Many forces have tried to take Esper over the years, the fortress of ice build high into the sky as a means of protecting not only the queen, but their precious stones of life. A new power had arisen from the East and the whispers in the wind speak of bloodshed and horrors that haven't been seen since the demon's escaped and ravaged the earth, purging from the core all means of innocence and youth. Those days are long gone, but Varin remembers them all to well, her people still scarred from the loss of their children and loved ones. This new power is something to behold and yet she will stop at nothing to ensure the safety of her race and her tight grip on the crown.

---

The first snow of fall had begun to fall, Esper welcoming the activity and yet the land was already covered in the ice of winter, the land never fully thawing because of climate and altitude. The pristine white castle of Queen Varin sat at the edge of a steep cliff the purpose one of fortification. The dark city of life loomed behind her home, the front posing a reminder to those ignorant enough to approach her home that she was in fact ready to stand out front with her warriors and protect her people. She had been queen for almost twenty years when the sands of time shifted the balance of good and evil, a power rising from the East, a people called the Mahia. They were amazonian warriors that lived in the warmest climates on each, so the counsel of Esper first determined that they had nothing to prepare for - nothing to worry with.

These warriors would've travel through the frozen wasteland that completely landlocked the country of Esper for they would perish like all those before them. They couldn't have been more wrong and yet nothing had occurred to date, but the oracles, including the queen had seen into the future where the color of life coated the streets and very few people remained alive, a whole country wiped out by the hands of a madman. The timing of the vision never made itself clear and so the counsel would meet yet again to try and discern their next steps in an effort to get ahead of the approaching threat.

"What is the news you bring us traveler?" The adviser to the queen spoke with a sharp tongue, his patience tried by the full day of deliberations on the matter already.

"I've already told you, great on. The heathen's have destroyed every land from Zarinth to Valence. It's no more than a two month span before they make it here if they continue on the path that they've begun with." The traveler was a young man with sandy-blonde hair and sun-kissed skin, his purpose to collect a bit of coin from his information and travels.

"How do you know at which rate these men are traveling?" The adviser turned to look at his queen as she touched his shoulder, his attention always due her if and when she wanted it. The young man gave his answer, but the adviser was kneeling before Varin, his dark gaze looking up at the stately beauty. "Yes, my queen."

She looked at the young man and back at her adviser before nodding to let him know that she would be speaking. "Stand, my adviser, move to my side."

"As you wish." He stood and offered his hand as she moved to her full height, her body lithe and tight with youth that didn't belong to her age. She'd been blessed or cursed - oh which he wasn't sure and would never think it his place to ask. She moved a few steps forward, her eyes on the young man as he stared at her in unabashed lust. His eyes moved along the curves of her body, the thigh lace stretching across her full breasts. The adviser started to reprimand the boy but the queen held up her hand.

"He is lying. They will be here in no more than a month." A smile touched her smile as she watched shock wash across his face, his skills bar none to her own. She reached behind her, the adviser placing a small knife in her hand, a smile touching his. She was the coldest bitch he'd ever had the pleasure of working for and he'd kill his own mother to stay on her good side.

"I am not lying, your majes.." he never finished his response before she flicked her wrist, the knife plunging into his forehead and sinking to the ground.

"Clean it up and find me someone that isn't afraid to get his hands dirty. We have plenty of jewels for payment. Find me the best or everyone of you will stand before my blade. Is that clear?" She looked around the room and everyone shook their heads, fear painted on their faces. She moved her long black dress out of the way, reached for her headdress and slipped it on, exiting the room without another word.

"I can see it now..."

"What is he saying?"

"I can see it now..."

"My lady, is he awake?"

"Not in any reasonable sense of the word. He's speaking. And seems to be speaking in his sleep..."

"He was almost comatose for almost two years now, my lady. I'm sure you just..."

"I can see it now..."

"Good God..."

"What did he say?"

"He says he can see it now..."

"Be quiet, the lot of you. You can't see it so listen to the man who can!"

"Did my husband, who was in a comatose state just hours, ago, just tell us all to be quiet?"

"I don't think he is that deep anymore, Lady Ilythia. He's.... sleeping very lightly. And dreaming... hear how his heart pound. Watch the way his eyes move beneath his lids. They've stopped. He's waking up now..."



His clear blue eyes opened quickly, blinking rapidly in the early dawn. The sun hadn't begun it's rising from the east, but from the silence in the woods, and the chill, which seemed more than usual in the darkest part of the night, he could tell it was only an hour or so from sunrise. He wrapped his blanket around himself tighter and growled a dark curse as he poked the embers of the fire with a stick, giving rise to a spurt of sparks and a quick blue flame.

You were talking in your sleep again, Alec.

Alec's eyes narrowed as they flickered down to his weapons. The sword was nothing of particular note, a common footsoldier's shortsword, accompanied by a dagger of similar quality. What drew attention were the war ax and shield, both cast in what looked like black steel flecked with red and silver crystals, making it look like granite. They were steel, however, and two of a kind. And inhabited by the spirit of an ancient warrior who was quite mouthy considering that he had died tens of thousands of years ago.

"I'm fine, Rythar. And you should stop listening in on my dreams," Alec growled to no one in particular.

Well, I do have better things to do. Oh no wait, I don't actually.

"Quiet, before I put the ax in the embers."

We both know how much good that it will do. Which is to say, none at all.

Rythar, the mouthy elf. Elves, of course, had been extinct for so long they were barely legends. hardly memories. Not to this lonesome warrior they weren't. He rued the day that he woke up to find the man sitting beside him in that spectral fire so many years ago," It does loads of good. To me. Don't much care how much good it does to you. Lets off steam and whatnot."

A long pause in the one-sided conversation before Alec scowled at the fire again, tossing the last of the wood that he had gathered the night previous," It's always the same dream though. I know it's a memory, because my wife explained it to me a hundred times while she was alive. But I can't bloody remember it."

Well, technically, you can. That's why you dream of it. But I would put aside thoughts of the dream for now, my friend. We appear to have company.

Alec raised his nose to the air and took a sniff, wincing before he unwrapped himself from the blanket," So we do, dear weapon friend. So we do," He turned around to face the bushes behind him, his face changed from the soft thoughtful face that only he saw, and turned into the hard, unreadable mask that everyone else did," Come out. It's cold tonight, and the warmth of the fire doesn't reach to those bushes."

There was a moment of silence as Alec glared hard at the bushes before two men stepped out. Their skin was dark, and they wore virtually nothing but loincloths. They had weapons, though. One carried a spear, shield and a large hunting dagger, the other a pair of sabers on his back and a hatchet at his waist. Moth men circled Alec from opposite directions, sitting across the fire from the tall, blonde warrior. No words were extended as both parties sized each other up for the first few moments.

Alec sniffed again," Tell the other five that they can join us too."

"How did you know that there were more?" The sword-bearer's accent was rough, but his grasp of Alec language was firm. His body was rippling with muscle, and with the graceful way that he carried himself, Alec guessed that he was one of the Mahians' famed Blade dancers. Peerless with a blade, only their finest warriors were trained in the ancient sword techniques of old, and one of the few of the Mahians to be allowed to carry a sword at all. The rest were equipped with spears and axes.

"For a people that pride themselves in hunting for a living, you bunch do let off a peculiar... odor."

"Only one that man would catch, and not many of those," The bladedancer scowled at Alec," Animals feel our scent and see us as one of their own. As we are."

"Kudos to you on that," Alec smirked and adjusted his seat," I take it the bowmen will be remaining out of sight then?"

The blade dancer cracked a smile, showing a line of shining white, sharpened teeth," Our bows do not give off any scent, stranger."

Alec chuckled," Lucky guess. Only one reason why most of a scouting party would remain out of sight and out of reach while their superior talks to a lonely man in the snow."

Another silence, longer this time, as the two parties reassessed their opposites now armed with what knowledge had been given them. And this time, the blade dancer broke it," Among most peoples of this world, talking to nothing is seen as a sign of madness and a weak mind. We know better, for those who speak at nothing really speak to the spirits of the dead that none of us see."

"You don't know how right you are," Was Alec's growled response with a woeful look at his weapons. The man's gaze followed Alec.

"Another interesting thing about my people is that a man with great and beautiful weapons must earn those weapons. Otherwise he is a fraud, and the next man to fight him will relieve him of his unwon treasure."

"I think I know enough about your people, thank you very much," Alec said with a raised eyebrow.

"Did you earn your weapons? Or must I make you earn them now?"

"You musn't do anything while I can feel arrows aimed at my back, boy," Alec growled, pushing himself to his feet. A gentle rustle of the bushes showed five women emerging from the underbrush, longbows pulled back with long arrows, the tips black with poison.

The spearwielder stood as well, his eyes bristling with fury," You lack respect for your superior's northman. Do you know who this is?"

"No and I don't much care to," Alec scowled at the younger boy," And only a fool would think him, or any other man to be my equal, much less superior. I advise you and your ragged merry bunch to get the fuck away from me as quick as your bowlegged legs can."

The man screamed and pulling his spear to bear, leaped over the fire, stabbing it at Alec. Oddly enough, he wasn't there anymore. However, when the sound of a shield cracking over the spearman's skull sounded, it became apparent that he had armed himself quicker than any man should, or could. The dead spearman dropped headfirst into the embers, where his long black hair quickly caught fire. The sounds of bows being loosed joined the sound of sizzling flesh, followed by the sound of the arrows hammering hard into Alec's black shield as he closed on the archer women. In his right hand, a short-sword had inexplicably appeared. He moved like something that the Mahians had never seen before. His technique lacked entirely in the beautiful dance-like skill of the Blade dancers, but made up for it in sheer efficiency. He hacked at the first woman quickly as her hand reached for her second arrow, her neck spouting red into the white, freshly fallen snow. The second was brought down as the sword planted itself deep in her stomach and a third dropped as her neck was cracked from a chop given by the black shield. Pulling his sword from the dead woman, he spun as a pair of arrows swished past him, his blade flickering out to catch the fourth woman across the neck, all but severing her head. The last closed the distance between her and Alec, aiming a punch at his jaw.

It landed, though it barely slowed the man down as he shoulder-charged her with his shield and, as she stumbled to her back on the ground, Alec's sword was planted deep into her chest. He then pushed himself to his feet. He hadn't even broken a sweat. The blade dancer, meanwhile, had drawn his swords and had been watching Alec's technique with interest.

"You know, stranger, wizards once came to my village to recruit me to their college in the isles to the south. Deep south, because I had a skill. I cannot manipulate magic, but I can read man that have magic in them. Those who don't as well, considerably easier. You know what I read in you, stranger?"

Alec didn't answer.

"In you, I read absolutely nothing. That's impossible."

Alec still didn't answer, his pale blue eyes murderous as he walked over to his ax and picked it up, twirling it in his hand a few times. It wasn't cold, despite the fact that it had lain out in the icy air for hours before. Nor did it reflect the little light that there was.

"Your sword technique is very good, my friend, but very basic. You would have benefited from a proper teacher. You are too stiff in the hips, and your wrist is too solid. You need to flow more... like so!" And he attacked, his blades flickering dangerously and quick, aiming for Alec's chest and neck with a blistering force.

Alec's sidestep was almost contemptuous, blocking the single attack that followed his evasion with his shield and with a quick, expert chop, the Blade Dancer's head dropped to the snow a few seconds before his knees," Yeah yeah yeah," Alec growled, wiping the blood from the axblade," I have an elf that tells me that all day."

Icy cold dots of snow scattered from the heavens, the temperature lost on the reduced body heat that she kept, her skin a light blue as it had always been. Being the queen of Esper and once the princess meant never venturing out beyond the walls of the city to explore. She was honestly quite unsure of how she would fair in a climate different than her own as her parents had used various methods of reminding her that she'd not last. The time had gone for her to do anything adventurous as her days were spent making decisions and solving various political and socioeconomic problems. She removed her headdress, long raven's hair sweeping around her shoulders and accenting the deep crystal color of her gaze, her eyes moving along the sharp edges of the cliff, looking for something, anything.

The people of Esper lived behind a large stone wall, the black city a sight for sore eyes as its beauty rang out for miles and miles, the allure almost irritatingly obvious. She'd wanted to change it many years back, but the counsel would have none of it, their concerns lost on things in the moment and not in dealing with the future. Having the foresight to run a country took more than getting the things done at present that needed to be done and she was the one that pushed the dastardly group of aging men to make decisions. She very much had the power to trump their ideas and decrees, but tried hard to maintain a sense of democracy and not dictatorship though if things went south she was ready to stand before everyone and require them bow.

Varin abhorred the idea of bringing a stranger into the kingdom to assist them with this threat, her men well prepared to fight any opposing force, but the issues wasn't to deal with brute strength, but cunningness and investigation. She supposed her adviser, Jerim was correct in his assessment to find "the best" to assist them. She paid him well and spent many years learning to trust him. To stop now would just be irrational and unfounded. Pressing her long fingers to the bridge of her nose she exhaled slowly, releasing the angst that rode up the back of her neck and shoulders, hoping to find peace in the beauty that played about all about her. No one but her stood in the icy snow of early afternoon and yet she felt a million eyes on her, her own castle lined with protection in the form of strong warriors.

Most of the towns people often wondered why she never aged and yet knew that she'd been at the helm of their world for twenty-plus years. Her body retained the appearance of a luscious woman in her late twenties, but to catch a glimpse of her gaze would tell a very different story no doubt. She cared not for an sensuality in her appearance, the men of Esper not calling her to feel anything more than a ruler-like protection over all of them. The time for romance and sex was not at hand and she remained focused on the things that mattered most - her charge. The dilemma of the situation before her was pressing and yet she couldn't see a way to get the word out properly that they needed help. She'd pray to the god of protection and ask him to send a warrior their way - one like they'd never seen.

"My queen, you must come inside. The snow is only going to get worse and I know that you were born for this, but please." Jerim walked toward her, stopping a few feet away, knowing that she would not appreciate his closeness.

She turned at the sound of his voice, a snarl on her lips but she held it back. Her temperament was violent most days and if ever too calm then people began to gain concern - as they should. "I'll come in when I'm ready. Thank you, Adviser."

She turned away from him and closed her eyes, lifted her head and let the wind sooth her fear as her voice lifted to the heavens in a language that only the gods understood.

They would send someone.

There was no other choice.

He didn't bother giving the Mahians a proper burial. The icy temperature would leave their bodies in good condition until another troop came along, and, while he would never admit this out loud, he detested remaining around the corpses of the dead. He never realized how much he hated hanging around them until a couple of years ago. Even if he didn't look at them, he could feel their dead eyes staring into nothingness. It always felt like they were staring at him in slack-jawed surprise, wondering why their imaginations of invulnerability were suddenly extinguished because he didn't have the patience to talk them out of a fight.

Rythar was icily quiet as Alec packed up his things, dumping handfuls of snow onto the fire until it sizzled out and then they began their trek, watching as the sun began to peek it's head out of the horizon.

Being that the sun is... well, all head, as it were, doesn't that mean that the sun would be peeking it's whole body over the horizon?

And he was back. Alec fought hard to restrain a grin. He wouldn't give the dead elf the pleasure. He would never hear the end of it otherwise. If Alec deigned to show any mirth at any of Rythar's jokes, it would mean that he would have to stand the whole day under the painful sway of hearing the weapon's awfully bad jokes, maybe more than one day, depending on how long it took Rythar to figure out that his jokes concerning the length of Elven reproductive organs and the supposed chastity of their females were not funny to a regular man.

I saw that.

Alec kept a straight face and tilted his head, as if he was wondering what the ax was talking about," What was that?"

You were mildly amused by my musins about the sun.

Alec raised an eyebrow and smirked," Oh really? And what put you under this erroneous impression?"

I saw that smile. Just a moment of a smile, showing mirth, and then it was quickly hidden before I could see it.

Drat, Alec thought. Just how Rythar could see anything at all plagued Alec's mind as he trudged back onto the road, which hadn't been cleaned of the night's snowfall yet. He was a spirit bound to two weapons. It was said that a man's spirit could only be bound to one item, but with the more... elaborate psychic construction of an elven spirit, two items were required, or at least possible, anyways. It was clear that he did not see through his hosts, as Alec had already tried covering them up to no avail. Rythar had explained the process on the night that they had met, but Alec had never had a mind for magic or spiritual themes, and it had gone in one ear out and out the other, as they said. He just knew that there was an explanation that had seemed logical to Alec's untrained mind.

"A smile? Your mind must be slipping," Alec lied smoothly," It was a grimace. I was reminded that I needed to stand your blabbering all day long and that was the beginning of it."

Rythar didn't say anything for a few minutes, but, if it was possible, the specter gave off a smug sensation that irritated Alec to the point of a growl.

Well, you wouldn't have to stand my voice for such a long time if we had gotten a horse at the beginning of this journey to start with. We would have been in this Esper town in half the time, and you could have left me in some deep and dark place until you figure out just what you were sent here for.

Alec smirked. He had thought the very same thing about horses. While he was an infantryman at heart, he had been called upon to ride more times than he could count and was well beyond the stage of bouncing around in a saddle like a sack of carrots. But he had, for some reason, wanted to walk among the trees in the autumn while they lasted, enjoying the view more, sure that he would be able to buy a horse from one of the homesteads that they passed. But, as it turned out in these parts, there were very few homesteads to be found, far between, and they weren't rich enough to own a horse, or if they were, it was a plowhorse, and thus irreplaceable. Alec could pay an exorbitant amount for one, but it didn't seem like a good bargain to pay twenty gold pieces for some old nag that probably would move as fast as he would walk anyways," Oh I think I saw some caves out back there, if you would rather stay there until my business here is completed."

Too far away from you, should you need my services. We both of us know that you are all but useless in a real fight. You know, the Bladedancer back there wasn't all wrong. Your years fighting in a shield wall left you too stiff in the shoulders, waist and wrist. You walk around like a bear with it spine broken.

"You know what? I think I might just bury you here in the snow and come collect you in the spring, once it has all melted away, see if it won't chill those thoughts out of a head. Oh wait, you don't have a head anymore, do you?" Alec's tone bit cold as the north wind.

You know full well that I do, in fact have a head. It's just buried under miles of molten rock underneath that volcano that you found these weapons in.

"That being as it is, fat lot of good it's doing you now."

And so on it went for the next few hours as Alec kept on walking at a brisk pace. Despite the cold, he moved well, quickly and easily. At some point a plowhorse came along pulling a plow that pushed the snow away from the road, opening the way for wagons to travel the road, making it easier on his trek towards Esper. In a few hours, with the sun climbing steadily but a little lopsidely upwards, He finally came in view of the city.

The walls looked as forbidding as a blizzard, scowling at him, telling him to keep his distance if he wasn't going to be turning around and leaving altogether.

"Inviting place, that..." Alec whispered under his breath before beginning to whistle, the sharp tune of a marching ditty sailing across the thin air.