Chapter 10 ( A Fawn, A Paladin and Sorrow Untold)

Meanwhile Back in Putrid Hold…..

Commander Miralania was issuing commands to the squadron to attack the city of Anvilmist,” Kill the people of Anvilmist leave none alive. The Devil commands that you bring back to me all their skulls!” The young faun shivered slightly with revulsion as she fought to keep her composure. 

 Valudaz left to do what he was bid to do. He came upon the house of a old couple that screamed and cried as he pushed though the door and his plate boots clanked on the wooden flooring. Their cries were distant in the back of his mind. Like somewhere in a dream. He killed them mercifully in one blow and pillaged the skulls from their dead bodies and shoved them into a brown burlap bag cursing Lucifer with every stroke. 

He stormed out of the door and cursed some more under his breath and then from out of nowhere he turned left at the street lamp and walked down the street as if he knew where he was. He stopped for a few moments trying to still the echoes of the screams from his mind. Turning around in circles holding his gauntleted hands to his head and breathing very hard. He shook and screamed a silent scream of rage and pain. He began walking again aimlessly or so he thought chopping heads off here and there as people ran screaming about and shoved each one into his satchel. Every now and then he would stop to wretch violently on the side of the street.

As he neared this one house his head cocked to the side and looked questioningly at it and tried to place it but somehow the memory seem just out of his grasp. He walked up the steps and opened the door with a loud bang as it slammed into the wall behind him. He tried desperately to grasp the door and keep it from hitting the wall, but it always seemed just out of his grasp. As he looked around slowly, his cape swirled around his ankles as he caught a glimpse of a large book on an elegantly carved wooden cabinet and went to it. He picked up the leather bound book and sniffed it and shaking his head at how familiar the scents of jasmine and dragon’s blood smelled to him but couldn’t place it. 

Shaking as he opened the front cover of the tome he saw the title , “ Journal of Alitha Stormyst.” He leafed through the pages because he couldn’t help himself. Looking through the book, he found the last entry dated a month and a half ago. His head tilted as he struggled to remember. He read her entry out loud and it broke his heart and soul to hear the words aloud.

“ In the darkness of my mind , where shadows slink and dance. Mesmerizing Time and Space as if by mere circumstance. Life moves on like I knew it would. I wish there was someone, someone who understood the pain and loss I feel with the loss of such a powerful love and a wonderful paladin. The darkness calls to me from the corners of the room, reminding me my prince will never come home.

 Many tears have fallen, too many for me to count. I feel so alone. So alone ,I cannot explain. I am a human! I was supposed to die before him! I am so alone. Thibideau came by yesterday and told me Daz’s sepulcur was finished and all they needed to do was find his body. How can we even move on without a body? Everyone lies. Time doesn’t heal all wounds it just makes you numb to the pain. I was so excited to find I was with child, then Daz died. I lost our beautiful baby and now I have nothing to live for anymore! I lost so much blood I almost died, somehow, I wish ,I had died so I could be with my prince. My prince, my love, I’m so cold in our huge bed alone.”

Valudaz pulled his satchel off his shoulder and place the book inside and closed the flap hasp as flashes of remembrances flooded his mind sickeningly fast. Holding his head , he bent over and vomited knocking a candle holder they had gotten on their wedding day off the cabinet as he wretched violently hearing the still quiet voice of the light emerging” Fight Valudaz! Fight!”. Reaching down he picked it up and looked at it with confusion he couldn’t quite place how he knew it. And from the depths of his soul he shouted,” The Power of shit cunts compels you!” and stomped loudly on the wooden floor. Only a puff of wind blew by and nothing happened. HOwever the rememberance of the cleansing spell was still etched in his memory. Excalibur kept him alive but his memories were inhibited somehow. He shook his head trying to get his head straight. 

Upstairs… Alitha , resting in bed recuperating from her miscarriage heard the candle holder fall, and someone vomiting in her house, and then Daz’s voice yelling. She quickly got up and grabbed her dagger. She edged her way to the top of the stairs and stealthily slipped down them to the first landing. Looking through the banister she could see plate armor and a tall man standing in her living room. Standing up she took a chance and moved down the stairs then he turned and she saw her undead husband. Gasping she put her hand to her mouth. But the Paladin heard her and turned to see his beautiful wife standing there on the stairs in her gown with her belt securely upon her waist containing the dagger he bought her on their honeymoon. She had begged him for about 3 seconds and he relented because he could never tell her no.

She ran down the stairs, saying,” Daz! My love! I thought you were dead!” Then the young woman stopped short as she heard the screams from beyond their home and tightened her belt around her waist. Valudaz stood there and shook uncontrollably as he heard Lucifer’s voice in the back of his mind whispering.” Kill them all, leave none alive, and bring me the skulls.” Daz! Answer me my love. Where have you been?” Then he looked up at her and his shining white eyes were now emanating electric green ethereal light and his fate dawned on her heart.” Oh no, Daz! You are an Undead Palid!” Shaking his head and fighting not to strike her with the great sword he carried. He spoke in a great raspy voice of death. The words rumbled out unbidden by him. He could not stop them anymore than one could stop a flow of water. 

” Alitha, I must kill you, I have to do what he says.” Banging the side of his head he growled,” I can hear his voice telling me to do it even now, I have to obey him.” His wife paled and spoke,” His wife looked at him and  softly from her place on the stairs, “What did he do to you? No Daz ,you don’t have to kill me, he won’t know, he won’t know, I’ll stealth away from here and he won’t know.” Struggling with the remnants of his soul,” Alitha, I , I must kill them all and bring him the skulls.”

Raising his sword and struggling with himself, she knew then what she must do, edging lower down to the bottom of the stairs nearer to her husband. Her despondency had reached it’s limit even for her. Her mental instability of having lost both her mate and her baby were all too much and seeing her husband this way broke her soul even further. She felt as if she could no longer go on this way. She had not more strength to fight anymore.

” Please my love , remember who you are. You carry Excalibur, you could not be undead! Fight baby, fight it! I'm not strong enough to help you. I have lost so much of what I am. Why am I even saying this? Neither one of us can help the other!”

Shaking his head he growled loudly then flashes of memory came so fast , a wave of nausea swept over him . He turned and retched violently out the door. Standing back up he wiped his mouth and looked at his wife more clearly.” Oh Lili, Oh sweetheart, I’m so sorry. I tried, I tried to fight him off my mother. He killed her Lili and now he haunts my brain, He wants me to kill you. I can’t make him go. I’m trying to fight it but I am weak. I was in a coffin, I couldn't move.It's so dark. You know I hate to be confined, I couldn’t breathe it was so bad there were dead and rotting corpses everywhere it is awful.”

Alitha walked closer to him and touched his arm while slowly taking the dagger from its sheath and took a deep breath then spoke to her husband,” No mylove, I would rather die by my own hand than by the love of my life wielding Lucifer’s sword.”Wait !you said I weild excalibur!" Confused, Daz tried to reach out for her as her lightening reflexes stabbed herself in the heart. He was one second too short. “Alitha Noooo! I wasn’t going to kill you! “He screamed as she fell dying at his feet.” I always loved you my prince” She said with her dying breath. Her hand fell slack and the blade came free of her chest pouring blood all over Valudaz’s hands as he caught her body and gently lowered them to the floor. " Baby , please don't leave me. Please? I can't heal you like this." He tried desperately to remember the spells that could heal and only whisps of air blew through him. He held her in his arms for what seemed like hours and rocked back and forth saying," It'll be ok. It'll be ok." Then from somewhere deep within him the shock of all the blood shook his soul. Her sightless eyes looked past him as he tried to save her . Nothing he did could help as he sat there helpless to control anything. His beautiful Alitha was gone forever now. Anger filled his soul for Lucifer. His best friend had betrayed him so deeply."

Taking a deep breath and vowing in his soul Lucifer would pay for what he had done to him. Standing, raising his sword and screaming a primal scream of rage he cut off his wife’s head and placed it in a bag. Turning he went to the cabinet and grabbed  the candle sticks and for some reason, opened the cabinet door beneath and found twelve spell candles which he hurriedly put into his knapsack. Walking back to his wife’s body he gently slipped the wedding band from her finger and placed it in his pouch that hung from his side. He picked her up gently and carried her steadily through the door and placed her on a bench where she would be found and turned back to the house. He walked up the stairs and into the bedroom and found her oil lamp burning with luminescent light. In anger he picked it up and screamed as he threw it against the wall, setting the house ablaze.

He resolutely walked out of the house and looked back one last time as flames licked their way across their home. Mounting his horse he rode swiftly back to Putrid hold and turned in the skulls. He tossed the one bag with Alitha's head in it at Lucifer’s feet and it rolled free, her sightless eyes looking at him. Suddenly! Her spirit appeared and spoke DAZ! Fight him with all your might! Fight him! Come back to your senses! Don’t let my death be in vain! "Daz looked at Lili and spoke in a raspy voice,” I cannot fight him Lili he is too strong!” He turned and left quickly before any questions could be asked of him. Mounting his horse quickly, he rode out of the hold's gates. He wasnt riding for long when again, he saw Miralania out of the corner of his eye when she spoke in hushed tones.

“You there!” she said as she pointed to Valudaz. “You will come with me; I have something else for you to do before you join the rest.” The great Paladin looked at her and followed her to where her horse was tethered and she quickly mounted her undead steed. Looking over her shoulder at him she spoke,” Follow me!” She then took off at a canter towards the hills and ran along the edge of the chain. “Woman!” He growled.” What are you looking for? I may not be dead but I know these lands end at the old ocean bed that much I do remember. I remember when this was the middle of the Atlantic ocean.”

Pulling her steed to a stop she turned to face the elf,” There is an opening, a tunnel in this chain of hills, If I find it there could possibly be way out of this nightmare. Now, you can join me or kill me, your choice completely but I for one, am getting out of here. The Light is calling me out of here.”

Shrugging his shoulders he spoke,” I always did think that Lucifer was a big mouth ,son of a Minotaur’s backside! Where does this tunnel supposedly come out at?” Smiling wide and flicking her tail she shifted in her saddle and turned slightly, her plate armor clanking.” I-It comes out at old coral covered wreckage rumored to be called Titanic I think.” Memory dawned in his brain,” Wreck you say?” Thinking hard and sniffing the air like his father taught him to do, he shifted in the saddle and turned his horse slowly in a circle until the voice inside whispered,” Stop.” 

He gathered his reins tightly and looked over his shoulder and called,” This way.” He took off at a gallop and rode hard across an area full of undead scourge, kneeing them in the chest, with Miralania kicking them with her boots. Up ahead was a small canyon to the right where he veered and never stopped. Miralania rode hard to keep up but somehow his steed seemed to run faster than hers and he was heavier. The tunnel loomed ahead like a gapping maw of death, they both ducked their heads as they ran through twisting and turning with the way the tunnel turned. A small light ahead grew bigger as they reached the other side and exited into the bright light of the day. Stopping his horse he turned and spoke,

"The Chapel lies to the left of this valley up on a ridge. Just as soon as we cross the expanse of what was the ocean. And up on the other side.” The two ran through more zombies and ghouls that squelched their way across the land in sickening sloshing sounds as they rode hard and long passing many types of wreckage just laying on the ground it a desert wasteland where nothing would or could grow. The two rode hard up a mountain chain and. just as they crested the hill, the chapel came into view there where Blackwell and the Alliances of men were camped. Slowing their mounts they drew ever closer to the church. Memories flashed in Daz’s mind as he pulled his horse to a stop. Dismounting slowly he gestured for Miralania to do the same as he slowly but resolutely made his way to the doorway of Chapel of Light. Without realizing where it came from he banged on the doorway and screamed ,” LUCIFER! GOD is pissed at you!” The young Paladin’s teacher was standing at the altar in the front of the chapel as he did so and turned to look. “This is all the Devil could send to thwart me? ”Thibideau Forging said. He looked closer and realized it was Valudaz. 

His face went white as he realized who was standing there and bid him to come forward. His two favorite pupils over the course of his lifetime.The elf and faun walked slowly towards the front of the chapel making no move to become aggressive in any manner.” Valudaz Stormyst? Is that you?” Forging asked. A raspy voice replied,” It is Valudaz Plaguemyst now Forging, this is Miralania.” He gestured to the side as the beautiful faun walked up beside him. “ Ahh Princess True Shot and Daz, I assume you have come to kill me at Satan’s bidding?” Forging said as they approached. 

Smiling slightly so that his canines showed beneath his upper lip,” No, Milord, we have not come to kill you. The light somehow still resides within us both, we have fought Lucifer as best we could and have just found our way through the cave. Yes, we are undead, well one of us is undead. I still have my sword but somehow, somehow, I remember who I was and what I am.” The Paladin before him looked at them both with shock and surprise; no other Undead Palids had been able to thwart the process of becoming a minion of Lucifer’s will. Old Thibideau noticed the glint of the handle of Excalibur and smiled.thinking to himself," Well that is how he made it out of there. I imagine is was sheer strength of will that led the princess out of there."

Opening his satchel he showed Thibideau his bundle of candles, “ What are these for? I cannot place them but I know they are mine.” The old man looked at him with shock and awe and replied,” They are your consecration candles to cleanse impurities out of your enemies.” He looked him up and down and realized that Daz did indeed have Excalibur that much was for sure, strapped to his side. The blood red scabbard still glinting with golden runes. The old man stepped back and nodded understanding. “ Daz? Were you wielding Excalibur when the angel killed you?” Tilting his head slightly, then nodded assent.” Yes I was, why?” Fordging smiled brightly and became excited.” It’s the magical powers of the sword! That’s how you retained the Light within you. You never died, you went into a comatose state so that the runes, spells and enchantments and stones could properly heal you. It just took a bit longer to heal you because of the evil twisting that Lucifer and his minions caused. Turning to Miralania he spoke, It is quite heard to turn a pure thing into evil young one. It is good to see that the Light brought you home. Though I am sorry to say you did die. But you seem to be brought back in one piece. Do you crave dark sustenance? Are you craving the flesh of the living?” She shook her head no and he replied softly,” Your father will be so relieved that you are alive even in this aspect young Plaguemyst.” He said looking at the elf.” It will take some time to cleanse Lucifer fully from yourselves but you can do it.”