SWNOVELS Chapter 16: Edelmer
Edelmer woke up in a cave. A ghost in armor with sharp, angular stone spikes loomed over him. The northerner didn’t remember how he got here. He didn’t know that twenty years had passed since his journey to the Belt of Twilight. His goal was to save his town dwellers and prevent war, by learning the secrets that the equatorial mountains kept. The last thing he remembered was the last kiss of his wife, Lanialis.
Edelmer got up and heard the strange voice.
“Are you awake? Would you like a hot ravithlef?” The ghost suggested.
Ravithlef is a drink similar to black earth tea but exudes aromas reminiscent of a mixture of black currant, cinnamon and apple blossoms.
“Where am I?” Edelmer asked.
“The place that separates mountains from the other mountains,” the ghost remarked meaningfully.
“And who are you?” Edelmer asked. The warrior was weakened.
“My name is Dombard Krachtvensen.”
“A snunorf?” Edelmer guessed.
“Yes, exactly, but the old one.”
“What do you need?” a fleeting shadow of reverence and respect suddenly disappeared from Eder’s voice.
“Perhaps a ravithlef after all?” The ghost approached the stone imitation of the table and poured liquid from a strange pot into the stone-like mug.
The ghost did not wait for the snunorf’s consent and simply handed him a mug. Edelmer sniffed the liquid, savored the aroma, and sipped a little, then some more.
“Thank you, I haven’t drunk anything for so long, my throat is already dry.”
“I bet it dry,” the ghost said. “You haven’t eaten or drunk in twenty years or so!”
“What?!” Edelmer nearly dropped his mug. “Twenty years?!”
“Yes,” the ghost said. “You were just lying there under the spell of eternal sleep. Everyone who climbed a certain height of the mountains of our glorious Wall of Ghosts, known to you as the Belt of Twilight, would fall into a permanent sleep. But I decided to wake you up.”
“Why?” Edelmer asked.
“Because, my dear snunorf brother, it is time has come for you to become my vessel!” and the ghost with these words tried to possess Edelmer’s body.
Edelmer was taken aback, but resisted, something in the northern warrior was so great that the ancient ghost could not do anything. Dombard decided to try again and then again. During sleep, ghosts could not enter the bodies of any creature; they need the creatures, their vessels, to be in a state of consciousness. But something was wrong with Edelmer. After giving up numerous attempts, the ghost made a new decision.
“Then you will die.” The ghost appeared to the warrior in flesh, his armor with its stone sharp spikes taking on a more distinct form, and he drew a carved and huge sword.
The ghost took a fighting pose, Edelmer groped for his sword, throwing off his fur skin and feeling the cold of the blade, he himself rushed to the ghost.
At the first attack, Dombard stepped aside and pushed Edelmer with his foot, the warrior almost lost his balance but did not drop his sword, and quickly jumped and made a new attack, meeting the sword of the ghost... After an exhausting battle dance, Edelmer nevertheless thrust his sword into the ghost and he burst out laughing...
“A glorious duel,” Dombard said.
“I still don’t understand what’s going on, maybe I’m sleeping? Why are you doing this?”
“Why? You ask me why?” with these words, the ghost grabbed the warrior by the neck and headed to the edge of the cave. Edelmer dropped his sword and tried to separate the ghost’s hands, but he tenaciously held him. “Why do I need you, that is the right question! If I can’t possess your body, then it’s obvious that you are useless!”
And Dombard threw Edelmer off the edge of the cave. Snunorf fell straight into very deep snow. And the ghost did not even look at what had become of his victim.
The cave was located on one of the first mountains, at the foot a really impenetrable swamp of snow formed, it was soft and wet, and Eder fell through it, falling into a gorge, where he collapsed along with pieces of snow, which also softened his impact on a rocky surface.