Absolution's Path - First Step
(Glyith Phae'Sizth)
How does one hunt a hunter? This was not my first thought upon returning to life but by far the most pressing one. I turned it over repeatedly in my mind while I sought my way back to the living. Now, on the doorstep of my wrecked home, it was the only important question left.
My eyes roamed the shattered stones... Twenty-six cycles since leaving, and the fortress of my childhood was no different than the day I left it. True, the fires had died, but their ashen scars remained. Black dust still gathered in the corners where the air currents had not swept them away. The Labyrinth's beasts avoided the place - I did not find so much as a single rat in the whole ruin. Perhaps by some divine inspiration, it had been left untouched for me to reclaim. I had no intent of making the place home again, but Xathen's presence had been all that kept me unmolested in the open tunnels and to travel on without shelter would be inviting death. As difficult as my return had been, I could only assume another visit to the Death Realm would be even more arduous. Carefully, I picked my way across the wrecked courtyard, clearing a path to the structure that had once been my family's dormitory. Even after so long, my feet knew the way quite well and a few minutes later I was standing in the room of a young boy, the bedcovers peeled back and half-eaten from insects. A fine layer of dust covered everything, even the book upturned on the floor - the one I had been reading the night Xathen first came. A weak blue glow sputtered in the sapphire lamp's core, left active for two and a half decades. The ceiling seemed so much closer now, and I felt claustrophobic as I knelt to pick up the old book. As with the covers, insects had gnawed at the pages and riddled them with holes, but I could read the pages by memory - it had been one of my favorite tales.
"How much you took from me, wraith," I mused aloud, my voice hanging cold and empty in the stillness. "I owe you." My hand reached down, gripping the sapphire and infusing it with more energy - the lamp flared back to life, brighter than I ever remembered, and a small crack appeared in its surface from the overload. Sweeping the tattered covers from the bed, I spread my cloak upon the old mattress and sat down. Through the facing window, I stared into the depths of the Labyrinth. Tomorrow....
Tomorrow, I would go hunting.
~*****~
Stealth and secrecy had been my key strengths while with Xathen. I was powerful in Blue Way magic, and I was certain no Etherwight had faced a weapon such as Wraithbane. Even so, I knew little of fighting a wraith, and so my first target was a relatively young predator called Glyith Phae'Sizth. 'Her' territory (for this Etherwight was an effeminate sort) was perhaps a half-day's journey out. I left the ruin when the crystals first began brightening, for I had no wish to be caught in the deep tunnels when darkness fell again. Only once did I have to pause, when a maddened beast charged from a side-passage. A swift blast of ice shards cut the hapless animal to ribbons and I took a small chunk of its sour meat for nourishment, leaving the rest for scavengers.
Slowly, the dirt turned darker, black ashes mingling with the brown and gray rock dust. One of the first signs of an Etherwight's territory - the ashes of its victims. I proceeded further, until the hairs on the back of my neck began to rise. I tried to recall what I had learned of Glyith, but Xathen did not speak of her much and only once had we come to meet her. "Xathen sends his regards," I said aloud.
A sibilant echoing laugh surrounded me. "Does he now?" The shadows rippled with amusement. "Of course, I remember you. His little wretched gate-opener. Where is your master, fish-elf? Tell him to-" her words stopped mid-sentence. From the gloom, a tall, impossibly thin humanoid rushed forward, glaring down at me with indigo eyes. "You no longer bear a shadowmark, Shadrius Athere. And Xathen would not have released you from service until you were dead. What is your business here?"
Drawing Wraithbane, I smiled grimly. "My name is Shard Wraithbane, Etherwight. Not that you'll live to remember it." There it was - the challenge given. The first step in my path toward redemption. To my frustration, Phae'Sizth did not take the bait.
"Do we truly live at all, Shadrius?" She laughed, flowing slowly around me, circling right. I shifted, continuing to face her, but the wraith waved her deceptively delicate hand dismissively around the cavern. "Skulking in shadow, turning you little fleshlings to dust. Is that all an Etherwight might do with their life? Do we have no other purpose?"
"Purpose," I spat coldly. "You wraiths are obsessed with purpose. So here, I shall give you one - die swiftly, as an example to your fellows." My left hand raised, a surge of cerulean energy gathering in my palm for an instant before sending forth a blast of icy magic. My aim was off however, and Glyith flowed easily from the errant blast.
"You're not short on nerve, are you Shadrius?" A slow grin split her face, revealing the needle-like teeth of an Etherwight. "What if I refuse to fight you? What if I simply dissipate and sink into the shadows?" I growled - the possibility of a wraith backing away from a challenge had not occurred to me.
"Then you prolong the inevitable."
"But you are mortal, fish-elf. I may go elsewhere in the Labyrinths, or perhaps even out beneath the Azure Sun - would you waste your whole life hunting down one single wraith, when so many others are so much more malicious?" Despite the ice in her deep-blue eyes, her words were persuasive. Would this one young wraith be worth it, at the expense of all others?
That is not a choice you need to make. Eventually, they will ALL perish.
The thought flashed across my mind like lightning. Phae'Sizth was a seductress - of course her words were tempting! She toyed with her prey before consuming them. I dug in my pack, drawing out a large chunk of sapphire crystal. Seeing it, the wraith hissed and backed away. "Put that filthy rock away, Shadrius. I have done nothing to you, and you reek of bad magics - I would not drain you. Leave me be."
"Ah, Glyith, it is not so simple as that," I chuckled, hurling the crystal high over her - as it passed above the wraith, I summoned an energy arrow, blasting it into razor-sharp shrapnel. The shards peppered the ground drawing bloody gashes in my clothing and tearing an anguished howl from Glyith. Sapphire crystal bits embedded themselves in the dirt all around us, effectively trapping the wraith.
"You horrid little wretch," she raged. The shadows at my feet swirled, but the crystal shrapnel prevented her from controlling them. "You foul, blighted, vicious, taint-ridden..." her voice became a shriek, spewing words in a tongue I did not understand, though they sounded vile. Gripping my sword tightly, I rushed at Phae'Sizth, slicing at her from neck to waist, intending to cleave her through the chest.
Faster than I thought possible, she twisted to the side, drawing out a shadowmass blade while cuffing me hard across the face. Missing, I stumbled and fell to the ground. More sapphire shards stabbed into my flesh, needling me where I struck the floor. Blood leaked from the numerous splinter-wounds as I hauled myself upright. Her weapon of choice was a cutlass-like blade, with the necessary runes glowing along its narrow length and circling the wide basket-hilt. Its point lifted, level with my chest. "I always knew Xathen was wrong to keep fleshlings in his thrall," she hissed angrily, and lunged.
Her blade skipped off Wraithbane, slicing a narrow gash over my right side, and I brought my weapon down hard on it. The shadowmass weapon shattered like glass, and though Glyith recoiled in shock, she did not pull far enough back to escape my upward blow. The enchanted weapon scythed through her arm, severing it at the elbow, and passed through her chest before exiting the opposite shoulder. The wraith opened her mouth in a scream, but I heard only the crackle of blue fires as they enveloped her form both upwards and down, consuming the Etherwight like thin paper set aflame. In another instant, only glowing blue embers drifted through the air, the wraith herself utterly destroyed.
Picking crystal shards from my flesh, I stumbled wearily back to the ruins, making a silent resolution that I would have to be more careful about my choice of weapons in the next encounter...