Dael 28

Dael kept running. At first he didn't even think where he was going since he just wanted to get away from danger. Karne wasn't as mad as what Dael had been while he had still been a human, but the druid did have some problems. Dael knew this for sure considering what kind of emotions Karne had sent to him. It was safest idea in Dael's mind to just get far away and then let Mairin find him.

Problem was that Dael had no idea how relentless Karne was. Perhaps the man would follow him for days. Dael thought he'd hide for a week or two. Then go back home, if no one found him before that.

Somehow Dael thought his current direction was fine. He was going pratically straight north. As far as he knew there wasn't anything in there. Perhaps a less populated area? Such place would be fine. He felt it was safe choice. Just going north.

Somewhere during the next day Dael stopped to drink from a stream.

"Should I be doing this", Dael thought. He doubted his earlier thoughts. "I'm always running. Everyone else probably can stop Karne. If he is even still there, he can't do anything more. Perhaps I should stay away from home until I have been studied enough. Something is odd, though."

For a moment Dael thought of turning back, but for some reason he felt like he should continue on his way north. Why? He wasn't certain. It was a bit like the feeling he sometimes had, but somehow stronger. It had never led him wrong direction. This time Dael got curious. The feelings had always come when he was at some kind of critical moment. It wasn't such time right then.

As Dael thought about it more, he had been feeling it all the way since he ran off and that he had probably followed it already without realizing it. Dael trusted the feeling, but couldn't really say whether he had decided to run himself or had the feeling pushed him into it. He decided to go see where it led. Mairin would find him eventually and Dael thought he would go about as he pleased. He had agreed to be studied, but he wasn't going to bind himself to anyone and get stuck somewhere just because he was important.

So... north. What was there?

Dael would have turned back had he not been so curious. He didn't often feel himself curious, but this time he did and was willing to put some effort in satisfying his curiosity. Even if Mairin caught up, he still decided he would see what the feeling was about. Dael had not talked to anyone about the feelings. He was not even sure, if it was anything real or did he just imagine it all. Now it was strong. It had to mean something.

After traveling for about a day and half more Dael found himself entering a thicker part of the forest. It was practically primeval as far as Dael could tell. It was just a few days travel from Deishaad, but there were no signs of human activity. It was untouched. The air felt different. Scents were different. Exluding a few animal sounds it was also completely silent. Defeaningly silent. Something was strange. Dael had never been to so silent place. Yet, the feeling he felt seemed to direct him right in there.

Dael moved forward a bit slower than before. The terrain was harder too. Yet that was not the problem. The atmosphere was... oppressive? Dael couldn't really place the feeling. It was as if he was watched all the time. Yet he saw no one. All sounds came from wind blowing somewhere above the trees.

As Dael continued deeper, he started feeling nervous. It seemed rather large area and was not just any patch of untouched forest. As far as he could smell, hear or see there was thick forest. Sun was going down and it was getting dark. Dael managed to catch a rabbit. As he was eating his meal he heard something. Footsteps. Dael stopped eating and looked around. No one? Was he just imagining? Dael was getting even more nervous. Had it been a mistake to follow the feeling. Something felt wrong, but the feeling had never led him into anything bad.

Dael's speed had gone down a lot. He slowly walked forward. His fur was standing on his back. He was afraid. Footsteps again. No one. A passing light just at the edge of his sight. Dael turned around, but saw nothing. He was shaking. Footsteps again. More than one set of feet. All around him. Dael kept turning around to see, but there was no one. Light came from behind a tree far from Dael and it disapeared behind another tree like it had never been there. With quiet whining Dael slowly backed against a tree behind him and he cowered there shaking and just looking around.

As is became darker the activity in the forest intensified. Shapeless shadows moving about. Strange lights. Whispering. Even speech that Dael couldn't understand. Shouts coming from nowhere. Moans.

Dael was certain. Ghosts. A lot of them. What was that place?

Nervously he tried to remember the old stories about lingering spirits. Remnants of dead people. Something caused their essence to linger and not disperse after death. Sometimes for centuries. Dael remembered that, if it was just ghosts, it was probably just scary. They were sane. They were whole. They generally resembled the people they had been. If they were not whole, they were called wraiths. They were dangerous. They would attack anything that passed nearby. These formed from deaths of pain, terror and despair. All that was left of them was maddened shreds of their essence. They could be almost any shape from floating body parts to ragged dried up human shapes.

As Dael listened the whispers and moans he decided he had not heard any screaming or anything else pointing to wraiths. Just ghosts. Perhaps it was just uncomfortable, but not dangerous.

Once it was completely dark, Dael saw even visible ghosts, not just lights or shadows. They wandered all over the place. They whispered and babbled something all the time.

"It works this time!", Dael heard suddenly near him. "This time it surely works. It works. It has to!"

Ghost wandered right in front of him. The pallid shimmering shape was next to a tree. Touching it. Rubbing it. It was as if the ghost was furiously trying accomplish some task and failing at it. The ghost started beating the tree and screaming. Then it shimmered and slowly disapeared.

Dael was feeling severe panic. Why had he come to the place. He started slowly walking from his hiding place. The ghosts didn't seem to care about his presence. He didn't have to go far when he noticed something sticking out of the ground. How had he missed it before. Bones. Human bones. He continued and he found more of the same. Skulls, bones, anything that human would leave behind in death. Was it a graveyard? Dael realized he didn't know much about druid death rituals. He doubted it, though. A graveyard was supposed to be a place where you laid people to rest... not wander around restlessly for who knows how long.

Perhaps a location of battle? Dael's knowledge of history was lacking too, but he was pretty sure it had been a very long time when wizards had reached Cas Denthar that far. Not to mention lot of the ghosts that Dael saw seemed to gather around the trees. Perhaps some druid ritual gone horribly wrong. Yet, there were no wraiths associated with horrifying deaths. Also all the time, Dael still felt he should continue deeper.

Soon he started feeling like that was a mistake too. He started seeing ghosts that just stood there. All of them watching him. Their blank stares looking straight at him. Many of them were more ... defined. Less pale, more color, less shimmering. They were still whispering, though. Dael noticed the closer he was to the ghosts the more he could understand their speech. Not that they said anything sensible even, if words were understandable.

Suddenly a ghost just appeared from behind a tree straight in front of Dael. It just stood there staring with it's empty eyes at Dael who had, of course, immediately stopped. More appeared all around him. Dael was too scared to move.

"They are all ghosts, just ghosts", Dael repeated to himself in his mind. He was cowering right there surrounded by the ghosts. "Ghosts don't hurt anyone. They are just ghosts. Not wraiths."

The first ghost suddenly started walking towards Dael. Air felt cold as the ghost approached. It stood just in front of Dael, at a distance where it could easily reach and touch, if it wanted. It looked down on Dael silently with it's empty expressionless face.

"What do you want!" Dael screamed. "If you are protecting something here, let me leave! I won't come back!"

The ghost didn't react. It just stared at Dael for about a minute while Dael just shook in terror. Then it stopped. The ghosts around Dael turned around silently and disapeared after a few steps. The ghost in front of Dael raised its hand and pointed a direction.

"Find the elder tree", said the ghost. It's voice was like an echo, but it was clear. Then it turned around, shimmered and disapeared just like the others. Just like that it was gone.

"What just happened?" Dael thought. "It pointed that direction. About the same as where this feeling seems to go. The elder tree?"

There were still whispering, footsteps, shadows and lights going about and an occassional full body specter, but all of the ghosts seemed to mind their own business once again. Dael got to calm down a bit finally. He also now knew there was something to look for. The elder tree. Perhaps it was some kind of druid magic tree.

Dael had not been scared even in the hunter dungeons, but the ghost filled with forest was entirely another matter. It was simply put terrifying. It was no wonder there was so little signs of human presence. Still Dael kept going and after the encounter with the ghost, he felt more determined.

Around the time sun started going up, the ghostly activity lessened, but didn't go away entirely. Ghosts usually were less visible during day for some reason. There were still sounds of steps and other noises, but shadows were gone and fewer apparitions. Also with the sunlight Dael could finally see his destination. It had to be the largest tree he had ever seen. There were other large trees near it, but that one was simply put a giant. The feeling he felt was taking him right at its direction.

Dael soon found himself at an opening. No other trees grew around the giant tree. There were large stones arranged around the tree and they were covered with markings. There was also lot of other kinds of decorations all over the clearing.

Dael felt small under the tree. It's diameter had to be many meters thick and Dael couldn't even start guessing how tall it was. The tree had to be ancient. Indeed, an elder tree.

"Now what?", Dael thought as he walked around the tree. "I'm here, but all I see is this huge tree. No strange scents. I only hear faint sounds from the forest."

Dael continued to circle the tree. Then suddenly he saw someone sitting on one of the rocks. He stopped for a while to look who it was. No sounds. No scents. Dael realized it was too a ghost, but this one looked very much like a live human. It didn't shimmer and it's colors were more lifelike. It didn't look dead at all like the other ghosts. It was a man. Old. He had white hair and long beard. He had a simple robe.

"Hmmm, what is this?" Said the ghost and somehow just shimmered away from the rock and reapeared on the ground slightly further away from it. "Come here. I'm not going to do anything to you."

The ghost, if it was indeed something that could be classified as a ghost, seemed very alive. His voice was completely clear and perhaps only slight echo, but that was one of the very few signs that he was indeed a spirit. He didn't seem dangerous and Dael felt like he could trust him. He walked closer and started sniffing the air around the spirit. Just air. Nothing pointing to a person being there.

"What are you?" Dael asked. "I saw the other ghosts in the forest. You are hardly like them."

"What am I?" Said the ghost. "Not sure. I haven't defined myself ever for some reason. Perhaps you could say I'm soul of this tree."

Dael looked at the tree and the ghost.

"Some say it is unnatural thing to do", said the ghost of the old man. "Once you know you are close to death, what will you do, if you knew a way to extend your existence in this world. I wasn't afraid of death, but I still had things to do. Long time ago. I was the first. I came up with it. I planted this tree here a few thousand years ago. Once I felt I was dying I moved my life essence from my body into the sapling and became one with it. Tree gave me a body and I gave it awareness. I am this tree."

"You were a druid then?" Dael asked curiously.

"I am both", said the old man. "I'm indeed a powerful druid, but I'm also powerful wizard. I protect myself from the storms and fires. I brace myself against winds during storm. I grow thick bark. I protect myself from diseases. I grow my roots efficiently as I do with my branches too."

"You were... are a halfbreed?" Dael asked. Things were getting interesting. Was this why he came to the tree.

"Halfbreed?" Said the old man. "Hmmm, such an unpleasant word, but yes, you could call me halfbreed. During my times we were more common. Twinpowered was the term back then. At some point it was Sorcerer when people wanted to divide themselves into different groups. Druids didn't want to be associated with wizards and wizards didn't want to be associated with druids. They didn't want to call themselves simply power users. They gave themselves names that had been used only rarely earlier. Neither liked the ones who were on both sides. I was not around back then, but I watched. Powerless to stop it."

The man was ancient. He had been alive back when wizards and druids were still one people. There had really not even existed terms like wizard and druid ... or sorcerers. While Dael's knowledge of history was lacking at best, even he knew history books didn't really go that far. Very little was known of that era. Yet, this old spirit in the tree knew.

"And those others in the forest?" Dael said and looked at the forest. "Are they ... sorcerers too?"

"No", said the old man. "Wizard powers are not needed with the transfer. At least, if you want to transfer yourself into something living instead of a construct. No, druids just know of me. Small part of them don't care that other say it is unnatural. They too come here near death. Some come meet me. Some don't. It still requires more or less power. Many fail. Some succeed, but not perfectly. Very few get to be close to what I am. Those who don't manage it perfectly or nearly basically just tear their essence out of their bodies. If they fail the process their essence becomes a ghost."

"That explains why there are so many of them", Dael said. "I saw one beating at a tree hoping he would succeed that time. Don't they notice they are dead and ... pass on?"

"Spirit without a body, any kind of body, lacks many things that one with a body has", replied the old man. "It is sad, but they may not even remember why they are there. They'll eventually disperse and pass on, but it may take a long time."

Mystery of the forest was solved at least. People came there to either die or attempt to extend their life with magic. There was still another mystery to be solved, though. Also the spirit of the old man had some question too.

"Perhaps you may give me answer to a few questions too", said the old man and looked at Dael. "What are you?"

"I'm a cursed druid", Dael answered. "I used to be a human, but I transformed into a wolf for a while. Wizards managed to capture me and take away my druid powers. This is what happens, if you were transformed too recently."

"Ah, yes, I have heard about this", said the spirit. "I may be soul of this tree, but I can get pretty far from it before I disperse and return here. Even further with just my awareness and use of powers. Cas Canthar is a bit too far away for me, though. Never seen something like you despite the time I have had in this world. Interesting."

"There is something more I'd like to ask you", Dael said. "If you haven't known of me, who is it that led me here?"

"Hmmmm... I'd guess it was the Stone of Fire you carry", said the spirit.

"A what?" Dael asked immediately. "Stone of Fire? My necklace?"

"Interesting", said the spirit. "How is it that you have it, but it has not made itself know to you. Hey, Fire, wake up. What is this. Did you merely arrange yourself to be brought here? I cannot help you anymore. My time with you and your siblings ended two thousand years ago."

What was going on?

"He can't hear you?" Continued the spirit and looked like he was listening. "Then why didn't you arrange him to come here immediately? Oh... I see. Your contact was blocked and by the time the block was gone he was no longer human and harder to guide. Seriously you should find yourself more effective method. I get it that you are rocks and you have patience of one, but it took you twenty years to get him here."

Dael only listened. The old man seemed to have discussion with someone. The Stone of Fire? The necklace? How could no one have ever noticed the rock was some kind of magical object. How did Dael's mother get hold of one. Magical items and even more so for ancient items what the old man could know about would be priceless. Yet Lanna had given the necklace to a child. A moment of realization. Jael, he had a blue stone. Was it just like the red one?

"Can you explain this all to me?" Dael asked. He had to know. "I have had these feelings that I should do something. Who is it you are talking to. What does it have to do with me?"

"I'm sorry, but things seem to have gone very wrong", said the old spirit. "Let's start with introductions. My name is Mazeg. At a time I used to be owner of all the elemental stones."

"Wait... that Mazeg?" Dael said. Even he knew that part of the history. Last ruler of wizards and druids when they had not been at war yet. One of the few known things from that time.

"I would guess with 'that Mazeg' you mean indeed me", Mazeg said. "But let's continue. This has taken too much time to happen already. The stone in your necklace is Stone of Fire or simply Fire. They are ... hmmmm ... let's say awarenesses of elemental aspects. Doesn't say much to you, does it?"

"No", Dael said. He had never been taught much magic. Mairin had just told him how to do things, not why or any details. "I was a halfbreed too... a sorcerer. My wizard powers were very weak. I was never taught things."

"So much knowledge lost and wasted", Mazeg said and sighed. "I'll get to that later. First I will tell you what this all is about. How to start. Hmmm, wizards and druids are at war. No one knows why. Well I do, but I can't do much with it. I can only observe. Sometimes people come here and I tell them. Nothing has changed so I think either they don't believe me or someone silences them. I believe it is the latter."

Dael listened.

"There is another war going on", Mazeg explained. "Perhaps not a war, but fight for balance of world order. Simply put light and dark. There are wizard powers and druid powers. They are opposite. There are another two set of powers though. Light and darkness would be best description. Perhaps positive and negative would be another term. Both wizard and druid powers have positive and negative side. All of these powers come from essence of the world and without interference they are always at balance. As long as there is activity on this world, there will be magic in some form."

Mazeg sat down against his tree.

"Yet, ever since sentient beings came to be, light and dark have swayed from side to side", Mazeg continued. "It isn't good if either side is present too much. Not even the positive side. Trust me it too has its bad sides. When there is peace, good, positive things tend to thrive. When it is the opposite, death, pain and suffering thrive. Now a little question. Would you believe that there are people who would rather gain power from this darkness? People who work to increase darkness in this world?"

"I... I suppose so", Dael said. He knew much of hatred. "Yes, I believe it. There are some very bad people in the world. I may have been one of them once."

"I heard", Mazeg said. "Fire told me of your past, but you ever only teetered on the edge of darkness. Reached into it. You never went there. We would be talking here, if you had. Fire and his siblings had to do lot of work to keep you from it."

"What?", Dael asked.

"I'll explain afterwards", Mazeg said. "Anyway, yes indeed, there is an ancient group of people. Perhaps you could even call it a religion. They are very secretive conspiracy. They gain more power as the darkness increases. They worship it and embrace it. It includes druids and wizards. It is rather surprising that the darkness brings together old enemies and it is even the enemies the same dark order created itself and has kept up for so long time. I never succeeded in destrying them entirely myself. They went into hiding and once I was gone they slowly started working behind the scenes. Feeding people hatred and discord."

"Are you saying this war between wizards and druids is fabricated?" Dael asked with a bit of disbelief. "How can a group like that stay hidden for so long time and keep the fight going."

"The thing with darkness is that once you get it into moving, it will feed itself", Mazeg explained. "All they had to do was initiate the war and keep feeding it for a while. Hate accumulated among people. These days a wizard is grown to hate druids and druids grown to hate wizards. They don't even know why. They don't question it. War goes on. It only needs a kick or two occassionally... and get rid of people who might have chance to stop it. People like you."

"Me?", Dael asked. "Why me?"

"These days those with both powers are rare", Mazeg said. "The servants of darkness have been very efficient and they have had time. In my times about quarter of population carried the blood and could produce a sorcerer. These days it is almost gone and probably exists only because it is inherent part of druid and wizard blood. It needs to come together on both sides and then these two must get together to have a chance of producing a sorcerer, one with both powers. It is rare and probably these days only Fire and his siblings can find these people."

"What do they want with me?", Dael asked. "I want to live in peace. I don't want to take part in some ancient struggle I know nothing about."

"Fire says the darkness is spreading unctrollably right now", Mazeg said. "You know it, don't you? You have noticed its effects. Cas Canthar is closed. I'm betting diseases are spreading in there. Monsters come out of their hiding places. Unprecedent cruelty happens. Yet nothing of it gets out. Fire has been with you. You have companions, some Mairin, yes? You have spoken about that something odd is happening in Cas Denthar too. If you don't believe me, believe her. The followers of darkness are planning something big. If they manage to tip the balance off entirely, death and terror will sweep over the world. I can't even begin to imagine it. Light probably will be snuffed out almost entirely and won't come back until too few living things are still alive for darkness to hold them all. A mass extinction."

Dael listened silently.

"That can't be allowed to happen", Mazeg said. "Unfortunately what is needed is a halfbreed, a twinpowered, a sorcerer who are very rare. You need to find a way to use light powers and break what the followers of darkness have planned."

Dael was shaking. "Can't you see", he started. "I'm broken. I can't do it. You must find someone else. My powers are gone. Wizards took away my druid powers. My wizard powers were weak and it doesn' work either. I have tried a few times. I'm hardly the material you need either. I hurt people, I did very bad things. I suffer from nightmares and try to drink my mind away. My only desire is to live in peace and find a way for my mind to go animal so I don't have to think of the things that have happened to me or what I have done."

"That is work of Fire and his siblings", Mazeg said. "They need your mind closer to human so they can guide you better. When you are animal, they can contact you, but it takes a lot of effort and you don't really understand what they try to tell you to do."

Dael blinked a few times. The necklace! It was the reason! He immediately tore the necklace from his neck and threw it away. Then he ran away.

"That won't work", Mazeg said as he suddenly appeared in front of Dael. "They need you and they are pretty good at manipulating things. They don't want to force you, but you are unfortunately the only choice. They were going to leave you alone, but your brother isn't strong enough to have a chance. People will die, if you don't help. Even, if you choose to ignore it and they let you be animal, how long do you think you will live in peace. Darkness will sweep over the world. If you are animal and don't go outright mad, others will. People might even hunt you for fun. Torture you to death just because. Your peace won't last. Your family will probably die slowly. They produced the only one's that could have stopped it all. They are enemies. Your friends will go along them. Then..."

"SHUUTTT UP", Dael screamed. He stood still and shook. "I can't do it. I just can't do it. I'm more like smart animal. I can't go against a force that you describe. I will fail. I have always failed everything. If that stone told you about my life, you know I'm barely a bad joke."

"Things went wrong", Mazeg said. "You were found. Hatred and darkness got into you. Being made of positive essence, Fire and his siblings couldn't contact you directly. Once you started wearing him, he needed time to link with you. Then came the fire. Afterwards they couldn't touch your hate filled soul anymore. Then you found out the truth eventually. You started going to right direction, but then you ended up like you are now. You aren't exactly human. They have hard time connecting to an animal mind. You are somewhere in between, but you are filled with regret and sadness this time. It isn't as bad so I think with my help, we can fix you enough that you can save the world... so to speak."

"They... did they meddle with my life?" Dael asked. He had to know. If they were at fault, he would die before he helped them. Fuck the world. "Is it because of them that all things went wrong for me?"

Mazeg seemed to listen something for a moment. "No", he said. "They tried to stop all those things from happening. They did all they could to keep you alive and not go to the darkness entirely. For example, you have never killed anyone."

"What?" Dael said with a surprise. "Surely I have...hmmm."

As much as Dael tried he couldn't remember a single time.

"What... what is this", Dael said. He was slightly shocked. He couldn't remember a single time he would have killed anyone with his own hands.

"You almost succeeded with some friend of yours... Roag?" Mazeg continued. "Fire couldn't get you to stop and they just at the critical time had to concentrate keeping him alive. You were teetering so close to darkness that, if you had killed anyone, especially a friend, you would likely be unable to ever return to state where you could do what we ask of you. You were always stopped, but they could not stop from things happening to you. They tried to keep you safe. Even get you away from Cas Canthar, but you couldn't listen. If they had not tried to protect you, you would have died in the fire or in many other situations... that or gone evil."

"If I do this", Dael started. "Will they leave me in peace? Will they let me have my peace?"

"They will", Mazeg said. "They would already do so, if there was any other choice."

"I'll probably fail and die", Dael said after a moment. "You should not put your trust in me, but I will do it. I will do it."

"Then we got a bit of work ahead of us", Mazeg said. "You need to be prepared properly. Come."

Dael followed Mazeg. He was terrified of the task, but it was his key to freedom. Either by succeeding or failing and dying. One way or another he would be free.