Post by Serrion on Apr 24, 2007 10:12:48 GMT -5
PROLOG
Shifting Sands
Water slid over the sandy surface of the shore, sinking into the mud underneath, then retracting back into the ocean once more.
The water of the ocean itself shined red from the glow in the sky. The moon itself was unnaturally red like some blood soaked gem.
A single person stood on this beach, a single person draped in long flowing black robes. A hood rose up over their head and hid their face from the red glow. The robes were black all over and hid the person's feet and hands from sight. There was no real way to tell whether this person was a man or woman, or even human at all!
The person stood in the center of the sandy shore, looking out at the red waters. Not another creature stirred anywhere near this area. Not even a single pale moth was to be seen in the cloud filled sky. Cloud filled, but not a single one hid the ominous crimson moon.
The cloaked figure looked up from where it was into the dark sky. There was signs of something moving in black clouds.
There was a flash of white light, and in a unison, clouds opened up to make a perfect circle of clear sky. Something descended from the opening, and the clouds closed behind it.
Dust and sand rose into the air from the mighty wingbeats of the landing creature, the cloaked figure raised an arm to shield it's hidden face from the blasts of sand.
The dust in the air settled and the wingbeats stopped. The monstrous creature folded it's wings neatly on it's back and looked down upon the figure in the sand.
This monstrous creature was the shape of a lion, but thrice one's size. With dusty black fur and a crimson red mane. It's face was not that of a noble cat, but that of an menacing looking man with a beard that joined into it's mane. He had sharp needle like teeth and fiery eyes. Rows of spines ran down it's back to the tip of it's scorpion tail. It's wings were gigantic and like that of a bat, they came out of right behind it's shoulders. It's four paws were thank fully that of a normal lion, though still large and dangerous.
The cloaked figure went down upon it's hands and knees, bowing not to the monster, but the man sitting upon it's back.
In between the two largest spines sat a figure in full armor. The full metal armor of a knight, Crimson red in colour, reacting strangely with the shape of it. The armor strangely resembled scales down it's arms legs and chest. It's gauntlets and boots seemed to end in terrible claws that moved as the wearers fingers did, though the toes were fixed solid. It's helmet had a curving horn coming out of either side, twisted and pointed forward. The helmets face resembled that of some horrible fanged and grinning demon. Only his eyes were reviled threw the eyes of the helmet, they glowed red and unnaturally like his mount. Strangest of all was the two metal wings coming out of his back. They seemed to be designed like a bat's wings, same as his mount, though surely they were fixed metal and must have weighed a ridiculous amount. Surely they were strictly ornamental.
Attached to the black gemmed saddle he sat upon was the scabbard for a sword. Though it was gigantic, bigger than even a flamberge sword, it was almost like some big knife, sharp on one and and the shape of a ninety degree triangle. The hilt of the sword was golden and designed like teeth, claws and scaled flesh, the blade itself was jet black. and red veins seemed to run threw it's metal.
The glowing eyes of the knight fell upon the cloaked figure as the figure rose from their bow. "What, have you found?" The knight asked the robed person, his eyes were focussed on the robed person's face, though could he see the other's face?
The robed figure said nothing for a moment, just looking up at the knight upon the monster. She then spoke, as it was her voice was indeed of a female. Whether human or not... "She is in a town just a little north from here, staying with her uncle."
The flaming eyes burned stronger with intense hatred. "So that fool Forin... Again he attempts to fight my will, I told him to not help that wench sister of his in any way. By hiding his niece from me..." The knight trailed off and looked up at the blood soaked moon.
"We could easily storm this town..." The cloaked woman said. "Even if Forin fights against her capture, our magics could easily over take his." She seemed to be trying to calm him, who knew what the armored man could do with his blade.
"No..." The knight murmured. "While it is true, we do have many more powerful than the fool, I have a better plan." He flipped one leg over to the other and jumped off the back of his beast. "We will have her dissapear right from Forin's grasp like he to us." The knight went right up to the woman and looked down at her. He was a good seven feet tall, a monster in size, she was maybe five six, normal sized for most women.
She lowered her head as he came up, she watched his feet and dared not look into his eyes. "What will you have me do lord Malorath?"
"Use Jardon." The knight said, who's name was apparently Malorath. "Let him know where the girl is, let him know why." Malorath climbed back on top of the winged creature. "Jardon will know what is to be done and devise a plan on his own. He has always been a more reliable servant than you Sharn."
The woman, Sharn, just stayed her eyes on the ground. There was the sound of wingbeats but she waited a good hour before raising her head. Malorath and his monster were gone, the clouds let the stars dominate the sky, and the moon was once again it's normal glow.
Sharn sighed and turned away. Some day she hoped to be free from her service, some day she would own her own soul again. For now, she would contact Jardon...
Chapter 1
A Shadow In The Light
A dark room, a perfectly square room, no doors, windows or anything. Each wall was dark gray stone, not a crack or speck of dust made one different from another. There was nothing making any light, yet somehow the room wasn't jet black. He could still see the whole gray room perfectly, he wished he couldn't.
Kael glanced to the left, there was a skeleton laying on the ground next to him, it's jaw open in a silent scream, or a mocking grin. The bones were a dusty white, as if they had been laying undisturbed for a century, but they hadn't been there a second ago.
Kael looked to the right, a single skull sat on he ground, looking up at him with eyeless sight. This skull had the same look on it's face as the last one.
A shifting sound caused him to turn back to his left again. The skeleton was now standing, though motionless, it was some how standing upright. But there was something else different about it this time. The bones of the skeleton were red now, a deep dark red. Kael reached out a hand and gently brushed the skeletons arm with a gloved hand. The skeleton did not budge and he brought his gloved hand back from it. His hand was covered in red now, the skeleton was covered in blood!
The red bones rattled and fell to the ground into a pile of bones and a puddle of blood. Kael took a step back and the heel of his foot hit something.
The strange skull rolled back as Kael's foot hit it, it rolled and clanged into something metalic. He turned around and saw the skull had hit a sword, it was Kael's sword. The sword Kael had owned since he had first practiced with the weapon. He reached out his clean hand and grabbed the swords handle, it was a simple sword and nothing was special about the hilt of the sword, the blade was also plain and steel. Though Kael held his weapon and saw blood dripping from the blade, he wiped it off on his sleeve and looked deeper into the steel. Looking into the steel he saw himself and behind him something was walking towards him.
Kael spun around and looked into the face of the...
With a gasp Kael bolted up right. His eyes were wide and terror went deep into his pupils, sweat ran down his face and onto the white sheets of the bed. He took a few deep breaths before he let his mucles loosen and slumped back to laying down, anouther nightmare, though a new one. He had been having these strange nightmares for the last ten days! Sometimes it was a different nightmare, sometimes he had the same one twice.
He swung his legs over the side of the bed and sat back upright again, he did not feel like falling back asleep.
He stood up and dressed himself quickly, basicly brown pants, a plain grey shirt, a green tunic and brown leather boots. He went up to the bucket of water up ontop of the only shelf in the room and splashed his hands into it. Splashed the refreshing water onto his face, that was a little better. He looked into his own reflection in the water. His brown hair was held down to his scalp by sweat, so he splashed the top of his head too. He got a good look at his face, most of his baby fat was gone now. Kael was also getting stronger, that came when you got older, all the traveling he was doing...
Kael sighed and headed towards the door. Kael was 17 now, only turned 17 the last month. But he had not celebrated his birthday, he had not been anywhere near loved once or friends, they were long dead now.
Kael did not live here, he lived in a town that was at least a week and a half's walk from here. He had left because of... Well... His town had been attacked by monsters, horrible beasts known as Drakir. Part beast and part human, the Drakir were a threat to almost anywhere. He just hated the fact they had attacked his town...
So Kael had set out because he wanted to join in the lands campaign against the beasts, anything to gain revenge for his home, and his parents who were inside the house that the beasts burned down in their raid. Oh, so many more people than his parents were hurt in the attack, so many more were killed before the monsters could be driven away...
Kael was headed towards Sirika, the capital of this country, Azrai. There he cold join the army and go into the Drakir campain. Kael did not doubt his ability in battle, since young he had trained in using the sword. His father had once been a general in the kings army, he had taught Kael how to use a sword, it was not long before Kael even surpassed his father in the blade. Drakir might be huge blood thirsty beasts, but Kael had fought them and killed them before.
Right now Kael was in a small town, he cared not what it's name was. Here he had met a man who was leting him stay here for a bit. The man lived with his neice and gave Kael food and a bed to sleep in, Kael returned the favor by helping them on their farm. Which was not really that haard, considering it had been most of his life back at his home. He had never asked the man's name because the man had never talked to him. But the girl was Kate, she was the one who told him what needed to be done.
Kate sat down outside, sitting on top of a stack of hay. She wore simple work cloths, which would be the cloths of a boy who worked on a farm, though they had been made to fit her specificly. It was just a shirt, pants, and boots. All of it was dirty and brown in color, except the shirt which was a deep green just covered in dirt. Kate did a lot of work here, infact she believed herself to be better at it than most of the boys in the town. No, she worked harder than any boy in the town, bunch of lazy jerks.
Her head looked to the side as she heard a door opening. That boy, the one they had working for them came outside. He was a mystery to her, he hardly ever spoke and just did everything without breaks, sometimes ate, and then went into his room to do who knows what. Kate never asked, because for soe reason she felt she couldn't trust him, she wasn't sure why. He had a sword, she had went through his stuff once when he was working. She had done it out of caution only, they wouldn't want him walking off with anything of theirs. No matter how much she wanted to kick him out, her uncle had said, and she agreed with him, Kael was a good worker and was helping a good bit. Not as good as Kate though, oh no.
Kael was from a town called Black Oak, it was around ten days walk from this town, Kilid. His family was killed by monsters and he had left to joir the king's army. Kate sighed shaking her head, just like and boy, going off to kill himself. She couldn't help but feel sorry for him, that was horrible to have his family killed in a burning building like that. Very similar to Kate's own story...
Had Kael told her a thing about his past, nope. Kate had found t out all by herself, she had a talent for such things... Her uncle called it Spirit Gathering, he said she could see into a person's very soul and read their thoughts. Her uncle told her she was one of the few people in the history of the world to ever have such an ability and that she was very strong with her powers. Kate believed him, how else could she explain knowing exactly when a worm was attacked by a bird, or when the next farm over's cat was coming over to pester the birds in return.
She could not speak back to those she read mind, but she would rather not as people would begin to wonder when they heard her voice in their head.
In addition to be able to listen to their thoughts, she could also see what their soul was like. Though Kate could not see her own, she could see anyone elses by just looking at them. Her uncle's was white, meaning it was pure but still was tinged with gray all the way through. Not anyone was completely pure inside, every one could be taken over by evil, it was just what made you human. Every one's soul were reall different shades of gray, her uncle was a good man so his was a very light gray, while some one like old Hanrer was greedy and cruel so he had a darker shade of gray. Although old Hanrer was not exactly evil, just mean.
Kael though... Kate watched him and looked into his soul. His was strange, the strangest thing she had ever seen. His soul seemed to be devided, one half was pure, the brightest white she had ever seen, even brighter than a new born childs! The other half was black and inky, the most evil soul she had ever seen, it sent shivers down her spine. For some reason the two halves were not mixed together, she had never seen someone's soul devided and sepperated. Right inbetween the two halves was a red glowing line, a boundry. If she looked deeper into this boundry she felt intence pain in her own body! Though she could not see it's color, she could feel her own soul in her. When she was happy than it thrived and grew, when sad in faded and shrank. When she looked into this boundry between good and evil inside Kael, her soul was in pain. Her soul felt on fire, covered in ice, shocked by lightning and crushed by stone all at the same time. She wanted to ask him about it, but what if there was much more to it, what would happen when he found out what she could do? She wanted to tell her uncle about this boy's strange soul, but what would happen then? Would her uncle send Kael away? But then she could find out what was this mystery, what was in this boundry. She had read all his thoughts, but her uncle had warned her there were those who could hide things from Spirit Gatherers...
"Hey you!" Called a girls voice. Kael looked back from where he was headed and saw Kate sitting on a hay stack and watching him. She was waving her hands to get his attention. "Come over here a second!"
Kael sighed, this could not be good. What ever reason she had for getting him to come over, would not be a good thing. Whenever she wanted to talk with him, it was because she wanted to get him extra work or help her with something of hers.
Finally he walked up to the hay stack and looked up at her, she was sitting with her legs crossed and looking down at him. Even with his six feet of height he only came to her feet when she sat up there, Kate seemed to like looking down at him. "What?" He asked crossing his arms, he tried to keep his tone plain but he was a little iritated
"How well are you at sword?" She asked tilting her head to the side.
Kael was completely taken back from this question. "What?"
"You heard me right." She said crossing her arms. "I know you did..."
"How would you know I have a sword?" He growled angrily. "You went through my stuff then!"
When Kate just shrugged, Kael's temper got even angrier. "What makes you think you can just go through my belongings?"
Kate just sighed and rolled her eyes. "Are you going to show me what you can do with that weapon or not?" She asked sounding annoyed, she was annoyed!
Kael did not believe he should give her an answer and just turned around. That's when something hit him in the back and he turned around with a growl. On the ground by his feet was a sword carved from wood, he looked up at her and saw she was in the ready stance and also armed with one of these fake blades. "You fence?" He asked, sounding surprised.
Kate did not answer his question. When Kael picked up his weapon se struck at him.
Swinging her blade verticaly, Kael set his sword horizontal to block it. The two pieces of wood connected and Kael gave a grunt, he was surprised in how hard her blow was. But he pushed forward and swung out with his...
Twenty minutes later, Kael collapsed tired on the side of the haystack. Not once, not once had he landed a blow on her. But she had been able to hit him several times on the legs, his arms and even once at light flick at his neck. He was not bleeding anywhere as it was only wood, but she had still swung hard and left a few bruises over his body. "Where did you learn that?" He asked, not angry that he had lost but more amazed of how well she was at it.
She just shrugged. "I learned the basics from my uncle and work on it on my own." She said quietly, though a little smugly.
When Kael couldn't get her too explain how she had learned all it exactly, he just got up and left her. Kate sighed, that had been a tough fight, though really she had cheated a little. Well... Cheated in a way, using natural talents wasn't cheating was it? She had simply read his mind and learned whhere he was going to strike each time.
Thinking about it caused a smirk to apear on her face. Kael would never know the truth about that mach if she could help it. But now that she had beat him, she knew he would want to fence more often, she would be glad to oblige. After all, she could not reist the oppertunity to prove how much better at everything she was even than the gender who defined it.
Shifting Sands
Water slid over the sandy surface of the shore, sinking into the mud underneath, then retracting back into the ocean once more.
The water of the ocean itself shined red from the glow in the sky. The moon itself was unnaturally red like some blood soaked gem.
A single person stood on this beach, a single person draped in long flowing black robes. A hood rose up over their head and hid their face from the red glow. The robes were black all over and hid the person's feet and hands from sight. There was no real way to tell whether this person was a man or woman, or even human at all!
The person stood in the center of the sandy shore, looking out at the red waters. Not another creature stirred anywhere near this area. Not even a single pale moth was to be seen in the cloud filled sky. Cloud filled, but not a single one hid the ominous crimson moon.
The cloaked figure looked up from where it was into the dark sky. There was signs of something moving in black clouds.
There was a flash of white light, and in a unison, clouds opened up to make a perfect circle of clear sky. Something descended from the opening, and the clouds closed behind it.
Dust and sand rose into the air from the mighty wingbeats of the landing creature, the cloaked figure raised an arm to shield it's hidden face from the blasts of sand.
The dust in the air settled and the wingbeats stopped. The monstrous creature folded it's wings neatly on it's back and looked down upon the figure in the sand.
This monstrous creature was the shape of a lion, but thrice one's size. With dusty black fur and a crimson red mane. It's face was not that of a noble cat, but that of an menacing looking man with a beard that joined into it's mane. He had sharp needle like teeth and fiery eyes. Rows of spines ran down it's back to the tip of it's scorpion tail. It's wings were gigantic and like that of a bat, they came out of right behind it's shoulders. It's four paws were thank fully that of a normal lion, though still large and dangerous.
The cloaked figure went down upon it's hands and knees, bowing not to the monster, but the man sitting upon it's back.
In between the two largest spines sat a figure in full armor. The full metal armor of a knight, Crimson red in colour, reacting strangely with the shape of it. The armor strangely resembled scales down it's arms legs and chest. It's gauntlets and boots seemed to end in terrible claws that moved as the wearers fingers did, though the toes were fixed solid. It's helmet had a curving horn coming out of either side, twisted and pointed forward. The helmets face resembled that of some horrible fanged and grinning demon. Only his eyes were reviled threw the eyes of the helmet, they glowed red and unnaturally like his mount. Strangest of all was the two metal wings coming out of his back. They seemed to be designed like a bat's wings, same as his mount, though surely they were fixed metal and must have weighed a ridiculous amount. Surely they were strictly ornamental.
Attached to the black gemmed saddle he sat upon was the scabbard for a sword. Though it was gigantic, bigger than even a flamberge sword, it was almost like some big knife, sharp on one and and the shape of a ninety degree triangle. The hilt of the sword was golden and designed like teeth, claws and scaled flesh, the blade itself was jet black. and red veins seemed to run threw it's metal.
The glowing eyes of the knight fell upon the cloaked figure as the figure rose from their bow. "What, have you found?" The knight asked the robed person, his eyes were focussed on the robed person's face, though could he see the other's face?
The robed figure said nothing for a moment, just looking up at the knight upon the monster. She then spoke, as it was her voice was indeed of a female. Whether human or not... "She is in a town just a little north from here, staying with her uncle."
The flaming eyes burned stronger with intense hatred. "So that fool Forin... Again he attempts to fight my will, I told him to not help that wench sister of his in any way. By hiding his niece from me..." The knight trailed off and looked up at the blood soaked moon.
"We could easily storm this town..." The cloaked woman said. "Even if Forin fights against her capture, our magics could easily over take his." She seemed to be trying to calm him, who knew what the armored man could do with his blade.
"No..." The knight murmured. "While it is true, we do have many more powerful than the fool, I have a better plan." He flipped one leg over to the other and jumped off the back of his beast. "We will have her dissapear right from Forin's grasp like he to us." The knight went right up to the woman and looked down at her. He was a good seven feet tall, a monster in size, she was maybe five six, normal sized for most women.
She lowered her head as he came up, she watched his feet and dared not look into his eyes. "What will you have me do lord Malorath?"
"Use Jardon." The knight said, who's name was apparently Malorath. "Let him know where the girl is, let him know why." Malorath climbed back on top of the winged creature. "Jardon will know what is to be done and devise a plan on his own. He has always been a more reliable servant than you Sharn."
The woman, Sharn, just stayed her eyes on the ground. There was the sound of wingbeats but she waited a good hour before raising her head. Malorath and his monster were gone, the clouds let the stars dominate the sky, and the moon was once again it's normal glow.
Sharn sighed and turned away. Some day she hoped to be free from her service, some day she would own her own soul again. For now, she would contact Jardon...
Chapter 1
A Shadow In The Light
A dark room, a perfectly square room, no doors, windows or anything. Each wall was dark gray stone, not a crack or speck of dust made one different from another. There was nothing making any light, yet somehow the room wasn't jet black. He could still see the whole gray room perfectly, he wished he couldn't.
Kael glanced to the left, there was a skeleton laying on the ground next to him, it's jaw open in a silent scream, or a mocking grin. The bones were a dusty white, as if they had been laying undisturbed for a century, but they hadn't been there a second ago.
Kael looked to the right, a single skull sat on he ground, looking up at him with eyeless sight. This skull had the same look on it's face as the last one.
A shifting sound caused him to turn back to his left again. The skeleton was now standing, though motionless, it was some how standing upright. But there was something else different about it this time. The bones of the skeleton were red now, a deep dark red. Kael reached out a hand and gently brushed the skeletons arm with a gloved hand. The skeleton did not budge and he brought his gloved hand back from it. His hand was covered in red now, the skeleton was covered in blood!
The red bones rattled and fell to the ground into a pile of bones and a puddle of blood. Kael took a step back and the heel of his foot hit something.
The strange skull rolled back as Kael's foot hit it, it rolled and clanged into something metalic. He turned around and saw the skull had hit a sword, it was Kael's sword. The sword Kael had owned since he had first practiced with the weapon. He reached out his clean hand and grabbed the swords handle, it was a simple sword and nothing was special about the hilt of the sword, the blade was also plain and steel. Though Kael held his weapon and saw blood dripping from the blade, he wiped it off on his sleeve and looked deeper into the steel. Looking into the steel he saw himself and behind him something was walking towards him.
Kael spun around and looked into the face of the...
With a gasp Kael bolted up right. His eyes were wide and terror went deep into his pupils, sweat ran down his face and onto the white sheets of the bed. He took a few deep breaths before he let his mucles loosen and slumped back to laying down, anouther nightmare, though a new one. He had been having these strange nightmares for the last ten days! Sometimes it was a different nightmare, sometimes he had the same one twice.
He swung his legs over the side of the bed and sat back upright again, he did not feel like falling back asleep.
He stood up and dressed himself quickly, basicly brown pants, a plain grey shirt, a green tunic and brown leather boots. He went up to the bucket of water up ontop of the only shelf in the room and splashed his hands into it. Splashed the refreshing water onto his face, that was a little better. He looked into his own reflection in the water. His brown hair was held down to his scalp by sweat, so he splashed the top of his head too. He got a good look at his face, most of his baby fat was gone now. Kael was also getting stronger, that came when you got older, all the traveling he was doing...
Kael sighed and headed towards the door. Kael was 17 now, only turned 17 the last month. But he had not celebrated his birthday, he had not been anywhere near loved once or friends, they were long dead now.
Kael did not live here, he lived in a town that was at least a week and a half's walk from here. He had left because of... Well... His town had been attacked by monsters, horrible beasts known as Drakir. Part beast and part human, the Drakir were a threat to almost anywhere. He just hated the fact they had attacked his town...
So Kael had set out because he wanted to join in the lands campaign against the beasts, anything to gain revenge for his home, and his parents who were inside the house that the beasts burned down in their raid. Oh, so many more people than his parents were hurt in the attack, so many more were killed before the monsters could be driven away...
Kael was headed towards Sirika, the capital of this country, Azrai. There he cold join the army and go into the Drakir campain. Kael did not doubt his ability in battle, since young he had trained in using the sword. His father had once been a general in the kings army, he had taught Kael how to use a sword, it was not long before Kael even surpassed his father in the blade. Drakir might be huge blood thirsty beasts, but Kael had fought them and killed them before.
Right now Kael was in a small town, he cared not what it's name was. Here he had met a man who was leting him stay here for a bit. The man lived with his neice and gave Kael food and a bed to sleep in, Kael returned the favor by helping them on their farm. Which was not really that haard, considering it had been most of his life back at his home. He had never asked the man's name because the man had never talked to him. But the girl was Kate, she was the one who told him what needed to be done.
Kate sat down outside, sitting on top of a stack of hay. She wore simple work cloths, which would be the cloths of a boy who worked on a farm, though they had been made to fit her specificly. It was just a shirt, pants, and boots. All of it was dirty and brown in color, except the shirt which was a deep green just covered in dirt. Kate did a lot of work here, infact she believed herself to be better at it than most of the boys in the town. No, she worked harder than any boy in the town, bunch of lazy jerks.
Her head looked to the side as she heard a door opening. That boy, the one they had working for them came outside. He was a mystery to her, he hardly ever spoke and just did everything without breaks, sometimes ate, and then went into his room to do who knows what. Kate never asked, because for soe reason she felt she couldn't trust him, she wasn't sure why. He had a sword, she had went through his stuff once when he was working. She had done it out of caution only, they wouldn't want him walking off with anything of theirs. No matter how much she wanted to kick him out, her uncle had said, and she agreed with him, Kael was a good worker and was helping a good bit. Not as good as Kate though, oh no.
Kael was from a town called Black Oak, it was around ten days walk from this town, Kilid. His family was killed by monsters and he had left to joir the king's army. Kate sighed shaking her head, just like and boy, going off to kill himself. She couldn't help but feel sorry for him, that was horrible to have his family killed in a burning building like that. Very similar to Kate's own story...
Had Kael told her a thing about his past, nope. Kate had found t out all by herself, she had a talent for such things... Her uncle called it Spirit Gathering, he said she could see into a person's very soul and read their thoughts. Her uncle told her she was one of the few people in the history of the world to ever have such an ability and that she was very strong with her powers. Kate believed him, how else could she explain knowing exactly when a worm was attacked by a bird, or when the next farm over's cat was coming over to pester the birds in return.
She could not speak back to those she read mind, but she would rather not as people would begin to wonder when they heard her voice in their head.
In addition to be able to listen to their thoughts, she could also see what their soul was like. Though Kate could not see her own, she could see anyone elses by just looking at them. Her uncle's was white, meaning it was pure but still was tinged with gray all the way through. Not anyone was completely pure inside, every one could be taken over by evil, it was just what made you human. Every one's soul were reall different shades of gray, her uncle was a good man so his was a very light gray, while some one like old Hanrer was greedy and cruel so he had a darker shade of gray. Although old Hanrer was not exactly evil, just mean.
Kael though... Kate watched him and looked into his soul. His was strange, the strangest thing she had ever seen. His soul seemed to be devided, one half was pure, the brightest white she had ever seen, even brighter than a new born childs! The other half was black and inky, the most evil soul she had ever seen, it sent shivers down her spine. For some reason the two halves were not mixed together, she had never seen someone's soul devided and sepperated. Right inbetween the two halves was a red glowing line, a boundry. If she looked deeper into this boundry she felt intence pain in her own body! Though she could not see it's color, she could feel her own soul in her. When she was happy than it thrived and grew, when sad in faded and shrank. When she looked into this boundry between good and evil inside Kael, her soul was in pain. Her soul felt on fire, covered in ice, shocked by lightning and crushed by stone all at the same time. She wanted to ask him about it, but what if there was much more to it, what would happen when he found out what she could do? She wanted to tell her uncle about this boy's strange soul, but what would happen then? Would her uncle send Kael away? But then she could find out what was this mystery, what was in this boundry. She had read all his thoughts, but her uncle had warned her there were those who could hide things from Spirit Gatherers...
"Hey you!" Called a girls voice. Kael looked back from where he was headed and saw Kate sitting on a hay stack and watching him. She was waving her hands to get his attention. "Come over here a second!"
Kael sighed, this could not be good. What ever reason she had for getting him to come over, would not be a good thing. Whenever she wanted to talk with him, it was because she wanted to get him extra work or help her with something of hers.
Finally he walked up to the hay stack and looked up at her, she was sitting with her legs crossed and looking down at him. Even with his six feet of height he only came to her feet when she sat up there, Kate seemed to like looking down at him. "What?" He asked crossing his arms, he tried to keep his tone plain but he was a little iritated
"How well are you at sword?" She asked tilting her head to the side.
Kael was completely taken back from this question. "What?"
"You heard me right." She said crossing her arms. "I know you did..."
"How would you know I have a sword?" He growled angrily. "You went through my stuff then!"
When Kate just shrugged, Kael's temper got even angrier. "What makes you think you can just go through my belongings?"
Kate just sighed and rolled her eyes. "Are you going to show me what you can do with that weapon or not?" She asked sounding annoyed, she was annoyed!
Kael did not believe he should give her an answer and just turned around. That's when something hit him in the back and he turned around with a growl. On the ground by his feet was a sword carved from wood, he looked up at her and saw she was in the ready stance and also armed with one of these fake blades. "You fence?" He asked, sounding surprised.
Kate did not answer his question. When Kael picked up his weapon se struck at him.
Swinging her blade verticaly, Kael set his sword horizontal to block it. The two pieces of wood connected and Kael gave a grunt, he was surprised in how hard her blow was. But he pushed forward and swung out with his...
Twenty minutes later, Kael collapsed tired on the side of the haystack. Not once, not once had he landed a blow on her. But she had been able to hit him several times on the legs, his arms and even once at light flick at his neck. He was not bleeding anywhere as it was only wood, but she had still swung hard and left a few bruises over his body. "Where did you learn that?" He asked, not angry that he had lost but more amazed of how well she was at it.
She just shrugged. "I learned the basics from my uncle and work on it on my own." She said quietly, though a little smugly.
When Kael couldn't get her too explain how she had learned all it exactly, he just got up and left her. Kate sighed, that had been a tough fight, though really she had cheated a little. Well... Cheated in a way, using natural talents wasn't cheating was it? She had simply read his mind and learned whhere he was going to strike each time.
Thinking about it caused a smirk to apear on her face. Kael would never know the truth about that mach if she could help it. But now that she had beat him, she knew he would want to fence more often, she would be glad to oblige. After all, she could not reist the oppertunity to prove how much better at everything she was even than the gender who defined it.