The Arkady Chronicles

Laughter invaded the solitude of the otherwise somber flowing stone, and iron bars. Behind walls, in a room barred from all other existence, raged a man in maniacal humor. His hair was long, and fiercely tangled, as was the beard that hung down to between his knees. His body was bent, and strange, seemingly unnourished, and unkempt, yet strong beyond mistake. His slender, soot stained hands banged and hammered at the stone walls, as a tirade of laughter and insanity spewed from his mouth.

"MALICHAIIEEEE…!" His scream pierced again, perhaps for the first time discernable from gibberish. "HE'S COMING, SYNDRAL… MALICHAI'S COMING FOR HIS REVENGE!!!"

In a place somewhere beyond reason, beyond what any had known as reality, a young man stood facing the ghosts of his present, past, and future. Gnarled tree's peppered the dark, holding communion with memories and specters of all shapes and sizes. Few could be seen, but in their greatest testament, they all whispered about everything here. In this forest of dream faces, he stood to behold the face of a familiar stranger. A face like his, in some time, still far older and wiser than he has ever been.

"Syndral…" Lucian's words fell like snowflakes on a burning bush. "FATHER…?"

The face, a snarled and bent rendition in the living wood of some impossibly large tree churned a bit, it's eyes opening, to behold the youth with a glowing light.

"Who is this that mocks the fallen Razahhhaahh…?" The voice ground into his very soul.

In the distance, from the dark mists that whipped about, here and there, formed a glimmering, something out of fantasy and legend.

"Father… " His voice faltered a bit. He steeled himself, and stepped forward as if to give the tree a clearer look upon him, or perhaps for a closer look upon the tree. "Syndral, it is I, Lucian… The current Raza of Arkady, and Ch'Ka…"

The forest of the dead came alive, each tree beginning to move about angrily, leaves and limbs whipping about in a mockery of once held life.

"LIEEES!!!!" Whaled the tree that was once Syndral, and soon a chorus rose among his kin.

"STOP…" Lucian shouted, nearly in vain. "Why have you brought me here?"

"PERHAPS…" In the distance amid the dazzling light and mists came something of structure and substance. A Castle shined in the distance, made seemingly of black onyx. A shape nearly formed of the darkness beyond, a figure of cold blackness. All sound died, and the form vanished again.

Lucian turned, and beheld what had just recently formed of nothing. A great deluge of black, rank water washed over him, from all sides. Lucian shook vigorously, like some large animal, and then turned again to the keep.

From behind, then, he heard a sound that was like none he had ever heard. It's very alien nature envoked the most primal fear in him, and he looked about mayhap to see what it was, but saw only darkness.

"Who's there?" He shouted into the nothing, but his eyes fell to the small creatures flopping about and gasping on the ground. Each of them had eyes like children, but their bodies were sleek, slender and rubbery. They had two long clawed, and webbed hands, but instead of legs, there were two slits dug into the rear quarter. They, like the gills beneath their infantile eyes opened and closed, in a mockery of breathing, but purchasing nothing, and giving less.

"What is this?" He cried. "Why have you brought me here?" His question was answered only by that fear evoking sound, this time seeming all the closer. Lucian caught his breath and cleared his thoughts, pushing back the vortex" offering of fear, and defeat. He turned and made an effort toward the Structure in the darkness.

He tried to believe that he wasn't running, but deep inside he felt himself being paced by the creature. It came to him once or twice that he was being herded toward the Castle, but it didn't slow him at all. He somehow felt that perhaps safety would be found there.

"The tides will wash you back ashore, young Arkady…" The voice was familiar, and yet strangely alien, and it came from some place ahead of him. "Your destiny is at hand…"

As Lucian passed into a clearing in the forest, the trees and limbs twitched, and threatened to grab him, yet he stayed well out of their reach. They, each of them, whispered some obscenity at him, but he forced his mind to fucus upon one voice, that voice that sounded so familiar to him. As it came again turned to look at Seira; at once aged, and young beyond recognition. He started a bit.

"Seira…?"

"Is of little consequence… you are the harbinger… you will bring about the change… it is so woven…"

"Seira, you seem so different…" He stepped closer to her, and touched her cheek.

"The loom can not be held,…" He watched the words fall from lips that spoke completely different sentences. He stepped back, away from who he thought he knew. She smiled kindly and warmly, but the words that her mouth formed simply didn't match the words that came out.

"Your fate… the fate of all Arkady is written…" The girl laughed soundlessly. Lucian, unnerved, turned to walk away, but came to face the figure in the darkness.

"Listen to her, boy… she speaks with the voice true…" The voice, the man was somehow familiar.

Lucian steeped away… "Who…?"

"Truth, Lucian, is such a rare commodity among your lot… "

"You know me… how? WHO ARE YOU?" Lucian was near furious, and moved to grab the man, but paused as the man reached up, and pulled back the hood. From the dark cloak emerged a darkly handsome face, far to much like Lucian to be a mistake.

"Dru…" Lucian hissed the name with an ire that was nearly tangible, but with a wave of his hand, everything changed.

They stood in a round chamber, perhaps 30 meters in diameter. In the floor to what he could only assume was north fell a stair caste that seemed to clime the wall beneath in a great circle. The walls, and floor of this room were of smooth glass, the walls translucent like smoke captured in pure ice. The floor was black, and opaque to the point of reflectivness. There was no furnishing here, but somehow it seemed full.

"What…"The man mused, charm and condescending dripping from his words. "Is that any way to greet a brother?"

"No… " His hand was at his side, in the first portion of an instant, and a blade was held there by the end. "But father always looked down upon killing of siblings… What the hell do you want?"

"Draw your blade if you will, infant," He laughed heartily. "None of this is real. Upon the morrow we will each awaken, in our own beds… I'm only here to warn you…"

"Warn me…?" Lucian cocked his head. "You're a dream?"

"I never said that… though we -are- in dream. The playground of your feeble little mind." He shook his head, and through the smoke of the walls the outside scenery blended together, masked by a thick, white haze. "That's of little concern right now… The vortex… you've taken it, I assume?"

Lucian frowned, and took another step back, raising the sword. His mind searched his inner self and found the place that the heart of the vortex rested, and there he jarred it ever so slightly, prepairing it to come to bare. Dru smiled, looking him over, and nodded.

"Yes… I see. Well… Jacob has awakened… Myria's Sedates no longer contain his insanity…" He looked at his younger brother with an invasive reticence. Lucian shook his head.

"So…?" Lucian's patience grew shorter in the wake of his brother's arrogance.

"He speaks to Syndril…" A smile showed that he had expected Lucian's short surprised look.

"He killed Syndral…" His eyes fell to the trees at their backs, and specifically the one resembling the two of them. "Our brother murdered our father, Dru…"

"Listen, moron… Jacob suffers from the curse the same as you and I. His insanity, his very nature makes him a murderer… but he is still your… -our- beloved brother… and he comes now, with a portant…"

"Oh, wonderful… Dru, do you think I've forgotten what the curse has done to you?"

"My… Curse is not at issue here, Lucian… what is at issue…"

"HOW CONVIENIENT!!!" Lucian's rage nearly exploded, but with an exorcize of will it fell again under control. "Your curse makes you a l…"

"HE SPEAKS…" Dru cut in quickly…" Of Malichi…"

Lucian stopped in mid sentence, stammered by the weight of the words his brother had just spoken. Dru turned quietly on his heels and began to walk away, the very air of his retreat mocking. As he reached the stairs, and began to descend, the scene beyond the walls shifted from a white haze to a roaring storm that seemed to rip apart the very fabric of reality beyond.

"WAIT!" Lucian yelled, first in surprise, but then quickly recognizing anger, moved to stop his brother.

As Lucian descended the stairs, reaching for his brother. The man in dark spun, his blade arching out with lightning speed, and unbelievable accuracy, slicing through the space that Lucian had occupied only a split second earlier. Lucian looked quizzically into the face of his brother, to find a complete stranger with only anger, contempt and death in his eyes.

The attack was pressed immediately, the man charging forward, swinging his blade with deadly precision, and animal veracity. Lucian stepped back, rising first one stair then a second and then a third. Each of the mans strokes came closer than the last, until it was nearly all Lucian could do to stay out of it's path.

In the fear and confusion, Lucian hadn't noticed the feeling welling inside him, and as he fell backward, the man on the stair below him raising his deadly weapon for the final strike, every emotion and feeling inside him exploded outward. It caught the murderous man completely by surprise, tossing him down, and away, casting his blade aside as he tumbled down the flight of spiral stairs they now stood upon.

Through the glass wall, Lucian watched the man tumble to a rest just beneath him. Anger took him swiftly, and Lucian had his blade in hand in seconds, storming down the spiraling flight. The man, the being that once was his loathed brother, was trying to regain his footing when Lucian reached him. He was bent forward, trying to shake his disorientation off. With a swift and angry stroke his head came free of his shoulders.

Lucian kicked the headless body over, anger still fresh in his heart. The body slumped lifelessly, and began to desolate into the glass staircase. Lucian cast a glance around, seeing the head again. He moved over to it, and grabbed the mop of messed hair, and turned it to face him…

Stunned, and stupefied he glanced into his own lifeless eyes.

Lucian awake with a warm, and sickly feeling that spread from deep inside of him. He cast a quick glance around the lavished apartment, becoming instantly aware that someone was lying next to him. A second later he realized the night before… time before the dream.

"You alright M'lord…?" Seria's voices was heavy with sleep, and misted by the fog of dream, but she rolled onto her side, sipping her arm around Lucian's midsection. Lucian, grabbed the arm, and began to push it away, sliding from beneath the covers. Seria's eyes burst through her own dream to focus upon her betrothed.

"Lucian…?"

"SHHH!!!" Lucian hushed her as if the noise might awaken some unseen menace. The lovely young woman sat up in the bed, pulling the covers up more for comfort than to cover her ample bosom.

Standing near the center of the room Lucian rubbed his eyes before washing his hands over his face. He bent forward, spreading his legs to shoulders length, and then bent all the way back stretching his arms far over his own head.

"Lucian…" Now fear, more than confusion shaded the young woman's words.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing…" Lucian shook his head, finally. "It's not important, go back to sleep…"

"Damnit…" She sighed bitterly, turning back to the warm comfort of the bed. "You woke me for -nothing-. And I was having a wonderful dream, of you and I wandering through a whispering forest, and making love in a Castle of glass…"

This is part two of an ongoing series of the Arkady Chronicles, written by Cix Trybe. More is sure to come, hopefully.