This story contains sexual situations that should not be read by anyone who is either not old enough to do so or who would be offended if they did.
This story is copyright Sleeping Beauty 2003 © please do not reproduce this work without my prior approval
My special thanks go to Simon Kereminde and Timat as without their help I would not be able to share this with you.
Prologue
The world of Kerilia is a land where magic makes most everything possible. Dragons live and breathe, walking among the various peoples. Elves live in the forests, dwarves live in the hills and make wondrous things of stone and metal. Magic is real, as wizards and mages form half the popluation of the world.
In this world of magic, where things are not as they seem, several people fell headlong into adventure. It was the beginning of the end of the Shadowed Years, and most remembered of the heroes were a handful of people.
Simon Kereminde, the Wanderer, was regarded by many as the greatest of these heroes, but there were others who helped him along his way. Of these were the woman who would come to be known as Ariana Dawnstar and Timat Dragoner, a dragoness whose curiosity led her into the midst of chaos.
The beginnings of the present state of affairs began twenty years ago, when the last surviving dragons of the world created a haven where they could live in relative peace under the guidance of Tilithanth, the Gatekeeper. Her control over the Gateways which allowed people to enter Kerilia from other worlds kept all but the most determined of enemies away from the Crescent Island, where the dragons had created their haven. There was far from perfect peace, but it remained for a longer time than was originally thought.
Simon Kereminde was visiting friends when he was struck down by a spell and left to drift bodiless towards absolute death. It was with a great effort and sacrifice through which he was revived and brought back to life, yet what he learned while drifting led him into his next adventure.
His dear friend Ariana was attempting to understand power she had gained through a ritual of magic both dark and light, struggling to control herself. Upon returning to life, Simon swore he'd find a way to restore her.
Chapter 1: Meetings
Simon stood up, whistling a tune to himself. He packed a rope into the backpack at his feet, wedgeing it between two water bottles. "I'm going to be leaving the Academy now, Sel. I thank you for your generosity." He looked over at the green dragoness who was sitting behind a desk at the far end of the room, looking over papers in front of her.
The dragoness looked up. "Ah, so soon?" Selitha Dragos, the person in charge of the Academy Draconis, had an odd glimmer in her eyes. "Why don't you stay on and teach a class?"
"I don't think there's one I could teach." He carefully placed trail rations in the pack, smiling and adding an extra cloak to the load. "I need to travel now."
"You're sure you're up to it?"
"Not at all."
"Then why leave?" The dragoness put down her papers, and looked puzzled.
"Because Ariana needs to be helped." He added another package of trail rations, looking up at last. "She needs help to get over her dark self."
The dragoness stood slowly. "That's right . . . you're just the person do that." She narrowed her eyes, and seemed quite angry about something. "You have to rush there and save her. Kereminde, you are entirely unbelievable!"
He closed his pack. "I am the reason she embraced that dark part of her, and I want to free her from it."
"Why must you be the reason for everything to happen, Simon? Why must you, also, solve everything?" Her voice rose and became deafening. "Why must Simon Kereminde rush to vanquish every demon of darkness? Why must he champion the light no matter what the cost?"
Simon shook his head sadly. "You are wrong. I owe her my help! If you think I do this for my own pride, you are wrong! Wrong!" He shouldered his pack and grabbed his wooden staff. "I'm only out to save my friend."
Selitha was silent for a long time. Then at last, "Simon?"
"Yes?"
She looked away. "Come back alive." Then she returned to her papers, studiously ignoring Simon's half-grin. After a long moment more, he was gone, without another sound. Walking down the corridors, he nodded and traded smiles and greetings with students and teachers alike. Then he reached the portal room, and walked through a circle of light.
When the light fell again, he was in a mountainous clearing near a cave entrance. The sky above was cloudy, looking typical of winter days. Simon smiled and entered the caves, whistling a tune and striking a torch to life.
After an hour in ancient caves, thinking to himself how this whole mess got started, Simon was immersed in memories. He remembered how he had overreached the amount of magic he was able to use in trying to defend two of his friends, and how he became a spirit because of it. Rushing through the darkness, barely able to see beyond his nose, he remembered how he had been drawn to his friend Ariana in time to see Shadow reach her first, starting to twist her soul already. As he scrambled up a slope of unstable and sharp stones he remembered how his friend Timat Dragoner had taken part in a spell to restore him.
Then he smiled; Timat had brought her daughter Maiya to help as well, and both had taken a great risk in being part of the ritual that ressurrected him. They really didn't seem to mind that they had to rescue him more often lately. His magic had become far too weak lately, and it had only gotten weaker through his death and resurrection.
He stopped as he reached a large cavern, crouched behind a stone pile. Skeletal guards stood before a passage, sightless eyes searching for anything alive. The passage beyond was dark and foreboding, but Simon had to go there. Ariana was somewhere in the necropolis, but he didn't know anything else about where she was.
Drawing a black cloak out of his backpack, he wrapped it about him and was sprinting across the room like a gust of wind. He passed the skeletal forms easily, unseen. Then the cloak fell away and drifted away. The skeletons turned and let out shrieks of alarm, raising rusted swords. "Oh darn!" He turned towards the skeletons and brought up a large hammer. He slammed it into one skeleton's skull, shattering it, then threw it aside in a quick snap. The hammer scattered the ribcage of the other skeleton on the floor, and bones clattered to the floor as the skeletons fell. The spells that had animated the bones were no more, and Simon put the hammer back onto the belt loop that held it.
Walking into the necropolis beyond, he looked at the ceiling. Cave-ins were not uncommon anymore, and many treasure hunters had met their deaths in those more recent ones. "Fools," Simon said, shaking his head, "to think the treasure and wealth of Styx is just laying around to be taken. Foolish people." He stopped for a moment to pray for the spirit of a half-buried skeleton under a pile of stones. Then he walked down into the passages, feeling an evil presence that was in the very stones of the city.
As he turned a corner, someone collided with him. The figure backed up, and Simon let out a sigh of relief. "Ariana, you're here."
"Simon!" She embraced him briefly. "I thought you were dead."
"Don't count me out until you see a body."
"I did." She recounted to him what happened after Shadow had sent him into limbo. She told him about the ritual that bound the darkness she had in her soul closer to her 'self', and how it had deadened her sense of what was proper. She told him about her vision that showed him as a skeleton patrolling the dead city of Styx.
He listened, and at last nodded. "I see . . . so where is Shadow now?"
"I don't know. I can't feel him the same way you probably can." She rattled the quiver that hung from her belt. "I'm just here to practice my archery."
Simon smiled and looked up, eyes going vague. The evil presence centered on somewhere nearby. "Wait here," he said, rushing down a passage. He ran through crumbling stairwells and mossy caverns until he reached a dungeon. Ahead of him stretched a maze, and he felt the presence eminating from a passage on the opposite side. Swallowing back uneasiness, he walked into the maze, then looked around. Skeletons waited for him, patiently holding their weapons ready. Their skulls were altered, some with horns coming from their temples, and others with tusks.
He shivered, and whirled around as he felt a touch on his shoulder. It was Ariana, smiling slightly. "A little jumpy?"
"A little."
"Just go. I'll keep them distracted." She took a bow that was leaning against a wall. "It's the best I can do right now."
"Thanks." Simon stepped into the shadowy maze. "I'm grateful."
"Just go and see if you can stop Shadow." Ariana nocked an arrow.
Simon nodded and drew his hammer into his hand, watching the skeletons. "Lady of Light watch over me and guide my hand." The skeletons came closer, and he raised the weapon. The skeletons lifted their rusted swords, undaunted, and advanced. The hammer glowed a soft white, and Simon began to swing it. He didn't keep track of how many skeletons fell under his blows, and more kept coming. At last, the skeletons stopped, and retreated into the darkness. The hammer shimmered and stopped glowing altogether, the light fading slowly into nothingness.
He then walked through the broken bones and rusted armor fragments, into the passage beyond. Shattered stone stairs led up, buried by a recent cave-in. He turned around, and saw Ariana wave to him cheerily. He started to wave back, then stopped. She was trying to say something, but he missed it. Frowning, he backed up.
A sharp stab of pain began in his back and blossomed outward to his arms and legs. "What . . . ?" He then fell to the ground, seeing last a man in a blue cloak standing aside, watching.
Ariana bounded over, shoving back a dark glee that she was feeling. "Simon!" She reached him, and looked at the man in the blue cloak who had suddenly appeared. "Who are you, and what have you done to him?"
"Me? Nothing, dear lady. I'm trying to help him." The man knelt and touched Simon's forehead, muttering. There was a pale blue glow at his fingertips, and the wounded man on the floor stopped stirring. He smiled and stood. "There, Simon . . . rest. You need it."
"You . . . I know you." Ariana frowned. "You're Dreamspinner, aren't you?"
"Michael Dreamspinner Sethan." He bowed and swept his cloak aside, smiling. "You must be Ariana, then."
"I think you'd remember me." Ariana sighed and relaxed. "I remember you, though it wasn't that often that we spoke."
Dreamspinner smiled, but looked uncomfortable. "It's been a long time on the Isle," he said apologetically. "Have you found what you're looking for yet?"
Ariana looked puzzled. "What I'm looking for? I'm not looking for anything."
He saw Simon stir and turned serious. "You are, but you just don't know it. Don't tell Kereminde I was here; it's better that he doesn't know." Then the man vanished, as if he never was.
She looked around, then turned and knelt next to Simon, touching his forehead. "Fine . . . I'll keep the secret, because it seems so trivial." She drew arrows from her quiver, and set them on the ground. "I'll guard you until you wake, Simon. But I make no promises . . . the darkness in my heart is not something I want to chance awakening because of this." She nodded to herself and began to sight along an arrow, aiming at skeletons standing nearby, watching and unable to leave their posts. The arrow streaked through the gloom and through the socket of one skull. The skeleton dropped apart, and soon Ariana had almost forgotten about Dreamspinner.
As Ariana stood guard over her friend's motionless body in the dungeons of Agra, a shadow crept out of a passage. "Ariana."
She froze. "Shadow." She turned and frowned. "I'm not going to kill him, not this time. No matter what you say or do to me."
"That's not why I'm here." The shadow stepped closer, and she saw Simon's face seemingly floating in a mass of shadows. There was a marked difference in the expression, however; Shadow's face had a hungry look always on it, it seemed. "I'm here to make you an offer."
Ariana turned to face him. "What kind of offer?"
"Power."
She curled her lip in distaste. "I have no need for power."
"Taste it first, and then tell me you don't wish it." There was an explosion of light behind her eyes, and she felt power rush into her. Magic that strengthened her limbs and extended her senses. New sensations ticked the edge of her awareness, and things she had never dreamed of seeing floated beyond her vision, taunting her. Then it was gone in a rush, leaving her feeling drained. She leaned against a wall, bow dropped to the stones under her feet, forgotten.
"That was the power I offer to you," Shadow said, still smiling. "Impressive, isn't it?"
Ariana was slightly dazed, but more confused than anything. "Why me?"
"Because you can control this power; because it is there for the taking. I know where it is, and I'll lead you if you want it."
"Who wouldn't want that kind of power?" Ariana muttered. "Why this power?"
The reply came after a moment of silence. "Because it is one Simon rejected, and because he did, he lost his own." The shadow reached out with a hand and placed it on hers. "Come with me."
Ariana felt a chill inside her spirit as he touched her. She had forgotten all about Simon and only had the questions about this new power that she suddenly craved. "Come with you where? Why do you offer it to me?"
"You are closer to it than anyone else at the moment. Even me." He withdrew his shadowy hand, and offered a smile. "Come with me, and I will grace you with the power you had a taste of." Then he was gone, floating down the deserted halls with a speed impossible for anything human.
She followed Shadow, wondering what it was he spoke of. "Why give me this power?" She asked again for she was not sure why he would give her or anyone power as this.
"Because, Ariana, you alone have the power to use it for what you want, and not what others want." came the reply as the door ahead swung open. "Enter."
Ariana entered a room with a vaulted ceiling, stunned that torches sat lit in brackets along the walls. She saw a single golden object, an archaic and ancient urn, sitting on top of a dais. The room was in good repair, unlike the rest of the necropolis. She felt something draw her towards the object that seemed to glow in the torchlight. She took the steps slowly, feeling a magic rise around her as she rose. Turning around, she saw a shimmer in the air that blocked out every sound and sight beyond it. She was close enough to touch the urn now.
Swallowing fear, she reached out and touched the golden urn, and felt an incredible power at her fingertips. She looked around and saw no sign of Shadow. Stepping up to the dais, she felt something wrap around her and beckon. A barrier shut out the rest of the world, leaving her alone on the dais.
"Hello?" She called out in fear. She could hear a voice speak to her inside her mind.
'Touch the Urn.' The Urn seemed to pulse.
She stepped closer, looking around. Then she reached out and laid her hand against it. A sense of power tingled at her fingertips, and she jerked her hand back. Then she put it back and actually let it continue. It didn't hurt it was just unusual. She let her hand linger and then removed it, stumbling with many things running through her mind.
She felt something help her upright, and she felt drawn to the massive object. "I . . . feel so strange." she said slowly, whispering for no reason. She heard a tiny voice in her head tell her to reach into the opening in the top. With a deep breath, she took off her gloves and reached into the golden vessel.
Immediately power rushed into her hand, then up her arm. She thought to pull back, but then she shook her head wildly. "What is happening to me?" she asked the empty room, casting around for someone to explain. Then the power flooded into her mind, her body. She felt herself becoming powerful beyond her imagination, and her body tingled with the suppressed magic. She closed her eyes and mouthed the words, her voice lost in the rush of power. "What is happening to me?" Then the magic fell away, and she looked up.
Simon stood beyond the barrier, sword drawn and patiently waiting. He had felt Shadow move into the room, and had no doubt that it was he who waited within the maelstrom of magic that surrounded the Urn at the moment. Then the barrier fell, and Simon saw Ariana standing there, looking unsettled but in control. "Ariana!" he called out, but he knew she didn't hear him.
She looked at him and saw his drawn sword, looking puzzled. "Simon what are you doing?" He heard her whisper to herself, "What is happening to me?"
Simon looked around, and took a step forward, sword coming up to parry an attack from the shadows behind Ariana. "Where's Shadow? Ariana Tryken, where is he? What is the Urn doing with you?"
She didn't seem to understand, taking a step backwards. "Simon, hold your ground!" she said, raising a hand. A crackling ball of energy flew from her hand to strike him hard in the chest.
Simon felt his energy sapped from him slightly, and then realized the blast had thrown him backwards. He got up, looking at Ariana. "What have you done?"
"I've gained the power that you had been offered. I can harm you now Simon . . . I don't want to though." she said, and Simon heard a small noise that penetrated his thoughts, but he didn't register it right away.
"I lost power that was far less than what you seem to have now." he replied, listening again. The sound of leather stretching that's what it was. "You've changed."
She changed her stance and looked down at him from the dais where the Urn sat. "I've touched the Urn, dear Simon, and now I have the power of the ultimate."
Simon realized with a chill that staying here would mean his death. He was watching her now with a touch of dread. He stepped backwards, and flung open the door behind him. "Goodbye, Ariana. I hope we meet again under different circumstances." he said, then left. He ran from the deserted room in Agra, heading to his haven far away. He hoped that he could find out what had happened, as he ran out of the ruined room. He hoped he could begin to understand why things were unraveling this way.
Ariana watched him go and sighed. Why did he seem so afraid of her power? And why did he seem afraid of her? She would not hurt him. It was only power, not evil. Suddenly she doubled over, feeling the power inside her pushing against her skin. "What is happening?"
-Allow me to help you. You cannot contain the magic yet-
"What?"
-Allow me or you will be destroyed-
"Do what you must! Just make it stop!" she screamed, and felt the power at work. The scale armor she was wearing split apart into fragments, then disappeared. She felt something else cover her, and then let out a gasp of astonishment. A mirror had appeared in front of her, showing what had changed. Her long skirt had been replaced by a gown, embroidered in gold with symbols of magic and power. A suit of dark red scale mail had replaced her old suit, reflecting light from the torches.
She smiled to herself. "That looks wonderful." she said. Even as she watched herself in the mirror, Ariana wondered why the change had hurt her so. Then she noticed the object Simon had left behind. "What's this?"
She picked it up, and looked at it. It seemed small in her hands, and she had to squint to read the inscription on the inside. Simon's name followed by seven runes that she couldn't translate. "How odd." she said, and tossed it aside. "I wonder why he left it."
Then she brushed her hair back and smiled at the mirror. "It's time to go out into the world and see what this power can do." she said. She turned and put her hand on the Urn. "But first, I must do one thing." The Urn seemed to pulse, as she laid her hand on it. She felt power all around her, coming from everywhere and nowhere all at the same time. Then she set the lid on it, closing and sealing it again. "Shadow won't have this power. He would be almost as unstoppable as I am now," she said lightly, and left the room.
She didn't notice that she was taller as she left the room, nor did she notice her 'helper' had disappeared; she was too busy wondering what she would do first.