Reclamation of the Darkness

[Sitherack's Soul]

A dead black sphere expanded in the Sethian Courtyard, energy crackling around it, and blackening the marble floor where it lashed out randomly containing all the rage of its maker. Slowly but surely it dissipated, the darkness leaking its way off into the crevices and shadows around the yard. In the center of the almost evaporated sphere stood Sitherack, rage painted openly on his face. In truth Daegan's words had scarred him, deep down, where he barely was able to admit it to himself. He did feel a sense of responsibility to the Sedi, he did in a way feel the casualties and the deaths of the gods were partly his fault. Of course if the bloody Raptor hadn't pulled him there against his will, left it so he couldn't return home...

“No!” He pounded his fist into his left hand angrily “ I will not let these petty thoughts distract me, I will not Let that weak shadowy bastard have the Sedi over me. The Sage of Darkness is meant to rule this land, I will reclaim my Arc, and gather what followers I have who have survived.”

His followers, numbering at this point less than a 1/4th of the remaining Sedi would in truth be moving towards Sethia immediately after coming through the gate, tending their wounded along the way. It was Natural of them to gravitate towards the capitol city, besides standing orders for any Sedi after a catastrophe was the rebuilding of the race, and Sethia was the most central location to do this. Best place to start establishing trade routes for growth and such again.

Sitherack gained control of himself with extreme effort and closed his eyes. The Darkness inside him reverberated in time with the power of the Arc, beating counterpoint to it in a way. He felt it, breathed it and existed within it. Turning he opened his eyes and several meters away spotted the dull black glint of the Arc of Darkness. It was embedded in the main gate of the Sethian keep, buried halfway through the blade from the force of impact when it had exploded away from Lasius' body.

He closed his hand around the grip of the Arc and wrenched it free with one pull. The power filled him immediately, he staggered under it, he must have been more tired than he thought. Wielding this Arc should have been like breathing to him, but as it was he could barely keep his footing. The trip must have taken more out of him than he thought, maybe some shred of the barrier had injured him in a way he couldn't feel. Regardless the Arc was his.

“So it begins...” He sank to his knees and folded his hands over the pommel of the Great Axe. Resting his head on the back of his hands he pulled the darkness around him one last time, setting wards to alert him if anyone came within a mile of his location, and then closed his eyes letting rest come.

[Zinerva]

The Sedi had begun to move almost immediately, gathering the wounded lucky enough to be alive on make shift stretchers, and carrying them instinctually away from the carnage of Tarthia and in the direction of capitol city of Sethia. It would take them some time to Reach the city, with the pace they were forced to move at hindered by the wounded and the lack of energy the remaining few healthy Sedi had left. Life Sedi worked day and night, through exhaustion, applying all their energy to healing those that could be healed, and making the remaining hours for those that could not be healed more comfortable.
The rough bouncing of the stretcher awakened Zin abruptly, and her eyes watered immediately at the pain she was in. A soft gasp and whimper escaped her lips before she was able to restrain it and it brought the attention of a massive muscular man with gray hair and teal colored eyes who suddenly appeared over her.

“Relax I'll do what I can for the pain, you have several broken ribs and internal bleeding, but you are more lucky than most.” Soft warmth filled her and the pain eased rapidly. Her breathing slowed as she became more comfortable and she was able to see clearer. “We found you under a pile of rubble as we were moving out. We searched the ruins thoroughly but you were almost left behind, lucky for you, you were not.”

She didn't respond her mind reaching out through scattered fragments to pull forth what was there. Light, all kinds of power, and pain, the feel of something tearing, whether it was her or something around her she couldn't quite tell. Everything happening so fast it slipped past her before she knew it and then pain and darkness, crushing weight, cold stone, buried alive, fear...

“Shhh girl, its ok, your ribs are mended now.” The mans voice made her realize she had begun to whimper again uncontrollably at the last memories before blacking out. There wasn't much there but she knew for a fact that she had been convinced she was going to die. “Do you know what unit you were with? A lot of us are dead, but those that survived are trying to reestablish ranks and order during the trip to Sethia.”

“Sethia...” The word sounded strange on her tongue, felt familiar, yet not at the same time. “No... Unit, I don't know, who are you?”

“My name is Aleris, child, I am a Life Sedi with the thirteenth out of Sethia. Can you tell me your name? I will do my best to find your unit for you, get you back with some familiar faces.” His eyes narrowed at her, seeming to see something familiar but not quite placing it yet.

“No, I don't know... I mean, I cant remember, I'm not sure who I am, but something feels weird, something is calling me inside, I can't...” She sat up slowly despite the cautions of Aleris. Her head turned in the direction of Sethia, Something inside her resonated in time with something there, she couldn't quite place it but it was strong. “I have to go...”

“You need rest child, your wounds are healed, but if you have amnesia there is no telling how deep your wounds really go, there could be more wrong with you than I can find...” She ignored him as she pushed herself off the stretcher and stood wobbly on her feet facing towards Sethia.

“No, I'm going, It pulls so hard...” She took a step forward and darkness engulfed her body, shrunk in on itself and collapsed to a pinpoint then was gone.

[Sitherack's Soul]

Sitherack's eyes snapped open and he rose to his feet in a single smooth motion. The wards around the city of Sethia had alerted him as to the approach of something similar in nature to himself, something that melded with the wards of darkness smoothly, yet disturbed them nonetheless. He turned just in tome to see Darkness rise up from the ground, blotting out the light streaming into the courtyard briefly, and then explode into a thousand fragments. He stepped back cautiously but stopped short as the slight feminine form of Zinerva shimmered together out of the retreating darkness and stood facing him. Or did for a second anyway, just as the form finished appearing her eyes rolled back into her head and she began to collapse.

Instinctually Sitherack stepped forward and caught her before she hit the ground. “A Darkness Sedi, and a strong one at that to feel me here, and travel this distance. Though she looks drained...” He picked her form up with ease moved into the Sethian palace making his ways through the many corridors until he reached what had briefly been his own chambers before the Raptor had pulled him from this dimension. He rested her body on the bed there and left her to rest as he moved to his dressing chamber and changed into a new set bleached leather battle armor.

As he changed he was lost in thought, his mind wandering through what had happened in Tarthia and what was to come. Undoubtedly Daegan was tending to Lasius' wounds, Malkate was obviously siding with Lasius for some unknown reason, and when Las was back on his feet the first thing he would do would be to seek out Arcs. The Sedi were decimated, his ranks thinned almost beyond use, the situation was not what one would call optimistic on his part.

He sighed and began planning even as he buckled his armor on, Some of the most potent warding and protection spells ever discovered by Magick Sedi adorned his battle armor, and the Arc of Darkness rested diagonally across his back, filling him with an almost endless well of Dark energy that pulsed in time with the powers inside of him. There was no one more experienced in use of this Arc than him and the things he could do with it were nearly limitless, but in the face of Lasius and Daegan and possibly Malkate, not to mention that wretched creation Lomes if she didn't die, he might as well be hurling stones at a brick wall.

As much as he didn't like it there were relatively few options left at his disposal, but in the mean time he could at least go to work on what he could ensure. He pulled on his boots and strode back into his bedchamber where Zinerva slept silently on his bed. He regarded her quietly for a moment and then decided. Chaneling a current of power from the Arc he placed a hand on her midsection and used the power to infuse her soul with Dark energy enough to revive her, and strengthen her significantly.

Zinerva's eyes opened slowly, once more to the face of a stranger, of course with her memories gone every face was strange to her at this point, but there was still something vaguely familiar about the dark man, his piercing gray eyes staring through her soul. The sensation filling her chilled her to the marrow and thrilled her soul at the same time. The power was incredible, and in some vague way she could sense that it was only a fraction of what the man could bring forth.

“Who... where am I?” Her voice was slurred almost drunken from exhaustion which was fading rapidly, and power which was filling her being in ways she had never before thought possible.

“You are in the Capitol city of Sethia young Darkness Sedi, and I am Sitherack, Lord General of the northern forces of the Sedi, and Sage of the Darkness. You used quite a bit of your power to reach me child, I am restoring it to you now.” Sitherack's voice was distracted, his real attention less on the conversation and more on the work of channeling the energy into her in a manner that would not harm her.

“I see, I must tell you I don't remember much, I was injured in an accident, I'm not sure, just what any of this all means..” Her voice was becoming stronger, power overtaking exhaustion, alertness drawing on itself and making her more aware of her surroundings. “I don't know exactly what I am doing ere, I felt an uncontrollable pull, something inside me made me come here.”

“It is understandable, You are of the Darkness, it is only natural for you to gravitate towards a source of greater power when weakened, there is no greater source of Darkness than me at this point, Not with me holding the Arc.” He removed his hand from her, completing the transfer, and stood straight looking over her. “You may accompany me until we find where you belong child, I will keep you safe, in the mean time lets get you some armor, things are quite dangerous right now.”

Zinerva nodded silently and followed Sitherack as he escorted her to the Armory and got her a set of armor similar to his own, bleached in white, and inscribed with identical protection and warding spells. The Armor fit her form nicely. He took a legionaries sword from the weapons rack and pulled darkness power through the Arc, infusing the weapon with a small fraction of power before giving it to Zinerva.

“This will act as an amplifier for you, Like a well of sorts, you can draw some power from it to add to your own significant natural abilities. It will help you face any of our enemies should they come upon us” He glanced at her once over and nodded satisfied with the result. It wasn't much but in these times any allies were better than none.

“Enemies? Her tone was questioning as she looked at Sitherack for explanation.

“My brother, Lasius, the Sage of Light, and his ally Daegan, the Sage of Shadows, They will seek out the other Arcs and come against me, I am their greatest threat. It is only a matter of time.” He turned away from her. “And that wench too, that mage filth Malkate, she has thrown her lot in with the likes of my brother and his puppet shadow man.” He strode from the Armory disgustedly forcing his thoughts from his enemies.

Zinerva frowned thoughtfully, The names sounded familiar, all except the last, Daegan especially sounded close to something that seemed a part of her, but she angrily pushed it away. So much seemed familiar yet strange, she was fed up with lack of memory already, and besides there was something real and true here in front of her. Something she could grasp onto and something the element of her soul told her was right.

“As you command Lord General.” She followed after him silently until Sitherack stopped dead in his tracks all of a sudden, causing Zin to run into him from behind. It was something akin to running into a brick wall, he didn't move a muscle, didn't even appear to notice for that matter.

“Sir?” She looked at him quizzically

“By the Darkness... I have never felt anything... Come Now! We must go!” Before the words had time to fade, and before Zin had any time to react a sphere of dead black night was around them ripping them from Sethia.

(continued in Tarthia)