30 Days Of Undead Summer

Revelations

#FridayFreeForAll

Sándorné had not been completely empty of the undead. Holden Price rode through every village and town. Every forest. Every cave and mountain. Excalibur sang true with each swing as heads rolled. The heads of people he had not known but knew had some sort of life before. People who were once fathers and mothers and sons and daughters. Blacksmiths and carpenters. Soldiers and beggars. Nobles and peasants. All equal now. All lifeless. All to die again at the sharpened steel of Excalibur.

He came upon the charred remains of Raekinn's Institution of Mages. Where the great stone tower once stood remained blackened rubble pilled upon each other. Whatever undead had been there were gone. He didn't need to wonder how it had happened as he turned his steed away from the rubble.

From beyond the rubble, he found a hidden path, exposed by trails of blackened ground. Curious, he followed it along the meadow and towards a cavern. 

Groans of the undead rose from the dark. He couldn't say how many. He dismounted his horse and approached the dark open mouth. Along its sides were unlit torches and as he stepped towards them, they lit by themselves. From within a dozen or so of the creatures whirled about to face him and lunged forward. One of them had a mages staff. Holden cut through them with ease, taking the staff from the undead mage. He hoped it would come in handy.

As he moved deeper into the cave, the walls broadened and a soft wind blew across his face. A soft cerulean light lit the large open floor where shelves of books reached the zenith. These must have been Raekinn's library. How it had made it there, Holden didn't know but a part of him was glad.

"The Great Gods must find favour in you." The Lady of the Lake said, appearing from nowhere to stand beside Holden.

"Perhaps it is because I alone am left."

"Yet you made these choices alone. You were never summoned and proved your tenacity."

They moved forward through the shelves slowly. Holden, unable to read nor understand the texts along the spines of the leatherbound books, breathed a sigh of defeat.

"I cannot read these."

"Then perhaps it is time you... Great Gods!" Holden rushed to the Lady. She stood before a single wooden podium etched in flints of gold. On it was a large tome that had been left open on a single page. Holden did not need to read to know that it was something terrible. It was an image of the sun, blotted out by a massive hand of tentacles.

"What does it say?"

"Kimmerior - a creature of darkness." The Lady gazed up. "It is what I sense in the stars."

"Is it one of the Great Gods?"

"I..." she turned confused eyes towards him, "I do not know. It may have existed before them... the words are complex." Holden turned to the book, skimming over the nonsensical script.

"Does it say how to defeat it or anything?"

"No." She turned from the book and towards the wooden shelves behind them. "But perhaps the answer lies here." She turned soft eyes towards Holden,

"I thought you were merely a warrior passing by in need of help. But I think the Great Gods have chosen you after all."

*

End.