TRA: A Scarlett Tale

Chapter 8.5

Imp

The wind filled the underside of Etherious wings as he slowly lowered his body to the ground. Magic hung in the air, potent and powerful, stinging Etherious nostrils. Letting out a sneeze, he could feel his other shifting his weight on his back, obviously trying to stay on the large dragon.

This magic is foul. Etherious said as he lowered his body closer to the ground. Whatever kind of creature that used this magic cannot be of any help to us, *<+\>•!#=.

I don't think so. Imp replied, they communicated through their minds, an ability that all Pyroniams have with their other. He may be more useful than you think. Magic can be seen in all kinds of ways but there is no good or bad magic, only good or bad users.

Etherious quieted for a moment before replying. Well, you'll get a chance to find out which he is. Here he comes.

Imp turned to face the direction Etherious indicated and saw a Pyroniam approaching at a slow pace. He seemed a bit off, his scales taking on a sickly hue and his other... it felt that maybe he did at one point have one but now he was no longer around.

"Stay here." Imp said aloud to Etherious as he started for the stranger.

Imp made his way closer to the strange Pyroniam and the closer he got the more horrified he felt. The magic that Etherious called foul was right on the nose. Hanging at the hip of the Pyroniam was a dragon's head, kept alive by some of the darkest magic Imp had ever seen. It opened its mouth in a big yawn but didn't try to move more than it had to.

"I know, my friend." The stranger spoke softly to the head, indicating what Imp had already known. This head that has been kept alive for possibly centuries was this stranger's other. Imp couldn't understand why he kept only the head alive and didn't try to revive the rest of his other's body.

"Hello there." Imp spoke with a sense of caution, his hands already forming the necessary symbols to use an arcane spell if need be. "I am Im-"

"I know who you are, Impartis, keeper of the towers," the stranger spoke with a harsh tone that nearly caused Imp to double back, "and Etherious, gold scales... or would you prefer to be called silver scales now?"

Imp ignored the obvious jest about their appearance, he had chosen them, not for looks but to make sure they could reincarnate into empty vessels that couldn't grow a mind of their own. If he had more time, perhaps he could have made them more similar to their original forms, but time was not on their side.

"I am afraid we are at a disadvantage, my friend, for you know us, and we do not know you." Imps hands grasped the runes in the aether and began to mold them to the desired spell.

"I am... Hyphystis?" He turned away from Imp as though to hide his quizzical expression. "Yes, that name would do nicely." He turned back to Imp with a raised eyebrow, his tone becoming more sinister... or perhaps it was anger Imp sensed. Anger that one would dare intrude upon his territory. "Now, what do I owe this visit?"

Imp let the runes in his hands go, returning them to the aether from which they came. "I am here to learn."

"Learn?" Hyphystis seemed surprised by Imps declaration. "Don't you have access to the libraries of old? The tower's most sacred treasures that were sought after by kings and Gods alike?"

"I do and I have learned all that it could teach me." Imp replied, his voice going cold.

"I doubt it." Hyphystis responded, the corners of his lips tugging into a slight smile. "The knowledge it contains is much more vast than one could learn in a lifetime, even if that lifetime is extended by another thousand years."

Grall

The death count rises, Grall thought, as he sat on what remained of a golem, yet I find myself unable to care.

A bit of time passed as Grall mulled over his thoughts, trying to figure out if he was losing what made him who he is, his mortality, or humanity for a lack of a better word. It puzzled him greatly, before he was killed, he had been in many battles and taken many lives, all who were deserving in one way or another, but he always felt a sense of... wasn't quite sorrow, for he knew what needed to be down and wouldn't have changed it, but something akin to it. Yet, here he sat on top of a creature that deserved death no more than his own wife and child, killed by his own hands and still, he felt nothing for them.

Maybe, his mortality is fading the further he traveled through the spirit realm, or maybe, he lost what little of his mortality he had left when he sacrificed his own life for the life of those he cared for. The thought plagued Grall for a while as he slowly stood and gathered his belongings. He hadn't had long to rest, but it doesn't take long for the replacements to arrive and once they see the heinous acts he perpetrated on their brothers and sisters, they will attack him in full force.

"And rightfully so." Grall muttered under his breath as he strapped his worn leather armor back on. "But, they will not be able to catch me, not yet. I still have to make my way further into the realms so that I may find him and help him escape from this realm. Just one more circle to go, and we will be reunited, my son."