World's Over Journal XXXI Stare Amidst Stone

     I thought it strange that we should be brought to the gates to greet the visitors, seeing how we ourselves were only guests of the city, but Toki was a lieutenant of the guard, so I accepted the call and walked silently beside her, together watching Priscilla bound down the cobblestones towards the entrance to the main citadel off the terrace.

     When we arrived at the citadel we found the gates were shut, Menke told us that Kensori had ordered all the doors into the city shut until the plot of the undead envoy was discovered. Turning from the sealed oak bolt steel doors we walked a few paces along the wall till we reached a willow tree standing over the stream that fed the forest upon the marsh grove terrace that housed the royal guard and was our temporary home. Just were the stone wall was eclipsed by stone, as the mountain began, under the shade of the willow vines pitter patterned with  budding flowers we stopped as Menke moved towards the wall.

     There at the edge of change was a portal hidden by the deep magic of the dwarves, who all too well knew the power of stone manipulation via the power that long lay dormant in the world. The secrets of the troll dwelling were a gift from the masons and smiths who manned the black gate, a mystical portal that kept the great demon Udhere and his army  in the great darkness beyond, locked away for all time. It was a return for the troll warriors who can come to the aid of those on the wall thousands of years ago during the tragic tale of Lucifer's second coming, when the last spell plotted against the wall won.

Menke lay the head of his spear against an indent in the wall and whispered. There was a tiny shimmer and the wall began to open slowly of its own accord. We entered into a small passage that we walked several paces before coming to a stairwell carved out of the mountain, at the bottom there was a fork, Menke lead us to the left and the passage immediately began to slope steadily more steeply until one felt the urge to break into a run just to keep moving, that or sit on your arse and slide the rest of the long way to the front gates.

Along the way the passage levelled off several times and there are many more forks, we always chose the one that sloped, it was a long way down from the high Terraces to the fountain before the citadel where the undead envoy and Kensori along with a small host of the city guard waited their arrival.

The four of us made the front gate just before noon, we were still in the passage when ahead we noticed several thin beams of light upon the floor and the wall to our right. When we reached the portal Priscilla and I stopped to have a gaze, before us was the open vale wherein the fountain lay. We could see a small envoy of warriors dressed in lacquered plates from shoulder to wrist and chest to waist, upon their belts were sheathed a pair of blades, one long sword and a second shorter one. Below they wore a kilt of the same fashion as the armour that adorned their upper body, with pants below the knees with plated guards down to their ankles. Most had a helmet on, though the two sitting the furthest distance away had taken theirs off and places it at their side. The helmets themselves didn't seem overly protective, being made of a small cap that draped lacquered plates down just above their pauldrons, very different from the steel helms the knights of old wore, though their was one drastic difference that appeared immediately as one of the envoy turned towards us, his helmet was the same as the rest, though as he turned one of his hands was fixing a clasp from a hideous mask to his helm. He no longer appeared as an undead warrior at all, but a demon. The horns jutting out from his helm l, that earlier appeared to have no function at all, for one one would ever let themselves be gores by, suddenly birthed forth a dramatic effect, he had become a creature of unknown origin in armour, a fearsome thing that stood on its hind legs like a man or elf, but appeared to have no right to do so, as if it stood erect only because the armour demanded the horrible demon within to do so. It was a mesmerising effect that I realised would be a vital tool of war, especially against the lesser tribes of immortals and mankind.

     How long I had been transfixed by the warrior I did not know, when I looked up Priscilla was still spell bound by the warrior. His eyes seemed to be set upon her, though we were hidden by magic, if he had eyes left in his skull at all that is, it appeared to me quite suddenly that the warrior might have been held there by Priscilla rather than vice versa. She cocked her head to the side in curiosity and so too did the 

demon warrior, she raised an arm in greeting to the window just as she made the same motion, then she had him curtsey before turning to follow Menke and Toki, when she left the stone window the warrior stood tall and firm once more, giving no indication that anything abnormal had occurred...