Farron's eyes flashed, a mixture of surprise and hope showing on his face for just a second. The sharp way his head lifted to meet Echildur's eyes left his hood slipping back, unnoticed. "You want to make a promise like that with me...?" he asked. The bitterness in his tone even lost out to his surprise. Normally when Farron pushed someone away, it wasn't this hard.

For a second he just stood there hesitating. "I won't make promises that I can't keep," he finally answered. "I have no intentions of stopping in my cause. I hate magic." Eyes meeting Echildur's he showed no hesitation with those words. "But..." He dropped his eyes, the hesitation returning just as quick as it had left. Stepping back, Farron shook his head.

"Maybe at some point, things will change. That's all I can promise." He shook his head again, feeling a swoop of sadness. Of course he wanted to find happiness with his soulmate as well, but this was impossible.

"At some point ..." Echildur mimicked and sighed in defeat. "Then I will wait. I've waited for so long that I've gotten used to it." He nodded to himself, a new determination glowing in his eyes. He looked straight into the human's eyes and spoke even more sincerely. "It was selfish of me when I asked to die, to make you kill me. It is not a promise then, since promises are so hard to keep, but I will try not to die in this war and so should you."

Then he noticed a faint green float into the sky from the direction of the fort. They were calling for him to return, and he looked at his soulmate with a sad smile. "They are calling me back to the fort," he whispered with a sigh. "It seems our time is up for now. But before I leave ... will you tell me your name?""

Those words sounded so sad to Farron, but he couldn't bring himself to take back his own words. He meant them far too much. After staring at Echildur for a long second, he turned his gaze away, knowing he should return to his own camp soon. "I will try not to die as well." The words settled over him, heavy with their significance. He never said that to anyone before, but here it was, proof that he wanted to live for someone he didn't even want to be with.

Farron stepped away to leave as well, noticing the green light that only amplified his own anxiety for staying here so long. Someone would notice him and this time, it wouldn't be his rogue friend. It would be an enemy. "Sorry?" For a second, Farron only looked at the elven man in surprise, having forgotten entirely that he elected not to introduce himself before. That wariness had worn off though so that he couldn't help but give a proper answer. "My name is Farron Ryder. That much at least, I don't feel bothered to share." A smile quirked up one corner of his lips before he turned away, finally returning to the camp he should never have left in the first place, though that too, he couldn't bring himself to regret.

"Farron."

He whispered his name as a small smile curled upon his lips. He watched the human, his soulmate, leave for their camp until he could no longer see any sign of him before turning back to the fort. He had taken his time as he walked through the forest, his mind racing back to their conversation. And before he knew it, he was standing before the wall and the rope that brought him down.

"Where is the human?" Undrion asked as he helped Echildur over the wall. "I do not know." he had answered with a smile.

"You do not know or you do not want us to know?"

"Both, I believe. I do want him to stay alive, but I also want us to win this war. It is very confusing and a lot of things worry me, but oddly enough, I feel ... euphoric."

Farron met up with Lucille outside of the fort, not far from where they first split ways. One hand on her hip, her eyes flashed the second that Farron stepped into view. "Where have you been! You made me wait ten minutes even though I was sure you would get here first!" She leveled a critical gaze at him that made Farron ducked his eyes, throwing up his hood again so that Lucille couldn't read his expression. No doubt should would manage despite his efforts to hide though.

"I told you why I came here," he muttered without giving a clear answer. He wasn't sure why, but he couldn't just tell Lucille about something as intimate as meeting his soulmate, nor could he give away anything about the man. If anyone was to kill him, it should be Farron himself. He had to shake the thought away. "I doubt you want to talk about your actions either so let's just go."

Turning toward the open space between the fort and their camp, he set a quick pace. After an exasperated groan, Lucille followed. They made the walk in record time, but light already tinted the eastern horizon, making their entrance hard. Still, they managed it and parted ways, each heading for their own sleeping arrangements. If he was lucky, he might even get time to lay in bed and think about all that happened. The lords knew that he had enough.

Echildur and a few other elves were carrying packs of bandages, intending to move them closer to the barracks where the wounded were recuperating while the majority of the elves tended to the now shrinking gap of their wall. They lugged timber from the forest around them and were set by thick vines that followed the magicians' commands. The depressing aura of the fort seemed to lift at every closure of each crevice on the wall.


"Another day of healing, Echildur?"

"It is. And I hope that I can heal them fully this time. They have suffered for too long under my lacking care."

"Nonsense. You simply lack the control because you have not found the one yet."

Echildur had gone silent as realization filled his eyes. He turned to look at the elf, his excitement slowly curving his lips into a smile. "I have." He ran to the barracks, the pack of bandages held tightly in his arms as he left the others behind. He had found his soul mate. He knew his name. "Farron." He grinned as he spoke his name, a sense of giddiness climbed up his spine. "I've met him."

He ran into the barracks, almost crashing into one of the volunteers, and hurriedly placed the bandages on a crate. He rushed beside one of the bed-stricken soldiers and hovered a palm over his chest. His power pulsed in his veins and it felt stronger - no - he knew it was stronger. He looked at the elf, no longer as pale as he was a few minutes prior.

The control he currently had over his powers was not as efficient as the time he healed the elven soldier during the raid, but it was enough.

Farron barely even laid his head down before a voice startled him away from his sleep. "Farron! Wake up! Archaedes has called us to his tent. Hurry before the meeting starts." The bearer of the voice did not show his face, but that didn't matter to Farron. Letting out a groan, he pulled himself back off his pallet and grabbed his sword.

A general crowd ambled toward the large war tent that Archaedes occupied, signalling that the entire camp was privy to this meeting and not just him. Farron's spirits fell slightly, but he he continued forward until he stood with the rest of the alchemist's in front of Archaedes who stood on a small raised platform which might seem ostentatious if it were any other man.

"Fellow rebels against our unfair world of magic," Archaedes called out as the tent settled, ready for the oncoming speech. "You remember well our victorious battle two nights ago. The plan that we laid out then will soon come to fruition. At noon, we will rise above all else!"

Farron's brow furrowed at the mention of a plan. He remembered a time when Archaedes told him everything. They planned to annihilate the elves with swords and alchemy. He knew Archaedes could do it. The man had more power than anyone. If he thought about it more, he didn't even know why they retreated back then. Archaedes was so close to destroying the fort and yet he called it a victory. There was a rumble among the crowd, expression similar thoughts as his along with a general hurrah. Clenching his jaw, Farron just listened as Archaedes continued to speak about their oncoming victory.

"Do not fear when you go to battle this time for you will face no opposition. Watch now as the true power of alchemy is revealed for the first time to nonbelievers!" With that, he waved his gloved hand over the ground, revealing an alchemic circle drawn into the dirt. The runes glowed in red, throwing ghastly shadows across the faces of all those present. Although Farron couldn't see the result of the circle, he could feel the magic in the air. Without a doubt, something was happening. He couldn't help but remember the figure of Archaedes haloed in the same red as he split the earth the night of their battle.

Across the fields between them, the red glow followed the chasm of split earth and spires all the way to the elven inner keep where it had punctured. They fixed much of the damage already, but the signs of the battle still remained and the scar on the earth showed it as power gathered in the air.

Horns resounded in the air as the soldiers surrounded the glowing spire. Echildur had been healing in the barracks when he heard the horns and moved to accompany the soldiers outside when the captain entered and told him to continue what he was doing.

"If a fight does reach us, we will be sending the wounded here. We need you to be safe, Echildur. You are the only Vazarin in the whole fort and we would very much appreciate it if you were to remain alive."

"What about those you couldn't reach? I should be there to-"

"You will listen to my orders!" The captain cut him off, his brows creasing as he did so. "You should not think about the confrontation nor should you be anywhere near it. These barracks are the furthest away from the breached wall and we will make sure that the humans will never reach you. Just focus on your duty and heal everyone we send your way."

Echildur paused for a moment then released a sigh of defeat. "I understand, captain." He returned to where the elf he had been previously healing lay and resumed the treatment.

For a minute, the spire and the chasm just shone in a red light. What did it do? Even inside the camp of the alchemists where the men murmured in delight and confusion, no one knew exactly what Archaedes planned. Those who did held their tongue with eyes full of glee. Then, it happened.

The spire let out a rumble before shooting apart into a million jagged fragments. The place where it pierced the inner wall crumbled away. And there, in the center of what was once the spire, a single figure stood. Cloaked in black with alchemic runes painted across his entire body, he was a foreboding sight to see. Even stranger than it was to see a man appear in the first place. He raised his hands and began to chant.

Back at the alchemist's camp, the room was in a stir because before their very eyes, the figure of Archaedes had disappeared, his cloak fluttering to the ground. Farron gasped, but no one had time to panic as the army generals began to bark orders.

"Get your swords! It's begun! We start our march now. And...bring the chains!"

Dizzy with it all, Farron followed the orders. Just what had begun though? Right, he should be feeling pride. They would destroy the magic using inferiors of the world and even if Echildur....he turned his thoughts away. At least for now, he would just join the march. Whatever decisions he needed to make later, he would make them then.

The soldiers standing around the glowing spire were reduced to shredded corpses and punctured armor, and soon when hours go by, they would turn into dust. The rest who were standing in a relatively safer zone suffered puncture wounds and the trauma of seeing their kin 'explode' with the spire. Their frightened gazes fell onto the lone man standing where the spire once stood.

When the man began to chant, those who were still able to move started pulling the injured away and were replaced by the soldiers who stood in the far back, unaffected by the spire's fragments. They charged towards the man, spears and swords held tightly in their hands and minds clouded with anger from the deaths of their brothers.


Echildur was disconcerted by the sudden influx of injured elves. He had heard the explosion earlier but did not expect it to cause such devastation. Little did he know that a fourth of the soldiers died from that one explosion. "What's going on? What happened?"

"Just do you job, Echildur!" The captain who was being help up by a soldier groaned after he spoke, more than a half of his right leg missing. "There are injured elves here, focus on your task and do not think about the happenings outside. You need to concentrate on healing, we need to keep fighting until the humans' defeat or until the king's army comes to save us. We need your power right now, brother. We could not afford to lose to the humans."


The soldiers moved to attack the man covered in strange runes but couldn't get to him. They were being stopped by a strange barrier and they couldn't do anything but attack, hoping that the barrier would break. The mages behind them chanted their spells, some short and some long, releasing their spells onto the barrier that seems to be impenetrable as all their spells just bounced off. Their morale was slowly decreasing as they watched the man chant, even with the arrival of the soldiers returning from the barracks, their armor torn and punctured, revealing freshly healed injuries underneath.

(( I hope that the barrier thing is alright ... ))