• tab I had wished when I told King Herion that I was letting my family know I was okay, that I was telling the truth. In honesty… I was not okay. Not okay at all. My betrothed, Elandra, would be expecting an explanation…
    tab Oh, Elandra… Woman of fairest pale skin that was pure as driven snow. Her golden hair, with each strand an illustrious silken thread. The small, concerned eyes that swirled with primal earthen colors. The trembling lips and rosy cheeks stained with tears. That was the last image of her I had before leaving for Frejid. The sight burned into my eyes as to be the single thing lending me endurance.
    tab Does that mean my love for her had faltered…?

    Three Months Earlier
    tab "Leyros, dear!" she cried out, overjoyed at my return. I was not through the door of our manor for more than five seconds before I was embraced by the slender arms of my dearest Elandra. She was the daughter of the owner of a sundries store and she made her living as a goldsmith, and I, a washed-up magi instructor at the Arcana Academy. What she saw in me, I'll never know…
    tab "Elandra, sweetheart… Please don't tell me you've been cooped up in the house all day. Is this really how you want to spend the rest of your life?" I said as I held her by the shoulders and looked down into her eyes. She had been crying… I already knew why, even though she was making small talk to avoid the subject.
    tab "My, Heavens no, Leyros… I took Thassalia for a ride along the countryside and did some hunting. I…" she paused for a moment and hugged me tighter. "I wish I could go with you. Leyros, you know how good I am with a bow."
    tab Running my fingers through her hair was like stroking a stream of fresh, clear water. She was correct. She was an amazing archer, but she was not a soldier. An incurable illness had overcome her when she was a child, making her weak and fragile. Her emotions clouded her judgment, and I could not allow her to make such a rash decision of following the company.
    tab "Calm down, and think of what you're saying, Elandra… You must stay here, and stay safe… To protect our child." I placed my gloved hand over her slightly swollen belly. My powerful senses allowed me to feel the aura of life growing within her, to feel the pulse of a soul her and I created together.
    tab "You… You're right, dear…" she said to me softly, pulling away from me some to get a better look at my face. Her thin fingers rose up to touch my cheek. Elandra would feel that it had been a few days since I shaved. She always knew that grit meant something weighed heavy on my mind. Dear Elandra could read me like an open book.
    tab That familiar concerned gaze rested on my soul, piercing in through my tired eyes. I understood that look all to well. It meant that I was to sit and speak my mind to her. I'd always lament over the idea of sharing my feelings with others, but she always seemed to have sway over my disposition regarding that matter. She took my hand and pulled me gently in through the door, guiding my numb and weighted body to the dining table. I fell into the chair and looked up at my love, seeing her mimic me in sitting down.
    tab "Now, dear… tell me all about it…" she said, taking one of my hands into both of hers. Her eyes locked onto mine and forced me to make eye contact as I recalled the events of that morning.
    tab "Well…"

    tab I had come to the Academy like every other morning. The sun barely peeked above the horizon and tore through the normally bleak, overcast skies from last night's rainfall. It was a pleasant way to start the morning, and I turned one last time to take in the sight before pulling open the heavy oak door. The faint light illuminated the unlit corridors of the Academy. An apprentice would be coming through in about half an hour to light the halls' torches to serve punishment from some form of foolishness or another. I pushed my thin framed glasses up on the bridge of my nose, peering through the nearly invisible crystal lenses of my enchanted spectacles. With my magic allowing me to see in the dark as if I was standing in broad daylight, I meandered my way through the stone halls, the water-swelled floorboards creaking with every step of my boots against them.
    tab I headed to my office so I could finish grading the last batch of assignments my class had turned in the day before. It was a cramped room with my desk, the chair and a towering bookshelf with my collection of spell tomes. I sighed dejectedly at the incomprehensible mess of papers that littered my work space, yet I took a seat to dig into the mountain of parchment anyway.
    tab I barely had a moment to dip my quill in the inkwell before I heard a knock at the door. My eyes rose up, glancing at the window to gather an estimate on the time. Now who is knocking on my door at this hour? I couldn't possibly imagine a student in one of my classes with enough dedication to wake so early and ask for extra credit… Not like I'd give it to him anyway.
    tab "Yes, come in. It's open." I called out to my visitor. I watched the door swing open, the blue alchemical flame's rays of light dancing and twisting in new angles on the walls. My eyes came across the sight of a man only about five years older than I. Stress lines marked his face on occasion with long black hair that framed that face down to the jaw. His robes and cloak were much more exquisite than my own garb, which were pretty fancy in their own right. I looked the man over once through my spectacles and sat back from my work.
    tab "Headmaster Rogel, sir." I said with a slight pause and stutter as I addressed my superior. Damien Rogel's father had been the one that established this Academy in Bosche well before the kingdom had been controlled by Cassaden. The senior Rogel, Falrend, had married into Elven aristocracy in order to maintain his position of power at the Academy. Many of the humans lost respect for the once great Rogel bloodline for his perceived treason, but if that wasn't enough to make the masses despise him, his dabbling in dark, forbidden magic sealed the fate of his reputation.
    tab Falrend Rogel had unlocked the secrets of an ancient grimoire in order to transcend mortality. A method of removing one's own heart and soul from the weak, vulnerable body and binding it to a cursed urn called a phylactery. Those who had undergone this evil ritual would become a reviled undead creature called a lich. A lich could not die by any means other than the destruction of their phylactery, and Falren, having a monopoly on this information, had not revealed this secret to anyone… Well, almost everyone…

    tab "Leyros!" his voice had startled me. I glanced up from my pile of ungraded papers to return eye contact with the half-elf. "Leyros, snap out of it!"
    tab "Yeah?" I said quietly, gazing at him lazily while I awaited what he had come to inform me of. Damien rarely had anything useful to say to me, with the majority of his visits to my office consisting of lecturing me on being late grading papers or for putting my students through unorthodox tests.
    tab "Ugh. Leyros… You're introverted as always. If it weren't for your students' unprecedented graduation rate, I'd have dismissed you from the Academy long ago… I don't know how you manage it… Now quit daydreaming and listen. This is important."
    tab 'If it weren't for your father marrying an Elven wench, you'd be some peasant shoveling the goat pens, Damien…'
    tab And then I came back to reality…
    tab "What is it, Headmaster? I've got to finish marking these homework assignments…" I grumbled with disinterest and agitation. The ink had begun to bleed onto the paper I was writing on before Damien had interrupted me. Sorry, Richard…
    tab "Ah! Master Fairwyn grading homework! I thought I--"
    tab "Damien, you came here to tell me something. So tell me." I had dutifully interrupted him. Between his condescending rambling and me constantly getting lost in my thoughts, the both of us have wasted too much valuable, precious time in our lives. I sought to end at least one of those problems here and now. Damien's cheeks flushed red in anger and embarrassment. I take it he wasn't all that used to someone having the stones to actually cut him off.
    tab "Well, I-- As you know, there have been attacks on the northern villages by some manner of demons from beyond the Frejid Mountains. The King has decided on the construction of defensive structures along the border to Pherdran. A force that they're calling Fang Company will be consisting of a hundred of the Army's finest knights along with a full crew of stonemasons, carpenters and a group of the Academy's Runewardens will be marching north to the mountains to begin construction of the first wall to stem the tide of evil from the north." I had quickly tired of Damien's droll, run-on sentences, so I had urged him to get to his point.
    tab "Headmaster Rogel… By all means, what does this have to do with me?" I said with a dull headache pounding in my temples from all of his yapping.
    tab "I-- Grr, Leyros. The King has sent me a letter specifically requesting you to lead the Runewardens in Fang Company… I have no doubt you will be accepting this off--"
    tab "Hm, so… Let me get this straight. I, a quaint old magic instructor, will be marching onto the battlefield against legions of evil demons that threaten the kingdom…? Headmaster, by my leave, but my job is to teach the magi that defend the crown; not become one."
    tab Honor and glory was not something that I found to be a goal of mine in life. I had a quiet, comfortable life doing what I loved and passing on the joys of the arcane to others who shared my passion. Okay, so maybe it wasn't as honorable a cause as that… The job was easy and it paid exorbitantly. How could I pass it up?
    tab "Leyros… The King has requested for you personally. You know what the consequences are for disobeying the order of conscription…" Damien so tactfully reminded me. How very noble of him to refresh me on that little fact.
    tab "Oh great… Either I go and have my flesh devoured by a swarm of ghouls or I rot in the cells for the rest of my days." I began. I did not like being forced to do things, which probably led to much of the conflict between Damien and I. Although I still attribute that to his being a haughty moron than anything else. I stood up and glared the half-elf in the eyes, shooting him a disgusted look for only a moment before I moved from behind my desk and across the room towards the door.
    tab "Then I will go to have my audience with King Herion, Headmaster. Inform the students of my absence and make sure they have a decent substitute. I wouldn't want my perfect record tarnished by someone like Idolv taking over for the next batch of Adepts…" I could feel my words hit him like venom just from the bitter flare of his aura pulsing and proverbially burning the hairs on the back of my neck. I could not help but chuckle a bit in amusement to myself before slipping out into the hallway so I could take my leave to the Keep…