“After so long, can’t you see!! I too am finally blessed, brother!”

“How can he not know?”

“For three thousand years, he has been without a child, though half the high families have had their daughters dragged through his bed.”

“No Skyking has borne hair as dark as that.”

“Wife, tell me the truth and all will be well.”

“Tomorrow the council will announce you as heir, my son. Finally, the black tongues will be silenced forever.”

“Why have the bells been rung?”

“Father! What has happened?”

“The king has been challenged by his brother and lost; now we must flee.”

There was never a long pause from the pursuers. Still, with the power of his grandfather, a loremaster of the highest order, and through the brave sacrifices of the few palace guards who had followed them into their flight, they had evaded the hunters for many seasons. For Arnith it was an eternity, for though his guardians could count their years in the centuries he had spent almost half of his life on the run, he could hardly remember a time before, he had forgotten the luxuries of civilization, the soft beds, and tasty foods.

There were two of them left now, just him and his grandfather Aethir. The once-great Loremaster was now withered and bent, the continuous weave of magic had drained his body, but to look into his eyes would be to see a spirit of unbending will.

A hunter’s clarion rang out down in the valley.

“We have to leave grandfather, they come near.”

The ancient warrior held to his swordstaff for support as he looked into the west. The sun was closing to the horizon, making the mist-filled hills glow in its light, then he turned slightly to look to the east, where the high walls of the mountain range towered above them, though they had risen into them for many days now.

“There truly is no sanctuary under the sun from the reach of the Skythrone.”

Arnith felt the air leave his lungs. His grandfather's steel had always been a singular cornerstone of his life, around it he had built his world and now it seemed it had finally broken. He felt almost consumed by despair, but then he dispelled it with a huff. He had also been hardened into a cold metal by his life and he prepared himself for what he had known to come for a time now.

“Nothing to it then, but to take the last toll in blood from my uncle,” Arnith said and began to prepare himself for battle.

The ancient elf now turned to look at his progeny and what he saw pleased him.

“I will have to disappoint you a final time Arnith.” He lifted a hand, to prevent him from protesting such notions, as so he could continue. “I fear, I will not allow you the joy of dying next to me, there is still one last trick left in this oldster.”

He took a moment before he continued.

“I can feel a path for you through the roots of the earth. There is a cave a little further up the mountain, you must enter there and be fast in your steps for when the pursuers arrive here I will do battle with them for as long as I can to buy you time. I will gather as many of them as I can and then I will bring the mountainside down upon us all, a fitting tomb I think.”

Arnith saw the eagerness for vengeance in his grandfather’s eyes and could not bring himself to take it from him. Though he felt little hope for his future he responded with what the old elf wanted to hear, he certainly owed him that.

“I will return from the darkness and bring doom to all of our enemies grandfather, this I swear.”

“I hear your oath, son of Rualian, grandson of Aethir. Now run swiftly, follow the groove of the riverbed, and do not stop before the earth announces my passing. GO!”

As the loremaster turned back to look at the sunset with a spell already on his lips, Arnith did not hesitate and began to run with all of his might. It took a little under an hour for Arnith, following the almost dry mountain stream, to come to its end, the trickle of water came out of the mouth of a cave just large enough for Arnith to enter, though he had to be on all fours to-do so.

Arnith felt uneasy as soon as he left the sky behind, he took out a small glowstone from a pocket and supplied it with some of his mana to charge it and he began to crawl into the earth. A part of him felt a slight to his honor, that he had to leave Aethir to stand alone and he was crawling like a maggot away from his enemies. Then again he had to admit that there had been little honor left in their flight for a long time now, one turn after another they had paid for the sake of survival, always wowing vengeance, though even that had lost it’s meaning to him as it became more clear just how powerless they were.

He continued to crawl for a while in the void of the earth and as each minute passed he began to worry cause he could not stand up and so his pace was several times slower as it otherwise could be. He had to hurry away from the mountainside, cause otherwise, he would risk being buried beneath the rock, once his grandfather brought his earth magic’s to bear. Dyeing like so he imagined would be the very worst way to go.

Finally, he entered a cavern large enough that he could stand and he began to run for all that he could, the path twisted and turned and he scraped himself often onto rocks and walls, the ground was slippery and treacherous but his kind was of the most agile of creatures and he could save himself from the worst of it.

Panic had come into him as he ran into a large cavern, the ends of which he could not see; by now he had lost all of his orienting and as he ran into the darkness he could only hope it was away from the coming earthquake.

The first sign of life that he encountered was a centipede several feet long, he simply curved his flight around it, it rose its head towards him, and clicket its pincers menacingly, but he paid it little mind.

He heard the sounds of a stream ahead before he could make it out, it crossed the cavern before him, and he could see it glow slightly with some algae, there were also small rings of luminous mushrooms growing next to it. He took up his pace, meaning to jump over it in one go.

He was already in the air when he noticed something move in the water and when the jaws of the giant snake opened up beneath him he had little choice but to kick it in its nose in terror. He landed in a roll on the other side of the stream and jumped back up into a run. His heart lurched as he continued, serpents had always frightened him even the tamed wyverns that the sky-knights of his father’s retinue rode gave him the jitters.

He could hear the serpent following him and he knew he could not outpace the monster here in its habitat, nor did he have the time to stop and do battle with it, so he summoned the words for a fire incantation complimented with simple finger movements of his free hand he jumped into a slow spin and released a cone of flame behind him, hoping that the element would make the reptile reconsider pursuing him.

He landed and continued in the opposite direction of the snake. It was difficult to see now, the light from the spell had been blinding and it would take some time for his eyes to adjust again to the low light of the glowstone.

He continued running and the floor of the cavern began to rise, making him slow down as it turned into a wall. He stood for a moment listening for the serpent, but could not make out anything so he figured that it must have given up on him.

He began to move again, choosing to stay next to the wall, in the hopes that he would find a tunnel entrance. It did not take long for his fears to begin bear fruit, he felt the first tremor go through the earth, his hand shook slightly with the wall.

The second one came a minute later and it was considerably stronger, Arnith felt dust coming down from the ceiling and he began to hurry. Staying in the high ceilinged cavern was probably not the best idea.

The third one happened soon after and he was not the only one concerned as he heard the creatures of the cavern began to make noise, he could hear a great flock of bats or birds take flight in the darkness screaming out in fear, to top it off a couple of stalactites could be heard falling from the ceiling.

The fourth wave was followed with the slow rumbling of the mountain coming apart and Arnith was thoroughly panicking now. He ran into a swarm of insects and rats of various sizes joining him going along the cavern wall and he hoped it was a sign of an exit nearby.

He ran with the swarm, which mostly paid him no heed, though he occasionally had to kick something away that tried to take a bite out of him. Mostly the creatures were of the smaller size and shied away from the light source that he was carrying.

It was with the fifth tremor that he arrived at a cave entrance, it couldn’t have happened any later as something in the mountain above gave away and the cacophony became overwhelming, there was no escaping from it, the sound overwhelmed much of his senses. Arnith breached the cave entrance as did a horde of subterranean dwellers of all sorts.

A wave of dust followed him into the tunnel and he fell as he had stepped onto something that slithered or crawled, he dragged himself up again feeling the sting of bites on his unprotected hands, but now was not the time to care about that. Rocks fell from the ceiling and fissures appeared in the cave floor, he screamed and he ran, mindless as any of the beasts around him.

When the floor gave out from beneath his feet he tried to cast a protective incantation but he never remembered if he completed it.