CHAPTER 4

The sun rose high in the sky, brightening the way and everything in it.  Although one can't say the same for the residents of cadesway street, the whole area looked eerily quiet, like they felt the darkness that invaded them the day before.

      The newspaper boy rode about delivering papers on people’s thresholds, only him and the wind walked the road.

    No.4 of the particular street looked strange for a start, neighbours never asked around who lived there, like it gave off bad vibes.  Of course, if they knew that was where the darkness that sufficed into their lives came from, they would have a different say on the matter.

     The windows were locked from the inside, the blinds were drawn and the door looked like it was being worked on by a wood carver of some sorts. 

Inside was a whole new story, despite attempts to clean the house up, traces of a serious fight still lingered. The table was broken, the lights were damaged and different kitchen utensils littered the floor.

    Upstairs in the spacious bedroom lay three figures, the Aratian prince Jason, his guardian and best friend daren, then a magic wielding girl who had secrets she couldn't let on but definitely a friend and ally of jason, terrena.

      Jason groaned as the sunlight invaded his room, he sighed and reached for the alarm clock wondering why it never rang, that was when the whole day before crashed on him. He stood up taking a look at his marked hands, the tattoos of the gem blade and the bracelet were.

        He moved to the bathroom shoving a snoring daren on the couch, his reflection stared back at him, a different person woke up today, yesterday he was just a lazy old complainer who always grumbled his aunt.

  On the bright side, you don't need the glasses again, yay! He thought sourly to himself,

    Daren stood up slowly while nudging terra, jason watched the sun lighten her hair making it sparkle a bit, he wondered why he never noticed that.

     An hour later he was on the veranda staring at the tattoos,

" power of illummino, great isn't it?" Daren said as he entered while munching on a bowl of cereal,

   "Yeah, I never knew it had so much powers" he replied,

  "I'm not sure that's all to the gem, " daren said,

  "Why do you say that?"

" well, when me and terra saw it at first, we called it a beacon to aratia, a way for marxis to get you" daren said,

    "Even now, it releases a kind of aura around you, like it expects you to do something else with it" terra said also getting into the veranda.

     Jason stared at the marks, whatever he was expected to do, he was sure he would find out later,

   "About illummino, he sort of visited last night" he said,

  The crash of a bowl breaking on the floor was the only sound that could be heard, jason rose an eyebrow at the way they stared at him in shock,

"What did I say wrong?" He asked still bewildered, he would wish he never said that,

  "By the gods, illummino was here?!, yesterday?!!"

      "Where did he stand?!!",

      "How did he look like?!",

       "Was he with aether?!",

        "Did he carry a staff?!",

"Alright!, I take it that by your questions, its been a long time since you've seen him" jason said stopping the barrage of questions thrown at him,

    "A long time?!, no one has seen illummino since the dawn of time!" Terra replied with an exasperated look on her face,

"Okay, maybe he was tired of being in the shadows, I mean light or whatever" jason replied,

   "Jason, illummino appears only at the brink of destruction" terra said,

"Well, that can't be good, he gave me a sort bracelet that allows me to go anywhere, worlds included" he said,

   That got their attentions,

"Then we don't need to find the faery!, we could appear in aratia and save time," daren said, excitement lacing his voice,

"Well, it doesn't even work like that, the holder has to have a clear image of the destination and since I haven't been in aratia since infancy," jason replied,

"Bummer, we have a weapon but can't be used, how convenient" daren scoffed,

  " so how do we find the faery?" Jason asked,

  "Usually, it changes the sites of its portal to avoid detection by the shadow warriors" terra started,

  "Somehow it ended up in downtown Texas, seems we're in luck" she finished,

    "So lets roll and before I forget, illummino said something else, he said in my current state I'm no match for marxis, I'll have to power up at some place called the temple of artemon?" He said,

  "It's near the point we enter aratia, we should be able to get there in a day with no delay that is" daren said,

"Is there anything else illummino said and you've forgotten to tell us?" Terra said,

    Jason stared at her, he still couldn't figure out what illummino said,

"No, nothing at all" he said pushing himself from the rail and walking in,

he saw daren talking fast with terra who shook her head, whatever it was, he would find out.

"You have to tell him terra, for your sake if not his" daren said while glancing at the receding form of jason,

"No daren, he'll never forgive me, who does that in this age?" She replied shaking her head,

Daren sighed, walking to the glass,

"If he finds out himself, it could be worse, you know he hates secrets" he said leaving.

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   The sun rose as well over the Aratia soil, it came to life with magic as trees shook off the dead leaves on them. To some, the sunlight brought both pain and anger physically to them,

     Captain regron sat under the sun with his hands tied to his back, he grunted in pain as he tried to take each laboured breath, he couldn't believe his fate.

     Despite pleadings to lord marxis, he knew this was where he would die. Under the scorching sun of aratia, he only had one regret which was submitting the queen over to marxis.

     He could have taken her to the shadow realms and bargained a deal with the other war lords who wanted control over aratia.

    His skin sizzled dryly as he slumped in acceptance, he server diligently all His life and this was the way marxis thought it fit to repay him, he silently prayed to illummino to protect the boy.

      A dry chuckle escaped his throat, him, a shadow warrior, praying to the god of peace and order, he really was losing his mind,

"Do you find your predicament funny?, because believe me I have funnier predicaments for you" marxis said from a boulder where he sat, regron for once cursed his very being.

       Marxis was flesh and blood with magic therefore he could stand the sun, while him, a creature born from the very depths of the abyss. 

   He raised His head a little as Marxis got closer,

"Believe me when I tell you I'm touched by your condition" he said with a false sad look,

"I asked for the head of the prince and the gem, but you brought me the queen which I thank you for" he said, 

"but you defiled two of my direct orders and wasted two veratus" he continued with a clicking sound coming from his throat,

   "Now I have to get another captain which were heregas words so to say" he lied,

I hope you choke on that bastard regron thought,

"And by order of posts, I have to give it to your assistant" Marxis said,

  Regron smiled faintly, giving it to yerof, his son meant securing his own death, he was contempt knowing Marxis would suffer at the hands of his son,

"Unfortunately, I couldn't believe it when I heard he had been killed by resistance fighters on the coast of batell" He said with a mischievous look on his face,

  He paused to allow the truth sink in, the truth hurt like hell, literally.

Regron trashed about in anger, ignoring the deadly pain that enveloped his body,

Bastard!, murderer!, his mind kept on yelling but to no avail, he couldn't talk.

   Marxis sighed with a satisfied look on his face and then he continued,

"So I wondered who would fill your position and came up with nothing" he sad with a sad look and then brightened his face,

"That's when I remembered the fallen warrior!, the vixen of the age of death!, she was locked up at the dungeons of the abyss, and with a little persuasion of Herega, I was a able to release her" he said,

  Regron pondered who it might be, he didn't know of any female warrior of his ranks that fought during the war, the only female warrior that was known.......

No!, he can't be that foolish to release her he thought in horror,

"Yes, I released her, derora, come say hello to your predecessor, will you?" Marxis called out,

   And from the shades stepped out the only foul creature that could scare any other of the abyss, derora the ripper, the only shadow warrior so foul, she could withstand the fiercest ray of the sun.

She was heregas ultimate warrior and mistake, the only shadow warrior to challenge herega to a Battle of death, most people heard herega won easily and locked her up as punishment for mutiny, but those of them that witnessed the battle knew the truth.

     Herega had to beg the interference of zaymor, God of the abyss and land of the dead for help, a disgrace to the daughter of drador.

The two of them fashioned a cage that would absorb her powers and channel it to herega.

    Regron couldn't understand why herega would permit marxis to release her and most importantly what she was doing under marxis command when clearly, she could kill him.

Unless he went behind the back of herega and somehow found a way to release her while holding her bound to him, he smiled painfully wishing to see the end of this drama.

   He looked up to meet the piercing black eyes with dull red irises that swirled, her face was like a carved stone that neither changed expression. Marxis smiled contemptibly,

"I think its time we sent you to oblivion, I for one am getting famished and need to replenish my energy" he said turning and gesturing to derora to end him.

   He sighed and closed his eyes, it was better this way, he wouldn't have to stare into the eyes of the demon inside a demon, he thought of his beginning, his ascension out of the pit, his life as a proud warrior, and his end as it came with a dark blade taking his essence away.......

***********

    Jason trudged on with his gang of Merry friends that were with him, they had searched for the faery for over an hour with no clear results, obviously it was either terras magical beacon was going hay wire due to the look on her face or the faery had a hand in it.

He jumped over a rock while scanning the horizon, he'd been counting ricks and boulders since they got on the terrain, a jag edge here, a jag edge there......

" hey guys!, over here!" He cried,

Terra turned with a face that was clouded with confusion while daren trudged up in his wolf form with his tongue hanging out, jason would have to talk to him about that,

"I've been counting rocks since we got here" he said,

"Great, so you called us back to show us a rock, nice work ikir" daren said morphing back to human form,

Jason ignored him,

" and we've passed this particular arrangement over and over" he said,

"So you're saying we've been going round?" Terra said,

  "Then that means its here" daren quipped,

"So where is it?" Jason said,

"I wondered when you lots would notice" a croaky voice said behind their backs that scared the living daylight out of them.

They turned to see a short man with a blue face, pointy ears and black eyes with a dull red iris that spooked creatures, he also had a smile that makes you know you're on enemy ground,

"So" he started,

"Who wants to strike a deal?"....

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