Revenge of the Sorcerer King 2 - 14

Chapter 14

Oberon

Once Irgire was taken from the room, I cleaned up the damage he’d accidently caused with his poison with some terra magic. I wanted to revive a few more statues today before we left for the dungeon and having a hole in the floor just made a bad impression. I was most interested in the elf after the dragonkin thus I had him moved forward next.

“What do you think an elf was doing out here?” Alessa asked sounding like the child she was.

“There could be all sorts of reasons. Let’s find out.”

After casting the same precautions on the elf, I motioned for the goblins to pour the blood over the statue and we waited. The elf was a lot newer than Irgire as the statue started to crack almost right away. Like Irgire, all the clothes and gear the elf had been wearing fell away to dust. 

If I had eyes they would have widened, as the elf turned out to be a female. This was why I had trouble with elves. You could never tell their gender right away. I don’t think I’d ever seen an elf with a large chest. Black hair appeared in the cloud of dust, followed by ebony skin. 

Out of the stone, I could get a read on their mana and saw this elf was quite weak. I dismissed the mana chains and allowed her some time to recover. I allowed Alessa to move forward to check on the elf as I’d rather not get screamed at for being undead again. Thinking about it, I cast a simple illusion to make me appear as I did when I was alive.

Glancing in a crystal scone, I found my sun-tanned skin with brown hair face starring back at me. I grinned as it was a face you didn’t think as either a sorcerer or a king. A thought that caused more than one assassin to miss their mark. 

“How are you feeling? Here’s some water,” I heard Alessa say and turned back to the elf.

She drank from the cup quickly before she breathed a sigh of relief. She turned and actually looked at who was helping her. Alessa gave her a smile only to have one of her fangs pop out. Not that I could blame her, there was quite a bit of basilisk blood in the air. Her vampire instincts were fired up. 

“Thank you. Am I in Hizin?” the dark elf asked glancing between Alessa and me.

“No. You’re in Haven.”

“Haven! How did I manage to find a place only talked about in legends?” the elf asked with some exclamation. While I didn’t have any issue with her common, the language she was speaking, Alessa was looking at her weird. 

“Well technically we fished you out of a basilisk nest,” Alessa replied as she got up and moved next to me.

“I was to investigate this area as our history told us the city was around here. I guess I found something else instead.” 

“You speak rather good if slightly outdated common. Have you been on the surface for a while?” Alessa asked.

“Outdated? Our best interrogators learned from prisoners it should be right.”

“What year is it?” I asked understanding what the likely problem was.

“697 AC.”

“Wrong. Its 1011 AC,” Alessa said shaking her head. 

“Fuck.” I could tell she didn’t believe us from the look she gave me. Well, not that I could blame her there. 

“Well since it has been three hundred years, I doubt anyone is expecting you, but I know the elves live for quite a long time. How about you stay in the city for a while?” I asked motioning for Grodo to move next to the elf. “What is your name by the way?”

“Sharia. I will humbly accept your offer.”

“Grodo, take her to a nice room so she can rest.”

Grodo gave me a salute and lifted the dark elf who was still weak before carrying her out of the ballroom. I turned back to the room full of statues, but wasn’t feeling like going through too many more of these today. A relative and a dark elf were already enough for me.

“You look quite nice like that,” Alessa said pulling my attention back.

I waved my hand over my face and the illusion broke. “Don’t push it.” I looked around then sighed. “We’ll do some more tomorrow. How many vampires will you have at sunset?”

“Seven if you count Sarius. I should be able to change another three here soon.”

“Alright. We’ll head over to the dungeon at sunset.” I turned and left the ballroom.

I was a bit away from the group when I slammed my hand on the wall forming a small crater as I didn’t hold back. I pulled my hand free and wiped off the dust. I would make this world pay for killing my son. This was the first time it had truly struck home. Alessa might be my descendant but she was so far removed it was hard for me to accept it sometime. 

Hearing Irgire talk about his father, talk about Ikynth, made me realize all over that this world had more than earned my anger. I would need to head to the dragon flights. If anyone was still alive from my time on this plane, it would be the dragons. There were a few people I was now dying to meet after all this time. 

“You look even more sulky than normal. Did someone steal one of your bones?”

I turned to see Helena sitting on a bench in the recess of the hall. I wasn’t sure what the vampire was doing most of the time which irritated me, but I had little control over the woman. With her abilities, she could be frequenting any number of towns that were several weeks away from here for mortals.

“Wouldn’t you like to know, been off hiding bones of your own? I’m sure there are any number of perverts in the mortal towns,” I said resuming my walk to the throne room.

“It does make some things easier. I’ve never gone hungry since becoming a vampire.” Helena jumped up and fell into step next to me with a smirk.

“I don’t doubt.”

Alessa

Left alone with a room full of statues after Oberon’s sudden departure, I couldn’t decide what to do. While I could go and make a few more vampires, I’d rather not do it right at noon. While it was down in the dungeons, I still felt weakest at this time of day. With nothing better to do, I skipped off after Grodo.

I noticed spots along the passageway that were partially melted meaning Irgire had been carried this way. I found it weird that I had a dragonkin half cousin. Oberon was legendarily powerful even before his death. Nations gave him women to make a bond with him back when he was king. That was how my line started after all.

I caught up with the golem and hi dark elf passenger. She was still conscious and was looking around at everything as they walked. I knew those eyes, as I had made them when I visited a new town or village. Always looking for possible escape routes. “There are thousands of undead surrounding the castle. Unless you have a way to mask your life signature. I wouldn’t attempt to make a run for it.”

“Little vampire. Is there something I can do for you?” Sharia asked having been caught. 

“I just wanted to talk about dark elves,” I said honestly. It wasn’t often that elves were seen. Let alone for their dark-skinned relatives from beneath the surface. 

“Sending a child to interrogate me. That’s not very nice,” she said crossing her arms.

“Trust me when I tell you. You do not want Oberon to get serious about interrogating you,” I said laughing at her statement.

“Oberon. Are you sure? I’m not that naïve.” She turned her head and made it obvious that she didn’t want to talk anymore. 

“Suit yourself.” I left the surly elf and moved past the golem. I found Khaar standing next to another room. “Is he awake?”

Khaar nodded and stood aside for me. I pushed the door open carefully. I would hate to cause Irgire to attack if he was still in a less than rational state of mind. Looking around the room that was fit for royalty, I was amazed at how far the castle had come in the few weeks we were gone. Truly, fairies had gone overboard.   

The dragonkin was sitting at the window seat watching the castle and city. We were quite high compared to the surrounding city which allowed a very good view of the area. He had found a pair of trousers and a simple vest to wear. He reminded me of a prince with his good looks. 

I jumped as Irgire started talking as soon as I was in the room. I had thought I was moving rather quietly even for myself. “I searched for this place for over thirty years all while dodging bounty hunters and slavers. Towards the end, I figured it might be underground as the rumors suggested and started investigating every cave I could find.”

“That sounds horrible. I’ve only been hunted for seven years or so. It was only recently that I have known any form of peace.”

“You said your name is Alessa. It is nice to meet you. While technically I am several centuries older than you, I was about your age in dragonkin years before I was turned to stone. Let’s try to be friends.”

“Sure! Do you mind if I asked what you planned to do when you found the city?”

“It was the home of the greatest sorcerer and king of all time. It birthed the Golden Throne, the Iron Maiden, The Crystal Palace and The Red Dragon. I thought if I came here, I would be able to learn all its secrets.”

“That’s not too bad a reason.”

He threw me a smirk. “Then I would have finished the work of my grandfather.”

I laughed. “You really are Oberon’s grandchild.”

He gave me a look before he turned back to the window. “So that really is Oberon?”

“Yeah. At least from what I’ve been able to tell. He knows more magic than anyone I’ve ever come across. He talks to gods and goddesses like he’s their equal. He raised this place from beneath the surface.” I gestured to the castle around us.

“I suppose its not that I doubt you. I am just having a hard time taking all this in.”

“Seven hundred years is a long time,” I commented with a nod. 

“Would you believe this was a grass plane with a few forests dotting it before I was turned to stone. None of this feels real when I look out there and see a desert of all things.” I moved up next to him and looked out over the city. We had only been back a few days but it felt like it had changed even in that short about of time.

The first ring around the city was almost fully operational again. Undead and fairies were the main races of the ring as they worked. The undead were pulling out ore and materials from the quarry and mines faster than they were being used and it was being stockpiled but the undead smiths and the fairies that had taken up the challenge to learn it after their long incarceration were going through it fast.

“This has been a desert all my life so a bit.” 

“I actually took a boat from a city down a river that ran right through the center of this place. Its amazing how changed it has become. But enough of that. I don’t want to bore you with things that can’t be changed.” Irgire got up and moved to the bed. “I’d like to rest if you don’t mind. You would think be trapped in stone for seven hundred years would leave me rested.”

“Alright. I’ll come get you later.” I moved over to the door before turning back. “I hope you stay here. Its still not safe for people from our family.”

I heard a chuckle. “I don’t think I just walk away even if I wanted to.”