By Evan Hensleigh A tale of Larisnar
Cassandra the Arcane sat before the little shrine in her tent. Three icons were arrayed around incense on a folding wooden table. The smell filled the tent, and her silent meditation was undisturbed.
She'd been sitting that way for an hour, Essau thought as he watched her. She did this every morning, wherever she was. Essau had watched over it for years. He knew well enough not to speak.
The hour was over when the incense burnt out, and the smoke trail was dying. Cassandra rose and closed the icons, returning them to their little box. She emptied the incense burner into an urn, and folded up the table, then rose from the pillow and smiled sweetly at Essau. "Are you ready to go, Essau?"
The old bodyguard nodded. "Ready as ever, my lady."
"Good." She took a long breath and exhaled, then walked from the tent. Essau followed.
The army camped on the hillside was modest in size, but formidable enough. Cassandra's eyes surveyed it carefully, then looked down the hill. Below her was the ancient temple, adorned now with polished bone. It was time to end this.
Adil came up to her, dressed in armor already, leading Cassandra's horse. She turned to the younger woman. "Is the army ready?" she asked. "The army is ready," Adil said. "We await your command."
Essau whistled, and his horse bounded towards him. Cassandra mounted, sidesaddle, Essau handed her staff up to her, and mounted his own horse. "What do you think is down there, Adil?" asked Cassandra.
"The ghosts of the past, milady," she said. "The Elves took the temple and the ghosts rose without being called. I fear the evil that dwells within."
Cassandra offered one last prayer, and then looked up. "Kavara bless us all," she said, to Adil. "We will go forward to parley. When I signal, Essau will fire one of those Nothrog flares. When you see it, advance."
Adil nodded, and turned about to give the order. Cassandra kicked her horse and it cantered forward. Essau kept pace easily. They rode down the slope and into the temple square. Cassandra raised her staff. "Come forth, spirits. Your presence is demanded here." She rapped the long staff on the stones beneath her, and a slight tremor shook the building.
The ghosts rose, encircling them. They were human, and pale. Their faces were drawn and narrow, and their ethereal forms glinted in the sunlight. One of them, a man in robes, took a step forward and glared at Cassandra. "For what have you summoned us?
Cassandra raised her staff to the vertical at her side. "This temple is mine," she said. "You have returned to this world unbidden. What compels your return?"
"This temple has been desecrated," said the ghost, defiantly. "If you have let this sacrilege go unheeded so long, then you are no master of this altar."
"Answer her question," said Essau, firmly.
The ghost's eyes narrowed. "It is our duty to reconsecrate the temple."
"Reconsecrate it how?" asked Cassandra.
"By blood and by fire, as it was first established."
Essau looked at Cassandra. "They have gone mad. Something in the temple drives them."
"Stand aside," she said to the ghosts, after a curt nod to Essau. "Let us pass."
The ghosts closed in on them. Cassandra raised her staff in an arc and white light enveloped them as the ghosts raised knives and weapons. They fell back.
"Signal," said Cassandra to Essau. He slashed his sword at one of the ghosts and released a rocket. The army charged down the slope, mounted, as the flare popped, high above. The ghosts saw the army coming. Cassandra's staff belted fire, and several ghosts were singed, their forms melting away into smoke. Essau moved forward, driving his sword into the ethereal forms by force of will. Cassandra let sparks and holy fire shoot from her staff as her army poured into the temple square and engaged the ghosts. The ethereal forms fell to Cassandra's army like wheat before the scythe.
Cassandra rode into the temple itself. Essau followed closely. The inside of the temple was largely unchanged. The wooded pews and stained glass remained intact, but the altar was decked in bone.
"Good, the Elves haven't turned it into an ossuary yet," said Cassandra, dryly. She heard the sounds of the combat outside subsiding.
"Where are the elves?" asked Essau.
"I don't know," said Cassandra. "It worries me." The temple chamber was empty. She wheeled her horse in a circle, all senses alert. Essau did the same.
A ghost had entered the temple. Cassandra banished it with a blast of holy fire. "There must be a vault, underground, or a crypt..." Her words trailed off.
They rode back outside. The ghosts had mostly fallen; the Kaballites that had come were banishing the rest. Cassandra called out. "Adil!"
Adil rode to her. "Aye?"
"Fan out. There is a crypt, somewhere on these grounds; I know not where. We must find it."
The army spread out over the temple grounds. It took them an hour to find the secret entrance, hidden under a pew near the back of the choir. Cassandra led the way in. Essau followed, and several men came with her, bearing torches.
The crypt was large and deep. The coffins were laid out in rows amidst stone pillars that rose to support a vaulted ceiling, high above. The light in the chamber was dim, but she could make out a huge skeletal form near the center. Cassandra motioned her men to fan out about the crypt.
She rode closer, Essau following close. It took her only a few moments to recognize the form, and a few more to realize what she was looking at. She retreated a few steps, cautiously. Essau moved closer to her. "What is the matter, my lady?" he asked.
Cassandra pointed at a pile of bones on the floor, and a shimmering, ethereal form ensconced within them. "That was once a dragon, Essau." She paused, and turned slightly, not taking her eyes from the ghost. "Go, Essau. Fetch Eldirel." Her voice took on an unfamiliar urgency. "Now."