All characters and events in this publication, other than those clearly in the public domain, are ficticious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, are purely coincidental.
All rights reserved. The moral Right of the author has been asserted.
Chapter 10 Unexpected
The castle tunnel was dark and smelt like moss and grime. Mordain touched the walls to find them sticky. This l gave Mordain an awkward feeling, like leading him into a dungeon.
"Where are we going?" Mordain was the first to break the silence, voicing what Richard, Roxy and Jason was wondering themselves.
"We're going to one of my quarters, the base of the Toramdon eyes if you will.
This is where all the knights gather for meetings and such. Handar answered.
"Doesn't look frequently used." Richard mumbled.
"We don't meet very frequently." Rughnan smiled at Richard. We rarely have the need to. Unlike now. We will start to gather the knights within the week."
They kept quiet. The tunnel bent and curved, poorly lit, until it mouthed out at a large door. Rughnan pushed the old moaning door open and walked into a chamber. The chamber was quite well furnished, chairs everywhere, a couch here and there, but the most remarkable was the huge table in the middle of the room, big enough to seat a lot of people.
"It seats 30." Handar answered. All 24 of the Knights Templar, the original 5 Toramdon eyes, and the late king of Torandia."
"Ah. Is seems roomy." Jason answered.
"It also sleeps that many." Rughnan smiled.
They went to sit at the table; the sun has long since disappeared.
"We have a lot to discuss." Rughnan said sitting down.
The veil that separates Hell and Torandia is failing fast, at this second it is weaker as it was yesterday this time by almost half. It will crumble within the next few days, I give it twenty at most, we best be ready. The demons have learned in their passed endeavors that the Toramdon Eyes and the knights Templar will be waiting for them, us too are not without power of our own, thanks to Aradia of the original Toramdon eyes, legend tells us she was the most powerful witch in existence she gave some of her powers to the knights to protect the world should worst come to pass and her veil crumbles.
That has happened every millennia since he and her kin passed away creating the veil, we also fear the Toramdon eyes have become weaker and weaker since then, proof of that is when your powers awakened you should have know immediately what was going on."
It was but by a whim that we found the power in Mordain and that my brother went to earth and made sure you got the rings.
"So that was your planning after all." Mordain answered.
"It was, if you were not the Toramdon eyes, the world would have certainly failed against the demons this year."
"Glad we could help." Mordain answered with a hint of sarcasm.
Footsteps could be heard echoing from outside the door, moving very fast.
The door burst open and a guard stormed in, "Master Rughnan, we have somebody at the gate, he is accompanied by the elf princess Carline and Master Veruif, please they called for you to receive them at the gate. "
Rughnan looked startled, why would the elven warmaster and mistress be doing in Kegh at this hour, this was a matter of urgent importance.
"I shall see you now, Handar come at once we shall go receive the princess of your people."
With that Handar and Rughnan left the chamber without further ado, and without saying anything to Jason and his party.
When they were completely out of the chamber Mordain said, "Could this place get any weirder. I mean aren't we supposed to be the center of this universe for now, and now they just storm out of here."
"Stop being so self centered Mordain, Jason said, it seemed urgent, and I don't think both of them would have left us if it wasn't."
"I know, I'm just sick of not knowing what's going on, I feel lost, like I'm on auto pilot, and I'm looking at myself from above."
Everyone muttered an agreement.
"Who else is worried that they don't really know what they're doing?" Richard said.
"I mean I don't really know how to control my power, it sort of just happened when it did, even Rigaarth. I have no idea how I summoned her, nor the birds, or anything. Its like I lose control of my body and it just goes from there.
Roxy stared at Richard, "I feel like that too, she turned to Mordain, that's what I was thinking about earlier."
"Oh, I must admit, I feel exactly the same, when the faun approached us it was the most evident, its like I lose control of my body..."
Jason just stared at them, "I feel in complete control. Except I feel no good, you all have these awesome powers, and I swing a knife around, I haven't been all the helpful."
"If it wasn't for you we would have failed against the Ogres, Roxy said, we wouldn't have been able to stop them."
"I just did what was necessary."
"Bro, we need you a plenty, never doubt that, the way things are going now, we are only beginning to discover our powers, let alone control it. We are going to need you to protect our asses to be able to do that." Mordain said.
"I guess..."
"He is right you know, Richard said, I don't know if they feel the same as me, but I'm actually scared of this power. I know I can't control it, I feel like a time bomb, we need you to keep us in check until we can ourselves."
"I guess..." he answered again.
"Bro, you can't always be in charge of everything, just keep an eye on us when we lose it like that, if they get the same as me, it could get dangerous."
"Kay." Jason seemed to feel better about himself.
"Now back to the problem at hand..." Mordain was busy saying when the door flew open again, Rughnan was standing in the door, he looked aghast.
Behind him Handar was evident in the door. They entered the room slowly.
"We have a visitor... It seems there are five Toramdon eyes this Millennium, with exactly the same powers as the originals..."
"Another Toramdon eye..." Mordain was about to ask, when they heard a voice they all recognized, Richard, Jason, Roxy and Mordain cringed when they heard the voice coming up the stairs.
"This place is filthy, can't believe you dragged me in here! I would have happily stayed in Morin! But no, you throw me into a dungeon, I trusted you princess!" Harold's voice was clear.
"Shit." Mordain said loudly.
"Oh no." Roxy answered.
"Not good." Jason said.
"The fucker!" Richard said aggressively.
"Seems you know him..." The sentence was left unsaid by Rughnan, when Harold entered the room.
"I trusted...Harold said entering the chamber looking at the princess.
He turned towards the big table.
"YOU! Harold pointed at Mordain for a few seconds. What are, how? why!"
Harold was left speechless gawking at the four. "You! What are you doing here!"
"The same as you we suppose." Mordain answered keeping calm. He could feel the powers of the others rising inside them, this was the most unexpected thing filled in a world of the unexpected.
It was not something they could deal with right now, yet, Mordain kept calm.
He felt a strange power running over his skin; this was the trigger that could set off the time bomb with his friends. Harold was not welcome in this new world of theirs. Also he was not safe in this world, he is just a human. Mordain let the new power fill the room, it had a calming effect on all the by standers, except for Harold.
He looked as pissed as ever. The others seemed to calm down as the aura filled the room, Mordain could bend the emotions of people around him, he just realized, he also realized the trigger of all their power, adrenaline.
He understood his power as long as there was adrenaline in his veins.
Richard, Jason and Roxy looked visibly calmer. The guards, the elves, Rughnan, all of them seemed relaxed. Harold still looked as pissed as ever.
"Harold, come sit down, we'll discuss what's going on, and find out your part of the story." Rughnan suggested.
The elf princess and warmaster, went to sit at the table, Harold held his position staring at the four of them, Mordain now standing up.
"No." Harold said.
"Harold just come sit." Mordain said.
"No, I don't want you guys spoiling my new world!"
"Harold! Sit down!" Jason ordered from where he sat his eyes full of authority.
Harold dropped his head and moved to the table and silently sat down.
Mordain had since pulled back the calming spell when everyone was calm according to him, he readied it again after that order, as he thought Harold would not oblige. Thinking about it, if Jason ordered anybody like that, they would have done exactly what he said. No questions asked. Mordain thought calming the quarters down, as Rughnan, Handar and Veruif sat shocked in their chairs. Mouths hanging open.
"This is a strange turn of events. Rughnan said.
Harold found himself sitting in the chair, but said nothing of it, he couldn't remember how he got here, but this world is so strange... He rather said nothing.
"Okay old man, I think it's time you started explaining some things, what is Harold doing here?" Mordain asked abruptly.
"My son, to put it quite frankly, I have no idea. He is one of the Toramdon eyes that much is for sure."
Mordain groaned.
"So we need to be saving the world together? With him? It was OK when it was my friends and me, but now with him? I don't think so."
Rughnan paid no mind to Mordain, he was deep in thought.
"Princess Carline, do you mind telling us how this boy ended up in the elven stronghold?"
The princess nodded.
Veruif found him on the border of our territory, he gave him shelter and food, the boy traveled with us, here, we thought he might be an eye with all the rumors going around of the veil crumbling, we were disturbed to think there might only be one this year, but it seems there are five?" the princess ended with a question.
"Indeed, this is good news."
Rughnan turned to Harold, "My boy, how did you end up here?"
Harold looked around to all the prying eyes, except Mordain and Richard, whom tried to look oblivious to his answer.
Harold shrugged. He told them about all of the occurrences, including the dragons and shape shifting, he continued the story with how strange his dad was, and how they ended up at the mansion, he put on the ring to scare his dad as he was acting so weird, and as soon as he put it on, he woke up in the middle of the Forrest.
"Wait," Jason said, "You went into our home? You basically broke in?"
"It wasn't breaking in, my dad is the head of police, remember?" Harold said nonchalant.
"Hope he has a warrant, or I'll be suing your asses bare." Mordain said.
Harold just snorted, "Trust me, no one regrets going into that freaky house more than me. This is some screwed up shit. Where the hell am I? And what are you doing here?" Harold was growing irate again.
Mordain sighed. "Of all the luck...you had to come prancing by."
"Relax babe. We'll sort this out." Richard said taking Mordain's hand.
Harold stared at the two of them holding hands.
Roxy sighed, "This is a bad."
Jason just glowered at Harold.
Rughnan didn't say anything, he just looked at them, Handar sat quietly, suddenly interested in his bow. Carline spoke very softly to Veruif in an unintelligible language.
"This is certainly unexpected. Rughnan finally said. It would seem tension exists between them."
Richard snorted. "That's an understatement."
Harold still stared at Richard and Mordain's intertwined hands. "Fucking fags." He muttered under his breath.
"Excuse me?" Mordain said suddenly startled. "What did you just say?" His face was red, eyes glowing bright blue. The other three stood up very abruptly, leaning over towards Harold. The rest happened very fast the princess stood up and in one fluid motion stood in front of Harold standing in a protective manner. Handar was beside Mordain, Rughnan looked around bewildered, Veruif sauntered to the side of the princess to protect her. Two guards ran in to stand in front of Rughnan to protect him.
"What. Did. You. Say?" Mordain said leaning onto his arms through clenched teeth.
"Please you need to stop, there is much to discuss!" Rughnan said pushing the two guards aside.
"Will you stand against your princess?" Veruif asked Handar taken aback.
"I stand with what is right." Handar answered Veruif, anger hinting in his face.
"There is clearly something more between the human and our princess, I can feel it, and that is clouding her vision. Richard and Mordain fell in love with each other, you and I know this happens between males from time to time, it is clear Harold does not approve, he needs not voice it. At the very least not here, you have no idea the vast amounts of power lying dormant in side these children, they will destroy him, completely and utterly obliterate him, including you princess, they know no respect for you, they don't know you. He best keep his mouth in check."
The princess looked ashamed. Harold looked angry, Veruif looked bored.
Jason and Roxy had calmed down, Mordain and Richard glowered at Harold. Mordain felt Power riding up and down his skin; he knew his eyes were glowing again.
"Relax boys, Roxy said. He isn't worth it, remember what we discussed earlier, the time bombs, don't let this be the trigger. Not here. He is definitely not worth it." she said pointing at Harold.
The princess had since moved a bit away from him, but still she hovered close.
Mordain looked a Richard and calmed down. "She's right; we are just tired, and confused." Richard nodded and they sat back down, still a bit angry. Mordain also sat.
Jason walked over to Harold paying no mind to the princess or Veruif; he came to a stand still in front of his face.
"You listen to me now. I will not tolerate this behavior. It seems you were destined to be one of us. You will sit down now, if it bothers you that much, ignore Richard and Mordain. There is a lot to talk about; we also want to get to the bottom of this. He suddenly looked a bit more determined, If you continue giving us shit, I will personally sort you out, there will be no more harassing Mordain, or Richard. He looked up at the princess, I will deal with you as well if he gets out of hand and you try to protect him again."
With that he turned and walked back to the table and sat down.
The princess looked visibly startled, no one has ever stood against her like that, and the worst for her was, she knew she would be no match for him. It would take the whole elven race to stand against the four of them, should it come to that, they would still fall. It wouldn't, she thought, she would keep Harold under control.
The atmosphere calmed down as everybody took a seat at the table, the princess beside Harold.
"There is so much to discuss." Rughnan said shaking his head; it would appear that we have five of you this millennium."
"What do you mean? Can someone please tell me what the hell is going on? Why are you here? How did you get here?" Harold still looked angry.
"I think it best if Rughnan explained to you what is going on, I have told the other four touch, touch of the old stories, but I think everyone here best hear it from you Rughnan." Handar said.
Harold shot Handar a look that screamed 'how dare you talk'.
Handar just ignored him.
"I agree, we know we have powers, and we know we here to save your world. That's it. Oh, and something about sprites."
Rughnan gave a hearty laugh, "Not something about sprites Mordain, for especially you, it's all about sprites!"
Richard seemed dazed and not paying attention, Roxy and Jason was listening unblinking.
"I think it's best to get you up to date with things." Rughnan asked everyone to leave except Veruif, Carline, Handar, Mordain, Roxy, Jason and Richard. The guards were hesitant to leave, especially the elven guards, but did so when reassured by Carline.
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