defenses—nothing as unpredictable as the various holy waters. I can use the symbol of the pentagram or an ankh to hold such a creature at bay; as one of my talismans, it is representative of my faith in the arcane essence. I can then use elemental forces, such as fire bolts, to destroy it.”
Darshalla sighed. “That plan is good enough. Or I could just cut its head off with my sword. In any case, perhaps you should finish your packing. We have many things to do.”
Chapter 4
The Mystic Knight
In Vlorence, it was morning, and Erios Keldarion was still in a meditative sleep. He had worked late to make his trade negations profitable with the dwarves of the Jorn Mountains who were purchasing valuable metal ores for their forges. He had some administrative obligations to his business that kept him occupied, making sure that he got the agreed-upon price and that the dwarves were satisfied with the ores.
Erios was in a light sleep, just leaving the land of dreams. He was slightly above average in height. His height was likely his least notable statistic. He had dark-brown hair, blue-gray eyes, and a high forehead and was considered somewhat handsome. His head was slightly large compared to others, but that was typical for Keldon people. Additionally he was athletically built and had dense muscles.
Others sometimes used Keldon dreams as a way to communicate with other Keldons, usually relatives, clan members, or trusted friends with the ability to enter a dream walk. Today, however, Erios sensed someone trying to strike at him through a dream. Such attacks could cause psychic damage to those who were unprepared. Many years before, members of the extended family of Erios’s Keldon clan had prepared him.
Standing on the bridge of his skyship in a dream version of his black-and-silver armor, Erios surveyed the area ahead as though traveling through a fog. A glowing green orb moved toward him from the port side. The skyship was designed to look like an old flying dragonship of the ancient Rumallians, complete with dragon-shaped ironwood carvings across the entire ship, giving it a general dragon-like shape. While on a quest several years ago, he had found the craft in a cavern said to belong to the Thurians, and he had restored it almost to its former glory.
Erios watched the orb in his mind’s eye. It moved and landed on the deck, twisting back and forth to take on a different shape. It had not yet located him, just his psychic presence, and only because Erios had an intensely strong psychic presence that he could only partially mask. The orb shifted into a creature of nightmare. It held a quivering, multitentacled form with many mouths filled with rows of sharp teeth. It keened a frightening sound and headed toward the bridge area.
Erios moved past the image of Gom, his mystical alloy construct. It was unmoving. He knew psychic combat was inevitable, and he disliked even the thought of causing a mess on his bridge. He hurried out of the bridge through the rear access, down the corridor to the port exit area, and out. The nightmare confronted him.
Erios was a Keldon, and he was prepared. He drew his spirit blade as the nightmarish beast threw tentacles at him. The creature drooled green fluid and seemed to hunger for his flesh.
With flowing precision, Erios chopped the tentacles with his glowing sword-shaped spirit blade and moved toward the creature. With a psychic move similar to a physical maneuver, he twisted his blade sideways and held the edge diagonal to the creature. He moved in a blur past the creature, releasing his power and will.
The nightmare creature tried to wrap its tentacles around him, but they were deflected by the dream version of his psychic barrier. His blade cut through the creature, and a third of it slid down diagonally. Moments later, the rest vanished. It had taken a strong-enough spiritual blow to shatter the nightmare.
Erios smiled briefly and looked around. Seeing no other enemies, he willed himself awake.
He wakened in the sleeping chamber and felt the telltale sense that something was tracking him. It was uncommon although, in the past, dark knights had started the practice to unnerve other mystic knights. In the last incursion of Chaos warriors, some of those creatures used their ability to dream stalk to send fear through the night and deprive defending soldiers of sleep. Dream stalking could be used to distract someone by keeping them in a sleep state longer, while someone got closer in the waking world.
Only a few months ago, a brother mystic knight had been caught by unknown assailants and killed. Just prior to his death, he had mentioned that he had been dream stalked to a colleague of his and of Erios. The loss of this colleague, a human mystic knight named Nur Jappa, was sad, as he had left some of his family behind and had not been able to complete his mission. His mission as a mystic knight had involved investigation of unusual activities in the northern provinces of Megalos, including Tosca.
In some instances, mystic knights acted as agents of law and order as they had been granted authority by the previous rulers before the formation of the Republic of Megalos. Later, Megalos continued most of that granted authority. In other countries, such as Erios’s home country of Adjios and in the country of Illuin, mystic knights still had some local legal authority, as those countries had also granted them the authority of low justice, and that status continued in the present time. Few other merchants had this perk as Erios did; he, however, did not try to abuse his privileges and rarely had any conflict with the officers or leaders of any of the mystic knight orders.
Erios traveled for his business and sometimes met with friends like Leo and worked on mutually beneficial projects. Adjios was a neutral neighbor and did not directly involve itself with Megalos’s external wars but traded with Megalos, which had over four times as much land. Those in Adjios also traded with Illuin, another province ruled by a council of lords like Adjios. Erios tried to conform to the general policies of his country, but if he found some group of individuals who planned hostile actions against it, he took a more active stance.
Like other powerful spellweavers, mystic knights could sense, manipulate, and control the essence, or weave, of magic and could even channel power from lines of energy to support various spellweaves. Some mystic knights could shape stone or metal quite well and, if they learned advanced geomancy, they could develop an exceptional proficiency. Their ability to construct and fashion stone and metal were far beyond a normal mason’s ability. They could will stone and metal into a fluid state and shape it into amazing forms. The ruins of some Rumallian cities still had sections of the power-wrought stone buildings or walls intact that had not been destroyed in the last great incursion of Chaos warriors.
For added security, Erios had sealed his sleeping chamber’s stone walls, had warded the area’s stone walls with a warning spell, and had placed a resilience spell on the stone for extra protection. He had time, as whatever new enemies might be after him were not close. They would likely try to intercept him on his way out to his skyship.
Erios mumbled to himself while he washed and dressed. “Need to get my ship ready.”
He thought about his skyship. In the distant past, such craft had been more common. Airships and skyships, as they were called in the past, were used by the Rumallians, who had learned of them from others who had either come to Archaeus or were brought there by the Thurians. Different groups influenced the Rumallians. One group, the Eldren, originated from a place called Illúmaril. Other influences were from the Quarran who had settled on Archaeus. There were different types of skyships, and not all used the same type of movement system. Many aircraft had been destroyed by the Chaos warriors and creatures of that ilk. Now they were rare, and only wealthy merchants or lords and certain military units operated them.
Erios finished a small meal and briefly cleaned the office apartment in his villa. He thought about his next actions. His dragonship was anchored in the water at the port. It could rise into the sky and move to a destination far more swiftly than any bird. Erios opened a doorway he had molded in the villa’s stone before. He left only small vents for air exchange. His small crew of ten, including Gom, would have finished unloading the ship’s cargo of ores last night. By now, they would be getting the ship ready for launch.
Erios used one of the several