Waking the Serpent

Waking the Serpent

         As the cold wind buffeted the two dark figures on the mountain side, Xendra pulled her cloak tighter around her broad shoulders.

         Trained in the art of war since she was a child, the woman was tall and strong. Her inner strength reflected outwards giving her a commanding presence. Xendras calm analytical gaze alongside her exotic beauty inspired awe and admiration in all who served her.

         To those who didn't know her however, her strange appearance only inspired fear.

         All her life Commander Xendra Viper had been alienated by the very people she had fought to protect.

         It had made abandoning her duty that much easier.

         As Xendra urged her numb limbs to carry her up the steep mountain trail, loose stones crumbled and slid away under her feet. She flung her arms up into the air, struggling to maintain balance, but only ended up sitting down hard on the snow covered rock. She let out a gasp as she landed.

         If she wasn't so numb she would've winced.

         Slowly, Xendra put her hands down to stabilize herself as she attempted to get her feet underneath her, but merely squirmed feebly on the cold rocks, stiff limbs refusing to obey her.

         Xendra hated the cold.

         Over the years Xendra had fought in -and later lead- various military campaigns. For what seemed like endless days and nights she had endured horrible living conditions. By night Xendra had curled up in a ditch nibbling her meager rations -for supply trains were rarer those days- before attempting to get as much rest as possible on the bare ground. During the day she had fought alongside fellow soldiers, struggling painfully for every inch of ground as they pushed back the invading hordes.

         It was her decision to experience war on the front lines like that, as the adoptive daughter of Emperor Thundell, Xendra had been offered a position as an officer as soon as she and Thalon -her adoptive brother- had completed their training. Unlike Thalon however, she had wanted to see the reality of war for herself and the violence she had participated in had truly tested the Empires ideology. Xendra had held on desperately to those lies because she knew she had nowhere else to go, things were different now. While Thalon had distanced himself from the direct conflict and remained fully enslaved to the Empire, Xendra had been able to let go as soon as a new path opened up for her.

         Amongst all the hardship she had endured however, she had never managed to defeat the cold.

         Where the blades of enemies had failed, the cold had succeeded. It had seeped through her defenses, sliced through flesh and bit into bone.

         She didn't bother trying to get up again. The sound of footsteps on the trail above her had stopped shortly after Xendra had fallen, and were now lightly crunching through the snow back down towards her.

         Xendra used the stop to gather her strength and survey her surroundings. All around her the snow capped spires stretched away, the imposing peaks obscuring the horizon. The ever persistent cloud cover shrouded the range in a deep blue light which made them seem that much colder. Supposedly the byproduct of some magic unleashed long ago, the mountains were true to their name.

         The Fangs of Darkness.

         When she heard the footsteps stop beside her, Xendra looked up into the eerie silver in black discs of the mans eyes, which shone at her from beneath the hood of his dark cloak like a full moon in a starless night sky.

         The man smiled like a saint as he reached down to her. Her gaze slipped down to his offered hand.

         "Are you all right?" his voice was soft and smooth, his tone comforting and touched with genuine concern. It was the kind of voice that made people feel safe.

         She didn't think it suited him at all.

         She was silent and expressionless -numb- as the words flowed over her.

         The mans hand was as white as snow and totally flawless, as it hovered in the air she could see the blue veins wiring their way along just beneath the surface of the skin. When she finally reached up to allow herself to be hauled to her feet, his grip was strong and surprisingly, warm. That warmth seemed to flow through Xendra and give her strength.

         When she got to her feet that warmth was gone in an instant.

         As she felt the mans breath on her face she realized how close they were. Normally Xendra was noticably taller than the man, but with the way he was standing on higher ground their eyes were level.

         Above that warm smile his gaze was as cold as death.

         What looked at her from behind those eyes was not a man, but a monster that had taken dozens, maybe hundreds of lives to fuel its ambitions. Those eyes told her that she would be dead in an instant if she wasn't more useful to them alive.

         Realizing that it had been discovered however, the monster fled into the darkness and a human being stood before her once more.

         Xendra finally allowed herself to breath.

         "We're almost there," the man said, "My home," he added, "There we will be able to rest and warm ourselves by the fire. There are things I must tell you, and I'm sure you have some questions for me." With an intensely serious expression, Xendra gave him a buisness-like nod.

         "Lead on, Wraith." she responded. Despite her present condition, Xendras voice remained strong and commanding, and as silken smooth as a snake slithering through the grass.

         Wraith was not his real name of course, but the changing of the name was used to signify the transformation of a normal person into a Dark Magi.

         Xendra contemplated on this information in light of recent events, to keep her mind off of the cold.

         When she first met Wraith, not so many days ago, Xendra could have easily ended his life. She would have done so if any other Dark Magi had revealed themselves -the orders only purpose seemed to be the spread of chaos and destruction after all- but something about the way he looked at her, the calm and peaceful expression on his face, had halted the fatal thrust of her blade.

         His words had then shocked her into complacency.

         He had promised Xendra information about her past.

         Other than the vague assumption that she had been both orphaned and sheltered by the unstoppable war-machine that was the Thunder Empire, Xendra had forever been unable to unravel the twisted enigma that was her life before the Empire. She was the only one of her kind she had ever seen after all.

         Some of her earliest memories were of meeting Prince Thalon, a boy who had grown into her dearest friend -ironically, the one who would inherit the very thing that had dragged her past into the depth of oblivion- yet she had been a young girl, just coming into womanhood back then, most of her childhood lost to her.

         Despite being adopted by Emperor Thundell, the man hardly considered Xendra his daughter, but Thalon had always treated her with love and respect and he was like a brother to her. Thalon understood Xendra better than anyone, and the way he had so wholly accepted her -never questioning or insulting her for the strange things she did, and even encouraging her- made her believe that if anyone could help her find her past it would be him. Despite presumably being her senior however, Thalon had had no idea about who her people were or what had happened to them. He had taken no offense to her accusations of genocide, but merely stated that as a boy, the prince of the Thunder Empire had been as oblivious as the common folk to the details of numerous military advances. He had even exercised his privileges in an attempt to help her, but the war records for that particular span of time were either very well hidden, or more likely, never existed to being with.

         Although the Empire was far from benevolent, Xendra knew that they would not attack any peaceful nation or group of people. It had worried her greatly, wondering what her people could've done to provoke the Empire into exacting such a devastating punishment.

         Eventually she had resigned to accept her loss and move on.

         Until Wraith had approached her from the darkness at the side of the road.

         He had not merely rekindled her desires, he had lit a roaring blaze inside of her.

         Xendra halted her contemplations as the trail stopped abruptly. Before them was a sheer rock face, with boulders and rubble strewn all across the trail.

         Wraith turned and looked at her briefly before stepping forward. Upon his whim, a large portion of the seemingly seamless stone wall slid aside to reveal a dimly lit passageway.

         He turned to her once more, waving for her to follow, before walking inside and vanishing as the tunnel curved to the right. Xendra only hesitated for a split second as the warmth within beckoned to her.

         By the time the boulder moved back into place, the tunnel had opened up into a cozy circular room, lit by a bright blaze in the center. The floor was covered in dark rugs, and furs concealed most of the cave wall. For one person it was a sizable space, but with both of them...

         "I'm sorry, but my home wasn't built for visitors," said Wraith, smiling apologetically, "We'll only be here for a day though. Please try to make yourself comfortable while I make us some tea."

         Xendra nodded, and as Wraith moved to the stove on the wall, she pulled out her bedroll and unraveled it next to the magical yellow blaze.She threw down her pack, then untied her cloak and let it slip to the floor, revealing the armor and weapons that Thalon had crafted for her.

         In their last sparring match almost a year go, Thalon had defeated Xendra for the first time. Until then she had only been subconsciously mimicking Thalon's technique, but smoothing out the flaws so that she could defeat him. Although Xendra was physically quite strong, Thalon had grown into a giant of a man, and he had easily been able to overpower her. She knew that she could never achieve her full potential by copying a technique not originally designed for her, no matter how powerful it was. Instead she had begun developing her own fighting style, starting by analyzing the problems she had faced with her previous mode of combat.

         The most obvious problem had been the Empires standard issue equipment, designed to enhance their brute force style of combat. The wide tipped broadsword felt heavy and slow in her hands, and although immediately lethal, the wind up time required to build up the weapons deadly momentum had been too long for her liking. Instead, Thalon had crafted a shorter blade for her out of tantagium steel, the black weapon had a deadly curved edge that suited Xendras movement better.

         Next was the shield. A huge circular disc of half-inch-thick steel used to push the Empires way through an enemies organized formation, or outright bludgeon the opponent. Rather than bashing her opponents with the flat of the shield however, Xendra preferred the less common method of striking with the edge of shield, the forces generated in that swing capable of shattering a mans skull even through a metal helmet. However, Xendra preferred to parry or dodge her opponents attacks rather than block, so the shield was needlessly cumbersome. Instead it had been replaced by yet another tantagium instrument forged by Thalon. Rather than a round shield, Xendra wore a plated gauntlet, expertly manufactured to protect her entire arm while impeding movement as little as possible. Although she preferred not to get too close versus competent opponents, that gauntlet allowed her to deliver an unexpected elbow, or a crushing punch in close quarters.

         Finally there was the armor. Although magically lightened, the thick plate-mail still restricted Xendras movements, and she had jokingly told Thalon that she would feel safer fighting naked. That statement had not been far off the mark however, and so Thalon spent many weeks crafting for her a suit of light green dragon-scale that fit her like a second skin. She felt like that suit was a part of herself that had been missing her whole life.

         Words could not describe her gratitude and she had simply given Thalon the biggest hug and kiss she could muster.

         Setting down her pack and equipment, Xendra flopped down on her bedroll, letting out a sigh and a yawn as she stretched out by the fire, flexing her muscles to try and shake off the stiffness and the cold. She rolled over just in time to catch Wraith staring at her wide-eyed but he quickly turned away. It was then that Xendra realized that Wraith had probably never seen her in person beyond their initial encounter several days ago, instead using photographs and descriptions to recognize her.

         As much as Xendra loved the suit, she felt that it made her much more conspicuous than she already was with her grey skin and golden serpents gaze. It was Thalon who had given her the title, "Viper". He had simply thought that the name suited her and she had whole-heartedly agreed, latching onto that name as a clue to her past. However, that name, alongside her eyes, her suit, and her gruesome reputation on the battlefield, inspired looks of fear and shock in a great many who saw her, enemies and allies alike. Amongst Thalon and their soldiers, Xendra had felt totally comfortable wearing only those form-fitting scales, but within view of strangers she typically wore a dark brown hooded cloak that reached all the way down to her ankles in order to avoid unneeded attention.

         Wraiths look had been different though. He had looked pleasantly surprised, leering at the perfection of her figure as if he was seeing a woman for the first time...

         That expression had left his face by the time he once again turned to her however, replaced by the customary -benevolent- warmth that illuminated his pale features.

         He carried the wooden tray with him towards the fire, squatting down besides Xendra, he poured the boiling hot tea into a clay cup, smiling briefly as he handed it to her on a small plate. She thanked him quietly, and as Wraith sat down opposite to her he watched her curiously. Xendra lay the plate down and instead held the clay cup in both of her hands, not minding the hotness but instead letting that warmth flow through her hands and into her body.

         She took a deep breath of the tea's aroma, it smelled wonderful, a delectable mixture of herbs. She sipped the tea slowly at first, savouring it's
flavour, then draining it in one gulp. To a human the tea would've been scalding hot, but Xendra chugged it like water.

         Wraith tried to hide his amused expression by taking a sip of his tea.

         "So Wraith, what do you have to tell me?" Said Xendra, sitting up and crossing her arms over her chest. Wraith shifted uneasily but she knew he must've been prepared for such a basic question.

         "When I told you that I could help you discover your past, what did that mean to you?" He said carefully. Xendra smiled knowingly.

         "I assumed you knew who my people were, and that you could tell me what had happened to them, but I'm beginning to think that that isn't the case." Wraith nodded slowly as she spoke.

         "Yes, the fact is Xendra, that somebody went through a great deal of trouble to ensure that there were no traces of your people left, to make it seem as if they had never existed..."

         "The Empire." Xendra stated flatly. Wraiths' expression gave her doubt though.

         "I don't want to rule out that possibility entirely, but while they likely have some knowledge of the event I doubt that they were the ones who committed the deed," he paused to lick his lips before continuing, "As a commanding officer you should know that that simply isn't the Empires style, they want to make an example of their enemies and they would not miss the opportunity to use such total destruction as a psychological weapon aimed at any other potential foes." Wraith paused again as if he expected her to say something, but Xendra merely nodded for him to continue. What he said made sense, but she had simply assumed that the Empire was responsible due to a lack of available options. They had to have been at the site of the destruction in order to find her after all, and Emperor Thundell had considered whatever power her people had had, valuable enough to adopt one of them as his own.

         "The fact of the matter is, that the one who knows the most about your people is you, Xendra." he continued.

         "I don't know anything, my memories were lost to me," Wraiths immediate nod somehow gave Xendra a surge of hope, "But you know of a way to get them back?" her expression suddenly intense, she leaned forward in anxiety, "Tell me."

         To Xendras mild annoyance, Wraith took his time finishing his tea before responding, "Let me show you." She was confused when Wraith removed his black cloak, but began to understand as he lifted his shirt up then tossed it on the floor next to the cloak.

         Noting Wraiths chiseled features, Xendra supposed that he must've been a handsome man once, not that his appearance had changed much. But those horrible eyes and the terrifying implications they carried had tainted his image, despite Wraiths best efforts to disprove those assumptions. He gave her one serious look before turning his back to her.

         "Look here," he said, indicating his lower back. Xendra easily spotted it without Wraiths direction, a reddish raised chunk of flesh which wired it's way across his skin like the twisted roots of some hellish tree.

         "The Dark Magi mark all of their acolytes with a living spellform, the Symbol of Darkness at its center," he explained, "That spellform ensures that the acolytes belong to the Order, that if they try to escape with the Orders secrets, or disrupt that spellform in any way, they will be hunted down and destroyed," he smiled grimly, "It was the most painful experience of my life, but this scar represents my freedom."

         "The Empire marks their soldiers in a similar fashion do they not?" he continued. Xendra nodded, "Show me."

         Xendra watched Wraiths expression closely, suspiciously. When she was satisfied she began undressing, never releasing him from her gaze. When she pulled at the suits collar, the second skin relinquished it's hold on her, splitting down the middle and allowing her to easily strip down to her waist. Her skin appeared flawless, until she turned around, revealing the designs of the spellform wiring it's way all across her back.

         She said nothing, but simply waited as Wraith watched her intently. After a while, he moved around the fire and knelt down behind her. He noted the basic design of the spellform, "The Thunder Empires insignia is only a minor part of this form," he said to himself, "It is placed to the side. At the center is the Auzjeres symbol for sight...It's designed to control powers of the eye." Xendra remained silent as Wraith talked to himself.

         "I need to test this form, it may take a few minutes." he said. Xendra waited.

         Slowly Wraith began to trace the shape of several characters, which extended outwards from the central design, with his finger. Xendra noticed that Wraith began to slow down as she subconsciously stiffened at his touch, but she forced herself to relax, easing herself backwards as Wraith placed both of his hands on her, slowly feeling up and down the length of her back.

         This went on for several minutes with Wraith only occasionally mumbling to himself.

         As Wraith sighed softly, Xendra remembered the look he had given her earlier, she suddenly leaned away, shooting a suspicious glare over her shoulder.

         "What are you doing?" Wraith caught her eye briefly before replacing his hands, his expression fixed in concentration.

         "Any scrollmaster can read these words and symbols, but in order to understand them you need to use your own energy to decipher the rather complex energy patterns that the spellform creates as a whole, in order to have any hope of disabling them," he glared back at her, "An amateur would have set off a thousand deadly alarms by now." Xendra had never seen Wraith irritated before and she found the sight amusing. She responded with a childish snort.

         "Quite the mage aren't you?"

         "Yes, I am." he sighed once more before removing his hands, his suddenly serious expression stifling Xendras laugh.

         "Xendra, you know what has to be done don't you? If I don't do this, the Empire will find us, and more importantly, you won't be able to get your memories back. There is no turning back after this, are you sure that you want-"

         "Do it, Wraith." There was no hint of doubt in her voice. She had not come all this way just to turn back now. The moment Xendra had agreed to follow Wraith, she had wholly abandoned the Empire in her mind and in her heart. They had only been holding her back. As much as she had hated running off without telling Thalon first, she had had to seize the opportunity to do this for herself, before it slipped away out of reach.

         As Wraith nodded he brought his hands up before his face. The air grew tense as he called upon the Dark Arts. His features momentarily twisted in pain, trickles of blood running down his arms as his fingernails grew and twisted into menacing black claws, the needle-like points as razor sharp as cut glass.

         Xendra knew it was going to hurt like hell, but Wraiths words had given her courage. That pain was a minor price to pay for freedom. As she turned away she could feel her heart hammering in her chest -but not from fear- in excitement.

         As darkness descended over her, Xendra shot a quick glance over her shoulder, and what she saw immediately changed her attitude.

         Her heart stopped.

         She quickly looked away, forcing herself to breath.

         Just as Xendra had begun to view Wraith as a human being, as she began to trust him, the monster reared it's ugly head again.

         Those claws had become black crystalline daggers stretching out from the knuckles, his hands had been twisted into smoldering mounds of red flesh, he cried tears of blood as he forced the demon across the planes of existence, into his own body.

         From behind those eyes the monster watched eagerly.

         A great deal of pain was about to be inflicted and it was going to enjoy it.

         As Xendra looked away in a panic, she promised herself that she wouldn't scream, that she wouldn't provide sadistic pleasure for the horrible beast.

         Then she felt the molten hot claws on her back.

         She was unsuccessful.