The Sorcerer and the Elf

The skyline of Tor had been plagued with darkness for days. As if aware of the coming troubles, the world itself morphed to accommodate its new masters. Dorma couldn't help but be reminded of her past as her gaze rose skyward--endless battle without a spare hope for rest or safety. While the Demonic threat had yet to pronounce itself, the thought of another age dominated by darkness affected her more than she would have liked.

To find Barion; that was her only reasonable plan. A man who had suffered enough already, and who had proven his bravery against unconquerable odds, nonetheless finding himself entangled in the very same crisis he had fought to prevent 500 years ago. With the sacred Sword of Light, banisher of darkness, he was the only one capable of eradicating the Four Heavenly Kings outright, as opposed to simply incapacitating them. If he couldn't be found, or, indeed, if he had already passed, then there truly would be no hope for their world. Not until the next Hero came of age.

"Lady Dorma?" A voice lifted her from that stupor, "Are you alright?"

"...My apologies, Din." She replied, "There's a lot to consider. And, please, just call me Dorma."

The two of them had been granted a stagecoach and four of the capital's finest horses to aid them on their journey. It was a vehicle adjusted for speed, rather than storage or convenience. On that day, they travelled west, to where the crested hilltops of Tor overlooked dark swathes of forested grasslands.

"I'm sorry for demanding to come along with you." Din apologised, "But, staying in a castle and watching everyone else do the hard work--it doesn't suit me."

"You're certainly quite the brash type, for a handmaiden." Dorma replied, "I take it you weren't always in the employ of Her Majesty?"

"No. I was…" Lowering her head, Din didn't reply for a moment, "Well, I wasn't much of anything, really. I was a thief without an enclave. I lived on the bounty of the forest and stole whatever I could from human caravans passing between Shulm and the mainland."

"-And that's how you ran into Barion?"

She nodded, "He was delivering Mandrake Oil from the Henklomeon Steppe. I tried to rob him, but he didn't even see me as an enemy. And then, we ended up liberating those slaves from the Governor's mansion…"

Turning her head to the stalwart sorcerer, Din had a curious look in her eyes, "You travelled with Barion 500 years ago, didn't you? What was he like back then?"

"He was an idiot." She answered bluntly, "-Not to say he isn't one now, but he was very much still a child when we met. A hopeful, young man with a dream to save the world and the means to accomplish it. To others, he was most certainly the image of the 'Hero', but the battles we fought, the death we witnessed… even if he didn't show it on his face, he was deeply affected by it all. Such an innocent person was never meant to witness such horror."

"Is a Demon Age… really that terrible?"

"Putting it into words simply isn't possible." She summarised, "That's why we must stop it before it has a chance to blossom into something truly terrible."

"How do we do that?"

"By defeating the Four Heavenly Kings, and opening the way to the Demon King's castle." Dorma explained, "To the far north, beyond the Steppe, where the land freezes over, a fortress of darkness stands. For 500 years, it remains dormant, and for 500 more, it seethes with an otherworldly power. Those four columns of light on the horizon originate from it."

Casting her eyes towards the beams rising into the sky, Din remained silent as Dorma continued.

"-Each one represents a Heavenly King. When they die, a corresponding light disappears, and the powerful magic sustaining the seal around the castle is weakened. Once open, the Demon King lies in wait for the Hero and his companions to appear."

"You saw him yourself, didn't you? The Demon King…" Din muttered, "What was he like?"

"Certainly more level-headed than the beasts he commands." She answered, "We had convinced ourselves that the orchestrator of such violence could only be a monster of untold strength, but when we entered the castle's throne room, we were welcomed by a single man. A human. Instead of launching into battle, we exchanged words, philosophies… we spoke as if the world wasn't coming to an end around us. But, the more we conversed, the more apparent it became that our beliefs were polar opposites. It was almost like… Barion and that man were destined to fight."

Of course, Dorma didn't know Din nearly well enough to divulge that she, Barion and Shilahi had actually allowed the Demon King to live after their final battle. The stray thought made her wonder just where he had ended up, if anywhere.

"The three of us were too exhausted to think about anything but resting afterwards." She continued, "Somehow, even the thought of returning to Gria seemed too much. So we disappeared, melding with the world as it changed in the following decades."

"And that was the last time you saw one-another? Until recently?"

"In the past, I had plenty of opportunities to reconnect with Barion. But, it never seemed right to do so. Shilahi, on the other hand, appears to have vanished off the face of the planet. I haven't heard head nor tail of her since we parted ways."

"If we find Barion…" Din began, "This will really end, won't it?"

"He's an anomaly. A being that shouldn't exist. A forgotten 'Hero' the world didn't need until this very moment." She replied, "Even now, I'm sure of it--that he's fallen into that same old way of his, fighting without rest, pushing people away to 'protect' them… he doesn't understand that a single man can only do so much."

"Are you in love with him?"

"Mm-" Frowning at the sudden question, she paused, "I am."

"I see."

"Why do you ask?"

"It just seemed that way to me." Din answered, "Is he in love with you?"

"I'm not certain… that he can really feel love anymore." Dorma muttered, "What can be defined as 'love' was lost to him at some point in the chaos of our journey. Now, he only experiences it in the simplest of ways. He pushes to become close to people. It's because he longs for those feelings--tenderness, togetherness… base, instinctual desires that can't be denied."

"You make him sound like some kind of monster."

"I want to tell you something, Din. Something I don't speak about too often." Dorma began, "Truthfully, I don't believe Barion is human. I realised it at first when we faced down the Demon King. Shilahi and I were prepared to fight for our lives, but the atmosphere between those two… it was almost peaceful. They were like kindred spirits. Even when they were fighting to the death, there was something inhuman about the serenity of their movements, the way they spoke. Me and Shilahi were just bystanders to something greater--an exchange of what seemed like fundamental forces of the cosmos. The two of them… they aren't human."

As the stagecoach proceeded onward, Dorma and Din fell into a mutual silence. The words she had just spoken didn't make any sense. Not human? What was Barion, if not human? And yet, the severity of her tone had proven to Din that such a possibility couldn't be denied.

The two of them crested the final hill on their way to Hod; a quaint, farming hamlet constructed close to a major highway connecting Tor and Anjima. Dorma had never been--nor would she, as the sight which awaited them beyond that hilltop was anything but a village.

"What…" Din muttered, "What is this…?"

Crushed, burned, disintegrated--cycled to the barest nub of its original form and regurgitated to feed the earth. If a hamlet known as Hod once stood there, then it stood no longer, not in a form that was recognisable. Sinkholes peppered the disjointed cobblestone roads--great, steaming wafts of hazy air rising into the sky. Like a seedpod, the village had been consumed by the earth almost entirely, and what little remained of it had been reduced to pieces, with only loose planks and towers of crumbling stone suggesting that any buildings once stood in their place.

"Dorma!" Din called, "What happened here!?"

"The village was destroyed by Demons." She answered quickly, "I was hoping to replenish our store of food, but it appears we'll be rationing what we have for a few days more. At least until we reach the next settlement."

"Shouldn't we search for survivors!?"

"There aren't any." She replied, "And, we can't get close enough, either way."

Raising a hand, Dorma pointed towards the sinkholes. The hot air bellowing from their all-encompassing maws didn't look natural in the slightest--almost as if something was melting straight through the soil.

"That air…" Tilting her head, she paused, "...We called it 'Miasma'. It follows out from the holes created wherever Demons appear. If you stray too close, it can cause all manner of afflictions. Sickness, haemorrhaging, infection… and if you linger for too long, the heat will burn you alive."

"Demons… emerge from underground?"

"Far, far underground. Deeper than you might think is possible." Dorma continued, "Something is… down there. Something that causes that awful air to waft out. But, naturally, Demons don't have a problem with it. It may even have something to do with their creation."

"Is leaving really all we can do?"

"-We're lucky enough to have avoided the Demons that appeared here. Chances are, they're going to approach the capital. It'll be a fine test of the Anti-Demon Leagues." She answered, "But this is only the beginning. If we don't find Barion, and work with him to put a stop to this, the entire world will be flooded with sights like these."