Chapter 14 - Zengrath's Magic

This chapter is incomplete. Bear with me as I work on it.

A foul mist seemed to hang in the air. Zengrath held back another cough. His weak knees cracked as he emerged from the crawl space. He was definitely getting too old for all this adventure, so he made a mental note to retire once he returned home.

“Thelran,” Zengrath called, but his mouth became suddenly dry. Thelran turned to face him, and as the cleric looked into his eyes the large cavern seemed to shrink. It was as though he and Thelran were standing alone, face-to-face, with no lava separating them. “I believe I have something you are looking for,” he managed to say, the words barely coming to his arid lips.

Thelran scratched his bony chin and then, after a brief pause, let out a mocking laugh. “What could you possibly have that I need?”

Zengrath reached inside his robes and took out one of the artifacts he found in the ruins. It was made of bone, and shaped like an upside-down letter A with a red ivory handle at the vertex. The top ends of the object flickered and glowed slightly.

Thelran’s emerald eyes widened and flared. “How and where did you find that?”
“That is for me to know," Zengrath retorted. He was breaking from Thelran’s controlling spell over him. He looked at the object in his hand, coughed, and tossed it casually into the lava, speaking the words he read in the book in the library.

Zengrath felt a presence come over him, like Normagus became a part of him. His dream flashed through his mind, and now he understood the meaning behind it. The “creature” was a spectre created by Thelran after his betrayal, created using the magic of Thelran’s new cult to haunt Normagus until his death.

From the crawl space, Auric watched the confrontation between the wizard and the cleric. He wanted to say or do something, but he knew he was helpless in this situation. He put his hand on the hilt of his sword just in case, and began stroking the pommel absent-mindedly as he looked on.

Thelran’s face flushed as he roared, “You foolish wizard! That was an important tool…”

“Only an implement of your destructive magic. What purpose does it serve?”

“You much like my brother.” Thelran sneered at Zengrath. “It appears his words didn’t die with him after all.”

“No they didn’t,” Zengrath said as he took from under his robe the head of Normagus’ staff. The intertwining dragons shimmered in the lava’s light. Zengrath affixed the head onto his own staff and tapped the ground with it three times.