“So that was probably the second worst day of your life then,” said Eli, smiling.

  I purse my lips at him and narrow my eyes. What a cocky little fuck.

  “No,” I say. “While what’s to come was bad, that day was much, much worse. Nothing can prepare you for being dragged through the streets. Nothing can prepare you for the embarrassment and degradation. Absolutely nothing can prepare you for losing the love of your life in such spectacular fashion. That day was definitely the worst of my entire life. The day you killed me, very close second.”

  Eli cracks a small smile, and I really wish I possessed the means to kill him right now. As it stands, I can barely keep a form that he can see, so I don’t like my chances of that happening.

  “Go,” I say. “Go sit on your new throne, and I’ll continue my story. You’ll probably want to be sitting for this next part. It gets pretty grim.”

  Eli shrugs and walks over to the throne. It creaks a bit under his gigantic form as he sits. Hope his large form doesn’t break it. It’s an antique after all.

  “Comfortable?” I ask him irritably.

  “Enough,” he shoots back.

  “Good. Let’s talk about my exile.”

  ***

  I had spent my entire life in Incarta. I’d grown up working in the mines. I worked hard and always had the kingdom’s interests at heart. That’s why I’d gotten the promotion to Lord so young. That’s also why I didn’t really know anything else, so getting kicked out of my home was a major shock to my system. The vast world of Evania was really so new to me, I didn’t know where to go, really.

  I decided that I would try and seek refuge in the closest kingdom to the east, Underoth. There was no way I was going to Caelum Rift where that pompous wife-stealer ruled, so Underoth was the next closest place that may be able to use my talents. Though they were a kingdom of fierce dwarves, they still had mining operations, so I thought I’d fit right in.

  Upon arrival, they knew who I was, and I was not welcomed in. It was a nicer send off than King Regalia had given me, but it still wasn’t the place to settle that I had hoped. Still alone and distraught, I found myself wandering the countryside. Deep hate burned within me for those who had wronged me, and I had no idea how to get my revenge as I couldn’t even find a new home.

  In a tavern in a little town called Baltha, I had heard tale of a weird, dark force that had befallen The Academy of Solana. Apparently the elf king of Zelira had gone mad and destroyed the Academy, bringing his dark arts there instead. Intrigued at this power, and wondering what I could learn there, I stole a horse and made my way as fast as I could to the place they were now calling Umbra’s Veil.

  The Veil was the weirdest place I’d ever been, even to this day. It was a kingdom concealed within a wasteland. Not only that, but the elves there all behaved very odd. I was allowed inside, but no one there seemed very friendly. They all kept to themselves, like they were abused children trying to hide their father’s secrets.

  The funny thing was, once I got in and talked to King Umbra, it was his son who took a liking to me and took me in. Yes, that son was Eldryn, the very elf who served me for three hundred years, and the same one that now serves you, Eli. I remember our first meeting well.

  We were all in the lavish throne room of Umbra’s Veil, and Umbra was about to tell me to get lost when his son spoke up for me. He was such a tall, spindly elf. You would never think that he would go on to become the most powerful sorcerer in the land.

  “Can we not give this man some quarters, Father?” Eldryn spoke up as Umbra glared at him. “He has obviously been through much distress. His arm is broken for Solana’s sake. It’s not like he’s a spy. I have a spare bed in my chambers. He can stay in my winter bed.”

  The thought of a winter bed was insane to me, extra lavish for no reason, but I guess it was because it was a smaller room that had hot air piped in from a boiler. Anyways, Umbra was still not happy about this, but allowed me to stay for a time.

  “What exactly is this place?” I asked once we got to his chambers. “What happened to the Academy of Solana’s Light?”

  Eldryn looked like he knew he shouldn’t tell me, but he did anyway. “My father had to get away from my mother. He’s working on some secret project to help save Evania from some dark evil he sees coming. Mother never approved.”

  I looked at him sideways, not sure how much I should pry. Wanting to get the power to seek revenge on my new enemies, I decided to pry as much as I could. “Secret project?” I asked. “Something dark, I assume? Has to be to make your mother so mad.”

  “Yes,” Eldryn admitted. “I don’t know all the details of what my father is cooking up. What I do know is that my entire life I’ve been studying the way of Solana’s Light under my father. And now we’re looking for something else. Something dark. Something forbidden.”

  I sat down on the winter bed and waited for him to continue. Sometimes it’s best to just let people talk and reveal all their secrets, you know? And that’s exactly what he did.

  “We’re looking for the forbidden magic, Virmorphia,” he admitted. I just smiled politely, still waiting for him to tell me more. “My father believes it’s the only thing that’s going to stop the evil that is going to befall the Evania family. He’s seen dark visions of their demise. Tylowthus, the entire family, murdered. I don’t know how the dark magic will help, but I’ve been tasked in trying to help him unlock it.”

  Dark magic? That sounds perfect to me. Sounds exactly like what I’m looking for in order to take my revenge. “What do you know of this dark magic?” I ask, trying to sound like I’m just trying to hold a conversation.

  “Not a lot,” Eldryn says. “I know that Solana’s Light is something that takes decades to fully embrace, and dark magic is more taken by force. You get Solana’s Light through a baptism in a holy river that clears your mind and spirit of any impurities. The unfortunate part is that it doesn’t instill you with the magic that easy. It just cleans the slate. From there you have to perform studies, meditations, and prayers to learn the way of Solana’s Light. It’s a long process.”

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  “And this dark magic?” I ask, egging him on.

  “Well…” he sounds hesitant, “from what we’ve uncovered it’s a similar ritual to the baptism, but much more dark. Much more brutal. You have to go to the brink of drowning, the brink of death. You force the dark magic into your mind and soul when you are all but dead to this world. The power is absolute, and strong.”

  I stroke my chin, as if thinking. “So it sounds like you know how this works. Why can’t you just complete the ritual and take the magic for yourselves?”

  Eldryn shrugs. “We’re missing the key ingredient. Where you can get baptised and introduced to Solana’s Light in either of the Twin Rivers here in Evania, we don’t have the right elements to perform the baptism of darkness. There is no source of it in all of Evania. We suspect the Evania family has rid the world of it, the Virmorph liquid.”

  I give this some thought. “So, the element isn’t in this world any longer? Have you tried another plane?”

  Eldryn lets out a giant laugh. “Sure, Friend. We’ll just open up a portal to Baladan’s plane and see if they have any Virmorph pools lying about.”

  I tilt my head and look at him, throwing my arms wide to suggest that it may be the only way. What followed this was six of the most intense months of study I’d ever done in my life. I was driven by my rage to devour any text I could on the dark arts and what it would take to get this divine power of dark magic. Eldryn was with me every step of the way.

  Of course over time he learned of my motives, and he accepted that I wanted a taste of the power for myself. Eventually even his father Umbra welcomed my help in their studies, though I had little interaction with the king himself.

  Finally, in an old tome from Nimber, we found our answer. The arcane texts talked of a ritual that would open a portal to Baladan’s Plane. The only problem was, they weren’t willing to pay the price to make it happen.

  “I’ll do it,” I told Eldryn one rainy day. We were sitting in a side chamber of the library on the lower levels of the keep. It was where we’d often go to study away from the prying eyes of his father. Whilst Umbra approved of our studies, he always seemed to try and hover over us, ready to steal any answers we found. It was all well and good that he wanted the power, but I wanted to be the one to get it first, to control the darkness and use it for my revenge.

  Eldryn looked at me, shocked. “You want to do the ritual? I mean, you’ve read this book. You see what you have to do…”

  “Yes, I’m perfectly aware. Who better to do this than someone who has nothing else to live for?” I say, meaning every word of it. I was ready. It was either going to work, or I was going to die. Either way, I’d made peace with the outcome.

  In order to get more privacy for the ritual, we stowed away down to the dungeons. It was dank and dark, a musty smell in the air, but it was the perfect, private place to be able to perform the dark ritual. We’d procured the sacrificial animal, a woodland fox, from the woods behind Umbra’s Veil, and made sure we were alone in the dark dungeon. Everyone in the city was so afraid of Umbra and his wrath that there were no prisoners down in the dungeons. We were completely alone.

  The part of the ritual I regret the most was sacrificing the fox. To start the ritual, I had to kill it and draw a circle with its blood. This was to satisfy the animalistic sacrifice required of the beastly dark god that Baladan was.

  Next was the part that Eldryn was afraid to complete himself, but I was willing to do as long as it had a small chance to bring my revenge to fruition. I took the same knife that I’d slain the fox with, and pulled it across my right wrist. Blood rushed forth, and with my left hand I took the blood and drew a set of specific runes set out by the book. As I did this, Eldryn held the book up for me to read from. It was a strange language. Tongues I’d never heard before.

  The more of the runes I drew, and the more words I spoke the weaker I became. I wasn’t sure if it was the loss of blood or the magic of the words, but my life force seemed to be leaving me quickly. Just when I thought I would surely pass out and die, the runes began to glow on the ground. A new energy filled me, seeing that the ritual was starting to work.

  I chanted louder and drew faster. I was a madman, driven by my need to make this ritual work. I chanted faster and faster, and the runes glowed brighter and brighter, lighting up the dark dungeons. Finally, when the red light was almost blinding, a hole opened up in thin air.

  A wind filled the room as the red circle that appeared before us in the air pulsed with red light, electric like lightning blazing across the sky during the darkest of storms. The hole morphed and stretched until it was a full oval in front of us. It was an odd site. We could see the dungeon around us, and yet within the oval we saw a completely different space.

  It was a dark, magnificent chamber. Within this new world were all kinds of odd gadgets, technology that neither Eldryn, I, nor anyone in all of Evania had ever seen the likes of. I looked at Eldryn, and I could see the dark smile spread across his face. We’d done it. We’d opened the portal to Baladan’s Plane. And now there was only one thing we could do. We had to enter the portal.

  Of course I went first. I had been the leader in this entire endeavor, and Eldryn was acting like a scared little boy that followed me, though he was much older than I, as elves live much longer than humans.

  Going through the portal was weird. I was expecting some kind of jolt, or change in my body of some kind. Somehow it was just like walking into another room on this plane. It was easy to pass through. Looking back, I could see Eldryn on the other side, back in our world, hesitating to follow me. I shrugged at him and continued to walk through the strange new room. If he didn’t want to follow, that was his problem. I was ready to accept my destiny and get my revenge.

  It wasn’t long before we found the inhabitant of the dwelling we had entered. Sitting in a dark stone chair was a man. Though it was no man. It had the body of a man, but the face that very much reminded me of the fox I had just killed. It stared at me as I approached, utterly confused about the intrusion.

  “How did you get here?” the fox-man hissed in a low, demonic whisper. “No mortal has entered this plan in thousands of years. How is it possible that you are here?”

  I quickly bowed, hoping that the custom of being submissive was prevalent in this domain. It seemed to be, as the fox-man didn’t strike me down, though he very well had the power to.

  “I am Cosimir,” I said in my deep bow. It was at this time that I realized my clothes were soaked in my own blood, and I was a terrible mess, but given the ritual, this must have been expected.

  The fox just smiled his sly grin. “Welcome to the underworld,” said the fox. “Here they call me Glaryn. I’ve heard tales of mortals from your plane of existence, but never have I seen one with my own eyes. You even speak our language. Remarkable.”

  I found it odd that we understood each other as well, and then I realized that our common tongue likely originated from these other planes. “Yes, My Lord,” I say, not sure how to address the being. “We come seeking your divine magic, so that we may help bring your will to the mortal realm.” At this point I’m embellishing a bit, because I don’t really know if the fox Glaryn has his own end game. I just know that people tend to give you what you want when it lines up to being of greater benefit to them.

  “You seek Virmorphia,” said Glaryn, never losing his grin.

  “Yes, My Lord. The magic of our land is The Light of Solana. It takes a long time to learn and we’ve found it’s… it’s just not up to snuff for what we need to accomplish.”

  “Exactly,” said Glaryn, standing from his chair. He’s an easy seven foot tall, towering over me. I’d never felt so small in my life than at that point. “I appreciate this sentiment as you address me,” he continued, gesturing at my bow, “but you will kneel before me.”

  Without pause, I get down to my knees and bow my head.

  “Good,” says Glaryn. “Now, if you seek Virmorphia, you and your…” I glance up and see him gaze through the portal at Eldryn who is still hesitant to enter, “colleague must venture to the dark recesses of the Toroglade. There, your next trial awaits.”

  I heard Eldryn give a small yelp behind me, but I was ready for whatever else they required to get the power I needed. “Just show us the way,” I said confidently.

  Little did I know that the trials I had gone through to get this far were nothing compared to what lay ahead.