Elements of Glory: The Princess of Nothing

’I don’t know what it will be… something, some power, some being, and its power will be greater than that of the Elements… a focal point, a gathering… dangerous if someone controls the power… worse, should the power be its own, have its own mind, and know what it is…’

-Constangale; his essay on the Elements of Glory

EVERDARK

‘Here,’ the Demoness’s Master said, stretching forward a large, furry, hand to Emily. ‘Take my hand,’ he commanded, ‘and swear fealty to me.’

How far can I go…? Dare I go any further, or do I take my chance and end this now? My powers are full.

Such thoughts caused Emily to pause.

‘Why do you hesitate?’ the Dark Master growled. ’You think your powers are greater than mine?’ he sneered.

‘Never,’ Emily assured, bowing her head low.

The Dark Master was silent for a moment. ‘No?’ he finally asked. ‘Then take my hand and swear fealty to me.’

What would Wilth tell me to do?

Wilth is not here, I am here.

Emily grabbed the Dark Master’s hand, it was so large and hairy… like fur covering it, except the palm. She looked up at the Dark Master, into his glowing eyes. ’I have had nothing for as long as I can remember… The closest person I had was Wilth, and he taught me, and cared for me. Then he was killed, and I had nothing at all, but an empty castle and an empty Kingdom… Could it be that was your plan. If I had nothing, and I was offered all the power I could imagine, why wouldn’t I join you?’

The Dark Master narrowed his glowing, yellow, eyes.

’But I am not alone anymore…’ Emily let her brown eyes slide toward the Demoness, ’and my friends are not dead.’

The Demoness leapt forward, but Emily was already moving. She threw out a hand, and a great rush of fire and wind flowed out of her open palm, hitting the Demoness squarely, and throwing her, with terrible force, across the throne room and through the thick walls, in a torrent of stone and mortar, down into the swamp below.

The Dark Master tried to swing at Emily, but she twisted, and wrenched the giant being’s arm. Her strength and her power flowed through her, and she tossed the Dark Master out the throne room doorway into the hallway beyond. He impacted into the stone wall, making a crater.

Emily stood tall, ready, glaring as the Dark Master picked himself up from the floor, and the Trolls guarding the throne room stepped into the doorway, weapons at the ready.

’You are a fool, child!’ the Dark Master roared. ’You cannot destroy me!’

‘I may not be able to scatter you to the wind,’ Emily replied, ’but be assured, beast… I can destroy you!’

The Trolls charged Emily. She threw her arms apart, and the creatures, flaming missals, slammed into the walls of the throne room, and the chamber began to blaze with fire. With a mighty roar, the Dark Master charged Emily, shooting powerful Gemgic from his fingers. Emily twisted away from it and countered, as she raced toward the Dark Master.

With violent fury, the Dark Master and the Princess of Nothing clashed in a thunder clap of power that rattled the Dark Master’s castle from its very peaks, to its very roots!

WERAL KINGDOM

‘If she went with the Demoness, the beast will no doubt lead her to the Dark Master who is behind all of this,’ Thaddeus said, stroking his bearded chin as he paced in front of the thrones in the Weral castle. Gathered before him were John, Samantha, Aragam, the Griffin King Grijyn, Siri, Wuzzul, and Whirligig.

’Which means she’s walking into tremendous danger,’ Aragam growled. ’We need to help her.’

’How do you purpose that?’ Thaddeus asked, looking at the Wasgician, who, suddenly unsure, straightened his tall blue Wasgician hat.

‘I don’t know,’ Aragam growled, ’but we can’t leave her alone in this.’

‘Yet alone she is,’ Thaddeus responded.

John saw Aragam look down, and the terrible sadness that besot his eyes. The young boy turned to Thaddeus. ‘Sir,’ he said, ’isn’t there anything Samantha and I could do to help Emily.’

‘I don’t see how,’ Thaddeus responded.

‘Why not?’ Samantha demanded, stepping forward. ‘We just restored the Weral Kingdom! You don’t think we have it in us to help Emily?’

Thaddeus smiled in a kind way, though his eyes looked stern. ’I believe fully that you could help her… but none of us know where she is. Can you find something hidden if you know not where it is, child?’

’There has to be something we can do!’ Samantha challenged. She looked backward to Aragam. ’She and the Wasgician saved me…’ She turned back to Thaddeus. ‘I wouldn’t be here were it not for them. I can’t leave Emily to a hellish fate if there is-’

’Wasgician!’ a voice shouted from the entrance way of the throne room.

Everyone turned to look, and watched the Tyrim, the musket wearing Human, and the Stryth enter the chamber. They were followed by Weral soldiers, whose armour was stained with Mugwamp blood.

’Horse!’ Aragam cried when he saw the Stryth. ‘I thought you were dead!’

‘Hmm,’ the Stryth responded. ’Didn’t I tell you not to call me Horse?’

Thaddeus pushed through the crowd and stared at what was strung across the Stryth’s back. John let his eyes narrow as he stared at the pale-faced man, bound hand and foot, cut and beaten. He was ugly and shrivelled. He looked… dead.

‘Who do we have here?’ Thaddeus asked.

‘He was amongst the Mugwamp army,’ the Tyrim said. ’It is he who’s been the Dark Lord over the lands of Weral for too long... the Dead Man.’

Thaddeus walked up to the monster of a man, grabbing him by the chin and staring over the rims of his spectacles, into the monster’s dead, black, eyes. ‘So,’ he said darkly, ’you are the Dead Man.’

’It is,’ Siri said, hurrying over to join Thaddeus, ‘this I know to be true.’

’How is it that one as powerful as you could be captured by the forces of the Weral Kingdom?’

’There aren’t supposed to be any forces of the Weral Kingdom,’ the Dead Man hissed, glaring at Thaddeus. ‘What sort of Gemgic is this, old man?’

‘Who is your Master?’ Thaddeus demanded.

The Dead man began to laugh. At first it sounded like a cough in the back of his throat, but soon blossomed into a terrible cackle.

’He will not tell,’ Siri said around Thaddeus’s knees. ’He will not say the Dark Master’s name… of course, we already have a name… we need to know who he is.’

‘What do we do with him?’ the Human man wearing the muskets asked.

‘Can we imprison him?’ Aragam wondered, stepping forward. ‘Can we get any information out of him?’

‘He feels no pain, knows no loss,’ Siri said, looking at Aragam. ‘He is a plague, and evil, a dark blight, and too many souls have been lost to his touch and that of his child.’

’There is only one thing we can do with him,’ Thaddeus said. He stepped toward one of the Weral soldiers, drawing out the man’s sword. With movements precise and practiced, Thaddeus spun around and sliced the Dead Man’s head from his body.

Samantha buried her face in John’s shoulder, hiding her eyes from the scene, as the Dead Man’s head hit the floor and rolled away. His dead eyes stared into nothing for a long moment, and then slowly closed.

Handing the sword back to the soldier he’d taken it from, Thaddeus said, ‘Burn the body to ashes, and scatter them on the lake.’

The soldier nodded. Then he headed away with the Stryth and the Dead Man’s body in tow. The Tyrim picked up the Dead Man’s head and followed. The Human with the muskets saluted John and the others, and then followed his blue-skinned warrior friend.

Everyone was silent.

John couldn’t believe it. He noted – aside from Samantha’s apparent dislike of the sudden violence – Aragam looked a little uncomfortable.

After a long moment he turned to Thaddeus.

‘What do we do now?’ he gumbled.

‘We fortify this Kingdom,’ Thaddeus said, ‘we prepare… The Dark Master will know the Dead Man is dead…’ Thaddeus walked toward the thrones again. ’This is only the beginning.’

John felt his blood chill, and wrapped and arm around Samantha, holding her close.

*

EVERDARK

The Dark Master broke through a stone wall of his palace, his entire body crackling with powerful Gemgic. He spiralled down, through rotten branches of the gnarled tree that held his palace, and crashed down on a particularly wide branch adorned with thorny leaves. Emily sailed through the air and landed brutally on the Dark Master’s chest with crushing force.

Swinging a fist that was burning with fiery power, the Dark Master punched out at Emily, hitting her in the side, sending her flipping through the branches, and the falling, crashing, down, down, down toward the swamp far below. Emily held her breath as she splashed into the murky depths. She twisted, swimming quickly in muddy waters, away from where she’d gone under.

Seconds later there was a tremendous splash behind her, as the Dark Master landed in the swamp, following her.

A big hand grabbed Emily around the neck, and dragged her out of the water. Then a Gemgic enhanced punch doubled her over and sent her flying backward, into the enormous, mossy, mountain-like tree trunk of the Dark Master’s twisted palace.

Emily was aching and breathing hard, but she pushed herself away from the tree, sending deadly Gemgic across the swamp toward her foe.

The Dark Master blocked what he could, and sent his own deadly blasts at Emily. He was good, better than she’d ever imagined, and Gemgic cut by her, slashing open her right shoulder, and cutting a deep gash into the left side of her waist. Emily cried out in pain and dropped down to one knee. The blue and white dress she was wearing was muddy, ripped, and now staining with blood.

She was actually happy, for once, that she wasn’t wearing one of the beautiful gowns that she’d always wanted to.

Suddenly, a powerful wave of black fire sped toward Emily, hitting her in the chest, blowing her backward, an once again into the tree palace of the Dark Master.

Emily felt ribs crack and she leaned forward, yelping in agony and coughing up blood. Hot tears burned down her cheeks, and she dropped to her knees as she bled, and as terrible thunderous pain racked her body.

She’d thought, with all the power the Demoness had awakened in her, that she could defeat the Dark Master and set things right.

She thought she could save her friends.

But here she was, broken, bleeding, and her foe still stood strong, with not even a scratch, only some tattering of his robes and cloak, his hard yellow eyes boring into Emily, furry hands held forward, Gemgic crackling on his finger tips and across his palms.

’You truly are a fool, child!’ the Dark Master roared across the swamp. ’I will defeat you here, and then… I will teach you proper respect for me! In the end, when all is said and done, you will stand at my side as we control the worlds!’

Emily was trembling. She had made a big mistake coming here. But what could she do now? If she ran, would he just follow her? She would never know peace. Had it been a mistake from the beginning, letting people into her castle, leaving her home? Should she have just stayed concealed behind those walls?

What would Wilth say?

The Dark Master held out a hand, and Emily felt her body rising out of the muck, until she was dangling above the swamp, held by an unseen power. Slowly, she was drawn across the distance, through the air, toward this master of darkness and evil. Would he kill her? Would he become her Master as he was the Demoness’s?

Had she doomed herself to this terrible fate?

If it means Aragam and the others are safe… it is a fair price to pay, Emily thought to herself. And she meant it too.

Only…

She wished she could have seen Aragam one more time… though she didn’t know why.

The Dark Master’s vice-like grip closed around Emily’s neck.

*

Red eyes opened suddenly and the Demoness gasped. She was laying half submerged in the swamp, the upper part of her body laying on a muddy, soggy, piece of ground. She tried to move, and did move, but she hurt, and cried out. Her body was broken in many places. She’d never felt such pain before in her life.

Emily had done this to her.

She was powerful... very powerful!

The Demoness felt a tingling at the back of her neck and she quickly looked across the swamp. She saw Emily, held by the neck, in the grip of her Master’s hairy hand.

He had her, he had broken her.

She hung there, defeated.

The Demoness smiled. ‘He will destroy you for what you’ve done,’ she hissed. ’HE WILL DESTROY YOU!’ she screamed across the swamp, and then threw her head back, laughing.

A loud crack, like thunder, sounded behind her, and cut her laughter short. She turned quickly and saw something that turned her hot blood to ice, and a moment later, she was ice as well.

*

Suddenly everything was cold, and Emily saw her breath come out as foggy steam. The Dark Master snorted and roared in pain, and dropped Emily. She landed heavily on hard… ice! She stared forward in wonder and saw that the Dark Master was encased in ice up to his knees. She watched in amazement as the ice crawled up his body, and, slowly, but surely, encased him whole.

He stood still, firm, locked in a prison of ice.

Emily stood up and reached a hand forward, touching the ice… it wasn’t cold, and it didn’t melt at all at her touch. She drew her hand back with a gasp, and stared. She looked around, across the swamp. She saw the Demoness... she too was frozen… or at the very least trapped in this strange prison.

Emily looked around further. She hadn’t done this. Who had?

Who had this kind of power to trap someone as powerful as the Dark Master? Who was more powerful than a being who could defeat Emily… and her power was enough to turn beings to dust, scattering the particles that made them into whole people.

Who could have this power?

Emily suddenly felt a chill behind her. She turned around and stared up at a man, a man who wore silver and white robes, and had both a long white beard and long white hair. In his hand was a staff of, what looked like ice. His skin was pale, and his blue eyes, though stern, were the only warm thing about him.

Emily crept backward, bumping into the frozen prison that encased the Dark Master. ‘Wh-who are you?’ Emily asked.

The majestic man in white held a hand out toward Emily. ‘Come,’ he told her, ’there is still much you need to learn… My prisons will only hold Servantt for a time… He will be free, but before that happens, you must be trained. You must learn much… then you must save the worlds.’

Emily was shivering. ’Who are you?’ she asked again.

’Last of the High Wasgicians… Father of the Elements of Glory, Guardian of this world… They call me Grulem, and I am here to help you.’ He stretched his hand further toward Emily.

She hesitated only a moment, and then took it.

With a whisper of wind and swirl of snow, Emily and Grulem vanished.