บท 22: Drowning in the Sorrows
There are twenty-two bodies on the ground in front of the weirwood tree there are also thirty suits of armour in pieces, and the water retreated to the river after a couple of hours.
Marwyn I and all the sailors are here in silent reverence.
"Do you have their names Marwyn?"
"Aye, my lord, some of them are from the first voyage of the ships."
"I see, take note of them, we will reward the families, it was thanks to my negligence they died, even if they didn't reach one year of service they will receive the payment." I see nods and mumbles from the sailors, good.
"I will be taking them back to the north, is not right for them to be buried here, in this foreign land, "I turn to the sailors and say with a booming voice" they will be avenged, I will hang the entrains of the shrouded lord on the weirwood tree and that is a promise, will you help me?" An angry cheer is given by the sailors, some minutes later we scattered and is just Marwyn and I,
he keeps silent for a moment then he says " Ah, about the owlguard, apparently the water washed away the blood mark that gave them life, so they just fell." Well, not my smartest idea to put them on a ship then, I will have the next batch of owlguards with that part encased in metal, So much to do.
...
"Marwyn bring me the candle, let us find him."
Marwyn goes to his cabin and comes back running with the sleek black candle glowing with white light.
I take a deep breath and keep unblinking eye contact with the candle, my mind filled with the images of the shrouded lord, the colours in the room turn saturated and start to morph into something else.
I see shapes and distorted buildings, I focus more and even so I see less, a heavy fog fills my vision, making all the buildings look the same, I feel lost, and dizzy, fuck, looks like the Valyrian candle will not work on the Rhoynar city fucking great.
I leave the vision and see Marwyn waiting for me.
"It's no use, the mist is blocking the divination magic from the candle."
"Then we have to do this the hard way, search everywhere."
"Yes but not only that, if we do that he could just change places and still be hidden by his mist, so we will search the places and make more weirwood trees, I will stomp out any influence this man and his gods have in the land." I will scout by the air and mark some locations where we should plant the trees.
"It will take time, my lord, weeks."
"We have time, Marwyn, it will be good training for me in how to deal with the magic users of Essos."
"It would be most wise my lord, magic is once again on the rise, and more and more people will dabble on the high mysteries to grow in power."
He is right more and more people will start to use magic I should prepare.
"Yes, we should take advantage of this, we should... We talk about this later, now let's deal with this."
...Pov: Gared...
"Move quick," I hear Arthur say as we advanced through the empty, mist-covered streets, we are a group of five, I, Arthur and the three owlguards, we are one of the many groups that carry one seed of the weirwood tree, we will plant then Lord Palestars will make it grow, and enchant it.
"Come on boy, we will have to plant the seed there," he points to a terrace, some distance away.
We walk with a quick pace I look at Arthur and ask.
"Are you scared? I mean is a scary situation in a scary place."
"Only an idiot wouldn't be scared, the thing is, you must have the right amount." he stops at an intersection and look around," too much of it and you become useless, paralysed by fear" he starts to walk again" too little of it you became reckless, too quick to act, both get you or someone else killed."
We arrive at the entrance of the building where the terrace is located, as we walk up the destroyed stairs I say.
"I am sure everything will be fine, we have a plan, and lord Palestars is here now!"
"For the love... shut up Gared!"
As soon as he finishes we see at the bottom of the stairs a man stumble inside the building, a stone man, I hear the sound of a crossbow firing, the man falls to the ground with a bolt in the eye, Arthur's bolt, I am getting used to killing those stone Man, I look at him and say.
"See that was very easy, barely an inconvenience."
He sighs I look down and there is a crowd of stone men down there, well, haha, fuck me.
... Antares Palestars...
My ships are silent sliding through the water, we are patrolling the area and waiting for the signals of the teams, I prefer to not leave the main body of our expedition vulnerable this time, so I will wait in the ships, I gave the teams some rustic flares I made, it took some trips in different places but I got the ingredients for the crafting, it does its job, even through the mist is possible to see it.
"Captain! Look on the left!"
On a big building, on one of the many terraces we see a bright white light, well that was fast, I run and jump the railing of the ship and turn into a falcon mid-air, and fly at full speed to my men.
As I arrive on the terrace I see the situation, at the end of the stairs are the owlguards with their shields locked, holding the horde and stabbing them with their spears when they can.
Behind a good distance away, Arthur is firing bolts at the crowd with varied results in the hits, thanks to the mist, and the last one is waving the flare in the air.
Oh, I know him, he is the one the sailors are calling Death Flag Garret, they heard me talking about what was a death flag and gave the guy the nickname.
Ok, I go to the centre of the terrace and turn back, I look at the crowd pushing the owlguard, they have some rudimentary weapons, some bronze ones, even straight-up stones, for the sailors it might work but the owlguard is different.
I raise my hand and a finger-sized wisp of fire, flies into the centre of the crowd, I hear the spell sucking in large quantities of air and then
BOOM
The owlguard holding the crowd is thrown back into the ground, limbs and bodies fly everywhere, damn close space plus fireball is something else, the stone men that were shielded by those on the front started to walk over the bodies of the companions and advance into the open terrace, the crowd of 30 turns into the group of 10.
They charge in my direction, and the owlguard is up and fighting but the shield wall is broken, weird, not all stone men were supposed to be like this, they are acting more like wights.
Eldrich Night flies into the fight and beheads the first one, from one to the second and the third, even with their lack of fear they still fall like flies, it feels weird, like, I don't know something is out of place, big groups like this normally are following the shrouded lord.
A few moments later the mob of infected is dead, but I still feel like something is wrong, I go and grow the tree, its white bark and red leaves flourish in the mist, then I cut my hand and spread the blood on the white bark of the tree.
"I Antares Palestars claim this cursed and forgotten land as a territory for me and the old gods of the forest"
The red leaves fall and gold ones take their place the mist starts to instantly disappear on the terrace and beyond, is a bigger range than before, maybe the more trees I got more influence they exercise, interesting.
I turn to the two and ask
"Any wounds?"
"No, my lord" both answer
"Any of them touched you?"
I receive the same answer, good.
"Okay back to the ship both of you"
... a few hours later ...
We are in an islet that was probably a beautiful garden once, but now is a mess of a bog, I look at the situation in front of me.
"So they were taken? why?"
On the ground there are the bodies of two owlguards, we checked and their marks were washed away, the two crew members with them gone, no bodies left here.
"Information most probably, they used the other group as a distraction, and by the looks they didn't even have the chance to light the warner up," Marwyn said.
"Chance they still alive?"
"From the stories I heard, low or nothing"
"*sigh*, fuck." I pull my pipe and light it up, I take some puffs and say.
"We need to speed up, I really want to get the fuck out of this place." I got too spoiled with the easy victories in Westeros.
"Aye my lord"
I pick up the owlguard with telekinesis, well I try at least, but it doesn't work, I try again and nothing happens, why though? the only time that happen was when I tried with my current sword, it is because they are magical? but the mark was washed away, great more questions.
... Two weeks later ...
It has been two frustrating weeks, we have been playing cat and mouse with the stone men and shrouded lord all over the city, and we have been winning ground but slowly, maybe my frustration comes from the fact that I blitzkrieg my way through everything and now I am in a push and pull situation, the three sisters situation only extended because I wanted to.
But it is frustrating, the enemy only attacks when they know I am not in the place, even if only the shrouded lord can really cause any damage, every time the stone men go toe to toe with my troops they lose, hard, but the problem is them cutting the weirwood trees.
When we grow three at least one is cut, and every time I reach the shrouded lord, he disappears, he has some kind of mist teleport, he knows that a direct confrontation will end badly to him, but little by little the mist is going away, and soon he will have no place to hide.
... one week later...
I am in my cabin in the Relentless, I looking over the map I made these weeks we have been here, there are markings where points of interest in the city are, places of learning, barracks, temples, the Palace, and more important the places where the shrouded lord appeared.
We learned our lesson the first time and stayed on our ships instead of a mounting camp anywhere, it gets grating on the nerves of everybody on the ship to stay on the ship without leaving for long, but soon will be over.
The sleek long black candle on the table in the corner gets brighter, I approach and put the palm of my hand above it, a voice comes in my head, distorted and echoing but without a doubt is Marwins.
"My lord Antares we found him once more," I see the image of a half-sunken temple, the skies seem orange-red, the mist is weak here, and there I see the hooded figure that I have been chasing for all these weeks surrounded by dozens of stone men, how many of these fuckers are there?
"I believe we managed to trap him in the isle, as usual, Bradburn decided to solve his problem by burning things, he set fire to the building around the isle and to my surprise the heat is dissipating the magic mist for now, we will try and destroy any means of leaving the area and await your arrival."
I get up from the table and out in the cabin, I go to Captain Morgan beside him Arthur his first mate.
"My good fellows we found the shrouded lord once more, he is trapped in a burning isle not far from here, signal the Dauntless we are moving, we finish him today.
...
We approach the isle in question many of the buildings around, houses, are burning still, we see the Burning sea sailing around the island spewing more fire in the buildings, on the centre of the island is a big building surrounded by a small moat of river water two stone bridge gives access to the building.
"Prepare to disembark on enemy shore." The Dauntless and the Relentless, advanced till they reach land, we found a place where the fire already didn't have anything else to burn, the sailors jumped out and started to pull the ships further into the land.
After that, the infantry disembarked, I'm bringing 150 owlguard from each ship, 300 hundred total.
"TIGHT FORMATIONS! SHIELD WALLS! PREPARE FOR MARCH FORWARD." I scream to the troops and they form a wall from one side of the street to another.
"Morgan, Arthur, you have the command of the army, I will go for the head of the snake, there will be no survivors among the infected, forward my good man and fear nothing."
"I wish you good luck on your hunt my lord!" Arthur said.
"Avenge our lost ones, my lord" Morgan added.
I nod to them and turn into a hawk and flow to the big building, I see the at least a hundred stone men down there, we have the numbers on our side as well, they have no chance, I see the owl guard marching in perfect synch behind the wall of steel Arthur and Morgan are on top of two horses advancing with them through the buildings on fire.
...
I find a broken section of the wall and fly to the high parts of the building there is a sound of whining and mumbles in the air, there are low volume of water in the place, and at the end of the hall is a statue of a woman with arms open as if expecting you for a lovely embrace, is probably 5m(16ft) tall from the ceiling some droplets of water fall on the statue face making it look like is crying, So this is Mother Rhoyne.
In front of the statue is a figure, a long dark hood on his head, both knees sunk into the river water, head down in reverence, behind closer a stone man, well more specifically a stone woman holding what I can see with my hawk eyes a valyrian steel spear, there are five other stone men in, whining on their knees, some other are straight up drowned floating in the shallow water.
I fly to the door of the place and turn back, I use telekinesis to bring a heavy piece of a column to block the door, I turn back and they are all now on their feet surrounding the shrouded lord, he speaks, a cold, weak and old voice, spoken in a language that I had no knowledge of.
I shook my head, I have no time to waste with dialogue, I raise my hand and use telekinesis to crush him, but nothing happen, he raises his hand in my direction as well, and his fingers move individually, and nothing happen, kind of awkward not gonna lie.
Eldritch Night flies out of her place in my hip a cut the closer stone men in half, it turns to cut others but it is stopped with a loud *Clang*.
The woman is holding her spear against the flying sword, she is fast, and her vacant eyes don't seem to register what she is doing, I change the angle again and again but she blocks them all, the other stone men just watch, I was expecting a charge here.
I decided to end this and throw a fireball at the spear-wilding woman, the wisp flew from my hand but before could reach its destination the water that covered the floor rose and formed a wall protecting them.
*BOOM*
The fire and heat enter in contact with cold water producing a wave of steam that covered the area, fuck, I use Gust, and the wind gust cleans the fog just in time to see one of the random stone men come flying out of the smoke to strike with a bronze dagger, I throw the fucker far away with telekinesis he hits the bottom of the statue and passes out.
I look and see that the shrouded lord moves in the direction of a side exit, I pull the upper part of the door down, and it collapses on the passage, you're fucked now.
I throw a guiding bolt in the direction of the shrouded Lord and Stone men jump, no he almost flyes in the way, it hits him and the flesh is consumed in a golden-white fire, in a quick and decisive movement Eldritch night passes through him and stabs the shrouded lord.
*Clang*
The spear-wilding woman was with her back turned to me, still looking at the collapsed passage, her arms though, were backwards, ripped and bloodied thanks to the speed they turned to block the valyrian steel sword with the spear, What the actual FUCK.
I look at the shrouded lord he has his hand in front of him and is moving his fingers like a puppeteer, he pulls his hand and the woman hovers in front of him and Bradish her spear.
He is a bloodbender or the equivalent of it in Planetos.
He raises another hand and one of the bodies that were floating by me raises an arm and stabs my thigh with a dagger, the burning sensation on my leg sprung me into action and I hurl the body at the shrouded with telekinesis, followed by another fireball, I need some backup, I see the statue of Mother Rhoine and the stone men that I throw before at its feet, perfect.
I cast mass cure wounds on my leg which immediately starts to heal,but a lot slowly than it should, I hear the hissing sound of the fireball entering in contact with the water and limp towards the statue, Eldritch night impales the unconscious guy in the stomach, he starts to gasp and I take its blood and draw a symbol on the 5m(16ft) statue, I cast to Create Construct, and the visage of a lovely woman, of comfort, of a mother, moves its head down in a sharp, violent and dangerous motion.
... Pov: Arthur ...
This hardly can be called a battle, the stone men act like savage beasts, with no strategy just charging our formation with whatever they have in hand, I can't say but the owlguard don't get bored or else they would be, they are marching over the bodies of the fallen foes with ease, some sailors behind the wall of steel and death are impaling their spears in the bodies on the ground just to be sure but none alive till now, if they don't die by the spear in the charge the metal boots of the owlguards crush them when they fall.
"It almost takes away the glory of the battle," said Captain Morgan, then he smile" Almost, speaking seriously now, we finally arrived at the building lord Antares is in we should surron..." we heard a massive crash coming from the building "by the gods!"
I look and see the entire section of the side wall of the building is collapsed and walking out is a massive stone creature, on its hand, it holds a crushed body of a woman, and by its feet sliding away is the shrouded lord.
"SURROUND HIM!" Captain Morgan screams the owlguard divide and makes a circle around the fallen thing, out of the building came lord Palestars, he looks fine which is good but there is a hole in his pants, on the left leg, seems that the opponent managed to strike him, unbelievable.
The shrouded lord made a sharp motion with its hand in the direction of Lord Palestars and the arms of the woman the stone thing was holding ripped out of her body and flew with a spear towards him.
*Clang*
The spear was blocked by the valyrian steel sword of House Palestars.
"I WANT HIM ALIVE!" lord of screamed, one of the owlguard hit the fallen creature with the butt of his spear, and the arms holding the spear hit the ground, it was over finally.
...Pov: Antares Palestars...
It's been a couple of hours since the end of the "battle", more a fight than a battle really, the stone men are almost comically inept in the fighting, once they can't infect their enemies the threat was enormously diminished.
Now bound and gagged in their knees is the shrouded lord, with me, is Marwyn as always and the captains as well the Owlguard.
I reach my hand and pull the cloak out of him, what I saw underneath it was the closest thing I ever saw to a mummy, the skin seems almost leathery and dehydrated, it had a skeleton appearance, and its skin was ashen in colour, it had no eyes, no lips, no ears, it's a fucking lich, or a pale attempt to be one.
"Abomination, burn it, my lord, burn it with Greek fire." Guess who gave the suggestion, why wasn't Bradburn a devout of R'hllor was beyond my comprehension and I was afraid if I dove into his mind I would get burned by his thoughts.
"No, I made a promise to our men, if the thing has guts it will hang from the weirwood tree after we cut its head off." It's starting to mumble under the gag, I removed it and get ready to cut its head off at the first signal of problem, but it mumbles in a weird language, I gag him again.
"Marwyn?"
"I am sorry my lord, I don't speak the language of the Rhoynar" I didn't know they had one, why the Dornish doesn't speak Rhoynar then?
"There those that do, the orphans of the Greenblood."
I search for them later now that I know we will need a translation of everything we find in the ruins, I doubt we will get anything from this lich wannabe.
"Tell the men that this night we will have an execution... On the temple."
"Aye, my lord."
... Pov: Death Flag Gared...
Everyone is inside the temple, well all the sailors at least, owlguard are guarding the isle and the ships, by the end of the hall of the temple there is the statue we saw earlier, but this time she is trapped inside a weirwood tree, it's stone body caged by the white wooden bark, its the triumph of our gods over his.
Lord Palestars is in front of this monument by his side the Maester and the captain, and Knelling is the creature that we have been fighting.
"Let no men say I don't fulfil my promises, I told you I would avenge our men, here is the culprit of their death."
I hear the crowd curse and scream at the creature, demanding its death.
Lord Palestars take his sword in hand, it's the first time I saw him do that, he lowers his head to the creature says something and then raises his sword above his head and brings it down on the neck of the creature.
Thud, thud, thud.
The sound of the head failing through the steps was heard through the silent hall, and then the sword tore through the stomach of the creature and its guts came out, there were dark like pitch, but there was no blood, they were dry.
Lord Palestars raised its hand and with it, the monster was raised as well its guts were wrapped around the tree branches and he was suspended in the air by then.
The tree seems to grow, the vivid colours of its leaves look more potent glowing even, and the calming effect it once had turned into gratifying happiness, the gods, tears fill my eyes on such a beautiful sight.
Oh, the gods were happy with the sacrifice of the monster, we are on the right path after all, I wonder how Lord Palestars feel being chosen by the gods to do their will.
...Pov: Antares Palestars...
I look at the glowing leaves only one thing comes to mind.
Huh, neat.
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XAkarrinX
XAkarrinX Hello, once again people, back with another chapter.
So the Mc fought his first magical opponent, he was weaker than the Mc but I tried to make it interesting.
Opinions on the fight or how to make the next confrontations more interesting?
And as always suggestions, corrections, memes, and opinions in the comments.
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