward off as much punishment as it could. It was the soul of the necromancer who had been holding the wand Natasha had used. He had given the twosome with the werewolves no further thought and had rested, overlooking his troops of mindless but powerful warriors and zombies with pride and devotion to the Guardian. A full day and night later he suddenly saw something change, as his army would not listen to him any more. He had grabbed his wand but right then the illusion wore off and he was holding in his hands nothing more than an empty wand of lightning. The dead creatures had sunk into the ground, but not before dragging the unfortunate necromancer under with them. Even as the Guardian had placed him in the fire realm, he could only think of revenge, and he had begged for the souls of the girl and the sorcerer once they would use his wand and enter the Halls of Doom. The Guardian had called for him after some time and that had given him hope; when the Guar­dian came with the news that the girl had come he would almost be delighted if it were not for all the abuse the Guardian had given him for failing his task.

"Soon she will be here, because she simply has to come. We will not hurry to go to her, as it will be nice to watch while she is trying to get through. She may not even come this far, of course, but in that case I am going to have great delight seeing her perish. She will come, because of him." the Guar­dian spoke, pointing at the tortured body in manacles.

"Because of you she has entered this world, servant, but because of me she will never leave." he spoke to the necromancer, who could only nod. A tongue of fire streaked across the damned man's back, but he could scarcely feel it, for all he could think of was the destruction of the one who had brought him to his master too soon.

 

        Chapter Eighteen

 

She advanced carefully, as now she was fully aware of the fact that she was being watched: the appearance of the vampire had told her enough. She was now constantly holding her sword in her left hand, clasping the hilt strongly, ready to act at once. Somehow she could not feel fear when she saw that the tunnel she was walking in was blocked by a vast amount of giant man-like creatures. They were unarmed, but had arms like tree trunks and legs the width of a door. She counted five of them, and she knew that they knew she was coming. They had been ordered to stop her. But what were they? Scanning her memory, she decided that these were the legendary giants of old, the powerful giants who had ruled the world by force. Because they had been a fighting race, they had simply vanished in the long run, as they killed each other relentlessly, all for the individual survival. She had heard about this long gone race, but the stories had only sounded like legends to her. But they had been real, and now she was facing some ancient dead giants. When she studied them better, she could see that these were not only big and strong, but also empty-minded: zombies. And giant zombies could pose a threat to anybody, especially if there were five of them. Yet Natasha could not be afraid.

"What is this? Some kind of cheap trick to stop me?" she called out loud. "I am not afraid of you! It takes brains to defeat me!"

And with that she raised her sword and concentrated, let­ting her life energy flow through the silver blade. She raised the blade, held it with both hands, her right hand on the dull strip on the blade, and suddenly lunged forward, sailing through the air and holding her sword in front of her. This was the Sharp Missile, the Move her father had personally re-invented as it had been called the Lost Move before that. The zombies could not react as all they could see was a flash of silver, the girl behind it being in­visible because of the invisible energy around her. Remor­selessly she soared through the air and connected with the first giant zombie with precision. They had all been stan­ding more or less behind each other and so Natasha hoped to take all of them out in one blow. She was supposed to aim the Sharp Missile at somebody's stomach but these were too big, and so she had aimed at the throat. With satisfaction she felt herself go right through the first creature, and then the next. When she finally halted, she could see she had decapitated all five giant zombies, and she wanted to walk on when some sound disturbed her. When she looked around, she saw the five decapitated bodies walk on. Though they had no sense of direction, they seemed to be able to feel the girl's presence well enough as they started to lumber towards her once again. With a shriek she started thinking about what to do when suddenly the first one top­pled over, tripping over a rock. The second one had eyes nor ears and could not prevent falling over the first one and so it continued. Natasha watched as all five fell to the ground, and there they stayed, unmoving.

"Not bad." she said to herself, "Not bad at all."

With growing confidence she rounded a bend in the tunnel and sighed as it forked again.

 

"It is something we have never encountered before, a unique situation."

This came from one of the six persons in the conference room of the Sorcerers' Council. The High Sorcerer Antharion him­self was there, with his second Griwalda. He was accompanied by the Three, Lachman of the Dark, Anthon of the Twilight and Marcia of the Light. They were all listening to the story of the young apprentice Vooys Gunthar-Roth.

"Actually we have. Two hundred years ago one of us entered the Halls of Doom, using the very same wand that Natasha is using right now. But he never went far, as he could not stand the storms there. He just wanted to be there, but this girl is out to challenge the Guardian himself and retrieve the body and soul of the young warrior Clynck, brother to the apprentice here." Lachman told.

"The only problem is that this girl is not a sorceress, and she has not pledged to the Council." Anthon said.

"My honourable friend Anthon, may I remind you that this girl we are talking about is my own flesh and blood? She has powers of sorcery, along with the more developed powers of Body Life magic, and I can say in her name that she will pledge to the Council if such a formality is needed." Griwalda said, polite but angry nonetheless.

"But what's the difference? I thought the main point was that somebody is down there, challenging the Guardian, not who she is or who she pledges to." Vooys said. He had been rather uncomfortable among these high sorcerers, who made no bones about the fact that he was their minor in power and kept on calling him 'the apprentice'. He had enormous respect for these scholars in sorcery, but he hated to be looked upon as an unimportant being. This was also why he had insisted on the right of speaking as much as these powerful sorcerers. But these people had known each other for so long, some of them had known each other for even more years than he was old, so it was a mere formality that they treated him different. Griwalda, though, was a bit more spontaneous than the others.

"You are absolutely right, Vooys. Though this situation is rather unique, and initiated by a vampire, the ways and the means of travelling into this dark world is the subject of discussion here. Can you imagine what would happen if she returned successfully?"

"I have been told that a lot would depend on my behaviour then, I do not know much else."

"We are not looking at this individual case and its conse­quences, we are looking at everything concerning this. When people know what happened, and I am sure they will, they will want to travel to the dark realm, maybe to see somebody who died, maybe for knowledge and study... this is not something the gods intended, and it must be prevented." Lachman spoke.

"You mean you will not allow her to return?"

"Of course not, I think that is not even within my power, as powerful as she is. It is the wand that we are interested in, and we would see it destroyed upon her return."

"Destroy such a powerful item?"

"Aye, destroy such a powerful item. As it is too powerful, we remember well when we created a dimensional portal to the three halls of the dead. There was chaos, as living people were sucked into the void and dead people roamed the lands of the living. It took the combined power of all of us to close the portal, and then even more to destroy it. We have seen the dangers this wand can pose when used in the wrong hands. After all, was it not you who stole it from a necromancer who was building an army out of the souls from the Halls of Doom?"

"It was the two of us, really. Natasha distracted the man so I could work my powers to steal the wand and create an illusion so the necromancer would not miss it. But if the Council gets the wand, then there would be no way a renegade like the necromancer would ever have a chance to get his hands of it! You could control it! I mean, you must have many powerful items here that could easily destroy the world in the vaults of the Council."

"We have, though the ones that could be destroyed have been destroyed. For your information, the necromancer was not a renegade. Renegade sorcerers are most of the time from our side, sorcerers who believe in the rule of chaos, and who think that the Council restricts the power of sorcery for our own purposes. You have been taught by your late master Chrevilion, and you have witnessed many horrors. Yet he pledged to the Council like many other sorcerers of our side like yourself. We know the purpose of sorcery and that is to maintain the balance in the universe. Those who abuse the power in order to gain control over people are doing the wrong thing and do no longer obey the Council. These we call renegades and these are pursued in order to be brought to justice or put to death. The necromancer, though, was under the influence of his dark master, and was told to raise an army with the bodies and souls the Guardian would provide. The wand was merely a test of his faith and his strength, and losing it became his downfall."

"I take it his army took him. So he will be punished there, in the Halls of Doom, and his soul probably seeks revenge on Natasha."

"Which the Guardian might let him have. But we must have faith in one who has the power of both the soul and the will, even if she is as young as she is."

"She will not be afraid of a dead necromancer." Vooys said offhandedly. Griwalda just shook her had.

"What has she learned in such a short time? She grew up in Authon Towers, we educated her as well as we could, she trained her physique, and I learned her a small trick or two using sorcery. Now she went after necromancers and vampires and now she is in the dark realm, challenging the Guardian himself! What happened?"

"Easy, my honourable friend. It is well possible that she has reached the point where she wants to put all her skills and knowledge into practice. She picked up a few things about Body Life magic, learned how to push her will like we do, and gained confidence. It is this confidence that has given her the courage to act the way she does. You know where she comes from, and you know you could never keep her inside that tower." Marcia said kindly. The old woman, like all of them except Vooys dressed in crimson robes, as befitted one of the Council, had met the girl a couple of times and seen the enthusiasm burn inside her.

"And don't forget that she spent time in those pits of hers. Who knows what happens inside there? I could see she had changed when she came out. She also needed very little time to restore her energy after four days without food or water. What are these pits?" Vooys asked.

"The Pits are part of the Body Life magic, we do not know much about it. We only know that it is a test, a way to confront one self. Griwalda, you remember what I told you before you sent her to Grimloth? It was your decision, and the fate of the world may well depend on it. When she comes out of the dark realm, she will have changed again. And there is no telling if the change will be for the better or not."

"That is where I come in, I have been told." Vooys said.

"By whom then? You mentioned already that you know what to do when she returns. What do you know that we don't?"

"Not much. I was curious about her well-being and I hired the services of a seer to see how she would fare." he said. "You hired a seer? You know we don't really approve of any paranor­mal help." Lachman said.

"I know, but I couldn't help myself. I do not have the power to predict and I thought it could be helpful to ask someone who specialises on predicting the future. And as a matter of fact he did very well, or so I believe. He told me that Natasha would eventually come out, and that she would tell her stories to someone, probably you, mistress Griwalda. But there were two moods she could be in when she was telling her stories, and the seer said that it would all come down to my actions once she returns."

"That seer, is that Jon Man from Grimloth?" Griwalda asked. "Aye. Naturally I have heard of him because he lives in the town my father is ruling, and he has a good reputation. And Natasha also told me that it had all started there for her." "That is correct, that was where she got her dream that told her to go to that cemetery, where you met her and dealt the Guardian a blow. In that case, I think I can safely say the prediction is accurate. I have known Jon Man for eighteen years and I was there when he first discovered his powers." "My honourable friend, it is not important if a seer is cor­rect or not, it is the danger that your daughter might pose when she returns."

"If that is all this meeting is a waste of time, for we can only speculate about the girl when she returns. That she will return seems to be obvious, though I am not as sure as you or that seer. The Guardian has been around since the beginning of time, and he is one foe I would not want to face, and some seem to keep on forgetting we are still talking about a seven­teen years old girl, no matter how powerful she is. She is unexperienced and all her powers come from practice only. She can't be expected to become the most powerful human alive in a matter of weeks." Anthon said, his voice severe.

"It is what I have feared all along. She has help." Griwalda said, staring in the distance. "She knows much more than she could ever know. She has been educated well, as I said, but she knows things about the world that she couldn't possibly find out by herself in such a short time."

"Remember that she experienced the dream from the seer in Grimloth, from what he told me that dream was to teach her a lot about the world in a short time."

"That would only be a partial explanation, as she only had an educational dream about the light side of life. Then that vampire took over, as she told me, and encouraged her to go to the north."

"That is true. Then do you think... her father is helping her?" Antharion asked.

"No, not the Ultimate One. I have been talking to her, and we were talking about her father helping her. Before she went into the Pits we had a discussion about this and she made it clear that the Ultimate One had not been actively helping her."

"It is very dangerous if she has a supernatural helper. After all, she has not chosen an alignment yet and she is in a phase where some force might want to try to win her over." "Though I don't think she will choose the dark side, my honourable friend Lachman, as she is now fighting the Guar­dian, helping out a friend, even though he may be a dark sorcerer, and she is just not a person to turn to the dark side."

"True enough, my honourable friend Griwalda, but you are neutral like my honourable friend Anthon and the High Sor­cerer but that does not mean she will choose neutrality as well."

"I am afraid I have little to say in this. She has a will of her own, and the fact that both her parents have powerful seats in the name of neutrality will not influence her very much. Would she turn to the light, so be it."

"You sound as if you would regret that, my honourable friend Griwalda." Marcia spoke.

"Of course I would not regret this, I will support her, no matter what she chooses. She is, after all, my daughter." "Something we cannot possibly comprehend fully since we have no children to call our own. Whether she chooses the light, the twilight or the dark, I think we must all support her." Antharion spoke.

"We will definitely not want to step in her way." Anthon said. "I have heard a couple of things about her father, High Sor­cerer, and he never had any mercy for those who opposed him. Though I am not of the opposing kind, it would be a good reminder for my honourable friends here."

"That is true, she has the determination of the Ultimate One, who happens to be the one who also brought this same deter­mination to Griwalda. So this girl will be determined to do whatever she likes, something that is also taught within the ranks of Body Life magic."

"Which brings me to the fact that all masters of Body Life magic are practically neutral, if I recall correctly."

"That is true, but she is not like any other master. She may choose different."

"And for now all masters are neutral, but there has been a time when there were masters of evil, the so-called Dark Bodies, who called masters Light Bodies."

"I do not know anything about Body Life magic, so I will stay out of this part of the discussion."

"All we can do is pray the goddess that she will return, in good health and mind." Anthon said and closed his eyes for a short silent prayer.

 

Natasha was growing weary. How long she been here, how long since the transportation to the realms of the dead? She looked around to check if there was anything near and when she saw it was safe she sat down, uncorked her waterskin and ate something. Then she flexed her muscles and moved on silently. This was absolutely no place to walk around relaxed, and so she had to be alert every second. However, this was wearing her down rapidly, and she had to conserve her energy for the things to come. She had even grown used to the sounds of suffering souls, the cries, the moans and the groans. She listened to them anyway, for she half ex­pected to hear a familiar voice between them. But then what did Clynck's voice sound like when he was in pain? She remembered the low voice with the southern accent, soft and gentle, but he would not be sounding soft and gentle when under the torture of the Guar­dian and his minions. And how big was this earth realm anyway? She was positive that it was already bigger than the previous two realms together, and still there was no sign of ending. She had been bothered occasionally by some individual soul, but she had seen that these souls were cowards, as they backed off the moment she made a threatening move towards them. She had also en­countered more zombies, this time human sized, and she had not even bothered to use her powers to dispose of them, as she had merely fought. They were strong but very clumsy, as they were mindless, and a few calculated chops had been enough to cut them to pieces.

This was going easy, she realised, too easy. And the fact that it went too easy could only worry her. It had to be a trick, a trap.

No booby-traps, no wires on the ground, no explosions... something was wrong here, very wrong. She had not even seen all those tortured souls like she had seen in the previous two realms. All the souls she had seen had been the ones who had approached her. Was she even going the right way? What would happen if she got lost? She had seen so many tunnels, so many forks... where was she anyway? Desperation started to take over, and she knew she had to sit down again, to gather her thoughts and to try to find a solution.

After all, the last thing she wanted was to get lost in a dark realm where the dead ruled.

 

        Chapter Nineteen

 

She had rested for three hours, concentrating her powers to make that equal to eight hours of sleep for a normal human being. But she hated to waste time, and so she hurried on, trying to visualise a dimensional gateway that would take her to the next and last level of this dark world. She knew that it had been surprising that she had been able to repose for three full hours, though she could only have guessed at the exact time as time had no meaning in this world. There was no change in the strange twilight that made it possible to see in these tunnels, without using special skills. But then she suddenly perceived her way out: she had to look for a change in the area. And she knew just what that was: the temperature! When she had emerged from the water realm she had felt the chill of normal sea water, and now it was heating up rapidly. So she knew where to go, as it was the fire realm that would neighbour this dark domain. So the colder it would become, the further away from her goal she would be. And seeking heat was something she could easily do with her powers: she sensed the airwaves and caught the flow of hot air, indicating the source of the heat. And that was a trace that was easy to follow.

"I found you now, Guardian. And I won't let you go." she said in a warning voice, almost knowing that her words would be heard. But now she was again into the mood that had first captured her emotions on her way to the cemetery in the north: confident, determined and angry. Very angry. "Eleme­ntals, dragons, vampires, fiends, skeletons, zom­bies... get out of my way! I have no quarrel with you, but if you seek me out I will destroy you without hesitation!" she shouted, her clear voice reverberating off the walls of the great many tunnels, car­rying her words through the entire realm. Then she suddenly heard a loud wail, and she knew that this wail was canine. And so she was not surprised when she encountered a pack of charred and mutilated werewolves. She knew instantly that this was the pack of werewolves who had been about to slaughter Vooys when he had shown the wand, and she instantly recognised the perfidious shaman. She knew this was just another attempt of the Guar­dian to try to scare her off, but instead it only made her angrier. "Do I have to destroy you again, treacherous hounds of darkness? Come then, so be it!" she cried, drawing her blade. With wanton satisfaction she watched as the beasts looked at each other before retreating with a yelp, their tails between their legs.

"Right, you made a wise decision. You know who I am, and so you know what I can do!" she hollered after them, but there was no response.

 

The dead soul was beholding the viewing sphere he and his dark master used to watch the young girl.

"Master, she is not afraid. I can sense her powers almost from here, and she is determined."

"Silence, you miserable miscreant, if you still want another chance to get even with this child! Or are you also afraid of her? No, revenge is the key word in this entire quest of hers, and her lust for revenge will also be her undoing as there are more with revenge, like yourself. She has seen a bit of suf­fering, and the dead dolphin she saw in the water realm proved that she is weak-hearted and easily moved. She now only feels her lust for revenge, but she will be filled with pity if she sees the real thing!"

And with that the Guardian casually walked over to the living human, in battered armour, bleeding profusely from numerous small but painful wounds.

"So, young mortal, how are you today? Not well, I hope? Soon you will feel even worse, the moment you finally surrender your soul to me. Then you will no longer feel the pain, as I always reward the converted ones. You will want nothing but to serve me, other than as bait."

"You... will never have my soul... as the gods of good are my witnesses." the warrior uttered through clenched teeth, biting his tongue in anticipation for the beating that would undoub­tedly follow.

"You fool! The gods of good cannot be your witnesses, not here, in the deepest pit I have. And even if they could, they hold no power over me! Nobody can rescue you here, you know that? What are you hoping for? The end of this torture? You are only human, and you will grow up, from a young, tortured boy to an old, tortured man. Every day I will at least once reserve time for you, as long as you live. And in the end it will be beyond your endurance as you will not die. Nothing dies here, since everybody here is either immortal or dead already. But you, lad, but you. You are alive and by laws of nature you cannot die here. And I have eternity to torture you, for here time does not pass as it does on the plane where you have lived the first years of your miserable life. Your long white hair and beard will not stop me fifty years from now, they will only make me laugh. You have travelled around with darkness already, your brother. What do you think happens when he dies? As a dark sorcerer, he will most likely come here, and then I will drag him into this deep pit, and he can watch you and see what has become of you. How do you think he will feel, boy? Wouldn't that be heart-tearing?"

"Master!" came the whining voice of the late necromancer. "Silence, insolent fool! Don't bother me now."

"But master... she is there."

And while the arch-fiend suddenly returned to his viewing sphere, Clynck could only think about the cry from the dark soul: she is there. Who was she, and what was she doing here? As if on cue, he knew. That girl, the girl he had met near that dreaded cemetery, the one who was going to help his brother. And help him she had done, and whatever they had done, it caused a demonic storm. Just how demonic the storms were he had found out not much later, as the foul arch-fiend had abducted him and dragged him into his dark world, where he had been tortured ever since. He did not know a thing about this girl, but she was the only girl courageous enough to come here, indisputably to rescue him, he had ever seen. She had stepped into the cemetery without hesitation, concerned more about his brother than herself, even though she had never even seen him. She had been very fast, he had seen, and should have powers. But were these powers enough to battle such an arduous foe? Still, the idea that she was coming gave him new hope, and with that new strength. He would endure this torture, until she had come to free him. And if she wouldn't succeed, he would pay the price anyway. But he couldn't think about that, he could only make a vain attempt to smile.

 

Natasha was surprised when she saw a small cabin at the end of the last tunnel. She was standing in a great hall and on the far end she could see a portal, ancient and forbidding. "Wel­come, stranger. Going to the fire realm are you? May I invite you for a cup of tea and some fresh food?" came the voice of a handsome man in his prime. She wanted to nod but then felt a spell coming her way. She fought it with all her might and looked at the stranger, who looked up in surprise. "What is the matter with you, girl? You are just a human girl, and you should have fallen for the spell!"

Then the creature dropped its disguise and turned into a monster the likes of which she had never seen before. But yet she knew that this would be an incubus, a fiend living only to surprise females, casting a spell of seduction on them to suck out their life energy while they were charmed. She did not know how to battle this demon, one of the lowest types in the ranks of demons, so she started concentrating and drew her blade again, asking the voice inside her mind for help.

"Incubus? Charming." it giggled, suddenly sounding very dif­ferent. "Now this monster cannot be destroyed easily like a corpse or a werewolf. You will have to subdue it, make it your slave instead of the other way around."

"How do I do that?" she asked.

"By doing what you do best."

She knew and started radiating more energy, looking the demon in the eye.

"You now know my powers, and you can feel it eating at you already. You want me to vanquish you in a fight or do you submit to my powers? You know the latter is the wisest."

The incubus suddenly looked aghast as its colour drained from its face. The pallor showed Natasha he would surrender without a fight. And indeed it shrunk away when she came nearer, and she saw to her satisfaction that it would not bother her or try to stop her from entering the last of the dark realms. She opened the portal and shielded her face from the intense heat coming from this world. She saw that it was more like a giant volcano than a normal world, but she was prepared. With a leap she jumped into the heat, her sword brandished in salute to whatever would come and chal­lenge her and her powers.

 

She looked around as she saw large piles of bodies around her, crying in pain and dismay. They knew they would never escape this dread place, but they suffered as they could not rest within their fate. The heat was aberrant, it would be about three hundred degrees here, but Natasha could shield her body against this simply by concentrating her powers to slowly adjust her body to it. She would not burn here, she would not have her powers reduced by heat. She was only concerned about her sword, afraid the metal might turn hot and therefore weak. But this was not ordinary steel, this was silver, and red hot life energy had soared through it before, and so normal heat would not be the reason for eternal and irreparable damage. Then she looked around, and extended her senses again, for here she would be able to find life energy, the life energy of the living young war­rior, the sole reason of this perilous quest. But she also knew that Clynck would not be here alone, and neither would the Guardian. Here all the demons would be she could imagine and more, all the demons who were in this hell and not walking the planes of the mortals. And so she was not surprised when she saw a horrible horned creature approach her with a wild and crazy laugh. Defiantly she raised her sword and let her energy run through it. Now it was time to show off, and she coloured her energy this time. Bright light lit the volcano, and the demon, now joined by a second, even more fearsome and horrid, backed off. But she also heard the voice in her mind again.

"This is not your own colour, Natasha, as you chose no colour as your colour. You know you are using the colour of your father." it spoke.

"I know. So? Am I not allowed to use his colour or any other than my own non-existent colour? It is nothing more than light to show I have the energy."

"That it is, but you chose no colour as your trademark colour, and that you will use. You can impress them by letting them feel the energy, instead."

"That is an alternative I can live with." she said aloud and started to press her energy forward.

She could see the demons felt the energy and were heavily disturbed by this.

"What is this energy, maiden? You know that will be no good against us. We are eternal, and we are your eternal nightmare. Nothing can harm us, you know?"

"That is not true. Even demons can be harmed, and nothing is one hundred percent resistant against Body Life magic." she spoke aloud, addressing the horned fiend that had spoken to her. The two demons heard her and considered this, then felt the energy again. Looking at each other, they charged as one, and Natasha backed against the wall, concentrated shortly and then countered. Before the demons knew what hit them, and surprised because the girl dared make a move against them, they were torn to shreds by the silver blade. "Silver!" they shrieked and dashed off before she could finish them.

Natasha stood still for a moment, with no desire to pursue the foul fiends, wondering about the effects of her charge. She had thrown the demons off-balance with her courage and her determination and she knew that this was the course to follow. She knew that this realm was bound to be replete with foul creatures, and she knew she could not tarry. She had to find Clynck, and fast.

And so she pressed on hard, her senses leading the way.

 

And then she saw the enormous horde of monsters and skeleton warriors. And she immediately knew who was behind them: the necromancer she had robbed. But then she heard the familiar voice.

"So you have returned to return my wand, have you? It is now too late to beg for mercy, girl child, for I will pay you back for what you did to me!"

"Actually it wasn't me who robbed you of your precious wand, and you will not get it back." she said, holding her sword in both hands. The necromancer moved his arm, waving a rock in his hand, and the horde attacked. Natasha knew that this must have been the rock Vooys had used for his illusion and swapped with the real wand. She started concentrating and stormed through the horde with the speed of a tornado, much like she had battled the tornado on the higher level. Bones littered the ground for a short moment, then they all sunk into the hot ground.

"No! How is this possible? This army should have brought the entire world to a fall and now..."

"Now they can't even beat me? You forget where we are! We are in the world of the dead, nothing can die here. And you said yourself that your advantage with dead troops in the world of the living would be that dead men can't die because they are already dead, but here things work different. Dead men can be destroyed, but due to the laws of this realm living things can't die. Give it up, dead soul, and do no longer stand in my way."

The necromancer seemed to be enraged, but she could see that was because he was absolutely powerless against her. Despair in his hollow eye sockets, he raised his hands.

"Mighty Guardian, I beg thee, give me the power to destroy this child!"

"Don't count on it, he hasn't got the power himself." she spat and, ignoring the wails of the necromancer, she con­tinued as if nothing had happened.

 

"But master, why not tell everything?"

"It would not have been wise, Bals'zr, though I have hinted that it could happen. And it is only obvious, too. You know the stories of the famous bards, and you know that this young man does not have a very friendly attitude. He loves two people, Natasha and his brother. These are two entirely dif­ferent types of love, however, and it is dangerous if the warrior returns. This sorcerer is evil, and though he doesn't have a very evil mind he is capable of evil, and that says enough. Even people who are good at heart get blinded by love and do things they regret. I have warned him, Bals'zr, and now he will consider his every thought when Natasha returns. That will make him a wiser man. If I had told him directly what could happen he could maybe shove aside his nature for this occasion but the fire will remain in his head, burning away his thoughts, his last friendly thoughts, and he will live a miserable life."

The young gypsy apprentice nodded slowly, letting the words of his master sink into his mind.

 

Natasha was living a nightmare. Everywhere around her she saw dead souls, sometimes piled in stacks, sometimes chained to the walls. Heat everywhere, she saw them suffering from everything she could never have imagined. They were labouring hard, only to see their hard work fall to pieces. A sculptor was building on a giant statue, and when he was almost finished a giant rock fell on the statue, smashing it to smithereens. With the giant rock, the sculptor started again, chipping away in order to make a new statue. Always the statues of demons, and he was never allowed to stand back and watch the perfection of his art. He must have been a brilliant artist, Natasha thought, and she couldn't help standing still and digging into the soul to read his story. And she was shocked to see the dark deeds of this man, who had made a huge golden statue of the son of a rich lord. But instead of working on the gold, he had abducted the son and covered him with liquid gold, letting him die a horrible death, worked on as if nothing had happened and presented the finished statue to the lord, who had stood in grief of his missing son, not knowing what had happened, but had also admired the skill of the artist as the statue had this great likeness to his late son. The sculptor had made a fortune and lived a rich life, until he died at old age and the dark realm waited for him with this special punishment.

With a very unnatural shiver Natasha flew on, using her speed to advance quickly. Her goal was so close now, she had to hurry. Time had no meaning to the dead, but it had to her and undoubtedly very much to Clynck. The sooner she could get him out, the better. She fought her way through the legions of dead souls and monsters, not allowing herself to rest, and descended into the deepest of pits. And then she came in a great hall, where her senses told her the young warrior was. And she also saw the giant-sized demon that was sitting on a throne, now slowly rising, waiting for her.

"So you have made it, child. This is as far as you go."

She could not hear the soft moan of the warrior chained to the wall, she could only hear the voice of doom and look at the imposing figure in front of her: the Guardian of the nether­world.

 

        Chapter Twenty

 

Clynck could hardly believe what he saw: there was indeed this young girl, this same girl who had followed his brother into the graveyard. This very fast girl, who seemed to have con­cealed powers. He had remembered what she had told him about her ways, but he had not understood much of it. Now here she was, showing that her powers were enormous, big enough to skirmish the forces of this dark world. She even looked fresh and unscathed and the heat didn't seem to bother her at all while it was slowly consuming the warrior. How could she have made it? He had been dragged through the levels of the dark realm, and he had seen the perils and the suffering. He had suffered ever since he had been sucked from the tundra, yet this girl seemed to be impervious to the pain. But here it would probably end, there was no way anyone could fight this arch-fiend, who stood over twice the girl's length. But she had her blade - silver, if he could still see clearly - drawn and didn't seem to be afraid. "Release him, Guardian. You have seen what I can do, and you can see I am not afraid of anything. I have spent my time in the Pits, and now I cannot be frightened by anyone or anything, dead or alive." she spoke defiantly, her voice ringing clear through the hall.

"Now why would I do that? You know you cannot harm me, even with all your powers, for I am the arch-fiend, the one who has guarded the soul of the first one who died, for all eternity. And your soul I can harm!"

"You cannot harm the soul of a woman of the soul!" she cried and made a threatening gesture with her sword.

"Maybe I can't, but I can send for ones who can. Soul-eater, I bid you to this place to suck away the soul from this girl!" the Guardian called out and then something appeared that Natasha had never seen before but something she would never see again: a Soul-eater. This was a gigantic monster with a large mouth, with many rows of sharp white teeth, and an immense bulk. This Soul-eater removed and consumed the souls of those who had been in this dark realm for too long accor­ding to the Guardian, and posed a threat to anyone. Natasha, though, started to concentrate and displayed the prime skill of the soul: the ability to withstand fear. Then she gathered her energy around her and then she was suddenly gone. The warrior didn't comprehend any of this, as both the Guardian and the Soul-eater were looking nervously at the place where the girl had stood, but he still felt a wave of energy pres­sing to all sides. What he couldn't see was that Natasha had transformed into an invisible dragon of light, using the most powerful and most dangerous Move of them all: the Inner Dragon. The hall's foundations shook as she bat­tered the walls, and suddenly the Soul-eater was gone.

"Where did that one go?" Clynck wondered, not entirely sure if he meant the girl or the monster.

"Guess I scared him off." came again the clear voice of the girl, who was slowly turning visible again, letting the life energy flow back inside her body. It was true: the almighty Soul-eater had tasted a bit of the soul and saw it would not be devoured like a helpless soul who had endured centuries of torture. He had told his master that he would have no chance trying to eat this soul and when she had become a dragon of life energy he had fled for its power.

"This Soul-eater has defeated an army of dragons!" the Guar­dian exclaimed, frustrated.

"Do not overestimate yourself, girl. You are still mortal!" "But not here, Guardian, for nothing can die here. Here I am as immortal as you are. Even the warrior is. I bet you couldn't even take his soul, as pure as it is."

"You give me a nice idea, girl. What if I let the Soul-eater come back for him?"

"Then I will destroy him before he even has a chance to come close to Clynck. Don't make this any more difficult for your­self, Guardian, release him." she said, now clearly in a commanding voice.

"And who do you think you are to command me? You should be taught a lesson!" the angry arch-fiend bellowed.

"Try it. I am sure your god will be able to find a new fiend to replace you, for I will crush your black heart and destroy you utterly."

The Guardian saw that this was not going to work: he would never be able to scare this girl off or even make a hole in that screen of confidence of hers.

"Why did you take him anyway? He is of no use to you! You only wanted revenge on his brother and maybe on me, but you don't have the right to steal the living away from their own world before their time has come. And the vampire lord has served you long enough and was no longer willing to serve you, everyone should have a choice and so he was given one. Some like to serve you, Guardian, and some don't. That vampire who pretended to be Marzún, he takes pride in ser­ving you. But this one wanted rest. Now leave the living be and do your own job."

"Who are you to tell me what to do?" the Guardian repeated. "I am only telling the truth."

"And what if I allowed you to break his chains, hold him and use that wand to return to the world of the living? I would easily take him back and you could start the cat-and-mouse game again. This way I could wear you out eternally."

"That is because I don't fall for cheap tricks. I am much smarter than that. I must have your word that you will leave him be and don't retaliate in any other way." she spoke, looking shortly at the warrior, who had passed out.

"No!" the Guardian shouted, and lifted his arms.

"Arachmes, dark god of this world, aid me in this!"

And then the deity himself appeared, looking as a dark man with gruesome features and a diaphanous skin.

"You!" the god shouted, his finger pointing at the girl. "You have been a pest for too long. You must die."

"So your arch-fiend can't handle it alone? You know you cannot harm me."

"I cannot? I am a god, I can do everything! And for your information, I don't care about odds, I have no good rules and I don't mind fighting two on one."

Suddenly the air changed, and the halls were light by a blin­ding light blue brilliance.

"Then there is no reason why she should fight alone." came a voice from right behind her, and a big man in dark armour appeared, sword drawn.

 

 

The appearance of the god of Body Life magic upset the very essence of the Halls of Doom, and the light suddenly seemed to relieve the air.

"What are you doing here? This is not your world!" Arachmes spoke, his accusing finger pointing at the Ultimate One.

Suddenly the gods were standing face to face, and the Ul­timate One slapped the finger away angrily.

"I hate being pointed at. Now order your pet to release the young warrior, and don't you dare touch my daughter." he spoke with menace in his voice.

"Now wait a minute, some novice god wants to tell me what to do?"

"I may be a novice, but I am who I am and I am powerful enough to tell you not to interfere in this matter. I hold the Bane Nova at bay so why not you? You listen to me: the living have no place in the world of the dead, it is even worse than the dead in the world of the living. They do not belong here, they have a rich life in the world of the living to return to. And you are not going to stop them."

"I am not responsible for my arch-fiend's action, and I have no interest in this matter except when my arch-fiend is threatened."

"Like I am only interested in my daughter. So you are trying to talk your way out of this? Very well, then I will have a word with your arch-fiend."

And with that the Ultimate One turned to the fiend, who sud­denly shrunk in size before this god, as his size depended on the power he believed to have. Against fearing mortals he had been gigantic, but now he was even shorter than the Ultimate One, who had not cared about looking bigger than he had always been.

"You know I have the power to destroy you. So it is your choice: do or die."

The demon shrunk even more, and with fluttering legs he bowed his head.

"Your will is my command." he said, and then the Ultimate One turned away. The demon suddenly grew again and tried to attack the god from behind, but before he knew it the Ul­timate One, a born fighter, had turned around and chopped off the demon's arm with his sword.

"You try to sucker me? You will pay for that!" he growled and raised his sword.

"Ultimate One, no!" came the voice of Arachmes.

"You saw what he tried, he deserves to be punished!"

"I forbid you this."

"You seem to forget that one of my class does as he pleases and nobody forbids me anything!" the Ultimate One retorted and he reached into the weakened demon, grasped its black heart and crushed it in his fist. With a moan the demon disappeared. Then the Ultimate One looked at the dark god. "You will find some other demon to guard the souls of the deceased, and this new Guardian will not interfere with the living mortals and the immortals." he spoke, and after a long stare-down the dark god bowed his head.

"The mortals will be left alone, Ultimate One."

"Good. My daughter, release the young man and return to your own world. Your mother will be waiting for you, and give her my love of course."

"Yes, father." Natasha said chivalrously and freed Clynck from his manacles. The strong warrior fell down in her arms and Natasha immediately activated the wand. In a flash both were gone.

"You know that this had to happen. If your Guardian had suc­ceeded he would have done it more often, and he would transgress the rules."

"That is true. I will find a smarter demon." Arachmes spoke but when he looked up the Ultimate One was also gone.

 

"Cold..."

The young warrior was lying in a comfortable bed, not very soft but good for his muscles. He was covered by blankets but he could only feel a bitter cold.

But this was natural, as he had endured the extreme heat for a long time, and his body had grown accustomed to the pain and the heat.

"Come on, it's not cold in here, your body just has to get used to normal temperatures again. But I think I can help you with that." Natasha said. They were in the room alone, for she knew that she did not want to present the warrior to his brother in the state she had found him in. She used sorcery to heat him up slowly, to find the temperature his body was searching, and halted at two hundred degrees, where she found the twisted harmony in his body. Then, slowly but resolutely, she lowered the temperature from two hundred degrees to the normal room temperature. Colour returned to his face, but he was battered and bruised. But Body Life magic could not only harm, it could also heal, and now she used her energy to heal Clynck. The black spots slowly disappeared and his bones slowly mended. Then he was able to rise, and he looked at himself in disbelief. "You... you are a healer?"

"Something like that, I used my life energy to restore yours. All part of Body Life magic, you know."

"I don't know, I never heard of it. Is that also how you could survive that world?"

"You survived, nothing can die there, you see. But my powers and my confidence really helped me get that far. Now lie down, you are healed but you are not fit."

"What... what happened to my brother?"

"He should be around, and waiting to meet you. If he knew that we were back, that is. I first healed you and let you rest a bit because you were all beaten up and I want to present you wholly to your brother."

"I don't know... what to say... thank you!" he said. Natasha just nodded. "It was the only right thing to do."

Clynck looked at her with an admiring look and asked about the things that had happened after he was abducted. Natasha told him about the vampire, about the demonic storms, the necroman­cer, the werewolves and the dark sorcerer Lachman. Clynck listened with his eyes closed to let it all sink in. "You made a great sacrifice for me, and you were right that Vooys couldn't come along. The Guardian tortured me, not only physical but also with images of my brother, who would be hanging on the wall right before my eyes and would also be tortured would he come there. But I don't want to talk about what happened there, it's..."

"...not very pretty, I can understand that. Never mind, I also want to forget about that place. Though I do have a report to make, as I promised that."

Then Natasha rose and looked at herself. Her armour wasn't badly damaged but it was very dirty.

"You just stay here and rest a bit, I must get changed myself and then I will go downstairs and find your brother." Clynck could only nod and then he felt that he was not hungry or thirsty, he was lying naked underneath the thick blankets and he had been washed. For a moment he felt ashamed of the idea that the girl had done that herself but then he could only feel fatigue and he fell asleep, resting comfortably for the first time in weeks.

 

        Chapter Twenty-One

 

"But who knows? Time does not have any meaning there as it has here. She may be gone for weeks, for months, or maybe just for hours! If she will ever return, I should say, but since you told me that Jon Man has told you she will I know that she will." Griwalda said, looking at the young man in the other chair in the living room.

Vooys had been her guest for two days now, waiting for his brother and Natasha, and also learning a bit more about the Sorcerers' Council. He had intended to ask her more about the work of the Council, and he had also planned to ask his superior Lachman for a new teacher, since his old teacher had died in an experiment gone awol. But he couldn't talk about that, in the end it all came down to Natasha again. "What is that, do you hear that?" he suddenly asked, rising out of his chair. Griwalda also rose as they heard sounds on the spiral stairs. Somebody was coming down, and they could clearly hear there were two of them. But then the door opened and Natasha and Clynck entered, dressed in clean clothes and unharmed.

"Clynck!" Vooys shouted and rushed towards his brother who embraced him warmly, while Griwalda also rushed to embrace her daughter. The two brothers did not fight their tears as they were reunited, and the sight of that warmed the girl inside.

"You did it! What happened? Tell me everything! Are you all-right?" Vooys asked, holding his brother by the shoulders and virtually dragging him to the most comfortable chair. "Natasha, I can't think of how to thank you properly for all this."

"It was only the right thing to do, Vooys. You're more than welcome." she said shyly.

"I lost my sword." Clynck noticed suddenly.

"Well if that is the worst thing that happened to you I will be more than glad to buy you every sword you want." Griwalda said heartily.

"It is not that... it is an ancient sword, passed from father to son for centuries. My father... is the lord of Grimloth and this sword is irreplaceable."

"Come on, don't worry. You just come from the dark realm and all you can worry about is your sword? That is a good sign. But very well, I think I can help you. Where did you have it last?" Natasha asked.

"Near that cemetery, I must have lost it in the storms." Natasha nodded and disappeared. Half a minute later she returned.

"What have you done?"

"I looked around to see if any master was present and Martin was still here. So I asked him to go to the tundra and see if he could find an ancient lost sword. If it's there, he will find it. Why is Martin still around anyway? I didn't see his brother Richard."

"Richard should be roaming the lands, together with Renard and Inth. He said he wanted to visit Fort Vioris, and Martin didn't feel like going back there. So he waits here for them. And I think Ledda will also be back soon."

Though the pupils had officially been released they often returned to the tower, like priests returned to their temples. There were enough spare rooms and they were always welcome, as Griwalda had of course seen all of them for many years. Sometimes they brought something with them, a monetary donation or a curious object from the lands they had visited. The money was not really necessary, since the tower had a richly filled vault from the time the Ultimate One had roamed the lands, but it had become a habit, if it was only to pay for the expenses during their stays.

"How long will that take?"

"I don't know. Maybe a day, maybe a week."

"You mean that this man is going to travel to the northern tundra, look for that sword and maybe return within a day?" "Of course, why not? By using his life energy he can move so fast it is almost as fast as teleportation through sorcery, like that wand of yours. It will maybe take him five or ten minutes to get there. When I went there and my horse died I just flew, partially because I also enjoyed the fly but I could also have gone much faster."

"What is this strange power you have? I remember you calling it Body Life magic, but what is it? Is it something you can learn, or something strange like sorcery?"

"Sorcery is not strange. But Body Life magic can be learned though it can take many years. It is a kind of magic that all comes from the body, which is the reason the body must be in perfect shape. The soul must be purged thoroughly and you must be able to work your soul, body and mind, in that order, in harmony with nature. With these powers we can perform one hundred and seven special manoeuvres, simply called Moves. These vary from moving invisibly to turning into a dragon of life energy, something I had to do when that terrible Soul-eater came. I..."

"Soul-eater?" Griwalda interrupted her.

"Aye, a Soul-eater. They threw everything at me: zombies, even giant ones, werewolves, the same pack I killed, that necroman­cer and his legions, an incubus, more demons, skeleton war­riors and even a Soul-eater."

"By the goddess... " was all Griwalda could utter.

"But I thought you just turned invisible! I could feel that energy but I couldn't see you. Or is that just because of my normal human eyes? That monster and the demon were able to see you."

"They were just feeling my energy, but then a bit stronger as they have better senses and were nearer to me. It is just a matter of colour, I accidentally chose no colour as my trademark colour and so I became invisible. Martin uses sil­ver, and so he would have turned into a silver dragon of life energy."

"I have already witnessed miracles when we were looking for a way to find you, brother. She even conquered the storms in the north by restoring nature, just like that. Her mother here is mistress Griwalda Donthiac, second to the High Sorcerer, and her father is a god, the god of this Body Life magic."

"A god? That must have been... "

"Aye, that was my father."

"You mean he has joined you?"

"The dark god himself came and threatened me, said he would not mind fighting two on one, and then Father came out of nowhere and said he would even the odds. The Guardian tried to attack him from behind and then he chopped off the fiend's arm, grabbed him and tore out his black heart, and crushed it in his fist." Natasha told, excited by the memory.

"That explains much, you are a half-god." Clynck uttered. "No, I am mortal. My father was raised into immortality just a couple of months before I was born."

"I would hear the entire story, Natasha. You surprise me by coming back with the young warrior and both in perfect health, and then you start about the dark god, Soul-eaters, incubi and your father."

"Mother, could you maybe contact sorcerer Lachman before I start? I promised to tell him everything, too, you know." "Ah, I think I could better invite the High Sorcerer and all of the Three then, for what you are going to tell might be important to all of us." Griwalda said and started casting a long spell, drawing a sign on the floor with charcoal and lighting a candle. Soon four figures materialised in the room and after the introductions and some words Natasha started to tell, and when she was finished Clynck told his side of the story, only interrupted when Martin returned, carrying an ancient sword.

But all this was unnerving Vooys while he was listening. Here Natasha was telling her stories, and she looked happy because she had succeeded. Was this the part where so much depended on his actions? Or was he supposed not to act at all? The psychic had told him clearly enough: he could do something that would make the girl feel sad, and he wondered just what that was. It had been a question that had been eating away at him, but so far everything seemed to go well. He looked at his brother, who was talking while checking his sword, only because this was a way to avoid looking at the questioning eyes from all those sorcerers. But there was something in the eyes of the fighter Vooys had never seen before. He could understand that his brother was feeling different, of course. He had just come from the deepest part of the Halls of Doom. But Clynck was comfortable, relaxed, and his smile was warm. Sometimes he looked up and his eyes would meet those of the young girl who had saved him from eternal torture, and he seemed to try to memorise the face of the young girl, with her high cheekbones, her thin nose and her round chin. From there he would go to her strong shoulders, her muscled arms, solid body, strong if a bit small breasts, tight waist, strong thighs and supple calves. Natasha was fully aware of this but she didn't seem to care, she had always been proud of her body and could understand it when somebody wanted to stare at her. And then Vooys suddenly understood, something he should have foreseen all along: Clynck was falling in love with this miraculous girl. Vooys shut his eyes for a second, thinking. He could not fail! This is what the psychic had been warning him for: his own brother would fall in love with the same girl he was in love with! He could not become jealous! But it wasn't even known if Natasha would fall in love with either of them, let alone for whom she would choose. Maybe something had hap­pened before Vooys had even met her, he knew that she had met his brother first. Had it been love on first sight? Had this been the reason why she willingly almost sacrificed herself to get Clynck back? Had the psychic known this? You have been warned! He eyed his brother suspiciously, and he planned to have a good, long talk with his brother about all this. Maybe it was nothing, this girl was innocent, wasn't she? Had this been the reason then that she would not sleep with him in that cave, after she had killed those werewol­ves? He shook his head, she was a virgin and she had kissed him, even invited him to kiss her. He gritted his teeth in thought. He could not fail!

 

The sorcerers were listening closely to the warrior, Natasha did not want to hear much about the evil fiend and his cruel ways to torture someone, but she had suddenly noticed a slight change in the air. Almost unnoticeably she shifted her gaze to the young apprentice, and she discovered that he was rather uncomfortable. Was this because of the agony his brother had lived through? Almost instantly she knew this was not the case, and she considered scanning his mind again. But then she remembered that he had felt this before. But now she knew more, and now she could actually sneak into his mind and he would never know. And so she carefully started to concentrate, careful not to draw any unwanted attention, and quickly she broke through the barriers bet­ween herself and the sorcerer's mind. But she only had to stay for five seconds, then she knew enough. What she had seen shocked her deeply. Of course, it was obvious that Vooys had been in love with her, she had known that all along, though she had no real perception of love herself. She cared a great deal about both brothers, and too late she had realised that saving the warrior could make him so grateful he could also fall in love with her. This was even now dividing the brothers, and the evil brother was steadily building up feelings of jealousy. Was it her fault? Maybe I shouldn't have kissed him in that cave, maybe I raised his hopes too high, she thought by herself. But that had been nothing special, just an answer to him. He had been the one who said he could kiss her, and why not? She cared for both brothers, but was not quite ready to love anyone like a woman loves a man. If only they would understand...

 

"It is very interesting but not very important, since the Guardian was destroyed by the Ultimate One. The Halls of Doom might be upset because the ancient arch-fiend is now no more. The new Guardian will have to be chosen, and he has to learn his new task. Though it will now most probably be some of the underguardians that will take the place of its master and he will know how to act."

"I have not seen any demon that would be an underguardian, I just saw the Guardian himself and sometimes a soul of a man, he was talking to him about Natasha, that she was coming. They were viewing some kind of large ball and they could see what was happening to her and how she was doing. They were talking about revenge and every time the soul said something that pleased his master he only got punished for that, with whiplashes and tongues of fire."

"That would be that necromancer then. Natasha, where is that wand you used? We would have it for safekeeping and eventual destruction." Marcia asked kindly. Natasha woke up from her reverie and immediately drew the wand out of her pocket and handed it over to the old woman, who saw the worried look in the girl's eyes. "Are you all-right, child?" she asked.

Natasha nodded absently and excused herself, leaving the sorcerers and the two brothers in confusion, though Vooys was starting to get an idea of what was upsetting her. In his mind he swore vehemently. He could not fail!

 

"Humans. Always their silly emotions taking possession of them when they need it the least. Now your daughter is worried, the apprentice worried and angry and the warrior doesn't know a thing but I have a feeling he will find out soon enough, maybe even the hard way."

"They say that I was cold, heartless, even inhuman. But I never had this kind of trouble."

"That is because you have always regarded love as a petty thing, not important for a fierce warrior. And how could you love anybody when all you could think about was yourself?" "The good old days. Sometimes I miss them. I have been here for a couple of years, and sometimes I already regret ascen­ding when I released my pupils. But I thought it would be better because I don't want them to cling to me. You can already see that they always come back to the tower. Of course this is also because it is a perfect place for rest and study, the place I could never find, and they like to meet each other and my wife and daughter, but it is starting to look like a temple where they come in veneration."

"It has been their home for well over a decade, and for most of them that means the biggest part of their lives. Your wife and yourself have been some kind of parents for them, Natasha like a kid sister. Don't worry, that will only be for this generation."

"What was it like a thousand years ago when my predecessor started?"

"He did it entirely different. He started with two hundred new masters, you started with sixty and you kept them all in one tower and the small camp around it. He travelled around the world and taught them in their own area." Lorean said, thinking about the past.

"New changes are forthcoming. There will be a new Guardian, and this is the very first time this changes. It is not known what this new Guardian will do."

"He will not bother the living, that much the dark god promised me. And people don't break promises to me."

"You were not talking about forcing the dark god to keep his word with violence, are you? That is not customary between us immortal gods."

"I'm not talking about violence, I have learned a bit in these few years. But I think that gods must keep their promises and if he breaks his promise then I will not be the only one to remind him of his promise."

"True enough, but I don't expect him to break his promise anyway, the dark god of the netherworld, whose name shall not be pronounced here of course, knows his place. And Ul­timate Ones have always been very unorthodox, so we are used to your kind."

"Well, now it is only important for me what is going to happen to my daughter. I will not have two young brats ruin her mind. Maybe you could talk to her?"

"I think that she will call for me anyway, and I will try to ease her mind. She is very clever, and she knows what is going on. And we know what can happen, and the results of that. But it is something she and she alone must solve."

"That is true beyond doubt, Knowing One. But she is not only clever, she is also strong. And while she has just had all this behind her, there is another challenge waiting for her, and this is something she has never experienced before, like everything else, and she will have to muster her powers again. There is no telling, unexperienced as she is, when she will wear out. I can only hope it will not be too soon." "Down there they would tell you to have faith in the gods, now up here I can only advise you to have faith in her."

        Chapter Twenty-Two

 

Clynck was tired of talking all day long, and when he had finally answered all the questions of the sorcerers he retreated to his room, followed by his brother.

"It is good to be back in the normal world, brother." he said with a smile.

"I am very happy that you are back, I had never expected anything like this could actually happen." Vooys nodded in thoughts.

"Now what? I think I want to go back home for a while. I mean, Natasha said we could stay in the tower as long as we wanted but after all this I really would like to see our father again."

"I do not share your opinion but I can understand. Very well, we will return to Grimloth then. But you understand that you can't talk about all this to Father."

"Now why that? Do you think he will worry too much and try to keep us at home?"

"No, of course not. But this all started because of me and you know how he feels about me being a sorcerer of the dark side, and if he hears what you've been through he will forbid us to travel around together, saying that I will only bring you in danger again."

"That is true. So we just went to Horneng and that took some time? Or are we allowed to talk about Natasha?"

"She was there as well, of course, so we can safely talk about that part. Why, is there anything special you want to tell him about her?"

"No, not that. Though I must say she impressed me."

"Brother, there is something you should know. I am in love with her, too." Vooys said carefully, watching his brother closely to see how he would react. He had decided to tell him at once, maybe his good brother would have the answer he himself could not find.

"Of course, after what the two of you have been through. Who wouldn't?" Clynck said casually, smiling.

This threw the young sorcerer off-balance. His brother came with simplicity itself, dealing with this complex situation as something unavoidable and seeming to have no trouble with it at all.

"But... how do we deal with this? I kissed her, you know. I spent a night in her arms though we didn't do anything. I am afraid she is a bit too innocent for that."

"This is not a barmaid, brother. This is a very special and very powerful girl. Gorgeous and seductive, aye, but also intelligent and confident. She will understand this dilemma and I think we have little to say in this matter if she is  the way I see her. We cannot argue over this girl because if she wants anything with either one of us it will be she who decides who that will be, and maybe she does not want any one of us. She does not fall for a title, power or money like the wenches we have had. She helped you and she helped me, not because she is in love with either one of us but because she wanted to help us, both of us. Maybe she felt guilty when I was sucked into the void and that was why she undertook this perilous journey to rescue me, feeling it was the right thing to do. This is what she said to me when I thanked her for rescuing me."

"The right thing to do, think nothing of it... this is so much like her! Doesn't she care about anything then?" Vooys asked, sensing the truth in his brother's words.

"I think she doesn't know... she is not very serious. She does not walk around priding herself for her own valour and she helps people simply because she likes the idea. After all, didn't she say she helped that vampire in that cemetery simply because she felt pity for him and wanted to help him?"

"True enough, when I got the dream I was thinking about a reward, either monetary or in magic powers. I witnessed something awesome, and it was followed by something awful." Vooys said, looking at his brother with newfound respect. Now the things had changed, and he had not failed simply by playing it square with his brother, who in turn had proven himself to be more intelligent that Vooys had ever thought. After all, between the two of them he had been the brain and Clynck had been the brawn. But now his brother had also shown that he could think well, as simple as it was, and Vooys could only be proud.

"My brother, I am glad that you have come up with this rather simple solution. I have been breaking my head over this for weeks and now it all turns out to be so simple. Let us return home and rest for some time. Then I must go out to find myself a new teacher."

"You need to learn more then? You were in there with all those old and seemingly important sorcerers, from that Council you have always been talking about. Surely they can give you a new teacher but do you really need this?"

"Of course I need this! I have just witnessed what real power can do, even though her powers are different. I had to depend on a seventeen years old girl, and I want to be able to take care of myself, and of course of you if necessary." "I guess you're right, brother. I will not be able to help you then but I have some plans of my own. Plans that will also take time."

"What kind of plans?" Vooys asked, though deep inside he knew the answer.

"I want to learn this Body Life magic. I have witnessed its powers, seen the strength of the people and I was really amazed when that guy showed up with our family sword after a few minutes and wasn't even tired. You still have that wand that will teleport you anywhere?"

"Aye, we used it a couple of times."

"Well he just flew there, using his life energy to transport himself with the speed of sound. Then he somehow managed to locate the sword in a deserted and destroyed place and he brought it back. And... somehow I feel obliged to the one who willingly interfered to save Natasha and myself, the Ultimate One. I have seen him only briefly, because I had passed out, but I felt his radiance and I heard from the girl what he had done and why. Maybe that god had been able to destroy her and then... then I would be lost. It is no small thing to be rescued by a god, I take it he doesn't go out to rescue people every day. And... "

"You know he came to rescue his daughter, you don't know if he would care less for you." Vooys interrupted him.

"True, but still he rescued both of us. And I feel I owe him."

"You don't owe gods! Well some say you owe the gods everything, life itself to begin with, but I think this goes too far."

"Well as I said, that was not my only reason to learn this special craft, I also want to be more than just an average fighter, you know. And you want to be a powerful wizard so you will understand that I also want to be powerful."

"Of course I understand that, but I thought your dreams were about the knighthood."

"I considered applying for a place in Fort Vioris or any other training camp, but this is different. Natasha even told me that this Martin guy used to be a squire."

"I know that story, but that was something different. Their father had been a friend of this Ultimate One, and that was why he thought of them when he picked his pupils."

"But they all came out of their own free will."

"Or so we hear, who knows? Who truly understands the powers of the gods? And who wouldn't want to be taught anything by a god?"

"I would want to learn Body Life magic, even if it takes me years. I have heard it took some pupils fifteen years but that was because they have to be shaped. But my body is already strong, especially now I am fully healed, and so I would only have to learn the magic itself. If anybody can learn it, that is."

"And if you can find a master to teach you."

"Natasha knows everybody, she will know somebody willing to teach me."

"Will that mean you will have to stick around this tower for many years to come?"

"I have no idea, the different masters - though I don't know how many there are - are spread over the realms and I don't think that this will have to be the teaching ground. For all I know I might wind up in the tundra again, if my new master is a northerner. It is the craft I am after, not the girl." Clynck said, not aware of the thoughts that had crossed his brother's mind.

Vooys slowly nodded, his mind made up.

"Rest well brother, it is late and I have some things to do. I will see you again in the morning."

"Where is your room by the way?"

"Right next door. Good night, brother. It is good to have you back."

"And I am sure glad to be back, brother. 'Night."

While the young warrior started to prepare himself for the night, Natasha broke her concentration and fell down on her own bed. Eavesdropping had never been a very decent skill but for this one time she did not care about ethics. Silently, she thanked the warrior for handling the matter quickly and well.

"I couldn't have done it better myself Clynck. And I know just the right master for you."

 

"So you seriously think there is a chance?"

"Of course. There are a few masters who have been masters for some years and they know their powers well enough to be able to teach them. Martin and Richard are among the first ones to come out of the Pits, I even believe Ivan already has a pupil."

"That will save you some years in the tundra." Vooys grinned to his brother. Natasha also laughed.

"So what do I do? We have to leave for Grimloth soon, I want to see my father again. He is lonesome enough with only our older brother in that big castle. Our mother died two years ago of the flu. And I will be happy to see him."

"Well if you want to stay in Grimloth then just stay there, if we can find a master willing to teach you he will find you soon enough. Castle Grimloth is not a building you can easily miss eh? As the saying goes: don't contact us, we'll contact you."

"That would be terrific. Is there something special I should do?"

"Of course, watch your diet and work out. We are not allowed to drink alcohol, we live on water and fruit juice. We do not eat much meat, and almost no beef and pork. Rabbit, venison and poultry are fine. Much fruit and vegetables of course, we need our vitamins. You are already pretty strong so work on your condition. Running exercises will be most important for you, either normal or armed and packed. Always try to remain calm, maybe you want to meet Uncle Jon, the local seer, for some meditation lessons."

"The psychic? Is he good?"

"He learned it from my father."

"Then I know enough."

At that moment Griwalda entered the living room.

"Apprentice Vooys, Lachman will see you now in his private quarters." she said. Vooys bowed and excused himself.

"Is he looking for a new master?" Natasha inquired, though she knew everything.

"Aye, Lachman knows all the dark sorcerers in the world and if somebody can find a new master for Vooys it is he." her mother told.

"And since Lachman was already a guest in this tower to hear your story Vooys decided to ask him. And I think Lachman has an answer for him."

 

"I have plans for you, apprentice Vooys. Big plans."

The sorcerer in the crimson robes gently put another log in the open hearth and watched as it caught flame.

"You have witnessed both great and horrible deeds, and the power inside your body is eminent. You are looking for a new master to teach you the higher paths of sorcery, and I see that your late teacher has wasted your talents. It is myself who would want to teach you, as I have need of a faithful apprentice."

"Are you serious? You mean that I can be the apprentice of one of the Three? I don't know a thing about the Council, and I don't know what to expect. But if you would take me as your apprentice I would follow you wherever you go, master Lachman, and I would serve you as well as I can."

"Of course I am serious, let that be your first lesson. I am always serious. It is a right mentality that you have, for you will see things your late teacher would never be able to show you. He taught you a lot in a short time, and so he could only show your potential. In two or three more years of his life he would have had nothing to teach you anyway, since he was not very powerful. And I need someone by my side sometimes because I cannot do everything alone, not with my plans."

"Your plans? What do you plan, master?"

"I also have big plans for myself, which is exactly why I need an apprentice of your calibre. But I will tell you more about these plans when you join me in my own tower. It is true that I have a home in the Council but of course we all have our own place as well, since everybody needs a bit of privacy. There are things I must prepare, though, and I will be able to receive you in a month from here."

"That would be more than fine with me, master. My brother wants to return to Grimloth and I must join him. I will also claim my part of our money so I can pay you."

"That... will be more than fine, young apprentice. Though if you really succeed in serving me well there will be no need for that. Join your brother, go to Castle Grimloth and come to me in a month. Do you know where my tower is? I am afraid it is not as big as Authon Tower here but it is big enough for me."

"This tower is huge, it must almost be as large as the Coun­cil's." Vooys nodded.

"Aye. Did you know that this tower used to belong to a very powerful dark sorcerer? He was a renegade but he was more powerful than myself, at that time even more powerful than the current High Sorcerer. When he died, Griwalda Donthiac, then a beginning sorceress, usurped his energy and suddenly became very powerful. It was due to the lessons of the current High Sorcerer that she could control those powers, helped in some strange way by the Ultimate One, who had not risen into power yet."

"But master, if this powerful dark sorcerer was so strong that both mistress Griwalda and the High Sorcerer could not match his powers, then how did he die?"

"He was killed by the Ultimate One, who had a special charm against sorcery. Or so the Council has been told by the one who is now our High Sorcerer. The full story was never told, I knew he held back something."

"Maybe something about that charm. Do you know where that item is now? If a sorcerer had it he could easily become the most powerful sorcerer in the world. Or is that why the High Sor­cerer is now who he is, does he have that charm?"

"He doesn't, the High Sorcerer wears no charm. And since the Ultimate One is immortal I don't think he wears it."

"Maybe Natasha wears it. She is his daughter, after all."

"No. If she did wear it, she would not have been able to use the wand. Maybe he still has it after all or he has given it to one of his pupils."

"Wouldn't it be great to own this charm?"

"Of course, we could do whatever we wanted, fight whoever we wish to fight and come out victorious. But this is not impor­tant if a master of Body Life magic holds it, for this strange kind of battle magic is our natural antagonist though we are not really fighting each other. Sorcery and Body Life magic are the two basically neutral forces that maintain the balance in the universe. Where sorcery fails, Body Life magic corrects and vice versa."

"Then this master with the charm must be someone who stands above the laws of the universe."

"I do not know much about this charm, since its history is forbidden to people of the will. All that we may know is that we may never have it."

"I guess I can understand that. If a sorcerer had this he would upset the balance in the universe. He would almost be powerful enough to challenge the gods. And in that case the Body Life magic would intervene and stop this man?"

"I guess. But that is not important, and we are wasting time. Join your brother and come to my tower in a month, then I will be ready to receive you."

Vooys left the room with a courtly bow, leaving the dark sorcerer in thoughts.

"Aye, you will join me wherever I go, though now you have no idea where I plan to go. If a seventeen years old damsel can challenge the ancient Guardian, I can challenge the new one. And if needed you will make a perfect sacrifice for your master, namely me. The girl's report was clear enough, though she did not pay much attention to the dead souls. The souls with the powers, the minds with the intelligence. The minds must be there, she just didn't pay attention to them. There are eons of dead powerful sorcerers in the Halls of Doom, and once you have proven to be powerful enough to handle all that power you will get all that knowledge and power. Nobody will rival me, not even the High Sorcerer Antharion Ylth-Hazar."

With a cruel smile the sorcerer leaned back in his chair, lighting his pipe with a short spell.

 

        Chapter Twenty-Three

 

"I am not sure I can do this, Natasha. Why me?"

"Why not? You know all the Moves, you are a master and you have enough experience. I know I could have asked somebody else but I think you are the best candidate."

"But you have already said that he is a man filled with pas­sion, he already fell in love with you. Don't you think that it will be risky?"

"On the contrary, what he needs is to treat women more like other people, not as objects to fall in love with. And I know that you know what it is like to stand among men with equal rights and more power. And I think this is what he needs. He won't fall in love with you, you will not even give him time for that."

Ledda grinned. Natasha had asked her to teach young Clynck the ways of Body Life magic, because she was a good master herself and because she was a woman, who could teach the young warrior things in an entirely different way than men possibly could. After all, Clynck had been trained by a man before, he had not developed his skills with a sword without any teaching. Another man would simply replace the sword master in Castle Grimloth, a woman would make him forget any former instructor, thus creating a free soul with no worries and no unnecessary feelings of responsibility.

"But why me, why not Agnes?" Ledda asked.

"You know her. I am not sure she is ready to teach a boy, she... she is different."

"She might fall in love with the boy or seduce him, you mean. Well, it's true she is not very shy of men and from what I hear from you this Clynck is a handsome fellow. Very well, so it is me. I am willing to teach, but I will have to study my books first. It is no light responsibility, you know. Are you sure this boy is determined enough?"

"I am. He has seen our powers and he was impressed and he wants to pledge to the Ultimate One because of what he did down there. And he doesn't need much physical training, just a couple of months, he is already slim and strong."

"Though he probably needs time to get all the alcohol out of his blood."

"Remember where he has been for some time. I don't think the Guardian gave him much alcohol to drink. Here we don't have any alcohol, and I have given him instructions for a diet. It is only a question if you are really ready to sacrifice years of your life for him."

"I will be able to see everyone still, won't I?"

"Of course, and you can take him with you. For me the training was very short but that is different, and you said yourself you didn't need much extra physical training. How long did it take for you to become a master?"

"It took me more than nine years, but that was of course because the Ultimate One had sixty to train, and though he never needed sleep, he could not teach all of us at the same time. I will have Clynck's undivided attention this time and I think I can make him a master in about two years."

"Which is not a very long time for such powers."

"Two years, if he has the right spirit. Learning the Moves is not the biggest problem, being mentally ready will be more difficult. The books say that after learning all the Moves we must check if his mind is ready, and teach him much more if it is not. I think that even you could do with some more mind training, as you have trained for only a couple of weeks. But of course you had this unique experience and that will have made you stronger."

"I have my own confidence, and I have an edge on people because I have no colour."

"That is only an advantage if you really need to attack. We can impress people with our colours, scare them off if needed, this way avoiding unnecessary battle."

"What colour did you use? Light grey?"

"The colour of steel. Watch."

Ledda concentrated, slightly spreading her legs in order to relax her body, and started to glow.

"I see. Well, if you can really do the job in two years then he will be happy and not too old."

"Too old for what? I am twenty-eight and as strong as I will ever be! How old is this Clynck?"

"I believe he was twenty-one or twenty-two. I only know that he is older than Vooys who was twenty, and they don't seem to differ much."

"Twenty-one? Very young. I was much younger when I came to this tower of course but I needed all those years of training as well as the mental preparation. You know that took years."

"The daughter of a nobleman doesn't become a merciless killer in a couple of days." Natasha smiled.

"Merciless? Well, if needed. But you are right. This boy is also a nobleman's child but he is already a fighter. So he can skip that part as well. Maybe I need to consult Richard or Martin on this; they were fighters before they became masters."

"They practised with wooden swords and were polishing their masters' boots."

"They were squires, and they also knew how to wield a sword. They were no slaves!"

"I could never be a squire, if there would have been female squires in the first place. Why would you serve instead of do what you want to do?"

"Some people want to serve, and a good thing that is. If there was nobody to serve we would have to cook our meals ourselves, spend every night on the road in the open and squeeze our own fruits for juice."

"Aye, but innkeepers are serving for their own fortune." "And so were they, they wanted to become honourable knights, that would have been their reward. And they would have thought much of that, too, if the Ultimate One hadn't sent out his call to them."

"It is all confusing me, Ledda. After all, I have never learned what it is like to serve."

"And you'd better remember that it is not wise to talk to people about things you don't know about. I don't care, but if you speak these words to a man or woman who serves and likes to serve he or she might become upset."

"That is true, thank you for this lesson."

"I must see if Richard and Martin haven't left yet. I will see you later. Just send the pupil to my home when he is ready to come, I will return home soon."

Natasha nodded and watched as the woman left, with big steps that hardly made any sound. She was now wearing a simple white shirt and short leggings, accenting her slim and muscled legs. Her sword was hanging sheathed on her belt, tied up cleverly so it would not hit her legs.

Natasha remained seated and thought about the warrior.

"Aye, Clynck, I have found one for you. And the best one as well, I think."

 

The two brothers were riding on fresh horses, horses they had borrowed from two masters of Body Life magic, who had agreed to come to pick them up in the Grimloth stables later. They had provisions and warm blankets for the nights, and they had everything they could possibly want.

Vooys had scoffed at his brother's new diet but he could understand that it was only a small part of a big plan. And above all, he could only think of his own future, by the side of the most powerful dark sorcerer in the world, who had said he needed him. For dark experiments, most likely, and Vooys knew that some of these experiments could be deadly for either the master or the apprentice. After all, this was what had killed his first master. And of course Vooys was honoured to be picked by the honourable Lachman, the respected sorcerer who was one of the Three. Quietly they rode on, and they spent the nights outside.

Before they went to sleep, Clynck did some sword practice while his brother studied. And after five days of hard riding they arrived at the gates of Grimloth.

The guards let them through with a salute and they stabled their horses as was promised, giving the stable boy instruc­tions to give them to two men with a strange sign on their left breast plates and a sword with a dull strip on one side. On foot they went to the castle until Vooys declared he was tired and that they would take a coach to the castle. After all, for them the coach service was free, one of the ad­vantages of being sons of the lord.

Lord Senthral Gunthar-Dagh himself came to the gates to wel­come his son, followed by their older brother Ronald.

"Clynck! Vooys! You are back at last! What happened in the north? Come in, you must be tired. Magda, prepare two hot baths at once!" the lord shouted and warmly embraced his sons. They entered and were fed and bathed, and rested fully they told a part of the story, unaware that they were being watched by three pairs of eyes, far away, unaware that the three watchers weren't aware of each other.

 

"So what's the deal? This Lachman becomes your new teacher. Why? I can't believe that he just picks you as his appren­tice for no reason, every sorcerer your age must want to become a pupil of the great Lachman." Clynck said. His brother was packing his gear to leave to his new master's tower, having taken much money with him.

"It is not that simple, brother. He has probably heard or felt that I am a promising apprentice, and I have a lot of knowledge concerning Body Life magic and especially Natasha. He said he had big plans for me. And indeed it is a great honour to become his apprentice, it is not something you can refuse. Imagine that the greatest knight of all asks you to be his squire, would you refuse that if you didn't have these plans of yours to become a master of Body Life magic?"

"I can see what you mean, brother, but for some reason I don't trust this man."

"He is a sorcerer of the dark side, brother, just like me. Don't you trust me then?"

"That is different, we are kin. And if we weren't, no, then I would not trust you. It is only because we have grown up together, that I really know who you are, that you are the one dark sorcerer I can possibly trust. You seek power, but I foresee danger."

"Danger is always there when you try to become better in your skill, brother. You want to become a better sword fighter? Then you have to practise with your sword, and you have to spar with somebody who is better. And then there is always the danger that you get cut. This is just the same." "Sir Anthus didn't kill himself, your master did."

"That is because sorcery is more dangerous than sword fighting, brother. And that in turn is because it brings more power with it. There is no talking me out of this, I have made up my mind. This is a once in a lifetime oppor­tunity and I am going to take it."

He regarded his brother with a friendly smile.

"And I will take care of myself, brother. You also go into a dangerous craft, do the same."

Clynck nodded firmly and shook his brother's hand.

Then the young sorcerer activated his amulet and was gone.

"Fare thee well brother, you are in my prayers." Clynck mur­mured softly.

 

Natasha paced restlessly around her room.

"Everything seems to be going right, then why do I still feel troubled?" she wondered aloud.

"There are people with dark intentions everywhere, Natasha. You cannot hope to solve all the problems in the world by yourself, and this is something you shouldn't do, either. You have a life of your own to live, and it has only been a short time since you had this dread experience."

She had totally forgotten about the voice in her mind, it hadn't spoken to her ever since she had returned from the Halls of Doom and hearing it again startled her a bit.

"Are you back? I thought you had gone for good. Why are you still around anyway, and who are you?"

"These are the same questions you have had all along, Natasha. Do you still doubt me, have I not helped you whenever I could?"

"I am grateful for your help in that dread realm, but with you around I feel I can't be myself. I don't seem to have any privacy, even when I am seemingly alone. I wish you to leave my mind and no longer disturb me. I have grown up in this very short time, and even though I do not know who you are, I am grateful for everything you have done for me. Or rather, some of the things you have said to me."

"It is better for you not to know who I am, my dear. Know that I am one who did all this out of my own free will, for I cared about you and I have always known who you are. Do not speak my name even if you don't know it, and do not speak of me. Farewell, Natasha, take care of yourself."

Natasha nodded solemnly and sat down on her bed, thinking. The voice had been an unknown person, she had always thought of it as male though the voice had never sounded completely male or female. It was not her father, yet it had spoken to her as one, encouraging her when she needed it, scolding her when a concerned parent would. Aye, she would miss the voice, even though she requested it to leave her. Not even parents can take care of a child permanently, at a certain point in time they had to break away from home. And though she would not break away from home literally, she knew that she would also not stay here permanently. There was more to this world than pain, torture and horror, and that had been the only thing she had really seen. No longer the girl of all alignments and none, as she lived in the neutrality of Body Life magic, she had now developed most of her skills and she was powerful enough to travel around and see the world itself. So far she had only encountered strange things, from gypsy striptease dancers to vampires, werewol­ves, demons and gods. She felt the desire within herself to see the normal life in the lands. To go out, free of worries and limits.

And she knew that nothing could stop her, since she was now a master of Body Life magic and free to do whatever she wanted. And though she was worried that she would come across strange situations again - after all, all this had started with a peaceful trip to Grimloth - she decided not to let worries overtake her. She had proven to be powerful, and she would let nobody stand in her way.

She crossed her legs to concentrate and slowly rose off her bed, her own life energy surrounding her.

 

        Chapter Twenty-Four

 

Lachman had prepared everything for his great experiment. His apprentice had learned a lot, and though he had been chilled with fear when he had heard about the experiment he knew he had to serve his master.

"But master Lachman, how do you know that there is anything to gain in the Halls of Doom?" he had asked.

"The Halls of Doom house the souls of all the dead dark sor­cerers, and many of those lost their energy. Most of the time sorcerers die by another sorcerer's hand and then the victor will take the spoils. But sometimes they die alone, or they have an apprentice who does not know how to gain the energy. Remember that you didn't know when your master died and so you couldn't use his energy. So the deceased still has his energy. And where to look for dead sorcerers with tremendous power but for the Halls of Doom? The dead souls will teach us the many spells they possess, and we will return with more power than we could ever possibly think of. And remember that there will be no danger, for we will have this wand here, the power to bail out at any time."

No danger... Vooys couldn't imagine that there was no danger at all, and now he also remembered the words this very same man had spoken before Natasha had ventured into the Halls of Doom: only one of them could hold the wand, and the other one had to depend on him. That would be a weakness, Lachman him­self had said, and he was sure the master would hold the wand himself rather than to trust it to his underling.

Of course there was great power, the master sorcerer spoke the truth, but Vooys shivered at the thought of things going wrong and going into that dread realm without invitation and without a real goal. Power may be a goal, but they had no good goal like Natasha had had when she wanted to save his brother.

How would his brother fare now? He would be taught that other great power, Body Life magic, and he had been told it would be a training that would have a point of no return the minute they had started and that it would take long years of his life. And from then there was no retiring from the life like a warrior could when he became too old. He would become more like a sorcerer than a warrior. All these masters were very young, and so Vooys had no idea how they would fare when they became older. But then again, these were the first ones of the new batch, that Ultimate One had been the sole survivor and he would not start out with relatively old men. Remembering the Ultimate One had ascended recently, he could even see that his brother would be one of the first ones who was being taught by a new master, a master with not much experience. But had the girl not told about some kind of instruction books? No, Clynck will be all-right. Would he? With a shrug he threw away his doubts. He was now the only apprentice of a powerful master, and if he had to make a sacrifice for power he would, without thought. He had seen the sacrifices apprentices and masters had made for power. He knew the legend of the sorcerer who had lost both his legs in a dangerous experiment, but the sorcerer could not think about the pain and the fact that he would never walk again. He built himself artificial legs, driven by sorcery and attached to his nerves by science and dark al­chemy, and was ecstatic with the power he had gained in the experiment. Maybe he would die, aye, maybe he would never leave the dark realm again, aye. But it was worth it, for if they would return alive and well they would be powerful beyond belief. Satisfied with that thought, he concentrated on his current task. He checked his list and went to the marketplace nearby to find some spell components for his master.

 

"And where's the rest? Ah... " Clynck smiled. There would be no rest. This bowl of rice and this goblet with a rich mix of fruit juice would be all he would get.

"How can you feel the balance anyway?"

The balance. It had been all his mistress had been talking about. The balance of body, mind and soul.

"Your soul cries out with determination to become a master of Body Life magic, Clynck. Your body is used to this kind and this amount of food, though your mind cries for more and more luxurious food. You are no longer the son of the second richest man in south-western Arnesia, you are now a pupil. And as long as your mind doesn't forget that, it hinders the soul and the body. And so they are not in balance."

"So if I don't feel hunger any more then I am ready?"

"Maybe. You can sometimes no longer feel hunger but that is because the soul influences the body. The body will feel the hunger and weaken, and we cannot have this. You will think as a warrior and see you have a perfect body. It is true you lost about fifteen pounds of unnecessary body fat and gained a bit more in lean muscle. Your side will tell it all."

"My side?"

Clynck, only wearing a plain tunic, pinched his side. It had not been as flabby as it used to be, but still his finger could dig in a little.

"Of course it will never be tight, that would not be heal­thy. But it will become tighter than this, and when your side is strong, that is generally the sign your body is."

"Honestly, I never thought it would be this much theory, I thought it was all action."

"Oh, don't worry, there will be plenty of action once you are ready to start learning the Moves. So much action that it will frighten you and wear you out. Now, eat your rice and I will talk some more later."

Clynck could see that Ledda was having a regular meal her­self, with a bit of poultry and fresh, raw vegetables. But she had already explained that she could easily burn those extra calories, as she could already use her extra energy. When he had come to Ledda's place he had been surprised that it was nothing more than a large wooden house in the middle of the woods, but he could already imagine why she had built it here: the beauty of nature came to its full glory here, there was peace and quiet and nobody to disturb you. So here she could also practise and do those powerful Moves without anyone noticing it. She had told him that even the animals in the forest were no longer afraid of her and her powers but the young pupil found this hard to believe. His training had started with endurance tests, like hours of running and exer­cises as well as training in unarmed combat. He had always thought that he was skilled in unarmed combat but he had been surprised to find himself lying on his back every time after attacking his mistress who didn't even have to use her special skills to hold him off. He had learned the special moves of the hands and the feet and he had learned to duck, jump and crouch in an entirely different way com­pared to his old training. Sure, he had been taught unarmed combat, as a last resort if you were disarmed. But now he was taught how to defend yourself without weapons because everything he could do with weapons he could also do without them. This had been a revelation for the young man, who had wondered why masters wore weapons in the first place. Then he had been forced to abandon all his weapons, including the family heirloom - which Ledda had returned to Castle Grim­loth - and received the legendary sword of Body Life magic. And then he had learned to use his sword as the extension of his body. He had never seen it that way, and he had enjoyed the new lessons of sword practice even though his mistress had warded off all his attacks with a smile. He remembered how the other people in his class had laughed when he got a harsh lesson from the sword master in Grimloth, and just like that he had laughed with the others when the sword master had chosen another pupil to humiliate. But the utter humiliation he could not feel here, for he had witnessed the supernatural speed of this mistress. He had witnessed her powers, and he could only desire to have them, too. Vivid memories returned, of his father who had called him and his brother inside his private room. He had found Ronald, his older brother and heir to the throne, there as well. His father had explained the boys, in their early teens then, that Ronald was the heir and would rule the town of Grimloth and the lands surrounding it alone, as he had done himself. He told them of his three brothers, who had become famous leaders in the field, strong adventurers and knights. One now had a town of his own, a town he had built with the people he and his company had liberated from a large slave pen in the east. Tweloth, it was now called, Second Grim­loth. And his father had explained to them that though they would always be welcome in the castle, also when he was gone himself, they had no future here, and they should grow up and seek their own fortune, like his brothers had done. Ronald had hastily added that they would have a comfor­table life in the castle, but all of them knew that it would not be very uncomplicated. From that point on, Ronald had started to behave more like an heir than like a brother and the younger brothers had never felt as welcome any more. And so they left together, as they had always stuck together even though their desires lay different, looking for a future of their own. Vooys had been embittered and he had sought the dark path, though he still clung to his brother, and became apprentice of a dark sorcerer. Clynck still had his sword training and after his brother's master had died Vooys had talked to his brother about leaving, and the next day they had left the castle. And now, after all these years, they had found themselves a future: Vooys would become a powerful sorcerer and he would become a master of Body Life magic; strong, independent and powerful.

As he finished his meal, he suddenly noticed that his mistress was regarding him intensely.

"You have shown great spirit, Clynck. It is time to start learning your first Move."

At this time he would not understand, but later he would learn that he could only work on the Moves when his mind was totally set on what he was about to do, a state of mind he had just reached.

 

"And so, apprentice, it is time for your first test."

Lachman took some thin webby black wires and started to weave them together, reciting ancient words in a severe tone of voice. He knew that his apprentice was sleeping and was about to intone a spell that would send horrifying nightmares to the young man's mind.

Never faltering, Lachman continued to murmur some rather unintelligible sounds, though he knew exactly what he was murmuring. In satisfaction he watched as his apprentice started to roll nervously in his bed, waving his arms and panting. He was dreaming of the mission they were preparing for and it would not have a happy ending. The sorcerer and his apprentice were split and the wand had been lost between them. From the reports of the young girl the sorcerer had envisioned the monsters she had encountered and now they were threatening the apprentice and, in a lesser degree, his master. Vooys had not been prepared for anything like this and he felt power­less. Lachman shook his head angrily when he saw that Vooys was calling out for help. And not even for his own help, but for help from that girl.

"Fool, do you think she will go there again when you wil­lingly stake your life, your soul and your sanity?" Lachman growled, and intensified the mind work.

The apprentice would suffer, especially if he really wanted to rely on a girl instead of his master.

 

Vooys was now in the Halls of Doom, wandering through the worst level of them all: the fire realm. Already he was tired, he had fought hordes of monsters with his master on his side. They had not come out unscathed, but he knew they had to continue: he had to find his brother.

His master had so far benefitted well from the journey, they had encountered the dead sorcerers they had expected to find, and because his master had known them by name they could easily track down the ones whose energy had not been taken already. So far his master had not given him any new strength, he had said that he needed it all so far to keep both of them alive in this dread world. But his master was also growing weaker. Here time had no meaning but their biological clock did tick on. They had not been able to sleep for three full weeks and they were starving. And that could only grow worse because they knew they would not die, also not from starvation or dehydration. He fought the feelings inside his stomach and he had a pretty good idea now of what Natasha had felt when she spent those four days in that closed cave, what she called the Pits. But they had to fight on, they were already in the fire realm and here the foulest sorcerers would pay the price for the sins they had committed in their lives. Aye, they had fought the tornado, the sea dragon and the succubus. They knew that Natasha had encountered an incubus and he knew that this guardian would adjust itself to its opponents. But suddenly he felt a chill going through his entire body, and this was strange as it was extremely hot here. And then his body received the heat again and he fell down in pain. His in­sides seemed to be ripping apart due to that single moment of cold, not longer than a second, and he looked around. His master was gone, and facing him was a large demon.

"I have heard that I was not supposed to fight the living, but the living come to challenge me. You want to see what I can do then?"

And suddenly he grew older, his hair turned white and his face wrinkled in a few seconds. Suddenly he was chained to the wall, and he could barely open his eyes. He was shocked to see his brother there, chained to the wall right in front of him, and he could barely recognise his features as he was ablaze in a pillar of flame. And then he saw his master.

"Farewell apprentice. The new Guardian and I made a nice deal. Now I have all the power in the world in exchange for the souls of you and your brother. You will not see me again as long as I am still alive, and since my powers have grown to immense proportions I might even be able to achieve immor­tality so we might never meet again. It was a good thing you assisted me as a trade object, as this was really what I took you for." Lachman spoke, a cruel smile on his face. And then he was gone.

Gone? Could this be true? Had his master willingly abandoned him, traded him for power?

Pain shot through his body as he watched his brother suffer in this pillar of red and orange flames and the cruel laughter of his master continued to ring through his head. And then he realised that this was a dream, but a dream that might well become reality. What had he done? What had he done?

 

"Damn!"

This came from Lachman, who was watching the dream his appren­tice was suffering from. He had also felt that single second chill, and when it was over he suddenly felt he had lost control and the dream went on, this time revealing more than he had intended. Someone else had interfered with his own evil plans, and he or she had revealed the truth. Or was it just a small mistake he had made? After all he had shown the truth as things would happen according to the report from the girl. She had accurately described the tornado and the sea dragon and he could figure that the seducing demon she had encountered would turn female before them. But he had never intended the appren­tice to see his brother again and being chained to the wall. He had not even thought about  a pillar of flame and he had never intended to reveal his plans to make a deal with the new Guardian.

He grabbed a book and started to study on the matter. Sen­ding dreams revealing the possible future could easily be stopped and blended in with illusions and lies. This par­ticular dream he had built mainly out of a truthful report and he knew what he would have sent his apprentice next if not for that second of chill. And he read the entire book all over again, but he could not find anything about a wave of chill that would indicate something.

"Maybe I've made the truthful part too long so I could not stop it any more. There is this passage saying that truth and fiction must be balanced if there is both. But I really in­tended to stretch the part of the fiction! He would fight the new Guardian, he would meet the powerful dead sorcerers and he would fight them, emerge victorious because they turn out to be just empty shells and he would gain their powers. That would have prepared him, given him the determination he needs, and he would be ready to go with me anywhere on a quest for power! What went wrong?"

 

"I must rest now."

"Prepare hot bath, master?"

"That will be excellent, Bals'zr. That is exactly what I need. With the blue herbs, if we still have them."

"Brought new today from market place, master."

"Excellent. Now, when the bath is finished I want you to buy yourself that collar you wanted to buy last month. Here is money for it."

"Master, this is great present, me no deserve!" Bals'zr stam­mered, surprised by this sudden generosity.

"For a job well done, Bals'zr, you deserve it."

"Yes master, thank you master."

The gypsy apprentice ran off to prepare the bath and Job sat down in his chair.

"Who I am to interfere? Well let's just say I couldn't sit idle. Something I got from you, Ultimate One. We both know what that sorcerer plans, and we know what that would do to Natasha and the new pupil."

It had not been very difficult to see the future of the young apprentice to this dark sorcerer, especially since this was the same sorcerer who had insisted on Natasha's report and who had suddenly taken Vooys as his apprentice, for no obvious reason. He had watched them closely and then happened to see the sorcerer preparing a dream for Vooys. Jon had remembered what the vampire lord had done with Natasha, and he had felt the power of dreamweaving, even though the sorcerer's tower was a thousand miles from his school in Grimloth. After all, dream power held no distance limits and the vampire had been able to feel Natasha's dream all the way from the tundra. So now he had done the same, shared the view of the dream and then took over control from the surprised sorcerer, who had not been prepared for this, who didn't even know enough about it to know it was possible to create a mind shield that would hinder any other dream weaver to interfere and take over control. This was something Jon himself had only recently learned about. And so it had been relatively easy to take over the dream and he had linked the evil sorcerer's mind and his true intentions to the dream which rolled on quite easily. The apprentice received more than a fair warning and something to think about before he willingly threw himself into the void of the dark realm, and the master had learned that the apprentice was no fool who would follow him everywhere. It would probably result in the sorcerer ousting the apprentice but then at least the apprentice would live. What the master would do was not known. Maybe he would take another appren­tice to use as bait or maybe he would go alone, with something else he could only hope to trade with the new Guardian. But then suddenly Jon became afraid this powerful man, one of the Three, would be able to track down the one who had interfered with his plans. And then he would kill him, without second thought. Nobody thwarts Lachman's plans and gets away with it, not if he can help it. He could feel the anger of the evil sorcerer and knew he would try to track the mind bender down.

"Master, bath is ready."

Jon nodded and rose. He had battled a Dark Body, an evil master of Body Life magic, and he had won. Okay, then the Ultimate One had initially fought this Dark Body and it had also been the Ultimate One who had finished him, but maybe not without the power of the mind bender. This the Ultimate One had always admitted, and it was something the short man had always been proud of. He had dreamt of becoming a master himself but he had found his own powers, then newly exploited, more to his liking and he was getting too old to learn new things anyway. So shortly after the Ultimate One had returned to his wife and started to teach his pupils he had moved to a big city and opened his school, knowing his powers would make him a better living than his previous trade: that of a lock­smith and part-time lock pick in a small village. As he undressed and sunk into the hot bath with the soothing herbs, he shook away his fears. He could simply not be traced. And if he could, well, he had done the right thing.

 

        Chapter Twenty-Five

 

Suddenly the loud door bell rang, the bell was clear enough to tell everybody inside the tower there was a visitor. Natasha was already downstairs and opened the door.

"Agnes! How nice to see you, I hadn't expected you here so soon again." she said, seeing the dark-haired woman.

"I have not come here without a reason, Natasha. There is danger. I was still in Grimloth, as I have a small apartment there, and Uncle Jon asked me to come here and warn you and especially your mother."

"Warn us? About what? My mother is in the Council."

"Then it is important that I go there. Or well... maybe that is not the best idea. Can you call her?"

"Of course, I still have that contact globe. How important is it?"

"High priority, there is a dangerous renegade sorcerer, or at least one is about to become a renegade sorcerer. And he threatens to cross the line."

"That's what they are renegades for. I will contact her on priority four." she said and ran upstairs to find her con­tact globe, a special device of sorcery, no bigger than a marble, that would allow her to contact her mother.

Griwalda happened to be in conclave when she noticed her globe and looked up.

"My honourable friends, I receive a priority four call, please excuse me." she said and departed hastily after a spell.

No way back, thought Lachman by himself. No way back. They had found him out, undoubtedly, and they would try to stop him would they discover the truth. All these months of preparations would be wasted, he would become a renegade and be prosecuted by the Council. He had to move now, before it was too late.

"I must check on this, it may be important. Please excuse me, my honourable friends." Lachman said and disappeared, leaving the High Sorcerer, Anthon, Marcia and the rest of the Council in confusion.

"It's related." Antharion spoke.

"Related? Griwalda gets a high priority call and Lachman runs off with an excuse? Do you think she suspects him to do something out of line?"

"Maybe Griwalda doesn't suspect anything, but maybe the one who called her does, and that had better be with a reason." "Should we follow her?"

"And dismiss the Council? No, we still have items to discuss and actions to undertake. We were in the middle of handling the powerful wand that creates a link between the world of the living and the dark realm. Where is it now? Does our honourable friend Lachman still have it?"

"He has been studying on the wand ever since it returned into the hands of the Council."

"Hey wait a minute!" a councillor rang out.

"You just said that the honourable Lachman might be up to no good and he has this wand. And we have heard the story of the master of Body Life magic who retrieved a man who hap­pens to be the brother of the man the honourable Lachman recently took as his apprentice. You don't think that's coincidence, do you?"

"Apprentice Vooys asked Lachman for a new teacher, and he got in contact with Lachman during the incident you described. Yes, it may be coincidence, as we have all seen the potential this apprentice has and he is a fine lad. But you are right, it may all fall into place."

"He is going to use the wand and this apprentice to enter the Halls of Doom!" a councillor exclaimed, his voice risen in anger. It was obvious he was also from the dark side since they only pronounced the official name of the dark world of the dead.

"And who was that who called the honourable Griwalda then?" somebody wanted to know.

"Her daughter, of course. The master of Body Life magic and also the one who went into the dark realm to save a soul." "High Sorcerer, what do you advise?"

That was a question Antharion had seen coming, but he hadn't figured out the answer yet.

"Griwalda will inform us when she returns, and maybe, though not very probably if the insinuations are correct, Lachman will return and tell us what he intends and what he knows. Then we have some concrete statements to work with. For now, all we can do is sit, wait and watch."

 

"You know that Vooys came here to find out how Natasha would fare in the dark realm, and then I also found a small sample of him. I could already see that he had fallen in love with her and I could see his brother would, too. I warned him, not telling him everything, not to overreact and he didn't. But recently he became the apprentice of Lachman, one of the Three, and also the one who holds the wand. I checked on Vooys and suddenly I saw that his master was implementing a nightmare, using sorcery to weave dreams. The stuff with the black webs, cut finely. Beginners stuff we call that here. Anyway, I decided to watch the nightmare and see what this master of his had in mind. And then I found out the hor­rifying truth: this Lachman wants to venture into the dark realm, with his apprentice, to find the power of the dead sorcerers. It seems he has done quite some studying on this subject as he knows a lot about the dark realm. He also has that report of yours, dear, about the dark realm. He seems to know how to achieve great power, and he would become even more powerful than the High Sorcerer. Lachman is a bitter man who had hoped to become High Sorcerer before Antharion was chosen. He is evil but as High Sorcerer he would have been able to stand above good and evil, like Antharion himself who was neutral to begin with. He is one of the Three, the ones directly under the High Sorcerer and I guess under you, Griwalda, but he is not contended. He wants to become the single most powerful sorcerer, and if he cannot become High Sorcerer he will have to become the strongest renegade. And would he return from the dark realm, he will indeed have those powers. For he plans to make a terrible deal with the new Guardian, if there is al­ready a new one. He intends to sacrifice his pupil and offer him to the new Guardian in exchange for power."

Jon paused to take a deep breath and to let his words sink in. Finally it was Natasha who broke the silence.

"You mean he is going to leave Vooys in that dread world? Then he is lost! I can't go there again, I am not the one to go there every other week to save somebody! Oh Uncle Jon, is there aught we can do?"

"Well, you remember what that vampire lord did to you when you were receiving a dream from me. I was now the one who inter­vened as I have studied a lot on this matter in the meantime. And I showed Vooys the truth, the real scheme his master had in mind. And I sure scared him, I can tell you that. I hope I gave him something to think about, and I hope he will see the truth in the dream. Then he will find a way to avoid all this, and save his soul."

"Not to mention his life."

"His life he will not lose there, that is the painful thing. Nothing dies there, as you know, and eternal punishment will be his fate."

"But what about Clynck? He is being trained by Ledda, how could he be abducted again?" Natasha asked.

"That was a part of the dream, not the truth. You are right, it is not possible. What's more, your father forbade the new Guardian to abduct the living and I am sure this demon will want to obey, hearing what happened to his predecessor. Do not worry about the pupil, worry about the apprentice."

"We must stop Lachman. For all we know he is still in the Council and there we can stop him." Griwalda said.

"Don't forget he is smart, he may have drawn his conclusions from you leaving in a hurry."

"You go back to the Council, mother, I must go see Vooys." Natasha said and before anybody could reply she was gone.

"Aren't you going to help?" Jon asked Agnes.

"She's now her own master, she doesn't need me."

Despite everything, Jon still had trouble to believe it.

 

"Apprentice!"

The commanding voice took Vooys by surprise. He looked up from his book of spells and saw his master, holding a bag with various magical items.

"It is time. We are to go."

"Go where?"

"Where? We are about to start our experiment of course! I just come from the Council and they have approved of this ex­periment, as it will serve us all."

"I thought they wanted to destroy the item!"

"Not before all the power in the Halls of Doom is mine. Now, pack your bag and follow me."

"No."

Vooys's voice was trembling but nevertheless resolute.

"No? What is this no? An apprentice does not say no to his master!"

"I will not let you sacrifice me to the Guardian! I know all about your evil intentions, and I will not let myself me bait for your own good. I renounce you as my master, for I will not be just a helpless victim!" Vooys shouted, angry. "When you became my apprentice I have told you it may cost you your life. Then why now hesitate?"

"You never wanted me as an apprentice, you wanted me as something to trade. The dream revealed it all, all your true evil intentions."

"Of course my intentions are evil, is that not why we seek the dark path? Your... sacrifice is only my last resort, if all else is lost."

"Lies! You have been lying to me all the time! You only want power for yourself, and I may die for all you care."

"That is correct. Well, since you see it that way..."

Vooys tried to concentrate and shielded his face with his arms but a bolt of energy shot from his master's hands.

"Die, then. If you are not willing, I will find someone who may also not be willing but also not able to resist me." Lachman spoke coldly, pointing at the crumpling body.

"As the gods are my witnesses, you will venture into the Halls of Doom only for punishment, and you will never return, wand or no wand." Vooys spoke, completing a strong curse. Flames surrounded his body. "Flames, the pillar of flames. Not you, my brother, me. My pillar of flames. Here in this world, and not eternal. You will live a good life, as a master of Body Life magic. I make this sacrifice for you. Go with the rightful gods, my brother..." he uttered and then everything went dark as his life energy left him.   

Suddenly Clynck withdrew his fist and stared into nothingness. "What is it, pupil?" Ledda asked but then she saw the look in his eyes.

"Clynck?"

"My brother..." he could only say.

Ledda suddenly understood and picked up her pupil, only to use her speed to travel fast.

 

"Too late." Natasha said as she approached the tower. No sign of life from the young apprentice. Even worse, she could see the aura of death around the dark stone structure. "Vooys!"

She quickly entered the tower and found the burned body of her friend and the man responsible for the heinous act.

"What have you done?" she cried, tears filling her eyes.

"He wouldn't listen. You see, we were about to undertake a dangerous journey and all of a sudden he was too chicken to follow. And I have no use for cowards. Go back to your mother, child. This is what we do." Lachman spoke coldly.

"You... you horrendous monster! You will pay for this!" she cried and drew her sword but then she found a hand on her upper arm. She turned around quickly to stare into the light green eyes of Ledda.

Clynck was there, too, and with malice in his eyes he jumped at the surprised sorcerer, even though he was unarmed.

But with his speed nothing would help, and though the young man flinched in pain when he touched the man due to a war­ding gem he hit the man in the throat with three finger tips, using the first Move he had learned. As a matter of fact, he had been practising this first Move, the Invisible Hand, when he felt that something had happened to his brother. Performing the Move accurately, he severed the dark sorcerer's head from his shoulders. The head bounced off the floor with a nauseating sound and lay still on the carpet. The eyes remained open in surprise, the evil expres­sion remained on the pale face.

Clynck and Natasha cried over the body of their brother and friend, and just at that moment her mother and the High Sor­cerer appeared.

"Too late. We were all too late." was all Natasha could cry.

Everybody was unable to say a word, and the only sound that could be heard was the heart-piercing wail of the mourning pupil.

 

        Chapter Twenty-Six

 

"It’s senseless. All so senseless."

"It is, yet it is what people of the dark side do. They only think about themselves, with no regard for those weaker than them. This is what I have always been told, and your brother seems to have fought against it. He knew that this was wrong and he probably remembered the good things you have done. He chose to live his life in evil, but deep down inside he knew that total evil was not his true way. It was the reason why all this started: he was three quarters of evil and one quarter of good. He clung to you until the end. Uncle Jon told us that the sorcerer gave him a dream and in the dream he saw you there, in that dread world, and he knew he had to keep you from harm. I believe that was his last wish, and he willingly made the sacrifice for you by standing up against his master."

"How am I going to tell my father? He always said that his dark intentions would some day cost him his life, and now it has become the truth."

"The truth it always has been, Clynck. But your life will always one day mean your death. When you become a soldier, you will die by the sword, no matter if you are a good or an evil soldier. Death is the only certainty of life, and when your time has come you know that it has. Your brother's sacrifice gave the world a chance to live. Had he simply obeyed his master terrible things would have happened. The sorcerer would have returned to the world, probably alone, and your brother would have suffered eternally while he would have become the most powerful sorcerer in the world, out to disturb the balance of the universe."

"And then? Body Life magic interferes and kills him?"

"And then one of us kills him, aye. That's why we are here. Body Life magic and sorcery are the two powers brought to this world to keep the balance in the universe. We can harm sor­cerers and they can harm us, all but one of us. But that is because of sorcery itself, it seems to be a common story. Have you told him yet, Ledda?"

"The story of the bracelet, I know. She just told me the other day. So you think he will rest in peace?"

"I sincerely hope so. He sought the darkness but he saved the world by sacrificing himself. This is how he will be remem­bered, and maybe the gods will redeem his soul. He is, after all, still the son of a good and virtuous king-knight." They were standing near the grave of the young sorcerer. Vooys had always said that he did not want to be buried in the family crypt and they had respected his last will. The High Sorcerer had come and cleared the area of magical energy, taking it in himself to control it. This would make him more powerful, as he added both Lachman's and Vooys's powers to his own, but he was the High Sorcerer and he could control these powers better than anyone else. The power would be in safe hands and protected against inex­perienced sorcerers who would only be devoured by the power and against renegade sorcerers who would pose serious threats to anyone would he be able to usurp this powerful sorcerer's power. They had wrapped the young man's body and disin­tegrated the foul sorcerer's. Clynck had been comforted and would continue with his lessons as soon as he had recovered. But they knew that would not take very long, since he had already grown stronger and learnt how to deal with death. And after his dread experiences in the world of the dead, it would take very much indeed to rock his common sense.

"Ledda, can I continue my lessons after all this?" he asked. "I would not stay here much longer. I never liked death, and though I will never forget my brother I don't think standing near his grave is going to help him or the rest of the world very much. I would like to go back."

Ledda nodded in understanding and took him back to her house in the woods, leaving Natasha and her mother standing there in a sombre mood.

 

"It has all gone very fast, my friend. The man who loved her died, and though his death is described more gracious than it actually happened, they don't really want to know. He was not trying to save the world, he was first trying to save him­self."

"And now what happens? His soul goes to the dark realm?"

"He will apply for the grey, and he might be allowed in. It is not up to me to decide that, though I have a feeling he will. This young man was too young to have committed such sins that he would go to the dark realm really, people seem to think that once you wear a dark robe you go there. One brother in there for a while is enough, my friend."

"And how will she fare, now that one of her lovers has died? This is the first time one she actually cared about died." "But she is now a master of your class, she is tough. We have seen death before, and she has seen death as few mor­tals have seen it. Do you remember your life as a mortal, Ultimate One? First nothing is wrong, then the complications pile up and in the end wait massacre and bedlam. What did you do? You travelled on, tried to forget about the past and look out for the present and the future. She is just as tough as you and she will also learn that she cannot change the past. All she can do is what every mortal does: remember the past, watch the present and guess at the future."

The Ultimate One slowly nodded and looked down at the world below, looking at his daughter from a long distance.

 

"Now what is this for?" Clynck asked. His teacher and he were standing in front of a strange object with many small holes in it. The holes had burn marks all around them. "This, my pupil, is the board of the Energy Maze. It is an impenetrable weapon, this move. Lesser humans it may kill, powerful ones will be hurt. The great thing about this Move is that there is no real defence against it. Your target is to aim your energy at the holes. Just like you caught the one hundred and seven steel balls between your fingers while blindfolded, you will have to spread your energy in your fingertips. Only this time you do not simply move, but you send your energy away. And you do it with such a precision that you don't hit the board itself."

"Not the board? That's unbelievable! How many holes are there anyway? One hundred and seven?"

"I expected better of you, Clynck, I thought you would have counted them already. There are one hundred. Ten for each fingertip."

"One hundred. Is this even possible?"

"Of course it is. Since it's a demonstration you want, watch." Ledda said and started glowing. Then she started waving her fingers in a calculated pattern. One by one the holes were hit precisely. The bigger holes were filled with bigger rays, coming from her thumbs, and the smallest ones were filled by smaller rays, coming from her little fingers. Clynck, already with trained eyes to follow this exceedingly fast Move - filling all the holes took only half a second - could only watch in admiration. Then he was invited to repeat the Move and started slowly, taking careful aim at one hole at a time. Then he slowly started to speed up, but with the speed came many misses, creating more burn marks on the board. But Ledda seemed to be satisfied with his ef­forts. "You are doing very well, this took me a week to master. You are doing just fine, keep on practising." she encouraged him, and her voice, cold but gentle, inspired him to work even harder, concentrate even deeper. He would not master this Move today, but he would surely try!

Ledda was watching him intensely, seeing the enthusiasm in the young man's eyes. Clynck had not fallen in love with her, but he sure wanted to keep her satisfied. Nor had he spoken much of Natasha lately, and she knew that deep down inside he loved her, but right now his attention for his lessons was more important than anything else.

She giggled softly. "You have bought yourself time, little girl, but once you will have to face the music."

 

Natasha, meanwhile, was enjoying herself in the forest near the tower. She had not slept inside for a week but she had never ventured very far. She was learning more about the woods themselves, enchanted with its inhabitants and nature itself, and simply relaxed. Sometimes she had watched Clynck practise using her astral body, but she knew she had to leave him and Ledda alone, for she would only distract him. How wonderful it was to see somebody learning, with a clear goal ahead of him! She had seen dozens of pupils, five dozens to be more exact, but never had she contemplated any one of them like this one. She crossed her right arm over her breast and started to concentrate. Her mind was at ease now, though she knew the future would bring different tidings. She was now a master of Body Life magic, one her father was most undoubtedly proud of. She knew a bit about sorcery, though she did not think very much of that, having seen all these sorcerers only thinking about sorcery itself and killing when they considered it necessary. Dark men with evil plans, wasting lives and with that not truly living in harmony with nature and life itself.

She knew she loved the young pupil, but she also knew that this would have to take time. There was no need to hurry and Clynck would be there for her after he had spent time in the Pits and was released by his teacher, the dark-haired woman who understood both their feelings. And already she could not help dreaming about the future.What would life bring for her? Would she really marry Clynck, and become the first pair of married masters of Body Life magic? And what then? Would they build a house of their own and stay there or would they travel around the world together? With her strong but short body, would she be able to have children and would she? How would her body react to this? And how would their children look? Or would destiny strike again and take this man away from her? Or maybe something would happen to his older brother, making him lord of Grimloth all of a sudden, even though he was not a knight. Would a master really be able to govern a town, and would he want that?

As night fell over the world, the stars appeared, and naturally she looked up to find the light blue one, in the northern part of the sky.

She recalled the stories her father had told her in those sparse moments together. About his life, the bloodshed, the adventures with their bitter lessons and rich rewards. She remembered the horrible time in the dark world she never really wanted to think about, the hollow skeletons in the tundra, the werewolves in the badlands. And of course, the body of the young sorcerer she had cared about so much. Death is a part of life, she always said to herself, and the death that should really shock you is your own, or so someone had said to her once. Who had that been, Rann? She couldn't remem­ber, but she couldn't really care, either. She decided that she had forgotten one thing, and that was that she had some unfinished business. She saw it was getting late, and she still had her evening practice waiting for her. So she un­sheathed her sword and rose.

 

When she arrived at the gates of Grimloth, she was pleasantly surprised to find Bran at the gates, the leader of the band of adventurers she had rescued with Agnes and Ledda, her first real fight.

"So, you were promoted to gate-guards?" she asked with a smile.

"Promoted? Well, we got us a nice job for sure, among those knights and other guards. Much safer than in the jungle. And how have you been... Natasha, your name was?"

"Aye. Well I have been very busy, you wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"I've been adventuring for seven years, you can tell me more." Bran protested.

"Believe me, you wouldn't. How is Jansko going?"

"Still with that psychic, the short man. Wanted to become one real bad, and he was too young to be a guard anyway according to the good lord. Hey, I've got work to do. How about coming to the Cold Fire Inn after sundown? Then I have finished my duty for the day and then we can talk, okay?"

"Good, I will be there."

Natasha walked straight to Jon's house and the gypsy opened the door for her.

"I very sorry, master is teaching at the moment. May I take your coat? Maybe drink, or food?"

"It hasn't been a very long trip but I could use some fresh water, my canteen is almost empty."

"Water coming up."

Natasha sat down in the waiting room, knowing the gypsy ap­prentice would fetch his master from the other end of the world for her. And indeed, it did not take long for him to show up, followed by his apprentice who was holding a pitcher of water and a glass.

"Thank you Bals'zr. Now can you take over for me for a while? We were on page thirty-seven of the book on samples." "Yes master." Bals'zr replied and left abruptly.

"It's been some time, Natasha. You are now eighteen, and it has been well over a year since that nasty incident. How is your friend doing?"

"Clynck? Last time I saw him he was advancing quickly. Ledda said she would need two years but the way he is going it will take her less. Good thing, since she never really liked to think of herself as a teacher."

"Like I did when I was her age. But for me it means a living, if I only had to live off the services I perform I would not even be able to have an apprentice, let alone live in a house this big. I trust your mother is well?"

"She is, and she sends her regards. Though I really think this sorcerer business is making her old. Could you imagine, they just appointed a man to replace that terrible dark sorcerer! Well, a couple of months ago."

"Of course I can understand. It was a unique man, and the other ones have known him for a long time. And they have also seen what can happen if they pick the wrong one, so it is only natural that they want to be careful. But you are not really concerned with that, are you?"

"Not really. Uncle Jon, you are a seer. But when I came here a year and a half ago, could you foresee that all that was going to happen?"

"I couldn't, Natasha. But what have you been doing this past year? Beside spying on your friend, I mean."

Natasha flushed at the remark. "Well... not much. Not that I spent all the time watching Clynck, but I have just been around. I have visited Ivan in the tundra, Rann in the east and of course Ledda. Is Agnes in town? I have also travelled around a bit with Martin and Richard. Have you ever seen a lake of ice and lands of snow? It is very tricky to walk in, I can tell you that. I almost slipped but I could just rise off the ground. Richard told me that it is usual for people who live there, in houses made of snow and ice, to break a leg sometimes, as they choose to live in that cold climate and are used to slipping. Can you imagine eating only fish? And they even kill seals for food, isn't that horrible?"

"Calm down, Natasha, one thing at a time. Not much, you say. Tell that to a man who has left town only twice."

"Has it been that boring then?"

"It wasn't boring, I assure you. This fat nobleman came to me, saying he was looking for his long lost daughter. She had run away a few months before her marriage, though he admitted she was a bit young for that. Here he comes with a story of always protecting his child, his only child, keeping her from harm all her life, and marrying her off quickly so that her future would be safe."

"What a bastard." Natasha gasped.

"Not used to hearing language like that from you, girl! You've been around Ivan for too long, I can hear it. Anyway, who am I to tell him that she is perhaps a hundred feet away from him if she is home, that she has received a call from an unknown god and that she is now one of the most powerful women alive?"

"You mean Agnes's father was here? Did she find out?"

"Yes, it was her father. I have built up quite a reputation and they even heard about me back there. And I am sure Agnes did know, I told her and she wasn't surprised. She is not in town at the moment, she is travelling alone. You know her, one time she stays for months, then you don't see her for a month or four and the next time she may stay for a day or just drop in to get some things. She may very well be looking for her would-be husband. I had to tell the truth, or at least part of it, and tell her father that she was alive and well, and that she was a powerful fighter. You should have seen his face! But he told me that the man he had picked for her is a stiff-neck who had promised that he would find her and marry her as she was promised to him."

"He doesn't know this Agnes, though. She would never marry a guy like that." Natasha giggled.

"I don't think so. But then again, I could never understand that woman. I know she likes to flirt but I seriously thought the two of us might have a future together, especially when she decided to buy a house here. But... "

"Oh, you're in love with her, Uncle Jon?"

"I am, or maybe I have been. She is a very attractive woman and I have been single all my life. But enough about that. Why did you come here, or is it just a pleasant social visit?"

"To tell you the truth, I would find out one thing. You remem­ber how it all started, with you giving me this dream with that feast and then the vampire took over. But you also had a plan to show me the horrors of this world. And now I am very curious of what you had in mind for me."

The old psychic laughed.

"You really want to know? Let's see if I can even remember! But I think it will be disappointing, since the happenings brought you more horror that I could possibly give you."

"Come on, Uncle Jon, I want to know."

"Very well. I will check my reports and tonight I will try to finish the dream I started last year. But this time you know what is going to happen, don't block it."

"I won't, I definitely want to experience this."

"And experience it you will, Natasha. Now, it is time I return to my class, this part is one of Bals'zr's stronger points but they pay me to be there myself. You can have room number nine, at the far end."

"Nine? Are the other ones all taken?"

"Aye, it's busy. Nine I always reserve for special guests like yourself, some of my students are bunking together." "So you even have to watch them at night so that the boys don't sneak in the girls' rooms."

"None of that. If that is what they want I am not the one to stop them. Of course I always know in the morning. But for­tunately they have other things on their minds here as the lessons are difficult and require their full attention. And apart from that, the two girls I have here are not very at­tractive, they are sisters and gypsy. And you know they don't mix with others."

"So your apprentice has an interesting year."

"You can say that again. So it's my task now to keep him busy, too. I will see you after the classes, Natasha."

The girl bowed and went to her room. She found the door un­locked and saw an inscription on the wall.

"I do not lock my doors. After all, why steal from a seer? I am not rich and I would undoubtedly find out who did it. And before I became a seer I was a lock pick, so whatever you steal from me, I would steal it back without you even noticing it."

She giggled and unpacked her bag.

 

        Chapter Twenty-Seven

 

Time seemed to pass by unnoticed, but not for Natasha. She had travelled with Agnes, who had told her much more about her father and the man who had promised to marry her. She could not describe that man without any violent oaths, and Natasha had merely giggled. Then, months later, they had visited Ledda, and they were surprised to find her alone. "Where is Clynck? You can't tell me you already released him!" Natasha said, looking at the woman.

"No, I have not. But it won't be much longer I am afraid. Well, afraid... I know I'll miss him. He has learned a lot. And I told you I could do it in two years. And well, I started teaching him twenty-three months ago. Yes, time flies by when you have somebody to teach. I am already thirty, and you are already nineteen. And Clynck is in the Pits." Ledda said. This took both women by surprise.

"In the Pits, already? He masters all the Moves?"

"You should have seen him. It took him less than three days to execute the Maze perfectly, blindfolded. He burned him­self badly when he first tried the Inner Dragon but I could help him out, and two days later he could execute it per­fectly well. This man is a natural. And unless my eyes betray me he even managed to grow an inch. You should see him, Agnes, he is now built like Khlan. What's more, he also has some special musical ability for he handled the bagpipes as if he had been playing it ever since birth. While I am sure they have never even heard it in Grimloth, unless you used it there."

"I've never really felt the need to purge my soul through the music of the bagpipes. So your pupil will graduate soon? And will you release him then?"

"Then I will have to wait until he is stronger and see how he comes out. And then he will undergo the final test and then I can release him. And I think that beside myself and him there will be somebody else very happy to hear that." she said with a wink.

Natasha smiled. "How much time for him?"

"This is only his second afternoon. So we still have time. So why not tell me about your adventures? While teaching him I haven't been out much, did anything special happen in the world that I should know?"

"Not really, only my father came to Grimloth and went to Jon to find out if I was still alive, and now the man they wanted me to marry turns out to be a real pain in the neck and he swears to find me and marry me." Agnes told, and told Ledda all about it. Ledda could only laugh and tell the other two women that she had found out that her own father had died.

"He has never been too healthy, with his drinking habits and his bad heart. Though those two things can be related of course. He got a heart attack." she told.

"As far as they know I am dead, and as a matter of fact the girl they raised is."

"Of course. Nobody comes out of the training the same. Not even Natasha, you could see she had changed after she came from the dark realm. And from the Pits, of course, I have not seen her in between.

"There was not much time between the moment I emerged from the Pits and the moment I left the world of the living tem­porarily. Of course I trained a couple of days with Martin to master the last few Moves and then I left. But I don't know what changed me most: the Pits or the dark realm. Both were horrifying experiences I never wish to have again. In the Pits I knew I was going to die and in the dark realm I knew I was not. Both were terrifying, I assure you."

"We all know what the Pits feel like, and we don't want to know... well, you get the point."

"Of course, it is something I could never wish someone to share with me. And I am afraid for Clynck. I have an idea of his worst fears and I am concerned with the way they are going to come out."

"It could not have been something big for you, but the mystic powers of the Pits can blow up small things to outright gross sizes." Ledda said, shivering from the memory.

"After I became a master I even had to fight magically en­larged rats, and then I didn't even have to blink as I had fought one in the Pits." Agnes told.

Natasha found out that she had not been the only one to fight a phobia as ridiculous as hers.

"But I am sure you will be my guests for at least three days, you will want to see how my pupil comes out. If he comes out, that is. He is strong, but I was also strong when I entered and I barely made it."

"It took me an hour to come out after the curtain had opened, the Ultimate One was almost screaming me out. How did you manage, Natasha?"

"Well, the fresh air and my confidence made me walk out, proud that I had made it. But I have had some times that I thought I would die, afraid to close my eyes, hallucinating. But as soon as I was out I passed out."

"Well, we made it, and as far as I know every one of us has. But the Ultimate One has warned us that people will die in there. They can't all be as lucky as we were."

"I buried a skeleton there. Didn't you see it?"

"I never saw any skeleton or body. But I never really explored the Pits, I wanted to save my energy. But it is possible someone accidentally entered the cave and normal people without supplies are doomed when they enter. Maybe you en­countered an unfortunate traveller."

"Possible. But how come no animals get trapped in there? Or do they have a special sense not to enter that cave?"

"I don't know. There are strange powers at work there. Hey, have you had lunch by the way?"

"We had a rich breakfast and the trip took us only a minute or five, thank you."

"Well then, there is not much more to do than to talk and wait. Never mind, Natasha, in two days we will know."

But Natasha wished that it would only be two minutes.

 

An hour before dawn the three women prepared, They filled a bucket of water in a bright creek and went to the opening of the cave. The dark blue curtain was still in tact, and they could not feel inside to detect any sign of life.

Sitting there reminded all three of them vividly of the time they had literally been dying to get out, and they would try to force the sun to rise if they could. But finally the red sun rose in the east, and at the moment the first rays of sunlight touched the mystic blue barrier it vanished.

"Clynck!" called out Ledda, and to their delight they could hear a soft murmur. Slowly a tall, muscular figure emerged and the women caught him as he dragged himself out.

"Clynck, are you all-right?" Natasha asked.

Those bright blue eyes lit up and quickly closed as the con­tents of the bucket were thrown over his head. He quickly opened his mouth to catch some water and gulped it down.

"What is a little bit of pain when you see that three gor­geous girls are holding you in their arms afterward?" came his soft, low voice, and they all laughed.

 

"A new master of Body Life magic has been created. Clynck, you have been a terrific pupil, and if I am ever to have one again I hope he or she will be just as dedicated, clever and en­thusiastic as you. You are no longer a pupil, as I hereby release thee. You are now your own master, you will live the way you want to live, do whatever you want with no one to stop you. You are able to live by the sword and not to die by the sword. Your body, mind and soul work in perfect harmony with each other as well as with nature. You master all the one hundred and seven Moves of Body Life magic and you can wear your new armour with pride."

With this Ledda gave him the traditional armour of masters of Body Life magic, with the insignia on the left breast plate. Clynck put it on and rose his sword.

"As my teacher, Ledda, who has taught me all she knew

Invested all her very own life energy in me

Spent the past years just for my sake

Released me after the final test

I know that the power is mine

The power to live by the sword

Not to die by the sword

To do what pleases myself

Not to work for others

To work for goals worthy of my time and strength

I know the power is achieved by everything I did

And I did it all myself, with my teacher's help

But I am free, nobody to call me his now

I am my own master, and good at my job

The sky is the limit, no restrictions are here

As I am a master of Body Life magic

One who controls the power from deep within

One who can do things other people can only dream about

By the pure and total control of the very own body

With no other component than the own body energy

Draining and restoring the very own life energy

From a body as fit as can be

Clear from the spoils of life

Strengthened by concentration and physical training

I am one with myself

More than any normal human being in this world

More than the most intelligent animal ever seen

More than the universe itself

As I pledge my duties to myself only

My life is mine to stay

Life is to be lived the way I want it

As is vowed by the masters of Body Life magic."