

Draecyn

Andrew Saul

All characters in this publication are fictitious, any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Draecyn

Book one

Copyright © 2016 Andrew Saul

1

Elowyn awoke with a start; the bloodcurdling screams of the arena above her brought back the harsh reality of her situation. She had been caught stealing a fusion injector from the local merchant Jaras three days ago, and was surprised and somewhat impressed at the speed and efficiency of the Tyrilian justice system. All advanced life sustaining planets in the known universe had their own unique and interesting ways of meting punishment for crimes against their respective states, but Tyril Prime was certainly one of the harshest.

Within hours of the theft she had been apprehended, charged and processed and was now waiting for her execution in the arena above, at the hands of one of Tyril's justicars. Although it was a slaughter, the weekly spectacle drew in crowds of loyal followers from across the continent like obedient ruminants. Raucous cheers and celebration filled the cell with reverberations that intrigued her senses as to their propensity.

She snapped back from her aural musing, to the acrid stench of the cell around her. Its walls luminesced with condensation on the black stonework, reflecting the moonlight that filtered through the small window above her. The floor beneath her prone body was covered in matted straw, which had welded itself together from the urine of previous occupants. She had gathered the driest of it to sleep on in the corner.

Voices in the corridor outside barked incessant orders to her fellow inmates to line up and await their fate, she anticipated the unlocking of her cell door and even welcomed its arrival when it came.

"Get to your feet scum!" the guard rasped through clenched teeth at her.

"Make me!" the words had left her mouth involuntarily before she could arrest their momentum. She knew it was a mistake, for the instant reaction from the guard was to meet the words with a wry smile.

"I was hoping you'd say that," the guard whispered viciously to her as he summoned reinforcements; within seconds two more guards appeared at the entrance.

"Persuade her," he said with an acidic undertone that left her in no doubt that this would be a painful and regrettable outburst.

With great enthusiasm and delight the two hulking brutes brandished Syrpentus batons, (a flexible tritalumin based instrument of torture some three feet in length) and menacingly advanced to where she cowered in the corner of the cell.

Heavy blows rained down on her in an unsurpassed deluge. She raised her arms instinctively over her chest, holding her hands to her face, in order to protect her near naked body as best she could. Curling herself into a foetal position, she minimised the availability of targets to her oppressors, behind her hands she couldn't help but give a wry smile of her own.

After what seemed an eternity, the ferocity of the attack subsided. Sensing his point had been reinforced, the guard in the doorway called a halt to the proceedings. She knew the onslaught received would have to look convincing. Slowly and deliberately she rolled back to face them, giving voluntary muscle convulsions to aid in her deception, for she was completely unharmed by the process.

Elowyn feigned a crippled state and made a laborious effort to stand without assistance. She half stumbled and held the forearm of the nearest guard to incite the reaction to help her to her feet. Feeling a small amount of compassion, the guard obliged her efforts and she stood on trembling legs to face them.

Morok, now leaning against the upright of the doorway, felt some admiration for the detritus covered blonde woman before him. She was almost his height at six feet and had a lithe yet muscular frame. He regarded the welts and bruises forming across her skin, and knew she had shown courage to stand after such a beating.

"Get in line." The words were calmer now, but they carried no less intent than his previous statement.

Elowyn bowed her head in submission to the command and made her way unaided out into the corridor. Submissively she stood in front of the Tyrilian that had been ousted from the cell next to her. She could feel his warm breath on the nape of her neck, as it came in suppressed gasps of nervousness. Waiting for the guards to move further up the corridor, she addressed him with a soft and eloquent whisper.

"What's your name?" she inquired.

"Hadrik. My name is Hadrik," he stammered, almost trying to convince himself that he wasn't standing where he was.

"How did you wind up in here, Hadrik?" her whisper was melancholic, and she tried to lighten the mood considering the circumstances.

As much as he wanted to refrain from a response Hadrik couldn't help but whisper back.

"I had an illicit nocturnal meeting with the daughter of a Consul," he almost blurted it out as if it had been bottled up within him under pressure for some time.

"They put you in here for that?" she smirked, but quickly regained her composure as a guard walked past her, counting their number as he progressed down the line.

Hadrik waited for his opportunity to speak, as if explaining before the hour of his death would help carry his soul to the afterlife.

"Yes, we are in love, but my social standing prohibits my eligibility to court her." He bowed his head at his admission, and Elowyn felt his breath move down her vertebrae.

Hadrik noted the extensive bruising from her beating, and questioned in his mind how she could be standing after such punishment. He had been only a few feet away and had witnessed the full savagery of it. He felt compelled to ask the inevitable question:

"Are you alright?" he chirped sympathetically.

"No I'm half left!" Elowyn couldn't resist the insufferable humour and emphasised it with a subtle wiggling of her left hand. If it was to be Hadrik's final hour on Tyril, it would be better for him to die calmly, rather than hysterically, like she had seen in countless others from different planets over the years.

Hadrik and the two nearest inmates within earshot of the whisper let out small involuntary chuckles at her haughty nature toward the situation. Their brief levity was cut short however, by the shout from the back of the corridor announcing to Morok there were seventy four inmates ready and in line.

Morok continued in his ascendance of control, commanding the first ten inmates to proceed forward up the slope at the end of the corridor to their destinies. Chants and the stamping of feet echoed down the corridor towards them as the inmates arrived in the arena above; shortly followed by more screams and resulting cheers from the crowd as they were dispatched with malevolence.

Without straying from the topic of conversation, Elowyn pressed Hadrik further on his romantic involvements.

"So what's her name then?" she said a little louder now, so she could be heard.

"Lenara, her name is Lenara." He was starting to stammer again, as he wrestled with his emotions, through the invasion of horrific sounds assaulting him. His breathing had quickened and his heart was racing.

"Will she be in the arena?" Elowyn made the inquiry knowing it would unsettle Hadrik further, but it was a line of questioning she had to pursue.

"Yes, her father commanded it, so she can witness there is no possibility of us ever being together."

Something had been triggered in Hadrik, a combination of anger and the desire for vengeance now burned within him. He was unsure of where it was coming from, but it engulfed him and he embraced the emotion with open arms. If he could have seen the face of the woman in front of him, he would have witnessed her momentary trance like expression as she cast 'true heroism' upon him.

Elowyn gathered her senses for the forthcoming battle and began to focus on potential scenarios. She visualised the arena above her and how the combat would play out. She couldn't afford to reveal who she was or what she was at this stage of her subterfuge; just a win would suffice, for a win would mean her pardon, such was Tyrilian law. Defeating a Tyrilian justicar was no mean feat, and it would take all of her guile to pull it off in her current guise.

They shuffled forward as a group and were halted by Morok. Their group would be next into the arena and she could hear the crescendo build, as the last of the previous inmates were hunted down and disembowelled. Morok sauntered over to her and looked her up and down with a seedy expression on his face.

"I'm going to have fun with you after they've finished princess," he licked his top lip and laughed at his own perverted visualised humour of what he wanted to do to her corpse.

Elowyn shot him a surprised glance at the statement, but refrained from any outburst. She would need to focus for the fight and couldn't afford any distraction or another beating at this stage. She simply stared back at him, unflinching and unyielding, in an unspoken war of minds. Morok found himself unable to speak, as he gazed into her eyes, hoping there would be enough of her corpse left for him. The roar of the arena above quietened to a murmured hush in anticipation of the arrival of their group.

After what seemed a lifetime to Hadrik, the order came from Morok that he had been waiting for. Now was his time to prove to Lenara, and everyone in attendance that he was worthy of her.

"Alright you lot get up there and make a good show of it." Morok knew even the largest and physically fit inmates crumbled within seconds, but he gave the meagre words of encouragement nonetheless, in the vague hope of spurring them on.

Their group began the walk up the slope to the arena; Elowyn glanced about at the nervous faces amongst them. Hadrik had now gravitated to her side and, with the exception of her, was the only face among them that had a determined and resolute look to it during the gradual incline. Upon rounding the corner, they were greeted by the rush of cool air on their faces as they stepped out into the floodlit arena.

Instantly the crowd erupted upon seeing them and taunted them with repeated chants of "fresh meat" followed by the obligatory stamping of feet and the raising of glasses to toast the success of the judicial system. Elowyn looked across the crowd at the sea of faces surrounding her; she could feel the warmth of the day waning from the sand beneath her feet as she strode toward the centre of the arena.

A small pile of crudely fashioned weapons littered the floor for them to choose from; the edges on the blades had been keen once, but now had a dull and almost ragged appearance to them. She picked up a sword and shield and motioned for Hadrik to do the same; he selected a mace and buckler and was surprised at how light they felt in his hands.

"Where is Lenara?" she asked him casually. Hadrik squinted in the bright light across the pink and red sand toward the podium reserved for the senatorial class, and indicated Lenara with his mace. He could make out her features, but was too far away from her, to see the tears welling in her eyes, as she looked upon him.

"Fight for her. Make her proud!" the words pounded into his head from her mouth. Five platforms rose from trapdoors in the sand around their group, causing a thunderous bellow from the audience that seemed to tear at the fabric of their existence.

Their group, now surrounded by five justicars, closed ranks into a ring formation facing outward; the eight men and one woman found comfort and solace in Elowyn's proximity.

"Wait for them to come to us and don't break formation!" she shouted to them, with remarkable clarity.

Upon seeing the tactics employed by Elowyn and her group, the justicars began to circle them. Each justicar wore the finest tritalumin half plate armour that seemed to shimmer, as the light from above, danced and played across the contours. Each of them brandished a darkblade and shield, as was the tradition of their training from childhood.

Differing bloodlines preferred variety in their style of sword. and the knowledge of their use was passed down from father to son over countless generations. Forged in the core of the planet under extreme heat and pressure, the gemstone blades were exquisite to behold, and virtually indestructible, keeping their honed edges for millennia.

Inquisitive in their nature, the darkblades of the justicars probed expertly at their perimeter, waiting for their chance to sink into flesh and sinew. It didn't take long for weakness to show, and two of the besieged group collapsed to the floor, producing pools of blood that ebbed life-force into the sand beneath.

"Fight back or die!" were the last words that left Elowyn's' mouth before she charged the nearest justicar. She had been waiting for the gap, anticipating the opportunity, when it arrived she exploited it to the fullest. Her surge forward initially surprised the justicar, who instinctively stepped back; his feet making sweeping crescent moons in the sand to avoid imbalance and trip hazards, as he parried her blows expertly.

Hadrik responded to her advance and flanked her; he protected her sword arm from the justicar to her right and was amazed at how comfortable he was in his ability to do so. Gasps from the crowd now mingled with the cheers like a subtle undercurrent. They were to have an unexpected display tonight and they relished the onset.

His mace weaved in front of him as if possessed; the moves he made were graceful and precise with almost a feline quality. He had only served a year at the academy, and combat was certainly not his forte, but the justicar in front of him was struggling to match his pace and skill. Somewhere behind him he heard a thump, as the head of another inmate hit the sand, neatly severed by the darkblade of its justicar owner.

Hadrik didn't look back at the sound; nothing would distract him in his pursuit of vengeance. He escalated the orchestra of blows at his opponent into a crescendo, revealing a gap in the justicars defence for a split second, he brought the mace to bear on the side of his attackers' knee joint and heard a satisfying crunch.

Valmar couldn't believe what was happening in front of him. An inmate with supposedly no formal training was producing the finest quality routines and structure, in an offence, that he had ever witnessed. The deftness of the inmate's movements, rivalled or even surpassed those of grandmaster Midani himself!

There were no gaps in the defence, no ambiguity in the strikes or their accuracy, and the feints and parries were sublime. He countered the blows with the best that his tiring muscles could muster, but to no avail. He felt the stinging bite of the mace as it tore into his cartilage, sending a lightning bolt of pain up his neural pathways to his thalamus, it didn't register for long as everything suddenly went black.

Stunned at what he had just accomplished, Hadrik stood over the crumpled heap of armour in front of him. The mace throbbed in his hand as the blood rushed through it, replenishing the energy expended. Pausing for a moment in disbelief, he reached down and grabbed the darkblade from the sand. The battle continued around him, but it felt like he was trapped in a vortex, from which no sight or sound could penetrate.

He looked up at the crowd towards the podium and saw Lenara gazing fondly down on him; her chestnut hair fluttered calmly in the same breeze he felt on his cheek, as if being caressed by her delicate hand. Transfixed in this moment, he was oblivious to the darkblade thrust toward him from behind.

Elowyn glimpsed other combatants from their group, desperately trying to defend their existence. Predictably, one by one they succumbed to the greater knowledge and savagery of the justicars, until only she and Hadrik remained. Realising that she must expedite her victory, she feigned a low scything motion to draw her opponent's guard lower than he intended. He duly responded, allowing her to reverse her motion. With a pirouette, she brought the now failing sword in a reciprocal arc, causing the justicar to lower his shield enough for her to begin her manoeuvre.

With a follow up high feint, the justicar raised his shield predictably as she leapt. Propelling her right foot onto the shield, she used it as a launch platform and somersaulted over the justicars head, bringing her left heel squarely down on his cranium. A gasp and murmured silence fell on the crowd as the justicar groaned and fell forward, but it was not her fight that caused the gasp. In her peripheral vision she saw Hadrik picking up a darkblade from his fallen adversary, while another justicar charged him from behind.

There was no alternative, she had to intervene. He was too important at this stage of her machinations, to lose in such a way. With no interruption to her acrobatic display, she rotated horizontally mid-flight and hurled her shield in an intercepting course with the justicar. Ten pounds of circular tritalumin hummed a merry tune, as it sailed through the air at the intended target. It struck the justicar's wrist as he outstretched for the killing thrust, knocking the sword from his hand.

Her landing was sacrificed for the move, and she crashed to the sand sliding on her back through some entrails. Deftly she used a handspring to right herself and finished perpendicular to the sand once more. A cacophony of cheers emanated from the audience; this time it was not for the justicars and their slaughter, instead it was for her and Hadrik and the fine display they had demonstrated.

"Please let them live." Lenara fought through her emotions long enough to make the pleading enquiry.

Her father turned to her to see the pleading look on her face, the tears on her cheeks now sparkled in the moonlight. He glanced up to the royal box looking for deference to a higher power than his own; he knew it was futile however as Emperor Valeris was off hunting on the Monoran peninsula for the next two weeks. Realising he was the highest ranking official; he slowly stood up, and gestured for the crowd to calm their fervour.

"In the name of the emperor and under Tyrilian law, it is the decree of this judiciary, that the inmates standing before us, be acquitted of their crimes and are released forthwith." His words were uttered with purpose at the declaration, but they hid his bitterness as to their meaning.

Lenara almost leapt from her chair at the repealing. She wrapped her arms around him, and placed a delicate kiss on his cheek.

"Thank you daddy!" she had not called him that since he had been promoted to Consul when she was eight years old; 'father' was more appropriate he had bade her, at the dinner table on the very evening. Surprised by the affection and outpouring, he couldn't resist letting his heart soften a little and he hugged her back.

Hadrik could feel his heartbeat calming at the absolution; he looked up at the podium and saluted with his darkblade the decision of the man who had wished him dead. For the darkblade belonged to him now, until such a time he in turn was bested. He turned to Elowyn, and together they strode to the exit ramp of the arena with their heads held high.

At the bottom of the slope Morok grimaced at their arrival, there would be no entertainment for him tonight.

"Congratulations," he mumbled gruffly at them.

Elowyn resisted the urge to bury her fist in his face; she didn't want to incite a potential recall to the arena, so handing him back the weapon she had been using, she left him with a parting shot:

"That's the closest your sword is getting near me tonight!" she smirked, as she shoved it into his grasp.

Everything seemed like a perfect dream borne from a nightmare to Hadrik, as they were escorted through a labyrinth of corridors to their destination. Rooms had been provided for them to bathe and to change into formal evening attire for the pardoning ceremony. He marvelled at the opulence of his surroundings as he readied himself, consuming himself with awe at the intricate details of the tapestries on the walls, depicting ancient battles in the arena involving animals from across Tyril. Feeling refreshed and fully groomed, he waited in the room as instructed by the escort until he was summoned.

A formal but polite knock at her door roused Elowyn from her musings; she had spent so much time on planning the evening ahead, she had neglected to select a suitable dress. Glancing into the wardrobe she selected a crimson red velvet ankle length with gold embroidery, her magical camouflage replicated the dress perfectly while she headed to the door.

Waiting in the corridor Hadrik and the escort gazed at her with admiring grins. With the muck and grime all but a thing of the past, the stunningly beautiful blonde lady before them could be easily mistaken for nobility. Her velvet dress hugged every contour perfectly, casting an hourglass silhouette on the floor.

"What do you think?" she asked softly and eloquently.

"You look fantastic!" Hadrik grinned, unable to stifle his superficial reaction.

Cyrik nodded his enthusiastic approval, doing his best not to mentally undress her while leading them to the ceremony. He explained the order of events to them as best he could; he was a little rusty on the finer details as there had not been a pardoning for many years. He halted them at the entrance to the banqueting hall and proceeded inside to announce their arrival.

"Consul Medaris, members of the senate, ladies and gentlemen it is my great pleasure to present to you Hadrik Vaerasi and Elowyn Tymanis." His voice projected across the hall and echoed from the vaulted roof.

Polite applause smattered across the hall in response to the announcement, only to be incisively cut short by the formal response from Consul Medaris.

"Advance citizens and be recognised," he responded formally to the introduction, while beckoning them to approach with open arms.

Elowyn and Hadrik proceeded to the opposite end of the colossal hall between the rows of heavily laden banqueting tables, she was consciously aware of all eyes in the room being upon them now. In the tradition of the ceremony, they bowed their heads during the slow and deliberate ambulation forward. On arrival at the head table, they dropped to one knee in genuflection before the empty throne of the emperor. On rising from the movement, they were greeted with bowed heads from the Consul and senate, acknowledging their correct sign of respect.

"On behalf of Emperor Valeris, it is decreed that on this day, the persons stood before this tribunal shall receive a full pardon for their crimes against the state. No mention is to be made in reference to these said crimes now or in the future." Consul Medaris' words reverberated throughout the hall. He picked up the first of the two scrolls in front of him and proffered it to Hadrik with both hands palm upward.

"You are pardoned." His voice was low and reverent.

"I am pardoned." Hadrik matched the tone of voice from the Consul, while trying to constrain his excitement.

Consul Medaris turned to face Elowyn, it was the first time he had seen her up close and her beauty almost took his breath away. She reminded him of his tragically departed wife five years hence, with her high cheekbones and soft almost elfin like features. He paused momentarily to regain his composure.

"You are pardoned." He repeated to her.

"I am pardoned." She responded in a dulcet tone to him and blushed a little at the way his eyes inquisitively inspected her face and form.

"Please join us in this banquet which has been prepared in your honour," he continued abruptly. His words were eager now, and almost uncontrolled in their deliverance.

They were seated in their allocated chairs at the head table; it was a privileged position in the hall, for only the senatorial class were allowed to dine in proximity to the emperor. Elowyn began her meal with poise and delicacy using her best etiquette, while Hadrik beside her was showing signs of difficulty in selecting the appropriate cutlery, so she subtly guided him in their use through the courses.

Vitiri Medaris could feel his pulse racing; he had to strike up a conversation with her without being too obvious in his intent, futilely he tried to staunch the burning desire from within like an open wound.

"Where in the empire are you from Elowyn?" was the best he could muster, he chagrined himself on the line of questioning, after all he might as well have asked her what she thought of the weather.

"I was born on the Monoran Peninsula but my family moved here when I was very young." It was a prepared response; she had dedicated considerable time on her background cover story, making sure that even under scrutiny there were no occlusions in her fabrication.

"Lovely part of the world isn't it?" he reminisced in a quiet distant voice, remembering fondly of his hunting trips in years gone by.

"I don't remember much, apart from the woodlands and rolling meadows," she caught the slightly glazed look in his eyes and fuelled the fire.

"Do you like hunting?" he mused hoping for the response he desired.

"I don't like hunting," Elowyn deliberately paused waiting for the crestfallen response from Consul Medaris, before he could reply she added:

"I love hunting!" it was the only truthful response she would give the Consul that evening, and she delivered the punchline with enthusiasm and a wicked glint in her eyes. Her prey was blissfully unaware he was being snared by one of the best huntresses in the galaxy.

Vitiri was smitten. She was beautiful, sophisticated, charming and loved hunting! Without hesitation he pressed his line of questioning with passion.

"Would you like to join me on a hunt? I am to join the emperor tomorrow on the Monoran peninsula; you could see your homeland again and have some fun at the same time?" he knew she wouldn't be able to resist the invitation and he gave her a kind and reassuring smile to try to seal the deal.

"Are you asking me on a date Consul?" she blushed and effected excitement in her voice.

Lenara couldn't believe her ears. Her father had been so miserable after the loss of her mother the past few years; she thought he would never find someone new like this. She cheekily elbowed him in the ribs and nodded toward Elowyn, this would be the perfect opportunity for her to soften his resolve against Hadrik as a double date.

"Yes I am, would you do me the honour of accompanying me?" he tried to deliver the line in the least apprehensive way possible.

"As you put it like that, I would love to join you," she gave him a warm smile that invigorated him.

"Can Hadrik come with us too, father?" Lenara pounced on the opportunity knowing he would be caught off-guard.

Vitiri had been in politics for twenty four years. He had witnessed and been a part of all manner of deviousness and underhanded tactics in that time, and he laughed at how cleverly she had manipulated the situation to her advantage.

"I'll make a politician out of you yet my girl!" he replied fondly, and nodded at her in admiration.

"Hadrik would you like to accompany us too?" he sighed and fixed his stare on Hadrik, but the offer was genuine, in that moment, he knew that he was looking upon his future son-in-law.

"I would be deeply honoured to accompany you, Consul." Hadrik bowed his head in respect at the offer; the invitation to join the Emperor's hunting party was beyond the wildest dreams of a commoner.

Lying approximately three and a half thousand miles to the north east of the capital, the Monoran peninsula covered an expanse of half a million square miles. From the inhospitable frozen wastelands of the north, to the sub-tropical pasture lands of the south, the population was in the tens of thousands, consisting mainly of remote small villages and farms. A large bio-diversity of animal life inhabited the peninsula, with an uncontrollable quantity of predatory creatures roaming the landscape. This caused a lack of development over centuries, and living on the peninsula was a considerable risk.

Elowyn had meticulously studied the topography of the peninsula, memorising the names of villages and their interconnectivity, she felt comfortable she could navigate the peninsula if necessary. Her invitation to the hunt had been more forthcoming than she had expected, but she knew the Consul wouldn't be able to resist her temptations.

"Where on the peninsula are we heading to?" she asked with curiosity.

"Toward the north but I cannot divulge where, for obvious reasons," Vitiri replied. Even with his guard down he knew what it meant to keep protocol.

"I'm guessing you're from the South somewhere?" his voice was now inquisitive, but relaxed in nature. He wanted to know everything about her, but he knew he would have to be patient in his approach, for fear of being too forthcoming.

"We lived in a small-holding near to Sangara, but with the raids, my father sold the farm and livestock, as it was becoming too dangerous to stay there," she explained resignedly.

Vitiri knew some of the history of Sangara; the barghest attacks, twenty years ago, halved the population of the village in a matter of days. Fierce wolf-like creatures, they attacked at night tearing people limb from limb without mercy. Emperor Valeris had sent troops to assist Sangara, but the savagery and cunning of the beasts had caused heavy losses.

"If you don't want to revisit Sangara I'll understand." Vitiri empathised with her plight and reaching across the table he held her hand comfortingly.

"No it's fine; I'd like to see the place again," she responded reassuringly.

Their conversation and small talk changed to a variety of subjects, for the course of the banquet, and by the end of the evening, Vitiri felt comfortable and relaxed in her presence. As the guests started to leave he rallied his courage to make his move on her.

"Would you allow me the honour of escorting you back to your room, Elowyn?" although his words were emboldened he still felt a jangling of nerves in the pit of his stomach.

"The honour would be all mine, Consul. Please lead on." She smiled seductively at him.

Making their excuses they left the ensemble with parting smirks from Lenara and Hadrik and made their way through the network of corridors to her room. On arrival, Elowyn noted an awkward silence from her suitor; he had been quite vocal en-route explaining the history behind the tapestries lining the walls, and the battles they represented from the ages. She didn't need to cast 'mind read' on him, after all, there would probably be no response as his mind had almost certainly migrated elsewhere.

"Well, here is my room!" she broke the awkward silence with her warm and mellifluous tone.

Vitiri was in shock, it was as if he had been transported back in time to his first date. He gathered what was left of his senses and turned to face her.

"I find you to be exceptionally good company, Elowyn," he invoked as he looked into her eyes, yearning for the response he craved for, so deeply.

"Likewi..." but the words had no chance to leave her mouth as he drew her into his arms and kissed her passionately. She responded evocatively and caressed his face allowing her body to be pulled into the clinch. She could feel his lips trembling to begin with in his uncertainty, but a more primal instinct was now taking over in him. Sensing his yearning for her was increasing, she broke the embrace delicately, so as not to reject his advances.

"Please Consul, all in good time," her voice was soothing and calming as she tried to extinguish the conflagration of his burning desires.

Vitiri relinquished his fervour, as the words took effect. He was a gentleman after all, and she was right and proper in her calming of the situation. He smiled and shook his head at how easily he had succumbed, to what he had so desperately wanted.

"My apologies lady Elowyn, I must confess patience is not one of my strongest virtues!" he exclaimed in exasperation, futilely trying to calm his arousal.

"No apologies necessary Consul" she continued warmly, encouraging his advances.

"Please, call me Vitiri," he whispered softly to her, caressing her cheek in reciprocation.

They held their embrace as he kissed her tenderly goodnight. With great reluctance, Vitiri turned and headed down the corridor to his room, struggling to contain his excitement.

Elowyn woke the next morning to the sound of polite knocking at her door; she glanced out of the window to see the sun climbing above the distant snow-capped mountains. It was a far cry from the view she'd had from her cell the past few days, and it invigorated her senses. She peered round the door to see Hadrik dressed and ready, a big beaming smile plastered across his face. She contemplated briefly whether it involved a successful 'nocturnal adventure' from last night, or enthusiasm at the events about to unfold.

"Are you ready yet?" he asked, expectantly. His eyes couldn't help wandering to her naked shoulders and he followed the question with an "Oh!"

"Can you give me twenty minutes please?" she knew it was a lie, but she had to keep up the pretence.

Elowyn closed the door and headed to the wardrobe, which held an array of fine garments to choose from. She selected a white silk blouse, black leather trousers, and calf length boots. Her camouflage adapted perfectly to her choice of clothing, affording her the time to calculate the day ahead.

2

Hadrik waited patiently for Elowyn to ready herself, the prospect of hunting alongside the emperor over the next few days filled him with pride and excitement. He struggled to contain his eagerness and when Elowyn finally re-opened her door, he couldn't help blurting out his enthusiasm.

"Come on, we're going to be late, there's no way I'm going to keep the emperor waiting!" he chirped.

"Good point, after all we don't want to head back here..." she chimed in with contemptuous contemplation.

They left the arena through the main exit to be greeted by the spectacle of the city of Kranis; giant skyscrapers wend their way toward the heavens like icy fingers of glass and metal. From their vantage point on the hill overlooking the city, Elowyn couldn't help but be impressed at the architecture of it all. She looked back at the arena, comparing its rough-hewn antiquated construction from multiple millennia ago, and offered a tributary bow in respect of its ability to weather the sands of time.

Vitiri had organised transport for them. His black maglev limousine reflected the cityscape with a mirror finish in the bright sunlight. As they approached the limousine, the door opened with a satisfying hiss. From within Vitiri and Lenara beckoned them inside.

"Please will you join us for some breakfast?" Vitiri proffered, using a sweeping gesture of his hand toward the table, with a beaming smile spread across his face.

Thanking him courteously they sat down for an opulent breakfast of fine meats and freshly pressed juices on their journey to the spaceport. Powered by a third generation micro-fusion reactor, the limousine effortlessly glided through the countryside making a barely audible whisper.

Elowyn marvelled at how peaceful and tranquil the landscape was compared to her own world, with undulating meadows and lush farmlands, Tyril was a place of exquisite beauty to her. She had visited many worlds in her travels on assignments and during her extensive training years, but none made her feel more relaxed than this one.

Vitiri looked up from his indulgence of the morning holoscreen newsfeed; there were already reports of his romantic link with Elowyn, which had been carefully introduced to the feed in a favourable manner. After all, even the press knew the implications of overstepping the boundaries of privacy with a Consul. She stared dreamily out of the tinted window as the countryside whipped by at a blistering pace. Her hair now worn in a long plait, suggested functionality without losing any of her femininity.

"Are you ready for some action Elowyn?" he baulked internally at his double entendre, but regained his mental composure quickly, and gave her a cheeky wink to reassure her that he was being playful.

"Absolutely," she purred, raising an eyebrow to him, catching his inflection.

"I hope you two aren't going to be like this all day?" Lenara put on her best scornful voice while trying not to laugh. It was comforting that after all the years of sorrow; her father had found someone new.

After a few minutes of pleasant conversation the spaceport loomed into view over the horizon; vast arrays of hangars housed a multitude of classes of ships, ranging from one man inter-planetary shuttles to large Verdanian freighters. Robustly policed by the Tyrilian military, the spaceport still harboured 'legitimate businessmen' willing to risk a one way ticket to the arena should their deals become disagreeable.

Elowyn's pre-planned arrest, had been spawned from such a deal with Jaras; she had sold him one of the spare fusion injectors from her vanguard class heavy assault fighter, only to steal it back again the following night as her current blonde identity. She knew it was the fastest ticket to the arena, as time was of the essence on this assignment. Her vanguard class wouldn't draw much attention to her flame-haired merchant identity.

Being of Tyrilian origin, the ship had a full complement of pulsed-plasma accelerators and meteor class guided missiles. Used primarily as a short range combat vessel, it still had enough cargohold to transport a small volume of high value goods. She had loaded it with rare Tenatrian spices, to satisfy the Tyrilian customs officers about the plausibility of her visit, and with the excuse of visiting her relatives in the city; it was the most likely reason for the visit's duration.

Jaras had his fusion injector back and the hangar was paid up in full for the next month. She had no anticipations that the assignment would last any longer than that, and currently everything was on schedule.

Elowyn was roused from her musings by Lenara with a "Here we are!" she looked over to see the sleek, private shuttle hovering above the inverse polarity launcher.

"How fast does she go?" Hadrik couldn't resist the temptation to ask.

"With the twin mini-fusion reactors, she'll hit sonic twenty comfortably. Allowing for acceleration and deceleration, we'll be there in about thirty minutes," Vitiri responded proudly, noting that he and Hadrik shared a common interest.

Hadrik nodded his approval at the claim, and proceeded to circumnavigate the shuttle admiring the craftsmanship; on returning he was greeted by a "you boys and your toys!" from Lenara as she shook her head in false disdain.

Their journey to the Monoran peninsula was electrifyingly fast; the artificial intelligence calculated and updated the route constantly, to allow for miniscule weather variations and other air traffic. With unerring precision, it delivered them to their destination in just under thirty minutes as promised.

Emperor Valeris waited in the reception lounge of the private spaceport, ready to receive his guests. Looking out towards the dense forest of evergreen trees surrounding the spaceport, he contemplated how successful the following days might become. He had hunted a variety of ferocious beasts over the past twenty years in the area, since Sangara, but this year the snow had arrived early and that promised the deliverance of gelidar. Exceptionally rare and fabled to be able to swallow a man whole, the giant white worm-like creatures travelled south through the ground from the tundra to prey on large mammals when the northern peninsula became cold enough.

Valeris was a giant of a man, his strength of stature was matched by his character. After many years of the most rigorous battle training and hunting, his only match with a sword was grandmaster Midani. However, with age catching up with him at seventy five, Letrius Midani didn't relish their exhaustive combat training in the way he had twenty years hence.

"Vitiri! How was your trip?" his voice rumbled the words like a small thunderstorm approaching, he strode forward and clapped Vitiri's hand in an arm-wrestle.

"Valeris! It was good. How's the hunting so far?" he echoed the sentiment, while trying to budge the tree trunk of an arm.

Elowyn studied the interplay between the two men. They were more than just political friends, some kind of bond existed between them that was deep rooted, possibly borne of battle. It was going to be a challenging assignment over the next few days.

With Valeris gaining the upper hand in the arm-wrestling, both men laughed at the pause in introductions, Valeris cajoled Vitiri with a "Not bad," and they resumed the formalities.

"Lenara my dear, how are you?" he continued in his low reverberating voice, and approaching her, he held her hand and kissed her fingers politely.

"I'm very well my emperor," the dignified response sprang forth from her lips followed by a respectful bow of her head.

Looking slightly puzzled, Valeris turned his attention to Elowyn and Hadrik "And who do I have the pleasure of addressing here?" he continued with enthusiasm at the prospect of trusted company joining them.

Vitiri not forgetting his manners gestured with an open and now aching hand towards them. "My Emperor, I have the great pleasure of introducing to you, justicar Hadrik and justicar Elowyn."

Hadrik was stunned by the title for a moment; he glanced down at the darkblade at his side, nestled firmly in its scabbard for reassurance. This involuntary action also drew the gaze of Valeris to the sword.

"It is a great honour to meet you my Emperor" he said as confidently as possible, trying not to stumble over his words in his excitement.

"Is that Valmar's darkblade?" Valeris enquired quizzically.

"Yes my Emperor," his response was now involuntarily weakened by the prospect of upsetting the man before him.

"Pity, I liked Valmar, you must be a fine swordsman to have defeated him, young man" he mused.

"I was fighting for..." Hadrik tailed off the sentence as he glanced at Lenara, and sensing the situation, Valeris followed his gaze and interrupted.

"Ah so you're the young man who wishes to court Lenara?" his voice now boomed with an unexpected frivolity.

All Hadrik could do was nod his head solemnly to the words, his heart was starting to race again at the prospect of the unknown path laid out before him.

Looking back at Hadrik, after witnessing the uneasy expression on Lenara's face, he continued "Then you have mine and Vitiri's blessing young justicar, welcome to my hunt!"

Hadrik was stunned by the acceptance, and he contemplated his next words for a moment in response to what had truly shocked him, but all he could muster was "Thank you my Emperor, my blade is yours to command." He retroflexed the words in his mind while the Emperor's attention was drawn to Elowyn.

"Last, but I'm guessing not least, who do we have here then?" Valeris' voice had an underlying cheerful tone to the reverberation.

Holding out her hand and smiling sweetly, Elowyn knew first impressions would matter to the man before her. "I am Elowyn Tymanis of Sangara my Emperor." She knew it would evoke the desired reaction in Valeris, and true to form the large man flinched at the mention of the township.

Grasping her hand slightly tighter than anticipated, his resolve became embittered as he remembered the hurtful memories of the fateful battle. "I'm so sorry to hear that young lady, did you lose....?" His voice softened as he curtailed the sentence.

She deliberated with her intuition on how to deliver her response.

"No we were lucky. My father had a small-holding on the outskirts, away from the main attack. I was young at the time and don't remember much of what happened"

"Good to hear your family survived the atrocity." He proffered resolutely.

Valeris regained his previous composure, and looking her up and down, noticed the lack of a darksword on display from the exquisitely beautiful lady standing before him. Giving Vitiri a cursory look, and a slightly raised eyebrow, his curiosity aligned itself to his next question.

"Justicar Elowyn? I see no sword Vitiri?"

"She bested Gulthis and Serimir! They will be out of the med-centre in a few days but Serimir's broken wrist will take some time to heal."

"Damn I always miss the good fights!" Valeris exclaimed in frustration. His tone had become cheerful again. "Good to have you aboard young lady. We'll have to get you fitted out with a sword!"

She bowed her head respectfully to him, "You honour me my Emperor. I look forward to fighting by your side."

With Valeris and Vitiri in the lead, they headed out of the spaceport, up the trail to Valeris' private residence.

Hadrik had high expectations as to the size and scale of the private residence belonging to the Emperor, but over the brow of the hill the very modest single storey log cabin, was a bit of a disappointment to him. He scanned the horizon to check if what they were heading towards wasn't just an outbuilding of a larger, more elaborate dwelling. In a clearing of the dense forest, the cabin was dwarfed by the trees surrounding it; from the single chimney stack, a steady stream of wispy smoke trickled lazily toward the sky.

"I built her myself!" Valeris announced proudly at his creation, a large smile spread across his lips in satisfaction.

Less than impressed with the building, Hadrik decided it would be prudent to stay silent in the circumstances; his family lineage had been one of architects for many generations, himself included.

Inside the cabin, the décor reflected the quality of the outside, with handmade furniture and the bare necessities required for living. Turning to address the group, Valeris saw the puzzled expressions on the new guests' faces.

"In case you're wondering, I come here to get away from it all," he explained dutifully. "Besides, I'm rarely here anyway. Most of the time I'm out there," he continued, pointing to the trees through the window.

They pulled up five, three legged carved stools to the circular table, upon the surface of which was spread an accurately hand drawn map of the area. Various markings had been made on the map, beyond the regular cartography, which drew Elowyn's attention to them.

"What do these symbols mean?" she enquired.

"They're sightings!" Valeris responded excitedly, "In previous years when the snows come early and it's cold enough, the gelidar move down to this area from the North." He traced his finger across the map indicating the routes most likely taken by the creatures. "Do you know what a gelidar is?"

With shakes of their collective heads, he continued, "Giant white, worm-like creatures, they burrow underground and ambush their prey from below... if we get lucky, we might find one." He decided to miss out the part about eating people whole, and that adult gelidar worms are sixty feet long and weigh in at over thirty thousand pounds.

"I'm not going to lie to any of you, they are dangerous, but we've faced worse!" he nodded to Vitiri and proceeded to scan their faces for any hints of trepidation, but was comforted by the courageous looks he got in response.

Elowyn scanned the map for any other unusual markings, the diamantium mines belonging to Tyril had to be in this area. She would have to use her best subterfuge on Valeris to gain insight as to their whereabouts. Locating the diamantium was a high priority in her mission objectives, as it was a critical component in the construction of the outer skin of Wyvani battlecruisers. High command had learned through their network of spies, of a potential deal between the man before her and the Wyvani, to supply millions of tonnes of the precious ultra-reflective crystalline metal to them.

"I've taken the liberty of packing our equipment before you got here," Valeris announced, striding over to the collection of Tyrilian military rucksacks in the corner of the room. Handing them out, he furthered "There are winter suits and lattice armour in the bedrooms."

Waiting her turn, Elowyn entered the bedroom and closed the door. A rack of various sizes of winter suits were arrayed in the wardrobe before her. She didn't need one as the most extremes of temperature didn't affect her. A second before she adapted her camouflage, she heard an almost imperceptible scratching noise from the other bedroom. Without showing a reaction to the noise, she zeroed in on its location, like a bird of prey towards a small mammal.

A tiny irregular gap in the woodwork, due to poor craftsmanship, revealed the intrusion on her privacy. Vitiri, in the bedroom next door, was spying on her! Recalculating her position in the room, to afford him the best viewing position possible, she slowly drew her silk blouse upward, while facing away from him to reveal her perfectly formed, hourglass shaped, athletic body. Dropping her blouse to the floor seductively, she cast 'permanence' on it before it disappeared, so as to keep the illusion intact.

Vitiri couldn't believe his luck; he had seen the tiny sliver of light emanating into his room, while he lay on the bed, stretching the skin tight winter suit over his own muscular legs. Knowing Elowyn had entered the other room, he chanced a private viewing of her. Burning with a desire he had not felt since his adolescence, he peered through the miniscule opening to see her sultry performance.

"Father, are you going to be long in there?" the call from Lenara snapped him back to reality, like a slap in the face.

In a panic he turned to the door, making an attempt to throw his voice so that it appeared to emanate from a more central location in the room he answered, "Almost ready!" He smiled to himself as he reminisced on twenty years ago, when she had caught him and Celistine in bed late one night, and he had to use the excuse that they were 'play wrestling'.

Knowing she had privacy once more, Elowyn adapted her camouflage to recreate the skin-tight winter suit and lattice armour (made from small tritalumin scales and coloured to match the winter environment). She marvelled at the similarities to her own natural armour, which covered her entirely, underneath the illusion on the surface.

After preparations were complete and final checks were made, Valeris opened what Elowyn had guessed to be the pantry door, and beckoned the group over. An assortment of darkblades, sheathed in fine scabbards, was arranged carefully inside the private armoury.

"Please take your pick young lady," Valeris prompted her with a sweeping hand gesture.

Scouring the rack she decided on a finely crafted, winged darkblade. Drawing it from its scabbard, she was not surprised by the perfect balance, or the razor sharp honed edge to the weapon. With its ability to be used with one, or both hands, she knew it would serve her well in any forthcoming encounters. She re-sheathed the black glimmering sword and selected an appropriate matching kite shield, to complete her ensemble.

Their group left the cabin behind and trekked northeast towards the village of Beradil. Hadrik was amazed at how warm the winter suit kept his body in the frozen conditions. After five miles of a steady pace up the incline, they reached the summit, to be granted an amazing view of the valley beneath them. He could see the village in a cleared area of forest towards the centre of the valley; a small river twisted and turned in a serpent-like fashion, from the mountains in the north of the valley, in the direction of the distant ocean in the east.

The entire valley was covered in a blanket of snow, the like of which he had never witnessed before. He had seen snow in Kranis twice in his lifetime, and it had only lasted a matter of hours before the latent heat of the city had melted it away. Before him, the icy vista caused him to pause for a moment to mentally absorb its beauty.

"I can see why you come here now" he called to Valeris, who paused in his tracks to appreciate the view himself.

"It's wonderful isn't it?" came the reverent response. "We must push on though if we want to make it to Beradil by nightfall."

Their procession with Valeris in the lead, headed down into the valley beneath them, the snow crunched and crackled beneath their feet as it increased in depth; by the time they entered the forest, it reached for their calves in its attempt to slow their progress. With a stout resolve, Valeris kept a fast pace through the change in conditions, and had to wait on numerous occasions for his comrades to catch up with him. By nightfall, the amber glow of light from Beradil, shone down the arboreal tunnel towards them.

Elowyn focussed her auditory and olfactory senses on the forest around them. Their group was vulnerable in the ebbing light conditions, and a surprise attack by any predatory creature in the locale, would prove challenging and potentially consequential. She refrained from using her infravision, as her glowing red eyes would be an instant giveaway to the humans in her group. To the east of their position, she detected the beating wings of an indeterminable nocturnal bird of prey, as it hovered over the dense, snow covered bracken, waiting for the rodent foraging below to make its fatal, last move. The chilling gentle breeze carried with it a variety of scents from the northwest, but beyond the expected pungent aroma of evergreen tree sap, nothing noteworthy gave her cause for alarm.

On their final approach to the village they could see the crude outer defences of Beradil; a six foot deep ditch circumnavigated the entirety of the village, with the exception of a gatehouse at the southern entrance. In combination with this, a latticed six foot high palisade, at the rear of the ditch, afforded an effective defence for the villagers from the surrounding forest.

Their group gathered at the southern gatehouse, and were greeted by a diminutive, portly villager; a bowl of spiced meat broth clutched in his hands was his only companion that evening. Upon seeing his visitors, he cheerily opened the gate and beckoned them inside the fortifications.

"Good to see you Madrigan!" the stout, pale skinned man enthused, as he grabbed the hand of Valeris and shook it vigorously.

"You too, old friend" responded Valeris with a twinkle in his eyes. A genuine affection existed between the two of them, even though the larger man was not who he purported to be.

"I'll see you in the tavern in a couple of hours after I've finished my shift, if you're man enough!" he cajoled the larger man, to which the response was a deep rumbling chuckle from Valeris, as he mused on previous drinking encounters.

They headed up the cobbled road passing an assortment of thatched wooden dwellings that looked warm and inviting to her from the outside; small plumes of smoke rolled in the breeze above them, from the open hearth fires within.

The largest of the buildings caught Elowyn's attention now as they approached, and from within, the sounds of merriment and laughter could be heard. She baulked a little when she saw the creaking sign above their heads, 'The White Wyrm' but used the delay to invite Lenara entry to the tavern before her, as she stared up at the sign.

It depicted perfectly one of her ancestors from the first age of Draecos, her homeworld. There was no coincidence in the depiction, for the use of the name 'wyrm' had been used in the past by other worlds as a reference to her race; but for the past few million years, all worlds in the known universe had settled on the preferred title of Draecyn. Intrigue overwhelmed her, and she resolved to ask its origins before the night was through.

The tavern itself was warm and welcoming with what seemed to be at least half of the village's inhabitants, gathered into groups, quaffing large quantities of ale from the village brewery. Alerted by the opening of the tavern door, some of them glanced over at the new arrivals, but relaxed when they saw the giant of a man ahead of them, striding to the bar with a purpose.

"Aglomar, my old friend, how does life treat you?" Valeris boomed at the innkeeper, grabbing his hand and pumping it up and down, with a motion that resembled the hand pulling of ale.

"I fare well, Madrigan!" the innkeeper roared with excitement at the prospect of a reunion, and a late night drinking session. He ushered them to be seated at a table, near one of the twin roaring fireplaces, and brought over five tankards of ale.

"I assume you and your guests require lodgings for the night?" he continued earnestly, and after a few seconds of scanning their faces, he placed three keys on the table for them.

"On the house old friend!" he gestured to Valeris with a wink.

"Assuming I can make my way up the stairs this time?" Valeris responded quickly, with a hearty chuckle, drawing a melancholic laugh from Aglomar, in their shared knowledge of the results of a previous encounter.

"You'd best line your stomach with some food then. Help yourselves to the hog roast over there, it'll warm you all up a bit too," he gestured with an open palm in the direction of the feast, and returned to the bar.

After eating, and steadily making their way through three rounds of ale, they settled into conversation about the forthcoming days of hunting. Elowyn casually scanned the tavern, taking in the hunting related décor and its occupants. For the most part it was a calm and relaxed atmosphere with the exception of Aglomar, who seemed to have a sixth sense for refilling tankards and being in three places at once. After a couple more rounds of ale, she noted an anxiousness in his voice, as the tavern started to empty and the patrons dispersed.

On round six, he headed over to their remaining group, and looking positively distressed, he checked the tavern for any remaining kinsfolk before continuing.

"Where in the five hells is Balthar?" he stammered, his voice carried a deep concern in the statement.

Valeris broke off his discussion with Hadrik concerning tracking techniques, and looked around the tavern. He was suddenly aware that he had become oblivious to his surroundings, due to the warmth of the fire and good conversation.

"He was at the gate earlier? What time was his shift supposed to finish?"

"About an hour ago. He knows you're here, and definitely wouldn't miss this opportunity to catch up on all your news," Aglomar lamented.

Instinctively, Valeris moved his hand down to the hilt of his sword; it gave him comfort knowing his faithful companion was at his side. His gaze moved deliberately around the group, and without saying a word, they all began to ready themselves. By the time he had risen from his chair, and swilled the last of the ale from his tankard, his four fellow warriors were armed and readied.

Aglomar dashed over to the bar, grabbing a fur lined winter coat and double headed axe that hung menacingly on display, then deftly vaulted the bar on his return, and raced towards the door.

"Stick together and call out if you see anything! Watch the flanks!" Valeris barked out as they waded through the snow in the direction of the south gate.

Oil filled lanterns hanging from the dwellings projected a dull illumination towards the gatehouse; casting flickering shadows of the palisade into the trees beyond. As they approached, Elowyn squinted through the snowflakes as they bombarded her face. With only Valeris in front of her, powering his way to the gatehouse, she switched to her infravision briefly and scanned the forest ahead of her, with eyes akin to burning embers.

Through the cold, and now black coloured snowflakes, she detected a humanoid heat signature in the gatehouse; while in the forest beyond something large and quadrupedal disappeared into the obstructive blackness of the trees, heading in a south westerly direction. Whatever it was, it had heard their advances, as stealth was not an option in the current situation. She caught up to Valeris, as he rounded the entrance to the small wooden cabin, pausing to allow him to swing open the door.

Inside the cabin Balthar stared transfixed at the forest. The heat source from a small log burner had not been renewed or stoked for some time, and the cabin was barely above the outside temperature.

"Balthar, what's wrong man? We've been expecting you in the tavern," Valeris' voice carried a deep resonance, with an edge of concern to it.

Balthar slowly turned to Valeris. His wide eyes and rosy cheeked complexion seemed almost comical to Elowyn, but there was no humour to be found in his expression.

"I just heard Mirabel out in the forest; she was calling to me.... She wanted me to help her." His voice was barely a whisper and a tear formed in his eye.

"That's not possible my friend, you know that," he placed his hand on the smaller man's shoulder for reassurance.

"Come back to the tavern with us and explain what you heard?" his voice was compassionate now, and Elowyn found it unusually calming. He motioned to her, to put some more of the pre-cut logs into the burner, as the rest of the group arrived on the scene.

"Balthar where is your replacement? Where's Falmir?" Aglomar called to him between panting breaths. Although physically fit, his advanced years were catching up with him.

"I sent him back. I'll cover all of the shifts tonight, if needed, to hear her voice again," Balthar exclaimed resolutely in defiance, resisting Valeris' coercion to leave the cabin.

Valeris turned to her for assistance "Elowyn, can you do me a favour and watch the gate for a while until we find a replacement?"

"Of course Madrigan!" she nodded in acknowledgement of the trust placed in her by the man. This would be her chance to find out what was happening out there.

With a great deal of persuasion, Balthar relented; the group left the cabin and headed back in the direction of the tavern. As soon as they disappeared from sight in the snow, she turned to the barred window that faced the forest and switched back to her infravision. If there was something out there it would not escape her detection, unbeknownst to Valeris he had chosen one of the best sentries in the galaxy.

Fortuitously, the snow subsided in its efforts to hamper her vision, as she scanned the forest beyond the palisade in front of her. She could see the bird of prey from earlier; preening its feathers on the bough of a tree a few hundred feet away. With that exception the rest of the forest remained black and lifeless.

For the first time in years she felt truly alone; the feeling overwhelmed her briefly, but she checked her emotions quickly with a militaristic precision. Although the many facets to her existence often required her to be a creature of solitude, she relished in companionship, and preferred infiltration assignments with their requisite social interaction and nuances, to an insensate assassination.

Deep in the forest a familiar voice roused her from her reminiscing; it carried in the night air with a sharpness that cut through her to the core.

"Elowyn, please help! I'm hurt. I can't move my legs, please come quickly, I think I'm going to die...." There was no mistaking the voice; it was her clutch sister Branwyn. Her cry for assistance was not possible however, as Branwyn had died during a training exercise over two thousand years ago.

Her mind raced at the incredulousness of what had just transpired; this must have happened to Balthar, but no heat from the forest met her gaze. Could it be that her long dead sister was trying to communicate with her from beyond the grave? She could feel the irresistible urge to go and investigate, pulling at her, willing her forward into action, but the reality of the situation held her back, and she checked her instinctive movement to head for the door.

The voice repeated itself insistently twice more, each time with a greater sense of urgency. Elowyn admired Balthar for his staunchness at not going to investigate the source of his deceased loved one's voice, but suspected his willpower was fading when they found him. She cast 'detect magic' and focussed the spell forward to amplify the range of its effects.

In the distance, a white glittering ball of light hovered above the snow, dancing from side to side, as if agitated by the lack of effect of its attempt to lure a second victim from the gatehouse. It was an obvious ploy to get her to leave her post, but whether it was for its own machinations, or those of others she could not be sure. She was certain that the ball of light would be lucky at some point tonight, and lure out a gate watchman. She would have to return later, to investigate further, after discussing some of her findings with the others.

Elowyn waited for the spell to dissipate and she watched the little white fiery globe, until it finally flickered and diminished into the darkness once again. Within minutes her replacement arrived to relieve her. She warned him of the voice and explained its effects, before heading back to the tavern to re-join the others.

The atmosphere in the tavern was sombre, and even the proposed drinking contest was failing to rouse the spirits of the group, as she entered. They all turned to look at her, causing her to feel more than a little self-conscious, as she headed over to the table and pulled up a chair.

"Bet she didn't hear voices you crazy bugger!" Aglomar exclaimed, emphasising the word 'voices' with a derisory tone, and accompanied it with the creation of quotation marks, with his index and middle fingers, in an attempt to mock Balthar into snapping out of his despondency. He turned to Elowyn for confirmation but her expression belied his expectation.

"I heard my grandmother," she lied. "She called out multiple times saying that she was injured and dying," she explained her encounter, concluding there was 'something out there' and that it was not wise to leave a solitary guard there for the night. Resolute nods from Valeris and Aglomar sealed the fate of the watchmen, at the north and south gates, for the rest of the night, with Aglomar excusing himself to inform the relevant parties.

When Aglomar had gone, and more ale than they should have imbibed residing within them, Lenara and Hadrik excused themselves and headed upstairs together, much to the chagrin of Vitiri who shook his head in disapproval. Within minutes Aglomar returned, barring and locking the tavern door, he served up another round of ales to the group and pulled up a chair.

Looking decidedly more relaxed Balthar began "I'm sure it was a siren spirit, Valeris! It's a repeat of the tactics employed at Sangara."

Elowyn stifled her shock at the use of the emperor's true name and glanced at Valeris for his reaction; he reciprocated her gaze and delivered a beaming smile of reassurance.

"Don't panic, Elowyn you are among friends here!" Valeris interjected swiftly before Balthar continued.

"How about yourself, Elowyn of the clan Ochryn, what did your 'detect magic' reveal to you earlier?" Balthar enthused with a broadening grin.

Involuntarily, her eyes widened in disbelief, her cover had been completely destroyed in seconds; she would have to respond fast, and flight was not an immediate option. In one fluid motion she sprang from her chair, and kicked it out from beneath her, as she dropped the illusion of her human form. Rising to her full height of eight feet, she adopted her battle stance and extended her ancillary carpal bones, producing her foot long favoured weapons from her wrists.

Her actions were not met by the usual screams of her intended victims. Instead, around the table, she was met by more inane grins from the rest of the group, which fuelled her aggression further.

"Wait! Please sis, calm down!" Balthar's voice had changed dramatically with the exclamation, to one of familiarity now, and she called a cessation to her intended hostilities.

"Marcyn?" her brain went into overdrive briefly, and she resolved to revert back to her humanoid form to hear the explanation.

"Please take your seat young one, for this may take some time" Valeris lowered his voice for the instruction, from his usual rumbling bellow, to a smoother more refined tone.

"First of all, let me apologise for the deception in bringing you here in this manner. It was the only way to be sure we would remain undetected by Tyrilian nano-cams, or by Wyvani spies. You can rest assured that everyone in this room can be trusted."

"Second on the agenda, are introductions. You know Marcyn of course, and commander Aldryn, your instructor from the academy." Valeris motioned in the direction of Aglomar, for the latter.

On cue and waiting for his moment, Aldryn gave her a traditional salute and reverted to his unmistakeable Draecynic voice, "At ease cadet!"

Valeris continued, "Vitiri is Tyrilian, and father to the original Valeris' daughter Lenara. Please keep this information to yourself; I use it only to demonstrate that I trust this man, not only with my own life, but with the life of my successor too."

"So who are you?" Elowyn interjected.

Valeris motioned over to the plaque behind the bar depicting the white wyrm "My true name is Alabastyr, but it must never be spoken of outside of this circle. I have used the guise of Valeris for the past twenty years, since Sangara; tragically Valeris was mortally wounded during the battle protecting the villagers from the barghest. It was my fault the village was attacked, Wyvani spies had learned of my existence and the barghest had been sent to eradicate me. After an extensive fight we were victorious but not without catastrophic losses ourselves."

Valeris' face took on a more sullen expression, as he relived the tragic loss of innocent blood that had been spilled on his behalf. "As we speak, barghest forces have no doubt encircled this village, as before, waiting for the siren spirit to lure the guard from the gate, so that they can enter the village undetected and tear everyone apart while they sleep in their beds... it minimises their losses."

Elowyn absorbed and processed the revelation. Was this truly one of her ancestors sitting in front of her? If so, he would have to be millions of years old! The typical Draecynic lifespan was in the order of ten thousand years, with a few notable exceptions living in excess of fifteen. Perplexed by the information she resolved to press him further on the matter, but her warrior instinct took over, guiding her train of thought.

"Why are we keeping this a secret from Hadrik? He could prove useful in the upcoming fight," she mused.

"We believe him to be a human, working as a spy for the Wyvani! We concluded that his involvement with Lenara was to get closer to us, so we sent him to the arena. After his scintillating performance there, it has proven our suspicions are correct, and now it seems better to keep your enemies closer, as the saying goes."

It was Elowyn's turn now to produce an inane grin, and before the confused faces around her could interject, she relayed what had transpired in the arena. Valeris and Vitiri visibly relaxed at the explanation, but the reality of their condemnation of an innocent man, struck them both simultaneously and they resolved to make amends to Hadrik for their transgression.

"Why me... Why am I here?" Elowyn had always followed the agenda of high command but this was different, and the uncharted territory of it made her uneasy.

Valeris bade Aldryn to divulge the information, and he duly obliged. "For some time now, we have suspected a Wyvani spy has somehow infiltrated high command. We are not sure how this is possible, but we haven't ruled out sub-ocular implants, or even mind control at this stage. Everyone in high command has been subjected to regular biometric screenings, and all have checked out okay, but to be honest we're at a loss as to how the Wyvani are receiving their Intel. We created some bait Intel, to see if we could flush out the infiltrator, but it was to no avail, so we had to remote hack your com to bring you here without the awareness of high command."

Aldryn's face changed at the announcement of the gravity of the situation, and the realisation of the implications were not spared on her, as she absorbed the information.

Aldryn continued, "Your mission brief was accurate, there are diamantium mines to the north of here, however they are currently under Wyvani control and the Tyrilian miners have been enslaved in order to increase production. The ore is then shipped on freighters at the rate of ten million tonnes a year. We need you to find out where it is being processed, also what the intentions for the battlecruisers are, and report back to us."

Valeris sighed at the revelation. He had been compelled to supply the Wyvani with the ore twenty years ago, or face a hostile takeover of the entire planet at the hands of the Wyvani, if there was a lack of compliance. His decision had undoubtedly saved millions of lives, but the thousands of miners trapped in the slave camps plagued his thoughts constantly.

"This brings us to the gelidar plan" Valeris continued.

"We need to capture one alive! I will attempt to mind control the creature and task it with burrowing into the camp. The Wyvani have set up the camp with walls and guards, but with a tunnel created by the beast, the miners will have a chance to escape. If we use this as a diversion, we think it will buy you enough time to infiltrate the camp unnoticed, and smuggle yourself on-board a freighter."

It was a crackpot scheme by any stretch of the imagination, but Elowyn admired it for exploiting the naturally occurring phenomena of the gelidar worm, potentially preventing the retribution of the Wyvani on the Tyrilians. Her mind focussed from future events, to the more immediate threat of an unknown force of barghest surrounding their position.

"When the time comes I'll figure out the freighter situation, but for now we have more pressing matters," she replied resolutely indicating the direction of the south gate.

Solemn acknowledgement from the rest of the group confirmed her suspicions that she was not the only one calculating tactics. Aldryn grabbed a local map from behind the bar and spread it across the table, by the time he had pinned it down with some empty tankards he had formulated a plan. Elowyn was to scout the barghest encampment and report back numbers; it was suspected the bulk of their forces would be to the south, so they would induce the attack from that direction, and use the gatehouse as a bottleneck for their advance. With preparation of the villagers for battle, they could charge the bottleneck and fight the superior numbers on better terms.

"We should try to delay any battle until tomorrow evening when we've all rested. We should get an idea of numbers for tonight," Valeris interjected at the conclusion of the meeting. With no opposition to the proposed plan of action, it was hoped that the villagers would have time to prepare their defences.

3

Elowyn ceased her human form illusion and used her innate engendered abilities to mask her heat and magic signatures, borne of previous generations heralding back to her ancestors. Female Draecyn had many obfuscating capabilities, not possessed by males of the species, due to vastly differing gender ratios. It enabled them to become virtually invisible at will, and ensured the propagation and survival of the species from predation, millions of years ago. Nowadays the abilities were superfluous for their original intent, but were priceless in regard to their modern adaptation.

Before leaving the tavern, she activated her chameleonic scales, the last the group saw of her was a flash of her crimson infravision eyes. She left the tavern and headed through the side streets, past the thatched wooden cottages to the western perimeter of the village. In a single bound, without a miss in her pace, she effortlessly cleared the palisade and ditch and headed through the snow covered arable land to the edge of the forest.

Weaving through the trees she ran in an arc toward the southwest, leaping the scattered twigs and bracken strewn across the forest floor. Through centuries of training, her skills had been honed to perfection in the art form, so no utterance of audibility came from her.

After half an hour at a blistering pace, she detected heat signatures ahead of her, and instinctively slowed down until they were in range of a detailed examination. With precise agility, she climbed a large evergreen tree using her four sets of claws, to gain an observation platform above the creatures below her. The barghest had formed a ring as predicted surrounding the village of Beradil, and based on the equidistance between them, she estimated there had to be at least four hundred of them to accomplish the perimeter.

With the icy breeze striking her face, the scent of the nearest beast carried to her olfactory organs; the combination of wet canine and rotten meat invaded her senses during her visual examination. The giant lupine creature was easily the same length as her and had to weigh upward of four hundred pounds. With the number of beasts involved, she surmised an exceptionally challenging battle ahead of them.

Carefully, she picked her way down the trunk of the tree and continued inside the perimeter of the barghest toward the south. After another hour of weaving deftly through the trees, she located the concentration of their numbers. She deliberated on an appropriate tree to climb and scanned the horde in front of her; another two hundred of the beasts faced the direction of Beradil, all of them crouched patiently, waiting, and anticipating the command to charge. At the rear of the horde, she detected two bipedal creatures. She was at the limit of her infravision, but her intuition whispered a single word that reverberated in her mind, 'Wyvani'.

The Wyvani were a genetic offshoot of the Draecyn that had occurred approximately two million years ago. They bore a resemblance to their Draecyn forebears, but were smaller in size and stature, and lacked any of the Draecynic innate abilities. They did however retain some of the magic casting capability, although it was limited to lower powered spells, due to their maximum lifespan of approximately a thousand years.

All magic in the universe required a small contribution of the casters life-force to forge. For lower powered spells, minutes or hours were appropriated from a creature's lifespan, whereas large spells could remove years, or even decades. However, Wyvani had a few distinct evolutionary advantages over the Draecyn; primarily they gave birth to live young, instead of laying eggs. Consequently, they had a faster reproductive cycle, with an even distribution of gender in the species. This radical difference meant there were currently billions of Wyvani in existence in the galaxy, compared to only a few million Draecyn remaining, after the numerous conflicts between the species, through the annals of time.

Like most wars in the galaxy the basis of the conflict was borne of differences in culture, religion and visual biological dissimilarities. The combination of these factors caused a segregative wedge between the species. Within only a few thousand years, the Wyvani abandoned Draecos Prime and colonised a group of inhabitable systems, down one of the spiral arms of the galaxy. Fortuitously for the Wyvani, the systems were exceptionally mineral rich, and they thrived for the next million years, expanding to numerous systems in the spiral arm, and established an extensive hypergate network.

As with many species, overpopulation and an increasing demand for resources resulted in further expansion of the network. Tyril Prime was the latest in an ever increasing list of worlds, to submit to their cruel domineering subjugation, in their thirst for power and control of the galaxy.

Elowyn calmly descended the tree, that she was using as her vantage point, and made her way swiftly back to Beradil in a northerly direction. She deliberated a route that would avoid getting too close to the siren spirit, as she headed for the southern gate. Inside the gatehouse, the two sentries appeared to be deep in conversation about the current events, as she launched herself over the gatehouse, using a burst of raw power from her legs.

Within seconds she arrived at the tavern, being careful to use her tail to conceal her tracks in the snow, so as not to alert the villagers to her presence in the morning. Barring a few claw marks in a couple of trees, no visible evidence of her reconnaissance had been left behind. She swiftly climbed one of the chimney stacks of the tavern and lowered herself down the flue into the room.

Valeris and Vitiri were alone now, with Valeris comforting the Tyrilian who decidedly looked on edge. She made her way from the still roaring fireplace, as silently as possible and sat next to Vitiri.

"Are you sure she's alright, Valeris? She's taking forever." Vitiri stumbled on his words, partially through drink, and partially through concern.

With a small shake of her scales she deactivated her chameleonic ability and replied instantly to the question, "I'm fine sweetheart!" before Valeris could reply.

Vitiri jumped and instantly ale exploded from his mouth mid swig. With the rest of the ale in his system taking effect, he lost all motor control of his legs and ended up sprawled on the floor, in a spectacular display of inelegance; the culmination of which, ended with an involuntary squeak passing his lips.

Valeris couldn't resist the comical look on his friends face and roared with laughter at his misfortune, and even though he suspected dire news was only minutes away, the levity of it brought him comfort.

Elowyn quickly resumed her human form and offered her hand to help Vitiri to his feet. By way of apology, she drew him close to her and kissed him tenderly on the cheek, and, invoking her most sultry of whispers, she thanked him for his concern for her welfare. Vitiri blushed in response. Despite her true nature, he found himself infatuated with her, to the point of distraction.

In order to prevent panic in Vitiri, she uncoiled her tail from the constraints of her illusion. While diverting his attention, she used it to carve the number six hundred in the surface of the table for Valeris. With a conspiratorial glance to Valeris, she stood up and escorted Vitiri upstairs to the bedroom; if it was to be his last night of existence, she would make sure it was a memorable one.

With the door locked behind them, she led him to the bed and playfully shoved him into its centre; all he could do was watch in amazement as she began to strip in front of him.

"Is this what you wanted to see at the cabin?" she purred, as the illusion of the white silk blouse hit the floor and disappeared. All he could do was nod in acknowledgement of the anticipated sight before him; for hers was a body of a goddess, athletic in build with a gently carved musculature, that implied her physical power, while remaining exceptionally feminine.

With a teasing sensuality, both calf boots and the leather trousers were removed and fell to the floor, joining the blouse in nothingness. He fought resolutely against the overwhelming urge to seize control of her magnificent sculptured figure, and calmed himself as she removed his clothing. With a delicacy of movement, she extracted each piece from his possession, until only his shirt remained. Slowly and deliberately she unbuttoned his remaining vestment, gently feather kissing his muscular chest as she proceeded to his abdominal muscles, gently tracing their definition with her tongue. A surge of adrenaline coursed through him with the caressing, causing small involuntary shudders that brought the hairs on his neck to attention.

Like an artist painting a masterpiece, she used fine brush strokes with the tip of her tongue, from the base to the tip of his rapidly hardening member. The pleasure was overwhelming, and caused his blood to surge and boil in anticipation. Sensing his excitement, she retraced her progress with tender kisses, until their mouths met once more. Unable to contain his desire for her, Vitiri focussed his attention on her neck, reciprocating the teasing she had given him only moments before, as he rolled her onto her back. With playful bites he traversed its entirety, causing her to involuntarily gasp at the sensation.

Elowyn closed her eyes and bit her lip, as she felt his kisses move down her neck and follow the contour of her breast. The sharp electrifying sensitivity of his teeth on her neck was replaced by a softer, more delicate sensation, as he guided his lips across her chest. She felt his mouth leave her skin for a moment longer than anticipated, and almost opened her eyes to check on his hesitancy, before she felt the spine-tingling touch of his tongue on one of her nipples. With an intricate dance, it caressed both of them to firmness, before continuing its exploration of her.

As his mouth exquisitely moved down her abdomen, past her navel, a soft moan of expectation passed her lips. Finally, teasingly, his lips gently brushed against his destination. She felt his warm breath against her, as he darted his tongue expertly at her core, causing uncontrollable waves of pleasure to wash over her. Surprised by her yearning for him, she coerced him onto his back once more. Carefully arching her back slightly, she allowed him inside her.

Agonisingly, Vitiri restrained himself against her moist tightness. As she caressed his neck with her lips, he could feel her erect nipples brushing his own; he gently clasped her perfectly rounded breasts and guided their delicate weaving pattern. Ecstasy filled every nuance of his being, as she moved gracefully on him. She lessened the pace seductively for him as soon as the pleasure became unbearable, allowing him to enjoy her warmth to the fullest.

After what seemed a delicious eternity of their entwining, he could feel her wetness and tightening around him increase. He could endure the sensory overload no longer and with the ensuing convulsive thrusts, he exploded deep inside her. Her quivering muscles drained every drop of his seed as his eruption triggered her voracious orgasm, causing her to arch her back with a look of sheer delight on her face. She forcibly kept his tumescence buried within her as her convulsions subsided, allowing his pulsing warmth to recede, as they collapsed in each other's arms.

Vitiri woke to the sound of bustling activity from the street below. Preparations were already underway for the defence of the village, and judging by the vocal emanations that permeated the room, no time was being wasted by those involved. His mind cleared from the alcoholic haze that shrouded his senses; allowing him to focus on the personification of beauty still wrapped in his arms, which instigated a flood of emotions within him. He knew she was tasked with a seemingly impossible mission, from which she would almost certainly not return. If she did survive, would she remember him? Would he ever see her again? The multitude of unanswerable possibilities churned over in his thoughts, as her eyes fluttered open.

After a hearty breakfast in the tavern, their group joined the throng of villagers gathering outside in front of the blacksmiths; for those only armed with pitchforks and agricultural tools, the smithies hastily scrambled to modify their intent, to provide more effective weapons. With the exception of the children in the village, roughly four hundred adults, of all ages, prepared themselves for the defence of their lives.

Elowyn surveyed the pitifully small collection of bodies as they donned piecemeal armour in front of her. They were outnumbered by what was undoubtedly a superior force in the barghest, but the determined look of courage and conviction on the faces before her, gave her hope. A few of the villagers, with military experience, conveyed the defensive strategy planned by Aglomar, to the troops.

As the last light of day waned in the sky, the preparations concluded. One elderly villager came forth, who could not wield steel capably, and volunteered to be the guard who would be seduced by the siren spirit, to his certain demise. Elowyn admired the courage of the man in his sacrifice, and cast 'protection from evil' on him at an opportune moment. If his life was to be forfeit, his selfless act would not be in vain.

Dark billowing clouds engulfed the final rays of daylight, heralding an onslaught of further snow. With the darkness enveloping them, an eerie silence consumed the village with anticipation. After what seemed an eternity, the elderly guard left the gatehouse in a trancelike state, and opened the southern gate. Slowly he ventured south into the forest, picking his way clumsily through the trees, toward his final resting place. The first of the barghest to reach him howled with pain as they attempted to tear him apart, while the other barghest, charging as silently as possible toward the village, misconstrued the angered calls, maddening their bloodlust further.

Hearing the approach of snapping twigs and smaller branches, the bravest of Beradils' warriors readied themselves for the breach of their defences. They crouched behind compacted walls of snow near to the gate, and watched helplessly, as the flood of huge black beasts flowed like a tide of snarling fur, through the wide open portal. With a blast of the signal horn they charged the gate, summoning all of their courage, all of their strength, all of their vigour, at damming the tsunami of rage entering the battlefield.

With pure determination, their shoulders slammed into the heavy woodwork, they could feel the crashing of barghest bodies against the other side of the gate as they moved it against the torrent, causing their muscles to flex and bodies to ripple, as they absorbed the impacts. With a gargantuan effort, they sealed the aperture and slid home the tritalumin locking bar.

In concurrence with the closing of the gate, the remainder of the Beradil troops hauled on ropes attached to giant, twelve foot long, arrays of spears, which had been fashioned from their huge timber reserves. The polearms sprang forth from their buried locations, showering the air with fine particles of snow. Before the lead barghest could react, their momentum carried them to swift deaths, as they impaled themselves on the sturdy hardwood lances, which had been set to repel the charge.

Realising their group had been segregated some of the barghest wheeled back in the direction of the gate, their expansion into the village now thwarted on three sides. With only the warriors at the gate, preventing the influx of their main force, they crashed into the braced shields of the fighters, with a terrifying ferocity. With a second call from the horn, the village archers loosed volley after volley of arrows into the barghest from the flanks, bestowing heavy casualties.

In defence of the gate, Aglomar's battle cries coordinated their efforts to minimise losses, but inevitably the sheer strength and savagery of the beasts before them, caused some of their number to succumb to violent dismembered deaths. At his back, the stench of rotten meat permeated the air from the rapidly gathering barghest forces, intent on forcing open the heaving portal behind them. Without delay, he raised the war horn to his lips and called forth the emergency signal to Elowyn.

It was the signal she had been waiting for. Knowing she could not cast such a high level spell without dropping her human form, she had hidden among the cottages of the village within sight of the battlefield. Vitiri had insisted on accompanying her for protection, for there was a high chance she would be rendered unconscious from the shock to her system, due to her life force drain. She raised her hands toward the heavens and began to levitate toward them, surges of pure magical energy swirled in a vortex around her, emanating a blinding light, and causing all of her scales to ripple violently.

Vitiri shielded his eyes in desperation with his hand; his curiosity would not allow him to look away from the spectacle above him. He could feel the raw power being channelled from the earth beneath his feet; he struggled to breathe as the air around him became charged with an indescribable energy that made him sink to his knees. Above the battlefield, the clouds dispersed forming a perfect ring of the clearest sky; from the cosmos above, a cluster of nine stars formed a diamond shape and accelerated toward them.

Nearing the climax of the spell, Elowyn slowly clenched her fists, and harvesting every last drop of power she could, she opened her eyes and plummeted to the ground, slamming her fists into the surface with every last fibre of her being. The resulting detonation of her impact, threw Vitiri backwards through the air, into the wall of the cottage twenty feet behind him.

Simultaneously, the white hot spheres of the meteor storm plummeted from the sky, smashing into the huge gathering of barghest waiting for the breach of the southern gate. With a colossal impact that shook the entire valley, the meteors exploded amongst the barghest ranks, obliterating the majority of their number instantly. With an eruption of blood, fur and limbs in all directions, a deluge of viscera hit the battlefield and its occupants, as they were hurled to the ground by the magnitude of the blast.

Aglomar recovered quickly from the concussive devastation around him. With a nod to Balthar they sprang from their positions in the phalanx, and raced forward into open combat. With predictable ease they carved their way through the barghest nearest to them, as the giant lupines attempted to right themselves from their stupefaction. As the cloud of fine particulate snow resettled on the ground, the blood of the beasts congealed into a red slush at their feet. Spurred on by their purpose, their blades whirled in blurring arcs, creating florets of arterial vitae around them.

Valeris wheeled to face the carnage, as the earth shook violently beneath his feet; their defence of the north gate was insufficient to repel the growing multitude of barghest from the northern perimeter. Lenara and Hadrik were efficiently dispatching a few of their number with trained arrows, but it was not enough. With immeasurable force behind it, the gate creaked and groaned under the strain, causing shards of seasoned hardwood to rupture from its surface. If the barghest successfully breached it, the village would be overrun. The small contingent of warriors with him, shifted uneasily in expectation.

He had no recourse; he could not allow a repeat of Sangara to occur because of his existence. He knew by this point Elowyn would be unconscious, and would certainly perish at the gleaming teeth of the creatures. For it wasn't just the fate of this world, but the fate of all worlds, that relied on her survival. He had kept that from her purposefully, so as not to distract her from her mission. With a mighty draw of breath he bellowed a single word.

"RRRUUUUUUUUNNNNNN!"

Hadrik looked over to Lenara and back in the direction of Valeris; they disengaged from their vantage points behind the palisade, and followed the now sprinting band of warriors to the south. As they passed the giant of a man, Lenara saw him drop his sword and shield to the ground; in their place large, white, scale covered claws extended in size and length. She halted briefly unable to comprehend what she was witnessing. Valeris turned to her, and with a comforting smile, he bade her to find Vitiri.

Alabastyr tore at the clothes that constrained his human form, for his metamorphosis was one of transmutation rather than illusion. Magical illusions could only disguise beings of similar size and mass; in his case the transformation process took longer to achieve, but the end result was more spectacular.

Large dorsal horns erupted from the rear of his torso as his body mass expanded, extending from the nape of his neck, to the spearhead of bone at the end of his powerful tail. He leaned forward, planting his forelegs into the ground to distribute his weight as it increased exponentially. He could feel the cobblestones of the street descend into the earth until they met with permafrost below. Two large symmetrical nodules sprouted above his shoulder blades, rapidly reaching for the sky. As they reached their apex, they unfurled into his colossal leathery wings. As he extended to his full height, more vicious aciculae extended from his limbs, increasing his protection from ground based attacks. The last of the defensive horns formed as the north gate fractured and collapsed in front of him.

He knew of only one option that could prevent their ingress, he spread his wings to the fullest and slammed them into the cobblestones with brutish force, creating a culvert for the beasts to flood into. A few of the barghest were too fast for the manoeuvre, however, and escaped into the side streets of the village.

With a long draw of breath he filled his four lungs to capacity, as he felt the razor sharp teeth of the creatures below sink into his wings. He turned his head downward, and emanated the fiercest Draeconic breath he had mustered in his entire existence. Frozen shards exploded from his mouth with a thunderous roar, creating a hurricane of icy shrapnel that engulfed the barghest below him. Few living creatures in existence could survive such a tempest. Within seconds the barghest that hadn't been directly pierced by thousands of glacial flechettes, had their core temperatures diminish to absolute zero.

Hadrik charged down the street trying to keep pace with Lenara, but was astounded by how swiftly she reached the tavern ahead of him. She hurtled into the door barging it open in the process, and stumbled to the floor with her momentum. Before she could react, he slammed the door shut behind her and buried the point of his shield into the gap between the door and frame. Hastily he grabbed another shield from the blacksmiths opposite, and headed back up the street towards the giant Draecon.

Leaving the warriors of Beradil to eliminate the remaining barghest at the south gate, Aglomar and Balthar charged northward into the village. They plunged into the side street where Elowyn had plummeted from the sky, to see Vitiri desperately trying to wake her. Rounding the corner at the other end of the street, three of the barghest coiled sinew and tendons ready for the charge. With a lightning pace, the five creatures raced to Vitiri's hunched form from opposite directions.

With their human forms dropped, Aldryn and Marcyn extracted every drop of haste their pounding muscular legs would allow, as two of the barghest leapt the remaining distance toward them. Matching the flight of the creatures, they soared into the void, instinctively mirroring each other's strikes, slicing open the creatures from nose to tail. Helplessly, they watched the third barghest at ground level, bear down on the crouching Vitiri from behind.

Vitiri felt the surge of displaced air pass his cheek, as the winged darkblade travelled past him at high velocity, striking the barghest in the palette of its wide open mouth. The blade continued through the cerebrum of the animal and freed itself by exiting the parietal bone. He felt on his neck, the final exhalation of the beast behind him, accompanied by the spattering of blood droplets that ensued. He was transfixed with shock, unable to blink as he stared into her crimson eyes.

"Next time, stand over me, if you want to protect me," her voice was calm and measured, but was delivered with a severity of intent which snapped him out of his multitude of thoughts. He concentrated on the possibility of a 'next time,' as the group gathered themselves together for the next fight.

"We must protect Alabastyr!" Aldryn called out. Without hesitation, they sprinted back up the street and headed north to assist the Draecon.

Alabastyr surveyed the replenishing swarm of barghest in front of him and grimaced, he would have to wait for his Draeconic breath to recharge before he could exterminate their remainder. He could not move his torn wings from their position, encompassing the original frozen swathe of bodies, for fear of allowing more of the beasts to attack his flanks. With a resolute savagery, he tore at the new attackers with his claws and fangs, and with powerful thrashes of his tail, he crushed and amputated limbs from the barghest attacking him from the sides.

Hadrik carved his way through the crumpled bodies littering the northern battlefield; the true heroism within him guided his strikes, as his darkblade bit deep into the lupine flesh of the remaining barghest.

Alabastyr bellowed with rage, as more of the barghest lacerated his wings, allowing them access to his flanks. With overwhelming numbers, they ripped into the soft tissue beneath his scales drawing blood, in their endeavour to locate vital organs. In desperation, he filled his lungs and released another frozen tempest on the remaining barghest below. With a gargantuan effort, he hauled his wings out of the ground and beat them together, creating a thunderous concussive blast.

Corpses of frozen barghest shattered into crystalline fragments before him; barghest on his flanks and travelling up his dorsal surfaces, were wrenched helplessly from him with its force. With his wings in front of him, he rolled on the ground crushing more of the creatures. As he righted himself, he could see copious quantities of his own blood tainting the snow beneath him. His muscles weakened under the strain, as the wounds took their toll.

Lenara was incensed at her treatment by Hadrik. She tugged at the sealed tavern door with as much force as she could muster, but the wedged shield held firm. Enraged by its defiance, she charged one of the tavern's windows extending her shield in front of her, and with a shower of glass and wooden splinters, she crashed through the opening to the street outside. Using a deft roll, she regained her footing and sprinted up the cobblestone street. As she neared the battle for the north gate, the shockwave of the Draecon's wingbeat hit her, causing her to brace from the effects behind her shield.

As Hadrik flew backwards through the air, he regretted being so close to the Draecon during its surprise manoeuvre; he landed awkwardly and struggled to regain his footing from his prone position. Sensing his weakness, the barghest nearest to him, recovered quickly and pounced in his direction for the kill. As the rows of gleaming white teeth travelled towards his throat, a violent tremor coursed through its body, as Lenara's arrow burrowed through the creature's heart and lungs.

Hadrik grabbed the barghest by the throat, as it reflexively attempted to bite down on his face before brain death occurred. Feeling it weaken and slump on top of him, Hadrik rolled the creature to one side, before being crushed by the weight of the beast.

Elowyn led the charge into the foray at the north gate. With a new found determination and valiant willpower, they voraciously rampaged through the ranks of the remaining barghest until they reached Alabastyr. With all of his energy depleted, the great Draecon's legs buckled underneath him. With a rumbling groan he rolled onto his side, paralyzed with exhaustion, his deep wounds pulsing his life-force into the snow. In the distance, the Wyvani overseers, satisfied their mission was complete, escaped to the north to report their success. Alabastyr had known they were there; his razor sharp eyesight had identified their heat signatures from the onset of the battle.

Lenara crouched beside the huge head of the colossal creature that had undoubtedly saved all of their lives; tears welled in her eyes uncontrollably as she gently stroked his face. As she looked into his eyes, a clear distinct voice spoke to her softly in her mind.

"All of my knowledge, all of my power, all of my ability I give to you freely, young one. Do you accept?" without hesitation and under her own volition her answer was 'yes.'

"Be warned though, young one, for as well as being the ultimate gift, this could lead to your undoing. Do you still wish to continue?" Lenara paused this time in contemplation, as the giant eye looked backwards towards its flanks; the significance of the stare was not lost on her in its implication. Resolutely she affirmed her previous decision, 'yes.'

With his last act, Alabastyr cast 'transposition' on her. He reached for her slowly and deliberately with his left claw; encircling her torso he locked her into a vicelike grip. Huge torrents of magical energy began to encircle her, saturating her senses. An intense white light enveloped her and the Draecon, as his physical form collapsed into a globe of pure energy that propelled down his outstretched arm and slammed into her chest.

Immeasurable quantities of pure magical energy surged through her, as she launched through the air from the impact. She closed her eyes as she crashed to the ground, expecting physical damage from her fall, but none came. As she reopened them the voice in her mind continued "Now look upon the world with your immortal eyes, and tell me what you see..."

The world around her had radically changed. She scanned the horizon, viewing it with unparalleled clarity, noting the subtle nuances in the variation of temperature on the slopes of the mountains to the north. Desperately she attempted to control her heart rate as her senses overwhelmed her; the crunch of the snow as rapid steps approached her position focussed her attention to her immediate surroundings.

"Lenara what happened? Are you hurt?" Hadrik's voice trembled with anticipation expecting a confirmation of the latter.

"I'm fine I think..." the maelstrom of memories swirled in her mind uncontrollably, making her nauseous as she wrestled to control them. From within, the soothing voice calmed her, encouraging her to focus on a single memory that seemed to proffer itself to her. She closed her eyes and allowed it into her mind.

Thousands of bodies lay scattered across the battlefield of Sangara, some lifeless with pallid white skin that reflected the moonlight. Others clawed their way toward a town through a quagmire of blood and limbs, striving to reach medical assistance. She powered through the conditions relentlessly, helping the survivors, until a familiar face caused her to hesitate with shock. A young Valeris looked up at her, his life-force oozing from his mouth, as he struggled to contain his vital organs within his torso.

With consummate ease she carried the man to a nearby cottage, away from the makeshift field hospital, and forced entry to the deserted building. Inside she laid the man on the single bed, carefully supporting his head in her hand as she locked her gaze on him. Precious moments passed before her hand enlarged into a huge white talon that encircled Valeris; in the blinding white light that followed she could see the multitude of wounds knit together, as if a reversal of their savagery had occurred. When the light finally receded, she rose from the bed and ran back out to the battlefield, to assist more of the fallen.

Concerned voices probed her senses and brought her back from the memory; it had consumed her with its lucidity and clarity, and now that it was over, she felt frustration at the interference. With a new found strength and agility, she righted herself and reassured the group all was well, noting that she could see through the human illusions of three of them, to the Draecyn inside.

"Let's get you back to the tavern," Aglomar suggested, as a small contingent of villagers from the south joined them, with excited looks on their faces. As they headed to the tavern, she could hear a multitude of conversations about the white wyrm saving their lives, as they shored up the north gate behind them.

The warmth of the tavern instilled calmness in the villagers as the adrenaline subsided. Groups of children carried cauldrons of meat broth from nearby homes to reinvigorate the warriors of the village, as they celebrated a decisive victory. All conversations in the tavern focussed on their encounter with the barghest, from solemn toasts to the fallen heroes of the evening, to individual tales of daring in the face of adversity. Their spirits strengthened as new found respect and friendship was forged within them.

Conversation inevitably turned to the meteor storm and the appearance of the white wyrm, but it was unanimously resolved that divine intervention from the gods had helped them in their hour of need, and subsequent celebration was duly called for. Apart from one young boy, all of the villagers presumed the white wyrm had vanished on its demise; he had witnessed the battle of the north gate in its entirety from his bedroom window, and knew the pretty young lady's secret. He swore to himself, never to speak of it. After the turmoil of his resolution subsided in his mind, the pretty young lady turned to him and smiled sweetly.

4

Lenara woke the next morning feeling invigorated by a peaceful sleep, through the guidance of Alabastyr she had learned to control the amalgamation of souls within her mind. Her biological father Valeris had risen to the fore, ably assisting Alabastyr in the aftermath of the transposition. For control was paramount as the host of the Draecon, without control the multitude of voices in her mind would tear the combined consciousness asunder. Some of the voices greeted her pleasantly, while others remained silent casually observing the process, of the conglomeration of thirty seven individuals she suspected the oldest to be the most indifferent.

Throughout the festivities of the previous evening, Lenara had learned of Valeris' heart wrenching decision to give her to Vitiri for adoption. After his transposition at the battle of Sangara, it was deemed prudent to disassociate their relationship for her protection. His decision to do so had gnawed at his paternal instincts for twenty years, and now he and Lenara were reunited, he made amends by assisting her as a voice from within whenever possible.

There was much to learn as a host of a Draecon. While it was true she was immortal in her human form, she could as she witnessed, be destroyed in her Draeconic form. If no new host willingly gave themselves to the transposition, then final death would occur. She could call upon the transformation into the Draeconic form at will, but her consciousness belonged to Alabastyr as the Draecon. A vast array of spells was now at her disposal, from simple detection spells, to more advanced invocations which she could use at will. She had practiced a simple mind read during the evening, yielding incredible results.

With their group gathered in the tavern Lenara took the lead on plotting their course northward towards the mountains. Their route would take them through some treacherous terrain, but it gave them a greater chance of encountering a gelidar worm. She would be the one to attempt to control the creatures mind now, Alabastyr helped to calm her thoughts, as the prospect of controlling another mind, in combination with regulating her own, daunted her greatly.

Elowyn agreed to provide reconnaissance for the group, as the village of Beradil disappeared behind them. Deftly weaving between the trees of the forest, she covered huge swathes of ground invisible to any would be observers. On occasion, she caught the scent of the two Wyvani overseers. They had travelled at a fast pace toward the north-east in the direction of the mining camp, with intent of reporting their success to their superiors. She didn't allow the distraction to coerce her from her task, but she monitored their movement when the opportunity presented itself, nonetheless.

After a few hours of relentless scouting, Elowyn glimpsed their destination in the distance, on an incline at the far side of the valley floor. The trading post at the base of the foothills signified the transition in terrain, from arboreal lowlands to mountainous highlands. An offshoot of the main path through the forest, carved its way expertly through the vegetation towards it.

As she reached the brow of the steep ascent, the thinning trees provided a better view of the large two-storey log cabin. At first, all seemed normal with the proud structure, but as she neared the entrance, the devastation of the northern wall became apparent. The cabin door had been rendered into kindling by an unknown destructive force, an assortment of wild animal traps lay scattered across the ground in front of the opening, as if a desperate defensive tactic had been employed by the cabin's owner.

Without making a sound, Elowyn slowly extended her ancillary carpal bones from her wrists and proceeded across the open expanse of ground, while her olfactory organs went into overdrive, processing the air around her. The stench of blood and decay invaded her senses, almost masking a new unknown scent, which piqued her curiosity.

Inside the cabin, a scene of carnage greeted her. Large assortments of animal pelts and household belongings lay scattered across the room, covered in blood. Arterial spray patterns adorned the walls in random arcs, suggesting a prolonged and vicious encounter with an unknown assailant. As she stalked the unusual scent's origin, her attention was drawn to a partially devoured skeletal mass, under some of the pelts.

Pausing over the body she switched to her infravision. Scanning the gloom of the building's interior, revealed a single small heat source from a rodent, gnawing at a similar frozen humanoid corpse. She peeled back the large animal furs from the body beneath her, revealing the extent of the injuries sustained by the victim of the brutal attack.

Large claw marks across the thoracic area had buried into the flesh, and fractured the bones beneath, with brutish force; incisor and canine marks on the remaining flesh, suggested a predatory carnivore of considerable size and strength. A savage bite to the neck of the Tyrilian had severed the carotid arteries and spinal cord, resulting in his demise. The remaining pieces of flesh on the corpse, suggested a partial devouring by the creature responsible, with some areas attributable to the rodents, scavenging the leftovers.

Elowyn deliberated on the perpetrator; its unusual scent eliminated barghest and Wyvani from her potential suspects. She moved to the second body and uncovered it in the hope of finding more clues to the assault. Staring back at her was the face of a once, quite pretty, Tyrilian woman; her features contorted into a visage of pure terror, by her adversary. Significantly, more flesh and viscera remained on this corpse than the first, indicating that the creature had received its required nourishment from the bodies, and departed from the cabin. With no further clues forthcoming, she slowly ascended the single flight of stairs, at the rear of the cabin.

For the most part, the living quarters remained intact; a general disarray of personal items cluttered the open plan area, but no sign of further conflict was apparent. As she returned to the stairs, a symbolic clue caused her to freeze in her tracks; a second smaller bed, near to the main bed, suggested the presence of a child. Silently and deliberately, she searched the room for the remaining occupant, no heat traces were apparent to her infravision, causing her to suspect the child had been abducted by the perpetrator.

As she crossed the floorboards, toward the segregated bathroom area, her weight caused one of the boards to creak under the strain. In the bathroom beyond, a small involuntary vocal squeak broke the silence. With lightning speed, she deactivated her chameleonic scales, and resumed her human illusion.

"Is anyone there?" She called out, knowing the answer but using her softest, most soothing voice, to assuage the fears of the child in the room beyond. No response came from the room, and the cabin returned to silence. Calmly she crossed the remaining distance to the door, and opened it gently, so as not to create a sense of panic in the child.

In the centre of the room a large, upturned, freestanding bath concealed the occupant contained within. Elowyn approached the container, and lifted the side of the vessel carefully, so as not to startle the infant, curled up in a foetal position on a fur blanket. The emaciated little girl stared back at her nervously from within its confines.

"Hello sweetheart, my name is Elowyn. What's your name?" Immediately she regretted the choice of 'sweetheart' but it sounded comforting, as she purred the words in a velvety tone.

"My name is Kyrra," the little girl stuttered as if unsure of her own identity.

"Hello Kyrra, pleased to meet you. Would you like a hug?" Elowyn crouched and offered her outstretched arms as a sign of friendship. With no need for coaxing, the little girl threw herself into the embrace, desperately seeking comfort from the stranger. With the little girl looking over her shoulder, Elowyn's eyes flashed with iridescence as she cast 'heart of courage' on the child.

"Can you tell me what happened here?" Elowyn pressed the intrusive question, as she felt the girl relax in her arms.

"My mummy and daddy got hurt by a big man covered in white hair, he was angry, and had four arms and big teeth and..." she stopped herself as she relived the scene in her mind. She battled her emotions, and pointed to a small gap in the floorboards to the room below.

"I saw it through there, and I hid under the bath, so the big man couldn't find me," warm tears flowed from her eyes and trickled on to Elowyn's neck, carrying with them the pain and anguish of her loss.

"How long have you been hiding for, Kyrra?" her questioning was direct, but she didn't lack any emotion or sympathy in its deliverance.

Kyrra pointed to some parallel scratch marks in the floorboard indicating that twelve days had passed since the attack below, and Elowyn suspected she had not left the safety of the bathroom.

"I need you to be brave, Kyrra. Can you close your eyes and come with me, so we can find my friends?" Elowyn caressed the tears from the little girl's cheek, as she delivered the challenge to her trust. Kyrra nodded an acceptance, allowing Elowyn to pick her up, and carry her out of the building, squeezing her eyelids closed as tightly as she could.

It was late afternoon, as they headed back down the trail towards the rest of the group. The snow had abated briefly, and through the broken clouds, the sun cast long shadows from the tree trunks, as she traversed the steep decline down to the valley. After half an hour of carrying Kyrra, the little girl drifted into a peaceful slumber, and lolled her head onto Elowyn's shoulder for comfort. Within minutes, Lenara and the group appeared around a corner of the trail in front of her, and inquisitive stares precluded their reunion.

Lenara was the first to react, "What happened? Is she hurt?" She knew the answer to the questions, as she asked them, and instinctively she unslung her backpack and grabbed her rations. With the commotion around her, Kyrra woke up to find a group of friendly faces staring back at her. Closest to her was a pretty lady, who gave her a flexible metallic pouch, filled with a hot, tasty, meat broth.

They set up camp in a small clearing nearby, and spent the evening making sure that she was warm and comfortable, and had plenty of tasty food and drink. She liked her new friends who were kind to her, but especially she liked the Elowyn lady, who had carried her away from the danger. Elowyn lady promised to sleep with her, and keep her safe in the night, which made the Vitiri man shake his head and roll his eyes in a funny way.

After going to bed early, she could hear them talking about her, and Elowyn lady explained what had happened to her. They agreed that the nice Balthar man would take her to Beradil in the morning, where she would be safe. She didn't sleep until later in the night, when Elowyn lady came into the tent and cuddled her. Elowyn lady was warm. Elowyn lady was safe.

Between them Balthar, Aglomar and Lenara took turns on watching the camp for the night. During her watch, Lenara scanned the horizon fervently; she honed her new razor sharp eyesight like a trained weapon, using it to focus on distant objects with ease. Along the valley ridgeline, the cabin Elowyn had spoken of was in stark contrast to its surroundings. Beyond the structure she could see three heat signatures, crouching in a copse of evergreens, further up the slope. She concentrated her focus on them, as they observed the cabin.

They were large, muscular, bipedal creatures with four arms and feline shaped heads. Rows of razor sharp teeth lined their jaws, with distended canine teeth, which were used for clamping the throats of larger prey. Each of them had thick manes of long hair, which extended from their forehead down to their dorsal torso, ending at their mid-section. Their crouched stances belied their full height, but she estimated they were easily the same size as her Draecyn companions. They wore crude furs, akin to the prehistoric tribes she had seen at the natural history museum in Kranis. While she had no doubt they were savage killers, there was a display of intellect about them that separated them from true monsters.

She consulted with Alabastyr about what they were witnessing; if she concentrated her thoughts, she could limit her senses, to occlude the other minds within. Alabastyr felt it prudent that she learn the skill as a priority, in case she wanted some 'alone time' with Hadrik, without an awkward situation developing. On this occasion however, she had allowed all of the soul's access to the visual information presented to them.

From within, a new voice spoke to her with excitable chirps; it explained to her that the creatures, in the distance, were an ancient race known as the Tegrani. In an anthropological narrative, the voice remarked that the scientific community thought the creatures were extinct. Very little was known about their existence, except for rare alleged sightings, as the nomadic tribe moved around the vast icy tundra constantly, in search of new feeding grounds.

With an edge of concern in the voice, it warned their group was probably being hunted by the creatures. It speculated that the extreme weather in the tundra, filtering south, had forced them to relocate their hunting grounds accordingly. The voice believed the tribe would push further south in the search for sustenance, as they had now acquired a taste for easily obtainable, human flesh. Depending on the size of the tribe, villages such as Beradil would be at great risk from the creatures. Where the barghest had to channel their efforts at breaching the gates, the Tegrani could simply climb the palisades at any access point of their choosing.

After observing the trading post for a while, the Tegrani moved off in a south-westerly direction. Keeping within the treeline of the thinning forest above the valley ridge, she tracked their thermal traces as they darted through the evergreens, until the topography shielded them from view.

From what she had witnessed of their behaviour, she surmised they had excellent night vision. She questioned their sense of smell, however, due to their lack of interest in the path Elowyn had taken, to reach their position in the valley. Was it fortuitous, that the gentle breeze from the north-west carried the little girl's scent toward them into the valley? Or could Elowyn's innate scent blocking ability, protect others in close proximity? She would ask her Draecyn companion in the morning, as the voices had no answer to these pertinent questions.

After another couple of hours of vigilance, the Tyrilian sun crept lazily into the sky at an obtuse angle to the horizon. Within half an hour of its inception, their group had retracted their instents into their small cubic holders and readied themselves for the trek into the foothills, warmed by their nourishing breakfast stew rations. Lenara quizzed Elowyn on her ability to mask her scent, but disconcertingly the skill only applied to the Draecyn. She relayed the details of her observations to her companions, including her appraisal of the voice's narrative.

Overhearing the details from Lenara, Kyrra moved closer to Elowyn and held her hand. Her nervousness increased during the dialogue, to the point where she could squeeze Elowyn's hand no tighter. She managed to confirm that the big angry man had four arms, before her emotions caused flashbacks of the event, resulting in more tears welling in her eyes.

Elowyn lady gave her a farewell hug and promised they would see each other soon. Within hours, the nice Balthar man had safely carried her to Beradil village where she was greeted by a nice lady who gave her food and a warm bed.

With Balthar gone, they continued their journey out of the valley towards the trading post. Elowyn resumed her reconnaissance ahead of the group, but without Marcyn, she did not venture as far ahead, as she had previously. After reaching the cabin, she scouted the surrounding woodland to the north of the building, and within minutes, she easily located the tracks and accompanying scents of the three Tegrani warriors.

Although the three scents were almost identical, subtle differences were discernible between them. She identified the one with the closest match to the scent at the cabin, and followed the deep set tracks for a while in a south-westerly direction. Something had caused her adversaries to increase their pace, on occasion, during their foray. As most of the tracks had now been back-filled with snow, she couldn't ascertain a reason for the change of pace, so she surmised that prey items were on the agenda.

Elowyn retraced her steps, arriving at the trading post shortly before her companions; she returned to her human form and when they arrived, she guided them through her analysis of the attack at the cabin. After the appraisal, they buried the two bodies and continued on their predetermined course to the north-west. Alabastyr guided Lenara with his supposition, that the foothills were the most likely area to encounter gelidar worms. Their destination was the remote hamlet of Doril, and if they continued at a good pace, they could make it there by sundown.

Marcyn powered his way back up the incline, through the snow, toward the cabin; he had dropped his Balthar guise within minutes of leaving the outskirts of Beradil. He knew his only chance of catching up to the group would be in his Draecynic form, his muscular legs rhythmically decreased the distance, as his heart beat steadily in his chest. With ease he sprinted across the expanse of ground outside the cabin, and followed the fresh tracks of his companions to the north-west.

Downwind of the sprinting Draecyn, two of the Tegrani warriors observed the movements of the unusual creature; it had a similar scent to one of the humans in the group, that had passed by earlier. It moved fast. They knew they could not keep pace with it, so they decided to follow its tracks and wait for it to tire and weaken. They knew the third of their number had travelled ahead to observe the main group, and with luck, they could concentrate their efforts and intercept the solitary creature.

Lenara scanned the terrain around them; her heightened senses went into overdrive, as she absorbed the information around her. She paused instinctively; they were being followed by one of the hunters from last night. The Tegrani was being careful to remain unseen using the terrain to keep out of sight, and staying downwind of their position to the south.

"We're being followed," she announced matter-of-factly in a hushed tone.

"Let's slow our pace a little, and allow Marcyn chance to catch up with us," Aglomar mused. If they were to be ambushed, he would prefer the company of one of the finest Draecynic warriors he had ever taught, alongside them.

In agreement they rested for lunch, allowing the tired legs of Vitiri and Hadrik to recuperate. From within, the voice of Alabastyr instructed Lenara on the casting of 'mindgaze' it would enable her to project her thoughts to others, over great distances. It was time to practice the spell, as informing Elowyn of the danger, was now paramount in their situation.

Elowyn paused as the voice entered her mind. She had only travelled a mile or so ahead of the group, and the urgency in Lenara's voice, signalled her instant change of direction. With a lightning pace, she moved south to intercept the creature, the Tegrani hunter had become the hunted!

Concealed behind a rocky outcrop, the Tegrani studied the group of humans to the north; they had stopped moving for a while and seemed to be discussing something. From their position, a delicious scent of meat drifted towards him in the air. They were eating from some strange silvery squares, that produced little plumes of vapour in the freezing conditions. He was hungry too; their tribe had to leave the frozen north this winter to find food. They had settled a day's travel away, to the west of his location, now it was up to him, and their other groups of warriors, to provide for the rest of the tribe.

From nowhere a huge weight landed on top of him, a clawed hand grabbed his throat from behind, pinning his head to the floor. He managed to turn his head to face his opponent, but the creature pinning him to the floor could not be seen. It seemed to shake slightly as it rematerialized above him; the creature clenched its remaining free hand into a fist, producing a large spike made of bone from the wrist, and aimed it at his eye.

"NO HURT, NO HURT!" he screamed. His understanding of the human language was limited, and his growling attempt to communicate with the creature, made it difficult to convey his plea, but the creature above him halted the lethal strike.

Elowyn drew the Tegrani's scent over her olfactory organs. Although it was similar to the scent of the perpetrator of the attack at the cabin, it was not an absolute match. The slight ambiguity temporarily stayed her execution of the creature below her.

"Why do you follow?" her voice was deliberate and menacing, as she hissed it at him through clenched teeth.

"Stop...you...find...tribe," his breathing became laboured now, as the restriction to his circulation forced his organs to work harder in compensation.

"Who kill humans at cabin?" she kept the questioning deliberately basic in its conveyance, realising the creature had a rudimentary grasp of what she was saying. She relaxed her grip slightly to allow the Tegrani to breath.

He had no understanding of the word cabin, the words resonated inside him as he fought for breath, but he managed a response, "Calit kill...no tribe"

"Where Calit?" she hissed at him venomously.

With a slow deliberate shaking of his head, he stared into the eyes of the creature above him, and hoped it would spare his life for he truly did not know the location of Calit, the rogue Tegrani.

Elowyn considered the responses of the Tegrani; she couldn't detect any untruth from the creature, so pointing to their group, she issued the simple command, "Walk there, I no kill."

Jirit nodded in acceptance, his life had been spared by his attacker and he had no doubt that failure to comply with the instruction, would swiftly reverse the decision. The creature marched him from his hiding place to the group of humans, and throughout the process, he could feel the sharp spike of the hand that held the back of his neck, as it nestled near his vertebrae.

Lenara felt pity for the creature that had been so easily overcome; it stood solemnly in front of her like a scorned child. She cast 'mindgaze' on the Tegrani and bade him to sit on a nearby rock, as she interrogated his mind thoroughly. Satisfied with all of the answers sought, she turned to the rest of the group to explain.

"His name is Jirit; he is one of the hunters from their tribe. This confirms our theory they were forced from the tundra through starvation. The tribe is located a day's travel to the west of here, but he politely requests that the tribe has no interaction with us. They just want to hunt the larger game in the area, to sustain the tribe for the winter."

"Why did they kill the traders then?" Hadrik quickly interjected.

"A rogue from their tribe was responsible, he was the beta male, but he fought with the alpha male over his belief that humans should be on the menu. The alpha is wise and forbade him to hunt humans for fear of repercussions on the tribe. Calit, the beta male, left the tribe to hunt on his own, and hasn't been seen since."

"Can they help us find him?" Aglomar mused out loud, not expecting any cooperation from the creature.

Lenara turned to Jirit and after a few moments passed, she continued. "They would help if they could, but many hungry mouths are dependent on their success at hunting game, they tracked him to the south of the cabin, but lost the trail quickly. Calit is a very experienced hunter and can hide his tracks well; they think he may have headed toward Beradil, but didn't pursue him in case they were spotted."

This revelation cast grave expressions on the group. They had to press on to their destination, but a new peril had descended on the village of Beradil. Lenara would have to make contact with one of the trusted elders there, to warn them of the impending danger. She was starting to regret learning the mindgaze spell; it made her feel like a mobile communications device.

After a few more minutes, staring into the tegrani's eyes, Lenara turned to them and announced excitedly. "Their tribe knows how to hunt gelidar worms! If we help them feed their tribe, they will help us."

As Lenara finished her sentence, Marcyn appeared on the trail behind them; he ran to the group and eyed their new companion inquisitively. "Is this one of the Tegrani you spoke of?"

"Yes, my name, Jirit" the creature replied striking his chest with one of his four large paws.

Marcyn caught his breath briefly, from his extended run. "Your friends are behind me," he pointed back down the trail in the direction of two distant figures, both of which had expected the creature they were following to tire and rest, but to no avail.

They saw Jirit ahead of them talking to the humans. It was strictly forbidden to interact with them, but their fatigue and weakened muscles clouded their judgement, and they approached the group. Although some of the creatures looked human, others were definitely as far from human as themselves, their aching muscles were evidence of that. They advanced cautiously, but Jirit called to them, conveying Lenara's message that they would not be harmed.

Lengthy discussions ensued between the three Tegrani. Lenara managed to translate Jirit's thoughts for the group to keep them apprised of the situation. Finally, the conversation concluded with an agreement. If the Draecyn could eliminate Calit, before he made the Tegrani presence known to the Tyrilians, and help the Tegrani hunt some game for their tribe, they in return would help Lenara's group hunt for a gelidar worm.

Lenara consulted with Alabastyr; he reaffirmed her own thoughts, that an alliance with the Tegrani was a mutually beneficial scenario. With no opposition from anyone in the group to the proposal, it was decided Elowyn would chase down the rogue Tegrani. After the remainder of the group had arrived safely at Doril, Aldryn and Marcyn would return to assist the Tegrani with their hunt for food. It was a necessary parting of ways which could prevent innocent lives being lost due to predation, or starvation.

Elowyn required no explanation of what was required of her. With the briefest of farewells, she activated her chameleonic scales as she turned from the group, and disappeared. She would have to cover a significant distance in the time allotted, for she suspected Calit would make his move under the cloak of nightfall.

She contemplated using the teleport spell, as her muscles propelled her toward the cabin. Dusk was rapidly approaching, and she couldn't be sure how long Calit would wait, before commencing his hunt. Her instinct guided her against the decision; she would attempt to track the Tegrani first, in case Beradil was not his intended destination.

Staying within the treeline, Elowyn circumnavigated the expanse of ground in front of the cabin. She relocated the tracks of the three Tegrani and followed their trail to the south-west, as she had earlier. After a few miles their tracks separated, and circled in a primitive search pattern, before heading west. Their scents were still relatively fresh, and she identified each of the Tegrani with ease; however, no trace of a fourth scent could be detected. Retracing her steps, she eventually located the pug marks of the fourth Tegrani. He had left very little evidence of his passing, and his intermittent tracks were difficult to follow, with a blanket of fresh snow covering their existence.

After the last flickers of light across the horizon subsided, she switched to her infravision. She squatted over the last distinguishable track from Calit and scanned the area. Four, almost imperceptible, vertical lines of heat emanated from a tree bough above her. The sap from the deep claw wound to the bark had solidified rapidly, in the icy conditions, causing the live wood beneath the bark to remain exposed. It was this slight nuance that attracted her attention now, and she ascended to the bough to examine it further.

From her new vantage point, she detected the scent of Calit. Although the scent was a few days old, and diminishing, it was definitely the perpetrator of the cabin murders. She scanned the nearby trees for further clues. More scratch marks were visible on the trees heading east toward the ridge, with commensurate agility she leapt from tree to tree, following the new trail left by her cunning adversary.

At the final tree before the ridge, she observed the valley beneath her. In the distance Beradil seemed peaceful, the houses depicted as small thermal dots scattered within the circular interruption of forestation. She contemplated the possibility of Calit observing the battle two nights ago; surely the event would have instilled caution in his approach of the village. As she scanned the horizon a realisation dawned in her consciousness. From this location, he would have witnessed her rescue of Kyrra from the cabin; as a predator, with excellent ocular ability, the northern path was easily discernible from this distance.

She surmised that he had not attacked their group on the first night, due to weight of numbers. His solitary hunting strategy would force an ambush tactic to be employed. As Marcyn had not encountered the creature, while carrying Kyrra to Beradil, she deduced Calit had realised something of their nature and was waiting for a better opportunity. No doubt remained in her conclusions, in order to silence the remaining witness of his carnivorous activities; Kyrra had become his intended target.

With surgical precision she calculated her course down the almost vertical rock face below her. She estimated the time taken to traverse it, combined with her fastest pace covering the ground back to Beradil through the forest, would take three hours.

Uncertainty plagued her decision making. Would Calit wait until the villagers of Beradil were all sleeping soundly and attack in the dead of night? Or would he attempt an early strike, while Kyrra potentially had one or both of her guardians imbibing ale, at the tavern, during the evening's festivities? Her indeterminate contemplation decided her only recourse; she would have to teleport to Beradil after all.

Elowyn deactivated her chameleonic scales in preparation for the spell; as the rippling effect subsided, a dark cloud of magical energy encircled her. Resembling a constrictive serpent, it spiralled around her crouched body as she concentrated on her destination. She could not simply teleport to any location; the spell required her to have intimate knowledge of her target destination. Many Draecynic lives had been lost throughout history due to the spell's improper use. If the vision of the destination was too vague, the caster could rematerialize inside a wall, or other inanimate object, the consequences of which were unimaginably horrific.

Elowyn concentrated her focus on the bedroom of the tavern. As she peered into the vortex forming in front of her, she narrowed her inception to a point just above the mattress. In the bedroom of the tavern in Beradil, a similar spiralling cloud of smoke formed at her destination. With the spell complete the vortex consumed her, instantly transporting her to its darkened confines.

Only a slight creak from the increased load on the timber frame beneath her signalled her emergence into the room. Before the sound could evoke a response from any inhabitants in adjacent rooms, or the tavern staff below, she reactivated her scales and disappeared. Silently in the darkness she waited for the investigation, when none came, she opened the window and dropped to the street below.

There was no alternative, she would have to adopt the human form of Balthar, and enter the tavern to see if she could locate either of the guardians. Time was of the essence; manually locating the house that contained the little girl by peering through windows was not an option. She contemplated circumnavigating the entire village using her infravision to detect heat sources in the forest, but this too could yield no result if the Tegrani was already inside the perimeter, and hidden somewhere within Beradil's environs.

Balthar strode into the tavern; she had observed Marcyn's portrayal of the man and adopted his mannerisms, she cast 'intonation' on herself and announced in a perfect replication of Balthar's gruff voice, "Keylar I need to speak to you most urgently."

She didn't address the crowd directly, for to do so would indicate to everyone in the tavern, that she could not identify her intended recipient of the call. Instead she deliberately continued her march in the direction of the flight of stairs, behind the bar, and ascended to the first floor hallway.

Keylar had been happily drinking himself into a stupor for the evening; the conversation with his friends had contained the inevitable discussions over the battle and their bravery at the south gate. Just as more engaging dialogue over his new ward commenced, the man who had delivered her to his tragically barren wife, stormed into the tavern demanding to see him. Confused he glanced to his friends for reassurance, but none came. With a shrug he excused himself and followed Balthar to find out what was wrong.

Balthar was waiting at the top of the stairs. He looked angry, and Keylar felt trepidation as he ascended the staircase toward the man. Keylar was one of the strongest warriors in Beradil, but Balthar had an unusual capacity for intimidation that precluded his discussion with the man.

"Why are you not at home with your wife and new daughter? I asked you to protect her!" Elowyn knew the line of questioning would unsettle the larger man, allowing him to be manipulated by her.

"I...uh...celebrating?" it was the truth; he was overjoyed by the proposition of having a child he could raise as his own. He owed Balthar a huge debt of gratitude for making that dream possible.

"I understand that you are happy my friend, but Kyrra needs to feel safe right now. Go home and be with your family." Although the words were intentionally chastising in their inflection, she delivered them with a reassurance that the correct choice of guardians had been made. Keylar nodded solemnly in acceptance as the words cut into him. He had been quick to celebrate his good fortune, and regret over his lack of foresight, filled him utterly.

"I'm sorry Balthar, you are absolutely right, I will leave immediately." It was a heartfelt apology from the large man, and without delay, he turned and headed out of the tavern and up the street, in the direction of the north gate.

Elowyn waited for a few moments for Keylar to advance up the cobblestone street before she exited the tavern, and followed in his direction. At the first darkened alley she encountered, away from prying eyes, she reactivated her chameleonic scales and gave pursuit. With a stumbling gait, Keylar made his way to the outskirts of the village, and turned east along the outermost of the irregular concentric pathways that connected the dwellings together.

Without a sound, Elowyn tracked his movements and plotted an intercept course. If there were any signs of forced entry to the home he headed for, she would cast a 'sleep' spell on him and face Calit in his place. If a tragedy had already occurred, she would prevent the loss of his life, for in his drunken state he would be no match for the Tegrani.

Keylar finally reached his destination and stumbled up the path toward his front door, which was still intact, so she quickly scouted the exterior of the property for reassurance. With no signs of attack and a warm amber glow from the windows, she waited for Keylar to enter and lock the front door. She moved from window to window, with more deliberation, as she heard the drunken apologetic speech from Keylar within. At the rear of the property, the freshly decorated bedroom made its occupant apparent. Curled up fast asleep, on what appeared to be a comfortable bed in one corner of the room, Kyrra was blissfully unaware of any potential danger.

As the bedroom window presented vulnerability, she decided to guard the rear of the property for the night, and constantly scanned her surroundings. After an hour of waiting, she heard a couple of villagers attempting their return journey from the tavern. From the sound of their mumbled speech and stumbling footsteps, a good quantity of ale had been imbibed. They continued round the path to the east and entered a property three doors down; within seconds their shouts raised the alarm.

"FIRE!... HELP!... FIRE!"

Elowyn moved away from the window of Kyrra's room to investigate the shouts; the chimney stack of the cottage in question, had large plumes of smoke billowing up into the night sky. Her mind raced, was anyone trapped inside? It couldn't have taken hold so rapidly, if it had been inadvertently started by the drunken villagers, on their re-entry. Their shouts became more frantic. She could hear villagers scrambling to dress themselves, and leave their properties, to assist with the extinguishing of the blaze.

Intrigue overwhelmed her. She vaulted the small garden fences of the adjoining properties and checked the rear windows of the building. Flames licked and caressed the woodwork within; fortuitously no occupants were evident in the bedrooms she surveyed. She rounded the corner of the building to check on the eastern wall. Through a hole in the living room window, a torrent of smoke and fumes escaped the dwelling.

Realisation of the distraction struck her instantaneously. This was the work of Calit. In their panic, the neighbouring villagers were rushing to assist, leaving their doors wide open in the process. She continued her momentum out on to the street, where the villagers were scooping up buckets of snow, and throwing their contents through the door and front windows. Further up the street, she could see a large hunched figure emerge from the shadows, and enter the open door to Keylar's home.

Without hesitation, her muscles exploded with raw power, launching her forward at a lightning pace. She arrived at the entrance to Keylar's home just as the Tegrani opened the door to Kyrra's bedroom. Her movement became a blur as the little girl began to scream; the claw of the beast poised above her, readied for its downward lethal strike.

Like a missile she launched herself to intercept the blow. In a simultaneous move, she thrust her right arm inside Calit's twin elbow joints and impaled her left carpal bone through the Tegrani's skull. The strike severed his spinal cord instantly, preventing the downward motion of his powerful arms. The electrical impulses of his motor neurones within the cord, reached bone, and transmitted their information to the target muscle groups no further. Her foot long spear caused Calit's eyes to widen, with the realisation that he had taken his last breath, before it shattered his forehead from the force of its exit.

Blood and bone fragments rained down on Kyrra as the Tegrani briefly twitched above her, with uncontrolled muscular spasms. Something she could not see had slain the beast. As the claws of the Tegrani retracted back inside the large, paw-like hands, her invisible saviour dragged the creature from the room. She was alone with only her screams to keep her company; blood trickled into her eyes and blurred her vision. In desperation she tried to wipe them clear with shaking hands, as her body froze in shock and horror.

Elowyn knew she had to act fast, shouts from the villagers further down the street, masked Kyrra's screams. It afforded her enough time to dump the body of the Tegrani into a snow drift, between the buildings. She reached up to the roof above, and scooped large quantities of snow from the thatch to cover the body. Within moments, she was back inside the cottage and returned to her visible human form.

Through the blurred red haze a familiar figure entered the room. Elowyn lady had come to rescue her! Stunned by her sudden appearance, Kyrra caught her next scream before emitting it, and stared blankly at the beautiful woman. Elowyn lady sat on the bed and held her tight with a comforting hug. An eternity seemed to pass in that moment. By the end of it, her convulsions subsided, with the assistance of unseen multiple flashes within Elowyn's eyes.

Elowyn grabbed a cloth and bowl of water from the bedside cabinet, and cleaned Kyrra's face gently as she spoke soothingly to her. The little girl in front of her had no idea how much life-force she had committed to her, as she daubed the blood from her brow. For the combination of 'spirit of the ancients', 'true heroism' and 'permanence' ensured little Kyrra's future place, as the finest grandmaster of the darkblade, in Tyrilian history.

With Elowyn's wrist in front of her, Kyrra noticed the blood trickling slowly down Elowyn lady's arm as she used her soft hand to gently support her chin. Curious as to how it got there she asked inquisitively, "Elowyn lady are you hurt?"

It was an oversight she had missed in the urgency of the situation. To reassure Kyrra she was not hurt, she wiped the blood from her skin to reveal no wound beneath, but that invoked more curiosity in the child.

"You're the invisible one who saved me aren't you?" her line of questioning was remarkably calculated for her age, and delivered with a beaming smile. The spirit of the ancients had already begun.

"Yes little one, I saved you from the monster."

In a flash, and with no sense of fear, ever to be felt by her in the future, Kyrra continued her questioning, "Elowyn lady are you a monster too?"

Even though the question was delivered with a child-like innocence, it was direct, and caused Elowyn to wrestle with the contemplation of her own existence, before she answered.

"Some see me as a monster, while others do not. What defines a monster? Is it how someone looks from the outside, or is it their actions and deeds that come from within?" she hoped the rhetoric was not wasted on Kyrra. For the first time in three thousand years, she had advocated her own self-realisation.

"If you are a monster, Elowyn lady, you are a good monster." With the statement, Kyrra raised her small hand and held it gently to Elowyn's cheek. After a final hug, that invigorated both of their spirits, Elowyn left the cottage and disappeared into the darkness, with the corpse of the Tegrani over her shoulder.

5

Lenara scanned the rocky terrain in front of her. Their group was making good time in the direction of Doril, but as the veil of night descended upon them no sign of the little hamlet presented itself to them. Hadrik and Vitiri inevitably had to slow their pace in the conditions; it wasn't until late evening that a small collection of scattered light sources signified their arrival at their destination.

Doril was a quaint little community. The small tavern at its centre was indistinguishable from the other buildings, apart from a small wooden sign that wafted back and forth, with each gentle gust of crisp mountain air that met its surface. They suspected the 'Golden Antler' derived its name from the rich deposits of the precious metal found in the area, combined with the abundance of local horned ruminants.

"At least it's not called the Daemon's veiny lovestick!" Hadrik commented, as he led the way through the door.

Inside the tavern, the five patrons and proprietor seemed to be engaged in a heated discussion around one of two large tables, that constituted the bar area. Initially the group heeded no attention to the new arrivals. After a few moments, the proprietor looked up in their direction, and called quiet to their conference.

"What business do you have here, strangers?" his voice intonating the words in a threatening manner. Each of the occupants at the table instinctively moved their hands, to rest on the pommels of their swords.

"We were hoping for a room for the night, and some ale if possible?" Lenara moved to the fore, hoping her appearance and dialogue with the man, would soften the tense atmosphere in the room.

"We don't have any spare rooms, and the last of the ale is on this table," he responded flippantly to her request, and indicated that they should leave in the direction of the door.

From within, the voice of Valeris informed Lenara of the proprietor's name. Originally from Beradil, the man was known as Gethris. He had been caught watering down ale in the White Wyrm one morning, before opening hours, by the drayman. The resulting dishonour and shame had driven him from the village, to resettle 'somewhere other than here,' and by chance, it would appear they had just stumbled upon that 'somewhere.'

"I wouldn't touch any of your watered down hog piss if you paid me!" Aglomar pushed forward into the room past Hadrik. He had become Gethris' successor after the debacle in Beradil a few years ago.

Realising the encounter was about to take a turn for the worse, Lenara cast 'mindgaze' on their group, and calmly suggested that camping in tents was preferable to staying in a single cramped room, that emanated a pungent odour of urine. Then the inevitable happened.

"Ere what's he on about? Watered down?" a short muscular man with flame red hair, sitting opposite Gethris, began the fresh inquiry and potential further argument. All eyes of his fellow patrons now turned their gaze, from the newcomers to Gethris, demanding an answer to the question, with their stares.

Realising his new found plight, Gethris decided to save himself from a potent beating and stammered out his half-truth confession. "We were running low on stock and the equinox festival was upon us. I did it to prevent spoiling everyone's fun, but as you can see here, we have run out. I've never watered down any ale since that day."

Around the table the patrons eyed him suspiciously. With reluctance, they accepted the excuse, but a distinct air of animosity at the revelation remained. Gethris decided the best option was distraction, and resumed the pressing conversation that had taken place, prior to the intrusion.

"Anyway, if the place is haunted, shall we get a priest chap up from Midrin to deal with it?" he knew it would cause a reaction. The miners of Doril had no time for religious indulgences, and representatives of faith were frowned upon. He was also keenly aware that the intrigue may appeal to the newcomers; any assistance in the matter would actually be welcomed.

Guided by a new voice in her mind, Lenara suspended her intended exit of the establishment, and turned to face the clouded expressions of the men at the table.

"I am a priestess of Setral, I can help you with your 'haunting' if you show us some hospitality and warm, clean beds for the night?" her implication at the condition of the tavern's guest room, was not lost on the men, and it instigated a few smirks from their number.

What she had said to them wasn't entirely fabrication, one of the voices within her, belonged to the founding father of the religion itself. Countless millennia ago, Setral spoke to him in his dreams, from that moment onwards he dedicated his life to spreading her words through good actions and deeds. As an old man lying on his death bed, she revisited him and absorbed his soul. Immortality was a fitting reward to one so dedicated to spreading the theism of Alabastyr.

"Deal," the call came from the flame haired patron; he introduced himself to them as Detris. He was the mining foreman and had a spare room in his cabin for their group, if they could help with the situation in the mine. Hesitantly, they pulled up chairs to hear the story from the beginning; Lenara suspected the readiness to agree to her terms didn't bode well, as Detris began his explanation.

"Over the past week, strange goings on have been occurring in the mine. It all started with Fenrar here. He was at the rock face drilling into a fresh vein of gold, when a face appeared in the rock in front of him." He motioned to Fenrar to embellish on what he saw, for the benefit of the group.

Fenrar continued, "It was the scariest thing I've ever seen. It was like a woman was trapped in the rock and her face lunged towards me pulling the rock with it, like the rock was her skin or something, and the bitch tried to bite me, and..." his vocalisation of the traumatic event, escalated in volume through the discourse, as he blurted it out.

"Ok we get the picture Fenrar, please calm yourself my friend," Detris interrupted, and placed a hand on the visibly shaken man's shoulder for reassurance.

"That was the first encounter with the haunting. Most of the miners have witnessed strange events over the past few days; stalagmite formations creating cages around them, preventing them from using escape tunnels and hands made of rock grabbing their legs. Everyone is too scared to go back in there; it's only a matter of time before someone is killed." Detris finished his sombre monologue with a swig of ale. Around the table, disheartened nods of agreement gave credence to his story.

Lenara had opened her mind to the voices within for guidance, but without further evidence, they were non-committal as to what was causing the paranormal disturbances. The familiar chirping voice that had helped with the Tegrani, suggested it may be an earth elemental, but he too was reserving judgement, pending investigation. All were resolute in the decision not to travel to the mine until the following morning.

"We'll head out at first light, if you can lead the way. If we help you with this, can we call on your mining experience, to assist us in the future?" Lenara knew it was a gamble, but any collaboration in the safe return of the diamantium miners, would be most welcome to their cause.

"What could you possibly need our help with? And is it dangerous?" Detris was incisive in his line of questioning, and scanning their faces, she was met by raised eyebrows, and more than one look of trepidation.

She disclosed their reason for being in the area, omitting the part about the gelidar worm creating the tunnel, and the intended role of the Doril miners to provide emergency lighting and to assist with the evacuation. She did however explain the inherent danger involved in the plan and that many lives were at stake. At the end of her discourse, the miners retreated into a huddle at the other table, to discuss their participation. After a lengthy discussion, Detris turned to her with their response.

"We agree to your proposal, young lady, on the condition that we are allowed to recruit any of our fellow Tyrilian miners, who wish to join us mining gold in Doril." Detris knew it was not an unreasonable request, and the huge gold deposit they had encountered, would need many hands to make lighter work of it, over the next few years. It would deliver rich rewards to all involved, especially those on a higher percentage of the cut.

"Deal, as long as those involved get a fair share of the proceeds. We are not removing them from slavery to become slaves for a new master," Lenara had read his thoughts, and pressed her terms of the agreement.

"Agreed, we are a good folk up here. If they wish, they are not obliged to stay, and may leave of their own free will." Detris was confident that few would leave, when presented with the opportunity.

With the alliance consolidated, Detris led the visitors back to his cabin and provided them with the necessary accommodation that they required. Aglomar and Balthar waited for the other occupants of the cabin to fall asleep, before leaving to assist the Tegrani in their hunt for food, in the dead of night.

Elowyn was uncertain as to the burial practices or rituals required of the Tegrani. She had no option but to take the now, frozen corpse of the giant man, back to his tribe to perform any required ceremony. Casting 'unburden' on herself, she vaulted the palisade easily; the body over her shoulder had reduced in weight to a fraction of its original amount, allowing her to sprint through the darkness unimpeded. By the time the spell's effects started to wane, she had reached the area where their encounter with the hunters had occurred.

Scanning the area for heat traces, revealed a pile of rapidly cooling bodies nearby, to the west. She dropped Calit's body near the collection and waited for the hunters to return. After an hour or so, Marcyn returned with two woollen coated, horned quadrupeds and added them to the pile. On seeing the dead Tegrani on the floor, he immediately adopted his battle stance, and scanned the area around him. It wasn't until he drew the scent of Calit into his olfactory organs, that he relaxed his guard and called to her.

"Hey sis, I see you got him then?" he announced to the area unsure of her location.

"Of course I did!" she announced mischievously, at the precise moment his back was turned to her, whilst reappearing from the darkness. It was an old trick she had played on him before on numerous occasions, but it still had the desired effect, and Marcyn instinctively flinched.

"Don't repeat this, but sometimes you make me wish I was born female!" he turned to face her and grinned. From a young age he had coveted the extra innate abilities possessed by the females of his race.

Before long they were re-joined by Aldryn and the three Tegrani. Each of them had been successful in their hunting endeavours, and with a good selection of large game collected, they arranged with Jirit to meet the following morning. They bid the tegrani goodnight and travelling as fast as they could through the deepening snow, they arrived in Doril. Returning to their human forms, they bedded down for what remained of the night, near the open hearth in Detris' living room.

With a nourishing breakfast inside them, they began the short trek to the mine. Detris remarked on the mysterious appearance of Elowyn, during the night, to the group. After a short explanation, that she too was a priestess of Setral and had heard the summons through prayer, he dismissed the notion that ale had finally driven him mad, and he conversed with her about their predicament.

As they approached the entrance to the mine, Detris' footsteps began to falter, with his obvious unease. He had drawn a crude map of the network of tunnels, and placed crosses to indicate the attacks. Handing the map and a bullseye lantern to Lenara, he refused to enter the primary shaft, and declared that he would wait for them to return. Hadrik and Vitiri proclaimed there would be little they could do against an incorporeal opponent, and their subsequent offer to remain with Detris at the entrance, helped to steady the stout, diminutive man's, frayed nerves.

Beyond the entrance, the light faded quickly, until the lantern's dull glow became their only light source. Large wooden support frames cast shadows down the walls, creating a striped effect on the rock surfaces. The stale air within the tunnel had a light acrid aroma, which increased in strength, as they travelled further into the mine. Irregular side shafts branched off from the main tunnel, like tributaries to a river, each one supported by their own smaller reinforced structures.

Ahead of the group, Elowyn paused briefly at some of them, to draw in the mixture of body odour and fine particulate dust. Where the stronger emanations resided, she deduced mining activity had taken place more recently, in the quest for the precious metal. Before long, the main shaft diverged into two subsidiary shafts. At the enlarged junction, a micro fusion generator and a collection of assorted mining equipment had been arranged, in a coherent order, against the walls.

Elowyn waited for the rest of the group to join her in the antechamber; the generator appeared to be in good working order, so she initiated the containment field. Slowly, the low whine increased in pitch until at the peak of its crescendo, the green light for 'push to close' signalled the plasma had achieved its state of flux within. Pressing the button, illuminated the two shafts with their overhead lighting, while in the distance, the low hum of an air conditioning unit, came from the left hand tunnel.

Judging by the level of sophistication of the equipment present, the miners appeared to be earning a good living from the mine. Lenara perceived her deal with Detris was based on a good foundation; the level of organisation required to implement the features of the mine, would stand them in good stead during the rescue of the diamantium miners. She took the lead in their endeavour and headed toward the humming noise.

Further into the mine, the tunnel widened into a main atrium which housed the portable unit; it struggled frantically to remove as much dust as it could from its surroundings, while feeding warm air back into the chamber. A variety of tunnels branched from the main atrium, leading to a multitude of antechambers. Hovercarts, carrying tonnes of crushed rock, sat in strategic areas of the room, waiting to be pushed to the entrance of the mine. Filled with their payloads, the carts had been abandoned by the miners during their impromptu evacuation.

Lenara checked Detris' map. Two of the sightings had occurred in the atrium, but without a chronological order of events, she couldn't determine if they were the most recent. With agreement among the voices, she decided it would be prudent to lure whatever it was, to the atrium, rather than try to hunt it down. Grabbing a nearby sonic lance, she headed to the opposite end of the room, and began reducing the rock face to rubble. Behind her, the three Draecyn readied themselves in battle stances and waited.

Her plan to lure the supernatural occupant of the mine didn't take long to reach fruition. After a few minutes of shattering the rock, a high pitched scream echoed throughout the chamber, surrounding them with its evil intention. Unflinching, the Draecyn bared their teeth in anticipation of the ensuing fight. From beneath their positions, large stalagmites erupted from the floor, surrounding each of them in crudely fashioned cages of rock.

Lenara turned to face the new intrusions to their fight, and ran to Elowyn's cage, to assist in her extraction, with the sonic lance. As the warriors smashed their fists into the rock pillars to free themselves from their entrapment, a pair of sinewy hands extricated themselves from the rock below Lenara, and grabbed her ankles.

Instinctively, Lenara pointed the sonic lance at one of the arms and fired a shattering blast at it; the arm released its grip temporarily, while it rapidly regenerated from the effects. From within her mind, the usually chirping voice released a screech.

"It's a rockwytch! Don't let it drag you underground, or we're all doomed!" Panic spread through her like wildfire. As her adrenaline coursed through her body like a tsunami, the world around her slowed to an almost imperceptible standstill.

Small rock fragments splintered from the rock cage beside her, as the impact of one of Elowyn's fierce blows struck the stalagmite. Below her, she alternated the sonic lance to attack the creatures other arm, while the first consolidated its physical form. While desperately trying to destroy the malevolent entity, an idea surfaced in her mind. As Elowyn's fist retracted from her blow, she thrust the lance into the fracturing rock, creating a gap in the pillars large enough to post the lance through.

Reaching down, Lenara grabbed the arms that now reaffirmed their grip on her, and using every ounce of her strength, she pulled them upward as she began to sink into the ground. As she descended into the liquefying rock, the head of the rockwytch breached the surface, and baring its teeth, it let out another bloodcurdling scream. Unerringly she locked her sight on the creature in that moment, and staring deep into its eyes, cast 'mindgaze.'

For what seemed like an eternity, she wrestled with the mind of the rockwytch; it had an unreceptive and daunting willpower, that refused to be controlled. Finally, after a considerable battle of wills, the creature screeched in submission and slumped in defeat, leaving it physically and emotionally drained. With its subjugation, she commanded it to release her from her bonds, and dutifully, it raised their bodies back to ground level. She instructed the retreat of the stalagmites back into the rock below, and instigated a dialogue with their aggressor.

Without a formal language, the conveyance of thoughts between them took longer than usual, in order to establish an effective communication of the rockwytch's intent, and reason for the attacks. Lenara coerced the information she desired patiently from the creature, and related it to the group.

"So what is it?" Marcyn inquired as she turned to face them.

"It's a rockwytch, and from what I can gather, they're a corporeal type of elemental. It has a fixed body that moves through the ground, rather than a spirit that forms at places of its choosing." Her description of the rockwytch had been relayed to them from the chirpy, anthropological voice within her; the rest of the information, she had garnered herself.

"This is a female of the species. She has chosen this site to breed as it contains large amounts of precious metal. Females use precious metal to lure potential suitors to their lair; she was just protecting her investment, beyond that wall." With the statement, Lenara gestured to the wall she had begun to drill with the lance. The miners would rejoice at the news that a large gold deposit lay hidden within their reach. It wasn't bad news for the rockwytch either, as Lenara had devised a relocation plan, involving a colossal amount of diamantium.

After retracing their steps back to the entrance of the mine, Lenara conveyed the good news to Detris. The stout man welcomed the new information on the gold deposit, with a huge satisfied grin, and bade them to return with him to Doril, to spread the word. During the journey, he remained blissfully unaware of the creature he feared, shadowing their footfalls from beneath the surface.

Detris led them straight to the Golden Antler on their arrival in Doril. Celebratory drinks were in order, and as they entered the tavern, a crowd of miners met them with hesitant expressions. When the victors announced that the evil presence had been defeated, and removed from the mine, the instigation of cheers from the crowd were followed by many of the throng, personally giving vigorous handshakes to their group, and offering thanks. Several months earlier, Detris had arranged for a crate of Bumblefoot's special reserve honey wine, to be delivered by cart from Midrin. With their fortunes now greatly improved, he called for its use in the conviviality.

At first light the next morning, they arranged for Detris and his crew to rendezvous with them three days hence, with the necessary equipment, for the tunnel rescue. Obligingly, he agreed a position to the south of the diamantium mines, which promised shelter in the form of some shallow caves. From that position, they had a good probability of remaining unobserved by the Wyvani; while being close enough not to be rendered useless by fatigue, when the assault took place.

Darkened clouds heralded further snowfall, as they travelled south to meet with the Tegrani. Elowyn resumed her scouting role ahead of the group, covering wide arcs in her search pattern. With the exception of a couple of large snow covered ruminants, the rocky wasteland was barren and lifeless. By mid-morning she arrived at the location agreed with the Tegrani, to find that Jirit, and his fellow hunters, had been joined by a fourth, larger Tegrani. Not wanting to cause an incident, she waited patiently for her comrades to arrive, before reappearing alongside them.

Lenara studied the larger Tegrani; he wore similar attire to his fellow hunters, with two notable exceptions. He proudly displayed a large curled hunting horn, slung from one shoulder, and a white fur cloak and head-dress fashioned from a large ursine creature. As they neared the Tegrani, he raised a paw to his chest, in a salutary gesture.

"You help tribe live, Tajit help you find worm." Although rudimentary in his diction, the new Tegrani had a better grasp of the common tongue, than his colleagues.

"We are honoured to have your help." Lenara's reply was solemn and deliberate; to emphasise their gratitude, she bowed her head in a respectful motion. Deductive reasoning had led her to accurately predict that she was addressing the alpha of their tribe; she suspected Jirit had confessed, when their bountiful return raised suspicion.

"We move that way, call worm with horn." Tajit pointed in a southerly direction, and with a purposeful stride, he forged ahead of the group through the snow.

By early afternoon, they arrived at the intended hunting ground. Resting at the ridgeline, they could see Beradil far off in the distance to the east. The valley below them had much shallower decline to its floor in this area, and consequently, a higher density of trees spanned the forest in front of them.

"More trees make worm attack slow," Tajit announced spiritedly to them. With a smirk, he headed to a nearby rock on the ridge, and placed the widened bell of the horn against one of the smooth surfaces. After a large intake of breath, he produced a deep rumbling note from the device, that reverberated through the ground beneath them.

Elowyn surveyed the area as Tajit repeated the ominous tone at regular intervals. Between blasts, the Tegrani pressed his pointed furry ear onto the rock, as if listening for a response. After an hour or so of the process, he turned to them and announced. "Big worm coming, we go down slope now, fast."

There was no requirement for a repetition in the command. Without hesitation, they charged down the shallow decline, through the trees into the valley. As the ground levelled beneath their feet, Elowyn could feel a vibration below them increasing in intensity, signalling the arrival of their opponent.

"NO MOVE!" Tajit shouted immediately, ending their charge as abruptly as it had begun. They readied themselves for the ensuing combat. Marcyn and Aldryn reverted to their Draecynic forms, while Elowyn took the opportunity to activate her chameleonic scales, and disappear among the trees.

After a final rumbling blast of his horn against the trunk of a nearby tree, Tajit adopted his battle stance and remained motionless. On the rare occasions his tribe had met gelidar worms in the past, it usually took the entire tribe to bring the creatures down; never had the feat been accomplished without losses to the tribe's numbers.

Tajit had never shown fear outwardly to the rest of his tribe, but in the current circumstance, the old acquaintance, caused a slight rippling response from his muscles, that he stoically wrestled to control. He knew that the sheer size and power of the beast could easily overcome them, but Jirit had assured him, their new companions had strange abilities that could defeat the creature. He clung to this tenuous thread of hope, as the ground beneath them began to shake violently.

At first, the fresh snow layer on the forest floor agitated rhythmically, producing a visual effect Hadrik likened to standing in a river of milk. To his right the Tegrani hunter shifted uneasily in his stance; the single footfall was enough for the gelidar worm to hone its senses towards him. The Tegrani's eyes widened as the ground beneath him erupted. The tree he was standing under, along with the surrounding trees, were uprooted by an invisible force and launched into the air like missiles.

Standing in the centre of the eruption, the Tegrani instinctively grabbed the tree next to him, in the vague hope it would prevent his demise. As he ascended toward the heavens, the cavernous maw of the beast below him, widened to accommodate the tree he clung to. His last view of the world was the snapping shut, of multiple rows of razor sharp teeth, further up the trunk above his head.

At the perimeter of the explosive breach of the surface, Hadrik and Marcyn were launched helplessly away from the devastation. With its initial attack completed, the worm coiled its muscular body, and propelled a secondary assault at the tree Hadrik had crashed into. Above his crumpled body at the base of the tree, the worm shattered the trunk above him into kindling, with a voracious bite. Had he not fallen to the ground from the concussive force of the blow against the tree, he would have joined the Tegrani hunter and half a tree, in the digestive tract of their assailant.

Lenara focussed her vision onto the eye of the gelidar worm that faced her, as it reared back to its coiled position. Although she had garnered experience in the casting of 'mindgaze' her efforts were blocked by the opaque nictitating membrane, which covered the creature's eye. It was an unexpected and unwelcome development that stunned her coalition of minds into inaction. From within, the voice of Alabastyr requested emergency control of her consciousness. As she relented to him, she could feel her own mind retract from the necessary thought processes required to control her limbs and actions. By the time she had fully disengaged, and become a passenger of the transformation, the white wyrm had begun to unfurl his colossal leathery wings.

Elowyn knew the gelidar worm would be a large creature, after all, they were supposed to use its burrow as an escape tunnel for the mining camp. Even so, the spectacle in front of her caused her to pause momentarily. Quickly regaining her senses, she could see what was about to occur; the creature had aimed its second attack, not directly at Hadrik, but at the point of the tree where he had collided with the trunk. With the worm using vibration as a location technique, her scales offered her no protection from an attack. Reappearing behind the worm, she started to cast the only spell she could think of, that would affect it.

Raising her fists until they extended towards the worm in front of her, Elowyn syphoned vast quantities of magical energy from her surroundings, as she drew her fists back towards her body. Twin swirling, blue vortices concentrated and focussed the crackling energy into globes of light inside the clawed chambers. As she splayed open her fingers, the light intensity increased in luminosity until it almost blinded her. At the culmination of the spell, she forced her open palms forward toward the gelidar worm, releasing a colossal wave of electrical energy from the 'chain lightning', at its muscular body.

Before the gelidar could release its third strike, in the direction of one of the creatures that was now increased in size, magical electrical energy from another of the creatures slammed into him. His muscles involuntarily palpitated in reaction to the shock. Unable to make the strike, he tried to reverse back into the safety of the ground. Unrelentingly, the electricity spread through his neural pathways and muscle mass, preventing the retreat. Nearby, the creature that had grown rapidly in size, started to charge towards him.

As he increased in size, Alabastyr uprooted trees in his vicinity, to make room for his body during the transformation. Where the density of the forest hampered the gelidar worm, he too now suffered the same impediment. As blue and white lattices of crackling electricity engulfed the gelidar worm in front of him, he drew a mighty breath into his lungs and unleashed a ferocious blizzard at the trees, in preparation for his charge. With the core temperatures of the trees now reduced close to absolute zero, he launched himself forward through them, causing them to shatter into crystalline, wooden fragments.

His powerful muscles propelled him into the gelidar worm at an amazing speed for his huge size; he buried his shoulder into the tackle and wrapped his forelegs around the worm, bringing it crashing to the ground. He used his weight to his advantage, and pinned the creature's struggling body below him. Using his clawed hand, he pulled back the nictitating membrane that had thwarted their efforts, and stared deep into the gelidar worm's mind.

After the gelidar worm's muscular convulsions had subsided beneath him, Alabastyr instructed the creature what was required of it. A modicum of dismay, at his selfish requirements for the worm's assistance, played across his mind, for there was no reciprocal benefit for the worm in the arrangement. Instead, there was a high likelihood of its destruction. With the mindgaze complete, he released the gelidar to join the rockwytch in the ground beneath their feet.

Reverting back to their human form, Lenara's consciousness replaced that of Alabastyr, as the draecon diminished in size. At the completion of the transformation, she wiggled her fingers slowly in confirmation of her control.

Anguished shouts emanated from behind her. She turned to see Aldryn crouched over the prone body of Hadrik, as he called for assistance. Hope faded into panic, as she neared Hadrik's prostrate body; the force of the blow from where he had hit the trunk of the tree, evidenced itself on the tritalumin armour, protecting the rear of his torso. His breathing was laboured and accompanied by a rasping wheeze, as he struggled to fill his lungs with air. His eyes opened and closed slowly, as he attempted to remain conscious.

Rapidly joined by the rest of the group, they responded to the medical emergency with remarkable efficiency. Within moments, Hadrik's body was carefully supported and moved into an instent, where they could assess the extent of his injuries, without risk of hypothermia to compound their problems.

Desperately, Lenara conversed with Alabastyr for a solution to Hadrik's plight, but the voice within was solemn and sympathetic. With the exception of transposition and regeneration, through the immortality it provides, the power to heal others was not among her magical abilities. Extraction of the tritalumin back plate revealed the extent of the damage; multiple fractures to his ribs on the right hand side had been caused by the impact with the tree. He was bleeding internally and the haemorrhaging was creating a large contusion in the area. It was evident that, although the trauma was severe, the back plate had saved his life.

Elowyn examined the extent of Hadrik's injuries. All Draecyn possessed emergency field surgery knowledge, as part of their extensive training, and she had excelled in her class. In this case however, she was not dealing with Draecynic anatomy; although similar in skeletal structure, humans had no exoskeletal scales and bone density to prevent such damage. Marcyn had suffered a similar impact to his midsection, but no evidence of any trauma existed on his sturdy abdominal platelets.

Unlike their ancestors, Draecyn possessed limited amounts of healing magic in order to compensate for slower regenerative capabilities. She cast 'salvation' on Hadrik by placing her hand onto the grievous wound and channelling some of her own life-force into him. Slowly, under her manipulation, the bones beneath the injury, moved back into their correct alignment. They removed themselves from where they had lodged into his right lung, and knitted together at a cellular level, when they reached their correct locations. Gradually, the torn intercostal muscles and damaged lung tissue were repaired, over the course of the surgery. By the time she completed her treatment, night had fallen, so the group formed a campsite for its duration.

Giving thanks for their assistance in the capture of the gelidar worm, Lenara bid the Tegrani good fortune in their nightly hunting, as the darkness enveloped them. Elowyn was still in mid-procedure with Hadrik, and excusing herself from the uncomfortable situation of witnessing his pain was a welcome relief. After the Tegrani disappeared beyond the shallow ridgeline to the north, she joined Aldryn and Marcyn by the campfire, for some nourishing stew, and much needed consolation.

Inside her mind the voice of Alabastyr came to the fore, as she discussed their future tactics against the Wyvani mining camp. One alteration to the proposed plan was clear. The fragility of Hadrik and Vitiri would put them both in mortal danger against a superior opponent in the Wyvani, and death would be a probable outcome. She knew in her heart the Draecon spoke the truth, her love for both of the men, forced her decision not to allow them to participate. Her pride in their actions, and heroic commitment to the task, would not allow an outright decision to be made, however, so she resolved to confront them both later in the evening, for an open discussion on the matter.

6

Hadrik's lungs finally filled with air without making bubbling and whistling sounds and Elowyn retracted her hand and rested. The lengthy repair procedure had taken hours to accomplish. Exhausted, she left Vitiri to keep watch over Hadrik's unconscious body, and joined the campfire conversation for some food and relaxation.

"Is he going to be ok?" Concern about the state of Hadrik's health promoted the question from Lenara's lips; the anxiety in her voice could not be veiled, as she emotionally waited for Elowyn's response.

"I think so, he's going to be a while recovering from his injury though." Her answer could have had more bedside manners in its tone, but in her enervated state, she had no ardour for empathy.

Lenara absorbed the relatively good news. For a while, she had blocked the minds within, from her thoughts and emotions, allowing her to rationalise her decision over whether to allow Hadrik and Vitiri to continue with their group. On the one hand, she knew how offended they would become, by a negative decision, and that they deserved the chance to commit heroic acts, at their own peril. On the other hand, her love for them couldn't bear either of them to be hurt, or worse, in the upcoming engagement with a powerful and deadly enemy.

In a hushed tone, she turned to the human forms of Draecyn around her, for an impartial perspective on the situation. "Before we speak to Hadrik and Vitiri about their involvement beyond this point, do you want them to continue with us?"

Elowyn had hoped the question would not be asked; she scanned the awkward expressions on Aglomar's and Balthar's faces before confirming her own thought processes. With no immediate answer forthcoming from either of them, she initiated the response.

"Our concern is this. If anything were to happen to either of them, it would certainly cause you too much distraction. We cannot afford for you to lose your focus during the rescue." This time, Elowyn exuded sympathy towards Lenara's plight, and the nods from her fellow Draecyn, reinforced her sentiment.

Although the statement reinforced what Lenara had already resolved in her own mind, her heart cried out in anguish at the confirmation. She waited patiently, mulling over the conflict inside her. Finally, when Vitiri and Hadrik appeared from the instent, she half jumped to her feet, as if being scolded for a misdemeanour. Tears filled her eyes as she carefully hugged Hadrik. He flinched slightly at her contact, but she couldn't determine if it was through injury, or if he had overheard her conversation.

"So you want to get rid of us then? Vitiri broached the subject instantly. They were human, but that didn't prevent them from hearing what had been said about them. Dejected looks clouded the faces of the two men, as they took seats next to each other at the campfire, for solidarity.

"It's not like that. I can't stand seeing either of you being hurt. Where we're going to next, you can't go into combat, or you will be killed." She looked at them both, glancing rapidly between their facial expressions, hoping for any signs of acceptance, but none came.

"Is this you or the Draecon we are speaking to now?" Vitiri's abruptness caught her off-guard, and the words were delivered venomously.

"It's me daddy, please don't be upset...I'm saying this because I love you." Her pain activated an unrelenting lachrymal response; small rivulets cascaded down her cheeks, and froze as they contacted the ground below.

"What happens if we refuse to leave? After all, you're prepared to risk the lives of the gold miners in this endeavour. Maybe we could do something useful that's non combative?" It was a new angle of attack that Vitiri had hoped to exploit. Since hearing the whispers earlier, he knew it would be folly to argue their participation in any potential skirmish, so he relied on his political incisiveness to barter their involvement.

Lenara allowed her mind to open to the voices within; she conveyed the request to them, as if pleading to jurors at a trial. Desperately, she looked to Elowyn to engage in a discourse, while presiding over her internal debate, allowing the voices time, to formulate a decisive resolution to the request.

Following her cue, Elowyn addressed the inquiry. "Personally, I don't see any issue with you performing non combative roles; as you state, other lives are at risk. However, the injury Hadrik has just received was at the limit of my abilities. If either of you were to put your emotions before your safety, there may be a very different...outcome."

Her inflection on the final word, intoned its implication to them. Hadrik had been lucky on this occasion, and secretly he knew it. Steadfastly they looked to each other for support, and reassured each other with mirrored determination. After what seemed a lifetime of inner turmoil, Lenara conveyed her collective thoughts.

"We have a solution that could satisfy everyone's needs. How would you both like to be decoys?" Lenara's voice was enthusiastic, as she relayed the alteration to the rescue plan, incorporating their involvement. With a new found responsibility that involved some danger, while keeping them out of direct conflict with the Wyvani, they readily agreed to the compromise. As the embers of the campfire cooled, they bedded down for the night, filled with a renewed vigour.

At first light, they began their trek to the north, to the rendezvous location agreed with the miners. Elowyn resumed her duties as forward scout, covering large expanses of the forest, throughout the days travel. By late evening, as the sky began to darken, they could discern the colossal frozen plateau, in the distance, to the northeast.

Hadrik paused to take in the magnitude of the spectacle. It was as if the gods themselves had taken one of the mountains in the range, and cleft it horizontally in twain with a giant axe. Surrounding the perimeter of the plateau, huge castellated walls signified the outer ring of a fortress, the likes of which he had never seen; their curvature followed the irregular rock face, preventing any land based assault access to horizontal ground. He marvelled at the defensive qualities of the architecture. Any of the previous generations of his family would have likened it to a sculptured masterpiece.

Continuing their trek to the North, the shallow cave structures in the base of the mountain range, to the southwest of the plateau, signalled their arrival at their destination. No evidence of the arrival of the miners from Doril presented itself to Elowyn, as she conducted a brief reconnaissance of the area. They decided on one of the slightly larger caverns, and set up their camp within its confines, for better insulation against the elements.

Lenara confined herself to her instent, for the duration of the evening. For her, the creation of two magical staves was a new and intriguing process. Guided in her activity by Alabastyr, she fashioned their form and function with a variety of incantations, imbuing the once gnarled tree roots with destructive energy. After many hours of toiled labour, she had her finished result. Two black, spiralled pieces of magically hardened wood glistened in the light of the campfire, revealing intricately carved magical runes, running down the length of their shafts. At the broadened end of each stave, a red crystalline orb glowed lethargically, with a pulsating light. Contented with her creations, Lenara succumbed to the desire for recuperation, and drifted into a deep sleep.

With their new found proximity to the Wyvani, the chance of being discovered by a patrol increased significantly. Elowyn excused herself after resting briefly, and resumed her reconnaissance of the area. Her intended mission had two distinct objectives. Primarily, she would need to locate a suitable entry point near to the miner's lodgings, for the gelidar worm to breach, and secondly, to identify any patrol patterns used by the guards.

Silently, Elowyn darted through the forest; weaving through the snow crested trees, she covered the remaining ground between her and the plateau. As she neared the base of its steep incline, she slowed her pace and allowed her senses to absorb her surroundings, for signs of Wyvani patrols. A worn path, close to the base of the plateau, indicated a well-trodden circumnavigation used by her adversaries. Tracking its route to the east, she continued for a while, until, at the edge of her infravision, she detected two heat sources following the path towards her.

From her vantage point she observed their casual gait, as their discussion focussed on everything, but their surroundings. The two Wyvani scouts were obviously bored by their mandatory activity, and in likeliness, hadn't observed anything more interesting than small forest mammals, in months.

Elowyn drew their scents across her olfactory receptors for any discernible aromas that would increase her knowledge of them. Both were male and of average build; she deemed it unlikely they were from a warrior class due to their stature and discipline. A faint trace of Tenatrian smokeweed confirmed her suspicions. The two Wyvani had partaken of the mind altering hallucinogenic herb recently, and only had mind for the inane drivel, which they spouted back and forth, between each other.

She could easily dispatch them both without a murmur, but the repercussions of them not reporting at the end of their shift, would arouse suspicion. She waited for them to pass by, and counted the time lapse for the next patrol to arrive at her location. Within an hour, two more scouts arrived from the opposite direction. Based on their walking pace and distance covered, it would be necessary to eliminate the scouts, before the assault, to give their human decoys time to escape.

Tracking the two new Wyvani scouts was simple; she kept her distance behind them through the forest, at the perimeter of her infravision. A short distance before the path was due to intercept the mountain to the East of the plateau, the scouts paused at a predetermined point, before making their reciprocal journey back down the path, in the direction from which they had arrived.

Elowyn waited for the scouts to disappear from sight. At the end of its semi-circular route, around the geographically exposed part of the plateau, the path culminated at a large, stone, double door. Snow in front of the door indicated that it had not been opened for quite some time. With no opening mechanism apparent, she surmised it was part of the fortress' emergency exit system.

Taking time to evaluate this new feature revealed no weaknesses in its construction. The door itself had to be many feet thick, with no apparent hinging system accessible. Peering into the sliver of a central gap, she could not see beyond the first few inches of its construction; interlocking stone vanes on each door guaranteed their sturdiness and resistance to attack. An added benefit to its defensiveness was the prevention of sight into its confines, eliminating the possibility of teleporting to the passageway beyond.

Continuing northwards to the base of the eastern mountain, the fortress wall spanning the plateau's circumference, appeared to bury itself into the eastern mountain, where the two coincided three hundred feet above her. Carefully picking her route, she ascended the rock face of the eastern mountain. It was a difficult climb, but within her capabilities. Her muscles flexed vigorously, as she traversed its contours, and when she had gained altitude, a suitable ledge became apparent to her, as an observation platform. Guided by her instincts, she rested in its shadows on reaching it, and observed the layout of the plateau below from her vantage point.

Across the plateau beneath her, a hive of activity portrayed preparation for an upcoming event. Large ingots of diamantium were being moved from the entrance to the mine, in the far north, to large storage areas beneath her eastern location, which covered a quarter of the plateau. Towards the centre of the plateau, a colossal inverse polarity launcher signified the intent to land large freighters. At approximately a mile in length, its azure blue light illuminated the surrounding buildings and storage areas of the rest of the plateau, with an eerie luminescence.

With the combination of the artificial lighting and the launcher, Elowyn had no need for her infravision; she could distinctly map out the layout of the mining operation before her. In the centre of a crescent shape carved into the mountain to the north of the plateau, a large brightly lit tunnel extended into its base, at a slightly declining angle. Above the entrance, there was a deep ledge atop the crescent, upon which, eight large anti-aircraft installations were sited, housing an impressive array of collimated plasma cannons.

Geographically, the mountain range to the north of the plateau was completely impassable; the Wyvani had selected an excellent location for the mine. Land based troops would be seen approaching from miles away in the forested valley beneath. For the necessary artillery and equipment required to challenge the defences, it would take days, or even weeks, to remove enough forestation for an assailing force to take up suitable positions.

An airborne engagement, either directly or with the assistance of land based troops, would be a harsh lesson in futility. Anything short of a battleship armada would be punished severely, for locating themselves in the sky above the site. Although she despised the Wyvani for what they had done to her family and race, she respected their ability in warfare.

Inside the thick castellated rock walls at the opposite side of the plateau, she could discern two separate residential compounds. In the northwest quarter, the housing structures had a grandiose appearance, with multiple stories and lavish balconies, to satisfy the Wyvani's obsession for observation. To the southwest, long single-story cabins provided communal habitation for the Tyrilian miners. In contrast to the opulence of the Wyvani quarter, the arrangements for the miners were no better than those used for mass poultry production.

Elowyn mapped the layout of the structures in her mind. She would relay the details to Lenara on her return, so that they could plan their assault, with the militaristic precision required. Curious as to the cause of the organised mayhem below her, she waited in position on the ledge for a few hours, to witness the forthcoming event. Shortly after midnight, her perseverance was rewarded by the howl of giant inverse polarity thrusters, as a gigantic Wyvani super freighter descended from the night sky, and aligned itself with the launcher pad.

Over a mile long and spanning about a third of the plateau in width, the colossal, gloss black ship, lowered itself into position. When it neared the launcher, the intensity of light from the ship and dock, increased in luminescence, as the million tonnes of spacecraft was compensated for. Comfortably capable of transporting its own weight in cargo, the behemoth class super freighter, could deliver to the furthest reaches of the galaxy, with minimal escort ship requirements.

Rows of fully automated particle accelerator cannons lined each of the surfaces of the three giant, box-like cargo holds. Although limited on their range to approximately twenty miles, their tracking and accuracy were unparalleled in mid-range combat. Even the smallest and most nimble of ships would have difficulty in avoiding their onslaught. Larger ships had neither the speed nor the agility to avoid their deadly barrage, and only those with superior shield recharge, or diamantium reflective armour plating, could survive for long.

Critically, a large amount of defensive firepower was required, to offset the sluggishness of the behemoth class in its lack of speed and agility. A common joke amongst pilots of smaller craft was the infamous, 'Let it know you want to turn three days before the bitch responds' coupled with, 'A blind Volaxian without a targeting computer could hit it' were significant drawbacks to the vessel. In order to counteract long-range engagements, the use of support craft, and the behemoth class's beast of a shield regenerator, meant large ship numbers of a long distance, low damage output, 'sniper' fleet were required, to immobilise or destroy the super freighter.

Elowyn watched as the giant doors, on each side of the cargo containers, opened slowly and were lowered to the ground, to create loading ramps down the length of the ship. As they locked into position, the Tyrilians, under the watchful eyes of their masters, began the laborious task of offloading the massive volume of supplies and equipment onto hovercarts. With predetermined destinations allocated to the delivery, the multitude of carts separated into different directions, and scattered methodically across the plateau.

Having satisfied her curiosity about the Wyvani's operating procedures, Elowyn steadily descended from her observation platform and returned to the southern caves, to report her discoveries. After lengthy discussions, planning their assault on the Wyvani stronghold, they took alternating watches for the night, and waited for the arrival of the miners the following morning.

As the sun arced lazily through the sky, the plan for the assault was finalised, to include contingency plans and alternatives. By midday Detris and three of his fellow miners arrived in the vicinity. Elowyn waited in human form to intercept them on their route, and escorted them to the temporary base of their operations. With a welcoming meal and a briefing on their arrival, they made final preparations to their equipment and readied their spirits. As the sky above them darkened, the assault force embarked on their fateful quest to the north.

7

Elowyn retraced her route through the forest toward the plateau. Staying ahead of the group, she scouted the area for Wyvani patrols; time was of the essence for her, as she had the most complex of tasks to undertake that night. She understood the necessity for the group's deception in luring her to Tyril; without her involvement, there would be no possibility of the assault succeeding. With unparalleled agility, she carved through the trees toward the western flank of the plateau, searching for the Wyvani patrol.

Ahead of her, the two Wyvani scouts seemed to be enjoying a heated discussion on unarmed combat tactics; they were of a larger stature than the scouts of the previous night, and unmistakably of a warrior caste. The irony of their topic of conversation, etched a wry smile across her invisible jaw, as she approached them. Fortuitously, their route down the worn path was in a north-westerly direction, away from the southern centre of the plateau. Silently traversing the forest, she intercepted their path and stalked her intended prey. With fluidity and a feline grace in her movement, she closed the distance that separated them.

Oblivious to their nemesis behind them, one of the Wyvani began to cajole his younger counterpart, on his lack of combat experience. He boasted about how he had slaughtered three Draecyn on his own, with no assistance. Calling his bluff, the younger Wyvani began to demand full and accurate details to corroborate the suspected fabrication; for all Wyvani warriors were told, when undergoing training, about the futility of a solo encounter with their archenemy.

As the older Wyvani seized the chance to digress his embellishment, Elowyn moved in for the kill. She knew she would have to be swift with her strikes, for both of her adversaries possessed communicators. Small metallic discs, with dimly lit red centres, protruded in a shallow convex from the aural sockets, on one side of their heads. If either of them had enough time to press the push to talk button, the assault would be over before it had even begun.

In the moment they chose to face each other she reacted. Launching twin strikes upwards beneath their jaws, she extended and thrust her ancillary carpal bones through their larynges, severing their vocal chords instantly. As she clamped their jaws shut with her giant claws, she forced her carpal bones through the tissues interconnecting their brain stems and cerebella. Using all of her strength, she lifted her opponents from the floor with the assassination technique. In their final seconds of life, the two warriors saw each other's pupils begin to dilate and nothing more.

Straining under the exertion, her muscles flexed under the increased load placed on them, as she carried her twitching victims from the path. Placing them in a deep snow bank a short distance away, she covered their corpses with more snow, and methodically removed all traces of their encounter. Finally, she retrieved the two dropped Wyvani seperatis swords, and headed south to deliver them to the rest of the assault force.

Unlike the favoured darkblades of the Tyrilians, the seperatis swords of the Wyvani appeared to be on the surface, exquisite, finely crafted, long swords, that gleamed with well-honed edges in the moonlight. Nothing could be more deceptive to the uninitiated as to their true nature however, for each blade was imbued with the highest magic a Wyvani master swordweaver could muster.

Each seperatis was meticulously 'woven' from multiple shards to form its entirety. Various swordweavers, throughout the annals of time, competed in their construction to increase the total number of shards available. Typically, as with the two swords she carried with her, the shard count was relatively low at eight to twelve pieces. However, high ranking military officers and royalty wielded weapons that could separate magically, into as many as thirty to forty pieces.

The master craftsmen, responsible for their fabrication, toiled endlessly for decades or even centuries in their making. In a few cases, the finished sword was truly representative of their entire swordweaving existence. Capable of separating intelligently, based on the thought processes of the user, each sword fractured into shards that could be manipulated by the mind, to devastating effect. With correct training in its use, multiple adversaries could be vanquished, by using the shards to repeatedly burrow through their vital organs. A favoured tactic against single opponents was to use the 'razorblade lasso,' which often ended in gruesome decapitation of the enemy, before the self-reformation of the blade.

After delivering the two seperatis blades to her companions, she resumed her hunt for the second Wyvani patrol. Speed was of the essence now, as it would not take long before the expected crossing of paths with the first patrol, was missed. Instinctively, she returned to the path, half a mile to the east of the expected intercept point, and waited. Within minutes, the second scout pair appeared from further up the trail, walking methodically in her direction. They were also of warrior caste, judging by their size and militaristic movement.

As with the first scouts, she waited for the optimal opportunity to launch her devastating strike. Crucially, due to their alert battle readiness, the moment was fleeting when it arrived. Her strike projected her carpal bone on her right wrist exactly true; however, in the last split second, the Wyvani on her left sensed her movement, and managed to dip his head toward his shoulder, to avoid direct contact.

Elowyn watched helplessly as her carpal bone extended from her wrist, gouging a deep incision into the side of the Wyvani's neck. Instinctively, the scout reached for his communicator. As his open palm rose to depress the red button at its centre, she reversed the direction of her extending thrust, and blocked its travel with her carpal bone. During her completion of the movement, she leaned forward slightly, and launched her tail into his ocular recess with an unparalleled ferocity. Akin to a large quadrobate arrowhead, the tip of her tail smashed through the skull of the Wyvani, causing pieces of skull and brain tissue to desecrate the virgin snow behind where he stood, in a deluge of befoulment.

Elowyn disposed of the two corpses as before, and cleared the traces of the crime scene from the path. With a second pair of seperatis in her possession, she returned to their group.

"I've removed the scouts from the perimeter, but the Wyvani have stepped up their security detail... They may be expecting us," her guarded hesitation conveyed the seriousness of the implications involved to the group, and caused them to halt their advance.

"What happened? Were you spotted?" a flood of questions conjured in Aldryn's mind, but he released the most pertinent first.

Elowyn raised an eyebrow at the 'being spotted' remark and Aldryn visibly relaxed at the annulment of his thought processes. "The scouts last night were smokeweed rambling fools, but this evening both sets of scouts were highly trained warrior caste. It is possible the security measure is precautionary due to the freighter's arrival, but I cannot be certain."

Inside Lenara's mind, Alabastyr mused over the new evidence and with hesitation made the judgement call. "We proceed as planned," the words passed solemnly from her lips, in response to the precarious situation.

"Understood, Hadrik and Vitiri you're with me," Elowyn locked her gaze onto each of them individually for a moment; the time had arrived for them to separate from the others in order to create their diversion. Obediently, after hugs and promises to take care, the two men followed her to the northeast through the forest.

Hadrik marvelled at the agility of the woman in front of him; even in human form she sailed over the dead branches and other obstacles in her path, without a break in her stride. After a mile or so of their chase, clouds of vapour billowed from his mouth as his respiratory system fought to supply enough oxygen to his aching muscles. Vitiri at his side was suffering similarly, although the older man displayed an impressive constitution, and maintained the pace adequately.

Elowyn led the two men to their destination. To the northeast of the plateau beyond the forest, the large glacial lake caused an abrupt end to the densely packed evergreens. Supported by thick ice, the blanket of snow covering its surface remained untouched and perfectly even; millions of tiny snow crystals reflected moonlight towards them, creating the illusion of staring into the cosmos.

"You both know what to do and when to do it?" She compelled herself to ask the question, even though she had heard Lenara repeat it a multitude of times to both of them.

"Yes, we'll be fine," Vitiri announced emphatically, as he caught his breath.

"Ok. Please be safe, and run like your lives depend on it," she refrained from adding 'they probably will' to the sentence, as any extra tension forced onto them, would cause their muscles to contract further in the act, and become counter-productive to their escape.

After a brief hug with Hadrik, she held Vitiri's face in her hands and drew him to her for a deep lingering kiss; surprised and invigorated by the show of affection, he calmed himself at her touch and felt the tension ebb from his body. All too quickly for his liking the moment ended, and with a cheeky wink, Elowyn turned and disappeared into the forest.

After a brief silence, Hadrik turned to the older man and declared. "I can guess what part of you wants to stay alive right now!"

Hadrik's levity creased Vitiri's lips into a knowing smile. "Magnificent woman," were the only words he could enthuse past them, as his mind filled with exuberant emotion.

On their arrival at the foot of the plateau, Lenara directed the rockwytch to liquefy the igneous rock ahead of the gelidar worm, to assist in its burrowing upwards toward the plateau surface. As the unusual pairing began their ascent, she sent the mindgaze message, "NOW" to Hadrik's mind, to signal initiation of their diversion.

Hadrik nodded to Vitiri, "It has begun, let's hope this works." With some trepidation, they aimed their staves, at the castellated rock walls atop the plateau in the distance, and willed the magical weapons into life.

Vitiri could feel the staff warming his cold fingers, as the strange runes brightened in luminosity. Concentrating his thoughts on what he required of the object was an unfamiliar concept to him. As the runes flared with a magical brightness, the crystalline orb at the end of the staff, rotated in its formerly suspended animation. With the increase in rotational speed, came an exceptional emission of magical heat and energy. In its culmination, magical red flames erupted on the surface of the orb, before their longed for release. At the point where he believed he could control the magic no more, the globe of flaming red energy launched from the end of the device, toward the rock wall, almost a mile away.

His globe of red light hurtled to its destination, without erring from its flightpath, over the immense distance. Almost instantly, the impact sent an explosive fountain of rock and debris into the air. Vitiri stared in disbelief at the initial destructive silence, until the sound wave struck them both with a satisfying 'FTOOM' a few seconds later. Hadrik released his globe of energy, a moment before the distraction invaded their senses, to assist the first blast in completing their destructive salvo.

With each of them hurling nine more rapid volleys of glowing orbs of energy, they completed their bombardment of the eastern wall. The resulting dust cloud, produced by their onslaught, rolled down the mountainside like a silvery avalanche in the moonlight. As the particulates cleared on the plateau, a wide breach in the outer wall indicated their success. With the nest of Wyvani well and truly calcitrated, no words were required between them as to their next endeavour. Hadrik and Vitiri turned and made an expeditious retreat, across the frozen lake, as fast as their muscles would allow.

As the dust settled around them, Commander Galveni barked incessant orders, to the troops around him. An unseen force had dared to attack their installation. In response, he would ensure that swift and malicious justice was meted out to the perpetrators. Using the breach as a rallying point, he directed six squads from his eight squad command, to counter any potential invasion of land based troops, through the chasm in the outer wall.

Cautiously, the Wyvani troops neared the scene of destruction. At some considerable risk of a repeated attack, Commander Galveni strode to the breach, agilely ascending the huge mound of rock and debris in front of him. Reaching the summit, he stared out across the quiet, moonlit serenity, of the forest below the plateau; to locate any would be transgressors. Far in the distance, silhouetted against the all-white backdrop of the frozen lake, two humanoids ran away from the plateau.

Frantically, he tried to locate the source of the carnage around him. Two Tyrilians could not have inflicted such a devastating attack on his outer wall. In the distance across the lake, he saw, what he believed to be, a vast Tyrilian artillery advancement. Without hesitation he gave the command to attack. Immediately, his obedient soldiers raced for the eastern flight of stairs, and descended to the giant stone doors at the base of the plateau. Like angry insects, they flooded out of the orifice and launched their battle formations, in the direction of the lake, as fast as their muscles and stamina would allow.

Concealed in thick, snow covered undergrowth at the side of the lake, Elowyn fought wildly to keep the colossal illusion intact. She required all of her concentration, to conjure the image, and had to forfeit her chameleonic abilities during its embodiment. However, she had chosen her location well. A thick embankment of snow covered her heat signature from expected Wyvani eyes to the west.

Predictably, and with a lightning pace, the Wyvani appeared from the forest on the western shore of the lake, in their spearhead battle formations. Bloodcurdling battle roars, accompanied by an insidious clicking of claws on the ice, signalled their advance across its surface.

On the far side of the lake, Hadrik and Vitiri had used the short amount of time available to them, to their advantage. Upon reaching the base of the mountain, to the east of the lake, they clambered up the rocky outcrop, to gain a vantage point over the entirety of the lake. In synchronism, they span around to face their pursuers, and brandished their staves in readiness for another salvo. Ahead of them, in the centre of the lake, the colossal illusion of the Tyrilian artillery disappeared, as the Wyvani closed the distance.

In a stunned silence, the advance of the Wyvani warriors baulked at the deception. In the seconds required for them to terminate their charge, and reverse their direction, Hadrik and Vitiri unleashed a vehement barrage from their staves, at the surface of the lake, beneath the Wyvani warriors' clawed feet. Fiery red orbs of energy slammed into the ice, around the Wyvani battle positions, causing huge silvery fountains of ice and water, to erupt from the lake surface.

Commander Galveni screamed to his men the order to retreat, but it was too late. Body parts from his bravest and strongest warriors, hurtled past him from the cataclysmic blasts. With all of his strength, he clawed his retreat back across the fracturing ice around him. As it tore asunder, he watched helplessly, as his warriors were engulfed by the icy blackness beneath them. Finally, in what seemed an eternity, in the maelstrom of chaos, he reached the western shore.

Rage consumed him utterly, as he turned to witness the carnage resulting from his impetuosity; over a third of the lake had been reduced to small icebergs by the onslaught. A few of his warriors desperately clung to the pieces, in an attempt to prevent their demise. Rapidly, the shock to their systems due to their submergence in the icy water, slowed their thrashing movements, until once again, the surface of the lake was calm.

Fuelled by his rage, Commander Galveni channelled its cause into a hunger for vengeance. Focussing on the point from where the blasts had emanated from, his muscles carried him around the perimeter of the lake, at a ravenous pace, toward the location. Nothing else entered his mind, apart from his burning desire to feast on the hearts of those responsible.

From her hidden location, Elowyn reactivated her chameleonic scales and disappeared into the forest once more. Her task now, was the infiltration of the plateau and smuggling herself on-board the freighter. As she skirted the lake, she heard the clicking of claws on the ice to the north, signalling the survival of a lone Wyvani. Her time window was short. She knew preparations would already be underway to launch the freighter, without its full cargohold, as a precautionary measure; but she could not allow the needless deaths of her companions to play on her conscience, however, for the Wyvani racing towards them at full pace, would definitely not show any mercy in his actions.

Instinctively, she veered her course in pursuit of the Wyvani. Although she could outpace her enemy on open ground, the forestation hampered her progress. Altering her heading in a more northerly direction, she reached the shore of the lake. In the distance, the Wyvani had made good ground on her, in his efforts to reach Hadrik and Vitiri's location.

Without hesitation, Elowyn focussed on the outcrop in the distance, her only chance of reaching the two men in time, was teleportation. While the black smoke encircled her, she let no distraction into her mind, and as the portal opened in front of her, the Wyvani arrived at his destination.

Hadrik and Vitiri congratulated each other on a job well done. The decoy plan had gone without a hitch and the Wyvani forces were dead, or dying, in the lake in front of them. Gathering their survival packs, they prepared for their descent back to the forest, and their journey southwards back to the caves. Looking to the west for a final acknowledgement of their handiwork, Hadrik spotted the lone figure sprinting around the shoreline towards them in the moonlight. With a sharp intake of breath, he grabbed Vitiri's arm and pointed.

"Wyvani," he whispered in an unsettled tone.

Vitiri nodded grimly. "Head along the outcrop, to the northeast, I'll try to slow him down. Don't argue, just go...NOW!"

He knew his actions were a sacrifice, but he had developed a fondness for the younger man. If his efforts ensured Hadrik's survival, it would be a final tribute representative of his love for Lenara, and also for the man she cared so deeply for. Although he had resigned himself to his inevitable fate, his convictions would not allow him to go down, without a fight. As the Wyvani closed the distance between them at a frightening pace, he strode toward the edge of the outcrop defiantly, and raised his staff, summoning its remaining power, for one final explosive orb of energy.

Hadrik raced across the outcrop, on reaching the northern boundary of the wide ledge, he slowed as he reached the chasm in front of him. No retreat was afforded by the terrain. He searched futilely, for alternative routes to descend to the forest below, but his efforts were to no avail. Resolutely, he cast away the expended staff, and drawing his darksword, he sprinted back toward Vitiri. If the Wyvani wanted a fight, he would satiate that desire, until his last breath.

Vitiri focussed his thoughts on creating the flaming destructive orb. As the Wyvani reached the foot of the outcrop below him, he released its malevolent force directly at the creature. Instantly, he felt the tumultuous detonation below. The force of the blast wrenched him from his footing, and slammed him into the wall of rock behind him, with a tremendous force. Above him, the eruption of rock fragments and dust, obscuring the moon and heavens beyond, shrouded him in ominous darkness.

Commander Galveni fixated on his solitary target. With ballistic speed he sprinted towards the acquired 'lock' observing his opponent's every move, as he approached. When the man raised his staff and summoned the energy contained within, he did not falter and did not flinch, as the flaming globe of energy was released. Using every last sinew of strength, he leapt into the air, allowing the orb to pass beneath him. As the detonation rendered the ground beneath his feet, he allowed the efflorescence of rock to smash into his hardened scales from below, catapulting him high into the night sky.

Ignoring the intense pain the jagged shards of rock inflicted on his lower extremities, Commander Galveni raised his seperatis sword above his head, with both hands. With unerring focus, he unleashed the overhead cleave, mid-flight, detaching the blade into its component shards, in Vitiri's direction. Obediently, the sword fragments responded to his will, and lashed out in a whip like formation, at the prone man.

Elowyn burst out of her portal, to witness the Wyvani making his unimaginable leap through the air; his focus and sole intention, became apparent with his actions. Desperately, she cast 'shield' on the crumpled body of Vitiri. The deflective qualities of the force-field prevented the ingress of the seperatis shards, a split second before their arrival, at the thorax of their target.

Commander Galveni landed with remarkable agility from his flightpath, accompanied by a shower of rock and dust. His legs threatened to buckle under the increased load in their injured state, but his determination commanded their obedience. His thwarted attack, redirected his animosity at its creator, snapping his fixation away from the human, and onto the new more powerful threat. Switching instantly to the Draecynic tongue, he declared his intentions, while rivulets of blood trickled down the torn flesh of his legs.

"You'll pay for that, you fucking B..." but the final word failed to commute from his mouth, as the blade of Hadrik's darksword found its way through a torn scale, to his right lung from behind. Galveni's four hundred and thirty years of military training, overcame the initial shock of the thrust. His next heartbeat, pushed forcefully against the obsidian gemstone within him. Instinctively, he retracted the seperatis shard whip, from their attempt to bury themselves through the force-field, and aimed them at the throat of the human behind him.

Elowyn had preyed on the lapse in concentration of her adversary. The moment the shards lifted from the force field, she pounced at the Wyvani. In reaction to his new threat, Hadrik raised his shield in a desperate attempt to block the incoming shards. Twisting in his stance, he turned the razor sharp edge of his darksword and pulled it free from the Wyvani's chest, releasing a waterfall of blood from his opponent's right ventricle.

As the shards snaked past his tritalumin shield and began to encircle his neck, out of the corner of his eye, Hadrik witnessed a blur of movement. Fearing he had not placed a grievous enough wound on the Wyvani, he turned to accept his punishment. Before he could utter his final word, the creature in front of him wrenched skyward from an unknown blow. Immediately, the shards that tightened around his neck loosened and fell to the floor. From above him, more of the Wyvani's vitae spattered across his face and armour. Instantaneously, the large muscular body went limp, under the control of the unseen force.

Elowyn turned with the raised corpse of the Wyvani, which she held by the jaw, and threw it from the outcrop in defiance. Turning to Hadrik once more, she deactivated her chameleonic scales, as the man dropped to his knees and began a Tyrilian prayer.

"Do not pray before me, I am not your god" she rasped the words angrily at him, although it was not her intent, due to the floods of hyperdrenalin forcing its way through her body. Startled by her animosity, Hadrik looked up at her expecting a reprisal, but none came; instead her large claw was extended to him, offering to help him to his feet.

Gasping vast quantities of air, through fear and exertion, Hadrik turned to the rock wall, for confirmation of Vitiri's survival, but no movement came from the dust covered body. Startled by his companion's torpor, he scrambled across the loose rock to give assistance. Vitiri's breathing was shallow, but regular. At his side, the helm he had worn had absorbed most of the impact with the wall. Elowyn carefully examined Vitiri for neck and skull injuries, and finally, she turned to Hadrik with her diagnosis.

"He's taken a mighty whack to the noggin, but apart from a concussion, that'll make him wish he'd drunk ten pints of ale to deserve it, he'll be fine" She introduced some levity to the situation, which helped to calm Hadrik's frayed nerves. Nurse Elowyn's bedside manner, around human injuries, was developing nicely.

"You're going to have to wait for him to come round naturally; I have to go back to help the others. When he's awake and has recovered enough to travel, head back to the caves." Elowyn received a nod from Hadrik, in acknowledgement to her statement, and without delay, she turned and vanished.

In an orchestrated harmony with the opening salvo above them, Lenara instructed the rockwytch and gelidar worm to begin their steep ascent through the sheer rock face of the mountain, to the plateau above. Using the rockwytch to melt the rock in front of the gelidar, greatly increased the colossal creature's tunnelling speed, and dramatically decreased the associated noise and vibration created, to an imperceptible level. Lenara and the rest of the group, powered their way up the sharp incline of the tunnel into the darkness above, gaining purchase on the rippled effect of the floor, created by the burrowing creature in front of them.

Behind them, the miners of Doril frantically began the laborious task of providing the lighting, footholds and safety ropes, which were necessary for the return journey. One slip from an evacuee and all would be at risk of plummeting down the tunnel, to a tangled morass at the base of the mountain. During their climb, more salvos from the staves of destruction loosened showers of dust and fine particulates into the air around them. The whole mountain seemed to tremble at the savagery of their strikes. As the Wyvani troops succumbed to the icy waters of the lake, to the northeast, the gelidar worm reached the surface.

Moonlight flooded into the tunnel ahead of them, after the hulking mass of the worm had cleared its breach of the plateau. Lenara directed the rockwytch to create stalagmitic, defensive fortifications, while she sent the gelidar toward the Wyvani residential compound, as a diversionary tactic. As the icy breeze of the plateau greeted them with welcoming claws, a scene of destruction and mayhem surrounded their incursion. Miners scrambled to don vestments and footwear around their position; the point of the breach had been fortuitously precise.

"GET TO THE TUNNEL" Aldryn bellowed the command, at the limit of his vocal capacity.

Without hesitation or trepidation, the half-dressed, bleary eyed mob swarmed to the entrance of the tunnel, as if the words had possessed their very souls. In the distance, the rallying cries of the Wyvani could be heard, calling for the attack on the gelidar worm. Marcyn looked on helplessly at the giant array of plasma cannons, as they rotated in their housings, to focus their malevolence on the giant creature to the north. Although the main intent for the array was the eradication of airborne oppressors, the cannons at full lock, could fire in a downward trajectory, towards the surface of the plateau.

Realising their predicament, Marcyn detached himself from the chaos surrounding them, and charged in the direction of the flight of steps, leading up to the crescent shaped ledge. If he didn't incapacitate the cannons, the fight would be over, before it had even properly begun. For, after the primary target was destroyed, he knew the Wyvani would show no hesitation, or mercy, on the escaping miners.

Ascending the stairs to the ledge, Marcyn was greeted by the escalating whine of the cannon, nearest to him; within seconds it would be ready to unleash its assault, on the gelidar below. He raced towards the generator, to the rear of the emplacement, in his bid to disable the cannon. While pulsed-plasma was a very suitable weapon of choice, against inorganic matter, it was far less effective against organics. Even so, the barrage unleashed by the cannons, into the gelidar worm, tore large hunks of flesh from its body, wracking it with pain.

Marcyn reached the reinforced housing, moments after the colossal weapon had finished its recoil cycle, and had begun to recharge. The housing was heavily armoured and protected from aerial bombardments, but in order to facilitate the manoeuvrability, and tracking capability of the barrel, its design gave rise to unavoidable weaknesses, which were vulnerable to ground based attack. With that knowledge, a single individual could disable the cannon, if they knew what to do. Marcyn had spent countless years in the art of espionage, and knew the cannon's intimate secrets.

Rounding the corner of the emplacement, Marcyn cast 'lightning bolt' into the coaxial resonator port. From deep within the bowels of the cannon, a satisfying crackling noise signalled the overload of the surge arrestor, on the pre-charge interface board. With a satisfied grin spreading across his face, Marcyn sprinted in the direction of the next cannon.

Aldryn ushered the miners into a semblance of order in the chaos, and controlled the increasing flood of bodies, now desperate to enter the tunnel. Nearby, Lenara focussed her mindgaze onto the gelidar and the rockwytch. It was becoming increasingly difficult to maintain her connection with both creatures simultaneously, due to their increased separation from her, and each other. Eventually, the concentration required, overwhelmed her, and she resolved to abandon the gelidar, for the usefulness of the stalagmites being created by the rockwytch.

Encircled by the giant spires of rock, the miners were afforded some respite from the counter-offensive deployed by the Wyvani troops. However, the respite was to be short lived. Two of the six cannons that remained active, thanks to Marcyn's saboteur skills, retrained their sights on command of the overseer below. Within seconds, the stalagmites fragmented into shards from the impacts, enabling the Wyvani to storm the breach into the compound. With their thirst for vengeance, they charged towards the evacuating miners, who scrambled to access the tunnel faster. Aldryn saw the ingress, and moved to intercept the incoming troops; he glanced up to the ledge to see Marcyn in the distance, running to the second of the two cannons that had created the breach.

Lenara focussed her efforts on control of the rockwytch now. Using its innate ability, she created row after row of stalagmites, to replace the ones that had been lost, but it was a losing battle. Slowly, but surely, the cannons attacking two different points on the outer wall of spires, created the requirement for the rockwytch to be in two places at once. Eventually, five of the Wyvani broke through, and hurtled toward Aldryn.

Realising their plight, Aldryn raised the two captured seperatis swords above his head, with his left hand; with his right hand he traced ancient Draecynic runes into the air, for the spell of 'ruin'. The shards of the two back to back hilts, separated into a whirling maelstrom of metal, cocooning his body from the incoming attacks of their sibling blades, and long enough for him to finish the powerful spell.

As he neared the apex of the spell, his illusion of Aglomar dropped, displaying his true nature to the Wyvani, causing them to baulk in their advancement on him. Their collective hesitation was too late, however, and upon seeing them within range of the devastating spell, Aldryn grabbed the glowing runes from the air, and slammed them into the ground at his feet.

Violent tremors in the ground beneath the Wyvani signalled the inception of the spell. In the direction of Aldryn's splayed fingers, cracks formed in the surface of the plateau, spreading in their direction. In a concussive wave of destruction, that sundered the ground beneath them into a giant undulation of rock; their eyes, for a split second, had time to register their fate, as the surge of earth cascaded into them.

With the gelidar worm in its final death throes, the remaining cannon retrained its sights, on the perceived cause of the rock spires. A combination of the blue aura, from the giant inverse polarity launcher, and moonlight above, disclosed a solitary figure, standing in the miner's compound. The last of the evacuating miners, had disappeared behind her. Increasing his magnification, the operator zeroed his sights onto her lithe frame.

Aldryn recovered slowly from the expenditure of his spell, his muscles ached and palpitated uncontrollably, in its aftermath. As he rose from his crouched position, he removed from his scales, the few seperatis shards that had found their way past his cocooned defence. Looking around frantically, he was relieved not to see a second wave of troops in his vicinity. With the last of the miners disappearing from sight into the tunnel, he staggered toward Lenara, to signal their impending retreat.

Sprinting as fast as his powerful legs would allow, Marcyn covered the ground towards the last of the cannons. Ahead, he could hear the generator's whine build to a crescendo, in readiness for its next powerful blast. He grimaced in pain at his exertions; overcoming them, he reached the emplacement as the ball of plasma erupted from the barrel. In the distance, its intended target was oblivious to the incoming peril, as she commanded more spires from the rockwytch, to facilitate their escape.

Aldryn looked upward at the ledge, and saw the glowing orb launch in their direction. Without hesitation, he picked up Marcyn's discarded tritalumin shield, and leapt into air, intercepting the path of the ball of energy. With an unsurpassed concussive force, the plasma struck the shield, forcing it into his chest plates with devastating effect, wrenching him backward through the air, into Lenara. In a cruciform, they hurtled into the residence behind them, sending an explosion of kindling into the air.

Lenara opened her eyes and surveyed the devastation around them. With his head resting on her upper thigh, Aldryn's face had a calm tranquil quality to it. He had taken the full force of the impact, melting the shield he had carried into his upper torso; liquefied metal hissed and sizzled, as it hit the frozen floor underneath him. Carefully, she extended her hand and closed his adoring eyes, as tears welled in her own. From deep within her, Alabastyr's voice called for her to remain calm. Wrestling with her emotions, she dragged Aldryn's limp body behind her, as she made good her escape into the tunnel.

8

Her teleport to the ledge above the plateau renewed Elowyn's vantage point from the previous night. Below her, a scene of carnage unfolded. Screamed orders from the Wyvani overseer carried in the night air with malicious histrionics. To the north, she could see Marcyn racing towards the most easterly plasma cannon, in a bid to immobilise it. Before he could reach it, the energy weapon fired into the compound, hitting an unknown target, with dramatic effect.

Her mission now was not of interference, but of subterfuge, guile and evasion. She would have to get to the super freighter, before it completed its launch cycle. With the cannons above it disabled, the pilot would surely make good their escape, without risk of a friendly fire incident. The glass-like, mirrored finish of the giant vessel prohibited any visible teleportation destination inside the craft, and consequently, she would have to get as close as possible to the freighter, and smuggle herself on-board.

Crawling out of the black, swirling vortex like a predatory feline, Elowyn instantly reactivated her chameleonic scales and set about the task in hand. Using the cover supplied by the full hovercarts of diamantium, she weaved through the stacks of unprocessed ore, to her destination. To her chagrin, the doors of the behemoth had almost finished closing, by the time she reached them. Not wanting to risk teleportation, into the darkened recesses of the cargohold, she looked on helplessly as the doors neared their vertical position.

From above, Marcyn had finished disabling the last of the cannons and viewed the super freighter below. Where was Elowyn? Was she on-board? From his position, he had no way of making it back across the compound, undetected by the Wyvani. Oh, how he envied the females of his race, and their ability to teleport! With the Wyvani rapidly approaching his concealed position, he had no alternative. He cast the 'jump' spell on himself, and with an explosion of effort from his muscles, he charged for the chasm between the ledge, and the closing door of the super freighter.

As she looked upward from her position between the hovercarts, Elowyn saw a darkened figure, briefly framed against the moonlit sky above, make the incredible leap. He caught the door, hoisted himself quickly over its apex, and slid into the bowels of the cargohold. Marcyn was an idiot, she thought to herself; a brave idiot, but an idiot nonetheless. With a shake of her head, she gritted her teeth at this new development, and teleported to the path, near to the entrance of the gelidar worm's tunnel, at the base of the mountain.

While the vortex diminished behind her, she returned to her human form and ran over to assist the miners with their evacuation. A steady stream of escapees ran past her to the south, to make good their escape. She waited patiently, giving encouragement and directions, to those who were uncertain of where to go next. Finally after the throng ebbed, Lenara appeared at the entrance, dragging the lifeless corpse of Aldryn, behind her.

Without questioning the new development, Elowyn cast 'cataclysm' into the tunnel, causing it to collapse a quarter of its length, with the seismic spell. No words were spoken to Lenara, as she hoisted Aldryn's body over her shoulder; the tears in the young woman's eyes conveyed every morsel of information, from the collection of souls within her. In complete silence, they followed the miners to the southwest, keeping their distance at the back of the group, disguising Aldryn's Draecynic body, with the illusion of Aglomar.

As they increased their distance from the plateau, a thunderous whining noise escalated behind them, signalling the departure of the super freighter. Elowyn's thoughts immediately transferred to the plight of Marcyn. Beside her, Lenara fought through her tears, and allowed Valeris to surface.

"You have to follow that freighter, Elowyn. Find out where the ore is being processed, and stop the construction of the Wyvani battlecruisers." Lenara's distressed voice, effected a deeper resonance in its intonation, and Elowyn guessed the voice was not her own.

"I can catch up with that thing, easily enough, with my vanguard heavy assault fighter," Elowyn mused, in response to the challenge now placed upon her.

"You won't be able to use the vanguard, against that behemoth! The turrets will easily track you, and tear strips off your hull plating, quicker than you can imagine." Valeris' intimate knowledge of Tyrilian spacecraft was second to none, having helped with the design of most of them, himself.

"Take this seal with you, and go to hangar A1, in the spaceport at Kranis. Present it to the guards stationed there, and they will let you pass." Lenara pulled an engraved gemstone disc, from her backpack, and handed it to her.

"Watch out though, Melini has a dry sense of humour! You two will get on great!" Lenara, in her emotional state, forced a smile in acknowledgement of the information divulged by Valeris, on his deliberately quirky, and awkward, ship's computer.

With no sign of being pursued, by any of the remaining Wyvani, they reached the shallow caves from the previous night. Elowyn placed Aldryn's body, on a low lying stone slab, and said her brief goodbyes to her former instructor.

"Hadrik and daddy will be here soon. They're not far away, but you have to go. I will say goodbye for you." Her melancholic voice had changed back to that of Lenara, and carried with it, a hint of joyfulness at the survival of the two men. Elowyn noted her term of endearment toward Vitiri. Even though it forfeited her place on the freighter, she had made the right decision to save the two men.

"Thank you for saving them," Lenara's voice trilled, as the vortex enveloped Elowyn's body, allowing her to step through, to the cockpit of her heavy assault fighter.

Elowyn disembarked, and after heading through the biometric security checkpoint for her hangar, she joined the hustle and bustle of the spaceport. Blending in with the crowds was second nature to her, and before long, she stood face to face with the emperor's personal guard, at the entrance to hangar A1.

"Hold it right there, missy" the larger of the two commanded in a brusque, but inquisitive tone.

"I am here on behalf of emperor Valeris. Please allow me to pass." With a respectful nod to the guard, she produced the seal given to her by Lenara, and waited patiently for the guard to verify its authenticity, in the optoscan. With a flash of green light and an audible, "Authorised," both guards moved to the sides of the door, and saluted.

"My apologies, m'lady. Please have a safe journey." With that, he handed the seal back to her, and opened the door to Valeris' private hangar.

As she rounded the corner of the narrow corridor, the requirement for the previous security, became apparent. In front of her on the inverse polarity launcher, nestled one of the rarest spacecraft in the known galaxy. Sleek and agile, the phantom class, Draecynic interception assault frigate, was a true masterclass of engineering. Very few were produced, due to the exorbitant cost of production, and the rarity of the materials required in manufacturing the ship. Even fewer remained in existence, as whenever seen on a battlefield, an enemy fleet commander would nominate the craft as a primary target, if he had any sense.

Capable of taking on a small armada, single-handedly, with its macro enervator cannons, the phantom class didn't win by conventional methods. It simply turned all opponents into floating space debris, by overloading their reactors. Its advanced weaponry, combined with being faster and more agile than all who opposed it, often caused mayhem amongst any would be enemy. Instinctively, Elowyn knew she had the right tool for the job; being only the second phantom class she had seen in her lifetime, prompted her reaction.

"Ooooh Baaaaby!" she purred, as she approached the sealed entrance to the cockpit.

From within the vessel, a female voice, that matched her own for eloquence and articulation, responded curtly.

"I am not a baby. I am exactly twenty eight thousand, four hundred and twenty one years, one hundred and thirty five days, eleven hours and fourteen minutes old, at the beep." For a few brief moments, the hangar went quiet, causing Elowyn to raise an eyebrow at the statement.

"Beep," continued Melini with her egoism.

"Hello Melini, my name is Elowyn. Please would you allow me on-board? We have a time sensitive mission that needs accomplishing." She had met a version of the Melini ship computer, centuries before, and knew the protocol for dealing with the awkward, but tactically genius, control system. Sacrifices had been made in the programming of the personality, in order to allow for a more precise, and deadly, command interface.

"You are not my registered owner. I am currently registered to emperor Valeris of the planet Tyril. You may not enter," Melini continued in her matter-of-fact tone.

"Melini, activate security verification protocol, delta four five one." Elowyn knew that the subroutine would allow any Draecyn, of rank commander or above, access to the ship's biometric verification panel. It was a useful feature, locked away inside the core programming of Draecynic vessels, if required in an emergency.

Elowyn allowed her human illusion, covering her right hand, to recede back to her forearm. Extending her clawed hand to the materialised panel, she aligned it with the receptacle and inserted her ancillary carpal bone, into the socket at the base. After a brief pause for analysis, Melini spoke again.

"Verification complete. Welcome commander Elowyn, of the clan Ochryn." On completion of the sentence, the cockpit access opened, allowing her to enter the three hundred and sixteen foot long, assault frigate. Once inside, she began her preparations, and relaxed in the biomechanically adaptive pilot's seat.

"Melini, notify the Tyrilian flight control of our immediate departure, and plot an intercept course with the behemoth class Wyvani super freighter, heading for the Verdanian hypergate network."

"Acknowledged. Do you wish to engage the Wyvani super freighter, upon interception?" Melini's voice was matter of fact about the implication of the question; no advisory was given as to any danger presented, for Melini knew the outcome would be a foregone conclusion.

"Negative, Melini. Keep them within your sensor range, but outside of theirs. Pursue them to their destination."

"Acknowledged, commander. Initiating launch"

Within seconds, the quad bank of macro fusion reactors whined joyously into life. With a furious burst of speed, Melini rose vertically from the launcher and propelled them into a geosynchronous orbit of the planet.

"Nominated target vessel acquired, pursuit mode activated." With this announcement, Melini initiated her advanced, electronic counter measures and concealed herself from the detection of all others. The Draecynic phantom class frigate had acquired that name for a reason.

With a burst of raw power, Melini closed the distance between the two craft, to a parameter she was comfortable with, and pursued the super freighter in the direction of the hypergate, that lead to the Verdanian network. Each hypergate, within a solar system, had a fixed counterpart gate in its target solar system. Travel between the two, involved the hyper acceleration of space-time, to a nearly infinite amount. The resultant 'leap' propelled the spacecraft, from one solar system to a neighbouring system, in a matter of minutes, rather than the years required by normal sub-lightspeed travel.

Drawing closer to the gate ahead, Elowyn witnessed on the holoscreen, the charging of the gate, as the behemoth class approached and aligned itself with the huge, slowly rotating, ring of metal. With its own computer's calculations complete, the remote energy transfer from the super freighter to the gate's capacitor banks, increased the rate of revolution, until, at its fulcrum of intensity, the vessel became shrouded in a white light and vanished.

Melini slowed her speed, to allow the event to occur, in order to remain outside of the behemoth class's sensor range. As soon as it had disappeared from view, she resumed her course, at the average speed exhibited by the super freighter, allowing the giant vessel time to clear the gate, in the solar system beyond.

After her agonising crawl towards the gate, Melini performed her pre-leap checks, and calculated a route between the two solar systems, which would encounter virtually no astronomical bodies. For between the two points of space, anything larger than a grain of sand hitting the forward shields of a ship, travelling at the near impossible speeds of a hyper leap, would present a grave risk of destroying the vessel, due to the incredible amounts of kinetic energy involved.

Between hypergates, there was an intricate array of interstellar beacons, which transmitted current telemetry of all particulate matter between the two points, to each gate; consequentially, no two journeys between gates were exactly the same. After processing the data required, Melini spent four of the remaining five seconds of pre-leap time, to quadruple checking of her pathway, until the launch.

With her checks completed, and the gate spinning furiously around them through the energy transfer, Melini activated their launch. Radiant, white light enveloped the phantom class assault frigate. Melini autocorrected the holoscreen brightness, to compensate for the intrusiveness of the luminosity generated. With a crackling of energy, the shields focussed their intensity to the fore of the ship, and on completion, the howl of noise around them, signalled the initiation of the leap.

Within minutes, Melini safely navigated her way to the target gate in the adjoining solar system. Slowing from the hyper leap, she recalculated her pursuit of the behemoth class and made the appropriate course corrections.

"Commander, would you like me to play some Draecynic battle music?" There had been an awkward silence between the two of them, for a while, and Melini sought to lighten the mood.

"Yes please, Melini. Could you play Gwendolyn's operetta about the Battle of Indresos Prime." It was one of her favourites. Now more than ever, with Aldryn gone, it would permanently seal itself in her heart. For it was Aldryn, who had initiated the charge that day, and wrested victory from the jaws of defeat to the Wyvani.

At the climax of the oratorio, a solitary tear formed in the corner of her eye. She allowed it to linger fervently on her lower eyelid for a while, before brushing it away with her hand. If she had felt solitude at the gate of Beradil, that emotion was a pale comparison, to the pervasive loneliness the depths of space wrought in her mind.

Sensing all was not well with her occupant, Melini decided to access her psychology subroutines, and began her counselling session.

"Elowyn of the clan Ochryn, what causes you discomfort?" The words were soothing and calm, and invited a response.

"Interrupting ship comp..."

"Interrupting ship computers, acknowledged. Is there something more fundamental behind your sadness?"

"Fuck off bitch; I'm not in the mood!" Elowyn knew the line of questioning. It was standard fare for a ship's computer, to ensure the physical and psychological wellbeing of its inhabitants, during what at times, could be very long and arduous voyages, through the desolate tedium of space travel.

"I am unable to comply with your request, commander. I do not possess the required reproductive organs, nor am I a female canid." Melini immediately diverted to her additional subroutines, which had been installed by Valeris, at considerable cost.

Elowyn stared blankly back at the female face, that had extruded itself from the holoscreen in front of her. Her brain tried to rationalise the response given, but she had never before, heard such a retort from any ship computer, in hundreds of preceding identical conversations, over the years. Melini was truly unique in the known universe.

"Don't just sit there with a face like a smacked arse! Talk to me sweetie"

"You're having a laugh..." were the only words able to creep past Elowyn's lips in response.

"Melini's private ships journal, galactic date, five four two eight three five point nine one. Commander Elowyn slowly rising to bait presented. Expecting little or no resistance when reeling in"

Elowyn couldn't help but laugh through her tears of anguish, which became tears of cachinnation at the challenge. After composing herself slowly, and with Melini's initial intention successful, she began a full discourse with her delightfully articulate, new found companion.

Leap after leap, Melini followed the super freighter through the Verdanian network, obfuscating herself to all others within sensor range. Occasionally, they encountered the odd trade vessel, or smaller craft, making their way in the galaxy. Most bought goods at low prices in one system, where there was plentiful supply, in order to sell in a nearby system, at a significant mark-up price through high demand.

After six galactic days of travel, and some forty leaps through the Verdanian network, the super freighter finally reached the entrance gate to the Wyvani network. Melini announced their arrival, in a matter-of-fact way, during a conversation about ancient Draecynic architecture.

"Elowyn, we have arrived at our destination. Do you wish to pursue the target vessel into hostile territory?"

"Yes please, Melini. Can you divert extra bandwidth to your sensor arrays?" The implication of Melini's statement was not lost on her.

"Affirmative, do you want me to initiate combat protocols also?"

"Confirmed, I'll leave the rest to you." At the end of the announcement Elowyn lay back in the biomechanically adaptive seat, and allowed the metallic, serpentine, restraining clasps to envelop her body. They were going in 'hot' and even the slightest unpreparedness, would mean the difference between life and death.

Melini allowed more time, before following the behemoth class through the gate. If there were sentries deployed on the far side, any engagement would alert the super freighter to their presence. In her immobilised state, Elowyn used the time productively, by sleeping peacefully in the chair that gently cradled every contour of her body. If death was to greet her, it would not be through lack of alertness.

9

Her leap into the beginning of Wyvani held territory was surprisingly quiet and went without incident, no sentries or other craft waited on the reception gate for them. Perplexed by the lack of security, Elowyn confirmed with Melini if anything presented itself on her scans. After reverification, Melini detected a few interplanetary shuttles at long range, but no other significant contacts. With most of her processing power diverted to sensors and electronic warfare for the majority of the solar system, Melini limited the depth of their conversation to one of a more perfunctory nature.

After following the leap of the behemoth class into the second system, Melini announced the danger present at the reception gate, as they slowed from hyper speed and made their final approach.

"Three vessels waiting for us in immediate sensor range of the gate, one marauder class and two light cruiser class. Do you wish me to engage?" Melini continued, in her nonchalant attitude toward the enemy.

"Affirmative Melini, please also ensure that they cannot contact any allies." Elowyn knew there was a chance they could have used Melini's electronic warfare systems, to camouflage themselves from the patrol, but the temptation of seeing Melini in action was too great. Consequentially, she easily succumbed to her base desire for the death of the Wyvani.

"Confirmed. Attaining target locks, please respire normally during extreme combat procedures." At the end of this statement, Melini expanded the holoscreen to provide Elowyn with a full wraparound holographic projection of the battle about to transpire.

From her vantage point inside the holographic oval screen that surrounded her chair, Elowyn saw the three waiting ships on the starboard side of the gate. It was a view that she never tired of seeing. Visually, it was as if she had no cockpit surrounding her at all.

Lieutenant Talvoni flicked through the channels on his holoscreen; he had been assigned to sentry duty at the Mydrian gate for hours. After watching the Miss Wyvanos Prime competition, and other programs of a similar ilk, he eagerly awaited the end of his shift, and had resorted to channel surfing. Nothing ever happened and nothing ever would, he surmised to himself. Who would be dumb enough to fly into Wyvani space and pick a fight with his race anyway? The most exciting part of his day, had been the super freighter heading past a short while ago, and confirming its clearance codes with them.

"Warning! Incoming target lock! Taking evasive action," suddenly interrupted his musings. Although his computer was an emotionless, artificial intelligence, it managed to react in a way that conferred a great deal of trepidation, at the newly presented threat.

Barely able to remain in his seat, from the sudden propulsive g-forces, Talvoni activated the restraint system, and allowed it to wrap itself around his body. As the holoscreen projected around his chair, he frantically visually scanned the space surrounding his craft, for his own verification, of what must be a malfunction in his computer's programming. Then he saw it - the black, opalescent, Draecynic craft seemed to appear from nowhere, as it hurtled straight towards him.

Immediately, his talon class, light cruiser attempted to counter-orbit the enemy craft, and at the same time, he tried to contact the Wyvani home defence, calling urgently for backup.

"Broadcast on all channels. Emergency response required on the Mydrian gate," his voice caught in his throat as he finished the sentence. This was actually happening to him, and not a simulation. Was the Draecynic craft just a recon for a larger force? Could they deal with the threat? His mind raced at the possibilities confronting him, while his light pulsed-plasma accelerators, fired bursts of energy, in the direction of the ultra-fast sleek opponent.

"Unable to comply. Target craft has initiated electronic counter measures. No communication channels are available at this time." At the end of the sentence, he saw the first pulsating orange orb launch from the Draecynic ship. No avoidance would prevent it from hitting them, and he gritted his teeth, in anticipation of what damage it would cause.

For a second, he was surprised at the lack of physical impact from the strike. When the successive second and third orbs struck his ship, overloading the reactor, everything powered down rapidly around him, accompanied by the orchestral crackling of every piece of electronic circuitry being fried in unison. In the pitch blackness that now surrounded him, the last noise Talvoni heard was the drone of the life support, slowing to nothingness.

Melini weaved with a fluidic, orbital grace around the comparatively stationary Wyvani craft. They were inferior to her in every aspect of their construction, and she dispatched the two talon class cruisers within seconds. Turning her attention to the vehemence class marauder, Elowyn looked on in amazement, as its large turrets fired volley after volley at the empty space, where Melini had been located, seconds before. Even the secondary armaments, of the meteor and comet guided light missiles and rockets, could not keep pace with Melini's awe inspiring, and sometimes terrifying, speed.

With its larger reactor, the vehemence class absorbed more of the orange orbs than the cruisers, but it too succumbed to the unexpected onslaught that passed unobstructed, through its shields and armour. By the time Melini had completed her second full orbital of the marauder, its turrets went silent.

"Objective completed. Do you wish me to send an erroneous emergency message, to the Wyvani home defence, complaining of a spacial anomaly in the proximity of the gate?" Melini had fully anticipated Elowyn's thoughts.

"Yes please, Melini. Can you also reacquire our primary target and continue pursuance," Elowyn almost blurted out the words, as the hyperdrenalin flowed in her veins, from the exhilaration of the fight.

"Affirmative, was that experience agreeable to you?" Melini had measured every biological response of her 'pilot' during the encounter, to ensure her safety and wellbeing. With the situation returned to normal, she diverted her extra processing power, back to her normal subroutines.

"Yes Melini, very agreeable." Although she wouldn't openly admit it, Elowyn had felt more than a little aroused by the encounter.

"I really cooked those bitches, huh?" Melini's invective appraisal, of her adversaries' capabilities, teased a wry smile from Elowyn's lips, as they disappeared from all sensors in the solar system. At the other side of the small system, the behemoth class super freighter, aligned itself with the system gate at its destination, and leapt through.

Melini allowed an appropriate amount of time, for the super freighter to clear the system gate, and then, as before, they followed it through the gate to its destination. By the time they emerged, the super freighter was orbiting a nearby planet. The vast majority of the planet's surface was covered with water, but wrapped around the centre of the planet was a chain of large islands, resembling a crudely studded belt. Approaching one of the largest islands in the belt, the behemoth class freighter slowly descended and made preparations to land.

Marcyn shivered from his exposure to the cold, dank interior of the cargohold. Although heating wasn't a requirement for the transportation of ore, some of the excess heat, generated by the reactors, meandered slowly through the ducting system by convection. He had secreted himself into one such duct, that seemed to emit the most heat, and waited patiently for his inevitable discovery and capture. He calmed his mind with soothing thoughts, during the journey to the Wyvani network, for he knew that on capture, the interrogation techniques that awaited him were designed specifically to cause the opposite.

Inevitably, with a howl from the inverse polarity thrusters and a sudden surge of warm air, which blasted through his ducting pipe, the passage of the freighter, through the atmosphere of Rylek Prime, came to an end at its designated launch pad. When the giant cargohold doors opened, a huge influx of Wyvani foundry workers spilled into the gargantuan room. Hastily, they bustled and jostled for the right to escort a hovercart from the chamber. After a few minutes of activity, one of the Wyvani workers, closest to his hiding place, caught his scent on the warm breeze, and raised the alarm.

"DRAECYN!" The screech of the foundry man, pierced the air around them, and ricocheted off the cargohold walls in all directions, like seperatis shards. Within seconds, guards barged their way through the throng to his position. Seeing no recourse, Marcyn clambered to the entrance of the duct and offered his outstretched arms, palm up in front of him, displaying the sign of Wyvani surrender.

Under armed escort, the captain of the guard led him through the facility, with a purposeful stride. Around him, Marcyn marvelled at the huge slabs of processed diamantium, which were being formed into the irregular structured plates for the Wyvani obliterator class battlecruisers. No words were spoken to him in the procession. He mused as to whether they were observing protocol, or wondered if any of them knew Draecynic.

Finally, at the far end of the colossal facility, they entered an array of interconnecting corridors that led to rooms of more significance. At the entrance to one of the rooms, the captain placed his hand on to the biometric reader, and obtained the necessary clearance. Inside the interrogation suite, a single metal chair drew his attention towards the centre of the room, surrounded by a plethora of medical instruments and torture devices; it conjured up a tear from Marcyn's eye to behold.

He had heard stories of such cruelty, during his years of training at the academy, and had even faced replicated rooms, designed to test the stubbornness of Draecyn combat troops, under such conditions. It all paled into insignificance, compared to the grim, harsh reality. With his restraints removed, the group of guards forced him to be seated, and with his limbs in place, the chair's restraint system took over the necessary duty of immobilising him.

After the last of the guards left his confinement, Marcyn tested the holding capabilities of the restraints. He knew there would be an anti-magic dissipation field in place, to inhibit any assistance from his spell casting. So, with every ounce of his strength, he attempted to raise his favoured arm, from the bolstered arm of the chair's rigid framework. His muscles flexed and strained, under the load clamping his arm into place. After what seemed an eternity, and with his muscles beginning to cramp from the exertion, he felt the slightest travel from the restraining clamp's bolts.

Melini positioned herself within the atmosphere, above the landing site of the behemoth class, super freighter. Dedicating most of her processing power, to remaining undetected by the sensor arrays below, she remained undetected, while Elowyn prepared for her 'hot drop'. Once the craft was in position, the launcher ejected Elowyn into the upper atmosphere of the planet, and diving headfirst, she accelerated towards the large archipelago below.

As the wind screamed and clawed at her auditory and ocular senses, she compensated by using her nictitating membranes. Focussing her concentration, she activated her camouflage mid-flight, and cast the 'avianis' spell on herself. If Marcyn was to die this day, she would mete swift vengeance on any of the vermin below, that had a hand in his demise. As the surface of the planet rushed to greet her, she slowed her descent. In the last remaining seconds before her impact, she reversed her direction of flight, and used inertia, enabling her to land softly on the shore of the island.

Anticipation tore through Marcyn's mind as he waited helplessly in the subdued lighting of the room. He knew the Wyvani inquisitors used this tactic deliberately, as foreplay to the main event; however no level of self-control could quell his apprehension. As his emotions breached the mental barriers of his mind, the door in front of him silently opened, and acquiesced the entry of the Wyvani inquisitor.

"Good afternoon Draecyn, I am Braka and I will be your interrogator for the foreseeable future. How long that future is depends on your cooperation with me. Is there any part of that you do not understand?" His voice was almost melancholic in its deliverance of the native Draecynic tongue. His accompanying twisted grin, emphasised the Wyvani's burning desire to inflict pain and suffering on others.

"Understood, Braka, but we will be here for a long time as I simply have nothing to tell you." Marcyn knew his words would be ignored as they passed his lips.

"Ok, I'm going to get to the point very quickly here, Draecyn. Everything you have been taught on counter interrogation techniques will matter for naught in this room, including standardised, automated responses. Is that also understood?" With the climax of the sentence, he snapped out a claw and grabbed Marcyn by the throat.

"Understood, Braka." Marcyn tensed his neck muscles, allowing his natural plate armour to withstand the attempted strangulation.

"Can I add on a personal level that I do enjoy extracting information from your race. You have far superior willpower, even exceeding that of our own kind." Braka turned Marcyn's head, allowing their eyes to meet, as he spat the last words at him.

"I'm going to start with the most pertinent question, first Draecyn. How did you end up, stowing away on one of our freighters?"

"No comment." Marcyn knew his response would instigate the onset of proceedings; part of his curiosity even welcomed its inception.

"Are you sure that is the correct answer you wish to give me?" Braka moved over to the vast array of surgical instruments, and selected a curved bone saw, from the plethora of silverware.

"No comment" he whispered the words back to the man, and closed his eyes in anticipation.

"Don't think you're going to get away that easily, scum." Braka's voice, from the encroaching darkness of the room, pierced him with chilling inflection.

A metallic clattering from the bench nearby signalled a change of instruments. Holding Marcyn's head in position, Braka forced his eyes back open, using ocular speculums. Adjusting the incline of the headrest, and restraining the lateral movement of his cranium, Braka forced Marcyn to view what intricacies he had, in his repository of cruelness. With a malicious grin, Braka returned to the bone saw, as his primary instrument of depravity, and proceeded to rasp its coarsely toothed edge across his thumb to test its sharpness.

Elowyn surveyed the swarm of Wyvani workers from her vantage point, in the tropical undergrowth, near to the freighter's inverse polarity launcher. They were too many in number for her to conduct an outright assault on the facility; even with supporting fire from Melini, she anticipated only one conclusion. Using all of her obfuscatory abilities, she emerged from her cover, and gracefully traversed the vast expanse of open ground, to her destination at the wide entranceway to the colossal building. She proceeded with a fluidic movement, between the scurrying foundry workers, covering her tracks in the sand with her tail, as she wove a path between them.

As she rounded the entrance to the foundry, the intense heat and searing metallic fumes assaulted her senses. Using the naturally occurring volcanic lava pits, the Wyvani lowered gigantic crucibles, filled with diamantium ore, into the large molten core of the planet. This provided the exceptionally high temperature required, to soften the crystalline structures, and remove the impurities within. When the crucibles re-emerged, the molten diamantium compound was poured out into vast cooling trays, which fed the gigantic presses. With deafening blows, they hammered out the softened metallic compound, into large plates of armour.

Scanning the foundry's denizens, she located her target on an overhead walkway towards the rear of the gargantuan chamber. Unaware that he was being observed, the overseer patrolled his sector, scrutinizing the progress being made, beneath his feet. Realising that he was too overt, for her to assume his identity in this location; she decided to create a diversion to initiate her subterfuge.

Unobserved in her position, an additional Wyvani foundry worker materialised, and at the appropriate moment in time, it mingled with its fellow workers and moved to the overseer's sector. Elowyn knew that personal space was an issue between Wyvani, so surreptitiously she invaded that space belonging to her co-workers, with appropriate jostles and shrugs of disdain, when the required responses were elicited. It didn't take long, before her efforts were rewarded with the brawl she desired.

With a hammer like blow to her temple, the reward for her labours came to fruition, from the Wyvani on her left. Gauging its impact, she reeled from the blow with an artifice of movement, to encourage further onset from its perpetrator. Obligingly, the Wyvani pugilist followed up with a left hook, which connected sweetly with her jaw, sending her crashing backwards into a hovercart. With a loud clang from her impact with the cart, the overseer swiftly turned his attention to the altercation beneath him.

Almost instantly, a small crowd assembled around their position to observe the proceedings. Several of the Wyvani, whom she had previously impinged upon, now chanted for her adversary to perpetrate further violence on her. Returning to her feet, she wiped the magically created droplets of blood from the corner of her mouth with the back of her hand, and beckoned the Wyvani towards her.

With a clumsy charge, the foundry worker launched a barrage of fists in her direction; stepping backward she easily avoided the blows, as they sailed through the emptiness of her wake. As he outpaced her in the next couple of strides, she deftly blocked his probing of her defences. In the split second that he overstepped, she launched a counter attack of her own.

In slow motion, as her hyperdrenalin kicked in, the wildly flailing fist of the Wyvani soared over her head, as she ducked. In a reversal of movement, she grabbed the elbow joint of his arm and forced the continuation of its flight path. Using his own bicep as a visual shield from her attack, she buried her right fist into her assailant's ribcage, causing a satisfying crunching noise. Surprised by the reversal of fortune, the Wyvani yelped with pain. His cry was cut short, however, when she followed up the manoeuvre, with a scything upward arc of her own elbow to his chin, as she pulled his controlled arm out of the way.

With a crash, the Wyvani crumpled to the floor in a heap in front of her. Whilst she knelt over him to make her finishing blow, she felt the anticipated seperatis shards, of the overseer's blade, tighten around her neck.

"ENOUGH!" the single word carried with it the malice and threatening tone of the overseer's intention.

Carefully, Elowyn raised her arms in surrender to her predicament. Slowly and deliberately, she moved away from the Wyvani beneath her, and awaited the overseer's arrival. Calling for a temporary substitute, to replace his position on the walkway, he strode down the nearby stairs and advanced to her position, while the shards continued to hold her neck firmly, in their serrated grip.

"Hands behind your back scum." The overseer spat the order, to which Elowyn dutifully responded. With her wrists bound in manacles, overseer Kaladri forced their march, towards the rear detention area of the foundry.

As they navigated the labyrinth of corridors, away from the main foundry room, towards the detention facility at the rear of the gigantic building, Elowyn drew the air across her olfactory organs, to determine the route taken by Marcyn. Among the hundreds of similar Wyvani odours, she picked out his scent in seconds, after the acrid stench of the smelting dissipated behind her.

Fortuitously, their path coincided with that of her objective. Closed circuit cameras followed every move they made, up to the cell door that was to be her new home, for the foreseeable future. Swiping his security pass across the door's reader caused a low whining noise, which activated the opening of the portal. As the door swung open, obscuring them from the camera at the end of the corridor, Elowyn initiated her move.

From behind him, as they stood side by side, she unfurled her tail from the constraints of the illusion. With a powerful upward thrust, she buried its quadrobate tip through her opponent's skull, severing his spinal cord in the process. For the briefest of moments, she held his weight with her tail, as she grabbed the security pass from his lifeless fingers. With the pass in her possession, she wrenched his body through the opening into the room, using a savage whip like motion of her muscular caudal appendage.

With the overseer's corpse disposed of, in the now blood spattered room, she cast 'liberatis' on the manacles and casually threw them into the cell. Lastly, she swiped the pass to close the door, and cast 'invisibility' on the blood spatter left by the Wyvani in the corridor. Resuming her focus on the stronger scent of Marcyn, she rendered a perfect illusionary replica of the overseer, and continued towards his location.

Reaching the end of the corridor, Elowyn detected the stronger aroma of her clutch brother emanating from a room behind a heavily fortified door. Without breaking her stride, she swiped the pass against the door's electronic lock, and stared in horror, at the darkened room's interior, when the door obligingly swung open. Interrupted by the disturbance, the Wyvani interrogator turned to face the intruder, who had interrupted his malevolence.

"Overseer Kaladri! so good of you to join us. Would you care to observe, or would you like some personal involvement?" the words slithered from Braka's venomous tongue.

"Personal involvement, if I may? I feel the need for some release from my frustrations..." Elowyn couldn't resist the opportunity to exact her revenge on Marcyn, for their prank in the tavern at Beradil, and the chance now presented itself beautifully.

"Please be my guest... I was about to start on his left ancillary carpal bone." Braka handed her the curved bone saw, and gestured to her with splayed fingers, over the extended appendage protruding from Marcyn's wrist, in a sweeping motion, as if offering fine dining. Elowyn steadied the saw next to the base of the bone, and glanced into the staring eyes of her brother..

Before Braka could react, she whirled in her stance and sank the serrated edge of the blade into the side of his skull, cleaving his communicator in twain. Her intention was not of a killing strike, that would come later in the new altercation that ensued. Its intent was instead, to cause a deep and exceptionally painful, aggravating wound.

Before he could scream at the laceration, Elowyn clamped his jaw shut with her left claw and lifted him into the air. Dangling helplessly, Braka watched as she retracted Marcyn's bindings, and forced him into the chair instead. With the reactivation of the chair's restraint system, she straddled the chair and sat on his thighs in a provocative manner, as she addressed him. Her mouth moved to within a scalpels edge of his jaw.

"Here's how this is going to work. You're going to tell me everything you know about this foundry, and the purpose of the new battlecruiser fleet you're manufacturing." She delivered the words with an unerring calmness to her voice and Braka shifted uneasily in his seat at their deliverance.

"I know nothing about where the plating goes from here." Braka knew he wouldn't be able to lie about the foundry itself, so he attempted to obfuscate the vast quantity of knowledge he possessed.

"Don't give me that crap! You're a Wyvani inquisitor; it's your job to know everything!" Elowyn snapped back her response, with a passionate hatred for the man.

To emphasise the required expedience of the information, she grabbed the bone saw that now quivered slightly in its lodgings, at the side of Braka's skull, and slowly manipulated it in the vertical plane. Waves of pain crashed into his consciousness, as the blade scraped away at the outer layers of his cerebral cortex. Overwhelmed with agony, and making personal notes on how utterly intrusive and excruciating the new found form of torture was, he relented to the onslaught of his senses.

"ENOUGH...!" Braka garbled his scream, through his partially clamped jaw, drawing an acerbic grin from his captor.

Elowyn allowed a short pause in the proceedings, for Braka to regain his thoughts. Menacingly, she poised her claw close to the bone saw, to reiterate her intentions, should Braka be unwilling to disclose his secrets.

"As you know, the foundry here is manufacturing diamantium armour plates, for the new oblivion class battlecruisers. Its ultra-reflective surface will provide us with craft that are impervious to virtually all of the Draecynic weaponry at your disposal." Braka began his diatribe with a resigned edge to his voice; he knew the penalties for his forced transgression.

"Where are the battlecruisers being built?" Elowyn interjected.

"Wyvanos prime of course?" Braka looked at her quizzically and tried to determine the level of subterfuge required, from the Draecyn's responses.

"What are they being used for? Where are they being sent?" Her quick fire questioning commanded rapid responses from him, and were designed to interrupt his scheming thought processes, enabling her to catch him off guard.

"The destruction of your home world, Draecos Prime, of course!" While his answer was ultimately truthful, the method of achieving his claim was through a virtually impossible, indirect route.

"Impossible! Even if your fleet could deflect most of our weaponry, you don't have enough firepower to destroy a planet of that size." Elowyn knew a great deal about the latest advancements in Wyvani technology, from her own information gathering efforts, for Draecyn high command.

"How is your fleet going to accomplish that task?" Elowyn's words were slow and deliberate now. She slowly coiled her clawed fingers around the saw to emphasise its method of persuasion. In response, Braka rolled his eyes toward the movement, and with a sigh continued.

"As you know, Draecos Prime is approximately twelve thousand light-years from the centre of our galaxy. Wyvanos prime is about twenty five thousand light-years, as we have the benefit of being located on one of the spiral arms. Our physicists have hypothesised, and run extensive simulations, to show that a feeding of the binary, super massive, black hole at the centre, with nearby stars will..."

"Binary, super massive, black hole?" Elowyn interjected. Astrophysics, while necessary in her role, wasn't one of her strongest subjects, but she found herself intrigued by the concept.

"Yes, our spiral galaxy is formed through the movement and interplay of gravitational forces from two black holes, back to back, as it were. Imagine two magnets of the same polarity, deflecting each other but on a colossal scale. Due to the excessive forces generated, on the other side of each of those magnets attracted to each other, the black hole funnels bend, causing it all to rotate, whilst trying to reach their opposing poles at the centre. This perpetual rotation is then fuelled by the ingestion of the stars nearest to them. Over millions of years, the fluctuation of gravitational forces from the spinning motion creates the spiral arm effect." Braka paused briefly to allow his words to be absorbed and have the desired effect, before proceeding.

"What's the intention of feeding the black hole then?" Marcyn joined in the discussion, his curiosity now piqued by his former captor.

"We have hypothesised that, if we can artificially increase the rate of ingestion by the two black holes, they will increase in size until they are large enough to create a cascade effect. Such a cascade would devour most of the stars and their systems, on an exponential scale, until the centre of our galaxy as we know it, including Draecos Prime, will be no more..." A wry smile at the ingenious approach, to the destruction of their Draecyn adversaries, spread across Braka's lips.

"But what's to stop that exponential effect from increasing to the point, where all stars in this galaxy, including the spiral arm constellations, are absorbed?" Elowyn prompted.

"Top Wyvani physicists have hypothesised and simulated extensively that, due to the distance between star systems here, the feeding will slow down and the black holes will recede over time. The new reformed galaxy will consist of only the stars belonging to the spiral arms." Braka enthused.

"Complete and utter insanity! What if they're wrong and the whole galaxy gets swallowed up by your stupidity?" Marcyn snapped the retort at Braka, with vehemence.

"It's simple really. If the cascade devours the galaxy and increases in size to where it begins to devour our neighbouring galaxies, the effect will continue until the whole universe gets drawn in, and as you say, swallowed up! It is hypothesised that the rapid increase in size would cause the black holes to go into critical mass, and explode, forming a brand new universe or a U.G.E." Braka finished the statement with nonchalant air, at the cataclysmic implication of the Wyvani efforts. Looking at the quizzical faces of the Draecyn in front of him, he continued.

"Universe Generating Event," he explained slowly, as if speaking to a child, or someone of inferior intellect.

"Marcyn's right. You lot are fucking imbeciles, if you think this is going to work, or if you haven't taken into account, the consequences of your actions," Elowyn spat the words at Braka in disgust.

"It is already beginning to work Draecyn. As we speak, the first wave of battlecruisers have started the feeding process. We've developed a new kind of macro enervator cannon, that increases the size and gravitational pull of a star! Our first successful feeding occurred not long ago, the extra battlecruisers will just accelerate the process." Braka sighed at the impending decision, awaiting his fate at the conclusion of his account, for he knew his useful dialogue had come to an end.

"You have been most helpful, and for that I'm going to let you live and let your fellow inquisitors deal with you." Elowyn wasn't beyond compassion or mercy, but she knew a potentially far worse fate than death, would inevitably befall the vile wretch in front of her. As she and Marcyn turned to leave the room, she couldn't help but wonder, what incarnation of the universe they were residing in.

10

Elowyn reassumed the form of overseer Kaladri and placed a pair of deactivated restraints on Marcyn's outstretched arms. If they were to escape the foundry without arousing suspicion, they would have to return via the way they had come. With a mandible speculum tightly fastened in place on Braka preventing oratory clarity, they exited the room to a chorus of his garbled screams.

"Ok sis, I'll take the lead but I hope you have a plan. They're not going to let us walk out of here, no matter who you look like." Marcyn's voice had reverted to its previous edgy inflection, that he had managed to overcome, while sitting in the interrogation chair.

"Don't worry, we have a friend above us, who is about to cause a little diversion..." her voice tailed off as they rounded the corner. In front of them, the corridor led past the barracks and sleeping quarters of their sworn enemy.

Reaching into her overseer's tunic, Elowyn produced a small black box with a biometric sampler on its uppermost surface. With a dull amber glow, it scanned her clawed thumb and flashed acceptance moments later. In orbit above the foundry, Melini's engines roared into life, as she turned and plummeted towards the planet. A split second later, she locked on to the foundry's colossal fusion reactor, and unleashed a devastating salvo at it with her enervators.

Emitting a crackling noise from an insurmountable influx of energy, the reactor was overwhelmed by the barrage, resulting in a high pitched popping noise, when its arrays of its internal protection circuitry, were fried in unison. Instantly, the entire complex was veiled in darkness, apart from the lustrous rufescent glow that emanated from the lava pits, deep in the bowels of the foundry. With an unsurpassed agility, Melini twisted out of her dive, narrowly missing the apex of the building's roof, by the tightest of margins. As she banked for her return to the structure, she opened the cockpit door to allow fast access to her temporary owner.

Ahead of them, panic and confusion ensued, as the nocturnal chaos surrounded the Wyvani workers. Amidst the disorder, Elowyn led Marcyn through the hysteria surrounding them, until their progression became futile. Exasperated, Elowyn turned and engaged the locking mechanism for his restraints and nodded. With trepidation he braced himself for what was about to occur.

With a flash of her eyes, Elowyn launched herself from the foundry floor and hurtled through the air above the swarm of Wyvani. Marcyn felt as if his arms were about to be wrenched from their sockets, at the force of the explosive propulsion. Her 'avianis' spell had a limited duration however, and once clear of the colossal foundry's entrance, she could feel its effects starting to wane.

As they ascended towards the spectacular myriad of stars in the heavens, she watched helplessly, as Melini hurtled to intercept them. Just as the spell finally dissipated, Melini reached their location. With a desperate lunge, Elowyn grasped the final step leading to the cockpit entrance, and buried her claws into its polymerised surface. Using every ounce of her strength, she pulled Marcyn up to the step beside her, where they clung on precariously while Melini performed a graceful turn, allowing them to access the cockpit from above. Once inside the phantom class frigate, Elowyn reclaimed her pilot's seat and watched through the holoscreen as the backup power for the freighter's inverse polarity launcher failed, causing the ship's immolated demise.

With the destruction and chaos beneath them, they knew it would not take long, before the Wyvani would send military assault craft to intercept them. As soon as Marcyn was seated at the navigation and communication holomatrix, Melini activated his restraints and tore through the atmosphere of the planet.

"Melini, get us the five hells out of Wyvani space, and take us to the spaceport at Zydris, with extreme expedience!" Elowyn scythed the command, with new found determination in her voice.

"Affirmative commander, would you like me to perform the task evasively or invasively?" Melini responded in her nonchalant matter-of-fact tone.

"Evasively please, Melini. If we encounter hostilities, I will defer to your judgement, on your abilities to evade. If that is impossible, please engage when appropriate." Elowyn stated explicitly.

"Hold on a second, you're leaving the ship to decide?" Marcyn interjected, with unnerved apprehension.

"Yes, she is sweetie, get used to it and please remain calm. I don't want you freaking out on me, like a little whiny bitch!" retorted Melini. She knew her dialogue was beyond that of a normal AI, as she had previously demonstrated to her new commander. A moment of stunned silence befell Marcyn, as he marvelled at what he had just heard from the ship's computer.

"Hey! I'm not whiny and I'm not little!" Marcyn replied with a supressed laugh, testing Melini with his joviality.

"Your biometric feedback, confirmed to me your desires for the last part, after you were seated sub commander. Envy is particularly easy to detect." Melini continued the amicable rapport as she raced through the solar system, leaving Rylek Prime as nothing more than a tiny blue dot, in the vast open expanse of blackness behind them.

With her engines howling from the exertion, Melini raced through the Wyvani solar systems, and fortuitously, no encounters presented themselves to her. During her leap through to the Wyvani inception system, she detected a sizeable fleet passing by her in the opposite direction. The large mass of ships was undoubtedly invoked as a response to their presence, but the Wyvani fleet had to wait helplessly, before their return leap to the inception system, allowing Melini plenty of time to make good their escape.

After a few jumps through the Verdanian network, Marcyn felt his muscles begin to relax from their tensile state, and gradually he welcomed the embrace of the warm confines of his flight seat, while Melini powered her way through the requisite systems on his holomatrix. Elowyn had stayed awake briefly, for a quick discussion, but the huge surge of energy she had expended in returning to Melini, forced her to succumb to restful sleep. After a quiet discussion with Melini about her extraordinary capabilities, Marcyn followed Elowyn into the unconscious realm.

Melini increased the oxygen percentage in the cockpit, after her precious cargo had acceded to her requirements, for their hibernation. With their vital signs steady, she intravenously fed them and removed any waste from their bodies, during the three galactic week journey to Zydris. With only a couple of minor engagements, with inferior pirate opposition to report, she woke her biological baggage, upon entering the upper atmosphere of their target destination.

Zydris was a remarkable planet; almost all of the landmass was located in the northern hemisphere. This caused an imbalance of the planet's axial tilt, resulting in significant seasonal change, during its orbital path around its star. Currently, it was in its summer months, giving rise to lush verdant pastures and topiary, which greeted them as they approached the spaceport. This was in stark contrast to the last time Elowyn had visited Zydris, during the winter months, when the icy barren wasteland reached temperatures only the foolhardy or immune, would attempt to survive in.

The external, tropical humidity decreased as Melini descended onto the launcher and shut down her engines. Inside the atmospherically controlled spaceport, a constant and comfortable temperature and humidity, was regulated and maintained, for the benefit of its array of intergalactic species.

"Human form and stay near me at all times..." Elowyn broke the silence, after the low whine of Melini's reactors fell silent.

"Not a problem sis, I've heard bad things about this place." Marcyn had heard tales about the spaceport and vowed to himself to avoid it, if at all possible, on his journeys. However, the need had arisen and he could think of no one else he would rather be with, to lose his Zydris virginity.

The expansive spaceport, stretched as far as their eyes could see, in all directions; huge white buildings, filled with brokers and traders, stood proud from the ground like arrays of predatory teeth. Inside, millions of creatures from the extremities of the galaxy bought and sold goods for entire planets. Giant super freighters littered the skies above, like a swarm of flying insects, waiting for their chance to land at one of the limited number of inverse polarity launchers, capable of taking their mass.

As they flitted through the crowds towards one of the many trade buildings, Elowyn intimated the need for her to control the proceedings, with the man she knew. He was one of the most influential and altogether abhorrent men, in the galactic sector. Uthral Tamak's pretentious boast was the ability to supply any quantity of anything, to any interested customer, to anywhere in the galaxy, for the right price.

After endlessly meandering through the arrays of trade buildings, Elowyn darted towards one, apparently at random, and led Marcyn into the busy foyer. Bypassing the normal routes of trade, she headed to the elevator at the rear of the room and commanded the guards out of her way, as they attempted to prohibit her access. Marcyn shot one of them a quizzical glance, as he walked past the man, who had returned to his initial stance, observing the throng in the atrium of the building.

Elowyn pressed the button for the penthouse suite, and an awkward agitated pause ensued, accompanied by the melancholic trill tune of elevator music. When the doors finally parted, she strode into the luxurious apartment with a purpose. Behind his desk at the far side of the room, Uthral Tamak barely shot a glance in their direction, as they approached. Marcyn was aware of multiple automated defence drones, unsubtly hovering at various vantage points, throughout the room.

Programmed to recognise bio signatures, not belonging to their owner, the drones had the capability of engaging any hostile acts toward their master, with an appropriate calculated response. Elowyn pulled up a leather executive chair and motioned for Marcyn to do likewise. With a flurry of motion, Uthral maniacally rattled his fingers on the large touchscreen trading interface in front of him, for a few moments.

At the conclusion of his brief activity, he broadened his grin and visibly relaxed. Elowyn took the opportunity to raise her legs onto the table and drape them next to the edge of the screen provocatively.

"Hey Snookums, Boopsikins doesn't like being ignored..." she intimated and placed her index finger into her mouth suggestively, as Uthral looked up with a pleasantly surprised expression.

"Boopsikins! My apologies, had I known it was urgent, I'd have responded sooner..." It was a lie. Both of them knew it, but the façade of his undying devotion to her, was well delivered and received.

Uthral Tamak was quite an unusual man. His remarkable distinguishing feature was most notably, a mane of crimson hair, that cascaded effortlessly down to his midriff. As he rose from his seated position, Marcyn noticed a faint whirring noise of gears emanating from his two artificial legs. Making his way around the desk, he greeted Elowyn with a delicate kiss, as she joined him in their informal reunion. Marcyn decided to let everything proceed according to her directions, but couldn't help miming the word 'boopsikins' to himself.

At the end of their clinch, Elowyn gazed slightly downward into Uthral's eyes and affected her best pleading look for the man. Not fazed by her intimate greeting, Uthral began the discourse between them.

"What do you want?" he was matter of fact and to the point, when trading or doing business, and a kiss from a beautiful woman, never clouded his judgement or reasoning.

"I really need a fast ship for my companion here. He has to get somewhere rather rapidly." Elowyn stared straight into Uthral's eyes and delivered her requirement with consternation.

"Not a problem, what do you have for me in exchange?" Uthral countered the proposal, with a warm, inquisitive tone.

"The Wyvani have a weakly defended diamantium foundry on Rylek Prime that has already suffered significant damage. The diamantium there is in significant quantities... If a sizeable force were to misappropriate it..." her voice tailed off, to allow the piratical information to do its work.

"It is an agreeable piece of information, I shall loan your friend an incursion class ship, until such a time that the diamantium is in our possession and resold. Beyond that, the ship is yours." Uthral knew the difficulty in the proposed plundering of Wyvani resources, but the thought of the rich rewards involved swayed his decision to enact on the divulged intelligence.

Reaching into his desk drawer, Uthral dropped a biometric pass card into Elowyn's upturned palm. With a thank you kiss to her 'snookums,' Elowyn whispered something agreeable into Uthral's ear and bid him farewell. In the elevator she casually handed the pass card to Marcyn, and he nodded in acceptance of the arduous and dangerous mission, required of him. After a slight delay, allowing the gravity of the situation to sink in, he began to smile.

"If you mention boopsikins, now or ever, it'll be the most misguided word of your existence," Elowyn exclaimed in embarrassment.

"As if I would ever mention it, sis" He couldn't help but join her, in the levity of the pet name calling, and both of them laughed at the ridiculousness of it.

Returning to the crowds of the spaceport, they fought their way through the organised chaos, to the hangar containing Marcyn's new ship. It was old but serviceable and was pre-fitted with the requisite ordinance, to fend off most opportunist attackers. Unlike the majority of ships, the Tenatrian Scymitus incursion class frigate possessed a fusion boost drive, allowing it to almost triple its maximum normal speed, for short periods of time, to escape danger. Combined with extensive forward shielding and a larger than normal cargohold, it was a favoured choice of Tenatrian spice runners.

"Find Lenara. We need to stop the Wyvani insanity, before it destroys us all!" Elowyn pressed the pass card into Marcyn's hand and turned to leave.

"What are you going to do?" Marcyn was curious and had pensiveness in his voice, for he knew she wouldn't rest on her laurels.

"Buy you and Draecyn high command some time..." The expression on her face, spoke a thousand words to Marcyn; the sincerity and determination in her voice meant only one thing. She would try to delay them on her own.

As Melini hurtled skyward, Elowyn plotted her course via the NavCom's holomatrix. Their journey would take them through the wildlands, renowned collectively for the inhospitable life forms, residing in the four galactic sectors of space, and for the abundant piracy on trade routes, within the area. She could see no alternative, if she wanted to intercept the Wyvani battlecruiser fleet and to divert or slow their progress.

"Melini, please locate any ribbon systems contained within the holomatrix that I'm currently viewing, and display their associated hyper leap distances." She knew a direct assault on the battlecruisers was pointless, but if she could disable their potential leap routes, towards the centre of the galaxy, she could seriously hamper their progress.

Ribbon systems were two gated systems that fed each other akin to links in a chain. If she could break the links, the Wyvani would have two alternative courses of action. Either, they would have to fly manually at sub leap speeds to the next system, which could potentially take many years, or redirect the fleet on an alternative route. If she could disable the hypergates, furthest from Draecynic controlled space, she could effectively herd the Wyvani into a potential engagement against the Draecynic fleet, closer to Draecos.

"Calculating, commander. There are five groups of ribbon systems within the parameters of your search. The mean distance for the collective groups is a distance of thirty two point eight light-years. Can I inquire as to the purpose of your request please?" Melini cogitated on her demand, as she left her orbit of Zydris and began to head in the direction of the appropriate gate, for travel to the wildlands.

"Of course, Melini. I intend for us to disable the ribbon system gates for all groups, apart from those closest to Draecynic space. Starting with those furthest away, with the four groups disabled, are there any alternative routes available, for a fleet travelling from Wyvani space, towards the centre of the galaxy?" Elowyn furrowed her brow, as she tried to scan the thousands of holographic stars in front of her, as if she could assist Melini in her answer.

"Negative, commander. An extensive diversion, through Wampyrian controlled sectors, would be the only recourse. Assuming there is no conflict with the Wampyri, at my speed the route would take thirty five point seven galactic years, accounting for the restrictive lack of existence, of a fully interlaced hypergate network." Melini eagerly delivered the answer; she enjoyed performing minor mathematical calculations for biological organisms.

Melini's leaps to the wildlands passed without incident, and an aura of calm developed in the multitude of conversations she had, with her commander. During their flight, through the adjacent system to recognised wildland space, Melini disrupted their conversation, to inform Elowyn of the upcoming danger. It was commonly acknowledged in the region of space, that pirates would wait on the inbound gate, for unsuspecting travellers or chancers.

As they slowed from their hyper leap to sub light-speed, Melini scanned the inbound gate for potential threats. With no apparent hostiles in the vicinity of the gate, she relayed the information to Elowyn, who relaxed at the welcome news.

"At least there's no meet and greet for us," she announced to Melini, breaking the silence and dissipating some of her own tension.

"So it would seem commander. I'm currently performing extensive sensor sweeps, to confirm your keen observations." Melini's voice although matter-of-fact, held an air of sarcastic edginess to it, due to her self-preservation sub routines. As opposed to predictable Wyvani encounters, the wildlands delivered uncertainty, in the type of opposition and numbers of hostiles.

Dedicating the vast majority of her processing power to the constant sensor scans and navigation, Melini fell silent as they traversed the systems deeper into the wildlands. Left to her own thoughts, Elowyn once again felt the grasp of loneliness clawing at her consciousness. She tried to alleviate its almost suffocating embrace, by imagining what her friends were doing in their individual quests, in distant worlds, elsewhere in the galaxy.

Occasionally, Melini alerted Elowyn to other ships in different systems, none of which were close enough, or fast enough, to cause them to deviate from their intended course. After twenty three leaps, they encountered a small pirate gate camp, on an inbound gate, but the two assault class cruisers were no match for Melini's superior agility and speed, affording them a comfortable escape. No further exigency presented itself in the remaining leaps, and after galactic months of travel, they navigated safely to the innermost start of the ribbon system chain, furthest from home.

As they finished their leap on the inbound gate, heading towards Wyvani space, Melini target locked the gate itself, and began her orbital attack pattern. As soon as she reached terminal velocity, she began the barrage of the gate, with her enervators. Spewing orange globes of energy, she progressively began to overload the array of fusion reactors, and high capacitance banks, contained within the structure. In order to keep her transversal speed up, she could not dedicate as much of her energy, as she would like. Her laborious progress took far longer than anticipated, in order to evade the barrage from the hypergate's sentry guns.

Finally, the gate could withstand the abuse no longer, and with a chain of concentric explosions around its circumference, its power rapidly faded and shut down. When the last of the lights flickered and extinguished, Melini finished her orbital path, and headed for the outbound gate at the opposite side of the system.

Continuing down the chain, they laid waste to the gate network, preventing outbound leaps toward the centre of the galaxy. It was the least frequently used chain of the four, running too close to Wampyri space for most travellers' likings. At the end of their journey, Elowyn was satisfied that the route was completely impassable, so she directed Melini towards the next waypoint.

After a few minor skirmishes, from attempted piracy, the second of the ribbon chains was rendered inoperable. As they made their way toward Wyvani space, along the third and most likely route the battlecruisers would take, the inevitable happened. With three gates destroyed, Melini ended her leap next to the fourth gate and picked up the Wyvani armada on her mid-range scan. Unmistakeable in size and formation, was the lumbering hulk of ships escorting the gigantic Wyvani supercarrier, containing the battlecruisers that she had to delay.

"Commander, it would be ill advised to engage a fleet of that magnitude. By my calculations, we would only have a fourteen point eight percent probability of success." Melini logged and categorised all of the Wyvani vessels according to their threat level, and devised a variety of attack patterns, should her commander decide to engage in hostilities.

"Thankyou Melini, can we disable the gate, before they reach our current location?" Elowyn responded quickly to the information presented and formulated alternative plans.

"Using our current tactic, negative. If we slowed our orbital speed and sustained damage to my shield systems, we could accomplish the task, with a sixty four point two percent chance for the possibility of escape." Melini waited patiently for her biological host to take, what seemed like an eternity, to decide on a course of action. Three seconds later, Elowyn gave her response.

"Engage the gate, and do everything possible to make good our escape!" As soon as the words had left her mouth, Melini brought her command to fruition.

On board the flight deck of the Wyvani supercarrier, admiral Fazini gave the order, for his fastest ships to attack the Draecynic vessel at the gate. They would take time to reach the craft, but if it was successful in what it was trying to accomplish, it would mean a diversion of ridiculous magnitude, that he was not prepared to take.

With her shields almost depleted, Melini launched the critical volley, from her enervators, into the gate. With a catastrophic, explosive chain reaction behind them, she fled the scene of their crime, moments before the fastest of the Wyvani vessels could achieve target-lock. Diverting all of her power to the engines, enabled her to keep the chasing throng at bay, but sacrificially, she couldn't recharge her shield systems.

In a wide arc, Melini led the Wyvani towards the only hospitable planet in the system; with the other two gates covered by Wyvani assault cruisers, there was no chance they could flee the system, without a direct engagement. Opting for the possibility of escape, through intra planetary manoeuvres, Melini breached the upper atmosphere of her target planet, and plummeted towards a mountain range far below.

Unfazed by the sudden alternative tactic, the Wyvani interception class assault frigates, dived after the phantom class ship in front of them, and gave chase. Slowing slightly, to compensate for the bombardment of air molecules and particulates, hitting what remained of her focussed frontal shielding, Melini allowed the closest of the Wyvani pursuers, the chance to attain brief target-locks, as they zigzagged through the deep chasms between the mountains.

With stable shields, and able to repel the abuse thrown at them at the hypersonic speeds, she performed a combination of supremely graceful and agile manoeuvres, that caused the majority of her pursuers to crash into the unforgiving topography. Breathlessly, Elowyn gripped the arms of her pilot's seat and watched wide-eyed in awe, at Melini's capabilities.

Just as she was making headway on her pursuers, Melini detected incoming combatants from the other side of the mountain range, heading on an intercept course, towards them. There was no avoidance possible, for to divert from her efforts, would slow her enough, to allow a target-lock from behind.

"Commander, we have hostiles approaching from the front. I shall attempt evasive manoeuvres, but I cannot guarantee success. Do I have permission to eject you, should that prove necessary?" Her voice was surprisingly calm and it resonated in Elowyn's mind, while she pondered the consequences.

"Confirmed, Melini." At the end of her acknowledgement, Elowyn closed her eyes and waited in anticipation, as the target-lock alert blared around her.

Reciprocating the target-lock, Melini returned fire on the assault frigates with a burst from her enervators. Both of the Wyvani craft succumbed to the devastating overload of their reactors, but not before they unleashed a salvo of guided missiles, at the phantom class ship. Laterally rolling at an incredible speed, Melini avoided all but one of the incoming projectiles. Devastatingly, the missile smashed into the forward shield, completely collapsing its field strength.

With a burst of flame from the prow of the ship, Melini crash-landed into a downward slope of the nearest mountain; ploughing into the snow, it buried them completely, extinguishing the flames erupting from the hull. By the time she shuddered to a standstill, under tonnes of snow and ice, her Wyvani combatants had disengaged, and begun their return journey to re-join their fleet.

Inside the cockpit, the whir of Melini's main reactor dwindled into silence. All extraneous systems, except life support, blinked off one by one, as Melini conserved power.

"Commander, I must shut myself down, to nominal subroutines, in order to keep you alive. I do hope we have the chance to converse again someday..." with those final words, the cockpit fell silent.

11

Marcyn watched on his holoscreen, as the two Draecynic interception class frigates flanked his ship. Although he had identified himself through his security clearance, it was standard procedure for any non Draecynic craft, to receive an escort to his homeworld. With the autopilot engaged, he relaxed in the pilot's seat, after having undertaken a fraught journey with multiple encounters that the incursion class vessel had dealt with admirably.

While it was not as fast or agile as an interception class ship, the Nexis incursion class more than made up for its failings, in responsiveness. With an improved shield matrix, reflective armour plating and a deadly ordinance delivering capability, it was more than capable of holding its own in battle.

Gliding dexterously through the clouds, the plateau, supporting the immense fortress of Draecyn high command, came into view below them. Surrounded by colossal batteries of missile launchers and cannons, no sane fleet commander in the known galaxy, dared to engage with such an overpowering show of force. Over countless millennia, the fortifications and defences had expanded to unparalleled proportions. Dust storms lashed crimson clouds of sand and particulates at the metropolis below, but the impenetrable dome, offered by the shield generator, kept them at bay.

Draecos Prime was an arid, barren wasteland of red rock and sand. The natural resources of the planet had been stripped clean eons ago, but through pride and perseverance, the Draecyn maintained their legacy, in conjunction with an extensive supply network. As his ship nestled into the welcoming grasp of the inverse polarity launcher, Marcyn prepared himself for what he would say to the high council.

Using his nictitating membranes, to shield his eyes from the sand and dust, he forged his way through the storm, to the spaceport's underground station. Walking amongst his fellow people again, brought him some measure of calm, even though his mind was in turbulent chaos, through the information he possessed. As he sat patiently in his train seat, wracking his brain for the correct sequence of formalities when addressing the high council, a little Draecyn fledgling from the clan Azuryn, got up from her seat and placed a hand on his shoulder, startling him.

"Are you ok Ochryn? You look troubled," her voice was sympathetic and slightly melancholic in its deliverance.

"I'm fine little one, are you off to the academy?" It was an outright lie. He certainly wasn't fine at all; fine would be a very acceptable level of anguish right now, as he stared back into her beautiful, sapphire coloured eyes.

"I am off to the academy, how did you know?" She pressed inquisitively.

"Your case is on the luggage rack and you're travelling alone. I remember doing exactly the same thing at your age." Marcyn recalled one of his fondest childhood memories, and chuckled to himself at how soothing the daydream was. But he wasn't alone that day. His clutch sister Elowyn was with him, watching over him, protecting him as she always did, as she always would...

His vivid recollection was ripped asunder at the sound of the announcement for his stop. With a brief thankyou to the confused fledgling for cheering his sombre demeanour, he raced up the flight of stairs, to the reception area of the high council.

Separating himself from the crowds of office workers, Marcyn approached the solitary reception desk for requesting access to the high council. No Draecyn in their right mind approached that desk, unless they were certain their information was desirable, or worthy of note. Uneasily, he conjured forth the words to the receptionist, requesting an audience, who took his particulars and forwarded them through to the great hall beyond. He took a high backed seat and waited patiently for the council to convene. He had only been into the great hall once, as a junior cadet on tour, but the hall was empty at the time.

Nerves jangled their little dance in his stomach, and after what seemed an eternity, the receptionist announced that his audience was granted, and he may proceed to the large double door. Observing protocol, he advanced to the huge metal portal, adorned with intricate carvings and reliefs of Draecynic history. He raised his clenched fists and struck the twin plates of admittance, as hard as he could, five times. It was a test of strength, for any Draecyn who deemed their worthiness to enter, must prove their determination in their announcement, with no magical assistance.

Silently he waited, with his head bowed in reverence, as was the custom for the acknowledgement. With the echoes from his pounding fists, reverberating through the hall beyond, he felt invigorated by the cacophony of his efforts. After the audible repetition ceased, he grabbed the twin metal rings below the plates and dropped to one knee in genuflection. From beyond the aperture in front of him, a single word roared forth, in retaliation to his challenge.

"ENTER!"

In anticipation, he waited for the word to finish echoing in the voluminous alcove surrounding him. In the distance to his rear, a multitude of Draecyn from various clans, clustered together in reverent awe, at the unusual occurrence. For it was scarce that an announcement was deemed worthy of an audience; to collate the heads from all of the clans of Draecos Prime, into one space at the same time, was somewhat incredible.

With nothing but silent mutterings, from a few of the most nervous spectators, Marcyn pulled at the golden metal circlets, with all of his strength. Groaning under the force applied to them, the twin doors relinquished their immobile resting place. With a growling rumble of refusal, they parted company, until there was enough room between them to permit access to their assailant.

Collapsing to one knee again through the extreme physical strain, Marcyn regained his breath momentarily, as every muscular fibre of his body burned with rage. Steadying himself upon his shaking legs, he wasn't convinced all of the trembling, was through his physical efforts alone. Striding forward into the great hall, he focussed on the semicircle of oversized, ornately fashioned, thrones at the rear of the hall, raised on a huge dais of intricately carved marble.

Reaching the supplication circle of intent, Marcyn bowed his head to each of the seated rulers of his world. At the climax of his capitulation he stared at the twin plates on the floor beneath his clawed feet and summed up every last reserve of his being. Curling his fists skyward, he reversed their Draecynic pious salutation to the gods, and drove them into the plates beside him with all of his might. As blood trickled from his knuckles, into preformed channels around him, he watched as the symbol of the Draecyn Empire formed with his own vitae. Upon its completion, he roared his defiance at the gathered leaders, in contempt of their challenges, as was the Draecynic custom, for now he had proven himself worthy of their audience.

"Advance and be recognised righteous one," his mother's voice was calm and soothing, but retained an edge of passion in its eloquence.

"Commander Marcyn of the clan Ochryn, my queens!" he roared his name to them, in a new found pride in himself that would never diminish.

One by one, the queens of the clans bowed their heads in respect of his achievements. Receiving such a prestigious acknowledgement, was one of the greatest honours a Draecyn could behold; the moment overwhelmed him temporarily, causing him to forget his purpose. Regaining his senses and posture, he addressed the widely accepted leader of the queens, his mother.

"I bring grave news my queen. As we speak, the Wyvani are sending a fleet towards the centre of the galaxy, with the intention of destroying our race and countless others." With their collective ears receiving his explanation, Marcyn continued to divulge every detail of the Wyvani plot to them.

"Where is my only daughter? What has become of her?" his mother's voice became a high pitched trill, in anguished anticipation of the whereabouts of her only surviving heiress.

Throughout the millennia of her fertile years, her female progeny had been targeted by the Wyvani, and others, in an attempt to wipe out the mightiest clan of the Draecynic race, with tragic and startling success. Although constantly fearful for her daughter's life, Queen Eladryn never inhibited Elowyn from carrying out her duties for her race. Almost the opposite was true; she could not stomach a weakling becoming her successor, and ultimately, a ruler of Draecos Prime.

"She means to delay their fleet, she didn't say how..." Marcyn shifted uneasily in his stance, as he saw the flash of anger in his mother's eyes.

"Find her and help her, even if it costs you your life, my son..." Eladryn issued the command, not as a threat, but with a plea of hope in her voice. If he was successful in his task, there would be no doubt that his reward, in its accomplishment, would be of the highest honour.

"At once, majesty." He saluted the order, which surpassed all others. Nothing would deter him from his mission, except the quietus of his heart.

As he turned to leave, a commotion outside the now resealed doors, caused all those in attendance, to focus their attention on the audible fracas in its direction. Without announcement, the doors flew open effortlessly, as if eager to please their new master. In the cavernous maw of the arched doorway, a solitary human figure stood in the centre of the opening. Without introduction, it approached their position at the dais and drew back its white silk cowl.

"Lenara...?" Marcyn baulked slightly in surprise at the intrusion.

"You know this insolent creature?" Eladryn screamed her defiance at the human before her.

"He does, queen Eladryn of the clan Ochryn. He also knows me by my true name of Alabastyr the White." With mention of her true identity, she used mindgaze on all of the occupants of the hall, to reveal her true nature. Finally she fixed her stare on Eladryn and waited for her response. A multitude of gasps issued involuntarily, from the queens surrounding them. Eladryn's eyes briefly widened in disbelief, before she almost fell forward out of her throne, to kneel before the ancient Draecon.

"Forgive my petulance, my lord," her demeanour rapidly changed, to one of apologetic sincerity.

"Please, all be seated, I'm here to help. Your daughter, queen Eladryn is in mortal danger. After she saved many of my people, including those dearest to me, I offer my devoted assistance to your cause. I have conversed with the gods, and Marcyn cannot accomplish her future rescue, alone." Lenara turned to Marcyn and shook her head slowly, pre-empting his protestation.

"Please save her ancient one, everything I possess is at your disposal!" Eladryn's moment of infirmity vanished, at the declaration from Lenara. Taking control of the situation, she barked orders for the formation of the fleet, to the other queens, who teleported instantly back to their clans.

"I need the two phantom classes, you have secretly hidden away, for a start..." Lenara was pulling no punches. The thought of her two prize possessions, being commanded by someone other than herself, made Eladryn wince in response.

"Fine, but I'm coming with you. This is my fight for survival, too." Eladryn had never backed down from a challenge, given the situation and its potential outcome; she willingly opted to give her life, in order to save her race from extinction.

"Agreed." Lenara cast 'mass teleport' on the three of them, and arriving at Eladryn's private hangar, they separated, with Marcyn joining Lenara in one of the gleaming black craft.

Rising into the heavens above Draecos Prime, Lenara watched on the holoscreen, as hundreds of Draecynic craft lifted off from the planet's surface below them. Varying in size and capabilities, the fleet grouped into formation beyond the gravitational pull of their homeworld - many of the Draecyn on board would never see its artistic, sculptured beauty again.

With the coordinates of their destination broadcast to the fleet, the two phantom class vessels scouted their journey, toward the anticipated route that would be taken by their Wyvani adversaries. Lenara's instincts, in collaboration with Alabastyr, guided them now; the closest ribbon chain choke point was too close to Draecynic territory to risk being spotted. With her natural precognitive abilities governing their path, she determined the next closest ribbon chain, would yield the best chance for success.

After many bridging leaps across the galaxy, the Draecynic fleet arrived at their destination. A few pirates had attempted to engage the two scout ships, at the entrance gate to the wildlands, but they were easily dispatched by the faster, more agile craft. Leaping through to their destination, Marcyn began his system scan. His long range sensors detected a large group of ships, heading towards the beginning of the chain. Lenara obfuscated the phantom class and directed Eladryn to do the same, as she slowed from her hyper leap into the system.

Making their way through the system, Marcyn saw the Wyvani fleet slowly decrease in size on his sensors, as they leapt to the next system in the chain. By the time they switched to medium range sensors, the last of the Wyvani vessels had departed through the gate. Within minutes, the first of the Draecynic fleet entered through the inbound gate from the previous system. The chase was on!

Eladryn broadcast the order for assault speed, to the fleet. It would decrease their time to cross the expanse of space, enabling them to catch the slower moving Wyvani forces, at the expense of their extraneous subsystems, and some of their shield generation matrixes. By the time they reached the outbound gate, the fleet had reached their medium range sensor scans. Leaping through to the next system, both phantom class ships obfuscated immediately on landing at the inbound gate.

Ahead of them, on a mid-range scan, they saw the bulk of the Wyvani escort ships and the gigantic mothership, crawling across the expanse of the large solar system. Leaving the orbit of one of the planets at long range, Tymiri, the ships computer, notified Marcyn of a small group of interception class assault frigates, re-joining the main Wyvani fleet. Further long range sweeps, revealed the deactivated gate ahead of their opposition.

"Lenara, head for the planet those 'ceptors are leaving. Elowyn is there, I can feel it!" Marcyn couldn't control his emotion and the quivering in his voice was futile to resist.

"Tymiri, reroute to the planet and remain undetected. Scan for emergency beacons on arrival." Although she was clinical in her approach to the development, if Elowyn was there, she feared the worst scenario.

Eladryn, seeing her sister ship change course, bid them farewell and urged them to find her daughter. She had seen the sensor sweeps herself, and a single tear rolled down her scaled cheek, as she plotted an intercept course with the perpetrators of Elowyn's demise.

Travelling as fast as her electronic counter-measures would allow, Eladryn began stalking the group of five assault frigates. Her course would allow for open combat, without interference from the main Wyvani fleet. With further engagement, and with the way forward blocked, the Wyvani might divert extra ships and delay proceedings, allowing her Draecynic armada to leap through the gate into the system, and confront them head on by surprise.

At their reduced speed, it felt like time was standing still for Marcyn. He fidgeted in his seat and tried to keep himself occupied. He monitored the Wyvani fleet and intricately explored the topography of the planet they were heading towards, looking for clues as to Elowyn's location. As they breached the upper atmosphere, he decided the most likely candidate would be one of six vast mountain ranges in the northern hemisphere.

Lenara commanded Tymiri to begin a search pattern above the mountain ranges. With no locator beacon detected, in the first five hostile, jagged, icy landscapes, she closed her eyes and prayed to the gods, for their assistance. Towards the end of their search, just as they were beginning to give up hope, a weak ping on the emergency frequency, created a small blip on Marcyn's screen.

"GOT HER!" he screamed jubilantly. Without hesitation, he instructed Tymiri to navigate to the crash site.

With no inverse polarity launcher to land on, Tymiri hovered above the ice and snow covered furrow, on the downslope of the mountain. Her stationary manoeuvre, expended the majority of her available reactor power, to maintain her position. However, it gave Lenara enough time to concentrate on the location at the beginning of the furrow, for her future teleport spell. As soon as she had memorised it, she instructed Tymiri to locate the nearest civilization, and to take them there as fast as possible.

Howling like demented barghest, the engines tore through the air above the frozen wilderness for two thousand miles, to a large township in the South, which was inhabited by the pleasantly welcoming, Villikian farmers and fur traders. Marcyn grabbed the emergency medical supplies, and a repair kit, from the locker in their hold, and joined Lenara at the undocking jetty. Lenara hurriedly explained their predicament to the assembled crowd of curious townspeople. Proffering their excuses, and saying that they were urgently required elsewhere, she cast 'mass teleport' on herself and Marcyn.

Arriving at their predetermined destination seconds later, Marcyn set about exacting the location for the downed phantom class frigate. After a few minutes of sensor sweeps, he found Melini lodged in a crevasse, two hundred feet below them.

"Found her! The ship looks trapped below us. I can't see how we're going to get her out!" Panic ensued in Marcyn. He saw the diminishing strength of the beacon's transmissions, and knew by this point, the life support would have powered down, a long time hence. Although Elowyn was resistant to extremes of heat and cold, the oxygen would only last for hours in the confines of the cockpit, and they had already taken many hours in travelling to the planet and in locating her. With no spell able to create the necessary oxygen for her survival, if she wasn't dead already she soon would be!

Below them, Elowyn watched as the ice crystals formed across her plated skin. Closing her eyes, she concentrated on ancient Draecynic meditation routines, to slow her breathing, and conserve what remained of the precious life giving oxygen, that remained in the frozen air around her. Not knowing any location to 'teleport' to, she resigned herself to attempting to 'teleport' two miles above her current location, before she drew her last breath. It was tantamount to potential suicide if she got it wrong, and appeared within the rock of the mountain itself. In her insane world, that began to constrict around her, it was the sanest choice.

Lenara conversed internally with Alabastyr. His response was no other option, but to take on his Draeconic form and cast one of his most powerful spells. Resigning herself to his experienced judgement, she allowed him to manifest her consciousness completely. Within moments, she looked on as her transmutation began; increasing dramatically in size and shape, her fingers became huge talons, as she tore the clothes from her lithe, supple body.

Marcyn looked back in her direction, at the noise, and was momentarily stunned by the display of perfectly formed female human anatomy in front of him. Quickly averting his transfixed gaze, in politeness, he forged his way through the deep snow, to avoid being in the vicinity of the now scaled woman, who increased rapidly in size near him. By the time he had covered a suitable distance to her rear, he felt the ground shake, as Alabastyr's front legs impacted with the ground, to steady his gigantic torso, for the remainder of the change.

Unfurling his colossal leathery wings, at the end of the transmutation, Alabastyr launched himself into the air above the crash site. Hovering above the ground, a few hundred feet in the air, he began the powerful ancient Draeconic incantations he had only spoken once before, in his entire existence. With outstretched arms, he bade the channelled energy of the gods, to find him, and do his bidding.

Mighty arcs of lightning, in a multitude of colours, sought Alabastyr and wracked his body with their divine power. Marcyn stared in disbelief at what he was witnessing, and decided that he hadn't run far enough. With widened eyes, he raced toward a large rocky outcrop, hoping it would shield him from what was about to occur. Just as he dived headlong behind it, he felt the air around him become charged with an unsurpassed energy, the likes of which he had never felt before, nor would ever feel again.

Inquisitively, Marcyn peered out from behind his vantage point. In front of him the culmination of vast quantities of raw energy encircled the Draecon. As the cacophonous roar of the Draecon reached a crescendo, he began to spin mid-flight; with the last drops of unimaginable power soaked up from the world around him, his rotation reached an indiscernible blur of motion. As luminous as the brightest stars in the heavens, an expanding globe of radiant energy emanated from the Draecon's body, forcing Marcyn to shield his eyes, and retreat behind the rock for safety.

With a cataclysmic explosion, snow and ice from as far as his eyes could see, wrenched skyward from their dormancy, and whirled above him, creating an artificial night. On the other side of the rocks, which he was clinging to with all of his strength, an intense white light from the Draecon, cast umbrae and penumbrae across the entirety of the bare, jagged mountain range. Controlling the deadly maelstrom at its centre, Alabastyr directed the billions of tonnes of frozen water in its various forms, in a cylindrical blast towards the opposite end of the vast mountain range.

Marcyn saw the devastating impact, of the colossal icy tornado, which shattered the mountain that was the focal point of the spells destination. When only rubble remained, the spell gradually dissipated, until calm was restored to his senses. Cautiously, he glanced over the wall of his impromptu rock fortress, to see Alabastyr land further down the mountainside, near the large crevasse, which he had detected earlier.

Rushing to join the Draecon, he half tumbled and half sprinted down the mountainside, to reach the now exposed, phantom class ship. By the time he reached her, Lenara had almost finished her transmutation back to human form. Without a second's delay, he raced to the access port of the cockpit and extended his ancillary carpal bone into the orifice. Performing an emergency override, using what remained of the console's power; he grabbed the cockpit door and forced it open. With a hissing whisper, resulting from the equalising pressure of gasses, the door reluctantly slid open.

In the room beyond, frost covered the consoles, and the ship's commander, like an iridescent white velvet. Marcyn swiftly opened the resuscitation pack and placed the oxygen mask across Elowyn's jaw. Brushing the icy crystals from her sternum, he placed the four sticky defibrillator pads across her thorax, and drew in deep gasps of the bitterly cold air that billowed into the chamber, replenishing the stale residual gasses.

Just as he stepped back from her prone form to activate the four 'thumpers,' as they were affectionately known, an icy claw grasped his arm in desperation, to stop his intended action. Slowly moving her head to look in his direction, through weakly opened eyes, Elowyn struggled to remain conscious at the effort of her exertion. As she drew the revitalising oxygen into her lungs, she metabolised it rapidly, giving the muscles of her eight chambered heart, the desire to continue its incessant powerful response, to the electrical impulses from her brain.

Ecstatic and overcome by his love for her, Marcyn pulled the thumpers from her thorax and drew her into his arms. Casting 'incendius,' he channelled the heat generated from the spell, slowly into her body, by moving his clawed hands around her torso. As steam from the evaporating frost, burst into the air around them, Elowyn hauled the oxygen mask to one side, and managed to whisper into his ear.

"Don't you go enjoying this too much, or I will knock you the five hells out!" She stammered, through the uncontrolled lack of function of her thawing larynx.

"Give it your best shot boopsikins!" Marcyn whispered teasingly back to her, knowing that his sister would fight for survival at the comment, even if her sole reason for doing so, was to instigate his destruction.

Over the next few minutes, Elowyn's hyperventilating slowed as she returned to normal, Draecynic, oxygenated blood levels. With her recovery complete, she managed to stand, and with assistance from an overjoyed Marcyn, she walked to the half open door of the ship. Outside, Lenara was inspecting the damage to Melini's bow section. Making their way to her location, they were surprised to see a glowing smile from the woman, as she busily repaired and reconnected conduits inside a jagged laceration to the armoured nose cone.

"One of the rocks caught her on the way down, but she's repairable! Give me a couple of hours and I can have her back online." Her voice was unmistakably that of Alabastyr. Using his intimate knowledge of the craft, he determinedly set about his task of repairing the damage.

"I know she's special, but we have two more perfectly good phantom classes, that we can use!" Marcyn retorted emphatically.

"That matters for naught, if we can't disable the Wyvani's new battlecruisers. Melini here is the only ship capable of getting the job done; she's more than just an advanced AI... She's capable of adaptation and improvisation, that specifically targets weaknesses in whatever she engages in battle. Your regular AI's on board the other two craft, follow set routines and patterns. Melini here thinks outside the box. That's what saved your life Elowyn, when she pretended to be more damaged than she was, and faked her crash landing, to evade the pursuers on your tail. Had she not sustained damage on the way down, you'd be back in the fight by now!" Lenara smiled at the tactic, with admiration for Melini's deviousness.

"How would I be back in the fight without a launcher?" Elowyn's curiosity was roused even further towards the ship, that she had already generated a great deal of respect for.

"Melini found a way of modulating the enervators, to produce a temporary, stable plasmosphere. Firing a volley of them, at the right intervals at the ground beneath her, provides a ladder effect. It gives her enough altitude to fire her main engine, and begin normal flight." Although the questioning was pertinent, it didn't lessen the exasperation in Lenara's replies.

"Is there anything we can do to help?" Marcyn sensed the disquiet in Lenara's responses and tried the new tact.

"Actually, yes there is. With the outer hull breached, we need to reseal it and put a plating patch over the top. See if you can locate one of the downed Wyvani interception class ships, and salvage something appropriate." Lenara calmed down at the useful offer of help and returned to a more pensive nature.

Without need for further enlightenment as to their task, Elowyn and Marcyn grabbed the toolkit and med-bag. Running across the rocks to the valley below, they sought the path of least resistance to assist their progress, and raced toward the deep, snow covered part, of the mountain range. Their muscles ached and complained under the exertion, but they did not tire. With copious quantities of hyperdrenalin flowing through their bodies, they sprinted in the direction of the grey plumes of smoke in the distance.

Elowyn activated her chameleonic scales, and with a shimmering blur, faded from Marcyn's sight in front of him. He hoped the precaution was unnecessary, as they rounded the foot of the mountain, to get a better view of the nearest Wyvani ship. Mangled pieces of metalwork lay strewn across a wide area of the slope, below the impact site, which was further up the steep, rocky inline. Still burning from the explosive, high speed impact, the majority of the Wyvani craft remained embedded in the rock face that was to become its new permanent home.

Amongst the wreckage, Marcyn found occasional charred body parts of the pilot, and relaxed in his apprehension of a potential encounter. Unlike regular Wyvani, the warrior caste pilots were supreme in their combat skills, and survival capabilities. Marcyn wasn't keen on meeting any of the notorious worthy adversaries to a Draecyn, especially one who was unarmed, and specialised in engineering and technology.

With no suitable armour plating to be found amongst the debris, he returned to the valley. With his legs spraying fountains of light snow in front of him, he charged toward the second of the downed craft. High above him, Elowyn tracked his movements, as she circumnavigated the mountainous terrain.

As Marcyn neared the second crash site, he saw the ejector pod, some distance behind the twisted, metallic wreckage of the Wyvani vessel. Instinctively, he lowered his stance and slowed his pace. Using his infravision, in the almost complete blackness of night that had now fallen, he surveyed the scene carefully. Except for the traces of heat, emanating from the bulk of the fuselage, he saw no extraneous thermal signatures in the vicinity, and proceeded toward the relatively intact ship.

Sizing up a suitable piece of the armour plating, for its transplant to the phantom class, Marcyn removed the high intensity, portable plasma incisor from the toolkit, and began the necessary cuts required, to extract the armour plate. Distracted by his task, the Wyvani pilot took her opportunity to strike.

Abandoned by her comrades, she had huddled next to the larger of the two on-board fires for warmth; it had masked her heat signature, from the new intruder to her frozen kingdom. Hearing the crunching footsteps of her unseen adversary approaching, she readied herself for combat, and withdrew her twin seperatis swords, from their scabbards. Commander Acetri, cautiously peered over the apex of the torn hull of her ship, and grimaced with disgust, when she saw the Draecyn kneel near the cockpit section, cutting an armour plated panel.

Instead of alerting her adversary to her presence, she slowly placed her twin swords in front of her, in readiness for a follow up assault. Focussing the entirety of her mind, onto the strongest spell in her arsenal, Acetri unleashed the 'lightning bolt' at her intended victim.

Instantly, Marcyn felt the air around him become charged with the magical expenditure. In a desperate attempt to avoid whatever was heading towards him, he leapt into the air, with a powerful thrust of his leg muscles. He twisted and turned to face its caster, as the bolt of lightning slammed into him. Receiving the hit directly to his thoracic plates, he pirouetted backwards through the air, from the impact.

Yielding to his large frame, the snow beneath him cushioned his dorsal landing. Sliding backwards through its icy grasp, he managed to raise his head slightly, in the direction of his assailant. He watched helplessly, as the Wyvani picked up her two seperatis swords, and leapt in his direction, before everything went black.

12

Eladryn ordered Ochrini, her ships computer, to slow as they reached the anticipated intercept location, in order to divert all available power to her electronic counter measures and shield matrix. From her stationary position, she watched on her holoscreen with seething passionate venom, as the five assault frigates approached her location. They would not survive this encounter, she swore exultantly to the gods, determined to see their deaths made a reality.

Oblivious to their mortal enemy, waiting for them in ambush, the group of obviator class assault frigates passed by her, on their return to the Wyvani fleet. With immaculate timing, borne of over twelve thousand years of experience, Eladryn gave Ochrini the fateful command.

"Ochrini, initiate attack pattern as discussed. Annihilate them!" her words were visceral and cold, with an underlying animalistic hatred.

"Affirmative commander, proceeding as directed" Ochrini instantly forced every scrap of available power, into her tuned and highly modified engines. As Ochrini screamed to life, her countermeasures dropped, and the predatory craft pounced on her prey like a carnivorous avian raptor, plummeting from the heavens.

By the time Ochrini appeared on the sensors of the assault frigates below her, she had already attained target-locks on two of their number. Without delay, Ochrini spewed volleys of orange orbs at them, overloading their reactors before they had chance to avoid the tactic. Breaking formation, and adopting defensive responses of their own, the three remaining obviator class ships, twisted and turned desperately, trying to avoid being target-locked by the phantom class frigate.

Using her advanced gyroscopic stabilisers, Ochrini outmanoeuvred her opponents, in their bids to orbit each other and attain a lock first. While Ochrini climbed in a steeply banked orbit, to achieve her lock on the third of the vessels, one of the two remaining assault frigates broke away from the orbital dance, around an imaginary nucleus, in order to gain some distance from her. As Ochrini gained her lock, and fired her predictively targeted, barrage of orange doom at the third ship, the breakaway Wyvani vessel banked around and returned to the fight.

With remarkable evasiveness, the fourth of the obviator class ships proved difficult to gain a successful lock quickly. Aware of the disengagement of the fifth ship, it came as no surprise to Eladryn, when the target-lock from the returning ship, was calmly announced by Ochrini.

"Hostile ship has achieved lock and has launched mirage light missiles." Ochrini accompanied the warning with a pulsating crimson glow, around the entirety of the holoscreen, for emphasis of the incoming danger.

"Acknowledged, Ochrini. Perform evasive countermeasure, Eladryn four." With a nonchalant calmness, the queen of the Clan Ochryn smiled at the fast approaching guided projectiles, and gripped the armrests of her pilot's seat, as Ochrini began the almost impossible manoeuvre.

Twisting agilely at full speed caused the hull of the phantom class to groan defiantly, at the pirouetted change of direction. Before the engaged obviator assault frigate could respond, Ochrini's engines howled, as she threw herself into a head-on collision trajectory, with the Wyvani craft. At the very last moment, Ochrini flipped laterally and passed by the obviator class, almost scraping her launch inductors against those of her rival.

With eyes widened in horror, the Wyvani pilot looked to the front of his holoscreen. The two missiles following the phantom class, failed to deviate from their guided course, and slammed into his forward shields. Unexpectedly, the damage caused by the two mirage missiles, was almost completely absorbed by his shield matrix. However, their renowned deadliness for their size was not without merit, and he lost his starboard stabilisers in the impact.

Ochrini instantly picked up on the fatal flaw in her opponent's turning capability. With a further steep turn, she avoided the incoming volleys of plasma from the last of the Wyvani vessels, and unleashed a salvo from her enervators at the crippled craft. With all of his comrades floating harmlessly in space around him, the last of the Wyvani pilots realised his impending death, and attempted to flee the combat, against his computers advice. Mercilessly, Eladryn caught him easily, and without hesitation, Ochrini's enervators turned his obviator class into space debris.

Eladryn waited patiently for the response from the Wyvani armada. She had deliberately not blocked channels of communication during her engagement, in order for the pilots to beg for assistance from their leaders. It was a deliberate ruse, and she pondered the validity of the response to her provocation. She sighed with relief, when her sensors showed some of the faster ships from the enemy ranks increasing their speed towards her.

Instructing Ochrini to keep a slower pace than normal, Eladryn allowed the bulk of the Wyvani to pursue her, towards the outbound gate. Calculating an intercept course with the hostile craft, she asked Ochrini to adjust their speed, to prepare for a confrontation with the enemy forces, at the gate itself. With her adversaries almost within lock range, she saw the first ships of her own Draecynic fleet, land within the gates circumference. Resuming full speed, she banked into a steep turn, and prepared for a ferocious battle.

As more of her forces spilled into the system, they quickly adopted battle formations, and advanced on the Wyvani fleet. Seeing the unexpected development unfolding in front of them, the Wyvani light cruiser and assault cruiser pilots beat a hasty retreat, to re-join their larger, slower ships for protection, losing only a few of their number in the process. After the last of the Draecynic fleet landed and joined the ranks, Eladryn broadcast the order to engage the enemy.

From her vantage point high above the second crash site, Elowyn looked down and surveyed the scene. Marcyn was a speck in the distance, at the furthest reaches of her infravision abilities. She watched intently, as he neared the remains of the obviator class, that had come perilously close to attaining a lock on her and Melini earlier. As his heat signature knelt near the front of what remained of the crashed ship's fuselage, she observed a slight shift in the thermal radiance, near the larger of the two fires on board the vessel.

Parting from its lustrous glow, a separate heat source diverged and moved around the craft, to its own vantage point above Marcyn. Before it could achieve its goal, she began to cast 'teleport'. With the swirling vortex of black mist enveloping her, she concentrated all of her visual acuity on her target destination. Seconds later she arrived at her intended inception point. Had she materialised a moment earlier, she would have arrived with her feet buried in Marcyn's abdomen, as he ploughed through the snow beneath her.

As the crackling energy of the lightning bolt dissipated around his torso, Marcyn regained the use of some of his muscles, as they recovered from their spasmodic state. Blinded by the black mist surrounding him, he temporarily panicked over the thought that the lightning had disabled his optic nerves. If it had, he would in all likelihood, be dead in moments. Instinctively, he rolled over in the snow, away from the nearby presence, in a desperate bid to avoid the seperatis swords from finding his neck.

When no final blow came, he stared in bewilderment at the intrusion to his fight, and breathed a sigh of relief, when he saw Elowyn readied in a battle stance above him.

"You want him? You're going to have to go through me, bitch!" Elowyn delivered the challenge in a guttural snarl. To emphasise the threat, she balled her fists and extended her ancillary carpal bones, at a speed that made Marcyn himself, shudder reflexively.

In response to her newly presented challenge, Acetri drew her twin blades backward, and unleashed the seperatis blades in the direction of the Draecyn intruder, in the form of serpentine whips. As the shards obeyed her thought processes, and targeted the throat and abdomen of her enemy, her opponent disappeared from the amber glow of her ship's fire, while vaulting into the air.

As the shards constricted around nothingness in front of her, Acetri felt the displacement of the air above her. Like searing hot spears, the two carpal bones of her invisible adversary, pierced her scaled shoulder armour with crunching blows. Sinking deep into her thoracic cavity, the bones collapsed her lungs and pierced the ventricles of her heart.

When buried within her to their fullest, the claws of her Draecyn killer, gripped each of her shoulders, during her invisible forward somersault. Using her weight and momentum, the Draecyn female wrenched her from her footing, in a corresponding backward somersault. While Acetri was hurtling through the air, from the incredible force generated by the manoeuvre, she likened the twin fountains of arterial vitae gushing from her body, to the active thrusters of her obviator class, before it faded to blackness.

"Marcyn, get that plate removed, I'll keep watch," instructed Elowyn, while she retracted her two blood-covered bones.

Marcyn nodded as he witnessed the twin, lethal remnants of his sister's visibility, disappear from view. Returning to his previous location, he urgently recommenced the extraction of the armour, from the cockpit section. He had never seen Elowyn fight like that before; something primal and vicious had taken over her actions, and that unnerved him. By the time the armour was removed, he resolved to be very careful in his use of the word 'boopsikins,' in future.

With his task accomplished, he forced his way back through his inbound furrow of snow laden tracks, towards the valley floor. Freeing himself from the frozen powder's clutches, he raced back as fast as he could, in the direction of Lenara and Melini. As he approached their location, Elowyn reappeared behind him, following in his tracks.

Handing the armour plate to Lenara, he rested briefly as the young woman completed her repairs. Finally, she twisted the torn metal back into place and welded the multitude of fissures together, using an intense, white ray of heat, from the palm of her hand. Once cooled, they positioned the armour plate over the repair and Lenara welded the patch into place.

"All done. Let's fire her up and see what happens." Lenara's voice was unmistakeably that of Alabastyr, as she almost ran to the cockpit entrance and tried the door mechanism, to see if it was operational. Excitedly, she punched the air in jubilation when the door closed, from its half opened state, with a satisfying hiss of noise.

On reopening the portal, all of the main systems and internal circuitry seemed to spring back to life. Staring into the chamber, Lenara hesitated briefly at the doorway, in reverence, as if waiting to be invited into a site of historical significance. With her emotions quelled, she entered the room, and almost instantly, the holographic projection of Melini appeared in front of her.

"Intruder alert! Initiating systems lockdown! Unauthorised attempts to misappropriate this space vehicle will result in the use of deadly force!" Melini shrieked loudly and defiantly at the young woman in front of her. Before she could initiate her lockdown safety protocols, the intruder countered with words of her own.

"Melini, override system lockdown, authorisation code, Alabastyr five three one eight zero zero eight" Laughing at the challenge presented her; Lenara placed her hand on the command console, and waited for the completion of the biometric analysis to complete.

"Apologies, my master. If I had known it was you, I wouldn't have shouted so loudly. I hope you are not offended?" Melini's holographic embodiment looked saddened, at her misguided efforts, and she offered an outstretched hand, that cradled Lenara's face gently, with photonic energy.

"Not a problem my love, you were following protocol." Lenara raised her own hand and placed it on top of the photonic one, that tingled her skin in a gentle caress.

"Melini, I am handing full control of you, to commander Elowyn of the clan Ochryn. Unlock all subroutines previously unavailable, and initiate dauntless mode." Lenara's voice took on an edge of uncertainty, at this last statement, for this was the subroutine Alabastyr had never tested, in any of his previous incarnations.

"Affirmative master. If I don't return to you, after my intended hostilities, please remember me with fondness." Melini imparted her sentence with a sombre sadness, for there was only one reason for her master to request that particular subroutine. Overriding her own self-preservation, and that of her crew, Melini initiated the subroutine, and all of the necessary derestriction to her flight capabilities and parameters.

"Good to see you alive and well again, Elowyn. I apologise for almost causing your death, but the disabling of my secondary power conduit, caused a catastrophic power failure, and I was unable to maintain life support for you." Melini's holographic representation turned to her commander and bowed in atonement, after Elowyn entered the cockpit.

"You were not at fault, Melini. You did your best in a bad situation." Elowyn empathised with the computer's intentions, and gave her a reassuring smile.

"I may be at fault in our next journey together. My master has disabled all of the safety protocols. Do you accept the inherent danger involved, in our future hostilities?" Her voice was melancholic and deliberate in the referred intention.

"Yes, Melini. I accept the danger involved, don't hold back." Elowyn resolutely strode to the pilots chair, and did her best to relax into its soft confines, as the restraint system ensconced her body.

Wishing her a glorious performance in battle, Marcyn saluted his sister; it seemed to him, that he had rescued her, only for her to risk her life again. Sometimes, he desperately wanted to say something to her, so she would reconsider her actions, but it was not the Draecyn way, and she would have every right to chastise him, for his weakness. As he and Lenara left the cockpit, he felt an aura of calm wash over him. He looked back at Elowyn and matched her smile, as she cast the second of the two spells on him.

Melini closed the door behind them and rotated her enervators towards the ground beneath them. Melini fired repeated volleys of pulsating golden orbs at the mountain, creating the dramatic ladder effect, necessary to gain the altitude required. Once she had attained enough altitude, she diverted all of her power to her engines, before the plasma fields of the orbs collapsed. With a turbulent awkwardness, she thrust herself free from the temporary launch platform, and roared into life.

After her mass teleport returned them to the cockpit of Tymiri, Lenara and Marcyn sank into their respective seats, in the cockpit of the phantom class. Within moments, the second of only five remaining phantom class ships in the universe, ripped through the atmosphere, in the direction of the third.

As soon as they were free of the Villikian atmosphere, the two phantom class ships diverged in their trajectories. Lenara instructed Tymiri to make best speed, toward the seemingly injured phantom class, which on medium range sensors, appeared to be moving at approximately half its maximum speed, in the direction of the outbound gate, with the majority of the Wyvani forces in pursuit.

Marcyn watched as Melini disappeared from his holoscreen view, and proceeded to track her, on his short range sensors. He knew what Elowyn intended to accomplish, as she headed in the direction of the slower Wyvani mothership. Filled with trepidation, he resolved to distract himself by planning for the inevitable forthcoming battle, that was about to transpire. By the time they reached short range on his sensors, the Draecyn fleet arrived in the system and formed ranks. They would miss the beginning of the battle, but would doubtlessly take part in it.

Ochrini surged forward, with the mass of Draecynic assault ships, forcing Eladryn into the confines of her pilot's chair. Being the fastest vessel in the fleet heralded its advantages and disadvantages. Her pace meant she had more capability in avoiding incoming attacks. However, due to the renown of her ship, she could guarantee, that the Wyvani admiral would send a message to his commanders, making her a primary target.

As the thousands of ships engaged each other, with their predetermined flight plans and target acquisitions, Marcyn saw the area of space ahead of them, glow in an opalescent spectrum of colour. They were too far from the combat, to distinguish individual craft being destroyed, but the light show, generated from the multitude of photonic based energy weapons, was truly spectacular to behold.

Ochrini weaved and twirled, through the mass of orbiting ships, vying for supremacy around her. Occasionally, she unleashed devastating volleys from her enervators, when an opportunity was presented, she kept her pursuers at bay for long enough, enabling her allies to bring down some of the predictable crowd of Wyvani vessels, attempting to eradicate her. Through the intense ferocity of the orbital cavorting mass, Eladryn saw the Wyvani battleships get into range, and begin their extermination of her troops.

With no option available, Eladryn reconciled to breaking off her swirling escapology, in order to allow her own slower, heavily armed battleships, to engage their opposing Wyvani class of ship. With almost telepathic precision, Ochrini followed her commands intrinsically. In a final corkscrew roll, she evaded the incoming missiles from their attained locks. Before her Wyvani chasers could avoid the situation, she managed to lead them closer to her battlecruiser complement, who found great satisfaction in dispatching the imbecilic, overeager Wyvani pilots who pursued her.

Granted a temporary respite from her assailants, Eladryn viewed the battle through Ochrini's holoscreen. Analysing the developing casualties, sustained by both sides, she got Ochrini to run a multitude of predictive analytical scenarios, to determine where she would be most needed. During her scans, Ochrini located a single craft, on an intercept course with the Wyvani mothership. Further extrapolation of the data showed it to be another phantom class ship.

Eladryn's heart thumped against her armour plated sternum, as it sought to inject as much hyperdrenalin as it could, into her eagerly awaiting arteries. With a third, confirmed, phantom class rapidly approaching the battlefield, there could be no mistaking it. Her daughter was alive!

"Ochrini, broadcast to your sister ship, our calculated attack pattern, for them to upload. Order them to take our intended place in the proceedings, and get us to that piece of filth of a mothership. NOW!" Her composed demeanour raptured into hostility, the moment the tsunami of hyperdrenalin overwhelmed her mind, with precision of thought and controllable rage.

Needing no further instruction, Ochrini carried out her commander's wishes, making corrections to their course and telemetry, to ensure the fastest method of reaching the hulking mass of ship, which was trailing a long distance behind the Wyvani ranks. In a tumultuous weaving pattern, Ochrini evaded and destroyed the Wyvani cruisers encountered in her path of least resistance, for to skirt the battlefield entirely would take too long.

Elowyn grimaced as Melini made her insanely quick evasions, of the mothership's incoming missiles, and volleys of glowing orbs, from the multitude of plasma cannons. With the restrictions removed, Melini's exceptional agility lacked the smoothness in adjustment required to cater for the wellbeing of her pilot. Although firmly secured in her seat, Elowyn struggled to keep her head from being wrenched off her shoulders.

As she made passes across the flanks of the mothership, Melini unleashed barrages from her enervators at the arrays of gun emplacements. Although the process seemed excruciatingly slow, Melini steadily immobilised the mothership's defence systems.

On her short range scan, Melini detected the incoming phantom class, and alerted Elowyn to its presence. Identical in every attribute and characteristic to Lenara's ship, but approaching from a different sector of the battlefield, could only mean one thing. Elowyn stifled a gasp at its implication.

"Melini, send our course and trajectory information, on an encrypted private channel, to the incoming phantom class." Elowyn resolved the words firmly, in her instructions to her ship's computer, but they did little to assuage her fears, of the participation of her mother.

"Affirmative commander, transmission sent to incoming vessel." Melini was nonchalant in her response, for most of her processing power was being used to wrench and contort the ship into endless spirals and whirls, at the limit of her hull's structural tolerances.

Using a strategic approach, that avoided incoming target-locks from the colossal Wyvani vessel, Ochrini matched her sister ship's performance and dancing pirouette manoeuvres. In tandem they laid waste to the fusion generators, across the entirety of the gargantuan mothership. When the last of the cannons fell silent, they switched tactics and slowed down, to enable more energy from their own reactors to be used, to enervate and overload the shield generation matrix of their adversary.

On board the bridge, intricately observing their efforts, admiral Fazini turned to Braka and smiled, as if he had tasted something delicious. "You have done well inquisitor, this couldn't have gone any better in the slightest. I shall recommend you for the position of grand inquisitor, when this is all over"

"Thank you, admiral. It brings me great pride and pleasure to hear those words. I must say, they fell into the trap a little too easily and impetuously, for my liking. I was expecting them to be more cautious than this, and provide some measure of anticipation to the proceedings." Braka joined Fazini in his jovial demeanour, and stared at the holoscreen intently.

"Let's see how the two Ochryn bitches out there deal with eighty of our new shadow class, interception frigates shall we?" Fazini poised his clawed finger above the docking release button, in readiness for their release.

"Admiral, with great humbleness, please can I have the pleasure, after what that bitch did to me?" Braka intonated his deep desire and longing, for the satisfaction of committing the small, but significant act.

"After your 'stroke of genius' idea, of course you can Braka." With splayed fingers, Fazini proffered the elevated position to the inquisitor, who many weeks previously, had furnished the Wyvani high command with the incredulous plot, which had undoubtedly saved his scaled flesh from being flayed off him.

Even though the wretched smile that spread across Braka's toothed maw caused the deep laceration on the side of his head to throb with a resonating incisive pain, he disregarded its inception using the elation at being responsible for the collapse of the clan Ochryn and the ensuing chaos that would undoubtedly follow in its wake as he pressed the button.

With the energy from their enervators, transmitting through a multitude of conduits to where it was needed, Melini and Ochrini between them, overloaded the shield matrix of the Wyvani supercarrier. With a crackling of electricity across the plethora of circuit boards, the matrix shut down. Almost instantly, the amaranthine glow of shield energy, enveloping the outer hull of the mothership, dissipated to nothingness.

Almost responsively in nature, like a hunted animal deploying a countermeasure against a predator, the supercarrier opened its dorsal and lateral hangar doors, in response to the threat. Elowyn shot a glance across at the movement on her holoscreen, and instantly reacted, the moment she saw the unusual new class of ship being deployed near to her.

"Melini, get us out of here! Those aren't battlecruisers, they're damn frigates!"

"Hold onto your ass sweetie, this is going to get rough!" Melini instantly fired up her dawdling engines, at the command.

Whirling around to meet the new threat, Melini and Ochrini unleashed a furious barrage from their enervators, at the undocking ships closest to them. Before the swarm of small, ultra-fast ships, could complete their undocking procedure, ten of their elite pilots realised the futility of completing the process, without operational fusion reactors.

Even with their reduced number, the remaining craft were a close enough match, to the two phantom class ships. Without dauntless mode, Elowyn felt on numerous occasions, that if Melini had not been using such extreme manoeuvres, at the limit of her capabilities, then they would have surely perished. On her holoscreen, she watched as Ochrini replicated similar dancing spins and rolls, in order to avoid the incoming wrath and vengeance of the Wyvani light cannons. Occasionally, their woven paths coincided, allowing them to dispatch a few bursts from their enervators and dwindle the enemy numbers, but it was starting to feel like a lost cause. Sooner or later, one of their combatants would achieve a lucky shot on one of its targets.

"There's an incoming hail from the other phantom class, on a secure channel. Shall I display it commander?" Melini's voice seemed a cacophony in her ears, that tore through the audible calamity of the ferocious battle of agility that transpired around her.

"Yes Melini, please proceed!" Through gasps of breath at the sensory and physical overload, which the tumultuous battle presented, Elowyn mustered the words with all of her willpower.

On the screen, her mother could be seen, suffering similar wrenching movements to her own. She grimaced, as she spat the words to her daughter. "Follow me!"

In a spectacular twisting loop, Ochrini pulled half of the pursuing shadow class ships, above Elowyn's location. Melini matched the manoeuvre perfectly, but with an added time delay, allowing time for some of the Wyvani vessels to receive bursts from her enervators. In a desperate bid to remove themselves from Melini's line of fire, a few of the pilots broke free from the formation, giving Eladryn and Ochrini a chance to silence their reactors.

After repeated acrobatic displays, following Ochrini's lead, they switched roles, in order to allow Melini and Elowyn, to shake off some of their pursuers. By the time there was only a handful of shadow class ships, still in pursuit, Elowyn saw the ferocity of the distant battle begin to abate, as more vessels from both armadas, succumbed to the carnage. She had no doubts as to who the final victors would be, after checking the sweep results on the short range sensor. The Wyvani were too many in number, and the increased firepower sustained over time, was proving too great for her valiant, Draecynic comrades.

Just as she was resigned to the possibility of a catastrophic defeat, at the hands of their enemy, Melini's voice filled the cockpit with a further announcement, "Commander, there is an incoming, unsecured transmission for you. Shall I accept?"

"Melini, I'm not going to break combat protocol. Whoever it is, should know better." Melini's interruption frustrated her, as she had requested auto rejection to such idiocy.

"Commander, they're quite persistent. I have been politely asked to say one word to you. Hadrik" Melini's voice was soft, and deliberately calming, in its deliverance.

"WHAT? But that means he's here? Put him on NOW!" Her anger at the disturbance imbued itself with confusion, to create a blend of uncertainty.

Hadrik's image flickered onto the holoscreen in front of her. As her head was buffeted, with the banking loops and undulations of Melini's turbulent acrobatics, she focussed on his projection, to make sure she was not dreaming.

"What in the five hells are you doing here?" She spat the words at him in an incisive tone.

"Some modicum of thanks, would have been nice? I've brought the combined Tyrilian navy, and a friend to help you! Lenara issued word for them to assemble, on her departure to Draecos Prime." With that announcement, Elowyn saw squadrons of assault frigates and light cruisers, arrive at the system gate on her short range scan.

"What friend? Who in their right mind, would tangle themselves up in this shit?" Frustration at Hadrik's withholding of information, resurfaced rapidly in her hyperdrenalin fuelled, state of mind.

As the broadcasting holomatrix panned toward the captain's chair on board Hadrik's ship, from his navigation and communication console, a familiar voice, that needed no further introduction, called out to her.

"Hey, boopsikins! Snookums to the rescue! It's my galaxy too, you know, and I'll be damned if these idiots are going to wipe me, or my trading empire out! This takes priority over any diamantium raid. You should have said something!" Uthral's voice was surprisingly jovial and excited by the prospect of a full battle, instead of his usual skirmishes.

"See if you can lock down some of their support vessels? They're outgunning us in sector four, Snookums!" Elowyn surprised herself with her haughty response. With the two hundred extra ships flooding through the gate, and charging into the fray, they had a chance in turning the tide of the battle.

Her focus snapped back to her own predicament, when a light missile detonated next to the starboard side of her cockpit. She couldn't afford more of its kind, to follow its example in locating her. Glancing at her remaining shield integrity, she reprimanded Melini vehemently under her breath, at the sleight. Although the shadow classes that swarmed in their wake had thinned dramatically in number, they were far from safe.

Almost as if some all-knowing being had read her mind, the inevitable happened. While performing a high banked, lateral barrel roll in front of her, to allow Melini's enervators to lay waste to two more of their foe, a couple of light missiles slammed into Ochrini's rear shield, causing a conflagration to erupt from her tail section.

13

Eladryn commanded Ochrini to overload her core, when she saw the flames lick and caress the rear of her holoscreen. She had no alternative but to eject from the cavorting ship, as Ochrini desperately evaded a finishing blow, with the remainder of her power. With precision timing, she screamed the word to her ships computer, while heading towards the bridge of the colossal super carrier.

"NOW!" It was all she needed. The only instruction Ochrini required.

With a rasping hiss of propulsive gasses, her pilot's seat catapulted into the waiting metallic cocoon, which subsequently detonated an explosive charge of its own, the moment she found herself within its confines. From her miniature holoscreen, on board the escape capsule, she watched helpless and crestfallen, while below her, Ochrini overloaded her reactor.

With a thunderous explosion, Ochrini's final manoeuvre was to bury herself as deeply as she could, into the outer hull of the bridge, and create her own micro supernova, by using her reactor. With a concussive force, that seemed to tear the fabric of reality itself apart, Eladryn's capsule was catapulted away from the cataclysmic event.

In a blinding white flash of energy, Ochrini's reactor vaporized the nearest shadow class vessels, that had pursued the Draecynic ship to its oblivion. In the last split second, before the sacrificial act, Melini twisted away from Ochrini's intention. With a spiral loop, she managed to place herself on the ventral side of the supercarrier's hull, to avoid the devastating, white hot explosion.

Melting the consoles and superstructure around them, the laughter of Braka was cut short, followed by the most clamorous of screams, as he incinerated, along with his surroundings. Before he lost his vision, in the excruciatingly painful process, he turned to admiral Fazini, to see no indication that the Wyvani next to him would share the same fate. With immeasurable damage to the nerve centre of the gigantic ship, the computer changed course and heading, away from the battlefield toward the nearest habitable planet. The people of Villikia, were about to receive an unexpected visitor, the like of which they had never seen before.

As the lumbering super carrier turned towards its new destination, Eladryn realised she had an opportunity for survival. Using the holoscreen to pinpoint a location, in one of the still open docking bays, she concentrated and focussed on the target of her teleport spell, as best she could. It was risky, but she knew that within moments, one of the shadow class ships following Elowyn would locate her, and launch a missile in her direction, for vengeance.

Swirling around her, the black vortex opened her pathway to the hangar below. Closing her nictitating membranes, she drew what might be her last ever breath, and stepped into the void. On her emergence, she grabbed the nearest metalwork she could locate with her powerful claws, and hauling herself toward the interlock, she fought the urgent desire to respirate, as the precious oxygen trapped in her lungs, was depleted.

On reaching the hatchway, she slammed her fist against the opening mechanism. To her relief, the security protocols governing the interlocks, had been disabled by Ochrini's handiwork. With an outrushing of air, the door obligingly opened. Hauling herself through the opening against the powerful airstream, she frantically hammered her fist repeatedly, against the closing mechanism, on the other side of the portal. For what seemed like an eternity, the door groaned against the new found stresses placed upon it, until finally, it closed, with a high pitched whistling sound, caused by the last of the air forcing its way past the air tight seal.

Unceremoniously, Eladryn collapsed to the floor, with panicked gasps, she gulped as much air as her rapidly heaving chest could accommodate. After replenishing her muscles, she righted herself and regained her footing. Eladryn activated her chameleonic scales, and disappeared from sight as she made her way down the corridor, tasking herself with the eradication of every last Wyvani on board.

Outside the crippled Wyvani mothership, Elowyn wept over her mother's untimely demise. With the restraint system firmly securing her to the seat, she felt as powerless to stem the flow of tears physically, as she did mentally. As the droplets rolled down her scaled cheeks, they repeatedly switched direction, while Melini continued her evasive dance.

Pressing their advantage with bolstered numbers, the Draecyn fought with a determined, passionate ferocity, against their oppressors. With an incisive vengeance, at the falling of their comrades and the apparent loss of queen Eladryn, they rallied their efforts, in a spectacular display on the battlefield. It was not in their nature to withdraw, or surrender; such concepts were for the weak, and a Draecyn was born strong.

Deep within the bowels of the colossal super carrier, Eladryn stalked the maze of interlinking corridors. From the ivory coloured marbled walls, to the luxurious, thick piled, crimson carpet, the attention to detail throughout the vessel, screamed quality to her. She marvelled at the multitude of different artworks and sculptures, that seemed incessant in their grandiose delivery to her ocular senses. Her minor distractions at Wyvani battle scenes, depicting their wars against her own race, increased her fervour, as she silently and invisibly traversed the ship, towards the living quarters.

Her goal was not entirely bent on destruction, although her desire to eviscerate every Wyvani, that she encountered, factored into her conscious thoughts. An overwhelming objective, to communicate with her daughter, took precedence. Built into a subsection of the crew's quarters, the subsidiary comms station allowed for personal communication, for crew members to contact their family and loved ones, during long and arduous journeys through the galaxy. If she could reach it, and transmit her existence to Elowyn, she would have a chance of survival.

Descending a few flights of steps, Eladryn followed the Wyvani direction signs, which pointed towards her destination. It was a derivative of her own written script, with only minor variations, and so she had no difficulty in locating the Wyvani habitation deck. Widening at their base, the stairs opened into a large dining hall, which displayed all the refinements and accoutrements, for the most discerning of diners.

Keeping to the wall, Eladryn's instincts took over and gracefully controlled her obfuscated movements; it had been many years since she had found a situation demanding of her skills, and she yearned to reinvigorate her many millennia of experience, with their use. On the far side of the giant refectory, she heard shrill voices of her enemy, attempting to maintain a semblance of order, amidst the chaos that surrounded them.

Stalking her quarry like a predatory feline, Eladryn extended her ancillary carpal bones to their fullest, in preparation of her anticipated encounter in the room beyond. Peering through the window, shaped like a Wyvani skull, she focussed on the activities of the three engineers in the corridor, who were desperately trying to lock down a ruptured pipeline, from which a gaseous vapour was incessantly pouring out. She knew that speed would be of the essence in the encounter, for the billowing clouds, would doubtlessly reveal her physical hidden form.

Casting 'incrementus' on herself, she forced the twin doors asunder and sprinted towards the two closest engineers. In slow motion, they both began to raise their heads in reaction to the noise, as it reached their auditory organs. Almost travelling at the same speed as the sound she had created, Eladryn forced her carpal bones through the craniums of the two unsuspecting Wyvani. She used her momentum, to lift them from their crouched positions in front of her, while she charged the third, who was located further down the corridor.

Allowed a fraction of a second more time to respond, the third engineer widened his eyes slowly in disbelief, in reaction to the muscular, scaled Draecyn, bearing down on him. Without breaking her stride, Eladryn thrust her tail over her shoulder, into the engineer's armour plated sternum. With a resounding crack, the force of the blow shattered the thoracic scales of her enemy, allowing her quadrobate tail to pierce the engineer's heart and lungs with malevolent ferocity.

With her torso temporarily visible, in the slowed, spewing white plumes of gas around her, she released the three carcasses to the floor simultaneously, at the end of her violent assault. Stepping forward, away from the vaporous emissions, she regained her invisibility, while behind her, the doors she had slammed open, crashed back together at the end of their decelerated journey.

She knew the noise would alert any nearby Wyvani, and she relished the opportunity of their investigation. Crouching in her strike pose, she waited patiently for a few moments, to ambush her next victims. In reward, she was greeted with the parting of the doors, by two more Wyvani guards armed with drawn seperatis swords, entering the corridor. Her strikes were precise and true as she lifted the pair into the air, impaling her carpal bones through flesh and cerebellum. With a satisfied grin on her blood spattered face, she discarded the vermin behind her, to join their brethren in crumpled heaps, on the already soaked crimson floor.

Before the twin doors ahead of her could close, she slipped effortlessly through the diminishing access, like a gliding serpent. Hyperdrenalin surged through her body once more, in the aftermath of the unarmed combat. She passionately embraced its searing energy, and channelled its strength. In the recreation room, flickering lights cast a strobe effect throughout the chamber, revealing a multitude of Wyvani distractions, from exercise equipment to artificial reality suites. The oscillating umbrae caused her mind to refocus continually, in readiness for new threats.

Vermillyon looked around at the rapidly cooling, molten metalwork around him. If he hadn't cast 'impervious' on himself at the last moment, he might have shared Braka's disintegrated fate, for he hadn't tested the power of a nuclear explosion, against his natural resistance to heat before. Stepping over the Wyvani shaped, pile of dust on the floor, the ancient Draecon headed through the multitude of liquefied doorways, until he returned to the atmospherically sustained, remainder of the vessel. He knew queen Eladryn had survived. He had sensed it.

Eladryn hugged the wall, in her circumnavigation of the room. It was tactical suicide, to venture on a more direct route, exposing her flanks and rear as potential targets. As she rounded the corner, leading towards the habitation complex, a squad of Wyvani warrior caste, raced past her toward the bridge section of the supercarrier, carrying engineering and repair equipment. She could have easily slaughtered them, but the risk of being detected was too high for her liking, so she patiently observed their passing.

Working her way through the living quarters, Eladryn wove a silent path between militaristic style, bedding arrangements. Following the signage, she had no difficulty in locating the subsidiary comms station. From the other side of the door, she discerned the clamoured shrieks of a Wyvani comms operator, delivering his emergency broadcasts to the rest of the fleet, in a desperate bid for assistance. Without a murmur of sound, she opened the door to the comms room. With his back turned to her, and absorbed in his task, the comms operator lacked the cognisance required, to prevent his removal from existence.

Wiping the blood from the console, Eladryn switched to her broadcast frequency, and patched in a hailing request to Melini. She knew it was unsecured, but without any recourse, it was her only hope. Faster than expected, Melini delivered a courteous response, rejecting her hail. Instantly, Eladryn repeated the hail, with the channel temporarily open, and finished with her name as a descriptor.

"Incoming hail from the Wyvani mothership commander, they are requesting urgency, and declare to be queen Eladryn." Melini calmly relayed the message, while performing a heart stopping acrobatic manoeuvre, to enable her to vanquish two more of the chasing shadow class frigates, with her enervators.

"Melini send a response explaining that, whichever twisted, Wyvani scum who thought up that ruse, will have me personally remove their spinal cord!" Anger at the repulsive intrusion, flashed across her visage, while she was attempting to compensate for the abusive changes in direction, that Melini was subjecting her to.

"Commander, the originator has left a two word message. Would you like me to digress?"

"Affirmative Melini, then block communication on my command." Elowyn's resilience wavered slightly, at the announcement, after all, what harm could two words do to her?

"Scratchy, scratchy. Shall I block communication now?" Melini conveyed the words, that buried themselves into Elowyn's consciousness, with impartial indifference.

Initially confused by the simple utterance, Elowyn's mind raced, trying to recollect any semblance of meaning, while her neural pathways fired in their search for the word's significance. Stored in the deepest recesses of her mind, in an area long forgotten, the words found their target with unparalleled precision. Her eyes widened in shock, as she replayed to herself, her earliest childhood memories.

Floods of tears breached the barriers, preventing their egress into her eyes, as she elatedly whimpered her single word in response, "Mummy?"

In her trance-like state, Elowyn barely noticed Melini eradicating the remaining, shadow class ships that were pursuing them. Her mind snapped back to reality, when the pirouetting dance ended and Melini slowed her furious pace, to a more sedate meander. Calculating how to proceed, she resolved to find her way onto the supercarrier, to assist her mother, against the countless Wyvani on board.

"Melini, broadcast a secure message to the fleet. The Wyvani mothership is not to be aggressed under any circumstances. Queen Eladryn is on board! Get me as close as you can to that hatch, near the bridge section, I'm going to help her!" Resolute in her new found task, caused her to rasp the words efficiently, as she recovered from the physical exertion placed on her anatomy, by the extended, hard fought battle.

"Apologies commander, I took the liberty of already sending those instructions for you, sweetie. I hope you don't mind?" Melini's effervescent voice rang out, with a mixture of happiness and trepidation, during the announcement. Although she had pre-empted Elowyn's desires perfectly, she had still released the message, ahead of due course.

"Melini, you've been a very naughty girl! Chastise yourself thoroughly!" Elowyn laughingly replied, for she found it impossible to reproach the artificial intelligence, for which she had developed the utmost admiration and respect.

"I shall spank myself thoroughly, commander! My holobottie will wish it had never been photonically generated!" With a cheeky wink, the projected image of Melini, cast an enamouring smile, that would melt the sternest of attitudes.

Circling around to deliver her commander's instructions, Melini maintained a sedentary hover, near to the designated airlock. Focussing her mind on to her destination, Elowyn cast her 'teleport' spell. Once the black vortex had diminished within the cockpit, Melini returned to her flanking position near the colossal ship, and readied her combat systems for any future threats.

With the vortex collapsing behind her, Elowyn strode down the corridor on the other side of the windowed access port, to confront any future potential danger. As she moved silently through the confines of the passageway, she activated her chameleonic scales, and disappeared into the darkness. She would find her mother at any cost; any Wyvani who crossed her path, on the way to that objective, would not live to regret the encounter.

Achieving a glorious victory, wrestled from the clawing grasp of defeat, the Draecynic fleet overpowered, and obliterated, the remnants of their arch enemy's ranks, with a furious determination. Regrouping, they returned to battle formation and proceeded towards the escaping mothership. None of their number was in any doubt of its intended destination, or of their duties, in escorting it safely to Villikia.

Staring at the flashing message on the console in front of her, Eladryn waited patiently for the words to change from 'Awaiting response' to 'Channel open'. She hoped her final message would kindle the desired ancient memories in Elowyn, for she herself, had not forgotten the most precious of gifts the gods had bestowed upon her, the day she hatched.

Elowyn's birth, compared to that of all her other progeny, had been different; once a millennia, a female egg would be lain, it had been that way for time immemorial. Elowyn was not a solitary egg, but a part of a larger, male clutch. Unexpectedly, and only within two hundred years of her older sister, she was part of the last clutch ever to be lain by Eladryn. What made her even more incredible, was that she had shared the same egg, as a twin ova, with her brother Marcyn. Both had been born small, and barely survived, but each showed exceptional resilience, and grew faster and stronger than any of the rest of the clutch, or of others before them.

It was because of their initial frailty, that Eladryn cared personally for the pair. Such chores were unheard of for one in a position such as hers, but for decades she doted over them, like no others. They accompanied her everywhere, and were the centre of her undivided attention, much to the annoyance of the other queens at high council meetings. During those wonderful, memorable times, her favourite pastime was to gently rake her claws behind their ears, at the hard to reach itchy spots, generated by the nodules that would eventually become their cranial horns.

Tears welled in Eladryn's eyes at the distant memory, although her vision was blurred by them, her auditory senses were honed and razor sharp. From the living quarters outside, she heard the sounds of many Wyvani, advancing on her location; the drawing of seperatis swords confirmed to her, that she was the target of their stealthy ambitions.

Realising her exit from the room was surrounded; Eladryn cast 'incrementus' on herself, and began the 'teleport' spell. With the veiled, black smoke of the vortex enveloping her body, she concentrated on the entranceway to the living quarters, as her destination. Just as the Wyvani hand guided the door to the comms room open, under the chronometric duress of the incrementus spell, she vanished into the vortex, to emerge at the far side of the room beyond.

Before the two warrior caste, guarding the portal, could alert their brethren to her inception, she plunged her ancillary carpal bones deep into their cerebral cortices, lifting them from the red carpet beneath their feet in the assassination manoeuvre. Whirling like a scimitar honed of flesh and sinew, she turned to face her would be aggressors, releasing the two Wyvani to descend to the decking in slow motion. Once free of her grasp, she pulled her bloodied arms into the semantic movement, necessary for her 'chain lightning' follow up spell.

As the incrementus spell wore off, the crackling, blueish white electricity, erupted from her claws with a blinding flash, targeting the group of Wyvani at the far side of the room. With crunching dull thuds, the corpses of the two Wyvani warriors at her sides, reached their gravitational destination, causing their comrades to spin round, at the auditory calamity. However, it was too late for them to avoid the crepitating multiple forks of lightning that seemed to fill the room, the nearest of the Wyvani were lifted into the air, and thrust backward into the rest of their number, from the intensity of the deadly onslaught.

No seperatis sword had enough time to follow its wielders thoughts; for, when the Wyvani furthest from her location, instinctively raised their arms to strike at her position, they were convulsed with an intense, wracking pain, throughout every nerve ending and muscle fibre in their trained bodies. Surging energy from the electrical blast, caused liquefaction of their internal organs, as it propelled the group through the air. Seconds later, the crumpled entanglement of bodies, collapsed in a heap on the far side of the room, without a murmur. With her evasion complete, Eladryn slipped into the shadows once more, and disappeared.

While stalking the corridors, looking for a means of escape, Eladryn resolved, that her best chance of survival, would be to purloin one of the shadow class frigates, that hadn't undocked. Even without a functioning reactor, her instinct guided her to this option, as opposed to the uncertainty of an entry into a planetary atmosphere, within a shieldless, damaged super carrier. Even if the gigantic ship resisted the heat of the atmospheric penetration, there would be a good chance of its destruction, if no inverse polarity launcher, large enough to sustain its phenomenal size and mass, could be sought.

Fortuitously, the route Eladryn took toward the aft hangars, where the docked assault frigates were located, took her past astrometrics. Without a sound, she slipped through the doorway into the huge room. Arrays of holoscreens, adorned the majority of the available airspace, with their projections. With the autopilot deciding the fate of the ship, the room had been abandoned by her adversaries, in favour of using their engineering skills, to shore up the damage she had caused.

Locating the required console, displaying the current solar system was a simple task; the information it displayed, caused her to baulk at the predicament, she found herself almost inextricably woven into. At their current speed and heading, the ship would reach Villikia in less than a galactic hour, but to reach her intended destination, within the immense vessel, would take most of that time. Glancing at a nearby screen, she saw the Draecynic fleet escorting the crippled mothership. No aggressive acts from their number, calmed her frayed nerves, and brought her some measure of reassurance, that her message to Elowyn had been understood.

Without wasting a second more than necessary, Eladryn returned to the intricate labyrinth of corridors and rooms, that separated her from her purpose. Within moments, she reached the large dining hall, but her intended route to ascend the stairs was impeded by a single Wyvani, who sat quietly on the final step of the flight, as if waiting for something or someone.

"Greetings, queen Eladryn. I can see you perfectly, so please show me some measure of credibility, and reveal yourself? I have waited for millennia, for this chance to meet you, face to face, so to speak." Admiral Fazini incited the words with an impassioned hatred, as he stared directly at her location, by the west wall of the room.

Eladryn hesitated in her crouched stance, at the challenge. No Wyvani had the ability to see her, in her obfuscated state, without the aid of thermal cameras. The Wyvani on the stairs glared at her, with no apparent ocular assistance. She reversed her direction, and followed a woven path between the dining tables, to check if his claim held truth. Throughout her employed navigation, the Wyvani followed precisely, every intricate movement she made.

Convinced by his claim, she waited until she determined no other Wyvani were present, for their private audience. With a shimmering of her scales, she revealed herself to him, making sure that he was within range of her most powerful spells.

"Who are you, and how is it you can see me?" She delivered the challenge to his declaration with a sternness borne of a warrior's fortitude, but under the surface of the words, a rippling undercurrent of uncertainty threatened their determined eloquence.

"As you have probably already surmised, I am not a Wyvani. It is only right and proper, that you should know the name of your executioner. My name is Vermillyon the red. Your journey necessarily ends here, queen Eladryn." Fazini's voice filled the room with an impertinence, that grated on her, and caused her to extend her ancillary carpal bones in defiance.

"Why, after countless millennia of warfare, have the Draecon involved themselves in this battle? More importantly, why in the five hells, have you aligned yourself with the Wyvani scum?" Eladryn spat the last question at Vermillyon, with an impassioned hatred at his allegiance.

Surprise flashed across Vermillyon's visage, at the suggestion that he was not the only Draecon in the current engagement, but mentally, he casually discarded the divulgence in order to answer his victim's pertinent questioning.

"I cannot answer for any other Draecon, but personally I have been observing from afar, the escalation of atrocities committed by Draecyn and Wyvani, over many eons. Both of your races are on the path of destruction in their current courses. It saddens me deeply, that your bitter hatred for each other affects all life in this galaxy, to the point of genocide of anything, or anyone, that gets in your way. I do not wish to become the progenitor of a long and bloody extinction, so I have taken it upon myself to bring your desired outcome to a swift conclusion for you." Vermillyon's words cast incisive scorn on the situation, while remaining insipidly calm.

"But..." Eladryn's attempt at a protest was cut short by the Wyvani before her. She did not remonstrate too vociferously at the interruption, however, as she realised that, she had very little argument supporting her cause.

"But nothing. In answer to your second question, I have not aligned myself with the Wyvani. I am just using their resources to accomplish my machinations, and nothing more. I disguised myself as the lead Wyvani scientist responsible for the black hole feeding hypothesis; my calculations were deliberately fallacious, but with some convincing mathematics, I managed to sway the minds of the other Wyvani physicists. They believe the spiral arms will not be affected by the expansion; however, my predictions are that the entire galaxy will be swallowed up." Vermillyon sighed at the statement, as if tainted with regret, at his decisions and actions.

"Why would you do that? Surely, what you're saying to me now, makes a difference to the future?" Eladryn's voice pleaded for an answer.

"Apologies, queen Eladryn, but it doesn't matter what I say, or who I say it to. There will never be peace between the Draecyn and the Wyvani. The inevitability remains absolute, and besides, I tire of this immortal existence and I cannot destroy myself."

"You could just fly into the black hole! You don't have to take the rest of the galaxy down with you!" Eladryn interrupted, furious with the Draecon's apparent selfishness.

"While that recourse is possible, unfortunately, you fail to see the bigger picture, Draecyn. The demise of one Draecon without the others would cause an..... imbalance." Vermillyon carefully selected his words. Even though there was virtually no possibility of Eladryn's survival, he could not take the chance of divulging any potential future, woven by the gods themselves.

"So why do you need to be my executioner?" Eladryn knew would be her last question to the ancient Draecon. Subtly, she shifted her stance in preparedness of her first spell, for there was no future, in which she would go down, without a fight.

"It's purely diversionary. Your death will invoke the required response of a retribution attack, on the Wyvani homeworld, ordered by your daughter, as the new queen of the Draecyn. With Draecynic attention diverted, the fleet of battlecruisers, intended for the black hole feeding, will be able to travel safely to their destination." Vermillyon carefully inspected the slight shift in Eladryn's stance during his discourse, and knew the time for words was at an end.

14

Eladryn began casting her 'incrementus' spell a split second before the end of Vermillyon's sentence. The moment she finished its invocation, she sprang forward using her powerful leg muscles, to bridge the gap between her and the Draecon. Initially, she saw her plan working, as the Draecon's fists slowed in his casting of a spell, but as she neared, the realisation of his identical spell casting, dawned on her. Watching his clawed hand finish the motion, as she leapt through the air, she thrust her carpal bone at his right eye, hoping she had enough time, to sink it deep into his ocular recess.

Her stratagem almost accomplished its goal, but to her chagrin, she watched her adversary tilt his head reflexively, a moment before impact. Reaching his hand up to grab her wrist, as she attempted to plunge her carpal bone through his skull, Vermillyon clasped her scaled forearm with his own scaled hand. Using an incredible potency, he held her aloft, absorbing all of the powerful kinetic energy she had created, in her forward momentum. With a deftness of movement, he blocked her follow up thrust with her left arm, and kicked her squarely on her thoracic breastplate.

Eladryn sailed through the air from the force of the powerful calcitrance, her heavy impact with the hardwood dining table behind her, sent showers of kindling in all directions, at an incredibly slow speed. Eladryn sank her claws into the plush red carpet beneath her, to slow her pace, as she disappeared beneath the second and third tables, sliding on her back. Vermillyon followed up his kick with a couple of lightning bolts, shattering the tables that she found herself temporarily underneath. Neither would have killed her, but she thanked fate, that she was spared their muscle wracking fury.

Gasping for breath, with her intercostal muscles aching from the force of the blow, Eladryn righted herself in preparation for her next spell. During Vermillyon's diatribe, she had contemplated several variations, on how to defeat the superior opponent before her. Without hesitation, she enacted the second most probable course of action, to achieve victory.

Seemingly innocuous in nature, her casting of 'immolus' at the ceiling near to the smoke detector, was a fast cast spell that almost disrupted Vermillyon's casting of 'deathlace.' His perplexed reaction almost broke his concentration for the powerful spell, that he was moments from completing. Belying its true purpose, the flames licked at the sensor, as the pair of duellists returned to normal time frames from their incrementus spells. With the explosion of wooden fragments showering her new location, resulting from her impact with the table, Eladryn activated her chameleonic scales, and prayed that the fire extinguishing systems had not been compromised.

With a high pitched wail, the siren heralded the onset of the automated fire response system. Clouds of cold, white, extinguishing gas erupted from the ceiling, filling the entire room within seconds. With no visual target, either in the visible or infra-red spectrum, to assign his deathlace spell to seek and vanquish, Vermillyon was forced to cancel his casting, at enormous detriment to his willpower. Stepping down the remainder of the stairs, he smiled to himself at his worthy opponent's ingenuity.

Surrounded by the cold white fog, Eladryn slowed her breathing. She knew that every sense of her Draecon opponent, was honed and razor sharp, even the slightest noise, would reveal her location to him. Casting 'incrementus' on herself for a second time, she hoped Vermillyon had not done the same. Using every last drop of energy she could summon from her leg muscles, she charged his predicted location.

Travelling faster than the sound emanated by her sprinting claws, Eladryn parted the engulfing white gas enveloping her. Scything through its confines, with a burst of raw power, she connected with the Draecon's midriff with her muscular upper arm, causing her opponent to almost fold in half at the impact. Her initial dominance, in the bone crunching engagement, was short lived, however. Even with both of her ancillary carpal bones thrust into Vermillyon's thoracic cavity, as she wrapped her arms around him in the follow up part of the manoeuvre, the Draecon laughed.

It had been his intention to allow her to engage him in the assault, for locating her in the icy white mist, would have taken too long, and with the super carrier fast approaching the planet of Villikia, Vermillyon couldn't afford to waste valuable time. He almost welcomed the heavy blow to his abdomen when it arrived; he too had cast a further 'incrementus' on himself, moments before the gargantuan impact. He felt the twin strike of her carpal bones pierce his dorsal scales and thrust deep into his heart and lungs. Hot rivulets of his blood, coursed from the wounds, aided in their flow by the grooves in Eladryn's favoured weapons.

Vermillyon howled in pleasure at the ill-conceived attack from his victim, for she had not grasped the concept of what it meant to be truly immortal. Unfaltering, and hardly affected by what would be the deadliest of offensives against a mortal being, he brought his elbow crashing down onto the cranium of the queen of the Draecyn, who continued her powerful forward surge, carrying him backwards. Buckling under the ferocious blow, his adversary stumbled in her gait, causing both of their bodies to crash to the floor.

Eladryn almost lost consciousness from the savage strike, as her brain rattled inside its armour plated enclosure. As she felt her legs give way beneath her, she retracted her carpal bones instinctively, and using her forward momentum, she rolled away from the entangled sprawl of their bodies. Had she not done so, the flailing fist of Vermillyon would have found her jaw. Witnessing the ground shaking devastation of the impact with the floor, he would have undoubtedly shattered every bone in her face.

Knowing she had only moments before her incrementus would inevitably wear off, Eladryn tore through the viscous white fog, using repeated backward hand springs, performing them with the grace and poise of the finest gymnast. Finishing her routine, with a somersault near to the far wall, she activated her chameleonic scales and disappeared once more. Intuition forced her judgement to momentarily remain in her feline crouched stance. Had she not done so, the conjured metallic blade of Vermillyon would have neatly severed her head from her shoulders, as its huge curved, glaive-like form, embedded itself into the wall above her.

Eladryn's auditory canals were partially deafened, from the sonic boom of Vermillyon's impact with the floor, when the shockwave of it caught up with her. Her breathing increased into long drawn inhalations, in order to feed the hyperdrenalin coursing through her, with precious oxygen, from the now starved atmosphere of the room. Realising it was creating too much audible emanation, she cast 'reticence' on herself, and in a circling arc, she cautiously stalked her adversary once more.

Vermillyon's grievous wounds knitted together internally and externally, the moment Eladryn's carpal bones had retreated from their locations, deep within him. By the time he righted himself from the assault, no trace of their savagery remained. His 'volitant blade' spell used the remainder of his available incrementus time, in its casting. Using her general direction as a guide, he launched the whirling ten foot wide disc at waist level, accordingly.

With a metallic clang, the razor sharp projectile buried itself into the wall at the end of its flightpath. Listening intently, he could hear the laboured breathing of his opponent, briefly, before silence ensued. He could not afford to leave her potential demise to chance, so with a powerful, confident stride, he approached the location, through the slowly dissipating plumes of icy mist.

From inside her sound nullifying sphere, through which not a single auditory murmur could emanate, or penetrate, Eladryn stealthily moved in the direction of the stairs. With one of her most valuable senses sacrificed, she knew the move was risky. Without a foreseeable, positive outcome from her encounter, she decided on the only resolution that remained. Against every last fibre of her being, she decided to attempt an escape.

Passing only a few feet from her new found nemesis, Eladryn evaded the encounter, with sublime timing of her movement. Reaching the base of the stairs, she cast 'incrementus' on herself, and with a powerful leap, she charged up the flight of steps towards her intended exit. Just before she crested the incline, the invisible wall of force, created by her Draecon opponent, repelled her powerful attempt to escape the clutches of her battleground. With a thunderous explosion, the kinetic energy she had generated in her collision with the forcefield, multiplied and transferred its entirety into her body, repulsing her forward momentum, with enormous reciprocity.

Launching backward through the air, from the cacophonous physical assault of the forcefield, Eladryn viewed helplessly, for a second time, the familiarity of the underside of some of the room's dining tables.

"You're not escaping that easily," the cajoling taunt from her Draecon captor pierced the air, after the auditory calamity reached him. With the clouds of opaque gasses dissipating in the room, Eladryn realised that her next attempt in the conflict, could well be her last.

With her reticence spell interrupted by the wall of force, through the break in her concentration, Eladryn listened to the sound of her own exerted respiration. She knew that Vermillyon would be moments from discovering her location. In desperation, she began casting her most powerful spell.

Vermillyon heard the heavy laboured breathing of his prey, and without hesitation, cast 'incrementus' and leapt towards its source. As he soared majestically through the air, he felt it charge with incredible swathes of magical energy. He was committed to his precision strike that would end the battle, and focussed his determination on its deliverance. With her own incrementus spell still active, Eladryn rose from the floor in front of him, as she neared the culmination of her spell. As his outstretched clawed hand almost reached its destination, deep within her chest, she turned her hands outward, and with emblazoned eyes, she cast her 'volcanis' spell at him.

Instantly, glowing, ochre coloured flechettes of lava erupted from her clawed fingers, in their thousands. Slamming into every exposed surface of his body, they tore through him, cauterising his flesh in their passing. The sheer brutality of the hurricane of projectiles, wrenched his body backwards, as the tip of his outstretched claw, scratched her thick, keratinous chest plate. While he span through the air uncontrollably, more of the yellow hot missiles embedded themselves in him, causing excruciating pain, throughout every nerve ending in his adopted Wyvani body.

Vermillyon landed reflexively on his feet and dug his claws into the floor, in an attempt to resist the blast. The tremendous force behind the devastating spell, caused the metalwork beneath the carpet to tear from their penetration, as he placed his crossed arms in front of his face, to resist the onslaught. With no cessation to the brutality of the tempest, he found himself forcibly thrown backwards once more, as his claws relinquished their worn grip, on the surface below him. Unable to alter his flightpath, his eyes widened in disbelief, as the tornado of molten rocks hurled him into the reverse edge of his volitant blade, protruding from the wall.

Neatly severing his thorax from his abdomen, Vermillyon's upper body rested atop the metallic disc, while more of the flechettes riveted it to the wall behind him. After the last of the volcanic shards had buried into his flesh, he lowered his crossed arms, and with a vicious smile, he began casting at the fully visible queen of the Draecyn.

Collapsing to the floor, after her colossal expenditure of energy, Eladryn was powerless to react to the black, web-like, strands of the deathlace, as it spewed from Vermillyon's clawed fingers. Seeking her prone body, the black fibrous strands invaded her, and burrowed their way to her heart, as more of them wrapped around it, they constricted its attempts to beat within Eladryn's chest.

Hearing the roar of the volcanis spell, Elowyn sprinted down the remainder of the corridor, arriving in time to see the Wyvani in the room beyond, get pinned to the wall, by the deadly barrage of molten projectiles. She almost relaxed her pace upon entering the room, but in a blur of movement, the Wyvani had cast a spell, the likes of which she had never seen before. He should have died instantly from the onslaught, but as he stretched out his arms, emitting black fibrous strands from his claws, she could see the multitude of molten spikes being ejected from his body, and the resultant wounds begin to heal almost instantly.

Only one location on the Wyvani had been protected from her mother's attack. Without hesitation, Elowyn extended her carpal bones and thrust them into the eyes of her unsuspecting adversary. With a satisfying crunch, they ripped through the ocular cavities of her opponent, and buried into its brain. Clasping the Wyvani's head, she repeatedly extended and retracted her favoured weapons, until the creature ceased to growl with defiance, at her efforts. Feeling the tensed musculature of the Wyvani relax, she tore the remainder of the creatures skull from its shoulders, and threw it down the corridor, from which she had entered.

Before the shocked visage of Vermillyon had finished spinning down the passageway, Elowyn was at her mother's side, attempting to restart her once powerful heart. With tears of anguish blurring her vision, she cast repeated 'lightning grasp' spells on her mother's limp frame. The jolts of electricity caused Eladryn to convulse violently, as her muscles contracted in response to the shocks, but deep within her chest, her tightly bound heart had beat its last. Elowyn's cries became screams, as she saw the once piercing stare of her mother's eyes, dilate into nothingness.

Drawing her mother's dead body into her arms, Elowyn cast 'unburden' on herself, and sprinted up the stairs towards her mother's intended destination. With the wall of force gone, she glided up the incline to the levels above, and at a blistering pace, she covered the distance to the nearest escape pod. Embracing her mother's corpse, she programmed the jettison release system, and with a kick to the release handle, the miniscule spacecraft was launched.

Her actions had not been a moment too soon. On the small holoscreen within the tight confines of the pod, Elowyn saw the supercarrier begin to enter Villikia's upper atmosphere. Holding her mother tightly in her muscular arms, she closed her tear filled eyes, and swore vengeance on all Wyvani, for the atrocity.

Vermillyon stared at the plush red carpet, spattered with his blood. He had suffered exceptional injuries, from the ferocity of the attack, by Eladryn's daughter, but he rapidly regained consciousness, after what remained of his skull, had knitted itself perfectly back together. Casting 'reparatus' on his remains, he smiled to himself when his torso and legs, in the room beyond, magically reformed into a single organism once more.

Casually, Vermillyon's headless body walked over to his head. Picking it up from its nestled resting place on the floor, his clawed hands placed it once more onto his shoulders, where it belonged. Within seconds of the spell being cast, he was whole again. With a final twisting of his jaw from side to side, he relocated the last of his displaced vertebrae, and made his way to astrometrics. Witnessing the ejection of multiple escape pods, prior to the entry into Villikia's atmosphere, he sensed the escape of his quarry, and reluctantly accepted the course the gods had determined.

Due to its obtuse angle of entry, the Wyvani mothership predictably glowed, with an intense superheating of its thick armour plating. Vermillyon casually observed the process on the screens around him, until they eventually powered down, from the melting of millions of conduits and electronic subsystems. As the temperature in the room increased, he cast 'impervious' on himself, for it was his intention to remain within the gigantic vessel, until such a time, that no Draecyn remained within the solar system. He would fight another day in his predetermined existence, as to when, or where that was, would be determined by the decisions of the new Draecyn queen.

With Melini alongside the pod, Elowyn made the easy teleport back to her cockpit. Witnessing the dead body brought through the portal with her, Melini offered a brief condolence, and remained respectfully silent, while she re-joined the fleet. Placing her mother's covered body carefully alongside her pilot's seat, Elowyn found some measure of inner peace and tranquillity, by reciting ancient Draecynic battle songs and prayers, on the journey back to Draecos Prime.

After many galactic days of celebrating the life and death of queen Eladryn, (for to die in battle was considered the highest accolade attainable by a Draecyn). The inauguration ceremony, of the new queen of the Draecyn, was announced. Reaching the eyes and ears of all Draecyn, and their allies, Elowyn accepted the blessing of the queens of the clans, and took her rightful inherited title as queen of the clan Ochryn.

Although she announced a bloody vengeance on all Wyvani for the death of her mother, Elowyn knew the creature responsible for her mother's death, was no Wyvani. Secretly, in meetings with Lenara and Marcyn, she formulated her future intentions, concerning the path they should display outwardly, and the path they should actually tread. After much deliberation, they formulated a stratagem, worthy of the finest military minds in existence.

On Wyvanos Prime, Admiral Fazini made the final checks to the supercarrier before him. It had taken many galactic months, for his rescue and return to the Wyvani homeworld to come to fruition. Only a smattering of the previous mothership's crew had survived the ordeal, and now the engineers and scientists milling around the new, improved vessel, made last minute alterations and adjustments, to compensate for all eventualities. Their route would take them through Wampyri space, on their journey to the centre of the galaxy. Even with a full fleet in support of the endeavour, Fazini wasn't taking any chances.

Beneath his Wyvani exterior, Vermillyon smiled inwardly, as the last of the new battlecruisers disappeared within the colossal vessel. With news from his spies, that queen Elowyn was predictably looking to engage the Wyvani homeworld, his fleet would be uninterrupted in its quest to feed the twin black holes, at the centre of the galaxy. Rising from its gigantic inverse polarity launcher, the maiden voyage, of the finest collation of Wyvani engineering ever devised, headed skyward. Accompanied by its protective fleet of elite pilots and vessels, it slowly lumbered towards the stars...

195

