Coming back to consciousness, Nyx’s ears are ringing. The crashes of beach waves have been replaced by shouting.

“Nyx wake up!”

“Maybe he needs mouth to mouth Ari.”

“Shut up Felix, I’m not giving him mouth to mouth.”

“You guys are such children, I’ll do it.” Quickly opening his eyes, Nyx seems Levity the tiefling reaching down to give him mouth to mouth.

“AAAHHH! I’m good, I’m good!” Nyx yells as he jumps back.

“Ah hah, I saved him. I think that will be some extra coin for me.” Levi says getting up triumphantly.

“It was your spell that did this in the first place!” Ari retorts as she sits down to hold Nyx with tears in her eyes. “Don’t ever do that to me again Nyx!”

“Umm, what happened?” Nyx asks, confused.

“Well you were basically dead for a little bit there.” Vola says, helping Levi pick up candles from the ground. Looking around Nyx notices that the light in all the candles had gone out in their new spots scattered all over the room. The room is now lit by magical purple orbs, and there is a small dark blast spot on the middle of the mat.

“All I remember is there was another drow guy, and he slashed me with his sword, and I think the spell dropped. Is everyone else okay?” Nyx says looking around at the partially wrecked room.

“Well, we’re mostly okay.” Ari confirms, wiping her eyes. “But Nyx! Look at your necklace.” Looking down Nyx sees a blue glow coming from the pendant, and he pulls the necklace out to examine it. As he grabs the jewel, the blue light gets sucked into his hands, causing Nyx to quickly drop the necklace in shock. Looking at his hand Nyx finds a solid black circle in the middle of his palm. Ari sees this and grabs his hand.

“Nyx! You have a mark now! Aww it’s so cute, you’re like a baby.” Ari teases. Ari moves her fingers over the palm of Nyx’s hand, then immediately scooches away realizing how close and intimate she was being with him.

“Hehe, um do you feel anything? Did you get the same mark as your mom?” Ari asks blushing. Nyx closes his eyes for a moment and feels the new magical energy coursing through his body.

“I can’t really tell yet. Has this ever happened before? Somebody getting a mark so late?”

“Maybe humans and elves are different, but in my clan everyone’s mark develops by the time they turn a year old.” Vola states.

“This certainly is quite interesting.” Levi notes, coming to bend down in front of Nyx. Reaching his hand forward to touch Nyx, Levi’s arms start to become dotted with black marks, until the marks connect in the form of a snake tattoo wrapped around his body. The tongue of the snake appears at the tip of his right hand, and Levi casts a small spell on Nyx’s new mark.

“Python Mark: Dendroaspis Chemical.” Levi mutters, as a magical forked tongue flicks out over Nyx’s hand. “Hmm... Usually using this spell, I can detect traits about someone’s mark, but I’m not really getting a good reading here. For some reason, the mark is developing too fast for me to process it.” Levi dissolves the spell and steps back. Nyx stands up from the floor and grabs his necklace.

“Well this mark will just have to wait. I think I know where the mages are heading.” Nyx says. Ari gets up and sits on the desk next to Vola.

“While you were knocked out you started mumbling a few words. Something about Helheim?” Ari adds.

“Yeah, I think they took my family to the Dark Empire. Those mages look like they’re some type of drow warriors from Helheim, there were two. I think their names were like Zel and Aza?” Nyx says scratching his head.

“Wh-what would the Dark Empire want with your family?” Felix asks with a terrified look on his face. “Nyx? Who are you?”

“I have no idea why they’d want them. We’re just a bunch of peasants from Crystalis, I’ve never even seen a dark elf before.” Nyx responds, confused about all that had happened thus far. “The female drow, Aza I think, she made a portal and took them away, but they saw me somehow. The big guy like hit me with an attack, that’s why the spell faded like that and I guess why I blacked out.”

“Hm they must be stronger than I anticipated.” Levi says, scratching his chin. “Well if they actually were that strong enough to see through my scry spell, then I wouldn’t be surprised if they were strong enough to make a portal all the way to Helheim. The only thing is that they would need either a strong magical item or a powerful location that could channel the power of the portal. When I make my portal to this room, it doesn’t require as much mana since the room is in Redwater. But on the bright side with such a powerful portal, there should be magical energy left behind that I could use to reopen it. Describe the beach to me, did anything stand out?”

“Well it was pretty empty, just a bunch of black rocks everywhere.”

“A black rock beach? All the beaches in the Coastal Coalition are sandy except for-” Ari starts to say.

“Arcan…” Levi interrupts. “The beaches outside the city of Arcan are rocky. However, I don’t know if its safe for us to go there…”

“We have to. That’s the only way for me to catch up with the drow and save my family. It might be too late if we try to cross all the way through the Dead Wastelands. What’s wrong with Arcan?” Nyx asserts.

“Wellllll, let’s just say the people there don’t really like me hehe.” Levi says averting his eyes from the group.

“How could anyone possibly not like you “Oh Great and Powerful Purple Mage.’” Ari says sarcastically. “And besides if the portal is at the beach, we won’t even have to go into Arcan.”

“Finee, I better get paid handsomely for all my assistance at the end of this.” Levi says with a smug smirk.

“Yaay beach time!” Felix exclaims.

“Time for fun later little one. Right now, we have a mission to accomplish and revenge to take.” Vola says, eager for another fight.

“Well, since I’ve been to Arcan before I can teleport us to the front gate, but let’s make sure to quickly make our way away please.” Levi says.

“What did you even do to make you so scared of being in that city?” Nyx asks.

“Arcan is the center of magic in Midgard. They don’t take to kindly to my kind.” Levi says, slapping Nyx’s butt with his tail. “Alright now kiddos, everyone aboard!” Motioning his hands Levi creates a similar portal as the one that led to his room, this one much bigger, almost encompassing the whole room and sucking everyone in with it.

♦♦♦

Falling out of the portal, Nyx slams face first into a dirt road. Getting up and wiping the dirt off his face, Nyx looks up to see the fortified walls of the city of Arcan. Right before his eyes were to meet with one of the guards sitting at the city entrance, Nyx gets pulls aside into a group of bushes.

“Hey!” Nyx starts to shout.

“Shhh…” Levi says quieting him down. “I don’t want their guards to catch sight of us. Let’s just leave and head down to the beach.” After taking one more look at Arcan, whose tall buildings seem to glow with a variety of colored magical auras, Nyx steps away from the road to follow Levity.

Traveling across a couple of rolling hills, the group starts to hear the crashing of waves. While most of the group begins to tense up from being close to a site recently occupied by two Dark Empire warriors, Felix has seemingly forgotten all of that.

“I’ve never seen the ocean before! I think this calls for another song. Ahem.” Felix proclaims, with a groan coming from the rest of the party.

“When the tide has risen, listen for her call.

Clothed in a dress of sparkling waves, she is the most beautiful of all.

The Amethsyt of the sea! At night she comes to play.

If you ever spot her you are in luck! For she is renowned as the best lay-”

“Felix shut up!” Ari hushes, as she calls for the rest of the group to lower down behind a group of rocks. As the last bit of daylight begins to fade away, the group peers forward down at the beach to find a group of soldiers standing guard.

“Shit! What are they doing here?” Nyx mutters. Looking closer at the soldiers, they appear to be dark elf warriors disguised in Midgardian armor.

“Do they look like the people who kidnapped your family Nyx?” Levi whispers.

“I’m not sure, I only ever saw the two in my dream. Maybe one of- Oh wait!” Nyx says as a larger drow figure stands up from behind the group of soldiers. “That’s him, Zel was his name. Maybe they figured we would try this, so he stayed behind. There’s a lot more there now though.”

“More to fight.” Vola says, pounding her fists with a smile.

“Well w-we have the advantage of a surprise attack right, what should we do?” Felix says with a terrified gaze.

“Leave it to me.” Levi says, starting to perform a hand motion to cast a spell. “I’ll create a distraction while the rest of you attack from the other side.” Standing up, Levi walks around the rocks to face the group of soldiers. The rest of the group sneaks along the side to get in a flanking position. Completing the spell right before the soldiers notice him, Levi’s appearance changes into that of a similarly clothed drow soldier.

“Hey you! Where were you just now, who told you to leave the group?” One of the more senior looking soldiers asks.

“Oh ah, I um was out watching the perimeter.” Levi responds nervously. Peering more closely, the soldier gives a look of suspicion.

“Lord Zel, did you send anyone to check the perimeter?” Lifting his greatsword onto his shoulder, the behemoth of a drow looks in confusion.

“Why would I do that? I’ve been waiting for him to come. I don’t want to stop him.” Zel says with laugh. “What’s your name soldier?”

“I’m uhh, I’m Le..wis. Lewis! Yeah that.” Levi smiles. The group of soldiers all stare at him with blank indifference, when suddenly a big wild boar comes barreling through them from behind. One soldier jumps in front of Zel to take the hit from Bo and is instantly knocked away. With her battleaxes in hand, Vola leads the charge with her friends behind her.