Conquering the Dark
By Tracy J. Farrell

Chapter 1

 I awoke to a weeping land.
From the journal of Slari Rul, Head Mage of the Ogre Litho.

     Slari stood and stretched, then collected their supplies. Last night the small grove of ghostly white, interwoven, triple trunks had looked warm and inviting.
     She gathered her magic and examined the shielding spell she used to hide their presence. Plucking through the strands, she felt her shoulders unknot. The shimmering slivery-blue web remained intact.
     Slari opened her fist and whispered. “Go.”
     The spell fluttered and resettled over her, Dimandri and Keflor. Slari expanded it to cover the entire thirteen-foot diameter of the clearing, including a portion of the spring.
     Something started a pair of small black and gray quie birds from their nest. Slari spun, called her magic, and gripped the six-inch long handles of her sickle shaped Hari blades. She crouched ready to attack.
     A large eyed, bushy tailed coru scampered through a narrow opening between the intertwined trunks of a Virch directly opposite her position.
     Dimandri shot her a questioning look. Slari chuckled. “It’s nothing, just jumping at shadows.”
     Her brother’s widow studied her and Slari waved her back to her morning meal. Since the attack on Haven they’d all been on edge. Too much running.
     She tried to pack, but the insistent voice of her conscience taunted.
     You’re risking their lives, it told her. Fear warred with need. Fear of failure, fear of success and the need to crush those around her, to gulp them down and savor the taste of their flesh and blood.
     Sweet and hot and salty, on her lips, in her throat, it would be so good, so very, very good. She closed her eyes and shoved down the dark needs that rose within her.
     She just needed a little more time. Only a few more moon cycles and they’d be at the L’tane capital. After Dimandri and Keflor were safe, she could think about the final awakening.
     Her hands shook.
     Slari took a moment to center her mind. Their trip from her homeworld to Dimandri’s homeworld of L'tane had been difficult at best. Throughout their journey they'd played a game of tag with four Ogre Nori war vessels. As they limped into orbit around L'tane a Nori warship attacked and destroyed their ship.
     “Slari, watch this.” Keflor cupped an amber sphere in his palm. A tiny orange flame danced inside.
     “Excellent. Your control has improved.”
     Keflor beamed, his deep brown eyes shinning with joy.
     Unlike the Nori who breed with whatever they could impregnate, her brother was the first known Litho to life bond with a human. Physically Keflor took after his mother. Perhaps that would be enough to spare him. Slari wished it were true. Wished he never felt the bite of the darkness within.
     Goddess please let him never feel the blood lust. The evil. Never face the possibility of turning Nori. At twelve cycles it was too early to tell his future. For now Slari would train him to control the dark within, same as any other Ogre Litho youth.
     The spell wobbled and collapsed.
     “Zril.”
     “Keflor, mind your tongue.” Dimandri clucked.
     “Mom.” Keflor rolled his eyes and grabbed a handful of fried nuts from a sack. Crunching loudly, he slouched against the junction of two twisted Virch trunks.
     Slari ignored the ensuing argument and ran a hand through her waist length hair, attempting to detangle it. Her fingers caught on several snarls. She managed to work them loose with a minimal of cursing and tugging. Grabbing the thick straight mass in one hand, she rummaged in the sack at her feet.
     Triumphant, she clutched the leather clip and coiled her hair into a twist on the back of her head with the other hand. She knelt on the hard packed ground and reassembled her bag.
     “Slari, look out!” Dimandri screamed.
     Slari sprung to her feet.
     Dimandri shoved Keflor toward Slari, while simultaneously launching herself at the Ogre Nori Hunter.
     Well accustomed to defending himself, Keflor stumbled forward, halted his motion, pivoted, and released his Hari blades, in one fluid motion. The short handled modified sickles made him look like a grim reaper in search of a soul.
     Pride rippled through her. Keflor possessed the skills and strength of a warrior twice his age.
     The Ogre Nori lurched forward. Slari cursed. She was too far across the grove to assist.
     Dimandri used her Hari to block the heavy thrusts of the Nori Hunter’s sword.
     Metal screeched against metal. This time Slari cursed herself. She should have known they would come.
     The dark Ogre Nori would never leave a pure Ogre Litho woman and half-Ogre Litho boy alone. The opportunity to turn them and breed her was too good to ignore. She should never have let her guard down.
     Failure swamped her. She’d thought they’d be safe here. Virch trees were known for dampening dark magic.
     The air shimmered and rippled. Four more Hunters appeared. Their corrupted flesh dragged the wispy black-green remnants of the magic they used.
     Slari hauled Keflor to her.
     “Hey,” Slari shouted and backed up, trying to sandwich her nephew between herself and a bulky clump of Virch.
     Three Hunters turned to face them. Keflor wiggled behind her. “Stop, moving.”
     “Aunt Slari, get out of my way. I’m old enough to fight.”
     Slari gathered her magic and wrapped herself and Keflor in a shield. The three Hunters formed a half circle around them and used what little power they possessed to pound against the barrier. Dark energy popped and snapped, bouncing back at the Nori.
Slari released the breath she’d been holding. It came out as a puff of frost.
     “ Stay inside. I’m going to help your mother.”
     “No.” Keflor shouted, the sound harsh in the absolute silence of the protective dome.
     Slari shifted. His mouth was an angry slash, and his eyes had turned nearly black with rage. The three dark Ogres still battered at the spell. Dimandri was holding her own. Good.
     Facing her nephew, she reached out and grasped his biceps. Understanding his frustration, she kept her voice soft. “Keflor, we don’t know how many more of them remain cloaked.”
     Keflor tossed his arms up, breaking her hold. He jerked a hand toward the three Nori beating at the shield. “Oh, please. Don’t give me that.” He rolled his eyes. “They still have to uncloak to attack. You know that.”
     “Keflor--”
     Keflor’s mouth opened in horror and he darted around her.
     His entire body glowed amber when he called his power. Using his Hari Keflor slashed through the barrier. He leapt at the Nori Huntress. Slari’s shield disintegrated in a sparkling shower of honey toned magic.
     Keflor’s symbiote Gzzzri slid up and out the collar of his body armor. The young fire Drago’s iridescent, red-scaled snout and fanged mouth were the first things to form from the quickly solidifying red mist. Gzzzri roared and gelatinous fire shot out. A wet splook, then a whoosh filled the air. The thick glop hit the Ogress and she went up in flames. Keflor ignored the burning Nori and ran toward his mother.
     A glittering amber shield rose between Keflor, Dimandri, and the Nori Hunters.
     The blazing Ogress’s garbled howl sent a flurry of small hoary birds, nesting in the nearby trees, to wing. The Huntress’s large, misshaped head burst into flames.
     Thick, oily smoke darkened the clearing. It stung Slari’s eyes and cut visibility in half.
     Slari flicked her fingers using bits of her magic to clear the air. Silvery-cerulean flecks glittered. The tiny bits of power grew. The cerulean stained a deep navy while it sucked up the dark smoke. Small popping noises filled the air when her magic winked out taking the smoke with it.
     Stumbling around the clearing, the Ogress pulled futilely at the sparse red hair on her head. Her emaciated, over-long arms were strangely untouched by the raging pyre her body had become. The Nori’s barreled chest split open with a sick, hissing crackle.
     The Ogress sank to her knees. Her howls turned into garbled moans.
     Dark green blood oozed out from her nose and down her chest, sizzling and spitting. The Huntress fell to her back on the hard packed earth, writhing. Her heels drummed and thumped on the ground. Chunks of grass and brains sprayed the air.
     A blistering inferno separated Slari from Dimandri, Keflor and the Hunters. She needed to get them.
     Slari shifted, her feet skidding in the evil tainted blood.
Slari’s own symbiote, Bree, slipped out the bottom of her deep ruby armor, his glittering sliver tipped, white scaled body widened and plumped while he took physical form.
     He blew a thick plume of frost onto the burning corpse. The Ogress froze instantly, a lumpy, pale mass of half burned flesh and dark black and green gore.
     Slari looked away. Her heart ached. Would they ever be able to reclaim the lost ones? Turn the Nori back to the light, so they might rejoin their Litho brothers and sisters.
     The other dark Ogres still surrounded Dimandri and Keflor. The amber dome fluttered and fell. Keflor tried to reform it, but he was too young to maintain the level of energy needed.
     Dimandri and Keflor retreated against a cluster of intertwined white Virch trees. The trees seemed to bow forward, cupping their backs.
     Four wickedly curved Hari slashed through the air. Black blood squirted.
The three Hunters yelped in pain and quickly pooled their meager magic together. A slickly green, mist flowed up and over them, forming a protective shell.
     Bree and Gzzzri shot down to hover just above and in front of Dimandri and Keflor. Bree screeched and frost shot out of his snout. Gzzzri howled crimson flames.
     The barrier quaked under the onslaught. Where fire and ice met, the air grew thick and damp.
     Sparks of fire and shards of ice repelled off the shield spell and flew around the clearing. The symbiotes ignored them, knowing the shield would eventually weaken, then fail.
     The Dragos broke through. One of the Hunters slid over and forward toward Keflor. The other two lunged at Dimandri.
     Slari sprinted across the glade, fear clenching her gut. The dark Ogre struck. Keflor caught the wavy, long-handled sword on the curve of his Hari. Metal shrieked. He pushed the sword back toward the Nori.
     Keflor sank his other Hari into his opponent's chest. The Nori grunted and staggered back.
     Slari leapt. Plunging the pointed tips of her Hari into the Hunter’s thick, lumpy back. She hung like a rock climber. The blades bit deep. Her weight pulled her toward the forest floor.
     Slari pushed off, landing several feet away. Putrid green blood drenched the dew-covered grass.
     She dropped into a crouch and waited for the Hunter’s next move. Despite his injuries Ogres were hard to kill.
     The Hunter stumbled around, his hands gathering the slick loops of his intestines. His deformed face a contorted mix of confusion and pain while he tried to stuff them back into the gap opened by her nephew’s blade. He fell forward. Slari scrambled back and bumped into a solid wall.
     She choked as the stench of rotted meat assailed her.
Slari pivoted. Short, ivory tusks jutting up from a mottled lower jaw, viciously snapped closed just inches from her face. The Hunter’s upper lip curved in a grin showing stumpy, square teeth.
     Anguish and pity raced into and out of her mind. Once he’d been a beautiful Litho Ogre, one of the people of light. Now he was a slave to the darkness within, his outside as twisted and malformed as his inside.
     “Litho.” The Nori’s fetid breath washed over her face. Slari reared back, her foot squishing on the dead Ogre. Stuck between the two, she widened her stance and shifted her weight to her back leg.
     The Hunter’s harsh bark of laughter grated across her skull, sending shivers down her neck. “Give up. You’re trapped, little morsel.”
     Thin strips of putrid meat hung between the creature’s swollen red gums. Slari swallowed several times in a poor attempt to fight back the bile rising in her throat. Small drops of thick spittle flew as the dark Ogre spoke. The smelly substance dusted her hair, cheeks and chin.
     “Give us the young one, and we will allow you to die swiftly, Litho whore.”
     Slari snorted, wiped the saliva off her face, and gathered her magic. “I’ll kill him myself before I allow you to corrupt him, Nori.”
     She cupped her hand, spread and curled her fingers in, her power pooled in her palm. Rotating her wrist, she opened her fingers, and flattened it. A ball of frost shot at him. It shattered against his shield.
     He laughed. Thick drool wobbled off his chin. “Your spell failed, little Mage.” He looked her up and down, his small black eyes dull. “You’re not even worth breeding.”
     “Turn back from your dark path and rejoin us.” Darkness rose in Slari. She ignored the need to bathe in his blood.
     He spat on the ground and licked his lips. “I’m going to roast you slowly from the feet up before I eat you.” The taunt ended in a grunt.
     His eyes widened in shock and he slumped forward.
Slari grinned. Her spell to disable his shield worked just fine. “Perhaps you should rethink your plans, Nori.”
     She put her foot on his malformed ribcage and shoved backward, removing her Hari. Dark heart blood stained the blade. Slari relished the sight. Horrified by her thoughts, she pushed the malevolence back into the room that held it. She locked the door and gathered the Light around her.
     The light brush of his soul as it passed, snapped her mind fully back. One more of her kin they couldn’t save.
     A loud shattering filled the air, like the sound of fine crystal as it fell upon a marble floor.
     Bree’s frost finally broke the third Ogre’s shield. The frozen shards of the dark Hunter lay at Keflor’s feet.
     Dimandri’s yelp of pain rent the air. Gzzzri shrieked his rage and fire burst from him in a torrent. Keflor dove through it, plunging his knife into the Hunter’s chest.
     Slari’s gri-sister crumpled, her hands clenched around the thick hilt protruding from her chest. Slari stood helpless as Dimandri’s life gushed onto the ground and the light and laughter dimmed from her eyes.
     The young, red Drago titled back its scaled head and keened. Fire sprayed the kinship trees around them. The intertwined trunks of the Virch burst into flames.
Slari caught the fire symbiote before he burnt the forest down. He singed her hands. Bree leaned over and snorted frost on them. The burns cooled.
     Her Drago somersaulted in the air, his snout wide. Hoarfrost bathed the Ogre and the surrounding woods. The smell of burnt flesh overlaid the minty wood smell and surrounded her in a cloud of dingy smoke. Slari curled her fingers in, flicking them open and closed. Bouncing sparks of blue collected the smoke and disappeared.
     Slari cooed and soothed the young symbiote. Slowly he calmed and returned to comfort his master. Slipping into the small seam between Keflor’s boots and body armor, he refused his soul to Keflor’s.
     The stench death and evil permeated the air and wrapped her in a cloak of grief and loss.