The Book of Ashe

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

A Calling

"The Goddess holds everything in balance. Life and Death. The Predator and the Prey"
~Druidic Proverb


Ever get the feeling that something is stalking you, but you can't see it? That is how I felt the day after my nightmare. Raider and Crossbow knew something was wrong, but didn't know what. Hell I didn't even know what was wrong. Throughout the day flashes of my dreams kept popping into my head. I was getting freaked out. The dream felt so real. I figured that whatever was troubling me had to be magical in nature so I went hunting Stormraven.
Stormraven is a great general. Always working or doing something. Today she was hard at work sawing logs. Her feet were propped up on her desk and her cloak hood was pulled over her eyes. I entered quietly and was debating on whether or not it was smart to wake her up when a voice said, "I surly hope that this is important."
"It is, at least I think it is." I said.
She sighed and drug her feet off her desk and flipped her hood up.
"What's on your mind Ashe?" She asked
"Well I had this. . dream last night. I know that usually troops shouldn't take up their general's time talking about dreams, but this was something different. Something about it made it seem more than a dream. It was like a vision."
Stormraven arched a brow.
"Ok, tell me about it."
I told her everything I remembered, sparring no details. As I spoke she grew thoughtful, maybe even troubled. After I finished she was a long time thinking then asked, "You haven't pissed any wizards off of late have you?"
"No, I embarrassed Jayden the other day but I don't think he would hex me with nightmares."
"No, it wasn't him. It sounds like someone or something has touched you,"
"Oh, well that’s just peachy news."
"Wait a moment." She said and turned back to her desk. She removed a large leather pouch from her desk and pulled out a bundle of white sage. With a flick of her wrist a flame appeared in her palm and she used it to light the sage. Thick smoke filled the tiny office as she waved it around me, muttering in a language I didn't understand. A calming, soothing presence washed over me. I started to feel human again.
After she was finished she studied me with a frown.
"That should work, you probably acquired something when you were captured. Maybe an astral being of some sort." Though it seemed she really didn't believe it. Call it wishful thinking I guess.
"Alright, if it comes back would you like me to. . "
"Yes, come back here immediately." She said, almost panicky.
When I left I felt worse than before. Raven knew that something was wrong, and that it went beyond some astral being attaching itself to me. My mind reeled with possibilities. Had Rider done something to my mind when she siphoned my memories out. Had Weaver done something when she whacked me with her lightning? Was Shekara herself reaching out to me? My nerves were getting frazzled.
As I walked I spied a group of six heavily armed guys walking my way, Jayden and Raider were at point.
"Wanna go do some scouting with us Ashe? It's my first assignment since my training began." You could tell he was really excited, I hated to tell him I'd rather be sitting in my tent doing nothing, so I sucked in a breath of air and blew it out.
"Uh, sure. Where we going?"
"We're going to find Lifestealer."
Déjà vu? Damn straight. The last time Jayden and I went looking for one of the Five we ended up in circumstances that didn't really meet with my definition of a good time.
Raider tossed me a sheathed sword. I strapped it on and followed them down to the barricades where a squad of horses were waiting. Thank the gods we weren't walking.

About half a days ride north of Gale is a small little town called Shepherd. It was little more than a farming community. The Grojan Cliffs encircle the town, making travel in the winter risky. We rode in as the sun was setting. We were all tired, hungry and saddle sore. The Green Lily Inn was the only place in Shepherd to bed down for the night if you were traveling. It reminded me too much of a place called The Black Fire Inn, back in Tabmer. It was a slum of a building that looked like it would cave in, in the next strong wind. We went in looking tired and mean. The common room was crowded. Several people eyed our rebel uniforms, but the barkeep didn't seem to care if we were rebel or Imperial, just so long as our coin was good. I bought a few beers and seated myself at a far table, facing the door. Jayden, Raider and a few others joined me. Jayden sat to my left, back to the wall facing the bar, and Raider sat in front of me, back to the door. Most of the customers didn't pay us much mind, save for a group of nine men seated at the entrance .They kept whispering back and forth and looking over at us.
"Looks like someone is taking a bit of interest in our business." I said indicating the men with my half filled mug.
"Really?" Jayden's eyes held a bit of mischief. He hadn't gotten to cast a single spell since we left. He held my gaze and smiled.
"Let them start it first, then you can take care of them." I said quietly.
He frowned, but nodded.
The men at the table looked like they were discussing their opinions. The sound of wood hitting rock echoed in the room as the men jumped up and rushed us. When they stood up, the insignia on their uniforms was that of Stormweaver. They came hauling ass across the room from thirty feet away. The locals panicked and pressed themselves out of the way. Jayden's eyes lit up, he stood up and slowly he turned. With a wave of his hand an unseen force hit the men, flinging them backwards a few feet. They cussed and grumbled and tried to stand. Jayden made a motion and a slick black cord came snaking from every shadow. It entangled the men, binding most of them but strangling a few. The locals scattered into the streets. I tapped Raider's shoulder, "Come on, lets make sure the city guard doesn't catch wind of our being here." Shepherd is technically a Imperial city, but really it was like most border cities. They don't care who's side your on as long as you behave and have coin. Raider and I pushed out the door. When I looked back Jayden was amusing himself by hoisting the captive men upside down by the ankles. Once they were all hanging from the ceiling he sat down a continued his beer, delightfully listening to the cussing of the upside down shoulders. I was impressed. Not only by his skill, but also by the fact that, even though he could have, he didn't kill most of them and wasn't being particularly nasty to the ones left alive. I'm sure he could have made their lives a pure hell had he wanted to.
Out in the street the frightened locals had collected in groups about ten feet from the Inn's door. I guessed that they don't get to see much magic. Jayden had scared them shitless, they broke and ran when they saw Raider and I emerge from the Inn.
"I look that bad?" Raider asked me.
"I guess so. Hey maybe you should change your name to be more like one of the Five. How about Crowdbreaker! It has a nice ring to it."
"Hmm. . . might do that. Oh shit we got company."
Company proved to be three squads of armed city guards hustling towards the Inn.
"Shit, they don't waste time around here, do they?" I yelled and stuck my head into the door. "Jayden, come on. We got company coming this way."
He stood up lazily and popped his neck. He was really enjoying himself. He actually strutted over to us. I damn near fell apart laughing. Jayden is just one of those people who cannot fake a strut, no matter how bad he tries.
I'm not sure how much company he thought we had coming, but when he saw the three squads he lost most of his faked manliness.
"Oh shit, that's eh. . more company than I think I can handle."
"We had better think of something quick, unless we want to fight them." Raider said.
"I think we should run." I said, turning.
Jayden mumbled something to himself and a bright yellow flash split the night. I heard the soldiers scream, but didn't turn around. Jayden caught up with me and said." That only hurt them and slowed them down." We kept moving till we topped a small knoll about half a mile from where the city ended. When I stopped I collapsed.
"Getting to damn old for this." I said breathless.
"Oh come on, it wasn't that bad. Bit of a jog, but nothing like your making it out to be." Jayden chided.
"Easy for you to say Junior!" Raider snapped. He was as breathless as I was.
I pulled myself up off the ground and joined Jayden and Raider where they were watching the city. The wind seemed to be picking up. It was cold. Colder than normal. A flash off in the distance drew my eye. Two more spears of lightning flashed down where the first had. Thunderstorms in this time of the year? Odd I thought. More flashes stabbed at the ground. This time they were more to our left. Something seemed odd about them, they were to close together and didn't seem random. Those bolts were more than just heat lightning. I looked back at the city. Something was happening down there.
A sudden blast of wind hit us hard. It blew dust in our faces and bent trees back.
"There is sorcery here! Big time stuff." Jayden yelled over the roar of the wind.
"No shit!" Raider yelled back.
The wind died down but the lightning became much more frequent. It seemed to be striking the area around Shepherd.
"Look!" Raider said pointing down to the town. Dots of fire appeared everywhere. Torches! Indicating the movement of Shepherds city guard.
"There seems to be a lot more than what should be stationed here." I said.
"It seem colder up here to you two?" Raider asked.
"Yeah" Jayden and I said in unison. It seemed like it had dropped twenty degrees since we had been standing there.
The flash from an uncomfortably close lightning bolt revealed the slow advance of low hanging, fat bellied clouds. The air began to fill with what looked like white dust. It had come out of the clouds. Snow.
"Son of Bitch, it's snowing! What the hell." Jayden said, surprised.
I caught a falling flake in my hands. Sure enough snow.
A bright blue flash filed my world. My hair stood at attention as a bolt hit a few feet away.
"Uh, maybe we should get the hell out of here." I suggested.
"You want to walk back to Gale?" Raider asked.
"What? Oh shit, we left the horses stabled down there didn’t we!"
"Yes we did."
"I'll take my chances on foot." Jayden said. "If that’s not Stormweaver down there controlling this storm, then they are so close to her skill that it really doesn't matter." A blast of thunder punctuated his sentence.
"We had better make up our mind soon, some of those soldiers are headed this way." Raider pointed out.
"Alright lets move!" I said and started moving south towards Gale.
As we moved the snowfall became heavier and heavier. We had to stop three times till it eased up enough to see. It was frigid. My feet were frozen and I ached everywhere. The wind had started picking up a few minutes after we started back to Tabmer, till it approached near blizzard like conditions.
"We have got to stop!" Raider yelled over the storm. "We are going to freeze to death if we stay out here much longer.
"Where do you suppose we go?" I asked surly.
"I remember seeing a cave around here somewhere when we came through the first time." He yelled.
"Where exactly are we?" Our vision was limited to a few feet in front of us and that was with Jayden working overtime to lessen the storms effect.
"This has got to be Weaver guys! It's getting more powerful. I'm not going to be much help soon." Jayden said. He was so cold his teeth were chattering.
"Can you find us a place to make camp for the night? How long can Weaver keep this up?" I asked.
"I'll try my best and I'm sure Weaver can keep this up for as long as she wants."

Two hours later we were holed up in a large rock cleft. The snow continued to fall and the air seemed to be getting even colder. We had managed to get a puny fire built, thanks to Jayden, whom we had wore down to the nubs in the storm. After he lit the fire he fell back on his bedroll and went right to sleep. Raider wove spells that kept most of the snow out, and that which did get in melted, thus providing us with drinking water. Sorcery is amazing. It can protect you or level entire cities.
"I'll take the first watch." Raider said.
"Alright wake me up when you can't stay awake any longer." I said and climbed into my bedroll.
My dreams were filled with the same darkness that had plagued me before. This time it came with voices and a sense of falling. The voices were in languages I didn't understand. They seemed frantic and angry. I saw the creature climbing the rock spire and then I was the creature. Power coursed through my body and my veins burned with fire. I did not know why I was climbing the spire, but a thirst, a push kept driving me on. After a long climb my clawed hands reached the top and the jagged rocks supporting my feet creaked and gave way. Down I tumbled, screaming.

I shot awake. Raider had a hold of me and was shaking me.
"Ashe! Wake up! It's a dream!" Raider screamed.
I got my senses about me and started shaking so hard Raider had to use a small cantrip to calm me down.
"Gods! What a nightmare. It felt so real. It was real, some how it had to be real."
"No Ashe, It wasn't real. Don't worry. What are you doing.?"
I was trying to stand. My legs felt like they were made of jelly and I was hot. I felt like I was on fire.
Raider gasped as I stood. "Ashe, look!" He said pointing at my bedroll.
The Imprint of my body lay burned into the fabric. Shaking, but not saying a word I faced him. What the hell was going on. Shit like this didn't happen to me. Raider felt of my bedroll with his hand and pulled it back the moment he touched it.
"Still hot" he said. He looked as freaked out as I felt. We both stood there staring at the burned bedroll and each other. I went to the opening of the cleft and stared out. The snow was about five feet deep and still falling, though not as heavy as it had been.
"If this snow keeps up, these cliffs are going to become impassible." I said.
I noticed that the eastern sky was brightening.
"We should probably go ahead and head out before it gets too bad. We can probably get back to Gale before night fall if we push hard." Raider said.
We packed up our pathetic camp and roused Jayden, which was no easy feat. He was exhausted. It took more time to get him up and awake than it did to pack everything up. An hour after sunrise we were headed south. The snowfall had died down to just a few flakes, but the northern cliffs couldn't be seen. It looked like it hadn't slackened farther north. The farther south we traveled, the more the weather improved. South of the cliffs lays a large flat mesa. Once we reached the mesa, the temperature had risen and no snow or rain fell. The heat and sunshine began to work on our spirits.
"I wonder how we are going to march the army through those cliffs." Raider said out of no where.
I thought about that a moment then remarked. "It won't be easy, if Weaver keeps it up it will be impossible."
"Perhaps that’s the plan. Keep us cut off here while The Astral Rider runs loose up north."
"I would be surprised if that wasn't Shekara's way of thinking." Jayden piped in.
"Stormraven is going to be pissed when we tell her. She has been fighting for this campaign for a while." I said.
"Such is life" Raider sighed.
We continued our trip in silence. I kept thinking about what Raven would want to do next knowing that we couldn't reach Midpoint.

Stormraven paced the length of the command tent. She was in a very foul mood. Raider, Jayden, and I stood quietly and watched her prowl.
"And your sure there is no way to get through to Midpoint!?" She asked suddenly.
"Not unless Weaver stops her storm or you can melt snow." Raider answered.
Raven growled and continued pacing.
"f***!" She yelled, slamming her fist down on the desk. "We need to get word to the central armies. If Lifestealer joins Darksaber in the Badlands, the Imperials could cut us off here in the south and then it would only be a matter of counting our dead."
No one spoke. Raven was more than likely just thinking out loud. She had a bad habit of doing that when she is stressed.
"Jayden, go get Crossbow and tell him to take four, no five, men with him and ride hard for the Badlands, Flamdancer needs this information."
"Yes Ma'am" Jayden said and shuffled out of the tent.
"Raider, get the men ready to move out. I intend to at least try to push through to Shepherd."
"And when we reach Shepherd, do you intend to battle Weaver toe to toe?" Raider asked.
Stormraven flashed him a look that could kill, then she realized that he was right. By herself, she couldn't defeat Weaver and our army would be so tired that we wouldn't stand a chance if Weaver had even a shadow of an army. Raven growled again and then collapsed into a chair. She closed her eyes for a moment and took some deep breaths. After she had finished she said, "First things first. Dancer took Mrick and Tryban with him, so I'm short two advisors. You two will fill in while they are gone. I trust your judgments, do you accept?"
She didn't wait for an answer before saying "Good, next we need to find out if there is anyway to get to Midpoint without going through the cliffs." She paused and waited for our response.
"There is no other way that I know of, unless you want to skirt the Badlands." Raider said.
They continued batting it back and forth and discussing options. As they talked I felt what I can only describe as a pull. Every noise began to soften and fade, being replaced by a hollow roar that never got above a whisper. I looked around the room, getting slightly dizzy. I spotted a mound of papers over in the far corner. The pull came from them. I slowly approached the table holding the documents. They were the ones I had been deciphering. I was unable to tear my eyes away from them and my body began to feel numb. Against my better judgment I reached out and picked up a sheet.

The world was shaded in a black fog. Something moved among the fog. Very large, yet it moved with the grace of a panther. Fires burned all around and the rivers flowed with blood. Soon the world erupted into screams. Angry screams. Tormented screams. A large something loomed out of the fog. It was a large rock spire stabbing out of the ground about five hundred feet tall. Serpentine creatures with wings twice as long as a man's arm swarmed around it's peak. The figure I saw earlier was climbing the great spire. A long tail, like those that imps are rumored to possess swung lazily as it climbed. It seemed to be cloaked in fire. A deafening roar filled the world with a terrible sense of hatred, and soon I was the creature climbing the rock spire.
"Come" "Come" "Come". Voices raced around me inviting me to the top and on I climbed until the spire seemed to come alive. It started rumbling and creaking. Soon my foot holds gave way and down I fell into darkness.

"He's coming around I think" Said a voice. It sounded familiar but I couldn't place it. Everything was black. Where was I? In a cave? What happened? My mind swirled with questions.
"Ashe! Look at me. Open your eyes." This voice was female.
I strained and opened my eyes. Bright light flooded my vision causing my eyes to ache.
"He's alright. He's gonna make it." The female voice said.
My vision was blurry at first but soon it came into focus. A woman with long black hair stood over me. Stormraven. I groaned and tried to rise. My body ached and my head felt like someone was driving a spike through it.
"What happened?" I asked in a shaky voice.
She didn't respond, instead she helped me stand. I had fallen on the floor in front of the table. My right hand still gripped the page I had picked up. I looked around and saw Raider standing behind Raven, His was the first voice I had heard.
Stormraven reached for the page in my hand and without realizing it I pulled it back, away from her. I didn't want to give it up. She had taken it away from me before, not again. Raven backed up a few steps and looked me dead in the eye.
"Ashe, you need to give me that paper now." She said. Her voice was soft and deadly. It's tone told me that she was giving me a chance to give it up willingly before she took it. How dare she!
"No." I said, narrowing my eyes. I didn't want to be apart from the papers again, but I couldn't figure out why.
"Ashe, you need to give me the paper." She repeated taking a step towards me. Her eyes were like frozen fire.
"Come on Ashe, give it to her." Raider said.
"No, it's mine." I yelled. Hatred started building up in me. An ancient hatred. A burning hatred for everything living.
"What's wrong with him?" Raider asked, looking nervous and confused.
"It has a hold on him. Not a powerful one, but powerful enough." She said.
"What does?" He asked, but Raven ignored him.
"Ashe. . . " She started.
"NO!" I yelled. The hatred was overwhelming. I went into a fog and before I could think I lashed out and struck Raven square in the nose. She let out a yell of surprise and stumbled back, eyes watering and blood pouring from her nose. She called me an obscene name and made a violent gesture. Something like a blurry humanoid rushed towards me like an adder's strike. It hit me hard and held me immobile. Raven walked up to me and ripped the page out of my hand. I yelled in pain. It felt like she had stuck a branding iron to my hand.
"Don't hurt him!" Raider yelled at Raven, whom ignored him.
The moment she tore the page from my hand the hatred began to subside and I began to feel normal. Suddenly I was horrified. I had struck a member of the Druidic Circle. My legs went watery. Had Raven's invisible creature not been holding me up, I would have collapsed. Raven walked right up in my face, wiping the blood of her face. She stared into my eyes for a long time and then gently placed a hand on my shoulder. Sleep devoured me