The Seventh Sword
Session Thirty-Six of the Notoriety of Kings Campaign [continued]

Caladay, 25 Heathaze 204 [continued]

Arvan lowers the sword and looks at the sword in his hand. It is a curved, sickle-shape weapon, its blade curving in a near-circle to the hilt. It is razor-sharp on both sides. Arvan shakes his head slowly, as if trying to throw off a bad smell. The rain continues to fall heavily around him as the druid looks up at the Pulpit. Narramac is still there, motionless.

"The hell with this!" yells Nicos and jumps down from the dais and embraces Arvan. In an instant he is joined by Brack and Ravenna. Elias jumps down to discover that Drasha has a firm grip on his hand, she smiles and they leap down to Arvan. Of the Chosen, only Raza hangs back. Suspicion clouds his face. Arvan is dead. He saw him die. How can this be Arvan?

Arvan doesn't speak as he is bombarded with questions and news. "How'd you survive?" – "Where have you been?" – "Elias is married." – "I got Rio back." – "Where's Tular?" – "Brack's got this killer dog!" Finally Narramac steps forward, walking uncertainly to Arvan. "How, Arvan?" the wizard gasps. "How did you survive? It should not have been possible. You know where that portal went?" Arvan nods. He looks at his old companions as if he hasn't seen them in years. "Where did the portal go?" asks Ravenna quickly. Arvan turns to her, and she takes an unconscious step back at his gaze. It is Arvan's face, but it is aged and haggard. There is a look in his eyes that Ravenna has not seen before, and it scares her. "I was in the Great Dark," Arvan says slowly.

"How did you escape?" is the next question, but Narramac steps in before an answer can be given. "That is not a question for this place," he says gesturing the crowd. "We must return to the White Suite." Narramac returns to the dais. Arvan looks around the Hill of Heroes, as if seeing it all for the first time. His adventures have obviously changed him. Then he catches Raza's gaze and sees nothing by suspicion from the monk. "The sword has chosen!" Narramac announces to the crowd. "Arvan has walked out of shadow."

The Chosen of Narramac, six once again, clamber into their carriage with the old wizard. They return to the White Suite in silence (apart from Ravenna demanding her magic ring of quickening back off Arvan), all drenched by the pelting rain that almost drowns out the sound of the wheels on cobbles. On the Hill of Heroes, the King and his courtiers also make for shelter and, under the direction of the warders and the militia the enormous crowd begins to break up. Standing alone watching the road that leads to the palace is a lone gnome stands in grief and confusion. Ellyboodle's bottom lip quivers slightly. They couldn't have all forgotten about her, could they?

They arrive back at the White Suite just before lunch time. Lucien has still not returned, but Robin is present and orders the servants to take the Chosen's wet clothes. After they have changed and stand warming themselves by a hastily lit fire, it is time for Arvan to tell his story. What happened to him? Where is Tular? What is the Great Dark? Arvan sighs. As he does so a dog walks across the White Suite. It is long of hair and gangly of leg, where it came from or how it got in is a mystery, but it happily settles down at Arvan's feet. Shredder stands and walks toward the newcomer, the dog snarls and Shredder retreats and hides behind Brack. Arvan introduces the animal as Caius. "He is my companion," says the druid. Nicos is anxious to introduce Arvan to Rio. She is stunned that Arvan is alive. Arvan says that he is pleased Nicos has found what he has been searching for, but from his tone it seems he does not attach much importance to such an achievement. Drasha, who has accompanied the party, informs Arvan that she is pleased he has returned. She says that there is much for the Chosen to discuss amongst themselves, and she returns to the Raithborne townhouse.

Arvan's tale can be delayed no longer. It takes hours to tell, and he is continually interrupted by questions from his companions. Through it all, Arvan is gripped by a grim determination that seems now to drive his character more than anything else. "Firstly," says Arvan. "Tular is dead. I killed him. He will not be coming back. The gateway sent me to the Southern World, to a place we know as the Great Dark. It is a place that was originally devised as a prison for an unspeakable evil. The same Dark One whom these swords were designed to oppose."

"You mean Carrot," says Nicos. Elias explains that as they cannot name the demon directly without risking his attention they have devised a new name for him. Arvan gives Elias a disbelieving look. "If you had been to this place, you would not be so glib about this creature." Arvan pauses before he resumes his narrative. "I walked the Great Dark for ten seasons. When I returned I discovered only ten days had passed. Time works differently in places of it. The magical weave is corrupted, spellcasting is extremely dangerous. Particularly arcane magic. When I returned I headed to the Úngorn to speak about my findings with the Order, and try to cleanse myself of the evil that seems to have stained my soul." When asked Arvan says that Morgase Esseni survived the attempt on her life and still rules the circle. Her associate Jelanie has been raised to replace Tular as the second archdruid. They are still looking for a third.

"How did you escape?" Raza asks. By his tone the monk is obviously accusing Arvan of somehow being in league with the dark powers there. "I met a creature. An ancient lizard-like being that called itself Grexan. He offered me a way out, and I took it." Raza wants to know what Arvan how to do to get this Grexan to help him, and what he had to do to survive in such a place for as long as says he did. His questions are not immediately answered.

"Ten seasons?" asks an incredulous Ravenna. But she sees the white in Arvan's hair and the lines across his face. She would have believed him if he had said ten years. Arvan nods. "But that is not important. The Great Dark is not just a prison for the Dark One. It is packed full of people, descendants of the dark one's original followers who were imprisoned at the same time. They have created their own society down there. And there are Malificents. True Malificents, not the kind we get here. Around his prison, thousands of them pray day and night for his release. And there is worse. Whatever hold there is on his prison is weakening. Within living memory of some of the people down there something happened. No-one seems to know what, but something happened to weaken the wards. He will break free, it is only a matter of time. That is why I have come back. We have to stop him. If we don't, all of Urova will be made like the southern world. I think he can be stopped, but we have to act together and quickly. There is no time for anything else."

Narramac has remained silent through Arvan's long explanation. Now Arvan turns to him. "I came to ask you what we should do next, Narramac. Where we should go and how we can best use these things," Arvan lays his sword hilt on the table. "No more evasions, no more apologies and no more secrets."

Everyone's eyes turn on Narramac. The wizard has feared this moment for some time. "There are some things I cannot tell you," he begins. Arvan smashes his fist down on the table. "Why? What possible good can come of not telling us how best to use these swords against The Enemy? What are you planning?" Ravenna now wades in against Narramac. Raza remains silent, but Narramac can tell he thoroughly supports everything the others are saying. Even Elias is behind them. Only Nicos defends Narramac, saying that he's "Doing his best," and that he does have their best interests at heart. But Narramac knows that of all of them, Nicos is the one who is in the wrong.

"Do you think not a day has gone by that I did not wish to tell you everything? The more you know the more danger there is to you!" But his Chosen are not buying that, not this time. "Ask me questions, and I will tell you what I can," the wizard says at last. Yet, alas, the very first question he is asked, he refuses to answer. Narramac neither confirms nor denies anything about the swords, about the menace to the south, about Karatath or anything that they want to know. The Chosen particularly Ravenna become more and more irate at the wizard. Arvan begins to wonder why he came back at all. Only Nicos defends him, but even then it is more through loyalty for what the wizard did for Rio than anything else.

Raza sits silently at the back of the room. He fires off questions to Narramac without drawing breath. Eventually he backs Narramac into a corner and brow-beats him into telling him about the moon gods. "Why do the moon gods continue to grant powers to clerics who are Malificents?" he asks. Narramac replies, "Because the agenda of the churches and the agenda of the moon gods are not the same. The Gods don't care what their followers do as long as it does interfere with their grand plan." – "What plan?" Raza counters, thinking of the words of the elf from the Dreamheart, but now it is Narramac's turn to be stubborn.

The argument continues for perhaps an hour. Nicos cannot take any more and leaves with Rio. Eventually Narramac tells them very something very important. "If it were up to me I would tell you everything, but it is not up to me! Not alone!" Ravenna eyes him suspiciously. "Who else are you working with? Andel?" Narramac nods. "Among others," he says. "I will speak to them on your behalf." Ravenna does little to hold in her contempt, and mutters something about Narramac running away to his masters. Four months ago, speaking to Narramac in this way would have been inconceivable. He is, perhaps, the mightiest wizard in the world – but much has changed in four months.

Narramac stands. He will go and talk with his compatriots. One way or another he will return in the morning, either with answers or with no answers. As directed. He stands and leaves the sitting room, evidently heading for the broom cupboard. The sound of the storm outside rises to a near-deafening level as Narramac opens and closes the door. Elias, Ravenna, Brack, Raza and Arvan sit in silence for a moment. They can each sense that their relationship with Narramac has changed forever. He is their master no more.

Eventually conversation begins again between them. Elias apologises to Arvan for killing him on the Plains of Acheron. Arvan shakes his head, there is nothing for Elias to apologise for. He did what had to be done. Raza has many, many questions for Arvan. The paranoid monk does not believe Arvan's story. He fears that any time Arvan spent in the Great Dark has utterly corrupted him. He openly tells Arvan that he believes him to be a Malificent, and he will be watching him very carefully in the future. "That is wise," says Arvan. The druid explains that he has had very little reason to trust any one these last ten seasons, and he does not feel the same kinship for the party he did before he fell through that doorway in Kerikal. He has very little trust in him. Raza and Arvan agree to mistrust each other, which perversely sees to make both of them happy.

The conversations with Arvan continue long after dark, as does the rain. Elias opens the window and steps out onto the balcony. He is instantly drenched. The weather reminds him of the monsoons he used to enjoy in Tibrai as a boy. For the first time in a long time, he feels a little homesick. Nicos emerges from his state room to rejoin the group. He and Rio have talked for hours, and he has explained Arvan and what apparently happened to him. As Rio puzzled through Arvan's reappearance, Nicos thought he saw something of the girl he knew. But it did not take long for her to again dwell upon her past as a Bombastic, and suddenly her depression rolled over her like a shroud.

It is at this point that a distant banging is heard on the far door leading into palace. Due to the lateness of the hour, and without Lucien present, no-one leaps to answer it. Nicos sighs and leaves the sitting room. "Come on Brack," he says, as though answering the door could prove to be a treacherous enterprise. Nicos cautiously opens the door and peers out into the marble hall. There is nothing there. This worries him greatly. After all, Boudewijn might be imprisoned awaiting death, but Kelton and Rembrandt are still at large. There is the faint slap of water dropping onto the cold floor. Hefting his axe, Brack gestures toward a small puddle forming on the marble.

There is a sudden quivering to the air and a bedraggled figure slowly materialises before the pair. Whoever it is has certainly seen better times. She is soaked to the skin, and her long hair is matted and hanging across her face like rat's tails. It takes a long moment for Brack and Nicos to recognise the bard, Alessandre, as she sways uncertainly on her feet. It takes a great effort for Alessandre to brush her hair away so she can speak; doing so reveals a gaunt and hunted face that holds little of the zest the pair remember. "Hi guys," she gasps, taking a step forward. She yelps in pain as puts weight on a leg that can't support her. "Gonna have to ask you to catch me now," she manages as she collapses face first toward the floor.

Brack dives forward scooping the bard in to his arms with ease. She is much lighter that he remembers. Looking at her body, she hasn't had a decent meal in weeks. "Get Elias!" Brack commands Nicos, as he whirls around and takes Alessandre toward Elias's bedroom. "Nice place you've got here," Alessandre mutters to the dwarf as he strides across the stone garden. "Bit wet. You should have that roof seen to."

Nicos races into the sitting room. Elias is still standing on the balcony, the others turn to him as he enters. "It's Alessandre," Nicos reports, hurrying to the balcony. "Elias!" he yells, sticking his head into the rain. Elias turns toward the cleric. Nicos's face tells him something is horribly wrong. "What is it?" the baron asks. The words are scarcely out of Nicos's mouth before Elias has bowled past him into the room. Of the thousand thoughts churning through his mind, seeing how Alessandre is comes top. Nicos and Ravenna follow Elias from the room leaving Raza and Arvan sitting alone. Neither of them move to see the bard. Arvan because Alessandre is a distant memory; Raza because of suspicion. Another face from the past returns to them. How far can she be trusted?

Elias arrives in his room to find Alessandre lying on his bed. Her clothes are torn and bloody, and are slick to her skin from the rain. There are cuts and bruises over her body and her face. Evidently she has been beaten. The marks on her wrists tell where she has been tightly bound. But it is the leg that draws his attention the most. It has been broken has begun to heal at an odd angle. The original wound has become badly infected. Her knee has swollen to three times its original size and is raw. The wound has not closed and is filled with yellow ichor. Elias remembers Ravenna's vision from Timberlake. Alessandre was shot by an arrow on the streets of Sorgar. He had been too far away to help.

"I'm going to use my axe," says Brack. As he grasps the artefact, the bard's eyes flicker open. They fall immediately upon Elias. "Elias," she says feebly. Her green eyes are full of questions, and something else – something Elias has always wanted to see there. Always up until three days ago. He thinks of Drasha for the first time since Alessandre arrived and shifts his feet uneasily. He tries to find words to explain what has happened to her. Then Ravenna steps in front of him. "Hello Alessandre," says the sorceress. "Elias is married you know."

"Married?" Alessandre says almost silently, her lip quivering. But at that moment she is engulfed in a white light from Brack's axe. Elias watches, not hearing Nicos taking Ravenna to task over her outburst, as Alessandre's wounds heal before his eyes. The healing energy does not reset the leg that continues to stick out unnaturally. This does not seem to bother the Alessandre, as she sits up continuing to hold Elias in her gaze. "Is it true?" she asks. There is a tremor in Alessandre's voice, that betrays her blank face. "Who?" – "The Lady Drasha," says Ravenna helpfully, and with a touch too much vim. "Elias is a baron as well, you know." Alessandre sinks back on to the bed, staring at the ceiling.

"We should have broken the leg before healing her," says Nicos. Brack shrugs. He says that the axe won't work again until the morning. Nicos, who has been hiding his healing skills under a bushel, says that tomorrow he will break Alessandre's leg and then Brack can apply his axe again. That way her leg should heal properly. "Break it now," Alessandre says quickly. "You'll be in agony all night!" – "Do it now," the bard asks levelly. Nicos pulls out his travelling hammer and asks Brack and Elias to hold Alessandre down. A swift blow and Alessandre screams in pain. Nicos resets the leg as best he can, but it must wait the few hours to dawn and magical healing. Alessandre breathing fast with the pain grabs hold of Elias's hand. "Don't leave me," she says. "I won't leave you," says Elias and sits down on a chair next to the bed. This seems to comfort the bard. Ravenna regards Alessandre with sly admiration at the way Alessandre has manipulated Elias. However, she does not approve and intends to make it abundantly clear in the morning.

Sharday, 26 Heathaze 204

Elias sits with Alessandre all evening. He doesn't sleep once. Too many thoughts are churning through his mind, none of them particularly pleasant. Three days. If Alessandre had turned up just three days earlier. If she had been here before he was challenged by Baron Leston, or even before he told Drasha there was no one he would rather be with. But Alessandre didn't turn up three days ago, and he did tell Drasha that he would stand by her. He made a commitment. And yet……

Brack arrives first think in the morning and uses the power of his axe to make Alessandre as good as new. She bounces out of bed, her body and her humour repaired. She hugs Elias and Brack although she seems a little nervous around Nicos. Perhaps the fact she threw herself at him the last time they met has something to do with it. Nicos doesn't seem bothered though, and introduces Alessandre to Rio. Nicos has all ready told Rio about Alessandre, and the two seem to get on relatively well. And then she meets Arvan and is taken aback. She had heard (like everyone else) that Arvan died. When the truth about Arvan's return is told to her, she is agog, and tells Arvan that he must tell her his story. The druid is unconvinced, but his demeanour does little to quench the Alessandre's excitement. She won't answer questions about where she's been and how she was injured. She waves them away, and says that there will be time to talk about all that later. "I've got so much to tell you!" Alessandre announces. "Get everyone together Elias, everyone is going to want to hear this!"

And thus Ravenna, Elias, Raza, Arvan, Brack, Rio and Nicos gather themselves in the sitting room. The exuberant bard can't sit still for a moment. Ravenna eyes her with impatience. Elias just eyes her. Before she can begin, the door opens and Narramac enters. He takes in the scene for a moment. Alessandre regards him very suspiciously. This piques Raza's interest and he sits forward in his seat. Alessandre's vivacious nature is quick to overpower any suspicion on her face, and soon the concerned glance is quickly replaced by her usual playful smirk.

"I've got so much to tell you I barely know where to begin. After I left you at the Utavran Inn, I got to thinking that maybe our last encounter didn't go quite as smoothly as it should have done." She breaks off to glance at Nicos, her cheeks colour slightly and she continues. "Anyway, I thought…. that is I felt that I had something to make up to you. So I had a think about what I could do for you, and then I thought of your swords." A playful smile forms on Alessandre's face as she regards the Chosen. "I know something you don't know. Something Narramac should have told you long ago." The wizard, who is the middle of pouring himself a drink pauses briefly before continuing. There is a dark expression upon his face.

"I've found out everything about your swords. That is, I've found someone who knows everything. The swords were forged by dwarven smiths, and enchanted by powerful elven wizards, that much you know. What you don't know is that the swords were made to embody one of the cardinal virtue," she looks from Nicos to Brack to Ravenna to Raza to Arvan and, finally to Elias, "the Sword of Faith, the Sword of Fortitude, the Sword of Charity, the Sword of Temperance, the Sword of Hope and," she grins, "the Sword of Prudence. But there aren't six virtues, there are seven. There's a seventh sword."

"I knew it!" cries Ravenna. "There had to be something more." Alessandre nods. "When all seven swords are together their power is incredible. Boiling oceans, levelling mountains – those aren't exaggerations. Even greater powers are unleashed when all seven swords work as one." She certainly seems to be enjoying the effect she is having on the group. A seventh sword? That one fact answers few questions and poses very many more.

"Is this true?" Raza asks Narramac coldly. "Is there a seventh sword?" Narramac puts his drink down on the table. "There is," he says slowly. "But it is lost." Alessandre says that she knows someone who can find it. "It wasn't easy, but I've found someone who knows all about them. And I mean really knows about them. Not someone who's just got a big library, but someone who can sit you down and tell you the history of the things from the beginning. He's the one who told me about there being a seventh sword, and Narramac's confirmed there is one. He can tell you everything. His name is Hadala Klazid."

"That's an Hadradan name," says Ravenna. "That's the thing," Alessandre grimaces slightly, "He's in Hadras." Ravenna stands. "Well, that's not a problem," she says evilly, "Narramac can just snap his fingers and send us to Hadras, can't you Narramac?" The old wizard meets her eye. "No, Ravenna. No, I cannot." – "Why not? Why didn't you tell us about the seventh sword, why won't you help us now? What is going on Narramac. Have your masters told you not to help us?"

Alessandre is a little shocked that anyone is talking to the great Narramac in this fashion, but to her surprise the wizard does not shake with anger and round on Ravenna, he merely sits down wearily. "Yes, they did. We talked long into the night. I can offer you no aid, either material or verbal. If you pursue the seventh sword, you must do so without my help."

"But a trip to Hadras will take months!" bewails Nicos. "Five weeks across the sea if the weather is good," Alessandre puts in. Elias, who hasn't said anything as yet, thinks about his responsibilities here to Drasha and to Umbra. Outside it is still raining. "I cannot leave immediately," he says. "I must see my barony. I must also see Dralcarnus before we go." – "The later you leave it in the summer, the more chance of storms," Alessandre says, fixing Elias with such a penetrating stare that it seems she can read his mind.

The immediate consensus is to go to Hadras. Raza does not trust Alessandre, but he is in the minority. She has been their one constant ally, even if they have not seen her in three months. As the conversation continues, Narramac turns to Nicos. "I am going to slip away now while they are talking, Nicos. I cannot give you any aid, and I fear my presence only seeks to antagonise them." – "I know you've done your best for us," Nicos smiles. "If only that were true," Narramac replies thoughtfully. Then he says: "Nicos, the path to the seventh sword is replete with dangers. Should you come through it, I promise you that I will tell you everything. Everything." Nicos and Narramac shake hands, and the old wizard smiles. "Tell them good luck. Tell them I am sorry. Try to live." With that he stands and walks silently away, leaving Nicos with the profound feeling that he will never see the man again.

"It is obvious there is much to be planned," says Elias, "and much that each of us has to do before we leave." Raza nods at this. He has several dozen questions ready to fire at Kybos. Elias says that he will go to his townhouse to tell Drasha what is going on. He says this without meeting Alessandre's gaze. Nicos says that he will attempt to get Boudewijn's execution brought forward if he can. Ravenna wishes to keep her appointment with Alys later in the day. Raza, Brack and Arvan depart to see to the health of the king. Very soon Alessandre is sitting alone in the White Suite. She came as she had to, she dropped the bombshell she intended, but she did not expect to find what she has found here in Uris. Elias is married? It can't be true. It can't.

Elias arrives at his town house two hours later after taking a side diversion to avoid the rising flood water. He meets Drasha in the sitting room and, to his credit, wastes no time in telling his wife everything. He spares no detail in his account of his dealings with Alessandre, his feelings for her and how he renounced all those feelings when he agreed to be Drasha's husband. Drasha's face is utterly inscrutable. "She has feelings for you?" – "I don't know. I never knew. Perhaps."

"Why has Alessandre come to Uris now? Where are the companions that were with her when you last met, and how did she really come across this information of a seventh sword?" Elias shakes his head at all of Drasha's questions. "I don't know," he says several times. "Then perhaps we had better find out," says his wife. "Get you coat. I would very much like to meet this Alessandre. I would be very interested to hear what she has to say." There is a tone to Drasha's voice that makes Elias's blood run cold. Fate has landed him between two beautiful women, and he's not convinced it's somewhere he wants to be.

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