Power Awakens
Bonus Chapter

Deep beneath the mountain Petrek and Eddick half carried the ageing Haittee priest. Cespar had still not fully recovered from his earlier epiphany, which had left the old man weak. Lighting new torches as they travelled down the old dark musty stairwell Petrek thought he could feel the pressure of thousands of tons of rock crushing him. A fanciful thought but in this place who knew what Majee the rocks held.

Over an hour later the gloomy party stopped outside a black onyx door highly polished to shine and completely out of character with the rest of the grey rock surrounding them. This door had purpose and it stood as sentinel but how had it kept its shine, thought Eddick, from the journey here it was clear no-one had ventured this way in decades.

“This is no ordinary door,” wheezed the Priest. “There are many dangerous artefacts hidden behind, sealed by Majee only a bare handful are aware of. A keyword and the specific aura of the Keeper are invested in the door. I am the Keeper.” Cespar sagged into Petrek’s huge muscled frame exhausted from the journey and the visions of earlier.

Both Petrek and Eddick had been unusually quiet on the journey through the mountain, neither cracking their usual jokes and banter, a mixture of the clogging stale air and enormity of where they were, keeping each of the men quiet. Eddick turned to Petrek with almost a whisper, “Well this is what we came for and I guess we should get on with it?”

With a resigned sigh Petrek turned to the increasingly anxious Priest. “Cespar are you sure you are ok to do this?”

Anxiety was turning to fear as Cespar thought about what he was going to do. He was breaking one of the founding rules of the monastery by bring strangers even to see the door, never mind pass through it and he had not been able to talk to Kyoto, but his meditation had shown him that it was right for these tow outsiders to be here at this time.

They had earned all they could from the Priests and were now ready to face their worst fears and still replace the courage to proceed. Adrenaline course through Cespar as he turned to the men, “Petrek” he started “The route to what you need is dark and dangerous. It will be very painful before the journey is done, remember there is always a choice, but once we set foot through this door we will set off a chain of events that will lead to death and destruction but will give your son a chance, albeit a slim one, to set things right.”

Petrek looked at Cespar then at Eddick and meekly nodded his head. He knew he would make any sacrifice to help his son. “We must do this, I don’t understand how I know it, but I do.”

“Ok” Cespar breathed heavy, nervous of what he must now do. “This room hides away the book of the world, which most people know as the Marcel Scriptures. Part of the task of the monastery is to protect and hide it away from those who would seek to use it for evil. The book is the ramblings of the Prophet Marcel who was totally insane when he was found outside the Monastery Doors. He was clothed and fed and in time gained a level of intellect, which allowed him to tell us of the things he saw in his head. The Priests recognised in him the hand of Baln, giving the Monastery and the priests within a key to unlock the future, in this wretch of a man Marcel. Every word we tirelessly wrote from his chaotic mind to date has occurred exactly as written, which makes this the most dangerous book in the world. There were originally thirteen copies but this is the only one true copy that remains.

Cespar took a deep breath trying to focus his scattered thoughts, “I need you to protect us and ensure there is nothing that leaves, understand this, it is absolutely vital nothing leaves this place. There may be watchers who have been waiting for this door to open since the book was invested in this mountain and we can’t afford to take any chances. You will need to have your weapons at the ready. Once I start the process I can’t stop it, are you ready?”

Both men nodded and drew their swords. Cespar place a sweaty palm into the centre of the foreboding door and entered a state of Koan. Petrek and Eddick watch the priest touch his hand to the door the next heartbeat they were fighting for their lives.

The two Mezznar, had felt the pulse of Majee as soon as Cespar touched the invested door. For hundreds of years they had lain in a stasis cocoon that had the exact external texture and feel as the surrounding rock. The cocoons were indistinguishable to anyone. As soon as their stasis was disturbed the amniotic fluid that had been surrounding them inside the cocoon was instantly absorbed through their mermaid like gills and had given them a huge bolt of energy which allowed them to immediately spring into action.

At two spans long and one high they were akin to sleek race hounds except they had razor sharp retractable claws in their paws and they were covered from head to tail in tough black bone armour plates on tough black leathery skin. Very well muscled and obviously made for speed they vaulted towards the stairwell. The Werd of Command placed on them was still as powerful now as at the time of melding. Two Mezznar was excessive but their master had been most insistent that if the Onyx door was ever activated then it was vital that the opportunity this presented was not wasted. So they dropped simultaneously from the dark alcoves above and bounded for the entrance to the stairwell, the message must reach their master. It was there they ran into a human brick wall.

Petrek and Eddick had both readied themselves in a state of Koan for any attack that might come. They felt rather than saw the Mezznar’s spring towards them and only just managed to get their swords up into a defensive position in time, such was the speed of the animals. The snarling avalanche of plated muscle pushed Petrek back and Eddick was bowled over but managed to keep the dog like creature on top of him and not let it escape by holding its tail. These creatures were not interested in fighting they did it to aid their escape which was obviously their prime objective.

Petrek had managed to throw back the Mezznar that attacked him, but immediately launched itself again in an almost rabid effort to reach the hallway. This time Petrek was ready and used the creatures own speed and momentum to drive the point of his sword with pinpoint accuracy through the gaping jaw full of razor sharp teeth and down the unarmoured throat of the creature.

In the heartbeats it had taken for Petrek to finish the first beast with his sword the other had turned its snarling head and had ripped into Eddick’s left arm with its crushing jaw. Somehow Eddick had managed to keep hold of its tail. If the Mezznar had used its razor claws in its hind legs it would have easily disembowelled Eddick but it was using its legs to pull away in a frantic effort to reach the freedom of the stairwell. Just at the point when Eddick was beginning to loose his grip on the tail due to the loss of strength from his wounded arm the Mezznar’s legs collapsed and it thudded to the ground.

Eddick caught his breath as he looked up to see Petrek’s sword buried half way to the hilt in between two armoured plates where Petrek had managed to get a two handed reverse grip to drive his sword into the beast as it had stretched trying to bite Eddick.

Breathing hard Petrek looked at his brother with a grim smile “So now you are letting an overgrown rat maul you to death, it’s a good job your big bro was here to save you yet again.”

“I could really do with some ale right now” Eddick replied half smiling whilst clutching his arm “but first I need to stop this bleeding.”

“Ah you’re just getting old and clumsy Eddick,” snorted Petrek helping his brother to his feet.

Both heads whipped the same way at an almighty thud accompanied by a fair amount of grinding rock on rock as the black Onyx door swung inward releasing a blast of sour stale air. “What wonderful surprises do we have now,” muttered Eddick as he and Petrek moved to follow Cespar into the void left by the door.

“Hopefully no more creatures to try and eat you little brother” said Petrek as he bound Eddick’s arm with cloth “This will hold as long as you don’t use it too much. The wound isn’t that deep lucky for you. Now lets go see what the priest has found for us.”

As they moved through the entrance into a large semi spherical room, where the walls were impossibly smooth and shone the same as the door. Black onyx so out of place beneath this mountain was only here through the use of Majee. The pale face of the priest Cespar looked back at them from a black slab in the corner of the room, roughly bed sized it looked to have shackles attached, very strange but no more bizarre than the room itself.

“This was where they chained the prophet Marcel himself in those last days when they were making the thirteen copies. The poor man died in this room as the visions of the future tore his mind apart.” Cespar stood and motioned for the men to join him “Please come and sit and recover from your fight with those Mezznar’s, I need to open the book on the lectern and I don’t want to do it alone.”

The regret in Cespar’s voice at having to complete this task was almost physical but he moved toward the centre of the room and stood at a large onyx stand with a heavy metallic bound book resting on it. The stand also held a torch that Cespar now lit from the one in his hand.

“Please Petrek, Eddick” the priest said as he handed the torch back to Petrek, “I don’t know whether I am up to this task, the words in this book have been known to undo many a strong man, I may need your help. The book will only open where you are fated to open it, any attempt at opening it in any other place will destroy the book. Opening it is quite complex but I will leave that explanation for another day, I just hope this will not take long, I haven’t the strength.”

Following a very strange muted mechanical sound the Priest opened the book roughly two thirds of the way through. His face seemed to sag even more than was possible for one so old and what little colour he had, quickly drained from his cheeks as a look of total despair and terror seemed to echo deep in his eyes and tears began to stream down his face. Petrek turned to his brother, “Well I think we found the Scriptures and it doesn’t look like good news.”