The Adventures of the Peculiar Enchanter: A History Lesson

A man, wearing silver armour, was standing before a wooden table studying the various maps and other papers on it. He was so absorbed in this occupation of his, he didn't hear another minifigure entering the room.

“General!” the newcomer spoke “A letter has arrived for you! Strange means, too! Someone sent via a messenger pigeon!”

The General looked up from the table and turned towards the soldier.

“Carrier pigeon messages are always the most interesting!” the General said and took the letter “Let's see what it says!”

The General's eyes scanned the letter. Once they were done, they remained on the same spot for a little before they got up to read the text again. Once his second, more careful reading was done, he looked at it intently for some seconds and finally turned to his inferior again.

“Crux! It is interesting alright!” while he started moving around the room, picking up stuff “Raulos, you reckon you can manage without me for a bit?”

“Why are you leaving, sir?”

“I think I might have to go for some time”

“Well, sir. I think we can handle it for a while, but not if you abandon us like las-”

“Did I not come back? I didn't abandon you!” the General cut him off as he dodged some tables and a chair to reach the door.

“But if you leave for so long again, we're not going to make it, I think!” Raulos replied as the General opened the door and got out.

The door led immediately outside the General's house. The sun shone brightly over them and nothing got in its way, which was only natural considering they were on top of the palace's roof. The palace, of course, was the tallest building in the whole city. Raulos closed the door behind him and looked at the house; it never got less weird to see the lonely little building on the palace's golden roof.

“Don't worry, Raulos! I'm not going to be that late this time. If all goes well, I won't be away for more than a few days” and he walked confidently on the narrow roof, despite the wind.

Raulos, on the other hand, wasn't so sure of himself on such a height and felt like crawling instead of walking, but did not, because he did not want to be seen like that, by his General.

“But what if all does not go well, sir?”

“No point in being pessimistic, Raulos!”

“But, General Umbra! You know the Queen will be furious anyway!”

“I know! But there's no avoiding the Queen's anger in any case, so I'll do what I want to do!” General Umbra said as he stopped a little before the roof's edge.

This location provided the best view of the city. Many yellow buildins lay before and below him. This was Roveros, the capital of a small land in Esindum, one of the six faces of Crux. Roveros was one more curious example of Crux's odd combination of old and new, traditional and futuristic. While the whole society looked like it was very much behind what we'd call modern civilisation, there were various pieces of advanced technology here and there. Like the faint pink force-field dome surrounding the whole city, outside which hovercraft would shoot lasers at each other.

“Well, Raulos! I think it's time I left! Farewell and see you soon!” then General Umbra put on a blue pointy hat and started running.

He reached the roof's edge and jumped out of it. Before Raulos could mutter anything, General Umbra vanished mid-air.

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

At the very same time, an Enchanter materialised in the busy streets of Kingston. Wiz Ardon looked around him to find out where exactly in Kingston he'd apparated. Once he found his sense of direction again, he made for the Witch's Tower, also known as Doloren. Once he reached the place, he saw the Witch of Kingston, waiting for him at the top of the stairway in front of the gates. She was leaning on the wall with her arms crossed. Her hair was made up into a braid and she was wearing clothes that seemed fit for an adventure, a contrast to the pretty dresses he'd seen her wear at other times.

“Ellwen, my dear! Have you been expecting me?”

“I had a hunch you might show up! Why did you come to me all suited up for war?”

“I come from Roveros, darling! Did you get one of these, too?” he said, showing his letter ro her.

“When did you get so insgihtful?”

“Simply a mere deduction, my dear! Since this matter concerns us both, I thought our mysterious informant might have included you, too”

“Well, you were right! Want to come in?”

“No, it's alright! I'm not... going to stay long” Wiz seemed significantly sadder now.

“What's up with you?”

“Nothing, it's just that... So, what will you do?” his last sentence was quite cheerful.

“About what?”

“About the letter, of course! Will you go?”

“Will you?”

“So I think!”

“I don't think it's a wise course of action. We don't know who sent this!”

“Fine!” Wiz now was angry “If you don't want to find out who caused our temporal dislocation, I'll go alone!”

“Wait!' Ellwen exclaimed, but it was too late.

Shadow had conjured flames in his hand, burnt the letter in his hands and then vanished in a purple flash. Ellwen stood there aghast. That man always had the power to surprise her. What was she to do now?

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

Wiz Ardon rematerialised in a dirty, seemingly abandoned room. The letter stated that should he wish to visit the man who could tell him about their temporal dislocation, he should burn the letter. So he had done and the letter's magic had brought him there. On further inspection on the room, he realised it was a room of magic. There were pieces of parchment everywhere with spells written or half-written on them; a crystal ball; a broken staff; a book with the title 'The Language of Mythrans'; books of magic; a body-height cracked mirror with runes on the edges; a pentacle made with chalk on the floor, as well as other smaller symbols. However, it was all very untidy. The books and parchment were mostly on the floor rather than on bookshelves or the desk and many of them were ripped. There was dust on everything.

“Greetings, Wiz Ardon!” someone spoke from behind him, while he closed a door.

Wiz quickly turned around to face the man who had spoken. He was a little taller than him, had brown shoulder-length hair -a darker shade than his- and dark clothes.

“You know my name”

“I do. But I am here to inform you of a Sorcerer who is not me, today. I am glad you came. It's a pity the woman couldn't join us”

“Sure it is. What do you have to say?”

“Have you ever heard of Morgusor? He was the greatest dark wizard Crux has ever seen. He terrorised many of its faces for a long time. He was even the reason the Council of the Enchanters disbanded. He was great trouble. But he is no more, now. It took a lot to defeat him, but when the Maelstrom first appeared, the Darkitect disguised himself and allied himself with the Mythrans and the remnants of the Council to imprison him. But for all their efforts, they would not have succeeded if Morgusor's apprentice hadn't betrayed him. And so he was captured”

“What does this all have to do with the temporal dislocation? This probably happened about three years before the time shift”

“Be patient. Many lower sorcerers and wizards were forced to serve Morgusor for the alternative was to antagonise him. And no one could antagonise Morgusor. One of those sorcerers, more than half a century ago, learnt of the coming of great new magic in the next generation. Whether he prophesised this himself is dubious, but once he learnt of that he told Morgusor of the news about this new challenger. Morgusor sought to find the new Enchanter and make him his apprentice to avoid making him his enemy. However, when Morgusor was defeated, the Sorcerer who knew thought he could seize the chance to become great himself. But the new Enchanter would be a problem. He wasn't sure who was that Enchanter, but he knew where he came from. So, he decided he was going to send the whole village and all who came from it out of his time. So, my question is: why did the enchantment start failing three years ago, causing the village and its people to reappear? It could be that he just smashed. But I want to find out. And I want to meet this Sorcerer. For, despite his mediocrity, he managed to weave such a marvellous enchantment. Come with me, Wiz! Help me find him!”

The man's face had a strange expression. Wiz knew he shouldn't trust him. Despite that, he was curious himself. He grabbed the man's extended arm.

“I know when we should go and how we can do it. All I need is your help to make the magic possible”

Suddenly, he felt as if the man was pulling him, but he hadn't moved at all. Wiz allowed himself to 'move' with him and let his magic flow to the aid of the man's spell. Then, the room became vague and faded into a misty mass. He felt like they were moving backwards and falling, while the fog around them was ever stirring.

Then, everything stopped. Shadow's legs bent under the weight of the rest of his body, which they did not expect they'd have to carry and he almost fell. He recovered his balance and looked at the other man, who had 'lamded' gracefully. Then, Wiz looked all around him and discovered they were in the same room, only it was much tidier now. And there was another person there, too. An old man was sitting on the chair in front of the desk writing something on a piece of parchment. He had thin white hair and beard, but his eyebrows were darker. His wrinkled face did not seem kind, but its wrinkles indicated he'd been angry a lot in his life. Furthermore, he seemed to be very ill. His skin was pale and wax-like, his eyes were red, his body extremely thin. As he wrote, he coughed violently and only then realised he wasn't alone anymore. He looked at the pair of them and then spoke to the second man.

“Have you come to end me?” he asked calmly.

“So this is why you failed? You just got sick and your enchantments all began to fail. I knew you were weak, but that weak? You sicken me”, the man replied with contempt and then moved his hand forward.

The old man flew across the room and hit on the wall. At the same time, a staff placed on the wall -the same staff Shadow had seen before, only it wasn't broken, yet- broke in two and a wind blew in the room sending books and pieces of parchment alike flying.

“What are you doing?” Wiz was alarmed.

A gasp came from the door. Wiz looked over his shoulder and saw a black-haired young woman. There was an expression of shock on her face.

“Menaya run!” the old man shouted and the girl fled.

Strange Odd Shadow turned to face the man. He magically pushed him and he fell on a bookcase, causing more books to fall. The man retaliated by creating ropes around Wiz's wrists and ankles. Wiz lost his balance and fell.

“You need to stop this!” he shouted, while he burnt the ropes with flames he conjured.

However, when he got up, he witnessed the old man vanishing. He felt what had happened, though. The other man had telepathically revealed to him the despicable magic he had used. The old sorcerer had been temporally dislocated as well. But different pieces of his had gone to different times. He'd been time-smashed!

“Why did you do this?”

“It was revenge, Wiz!” the man spoke and his voice sounded different, yet more familiar “And now for you...”

The man turned around and Shadow only got to see his yellow eyes before the man had touched him and sent him falling. No, he wasn't falling! He was time-travelling. It was the same thing, again. But where would this lead? Or rather when?

The feeling stopped. Or did it? He was still falling. Yet, there was no mist around him and he could feel the wind blow his hair. So, had he arrived or not? Then, he saw the ground approaching fast and he realised he was just falling, only literally. Acknowledging he should stop this fall or he would smash, he made himself immobile. For a moment, all of a sudden, he just stopped moving at all, just a few metres over the ground. Then, he began to fall again, but this time much more gently. He landed gracefully on the ground.

Step one: Find my hat! It had flown off hid head during the fall and it had landed some distance away. Step two: Discover what time this is. Shadow had no idea when or where he was, but something told him this was not the time of the Faction War, which was his time.

He was on a barren desertous place which seemed to strech on for many kilometres on any way. Wiz began walking in a random direction hoping he would get somewhere. He hadn't walked very much when he met someone, though.

It was a man wearing black ragged robes with a hood on and a black mask . His boots seemed to be made out of some black metal. Shadow was surprised for he hadn't seen anyone in a long radius and suddenly he had appeared. The black man walked towards him slowly with his boots beating heavily at the ground.

“Why art thou in Morgai's territory?” he said with a hissing voice.

“Is this where I am?”

“Thou dost not want to challenge me, foolish boy!” the other hissed.

“Obviously, thou underestimatest me for I am no small challenge myself”

“Thou thinkest so big yourself, but that will do thee no good when I destroy thee!”

“I guess this place is not famous for its people's hospitality, is it?”

“Thou wilt regret coming here!”

Wiz sensed the black-wearing person was preparing magic now. He created a shield in front of him and the green fumes sent by the person did not pass through the the invisible barrier around it. Immediately after that, the shield became orange, a sign of its being heated up. The process continued until the shield melted. Then, the liquid metal, similar to lava started flowing through the air towards Wiz. Yet, Shadow changed its route and it landed on the ground instead, where it began to form something. Soon, it had taken the shape of a minifigure, at which point it cooled off and attacked the other. The man caused the metal golem to shatter into pieces, but the shards were transformed into birds and attacked him. Purple flames erupted out of the black man, destroying the fake birds.

All the while, Wiz could feel his opponent's mind trying to break through his mental defences and gain access to his mind. Wiz, however, didn't let him and retaliated with his own mental attack. The man's mind held and continued his own attempt at mental intrusion, distracting Wiz with a geyser shooting from below his very feet. The water concealed him on all sides and then froze. No sooner had the freezing process ended than the ice began to crack. At that point, the man managed to gain access to a little part of Wiz's mind, but all he managed to do was see pictures of clowns. The ice shattered in a thousand sharp shards many of them headed for the black man. The man caused the shards to melt into harmless water, but Wiz was gone. At the same time, the clown-trap worked, confusing his enemy and working as a bait, and Wiz broke into his opponent's mental domain.

The black man was rapidly attacked with thoughts of various contents. Despite this maddening attack, the man managed to cause a thunderous wind to blow on all directions from him, knowing that Wiz had to be close somewhere. Wiz, indeed, was behind the man, though invisble, ready to polymorph him when he was hit by the wind. He was pushed away several metres and knocked down, but he held on to his mental connection with his opponent. The black man turned around to face him and some odd white light encompassed Shadow. He began feeling cold, but he focused on breaking his enemy's mind. Having weakened his mental efforts of defence, he immersed deeper into his mind. He sensed coldness and emptiness in it. He was a cruel person and apparently devoid of emotions. Wiz commanded him... and the man obeyed.

The light magic stopped at once and the black man remained still. His black mask was cut in half and its pieces fell on the ground, turning into black smoke. There was no face behind the mask; only darkness. Then, the darkness cleared and the black man's clothes fell down, empty of any body wearing them anymore. The man was gone. Wiz stood there for a minute starting at the place where his defeated opponent stood previously and then began walking anew.

“He was under the Curse. Yes, so it seems! No other explanation!” Wiz spoke to himself.

As they day continued and the sun rose higher, walking across this desolation became more and m0re uncomfortable. He kept walking, though. It came as a great surprise when Wiz realised that for the past few minutes he had not been looking at the blue horizon, but at some mountains instead. He wondered why he'd not seen them earlier. Shouldn't he have? He focused his eyes on them and could sense heavy magic on those mountains, though this magic consisted of various enchantments and it was hard to discern what was what.

He was still examining the mountains when he noticed something stirring below them. He lowered his eyes and saw some undefinable figures coming towards him fast. He curiously watched them grow bigger and clearer. It soon became clear they were minifigures riding big black wolves. Wiz stopped walking and waited for them.

It wasn't long before the wolf riders came upon him and surrounded him. Wiz thought that all of them looked really ugly. They were big, had gray-ish skin, small eyes, dark hair and stupid expressions. They had a troll impression on them. But Wiz was not one to judge from the looks of a person.

“Hello, gentlemen! Would you be so kind as to point me to the direction of the nearest village, town, city or other inhabited place?” he asked.

“You 'ear 'im, boys! 'e want us to point 'im to the right direction! And 'e call us gentlemens!” one of them called gleefully and the others laughed.

“We ain't no gentlemens!” another shouted.

“And we sure ain't gonna be kind to yus, are we boys?” a third person exclaimed.

“Oi, Dred, you see 'is 'at?”.

“Very pointy, Dusas!”.

“Now, you listens to me! Evereed is the nearer place and it's on the opposite direction you goin to. But you ain't goin to no Evereed! We takin you wit us!” the first one spoke again when the laughter died down.

“Now, I thank you for your hospitality, but this Evereed place sounds swell. Thank you for directing me!” and Wiz turned around to leave.

“Yus ain't goin nowhere!” the Wolf Rider that was now in front of him said.

“Yus wills quit the thankin soon enough, yes yus wills!” another laughed from behind.

“Where did we found this one, boys? 'e don't know one bit. Must 'ave 'it 'is 'ead when little!”.

“We takin you to the dungeons”.

“Well, I'm sorry. But I have appointed no dungeon visiting for today, I will have to bid you farewell now!” and suddenly Wiz was gone.

The Wolf Riders were taken aback. Where had the man vanished to?

“Where did 'e went?”.

“Don't know!”.

“What sorciry is this?”.

“Do the Morgai know about 'im?”.

“Don't speak of 'em, yus fool!”.

“'ey boys. There 'e is. I see 'im! Must 'ave some'ow slipped through us!”

Indeed Wiz was only some hundred metres or so away from them. The Wolf Riders immediately urged their wolves to go after him. Quickly, they had gotten to him again.

“We don't let no one escape, you stops now!” the one who seemed to be the leader talked.

“I've given my last words, my friends. Please, do not insist!” Wiz replied and there was something threatening in his voice, though the Wolf Rider didn't catch it.

Wiz disappeared once again, but this time the Wolf Riders spotted him immediately. They reached him in no time.

“Now, my friends. Do not say I did not warn you!” Wiz spoke then.

He extended his arms in a way as if he wanted to hug the Wolf Rider in front of him. A force wave was created and all the Wolf Riders were pushed off their wolves and away from him, while the wolves themselves were pushed back, too. Then, the soil beneath them became much more liquid, like quicksand, only... quicker. The quicker sand began to absorb wolves and riders alike, but when every one of them was halfway in, the quicker sand turned back to its original state. The Wolf Riders were stuck.

Wiz, standing in the midst of everyone, not affected by the quicker sand at all, looked at them judgingly.

“Sorry to leave the party, fellows, but I've got other business to attend to!”

And so Wiz left, stepping on the groaning heads of some of the Wolf Riders.

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

It was long afterwards that Wiz finally saw the city mentioned by the Wolf Riders. He had walked a long distance, his feet were sore and his legs were really tired. But he knew the moment he stopped, it would become impossible to continue. So, he persevered. When he saw the city, a part of him thought “Good. I can sleep now and continue after that”, but he knew he should reach the city first.

It was another hour and a half before he finally arrived in Evereed. With renewed interest and hope of finding a good place to sleep, Wiz walked around the city. However, what he found inside he did not expect. He was in a ghost town. He saw no living soul and everything was empty and devoid of life. Many buildings were destroyed, too. And there was silence. He could hear no sounds of life. He didn't know what happened in this city, but he knew it was terrible.

Shadow felt he shouldn't linger there, but he had no more willpower to continue travelling. Besides, it was night by now. He entered a half-collapsed building and collapsed himself on a bed he found. He was soon fast asleep.

The next day, he was woken by the sunlight entering the house through the collapsed wall. Still, it seemed to be late in the morning, so Wiz must have ignored the light for some time. He still felt like he would have enjoyed more sleep. However, sleep would come no more to him. He got up.

Many muscles of his were aching badly due to the last day's exhausting exercise. He went outside and sat on a big rock. He listened to the silence. No. It wasn't complete silence. He could hear the croaking of crows. He looked up and could see little black shapes flying over the ruined city.

Wiz did not get up to continue; he didn't even move to find something to eat. It wasn't just his muscles aching. This city was depressing and it was getting to him.

He suddenly felt very lonely. It wasn't just the fact that he could be the only living minifigure in a radius of many kilometres; it was that he was in a foreign land, in a foreign time and he didn't know what he should do. If only he had some company from his own time.

Suddenly, he heard steps behind him. He turned around to see a woman. She was wearing green and brown leather armour and had long, straight, fair hair. There were a bow and a quiver hanging on her back. She was looking at him with her blue eyes while her feet touched the ground almost silently.

“Ow! Stranger Danger! Are you a Ranger? Would it be Ranger Danger? Stranger Ranger Danger?”.

Some wrinkes were formed on her forehead as she assumed an expression of confusion.

“What?”.

“Your attire suggests that you are a Ranger. And you are a stranger, so I could be in danger! Are you a Ranger, Stranger?”.

“No, I'm no Ranger!” the woman spoke with a little frustration in her voice.

“Well, Stranger, I think you are a Ranger! And I don't think you are danger. Not to me at least!”.

“Will you stop that?”.

“Stop what?”.

“The Anger thing!”.

“I said nothing about Angels!”.

“Anger! I said Anger! Gah! How can you be joking in a place of such destruction and sorrow?”.

“Hey, Ranger, don't get upset! You seem to know a lot more about this place than I do. So, why don't you explain to me what happened here and maybe I can be more sensitive!”.

“We are in Morcia, Militiregnum”, the woman spoke, “This is Evereed, in the western section of Morcia, which is in control of the Morgai”.

Shadow remembered Ellwen mentioning travelling to a planet called Militiregnum.

“I think I've heard of these Morgai before. What are they exactly?”.

“They are Dark Entities of great magical power. They used to be human once, but no more. They lost their humanity long ago”.

“Would they happen to be under the Dermann Curse?”.

“Why yes, they are. How did you know?”.

“I think I met one. He was destroyed”.

“You destroyed one of them?”.

“That's not what I said. But yes. How many are the Morgai?”.

“Considering you destroyed one, they should be ten now. At first, they were nineteen”.

“So, what about this city? Why is it like that?”.

“The Morgai control Ankoria, a Kingdom west of here. They are in continuous war with the other lands and they destroyed Evereed some years ago. Those who survived fled. Terrible things happened here”.

“Well, that is no good!”.

“And the year is 1836 AF”.

“Why would you mention the year?”.

“Because I know you're a time traveller”.

“And how would you know that?”

“I'm a time traveller, too!” at that the woman smiled mischievously.

“Interesting! A time-travelling ranger! And what time do you come from?”.

“I do not need to disclose that information”.

“Well, how about disclosing *this* information, stranger Ranger? What is your name?”.

“My name? Oh yes. Right! My name. Yes. It is Ray... Ger”.

Wiz raised his eyebrow questioningly.

“Well, Ranger Ray Ger. I am Wizard Wiz Ardon!”.

“You're joking, right?”.

“Actually yes! I am not really a wizard, but an Enchanter. But you know; with that name I had to say that at least once in my life!”.

“Sure!”.

“Well, Ranger. I think I can say that from now on you are officially no Stranger”.

“How reassuring!”.

“Don't think you have escaped the rhyming puns, yet,Ranger. You might think I am strange, but I am stranger!”.

“Haha! Very funny”, Ray spoke sarcastically.

“It is. Thank you for noticing”.

“I was being sarcastic”.

“Well, I stole your face!”.

“What?”.

“Err, nothing! Just a reference”.

Ray was about to answer when suddenly everything changed. It had been silent before, but now they could hear the true, deafening silence. The sound of crows was lost, while they felt as if the atmosphere absorbed all sounds. Their exclamations of “What?” and “Oh no!” sounded low, muffled and hoarse. It felt like sounds did not belong in this world.

Meanwhile, everything seemed to be happening slower, as if it was in slow motion. Finally, there was darkness around them and it weighed heavily on their hearts.

Wiz began to run towards what he felt as the source of everything, though it seemed to be slow running. Ray shouted something after him, but he heard it as a whisper and did not understand what she said. He got out in the city's old main street and there he was. A black figure at the other end of the street was slowly making its way towards him. Wiz had a sense he knew what that person was. He made his way for the black man, too.

The man was thumping his feet heavily on the ground and it felt as if the world trembled from it, though it didn't shake at all. Every time the man brought his foot down, it felt as if that foot was the whole world. Wiz got dizzy from all the odd sensations.

The man was wearing armour made of some black metal, yet there were several places were black cloth could be seen. His boots, made of the same metal, featured spurs. His head was concealed by a helmet full of spikes. His gauntlets also had little spikes at the knuckles. All in all, he was a pretty intimidating figure.

“Thou art the one who destroyed Mirigos!” the person spoke with a strident voice; it sounded deeper than the other black man's, “The revenge of the Morgai will find thee!”.

“So, thou art a Morgai, then” ,Wiz's voice was barely heard.

“I am Nalrus, one of the nineteen. I hold this Sword of Vengeance, with which I shalt strike thee down!” the Morgai said, drawing his black sword.

A sword materialised in Wiz's hand, too. Nalrus was several metres away, when he suddenly jumped. He moved faster and more than Wiz had expected, so he barely blocked Nalrus's hit when he landed in front of him. Nalrus began delivering many fast, strong and accurate blows, so that Wiz barely parried or dodged them. He actually didn't avoid them all. Nalrus was an exceptional swordfighter and Wiz had trouble fighting. When he attempted to use his magical skills, though, he realised Nalrus was blocking his magic. He had to defend himself with his swordfighting skills only. He was doomed...

Three arrows appeared from behind Wiz and embedded themselves in Nalrus's armour. Nalrus fell down.

“Come on!” Ray shouted and Wiz barely heard her.

He turned around and started running away from the Morgai. He reached Ray and they continued running together. He looked back and saw Nalrus had gotten up and was after them. Ray was on the lead and Shadow did not know where she was headed, but he followed. Suddenly, there was an explosion next to them and debris started raining on them.Wiz formed an invisible barrier above them, so that the bigger rocks did not hit them. They continued. More explosions. A whole building started to fall towards them and Wiz barely made it stop, letting it go as soon as they had passed. He'd hoped it would impede Nalrus's passing, but its pieces were just blown out of his way. Nalrus was steadily walking towards them in his slow way, yet somehow he did not get left behind.

Finally, Ray brought him in front of two horses.

“Mount, quickly!” Ray ordered him as she got on one, a piebald mare, herself.

Wiz mounted the other horse, which was brown, and they urged them to gallop as fast as they could. Wiz wasn't really that experienced with horseback riding, but he managed to get his message across by talking to the horse. As an Enchanter, he had more success in communicating his message than the average person would.

Ten minutes later, they were out of Evereed and almost immediately the heavy feeling of Nalrus's influence on the world ceased. Wiz heaved a sigh and he realised that for the first time for some time he breathed normally. It was as if hitherto something had been pressing his lungs and now it stopped. The difference was so great, Wiz almost laughed. He actually grinned at Ray and saw the same smile on her face. Still, determination and realisation of what was going on made the smiles fade quickly. They urged their horses again.

“Horses! Where did you find the horses?!”.

“That is unimportant information!” the woman said guiltily.

“Did you steal them?”.

“Maybe”.

“And why did you take two? Did you know you were going to have company?”.

“Why yes. My purpose of travelling to this time was to retrieve you! It's no good leaving time travellers in the past”.

“Interesting. Do you often do this sort of thing?”.

“Only when people do stupid things and I have to come and save them!”.

“Why do you assume I acted stupidly?”.

“It requires a certain kind of stupidity to get lost in time”.

“Is that so? Tell me more about the lost time traveller's psychology”.

“Will you be serious? We're being hunted by one of the nineteen at the very moment!”.

“You think he's still after us?”.

“They never let their prey get away. They will continue hunting until they catch it”.

“Do the Morgai still walk upon Morcia in your time?”.

“No. But you had better not speak their name with such ease”.

“Then, how do you know so much about this time?”.

“I studied my history”.

“If you say so”.

“You don't believe me?”.

“I trust you wholeheartedly. Don't worry”.

“We just met today”.

“Did I not say we're no Strangers anymore, Ranger?”.

“Such a clever remark; so worth remembering”.

“Do you question my humour?”.

“No. Of course I don't. I know it is non-existent”.

“Do you really think of me like this?” Wiz pretended to talk tragically, “Oh no! Being funny was all I've ever had. Now, that you deprive me of this, I am nothing. Everything collapses. I don't know what my place is in the world! What can I do now?”.

“You'll get over it”.

So, the two travellers continued their journey across Morcia's green grasses talking all the way, because as Ray put it, Wiz couldn't “shut up if his life depended on it” -to which Wiz replied “Perhaps, my life depends on it. Maybe, Nalrus can track us by the sound of my voice!”.

The sun began to lower and eventually they had to stop. Wiz tried not to annoy Ray too much until she fell asleep. He remained awake for some time after Ray's breathing deepened, despite his muscles aching from both walking and riding. He was thinking of his situation. He was in a foregin time and place accompanied by a stranger ranger. An interesting stranger ranger, though. And one who wanted to save him. By the way, why hadn't she already? Can't she time travel now? Wiz made a note to ask her that in the morning just before he fell asleep himself.

The next day they continued riding. It was not until it was noon that Wiz remembered of last night's mental note.

“Where exactly are we going, Ranger?” he asked. “Can't we get back to our time from here?”.

“We're going to the capital of Morcia, the city of Orlan. There, I hope we can get the necessary supplies to go back to our times”.

“Supplies, huh? Do you use potions or magically crafted objects?”.

“Potions”.

“Interesting. I've not really studied time magic that much, but I've read one or two books on it. Potion time travelling is the version I saw the least”.

“It's not very popular, but it can be quite effective; and accurate”.

“I'll enjoy watching you make it”.

“What? You won't help at all?”.

“Thought you were that I-do-things-on-my-own kind of person”.

“More like the let's-finish-this-faster kind of person”.

“Fits you well, too!”.

“What do you really know about me?”.

“It's somewhere between nothing and everything”.

“How precise!”.

“Indeed, I'm glad you think so!”.

They went on the same way for two more days. The fourth day, they finally reached the shadow of a huge, towering, smoke-spewing, scary-looking volcano.

“Do you feel it, too?” Wiz asked.

“What?”.

“The volcano. It has a heavily magical presence. Something strong lives in it”.

“Sounds about right. Its names Mt. Scary and Thunderclap do not make you think of rainbows and unicorns”.

“Technically, unicorns do have strong magic”.

“But not the magic to cause this!”.

“So, you feel it then?”.

Before Ray could reply, Wiz talked again “Wait! Did you feel *that*?”.

“What now?”.

“I suddenly feel free of heart. As if there was some darkness in it I hadn't noticed hitherto. What do you think it means?”.

“It means the dark sorcerer is after us. But as powerful he may be, he's still afraid of this place. He -they- have no power here!”.

“I wonder what or who lives in the mountain, then!”.

“Maybe, we shall never know! Let's continue now. We're halfway there”.

Two more days of travelling and they approached some hills. Wiz had also seen a forest and some moors, but they had only passed through plains. This Morcia was quite scenic, generally.

As the sun sought to rest behind them, the two minifigures urged their horses to cover the last of the distance in the twilight. Wiz could now see how there were castles built upon the hills in front of them. Knowing their destination was one day of travel from there, he supposed they were there to guard the capital. He started to chat with Ray, asking her what ingredients she needed for the potions.

“Mandrake? Really? Of course it needs mandrake! They always need mandrake. Do you really think you can find mandrake in Orlan? At least, before Nalrus gets to us?” Wiz said at some point.

Then, the darkness returned. It was stronger than what it had been the first days of their journey and Wiz knew it could only mean one thing. He looked behind him to find Nalrus, but he was nowhere. The setting sun's already weak light seemed to dim more. Sounds became hollow, motion slowed down, the world was darkness. Nalrus's presence was very intense. Wiz turnd back to the front and there he was standing between their salvation and them.

“Typical!”.

“No one escapeth the Morgai!”. The dark man hissed.

Nalrus drew his sword and extended his left arm in front of him. Ray was telekinetically pushed off of her horse and fell to the ground where she remained still. She was unconscious. Whatever Nalrus had done it had been more than just a push.

However, Wiz had quick reflexes as well. As Nalrus's attention was on Ray, he caused his sword to be shattered into smithereens. Then, he put all of his magic's momentum in blocking Nalrus's magic before Nalrus could do the same for him. Nalrus did not allow this and struck back. A battle of wills began as their forces of spirit matched each other to see who would block the other's magic. So focused they both were on this, that they didn't fight physically; they didn't even move or blink. They just stood there, not moving one toe, staring intently at the other, about twenty metres separating them. And they stood there for hours. The sun set and darkness came to consume everything, but they still stood there.

If someone conscious were close, they could feel the atmoshpere's rising tension. There was something in the air and the ground; as if there was static electricity and heat, but not exactly. Yet, the two magicians still stood there. And the duel of minds continued forever. The moon rose high and attempted to light them, but Nalrus's influence on his surroundings made its frail attempts even more vain. The moon lowered and was lost and the stars alone weren't enough to disperse the darkness around Nalrus. The stars began to dim themselves as stronger light returned to the world from the east. An orange line appeared on the horizon before light started spreading.

A ray of light touched Wiz's face, as the sky slowly became blue. And at that time, he felt there was an opening for him. With darkness, Nalrus was strong and prevailed, but with light Wiz became stronger and overcame Nalrus's power. Wiz, all of a sudden and seemingly, to someone who could be watching the whole duel, for no reason at all, moved. All he did was grab his hat and then launch it towards Nalrus; after that he remained still again. The hat followed a curved track, while also spinning around itself, reached Nalrus and cut him with its spinning molding. Then, it continued its way returning to Wiz who extended his arm upwards to catch it. There was a smile on his face. Then, he collapsed to the ground, assuming a most awkward position.

To someone watching, for at this point we should mention, they actually were being watched, it would seem that Nalrus had won. He was the one still standing and Wiz had fallen. Yet, on further inspection nothing seemed to happen after that. The two minifigures unlucky enough to have met a Morgai -so close to Orlan nonetheless- had good reason not to stir, considering they had been defeated. But why did the Morgai still stay put? The men watching from their post on the hills' forts wanted to have a better look at them, but no one dared come closer to the Morgai. What exactly was going on?

Then, when the sun started to appear on the horizon, Ray woke up. She began coughing. After a minute, she finally weakly stood up. She surveyed her surroundings. Wiz was on the ground and Nalrus was standing tall. Oh no! Could it be? But there was no magic in the air, other than the signs of magic recently cast. And Nalrus no longer cast a shadow over his surroundings. Ray could even hear birds chirping in the background. Looks had to be deceiving, otherwise nothing made sense.

Ray wanted to run to Wiz, but she knew she should make sure the Morgai was defeated first. She cautiously approached him. Nalrus did not turn around to look at her. In fact, he didn't seem to notice her existence at all, since no part of him stirred in recognition of her movement. She finally reached Nalrus. He still ignored the girl. But then all became clear and Ray laughed.

“Wiz, you have done well!”.

Indeed, Nalrus had become petrified. There was no more life in his body, for it had become a statue. That reminded her of Wiz, though, and she quickly ran to him. One quick look was enough to inform her of the situation.

“HELP!” she shouted “SOMEBODY HELP ME!”.

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

When Wiz began to wake up, the first sense that came to life was that of pain. And he was in a lot of pain. His whole body was actually aching in a much more acute way than it did due to fatigue. His others senses returned too soon. He could hear some people talking to each other. He could feel the soft mattress of a bed under him and a blanket over him, which made him cosily warm. He didn't really smell or taste anything in particular. As for sight, well, he saw blackness obviously! His eyes were still closed.

Wiz opened his eyes and he saw... blackness! But not really; I'm just kidding! He was in a room made of grey stone blocks. He raised his back and felt even more pain. He could see a group of people talking in front of him. Ray stood next to them, watching him. As soon as she saw him stir, she approached him.

“Lie down”, she commanded, pushing him on the bed. “Are you alright?”.

“Well, you know I'm fine, just feeling a bit of excruciating pain on uhm, everything!”.

“It doesn't surprise me. When I found you, you might as well have had all your bones broken; and there were several open wounds on you”.

“Interesting. Then, how did you get smashed?”.

“I didn't”.

“Then, how come we meet here?”.

“Wiz, you didn't get smashed!”.

“Really? I'd thought such a state would have been fatal, you? Besides, I don't think all my bones are broken anymore! How do you explain that?”.

“I healed you!”.

“Really? Then, what is this place if not Heaven?”.

“Why do you assume you'd go to Heaven?”.

“I'm too perfect for anything else!”.

“This is the Southern Westside Fort. The soldiers manning it had the courtesy to come and pick us up”.

“How kind of them! Are you sure they don't actually intend to sacrifice our souls to their gods? Maybe, they're Aztec Warriors!”.

“Where do you get all these ridiculous theories?”.

“Maybe they want to feed us to the kittens that rule them!”.

“They actually have a proper King and all. Well, actually he prefers to be called a Lord”.

“And is he by any chance a feline of young age?”.

“No!”.

At that point, the people who were talking on the other side of the room, being some of the mentioned soldiers, approached them.

“Well, I see you got quite talky, my friend! That's good. It means you're better. Weren't that good when you came here!” one of them talked.

“And who might you be?”.

“I am Berg, Garrison Leader of this fort. We are all very happy to see you're alive. When we realised you had actually defeated one of the You-Understand-Who , we were amazed. We hadn't heard of someone doing such a thing ever since Pelios the Knight and that happened years and years ago. We heard you do magic. Now, some of my men did not want me to put you here, but I said 'Any man who defeats a You-Understand-Who is welcome at my fort', so you came here. Tell me, are you the Sorcerer?”.

“Well, actually, I'm an Encha-”.

Berg didn't let him finish. “What am I asking?! Of course you are the Sorcerer! Who else could have such power to defeat one of the Dark Ones? We are very honoured to have such a guest in our fort. Though I should warn you, many of my men are unhappy with your presence. You know, we've all heard of the stories and many are scared stiff of you. But I told them 'I don't know what my grandma said and what yours, but this man seems nice enough to me, not one to be feared. Maybe, the tales got him wrong'. Yes, that's what I said to them!”.

“You must have confused me with som-”.

He was again cut off. “And of course, Lord Arstus has asked to meet you. I think he wants to know how you defeated the You-Understand-Who. Some say it's because you use arts that are darker than the theirs, but I say that if the King -pardon me, the Lord of Morcia- himself wants to meet him, I have no reason to doubt him”.

When had the King gotten to request of a meeting?

“Excuse me, but how many days have I been asleep?”.

“Oh, you were a-sleeping for four days! Quite the sleeper you were! Kept mumbling mambo jambo at some point!”.

“Indeed?”.

“That's the truth”.

“So, that Lord of yours has asked to see me?”.

“Yes and once you're good to go that's exactly where I'm a-sending you!”.

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

It took three more days for Wiz to be good to go. Then, he and Ray were led to the city of Orlan by some soldiers. One day of travelling later, they finally arrived in Morcia's capital. Wiz could see that it once had been a grand and rich place, but war had rendered it poor and dirty. Yet, still there were signs of its old grandeur, like the Citadel of Orlan, at the other side of the city.

The two time travellers and the soldiers rented rooms in an inn, for it was almost midnight -they had barely persuaded the guards to let them in the city. The next day, though, they were finally presented to the King.

“I woke up early today and bought my ingredients”, Ray said to Wiz as they approached the Citadel's gates.”The potions will be ready soon and we can leave this time”.

“Good. You even got mandrake?”.

“I know where to look for it”.

They were led inside the castle, where they followed a page boy to the Throne Room. A man was sitting on a throne on the other side of theirs. He was thin and tall with broad shoulders, dressed in scarlet. His hair was somewhere between blonde and gray. His chin-and-cheek-covering beard was almost entirely gray. His face was wrinkled enough, but the main reason he seemed old was the depth and wisdom of his blue eyes.He was wearing no crown; only his forehead was adorned with a circlet. It was made of silver, but seemed simple enough. However, at the centre of his forehead there was some kind of crystal that seemed to shine with a faint white light. Wiz was awed to look at it.

“Greetings, magician. Greetings, my esteemed lady. I am glad that thou hast decided to honour me with thy presence” the man spoke, yet the lines of his face did not even move so as to form the faintest smile.

“Greetings, my lord! 'tis us who are honoured to have been summoned by thee” Wiz replied.

“Well spoken. Howe'er, let us not delay by the use of unnecessary courtesies, shalt we not?”.

“Very well, my lord”.

“The rumours have it that thou have defeated one of the kind of the Dark Ones, magician. Is that true?”.

“Frankly, sir, I have actually defeated two”.

This managed to change the Lord's thinking expression to one of surprise for a moment.

“And here I am, doubting the truth of the rumours about the one” the man paused for a moment “Thou knowest, magician, the people think thou art the Sorcerer- *the* Sorcerer. Now, I have my reasons to doubt that. However, I do not intend to ask thee of the truth. If my people learn that thou art not indeed the Sorcerer, they will lose heart. And I cannot afford that at such a grave hour”.

“What's so important about this particular time, Lord?”.

“Dost thou not know? The Triple Alliance hath been formed anew and we are ready to strike a new blow at the Dark Land. This time, the Dark Ones will fall forever. The mustering of my men hath already begun. We have gathered the biggest and greatest army Morcia hath e'er seen. We will begin our march in a few days”

“Well, that is good news”.

“Only if we succeed. This can result into our permanent fall as well. That's why I want thee to join our army in order to fight the Morgai”.

“What?”.

“Thou obviously hast great powers to defeat a Dark One. And thou art no friend of theirs. So, tell me: dost thou wish to help this land and beyond see light again? If thou carest at all for other people, thou shalt not refuse me”.

*Now, that is a sticky situation. Indeed, I cannot refuse. I will have to say yes.*

“Very well, Lord. I shalt help ye. Thou shouldst know, though, that I have lost a lot of my power in my last battle with Nalrus. I will have to rest until the battle to be ready for it”.

“So be it. We shalt only ask of thy help, when we really need it”.

“What about thee, Lady Ray? Wilt thou help?”.

Ray had an expression of outrage, both because of Wiz's agreeing to help and for being called 'Lady Ray'.

“Can I do otherwise?”.

“But what place doth a woman have in the battlefield?”.

“I assure thee, Lord Arstus, I can take care of myself even in such circumstances. And I can be helpful indeed”.

“If thou wishest to join us in battle, I cannot stop thee. But thou shouldst be careful. Art thou really certain this is what thou wantest?”.

“Do not worry about me, my Lord”.

“Well, one last thing then before I let ye go. How should I address thee, magician?”.

“Thou mayest call me Nodra Ziw”.

“Really? Nodra Ziw?” Ray said once they had left.

“Says Miss Ray Ger!”.

“Says Wiz Ardon!”.

“Hey, it's a real name!”.

“What makes you think mine is not?”.

“I'm glad that's all you've got to say, though. I was afraid you were going to yell at me for agreeing to help”.

“I *am* going to yell at you for agreeing to help! What were you thinking? This is not your time. How do you mess around with such stuff? Even if you don't care about what damage you might cause to the time continuum or whatever, you should think about yourself! The more you delay here, the less the chances are you'll get back to your own time! Are you happy about this?”.

“There was no other way, Ray! These people need my help. I could not refuse”.

“Fine! Do the heroic thing. Save the people!” Ray made to leave, for they had reached Wiz's quarters, generosity of Lord Arstus, but she stopped “And one more thing: Never call me Lady Ray again!”.

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

Wiz passed the next few days resting. To an unknowing person, it might have looked like he was meditating, but in fact he was using a technique to concentrate magical energy into his being. Sometimes, though, Lord Arstus would request his presence to discuss one matter or another. One time he asked about the Morgai.

“What are the Darke Ones, Nodra?” he asked.

“The Darke Ones? They were humans once. Just like thee and me. However, a corrupted magician mayeth seek many dangerous paths leading them to lose their humanity. The Morgai are under the Dermann Curse, Lord”.

“The Dermann Curse?”.

“'tis an enchantment that one group of people can cast upon themselves. It amplifieth one's powers, but not just that. Every time someone joineth the collective, it becometh stronger. Every time one of the collective is destroyed, it becometh stronger”.

“Art thou telling me that every time we destroy a Darke One, the others will become more powerful; harder to vanquish?”.

“Yes”.

“Well, excuse me, but that doth not sound much like a curse to me”.

“Thou hast not heard all, sir. One that joineth a Dermann Collective musteth part with their soul. They lose their humanity. Even their body decayeth in an odd way, so that they become similar to wraiths. That is the nature of the Darke Sorcerers. They cast aside their humanity to obtain eternal life -if thou canst call this life- and greate magical abilities”.

“I see”, Arstus paused to consider all of this “Then 'twill be near impossible to defeat them all”.

“Indeed. I am not certain how we should try to defeat them”.

“I see only one way. The remaining of them must all be defeated at precisely the same time. We must find nine champions to face them when the time comes. I need to inform the Aquilone and Britayan Kings”.

“Very well. I should leave thee to it”.

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

As the days went by, Orlan became more and more bustling with activity the preparations of the army continuing. The gathering soldiers were staying in camps laid all around Orlan, but when the sun was still up, many of them would enter the city, either on business or not. Some went to an inn to order the innkeeper's special for one last time; some would say their farewell to their loved ones; and some would simply be rushing to do some errand for their superior. But everyone was talking of the same thing. They were talking of the Sorcerer, the Gray Wizard, who had decided to help their cause.

The day finally came when they were to begin their march towards the Dark Land. The soldiers nervously broke camp and they unfolded Morcia's banners, depicting a star in a blue background, one cyan line behind the star splitting the banner in two -Arstus had a variation of this banner on his chainmail. The same star was drawn on his black armour and there were little dots like stars all around it. The journey began. They would soon meet their inevitable fate in Ankoria, whatever that fate was.

Wiz and Ray rode at the front with Arstus and many of his knights.

“Nodra, my friend, I would like to introduce thee to my right hand. This is Sir Hector, my most valiant Knight and wisest advisor”.

“'tis an honour to meet thee, courteous Sorcerer”, Sir Hector spoke.

“The honour is mine, sir”, Wiz replied examining him.

He was a tall, broad-shouldered man. His helmet concealed his face, but Wiz found interest in his shield. It had a crest that depicted a wolf, a bear, a monkey and a hawk, each in its background of separate colour: purple, red, green and blue respectively.

While they rode, Wiz continued to use the meditation-like technique. If he was lucky, he'd be able to recover from the last batlle and gather enough additional power to face the Morgai before they reached Ankoria.

Wiz had thought the army Arstus was leading was huge when they left Orlan, but he was awed by its size when they reached the Westside Hills where even more soldiers joined them. Legends would later speak of this army that it began in Orlan and ended in Ankoria. While such legends were ridiculously exaggerated, they certainly carried some truth in them. For it was a truly magnificent army and it did stretch for a long distance.

After they passed one night in the Westside Hills, Wiz and Ray were woken early and led to the site of Wiz and Nalrus's battle, together with Arstus, Hector, some more knights and some soldiers. Nalrus's statue was still standing there, while ten soldiers were watching it from a distance, their weapons raised. Wiz noticed their spears were trembling.

“Why is Nalrus still here?” Wiz asked.

“My men were afraid of approaching him, even after he was defeated”, Arstus explained.

“I see. They might have goode reason”.

“Dost thou believe it mighteth cause evil?”.

“I am not certain, but it mighteth. 'tis possible that even in defeat he mighteth have left some curse behind”.

“So, dost thou suggest we just leave it?”.

“No, Crux, no! If ye do not remove it, its presence will begin to affect thy land and people until Morcia becometh a corrupted place, not very different from Ankoria”.

“So, it musteth be destroyed then. Sir Hector, I will need a hammer”.

“My Lord, what dost thou intend to do?”.

“I will destroy this accursed statue”.

“But, sir, it mighteth be cursed! Let me do it”.

“Nay. As Lord of this Land, I have a duty to protect it. I will not allow anyone else do it”.

“Very well”.

A hammer was brought to Arstus and he approached the statue. He raised the hammer with his left hand, then brought it down. Nothing happened.

“What doth this mean?”.

“Art thou righte-handed, sir?”.

“Indeed I am”.

“Then, I am afraid 'tis indeed cursed. Thou wilt have to strike it with thy righte arm. And then thy arm shalt have to take the curse”.

“I see”, Arstus spoke “May this strike signify the end of the Morgai's reign”.

And then he swung the hammer. Cracks appeared on the statue and then it crumbled to dust and collapsed. However,, with a hissing scream, like a gayser of water or a trapped gas under high pressure, a dark ethereal substance was released out of it, half-engulfing Lord Arstus. When it stopped, Arstus fell to his knees. His skin was white as a sheet and there was a look of terror on his face.

Many people ran to their Lord's side, Sir Hector, being the first of them.

“King Arstus, art thou alright?” he asked.

“I am glad that what I have seen, ye have not”, Arstus spoke quizzingly. Then he turned to Hector. “I shalt have to learn to fight with my left arm, now. Wilt thou help me?”.

“Sir, thou canst not! Thou art hurt, thou canst not fight”, Hector argued.

“I can and I will. Help me up, wilt thou?”.

Sir Hector offered his hand and helped Arstus up.

“And one more thing. I am no King! I am merely a Lord”.

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

The army continued its way with no delays. Lord Arstus was sick for many days, however, not only did he continue to proudly ride in the front, he also practiced fighting with his left arm. However, he seemed pretty tired from up close.

Three days after the statue's destruction, they arrived in some moors shadowed by Mount Scary. The soldiers would look at the volcano with expressions of mixed awe and fear. As Sir Hector explained to Wiz and Ray, normally the soldiers' fear of this place would have forced them to go around the moors. However, now the soldiers were chattering about the Sorcerer's helping them instead of whispering about the possibility of his coming down the Mountain to curse them.

“So, that's what lives in the volcano! This legendary Sorcerer who everyone seems to admire and be afraid of at the same time. Who is that guy, though, and why does everyone think it's me?”.

“The Sorcerer is a legend as you say. The Mountain is very magical alright, but I'm not sure whether he actually exists to be the one dwelling it. Local legends, though, speak of a Sorcerer who was young when Morcia was, too. They also say he's the one who cursed Ankoria and made it what it is now. You may hear some pretty bad stuff about him, but also some good stuff. If you believe everything people say, one day he smashes half the people in a kingdom and the next he conjures a hundred unicorns as a gift to a King. Even if he exists, I don't know what's true about him”.

“Well, he sounds like a brick of a guy!”.

That night Shadow saw dreams of Sorcerers, massive destructions, scary volcanoes and unicorns. For some reason, there were also alien squirrels in it, too. Deep in the night, he woke up. It took him some minutes to realise he was racking his brain to find the answer to a non-existent question, as some times can happen. He stood up and waited, trying to clear his head. Suddenly, he thought he heard something from outside his tent. It sounded like a blizzard, but only for a moment, as if it had been someone's breath. He was curious to find out what it was, so he got out of the tent to investigate.

He looked around, but found nothing in the darkness. Some guards were staying up late patrolling the camp and Wiz tried not to alert them; there was no reason for it. He heard the sound again and now it was accompanied by soft footsteps. He followed the source of the sound. After a while, it was heard again, now at his right; he went after it. A few minutes later, the sound stopped being heard. Wiz waited, but nothing came. He had decided he should go back when he realised he couldn't move his feet from their spot. The attempt only caused him to lose his balance. He stopped his fall with his hands, but they only began to sink in the soil like his feet had.

“Oh great! I forgot I was in a moor!”.

Wiz made his feet and hands emerge out of the quicksand-like terrain and stood up on the solid ground just behind him. Then, he turned around. He suddenly found himself eye to eye with an unknown man. Green eyes surrounded by wrinkles were staring deep into his eyes -deeper than the average eye can peer into. Hair of black, gray and a little white mixture grew on his head and chin, streching long to his waist. The wrinkles on his face made him look like he was constantly frowning, but some times Wiz also thought he was angry. The man was a tall and thin figure. Indeed he was taller than what had seemed at first, when Wiz found his eyes just in front of his.

“Who art thou?” Wiz asked.

“The real question is, who art thou?” the other replied.

“Don't be so self-centred!”.

“I have come here to learn who is the man that is impersonating me. I know who thou art now. I have seen enough. I could destroy thee for that insult. Tell me. Why shouldn't I destroy thee?”.

“Well, considering the circumstances of our acquaintance, I don't believe I can know what reasons thou wouldst see fit other than my incredible skills at making squirrel sculptures”.

“Is this all thou hast to say?”.

“Well, is more really necessary?”.

The man seemed to laugh for a split second “I almost admire thy nerve, boy. It might get thee smashed one day. Be careful”.

Once he was finished talking, the man erupted into ravens, which flew away, and the night was silent again.

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

“Well, you had quite the encounter last night!” Ray commented when Wiz narrated the events of the previous night “And you think it was the Sorcerer?”.

“He practically said so”, Wiz replied. “He said I was imposing as him and you know how everyone thinks I'm that Sorcerer guy”.

“And was he angry?”.

“I'm not sure. At some times he seemed angry to me, but his face mostly showed... grumpiness. He did say he could destroy me, but didn't. I'm really bamboozled by this meeting. I don't know what to make of it”.

“Well, neither do I”.

The journey continued on and on. They met with the western army and a small part of it joined their force. Eventually, they reached the part of Morcia controlled by the Morgai. They could see the mountains ahead of them and there were Wolf Riders all around them scattering to get away from them; they were good enough to terrorise villages and small parties, but they were no match for an army unless they were all united, let alone an army of such proportions.

Soon, they arrived in the Western Watchtowers of Morcia. Once they had been a sign of Morcia's power, standing proud and tall between the Dark Land and Morcia, protecting the latter's people, as Ray explained to Wiz. Now, they had been taken by the enemy and they were one more place to cast fear on those who beheld it. Indeed the Morgai's influence had caused it to grow into a place of fear, the Towers having acquired a dark hue, thorny vines growing all around them, dark clouds lingering above them, pieces of rumble lying around.

Wiz was still examining the place, when the gates of the middle Watchtower opened. A single man came out on a black horse. He rode towards the army, which had stopped some hundreds of metres away. A little group detached itself from the army to meet the lone rider. Arstus, Sir Hector, Wiz and Ray were part of it.

“So, Morcia's glorious army has arrived to knock on my masters' doors!” the man, who was of the Wolf Riders' sort, spoke mockingly.

“Art thou coming to surrender the Watchtowers?” Arstus, still quite sick, asked.

“Ha! You wish! I am coming with a message from my masters, the Morgai”, he dragged the last two words.

“If thou dost not wish to surrender, then I do not believe there is reason for us to converse any further. We have come here to reclaim what is rightfully ours and no one will stop us!”.

“But have you only come for the Watchtowers. My Masters think, you are grasping for more. You and your petty Triple Alliance! You will hear the Morgai's message whether you want to or not. Here it comes: If you stop now and turn around, you can still go hide in your holes. For if you bring the war to us, there is no saving you. The Morgai will crash you and there will be no escaping this time. None who enters Ankoria without the Morgai's wish comes out alive. You *shall* be destroyed”.

“Thy big words do not scare me. Begone thou foul thing. For there is no honour in smashing a messenger, but if thou continue to stall here with thy big words, I do not know what I shalt have to do!”.

“This is what I think of your honour, little King!” the man spit at Arstus's horse's feet.

A lot of the knights accompanying them, started to draw their weapons, but Arstus raised his left palm up, signalling them to stop.

“Let this foul thing go. Ye shalt have your chance of striking him down in combat as it should be. Begone!”.

The rider turned around and left. The group of people returned to the rest of the army. They watched the rider get back in the middle Watchtower and then Arstus turned to one of his knights.

“I hate to undo the work of my ancestors, but I'm afraid 'tis necessary. We can't have a rain of arrows on ourselves. Sir Elliot. Command the catapults to fire at the upper levels of the Watchtowers. Try not to bring the whole buildings down, though. We only want their archers. Stop firing when our soldiers reach the Towers”.

“Yes, sir!” Sir Elliot left to do his Lord's bidding.

“Sir Hector! Sir Pelias. Ye shalt each lead a battalion of Knights to the left and right Watchtowers respectively on my sign. I will lead a third to the middle Tower. We shalt have to be as fast as can be, for minimum casualties by any archers spared by the catapults”. At that moment, the first boulder was launched, hitting the middle Watchtower. “Sir Dinadan, thou wilt lead the rest of the army behind us when the attention has been drawn to us”.

The knights must have studied strategies before for they followed Arstus's orders very quickly. Soon, three forces of knights, carrying battering rams headed for the Watchtowers. Despite the heavy bombardment by the catapults, there were still archers on the Towers to shoot arrows on the storming knights. Fortunately, their heavy armour protected them from any bad injuries. The three battalions arrived in the gates of each Watchtower, but some units of archers had followed them and they struck back at the archers on the Towers, to cover for them. Wiz watched them ram the gates until each one was broken. The knights, followed by more soldiers, began forcing their way into the Tower. Then, they had to wait.

The wait didn't last long; not as long as Wiz would have expected anyway. Soon, the soldiers, not all of whom had gotten to enter the Towers began to cheer.

“I would have thought the battle would last longer”, Wiz commented to Ray.

“Me too. I thought the Ankorian forces were stronger than that”, she replied.

“Well, that can only be bad news. It means they are holding back only to strike back with their full force when we knock on their door in Margothor”.

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

Once the army was rearranged and Arstus had given any orders he had, they continued. A small guard was left in the Watchtowers, soon to be reinforced by the Western Army they'd met earlier.

They left the Brawychus Mountains behind and they arrived in the narrow plane surrounded by the Moorlands, the Bewitched Forest, the Brawychus Mountains and Ankoria's Mountains. There, they met an ambush of the enemy. Wolf Riders attacked them from the Bewitched Forest and the Moorlands. However, they were soon forced to retreat into the marshes, where Sir Hector and Sir Pelias hunted after them with a group of knights. They were never heard from again.

Once the knights returned, the march continued and soon they entered the actual Ankoria. The Dark Land was a depressing ash-gray place with tall, spiky mountains and no life. It was a long journey through Ankoria and everyone had to endure its harshness. There was only what food and water they brought with them, for nothing grew in Ankoria and the water could very possibly be cursed or poisoned, while the land's heavy magic caused their mood to darken.

Hard though it may have been, they still endured it and one day the morning's light revealed the City of Margothor to them. If Ankoria was a foul beast, Wiz could see that Margothor was its beating heart. From it, with its tall, dark, barren buildings, the aura of all this dark magic -which Wiz had only glimpsed when he had first arrived in this time and seen those mountains at the end of the desert- emanated. It was an unholy place that had to be destroyed, if anything sacred was to keep living in this world.

“So, this is Margothor, then”, Wiz said to no one in particular. “I will have to start working from now, if I am to undo the magic woven to protect it”.

Wiz examined the Towers that surrounded the City. He couldn't see them all from this side of it, but Wiz would tell there were seven. They probably had to be destroyed for them to pass through, but...

“Tell me, Sir Hector! Is there any chance thou canst keep one of the Towers standing? 'twould serve as a good point for me to cast my magic”.

“I'm afraid not. Storming one would be very costly. Unlike the Watchtowers, those will be properly manned”.

“Then, what if perhaps I made the Tower keep standing despite the bombardment”.

“Perhaps, it could work, but if it doth not, we will have to abandon the idea”.

“Capital, capital!”.

At that point, Wiz began to work. He had mastered enough strength now and he felt ready; in fact, it was more than enough, more than he could sustain for a long time. But there was no worry for that. Soon, he would spend loads o it.

The enchantments lay heavy on both the Towers and the City's wall. They were like many layers of intricate cobwebs tied in complicated knots. Attempting to undo the wrong spell would trigger dozens of curses, probably smashing him instantly in more than one ways. So, he had to be very careful. It was slow work, but it developed steadily and at some point he discovered Ray was helping, too. Hopefully, it'd be enough when they'd reach Margothor.

It was only after two days that this happened. They stopped very near the City for that night. Arstus had received carrier pigeons earlier that day, informing him that the Britayan and Aquilone armies were in place. Everything was ready. The next day, the battle would begin.

Wiz did not go to sleep. There was still much to be done. He was too absorbed in his work to notice Ray approaching him; he jumped when she placed a hand on his shoulder.

“You should rest. Tomorrow's going to be a big day”.

“Can't. Too much to do”.

Ray examined him for a moment and he turned his attention back to the City.

“Fine”, she said then. “But I'll stay and help you”.

“No”, Wiz stopped. “You've already helped plenty. This is my job”.

“I stand with you at this”.

“Fine. If you're so stubborn!”.

“Only as stubborn as you”.

“One day you've got to tell me how a Ranger like you turned out to know magic”.

“I'm not a Ranger!”.

“Sure thing, Stranger Ranger”.

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

A flaming boulder crossed the sky forming an imaginary arch and landed on the stone wall of a tower shattering it into pieces that were jettisoned towards all directions. The battle had begun. Suddenly, the sky above them was filled with such boulders and almost all of them hit the towers. However, the Towers had been built to be strong and they still held.

The counterattack began shortly. Ballistae shot their projectiles, which exploded on impact by magical means, from the towers and archers shot arrows that seemed to exceed their range and reach them. The tower's gates opened and hordes of short soldiers came out. As the hordes from three towers that were nearby joined into one they looked like a powerful tidal wave of people, about to crash them. Battlecries were heard from their opponents, but Wiz did not understand what they were saying. The Morcian soldiers, in their turn, taunted their enemies by shouting insults and banging their weapons on their shields. Arrows flung from behind him and flew above him embedding themselves in the oncoming soldiers' armour. Wiz drew his sword as the enemy approached; it was possible that he might have to defend himself.

“Here they come!” Sir Pelias, who was escorting Wiz and Ray, said, just a few seconds before the two armies collided, in which time Wiz realised the enemy had rough gray faces; they were goblins.

In one instant, the front of the organised Morcian army became one with the force of the numerous goblins; there was uproar. The first few lines of the Morcian and the goblins' armies were broken and became a mix of both. Wiz and Ray had been offered a place in the army's better-protected centre, but they had declined. It was not only out of pride, as Wiz had said trying to rationalise, but his mobility and effectiveness would be hindered there.

Wiz found he suddenly had to fight for his life. Two goblins appeared in front of him, bearing menacing expressions, while any other soldiers nearby seemed to be engaged in their own fights. Wiz swung his longsword to parry the attacks of their crooked shortswords. The hits were more powerful than one would have expected from creatures half his size. Indeed the goblins seemed to make up for their disadvantage in height in strength and meanness. Wiz fought well enough, but he was reluctant to strike for the smash, thus prolonging the fight. Soon, the goblins began to get the better of him. He began to slowly retreat, which however was a bad idea, since he had turned around during the battle, meaning he was getting closer to the goblins.

There was a stinging pain, as one of the goblins managed a cut at his left hand. Wiz thought that was no good. He was slowly, but steadily being weakened. Suddenly, the goblins gave a short cry of pain and fell to the ground, smashing. Behind them, Wiz saw Sir Pelias.

“Next time, smash them at the first chance!” the knight spoke abruptly, “If thou canst not do that, retreat behind the frontline”.

Wiz was surprised at how easily an army to counter theirs in size had appeared. He was even more surprised at the fact that the towers could fit so many of them.

Wiz walked back behind the line of Morcian Knights enduring the continuous attacks of the goblins, dodging out of the way of enemies all around him. Once he was not in immediate danger, he allowed himself to relax a little and then he realised he'd lost Ray. He looked all around him, but couldn't see her anywhere.

“Ray!” he called, but no one replied, “RAY! Crux! Let her be okay!”.

She wasn't behind the lines, so Wiz looked in the battlefield in front of him. He couldn't find her there either, but instead he saw something else. Five tall and large humanoids, a piece of cloth around their hips being their only clothes, were running towards them, carrying big greatclubs.

“Trolls! Brick!”.

Wiz extended his arm and a beam of bright white light was launched out of it, headed for the nearest troll. The troll was blinded and it growled in pain; Wiz knew that trolls could not stand sunlight. Pure trolls were even petrified when caught in it. However, these ones must have been specially bred in order to survive it. Still, the only reason these trolls could crawl out of their hiding holes was that dark fumes always emanated from the City, filling the sky and hiding light.

Wiz launched another beam of light and the troll fell to its knees, feeling its skin get burnt by the light. However, the other trolls continued and they weren't even hindered by the goblins which were flung out of their way as they proceeded. Wiz attacked another troll, but his attacks could only delay them, as was proven by the fact the first troll rose to its feet again and continued. If they reached the army, it would be catastrophic. Wiz would have despaired if the long bolt of a ballista hadn't made him realise that delaying them was all they needed. The second troll he'd hit had been impaled by it, while it was staying put. Even the troll's hard skin couldn't save it and it collapsed on the ground lifeless.

Wiz continued his work. Another troll was struck by a flaming boulder. Sir Elliot rode his horse to fight another. Wiz wondered whether this was a wise course of action, but he didn't have time to watch, because another troll had been enraged by the arrows that were raining on it -few of which actually penetrated its skin- and was now rampaging towards their side of the army.

On the bright side, in its anger, the troll had forgotten it could use its greatclub, but it still brought anything in its path down. Wiz realised it was coming his way. Instead of running, though, he stayed put and drew his sword. He prepared for the upcoming troll and when the soldiers in front of him were jettisoned in the air, he charged forward as well. The troll was probably not expecting such a course of action and did not manage to stop him. With a little extra magical force, Wiz managed to bury his sword deep in the troll's lower belly, the highest point of its that Wiz could reach. The troll continued to run unhindered by the attack, carrying Wiz, who held the sword firmly with him. The troll could have easily continued running, but it stopped once it gained control of its momentum to deal with the pesky human.

“Ruuuaaarghh!!!” it growled and Wiz guessed it wasn't happy.

It grabbed him with its large hand and brought him close to its stinking mouth, while it squeezed Wiz until it was hard to breathe.

“Raaargh!” it said showing its sharp teeth, drops of saliva hitting Wiz's face.

“I'll have to admit I'm not fluent with the particular dialect”, Wiz decided to deliver a witty comment if it was the last thing he did.

The troll might have eaten him then and there, but for its being distracted by some Morcian soldiers who finally found the courage to attack it. With one sweep of its unoccupied arm, three of them were flying away. It prepared to attack the rest, but Wiz seized the chance, as the troll's grip loosened, allowing him to breathe, and he caused a flash of light to occur in front of the troll's eyes. Wiz was lucky and his gamble worked. Instead of clenching its fists, crushing him, it opened them, releasing him.

Wiz thouht it was time to get away, but the troll recovered faster than he'd expected. Wiz didn't know how it happened, but he found himself under the troll's foot. He was starting to get angry. This troll was irritatingly insistent on smashing him. He had not wanted to use powerful magic so early, but he was no good smashed anyway. He prepared to create light that would destroy the troll when he felt the brute pressing its foot on him. In this state of pain and lack of air, he couldn't find the concentration to perform magic. His sight blurred and he couldn't make out the troll very well. It seemed to be fighting others with its arms, though. Suddenly, though, there was the sound of an arrow and liberation came.

He stayed still for a little, waiting for his eyes to refocus, for his heart to stop pounding. A face appeared in his line of sight.

“Ranger, is that you?” he asked breathlessly.

“It's me”, Ray's voice replied.

“Ha! You admit you're a Ranger, then”, Wiz said as her face cleared out.

“What the brick were you up to, facing that troll alone, using almost no magic?” she asked in an exasperated tone, as she helped him up.

“Well, I guess I underestimated it. Still, it's smashed now, as Isee, and everything is okay. By the way, where have you been?” Wiz said, retrieving his sword from the troll, which had an arrow sticking out of its neck.

“I might as well ask you the same question. But we're in a battle and I don't think asking such questions has much point”.

Wiz looked around him. The trolls all seemed to have fallen, but there were two trails of goblins into their army left behind by them. This didn't seem very clever to Wiz as the goblins found themselves surrounded. Furthermore, Shadow realised that the goblin army had shrunk to half its size. Then, he saw the Towers. Two of them had collapsed, but the third was still miraculously standing despite the fact that more than half of it was missing. That was of course thanks to his magic.

“We should get there as soon as we can”, Wiz pointed to the half-broken Tower.

“It seems pointless to try until the field is cleared of goblins”.

Just in time, a few horsemen arrived led by Sir Pelias. They were bringing two riderless horses with them.

“I am to escort ye to the Tower. I have brought your mounts for the purpose” the Knight notifed them.

“That is splendid news”, Wiz replied.

The Morcian army was just beginning to push the goblins back when a band of Aquilone horsemen appeared from their northeast and flanked the goblins. After that they were quickly decimated. In the midst of everything, a group of Morcian Knights rode towards the half-destroyed Tower, smashing any goblins that got in their way.

“Stay safe in here. I wouldn't consider it certain that ye will not be attacked in there. We have to go now. Good luck!”.

“Same goes for thee, too!” Wiz replied “Goodbye”.

Wiz and Ray entered the Tower -the gates had been destroyed as well- and found the first level to be empty of people. They found the staircase and started ascending it. However, big parts of it as well as big parts of the walls and floors were missing. That was no problem, though, for two magical practioners who made supernatural leaps over the gaps the catapults had left. As they got up, only once did they meet a goblin and upon seeing them, it ran away in fear. Once they reached the top, Wiz surveyed everything that was below him.

Being on such a tall Tower was bad enough, let alone one it should have actually collapsed. Yet, Wiz did not fear heights any more than was rational, so he ignored the feeling of vertigo and tried not to think what would happen if he slipped.

Having defeated the goblins -which Wiz could see the Britayans had achieved, too, at their northeast- the Triple Alliance was one step closer to getting to the city. However, they had to get through the wall first. He could see countless figures crowded on it, working to stop the enemy soldiers any way they could. There were catapults, ballistae, hot tar, archers and some metal devices who seemed to launch explosive fire.

The Allied Forces were striking back though. Usually, when one sieges a city, they are careful with the use of catapults for otherwise they may destroy the city they wish to conquer. However, in this case no one had intentions of keeping Margothor standing, so the flaming boulders flew in abundance. Most were headed for the walls and the siege equipment, but many landed inside the city. Soon, it was evident there were parts of the city being burnt to the ground.

Yet, the wall did not seem to yield. However, many of their projectiles were concentrated on one place, the damage was minimal. Wiz got to work. He concentrated, extended his arms towards the wall and he mumbled some incoherent words. As a result, cracks appeared on the wall all along its length. Black smoke was emitted out of them, but thankfully no one had approached enough to be hurt by it. The next hits from the catapults caused more damage.

Wiz searched for anything else he could help with, but didn't have to look for long. For a moment, Wiz thought the people on the wall were releasing hot tar, but that couldn't be the case. A black thick slow-flowing liquid was being released from the wall's whole length. Wiz had a bad feeling about it.

“I don't know what this is, but it's not just simple tar. We need to stop it before it reaches the soldiers”.

“Right”, Ray replied tersely.

They got down to it immediately. Ray closed her eyes as she cast her magic, but Wiz preferred to have visual contact with his target. The liquid slowly reached the ground and then it started spreading towards where the armies stood. Wiz began to chant some words and Ray joined him. The liquid was halfway to the soldiers when something happened.

“Aagh!” Wiz exclaimed in pain.

He fell to his knees and the pores of his body began to secrete a black gooey substance. However, the liquid stopped its progress indeed.

“Are you alright?” Ray asked worriedly.

“I've been -aaargh- better”, Wiz replied.

Ray sat beside him to help him, but Wiz stopped her.

“Don't mind me. I'll recover. Find a way to get rid of the black liquid”.

Wiz was seated there for five minutes until suddenly he felt a little better. The flow of the black goo stopped and he was able to clean it off himself. He got up to see the liquid burn until there was none of it left. Ray was now significantly paler and she seemed tired.

“Why don't you rest for a while? I can handle things myself for now”.

However, as he turned around, Shadow saw the smoke caused by the liquid's burning was lingering above the three armies, causing people to grow weak and faint. She sat down and almost immediately lost consciousness. Wiz frantically began to form strong winds to blow the poisonous smoke towards the mountains.

A loud roar warned him of what was coming next. He turned his attention towards the city and saw three dragons. But they were not real dragons. They seemed to consist of a mix of fire, metal and shadows. Wiz cursed. If those got to the army, they'd wreak even more havoc than the trolls. He shot a geyser of water at the nearest shadow-dragon in hopes its fiery nature would make it vulnerable to water. Indeed, it seemed to be irritated and turned its attention to him, but it seemed to be generally unaffected by it.

“Oh dear”, Wiz muttered to himself. “If only I could summon a real dragon to fight this one for me”.

The shadow-dragon opened its mouth intending to shower him in flames. A cone of fire erupted from its opened jaws, but Wiz was ready for this and he caused the flames to split going everywhere around him, but not onto him or Ray behind him. The temperature got significantly higher, but at least he was not a burnt crisp. Once the shadow-dragon ceased its attack, Wiz created a chilly wind around him, so that he could stand being there. That gave him another idea.

Wiz jumped to dodge the shadow-dragon's claws -for the monster had reached the tower now- and he almost fell from the half-ruined tower. Another attack, this time with the tail and the next jump found Wiz over a void on the floor. He forced himself away and landed on the other side of the 'chasm'. The shadow-dragon landed on the tower and Shadow saw little rocks detach from the whole and fall towards the far-off ground.

The Enchanter knew the dragon was very close to Ray, so he had to distract it, if not destroy it. He stretched his arms forwards and two rays of frost were launched from it. One entered the creature's opened mouth and the other hit it on the chest between two metal plates. The shadow-dragon roared angrily. Its flames now did not flicker as wildly as before and the next fire blast was weaker and smaller. Wiz easily deflected it towards a different direction. Wiz then formed spikes made of ice below the dragon and raised them penetrating its armour. The shadow-dragon's flames diminished even more.

However, it was not only made of flames and so it continued to fight without them. As a response to the spikes, it fired a shadow blast from its mouth, which Wiz did not manage to avoid. He fell on the floor, out of breath, feeling as if someone had sucked a year of his life from him. However, he got up, staggering a little bit, and then raising one hand, there was a flash of bright light. The shadow-dragon retreated in fear of the light and its shadows were almost dispersed. Wiz reckoned the beast was now in its finals.

One move of his arm and his sword flew cutting one of its metal wings off. The dragon retaliated with an attack of its claws. It scratched Wiz on the shoulder, but it had to jump and without its one wing it lost its balance. Half the remaining floor collapsed due to its whole weight falling on it and the dragon went with it. Wiz heard its scared hisses, as he bent on his knees holding his injured shoulder, but he was mostly concentrated on keeping Ray's part of the floor in place; Ray was still unconscious.

When he was certain the tower was safe again, he looked below. Only the dragon's metal parts remained at the tower's base. Wiz would have liked to relax now, but he couldn't. He hastily closed his open wound with a healing spell, making a mental note to check it again later. Then, he looked for the other shadow-dragons.

He could only find one, flying over the city's north where the Aquilones must have been. He made some gestures with his hands and then brought them close to his body and blue sparks came from them. When he brought his right one back forth, it conjured a lightning bolt. The bolt travelled through the air and hit the dragon, which was at the moment spewing fire at those unfortunate enough to be below it. The shadow-dragon stopped its attack and for a moment it lost height, while electricity crackled through it. Yet, the next moment it recovered and began flying towards him. Wiz made another series of complicated hand gestures. Then, he shaped an imaginary square around the brute's figure. Instantly, the shadow-dragon was frozen in an ice block and began falling. Wiz was decided not to allow this one to hurt him, too. Another battle like the previous one and he was finished. Keeping his strength for facing the Morgai was proving much harder than he had hoped.

He lost sight of the dragon as it fell behind the wall. It did not reemerge. For a while, nothing more magical happened, so Wiz just prevented the enemies' projectiles from hitting the army. Soon, though, he discovered the Morgai had not been idle. It was when the floor beneath him began to shake that he suspected what was going on. He had little time to react, so he acted as quickly as he could, throwing caution to the wind. He rushed to Ray, lifted her from the floor and then jumped. Some seconds after he did, the Tower began to collapse as it should have done hours ago.

Wiz made an unnaturally long leap to the only place he could think at that moment: the wall. The people on it jumped back seeing him coming so as that he wouldn't crash on them. The Enchanter landed gently on the empty space that had been formed and then realised his mistake. He was now surrounded by short, wide-shouldered, ironclad men with black hair, black beards and red eyes. They were dwarves.

They were about to attack him and Ray, but the wall was then shaken by a boulder and Wiz watched the floor collapse beneath the feet of the dwarves almost next to him. He saw the fear in the eyes of one falling dwarf. Yet, this distracted the others and Wiz did not allow himself to lose his focus as well and miss this opportunity for escape. He caused the piece of stone he was standing on to jettison away from the wall and the dwarves and it made its way for the Morcian army.

Soon the chunk of the wall began to lose height, but Wiz made himself and Ray fall like feathers; they landed long after the piece of rock did. Wiz was astounded to find Ray had been unconscious through all of this. He realised how difficult a task it must have been to destroy that substance if it drained her of all her strength. He found Sir Pelias and asked him to find her a safe place to be.

Next to Sir Pelias he found, Lord Arstus, Sir Hector and Sir Elliot. Elliot seemed to be pretty beaten up, probably from his earlier fight with that troll, but he was still standing. He'd also lost his horse, but someone was bringing him a new one. Hector had an ugly cut on his forehead, but he was well other than that. Arstus had endured many injuries on his vulnerable right side, but he seemed insistent on continuing to fight and maybe his determination was enough.

“Nodra Ziw, my gallant friend! 'tis good to see thee alive and well. I will have to admit I was a touch worried about thee, especially when the Tower collapsed. But tell me, is the Lady Ray fine?”.

“I believe she is but fatigued by her heroics during the battle. 'tis my opinion that she will recover in due time”.

“That is good to hear”.

“Tell me, my Lord. Dost thou think the battle is going well?”.

“We have already lost many good men and the Britayan army already suffered many losses when it landed on the Dark Land's shores. But in earnest, I had feared much worse. The hard part, however, hath not began, yet. Destroying *them* will be a much harder feat”.

Wiz knew whom he meant by 'them', even though he did not name them. It was the Morgai.

“Sir Gareth, what is thy report?”.

“Sir Dinadan and Sir Gaheris have been smashed, sir” the knight named Gareth replied “And Sir Palomis is seriously wounded”.

“That is grave news indeed. 'tis a great loss. But we shouldn't be disheartened. On the contrary, we should fight ever more valiantly to honour our friends' sacrifices”.

Arstus's knights assumed determined expressions -though not all of their faces were visible, considering they were wearing helmets- and nodded. At that moment, the catapults had created a great gap in the wall and another one could be seen on the Britayans' side. It was time to enter the city.

As they approached the city, Wiz realised there was an unexpected second wall waiting for them behind the broken first. The dwarves had formed a line of shields behind all the rubble waiting for the Allied Forces to come. The knights dismounted knowing it would be foolish to charge to the dwarf-wall on their horses.

Arrows began to fly over them, but they caused little damage, for the dwarves had very good armour. Any losses were quickly replaced by other dwarves. Arstus wished to save the catapults' last projectiles for the citadel in Margothor's centre, where the Morgai resided. They would have to break their lines themselves.

The Morcian army made its charge. Soon the two sides clashed and the sound of metal clanging on metal filled the valley, which other than the sounds of battle was eerily silent. Wiz stayed behind for he now knew there was no chance he would be any help in the heat of the battle. Some units of cavalry, but also infantry had stayed behind to charge at the right moment, when they would deal the most damage.

The dwarves were a lot harder foes than the goblins, fighting with great physical prowess. It was difficult to wound them and even when one achieved that, they could endure some very serious injuries while still fighting. The battle raged on for long with many casualties on both sides, but nothing seemed to break the monotony. The held back units were still waiting for an opening. Wiz began to suspect this battle was only going to end when either side ran out of soldiers to send in the frontline.

However, suddenly there was a gap between the dwarven army and the part where the was still standing. The cavalry did not lose its time and it charged immediately. They crashed on the side of the army, causing havoc in their first lines. The dwarves had to retreat further back to avoid having too many casualties, but that allowed more riders to pass through and flank them. The dwarves had found themselves in a disadvantageous position.

Progress became faster at that point. The more the dwarves failed to keep their positions, the more the Morcians found opportunities to bring them in worse and worse situations. In the end, when only few were left, even their determination and will was broken and they fled.

Once one of the three sides they were attacking was broken, the others were doomed to break as well. The Britayans were having a hard time defeating the dwarves, but when the latter were attacked from behind, they were crushed. Knowing that the two other fronts had fallen, the dwarves facing the Aquilones in the northern part of the city retreated. They were close to victory now. Or so one would think, if it wasn't for the Morgai.

The armies regrouped and were reorganised. Then, they began to march inside the city. Wiz, who now entered Margothor with the others, thought that for such a big city, it was too devoid of people. There surely were many soldiers, but where were the civilians? Then, Wiz realised that the city was full of many big buildings, marvels of architecture, but there were no houses. What sort of place was this?

The city, however, was determined not to let them take it that easily, even if it had to destroy itself in the process. Many buildings collapsed in their way onto them. But there were other traps, too. Spikes appeared in the ground; pressed slabs would activate explosions; dangerous animals would be released in the streets. Wiz tried to prevent them from smashing people, but he couldn't be everywhere.

There were also several strategic positions like barracks and armouries that were defended. They had to defeat the groups of fighters in such places before they turned their attention to the citadel.

The catapults of all armies approached and they began bombarding the citadel in the centre. However, the citadel was even more stubborn than the wall was and Wiz wasn't sure if he could skip its magical protection this time.

As they drew near Margothor's centre, another party of knights approached them.

“King John! King Ludwig! 'tis relieving in this dark hour to see that ye art not wounded or worse” Lord Arstus greeted the two men who walked forward in the group.

“As 'tis to see thee” the Britayan King replied, but he was not smiling.

“I see ye have brought some of your most valiant knights with ye. Sir Perevel, Sir Gallahaud, Sir Aggravain, Sir Lamorrak, Sir Ellis. Thy valour will be needed today”.

“It seemeth to me that we will not be able to break through in the conventional way. But I heard thou hast got a magician with thee. Is it true?” the Aquilone King said.

“Thou hast not been ill-informed, King Ludwig. Here he...”.

Lord Arstus did not finish his sentence. He was distracted by a mystical mist that appeared and surrounded them all. Everyone began coughing and some fell to their knees. Wiz noticed a dark figure at the end of the street. Wiz coughed, too, but he did not give up. Suddenly, Wiz raised his arms and the mist dispersed.

The dark figure turned its attention to him, but before it could unleash its magical attack, Arstus stepped forward. He unsheathed his sword and pointed it towards the dark figure.

“Begone, thou foul creature of hell!” and as he uttered the words the gem on his forehead shone brightly.

The dark man stepped back, as if he was afraid and then he disappeared. Wiz was surprised. What had driven the dark sorcerer away? Wasn't he supposed to be much stronger?

“Lord Arstus, may I ask, what is this circlet that thou wearest on thy forehead?”

“'tis Elomar, an olde artefact, used by the Lords of Morcia of olde instead of a crown. 'twas made by Figroth Felanor himself, Father of Morcia. Legends speak that he captured a star to place on it as a jewel. Let us speak of these matters later, though, when we will be free of the darkness”.

“Certainly”.

“Tell me Nodra, canst thou do anything to let us in?”.

“I can try”.

They proceeded further into the city until they were close to the citadel's gates. Wiz examined the gate for some time, while they sought cover from the citadel's defenders behind a large building, almost the size of a cathedral. As he did, the final fighting ceased and the soldiers began to gather all around the citadel, waiting for further instructions. Yet,no sooner had Wiz decided what had to be done about the citadel, his magical senses gave him a warning.

“Fall down!” he shouted doing so himself.

A large part of the cathedral-like building collapsed and debris flew all over them. Dust filled the air and for some minutes, until it settled down, it was impossible to see around them. Wiz could feel a heavy rock crashing his leg down, but he was otherwise okay. He could hear several voices of knights trying to learn if the others were okay, but Wiz couldn't understand which ones were speaking exactly.

Once the dust settled down, Wiz finally could see the results of the building's collapsing onto them. Many knights were trapped under pieces of debris or injured, while he could see someone he did not recognise that was smashed. Debris was all over the street.

A few knights stood up and began helping the others. Wiz carefully freed himself so as not to break his ankle. He was not all that badly injured, but he still limped when he walked. He rushed to help the others, too. He found out that Sir Ellis and another knight he didn't know had been smashed, too. Sir Pelias and Sir Gareth were freeing Sir Hector, who had jumped over Arstus to protect him. Sir Elliot was even more beat up now.

Once everyone had been recovered from the debris, Wiz rushed towards the gates. There was no time to waste or something similar might happen again. The knights and royal men saw him and followed. Wiz stood before the gate and he looked at it intensely. An arrow flew next to him. Wiz spoke a word, but even though they heard it loud and clear, the rest could not remember what he had said. The effect was instant. The gates were blown off their hinges and smashed into pieces. Two more arrows missed him, but came closer. Despite that, Wiz fell to his knees as his legs couldn't support his weight anymore.

Someone lifted him and carried him away, as more arrows flew near them. He was placed on the ground his back supported by a wall. Two soldiers were placed by him and then the other person left before Wiz could learn his identity.

For a while, Wiz remained there making dizzy thoughts, being in between of sleep and wakefulness. He could hear the feet of men wearing metal proceeding towards somewhere, but did not make anything of it. For the time, he had forgotten where he was. He was too tired. He had used a lot of magic. And that power word had required more energy than he expected. He was too tired to use power words correctly. Power word for what...?

Suddenly, Wiz woke up.

“How long have I been out?” he asked.

“About fifteen minutes, sir”, said one of the soldiers stationed by him.

“Fifteen minutes?! That long?! What is happening? Did the Morgai show up?” Wiz tried to get up, but when he staggered the soldiers forced him back down.

When his back touched the wall, he suddenly got angry, “Are you crazy?! Do you think it's safe to be here. The building could collapse at any moment, burying us all beneath it”.

The soldiers weren't sure what they should do. Wiz did not look like he could be moved, but his words were true.

“Come on, I'm a lot better now! I need to help the others. Let me go. Don't force me to stun you”, at this threat the soldiers retreated half a step.

“Are you certain, sir, you can handle it?” one of them asked.

“Yes, yes, what have I been telling you all this time. Quick! There's no time to lose”.

The soldiers hesitantly helped Wiz up and they all headed for the battlefield. Wiz tried not to walk in a dizzy manner, but it was hard as his head buzzed and all feeling of balance seemed to be lost. The soldiers had to support him more than once and more than once they said he should stop. However, Wiz wouldn't listen to them. He'd continue walking and the soldiers would be forced to follow him for he'd collapse without them.

Wiz didn't know what help he could be at that point. He had used a lot of his magic already and he was drained. In spite of that, he felt he should return to the battle and continue. If only, he could somehow recover some of his strength.

Wiz suddenly stopped in his tracks. He put his hand inside his backpack and conjured a Buttery Croissant and an Assembly Awesome Ade 2. He drank half the Awesome Ade in one gulp, then ate the croissant. He began walking again, while drinking the rest of the Ade. His step was much more sure now. He wasn't sure what effect those would have on his magical energy, but at least he could walk again. The soldiers were very relieved to see him in a better state.

Many soldiers had entered the great entrance hall that lay behind the broken gates, but many more had been unable to enter and were waiting outside in case they were required to do so later. Wiz walked through the huge archway and into the entrance hall. Battle raged on inside. There were five hallways beginning from it and they were all full of goblins, dwarves, humans, black wolves and even trolls. The Morcians, Aquilones and Britayans were fighting to break through their lines and enter the hallways, but it was hard.

Wiz stayed in the rear. He'd insisted in coming back to the battle, but he had not expected this. He'd expected a duel with the Morgai. He still had to keep his strength for that, so he did not engage into combat.

Apparently, there were many more foes hiding inside the citadel for the battle continued for a long while. The attackers were often reinforced by those outside, while the tired and wounded ones would retreat from the five fronts to avoid being smashed. The defenders did not want to abandon their positions in the hallways, allowing them to fight their enemies few at a time, so they could not gain an advantage from these switches.

The sun set before this battle was over and darkness began to spread everywhere. Torches were lit, but now the Allied Forces were in a disadvantage as many of their enemies could see better than they did. Besides, night was time of the dark creatures and they were fighting just those. The Triple Alliance had to act quickly.

Efforts were doubled. The knights of the Allied Forces fought furiously, inspring the other soldiers. Suddenly, Wiz realised that Lord Arstus and his knights were entering a hallway where the enemies had disappeared. The time had come.

Wiz followed them, as did several soldiers. The hallway stretched long and Wiz caught up with the knights before they reached the end of it. At some point, the corridor turned right and as soon as the minifigures turned their heads towards the right they saw two dark knights waiting for them. One of them looked at Lord Arstus and dropped his gauntlet at his feet.

“Here is the challenge lying at thy feet. If thou hast any honour, thou or a knight of thine shalt accept it and face me and my brother in a duel. Otherwise, no one can pass onward”.

Before anyone else could do it, Sir Elliot stepped forward. “I accept the challenge. And may my vengeful sword show thee what honour and courtesy truly art”.

“Elliot, no. Thou art wounded”, Sir Gareth interjected.

“Which maketh it ever less likely that I will survive what lieth beyond. Let me do something honourable now”, Sir Elliot spoke. “Let us begin now”.

Both of the dark knights attacked him at once. Elliot fought valiantly alone against two and having been injured again and again already. All three knights attacked with great strength and pieces of their shields and armour were cut by their swords. Elliot was wounded many times, but he delivered as many blows as he received. It was evident that Elliot was the best of the three for even in his disadvantageous position he could still fight off the others. The duel continued for many minutes until everyone was tired and full of injuries. One of the dark knights stepped back for a moment to catch his breath, but that allowed Sir Elliot to focus on the other one. One blow brought the dark knight to his knees.

“This is for disgracing my King!” the knight exclaimed as he gave the final blow.

Elliot's satisfaction lasted only a short while as the other dark knight had then attacked him from behind. His smile, however, was eternal for it did not fade even as his body fell on the ground, life leaving it.

“This is for my brother, fool” the dark knight spoke angrily.

“No! Elliot!” Pelias shouted. “I will teach thee honour, now, discourteous knight!”.

Sir Pelias drew his own sword and jumped into the fight. They had not interfered until then, for they were not supposed to, but once Elliot was defeated, Pelias had every right to defend his Lord's honour. The dark knight found himself in a sticky situation as Pelias fought with vegeance. It wasn't long before he was forced to his knees like his brother had been.

“Mercy. Show me mercy”, the knight pleaded.

“Thou wishest for mercy after thou showed none. After thou smashed a valiant knight in such a dishonourable way. There is my King. Pledge thy loyalty to him and he shalt decide on thy fate”.

“I am no King”, Arstus replied, but the dark knight did not hear that.

“I, Sir Delaron”, he said, “pledge myself to King Arstus of Morcia and may lightning strike me if ever I go against his will”.

“That will do for now. Thou and thou! Take him away from here and chain him”, Arstus instructed some of the soldiers that were with them. “And ye two. Carry Sir Elliot's pieces outside. Sir Elliot's sacrifice was admirable. Yet, I'm afraid we have to contine now. Let it not be in vain”.

The party continued until they finally reached the end of the hallway. Wiz braced himself for whatever was to follow and then stepped into the room as the others did.

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

Sir Ackbarus was stationed on Margothor's walls. He and several other soldiers had claimed them as soon as the dwarves had been defeated for fear of a new attack from the outside. Sir Ackbarus often looked behind him to see what was going on inside the city, but he always snapped back into looking in front of him. Enemies could appear at any minute, he told himself every time. Time was passing by and it had now been long since the gates of the citadel had been breached. And then he saw them.

Hordes of countless figures started appearing in several spots a good distance away from the walls, especially coming from the mountains. The soldiers, being a combination of goblins, dwarves, wolves, trolls, wolf riders and dark knights, amassed into a swarm of people moving to circle the city.

“It's a trap!” Sir Ackbarus bellowed at the top of his voice in panic. “Signal the Aquilone Horsemen!”.

Someoned sounded a trumpet. Soon enough many units of riders left the city to align themselves. And then Sir Ackbarus watched as the horsemen rode their horses towards the dark army. Footmen followed crying, but they were left behind. The brave mounted knights now approached their opponents, who charged towards them with evil glee. Collision was just about to happen. Sir Ackbarus couldn't take it. As the sound of armies meeting each other filled the air, he looked away.

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

All of a sudden, there was silence and Wiz was alone. He looked back and couldn't see the hallway anymore. His heart began pounding as a rising feeling of darkness gripped it. The atmosphere became devoid of sound and his steps sounded muffled. He knew what that meant before he heard the heavy steps of someone thumping his boots on the ground. However, as he heard step after step, it was difficult to focus in his present situation.

He was not in a dark room anymore. He was on the top of a tall mountain, watching Morcia below him. Flames were burning everything; mothers tried to tranquilise their children as soldiers broke into their villages and towns, destroying their homes; dark clouds stretched over everything banishing daylight from the world. It was all in vain. This was the only future. The Triple Alliance was doomed to fail. The Morgai would conquer all. He couldn't do anything to change that. He was helpless to do anything. He had failed. Ever since the beginning, he had failed. His victories now turned out to be failures, he could see it now. Morcia was lost...

Pain brought him back to reality. He realised he'd been having visions sent to him by his enemies, but his mood did not brighten. He could see all was not lost, yet, but he couldn't see how he could help.

The pain that had woken him had been caused by a heavy mace hitting his right arm. He fell on the ground, being sure he'd heard something snap. The pain was terrible.

“Now, the foolish wizard will meet his fate”, a deep voice spoke. “Thou allowed us to play with thee, exhausting thy powers, so that now we can crush thee as easily as an ant. Thou canst not prevent thy fate like thou canst not prevent the fate of the foolish men who thought they could challenge us”.

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

The battle was raging on in the field now. As darkness had swallowed the world it was difficult to discern the two armies, even though there were many lit torches held by soldiers in the battlefield. Still, arrows wheezed through the air in abundance, the position of their enemies roughly known. Catapult projectiles, too, were participating in the battle now and from time to time a flaming boulder would light its surroundings for a moment or two.

In an instance, the attackers had become the defenders and victory, seeming so close before, was now slipping away. What folly of them it was to think, even with just a little part of their mind, that the dark sorcerers would fall so easily. Indeed many felt despair in the night full of their enemies' angry cries. But they fought on. For that was the only hope for the world.

But then the world started to shake and everyone -including the Morgai's soldiers- looked around in fear. They had not faced the dark sorcerer's legendary magic, yet, so they wondered what evil would find them now.

Great chunks of rock began to fall from the mountains and then a huge arm appeared from it; then a leg and after that a head. Within seconds, a gicantic golem made of rock and soil had appeared from the mountains. It was crude and its details were rough, but despite that, it would serve its purposes of war. The shaking, however, did not stop and another golem appeared on the other side of the city. They began walking and the earth trembled under their great feet, stumping anyone whether friend or foe.

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

Wiz had stood up while the Morgai spoke, but he was hit again, this time on the back. Something made of glass was heard breaking. This made Wiz remember something that felt like it had happened so long ago.

*“Here, take this”, Ray had said handing him a glass phial holding a deep blue potion.*

*“Is this...?”, Wiz had begun asking.*

*“Yes, the time-travelling potion. It's ready. Smash it on the ground and it will create a portal to your designated time-destination”.*

*“But why are you giving it to me, now? We're going to be staying here for some time as it seems”.*

*“I know, but we should be prepared. If anything really bad happens, smash it on the ground before you smash. My job coming here was to bring you back in your time alive and I do not intend to fail”.*

*“I don't know, Ray...”.*

*“Promise me that you will do it. Promise me that you will not foolishly get smashed”.*

*“Alright, alright. I promise”.*

Wiz now waited for a moment, hoping. But nothing happened and his worst fears were confirmed. When smashed inside his backpack, the potion would activate no portal. For it had been the potion's phial that had been smashed, Wiz knew it. Did this mean that Wiz would fail his promise to Ray?

No! He would not allow this. He left all thoughts behind. Suddenly, Wiz was very angry. His magic stemmed from his heart this time rather than his mind. The dark figure of the Morgai was flung across the room where he remained as if blown by a strong wind. The ironclad man tried to move, but he could not escape. Wiz was pushing him on the wall harder and harder. His eyes were full of a maniacal fire. Pieces of the Morgai's armour and clothes beneath it began to be ripped out of him and slowly fall as if they were feathers and then vanished. More and more pieces were ripped until the Morgai slowly disappeared.

Yet, Wiz was not done. As he stood up and his wild eyes fell upon the wall, enclosing him on all sides, a hole was blown in it. Shadow walked through it only to find another Morgai sucking the life out of an Aquilone soldier. Sir Gareth and Sir Lamorrak, along with several soldiers, lay at the Morgai's feet smashed. The dark sorcerer looked at Wiz and let go of the soldier. In an instance, all the other Morgai materialised around him in a circle.

Wiz raised his hands -in spite of the right one's being broken- and flames were launched towards all directions. The Morgai made the flames on them disappear and they proceeded to attack him with whips of darkness that were formed in their hands. Wiz did not even attempt to avoid them and was hit multiple times. However, he did not seem to care. He raised his arms so that his hands were in diametrically opposite positions and a force wave was released hitting all seven of the Morgai.

As he panted, rational thought began to return to him. Could he defeat all the Morgai alone even in this state? Well, he would certainly try. For even as the thought of defeat nudged him, he returned to his mania and he started laughing. And as he did so, seven large transparent hands were formed in the air and each attacked one of the dark sorcerers. The sorcerers seemed to be annoyed not by the hands, but by the laughter, for they shook their heads in an irritated way. They tried to affect him, to choke his laughter in a sea of misery, but Wiz wasn't affected by their aura anymore. He felt pleased at that moment and the Morgai could not change that. Images of things he'd lived through passed by and made present seem small and unimportant.

*An orange-wearing wizard appearing in the darkness and finding him sneaking out of his village... The first time he saw Ellwen and then Ellwen dancing with him, laughing with him, talking with him... The beam of Imagination that was the Nexus soothingly swirling before him... His mother with wet eyes telling him she did not knofore him... Seeing the Paradox Rogues smash Nexus-Forcers relentlessly in the Nexus Tower... Geidrich falling from the tower of his castle... the man with the yellow eyes looking at him with hatred...*

Not all he remembered was pleasant. But he was pleased with who he was despite or because of those things. He was pleased, but he did not really notice what he was doing. He was pleased, but he was not logical. He was please, but he also felt terrible pain. He needed to make the pain stop. Some Aquilone knights, whose names Wiz did not remember at the moment and did not care to remember appeared from an arch and looked at him and the Morgai fearfully. Wiz, however, magically shoved them to a wall and the push was so hard they were knocked unconscious.

The walls and ceiling broke into little pieces and more than just debris rained on the Morgai. The sorcerers attempted to attack him, but Wiz lazily raised his left hand and none of their attacks reached him. Bolts of electricity connected Wiz to the Morgai and it crackled through them. Wiz felt pain all over his body as that happened, but he did not stop. A part of him realised then that he could destroy the Morgai, but it would take him everything he had to do it. He would perish with them. But he did not mind. He even laughed at the idea. So, this would be the end of Wiz Ardon, supposedly one of the greatest Enchanters of his time. But this wasn't his time. He laughed again. He only felt sorry that he couldn't keep his promise to Ray; that his loved ones wouldn't see him again.

The whole building, Margothor's Citadel began to shake. Wiz was going to bring the whole thing down, never stopping to think who else was in there, too. More debris fell from above. A rock hit Wiz on the head. Nothing could stop his laughter, though, which had become a lot more maniacal now.

Suddenly, white flames surrounded him, cutting him off from the Morgai and stopping the flow of electricity. Wiz did not know how, but Ray was there just next to him now.

“What are you doing? You are exhausting yourself! You cannot defeat them on your own. Not without being destroyed yourself. You made a promise!”.

Wiz looked at her in a way as if he didn't recognise her. He raised his left arm pointing towards her, as if he was about to smash her. There was an ugly maniac's grin on his face as he did so. But then the wildness left his eyes and he let the arm drop.

“The phial is broken and I cannot return. I am afraid I cannot keep my promise. This is the best I can do”, he said.

“You are a fool!”.

“You shouldn't have come here. I don't know if I can face them anymore. Not in this state”, he replied collapsing to the floor.

“This is not a state you should wish to be in. You shouldn't like being crazy. Be thankful, please”.

The Morgai appeared in the flames.

“Thankful for what?”.

“For saving you!”.

Wiz saw the phial only a second before it broke at his feet. The last thing he saw before he was sucked in the portal that opened below him was one of the dark sorcerers gripping Ray's neck from behind, while her eyes released a single tear each.

*Wiz was walking towards the mirror. He wanted to look at it, but was afraid of what he would see. There was something missing. He looked beside him and it wasn't there. Maybe, he would find it in the mirror. He was closer to the mirror now. A figure stood inside it, walking closer like he was. He reached the mirror. He was not looking at his reflection. He knew it immediately. The dark-haired man inside the mirror was not him. He noticed his lips, forming a downward curve. And his eyes. His yellow eyes...*

Wiz's first thought once he woke up was that he had been very mad indeed. He became so angry that he couldn't keep his promise that he put himself in greater danger. And then he threatened to destroy not only himself, but everyone who was inside the Citadel. Wiz felt ashamed of himself. Why had he been so unable to keep himself in check?

Then, he remembered the last thing he saw. Ray being taken by the Morgai. He instantly shot up, opening his eyes. Everything was a blur. Someone, however, forced him to lie again. He wasn't strong enough to resist.

“Ray! They've got her! She's in danger! I need to go back! I need to go back!”.

“Easy! You're safe now! Just stay where you are. You're in no shape to stand up”, a soothing voice Wiz knew replied; however in his panic, he could not process it to understand who it was.

“You don't understand. The Morgai, they... She's trapped! And the army... The Triple Alliance! They'll be smashed! Just like the vision! Morcia! And Ray!”.

“I will have you know the Morgai were defeated a long while ago. The second Triple Alliance brought their kingdom to an end. The Ancient Sorcerer defeated the Morgai in the end”.

This seemed to calm Wiz a little, but not completely. “But what about the Ranger? She was alone with them. They gripped her. I need to save her. I need to go back!”.

“You can't go back! But don't worry, I have a feeling she's okay”.

At that moment, Wiz's eyes refocused and the blur in front of him turned out to be Ellwen. When he realised it was her he was talking to he felt infinitely better. Ellwen knew. She always knew. And she had travelled to Militiregnum. She probably knew all about its history. That meant Morcia was saved after all. And so was Ray.

“Why don't you tell me, though, what the brick happened, because all I know is that you appeared unconscious in my house out of thin air shortly after you left. Well, that and that you somehow found yourself about 1000 years ago”.

“Sure”, Wiz agreed.

He told her everything that happened after he left her castle. Of the mystery man's trap. Going back in time. Meeting the Morgai, Ray and Arstus. Fighting in Margothor. Going berserk.

“So, you met the Last High King and fought in his war. Not many can say they've done that nowadays”, Ellwen said when he was finished.

“You mean you know others who have?”.

“Perhaps I do”.

“What I wonder, though, is if the Morcians thought I was the Sorcerer and they said the Sorcerer defeated the Morgai when I didn't, then who was it that really did?”.

“Maybe, it was the real Sorcerer”.

“Maybe”.

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

Three days passed and Wiz was already feeling a lot better. He had decided it was time to go. He had to return to Roveros and then to the Faction War. Ellwen had her own business to attend to, too. They could not stay together long as Wiz would have liked. However, he had responsibilites.

He walked to the door leading to the side of Crux. He thought that some day he could try the other door. See what Morcia was like 1000 years after Arstus's reign. Then, he opened the door. That day was not today. There were people waiting for him, people that needed him.

Yet, as he put one foot outside the castle he turned his head and looked at Ellwen who was seeing him off, just before she left, too.

“One more thing before I go”, he said. “We're leaving for different places again and I don't know how long it will be till we meet again, but... don't be a stranger, Ranger”.

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

As Wiz walked on the golden roof of Roveros's palace his mind still dwelled on Ellwen and Morcia. He remembered the last words they shared before finally parting.

*“Once I woke up, I searched for you immediately. The Allied Forces had entered the Citadel and you had vanished, so I knew I should find you. You were bound to do something foolish”.*

*“You wound me”.*

*“I'll skip the teasing, please”.*

*“It's unavoidable, I'm afraid”.*

*“You did something foolish after all, remember! Well, I made my way through the fighters and entered one of the hallways, but once I reached the end of it, I found myself on the roof. There I saw Arstus and Sir Hector and a green dragon”.*

*“A real one? Not a shadow one?”.*

*“He was quite real”.*

*“Oh dear. And what happened?”.*

*“The dragon taunted them. He said that Arstus's reign was over and he had been promised the wealth of Orlan. And the first addition to his collection would be Elomar. However, Arstus said that he'd never let his foul hands touch the heritage of Figroth Felanor. The dragon responded with a breath of flames. The two knights jumped out of the way, but Arstus caught fire. I rushed to his aid and extinguished the flames. Arstus insisted to go back in the battle, so I helped him up.*

*“Then, we looked back at the dragon and Hector. The knight was efficiently blocking or dodging the beast's attacks, whether fiery or not and then lunging with his sword. The dragon had indeed received some woonds on his front legs and face, but he was only angered by them. As we approached, It managed to snatch the shield out of Hector's hand. Next thing we know, Hector's whole body was one fire. I ran to help him, but at the same timeI heard Arstus cry something. When I turned around I found out that the king had stabbed the dragon on the chest, but the dragon's claws had, too, immersed deep into his breastplate”.*

*“Did they live?”.*

*“Of course they lived! Hector had four sons, who became brave knights like himself, while Arstus ruled for many years to come. His bloodline survives to this day. Matthias Moracol is his direct descendant. But what would you have thought? That I would have let them smash? Their injuries were serious, but not beyond healing. The dragon was short of life, so I was free to help them. Then, I began looking for you again.*

*“I had to fight the misdirection spell cast on the citadel. I kept ending up to random places, never my true destination. In the end, though, I managed to approach you. And then I met one of the Morgai. It was not an easy fight, but when I finally found you, he was no more. After you were gone, I was left to fight the Morgai on my own. I would not make it. I couldn't teleport, because of the magic of the citadel, so I almost accepted defeat. Almost. I still fought. Delaying my smash. And then He appeared. I don't know what his motives were, but the Sorcerer spoke thus:*

*“'Your reign is ended, Morgai! Your army and your golems have been destroyed and now 'tis your turn to be tamed'.*

*“And then the Morgai were still and after that they were trapped in prisons of stone. They looked like sepulchers, but the spirits of the Morgai dwelled inside them. And just like that it was all over.*

*“'Miltiregnum is safe now', he said and was gone again.*

*“When I got out I saw that someone had laid ruin to the Morgai's army. It was more than what the Triple Alliance could have achieved. It was the Sorcerer's doing. Those who survived fled and finally all was peaceful.*

*“I had to wait until we got back to Orlan to make a new potion. But finally, I got back now”.*

Hearing Ellwen worrying over his state when she found him with the Morgai had been less amusing. Wiz himself wasn't sure what to think of it.He quickly assured Ellwen he was okay and sought to change the subject. He did not want to show he was worried himself.

But, Ray had been Ellwen. Wiz wondered whether she might have disguised herself again in the past and approached him without his understanding. He'd have to be more careful in the future. But at least this time he had understood it was her. He smiled at the remembrance of another exchange of theirs.

*“How long have you known it was me?”.*

*“Since the beginning. I knew it the moment I saw you frown your eyebrows in confusion. This reminded me so much of you, I realised the truth immediately”.*

*“Wait, you've known this whole time? Why didn't you say something?”.*

*“You didn't. So, I thought I'd play your game”.*

*“You are ridiculous”.*

*“But so are you”.*

Wiz continued smiling. There was still a mystery about Ellwen. For now, he couldn't investigate it further. There were things he had to do. He entered his house on top of the palace's roof. He looked at the wooden statue of a squirrel and made himself a promise.

“Yes, Ellwen. One day, I will return and I will shed light to your mysteries”. . .