by Joe Solmo

“It’s me you want!” Drejnin said and took another swing at the guardian.

“That is true, Dreymorian, but first let me extinguish this pest,” Vidden said and took a side swipe with his sword, burying it three inches into the dontu’s abdomen. With a loud cry, Serius collapsed onto the floor, blood pooling under him.

Drejnin roared as he charged into Vidden striking the guardian in the face with the pommel of his sword so hard the large man almost lost his balance. Myder and Hall used the attack as cover to pull Serius out of the way and look over his wounds.

“Help us, Skrat,” I said into the book as the fight continued. Moose was gripping the man now in a giant bear hug, but it didn’t leave any openings for Drejnin to strike. The mage was silent as his eyes took in everything.

Jarris stabbed into the leg of Vidden, causing the guardian to scream out in what seemed more based in rage than pain. “Your father will reward me greatly for taking your head,” Vidden snarled as he broke free from Moose’s grip and clocked the giant brother in the face sending him on his ass.

Drejnin and Vidden locked blades with a clang, their faces inches from each other, both showing hatred in their eyes. A battle of strength showed that they were as closely gifted.

“Open the door,” a faint voice said from the text. I looked down at the young mage’s image in the magical book.

“Was that you?” I asked him.

“Yes Marsh, Open the damn door.”

“You mean the door leading to where all those creatures tried to eat us?” I asked.

“No time to explain, just do it,” Skrat said.

“Sure thing, boss. Hey Weebly get your dwarf ass over to the door and open it! Invite those floating assholes to the party. We don’t have enough to deal with,” I said in my most commanding voice. If those things were going to overrun us let them have the dwarf first!

“Oh no, I’m not opening that door,” the dwarf responded, shaking his head.

“Don’t worry, Skrat said it was ok,” I said trying to convince the little bastard.

“If it’s safe why don’t you do it?” he asked, leering at me suspiciously.

“I gotta hold the damn book,” I replied.

“Sounds suspicious,” Weebly said looking at me sideways. I just pointed to the door with my free hand.

“Ah, fuck it,” the dwarf said with a shrug and grabbed the handle on the door. I watched as Sreg landed next to Weebly. I turned around to find Vidden standing closer than I felt comfortable with. Drejnin was behind him, with his magical blade buried in the guardian’s back, but it barely seemed to slow the asshole down. With a yank, Weebly threw the door open to the graveyard.

Instantly there was the shuffling noise as the chamber began to flood with the strange creatures that inhabited the passage. The souls of the Gan entered the chamber, and floated on ethereal libs directly towards Vidden.

“Close the door,” the guardian called out, but none of us were listening. In fact, all of our movements ended as we were frozen in fear watching the souls reach Vidden and slowly tear pieces off the man. Each soul took a part of him away as they passed through him, causing him much pain. He screamed out in agony as each one took away his flesh.

Piece by piece I watched them tear apart their murderer, pulling flesh from bone and muscle. Tendons snapped under the ghostly grip of Vidden’s former victims. I finally managed to turn my head from the gruesome sight as Vidden stopped screaming. He didn’t have enough parts to scream anymore, as gore erupted from the top of his neck into a blood geyser, raining down onto the stone floor of the chamber.

As the Gan took their piece of their murderer they fell through the floor themselves, as if it was a lake surface instead of stone. As soon as they had their flesh trophy they disappeared. As the last of the Gan finished we stood there all looking at each other in disbelief. Serius was sitting up against the wall, alive. “Well that wasn’t so hard,” the dontu said.

“I think you owe us an explanation, Drejnin,” I said pointing an accusing finger at the Dreymorian. I held the book in front of myself as if using it as a shield, as ludicrous as that sounds.

“Your right Marsh,” he said in his baritone voice.

“No more of your secretive bullshit!” I said, getting strength from the looks of my companions who were thinking along the same lines as me.

“I will come clean, I owe it to you, especially you, Marsh,” Drejnin said stepping over the gore covered bones of the former guardian of this chamber. “I have held back the truth from you all. The only one who knows my whole story… is Jarris,” Drejnin said.

“Gather around, it’s story time,” Dead-Eye said grabbing his flask and sitting on the floor with his legs crosses just inches from the blood splatters.

“I am Drejnin, Prince of the Dreymorians. I have told you I was a Dreymorian and I had forgotten what one was. Since that day we came through the sun door a lot has come back to me, and things that I thought couldn’t be real I confirmed in the library. Still some of it I am having a hard time accepting. Dreymorian is a race, like dwarf or human, but not from this world. The world I come from you would call hellish. It’s a realm where evil beings rule with fear. The Dreymorians are in power there. My father, you call a god. Is that truth, I don’t know what makes a god. He is a very powerful being, of that there is no doubt,” the large Dreymorian explained with a resigned sigh.

“Serius is my royal bodyguard. His kind, the dontu were created by our most powerful Magi to protect the bloodlines of the ruling families. Once there were thousands of dontu, but now only a handful remain.”

“And we are a handful,” Serius said standing on his feet unsteadily, gripping his side.

“We noticed,” I said sarcastically.

Drejnin cleared his throat to get our attention. “My father Drey’or and I had a difference of opinion about the roots of evil. I argued with him that no one was born inherently evil, that is was a learned behavior. He disagreed. I tried to show him using your world as an example. Showing him that most of the world was good, decent people who create rather than destroy. Of course, there are exceptions to every rule, there is always conflict, but the majority of this world is peaceful and respectful of each other. He wouldn’t hear of it, and he grew tired of me trying to show him your world,” Drejnin explained.

“When I wouldn’t strike down an opposing army’s leader, and instead imprisoned him, he said it was the last straw and he wiped my memory clear, to prove that I would return to my evil ways with no learned behavior in my memories to steer me one way or the other. Once I started to prove my theory correct, unknowingly to myself at that point, he banished us, to the land of his twin brother, Parius. The holy light there nearly killed Serius and myself, but somehow, we found a way out of the toxic light of my uncle, and fell through the Sun Door and into your lives. I make no excuses for the things I have done other the eons I have lived and I do not ask you to forgive me. Even now more memories come back and I am truly horrified with the actions I have done in the past, but I can’t let my father be right. I may not be able to atone for everything I have done, but I can try to not let it happen again. I am sure I haven’t learned everything about my past yet, but I did learn about my people,” He said.

“The Dreymorian are a warrior race of demons who dabble in magic as well, Warrior mages, who once trained under the tutelage of some of the greatest Magi known to exist. One such Magi was with me from birth, making me learn from the time I could speak, to speak the words of magic, by my tenth year of life I could cast spells while fending off two attackers with my sword. When I was eighteen that mage, Sigmund, tried to have me assassinated because I was growing too powerful, and his jealously grew. Unfortunately for him, that assassin was Skittessa, and we fell in love, another thing that irked my father. Females were for creating a brood, not to fall in love with. In our world love was a bad word. He was outraged at our union, and many times we fled from his anger to this world, doing things, I would rather not talk about,” Drejnin said.

“Hunting down and killing Warrior Clerics of Parius,” Dead-Eye said and stood. I think it was the first time he stood without wobbling back and forth. He glared a hole into Drejnin as he pointed a finger at the Dreymorian. “My father survived long enough to return home and tell me about two large beings, Skitt and a man whose name he couldn’t remember and their pack of devilish dogs. He died within hours after being hunted down like an animal for your sport, you son of a bitch!” he said.

“I do not deny this, although I can’t recall the exact incident,” Drejnin said never taking his eyes off of Dead-Eye.

“I should put a bolt into your black heart,” he said gripping his crossbow and raising it to waist level.

“I would deserve such a fate, this I do not protest,” the Dreymorian said, still not moving a muscle.

“You would probably just shoot me again anyway,” I said thinking my comment was good for a chuckle, but everyone ignored me. Everyone was too damn serious.

“You took my childhood away. Why him? Why did you take my father away?” Dead-Eye asked.

“The Warrior Clerics of Parius are charged with seeking evil out and trying to bring them to redemption either through conversion or death, son. It is possible that your father attacked them first and bit off more than he could chew,” Jarris said placing his left hand on Dead-Eye’s shoulder and his right on the top of the crossbow. Everyone breathed a little easier when it was lowered back to pointing at the floor. “I am a Paladin of Parius, sworn warrior of the light. How hard do you think it is for me to let him continue to exist? It tests my faith greatly, of this there is no doubt. Parius has a plan for us all and I believe that Drejnin will attone for what he has done one day. He has already started on the right path by leaving his father’s side,” Jarris explained to my seemingly drunk friend.

“Then why do we help him to return there?” Dead-Eye asked.

“I do not wish to return to my father,” Drejnin said, “but to my own world to take back my people. I must show them that the way we have lived is not the only way,” he explained. “It has been centuries since my people have raided your world in force, due to the fight for power, but the Dreymorians have won. I return not to join forces with my father, but the brutality continues back there and I must end it.”

“You see son, Parius has let him leave the realm of light. He has a plan for the demon prince, I believe. I searched inward when we crossed paths and it all makes sense now. Parius has sent me Drejnin and his dontu bodyguard to help me smite the evil of this cemetery from the face of the earth. I do believe Drejnin will follow a much grander path eventually though,” the old paladin said.

Dead-Eye nodded in acceptance of their explaination, but I could see it in his eyes that he was not satisfied with their answer. Would he cause trouble down the road? I probably knew the drunk bastard more than anyone else here, but I couldn’t answer that question, hell Dead-Eye might not be able to answer that either.

After a moment it seemed my friend relaxed and the tension left the room. Everyone took a deep breath and then some of scariest words uttered in this world passed the lips of Weebly, “Hey where did the dontu go?”

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