The Soul Mask

Introduction-

The plodding hooves of the horses through up little dust clouds with each step on the well traveled sand/clay road. Gerard and Draco lurched from side to side following the gait of their new horses.

The morning was quiet until Draco said, “Alright, I’ll say it. Riding horses kinda sucks bro.”

Gerard’s laugh was involuntarily dragged out of his body. “Psphffft...Ahahahahaha.”

Draco grinned. “I’m serious dude. It’s been less than a day and my ass already hurts!”

“That’s how you start a morning conversation!? Hahahaha...whew, you are something else brother.”

Less than 24 hours ago, Draco and Gerard had been homeless boys wandering around their coastal town picking up work where it was available and sleeping where they could. Now thanks to the help of a friendly Yaga - a creature that appeared as a little girl but hid a mass of deadly tendrils under it’s dress - they were riding their own horses to a castle somewhere in the Archipelago to retrieve a magic sword with The Soul Mask, the most powerful magical item known to ever exist.

It was a lot to take in...especially since the only means of direction or purpose they had was the tiny black mask hanging off of Gerard’s bag harmlessly bouncing along with the trot of their horses as they made their way towards Calaco, the capital city of The Archipelago.

Chapter 1: How Does That Thing Work?

“Hey Gerard,” asked Draco while pointing at the mask, “Do you have an idea how that thing works yet?”

“I guess it might be a good idea to figure it out huh?” he chuckled back. “Let’s pull off on the next side road so we can give the horses a break and figure it out. Last time I put it on I just saw an image of a city on an island and a feeling that heading towards the Archipelago was the place to go. I can feel a weapon of power calling us. And according to the Yagga, the guy who runs things down this way has The Archipelago Sword.”

Draco took a second to clear his throat. “I mean, that sounds great and all Gerard...but if the Yagga is right, how in Aumon are we going to take a magical sword from someone who doesn’t want to give it up?”

“When I put on the mask I’ll see if I can figure it out for you little brother.” Gerard winked back at Draco.

Turning off on a side road that could hardly be called a trail, the boys found themselves surrounded by tall coastal trees growing so close together that it was hard for their horses to find a path. Satisfied they were far enough off the main road where other travelers wouldn’t see them, Gerard untied the mask from his bag and looked to Draco. “Ready?” he asked.

Draco nodded back to his brother and folded his arms to watch Gerard bring the mask up to his face. The strange black material started glowing blue in cracks across the mask as it got closer to Gerard’s face. The air buzzed with energy when the mask leapt forward like a hungry predator knocking Gerard back onto the forest floor as it formed itself to his skull like it was always meant to be there.

Worried about his brother but nervous to approach with such power emanating from the mask, Draco asked in a nurturing but nervous voice. “Gerard? Hey man, you in there? What do you see?”

In response to Draco’s calls, Gerard sat up like a vampire rising out of a coffin. Draco could see Gerard’s eyes flash the same blue color that shone from the mask before returning to green. “Hey man, what’s going on? Can you hear me yet?”

Responding at last Gerard said, “Dude, we need to go...like NOW.”

With unnatural speed Gerard suddenly stood up and side-kicked Draco in the chest, sending him sprawling back just in time to avoid an arrow piercing through the air where Draco’s head had been a moment earlier. Seeing the danger, Draco tried to roll back to his feet and mount his horse but was yanked down by Gerard. “Grab your bow, your bag, and nothing else. They are too close.”

Listening to his brother, Draco left behind the days worth of food they had stored in the saddle bags of the horses and the small fortune the Yagga Priscilla had given them to make their journey, and ran after Gerard.

Vines tugged at Draco’s ankles and leaves obscured his vision, but keeping up with his brother was his only priority.

Chapter 2: Hunted

Gerard’s pace was unlike anything Draco had ever seen. It wasn’t necessarily that he was a faster person, his steps were just always in the right place and able to catapult him up the hill faster than Draco. Finally catching up with Gerard at the top of the steep forested hill, Draco watched his brother stop in the middle of the clearing and start darting his head around like a bird looking for something important.

“What are they?” Asked Draco as he walked up behind his brother.

Gerard’s eyes were glowing blue again as he answered. “Bandits. Goblin bandits to be specific. They will eat us if they catch us.”

Draco felt fear force his heart through sudden palpitations. “So we need to run, man! Let’s go!”

Draco grabbed Gerard’s shirt and tried to pull him along, but Gerard calmly placed his hand over Draco’s grip on his shirt and allowed his eyes to fade back to the light green color they had always been. “Relax brother. I don’t know exactly why, but we’re supposed to be here right now. Give me a moment and we’ll get out of this, ok?”

Draco released him and watched as his brother’s eyes lit up in bright blue again. A few moments passed and Draco could hear the goblin's cries as they made their way up the slippery hill behind the boys.

“Uh, Gerard. Now might be a REALLY good time to make that mask do something cool.” said Draco.

Gerard grinned for a moment as he continued to look around the clearing. “Are my eyes really glowing right now? That’s sick.”

“Not the point Gerard!”

“Haha, I know, I know. Follow me.”

Not a moment too late, Gerard pushed Draco down into some thick foliage so they could watch the goblin’s come over the hill. The tiny creatures stood just over 3 feet tall. Draco could have punted one of them out of his way if there weren’t so many all armed with a bizarre array of weaponry like serrated swords, double-handed axes that would have been a one-handed hatchet for either of the boys, tiny bows made out of some thorny black branch giving them an insidious appearance. The tiny creatures moved across the dark forest floor like an army of ants marching to war with dark green skin that allowed them to melt into the shadows. It was a terrifying scene to watch unfold, but the worst part was the sounds they made. Tiny cackles, snorts, and hisses filled the air as they tried to sniff the boys out with their long pointy noses.

“Can they smell us Gerard?” Draco asked in the softest voice he could muster.

Gerard didn’t answer. Instead he reached out his hand and laid it on Draco's shoulder. “Whatever you do, don’t scream.”

Just then, Draco felt a weight lay itself down across his legs. “Gerard what is that? What is that??”

Gerard just sank his fingers into Draco’s shoulder and whispered with deadly seriousness in his voice. “Do...not...scream.”

The weight continued to creep along Draco’s leg like a long flexible log was slowly falling on top of him. That’s when the long deep hsssssssssssssss sound suddenly filled the air and a forked tongue flicked Draco’s ear. It was a python slithering it’s way over the two boys. Alarms went off in Draco’s head and he made a move to stand up and shake the creature off of him, but felt Gerard’s hand push him down into the ground once again. Draco jerked his head towards his brother in shock, but saw Gerard was silently pointing a finger towards a goblin that was getting especially close to their hiding spot.

Fear silenced Draco as the little goblin approached close enough to the bush that they could see the wrinkles on it’s nose when it sniffed the air. As the goblin got closer, Draco could feel the snake start to tense up and pool more of it’s coils on top of his relatively small body compared to the size of the massive python.

The boy’s watched a wicked grin stretch across the goblin’s face before it suddenly lunged forward to part the leaves and expose the boys. Draco only got a tiny glimpse of the Goblin’s grin twisting itself into an expression of horror before the snake lunged forward and almost completely engulfed the Goblin’s head. The force of the python’s strike had driven Draco into the ground hard enough to bruise his ribs and knock the wind out of him. Nonetheless, Gerard was now grabbing Draco’s wrist and pulling him to his feet out of the reach of the python that was slowly strangling the life out of the helpless Goblin.

“Come on pal.” whispered Gerard, still aware of the countless other goblins in the forest. “You’ve almost made it.”

With Draco wheezing, Gerard dragged them over to a fallen tree and finally allowed Draco to sit down and clutch his pained ribs. Gerard did a quick survey of his brother’s chest and ribs. “You might have one cracked rib, Draco. We can get this fixed up and ready to go tonight, but right now I need you to stand up and draw your bow.”

Draco was surprised to see he was still holding the longbow in his hand when he looked down. “Not...enough...arrows.” He gasped out. Despite the pain, he could tell he was slowly regaining his ability to breathe normally again.

With the mask still on, Gerard smiled back at Draco. “You only need one,” he said as he drew an arrow out of Draco’s quiver and pointed over the fallen tree. “We’ve got help.”

Draco had been wondering why the goblins hadn’t found them yet. Hoisting himself up to look over the body of the large fallen tree, Draco was met by the sight of real battle for the first time in his life. There were five humanish looking people that were all cloaked in faded blue robes battling the hoard of goblins that were fearlessly hurling themselves towards the blue cloaked warriors. Draco was in awe, but brought back to the present by his brother’s voice in his ear.

“Do you see the one in the light blue with the sword, Draco?”

Scanning the crew, Draco’s eyes found a warrior with a slightly brighter blue cloak dancing through the goblins like it was a rehearsed performance. As one lobbin leaped off the low branch of a tree, the warrior shis-ka-bobbed the surprised little creature with the blade of their sword. Using the impaled body like a projectile flung out of an atlatl, the blue cloaked figure hurled the lifeless gobblin into a group of charging goblins several steps away.

“I see her, Gerard.” said Draco.

“Good. Now look just over their right shoulder into that little cluster of trees...Do you see it?”

It was like peering through a pinhole in the forest as dozens of trees blocked most straight lines of sight. But Gerard had chosen the only area near the battle with a straight line of sight to the sneaky goblin archer waiting patiently in the tree almost 30 yards away. “I see him, Gerard.”

Gerard nodded and presented Draco the arrow he had taken from his quiver. “You’ve got a few moments before that little guy gets a shot at one of our friends in blue. I need you to use your bow to stop him before he gets that chance. Whenever you’re ready.”

Draco gulped. He had shot rabbits before and a deer once when Gerard and him really needed food, but this was the first time he was taking part in battle. It wasn’t that he felt bad since the goblins would eat him if he didn’t kill them first, but he knew that killing in battle like this would cross a line he would not be able to come back from. He was scared, but he knew his brother would not ask him to kill like this unless it was absolutely necessary. He had to trust taking this shot was the right thing to do.

Accepting the arrow from Gerard, Draco knocked his bow and ran his fingers over the dark brown wood to appreciate the weapon and it’s tremendous capabilities before he fired it. Drawing back on the heavy bow for a boy of his age was hard in itself, but with his cracked rib protesting, it was brutal to pull on the string.

“Good Draco.” whispered Gerard in a reassuring voice. “Stay focused, you can do it.”

Gerard’s words seemed to steal some of the pain from Draco’s ribs, allowing him to draw the bow all the way back into firing position. His aim wavered in the air for a few moments as he peered through the tiny line of sight to the Goblin in the tree. Breathing deeply, he watched the tiny creature start to draw it’s own bow getting ready to fire on the blue cloaked people that had saved their lives. Draco couldn’t let that happen. Feeling a wave of confidence wash over him, he whispered, “Got you.” and let the arrow fly.

As if in slow motion, Draco and Gerard watched the arrow zip through the trees. It whizzed over the head of a nearby goblin distracting him for just long enough for a blue cloak weilding an axe to decapitate his tiny green head...the arrow continued and brushed it’s feathers ever so slightly on the edge of a tree trunk as it neared the tiny archer in the tree, altering the trajectory of the arrow from between the Goblin’s eyes to left and downward so that the arrow pierced through the goblin’s wrist holding the bow, completely severing his hand. The little green creature screamed as the limbs of the bow shot back towards his face and knocked him out of the tree.

The blue cloak with the sword finished off a goblin with a hammer probably stolen from a carpenter's shop and looked over their shoulder in surprise at the goblin archer that had fallen from the tree and was now writing in pain on the ground. The blue cloak briefly glanced in the boy’s direction while casually walking over to the goblin to silence him with a stab through the chest.

Draco felt Gerard’s hand on his shoulder again. “Drop the bow. Time to make some new friends.”

Looking over, Draco saw his brother had removed the Soul Mask and now stood with his hands high in the air. Draco mimicked him and watched as the blue cloaks descended on their position in a semi circle now that the goblins were taken care of.

None of them had put down their weapons yet and it was making the boys nervous as the seconds ticked by. The leader, who Draco had saved with his incredible arrow shot, finally wiped their blade clean and removed their hood to reveal a blue skinned woman with a smirk on her face. “Nice shot human.”

Her voice was deep, yet distinctly femine and washed over her tongue like waves on the ocean, rising and falling in rhythm almost hypnotically. Draco and Gerard looked back at each other trying to find the right words, but none came out.

“Not big for talking huh?” The woman’s chuckle bubbled through the air. “That’s alright. I owe you dinner at least. Follow me.”

The blue cloaks surrounded the boys and began herding them like sheep through the forest. Draco looked over his shoulder wondering whether or not their horses got away from the hoard, but caught a glimpse of the python slithering away with a goblin sized bulge mid way down it’s body...

Chapter 3: Welcome To The Beach

The boys had never felt more safe surrounded by the towering figures of the blue cloaks. All of them had blue skin that was almost scaly, but each was inexplicably beautiful and all spoke in a similar deep, bubbling, and hypnotic voice. Of the 5 warriors, 2 were women and 3 were men. They all introduced themselves with brilliant smiles, but the twins were so overwhelmed that the only name they could remember was swordswoman’s that led the troop named Kali.

They were led through the forest by the blue cloaks for several minutes before the jungle floor dropped away before them, leaving them on a beachside cliff looking out over the ocean. Without warning, Kali shouted, “Whoohooo!” and leaped off the cliff. The boys quickly ran after her as an instinct to watch her fall, but they could spot no sign of Kali as they looked down off the cliff. Spinning around with expressions of horror on their faces, the boys were met by laughter as the other 4 blue cloaks chuckled among themselves.

“What happened? Is she ok?” demanded Gerard suddenly feeling very protective of the woman who had invited them back to dinner.

“Ah relax little human.” rumbled one of the male blue cloaks. “Grab onto my back.”

Gerard did so without question causing Draco to shake his head back and forth. “You know he’s just gonna-” “Ahhhhhh!” Draco was interrupted by Gerard’s shout as the male launched himself off the cliff with Gerard on his back.

This time Draco watched as they fell and seemed to disappear under a ledge on the cliff. “Well, they probably aren’t dead.” he thought to himself. Spreading his arms out wide to the remaining 3 blue cloaks he stated, “I’m not a fan of this…” he pointed at the cliff to emphasize his point, “...at all. But a magical little girl with tentacles for legs said I was supposed to ‘find allies’ when I was out here on the road. So take me.”

The blue cloaks looked back and forth at each other in confusion for a moment. Shaking themselves out of confusion with a laugh, the other female blue cloak approached him. She was much larger than the average woman and carried a 2-handed-axe on her back like it was a child’s toy. “I like you little boy.” she said and affectionately rubbed his head. Draco was put at instant ease as her voice spilled out like velvet. “Hop on.” she commanded. When Draco was secured, the woman ran and leapt off the cliff edge just like the other 2 blue cloaks had done before them. As they fell, the woman grabbed onto a wooden bar hidden just below a small ledge on the cliff side and flung them into a cave far hidden in the side of the cliff.

Draco closed his eyes and braced for the impact, but the woman landed in a pond inside the cave entrance that absorbed all the momentum they had built up. Unprepared for the pond, Draco sucked in a lungful of water in surprise and had to be pulled out by the large woman to keep him from drowning. As he recovered from choking out water on the cave floor, Draco began to notice the marvel of where they were. This cave was basically a small village built into the side of the beach cliff!

The jagged and harsh cliffs had been filed away to leave smooth, beautiful huts for a dozen or so families of blue cloaks. All around Draco there were beautiful people looking at him with fascination and concern as he recovered from his near drowning incident. Looking around, he found Gerard standing over him with a stupid grin on his face. “That was pretty cool wasn’t it, Draco?”

Before he got the chance to express the amazement he had that Gerard had somehow led them here, they were interrupted by the blow of a conch shell that silenced the crowd. It was Kali.

“We are honored to welcome guests back into our home today!” she shouted from a natural rock stage towards the back of the cave. Cheers filled the room from the blue cloaks.

“On our patrol today we finally tracked down the goblin hoard that has been hunting travelers and found many more goblins than we expected. There might have been over 40 of them supplied with the Queen’s weapons.”

The crowd took a collective gasp and moved closer to the stage. Gerard and Draco followed instinctively.

“Queen’s weapons?” muttered Draco to Gerard.

Gerard shook his head. “It makes sense I guess. My guess would be she wants people to stay in the towns and cities so she has more control over them. I wouldn’t be surprised if they used the goblins as an excuse to up the taxes and ‘get rid of the bandits'.”

“Not to mention they were gonna eat us. That’s uncool too.” added Draco.

Their attention was drawn back to Kali when she pointed towards the boys, “We slayed the goblins today. But these two human boys saved me from a goblin archer I didn’t see.” The crowd of smiling faces turned back towards the boys. “So tonight?! We celebrate these two and treat them as our guests!”

The crowd stood up to cheer for Kali and shoved Draco and Gerard toward the front of the stage. Kali smiled and hoisted the boys up onto her speaking platform by their arms and presented them like prizes to the crowd of blue cloaks. “Let us eat!” she proclaimed.

Chapter 4: History Of The Mask

“Dude, did you know all of this was going to happen when you put on the mask?” Draco had Gerard cornered in one of the villagers' homes who had offered to let them store their gear there.

Gerard shrugged his shoulders. “It’s hard to explain man...I don’t see the future. I can just feel where to go. It’s kinda like playing follow the leader and trusting that life will fall into place when we get there.”

“Well what about how we got here? Did you see Kali? Do you know what these people are?”

“Draco, chill with the questions man.” Gerard pushed past Draco to his bag where he pulled out the shiny black mask made of an unknown material. “I can’t answer most of what you’re asking me. All I know is that I had a feeling that we would run into someone friendly if we hid in that bush with the snake. But the weird part is that this mask actually really likes these people, man.”

“Wait, like...the mask has feelings?”

“I...yeah...yeah I guess that’s what it felt like when I was wearing it.”

The curtain doors suddenly opened, revealing two of the blue cloaks that had saved them in the forest. Gerard tucked the mask behind his back.

Suspicion crossed the faces of the blue cloaks. “It is time. Your presence is requested at the fire. You will eat first as our guests.”

Gerard stammered, “O, that’s very kind of you. If you’ll just give me a moment to-”

“No.” Interrupted one of the blue cloaks. “Our people are hungry and they are waiting on you. You will come now.”

Gerard did his best to hide the mask, but it was no use. The blue cloaks grabbed both of the boys and quickly discovered the mask. “That was a gift.” groaned Gerard as the mask was pried from his hands.

The larger of the two men studied the mask for a moment. “Kaili was right, they were hiding something.” They murmured to each other for a moment, turning the mask over several times to study the smooth unnatural material. In silent acknowledgement, they grabbed the boys' wrists and hauled them out towards the fire despite Draco and Gerard shouting at them.

As they neared the fire, the boys could see the rest of the tribe feasting around what seemed to be an abnormally large fish of some kind suspended over the fire on a spit roaster.

“But I thought you said you were waiting for us?” Draco pouted up at his captor.

The blue man looked back down at him with emotionless eyes. “I lied.”

The boys caught a glimpse of Kali sitting on a chair shaped rock closest to the fire and quickly started shouting her name. “Kali! Kali they won’t let us go! Help!”

The beautiful blue skinned woman didn’t even acknowledge their shouts for help as they were dragged through the crowd of sitting blue cloaks. Gerard and Draco were thrown down in front of Kali while she peacefully bit into a piece of greasy fish mixed with berries that dribbled juice down her chin.

“Was I right? Are they with the Queen?” she asked the two men that had dragged the boys out to the fire.

The men revealed the mask and presented it to her. “We do not know, but we saw them trying to hide this.”

Kali looked up and sucked in a chestful of air in surprise, almost choking on her fish. “Is that...” she spoke to herself as she snatched the mask from the men and ran her fingers over it. The mask had deepened it’s black color in Kali’s hands and sparkled like stars in the night sky.

Unsheathing her sword, Kail balanced the mask on the steel bade and extended it into the fire for a few moments. Gerard tried to lunge at her in an attempt to save the mask from it’s fiery fate, but was held back once again by one of the men. Kali seemed too entranced in the mask to even notice Gerard’s cries for the mask to be saved. She kept the sword and mask in the flames long enough for her blade to start glowing from the heat and brought the mask back to her. Testing the heat of the mask with her long fingers, she seemed pleased and laid down her sword so she could hold the mask in both of her hands. “Still cool to the touch.” she said out loud for no one in particular to hear.

“That’s mine!” shouted Gerard again.

As if hearing his protests for the first time, Kali looked from the boys to the mask several times and let a sly grin spread over her face. She closed the distance between her and Gerard and knelt down in front of him. In an almost mocking voice she said, “No little boy. You’re queen stole this mask from a great king that brought peace to our land. I would know. My ancestors were the ones who helped forge this mask centuries ago with a Yagga.”

Draco interrupted this time. “A Yagga gave that mask to us! Not the Queen!”

Kali caught her words in her throat and threw Draco a vicious look. “How dare you lie to me in my own home. We know the Queen has kept this mask hidden away in her vault for years. And even if you were telling the truth, no Yagga would simply give you the mask…” Kali caught her words. “Unless…” she raised the mask towards Gerard’s face and saw it start to pulse with blue magic. “It can’t be.” She let go of the mask and allowed it to travel through the air on it’s own before suction cupping itself to Gerard’s face. “Let him go.” she commanded.

Gerard’s eyes lit up like tiny blue fires. Now released, he stood up and examined the cave like it was the first time he had been there. His mouth stretched into a warm smile as his eyes came to rest on Kali. “I’m no mind reader Kali, but I have a feeling your ancestors would be so proud of you if they could be here today.

Chapter 5: Alliance

Draco shook his head and looked at Kali. “Wait, so why did you think we were part of the Queen’s army again?”

Kali laughed through a mouthful of fish. “It’s not often that we see two human boys tagging alongside a goblin hoard armed to the teeth with Queen’s weapons Draco. I’m sure you can understand my suspicion.”

Draco nodded his head in acknowledgement. “Fair enough.”

The boys now sat with the blue cloaks around one of the two large bonfires in the cave. There were close to 50 blue cloaks in total, so cramming around one fire was much too crowded. Gerard had removed the mask so they could sit next to Kali and figure out exactly what this strange place was.

Kali laughed again as she stabbed another piece of fish with her sword and raised it over the fire. “To think, 20 minutes ago I was thinking about how I was gonna kill you two!” She slapped her knee and coaxed several other blue cloaks around the fire to join in on the laughter. Draco looked at Gerard with horror written on his face. Gerard just shrugged; a way of saying, “We’re not dead yet though right?” to Draco in their unspoken language.

Gerard spoke up before the awkward moment could set too far in. “Kali, if you don’t mind me asking...what are you? I’ve never seen any of your people before.”

“That is an interesting, and kind of sexy story that may have to wait until you’re older to hear.” She had withdrawn her piece of fish from the fire and was now bouncing it up and down in her hands while it cooled off. “Here’s the...ooo hot...PG version kids. We are a mix between the Karkharos and the forest elves. Both of which lended their magic to help make that little mask of yours, Gerard.”

She motioned towards the mask hanging off of Gerard’s pack and paused to carefully bite into the oily fish in her hands that was finally cooling down enough for her to hold. “You see, the Karkharos - my ancestors - weren't necessarily a fan of the Queen deciding this was her land and submitting to her taxes and laws. So...they fought.”

The boys were leaning in closer to Kali now, transfixed with the story. “What is a Karkharos?”

“One of the few ancient creatures native to Aumon. Most species, like the forest elves, came from Earth - the home of the humans. The Karkharos were different...special.”

“What happened to them?” prodded Gerard.

Kali’s hand touched her forehead with three fingers before making a fist over her heart. The motion rippled through all of the Karkharos/elf hybrids sitting around the fire.

“They died.” stated Kali. “All of them died.”

The fire was silent for several moments. Then one of the blue cloaks across the fire spoke up. “But not us.”

Kali smiled weakly. “That’s right. Not us. When the first of us were born, we were thought of as deformities, genetic novelties that were mostly ignored by outsiders. No one thought we would grow up to be faster, stronger, and so much smarter than the Queen’s troops.”

That prompted murmurs of agreement from the rest of the blue cloaks sitting round the fire.

“We were left here with a few caretakers whose names have been lost to time. Our numbers were close to a hundred at one point, but that’s when the Queen’s army found us. They pretended to be welcoming, told us they would send back negotiators in a few days to work out the terms. I should have known better…” Kali’s eyes were watery as she relived the memory in her mind's eye.

“They came at night. They set our homes on fire while we slept and we lost so many...but they didn’t expect us to fight back. We-” she motioned around the cave with a big sweep of her arm “-were able to escape to this old place where the forest elves and Karkharos first befriended each other.”

The boys let the emotion of the moment sink in for a moment with the occasional crackle from the fire being the only noise that broke the silence. Gerard finally spoke, “Well Kali...you know Draco and I aren’t just here on vacation. The mask led us here...and I think it was to help you.”

Even in the dimly lit cave Kali’s smile sparkled in the glow of the fire. “The Soul Mask. I can’t believe it… It’s great that you two and the mask are here Gerard, but do you even know what we’re trying to do?”

“The Yagga that gave us the mask told us we were supposed to take back the weapons the Queen uses to control the people. When I put on the mask I could feel a sword call us here to find it, but that’s all I know.”

The smiles around the fire faltered. With a crestfallen voice Kali said, “It’s called The Archipelago Sword, and it’s not just something you ‘find’ boys. “Adonis, the ruler of the Archipelago, is the keeper of the sword. We have to take it from him...and that’s easier said than done.”

“Ok…” said Draco. “Where is this ‘ruler of the Archipelago’? It’s hard to imagine we can lose if we have The Soul Mask. What Gerard did with the goblins today was phenomenal. If we can get Gerard to the sword then we should be all set to go, right?”

Kali looked around at her brothers and sisters listening intently to their conversation, then back at the boys. “Maybe.” she admitted. “Adonis hasn’t been seen by anyone for several years. He’s probably holed up in his castle from the stories we’ve heard from our contacts in the city. He might not have swung the blade for a while and that would put us at a huge advantage.”

The twins perked up, “Great!” They said in unison. “Just point us in the direction of the castle and we can go tomorrow!”

“STOP.” The joyful moment was interrupted by a much older blue cloak that had walked over from the other bonfire and now hovering behind Kali menacingly. “What Kali didn’t tell you is that we’ve already sent two spies to infiltrate the castle and neither have come back. Adonis could send Queen’s troops here any day if they were captured, which is why we should be focussing on moving rather than attacking an impenetrable castle on an island.”

The boys noticed several of the blue cloaks nod their head in agreement. Kali quickly turned around to argue with the older blue cloak and gave Gerard and Draco space to talk among themselves. “Looks like some sort of medicine man.” Draco noted. Gerard grunted in agreement.

“Hey.” Draco nudged his brother on the shoulder. “How do you feel about this whole thing man? Are you picking up any clues from the mask about what we’re getting into?”

Gerard let out a deep breath. “I don’t know what the sword does yet Draco, but I can feel the power from it when I hold the mask. Just think about what the Yagga could do. She is hiding on a hill in a castle rather than getting these weapons for herself, and she could have killed us in a heartbeat. If something like that is too scared to go after The Archipelago Sword…” Gerard trailed off.

Draco sat back and examined his thoughts for a moment as the blue cloaks continued to bicker among themselves. “Well...the mask wouldn’t bring us this far if it knew we couldn’t win, right? I mean, with that stuff you pulled with the goblins today, man? We’ve got to stand a chance.”

Gerard nodded quietly as the blue cloaks reached the peak of their argument.

“I AM CHIEF OF THIS TRIBE AND I WILL NOT BE CHALLENGED.” Kali had stood up and was now glaring at the old man with fire in her eyes. Reluctantly, the old man backed down casting his gaze towards the floor. Satisfied but still fired up, Kali called to the rest of the tribe to gather around their fire and stood up on the rock she had been sitting on to make herself visible. Gerard and Draco were squished together as people clamored to get closer to their leader as she began her speech.

“My people! For too long, we have lived in the shadows, hiding in what used to be OUR land from a cruel army that serves injustice to the people of Aumon. Every day people in the Archipelago are wronged, and we do nothing to help them. Up until today, we had reason to be afraid. Afraid that we would lose our way of life if we were discovered again, afraid that we would be exterminated if the Queen knew where we were hiding.” Kali motioned towards the boys. “But today, The Soul Mask has come back to us. It possesses the power of our ancestors and can give us the power to overthrow Adonis and bring freedom to the Archipelago once again!”

Cheers rose up around the fire. Gerard and Draco watched Kali drink in the respect and admiration given to her by the blue cloaks before expelling it out to her people and drinking it in again like a never-ending feedback loop of positive reinforcement. Although the boys didn’t know it yet, this night would serve as a reminder for them for the rest of their journey across Aumon. There are two ways to become powerful in the world. You can push down the people who follow you to create the illusion of power like the Queen did...or you can lift the people around you up to create true power among you and your people.

“But now, you must make a decision.” Kali trailed off into a quiet and intense voice just loud enough for the crowd to hear her. “The weapon we seek to claim from the ruler of the Archipelago is not a weapon to be underestimated. There are stories of The Archipelago Sword slashing through a dozen soldiers with one swipe. If you choose to come with me to claim this weapon and free the Archipelago from the Queen’s influence, you are subject to have this weapon used against you; and I do not know if you, or any of us for that matter, will make it back alive. So if you choose to join me and these two boys to reclaim our land, this is a risk you knowling undertake.” She paused to let the room process her words before continuing. “Who will join us?”

The boys were impressed to see almost every hand in the cave go up immediately. Looking at each other for a moment was all it took to come to a silent agreement before Gerard and Draco shot up their hands as well. Chills made their way through the room as Kali drank in the moment for a few seconds before saying, “We leave tomorrow.”

Chapter 6: Infiltration

The boys slept in the next morning with the blue cloaks to recover from their late night of planning and replanning their infiltration plan.

The capital city of the Archipelago was called Calaco and was nestled deep among the islands on the largest piece of land in the Archipelago. Because of that, it required them to take a ferry before they could arrive at the gates to the city over a mile away from the mainland. With 29 volunteered blue cloaks, this was no easy feat though. No one would be prepared to see 29 blue skinned, gorgeous people board their ferry. Word would certainly get out and doom their plan.

After some back and forth, it was decided that Kali and the boys would pose as travelers and board a ferry during the busiest part of the day to avoid scrutiny from any of the crew. Word might get out, but this way they would be able to scout out the city in advance and plan ahead while they waited for the rest of their small army to swim to the city under the cover of night for an ambush. The mile long swim might have been difficult for a normal person, but the blue cloaks were were half Karkharos, ancient humanoid creatures that never left the oceans and lakes of Aumon, and this made the blue cloaks far more capable swimmers than anybody Gerard or Draco had ever met.

Gerard briefly put on the mask before they left to see if he could sense anything in the air, but the only information he was able to come up with was that they needed to go towards Calaco and find the sword.

“If that’s all you got we might as well get a move on boys.” said Kali as she strapped her sword to her belt. “You might want to take the mask off as well. People around here will ask questions.”

Begrudgingly, Gerard slipped the mask off knowing Kali was right. “You ready Draco?” he asked.

Draco nodded and slipped his bow over his back. He had been practicing shooting early in the morning down on the beach before Gerard had woken up. Without the luxury of the most powerful magical artifact ever created in his pocket, Draco had decided it would be best to be prepared for a fight.

Kali walked to the entrance to the cave and shouted out at the blue cloaks. “It’s time! Let’s move!”

With the sun high in the sky, Gerard and Draco were able to see the islands of the Archipelago stretched out over the horizon. It was possible to just faintly see the tall turrets of the castle from the mouth of the cave. Even at a distance the castle looked intimidating. At only 15 years old each, Gerard and Draco were about to begin their first castle siege.

They split with the blue cloaks several miles later as they came to a heavily traveled road close to the ferry port. Kali drew up her hood to hide her face and Gerard made sure to tuck his mask away in his bag for safe keeping. This road to the port had a long line of travelers on it during this time of day, so they fell in behind a covered wagon filled with the aromas of spices from all over the world. Even as they walked, an old woman riding in the back of the wagon offered them yellow powders, delicious smelling purple flowers, and orange roots from an unidentified plant in the Western mountains. Draco did his best to wave her off, but she was persistent...only stopping when she finally caught a glimpse of Kali’s blue face under her hood. Gasping, the old woman fell backwards into the wagon and tightly closed the cloth covering behind her.

“Well this is off to a great start.” muttered Kali.

By the time they reached the port, they were surrounded by a sea of people desperately trying to buy their way onto the ferries with anything they owned. People offered shoes, weapons, and even the clothes off their backs to varying degrees of success with the soldiers that stood guard at the docks.

“Why do so many people want to go to Calaco, Kali?” asked Draco.

“Look around. People don’t have any money here on the mainland. All the food they grow here gets shipped to Calaco to feed Adonis and his rich, Queen loving friends.” answered Kali.

Draco looked around at the decrepit homes and hungry people. Up the coast at the village Gerard and him grew up at they always found food when they needed it, although there were quite a few nights they spent with growling stomachs. But it seemed like here there were A LOT more people to feed and A LOT more soldiers stealing food from hard working people. It gave him chills to think about what these people had to go through...

Kali had brought a decent amount of money to buy them speed through the crowds, so they found their way to a line of nicely dressed people who were paying to board what was by far the nicest ferry in the port. As they neared the front of the line they were able to clearly make out the fresh coat of dye painted across the hand carved wood on the boat. Across the hull in black curly letters it read, “Nymph’s Fantasy” with a blue woman wearing a revealing bikini that somewhat resembled Kali’s people.

“I thought you guys were a secret around here?” asked Draco, pointing at the boat hull.

Kali groaned in annoyance at the crude image. “It’s not like no one’s ever seen us. We buy spices and things from a merchant or two that we trust.”

Gerard and Draco didn’t question it any further and let their gaze wander to the women who had painted their bodies blue and were already boarding the boat in their own private line. Gerard whispered to Kali, “Do not show your face.” but it was too late.

There was already a soldier approaching them with a hearty smile on his face. He stopped Kali with a hand on her shoulder. “Mam, dancers are supposed to be in that line.”

The boys watched as Kali’s anger rose and her hand twitched towards her blade. “Might wanna get ready Draco.” sighed Gerard as he pulled the mask out of his bag and hid it under his shirt.

“I’ve never seen a dancer with a sword before. Is this part of your act?” the soldier continued as he grabbed Kali’s arm and started pulling her towards the other line. The boys caught one last glance of Kali’s light blue face beginning to flush a hue of purple before she shot her head forward and smashed the soldier's nose with her forehead.

“That’s our que.” proclaimed Draco and started pushing aside guests as making his way towards the front of their line. The soldier at the front tried to stop them but choked on his words when Draco kicked him in the groin. Gerard took the opportunity and shoved the soldier into the water where he was quickly dragged to the bottom thanks to the weight of his dark red armor.

The chaos from the other side of the boat where the dancers were boarding was growing in volume as people screamed and soldiers cried out in pain. Guests were diving off the boat in troves like professional divers as Kali walked through the guards that were feebly trying to defend the boat. When Kali finally boarded the ship, she hadn’t even drawn her sword yet. Blood was splattered on her face from breaking the one soldier's nose with her headbutt, but other than that it had been a fairly gentle beatdown on the men guarding the ferry. The boys were surprised it wasn’t worse given she was breathing so hard, not from being tired, but more from rage at the insult of having exotic dancers portray her people. Now the only people left on board were a couple of dancers that started screaming when Kali finally saw them huddling in a corner.

Gerard left Draco to ease Kali’s temper and put on the mask in hopes that it would help him undock the ship. Without really knowing what he was doing, Gerard released the square sail which caught an immediate headwind and lurched them away from the dock. Quickly steering the boat straight to align with the wind pushing them out towards the Archipelago, Gerard had effectively sailed them into temporary safety. With the power of the mask, he could sense the extraordinary danger waiting for them when they landed on the island that held the city of Calaco. There was a small peninsula on the corner of the island that felt less dangerous than all the other options they had to dock. “It will have to do.” he said out loud to himself.

Meanwhile, Kali had drawn her sword and was now shouting at the few women dancers left onboard the ship. Draco had put himself between Kali and the women. “Kali, please take a moment to consider calming down. You just beat like 6 armed soldiers with your fists, no reason to use your sword on some civilians.”

Recovering from her anger a little, Kali looked at Draco and muttered with a hint of disappointment. “I wasn't actually gonna use it…” and stuffed her sword back into it’s sheath.

“Don’t worry Kali, you’ll get your chance.” interrupted Gerard as he walked out of the wheelhouse with the mask on and his eyes glowing faintly blue. “The guards on the island have already been alerted we are coming-” He pointed to a flare that had risen into the sky from the port they had just come from. “-and they are going to be more than happy to use their weapons on us.”

Draco ran his hands down his face in frustration. “Nothing like a perfectly good plan to go to waste.”

Kali just grinned. “I’ve been waiting to get my hands on these bastards for a while. Bring it on.”

Gerard’s eyes glowed brighter blue as he relayed the hints gifted to him from the Soul Mask back to Kali and Draco. “I bet the soldiers will come looking for us when we land. That will leave Adonis more exposed than he normally is.” Gerard looked strained as he searched for more information from the mask, but after a few moments his eyes faded back to their normal color. “That’s all I can sense for now.”

Chapter 7: Holding Out For A Hero

The soldiers were already charging down the beach towards them when they landed the ship on a long sandbar East of the city. There were far too many to fight, forcing them to have a footrace against the red armored soldiers to the main beach and the forest beyond before they could be cut off on the sandbar. Kali was much faster than the boys and would have made it without a problem, but she slowed her pace enough to let Gerard guide them with The Soul Mask. As a trio, they made it off the sand bar and into the forest with the soldiers only a few seconds behind them.

With Gerard in the lead, they soon lost the soldiers due to Gerard’s magic ques from the mask that steered them away from danger, but they were far from free and clear. As they ducked back and forth from hiding spot to hiding spot, they counted over 30 soldiers searching for them. And one of them was a mage that could track them by bending the forest to his will. There only option was to keep moving.

“Shit.” whispered Kali as she saw the flower heads on the forest floor start to bend towards them again. “We can’t keep hiding like this with that mage letting everyone know where we are.” She silenced herself when a lone tusk soldier bursted through the undergrowth and spotted them. He was about to shout out the alarm to the rest of the men, but tripped over a tree root causing him to fly through the air and land in an awkward position that knocked the air out of his lungs.

“Draco.” said Gerard expectantly.

Grimacing at the act he was about to commit, Draco drew his bow and fired an arrow through the neck of the wheezing soldier. The death was quick, but not instant. Draco and Gerard watched in pain as their victim bled out 10 yards in front of them on the forest floor. Their life of innocence as children was over. Now they were killers.

Kali shook them out of their trance. “We have to move before the flowers lead the rest of them to us, Gerard. We can’t stay in one spot with that mage tracking us.” Gerard’s eyes lit up like blue fireworks yet again under the mask as he led them deeper into the coastal forest away from the soldiers. The problem with the mask was that Gerard could never be sure what was going to happen when it led them in a new direction. He only knew that he had to trust what it wanted to tell them.

For hours they went on playing cat and mouse. More soldiers were sent out to find them and the forest was soon illuminated with torches as the day turned to night. They were able to quietly kill a few soldiers with Draco’s remaining arrows, but most of the time they were just running to inevitably be found again by the mage they had yet to see.

During the day, the mage had used the flowers on the forest floor to point in their direction. But now that it was getting dark outside, it had become even worse with a trail of fireflies following the twins and Kali wherever they went. It was starting to look hopeless.

The new soldiers were well rested and ruthlessly pursued them through the forest. Kali was strong enough to keep outrunning them, but the boy's bodies were getting weak. Even with the help of the mask, almost every sprint they made through the forest resulted in more cuts and falls as they desperately tried to evade the soldiers.

Draco had run out of arrows and Kali had been forced into several small sword encounters to make up for their inability to kill at long range. Things were starting to look desperate for them when Gerard stopped suddenly, causing Kali to almost trip over the top of him.

“I need you to climb this tree.” said Gerard to Kali.

“What? They’ll find me! There must be 50 soldiers back there that can find us whenever they want!” she protested.

Gerard was firm. “I know. I still need you to stay here.”

“Gerard, I could die here! What are you talking about??”

“I don’t think you’ll die. I need you in this tree.”

Maybe it was something about the blue glowing eyes or the desire to go down fighting, but Kali believed him. She swallowed and climbed the tree while Gerard dragged Draco away leaving Kali alone in the ever darkening forest.

Kali grunted as she hauled her way into the tree high enough to escape the eyes of the soldiers (hopefully) but stay close enough to the ground to jump if she needed to. Watching the boys run into the forest, Kali couldn’t help but ask herself if they were saving themselves by sacrificing her.

Just as the boys' footsteps faded away, they were immediately replaced by the footsteps of over a dozen soldiers tromping through the night. She could see their torches swaying back and forth as they ran following a swarm of fireflies leading them in her direction. “Please no, please no, please no.” Kali chanted to herself. If the soldier’s found her now she was done for.

Like the tiny bugs had suddenly hit an air thermal, they rose into Kali’s tree and lit up around her like Christmas tree ornaments. This was it…

With no time to curse the boys for leaving her, Kali drew her sword and deflected an arrow from the soldiers off her blade purely by luck. She wasn’t going to let them have another chance at that. With a battle cry that could shake the soul of even the bravest soldier, Kali lept from the tree and crashed down into the soldiers like a giant bird of prey. Her first strike was strong enough to almost slice straight through the first soldier's torso. Ripping her blade free of him, she ran towards the other soldiers. She knew if they got the chance to surround her she would be dead. The only way to survive was to attack as ferociously as possible so they didn’t have a chance to organize themselves.

Little did she know, Gerard and Draco were watching from a nearby tree of their own. Had the soldiers looked through the night, they might have been able to see Gerard’s glowing eyes watching every move of the fight closely.

Draco was protesting to his brother. “Gerard, she’s gonna die if we don’t do something NOW. We have to help.”

Still calm, Gerard replied. “Just one more moment. It’s almost time.”

Kali had killed 3 of the soldiers so far and injured 2 more, but it was not enough. A large Tusk soldier had emerged from the forest with a sword almost as tall as Kali and was now reigning down blows on her. She managed to deflect two of the heavy hits, but the third came too fast and sent her sword spiraling out of her hands.

“NOW Gerard!” Draco practically screamed as he began scrambling out of the tree.

Gerard didn’t stop his brother from running toward the battle. He just smiled. “They’re here.”

The fireflies had dispersed from around the clearing and stopped their erratic behavior. It was the sign Gerard had been looking for that the mage was finally dead.

Erupting out of the undergrowth like panthers in the night, blue cloaks still dripping in water charged the soldiers from the back, killing 2 of the men before they even knew what hit them.

Seeing the sudden change in odds, soldiers flipped around to get into defensive formation. The large tusk fighting Kali was momentarily distracted and looked over his shoulder for a moment, and that’s when the twins plowed into his side.

The boys would not normally be enough to knock such a large armored tusk man over, but they had saved their daggers for this moment. Draco had impaled the tusk through the armor just above his boot, and Gerard stabbed through the unarmored back of the tusk’s knee.

Screaming in shock and pain, the tusk fell to the ground and flung Gerard across the forest floor with one hand and backhanded Draco hard enough to knock him out. Taking Draco around the throat with his free hand to strangle him and slashing his sword in Gerard’s direction where he was laying on the ground, the tusk would have killed both of them...if not for Kali.

In a lightning quick move, Kali kicked the broadside of the tusk’s sword causing his slash to miss Gerard by a hair and thud into the ground. Drawing her dagger, Kali fell with her full weight behind the point of the tiny blade through the helmet eye hole of the soldier with pinpoint accuracy. He let out a tiny shriek before his arms went limp, releasing Draco and the huge sword he had almost killed Gerard with.

“You came back.” croaked Kali in a soft voice on the edge of tears. Ignoring her, Gerard pushed past Kali to his unconscious brother. “Draco? Draco you in there buddy?”

Draco coughed as he woke up. When he caught a glimpse of Gerard’s teary eyes not glowing blue behind the mask, he chuckled a bit. “Awww, look who cares.”

Kali smiled as the boys had their moment, but quickly turned her attention back to the battle going on behind them. Her people must have left early after they saw the flare on the beach and gotten here just in time. There were maybe 30 Queen’s soldiers left in total emerging through the brush and finding the scene of the battle, but all 29 of the blue cloaks were still standing. Each of them was equal to at least 3 of the Queen’s soldiers, but Kali still wanted to help. Rising to find her sword, Kali was stopped by Gerard calling her name.

“Kali. There’s no time. We need to get to the castle now if we want to get to The Archipelago Sword.”

Kali watched as his eyes lit up blue again, signaling that the mask was influencing his words. With one last glance at her people slicing through soldiers, Kali stood and walked to help Gerard and Draco to their feet. “Where too?” she asked.

“Don’t know.” said Gerard. “I know we’re going to need that tusk’s sword though.” pointing at the massive sword soldier had just tried to kill them with.

“Might as well just ask me to carry your mask wearing little ass.” she groaned to herself as she flung the huge blade over her shoulder.

“What was that?” asked Gerard, his eyes surprisingly human again in the glow of a torch dropped by one of the slain soldiers.

She smirked. “Nothing. Let’s go.”

Chapter 8: The Archipelago Sword

The night had gone from partial visibility to almost complete blackness. The only thing that lit up the night were Gerard’s eyes underneath the Soul Mask and the torch lights emanating from the city they were approaching. Although Calaco was ruled by an evil man named Adonis, it was hard not to admire the beauty of the place. They had been following a river up stream that had finally led them to the stone city. Even at night, the beauty of it all took their breath away.

Calaco was built on the stony crags towards the West side of the island about half a mile from the port most ferries landed at after leaving the mainland. Approaching the huge city for their first time from the East, Kali, Gerard, and Draco could see the whole city’s layout.

Calaco welcomed visitors to the city with the typical dirt road huts that Draco and Gerard had lived most of their lives in. But as you approached further you would be greeted with white and light grey stone walkways and bridges that led over tiny streams and up the sheer cliff walls towards the castle that was built on a plateau unlike anything else the boys had ever seen. Even Kali had never been this close to Calaco before.

The castle itself was only protected by the cliffs that led up to it. Though it was hard to see much other than the huge front gates of the castle and the guards that lined the long pathway up the cliff by their torch light, it was clear the castle was an architectural masterpiece on a grassy plateau high above the rest of the city.

“Incredible.” murmured Draco, receiving nods of approval from his companions.

“Just need to figure out how to get in.” said Kali as she and Draco both turned towards Gerard.

Taking the que, Gerard’s eyes lit up bright blue as he analyzed the beautiful city. “This way.”

The way into the city from the East was across a cobblestone bridge that led into the wilderness. Emerging from the forest like spirits illuminated in the light of The Soul Mask, Gerard, Draco, and Kali stayed low as they entered Calaco still lugging the huge long sword from the battle. Guards with torches patrolled back and forth, but with Gerard’s perception from the mask they could easily be avoided until they reached the pathway up the mountain. Five guards stood in their way and many dozens more walked back and forth along the steep trail.

“Is this the only way in?” asked Draco. Kali covered Gerard with her cloak while the magic from the mask glowed in the dark. “I don’t think so.” Gerard replied after a few moments. “Let’s try going this way.”

Leaving the pathway up the mountain behind them, Gerard led Kali and Draco into a patch of trees along the side of the plateau. The castle was still several hundred feet above them, but at least there were no guards patrolling this low. With the magic from the mask lighting up the night brighter than ever, Gerard began to run his hands along the steep stone cliffs. “There’s something here.” He murmured over his shoulder to his companions. Joining him in the search, Kali laid down the huge long sword and began running her hands along the stone as well. While Draco kept watch.

“Ah!” Gerard suddenly exclaimed. Kali drew her dagger, but was quickly reassured by Gerard. “Just a splinter. Wait...splinter? From a stone wall?”

Using his knuckles to knock, they heard an echoing sound from a wooden door. Gerard’s blue light illuminated the night to show the door had been dyed to blend in with light grey stones around it, making it almost invisible. The door wouldn’t open, but as Gerard studied it further he found a keyhole preventing them from getting in. “The sword.” he stated.

Kali and Draco quickly fetched the sword with each of them carrying one end in their hands and laid it in front of the door. After getting an eye on what they were dealing with, Kali shoed Draco off. “I got this one, Draco.”

Hoisting the huge blade up like a one person battering ram, Kali charged the door, landing the point of the sword right in the eye of the key hole. The door burst open and revealed to them a tiny staircase leading upwards.

Kali let out a cheer of triumph. “Yes! What do you see next Gerard?”

But the blue magic had faded out of Gerard’s eyes as he slumped up against the rock. “I...I feel...tired.” he murmured. Gerard slowly slid down the rock and sat down.

Draco rushed to catch him. “Gerard? What’s wrong man?” The blue magic had faded from the mask and left them shrouded in darkness.

Kali responded before Gerard could. “The mask must be taking energy from him to work. He’s been wearing it for hours. It needs to come off for now.”

Draco grunted in agreement and felt his way through the dark to remove The Soul Mask from Gerard. He was met by a few minor complaints from his brother, but Draco was able to take it off and find Kali in the dark to give it to her to tuck in her cloak.

“Ok, I guess we’re going in blind.” stated Kali.

The first few steps of the hidden staircase were illuminated ever so slightly by the moon before the secret passage plunged into darkness. They would have to find their way up without the mask. “Grab this.” she offered Draco the tail end of her cloak. “Don’t lose me in the dark.”

Draco helped his brother up. “Ok Gerard, looks like you get a break. Kali’s leading the way now.” Gerard grumbled as Draco pulled him to his feet. At least he could still walk. “Ok Kali, lead the way.”

Kali ran through several spider webs that coated her face and tangled in her hair as they wound their way through the dark using the walls of the small staircase as their guide. There was no way to tell how far they’d come or where they were in the dark. Their sense of touch and hearing was all they had. And with every breath they took the small staircase echoed their breathing back at them, almost like the walls were alive.

It seemed to take hours, but eventually they heard faint voices reverberating through the walls. They were close.

“How many men have we lost?”

“Over a hundred now sir.” replied a gruff voice.

A long pause followed and gave time for Kali to led the boys to a dead end that seemed to be right on the other side of the wall from the conversation. The voice that appeared to be in charge spoke again in a quiet voice that sounded like it was about to snap from anger.

“You’re telling me we’ve lost over one HUNDRED trained soldiers to blue cloaked bandits in the forest??”

“Sir...uh, these aren’t normal bandits. Several of our men have managed to escape and they tell stories unlike anything I’ve ever heard. I have three survivors here to tell you what they saw.”

Kali grinned to herself, knowing her people were more than prepared to take on an army so long as they had the forest for cover. These soldiers didn’t stand a chance.

“Hello your majesty.” said a male voice that wavered when he spoke. “My name is Suno and-” “I don’t care what your name is. What kind of bandit left you with wounds like that?”

“Yes...yes of course. They aren’t normal bandits sir. They’re well trained, more well trained than any soldier I’ve ever faced. They move like shadows in the dark and...they have blue skin.”

“I see. Suno, you’ve done me a great service by bringing back this information. But you and your men have retreated from battle, and the punishment for that is death.”

The sound of a sword being drawn echoed through the wall, but even more noticeable was the sudden power surge that filled the air. Kali nor the boys needed to see it to recognize that The Archipelago Sword had just been drawn.

“Your majesty please! Show mercy!” shouted the men. But it was no use. The sound of rushing water and screaming soldiers lasted for a moment before they turned into gurgles of drowning men.

“Give me the mask.” Gerard whispered through the dark. His voice still sounded weak, but Kali knew if they were going to face the power on the other side of the wall they needed an advantage of some sort. The mask glowed blue in Gerard’s possesion enough to light up the cavern for them to see where they were. It looked as if there was a rotating stone wall that opened up their passage. They could get through if they could find a lever of some sort.

“What do you see Gerard?”

Slipping off the mask after a few moments to preserve his energy he said, “I see...I don’t know. We need to get through that wall. Just give me a minute to rest.”

“Shit.” Kali cursed. “If he can’t wear the mask what are we supposed to do?”

Draco took the mask from Gerard and handed it to Kali for safe keeping.

“Just give him some time. If we’re going to open this passage we need Gerard to be able to fight more than we need him to wear the mask.”

Sighing deeply, Kali tucked the mask into her cloak and sat down in the dark passageway, listening intently to what was happening on the other side of the wall.

At least they had an advantage to spy on Adonis while they waited.

Chapter 9: Showdown

They had waited for an untraceable amount of time in the dark waiting for Gerard to recover. The good news was that they could hear everything said on the other side of the secret passage and were able to gain some good information.

They had worked out that there were 4 guards in the throne room with Adonis. Occasionally a messenger would come in from outside to update him, but if they timed their attack Kali knew she could likely take out all 4 men and block the door before reinforcements came if the boys could get the sword away from Adonis with a surprise attack.

Gerard was waking up from a little nap at last feeling more rested. “You guys got a plan yet?” he asked with a yawn.

“I’ll take that as a sign you’re feeling better.” smirked Draco. “Here’s what we think so far…”

------------------

“Ready?”

“Let’s do it.”

“3...2...1.” Kali, Draco, and Gerard rammed their shoulders into the wall of the secret passage causing the door to rotate just enough for them to slip through into the throne room.

There were 4 heavily armored guards in the room along with Adonis just as they had expected. But there were more reinforcements just outside that would come flooding in if they were called upon by their ruler. That was Kali’s job to take care of. If she could get her hands on one of the soldiers' swords, she could block the door and likely take care of all 4 guards. Gerard and Draco just had to distract Adonis long enough for her to take care of them.

A startled guard yelped as Kali tackled him to the ground and bashed his head on the floor, knocking him unconscious. She wrenched his sword from it’s scabbard just in time to deflect another soldier's overhead blow raining down on her. Gerard and Draco were close behind and leaped onto Adonis to prevent him from drawing The Archipelago Sword.

Panicking at the sudden attack, Adonis screamed, “GUARDS!!” as Draco and Gerard pulled him out of his throne to the ground in an attempt to undo his scabbard from his belt. It would have been the perfect chance for Kali to leap in and finish off the vicious man that had caused her people so much pain, but she had her hands full. Each of the soldiers in the throne room was an elite warrior that had clearly survived many battles during their lifetimes.

Kali sidestepped and dogged through the 3 remaining guards like a ballerina on stage, but every sword thrust she landed just bounced off their heavy metal armor. Frustrated, Kali changed direction and retreated towards the large wooden doors of the throne room and pushed the huge wooden beam locking mechanism into place. Now she could take her time to fight while the boys distracted the ruler of the Archipelago.

Adonis was no small man. Years of gluttony had left him easily outweighing both the boys put together with his massive gut. His weight made it hard to keep him down, but his lack of mobility made it easier for the boys to keep him from drawing The Archipelago Sword. Gerard’s hand was wrapped in the king’s hair and Draco was desperately trying to undo the scabbard that held The Archipelago Sword.

It was a mess of a sight. The room was filled with the grunts of effort from the boys struggling with Adonis and clanging of metal on metal as Kali fought the guards. The wooden doors were being pounded on by more soldier just outside trying to protect the ruler of the Archipelago. But in the middle of all this chaos, there was a shifting momentum building in the throne room. Kali had spotted an opening.

Kali was doing her best to deflect the guard's heavy blows with a two handed sword grip. Each of the elite guards were taking turns pushing the offensive, throwing a few heavy blows while the other two tried to flank Kali. It forced her to practically jog backwards across the smooth stone floor as her stolen blade became more and more chipped from blocking the swings from the guards. As she neared the far wall of the throne room, she planted her right foot and drove forward into the guard pushing her. Even though she succeeded in getting past his defenses, her sword simply bounced off his thick armor again and allowed the other two guards to surround her. She had only a fraction of a second to duck and roll under the middle guard's legs before two swords came crashing down into the stone floor where she had been only a moment earlier. As she rose to her feet, she could see a tiny band of exposed skin right at the base of the guard’s back as he hunched over recovering from her heavy thrust into his gut.

It was too late for her to take advantage of the opportunity, but now she had a plan. Falling back into a one handed fencer’s stance, Kali allowed the soldiers to attack in a reverse triangle formation. The guard on her right was first to swing his blade in a high arcing downward swing. Big mistake.

Raising her blade to meet the blow, Kali guided his sword down into the ground to her left as she spun out to the right. As the momentum of his blow carried him downward, Kali’s blade slipped out from under his sword and followed her like a long dancing ribbon in a full circle before it found it’s target in the tiny band of flesh exposed at the small of the guard’s back. It was not a lethal blow, but the effect was immediate. The man shrieked and fell forward like the figurehead on a ship with his chest puffed out as he clutched the large gash that had cut deep into his bottom vertebrae.

Kali had no time to celebrate as the second guard on her left swung in a large horizontal sweep from her left to right towards her neck. Ducking forward in the nick of time, Kali continued her momentum from her initial spin and pivoted her left foot outwards leaving the sword out far away from her body to pick up more momentum. Just as the soldier finished his swing, Kali’s arcing backswing crashed into the side of his left knee. Kali could not penetrate his armor, but a swing like that was strong enough to cave in the guard’s knee and take him out of the fight.

She felt more than saw the next swing coming. Her spin had left her in a crouched, cat-like position on the ground with her back to the third guard, and was not very defensible. Rolling to her right, Kali threw her sword up horizontally towards the sky guessing where the next swing would be coming from. Her years of training was the only thing that saved her as a huge blow from the third guard’s sword smashed into her blade. Her roll to the right just managed to get her out of harm’s way, but her sword was ripped out of her hand by the force of the blow. She unsteadily came to her feet, still shaking from the impact of the massive sword blow. She had just enough time to see a flash of rage through the guard’s eye holes before she was forced into a deep backbend to avoid another swing from his sword. She was weaponless against an elite enemy, and suddenly didn’t like her odds.

---------------------------

Meanwhile, Draco and Gerard had been rolling across the ground with the ruler of the Archipelago, Adonis.

Like them, Adonis was human. But unlike them, he was close to 300lbs of fat. He screamed curses at the boys as they climbed over him like monkeys in an attempt to hold him down so they could get the all powerful sword off his belt, but it was no easy task to do without being crushed by the huge man.

With Gerard’s hands wrapped deep in the ruler’s ungroomed, long hair he shouted. “The sword! Get the sword!”

Listening to his brother’s commands, Draco dove towards the sword but was met with a chubby lash from the ruler’s elbow that met him directly between the eyes. Stars flashed across his vision as he rolled back and sprawled out on the floor.

Gerard saw this and was filled with the first true anger he had felt since he first put on the mask several days ago at the black rock castle on the hill. With his hands still wrapped in the ruler’s hair, he took out his anger on the only thing that was available to him and bit into Adonis’s ear.

“AAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!” shouted the fat man as Gerard ripped half his ear off with his teeth.

“I’LL KILL YOU!!!” shouted Adonis. Finding the strength to come to his feet through pure rage, the large man grabbed Gerard and hurled him off his back. Clutching his severed ear with one hand, he drew the sword with his other arm and raised it’s beautiful white blade to the sky ready to bring it down on Gerard. At the height of his backswing, Draco slashed into his calf leg with a dagger he had stolen off Adonis’s belt. It passed through the man’s fatty leg and rooted itself deep into his tibia. Adonis screamed and allowed the Archipelago Sword to clatter to the ground as he fell.

Gerard felt a small victory in his chest, but saw Kali struggling to avoid the sword blows from the last guard standing. Gerard jumped to his feet and ran past Adonis who was now sobbing in pain to grab The Archipelago Sword. “Kali!” he screamed and hurled the sword across the room.

Kali glanced toward the sword flying through the air briefly to analyze how much time she had. Ducking a sword blow from the guard, Kali drove her shoulder into his heavy plate armor with all the strength she had. He only stumbled back a few feet, but it gave her just enough space to reach up and catch The Archipelago Sword as it spun through the air. Normally she’d pause to test the weight of a new blade, but she knew the guard was already taking another swing at her. Taking a two-handed grip on The Archipelago Sword, Kali blocked the guard's next blow and watched in fascination as her new weapons bit deep into the guard’s sword made of a weaker, and less magical material.

“O, hello beautiful.” she cooed at the white blade.

Kicking off the guard’s thigh, Kali created a little space she used to charge back at the guard with renewed momentum. With a big upward swing she caught the guard underneath his chin causing him to fall back and drop his sword.

Knowing she had won, Kali let him scramble back and get to his feet while she finally got the chance to test the weight of The Archipelago Sword in her hand. It was incredibly light with a pommel that was big enough for two-handed swings, but light enough to be wielded as a one-handed sword. Looking around the room, Kali’s eyes fell on two large cauldrons of water resting beside the throne. Focussing on the humming power in the blade, Kali raised The Archipelago Sword and watched in delight as the water followed the sword and hovered into the air.

“Hello beautiful indeed.” she murmured.

Cocking her sword arm back for a strike, she found the water following her shaped into a giant blue whip above her head. She slashed into the air well out of range from the last remaining guard, but the long whip of water above her slashed through the air like a scythe from the Grim Reaper himself. The heavy armor of the guard didn’t matter this time, the water passed through the metal plates effortlessly and cut the man in half.

Chapter 10: Morals

Gerard, Draco, and Kali all glanced at each other stunned by their victory. For a moment the ruler’s pouts of pain, the injured guard’s moans, and the slowly splintering door outside the throne room faded away and left just the three of them to marvel in the moment.

Draco walked towards Kali with Gerard close behind him. As they met in a small circle in the middle of the room he asked, “We got it...what now?”

Gerard and Kali looked around at the chaos and realized they hadn’t thought through what would happen if they actually succeeded. Who would replace Adonis as the Ruler of the Archipelago? What would happen if they left and the Queen simply sent more reinforcements to retake the castle? What would they do now that they had a weapon of power in their possession?

These were all questions that they had never really thought about.

“Well…” Kali started. “My people are still fighting somewhere in the forest…”

Gerard interjected. “But if we leave the castle to help them we might never get back in.”

“And if we stay here, everyone in the city will think they are under siege instead of being liberated from Adonis.” Draco sighed.

Kali nodded. “Not to mention most of these guards are just kids raised around here. Hell, they might just want a safe place to live as much as we do.”

The wooden doors to the throne room were now being pounded on by something heavy. Probably a hand held battering ram. The soldiers outside would be flooding in to kill them at any moment. With the Archipelago Sword, Kali could probably take on all of them, but was turning this city into even more of a blood bath really the right move?

Kali had only killed the last guard she fought. The other 3 of the guards were still lying around the room in a mess though. The guard Kali had knocked out first had come to and was leaning heavily against the throne trying to staunch the bleeding from his head that had coated the inside of helmet. The guard Kali had cut in the small of his back was laying in a pool of his own blood and would probably die soon. The guard with the broken knee was lying on the ground with tears streaming out of his closed eyes as he clutched his knee injury. And Adonis was still spouting curses at them from his corner of the room as he tried to pry the dagger out of his leg without making the wound any worse.

“Well...what if we hold Adonis prisoner and see what the other guards have to say when they come in the room?” Draco offered.

A board of wood cracked as the ram smashed into the door again. They didn’t have long to decide.

Gerard and Kali nodded to Draco and made their way to the throne while Kali used the Archipelago Sword to drag Adonis across the floor with a pool of water as he spit curse words at them. The guard leaning on the throne with the head injury grimaced at what was to come next, but Draco simply asked him to move and go sit with the other guards scattered across the floor. The elvish man nodded and gingerly made his way to the throne room floor.

Gerard pushed the throne as far as it would go revealing the secret exit just in case they decided to make a quick escape and Kali rested the beautiful white blade designed with blue, wavy looking lines that reminded her of the ocean on Adonis’s shoulder. This time the ram on the wood broke through the door and forward spilled a flood of draub red armored soldiers that quickly surrounded Kali, Draco, and Gerard in a half circle.

Kali calmly surveyed the situation and patiently waited until everyone had come through the door. When a few soldiers went to take a step closer to her, she pointed a finger at them and dug the blade into Adonis a little deeper. With their ruler as prisoner, the rest of the soldiers resided in their semi-circle waiting for an opportunity to attack.

“Which one of you is in charge here?” Kali shouted out to the half circle of 20+ soldiers.

The red armored men rustled among themselves until a darker red armored soldier stepped through the ranks and removed his helmet. “That would be me, Captain Shen. What are your demands?”

“Just questions captain.” replied Kali. “You know what blade this is, correct?”

The Captain nodded.

“Then you know what it’s capable of?”

The Captain nodded his head again nervously as his eyes flicked between Kali and the glistening white and blue blade in her hands.

“Good. I do not want to use this blade on you Captain. The reason I am here today is because this man is a pawn of the Queen who has thrown all of Aumon into chaos. My people were exterminated, the people of this city live in fear of this man’s rage, and we decided we had enough of it. That’s why we are here today. To stop this cruelty. However…” Kali pondered her words for a moment. “I am aware that many of you are wearing that red armor because you were abducted as children and forced to serve. In fact, raise your hand if you have family in this city.”

After a moment of murmuring among themselves whether or not they should do it, one soldier in the back halfway raised his hand and set off a ripple effect in the crowd where almost all of the soldier’s hands went up.

“That’s what I thought.” continued Kali. “Your ruler has robbed and stole from you as well. Your families are not rich...your neighbors are not happy...and yet, you still serve this man out of fear.”

Adonis tried to interrupt her but Kali smacked him with the flat of her blade causing him to whimper and shut his mouth.

“Am I wrong?” she asked the crowd.

The soldiers did not respond but a few of them lowered their weapons and several removed their helmets to look around at their fellow soldiers.

“Then I think I’ll do you all a favor when I do this.” Without warning, Kali whipped her blade back and beheaded Adonis in front of the crowd of soldiers causing an uproar in the throne room.

Draco grabbed Kali. “What was that?!” he shouted.

“You didn’t actually want to let him live did you?” she asked incredulously.

Shaking his head, Draco grabbed a torch from the wall next to the throne, “Let’s go!” he shouted at her and Draco. As they retreated back down the passage, Draco watched several men rush to Adonis’s body while others insisted they attack, and yet others simply dropped their weapons and ran for the wooden door they had come through...But not a single soldier pursued them into the tunnel.

The torch Draco had snagged off the wall made the trip down the secret passage much easier this time around. The boys were panting as they finally reached the exit out the side of the rocky plateau the castle sat on, but Kali as always was breathing gently, examining the forest around them for any potential danger.

Draco closed the hidden door behind them and took in enough air to say. “Kali, what were you thinking?”

Kali cooly turned around in the flickering light of the torch and replied, “I was thinking that man sent soldiers to kill my people. He should die.”

“But what about what we talked about up there before you killed him? If he dies, another tyrant just like him takes the throne and we’ve made ZERO progress!”

“And what do you think happens when we make everything happy and full of rainbows here Draco? Do you think the Queen just lets us live happily ever after? NO. Not happening. She would send an army and destroy this entire island looking for anyone who opposed her.”

Draco searched his mind for objections to Kali’s argument, but found none and hung his head. Gerard moved over and patted him on the shoulder. “Kali is right. The Queen’s rule has to remain on this island. But now she knows someone is coming for her. And more importantly, the people know that the Queen isn’t invincible now. If we get lucky, we might even start a rebellion.”

Draco looked up at Gerard and managed a half smile and nod of his head. They were interrupted by a glowing blue light streaming through Kali’s cloak. Confused, Kali reached into the folds of her cloak and revealed The Soul Mask emitting the blue glowing light it always did when Gerard wore it, but this time it was glowing on it’s own. She handed the mask to Gerard and watched the blue glowing light get even brighter shining through the lines in the dark colored mask.

“What’s that mean Gerard?” asked Draco.

“I think it means we’re on the right track.” he replied. “Kali, what do you say we go find your people and we talk a little bit more in the morning?”

Chapter 11: Aftermath

Gerard woke late in the afternoon back in the cave of the blue cloaks.

Last night they had spent an hour hiking through the forest before they glimpsed a whole troop of soldiers running for their lives along the East coast of the island. They dropped their torch in the water and made their way along the beach from where the soldiers had come from using the moonlight as their guide. Eventually they found themselves pinned against the ocean by a half circle of cloaked figures sprinting out of the forest. It was a terrifying sight, but Kali put her hands to her mouth and whistled a high pitched cry that stopped the cloaked figures in their tracks.

“You would have had us for sure!” she laughed to the cloaked people just barely visible in the dark.

The figures sheathed their weapons and charged again. “Kali’s back!” they yelled before tackling the trio and wrapping them in hugs.

With Kali’s people found, they retreated back through the night along the beach to find the boat they had beached earlier on the shore when they arrived on the island. With the high tide they were able to push the boat back out to sea and sail through the night back to their cave on the coast. They pushed the boat back out into the ocean and let it drift away in the early morning sunrise so no one would discover the blue cloaks' new home in the seaside cliff. What a night it had been.

Stretching his arms high over his head, Gerard made his way out of the little makeshift shelter to see the blue cloaks that had not come with them last night had prepared a large meal for them with some sort of seafood stew and bread they had snagged off the ship they had stolen the night before.

Gerard grinned as he saw Draco emerge from a shelter on the other side of the fire with half his blonde hair sticking straight up in the air from his deep sleep. Gerard made his way over and gave him a hug. “Looks like you slept pretty well last night huh?”

Draco chuckled and tried to smooth down his hair to no avail. “Yeah. How about you man? The mask toasted you last night. How do you feel now?”

“Recovered I think. I gotta be careful wearing it too long next time. What do you say we go get some breakfast?”

“You mean dinner?” Draco laughed.

“Ah whatever. I want food. Let’s go.”

Draco nodded and they walked to the fire together. They were greeted by an old woman who gave them big shells that had been hollowed out to use as bowls. They could see Kali deep in conversation on the other side of the cave with the medicine man they had seen earlier who did not want them to carry out their mission last night. Gerard wondered what they could be talking about.

As if answering his thoughts, Draco whispered in his ear, “What do you think they’re talking about?” pointing at Kali.

“Who knows man.” he replied before ripping a chuck of bread off the loaf he had been given with his teeth.

“Does it have something to do with why the mask is still glowing?”

Gerard’s eyes snapped down to the small adventurer’s pack around his waist. After Kali had given him the mask last night he figured it would be a better idea to keep the mask on him at all times since he was the only one who could use it. On the boat ride last night he had found a small pouch to hang around his waist that was just big enough to put the mask in and fallen asleep with it around his waist.

Sure enough, the tiny pouch was still emanating a blue hue from the mask inside. Before he could even take the mask out of the bag, he was interrupted by Kali clapping the boys on the shoulder from behind causing them to jump in surprise. She giggled in the bubbly way she did and whispered quiet enough so only Draco and Gerard could hear, “So where are we going next?”

“Wait, you’re coming?” asked Draco. Gerard only noticed the mask glowing even brighter in his bag now. Draco and Kali took notice as Gerard pulled the mask out of it’s pouch and put it on. There was a sudden flash of blue that shot out from the eye holes and cracks in the mask painting the whole cave in a light show bright enough to see in the daytime.

The folks around the fire were all in awe as Gerard absorbed information from the glowing Soul Mask. When he finally took it off, everyone around the fire was looking at him in anticipation of what he was going to say.

Gerard looked around the room embarrassed by all the attention. “Is-is there a sandstone city anywhere around here?”

The crowd murmured in excitement at Gerard’s discovery and Kali gripped his shoulder a little tighter. “Home of the dwarves Gerard, if you can see it in the mask then it must be our next stop.”

“But what about your people?”

“Already talked it over with Anook.” she motioned to the medicine man sitting at the head of the fire. “He will be taking over leadership and taking care of my people while I am away. We need to change the world, and you two aren’t doing it without me saving your asses when you get into trouble next.”

Walking around the fire to the head seat next to Anook, Kali raised her hands for everyone’s attention. Blue cloaks that had been milling about in the camp elsewhere came running and surrounded the fire to listen to what Kali had to say.

“My people, I have news. I am stepping down as Chief to be replaced by Anook.”

Surprise swept around the fire and Gerard and Draco were not the only ones who voiced their complaints.

“Please, please calm down everyone. You have given me the great honor of leading you for many seasons. But during all the time I have led you, we have been fugitives, outlaws, and criminals that have been hunted by the Queen for no other reason than the color of our skin and our beliefs that we should have freedom. I am tired of living this way, and that’s why I am setting out to make a change that will ripple across Aumon. I will be leaving with Draco and Gerard to take down the Queen and replace her leadership with someone that will not look at us like fugitives to be hunted.”

Kali paused and looked around at several of her friends wiping tears out of their eyes as she spoke. Not letting herself slip too deep into the emotion, Kali turned to the medicine man behind her. “Please rise, Anook.”

Anook stood a head taller than Kali, but still seemed to look up to the young woman who had kept them alive for so long.

“Anook has been the advisor to me and many leaders before me. As Chief, Anook’s wisdom will protect you while I am gone. He will be a pivotal leader in nursing the growing rebellion in Calaco and he will be a servant to anyone who needs him. Kneel, Anook.”

A blue cloak holding a bowl of some liquid joined Kali at the front of the fire and held out the bowl for Kali to have easy access.

“Anook, by my power as Chief, I surrender to the will of our ancestors and pass on my leadership to you.” Kali dipped her fingers in the bowl and drew three lines on Anook’s forehead as she spoke. “I grant you courage to make strong decisions for our people. I grant you compassion to serve not only our people, but every person and creature that needs our help. And I grant you wisdom from our ancestors, wisdom from me, and the collective wisdom of our people who will lift you up and support you through prosperity and hardship.” Kali knelt down and touched her hand to Anook’s heart. “And I bless you with the freedom to look at this world through the lens of your heart. It will not lead you astray.” They stayed there for several seconds sharing a bond before Kali stood and helped Anook to his feet. “Rise Chief Anook!”

As Anook rose, so did everyone else around the fire. Gerard and Draco stood as well to take part in the celebration. As Anook began his speech, Kali walked through the crowd, grabbed Gerard and Draco by the arms and gently pulled them toward the cave exit. They saw both of their bags were already waiting at the mouth of the cave prepared for them to leave. As they slipped their bags on, Kali turned and put a hand to her heart. Draco and Gerard watched as Kali chanted under her breath and brought her hand to her mouth. Blowing into her hand, Kali opened her fingers and allowed a spell with a pinkish hue to slip out of her hand and dissipate in the air in front of the seaside cliff village.

Before their eyes, the cave entrance seemed harder to find even though they were standing only a few feet from it. They could still see it, but it was almost like your mind would forget it was there as soon as you looked away.

“They will be safe.” Kali said as much to herself as she did to the boys. “Let’s go meet the dwarves.”