Fates of Grenora: Return of the Night

Falund wasn't a religious man by nature, but when the High Seers of the Moon Elves and the Sisters of Thread from the Dark Elves share a similar dream, well, you can't dismiss fate entirely. So when the King called his clan and others to battle, he readily answered. He cut short his long mane of blonde hair, donned his decorated silver enchanted armor, his white panther fur cape, and his trusted Mithril Glaive. Now, he stood in the bridge of a commandeered High Elf skyship, retrofitted in his clan's designs along with weapons that continually fired upon the city from down below. Two honor guards dressed in similar silver armor, wielding Mithril Glaives, flanked his sides as they watched members of his clan pull levers, push buttons, and call out coordinates. On the deck, more clan members readied the mana crystal cannons while a few of their sorcerers and sorceresses rained down elemental chaos off the sides of the skyship.

"Chief Falund," one of his subordinates called for his attention. Falund grunted, signaling his response and for the subordinate to continue. "We have reports of resistances in numerous locations. Ground Captains are requesting assistance."

Falund sucked his teeth. "Damn Dark Elves are late as usual," he said, rubbing his temples at the onset of migraine. "Send down squads 8 and 9 to the most dire. Signal Chief Karlaxx to deploy his cavalry on the other side of the city where the Dark Elves are supposed to port in," he ordered.

The subordinate quickly relayed his commands, then sent a quick message using one of their charms to the skyship that was painted bright orange. Falund watched as the skyship stopped its bombardment to pull away further. Folos' anti air mana cannons fired back, but without their mages bolstering their shots, they simply slid off the mana shield that covered the skyship.

"Bring us 73 degrees port side, then unleash as much as you can," Falund commanded, feeling the skyship shift into position. He felt the shock vibrations through his feet as he watched his crew sling spells unleash cannons port side. He was proud of them and would honor them with a feast once they returned to their homelands.

The door to the bridge opened and Falund turned his head slightly to see one of their High Seers glide into the room. Usually High Seers wore silver robes that gleamed with speckled starlight and covered their silvery white eyes, but this one was different. She wore her white hair in a tight bun and over her robe; she wore a silver breastplate, armguards, and greaves. In her hand, she held a staff with a glowing ball of light that perpetually bobbed up and down. The part that made Falund almost shiver was when her silvery white eyes would glow when she looked at him. He knew she could see all of his futures but never chose to speak on them. A part of him wanted to ask what he would gain here, but there was this other part of him that didn't want to know.

"Chieftain," The High Seer said in her ethereal, ghostly voice that somehow cut through all the noise.

Falund gave a quick acknowledgement before returning his attention to the ongoing battle. Carefully, the chieftain and High Seer monitored the battle, sending orders to units and navigating the air support. They also knew they didn't have much time before a High Elf sky patrol came. With that in mind, Falund always kept a view of the horizon for quick getaway.

"May I ask what exactly we are doing here?" Falund finally asked the Seer, who gave a quick cursory glance over him.

She stared out into the distance, then up at one island she knew to be through the clouds. "Waiting," she replied.

Falund furrowed his brows but chose not to question the Seer, for that would be courting a future he didn't want to have. "How long at least?" he chose to ask as a safer option.

"Until he decides to show himself," the Seer cryptically said.

Falund finally realized what they were here for. "He's here?!" he asked in a rare moment of lost composure.

The Seer nodded. "If what that Dark Elf said was true, then he was at the doom of Lor-Vold, if not the catalyst. We must make contact with him at all haste, regardless of lives lost, and no matter the consequences," she said, gripping her staff tightly as her eyes flicked from the horizon to the island. "It's all depending on who makes their move first. Him or the Sky Fleet," she said.

Falund had a million thoughts racing through his mind, but he needed to know the concrete answer to one. "Will the Dark Elves come?" he asked.

The Seer looked at where Kalaxx's ship was and saw him deploying his white panther calvary through the use of his teleportation mages. "All futures say yes since they have an equal amount of importance placed on him."

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When she said that, Falund saw a black portal open on the battlements of the city where Kalaxx was. Out spilled Dark Elven warriors clad in heavy dark metal, wielding twin wickedly curved scimitars. They slashed the hastily erected defense as the High Elves on the battlements weren't expecting to be hit on their walls. Right after the Dark Elven warriors came their Pain Melders which immediately went to work immobilizing the High Elf mages. Falund saw this and wondered why the defense here was so… underwhelming.

More black portals opened up along the battlements, spilling out more Dark Elven warriors and Pain Melders. Much to Falund's surprise, the Dark Elves kept ripping portals on the walls, overwhelming the defense. "Where are they?" Falund asked no one in particular as he eyed the map of resistance pockets.

"This is a training town for Adventurers. Not the Elves and Dwarves. They are only here through a joint alliance between the Humans of Dremetica, High Elves, and the Dwarves of Bal-Kal." The Seer said.

Falund still found it odd that there wasn't a sizable defense force, "So the rumors were true after all. This alliance has gotten lax during peace while the rest of us have been sharpening ourselves."

The Seer simply smiled. "Every great empire has its day."

Falund whistled, gathering everyone's attention onto him and then nodded at one crewmate that controlled the speaker to amplify his voice throughout the whole sky ship. "Raid until your heart's desire is full, chief's orders." Falund said, and soon enough, the cheers resounded throughout the ship. He watched as the crew worked with more gusto, their aim sharper, and their mood lifted.

The Seer watched the crew, a small smile playing on her face as this was one future she had hoped for. She turned her gaze back up to the island she knew that he would come from. She nudged the captain as the moment she and her sisters, along with the Dark Elves, had foreseen. There, in the distance, falling through the clouds, was a man perfectly angled to land in the thickest of fighting.

Falund watched with rapt attention as the man passed through smoke and emerged as a swarm of bats. "By the Old Ones. . ." Falund whispered as he stepped closer to the window to watch. The other Moon Elves who saw also stood and moved to the window. The Seer shook her head and walked out of the bridge and back to her quarters. She knew what would happen next would catapult the Moon Elves from lowly tribesmen to a civilization recognized by all.

Falund ignored the door to the bridge opening and closing as he watched the swarm of bats engage the first Dark Elves. The bats quickly turned back into the man that dropped kicked the first Dark Elf off the battlements then he slashed with a rusted looking great sword that crippled three Dark Elves. Falund couldn't take his eyes off the man as he fluttered, disappeared, reappeared, summoned pits of blade spikes, shapeshifted into a giant bear to maul another group. It was a work of art that Falund instinctively knew he never wanted to be on the receiving end.

Finally, he could tear his eyes away from the battlements as the man had worked his way to a blind spot of the ship. "Keep him in sight at all times!" Falund commanded as the ship rotated and turned, albeit slowly, to keep track of the man.

"Sir, should we fire? He's turning the tide on the walls," a scratchy voice came through on the charm he carried.

Falund turned to look for the Seer, but she was nowhere to be found. "Negative. This might be who we are looking for. Switch to stun and capture tactics."

"Yes, chief," the same scratchy voice replied.

Outside on the deck, Falund saw one of his war leaders bark orders to the cannons and mages. They turned back to focus fire on the man below. They fired the first shot as the man was about to kill the Dark Elf. The man stopped mid swing, which shouldn't have been possible without tearing or breaking something, and turned into a black cloud, letting the stun shot pass right through him. Falund watched as that very same cloud morphed into the swarm of bats that raced upwards to them.

"Open fire!" Falund ordered through his charm, as the crew on the deck along with the mages scrambled to fire off the side at the incoming swarm. He watched as shot after shot missed, almost like it knew where the shots were going before they even got there, and that was enough to cause a hint of fear and doubt to bloom.

Falund watched helplessly as the bats snatched their first victim, a tribesman that operated one of their mana cannons. They disappeared above in the clouds with only the faint screams of the tribesman. Falund ran out of the bridge and onto the deck, his two bodyguards hot on his heels. He pulled his Mithril Glaive out, keeping careful watch on the sky.

Another scream to his left and he saw only the flash of feet overboard. To his right, another. Then he saw it, the black mass of bats coming from above and landing perfectly in the middle of the deck. Everyone immediately aimed their weapons and spells at the stranger.

Falund took in the stranger's appearance after the bats coalesced back into the man. He was copper toned, curly brown hair, tattered leather armor, and wore a circlet of silver that Falund noticed was of Elven craftsmanship. The great sword he slaughtered the Dark Elves with was also nowhere in sight, but that didn't mean Falund would lower his guard either, especially once he stared too long at the man's green eyes. There was something there that made his primal instincts, fight or flight, rear their heads. As the son of a chief, they stamped and beat those instincts out of him at a young age. Whatever this thing was that stood in front of him was only a disguise for something much worse.

"Are you who we search for?" Falund commanded, careful not to let any hint of fear leak from his pores.

The man looked around, almost unbothered by the spells and weapons aimed at him. "Why would you be searching for someone by destroying a city?" the man answered with a question.

"We needed to draw you out," the whispered voice of the seer, Falund recognized, pierced through the tension.

The man turned his unblinking green eyes to the newcomer. "And who might you be?" the man asked.

"A friend, Aldrin Ravindra, Progenitor of Vampires," the seer said, then kneeled that made the other Moon Elves gasp. "It is an honor to be in your presence. I am High Seer Mylyrra, of the Moon Elf Clan Rivese. We have come to pledge our services to you. We have traveled far and what you see here is only a portion of what we can give you."

"No," Aldrin flatly said then morphed and flew away, leaving a stunned Mylyrra and Falund on the deck of the sky ship.