Shadows of the Lithilium

I wake early the next morning, My whole body feeling more energized than it has for days. I roll over and push myself up to my feet. The sun is just barely coming up over the horizon and most of the landscape is still bathed in grey predawn light. I look down at Frengton and am surprised by the lack of light coming from the town. Most cities like this kept watch fires burning through the night so that the guards keeping watch could see what is going on, at least that had been my experience in the past.

As I turn back to our camp I see Arath sitting next to the glowing embers of our fire. He's not looking at me like he usually does, instead he is gazing intently into the coals as though the answer to all of his problems is to be found there. I wonder if he's been sitting like that all night as I walk over and sit across from him, careful to let him hear me coming so as not to startle him.

"Are you all right?" I ask him softly.

He just continues to stare into the fire without responding, or even seemingly acknowledging that he heard my question. Deciding that it's better not to pry I sit there quietly, waiting for him to be ready to talk. As I watch the embers of the fire pulse softly as if they are breathing I think about everything that has happened to me in the last few months. If I had known that this was coming when I left the Mount of Shadows I'm not sure I would have agreed to this mission.

As I think about the mission a thought occurs to me. "How did Tealith know so much about me?" I realize a split second to late that I've said the question out loud.

Arath starts a little, and then slowly looks over at me. "What was that?"

Now that I've asked the question I really do want to know the answer, so I repeat myself. "That day that Tealith captured me in the woods, she already seemed to know a lot about me. How?"

"Tealith makes it a point to learn about any Lithilium that she can. She made a special point to study your behavior and patterns when she realized that you were one of the only Lithilium that still came out against the humans."

I have to think about Arath's words for a few seconds. I hadn't realized that I was one of the last Lithilium that Bloquan was sending out on missions, but now that Arath pointed it out I knew that it was true.

"Tealith must have one incredible mind to learn all she did about me just from the reports of others," I say in admiration.

Arath nodded his agreement, "She does."

By now the sun is fully in the sky, and the watery dawn light has given way to the warmth of full daylight. I look in the direction of Frengton and wonder aloud, "What do you think we'll find when we go there today?"

Arath looks briefly in the direction of my gaze, and then returns his attention to the cinders. "I'm afraid to guess."

"I'm sure it won't be pleasant," Tealith says as she joins us.

I glance over at her, wondering how long she has been awake, and then continue to look out over Frengton. I can't pin it down, but I don't have a good feeling about the town.

We eat a quick meal before breaking down our camp and heading down the hill to whatever fate awaits us. It doesn't take long to descend and in far less time than I would have liked we are standing at the gate. We look at each other one last time and then walk together into the town.

It had been several years since I had been to Frengton, and those years had been hard on the already dilapidated city. Every inch of the city was covered in filth, and nobody even seemed to notice. There was refuse and sewage in every gutter, along with more than one person who looked more dead than alive. I try not to pay attention to them, but my enhanced hearing can pick up their soft moans which give the city a feeling of perpetual mourning. The feeling fits with what I can see as we walk.

I had rubbed a fresh coat of soot on my purple highlights this morning so as not to draw attention to myself, but just the fact that our clothes weren't torn and sewn back together in a random patchwork was enough to attract sideways glances and suspicious glares. It wasn't long before I noticed that we were not only being tailed, but surrounded on every side by thugs walking at what they thought was an inconspicuous distance. A quick glance out of the corner of my eye was enough to assure me that Tealith and Arath were aware of our escort.

The deeper into the city we walk the less people we see on the streets, and the tighter our circle of suspects becomes. Before long us and the thugs are the only people left, and all the windows are shuttered and barred. Nobody wants to see what they know is about to go down. I don't blame them either, this probably isn't going to be pretty. We stop, and the thugs stop as well. For a few seconds we all stand there looking at each other, and then Tealith steps forward.

"We aren't here looking for trouble," she is interrupted by several snickers from the group around us, "But we'll certainly give it to you if you won't leave us alone," she finishes.

"You and what army?" Someone jeers.

"Do the names Arath and Tealith still mean anything here?" Tealith replied.

That shut them up real quick. Some of them even start to shuffle their feet nervously, as though not sure that they still want to be part of this. One of the thugs glares around the circle until the murmuring ceases, and then he takes a step forward.

“Why should we believe you are who you say you are? You could be anyone for all we know.”

Tealith smiles, but it isn’t a happy smile. In fact, her smile even makes shivers run down my back. “Do you want to find out?” She asks.

I can tell that the leader doesn’t want anything to do with trying to fight us himself, and I’m beginning to smell the fear from the rest of the circle. After a few seconds of hesitation the leader signals for four of the brawniest, least intelligent looking men to move forward and take Tealith. Having fought Tealith myself, and after hearing the story about the last time she was in Frengton, I’m not real worried about her so neither Arath nor I make a move to help her defend herself.

The men move toward Tealith, and I can tell that even their pea sized brains have registered that this might be a tricky situation, because none of them makes a full on charge at her. They spread out and form a loose ring around her, presumably trying to keep her from getting to us. Of course, they were worrying about the wrong people. The four of them slowly tighten their formation until one of them gets within reach of Tealith.

The whole thing is over in a matter of seconds. Tealith grabs the first man by one upraised hand and, with seemingly little effort flips him on to his back and launches herself at the next man. The next man blinks slowly as Tealith comes at him, his brain taking a few precious seconds too long to process what he just saw. Tealith had him unconscious before the light of understanding could blossom in his eyes. By this time the other two men had processed the fact that they just might be outmatched by this tall, slender woman. They back up, hesitance and even a little fear now visible on their faces. Tealith just stands calmly by the two unconscious men and waits for them to make a move. The two men look back and forth from Tealith, to their boss, to their incapacitated comrades, and then back to Tealith. An angry gleam slowly starting in their eyes before they rush her as one.

Their ungainly charge was swiftly dealt with by Tealith, who is left standing over four senseless men, all almost twice her breadth. A thin smile on her lips she turns back to the leader of this group of thugs.

“Now that we have the formalities out of the way, you will take us to Durgin.” Tealith’s tone left no room for argument or discussion, not that the group of thugs looked ready to offer any more resistance to our wishes.

The walk to the dilapidated castle that Durgin now called home was not long, but it gave me some time to study the town and the thugs that had intercepted us. They were a motley crew, made up of small men who’s eyes were constantly darting back and forth, as well as large men like the brutes who had been set upon Tealith. The only thing holding this disparate group together was fear, and a small hope that maybe if they were loyal enough or clever enough they would be admitted to the inner councils of the man they all feared and admired in equal parts.

The city, if it could be called that any more, was a patchwork of buildings in various states of disrepair. Near the gate the buildings had still been mostly intact and cared for, but the deeper we walk the more occasionally we passed by a building that only seemed to be missing a few roof tiles, or the shutters out of the windows. The vast majority of them are either completely destroyed or scabbed back together from the rubble that lies everywhere in the street.

When we reach the gate to the castle I can see why Durgin chose to move his base of operations here. The walls, though filthy like the rest of the town, were thick and still in good repair. The gate which we were lead through was at least two feet thick and looked to be made of of heavy oak planks. Once through the gate we walked through a dark stone tunnel, lit sporadically by flickering torches that filled the air with a cloud of smoke stinking strongly of pitch.

The tunnel took us out into a large square courtyard surrounded on all sides by a ten foot high stone wall with bowmen spaced at regular intervals along it’s entire length. Directly across from us was another large door, with several smaller doors at seemingly random locations around the rest of the wall. There was what looked to be the remnants of a once beautiful intricate fountain in the center of the square, but whatever had happened to ravage this city so completely had left it’s mark here as well and it is impossible for me to make out what the fountain had once depicted.

We are marched across the square and through a small door just to the left of the central main doors, then through a twisting maze of dark hallways that might have been disorienting without my enhanced night vision. At last we stop in front of a large door guarded by two men with swords. The swords surprised me a little, because every other person that we had passed in the castle had carried an axe or a club, weapons that took little or no skill to use.

“Halt.” One of the swordsman said as we approached.

The leader of our little group stepped forward, “Come on Greth, you’ve got to let us see the Boss. We’ve got three… prisoners here as he’ll want to see.” The mans whining paused briefly before he referred to us as prisoners, and I could tell he wasn’t sure that we were actually his prisoners.

The swords man, who the whiny man had called Greth, peered over the heads of the thugs in front of Tealith, Arath, and I. “Well lets see these prisoners then.”

The way before us quickly cleared and we were nudged forward until we stood directly in front of the swords men. Greth looked me and Tealith over indifferently, but when his gaze fell on Arath his eyes narrowed and he studied his face carefully.

“it can’t be.” He muttered, almost under his breath. “Arath?”

Arath nodded slightly, a sad smile touching one corner of his mouth. “It’s been a long time Greth.”

Greth’s jaw hung open for a moment, and then his eyes got hard. “You’ve got a lot of guts showing back up here. I should run you through right now for your treachery!”

All signs of a smile vanish from Arath’s face. “Maybe you should, but I don’t think that Durgin would be very happy with you for making his decisions for him.”

There was a steel in Arath’s voice that I hadn’t heard there before, and for the first time I could see him as he must have been before he had decided to join Tealith and leave behind this life of suspicion and violence.

Greth’s eyes were still hard with anger, but I can almost see the thoughts swirling around his mind, his anger at Arath striving with his fear of Durgin’s displeasure. In the end fear, and self-preservation win out and he contents himself with spitting at Arath’s feet.

“I hope he orders you killed, and I hope he lets me do it.” He says as he opens the door to allow us through.

The door leads into a large room full of tables and men gorging themselves on food and spirits. The room is so filled with a haze of tobacco smoke that at first it is difficult for me to see anything. As we are led across the room however I see that there are women Interspersed among the men, all with the same haggard, hopeless look in their eyes; the look of a person doing whatever it takes to survive.

We are led to a place at the head of the hall where a platform has been built up several inches higher than the rest of the room, so that anyone sitting at the table located there would have a clear view of the entire hall. In the center of the table was a big man with thickly muscled arms, legs, and neck. He was nestled in the midst of a group of women who were fanning him, feeding him, and bringing him ale as he requested it.

If Tealith and Arath hadn’t already told me what Durgin looked like I would have immediately assumed this was him, his physique and actions lining up exactly with what I would have expected from a despotic slum lord of his reputation. My gaze however remained fixed on the small man reclining nonchalantly in the big man’s shadow. Durgin. His ratlike face and shifty eyes managing to take in the entire room despite his seeming casual indifference. When Durgin’s eyes found Arath and Tealith among the party in front of the table I see a brief flash of surprise before his face is once again a mask of complete non-concern.

The thug who had accosted us in the street shifted his weight uncomfortably back and forth as he waited for the muscular man at the table to notice them. Tealith and Arath seemed content just to watch and wait for things to unfold, so I follow their lead. I keep my head tilted down enough to keep my eyes hidden from most anyone that might be watching me, still not eager to reveal myself as a Lithilium at this point.

After a few seconds Durgin makes a slight movement and the muscular man finally takes notice of us waiting just a few feet past the edge of his table.

“Why have you disturbed me Heking?” The big mans voice is not as deep as I would have expected from someone of his size, but it carries a weight of authority that demands to be obeyed.

Heking swallowed visibly before taking a deep breath. “These three people insisted on being brought before you. Two of them claim to be Arath and Tealith.”

The muscular man’s eyes glint with a grim amusement. “And do you believe that they are who they say they are?

“I… I guess I do.” He sighs and his shoulders slump as though he is finally accepting defeat.

“Then I guess there is no more need of this little ruse, is there.” It takes me a few minutes to realize that the soft, almost melodious voice came from Durgin, who had just stepped out from the shadows of the big mans chair. Now that he is standing I can see just how short he really is; standing his head is barely level with that of the muscular man slouched in his seat next to him.

“It’s been a long time, Arath. I didn’t think we would ever see you again.”

Durgin’s soft melodious voice hardly varied in pitch at all as he spoke and, were it not for the sharpness of his eyes, I would have guessed that he and Arath were but old acquaintances meeting after a long absence. Except for a slight tensing of Arath’s jaw he made no sign that he had herd Durgin. I see a slight twitch of what might have been satisfaction on Durgin’s face before he turns to observe Tealith.

“And I see that you have brought back an escaped prisoner as well! That is too kind of you Arath. You really are too much!”

Now it is Tealith’s jaw clenching as she makes no response. Tealith’s reaction is very out of character, and I watch Durgin suspiciously now as that same self-satisfied gleam flits across his face. As his eyes fall upon me it’s as though the heat of the room has suddenly been sucked away.

“Well, well, well. It seems you have brought me another guest as well Arath. Who is your friend here?”

As Durgin speaks I feel the air hum around me, as though it is answering his voice. The temperature rises and falls with the melody of his words and I feel a slight pressure on the edge of my thoughts.

Almost as soon as I notice the pressure however it is gone. As Durgin turns away from me to look at Arath again I see what looks to be a moment of doubt in his eyes, but it is gone before I can be sure of what I saw.

“So what does bring you here, Arath? Or should I call you Snake.”
 Durgin spat the name like a horrible epithet, and I could feel the room collectively draw in their breath. I feel every eye in the room on our backs as they all wait to see what Arath will do.

As I watch Arath I notice that the tension is back in his jaw, as though he’s fighting some internal battle. Soon his whole body begins to shake and his hands clench into fists. I glance quickly at Durgin who is concentrating so hard on Arath I am sure he must be blind to the room around him. I look between the two men, seemingly engaged in a battle of wills that was going to have a clear winner.

As I examine Durgin more closely, looking for any sign of what he is doing, I suddenly realize what should have been obvious to me earlier. Knowing that Arath’s life, in fact all of our lives, might depend on my next action I make a quick decision.

I swiftly step in front of Arath and meet Durgin’s eyes with mine. I instantly feel the cold and pressure from before return, intensified slightly by the increased effort that Durgin is putting forth. Durgin and I stare into each others eyes for a frozen second, and then with a shudder and a small squeak he falls to his knees, hands clasped before him in supplication.

“I’m sorry my lord, I didn’t know that you were one of the Conquering. Please forgive me, I would never knowingly interfere in your affairs.”

His calm assurance totally gone now he huddles in a pathetic mass on the ground in front of me. I regard him with unfeigned disgust.

“You miserable wretch. Have you forgotten so quickly who it is that allows you to remain in power here?”

I put all of the contempt I feel for this despicable little despot into my voice. As I do so I see Tealith supporting Arath out of the corner of my eye. The look that Tealith is giving is almost enough to make me stop my ruse and explain that I don’t mean any of it, but I know that doing so won’t help any of us. I turn my attention back to Durgin who is rambling an apology.

“…and you shall have the best room we have. You can have my room…”

“Enough!” I snap, and silence instantly fills the room. “I could forgive your reception, unpleasant as it was, but I cannot forgive you for attempting to spell me. You know that We have no patience for those who think that they can rise against us.”

“But I didn’t know-”
 “Irrelevant,” I interrupt him. “I should kill you for your impudence, but luckily for you I have more important things to take care of at the moment.”

“Anything that I can do to help you, my lord!” Durgin assures me.

I frown down at him, and he shrinks back into himself.

“I need the oldest books you have, and a room where we,” I gesture to include Tealith and Arath, “will not be disturbed.”

“Books, my lord?” Durgin asks in confusion.

“Yes books!” I snap back at him. “Bloquan has a matter he wishes for us to research. If you keep questioning my orders I may have to reverse my pardon.”

“No, that won’t be necessary.” He assures me quickly.

Durgin beckons to one of the women, who approaches him carefully her eyes darting between me and Durgin as though not sure who she should be afraid of more. I am careful to keep my face expressionless as Durgin gives the girl orders to do as I directed. Reactions like hers are the reason I decided to join Tealith and Arath in the first place, and seeing the fear in her eyes served to strengthen my resolve to see this through to the end.

The girl turns fully to face me and dips into a low curtsey. “If you’ll follow me my lord.”

She turns and begins to walk a way. I motion for Tealith and Arath to go before me, and after only a moments hesitation she gently guides Arath behind our new guide. I glower once more at Durgin, who ducks his head and does his best to hide behind his muscle bound bodyguard, before I too turn and follow the girl.

My senses are at high alert as we walk along the back of the hall to a door on the back wall. Once the door is shut behind us I relax slightly, but I still keep a careful eye on our surroundings and an ear out for any potential trouble. After winding through several halls, in and out of open air courtyards, and one guarded entry point, the girl opens one final door and leads us into what was clearly once a magnificent library.

There are still shelves everywhere, but where there were once thousands of scrolls and leather-bound books, now only a small portion of that remained. One single window, set at about head height in the wall, throws a shimmering pillar down to the floor. Years of dust sparkle as they float through the pillar, and black bands stand out harshly where ever one of the mostly empty shelves crosses it’s path. Our guide stands nervously just inside the door as we look around the room. When she sees that I’ve had a chance to take in everything she curtseys once again.

“May I leave now my lord?”

“Yes, yes. Of course. Thank you.”

She is gone as soon as I give permission, and the last part of my sentence trails off into a soft mutter. I turn back to look at the room and find Tealith looking at me angrily. Arath is hunched in a chair behind her, but he looks like he is beginning to get his strength back.

“What happened back there?” Tealith demands sharply.

I draw a weary hand across my face and take a seat on a nearby chair.

“Durgin is a spell-caster, and a rather powerful one at that. He was trying to force Arath to tell the truth about what our purpose here is.”

I see the shock on Tealith’s face and she collapses limply into a large wing backed chair.

“If I hadn’t stepped in when I did I don’t know what would have happened, but I’m sure it wouldn’t have ended well for Arath.”

“It explains so much.” Tealith murmurs, so softly I almost don’t hear her, “Why I told him what I was doing last time I came here. How he has risen to power without being killed. Everything.”

I nod. “I should have suspected it sooner, I’ve had interactions with spell-casters before, but I haven’t heard of one for almost thirty years.”

What I don’t add is that thirty years ago was when Bloquan thought he had finally killed the last one. I never understood why he hated spell-casters so much. Lithilium are immune to any spell I’ve ever heard of, so the realty is that they might as well just be more humans. Bloquan was sure that one day they would find a spell that worked on us, so for him it was important that we wipe them out, before they figured out how to wipe us out.

Tealith looks back up at me. “So why weren’t you affected by his magic?”

I only hesitate for a second before I answer her truthfully. “Spells don’t work on the Lithilium. I don’t know why, I just know it’s true.”

Tealith closes her mouth around the question she had been about to ask. When she shows no further sign that she is going to continue asking questions I turn my attention to Arath. He has not moved from the seat where Tealith deposited him, but his shivering has all but subsided and his breathing has resumed a steady rhythm.

“How are you doing?” I ask him cautiously.

When he doesn’t reply after a few seconds I decide that it’s best not to push him any farther. Standing, I move to take a closer look at the manuscripts that remain on the shelves. Most of what I see are old tax records and the like, information that I am sure was important to the former residents of this castle but which held no use for us or Durgin. As I look around at different shelves I find a collection of what appear to be the pedigrees of the, I’m sure now extinct, royals who had lived here for centuries.

After a quick once over of all the shelves I found only a handful of histories, and all of those were less than fifty years old. In fact nothing in the room, except for one or two of the pedigrees, look like they can be older than maybe one hundred years. I scan back through the oldest looking records, hoping that maybe I’m wrong or I missed something, but my second search is just as unfruitful as the first.

“There’s nothing here.” I sigh in defeat as I sink back into my seat.

Tealith looks up from the floor, almost as if breaking free of her thoughts takes a physical effort. Arath doesn’t respond at all.

“After the risk we took coming here we have nothing to show for it.”

I hear the bitterness and anger in my own voice as I say the words and remind myself that it’s not their fault that we’re in the situation we’re in. We didn’t know if we would find anything here, it just seemed like a likely place to start because of it’s long history. I take a deep breath to settle myself and then calmly ask, “So what do we do now?”

Tealith shakes her head, defeat written across her face.

“We stop him.”

I look at Arath in surprise.

“You want to try and take down Durgin?”

The incredulity in my voice is clear and when Arath looks up at me I can see the fiery anger burning inside his eyes.

“Yes. We can’t allow him to continue to manipulate and torture his way around this town however he wants. I used to be his slave, and I know what that feels like. I’m not going to leave again until I have removed every last scrap of his influence here.”

Tealith and I are both staring at him now. I had never seen Arath so passionate about anything, except or possibly when he threaten my life I tried to do anything to Tealith. It isn’t hard to understand why he feels so strongly about overthrowing Durgin but in my mind there are much more important things for us to be doing, especially in a town where some other slum lord will just rise up to take his place.

Tealith must have been thinking along similar lines to me, because she stood and put her arm on Arath’s shoulder.

“With Durgin gone some other petty thug will rise to take this place, and in the end the people here will be no better off. We need to focus on stopping the lithilium first, and then we can re-establish a government that respects peoples rights.”

Arath’s fists clench and unclench in his lap, a vain pulsing in tensed jaw.

“I know how you feel.” Tealith whispers to him, “But there’s nothing we can do right now.”

Arath leaps to his feet, turning sharply away from Tealith and I as he does so, and strides to the window. He looks out over the city, his back rigid and the muscles in his jaw still working. I can see the worry on Tealith’s face, but neither of us move as we wait to see what he is going to do next.

We stand frozen like that for several more long seconds until finally Arath turns back to us. The pain that I see in his eyes is so great that I can almost feel it in my own soul.

“Anyone would be better to have in charge than Durgin.” His voice is quivering with anger now, “You have never had to live under his rule, either of you, but let me tell you; it’s not pretty. Everything must be done exactly the way he wants it, and if you don’t do it that way then you had better hope he’s in a good mood, because if not you’ll find yourself missing. Dead if you’re lucky.”

Tears begin to fill the corners of his eyes, and I can’t tell if they’re tears of anger or sorrow. He wipes them roughly away with the back of his hand as he continues.

“I’ve helped him do unspeakable things, and I’ve seen him do worse than those on his own. I never understood how he did it, but the fear that it might happen to me was enough to make me keep my questions to myself. Now that I know what he’s doing I can’t let him continue to do it any longer. If I have to do it by myself then so be it, but I won’t leave here until he is dead.”

Tealith and I stare at Arath for a several seconds and then I turn away, shaking my head.

“This is ridiculous! We don’t have time for this. At any moment Bloquan could decide that he’s done putting up with the nuisance of the resistance and wipe them out, and then what would this have been for. We can’t sacrifice the chance to liberate all towns, because we got distracted trying to stop one insignificant slum lord.”

When I turn back around Arath is looking at Tealith, who looks troubled. She fidgets absently with her hands, not looking at Arath or me. Finally she sighs and sinks slowly into the chair that Arath vacated, rubbing her temples as she does so.

“Zaltath is right you know.”

Arath’s whole body sags as she speaks, but he looks up sharply as she continues.

“But I will help you.”