Part: The Fifth

Star Shatter

During these days, news of the comet grew more dire. Gorjez, who was watching it again, reported that it had seemed to grow in size tremendously over the past few days and was now only weeks away from impacting with the Shadowland. Kilmas revealed news that he had learned from the Tome of Stars: Andrella could destroy the comet by casting a particular time spell called Star Shatter, but doing so would sacrifice her own life.

It was around this time that Kilmas returned the Tome of Stars and the Staff of Time to Andrella, so that she could read it for herself, since Kilmas was not liking what he was reading.

Maharba

Kianne and Andrella were leaving the dungeon Shame when they stumbled, quite by accident, over Maharba and Jarred (who had in fact easily escaped Yew Jail using an orb he'd borrowed from Lord British while they still thought he was Caton). Maharba tried to continue his facade of being a simple druid, but Jarred told him that they were on to him.

Jarred tried to fight them in Maharba's stead, but Kianne simply sent him to Yew Jail again. This allowed them to go after their primary target: Maharba.

Although they had been told that Maharba could only be killed with the moonblades, the weapons seemed to be having no effect on them. When Maharba laughed that he had spent years building up a resistance to the blades, Andrella and Ki decided to switch to normal weapons instead—her gargoyle swords and Kianne's bow. This in turn seemed to worry Maharba, so he put a quick end to the battle by turning them to stone. Kianne and Andrella had been warned that his gaze had this capability, but they had forgotten to take it into account.

But then Shamino showed up, surprising everyone, and took out Maharba with the glass sword that Kianne had given him weeks ago. The stone spell dissolved with Maharba's death.

Andrella found many things on Maharba's body, including eight strange tiles that seemed to mimic the tiles of Virtue that they had been obtaining from the shrines, except the symbols were different.

Pearl

Shamino had saved Andrella and Ki, but when the glass sword had shattered, shards of it had embedded into his body. These wounds might not have been fatal for a young, healthy man, but Shamino's body was aged badly from his time as a stone statue. Jaana admitted there was nothing that could be done.

Desperate for a solution, his friends took him to Dawn, where time spells cannot age someone, and tried using the Stone of Compassion's healing powers. This, also, did not work.

Although Erimani did not want to allow it, his wife and Iolo urged him to give permission for Andrella and Kianne to visit the elves' Shrine of Elements, where they were able to contact various Elementals. With Iolo as their guide, the two went there with all haste and sacrificed material things (gold) to power the link that would allow the Elementals to speak with them. Pearl, an Elemental of Light, answered their call.

Although they were worried for Shamino's life, nevertheless they discovered that Pearl had many answers to their current situation. Pearl giggled when she realized that the Time Lord must be responsible for both Andrella and Kianne being present on the Shadowland; the two had thought it mere chance. Pearl gave them many new facts, among them being:

• Andrella's father, whom she thought had been killed by Jarred, was in fact still alive, though he was imprisoned by Xavier and being used for their evil ends.
• There were once three D'raj; Andrella's father Alexander killed one, and of course Jarred was another.
• VayViktus (“Conquer the Suffering”), the most powerful daemon lord in the universe, and the leader of all of the daemons presently threatening them, was actually the Guardian.
• There was another daemon who was growing in power who may someday rival even VayViktus. That daemon was named K'mosh, “Son of the Kill.” Additionally, K'mosh was already in the Shadowland.
• The comet was created by using the generator to draw elemental energy from all over Britannia into the comet. It was the reason Kianne could not cast her elemental spells on this world. And it was created by the daemons for the sole purpose of killing Kianne.
• The Pagan Lords had hunted down and slain all of the other “channelers”—elementalists who can summon the power of the elements innately. Kianne remained the last known channeler.

Pearl granted them some of her Light power. Kianne carried it in her hands and ran back to Shamino, pouring it into him as healing power. Shamino was returned to full health, without even any scars remaining from his injury.

Because of their victory over Maharba, Erimani changed his mind and pledged the aid of the elves in defeating the daemons.

Nine Days and Counting

Lord British's scribes and learned men revealed that the comet was growing larger and faster still, and now would reach Britannia within nine days.

Knowing that the daemons were hunting Kilmas, they hid him in plain view by naming him Hamu and making him one of Andrella's Valence Knights. He was growing to love being a swordsman.

Tome of Stars

Andrella learned how to read the Tome of Stars, but saw that the future appeared bleak. Even if they stopped the comet, the tome said that K'mosh would destroy Britannia anyway. Pointing out the irony, Andrella revealed that the tome claimed Kianne would survive the comet. But Andrella remained worried that it wouldn't matter, if Ki subsequently died to K'mosh.

Orc Attacks

Goarla had warned the team that all of the orc clans, except for his own, had allied with Jarred. Numerous orc attacks on various towns began to occur. Kianne and Andrella, along with Dupré (who had taken command of the guard after Caton's possession) and the others, fought them off each time, but they began to realize the attacks were not meant to accomplish anything specific so much as to provide a distraction. But a distraction from what, they could not say.

Light Materia

One day Batlin came to Valence Isle to speak with Kianne. If he was aware that Kianne and Andrella knew he was Niltab, he did not show it; instead, he continued his guise.

Batlin made a show of appearing distressed over Maharba's death. He did not reveal whether he knew of the true reason of Maharba's demise; instead, he tried to claim that it was at the hands of Caton, who, Batlin warned, had been possessed by a daemon. Kianne and Andrella did not reveal any of their knowledge, but privately wondered if Jarred had ever bothered to tell Batlin what had truly taken place that day. Jarred and Batlin were not on the best of terms, so it was remotely possible that Jarred was keeping some of that information to himself.

Surprising Kianne, Batlin then gave them what he called “holy Materia” but what she recognized as Materia of the element of Light. In their travels, Kianne and Andrella had only recovered Materia of the six main elements; they had found none of Light or Dark.

Batlin gave them the Materia and told them they had to throw them at Caton in order to destroy him and the daemon within him. Kianne found herself confused because it seemed too likely—she assumed the element of Light would be the daemons' primary weakness, so why would Batlin be giving them this weapon? There must be a trick or trap somewhere.

Kianne: “Come to think of it, I guess this is the same Guardian, isn't it? I wonder how many Batlins he's gone through?”

Kilmas, in his Hamu disguise, walked in during the conversation. He was immediately distraught and left, asking to speak with Andrella in private later. When Batlin was gone, Kilmas said to Andrella that he was a daemon. Andrella and Kianne explained the situation to him.

Kilmas also mentioned that the orcs had attacked Lord British's castle. They had arrived through a red moongate that Jarred had formed using his stolen Orb of the Moons. The orcs had been searching for Kilmas, and tried to take Nystul by mistake. The guards and Andrella's Knights of Valence fought them off successfully. The good side that came out of the attack was that the allies realized that Jarred and all of the daemons thought Kilmas looked like an old man. They were not searching for a teenager. Kilmas's disguise appeared to be sound.

Later, Kianne tried to shift the Materia that Batlin had given them, but it would not shift the way the others did.

Two Days Remaining

With only two shrines left to do, Kianne and Andrella received a note from Jarred demanding that they meet him at Minax's castle in Felucca. The note insisted on their surrender and that they bring Kilmas. Andrella decided to go—not to bring Kilmas, but instead to use the opportunity to hopefully destroy Jarred for good.

When they arrived, Kianne immediately tried to use the Stone of Justice (Yew Jail had been recently upgraded in a way to prevent Jarred from using the orb to escape), but Jarred had raised magical protections preventing it from working.

Jarred laughed, scoffing at them, and challenged Andrella to a one-on-one duel. He claimed to not trust the word of the Avatar, so he insisted that Kianne give Andrella her bow, so that she could not shoot Jarred in the back, and that Jarred in turn would give his most powerful sword to Kianne to ensure he would not use it on Andrella.

Anxious to stop wasting time and get on with it, Kianne agreed. Jarred held out a hollow Materia blade to her. Kianne and Andrella had found a broken one on Maharba, but this was the first one they had seen that was whole. Surprised, Ki reached out to take a better look at it. As soon as she held the blade she was frozen in place, then became ethereal and was sucked into the sword. Jarred claimed that outcome had happened because she was a blue mage.

Andrella attacked Jarred, and in a rage partially fueled by the Gem of Immortality, she slew him where he stood. (She had not intended to kill him because he was using Caton's body.)

One effect that Jarred had not anticipated (nor had Abraham, who had made the sword) was that Kianne was able to move around as a sword, hovering in the air. She could see and even speak as well. But she could not use items, as she had no arms or hands. Andrella gathered her possessions; somehow, out of desperation, she was able to, just once, use the Orb of the Moons she'd gotten off Jarred's body and make a gate back to Trammel. Thus, they escaped.

The Spiral

Andrella took Caton's body to Lord British, then, at his urging, went to Dawn to try to find a solution to Kianne's predicament. Lord Erimani became extremely cold and callus when he saw the Materia blade, but Iolo explained to her in private that Erimani had actually given them permission to go to the Spiral.

At some time in the elves' past, an elven queen who came to be known only as “The Defiler” betrayed her people and taught Niltab the ways of the elements. She was the one who taught Niltab how to create the Materia swords. They had created two of them, intending to capture the elements of Dark and Light.

The Defiler was banished to the Spiral, an ancient elven tower. And she would be the only one who would know the secrets to the Materia blades and how to free Kianne.

Iolo led the way to the tower, and Andrella and Kianne went in alone. Ki discovered that she was able to fight, in a way, by whacking things with her sword prison. The place was filled with undead.

When they finally found the Defiler, they learned her name was Era Mirage. She was chained in a room in the back. She didn't seem to trust them at first, accusing them of having been sent by K'mosh to kill them. Finally, at Andrella's urgings, she revealed that she'd been tricked by Niltab, and inadvertently betrayed the elves. After teaching them how to create the Materia swords, Abraham captured the element of Dark into one, but then released it into the heart of K'mosh.

After much discussion, Andrella released Era on her promise to help them. Era agreed to release Kianne and also promised to reveal to them an alternate way to stop the comet, aside from using the Star Shatter spell. Since Era could not return to Dawn, they made arrangements to meet at Andrella's keep.

Wrong

Upon arriving at the keep, they found Shamino, who reported that he'd witnessed Era going to Batlin. She'd tried to get Batlin to tell her of K'mosh's location, but Batlin had stabbed her with a dagger and had her taken to Wrong to “turn” her (convert her to evil).

So off went Kianne and Andrella to try to save her. They discovered Era being held captive with a daemon casting a spell over her. They killed the daemons as quickly as possible but Era was barely unconscious. After they escaped back to the keep, she warned them that she had little time before she became evil, and that only Erimani's wife, Anniosha, could save her.

Kianne Freed

With no way to use the orb, Andrella carried Era to Lord British's castle and asked the king to open a portal to Dawn. He did so without wasting time asking for explanation.

Even though Erimani seemed dangerously angered to see Era, luckily for all of them, when Andrella quickly explained the situation in no-nonsense terms, he did not argue with her. Anniosha immediately went to work to save Era, also without asking any questions.

When Era was healed, Erimani revealed that he'd already guessed that she'd negotiated her freedom for freeing the Avatar, which explained why he had not protested when Andrella had arrived carrying Era. He demanded that Era keep her end of the bargain, and Andrella and Kianne also pointed out Era's promise to tell them how to stop the comet.

Finally, Era agreed, and freed Kianne by literally transferring her from the whole Materia sword to the broken one that Andrella had gotten off of Abraham. This resulted in Kianne being freed because the broken sword, being broken, could not hold her.

Unfortunately, Erimani was firm that Era return to the Spiral regardless, and Era refused to tell them about the comet without a promise of her freedom first. Since they no longer had time to waste, Andrella and Kianne were forced to leave Era and the elves and return to their tasks.

One Day Remaining

Kianne and Andrella visited their final shrine and were at last ready to take on the Daemon Seal. They purposefully did Hythloth last because they had heard that the key to the seal was there and they decided to save time not making a second trip.

When their moonblades had touched all sixteen shrines, they began to glow with brilliant light, surrounding their wielders with auras—one of the power of Light, and one of the power of Dark. Simultaneously, two pillars rose from the ground. One contained a shining crystal ball, and was encased in gray glass.

There were strange symbols and letters written on the casing, but Andrella and Kianne could not read them, though some of them seemed to match the tiles they had obtained from Abraham. On the pillar itself seemed to be elven writing. Andrella and Kianne could only surmise that the pillars were elven-made, but the casing had been created by the daemons.

They could not figure out the puzzle, so out of frustration Andrella smashed the glass casing with her gargoyle swords. Somewhat to their surprise, it worked; the casing shattered under the blows and disintegrated.

Andrella and Kianne placed their moonblades into the slots in the pillar, and a ghostly image of the elf who had created the moonblades, Vanderfall, appeared. He tested Kianne with questions to prove that she was the Avatar. When she answered them all correctly, though the last question cost her, Vanderfall vanished, the pillars dissolved into dust, and a magical key was left behind.

The Daemon Seal

With hours remaining before the landing of the comet, Kianne and Andrella traveled to Shame, located the entrance to the seal, and used the magic key. Before entering the seal, they opened a moongate to Dawn using the orb as Erimani had requested that they do.

Erimani and his elven warriors joined them, and they entered the area before the seal. Inside, they found the dead body of Abraham, the daemon. Not far away was a large machine. Kianne could feel a great drain from it, and so she immediately realized it was the generator. Trapped within a void, suspended in a force field in the midst of the machine, was Andrella's father, Alexander. Materia rolled from tubes in the machine every few minutes, and dropped to the ground.

They could not figure out how to turn off the machine or free Alexander, and Erimani insisted they open the seal and destroy the daemons first. Finally, grudgingly, Kianne agreed, and fitted the tiles they'd gotten from the shrines into matching slots on the floor in front of the seal.

But the seal could not be opened because the daemons had warped the Virtues with their own tiles and their own equivalent to the Avatar—K'mosh. Of the tiles that Andrella had taken from Abraham, all but one was glowing, the one that most resembled Justice. They had warped all of the Virtues but Justice; Kianne and Andrella and the rest had prevented them from warping Justice, though this explained Blackthorn's fixation with the Virtue.

To warp a Virtue, Erimani said, one strong in the Virtues must take the stone and rune and travel to a shrine and perform an evil act. But besides all that, Erimani informed them that either way, now that the daemons had placed their own seal, only K'mosh could place the inverted tiles and open that seal.

Defeated, Erimani and his elves left. But Erimani granted Andrella one request. He gave Kianne coordinates to open a gate to where Era was imprisoned.

Possibilities

Era Mirage arrived and Andrella and Kianne urged her to reveal her knowledge.

After a moment, Era told them that Kianne might be able to overload the generator if she absorbed energy from K'mosh, then allowed the generator to drain it from her. Of course, being the Avatar, K'mosh's Dark power would likely hurt her and possibly kill her...or worse.

She also revealed her idea for dealing with the comet: Kianne would channel the comet, calling it to her, and when it was close enough, Andrella would throw the Materia blade and capture the comet within the blade. This, however, would be a one-shot deal; there would not even be time for Andrella to cast her Star Shatter spell if something went wrong.

Era also insisted that transporting the moonblades through magical means would not harm them; it was simply an old tradition that Erimani respected. After some thought, Andrella and Kianne decided they didn't have time to run on foot, so they tried taking the moonblades through the gates made by the Orb of the Moons. Nothing untoward appeared to happen to them, so they could only assume Era had been correct in that regard.

As a way of saying thanks, Andrella gave Era a stone she'd received from Lord British, which would allow Era to transport herself from Britannia to any other world (but not return). It was Era's greatest wish, to leave Britannia behind and be free. Era thanked them and used the stone, vanishing.

Hunt for K'mosh

Kianne tried to sense K'mosh's dark power as Era had suggested, and decided he was in Britain. She and Andrella traveled there and immediately were mobbed by an angry crowd of people shouting and throwing things. The two ran into the safety of Lord British's castle, where the king and Dupré and the others were gathered.

Lord British explained that Batlin and the members of the Following had stirred the riot with rumors that the Avatar was bringing the comet of destruction down on them.

After a brief explanation, the two left as Kianne tracked the dark power down to a tavern in Britain. Inside were several false trails, including Lord Saitor, his apprentice, and even Vevilia. But as Kianne focused on each in turn, the dark power turned out to be in Kilmas.

Andrella wasn't sure what to do, and politely they asked Kilmas to come back with them to the keep, where no one would be around. Kianne was quite certain the dark energy was emanating from him, though she didn't know why that would be. Neither Andrella nor Kianne had the heart to tell Kilmas that he might be a daemon. So instead, they asked him if Kianne could try something, an experiment they said, without explaining what it was that she was attempting to do.

Kianne sat next to Kilmas, holding onto him, and the Dark element traveled from him into her body, invading her. But it was also sucked away by the generator, which was the point. She did this for as long as she could stand, then finally broke off. After she let go, she nearly passed out from the exertion, and could only hope it would be enough.

Alexander

Andrella and Kianne returned to the generator to find it was in shambles. Kianne almost didn't believe it. Andrella ran over to her father, who was lying unconscious in the midst of the shattered generator, and began to revive him. Kianne experimentally tried casting a Light spell of healing and was stunned when it worked.

They returned to the keep and spoke briefly with Alexander. He revealed a few things, among them confirming that Kilmas was indeed a daemon, but stated that if Kilmas himself was not yet aware of it, then there might still be hope. Alexander also revealed that Xavier was the third D'raj. The true Xavier had been killed, possessed with the D'raj. So Kilmas was in fact the son of D'raj, the apprentice to the Daemon Lord VayViktus. In a way, they supposed Kilmas was half daemon and half human; it was the only way Kilmas could still be a star mage because only humans of the Valence line are star mages, unless Xavier had Kilmas before his transformation...

Day of Reckoning

Soon, Andrella and Kianne left Alexander to go to the Serpent's Spine mountains—the highest point in Britannia—and attempt to capture the comet in the Materia sword.

When they arrived, they found a tower built on the highest peak. As they were exploring the tower out of curiosity, Mondain appeared before them. He held up his hand, indicating he was not there to fight them, but to issue a warning. Mondain said that if they stopped the comet, K'mosh would survive and kill the Time Lord. But if the comet annihilated Britannia, then K'mosh would be destroyed along with it, and the Time Lord would gain immense power...but only if Andrella and Kianne and everyone else died.

Kianne and Andrella had no idea what he meant by those cryptic words, but were not inclined to believe anything that Mondain said in any event.

Without explaining further, Mondain vanished back into his tear through the dimensions, and the tower vanished, dumping Kianne and Andrella to the ground.

Calling the Comet

Andrella and Kianne could only follow their own hearts. Thus decided, they positioned themselves, and Kianne focused and went into a trance, her mind melding with the comet, so that she could see where it was heading.

She struggled to direct it toward the Serpent's Spine mountains, but it was powerful and difficult to control. Meanwhile, Elementals sprung up around her as she inadvertently channeled some of the energy from the comet, leaving Andrella to battle them alone.

Kianne fought, but the closest she could get the comet was the Shrine of Compassion. As she snapped out of the trance, desperately the two journeyed down the mountain, racing the comet.

They reached the Shrine of Compassion just moments before impact. Andrella hurled the Materia sword at it. The blade arched up and fell back down, dropping short of its goal. The next moment the comet hit the ground.

We Breathe of Armageddon

When the comet struck home, Kianne inadvertently absorbed some of its energy. Because of this, the area immediately surrounding herself and Andrella was spared the blast, and she and Andrella lived through the impact. The rest of the planet was not so lucky.

In hopeless despair, the two hurried through desolate wasteland to Lord British's castle. There was not a living soul to be found in any forest or city. Everything was gone.

In the castle they stumbled over Batlin. He looked shocked and dismayed to see them still alive. Kianne and Andrella were too distressed and anxious to find Lord British or any other survivors, so they ran off without saying much to Batlin. Later, they encountered Batlin and Mondain together, so they followed them to the Yew Crypts.

As soon as they charged into the room, Mondain took one look at them and escaped through a tear in the dimensions. This only made Kianne more angry and she flared up with her newly-reacquired elemental powers. With Andrella's help, the two battled and vanquished Batlin's human form. Batlin was able to partially transform, utilizing his daemon powers to at least a certain degree, but Kianne was beyond enraged, and in the end Batlin's body was disintegrated.

Time Returning Back Again

Left with no idea of what to do next, Andrella and Kianne were startled when Xavier himself came upon them. It was Andrella's turn to see red, and she attacked her evil uncle without giving him much of a chance to say anything. He carried an energy blade and used it efficiently, but he found he was no match for Andrella's skills.

When he began to lose the battle, Xavier resorted to casting time spells to paralyze his attackers. But Andrella countered with her own time magic, taking him completely by surprise. The two finished him off quickly after that.

They discovered that Xavier had been wearing a peculiar ring. When Andrella picked it up, the Time Lord spoke to them through it, faintly at first, but his voice growing stronger. He told them that Andrella could use the ring to change any one action that she regretted. She said that she regretted that she had not hit the comet when she had thrown the Materia sword at it. No sooner were the words out of her mouth than everything changed...

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