text: [Themes: fantasy]
  
  You wander into the village, thinking that you might find the servant of the Dayel there, going past the guards, who are, of course, dead. But then, most of the people in the village are dead. You find that out as you search the whole area. They were killed by the underling you met this morning, most likely, and if not... you shudder at the thought. Too many of those possibilities also end in your death.
  
  Looking through the first few houses you find, you don't see anything of importance. There are a lot of dead bodies, all killed by a sword -- that of your would-be murderer. Eventually, you come across a building where you heard some sound earlier. There is a noise coming from downstairs.
  
  Deciding that caution is something you've already thrown to the wind a thousand times, and once more can't hurt, you go downstairs and look forward. There is a man lying on the ground, squealing, with a dagger driven into his side. You run over to him and bend down.
  
  "Who did this to you?" you ask, and his eyes widen, then he points behind you. Spinning to the side, you look behind you at the same time and see a woman with a crossbow looming before you. She fires a bolt into the man's neck then is gone before you can react. The dead man is pushed backwards somewhat, revealing an even larger pool of blood than you had previously thought was there.
  
  Noticing that his arm is splayed out in one direction with a single finger pointing, you check your compass. He was pointing to the east when he died. What could that mean? His other arm was also pointing in the same general direction. This confuses you.
  
  Staying here probably isn't going to help you, seeing as the woman has disappeared -- and you're rather certain she's the Dayel's servant in disguise -- so you decide to look somewhere else, but first pay your respects to the dead man.
  
  > run over to the lake
  Setting your sights towards the east, you begin to walk. The day is fast fading, and hopefully you can reach the lake before nightfall, because out in the forest alone, during the night, you are likely to get killed. However, this movement is necessary. Otherwise you will probably never find your quarry, and then the world could likely fall to the Dayel's power.
  
  Defeating its minion would only be a small step in the overall destruction of its corrupting will, but it would be a major one. Soon you can see the lake, not too far away from you. The glistening blue waters seem so welcoming, and you walk up to their edge. Gazing down into it, you can't see the bottom and wonder if there even is one. Turning away from your mind-wandering, you feel a presence nearby.
  
  "Don't move."
  
  The voice is rather abrupt and causes you to jump, literally, for you leap into the air and turn around while you are moving. There is a crossbow pointed straight towards you -- your own. Cursing, you look towards the woman. She's definitely ready to kill you if necessary. Taking another look at her, you know this is the Dayel's minion.
  
  Sighing, you rock back on your heels and feel the cold water of the lake licking at you. There's something about those glistening depths, something extremely inviting. You smile, raise your hands slightly, then send a wrist-bow bolt into the woman's side, an attack which does little other than throw her aim off and cause her counter-attack to go into the water. Then, you fall backwards into the lake, sinking quickly.
  
  The waters are very inviting. In fact, you can breath within them. You see a couple of glass vials floating about just under the surface, the very tips of the material sticking about the water. A splash can be heard above you, then a crossbow bolt moves through the water towards you, but it is slowed down by the liquid and you easily dodge to the side despite the fact that normally it fires quickly enough that if the firer has good aim, it's extremely difficult to dodge.
  
  Even for you.
  
  The surface of the water is growing ever more distant and your enemy draws her swords, then changes shape into the Dayel's minion. The form is much more frightening and you feel terror take hold of you, then the vision of your enemy is gone.
  
  You are standing on the beach, looking out over an endless ocean from which waves lap up onto the shore, staring out into the distance with a grim look on your face. You can hear footsteps behind you and know that the minion is most likely approaching. turning around, you point your wrist-bow, then realize two things. First, you have not reloaded it since it was last fired. Second, the person coming towards you is not the Dayel's minion.
  
  Yes, this thing can shape-shift, but it can't hide its swords. Therefore you know that the person before you is probably not hostile, because it has not attacked you yet and it is not your quarry. "Greetings," the person says, smiling slightly. "I see that you have passed the test. You will be allowed into this land. The foul thing... will not. We cannot kill it, but we can keep it out."
  
  "First of all," you say, "Who are you? And, I would really like this thing to be dead. Can you help with that, by chance?"
  
  The woman before you shakes her head, causing her long hair to fly all about her. "No, we cannot. The thing can only be killed in its home, just like the Dayel and its other servants. Here, it can only be banished back to where it belongs. No matter what you do, they cannot be permanently destroyed within this world."
  
  "So, you're saying that I have to hunt this thing down to kill it, rather than luring it away?"
  
  "Indeed. You will need a powerful weapon to destroy it, a powerful one indeed. Allow me to show you this." She holds out her hands, and a sword appears in them, which she hands to you. "This sword is capable of destroying minions of the Dayel. All that is needed is a single cut, and it will bleed their life-force dry. However, it can only harm them if you are in their home. Otherwise, it is completely useless."
  
  You sheath the sword, finding that a scabbard is already over your back, and then ask the question that has been nagging at you for the entire conversation. "Where is here and what are you?"
  
  She chuckles. "This is Celasar. Mortals call it 'the celestial land,' and I am one of the Celastine. Come with me, into our village, for there you may find the other gifts that you will need to survive the battle that comes.
  
  > enter the village
  You follow the woman into the village, where you are led to an inn in which you rest for the night.
  
  In the morning, you find that your weapons and armor have been replaced by new, enhanced ones. Two swords hang at your hips, knives still remain strapped to many easily reached places on your body, and there is a wristbow on each of your arms. The mechanism is gone, but you know somehow that it will only take your own will to fire them.
  
  A knock comes at the door and when you swing it open, you see two of the denizens of the Celestial Plane, one with a bow slung over his back, the other clutching a staff in his hands, and the archer speaks. "We wish to come with you," he says, and you feel compelled to accept the offer. Not by any force of will imposing upon your mind, this time, but rather the request is so sincere, and you could use the help anyway.
  
  After all, you're going after a creature that answers directly to the Dayel, no one in between. That one nearly killed you more than once, and its own underling forced you into hiding when you were almost publicly assassinated. This thing doesn't fear retribution for any crime it might commit, and that just makes the terrible things it does even more vicious.
  
  You nod quickly, knowing that if you refuse you're likely to get killed in the battle. Yes, you have powerful magic weapons and armor at your disposal, but those probably won't be enough. Smiling, the staff-wielding one cuts in front of the archer and introduces himself as Belaw. The archer's name is Den'ia.
  
  Slipping out of the inn by the daylight, you make your way to the shore, with the waves lapping onto the shore, pounding the sand harder together and bringing a few minuscule pieces of it back into its depths. Stepping into the sea, you close your eyes, hold your arms out, and allow yourself to fall forward.
  
  Behind you, your companions leap into the ocean, you can tell by the splashes, then just after they enter you finish falling, striking the water face-first and sending a jolt of surprise up your spine. It's even colder than it felt when you stepped in.
  
  In a moment, the cold is gone and you are floating in warm water, free of stinging salt. The portal is below you, the surface of the lake above you. Swimming towards the top, you watch as Belaw and Den'ia speed past you, reaching the surface nearly twenty seconds ahead of you.
  
  When at last you clamber onto the shore, panting for breath, Belaw looks in your direction and smiles. "It's time to go," he says, and pats you on the back. Then, gesturing with his staff, he makes a complex arcane symbol in the air. It's a bit odd, for as he moves his staff it leaves etchings in the very air, ones that do not move except for the occasional slight twitch -- obviously a wavering of their summoner's concentration.
  
  Belaw draws a line across the symbol when he is done, from the upper right to the lower left, then plants the bottom of his staff in the ground just in front of the symbol. It gloves brighter, light flaring around it, then disappears.
  
  Replaced by a gaping portal.
  
  Den'ia fits an arrow onto his bow and steps through, followed by Belaw. You step forward, and as soon as the familiar surroundings of the Dayel's realm surround you, you get in front of Den'ia, and Belaw, in turn, steps forward so that he is next to you.
  
  Your formation moves forward quickly, passing by the door you went through earlier, and only being challenged by a single guard, who is quickly dispatched by a combination of Belaw's magic -- a bolt of electricity sent into the guard's forehead -- and one of Den'ia's arrows, which pierces its heart.
  
  As the corpse tumbles forward, you find yourself face-to-face with a monstrous being, which as first you think is the actual Dayel, but then you realize that it is too small, despite being colossal compared to you.
  
  The thing raises its head from the position that it had held staring straight at you, and rears up to its full height -- well over twice your size. Den'ia pulls his bowstring back to his cheek, and fires an arrow upwards.
  
  It doesn't seem to have any effect.
  
  > fire your wrist-bows
  Throwing back your hood, you smile straight up into the creature's face, then hold both of your arms forward and give a mental push to the bowstrings. Bolts fly from on top of each of your wrists, and you can see as the bowstrings move back again, new bolts forming in them. Your fired missiles spin over and over until they strike the Dayel's servant in the chest, causing him to stumble backwards.
  
  Den'ia fires an arrow into the thing's neck, knocking it backwards again. It pulls both the bolts and the arrow out with a single hand, while drawing its sword with the other. Taking out its other sword, it then charges towards you.
  
  Belaw points his staff towards the servant of the Dayel and begins chanting in a language you don't understand, though you are certain that he's casting some sort of offensive spell against the monster. Charging forward, you fire the wrist-bows again, then consider your options. You feel the weight of the flask against your side.
  
  > draw your swords and attack
  Each weapon comes out of its sheath and you advance, anger clear on your features. A pair of arrows come flying over your shoulders in quick succession, thudding into the creature's chest. It stumbles back and then brandishes its own weapons, running towards you while turning its baleful gaze towards your archer companion. The denizen of the celestial plane cries out in pain and collapses to the ground, though you see no signs of a wound.
  
  A blast of electricity arcs around you and strikes your enemy's sword, though the leather grip of your opponent's weapon clearly stops the blast. Your weapon, on the other hand, does not have such a grip, and when your blade strikes the enemy's sword, the jolt only seems to hurt you.
  
  You manage to knock away your enemy's defenses after a brief duel and raise your swords to finish him. He begins to move as you make your strike...
  
  > stab him through the heart
  Pulling back your sword arm, you smile in your moment of victory. This is it! You will destroy the Dayel when you are done with this, his underling. Thrusting your weapon forward, you find...
  
  Another blade. The creature has managed to recover in time to block your attack, and he pushes you back. While you are reeling, he runs towards you with his swords out to the sides, slashing through each of your companions. Then, jumping into the air, he turns around and brings his weapon into your gut.
  
  Looking up into his face, eyes wide with shock, you spend your last moments contemplating your own stupidity.