The Inner Gambit of Darkness - Continued (Part 2)

(Yeah, but Russell is tuning it to her sage powers or something)

The dark chill surrounded Celeste, and her alone. The light around her dimmed to a gloomy blue. Angry whispers chanting her name and evil tongue rang all around her.

"Celeste...you are breaking your blood pact with the Darkness. You are desecrating my blade...and allowing it to be turned into a mockery...how DARE you...? the Voice spat.

Celeste froze at the voice and quickly excused herself before slipping away from the group.

"No, I didn't mean any harm," Celeste said, almost pleading. "It's just a temporary thing, I swear."

Gwene nodded and looked around, when she heard Celeste's worried voice, she slipped around and listened.

"Is that so? My informants say otherwise...Forest Sage..." the Voice said bitterly. "You have abandoned me...and provoked my wrath. You and the ones you love shall be consumed by my Darkness..."

The chill around Celeste intensified, along with the angry whispers that hissed at her. Suddenly, it all stopped...

"But I didn't choose to be a Sage-" Celeste said but stopped when the presence vanished. She shook her head to clear it and sighed before returning to the group, hoping no one noticed her short absence.

Gwene rounded the corner as if she hadn't heard what was going on "Oh, there you are. Should we keep going then?"

Deserax came jogging back to where Gwene and Celeste where.

"Well.." He started, slightly out of breath. "That was. A nice jog. Mind if... i tag along with you to that one guy?" He said, forgetting the name of the man.

"Mhm, sure," Celeste said, to both Gwene and Deserax's questions.

When they reached Russell's forge, they found him searching frantically. "Where is it?" he said as he searched.

"Russell? What are you doing?" Gwene asked.

He looked at them when they entered "The sword I was making for your friend Celeste. It has vanished."

"What?" Celeste said, stepping forward. "How did you lose it?"

"I didn't. I had just finished temering it." Russell explained "I put it in a sheathe I made and left it on the table right over there." he pointed near his workshop "But how why did it disappear like it did?"

Celeste just shrugged, quietly panicking a little inside. "Seems odd to me. Maybe someone stole it..."

An unnaturally cold breeze blew by right as Celeste finished speaking. A lone raven flew in and landed on the forge building, its eyes set on Celeste. Steven left his leaning position and looked at the raven, and then Celeste.

He suddenly threw himself behind her and grunted as the sound of something sharp piercing through flesh sounded. Steven turned around, an arrow lodged into his back, and saw a shadowy figure up on a ledge running away. Steven turned back towards the others, holding the arrow in his back.

"Wha..." Gwene turned around, confused what had happened "What the.... Oh my goodness!"

"Shit! Steven!" Deserax saw the shadow figure leave. He thought about chasing, but decided it wasn't the best idea to charge something he had no idea about.

"Someone just tried to assassinate Celeste..." Steven said. He was worried about this whole situation, and was more concerned about the safety of his friends.

What would happen next? It seemed that not just monsters from the Evil Realm were against them, but people of this realm were hostile too. But why would anyone want to kill the Sages? Steven had to find out. "Watch yourselves. I'm going after that man..." he quickly said before running in the direction in which the assassin escaped.

"Just great. Now we gotta protect all the sages. And when we find one, that adds to the list." Deserax drew his blade in case something tried to attack again. He looked at it and noticed it was dull. Really dull. No wonder he couldn't hardly hurt anything back in the cave.

"I should have sharpened this..."

"So am I." Galenus said, walking up to them. "I need my katana, sir."

Russell nodded, he handed Galenus' tempered katana back to him, he also handed over a blue sword hilt and a pair of fingerless gloves, he whispered something in Galenus' ear and he nodded.

Galenus equipped his Katana and put the sword hilt on his belt, he pulled on the gloves and made to follow Steven.

Deserax looked at his blade, then to Russell.

"Um... Sir? Could i please sharpen my blade? You've got a sharpener right?" Deserax mentally face palmed. 'Blacksmith. Of course he has a sharpener. Dumb ass.'

Russell held out his hand signalling he wanted to see the blade.

Deserax handed Russell the blade.

"Nothing really to look at. Just sharp steel. Or rather, at the moment, dull steel."

Steven snapped the arrow, leaving the head inside his tainted flesh. He kept running, trying to find the assassin so he could catch up with him and confront him. He stopped when he saw the shady figure leaping to higher ground with flawless agility. Steven ran up to the wall of rocks and climbed them in order to catch up with this agile assassin.

When he reached the top, Steven ran into a dead end. On the wall facing him, was a mockery of the Shiekah Eye drawn in blood. He just stared at it without a clue on what it could mean. All he knew was that it was left by the assassin. A note was left under the symbol...

Steven picked it up and read: We are only the beginning. Fear the Darkness. Fear the Evil Realm.

"No magical properties." Russell said, he started to flex it and tested out its sharpness "Goodness, this thing couldn't cut through a wet piece of parchment. If you sharpened it anymore, it would be of any use to you." he took the blade over to the anvil and hit it with a hammer. Almost instantly it shattered into pieces. "Another heavy blow, and that would have happened while in your hands. Now wait here, I have one here the might suit you." he disappeared into the armoury.

=====

Galenus had kept up with Steven and saw the note "So, whatever that thing was, it came from the evil realm."

"Well... Didn't expect it to break so easily, but i expected it to break soon. Had that since i was 10." Deserax waited for Russell to return.