I'm back. It's been a little bit longer then I wanted it to be, but I'm here and I guess that's all that matters. Hotmail has stopped being completely stupid and my account there is working. But I'm going to keep the Yahoo account as well. So let me know what you think at either Mist_dark@hotmail.com or Mist_dark@yahoo.ca
I have a lot of people to thank, but I'm only going to list a few here. Thanks to Kenitra, Shade, Aeoros, Di, Kief, Matt, Aphrodite, and Tom. You guys are great. Thanks to everyone whose e-mailed me about the story. I'm glad that you guys are enjoying it. If you want my opinion on a few good stories...Forever (finished but still worth reading), Lance In Shining Armour (again finished but really worth the effort of reading), BSB and Nsync Chronicles, Millennium love, Nsync and the Vamps, and Brian and Me. There are a lot of good stories out there, just click on a few and you'll know exactly what I mean.
Legal parts. First of this story is fictional (it may be real to me while I'm writing it. I have a tendency to block out the real world when I write). It isn't suppose to imply anything about the sexuality of any of the members of Nsync. If they're gay it's not my business or anyone but their own. If you're too young or it's illegal in your area to read this please leave. If homosexual themes offend you I would suggest you leave as well (and check your net skills. How did you end up here if you are offended by this stuff?). Parts of this story are based off the RPG Rifts. All trademarks belong to Kevin Siembieda and Palladium books.
Enjoy.
Until next time, Rune
PART FOURTEEN
Sighing Lance leaned back in his chair. He rubbed his eyes and looked at the book in front of him. Sighing again he looked over at Maria. The vampire was pouring over the book she had open in front of her. Selvar was beside them both looking over his own book. Stacks of tomes covered the table.
"Any luck?" He asked them.
Maria looked up and shook her head. "Not on this end. I've come across a few things that might have been useful, but they don't make any sense. A lot of stuff about the five having to be returned. I'm not sure what that means."
"I think I've found something," Selvar said suddenly. It's sort of vague, but it might be useful.
The three shall lose and seek to win. The five shall be gathered and then scattered. The six shall rise to destroy them. Ishtar shall touch three of five The neutrals shall take sides. The five shall unite. Two moons from then a battle shall be waged in the forest of Ishtar's chosen one. The beasts shall run with men. The eternals shall aid mortals. The sky shall be torn, The stones shall walk. And Ishtar shall weep as both her sides are revealed."
"Wow, that is vague," Lance said. "What makes you think it might refer to us?"
"The part about the two moons," Selvar explained. "The Guardian mentioned that two moons from when we talked to him there would be a battle. I'm pretty sure this fits in somehow."
"Okay, that would make `the five' the guys and myself," Lance mused. "But I'm not sure about the rest of it."
"I'm willing to bet that the neutrals are the Guardians," Maria said. "They are taking sides, in their own fashion."
"What about `the six'?" Lance asked. "Would they be the Acolytes? There were six of them right?"
Selvar nodded. "Yes, Red, Blue, Green, White, Brown and Black. They are most likely the six this passage talks about."
"Then the Trinity would be `the three'," Maria said. "That's comforting to know, though I'd like to know who or what Ishtar is."
"Haven't a clue," Lance said.
"I don't either," Selvar admitted.
"I don't like the sound of the sky being torn either," Maria said. "And I'd love to know how vampires are going to help us."
"Where did you get that from?" Lance asked.
"Eternals," Maria told him. "Is another way to refer to vampires. It's an older term, but it's occasionally used."
"You'll be helping us," Selvar said. He spoke the statement as if it were a question.
"Of course," Maria said. "But that only accounts for one eternal. We need at least two. The prophecy speaks about eternals."
Selvar nodded. "True, but there aren't any vampires around here. I might have something that could summon them though. I'll have to check my study."
Lance and Maria nodded before turning back to their books. A couple of moments later Maria's head popped up. She had a look of triumph in her eye.
"I'm not sure if this will help, but it certainly mentions the five." She cleared her throat before reading the passage.
"The five will gather, The five will scatter, The five will return, The five must be returned."
"Does that mean that we will go home?" Lance asked.
"I believe so," Selvar said slowly. He had an odd look in his eyes.
"Oh," was all Lance said.
"Oh for Heaven's sake," Maria burst out. She stood and looked at both Lance and Selvar. "This is ridiculous. It would mean a great deal to both Cro and myself if you two would stop beating around the bush and admit the feelings that each of you has for the other. It was cute at first, but now the way you two keep sneaking sidelong glances at each other is sickening. Either stop it all together or start what both of you want. Either way do something." Maria slipped out of the room leaving a stunned Lance and Selvar behind.
"Well that was certainly unexpected," Lance said.
"She's right you know," Selvar said. "About what we've been doing the last little while."
"Staring at each other?"
"Yes," Selvar said quietly. "At least I have been. "I like you Lance. A lot. I know this sounds clich‚, but I've fallen in love with you. And I've been this way since I brought you to my home. I felt horrible that your wrist had been broken because of one of my spells. I've tried to hide my feelings, but I can't. I'm sorry."
"Don't be," Lance said. "Because if you have to apologize so do I. Maria's right. We've both been trying to hide our feelings and apparently only have succeeded in hiding from each other. Kind of sad if you stop to think about it." Both of them laughed before Lance continued. "But in all honesty I've fallen for you too. It took me longer, but then when the first thing you meet in a new land is a walking corpse, it takes a while to adjust."
A smile crossed Selvar's face. "True."
"Oh to hell with trying to explain it," Lance muttered under his breath. "Selvar I love you. I love everything that makes you who you are. I'm not a huge fan of necromancy, but you aren't like the necromancers I've read about here or heard about back home. You're different and I love you for that." He stopped talking and looked at the elf.
"So where do we go from here?" Selvar asked quietly. "I've never done this. I'm over three hundred years old and I've never fallen in love. I don't even know where to begin.'
Lance smiled. "I've felt crushes before," he admitted. "But never love. We're both in the same boat." He stood and pulled Selvar to his feet. "I think this would be a good place to start though." Lance leaned upward and they kissed tenderly.
Evelyn brushed back the red hair on the man's forehead. It was reasonably short, but he had bangs that covered part of his forehead. He was still unconscious. He had been that way since he'd fallen on the ship a few hours before. The ship's medic, Pierre, had asked her for her help with the healing. She was more or less confident that the medic could deal with anything short of death itself, but an extra set of skilled hands were always an asset.
"Evelyn, would you please remove his shirt?" Pierre asked. Pierre was an older man, probably somewhere in his mid-fifties. He was barely five feet tall and the white robes that marked him as a healer flowed around him, almost threatening to consume him. What little hair he had was white and cropped very close to his head.
"Of course," Evelyn told him. With a deft flick of her mind she shredded the shirt, being very careful not to touch the blackened area that ran from the man's mid- thigh to the bottom of his ribcage. The skin was blistered around the edges of the black mark, but toward the center the flesh was peeled back in a third degree burn. Now and again the skin would shift as if it were trying to repair itself. "What do you think caused this?"
"I would say a high intensity light blast. Similar to lightning," Pierre told her. "Most likely a magical discharge due to the storm."
"That was my guess as well." She leaned over and shredded the man's pants around the wound. "What do you make of the tissue movement?"
"He has some sort of regenerative ability. But it doesn't seem to be functioning properly. It might be localized to the burned area."
"Are you going to check this the way I think you are?" Evelyn asked arching an eyebrow at Pierre.
"Yes," the medic told her simply. He moved to a table and returned with a scalpel. "If this man has a regenerative factor then whatever caused the burn is inhibiting that factor from functioning properly. Which means we have to repair it. If the burn is only preventing the regeneration from working at the site of the wound we will have little trouble repairing the tissue. However, if it's not localized we have a much larger problem."
"I'm aware of that Pierre," Evelyn said quietly. "I wish to do everything possible to save this man's life."
"So do I." The medic made a small cut along the man's upper arm. Blood beaded along the wound and dripped down his arm. Both Evelyn and Pierre watched the wound in fascination as it closed behind the scalpel almost immediately. "Well that answers that question."
"It also answers a few others," Evelyn said.
"Such as?" Pierre asked as he put the scalpel back on the table.
"His nature for one."
"You expected him to be human?" Pierre asked with more then a touch of amazement in his voice. "From what the boy Justin told us this man fell several hundred feet to the ship. I'm surprised he didn't puncture the deck."
"That's part of it," Evelyn said. "There's more to it then that though. I'm weary of what I don't understand. I don't necessarily fear it, but I'm wear of it. I don't know what this man is, but I do know that he's not human."
"Few things are what they appear Evelyn. Anyone that lives in this world of ours is aware of that. Mages, dragons, gods, godlings, changelings, the list goes on. All of these creatures can take on other forms. You could too if you wanted to. Or rather you could make someone see you as something you're not."
"True," Evelyn said. "I guess we'll have to trust Justin's judgement. He seems like a bright boy. I hope Christopher and Joseph are able to keep him entertained while we're working on his friend here."
"I believe Justin called him Pyre."
"I must have missed that part," Evelyn admitted. "Either way we should start trying to repair Pyre's wound. It's at least a third degree burn. I would say fourth if such a burn existed."
Evelyn and Pierre stood across from each other over the table. They adjusted their footing from time to time to account for the movement of the ship. They leaned across the table and laced their fingers together. Each closed their eyes and focused their minds on the task at hand.
"Let me go," Justin said quietly.
"Not a chance Justin," Joey said. "Evelyn asked me to keep you up here until they finished with your friend."
"Pyre," Justin said just as quietly as he did before.
"And I plan to listen to her," Joey said. "She's a nice woman most of the time, and I've no intentions of getting on her bad side. Besides she and the medic know what they're doing."
"At least put me down," Justin said.
"Do you promise not to try to get to Pyre?" Joey asked. He lowered Justin to the ground when the blonde nodded. Joey sighed quietly when Justin's feet touched the deck. He'd been holding his friend in the air for the last twenty minutes trying to prevent him from racing below to see Pyre.
"So tell me about Pyre," Chris said cheerfully. "What's he like?" Joey noticed how Justin's face lit up when Chris asked him this question.
"He's a really nice guy. It think you guys will like him a lot. He's got a really odd sense of humor. He loves to wrestle."
"You and I wrestle all the time," Joey said. "Well until we came here at any rate."
"Yeah, but Pyre's good at it," Justin mocked.
"What else?" Chris asked.
"He's got a caring side to him. I've seen him face a dozen vampires to save on person."
"Whoa vampires are real?"
"Very. I've killed about thirty myself," Justin said proudly.
"Impressive," Selena said as she walked over to them. "Thirty vampires. I've heard of a few humans that could match that record." She unfolded and folded her wings behind her to bet more comfortable. She offered her hand to Justin. "I am always impressed when I meet a man that has killed that many abominations."
Justin shook the offered hand. "And you are?"
"The Lady Selena." Selena managed to bow despite having her wings tucked behind her. "Though Selena will work just fine. Anything except `you with the wings' will usually get my attention." They all laughed. The storm had abated a fair bit around the ship. Just the occasional drop of rain.
"Not to sound rude or anything," Joey said. "But why did you come to help us Selena?"
"For a few reasons. One of which happens to be that my Mistress sent me. Though I would have helped you either way." A gentle breeze blew across the deck and Selena leaned back into it. She folded her legs under her and sat hover on the wind. "I don't like the idea of leaving people in a storm like that. I could help so I did."
"You can really control the weather?" Justin asked.
Selena blushed slightly. "Yes I really can. I'm 24 years old and I'm already one of the strongest among my Mistress's servants. It's something I'm very proud of."
"Whose you're mistress?" Chris asked suddenly.
"The Guardian of Air," Selena said. "One of several spirits that strives for a balance in nature. She asked me to come here to protect a boat. So here I am."
"Did she tell you why?" Joey asked.
"Not really. She just told me that there would be people here that needed my help. She didn't mention that they'd be so cute though." Selena flashed a smile at Joey who had the grace to blush.
"Oh, I like her," Chris said. "Anyone that can make Joey turn that colour is alright in my books."
A sudden wave rocked the boat sharply. Selena sighed and leapt down from her perch on the wind. "Duty calls. I'll talk to you later. Especially you," she pointed to Joey. Winking she walked to the front of the boat.
Justin and Chris held on to each other for support as they collapsed into a heap. Tears rolled down their faces as they watched Joey's face go from a slight red to crimson.
"It sounds like someone's interested in you Joey." Justin said between gasps.
"True," Joey said slyly. "But I'm pretty sure that someone's got your interest too."
It was Justin's turn to blush.
JC sat on a rock shelf a few hundred yards below the surface. Erastus floated in front of him in his natural form. Erastus was resting. Not asleep as JC had first assumed, but simply resting after their long trip. Even with the current they had been following it was still taking a lot out of them to make this trip. They were a little over half way there now, but it felt like they'd been traveling for an eternity.
They had left the Ley line a few hours before and Erastus had insisted that they push themselves even harder to get away from the line. There was apparently an off chance of another storm happening. Something similar to aftershocks that follow an earthquake. Erastus didn't want to test the theory of these after storms. Which was fine with JC, he'd seen enough of what the storms were capable of, and he hadn't even seen the full force of the storm. The worst always happened above the water.
He was lost in his thoughts when he heard it. Quiet at first, but it gradually grew louder. A very soft music enveloped him. It was almost a physical caress. Wherever the music `touched' him he felt warm and safe. Glancing up he saw that Erastus was feeling it as well. A voice joined the music. Definitely female, and very talented. He had to find out where this music was coming from.
Erastus had the same idea. He started swimming upward. JC paused a moment before following him. The music was indeed coming from above them. Curiosity made both of them swim faster then they normally would have, and in short order both of them bobbed to the surface. Erastus shimmered and took his human from.
The shore was a hundred yards to their left. A long beach stretched out as far as the eye could see. The sand almost glowed white in the moonlight. A huge rock face blocked what was beyond the beach, forming a cove of some sort. It would be very difficult to scale those cliffs. They swam to the shore and stepped out onto the sand. It wasn't a trick of the moonlight. The sand really was white.
Music drifted down the shoreline to them. A cave mouth was the only opening in the cliffs. It was illuminated from the inside by what appeared to be a fire. Or at least that's what JC guessed was making the light. He looked at Erastus who shrugged and walked up the beach toward the cave.
As they neared the cave JC identified the instrument being played as a harp. It wasn't as clear before, which was odd, the harp had a very distinctive sound. It didn't really bother him though. The music was beautiful.
The inside of the cave was worn smooth by years of water running over the stone. there wasn't even a small stone on any part of the cave floor. There was the occasional puddle of water. In the middle of the cave was an odd rock formation. Odd for the cave. It was smooth like everything else, but it was the fact that the rock was pushed upward, almost sculpted. On the formation sat a woman playing a harp. Her height was impossible to judge because her legs were tucked under her. She was wearing a dress that had the shimmering quality that the inside of an oyster shell has. The light in the cave caused the dress to shimmer a thousand different colours. Her hair was a pale blue that complimented the paleness of her skin perfectly. JC had never seen a woman this beautiful before. The mere sight of her invoked awe. Not lust, but complete and utter awe.
The woman seemed to ignore them and keep playing. She didn't sing along with the music very often but when she did it felt like a weight was being pressed against his skin. The music had power. Far more power then either he or Erastus possessed. She looked up at them. Her eyes were a deep green. A faint smile graced her lips as she continued playing. She played for several moments before setting the harp aside.
"Forgive my lapse of manners," the woman's voice was so gentle. It brought the image of water flowing in a stream to JC's mind. "I enjoy music very much. Sometimes I forget that I have invited people and keep playing."
"It was beautiful," JC said.
The smile touched her face again. "Thank you Joshua."
"How did you know my name?"
She laughed richly. It wounded like waves crashing on a shoreline. "I know many things Joshua. You're name is among them. But to answer your question, you've been in my domain for sometime. It would be foolish of me not to know your name. I make it a policy to know the name of every creature that touches my waters."
"You're domain?" Erastus asked. "Exactly who are you?'
"Do not put yourself on guard Erastus," the woman told him gently. "I will not harm you. If I intended to cause you injury I could do it readily. However, I don't seek to harm you. Only inform and aid."
"You avoided my question."
"Very will if you will be insistent about it. I am the Guardian of Water. Does that put you at ease?"
Erastus sucked air in sharply. "My lady, forgive my ignorance."
"It is already forgotten. I did not bring you here to flaunt myself. I have much more important business to attend." The woman adjusted her seat on the rock before continuing. "The waves of change are flowing. Important times are at hand. These times are such that even the Guardians are taking sides. Fortunately for you we are siding with you Joshua."
"Me?" JC asked. "What do I have to do with this?"
"Do you know why you were brought to this world?"
"Not really," JC admitted.
"For as long as this world has existed, creatures that call themselves gods have lived here. When life arose on this world the gods were there to protect and guide it. Make no mistake these creatures are not the Creator. Despite what they say, they did not create this world or any other. These creatures guided humanity on this world before the magic left and other creatures on other worlds. Some of them protected their people from the forces of evil, where others allied themselves with evil and destroyed what their brothers and sisters sought to protect. The balance was created. This is the balance all Guardians seek to keep. We remain neutral until some event threatens the balance.
"Long ago six creature emerged. They called themselves the Acolytes. They fancied themselves allies of the Guardians. That they would help keep the balance in check. They sought to do so by removing anything that could manipulate the masses. The stripped several gods of their powers and left them to roam the worlds. They did the same with several demon lords. They have never raised their hand against the Guardians and we have never interfered with their quest. Their actions have never threatened the balance. For each god of light they destroyed they destroyed a god of darkness. The balance was always kept.
Over a thousand years ago they stripped three gods of their powers. The crimes of these three were they aided both the sides of darkness and light. Something that the Acolytes felt would destroy the balance. A god of healing, a god of travel and a god of air were taken from their pantheon and sent wandering. The balance teetered because of their actions but was not destroyed. To aid the recovery of the balance we allowed these stripped gods to begin regaining some of their lost power. Allowed them to discover a way to regain all of their lost power.
"They discovered that method and brought you here. They seek to use you to regain their power. However, The Acolytes seek to stop this completely. They seek to destroy you as well as the Trinity. You are not of this world and your deaths would upset the balance."
"You're telling me that some gods lost their power and are going to use me and my friends to regain it?" JC asked. "Why?"
"I know a great deal Joshua," the Guardian said. "But I do not know everything. I do not know why the Creator decided that you five would be the ones that could help the Trinity regain their power. I do not know why that way was allowed at all. I do know that this time was foretold. And you five were mentioned."
"So I'm some sort of Chosen one?"
The smile returned. "Not exactly. You are important Joshua. Important to the Trinity and as a result you are important to the Acolytes. The Trinity wants you alive, the Acolytes seek your death. The Guardians seek to have you returned to your home. By removing you from this world the balance will no longer be in danger."
"Okay then, send me home."
"It is not that simple Joshua. All five must be sent at once, or again the balance would be upset. You must gather first and then you will be sent home."
"Oh," JC said. "How are we going to get home."
"The same way you arrived here," the Guardian said. "A rift. You will receive the way home in time. Not at this point, but soon." She turned and looked at Erastus who had remained quiet for most of the exchange. "You have fulfilled Ivar's final request Erastus. I have services that you could fill, if you choose to do so."
"Ivar's request isn't finished," Erastus said. "I still have to deliver Josh to his friends."
"I am aware of that. A spirit is already headed toward the Castle of Selvar. Joshua will be delivered safely to his friends. I will see to that myself. Selvar will be prepared for our arrival in a day's time. Time is growing short. I need your help Erastus and I swear to you that Joshua will be delivered safely."
"Then my services are yours Guardian."
TBC.
Okay how was that? I know it took me a tad longer to get this one out, but I did it. Let me know what you think. E-mail as always is welcome at Mist_dark@yahoo.ca or if you want Mist_dark@hotmail.com Either will work and I check both regularly.
Question for you. I've been toying with the idea of a sequel to this story. Would anybody be interested in my writing one?
Rune