Threat of the Shadow Mage

ASPEN SAT THERE STARING AT THE HOODED MAN AS THE OTHER TWO ARGUED quietly amongst themselves. Becoming more frightened and seeing the plan wasn’t rightly going according to plan, she had no choice but to remain still until help came to her. Surprisingly, she didn’t have to wait long.

“Gunter, listen to me. We do this, we can go back home where we belong. You understand me?”

Gunter was silent, but his friend there knew his deepest desire was to return home, so he nodded. His friend regained his posture and said, “Alright then.”

But just as he was about to turn around, he was grabbed from behind, being smothered. Gunter didn’t know what to do for he didn’t know who would be attacking him, but after he plucked up the courage, he pulled his friend away from the attacker and saw that it was their little mysterious follower.

“Hey! Just what do you think you’re doing?” he asked, but instead of words coming from the hooded man, a death ray spewed from his hand, sending Gunter back into the wall and to the next world. His friend was still catching his breath during that time and observed the whole thing. Then the man removed his hood now that the threat was out of the way.

“Cai? I thought you were dead.”

Cai smiled and offered a hand. “I only pretended until Aspen was found. How do you manage to stay under cover?” he teased.

“Simple really…for me at least.”

They both laughed, but Aspen was confused. Wasn’t Cai the man she was training all that time ago? Nothing made sense at the moment, but she didn’t want to try and figure it out. Cai chatted with his undercover friend for a moment before Cai went over to Aspen and began unbinding her.

Meanwhile Dante kept leading the small group through the tunnels without being seen. That is…until a clever Mage spotted Dante’s bright blonde hair passing by.

Namtar coughed, groaned and clutched his side.

“You all right?” the clever one asked. Namtar hesitated, the pain being a little much, and looked at his hand. A greenish black covered the inside of his hand.

“Yah, never better,” he lied as he turned to the other.

“Hey, uh…I think we’ve got ourselves a trespasser.”

Namtar straightened and looked around.

“What makes you say that?” he asked before he faced him again.

“Someone with blond just passed by.” He pointed to the tunnel and to the left as he finished his sentence. Namtar looked to the tunnel and stared it down for a long minute before he looked back at him.

“Then let’s not let them get away with whatever it is they plan to do.”

The other smirked and followed as Namtar led the way into the tunnel.

Dante pushed the group forward as he began to hear footsteps behind them, but then realized he had to do something crazy. He pulled one of the men that were there to the side.

“Brandon, listen carefully. We don’t have much time. I need you to lead them on.”

“What?”

“Trust me just follow the tunnel until you get to the end. Turn left and you’ll find your way to the chambers. Aspen and the kids are bound to be in one of them. Do you understand?”

“Yes, but what are you going to do?”

“I’ve got to get these Mages off your backs. If I don’t, you’ll all die before seeing your kin again.”

Brandon gave a concerned expression as he slightly curled his lips inward.

“Brandon.”

“Alright, I’ll do it.”

Dante took Brandon’s shoulder in hand for a brief moment and then turned to leave.

“Dante?” He turned, but Brandon didn’t say anything right away.

“Take care of yourself.”

Dante just smiled and they went their separate ways.

“Go, go, go. We don’t have much time. Just keep going straight,” Brandon told them as he began to pass to get in front of them. Meanwhile Dante found himself close enough to the Mages that he had just enough time to quickly whip up a spell to keep them busy for a moment.

Namtar and Sean made their way to Dante, but by the time they had a visual, it was cut off by a binding spell being shot towards them. Sean was smarter than that though, and he used his ability to turn to mist and shot behind him without notice. Just when Dante thought he had them, and the dust settled, his smile quickly faded as he saw Namtar unharmed and standing.

“Hello Dante. Nice to see you again,” Namtar said seeing his confusion.

Dante was about to respond, but a very sharp pain shot through his back as his arm was brought around behind him. Sean then peered over Dante’s shoulder and slyly told him, “You should really rethink your stealth strategies before you enter the hive of the Shadow Mage.”

Dante couldn’t do a thing but endure the pain and slightly look over at him. Then Sean looked to Namtar.

“What do we do with him?”

Namtar didn’t answer, but he examined Dante as he thought over what he had done before in the forest.

Dante’s glare grew fearful yet stern as he maintained eye contact with him. Then Namtar spoke.

“Do what you wish. Just keep him alive as long as possible,” he told Sean as he began walking away.

Sean loved the sound of that and looked at Dante again.

“I guess that means you’re all mine.”

“Would you mind explaining what’s going on here?” Aspen asked once her mouth was free from the gag.

“I probably should since you seem to recognize me from training a few years ago.”

Now that it was confirmed, she understood the half of her question.

“I should say so.”

“Aspen, this is my good friend, Aaron. We’ve known each other for twenty years now.”

“Pleasure to meet you Aspen.”

He offered his hand, and she was confused; hence her hesitance.

“Pleasure,” she then said.

“Aspen, I’d love to stay and chat but you and your Uncle have your friends to save.”

“Uncle?” she asked turning to Cai.

“Uh-hmm.” Cai cleared his throat and somewhat changed the subject.

“We should probably get going,” he said as he took Aspen’s arm to escort her out. Aaron took his leave after the two of them left and he went to go assure Akoff that Aspen was secure.

Dante jerked his head up as pain shot through his back, but his cry was muffled. Sean smiled deviously as he stepped back to admire his work. He had bound and gagged Dante to the point to where he could hardly move without hurting himself. Dante’s arms were tied at his elbows to where his forearms were touching and had been stripped of his shirt. With his hands clamped in iron fists, no amount of sorcery would help him to get out of them. Sean snickered as he began to walk around him as Dante sat on his knees trying his best not to show signs of pain. Taking a deep breath through the nose, he glared his bright green eyes into Sean’s soul.

“You think you’re a tough guy?” he asked before he knelt before Dante.

“Well I’ll let you in on a little secret. You won’t be once I’m done breaking you. I’m going to break you to the point where you’ll be crawling for the rest of your life, living like game in the forest.”

Dante only had two thoughts. First…that wasn’t going to happen; and second…he already lived in the forest. Narrowing his stare, Sean then punched Dante’s shoulder – causing him to fall. Again, Dante breathed hard through his nostrils, but couldn’t bring himself up because of the pain that shot through his body.

“Cai stop,” Aspen said as she pulled back on his hand. Cai turned and faced the lovely lady.

“Tell me what’s going on. What did Aaron mean when he said you were my Uncle?”

Cai was silent, trying to find the right words so that she’d properly understand. He sighed and then took her hands in his in a sympathetic form.

“Aspen…I’m not sure where to start. I meant right, but I didn’t think it would come to this until after this phenomenon was taken care of.”

He looked lovingly into her eyes.

“You are my Uncle…and you didn’t tell me? I trained you.”

“I know it doesn’t make sense; it doesn’t make sense to me either. You weren’t supposed to come out here that soon. I don’t know what happened on the Mage’s side of the story, but whatever happened brought us here. You’re safe now.”

“Sure, whatever, but that still doesn’t answer my question on why you hid yourself from me all these years.”

“Huh…Aspen…” A few moments of silence passed between them before Cai finally decided to do the right thing.

“Alright, look. I knew that the Shadow Mage group was getting larger before any of the mishaps occurred; a couple years before you were born actually. I was acting under cover during that time, and I couldn’t give any hint that I had family outside of the posse I was in. I had to protect you and your father, but I could only do that by not revealing myself to you. It wasn’t until after you were spotted in the forest with your friend that things started getting serious.”

“Wait, you knew about me being in the forest?” Cai nodded, and continued his story as best he could without breaking Aspen to tears.

“Sean! What’s going on in here?” another Mage entered the room seeing what was happening. Sean turned to face him, but his expression spoke for him, and the Mage put his hands up and backed out. Then he kind of followed him until he reached the door to close and lock it. “Now…where were we?” he asked, hand still on the slide bolt. Dante, back on his knees, looked over at him with a light sweat beginning to break on his brow - the heat being as intense as it was in that tiny room. Sean walked over to him once more and Dante eyed him with each step, waiting for the next series of pain he was about to endure.

Namtar clutched at his chest once more, the pain being more intense than before. A flash back of his incident in the forest appeared, but it seemed worse than it was. Feeling he was about to fall over, he put his hand out and caught himself on a rock.

“Namtar?” a soldier came from behind him and braced Namtar’s back. “Are you okay?”

Silent as he regained his composure, the soldier took a step back. Namtar stared down at the man, but said, “I’m fine,” lying once again.

“Alright; just figured I’d check,” he said earnestly as he walked away.

Now Namtar knew that it was the serum that was causing his pain, and he knew he didn’t have much time, but he knew he had to carry out the deeds he had planned. He had to if he were to take over the kingdom and take his place as ruler; possibly leaving an heir behind with Aspen as his wife. The only thing he had to stop now was time.

Aspen finally understood, and her silence said as much.

“I have an Uncle?”

Cai just smiled at her and took her into his arms.

“I have an Uncle.”

So they hugged for a long while, but then the sounds of unsuspecting Mages broke the moment and they took each other in hand and began to run.

“In here,” Cai said as he brought her into a hole in the wall.

The two of them crept in and waited until the two Mages passed them. This took a while since they were walking and completely unaware of their presence. Once they passed, Cai carefully looked around the corner to see if it was safe to head out again.

“Alright, the coast is clear.” He turned back to Aspen. “Let’s go find that boyfriend of yours and help the others.”

Aspen nodded and once again they were on their way.

By this time, Dante had reached his max on the amount of torture he could go through, and Sean saw this.

“You ready to tell me why you’re here and where your villager friends are?” Sean asked in a rather convincing way. Dante just kept his head down though, and refused to answer even though every fiber in his being was telling him to tell. Then Sean grew inpatient, so he grabbed a handful of hair on the back of Dante’s head and jerked it up so he was eye to eye with him. “Don’t make me ask again, because you won’t like what I do next even more than everything else you’ve gone through.”

But still Dante was silent.

“Oh how silly of me,” he said pretending to realize something. “There’s a little something across your mouth isn’t there. Let me get that for you.” With that, Sean yanked off the gag, and that brought a sharp sting to Dante’s face.

“Now then…maybe you can tell me now that your mouth isn’t tied up. Where are your friends going, and why are you all here? Did you really think that you could penetrate our forces and go home start free?”

Dante didn’t have any other answer for him, but he did what Sean wanted to see, and shook his head.

“I didn’t think so.” He shoved Dante’s head back down and stood. As he started to walk away though, Dante spoke.

“Do you Mages really think that you’d just waltz in and take over this kingdom?”

Sean stopped cold, and turned his head to look at him. Dante shortly returned his gaze.

“You won’t stand a chance once this day is out. Your leader has already been poisoned and is slowly dying. He won’t be there to lead you in the attack and will die within these next few hours.” Sean zoomed to Dante’s side and clutched his throat out of anger.

“You lie.”

Dante just smiled as best he could, realizing he struck fear into even the most intimidating Mage he’d met. Sean just threw his head back down, and pushed him into the wall.

“Ah!”

“Now you little piece of filth, you’re going to tell me where those worthless villagers are. If you do, your life will be spared.”

“Well that doesn’t leave me much assurance that they themselves won’t get hurt.”

“It doesn’t. Funny thing isn’t it? Tell me where they are now, or I’ll break your arms, and you’ll never see your precious sweetheart again.”

A look of surprise came across Dante’s face.

“Aw-ha. I know about you two. I know that you love her, and I also know that you’d go to the ends of the Earth for her protection.”

Dante struggled when he shouldn’t have.

“So it’s true?” Sean laughed. “Well it looks like you won’t be seeing her again. And you know how?”

Dante didn’t want to know, and Sean knew this, but he told him anyway because he found it fun to torment others.

“I’m going to bring her in here, and kill her slowly in front of you, and there’s nothing you will be able to do about it.”

Again Dante struggled, but this time he was able to at least get Sean to back up and trip.

“My you’re a strong one.” Sean said as he tried to keep Dante from him. “I’m going to enjoy this.”

Meanwhile, Aspen and Cai snooped around, looking in every empty room they passed as they tried to find where everyone was.

“Dante?” Aspen would whisper call into the room, but he wasn’t there.

“Hello?” Cai whispered into the hall. Then they heard a magnitude of soft voices. Cai put his arm out, forcing Aspen to the wall, and slowly made his way to the corner. As he looked, he saw the group of villagers looking confused and frustrated. He motioned to Aspen that everything was okay, and they came around the corner, somewhat startling the villagers.

“Oh Cai. You made us think you were one of the Mages.” Cai smiled, chuckling, and embraced the villager who spoke.

“What seems to be the problem here?” he asked kindly. “Well I think we’ve been turned around, and we can’t seem to find our primary target.”

“The kids?” asked Cai. The villager nodded, and Cai told them to just follow him. They did so, and sure enough they found them. But they were guarded by three Mages around the outside of the group.

“Well now what do we do?”