Infinite Champions (Chapter 5)

Zarenda almost gasped but held back the urge, she felt oddly sad for the creature, though she knew better than to get sentimental, especially now. She was hoping that now the Blood Sword had finished having his fun with the behemoth, that he would just leave. The very idea caused Zarenda to sigh in relief, despite it not even happening yet, if it even would for that matter. The man stood around a little while as the rain around him had finally begun to clear up and the clouds disappeared. This wasn't too alarming for Zarenda, her invisibility would continue to last for as long as she channeled the spell upon herself, so if anything this made hiding easier. The man spoke, and Zarenda froze again.
"Do you think that rain was magical as well?" he silently flicked the blood from his sword as he began wiping the excess off with a ragged piece of black cloth he threw to the ground lazily, likely torn from his own sleeve for it was all mostly torn and ripped in places. After his pause he continued to speak as though someone had answered his question. "I can't imagine his reasoning if that were the case." He paused again. "Not much else we can really do anyway. The day is late and the entertainment has all ready gone and died." He pressed his swords blade under the heavy chin of the behemoth and rolled it's head to one side as though boredly trying to think of something else he could do with it. But who in the world was he talking to? That's all Zarenda could think about now. Unable to take not knowing anymore she took the energy she'd built up for her spell and cast it without a second thought, she'd seen so much all ready and without answers she feared she would surely die of not knowing, a little dramatic but not out of character for her. As silently as she could she cast her spell. Her spell had required a great deal of concentration, for it was a spell of revealing, she suspected there was someone or even something there that she could not see, and so planned to unveil it with her magic. However to do so without the target noticing that it was no longer hidden, that would surely test Zarenda's ability in her now fatigued and emotionally agitated state.

The spell was cast and a veil of magic fell over the entire area. Zarenda projected her power patiently and resourcefully, trying hard to not over exert herself. She felt like every second was straining her mind, and now only hoped that she hadn't overestimated herself. Just a few moments longer and the magic will have set around the area like a cloud unseen. She breathed heavily and tried with all of her will power to not make a noise as the magic began to constrict inside of her, as though she'd been holding her breath for too long. The last pieces of the spell flowed from her invisible fingertips as a small and weak trickle, all she could do to finish the spell now as she had taken to laying along the rain soaked earth in exhaustion and pain was to extend her fingertips, hoping the last glimmer of magic would hopefully find it's way to the veil. Panting weakly she watched as the veil that only she could see finally took it's full form. Grasping desperately to the last of her magical power for the time being, she maintained her invisible form, and struggled to keep her eyes open. All she wanted to do now was leave, and find a place to sleep. Or better yet to just be back at Verinholm in her warm bed, or in a steaming hot bath after a feed of something scrumptious like apple pie, or scones with her favourite strawberry jam and cream.
"That would be nice right now." She thought to herself. Her stomach ached just thinking about what she didn't have in it right then. Not to forget what she was doing however, she kept her eyes fixated on the man in black, and as the veil began to take it's effect, she felt once again the uneasy sense of alarm that had plagued her all that late afternoon. Floating by the man in black, was a creature whose body was like that of a skeletons, though it had large horns coming out the side of it's skull and a crack in the center. It's bones were black, and it's arms were freakishly long, more than twice the length of a regular mans. It floated in the air for it had no legs on which to stand, it's body seemed instead to entwine with and pervade from a cloud of dark smoke that followed it where ever it went. Inside of it's dark and hollow eyes was only shadow, save for a small dot pupil inside of each, a glimmer of light that seemed to convey consciousness and knowing. It was a terrifying creature, and Zarenda hated herself for wanting to know more about it.

The creature spoke, it's voice was clear and yet like a sinister little whisper. It's voice echoed, "We will stay here until he finds us. His mission is espionage, he must be given enough free reign and time as he needs to be successful." It paused for a moment and then reiterated, "If we are to be successful. We will not travel any further until he has found us and we have made contact."
"If you insist," the man replied boredly. He crossed his arms and leaned back against a nearby tree. "But you know there is still no guarantee at all that this will grant me the rite. I will be most displeased if this yields no pay off at all for all the time we have spent waiting and doing nothing." The skeleton like creature gave no reply but floated silently, listening to the mans complaints. "It is growing so woefully late, and I have so many better things to do. Couldn't Phantom just find me on his own time?" Zarenda's ears pricked up. Though still trying to make sense of everything she was seeing, she had all ready made a deduction that Phantom may have had something to do with the Blood Sword being here, it couldn't have been a mere coincidence.

"Phantom is my servant after all. Should he wish to keep his very life, then for all of my waiting and toil, he should best hope for success in bringing me the key to the rite."
"And bring it to you I shall, my lord," echoed a strong voice from the air around them. With a loud crack and a flash of yellow light, standing now before all was Phantom, the very same from the academy dressed in his clean white coat, his face hidden behind the mask he wore. Zarenda stirred, she needed to make certain to hear everything that was spoken, she felt a bittersweet joy to know that she'd been right, and here was the proof, but now wasn't the time for such thoughts. Phantom stooped into a low bow after removing his mask; taking it in hand and then going as far as kneeling before the man and the creature looming by his side like a shadow. It was difficult to make out at such an angle, and especially while Phantom was kneeling, but it appeared that behind his mask he was in fact very handsome, so much in fact that Zarenda almost forgot to despise him. His features were soft and elegant, his hair was and waved in the front and fair. His smirk appeared playful and so alluring, but then he opened his eyes. Phantom's eyes were completely black, no whites at all save for any reflection they gave, they were almost like mirrors, and in some strange way his eyes were rather beautiful much like the rest of him, and yet at the same time they were terrifying. "Forgive my lateness, my lord. The forest is full of so many trees that all look alike, I fear I lost my way." He smirked, a weak attempt at humour, but the man in black stared down on him without so much as a grin.

The man seemed to regard him with disdain and disgust, Zarenda even guessed that Phantom was regarded with contempt, and that whoever the Blood Sword was, didn't like Phantom in the slightest, just who was he to Phantom? Phantom's playful smirk disappeared as he swallowed, he could feel the mans eyes on him, like he were staring right through him, judging him critically. Phantom stood and cleared his throat.
"The academy, my lord, is proving to be an easy mission. Most of the mages are being dealt with simply enough, those who are less of a problem come to me for counsel despite my brief time being there. After demonstrating my talents for them all I was given reign to be among them for as long as I should desire, and that is when the operation got under way. If nothing should get in our way then I suspect this could be wrapped up in just a little more than a full moons cycle." He placed his mask back over his face and bowed once again, though he was startled by a long sigh and he winced.
"A full moons cycle is far too long for us to simply stand around and wait on something that may prove yet to be nothing," the man in black rebuked. "What is really so difficult about this mission that it must take so wearily long?"
"My lord-" Phantom started but was harshly interrupted.
"You were chosen by me, a high honour if ever there were one, to infiltrate the academy, and to acquire any secrets it may hold in regard to the rite. So far it would seem that you have failed in this task, Phantom. Do you dare to insult my trust, would you so boldly have me believe that I chose poorly?" The man sneered and closed his eyes wearily. Zarenda was sure behind his mask Phantom was sweating. He seemed much unlike himself, stiff in posture, and tripping over his own words all of a sudden, he seemed terribly afraid.
"What is this about a rite?" Zarenda wondered to herself silently.
"My lord, what information the mages have regarding the rite if any at all is shrouded in secrecy and riddles. But, my lord, I have them in the palm of my hand, many of them." He drew from his coat a handful of the signature playing cards he used for casting spells. He drew five in total and held them before himself spread out as though he were about to perform some trick. The backs of the cards facing away from him were plainly white save for the same elaborate markings like vines of black along the edges of each one. Lifting his head forward the twisted smile of his mask seemed to stare into the eyes of the man in black, though it seemed unamusing to him. Phantom reached with his free hand back inside his coat and pulled out one last card, this one was mostly red and had a circle engraved on the back. He flipped it around in his hand and snapped his fingers with a loud ring. The card vanished from sight and was replaced with the light of a warm fire all around, without so much as any flame or kindling to be seen. His sleight of hand was impressive, as the card had not really vanished at all, and he'd simply pocketed it back into his coat, though the spell was now gone and the card was again blank with little magical about it all. "You may like some light to see this better, my lord." And suddenly he sounded once again confident and strong as Zarenda recognized him. "Not to mention you're all wet from the dreary weather, please warm yourself in the heat of this fires light, allow me to impress you, my lord, with what you are about to see." The man stood silently and glaring, he appeared impatient and unimpressed by Phantom's antics.

Phantom turned the cards around to reveal their faces to the man and sniggered triumphantly. Etched into the faces of the cards appeared to be strange and elaborate artworks of what looked like people. They were all different, and though they were quite far from her gaze, Zarenda guessed that the people depicted looked like they were afraid, or in some great peril. It was only after squinting through the light of the fire that Phantom had made that Zarenda made the connection, but Phantom spoke her thoughts for her.
"Ensnared within these simple playing cards, my lord, is the essence of five mages who defied me. They are trapped within until such time that I desire them free. Every mage who suspected me and rose up has easily fallen and become less than even a memory. I have everything under control, my lord." He shuffled the five cards in his hand skillfully, as though mocking the mages trapped inside. Zarenda stifled a noise of exasperation, she felt angry, like all she wanted to do was give away her position and knock the masked maniac's head in with her boomerang, though she thought better of it. She turned her anger inward and wept silently for it was all she could do, what ill fate had come upon Verinholm? She covered her mouth and nose as she slowly composed herself, trying not to make any unnecessary sounds if she could help it.
"What a time to get emotional." She thought. "I need to get back to the academy as soon as I can and expose him before he does this to anyone else." For the time being she sat as quietly as she could channeling her invisibility spell as needed and breathed slowly, trying her best to regain some stamina before she made the journey back to Verinholm. She cursed herself for not bringing anything to eat as she was absolutely famished at this point. She'd been in such a terrible rush to track Phantom she didn't stop for even a moment to consider she might get hungry somewhere along the way, or that she may have to return to the academy with great haste without sleep or rest. She pulled a hand to her stomach as it groaned and she wondered if it were loud enough to give her position away.

The man in black closed his eyes and yawned. The night's sky had settled in and he seemed to be growing appropriately tired, it was either that or he was terribly bored of his company. He looked like he was inspecting his nails and was focused on them when he spoke
"Well it seems you have things quite under control, Phantom. By my fair graces I bid you continue your hard work. Know that it is with the utmost generosity that you will leave our meeting this evening in one piece. For if next we meet and you are unable to provide me the key to the rite, then it shall be your destiny to die a most humiliating and gruesome death, on this I give my very word, which as you well know, Phantom, is law."
"Yes, my lord." Phantom replied obediently as he stooped into another low bow. The man pulled his attention away from his nails finally and turned his head to face the skeletal creature. It had been there the entire time, but had said so little. As though with some mutual understanding the creature slinked to the mans side without so much as a word. It stretched out it's long arms and rested them weightlessly on the man's shoulders before pulling itself up onto his back. It's lower body, more like a black cloud hung about the man's waist, and the creature then sat there comfortably, the white dots of light in it's hollow eyes staring daggers through Phantom, who seemed to be growing more nervous again. Looking at them together, Zarenda guessed that the creature must have weighed nothing at all, but she had never seen or even heard of anything like it in all of her studies or travels. Not to mention she reminded herself that she wouldn't have been able to see it at all if not for the spell she'd cast. In part she wished she hadn't, for it's appearance was terrifying, certainly not normal, there was something sickening about it, and something that didn't add up either. She wondered if it was perhaps a spirit, or something similar, but spirits were supposed to be beautiful and magnificent to behold, this creature, whatever it was, was neither.

"I have grown weary of your company, Phantom." The man in black stated as he walked past the demon mage, who tensed up as he came near. "I think I should like to go and murder something now. And then take rest."
"An excellent idea, my lord." Phantom grovelled bowing his head. When the skeletal creature leaned it's face in and grabbed hold of the back of Phantom's neck with one of it's long arms. It's grip wasn't too strong at all but Phantom let out a shriek all the same, he seemed unreasonably frightened of the creature.
"Stay your unworthy tongue, worm!" It hissed at him. "He was speaking to me."
"Do not worry yourself, Possess." The man in black sniggered. "Should this filth come to fail in his task the way we expect him to, then the honour of giving him the humiliating and gruesome death that he is destined for can be yours." The creature, Possess, cackled with delight and let go of Phantom pushing him back aggressively. The man in black took one last look at the helpless demon Phantom before deciding to leave. With his glance the man couldn't help but join the creature hanging onto him in laughter, they both cackled at Phantom cruelly as they took their leave. Zarenda watched the man walk away eastward through the trees and nights darkness, and as he stepped outside of the magic veil, the skeletal creature hanging from his body and it's laughter vanished from her sight. If she didn't know any better, she would have guessed there was nothing holding onto the man at all, the Blood Sword walked as though he were completely unburdened, save for the large sword he'd slung over his shoulder. She watched him disappear as well as he became an indiscernible figure in the far off distance among the forest. Phantom didn't watch, he stood hanging his head dejectedly, and Zarenda heard him take a long breath before he also started walking.

Zarenda guessed Phantom had used a spell to make it seem like he suddenly appeared the way he did; when he was probably standing close by all along, he had likely planned to make a dramatic entrance, such was his nature, though it seemed no one had been impressed. The dispirited demon snapped his fingers and the light of his spell faded away, and he went back on the move. He clearly wasn't about to make himself just disappear into thin air and was decidedly going to walk back to Verinholm, even if it was in the middle of the forest and at night, Zarenda guessed he must have needed some time to think after his "meeting", more like his sentencing. His northward direction was enough to guess he was indeed going back to the academy, and Zarenda decided that it was probably time she went on as well. Picking herself up from the forest floor, still invisible, she felt her legs ache like they just didn't want to move the smallest distance at all, she actually scolded herself crossly, time was fleeting.
"Grow up, Zarenda! You're a big girl now, just go!" She quietly told herself still trying to stay as well hidden as she could. Her legs stood on their own and she smirked as she now went over the plan in her head, "Follow him to Verinholm, watch him closely in case he spills more information. Once I'm back, I just have to get that mask off him and everyone will see that I was right!" She actually felt excited. "Maybe I'll have a bath and something to eat before I do that last part though." She half joked to herself. And as the night went on Zarenda quietly channeled the invisibility spell on herself, and walked as quietly as she could through the forestry behind Phantom, making sure not to get too close, and not letting him slip away either. More than a few times she needed to run to catch up for fear of losing sight of him through the trees and darkness, it would have been easy to do so, but at least this time she wasn't trying to track him with magic, she thought that if there were anything she'd never want to do a second time it would be to try and track a demon's essence. She also realized that she hadn't even been successful in her task that day, she was about to set up somewhere to sleep when events lead her to accidentally find Phantom.

Oddly despite it taking her all day to get this deep into the forest, it didn't seem to take half as long to make her way back to Verinholm, despite her slower pace lagging behind the unaware Phantom ahead of her. She realized of course that this meant she'd probably walked in circles for most of the day while tracking him, she felt embarrassed but pushed the matter out of her mind, she had plenty of other things to think about. Phantom must have had better than average vision in the dark as despite being a mage he hadn't bothered with any kind of torchlight spell or beacon whatsoever, it would have made keeping an eye on him a lot easier, his demon eyes were all the aid he must have needed for making his way back to the academy. The tall height of the trees began to decline as they grew smaller and smaller as she neared the forests border, where the trees further in had been coated in moss and various fungi, the trees here were easily climbable, and were covered in fresh bark of darker brown. The trees branches were thick with leaves which held on fast, the ground was much clearer here and Zarenda could still feel the wetness of her clothes from the rain. After laying on the ground she'd needed to peel the sticks and leaves from her clothes lest they gave her position away, she wouldn't have had that problem in this part of the forest. Looking closely, the ground even looked fairly well used, there were various paths through the grass from where people often walked, she herself often came into the forest for hikes, but rarely as far in as she'd been today, if ever really. It didn't look like Phantom was going to start talking to himself and give more information away either, so Zarenda relaxed a bit then, deciding she had enough reason to act now regardless. She would just keep her distance behind him and get back to Verinholm almost at the same time he did.

* * *

The night was still young when Phantom had finally made his way back to the academy not far from the forest at all. He and Zarenda had needed to cross through town partially to make it back, they walked briefly amongst many steepled towers and a few inns still serving ale and food to their patrons as merry music played loudly, the sound of flutes and drums carried through the air along with the laughter and cheers of those not joined in song, Zarenda could smell the hot food inside and tried not to groan as her stomach jeered at her, she was ever so hungry. She followed Phantom around another corner over the many cobblestone roads leading back to the academy, some of which were inlaid with unique looking signs, many different shapes, and even some runes as well, all dimly lit by lanterns on every street corner, the markings were a sign that this was indeed the most magical city in all of Aneroc as the markings were indeed magical though their purpose was essentially aesthetics and nothing more. She picked up her pace to keep up as Phantom didn't stop for any reason, he walked straight down a back street and over a small arched bridge of stone sitting over the river that ran through the city, and he was back on Verinholm's front doorstep, a tall building with many floors and balconies all in a clean beige colour. Just outside the building was tall hedges and beautiful lawns kept perfectly neat and maintained, using magic of course. The academy stretched across quite a distance and was actually made up of several buildings, there were pergolas and small ponds throughout the grounds, and there were vines everywhere. Across lattice and over garden beds, vines covered the entire grounds sprouting flowers of red and vibrant purple. Zarenda loved the grounds and spent a lot of her time there as opposed to indoors, it was all simply too beautiful to ignore, even if it was just magic keeping it that way, that's what she loved about the craft.

Zarenda watched Phantom swing the front door open creaking on it's hinges and he vanished behind it, never suspecting her even once. She felt relieved like never before to be back home, though it was a bittersweet feeling, knowing what was lurking among them. Before following him back inside she pressed herself against the most shadow covered wall she could see and allowed herself to finally stop channeling her spell of invisibility. Her golden skin and jet black hair took form once more, and she felt her head spin terribly. She leaned against the wall for a moment to catch her breath, channeling the same spell all day and then a different spell for about the same length of time had left her mind somewhat scattered. She breathed deep and decided that as much as she wanted to thwart Phantom right away, she couldn't do it hungry or tired, caution was imperative for who knew what Phantom was truly capable of? She composed herself after a few moments, and rolling her shoulders back, she headed for the front door. She swung it open with authority, like she wasn't afraid of being seen at all. If anyone asked her where she'd been she would simply tell them she'd been out on the town (which was something she often did anyway). She strode as casually as she could into the kitchen where she grabbed the first loaf of bread she found and crammed as much of it into her mouth as she could. She scoffed it down hungrily and filled a mug with water from the nearest barrel. After several mugs of water, some salted pork, and a rather large slice of cake which probably had been someone else's, her hunger finally went away and decided it was time to get some sorely needed rest.

On the way back to her quarters she saw how unnecessary her cover story for where she had been all day and night was, as there was no one up and about at all. The hour was late and so all the mages, and likely Phantom as well were all in bed. She walked to her quarters and locking the door behind herself, threw herself onto her mattress,"I'll never leave you again," she joked softly into her pillow. She thought about tomorrow, she still had plenty left to do, she wondered how confronting Phantom would go and if he would put up any resistance once he was found out, surely he would. She'd left Urdin to find something out if he could as well, maybe he had learned something, but she would have preferred if he had found nothing if she could just know he was safe, it was a risky plan to have him break into Phantom's chambers. She could have gone and found him now, but it was very late and there was no reason to go knocking on other people's doors at this hour anyway, she was just going to have to find out tomorrow, and besides that, she was so very very tired. Before she even had another moment to dwell on her thoughts, she was fast asleep. Tomorrow would have to wait.