Marianne mustered Rovan carfully. The boy looked pure. No sign of magic or evil at him. But he got washed over with the poison breath of a vampire master. Something must be about him. She said: "Well Rovan from Auenfries, you are a special boy. I am on a very important mission which pardons no delay. I have to hunt a great evil."
Roven nooded guilty: "I know." He looked to the ground.
Marianne walks to him and crouched down so that she was on his high with her face: "You know? What do you know?"
"You hunt the stone. I.....I planned to bring it to you. But....", he looked contrite.
"You know about the stone? YOU had the stone?"
Rovan nodded: "I found it. I lost everything, my village was burned, my mother is dead or enslaved. I needed money so...I didn´t know what would happen. The stone was evil. Terrifying. When I put it out of the pouch it tortured me.", tears raised in his eyes when his thoughts returned to experiences with the stone.
Marianne nodded with understanding. Zuge came up to Marianne, Berik and Rovan. He laid his hand on Marianne´s shoulder. "You have to go. I will talk to him." He smiled encouraging at Rovan. Rovan looked at the Battlemage with the insignias of a justiciar and nodded exhausted. All this was to much for him. It was going on and on and he didn´t find any rest. Berik stood up with a painful face. Zuge turned to him and said: "You should accompany Lady of Stormrock. Torqua will heal your wounds." Zuge pressed his palm on Beriks chest and a warm light filled his body. He felt better at the same moment.
Rovan looked at this healing astonished. This justiciar had such a calm and powerful, yes invincible, charisma. He knew he finally would be save as long as he would stay with him.
Zuge reached into his bag and brought out the blue glowing stone. He gave it to Marianne. "Take it. If you need my help keep it in your hands for about 10 seconds. I have another one and it will start to glow. Then I know you need my company and I will come." Marianne smiled at him: "Thank you your highness. I will keep it well."
Marianne and Berik mounted their horses and rode out of the orders gates. Berik was proud that for the first time his mother choosed him to join her on an important mission and he planned in his heart to not let her down.
Marianne looked at him: "Excited?"
He nodded: "Yes."
"Good. It makes you more sensible and that will keep you alive."
They droved their horses through the city and left it in south-eastern direction towards the destroyed village of Auenfries.
Berik asked after a while: "Can you still feel the evil?"
Marianne nodded: "Yes. It is not that far as I thought. That shadow being that carried the black sorceror seems to be quite slow. Anyway it is magical by nature. The Magician is most certainly heading for plague bay. There are two major schools for black magic in the east. One is situated in Zir´Magnon. It is the school of pain and the name says everything. Those magician´s are a plague for the rest of the world. Their specialty is to invoke all kind of physical and psychological pain. Most certainly there are not many worse destinies then to fall in one of those hands. Their focus is not killing people but torturing them. But their skills are so highly sophisticated that it is possible to die a "natural" death by shock. The soul literally flees the body due to the pain." She looked at Berik.
Berik was quite frightened and asked: "Are we following a sorceror of this school?"
Marianne shook her head. "I don´t think so. The second school which is located in the cursed city at plague bay is the school of "dark invocations". More precisly it is the center of demonology and summoning. When the King of the dead offered the city of Lekesh to the Demon Lords to become immortal a vortex to the world of demons opened there. He built the Academy of dark invocations around the vortex. In former times the early order of mahjagoth consecrated two crusades to close the vortex. But it was impossible to reach and break into the academy. We can not imagine how defiled this region is. And Torqua´s power is less effectiv as closer you get to the academy due to the immense influx of demonic energy through the vortex. Thus both crusades failed. Berik we are hunting the heart of the King of the Dead. It may not reach Lekesh and the plague bay! If it costs our lives it is a cheap price to keep the world save from his ressurection."
Berik´s eyes looked forward with a decisive gleam. "Do not doubt in my devotion mother. I will not let you down."
Marianne answered: "We will see. Whatever happens, Torqua´s will will happen and we will be his tools."
- - - - - - - - - -
Torentor flew over the city walls. Yes! Those keepers couldn´t hold him from bringing the heart of the master back to Lekesh. In front of him was a large wood. He descended just over the trees. He would be less visible. He had to land soon. His arms were hurting. He couldn´t hold himself for ever on the feet of this demon.
Then suddenly he heard a voice: "Dissolve!" His face turned to the source of the voice and he saw a woman with long black hair and bright glowing blue eyes, standing on the highest branches of a tree to his right. A black bolt with a blue pulsating core rushed from her streched out left hand and hit the shadow dragon. With a high screech the dragon dissolved and Torentor fell. He panicked. His body reached the first branches of the high trees.
He grabbed his staff and turned into a swarm of wasps. He directed them down into the wood where he might hide from the woman.
Katlin watched the man falling with a content face. She had activated her magical sight. With it she could see all kinds of magic, also rising of magic energy or enchanted items. Suddenly the falling man seems to shatter and fly to the ground. She again streched her left hand towards the little blue shards who were swirling down. With a loud crackle a lightning bursts from her index and little finger and pierced through the swirling lights.
Torentor felt the shock in his mind and could barely keep up his concentration. The swarm lost a lot of it´s integrity by the lightning strike. He was just a little above the ground and let drop the transformation spell. He fell through some last branches and hit the soft ground. His left side hurts. He had major burns over his rips and the upper leg from the lightning. Instantly the woman appeared beside him and bit him in his neck. He cried out and reached for his staff.
"Yestrill"
From Torentor a strong expulsiv force erupted and pushed Katlin 5 meters away from him. This woman was a vampire and a powerful sorceror. There was no way he could defeat her. Who knows how old she was and how many years she had studied magic. He could not escape her. She had the magic sight and was able to teleport. He had just one option left. His masters would not be happy about it but better then letting the black heart fall into the vampire´s hand. He hastingly took a small white stone out of his pocket and threw it far away into the woods. Then he invocated:
"May zhi iy jeliz ofram"
Katlin yelled out: "Nooooo!" She knew this spell. It teleports the caster into a side dimension. It was small like a room but no one was able to find the person inside or harm him. Those side dimension´s varied a lot from it´s properties. It depends all on the magician who created it. But ! Katlin grinned. In order to be able to return to the dimension of the living it was necessary that the magician enchanted a magical anchor. To this anchor he could return from the side dimension if he liked so. She had to find this anchor. She carefully inspected the place where the sorceror vanished. She inspected the trees around it. No marks of magic upon them. Impossible! There must be something. She went on searching in larger circles and finally she saw a little white stone. It was glowing with magic. She walked to it and took it. Then she hold it in her right hand in front of her eyes:
"I know you can hear me. I have your blood inside me. We are connected. I found your little white stone. And do you know what I do with it ? I bury it deep inside the earth. You know I am really happy about what you did. I do not want my master to get the stone. I do not want the keepers of mahjagoth to get this stone, and least of all I want you to bring it to Lekesh and ressurrect that nightmare of a king of the dead. Now it is lost for all times. Food will run off one day where you are. You will die there or you will die here deep in the earth and with you the stone will be hidden and lost for all times."
Torentor listened to her words and despaired.