Serna got to her feet, walked over to the stack of books and selected one tale of adventure from The Realm. "This is neat! The pictures are so beautiful but you know what, I can read. The Baroness required it as part of our service to her. She always said that a smart servant is an able servant. She also believed it gave her an advantage during negotiations with visiting diplomats. When we would clean up their rooms, we sometimes would find discarded papers or official documents, then we would read them and tell the Baroness what was on them. She was always crafty that way."

"I suppose any ruling sovereign would do that especially with visiting emissaries who might have a dour reputation and all." Spencer chugged down the cup of juice and poured himself another.

"The Baroness used to say that all was fair in love and politics," Serna replied as she looked up from the book she was reading, "I guess she really mean't it--at least as far as politics goes."

"Politics, meh. Not my thing." Spencer waved her off, "I prefer traveling and seeing new places on the airship. Being stuck in a city too long would drive me crazy."

"Kind of like me," Serna smiled at Spencer, "Don't get me wrong, I liked working for Baroness Meleranti but I LOVE travelling with my friends. We see new things, visit new places and we help people everywhere we go. And there is always something weird happening, its kind of fun!"

"Weird, fun, scary, great for us bad for the enemies. Nothing makes me smile when the baddies are on the run." Spencer gave her a thumbs up.

"Yeah, I agree!" Serna mused half to herself, "I wonder how the others are doing right about now?"

"How about a walk around the ship? I know about you can't go below deck without the captain present but at least I can show the rest of the main deck." Spencer got up from his chair and offered a hand.

"Sure!" Serna took Spencer's hand, "That'll be neat!"

Spencer took point and lead Serna out to the left side of the ship and up to the helm. It was a typical steering wheel for a ship but there were other gadgets and levers there that resembled the inner workings of a steam ship. The steam whistle blew suddenly forcing both Spencer and the Shield Maiden to cover their ears. "Dag-nabbit!"

Sir Gonagle came out laughing hysterically. For an old alchemist he had a crude sense of humor.

"That's not at all loud!" Serna shook her head and did her best to try and stop the ringing in her ears.

*****

The Chronicler scrambled to her feet, "Hey, guys, did you miss me?"

"Well, Chronicler?" Madeous gestured to her, "Did you return with the Victous Candle? Alyson's life depends upon our success in defeating the blood mage, so that she will be able to help us with closing the Black Gate."

"Of course, I returned with the candle," War Scribe jutted her breasts out to reveal the Victous Candle lodged in her bosom, "Anyone want to claim it? Muwha! Ha! Ha! Ha!"

Quake raised her hand and walked over to the drowling, "I'll do it since I'm the only single one here and have no mate to argue with. Now hold still...geez, War Scribe, you really like it TIGHT!"

"Well, of course I do," The Drowling quipped, "My clothing is tight and my breasts are tight. And if you REALLY want to free me of the Victous Candle, then you must twist it out to pull it free."

Quake found the end of the candle, twisted it and pulled it out with a loud POP. "You're lucky this kind of thing doesn't bother me but I think we've made the men here, uncomfortable. I mean just look at them."

When the candle came free of her breasts, War Scribe threw her head back, closed her eyes and ran her hands through her hair all the while cutting loose with an orgasmic moan, "MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMmmmmm! OOOOOOhhhhhh!"

Madeous coughed.

Captain Lion sighed.

Irzen rolled his eyes.

Prince Birch stood rock still in stunned disbelief. He simply could not believe that War Scribe--or anyone else for that matter--could be resurrected so quickly after such a brutal death.

"Well," Madeous cleared his throat looking over towards Irzen, "This reminds me of the scene in Spaceballs, where Dark Helmet and Lonestar got their schwartz twisted."

Irzen involuntarily coughed at that reference but did not say anything in response.

War Scribe looked at both Madeous and Irzen grinning from ear to ear, "What's a schwartz?"

"Nothing that concerns you for now, Chronicler." Madeous deadpanned.

"One Victous Candle, sire." Quake handed him the black candle with the green flame. She paused and looked back at the drowling, "No wonder it took me a hard time, all that wax practically fused it with her skin."

"I know!" War Scribe took a single finger, stirred it between her breasts, then popped her finger into her mouth and licked her lips, "Candle wax! Finger licking good!"

The inner chamber glowed in eerie reddish light and the streams of blood seeped up and over the bank into a puddle. Slowly it rose into a humanoid form of both sexes that was quite beautiful and deadly at the same time. The blood mage's face protruded through viscous liquid, "And to think I would have to wait another hundred years...it matters notttssss."

"OOOOOooooo! The main bad guy has put in an appearance!" War Scribe seized her tome and quill pen, "I MUST record this encounter for posterity!"

"Yeah, you do that!" Irzen confronted the Blood Mage, "You're a long way from home, pal. Why don't you go back from where you came from, never come back and we'll call it even. What do say?"

Dozens of bloody tendrils shot out from the blood mage seizing all of them and thrashed them about like dirty laundry. War Scribe's arms and legs were wrapped up so tight that she could feel her bones cracking under the pressure. Finally she was flung backwards down the tunnel. The tendrils around Madeous singed and burned from the radiant aura he was radiating from him. The blood mage snarled, "Cursed, platinum knight!"

"OOOOOooooo! I LOVE A GRABBY MAN!" War Scribe cooed as some of her bones cracked, "COMPLETE WITH BEARHUGS OF LOVE!!!"

"This guy is really handsy!" Irzen managed to gasp as he tried to get his sword arm free, "Does anybody have anything for this guy beside quirky one-liners?!"

Madeous slashed his way through the tendrils around the others and charged. He jumped up with his vorporal great sword held high and brought it down like Voltron in a finishing move, splitting the blood mage in two. The smite severed the connection with the soul he just freed. Seeing this he yelled, "Sever the souls that are bound to him. The blood mage has several inside him still."

Captain Lion pulled out his rifle, cocked it and fired off a holy round that freed a soul in the lower torso and chipped away at another soul caught in the left leg of the blood mage.

Irzen got his sword hand free and sliced the tendril that held him in twain. The Swordsman landed upon his feet and raced over to Prince Birch. "BIRCH, NO!"

Seeing the prince still in shock of the rebirth of the chronicler and his assault, the blood mage shot out several tendrils that drilled through Birch's armor and began to suck the life force from him.

The Elven Prince gasped as he felt both the air and the life began to leave his body.

"PRINCE BIRCH!! LOOK OUT--!" Quake went to intercept and found herself being pulled into the bloody ground beneath her. She felt like Hell Boy when he was fighting the eldritch monster, "Oh crap, this is gonna hurt!"

Irzen charged forward and in one great downward cut sliced through the tendrils that attached itself to the prince. Catching Birch before he could drop to the floor, the Swordsman slung the prince over his shoulder in a fireman's carry and turned towards Quake, "Hold on!"

Madeous swung the great sword around in a full arc just he had done earlier with the chronicler and freed three more souls. He followed through with a Branding Smite preventing the Blood Mage from being able to hide now.

Captain Lion cocked the rifle again firing off not one but two rounds, one after the other into the torso of the fiend. The first bullet made the hole, the second followed through and exploded from the inside.

The blood mage shrieked from the onslaught staggering backwards. Although he had the elemental in it's grip, it found that a creature made of liquid rock was a bad idea and shrieked again.

"Heart burn! Gods I love being too hot to handle!" Quake's humanoid form glowed with a burning intensity and polymorphed back into the dragon again. She looked like Godzilla when he was reaching critical mass.

"I bet!" Irzen looked up at the Earth Elemental, "Quake, torch him! Madeous, get over here and help me with Birch. You're the Paladin here, so Paladin-up a heal for him or something!"

++++

"...a Victous....candle." Alyson muttered suddenly in her current state.

Lazheros's eyes widened. He knew of it back when Madeous was younger and quested throughout the realm. He knew that if the platinum knight needed such an ancient relic, then things were more challenging and dire than he thought.

"A Victous candle?" Princess Cauladra gasped as she took a step back shaking her head, "I know tales of such things. A dark and terrible item of power borne of Death magic that allows the living to traverse the Realm of the Dead. No good can come from such a thing, Grand Cleric. Why did she speak of it?"

"It would mean that she's on the threshold between life and death." He muttered.

"Is there anything that I or my court can do?" Princess Cauladra asked, "We have excellent Healers in East Port. Individuals both old and wise who are proficient in their craft. Mayhaps something can be done to at least ease her suffering?"

Lazheros sighed heavily, "Princess Cauladra I appreciate your concern in regarding her present state but Alyson is used to the darkness. She understands that one cannot exist without the other. Her spirit and will is strong."

"I...am..not...going," The elementalist muttered in her sleep, "Anywhere."

"Who in the Realm is she talking to?" Princess Cauladra gasped, "She seems to be conversing with someone though I know not who."

"More than likely, us. She used to talk in her sleep when she was a child. Most of the time, they were dreams in which she felt she needed to be heard." The Bronze Man explained what was happening.

"I'm right.....here," Alyson's eye lids fluttered briefly as if caught somewhere between the waking world and that of the dreaming one.

"Lady Alyson, you're awake! Welcome back!" Princess Cauladra gasped, "Is there anything I can do to bring you some comfort?"

Alyson opened her eyes and rolled over to one side, "So...thirsty..."

Lazheros placed a hand on her skin. It was cold to the touch. He glanced towards the princess, "Do you have some wine, red wine, your highness? It will help her stave off the thirst that is growing within her. One of the affects of being bitten by a true vampire."

"I have as much red wine as you will need, Grand Cleric," The Princess left the room, found a servant and commanded, "Go and fetch a cask of our finest red wine and bring it to us without delay!"

A servant did as the princess wished and came back with a bottle of red wine called 'Marvee, a red-red wine noted throughout East Port.

"Thank you!" The Princess seized the bottle of wine and returned to Lazheros, "I have what is needed, Grand Cleric, although I recommend you bless it. I would not put it past these fiends we face to poison it."

He pulled out a chalice and poured some of the red wine into it for Alyson handing it to her carefully. She sipped the liquid slowly at first then drank it down in one gulp.

The elementalist sat up with the help of the bronze man and looked at the princess, "Your highness, the fight has begun with the blood mage. It...he/she...them...will claim more souls if the Black Gate remains open."

"Then it must be closed!" The Princess replied with determination in her voice.

"The Victous Candle masks the presence of the living to the dead but it has a hidden power to summon Death itself, or for someone to become Death to close the Black Gate but the person must be willing. Once one becomes or merges with Death he/she will never be the same but they will have the ability to see Undead or the dead at will." Lazheros steadied Alyson as he informed Cauladra of the artifact.

"How do know of this, Lazheros?" Alyson turned back to him.

"I met a cleric of the Raven Queen, a Grave cleric. Caretakers of the dead, for the Raven Queen despises the undead. They are a travesty to her domain." He replied.

The princess said nothing but listened with grave intent.

Alyson fanned herself suddenly, "Is it hot in here or is it just me? Oh, no. It's Quake...she's gonna blow."

The Bronze Man got an image of the elemental from Alyson, "Hmmm, more like a meltdown."

"Is a melt-down a bad thing or a good thing?" Princess Cauladra inquired to both of them.