reputation and forged a legend, in his own lifetime, which roamed the nightmares of grown men. The inkling of the original Shadow Reaver was forced into his mind and made him shiver to the bone.
“What… what is your condition?” Urake was not scared, only he now had a proper appreciation for Eld’or’s power. This Eld’or needed him and despite all his looming, Urake was certain that he couldn’t be harmed. That it was all bluster.
“There is a girl in a village a few days away from here. Her power has awakened and she has put her entire village at risk. I want you to save her.” A map of the Braebach appeared on a wall and zoomed down to a small village to the south west. A day or so north of Cercha. A smaller farming community off the beaten path. It looked familiar to Urake, but he couldn’t capture what it was that he was almost remembering. After the image finished playing, Urake opened his eyes and squinted. It was a strange experience having your eyes open, then opening them in truth. Trying to focus he realized that he was looking at the cave ceiling.
“Cero! He is awake!” Urake cringed with Inadar’s shout reverberated through his head.
“Shush. My head feels like it is about to explode.” The head ach was further amplified when the vegetation covering the entrance to the cave was swept back letting in a beam of light that stabbed into Urake’s eyes.
“Sorry. We were just excited.” Inadar apologized and stepped out of the way as Cero made his way over.
“I see that it is still daylight outside. I'm glad that I wasn’t out for too long.” The look that Inadar and Cero exchanged told Urake otherwise.
“You and Emeck arrived here four days ago.” To Urake, it had only seemed like a few minutes or hours, but not days.
“How is Emeck doing?”
“He got a killer head ach every time he tried to bring you back, but he is doing a lot better. He was going to try again when he wakes up today.”
“I'm sure that dying would give you a head ach.” Urake massaged his temples in an attempt to control the throbbing.
“Dying? He refused to tell what he saw, but he was terrified every time he broke the connection.” Inadar frowned as she looked at Urake like he had some mysterious secret.
“I would have been more than terrified if I were him. He burnt to a cinder, got shot in the heart with an arrow, got stabbed in the back, fell off a dry waterfall, fell through the ice, fell off a cliff and lastly got hacked to pieces by an army. I was reliving memories and he sort of took the brunt of it whenever he was there.”
“Did you figure out what Skeln meant when he called you Eld’or?” Inadar inquired curiously. Urake pondered whether to tell the truth, but decided that the time wasn’t quite right to tell her everything that he now knew.
“Not exactly. We need to get moving so make sure that everyone knows that when Emeck wakes, we will be going. I'm not sure what to do with that girl, Anissa I think that was her name.” It wasn’t quite an untruth. It was next to impossible to know something exactly and he still knew little about what was happening to him. Again Cero and Inadar exchanged a glance catching his attention.
“Well now that you mention it…” Cero focused on a piece of rock on the cave wall behind Urake.
“You obviously have something to say that I won’t like so why don’t you just come out and tell me.” Urake spied Ice Heart lying beside his bed roll. Picking it up he felt a slight tingle in his palm, but the headache vanished. He silently berated himself and Eld’or when he couldn’t bring himself to lay it back down.
“Torroth is taking Anissa somewhere safe. He can’t resist those purple eyes. Men are stupid when they fall in love.” Inadar frowned mightily at her admission.
“Niman and Arken took off two nights ago.” Cero further expounded. Urake looked at them both for a moment before laughing.
“I hadn’t expected Arken to take off. Especially with Niman. I thought the two were on the verge of hating each other. On the other hand, I expected Torroth and Inadar to be the first ones to make a break for it and never expected you to stay with us and Torroth to be the one leaving.”