Isaac, Lenna, and Alexander appeared in front of Edward. Alexander had telepathically informed the Guild Master of their arrival, and used a scrying spell on the Blade Master, to see where they were going to teleport to. They appeared with Isaac already sitting with Lenna kneeling next to him and Alexander kneeling behind them with a hand on each of their exterior shoulders. Isaac swayed slightly but Lenna and Alexander kept him from toppling over.

Edward looked down at them upon their arrival. He noticed Isaac's state and would have smirked at the fact that the 'all powerful black death' couldn't handle normal teleportation. This was not a normal day, nor was it a pleasant one. Instead, Edward just offered both Isaac and Lenna a hand to help them up. "It seems your-" Edward cut himself off with a grunt as he was forced to actually pull both of the pair up to their feet. He knew as soon as he felt their hands in his grasp, when they both accepted the hands that he had offered, that they were not in good shape. "honeymoon was cut short." He finished as he saw Isaac sway slightly and Lenna's slumped shoulders. She looked exhausted and he looked like he was sick with something a bit stronger than the common cold. "Seeing you two in person, and hearing about everything that you've been up to, I am wondering how pleasant your honeymoon actually has been."

"It's both a short and a long story." Isaac told Edward and tried to blink away how bad he was feeling with practically no success. "Where is she?"

"By 'she' I assume you mean Aria Tr'Bore." Edward said with a raised eyebrow. Isaac nodded in affirmation and Edward gestured down the wagon train. The area of tunnel that they had arrived into was lit by a dozen torches and some glowing stones which cast the blackened, blown up, and burned wagon shrapnel in a flickering ethereal glow. There was blood everywhere. "This way." Edward told them and started walking, slowly as he was keeping an eye on Isaac and Lenna as they went. He and Alexander exchanged a nod in greeting but that was all as the Court Mage followed closely behind Isaac and Lenna. Neither of them needed to actually communicate the fact that if anything were to happen, Alexander was to take Isaac and Lenna back to Safeharbor before bringing reinforcements, probably in the form of Marie and Sir Micheal.

"What do we know about what happened here?" Isaac asked as he scanned the wreckage.

"Drow raiding party, at least four mages and four soldiers. Fifteen dead and five of the eight horses. Seven mortals missing, presumed captured. The clerics had a ritual already set up to contact Aria Tr'Bore and Sam Trenson, the mage from the group of rookies." Edward explained. "They were about to start when Alexander told me that he was on his way and bringing the two of you with him."

Isaac nodded in acknowledgement of the information as they continued until they reached the front of the caravan where two large chalk ritual circles were drawn out with six quarts crystals set to power each of them. Harry Lovecraft was one of the clerics who had come along and he gave the duo a nod in greeting but then gave them a doubletake as he seemed to notice what kind of shape they were in.

Isaac froze as he saw Aria's body laying on a blanket. They hadn't covered her yet, because they were going to use her body as the connection point to reach her soul. She had a stab wound, through her left breast and out her right shoulder blade, perfectly through her heart. All of her clothes were soaked in her blood as the weapon must've been left there in order to keep her from healing herself. Her chainmail, that she wore between layers of her clothes, was punched through by a superiorly enchanted weapon and the broken links were visible in the slits through the fabric.

Isaac's entire world stopped as he actually saw her corpse laying out in the open. It was irrefutable evidence of her demise. There was no mistaking it. "Isaac." Lenna's voice came from beside him as he felt her heavy hand rest on his shoulder. "Let's talk to her. Ask her what happened, and, if she wants, bring her back to us."

Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

The last part of what Lenna said jolted Isaac out of his frozen stupor and he shook his head. "Y-yeah." He replied and took a step towards her.

"Ready, Guild Master?" Harry asked Edward.

Edward nodded. "Yes. The sooner the better." He stated and stopped just outside of the ritual. Lenna guided Isaac to stand next to him and Alexander waited just behind them.

"Reaper, hear my plea, as a being neither living nor dead, not aligned with any pantheon, transcend all borders and deliver a message for me." Harry began as golden power flowed out of him, into the ritual circle, and the six quartz crystals started to glow with white and black lighting fighting for control. "El'No, I beseech thee, let us speak to one who you have held in your embrace, let us converse with one of yours who fell before her time, let us bring forth the mind and soul of Aria Tr'Bore so she may grant us her wisdom. I call upon you, fallen cleric of El'No, Aria Tr'Bore, answer my summons and grant me the answers we seek."

"The Reaper?" Isaac couldn't help but wonder. The fact that he was mentioned in the spell was so utterly shocking that it overrode everything else for a moment in Isaac's brain. The Reaper was not someone who could be called upon, yet, he had now shown up in multiple spell chants. This time was different from before as he was not being contacted for something that he could do directly but rather to deliver a message as an unaffiliated party. It also made Isaac wonder if there was a different spell for contacting those who worshiped the same god as the caster.

All of the golden light coalesced above Aria's body and the quartz crystals all started to slowly dim. A projection of Aria's corpse, only animated, appeared made out of the congregation of golden light. She looked around from person to person in confusion for a moment until she realized what was going on. When she saw Isaac, she frowned and crossed her arms. "You look like shit." Were the first words spoken by her projection.

Isaac could help but chuckle. "You too." He replied with a grin that was decently forced. "Aria, we don't know where Cla-" Isaac began but was cut off.

"He's dead." Aria told him. "I made a deal with my goddess, a little while before we met you, actually, so we are together until my reincarnation and everything that makes me me is stripped away and used as fuel to give the next me a, hopefully, longer life. He is with me, so don't go after them if you would only be trying to get Claus back." She explained, knowing full well who she was talking to. Isaac was not the kind of person to put his life actually on the line for a complete stranger. Even when it came to his friends, he would balance the pros and cons before going all in. If Claus was dead, then the only reason he had to go to Contantis was for vengeance. A need for vengeance that was actively settling into his heart like drying concrete.

"Aria-" Isaac began again but she once more cut him off.

"We don't have much time." She told him. "This, right here, right now, is the reason why you would have gone into Contantis and gotten yourself killed." She explained. "Claus knew this too. That's why he killed himself. He was never going to be rescued, and, most likely, neither will the rest of those captured. Their fates have been set. Do not lose anymore lives in a vain attempt at vengeance or in an attempt to rescue those who were lost. May their gods and goddesses grant them a warm embrace, as mine has, when they die. That is the truth and fact of it."

"What if we bring you ba-" Isaac tried to start for the third time and was once again cut off.

"I cannot be brought back." Aria told him. "Nor would I want to be. I am here, with Claus, in an endless library that holds all of the knowledge that every elf has ever had. Live your life well, my friend, and I hope that it is far longer than you can imagine."

"Aria…" Isaac said and was finally not cut off. He gave her a sad smile as the pain of losing his first friend caused his throat to tighten and his vision to blur as tears tried to form. "There's really nothing I can do?"

Aria shook her head. "Even if there was, I wouldn't tell you." She told him with a smile. "Oh, one last thing, don't use my corpse to make one of your bone golems. We still don't know how that fucks with the dead person and I don't feel like finding out. Test it out on some Contantis soldier or something. You have enough money to waste on a Commune With The Fallen after killing one of those bastards. Definitely try to do it with that one with a very punchable feel about him. That was the guy that left his fucking sword in my chest."

Isaac chuckled and shook his head. "I'll try to figure out who you're talking about." He promised her.

"Aria, it worked." Lenna said from beside him. "Our strands of fate are connected, just like in the story, now he'll have another three to four hundred years for something other than age to kill us both."

Aria beamed and the quartz dimmed even further. "That is amazing!" She congratulated them on the granting of Lenna's wish. "Spend it well." She told Isaac. "And don't get yourself killed with too much time left on the clock." She flashed Isaac a grin.

"Ten seconds." Harry said from next to them.

"I'll try not to." Isaac promised her. "Tell Claus I said hi. I'll miss you both."

Aria flashed him a grin. "Fare thee well, Darkness." She finished and gave him an exaggerated bow before her golden form dispersed and the quartz crystals all went completely dim.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.