The Huntsman of Adamos (Quartet)- draft
DEPARTURE POINT

CH DEPARTURE POINT

Daisy put the final items in her backpack and dropped it in a chair. Tomorrow at dawn, she and Shadz would go back in time to hunt the four shadows that had escaped the destruction of their kingdom and to save the Remnant of Aetheria . Sunrise would hide their departure, and, with any luck, they would be back long before Asha’s twins were born. Daisy had just stepped over to the board containing the calculations to the coordinates and date Yllumina had sent her when a voice caught her off guard.

“Going somewhere, Daisy?”

She whirled to face her King and her best friend, Karstien, he was holding her backpack.

“Uh, Yes... actually I am. I have been... been doing research on the topography of our world before the cataclysm and I think this area used to be a high altitude plain.”

“Oh well, that sounds interesting.” He didn’t sound like he meant that. Dropping the pack back in the chair, Karstien stepped over to her boards, swiping through the screens.

“Why did you and Shadz design a new armor?” The board describes an armor made from queen dragon scales and complicated enchantments.

He turned to face her, and she shrugged nonchalantly, “Because we have to go through the cataclysm to the other side.”

“Can I come?”

“No.”

“Why?”

Daisy sighed and flipped to the board with the scans of the note from Mina. She never could directly lie to Karstien because somehow he always knew. “Because I am going to help save your father and the other children of Ancient Aetheria .”

“I knew you were going to do something foolish,” he accused, she knew she had no choice but to dose him and escape when he insisted, “You’re not going alone.”

Daisy looked at the window for a moment, then answered, “Okay.”

“What? Wait. Okay?” Karstien seemed shocked that she agreed so easily, as she walked over to a cabinet and began digging through it like she was looking for a tool or something.

“Yes, okay. I won’t go alone, and no, you can’t come.” She turned suddenly and threw a splash potion of sleep onto him, then grabbed him as he staggered. Lowering him slowly, Daisy eased him onto the floor. “I’m sorry, Mina needs me. I have to go.”

“Yuri will stop you,” Karstien whispered as he fell unconscious.

“No, he won’t.” She brushed his hair off his forehead, “I’m sorry, but I can’t let anyone stop us.”

Quickly, Daisy put her queen’s scale armor on and pulled her dress over it. She grabbed her helmet, backpack, and portable Comm, dialing the access to the Southern Castle as she locked the door, trapping Karstien. She then ran to her home’s transport portal to shut it down, but it shimmered with an incoming transport, so she ran for the stairs that led up the cliff beside the Eastern Waterfall.

Her daughter answered, but before Asha could say more than hello, Daisy blurted out, “They know. I dosed your brother, he’s asleep in the lab. I’m heading to the departure point. Tell Shadz, it’s now or never.” She disconnected as she ran up the next flight, she hated not being able to use the royal mindlink for fear someone would overhear them. But she couldn’t take the chance Karstien or Yuri would realize the scope of her endeavor.

Yurieth and Kalen stepped out of the portal and went straight to Daisy’s lab, she wasn’t there but the door was locked, and they could see Karstien laying on the floor unconscious.

“I’ll get the key,” Kalen yelled as he ran into the house. Yurieth followed and grabbed a bottle of healing antidote from the medicine cabinet.

In the lab, Yuri looked hastily through the boards as Karstien revived, then went to the door and let his magic spread out from him like a fog. He could sense Daisy; she was almost at the top of the stairs. “She’s heading for the forest beyond the top of the falls.”

“We have to stop her.” Karstien rushed ahead of them, “She said something about Mina needing her. She isn’t using the Relic to study the topography; she is going to see my grandmother.”

They sprinted up the stairs with warrior swiftness. At the top, Yuri saw Daisy make the treeline and loosed the first of his arrows at her. He had to slow her down. Sprinting through the trees, Karstien and Yuri were catching up fast, when Yuri managed to pin her skirt to a tree causing her to stumble and drop her pack, her helmet rolled away.

“Daisy, Stop!”

She spun throwing out one hand as she cut her skirt with a sword in the other. An oval shield glyph appeared in front of Yuri and Karstien too suddenly for either of them to stop and they both hit it at a full run and were knocked to the ground. Abandoning her pack, she ran perpendicular to her path into the clearing that held the Relic of Time. It was standing on the highest hill.

She reached it and running her hands quickly over the face of the ancient alien device, it began to hum. She wished she hadn’t lost the queen’s scale helmet when she dropped her pack, but it couldn’t be helped.

A temporary portal flared to life and her daughter and son-in-law appeared, just as the King, the Huntsman, and her son appeared at the treeline.

“Mom, go!” Asha yelled, as Shadz cast a wall of shield glyphs between Daisy and the Relic of Time, and her pursuers. As he ran toward the Relic, Daisy held out her hand to him.

“Hurry, Shadz!” Daisy yelled at him.

“Mom, wait!” Kalen shouted.

“Daisy, don’t!” Karstien added, beating a fist against the glyphs. “Shadz, stop!”

“I love you all, we have to do th...” Daisy called back at the last moment and in brilliant flash of light and swirling clouds, they vanished with the Relic of Time.

It began to rain lightly, the after-effect of using temporal travel.

The King and his half-brother stared at their sister, the Healer Asha as the glyphs vanished.

“What have you done?!? When did she go to?!?” Her older brother shouted at her, clutching their crying youngest brother to his side.

"She had to go because she already did." Asha answered firmly.

"But when?" Karstien demanded. They stood silently in the waning sprinkles of rain.

The Huntsman knelt by the patch of burned grass where the Relic of Time, the last Mage, and the War Oracle had stood only moments early. His fingers ran over the charred blades caused by the use of a device no living being except Daisy understood.

“The War Oracle went back to save us all, my king. She went back to the last year I lived before my soul was imprisoned in the Dark Nebulae,” The Huntsman answered quietly.

“But why?” Karstien demanded.

“Because she had to.” Was the unsatisfactory answer.

“What does that mean?” Kalen sobbed out.

“Asha's correct. She had to go because she already went. I remember when she arrived outside the King’s City. She went back to aid my father, and to ensure some would survive the Great Cataclysm. She went back to stop the Shadows from changing time. She went back to start the war so the Remnant could escape.” The Huntsman stood slowly, his shoulders seemed to hunch in defeat. “I meant to go back with her and stop myself from hurting her, even if it meant I died from being twice. But Shadz went instead, I... I don’t remember him there.”

“Then I was right? You and your twin and his wife do remember what happened before your twelve-thousand-year imprisonment?” Asha asked coldly.

“Yes, Healer, we remember. I remember... I threw away my own heart because I was a fool then... I remember everything except Shadz being there. He’ll die then,” Yuri snapped at his niece who smirked.

“No, you three don’t remember him because he will make sure you don’t. We already knew from Father that Daisy is your Fluer. Father harvested your memories after the Dark Oracle attacked us at the Southern Castle. He saw how you loved her and how you hated her. Shadz was in one of your memories as a son of the House of Odini. We have known the truth for over a century. You and mother are sealed ones through the same magic that once sealed her to my father. It was your past and is her future. That is why you both could share magic so easily, so effortlessly. Father had hoped you would step up and tell her the truth after the war.” Asha looked at him a way that made his blood run cold, it was a look of pain and of being betrayed, she was angry with him for the pain her mother would feel. “Why didn’t you tell her after Father died? Did you ever really love her?”

“Yes, I love her. My father forbid me from telling because she believed we didn't remember... And I couldn’t bring myself to burden her after all she had been through. I couldn't tell her all I would put her through when she came back to then... Asha, you don’t know what it was like, what we went through...” He almost choked on his memories as the pain returned of those last days.

“Then, you know when she’ll return?” Kalen asked hopefully.

“No, Kalen, I do not. I do not even know if she will survive the war she started to save us all. After she and mother placed the soul shield enchantments on Abe and I to ensure our souls would survive the Cataclysm, I went to Xelusia and she stayed on Aetheria to send the rest of the children forward. I lost track of what happened to her after the City of the Kings fell.” The Huntsman answered with bowed head and with a clenched fist.

He had wanted to tell Daisy the secret he had been keeping since she had rescued him from his prison and restored his body. He had wanted to tell her everyday he still loved her even though it was before she went back in time to meet him for his first time. He had hoped that after the war she would love him, but instead they had fallen into friendship. He did not know what her return would bring, and he prayed it would not cost him her love forever.

“Shadz, get your armor on!” Daisy shouted at him as the beam guiding the Relic of Time shuddered.

“It is under my clothing, Daisy. What’s happening?”

“The Shadows are waiting for us.”

Daisy sensed the enemy in the timestream. She cast shield glyphs around the Relic, Shadz, and herself and waited, as Shadz tried to do the same but his glyphs flicked out after only a few moments.

“My magic doesn’t work here...”

“They must be blocking you somehow... Here they come! Shadz, use your magic to stabilize the power of the Relic, I’ll protect you.” Daisy pulled Kaleth’s sword, reaching she pulled the Sword of Odini from Shadz’s backpack as he knelt, putting his hands on the Relic. Magic glowed around he and the relic protectively

As they fell toward the Shadows waiting in the past to attack them, the Relic shuddered again because they were approaching the event horizon of the disaster that had destroyed two kingdoms and shattered Aetheria’s twin star. The targeting beam was struggling to maintain itself so Shadz poured all of his own power into it to try to get to them destination.

Daisy knew without the amplifier that was in her pack laying on the forest floor, his magic was the only thing that would get them there. She could build another amplifier when they got there, but they had to get there alive.

“Shadz, do not stop feeding the Relic your magic, no matter what happens around you.”

He nodded, she could see the sweat beading on his brow under his helmet. Daisy waved her hand and a second set of protection glyphs appeared around Shadz. She would return her daughter’s beloved to her if it was the last thing she did.

Something struck Daisy hard across the back like claws, and she swung and sliced it. The sword of Odini vibrated as she poured her light into it and cut the shadow closest. Surrounding herself with Oracle light she fought back with Kaleth’s hooked sword as she was buffeted on all sides by the shadows.

She knew she could not summon lightning in the time stream and all she could do was hope her armor held strong enough for her to survive the trip and protect her son-in-law. The meteorite ore blade hurt the shadows as if they were flesh. A shield glyph shattered and as she turned to restore it, she was struck across the face hard enough to blind her. It felt like curling vines of glass were cutting into her skin and she screamed as she lashed out. They seized her legs and arms, piercing her armor and cutting their foul lines in her flesh.

Another glyph shattered then another and she heard Shadz’s pained exclamation as he was struck. Casting her light away from her in powerful waves she pulsed the enemy forcing them back. Twirling, she slashed and fought against those trying to kill them, and managed to destroy one. There was a crack like thunder that staggered her. Suddenly she was rolling across the grass. She could hear people screaming and fleeing in a panic. Reaching out blindly, she found Shadz unconscious, completely drained of magic.

“Get up, Daisy.” She shouted at her exhausted body, “Get up and fight them!”

The smell of brimstone evil and burnt grass assaulted her nose as she rolled to her knees. The Relic laid in seven pieces under her seeking fingers. They felt so small when they aren’t put together. Three pieces of the charged glass were broken, shattered. They would have to be remade. She shoved the whole pieces in Shadz’s shirt under his chestplate, then rolled them both to the side avoiding a tentacle of shadow as it slammed into the ground. She hooked the thing with the curve of the ancient sword she carried and blasted it with lightning and oracle light as the blade of Odini cut it. The creature retreated, hissing at her like a large serpent.

"I won't let you kill us. Or live in this time, shadows!"

Turning slowly, she reached out with her magic feeling for the remaining three shadows. The two smaller were retreating behind the larger one. She could feel the sickening vibration of the grass and flowers withering beneath them as they sucked the lifeglow from the plants. Shadz was unmoving behind her. Tightening her grip on her weapons, she cast a stepping glyph and leaped into the air, striking and missing as the creatures scattered. One managed to slash her leg as the other two vanished from her perception. She didn’t know if they’ve merged or dissipated, but she had to kill this large one. The others wouldn’t survive without a host in the overworld. But the one before her needed no host to kill and maim, she knew she must destroy it before she collapsed. She had never killed one this big without help.

She could sense it and struck twice, missing it. Desperately, she tried to wipe the blood from her eyes. She could barely stand and her clothes felt as shredded as her skin beneath what is left of her queen’s scale armor. It felt like she had rolled down a hill covered in cactus and broken glass. Wounds throbbing, she just wanted to fall down, but her will refused to yield as she continued to battle the Shadow.

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