Chapter XXVII: Lost and Found -Lich
Lich looked up and saw a wisp of grey smoke waft into the air and disappear.
"He's...gone...for real..." he murmured. "Not...relocated...gone."
He'd had this feeling before, of remorse intertwined with shock, soon after Ark
died, or disappeared.
"Great, just put his letters into someone else's name, and what do you
expect..." Lich thought as he sat with one leg flexed upwards and the
other leg lying flat on the ground. "My brother, and now my friend."
Lich had noticed that the world appeared to be a copy of his original habitats,
although things appeared to be copied as well from elsewhere. Was this place
also copying events in his personal history?
Lich stood up and walked over to the spot where Markior was struck down by his
nemesis, Ulrezaj.
"What is he doing here, too? Is this place copying anybody's memories,
enemies and friends?" Lich thought as he gazed at the grass next to the
hole. He then knelt beside it and prayed in Pandoran for sometime to Dryad, the
Manaworld elemental of Life and Mana, which thus made her the Chooser, the one
who decides when people die. He then stood up, and muttered:
"En Taro Markior."
He turned on his heel and walked through the fallen forest.
Deep within the Manaworld, a pair of red pupiless eyes opened.
"Who dares bring me back from my slumber?" a voice that echoed and
re-echoed boomed throughout a small room.
A grey shape appeared before the voice's eyes, and slowly started to
materialise into another form.
"It is I, Sir Pseudo Havering of the Seventh Circle of Whyr-Roh-Tin,"
it said.
"What do you want with me, demon of Whyr-Roh-Tin?" the voice echoed.
"I request that you fulfil a small task for me," Havering replied.
"Small task?" it said, its eyes narrowing. "If it is small, then
why can't you do it for yourself?"
"Because," Havering paused, "you will strike more fear into the
person I want removed than I will."
The eyes flashed for a moment before its voice said, "Who shall I
smite?"
"He goes by the name of Dyluck Thanatos Yoshi von Kippo..." Havering
started.
The eyes widened and frowned.
"Those words...who dares use the name of Dyluck with the name of
Thanatos?"
"He also goes by the name of...Lich."
The eyes showed rage and the voice filled itself with fury. "Just hearing
that blasphemy makes me writhe with anger! How dare someone do that!"
"Calm yourself, let me finish telling you. The person is a Yoshi, those
lizards with big noses, long tongues and who walk on two feet."
The eyes relaxed.
"In travels of my own, I have seen them upon the world of Yamauchi. I
remember them well. What is its colour?"
"It is orange, and has blue eyes," Havering told the voice. "It
also has a strange, pink substance behind its nostrils, and does not wear
normal footwear, something vaguely like sandals."
"Where is this...Yoshi?"
"On a world which I have created, I shall take you there soon. But I must
warn you about this lizard. It carries a stick, a boomerang which, from what I
have seen, can travel at near light speed. I searched through time for its
origins, and it appears to have been refined in the Light Palace in Gold
City."
"The Light Palace?" the voice said, alarmed, eyes widening.
"Yes. The creature also knows the spells of Undine, Dryad, and
Lumina."
"Lumina?" The eyes seemed to show a small element of fear.
"Why are you bringing me against a foe of this nature?"
"Because he lies in the way of fate."
The voice pondered this a moment, and the eyes looked thoughtful. "For a
price."
"What do you charge?" Havering asked.
"That you go back in time and stop a pesky young brat from
"Go back in time and annihilate Randi, you request. If I were to do that,
then the river of time would flex around back to here, and this Yoshi would not
be blasphemous."
The voice pondered this a moment, then brought forward his next offer.
"I may be aligned with the forces of evil, and I do not want to let go of
my strong bond. What I ask is that I become immune to light."
"Destroy this Yoshi, and you shall have your immunity, my good
friend," Havering smiled and nodded, and produced some brandy. He poured
some into a glass as he spoke and offered it to the voice, then poured some of
his own.
"To his downfall!" Havering cheered, and the eyes replied with a
clinking of glass. The alliance had been set.
Lich dragged his feet as he went through the forest.
"My...brother...and...my friend...gone..." he muttered as he walked.
Lich sat down and stared blankly ahead for a moment, before he reached into his
Mana storage, and brought out his most hallowed item, a crude fishing line
covered in mud, slime and algae.
He had journeyed to the hole which the river fell into and landed on the
overhang, for he flew on Nessie. There was a gap enough for someone to fall
through, and the waterfall slid into the darkness below. However, Lich had
wanted to get back up again. So, he had Quake dig a hole through the overhang
for him, and Lich climbed down. He then discovered the river went along a
tunnel, and he could walk beside the river. Then he found the fishing line
discarded on the shore. Ark survived, and his hopes grew high.
He studied the rod, turning it over and again, and clutching it as if he was a
baby, and the rod was a new toy.
"Ark, ubarano to opa bete, re iolo to tasan," he muttered in
Pandoran, meaning "Ark, wherever you may be, I shall find you."
Suddenly, a weight was seemingly lifted from his heart, and a presence filled
him.
"He...lives? Markior...alive? Thank Dryad and the rest!"
Lich smiled and got up, and continued to walk through the forest, towards an
imminent and unexpected fate.