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Chapter 3 Unfortunate Circumstances A thousand years before Vaal and Vae’njaece had their first encounter, two beggars were busy with their work. They were employed by a mysterious necromancer who only required bodies in return for a fair amount of pay. Every day, the couple would head over to a cemetery and dig up a fair amount of bodies to be returned to the necromancer by nightfall. On one dreadful day, the female beggar went into labor. Night was steadily approaching and their body count was hardly usual. The female beggar, experiencing mass amounts of pain, had barely dug up any, and the male, fretting for her, hadn’t done any better. The male beggar decided to stay with his wife throughout her labor. The process lasted throughout the whole night and when morning was approaching, the baby was still not born. At daybreak, a hooded man emerged from the shadows and joined the beggar couple. Immediately, the male beggar stood up and told him of the previous night. He gave the hooded being the bodies and apologized for the scarce total. The hooded man took the bodies away and left the way he came without a spoken word. About an hour passed before the hooded man came back. The beggars were both surprised about seeing him, and asked why he had returned. He spoke not a single word. Slowly, the couple started hearing voices. They started looking around, but no one besides them and the hooded man were there. As time grew on, the voices were getting louder. The female was the first to cry out. The voices had risen to a deafening roar. The couple could feel their bodies being torn apart from the inside. As they looked up toward the hooded man, their lives were slowly drained out of them. The unborn child was summoned by the mysterious man and as the couple took their final breaths, he left with the boy. As not fully human and not fully undead, the boy aged about a year in appearance every a hundred years. His face was covered in self-inflicted scars. He wore pitch black armor, scarred from years of use. His hair was the same color as his armor, and his eyes were multi-colored. One eye was blue while the other was brown. After about seven hundred years of service, the boy decided that he was done serving the necromancer. He devised a plan for escape and using the skills the man had taught him, he vanished. The boy left for a mysterious land between worlds and decided that when he was stronger, he would go back and rid the world of the necromancer. ~ Vaal led the children toward a cave in the center of the village. The air was ominous and the sky; pitch black. The occasional lightning bolt struck the ground. Spyte could sense something was horribly wrong. He wrenched his arm out of Cayt’s grasp and ran in the opposite direction. Cayt’lynn looked up at Vae’njaece. “I’ve got Spyte. You go ahead and see where Vaal led us.” As she said this, she ran off toward Spyte. Vae’njaece looked back at Vaal. “Where did you bring us?” He asked with a slight tremble. “This is the market, is it not? I brought you where you asked.” Vaal replied with a smirk. He knew he was leading Vae’njaece to sure doom. “Lead the way, Vaal.” Vae’njaece spoke. He was certain that this place was not a market. He followed Vaal and walked cautiously into the depths of the cavern. The cave’s inside was dark. It was dimly lit with an occasional torch. Vae’njaece felt as if shadows were creeping around him. His legs shook with every step he took and as he looked over at Vaal, he could see the same thing. After about a hundred yards, a gate with solid metal bars blocked the way. Vaal grabbed a hold of a crank at the side of the cave and pulled. Immediately, the bridge rose into the ceiling as if the shadows of the night had consumed it. Vae’njaece walked slowly past the gate. As he turned back toward the gate, he saw Vaal release the crank and the gate crash down. Vae’njaece was trapped in the room. “What are you doing Vaal?” Vae’njaece shouted. “You might want to be a little quieter. You might wake him up.” As Vaal said this, he disappeared into the blackness. “Who are you talking about? Vaal? What did you do?” Vae’njaece ran toward the gate. He tried with all of his might to pull it up. Even with all his strength, he couldn’t budge it. Vae’njaece thought maybe he could teleport to the other side. He whispered a word, but nothing happened. The gate had some sort of magical barrier on it. As Vae’njaece sat down feeling defeated, he heard a whisper in the shadows. He looked back through the gate, but he knew it had come from inside the room. “Hello? Is anyone in here?” Vae’njaece strained to see through the dark of the room. He could barely make out a pair of eyes coming from the other side of the room. One was brown and the other was blue. “Hello? Is there someone else…here?” Vae’njaece got up and walked over to the side with the strange eyes. Before he reached them, he could barely make out what was being said. “It’s not enough. He’s stronger. I’ll need more practice, but maybe I can get this to work. I need more practice…” The voice was saying. Vae’njaece stood next to the mysterious figure. He could just make out a body. It was barely human. It was more undead than human, but it wasn’t fully undead either. The eyes were staring off into the distance as if they weren’t looking at this world. Vae’njaece put his hand on the creature’s shoulder, but it wouldn’t move. “Hello? I’m Vae’njaece. Who are you?” “I need more practice. I can’t possibly defeat him. They must be avenged. I need more practice…” “Um…is there anything I could do for you? You seem to need practice. I might be able to…help?” Vae’njaece said. “Help? Practice. I need more practice. Help? Help.” It said. Vae’njaece watched it not knowing what to do. As he turned to return to the gate, the creature rose up. “Help! I need more practice. Help!” The creature was now off the ground. Its feet were about two feet from the ground and its arms outstretched. The ground around Vae’njaece started to tremble and from the earth, skeletal creatures were emerging. In a matter of minutes, Vae’njaece was surrounded.
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