Greeting Readers!
Our characters are starting to see some action! I hope you all enjoy it! Make sure to stay updated by reading 
Letty looked down to her side and asked, “Is that your father’s sword?”
“No, it’s mine.” Magna said with far conviction that she meant to.
“Ooh! Touchy subject.”
Magna frowned and turned to face Letty. Her mind comprehended the danger before she saw it. She leapt back and Letty followed suit. A bolt buried itself into the ground between the two of them.
Magna looked for cover, but Letty sunk to all fours and pounced. The princess couldn’t believe the speed and distance the woman covered as she tackled the would-be assassin. She was sure the transformed beast would rip the cowled person’s throat out, but there was a pause, and then Letty sort of toppled over.
The assassin, sensing they would have an opportunity to escape, pushed the woman from them and turned to flee. They didn’t get very far. A massive axe cleaved them in two. Magna watched the axe fly through the victim and then spin back to its wielder. Then the stench of rot filled Magna’s nose, but not typical rot. Spicy rot, magical rot.
“Undead assassins!” shouted Magna.
The call was quickly taken up, but the damage was already done. Letty lay in the dirt, her paws and clawed feet scrabbling in the dirt as some unknown poison cruised through her body. The would-be assassin was lying face-first in the dirt laughing. However, that didn’t last long, as the magic used to maintain the creature was quickly revoked by Adrian who arrived on the scene.
“How the hell did an undead waltz in here?” demanded Gorma.
More people gathered as Letty’s furious scrabbling started to diminish and she moaned.
“Less talking, more healing.” Stated Magna as she went to Letty’s side.
“No!” gasped the woman. “Don’t! Toxic. Skin. Absorb.”
Close by was a vial. It seemed to have been shattered in Letty’s face. The blood and poison had mixed. It was likely that she didn’t have much time.
A thunderclap startled Adiran from his musings in his tower. Confused, he looked outside and saw nothing but clear skies, but he knew what he had heard. A second one resounded and seemed to rumble in his chest. This was an old magic, one he hadn’t felt in a long time. This was a warning, one put in place for a specific purpose and linked to him.
“Father?” Adiran made his way from the castle.
He had had many fathers in his journeys, but it was the one from this time that had made him one of his own. Trusted him enough to bring him into the family fold. Trusted him enough with the defences set up against the darkest of the dark.
Still feeling the warning rumblings in his chest, Adiran felt compelled to leave the castle via the main entrance and head toward the edge of the village beyond. The villagers stared in disbelief. Seeing the great Adiran was rare and usually a sign of trouble. Those who noticed him, quickly made themselves scarce. Men dragged wives and children into their homes and barred the doors.
The animals were different. They were almost curious of him. They followed him at a distance but stopped just short of where he was. They also sensed what he did but dared to not get closer. Adiran took a few more steps forward then stopped. He was on the edge of the village, the place that had once marked what was considered the property line of the castle. A line that his father had only been forced to invoke once.
A few paces in from of Adiran stood a hooded figure. It was skirting the edges of the castle’s property, pacing like an animal. Behind Adiran the animals that followed him were hissing, barking, braying, and more. They were not pleased with what had come to their land.
“All grown up now.” Came the dry voice.
Adiran felt the pit of his stomach drop. He knew this voice. Knew why he had been warned. Knew why the creature couldn’t enter these lands. But why it was here, he didn’t know.
“Barakus.” He greeted.
Skeletal hands came to rest before the creature as if leaning on a walking stick. Only there wasn’t a walking stick, but rather a femur of some sort that sprouted from the ground to allow it to rest on it.
“You have something that belongs to me.” Continued the dry voice.
“You are not permitted to step foot on these lands, and you know it.”
“I do. Least the spell upon me sets these old bones aflame. However, you can lift the spell. I feel it radiating within you.”
Adiran once more felt like a child being scolded by his teacher. He couldn’t help but feel a mixture of revulsion and admiration for the thing standing before him.
“My property is diminishing in value as we speak. She will be dead before the day is out and only I can keep her alive.”
Adiran wasn’t sure what was going on, but he knew that he couldn’t allow this monster back onto these grounds.
“Come now, old student.” The hood fluttered in the breeze, whisps of hair flowing out of it as if smoke. “Would you not trust me?”
“You tried to kill my father.”
“We both know he wasn’t your father.”
Silence. It was only broken when a runner from the castle came up behind Adiran. He was about to speak when the cloaked figure twitched a single finger. Before a word could be spoken, the man was folded into himself. The animals fled in terror as the man was folded over and over until it was nothing but a smear in the dirt.
Adiran refused to take his eyes off the powerful lich before him. Any break in his concentration would spell disaster for the kingdom. The lich laughed and muttered.
“Oh no, that minion died. Whatever could he have come to tell you?”
The dry laughter of the lich sounded like rustling leaves through a grave, but still, Adiran refused to move, refused to speak.
“If you want to find a way to stop the Cold One and the 17, you will have to hear me out.”
Now back to Zak.
Here is an explanation of Chain Stories and here is the current Chainstory Library
Mortis Custos
Sanguifex
Vetitum Nemus
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