The Search for Nathaniel

[_~DarkBahamutNeo~_]

The area around the Tomb of Mortai was cold, deathly colder than normal, there was no wind, just an eerie stillness. As one walks up towards the entrance of the tomb, one might swear they heard the screams of a thoasand souls trapped for all eterinity, as well as the power that was felt even by thouse with no magic or magic sence. Here is where Guldan would find Nathaniel, a sorceror and archologist who was researching with his apprentice about Mortai.

Guldan was surprised, the whole area had no sign of Mortai or her minions, which only made him wonder. Still carefuly sneaking around every bush, every step, he made no sound. Nathaniel, is he really still here? If so, why did Mortai spare him? Or is there more to this mystery than what apprears at the top? Guldan thought to himself. Suddenly, a noise like a soft murmur was close by, as if someone was sleeping. Walking ever so slightly, what Guldan found was an old man on the ground. He appeared close to 40 with brown hair that had a few white hairs in it. Nathaniel , so you are here, but why exactly? Guldan asked himself. Thing his decision over a little bit more, Guldan reached and touched the man awake, he once again hoped he wouldn't get striked by some sort of magic spell, this time he was going to get this "people" skill thing down.

[Destiny]

It had been a long and tiring day. After the fight with the evil minion of Mortia and the extremely long walk towards the tomb, he had not felt fit enough to try and breach the defenses originally put on the tomb. Most of them had been destroyed, first by his apprentice and then by Mortia, but some had been reinstated, just to keep the poor boy inside. He thought of the plight of his young apprentice, and was torn between wanting to scold him and save him. Well, the scolding would have to wait. No doubt the hideous knowledge of the evil thing done by him would be punishment enough.

He had heard troubling tidings recently. Of some stranger who was looking for him. Could it truly be one of Mortia's minions, or someone bringing help? He could only guess. This was foremost on his mind as he lay down on the hard cold ground, to rest for only a little while, and to regain his strength. Suddenly, however, he felt a breach in his shield as someone touched him and woke him.

As fast as his aching and aged muscles would allow, he was up on his feet, panting. He stared at the mysterious man in front of him. "Who are you?" he asked, his voice laced with distrust and hoarse with sleep. He called on some fire, which he balanced on his palm, a little threateningly. "Tell me, friend or foe?" He looked in the direction of the tomb. Could this be the foreigner who was trying to find him? And could he be trusted?

[_~DarkBahamutNeo~_]

Guldan looked slightly at the flame, so he was like Robin, he could call up magic at will. Thinking of what to say next, he thought of the possiblility of the fact that him asking around for Nathaniel, and it appeared to be true. Sighing, Guldan sreatched his fingers.

"I am sorry to wake you, I am a friend I assure you. I am looking for information about Mortia, I need to know information about here in order to destroy of at least seal here away. She is a threat and a number of us have decided to try to get rid of here. If you truly do not believe me as a friend, I will put all my weapons on the ground away from you and me, if you wish for me to do this." Walking a great few distance away from Nathaniel, Guldan made an attempt to put some of his weapons down.

[Destiny]

Nathaniel looked at the man tersely. He claimed he was a friend, looking for information on Mortia. He looked like someone from the north, but Nathaniel could not be sure. He nodded towards the man. "Information on Mortia, yes, I would be the right person to ask. It has taken me a lifetime, but I can now boast that I know more about her than any living man in Arysia." He sighed bitterly, full of anguish, as he thought of his poor apprentice, who had never really wanted more than to beat his master. "Well, I hope not, but I suppose that may be the truth of it." He did not explain more to this stranger. Why should he? He did not yet know if he could be trusted.

"Yes, put down your weapons," he said a little wearily, eyeing the man. "And I will put down mine." He extinguished the flame and then nodded heavily. "Tell me, who are you? Why do you seek Mortia? Do you truly believe she can be defeated?" He looked down. "What exactly do you wish to know? Do not worry about the seal. I will be destroying it soon, maybe ever now. There is some...thing...inside that I must seek out." He paused. "How did you find out about me? Who gave you my name? I presume you are the 'foreigner' that everyone's been talking about, asking about me."

[_~DarkBahamutNeo~_]

Guldan looked at the old man, he has found him, and he may need more than information from him. "I didn't come here for the seal, but I need to know about Mortai, more specificly her history, my company are seeking a way to destroy her. To your question on how I knew I would find you here, her name is Drea and she pointed me out to here to the tomb as this was your last know place you would be at to her. I am part of her band, along with two others, Robin and Roy, who are sorcerors like yourself. You may ask yourself why I am telling you all this, well it is beacause I need your trust, and I beleive that my sudden appearance with questions of Mortai may have caused an uproar," Guldan said plainly as he started his long process of removing all of his weapons.

"I may also have another favor to ask you, but I belive that can be asked after Mortai," Guldan said after a moments pause so he could put his weapons on the ground. I hope this works, I have thought of it the whole journey to this tomb. If Mortia knows magic, it may not be enough to have great assassination skills, Guldan thought to himself. Carefuly FLexing his fingers, Guldan awaited his answer.

[Destiny]

"Information about Mortia. Well, let me tell you this. In years past and ages unknown, a great evil ruled the lands, a spirit by the name of Mortia who was renown for her beauty and for her power, a woman both unencumbered by a conscience or by a person to restrain her. She enslaved many spirits, bribed and made deals with the others, and had a whole legion of minions. When her tyranny got to a limit that could not be endured, Raffelia, sorceress from the West, rose against her, and captured her in her native homelands. Raffelia was one of the strongest sorceresses of the age, or any age, the rumours say. She was only ten years old when she defeated Mortia. But she is long dead. Some legends say that when Mortia is released she will be reincarnated, but they are not legends that I believe in very much. However, Mortia is now free - because of my apprentice, I am sorry to inform you." He sighed heavily. "How many mistakes false and young ambition leads us to! If only he had asked me once. If only I had seen it before. But what can I say? He is inside, poor boy, perhaps dead. And Mortia is free."

He watched as the man removed his weapons, and was surprised at how many he carried. If these were the ones he was revealing, how many more was he hiding. He looked again at the tomb, but the man did not seem to be a minion of Mortia. There was no saying if he could be a new follower, though. He listened to the names he said, but they made little sense to him, except one. "I do not recognize any of the others, but Drea - I appear to have heard of her from my apprentice sometime. Is she, by any chance, the dragonrider?" Did this girl, friend as she was of his foolish apprentice, truly know how Mortia had been released on the world? Did he want to tell her?

"Yes indeed, I will admit that you have alarmed me. Also that I still cannot be completely trustful of you, but I my heart says you are on the path of righteousness. Tell me, how do you plan to defeat her? Are you magically gifted? Are your companions? You talked of some sorcerers, how powerful are they?" He paused. "The first step has to be finding out how many of Mortia's minions were killed with her, and then defeating them, for she is little or nothing without them. Alone, she can be empowered. That was what Raffelia did. But she had the element of surprise, and Mortia underestimated her. We cannot count on that."

He paused. "I will open the tomb now - to see if I can free my apprentice, if he is still inside, and alive. Will you venture in with me?"

[_~DarkBahamutNeo~_]

At least he trusts me that I may not be a minion, Guldan thought to himself. "I am not sure how strong they are, we only met at one night, and you are not the only one who doesn't truly trust me as well. Both have very different magic, Roy uses symbols while Robin can clearly use magic without them. To answer your other question, Drea is a dragon rider, and much like you doesn't completely tust me, only with the help of Roy was I able to be trusted this much with coming here to help with gathering information."

Guldan walked a bit closer to his weapons, picking up two swords looking at Nathaniel while asking, "May I take these weapons with me? You never know what you will find and it is better to be prepared than not. I can learn magic, but never have I learned, which brings me to my other problem. Mortia is a sorceresses and weapons alone may not be enough to harm nor kill her, so after we search for your apprentice, if it is not a bother to your time, I would like to learn magic from you. If not I will not mind, but take this in key, I am a fast learner, so please consider the idea. I also will no matter what help you in recovering your apprentice, if he truy is alive in that foul place."

[Destiny]

"Ah..." he said. "Trust is a complicated thing, difficult to understand. Just that you are here, still, means that you trust me, at least a little bit, on the word of someone you have met only a little while ago. And it also means that I trust you, if only a little bit, on the word of someone I have never even met." He smiled at his sudden philosophical mood, it had been a long time since he'd felt like that. Not, in fact, since his wife had died. The thought filled him within a sudden, deep sorrow, which was almost like a pain. "There are many ways of doing sorcery. But the first is obscure now, not used so often, and not as natural as the second. And yet is many ways so much more powerful." He had used both methods in his time, and he knew that both were powerful, if the sorcerer controlling them was.

"Yes," he said. "Take your weapons, all of them, but be quick. I assume you're adept at handling them, don't hesitate to use them, even if you're not sure, unless I say something. I may be good, but I am old, and age makes even the best of us less fast than we used to be." He paused as he considered the next few words of the man. "Teach you magic? Perhaps I can. There is - some magic - I wonder: what you be interested in infusing magic in your weapons? If you are good fighter the magic could make you peerless, till you might even be on the way to defeating Mortia. If you are good."

"I will try that, if you are willing, to teach you how to infuse sorcery into weaponary. But first our task. You have given me a promise, though I did not ask it, and now I am forced to hold you on it." He started walking towards the tomb, until he encountered the first seal. It was weak. He blasted through it easily, making a terrible noise, like a rip in a fabric. He walked on, single-minded in his determination, and yet shaken to the bones at the thought of entering that horrible place.

[_~DarkBahamutNeo~_]

Guldan was surprised that the old man had said he would teach him some sort of magic, what was better was that it would allow his weapons be stronger than before. Quickly gathering his weapons and putting them in the proper place as he followed Nathaniel into the tomb. Death was the first thought that crossed his mind, and not just a few, but what seemed like thoasands were all piled into this one area. Guldan then felt the incredible power emitting from the very stones of the tomb, How much was stored here? "How will we know it is your apprentice when we see him? He may have been disfigured from Mortai for all we know, unless you can sense him?"

[Destiny]

He stepped over some of the rubble, aware of a dull ache in his legs. It had been taxing, this last day or so, and he was too old now to be fighting the most powerful sorceress in the world. Perhaps he could help, but it was time for one of the younger blood to take up the mantle. Perhaps these young band of warriors could, Guldan and the others that he had mentioned. He gave the man a sidelong glance, and thought that he was not quite young himself. He looked young enough, to be sure, but there was something about his eyes that hinted at a wisdom that so young a person should not be able to posess. There was a mystery there, to be sure. Or maybe it was just the cruelties of war.

"He is a young boy," he said, in answer to Guldan's question. "Perhaps fifteen, sixteen. He might be disfigured, yes, but I might be able to sense him. I will look magically, and I would be much obliged if you looked physically. And be careful." He put out his mind to the tomb. He was careful - there might be many beings in their who thirsted to capture his mind. There was no sense, but there was some trace of his apprentice's magic. It led a trail inside. He started going on the path, then stopped and looked at Guldan, before beckoning him to come in with him. He also laid a finger on his lips, cautioning the man to be quiet - noise was distracting to him and might be fatal to the man.

[_~DarkBahamutNeo~_]

Moving silently as the old man sugested, he made not one sound as his boots touched each bone, stone, and crack on the floor. Guldan guessed he need the quite for the magic he was going to do, giving Guldan to look around. Each room was filled with power, but also lost history. Everything was perfectly perserved when Mortai was buried, it was as if the power perserved it by itself. Deciding it was unwise to touch anything, Guldan stayed and observed some more, awaiting the old man's anouncent that they had found the boy.

[Destiny]

He came up against another shield. And then he knew something was wrong. This was not Raffelia's magic, it was foreign, too harsh and too cruel. She never made shields like this. He confronted the possibility that the creator of this one was Mortia. As he observed carefully the intricate spells that constituted a shield, he came to realise that it was not Mortia, but one of her minions. Was that person somewhere near? He studied the shield for a moment more. Possibly not, but there was something hidden beyond that the creator hadn't wanted to let the people see. Maybe his apprentice?

He put up his own shield, around both him and Guldan. "Guldan," he shouted back to the man. "There is a shield here. I know not what will happen once I breach it. There's a shield around you, made by me, but I don't know how long it will hold. Move back as soon as possible if something happens." He paused. "If I'm not...concious...try to find my apprentice. He's just a young boy, and I suspect he's inside. He might be able to help."

He breached the shield, first time. A cloud of dust and stone was emitted.

[_~DarkBahamutNeo~_]

Guldan saw the cloud of dust blow over his sheild, Was that pressurized? Waiting for the dust to disappear, he saw the other shield covered in dust and small debries. Walking out of his sheild he went over to the other sheild, brushning some of the debreies and dust from it. Sure enough there was Nathaniel, looking determined to find his apprentice, sighing, he asked: "So are you going to lead? Or must I go on alone?"

[Destiny]

He coughed at the sudden cloud of dust and stone. He would normally have assumed that it was something natural, due to the natural age of the building and the wear and tear it must have seen, but the way the magic hummed around this area he did not think that there was anything natural about it at all. He frowned and walked ahead a few steps, trying to look through with his magic, but there was a shield there. It did not have the mark of Mortia, so he did not try to breach it. Instead, he took a turn to the left. He beckoned to Guldan to follow him. "Come on," he said. "We must try to reach the inner chamber. That's where we'll find our goal, if he's still there. If he's still alive."

He thought with a sigh of the young boy. For a moment, he dreaded to meet him. What would be going on in that boy's mind? Moreover, his failure was his master's failure, and it was his job to punish him. That was something he was dreading, because what more could he say to this boy, this boy who had already lost so much? But there was something that pressed even more on his heart, and that was to find that Mortia had already punished him by killing him. That would be the worst of all.

[_~DarkBahamutNeo~_]

((Sorry for not being on lately, well tired of going around the tomb in circles...))
Walking behind the old man, Guldan wonder what he would find in this damp evil place, or if anything was still left alive. When they made it to the central chamber, a young man was on the floor, pale and breathing hardly at all, perhaps dead. Walking toward him, Guldan stopped, all instinks yelling DANGER SOMETHING IS AMISS!!! Stopping suddenly, Guldan waved his head toward the young man while drawing his weapons, "Is that him? Well i hope u sense it, but I sense danger more here than any other place, even thogh this whole bloody tomb is evil, my instincts pick up danger here, so we should tred carefuly."