I got to return to my old work again and that was fixing up people. It didn’t take me much time and people just don’t get sick, hurt or something else all the time so I didn’t have to sit somewhere and wait someone come moaning for help.
  We didn’t have much to do really. After Derek told us to stop pestering Korrak and Sarian and instead let them do their work in peace, we were even more bored. Good thing Filno finally came up with a good idea. I could teach him some flight tricks and other stuff, he wasn’t familiar yet. Even Krasnjar told us, it was probably one of the best ideas we had come up with so far.
  One day we came across some large town near Coand. Apparently the people hadn’t abandoned their homes, but instead remained there. Ha, they had set up pitiful defenses too. They were civilians; real soldiers had probably been called back to Coand and rest was left to survive on their own. Coand itself was visible in horizon.
  - Can we go kill them?! I asked when leaders were discussing how exactly deal with them. – I could burn it all down with ease! No problem!
  As I mentioned, they were civilians. I wasn’t only one to notice that.
  - I don’t think they want to fight us, Chaz, Derek told me. – They probably think WE are going to attack them.
  - We are… right?
  - I don’t think we are.
  - You can’t be serious?
  - I am. They are desperate. Do you really think they think they could defend themselves against us? They just don’t want to go down without a fight, if we come destroy their homes.
  - Lets give them the fight then, Filno said. – You do remember they killed countless innocent people back home. Humans, elves and dwarves too!
  - Those were fanatics following either Zariath’s or Krasor’s orders, Derek pointed out. – And those we are going to go get rid of at Coand.
  - Cultists all of them! I shouted. – We should just kill them! What else could we do with them?
  - If you listened what is being said around us, you could get an good idea, Krasnjar told me. – What, if we just went talk with them? Have some information and perhaps there are some that want fight against Zariath.
  - They are traitors! They’ll slit our people throats open at the first chance!
  - I don’t think they will.
  You can guess no one listened Filno or me. Least I managed to have Lev go with the people sent to have a talk with the cultists. I wanted to know how far they could be trusted.
  Those cultists are always being so sneaky – doing things the way no one would expect them. Yet, Lev never found out anything suspicious. Let’s just say I was rather disappointed. I had to go see it myself.
  Derek told me not to hurt anybody, but he seemed satisfied when we told him, we wouldn’t do anything unless we find something that requires slight amount of violence. Ha, the people in the town didn’t even have food. It looked like they had scraped “food” from wherever they could and was least a bit edible. They told soldiers had taken it all back to Coand when they left. Funniest thing was that they thought it was better that way! You see, amount of sacrifices had gone up to celebrate the coming of their new god. Can you guess which one was it? I can tell you! The supposed new god name was Zariath. At that point even they saw it was all going too far. They gave us information about Coand in exchange for food. I saw it as my “duty” to remind everyone they were cultists and could be telling lies, but, yet again, I was ignored. Fools, I tell you!
  Most annoying thing was when I got bored listening that crying and moaning which was everywhere. I was trying to have a nice nap in a nice warm spot next to a fire with Filno, but NO! Some kid was so weak, from not having food or water and likely had some sort of fever too, that he was dying in hands of his mother.
  - Would you silence the kid already! I shouted. – It’ll be faster for him and besides we can’t sleep while listening that! Go die somewhere else, ok?
  The woman holding the child just looked a bit scared and cowered the kid a bit with a ragged blanket like it was supposed protect somehow. It didn’t change the situation at all with the child and mother. Though, some of the brave brave defenders of the town had noticed everything. Three men came with their pitchforks and silly looking wooden clubs. They first talked to the woman for a bit, but then came to shout at me like I had done something wrong.
  - What are they even doing here? One of the men said to others while pointing at us.
  - Go away! One shouted at me. – We had to endure you soulless monsters for too long already. We don’t like your kind here!
  I wondered how they knew, but Filno said the most likely option. We had been flying around several times and people must have connected which form belonged to whom.
  - What if we don’t want to, I said. – I’m feeling quite good sitting here. I’d just feel lot better, if those two would die away already.
  - No one is going to die! We are getting food to eat and water to drink! Go back to Coand where the rest of your kind are!
  - No, we rather stay here on the side that is going to win.
  At that point on of the men left to get some more people to shoo me away. Heheh. I suppose they weren’t so brave after all. Apparently they didn’t go get more of their friends, but instead Derek and Krasnjar.
  - Oh, thanks a lot! I shouted. – You just ruined my day! Now I have to listen some lecture all day about being nicer to people. Besides I’m just saying something that is quite clear already. You can feed the kid as much as you want, but he is not going to get any better. I’m sure he’ll cough his lungs out soon by the looks of it. Unless someone interferes.
  - We have medicines!
  - Haha, you think some weeds you picked up from the ground are going to do any good? I laughed. – What you need is me!
  - You? What could you possibly do? The man said. – You can only kill.
  - Oh I have heard that before. Watch.
  Yeah I was kind of trying to show off. I made it too big. Just a big flash again and whole little town was cowered by it for a moment.
  - It’s done, I said. – Go see the kid…actually I don’t think you can’t find anyone sick or hurt. You have ruined my day so I’m going.
  Of course I had to listen Derek moan me again about my show that I shouldn’t do it so unexpected.
  - Yeah yeah, I told them before they had chance to say much. – I should have warned before I do that. People might get hysterical, but, to be honest, I don’t care.
  - I don’t think that’s problem anymore, Krasnjar said. – Not after the events during the battle back then. You made yourself known. There are no others who can do what you just did. Heh, see. You just did “hello everyone! Chaz is here!”. You just reminded everyone of your existence.
  I turned my head and saw people lining up nearby already. Some of the people were kneeling on the ground praying something.
  - Don’t you know they believe your unusual powers and appearance during these dark times is a blessing from their other gods, Krasnjar continued. - Sent to help in disguise of a monster. They usually worship only their blood god and perhaps fanatics also Zariath, but now they are turning their attention to other options.
  - Oh great! I muttered. - I need to make it very clear to them that I’m not their savior.
  I jumped on a small empty barrel nearby.
  - BEHOLD! I shouted.
  Hah, the people actually turned their heads and silenced. It was like I was going to give them message from their gods! I waited for a moment. I raised my hand high up…and then I raised my middle finger.
  Derek next to me cracked in laughter.
  - Now you all listen, I continued. – FUCK OFF! Whatever you think I am, I’m not.
  Some people reacted a bit like Derek. Some shrugged and walked away. Yet, disturbingly many kept going on with their little religious event. I was beginning to understand why those people ever even began following someone like Zariath.
  - Hmph…if they get on my way, I’ll make sure they never do it again, I muttered and walked away with some of the people following me and chanting their little mantras.
  
  I think it’s weird. I do something so simple and then I’m suddenly their prophet or something. I still have to shoo away people that come look for me and then they ask me for “guidance” or perhaps pray for fertility or actually just about anything. They even have several different names for me, like “Life Bringer” or something similar. I don’t really care and I don’t answer to those names. For some reason it’s surprisingly rare that people come find me to be healed. Probably because they just know I COULD, but it’s so troublesome to get me do it.
  
  I had very little peace afterwards. Filno told me to start charging for the healings, but none came. I should have just healed the kid as an example…not the whole place!
  Anyway, the healing wasn’t very smart thing to do. It wasn’t just the villagers who were alerted by my presence; the flash had been noticed at Coand too. I’ll get back to that later, ok.
  To be honest, I wanted everything to be over already. Filno and I got better things to do. No one listened to our suggestions to move a bit faster than we were already. Goal was clearly visible in horizon and got closer with every step we took. Yeah, siege would take its time and so on, but in the end we would be winners. Zariath had his remaining forces at Coand and that was lot less men than we had. Only trouble were Krasor’s minions. Idiots. What is the point in serving someone for your whole damn life? Even if it is someone like my daddy. Anyway, that is beside the point.
  When we finally managed to shoo away our “followers”, we began considering our next move. There was possibility that we could act fast enough, when Krasor finally leaves Coand, and look trough cultist stuff. There was going to be nice load of very valuable information not to mention magic stuff and that kind of things. We could then hide it all somewhere for later use. Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough time to plan our tactic fully.
  - We need to have temporary stash for everything close to Coand, Filno said. – Surely retards like Korrak and Sarian, not to mention Quantras, will not let us just take everything we want with us.
  - True, we need to …
  *snap*
  I sighed.
  - For the love of all that is holy, fuck off! I shouted and threw a stone at direction where we had heard to sound. I expected it just being one of those followers, I mentioned. – I don’t have time to play some sort of prophet!
  The rock came back.
  The damn thing hit my head. I cursed and thought of going to snap some bones, but I found something else. I was surprised. It was group of people that looked like humans, but certainly were not. You can guess they were some of Krasor’s minions.
  - Huh, that is a trick, I said and looked around with a slight confusion.
  I had no idea how they had managed to infiltrate our camp that night. They could fool humans and the rest of them, except dragons.
  - What do you want? Filno asked.
  - Come with us, said one with large black cloak.
  - I don’t really know how you got in here without being noticed, I began. – But you did it all for nothing since I have no intention to join your side.
  - If you haven’t noticed, you are losing, Filno pointed out. – We’d rather be on the winning side.
  - Regardless, come with us, replied the black hooded guy. – The great master told us to not accept disobedience anymore. You come with us or die.
  - Ha, you kill me? I said. – I’m sure I can keep myself and Filno alive long enough to attract attention. I’ll be watching when your heads are chopped off.
  I don’t know what he did then, but he did something and I suddenly couldn’t move. Same happened to Filno too. I wasn’t completely paralyzed, but nearly. The fuckers then punched us down and simply carried us away.
  -*Damn it*, I muttered. -*I didn’t even know things like this could be done!*
  -*Me either*, Filno replied. -*Can’t really do anything. I can’t move. I can’t even gather enough energy to use magic.*
  -*Magic, eh. You are using ordinary type, but let’s see, if I can do something.*
  Filno was right. Gathering any strength to use magic was hard. If magic is a river, then someone had put a dam between me and it. A dam that wasn’t big and strong enough for me. I concentrated and finally magic began to seep trough. I concentrated more…more…
  - Look Dazan, one of our captors said. – He is actually getting trough it.
  The one who was carrying me stopped and dropped me.
  - Impressive…, Dazan muttered. – Shouldn’t be surprising considering whose son he is. Let’s see how smart he is. Chaz. Do you want to die?
  We weren’t anywhere out of sight yet and flash of bright light would attract attention. Meaning of what Dazan said should be obvious. I stopped. Dazan didn’t waste anymore time and picked me up again.
  - If he can do that, do you think the spell will last.
  - You are an idiot,Tek, Dazan replied. – If it doesn’t hold long enough, which I doubt, we can always zap them again. If we are noticed because of you wasting time, I will snap your neck before any sentries will snap mine.
  - I still got the item master gave us.
  - Are you threatening me? Of course you are…may I remind you that it isn’t set powerful enough to stop either of us?
  - It’ll still slow you. Enough for me to tear your head off.
  - This is not the time for fights. We must first fulfill master’s orders…then let us settle this.
  - Fine.
  Dazan took a better hold of me.
  - Hmm, what’s that? Tek muttered and grabbed my “trophy necklace”. – A tooth? It reads “Zxaha” here.
  - Ah, that explains where he disappeared, Dazan said. – The others who came back didn’t say anything.
  - Bah, who cares? Personally I didn’t even like the guy – he was too much of an asslicker. Hmmm, this is better way of collecting trophies, I must admit. I used to collect heads back in my cave, but they tend to smell after a while.
  Tek looked at Dazan for a moment and grinned.
  - I’m going to carry your teeth like this, Dazan, he said then. – When I get time to kill you, that is…
  - I’d suggest you just clean your own teeth so that they’ll look better on mine necklace.
  Forgetting the fact that they were stupid enough to almost start fighting before they were relatively out of danger, they were quite good at sneaking around – while carrying us. I took up the chance to observe their methods. I could use such stealth skills and maybe, if possible, teach them to my people at Red Hand. Filno on the other hand managed to see the item used to paralyze us. Unfortunately he couldn’t tell what it was, but he was closer to it and said, if he’d feel paralyze wear off, he’d grab it and use it. Maybe just slow our captors, but still might be enough to run off.
  After they had dragged us far enough to be considerably safe, those two kept bickering and shouting at each other even more. I expected them to kill each other, but they didn’t. Then I realized, they knew, if they’d fuck up their little mission because of their personal disputes, also the one who won would be killed…probably quite nice and slow too.
  I was slightly annoyed by the fact that no one came to look for me or Filno. I mean we are sort of “important” and no one noticed our disappearance. Besides, weren’t guys like Derek and Krasnjar supposed to keep an eye on me? I reminded myself to ask them of their little failure.
  
  …No, I never did ask them. I must do so some day. I need to know what I can trust them to be able to do…
  
  When we finally arrived at Coand, gates were opened quite swiftly after several threats and closed right behind us. The place had quite unique stench. One which I had ever smelled back at that mountain temple where I found Filno. I did actually spot several civilians too, but everyone seemed to move out of sight when they noticed us – even some soldiers did it too.
  I have to say that cultists don’t have any imagination. Their life seemed to be all about some religion of blood, but they COULD have painted their houses with different color than red…their clothes too…and actually nearly everything. Red everywhere. Doesn’t that start hurting your eyes sooner or later? Maybe they liked it. They seem to like torture and pain.
  Also. I belive we could have won the war without doing anything. I’m fairly sure cultists have killed each other more than we ever did. For example, that oversized temple at middle of Coand was surrounded by small altars and to each of them went a line of people, who were simply waiting to get butchered by blood priests who were in some kind of rapture.
  I gained completely new definition for “sick”.
  At first I thought Filno and I were being taken to the temple, but instead we went to large building next to it. Or perhaps now that I think of it, the building might have been some external wing of the temple – I think they were connected. Blah, who cares. It was likely a housing for higher priests and maybe also some other people who were considered important enough.
  Hmph…we were brought in like prisoners, but we were given room like for guests. Why does it always have to go that way?
  - This is the end, Dazan said and dropped me. – I hope you enjoyed the trip. Haha.
  Tek dropped Filno next to me.
  - The paralyze should wear off within next few hours, Dazan continued. – Or sooner, if you can get trough it. Regardless you must stay here. You should respect will of your great father enough to do that.
  Yeah, I do respect my father, but that doesn’t mean I would blindly do whatever he says. Actually, to do things he say, isn’t probably the smartest idea anyway. Maybe, if his goals would further my own ends enough, I could perhaps work with him.
  - We have finished our task, Dazan, Tek said. – I think we had something to discuss about.
  - Oh yeah. Let’s not waste any time.
  And so, after locking the door, those two left…likely to kill each other.
  -*I’m not staying here, if it’s up to me!* I told Filno.
  I began charging my powers like I did before. At first I couldn’t get trough, but finally walls blocking my strength and magic started cracking. Then just a small push and I got trough. It felt like chains drop off from me and it like nothing had ever happened. I could move and use magic again.
  -*See, if you can release me too*, Filno said. -*I mean if it isn’t anything physical, you wouldn’t be able to heal it away.*
  -*I’ll try.*
  So I did, but unfortunately Filno’s assumption was right. After several attempts nothing had happened.
  - It’s not working, damn it, I muttered finally. – Looks like we have to wait, though I don’t like the idea.
  -*No wait, I might have an idea*, Filno said. -*What if you try giving me some extra power like I did when…well…when you tried fix Velfred.*
  - … okay, though I’m not sure how you did it.
  What I did then was a bit weird. I just grabbed a good hold of Filno and somehow wanted to channel power from myself to him and it just happened. I don’t know what I did, but it seemed so natural and simple, almost like I was using my own powers, but just let it out somewhere else. Probably just like that, because Filno is me and I’m Filno. Gah, I hate these magic things. It is usually easy to explain “what”, but you can’t explain “how” or “why”. Now after saying that, it is easy to guess what happened. Filno released himself the way I did and didn’t seem to have that much trouble with it.
  - We’ll have to study that more later, Filno said.
  - Yup, but now lets go, I said. – I think, if we just get out, we can fly out of here easily. We will just have to be fast. The longer headstart we get the better chance we have.
  - Yeah and you should do some “light effects” to draw attention back at the camp at us. We’ll be noticed here at Coand anyway.
  We encountered a “slight” problem, though. The door wouldn’t open.
  - What? It’s a wooden door, Filno said. – Let me try it.
  He tried to open it. He tried to kick it. He tried to punch it. He tried to burn it.
  - Why doesn’t it break? I said. – Doesn’t look like any magic on it. As far as I can tell it’s just a wooden door.
  - Maybe it just has some barrier we can’t see or feel.
  - We have broken some barriers before. You cast your normal magic and I use my healing power. It has worked before.
  But this time it didn’t. My power went mostly trough it like normally when I don’t use it on someone – it just spread away like a wave. Filno’s magic didn’t have any effect either.
  - Fuck! Damn it! Let’s try again!
  So we did. Again and again until we heard footsteps behind the door. We stood back a bit when someone turned key in the lock. The door opened.
  - It’s good to see you don’t give up easily, son, said the man who was completely dressed in black. – Though, would you stop that? The priests are getting nervous when their sacrifices don’t die.
  It was Krasor.