Legendazona, Murdered in Life

[Xenograg]

Xenograg is alone now. Even the Druid High Priest refused to go beyond a certain point into these hills.

"Are there any wild animals in these hills, these caves?" Xenograg had asked him when they parted.

"If there are, they serve the spirits of this place," replied Adhamh, successor to Legendazona. Xenograg grunted in reply, his question not completely answered. He decided to lengthen his rowanwood staff to eight feet and cap it with a conjured spear-point. The Steward then walked on up the ravine, armed but unarmored. His contention with the priestess's vengeful spirit will not be physical.

Now he stands where the path enters a large entrance into the mountainside. He begins to remember this place. It was eight years ago; the day Legendazona died. Xenograg knows this is no coincidence for there are none. This is the place where Telemachus is imprisoned. Telemachus -- Xenograg's "nephew" and son in all but name. Xenograg girds himself for the task at hand. He conjures an aura shield of almost-transparent green around the complete contour of his body.

"For the Heir!" he shouts in defiance and challenge. Surprise was never possible anyway. With spear held in both hands and aimed low, Xenograg the Sorcerer enters the very lair of his antagonist.

[Legendazona]

The Caverns still held the aura of power. They had been the seat of Druid power for centuries. Just because the new High Priest, Ceallach Adhamh Sèitheach would not reside here did not mean the place was abandoned. He'd moved the Druids into one of the groves near the base of the mountain.

But I remained. This was my home.

And now, Xenograg the Murderer had come back.

He'd paused beyond the entrance, asking if there were any wild animals within. The Wolf Warrior told him that if there were, they would serve the spirits of this place. If he only knew how prophetic his words would be.

As the Druids departed and left Xeno at the entrance, he made his bold move. He knew I was here, and so it began again.

The moment he entered, I covered the cave in darkness. Instant blackness fell, and the echo of his war cry had not yet finished traversing the caves.

[Xenograg]

The darkness was more than a nuisance. A sorcerer has senses beyond the five physical ones, though. Xenograg is forced to revert his spear back to a staff to aid in walking, but is not stumbling blind. Fearing pit traps, he has his flight spell ready for use in an instant.

[Legendazona]

The darkness wrapped around Xeno like a second skin, and then icy tendrils brushed at his face.

"How dare you return here," the whispers seemed to come from the very stone walls of the cavern itself.

"Go back, you do not belong here with the ghostes and memories."

An icy caress ruffled his hair and the sensation of walking into a gigantic spider's web assailed them in the darkness. The clingy strands coating the staff and clothes, sticking in his hair on on his face.

"Go back," the echo slithered ominously in a quiet echo in the blackness.

"Go back."

[Xenograg]

"How dare you return here," is the whispered challenge that seems to come from the very stone walls of the cavern itself. "Go back. You do not belong here with the ghosts and memories."

Xenograg stops only to invoke his Jinzaggin of Fire to combat the death-chill of Legendazona's presence. This takes only will, and he does not reply to the priestess's words.

He resumes walking only to start as he blunders into the web. Again choosing Fire, he briefly immoliates his entire body to burn off the strands, carefully omitting his own clothes and equipment. The manifested flames do nothing to light the darkness of the cave, though, and he dismisses them once clean.

"Go back.... Go back...," is the echoed cry of the cave's mistress.

Xenograg walks on in silence. His nerves cannot help but be upon a razor's edge from the tension.

[Legendazona]

As the flames erupted to consume the web silk, a low rumble began deep in the bowels of the mountain. Rock slowly began to rattle, and choking dust became airborne.

The quake shook the mountain long moments as the floor beneath the General's feet heaved and rolled.

Rock began to fall. the ominous sound of collapsing stone echoed in the blackness of the main chamber.

"Go on if you dare - murderer" The words echoed in the choking dust.

[Xenograg]

Xenograg falls to his hands and knees as the floor of the cave heaved. He coughs and struggles for air. He pulls the neck of his silk undershirt up to cover his mouth and nose.

"Oh, gods...," he moans, finally realizing his true peril. Xenograg changes his aura shield into a hemisphere centered over his head. Falling rocks begin to bounce and slide off of it. In the darkness, he cannot even dodge the rocks. He can do nothing else but breathe for several minutes.

Leaning on his staff, Xenograg slowly rises. The effort to deflect such heavy physical objects has Xenograg sweating profusely. Worse, the floor is covered with rocks both large and small.

"Go on if you dare, murderer," echoes faintly through the tunnels.

[Xenograg]

Xenograg just stands unmoving. He is filthy, sore, and taxing himself with his current magical expenditure. His next move must be perfectly correct, though. Legendazona has warned him; her next stroke will not be diminished.

As ready as can be, Xenograg begins to walk (and climb) on ahead. Progress is agonizingly slow, literally. Jammed toes, bruised knees, and cut hands add to the sorcerer's woes.

The second cave-in comes with no warning. Xenograg's overhead shield holds, but the danger is all around. A rolling boulder glances his left side, knocking the rowanwood staff from his hand. An instant later, Xenograg feels a spike of pain in his psyche. The staff is gone. This pain causes an animal-level survival response in Xenograg. He acts anew on pure instinct....

Just as a ton of earth falls upon him.

[Legendazona]

The choking rock dust hung in the air, creating a dense atmosphere that was unbreatheable by the living.

The sorcerer had fallen into the trap, insisting on continuing into the caverns in search of the half breed. What foolishness over a mongrel that never should have been.

"So predictable," she sneered as the larger particles of rock dust began to settle out as a coarse dust layer over the newly fallen rocks.

[Xenograg]

Legendazona's mood darkens almost immediately, however. She can sense that Xenograg is still alive -- very alive. She floats through the dust and rocks seeking the sorcerer's body. She cannot find it.

[Legendazona]

The collapse of the rock should have killed the man instantly, and yet, his life's essence remained strong. He was alive within the rubble, and she started searching for him.

He would not leave these caverns alive. He would die here, along with that half blood he'd come to rescue.

She sent spikes of rock stabbing into the debris, seeking movement from the sorcerer.

[Xenograg]

It takes several moments for Xenograg to regain his bearings. He is alive and unharmed aside from the broken weirding link. He is also below the level of the tunnel floor. Xenograg had forgotten one of the abilities of the Earth Jinzaggin is to meld with the element itself. He thanks whatever fortune it was that caused him to invoke that power intuitively.

Xenograg reaches out for his staff. It takes him a moment to manage the subtle shift of his hand to grasp the physical object. As expected, he finds he is holding half the Rouwanwood rod. He collects the other half for proper disposal later.

Moving through the earth is as easy as flying through air. He can also "see" through the earth, and locates the inner chamber ahead where Telemachus is likely held.

[Legendazona]

He was alive. Somewhere in the caverns.

She wailed loudly, calling more rock and debris down from the ceiling, but that would not help.

It would not help, the sorcerer had some means of resisting the crushing rock and dirt.

She stilled. If he could move through the rock.... he could find the half breed!

Moving with all speed, she had to get to the half breed first! Had to finish him before the sorcerer could release him from the sleep she'd held him in.

[Xenograg]

Xenograg slides himself through the earth as quickly as his imperfect control can achieve. Legendazona's wail of frustration heralded the final stage of this contest. Having failed to stop the rescuer, her only remaining option is to move or kill the prisoner -- and it is too late to move Telemachus.

In his present state, Xenograg can see through earth but not air. The chamber before him is opaque but for the stone altar resting on the chamber floor. He has no choice but to enter the room blind. He changes his course and uses his momentum to jump up through the floor beside the altar. Perhaps surprise is possible this time.

It is not.

[Legendazona]

The half elf lay deep in Druid Sleep, where he'd been for several weeks. The absolute darkness had shrouded him, and his elven features had grown pale. Even in Druid Sleep, if kept that way long enough, he would perish.

She formed sitting atop a trilithon in the chamber and lit the area with a brilliant white light.

Ceridwen had come personally, not Rhiannon, nor the Crone. The Mother had come. It was not this one's time to die. She heard the sound of the sorcerer moving through the rock and the sounds increased as he drew nigh. He was close. The one who'd helped raise and shape Telemachus into the elf that he had become drew nearer.

He came into the chamber slightly disoriented, she granted him a moment before speaking, "so you return Xenograg kathu-Darelir, Outsider to my children, yet here when you are most grievously needed."

She sat in the white halo of light with one hand upon Telemachus' head as she regarded the man she'd met once before.