Sinister Eyes

     
 

The Swords Of Fire And Ice

"Why are you doing this?" Lonewolf asked her mother. "They will get lost within two days, if they are lucky. Beyond the beetling rock passage there is only trackless mountain. This path leads to the Idar Pass, which is rarely used, because it is only surrounded by bare rock. The Plateau of the Damned made us veer to the west." Egania had just been reminded that her daughter had grown up in these lands. "The maze leading to the River of Steel will find them ere half a day has passed. Do you know, what the River does?" Egania asked. "It increases the killing power of weapons among other things," her daughter replied.

"Most people think, the River evaporates all evil within a soul. Anyone, who ever thought about the nature of people, would have realised this to be impossible. Darkness and light are within all of us. The mystic River of Steel is a legend of my people. Due to its proximity, we know a bit more than most others. Passing its test focuses the personality, hopefully to be better able to fulfill the original quest. I fear Nirahr will not make it. He is only beginning to walk the path of redemption, with doubtful chances of success at any rate. He was bound to a planeswalker once. His name was Mepharael Shadow. Once this is over, I will have to hunt him down."

"Do you think the 'walker made Nirahr do the things he did?" Egania asked. "No," Lonewolf said. "I have to admit, I do not know how much control an evil planeswalker can exert over his bound creatures. Nirahr knows his abominable deeds for what they were. I cannot say, how much of the strain of the moment, how much of the prodding of Mepharael, who revels in the twisting of others, and how much of his own nature and lust made him do it. Any man is capable of doing what he did. Fortunately few are ever tempted. Even if Nirahr was a villain before, the deeds of Mepharael are reason enough to kill him."

"Indeed," Egania said. "He was the assassin of your father, whom I hunted across the planes. He was as elusive as a shadow, until I realised his true nature. The fight between me and him laid a huge area of Gehenna to waste. An army of the baatezu was crushed between us." Lonewolf shrugged. "Who cares?" she asked. "The demons of the Abyss and the devils of Baator kill each other every day." Egania said: "I am a bit worried they will send assassins, probably shadow fiends." Lonewolf asked: "You fear them?"

"No," Egania said. "But I already have enough to worry about without them. Things have been set into motion, requiring my personal attention. I fear another artifact from the Age of Magic has awakened. It is called the Head of Endless Summer. It will dry out the world and destroy all live on earth. The freeing of the Phane may have been one of its first actions. It can only be countered by the heart of winter, which I carry within me." Lonewolf locked the gaze of her mother.

"This quest may well cost my immortality," Egania said. "You carry one of the artifacts within you?" Lonewolf asked. "Yes," the other woman replied. "I carry it as long as I can remember." She smiled sadly. "Once I thought, I was half fey, like our friend Antonina Numinus. Only recently I realised the truth." Lonewolf said: "Only part of it. You are far older and more powerful than you think you are." Egania asked: "How do you know? It is not possible to travel back to times before the Fall. Magic entirely failed for a moment."

"It is a transition best not made in this Sphere," Lonewolf said. "There are, however, other worlds without those limitations. You created the Nullus. When it was activated, it drained the magic upon which that age was built, but magic did not entirely fail, as many believe. If it had, all upon this world had died. When the last relic from the Age of Magic is destroyed, the Nullus will fail." Egania smiled. "I am the last relic of that era, if you are right. I cannot remember anything older than the eve of the Blood Dance, roughly three thousand years ago."

"Maybe ridding yourself of the Heart will help you recover," Lonewolf said. "The spellstorm you used to destroy the goblin army shows some of your former power." Egania shrugged, discarding the subject. "I was wondering, how powerful you really are. I have heard strange tales." Lonewolf sighed. "I did fight for the wrong side occasionally," she said. "So did you. There are some worlds were I am worshipped as a god, but it makes me feel uncomfortable. I know I am powerful, but I also know my limits."

"How did you create the Swords of Fire And Ice?" Egania asked. Lonewolf shrugged. "I still don't know for sure. I remember having stored a huge amount of mana in my body. I should have burned to death from within, being unable to channel the energy. Someone gave me a smithy and two blocks of steel. The rest were strange dreams of fire and ice. When I woke, the swords were in front of me, glittering as though I had worked with mithral or moonsteel. One cold as elemental ice, the other burning with elemental fire. Even now I do not fully understand their magic."

"Let us see, what they are made of," Egania said. She attacked Lonewolf. The young barbarian reacted on instinct. The swords were in her hands, one sparkling frostily in the sun, the other burning with a flame of its own. Sparks flew as the weapons clashed into each other, driven by the might of their owners. Egania realised that Lonewolf was incredibly quick. The three weapons moved faster than the eye could see. The two combatants circled each other like dancers, moving with easy grace, neither ever slipping on the treacherous ground of the smooth rock path.

Lonewolf felt the magic of her mother's sword waken, but at the same time, a change came over her own weapons. The straining of steel against steel became more frenzied, the clashing melding into the howl of tortured metal. Suddenly the noise stopped. Egania held her huge sword of crimson steel with its serrated edge transversely in front of her, both hands on the hilt. Lonewolf knew her mother usually wielded the weapon one-handed. She held the Sword of Fire much like Egania did her weapon. The other blade was overhead, also cutting the air diagonally.

"Let us stop here," Egania said. "I cannot say, how much longer we will be able to keep our weapons from hurting the other." She sheathed her sword with some force. Lonewolf whirled her blades, putting them away with a flourish. "I did not know, the swords offered more than perfect balance and the strength of fire and ice," Lonewolf said. "Your swords are similar to my weapon. Whenever you fight an opponent, they adapt to be able to hurt them. Mine became lighter and faster during the fight, but your blades countered by doing the same. Usually this change only comes when I have to fight masses of enemies."

Lonewolf looked towards the west, were the sun was just disappearing behind the mountain. She had lived on the other, southern, side of the range, were the sun warmed the land and the tree border was higher than in the shadowy north. "I have to reach the road to Karn Pass within three days. There lies the exit of the labyrinth of the River of Steel." Egania stood near her and said: "You can defeat him alone. The other three will be of little help." "Perhaps," Lonewolf conceded. "I have to wait until reality realigns itself. If my mana does not arrive instantly, I am sure to fail."

The young mage turned to the other woman. "They are my friends," she said. "They will not find their way out of these mountains without my help. The path they have to go often fades into bare rock. None of them have the skills to survive in the wild. We are barbarians, bred in harsh lands beyond the borders of civilisation, used to hardship and barren areas." Egania did not reply. She looked at her daughter with smouldering eyes. Lonewolf shrugged and ran into the wilderness beyond the path. The young barbarian knew little fear.

Egania had many children in her long live, most of whom had become powerful. Some had turned into villains, she had to destroy, but none were as fearsome as Lonewolf. All of Egania's children were gifted with longevity, but time meant little to the young mage. The Eternal Wanderer sighed. She walked along the rock path, wondering idly, if she would find the other side of the mountain, or the River of Steel. Egania was comforted by the thought that there was someone able to hunt down and destroy her, should she ever fall into shadow.

     

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