25 The red-skinned demon’s growl of pain was drowned out by the sound of splintering wood as he unceremoniously crashed into the pile of empty crates, causing the dry brittle wood to loudly collapse in on itself. Aegar remained silent while he slowly walked over to the collapsed mess of wood and kicked against the black-steel battle axe lying near the pile, sending it skittering into the other corner of the rooftop. “You coal-skinned bastard.” The voice of the demon growled from below. By the time Aegar was close enough to make eye-contact with his opponent once again, a fist was already coming his way, though not unexpectedly. He sidestepped, grabbed the man by his arm, then his collar and used the momentum of the punch to hoist him out of the pile of shattered wood. The man was as tall as him and broader in the shoulders, but physical strength alone hadn’t won him the battle. He roughly pushed the demon up against one of the merlons surrounding the roof of the tower. “You know why I’m here and you’re wasting both our time. I need fucking answers. Tell me who and where your superior is and we can end this the peaceful way.” The demon simply stared back at him with his pitch-black eyes and showed off his crooked teeth in a smug grin. Aegar, still holding the man by his collar, pulled him to the side to one of the crenels between the merlons, where the wall was less than waist height. “I dare you to call a bluff on me.” The anger in his voice was growing more apparent. The demon’s smile remained. “You’re wasting your time, pal. We do not fear death, for our death shall be in the name of the greater good. One more body among many makes no matter in the end.” Aegar pushed him back further, dangerously leaning the demon backwards over the edge of the wall. “Talk some sense, you madman!” he roared out in frustration. After all these years, he had finally discovered the trail that could lead him back to the very men he’d been hunting for so long, the very tip of the iceberg known only as the Brotherhood of Nox. But despite finally being one step closer to getting his revenge, he felt as far from his goal as ever. This was the second of their zealots that he managed to track down, an extremely difficult and time-consuming thing to do, but he already knew that this one was going to give him just as little as the previous. He’d tried to beat information out of the previous zealot for what felt like an hour, to no avail; it seemed like he simply didn’t care. And this one had the same smug grin and infuriatingly strong nerves as the previous. “I’ll give you three seconds.” Aegar said, not expecting anything helpful to sprout from this. The red-skinned demon only laughed. “Bite me, demon boy.” With a loud growl of frustration, Aegar pushed him over the edge, sending the man tumbling down the height of the tall granite tower. He didn’t wait around to watch the landing, though he did hear the loud crash of a man-sized object plummeting into something like a wooden cart or a stack of barrels down below. Instead, he immediately turned around and started making his way down the tower, before anyone would come up here to find out what happened. That’s when, for the first time in months, Aegar was caught off-guard. Out of nowhere, the previously dark staircase was lit up by two strings of bright luminescent orbs lining the walls, that he was almost certain weren’t there yet when he went up the stairs mere minutes ago. He flinched when the lights first turned on and reflexively covered his hands with his eyes to prevent himself from being blinded. His night eyes weren’t adjusted to seeing in such bright light and frankly, neither were his day eyes. He franticly blinked and looked around trying to see anything besides multicolored smudges of light, but once his eyes had somewhat adjusted to the bright environment, it was already too late. In front of him was a blurry humanoid figure, with a pale yellow and green color pallet. When Aegar spun around, a similar figure turned out to be behind him. He was already instinctively reaching for the swords at his belt, but something was stopping him. Some kind of green tendrils had sprouted from the walls and were wrapping themselves around his wrists, blocking his access to his sword belt. Earth magic, of course. He trashed violently trying to resist the grasp of the vines, desperately launching volatile bolts of dark magic in all directions, but most would dissolve due to the bright lighting before even hitting anything. It didn’t take long from that point until nothing was left of his vision but green. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The next thing he remembered was finding himself inside some kind of plant-like cocoon, with his entire body wrapped in vines except for his face. He didn’t know how long he’d been out, but the tower he was ambushed at was nowhere in sight anymore. He looked around, as far as he could turn his head, to find himself in front of a large decorated gate, surrounded by a mixed group of humans and elves, presumably the ones the ambushed him earlier. Before he could finish processing the scene, he felt the nearest elf tapping her finger against his forehead. “Wake up sleepy, we’ve arrived.” she said with the smile of a person who was enjoying this a little too much. “Mind explaining?” Aegar growled in annoyance. He squirmed around a bit inside the vine cocoon, but the tough and pliant material had him firmly entangled. A short human man in his late forties stepped forward. “You must excuse us for abducting you so rudely, but it was a necessary evil, for there is not much time to waste.” he said in the soft-spoken voice of a priest of light. “We’ve brought you to the entrance of the school of Sages.” The surprise was visible on Aegar’s face. “I’m sure you’ve heard the stories of the Dark Lord and the six Sages, no? It is believed we’ll have need of their successors soon and my superior believes you are the new Sage of Darkness. Or well, she believes you might be. Prophecies aren’t always as accurate as we’d like them to be.” Aegar shook his head in confusion. “What do you mean, might be? And besides, I have my own business to sort out.” “The interest of the world precedes that of the individual, my son. If fate decides you are the one, you must do your duty.” “There’s no more time to explain.” the elf girl interrupted. “We’re running out of time. Will you comply or not?” “Do I have a choice?” Aegar answered. “Yes, I’ll freaking comply.” “Good.” The same smile as before returned to her face while she snapped her fingers, causing the vines to loosen up and release Aegar from his cocoon. He wiggled free from the leafy tendrils and instinctively brought his hands to the hilts of his swords just in case, only to find out that all his weapons had been removed from his belt. Before he could even bother to ask it, the elf answered his question. “Just a safety measure, you’ll get them back soon enough.” Meanwhile, one of the other elves had opened the large gate just enough to let a single person enter through the crack. “Now c’mon, go in there.” she said while she physically pushed him towards the door. She gave him a gentle slap against his rear and giggled while she gave him the final push through the opening and closed the door behind him. Once inside, he was just in time to see a black flame devour the form of a man, and leave nothing but ash. As he watched this, more confused than ever, a figure in a black cloak came to him and motioned to be followed. Not seeing much of a choice, Aegar did as he was told and followed the figure to the same exact spot where the other man had been burned to ash. “Just in time. I trust you’ve been told why you’re here.” a female voice said from inside the cloak. “You must speak to your ancestor, like the others. Only he can tell if you are truly the one we need. Please, do not run from your destiny, Dunkelheit has no patience for that, as you saw when you came in. It seems poor Aravan just... wasn't meant to be. Anyway... when you are ready, please touch the onyx to communicate with the Sage of Darkness. When you’re done, please hold out your hand like the others and wait." Aegar warily looked around at the other mages, each in their own corner of the courtyard, before turning his attention to the demonic figure inside the onyx pillar. He may have gotten out of his cocoon, but the possibility of being burned to ash wasn’t much better. “You’re all crazy bastards.” he sighed, while he reached out and touched the palm of his hand to the smooth, cold stone, not expecting anything in particular to happen. As he made contact with the pillar, the world around him seemed to fade and become engulfed in shadows approaching from all sides, until the courtyard was so dark that even Aegar with his darkvision could see nothing but blackness around him and the onyx pillar. Even the dim Tenebran sun seemed to have disappeared from the sky. There was no reaction from the cloaked woman or any of the other individuals though, as if the darkness that now cloaked the world was merely in his head. For a moment, there was silence, like the silence of a man contemplating what to say next. But then a deep voice sounded, not in the form of a sound, but directly inside his head. “Yes, you are the one, the Sage of Darkness, the one we’ve been searching for. I can feel the threads of fate rippling around you as we speak. Aegar is your name, yes? You have a dark and troubling past I see, as would befit my successor.” Aegar raised his eyebrows in surprise upon realizing it actually worked. “So you’re truly the Sage of Darkness, from the stories?” he thought, somehow knowing that the voice would be able to hear him. “How do I know this isn’t just a big prank? If you’re 5000 years old, how can you be talking to me?” “Our bodies and with it our consciousnesses were preserved exactly for this purpose. How they did it is not important. What’s important is your destiny. You must accompany your fellow mages on their journey to stop the Dark Lord from rising once more.” Aegar shook his head at the surrealism of this situation. “You must be kidding. With so many dark mages in the world, what difference would I make? And what would it earn me, anyways? Why would I comply? I have my own unfinished business to settle.” Dunkelheit let out a short laugh. “Yes, I know about your quest. I know a lot about you now that I’m in your head. But if you don’t fulfil your destiny, there might not be a world left for you to pursue that quest in. Besides, the two aren’t mutually exclusive. You have a lot to gain from this endeavor.” Aegar frowned. “Continue.” “Martial prowess, for one. The school of Sages can teach you things no other school in all of Divus can. And as a little bonus, it makes you one of the most politically important individuals in the world. That kind of power can get you a long way in getting the revenge you want.” “I’ll admit I’m tempted. But why me? Why out of all the demons in Tenebra would I be the chosen one?” “Who knows? Destiny works in mysterious ways. But if you really look, you might find some similarities between you and the other Sages.” Aegar remained quiet in thought for a while, before saying: “Fine, I’ll go along. I doubt you’d give me much of a choice anyways.” “Good, that settles it. One more thing though. I will not tell you to cage your inner rage like the other Sages are probably being told right now. We demons know that anger is a mighty weapon and are not as afraid to use it as the others. Harness the power of your anger, wear it like armor and sword, but do not forget who your enemy is. That is the key to fulfilling your destiny, Shadowborn.” With that, Dunkelheit fell silent and the once so vivid mental connection faded away. With the disappearance of Dunkelheit’s presence, light and color returned to the world, once again revealing the colorful courtyard, the five other mages and the cloaked woman. While he slowly took his hand off the crystal, still in the middle of processing what he’d just been told, she looked at him as if to remind him what to do next. Being way too far in to start having doubts now, Aegar did as he was told and held his hand out in front of him, awaiting whatever would happen next.