Lee Swords Fishing

Chapter

To cross the Eastern Sea

 

The small army of Dark Wizards that had been swiftly brought together by Flereous Rex stood in loose ranks atop the highest cliffs that overlook the Vermilion Sound. Dark Wizard that have lost their way in life and have nothing left to live for except living itself, wretched old men utterly devoid of humanity that cared only for the permanent extension of their own lives. These corrupted creatures have taken advantage of the Incarnates golden carrot without even asking what their purpose would be and so here they stand looking down over the raging Eastern Sea, each one locked into a terrible battle, each one oblivious to the next, a hundred or more Dark Wizard battling to maintain control over some invisible beast. Occasionally their ranks would be rocked by pulses of energy that seemed to come from both nowhere and everywhere simultaneously. This was a battle to the death, curses and incantations rolled from their tongues, they were giving no quarter and nothing would be left in reserve.

 

Standing among the Dark Wizards was Death himself, today he would collect several old debts, the Dark Wizards grimaced for they could see him on the periphery, his presence served only to encourage them in their attack upon the Eastern Sea and yet however hard they cursed and however malevolent their incantations, occasionally Death would see his moment and one of their number would fall lifeless to the floor only to be immediately removed and replaced. The Dark Wizards fragile human bodies dragged away utterly shattered and viciously broken, feeble creations unable to take the strain of the task they had been bought to attempt. The lure of gold has forever been too strong for men to resist and these inglorious dead proved this point to perfection, their arrogance had been their undoing they had been far too confident in accepting the devils gold. Countless unmarked graves the world over are filled with the same type of character, the “stupid greedy”, even a Dark Wizard has to live within his capabilities if he wishes to see out his allotted time, to do otherwise is an open invite to Death and the destruction that comes with his scythe.

Sea foam was caught on vicious winds and dragged up from the crashing surface of the maelstrom far below, it landed crackling with static magical energy and stinking of ozone at the Wizard’s feet as far below the Eastern Sea crashed furiously against the rocks in an uncontrollable rage of pure natural violence, the very same natural anger that has proven to be the major reason that so little trade or movement of population ever occurs between the relatively close landmasses of Atrussia and Eurodarkia.

For several days now the army of Dark Wizards had cast their spells and thrown down their curses upon the waters below and yet there was little or no discernible change to when they first commenced, new wizards arrived daily to bolster their numbers and make up for natural wastage as ever more convoys of disenfranchised wizards arrived from all over continental Eurodarkia seeking to take advantage of the five million pieces of gold that was being offered by the Incarnates for their services.

Skaragoya and the adjoining Vermilion Sound were not chosen by accident either, this was where as legend states The Great Splice had been damaged by the hand of Satan as he pushed up from the depths of Hell to create the Vermilion Mountains as protection for his minions, folding the land and creating high vertical cliffs with a wildly uneven sea floor that fashioned such volatile currents that every year the days when the sea lay flat and calm could be counted on the fingers of one hand.

And because the hand of Satan caused this minor failing in The Great Splice, it is at this very point a massive pool of potential magical energy has collected, meaning that almost anything is possible to achieve if enough wizards with dark intent gather themselves together and focuses their purpose.

And their purpose is quite simple they intend to do what King Canute could not all those thousands of years previous. They would calm the Eastern Sea or they would die trying and their reward was the promise of more gold than they could ever hope to spend in ten lifetimes and as a wizard lives his life with the sole purpose of cheating Death, ten lifetimes worth of gold would come in very handy indeed.

Far away from the where the Dark Wizards were busy casting  their spells and openly inviting the wrath of nature back at them Queen Innana and her adopted son Flereous Rex observed the progress or lack thereof with quiet discontent from a rather elegant bunker decked out in a somewhat Bohemian style, that said however, the luxuriantly mixed and matched interior decoration did little to sooth their moods as the entire crux of Innana’s plan depended on the Dark Wizards managing to subdue the Eastern Sea so that the Incarnate fleet can make the short crossing over to Atrussia where upon Flereous can meet with their clan leaders and assemble the greatest army seen in a thousand years.

The Queen although a demoness in human form does not possess any magical talents, her powers are not that simple, she has the ability to enthral humans and to rob their soul of its life energy but she could no more fashion a magical spell to subdue an ocean than she could pass an elephant from her backside, not with all the bad will in Hell and a whole barrel of molten goose grease to smooth its passing, this task was beyond what she had control over and the fact that something this crucial to her plan needed to be performed by mere humans cut her to the bone.

Flereous also possessed no talent for simple magic; his curse over humanity is his ability to twist people to his cause, bringing together great numbers of men to one ideal by creating rage and wild eyed infuriation where there was once calm, turning brother against brother and father against son. His word being as volatile as dragon oil upon a naked flame but nothing within his power could assist in this endeavour and because of that he found his temper lacked any form of control and so it was best he stayed away from these pathetic humans and let them do what they could or he feared that he would kill each and every one of them where they stood.

Flereous actually lacked the ability to do that also but it did not stop him believing that he was a great warrior because like many of the Incarnates he was prideful and vainglorious to the extreme, his tongue held all his powers.  If ever there came the day when he was faced with a true warrior of skill and had to rely on his own fighting ability to save his human form he would find himself sitting at the Great Hearth with Satan, his human shell split from chin to cock before he had even had time to unsheathe his sword; for he had not the physical strength for open combat and would fall very swiftly indeed.

Flereous’ talent was best compared to that of the loud mouthed little man than manages to get everyone in a room fighting over the most ludicrously stupid of things whilst at the same time managing to avoid getting hit or ever having to hit anyone himself. His mere presence was toxic amongst human kind…and that is why he needed to cross the Sea.

The wizards could not fail in their task.

And fail they did not…

Bright lightening flashed across the sky and a roll of thunder so loud that its shockwave knocked both Innana and her adopted son across their shared accommodation heralded the big breakthrough, the Dark Wizards had slipped the leash over the muzzle of the beast, the question now was how long could they keep hold of it?

More than half the Dark Wizards were killed stone dead and of those that lived barely a few dozen were still fit for purpose, time was now of the essence, more dark Wizards would need to be conscripted to the cause regardless of cost.

Innana pulled herself up onto her elbow and looked over to where Flereous was sprawled in a crumpled heap, his human form saved from serious injury through the fortuitous positioning of a large quantity of soft furnishings and throw rugs “ I hope you have your sea legs with you boy…You’re on your way!!

“Praise to the dark Lord!”

The two Incarnates slumped back down to the floor and began to laugh hysterically, humanity was doomed.