Creed of Telethus-Chapter 1:Screaming Shadows

[Dracor]

This my first attempt at writing a book. Tell me what you think.

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Part One: The War of Fear​

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Chapter One: Screaming Shadows​

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I will become the hidden one,
I will become the savior of the oppressed,
Evil will bow before the shadow’s hand.

I am the incarnation of fear,
I am the chaos that will create peace,
The corrupt will meet my silent blade.

My step is the silent whisper
My blade is the unseen judgment,
Fear is what I have become.​

This hymn has been sung by many generations of drunvak or dark elf in the common tongue. It is a song of songs in their eyes; it is the epitome of dark elf philosophies, a way of life and ideology. It is the Creed of Telethus. The Creed is speaking about fear and how the dark elves embrace it into their essence, becoming an avatar of fear. Those who are a part of the Zai-kan or Shadow Clan only do this process. The common inhabitants of Timoral never see these dark elves. They are a scattered clan, lost in the shadows of the world. That might change when an ancient omen challenges and threatens their uttermost secrets.

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“ Ah, that’s how it is ya blasted elf!” a brutish human yelled as he swatted a young dark elf that was tied to a wooden chair. The young drunvak looked grim faced at the human with no emotion or pain in his black eyes.
The room was confined and circular with dimly lit torches that only gave the room an eerie glow. The room was hot and humid which only made the setting all the more uncomfortable.
“Come now little vermin, tell me who ya work fer,” the man grinned revealing his disfigured teeth , “I don’t want to kill ya.”
The dark elf said nothing, but gave an evil smirk to his abuser. This put fear into the large human.
The dark elf looked through his black hair that was matted to his face by blood and his eyes locked with the large man‘s eyes. He then said something that sent cool chills through his interrogator’s spine, “ You are a helpless little mouse trapped in the puzzle of my world you can do nothing, but weep for your demise.”
The dark elf laughed like there was no sanity left in his pale body. The large man was about to speak, but the torches went out in the small room. Fear consumed the man.
“ No…Help!” the terrified man screamed and two human imperial soldiers rushed into the room in a blink of an eye. They found the man shaking in fear, covered in his own sweat and mumbling to himself.
The torches flickered to life like if the torches never went out. The large man looked towards the chair where the drunvak was bound. All that was there were an untied rope and the wooden chair.
“He--he-- he’s…gone?” the man stuttered to himself. The two soldiers looked at each other puzzled by this event.
One of the soldiers said with hint of sarcasm and nervousness, “ Well he couldn’t of just disappeared, could he?”
The interrogator looked up at the ceiling of the confined room to see a living nightmare staring at him. The dark elf came down upon the large man from the rafters and snapped the man’s neck with sheer speed before the human dropped onto the floor. The man twitched on the ground, choking on his own saliva and died with a horrified expression on his face.
The two soldiers unsheathed their steel broadswords and rushed at the living shadow that was before them. Each took the opposite flank of the dark elf for a pincer attack. As they swung the dark elf hastily dodged the sword and evaded the attack. The attacker on the left swung at the drunvak with a backhand swing. The dark elf blocked the man’s arm before the blade could extend to his own body.
The other soldier rushed him from behind. The drunvak swung around quickly and threw a kick into the human that ran towards him . The kick hit the soldier hard in the abdomen and sent him to the floor, breathless.
The soldier that was on the dark elf’s left was shocked how fast and strong this elf was, he didn’t see the drunvak’s fist coming towards him.
The fist slammed into the human’s jugular. The blow forced the soldier fall to his knees, while trying to gasp for air. The world became a blur in the eyes of the human, until complete blackness swallowed his vision.
The dark elf picked up the dead soldier’s sword and readied himself for the other soldier. The second soldier got up quickly and readied in a simple combat stance. He saw his comrade slowly dying on the floor grasping for air. He wanted revenge. The dark elf grinned at the enraged soldier, provoking the anger inside of the human.
The human charged in rage towards the grinning drunvak with his sword held high. The soldier ran straight to the dark elf and placed a downward strike at him with all the strength he could muster. The dark elf easily blocked and parried the strike, still with a grin painted across his bruised face. The human went into a flurry of strikes while the young elf blocked just as fast, but with less effort.
The soldier became exhausted, as all of his strikes were being blocked and dodged. The dark elf sensed the soldier becoming weaker with each time he tried to hit him. This was chance to go on the offensive. He parried the last strike that the human ever made and shifted in for the kill. He stabbed at the human, but the human blocked downwards and parried the stab, but that left his chest open for an attack. The drunvak did not hesitate with killing this human. He swung his blade around his head in an arching movement and slashed through the soldier’s mail, ripping into his chest deeply. Blood sprayed onto the floor, the steel sword dropped from the man’s hands. He fell on the ground slowly, trying to escape from death’s cold hands. The human whispered a silent curse before he drifted into death.

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The dark elf relaxed his body and gingerly walked outside of the building. The dawn’s sun hurt his eyes, for he was a creature of shadow and rarely ever seen the sun of his world. He was on the pasture of a small human farm. Vanirel, the human capital, was about ten miles east from his location. The high towers of the city in the horizon shone like the sun itself. He speculated that his captors made this their base of operation, since it was convenient for them to go back and forth from Vanirel.
He started to walk towards one of the horses that was left by the soldiers, then at the corner of his eye he seen a dark figure on a hill in the distance, but it vanished like a roaming phantom.
He immediately sensed something behind him. He quickly turned around to behold a crimson-cloaked figure leaning against a black staff.
“Looks you passed the first test, judging that you are still breathing,” the cloaked figure chuckled in the young drunvak‘s native language. He pulled back his hood to reveal an older looking dark elf with deep blue hair.
“ So you must be Dracor Narziel,” he speculated, “ I am Avvyr Vizkar, an employee of the Zai-kan.”
Dracor responded with a sigh, “ Indeed, I am Dracor.”
“ Congratulations, you are now part of the Zai-kan, wielders of shadow and fear,” Avvyr said with a smile. “Take this, you might need it.”
Avvyr gave him a metallic amulet that had a engraving of a raven on it.
“ What is this?” Dracor asked curiously.
“ It is a teleporting device. All of the Zai-kan use them to teleport to our head quarters, I‘ll show you,” he responed by taking out a similar device and twisted a part of the amulet. “Dracor now you use it.” The amulet glowed with a voilet light and Avvyr disappeared into the wind.
Dracor did likewise.
He felt his body tingle and everything went dark. Dracor felt he was suspended in between time and different plane of existence. He became aware of his surroundings, but at the same he did not know where he was. He was in a different world it seemed, he could feel a strange energy dancing around him . White and Black pillars went on forever down the magnificent halls, with black and crimson cloaked figures weaving in and out of the hallways. Walls engraved with dark elf runes, banners with pictures of the history of the Zai-kan, and great tapestries telling of heroes ages past.
Avvyr turned to Dracor and said with a smile, “ Welcome Dracor, to the Realm of Zaikazil.”