Stories of Giladriis: The Paladin's Squire

Part Seven

Razeem and the others were kept under with the assistance of magic. Since Kabel started using corrupt magic he had grown considerably more powerful. It was easy for him to keep them under for the entire journey. Kabel took them east, almost to the border between the empire of Mythos and the Blazing Desert. He took them to quickly put together wooden stronghold that only had one floor and a roof. He brought with him the two dark paladins that had captured Olsyn and Cianna. He had all four of them chained up to the wooden walls and floors. Razeem was the last one to wake up from the sleeping spell.

    Razeem looked around the room and took in everything he could. He could see that Gunder, Olsyn, and Cianna were all alive and sighed in relief. He noted the smell of oak was strong, leading him to believe that the walls were freshly cut and placed together. There was only one person in the room that he did not personally know, and that was the dark paladin standing beside the seated Kabel Windrift. He frowned deeply at Kabel when he smiled at him.

    "Good morning, my student. You have grown into quite the paladin." Besides sounding older, Kabel's voice had changed very little. He continued to smile at Razeem as if they were long lost friends who had run into each other at a tavern.

    Razeem looked away, trying to control his anger. "How in the name of the fallen Soladaris did you survive that fight against Fithris? What happened to you?" Razeem looked back up, pain in his face and voice. He had never felt as betrayed as he did looking at his former teacher, somebody he had always held in such high respect, standing before him in the colors of the dark paladins.

    When Kabel stood up he motioned for the other dark paladin to leave them. He left the room without a word, closing the door behind him. Kabel played with his eye patch for a moment before stepping in front of Razeem. He looked down at Razeem, who was unable to do anything but sit or go to his knees due to the length of the chains that held him in place. "I did not expect to live when I fell over the side. I was bleeding heavily from my eye and my face and could barely see. It was nothing but luck that my hands found a ledge as I fell. I managed to pull myself up and back into the strong hold."

    "Once inside I was captured by some of the survivors of the stronghold and taken out in a secret underground tunnel that led back to one of the other nearby strongholds we believed to be abandoned. Fithris had me locked away and called for the dark paladins that followed Mythos. They came when they heard I was the one that he had captured. The dark paladins started to torture me. Sometimes they would continue non-stop for days at a time."

    "They wanted to force me into using corrupted magic, to turn to the ways of the dark paladins. At first I resisted. I would have preferred death than to turn to use the power of Mythos against the world I protected and loved. Thinking of betraying Giladriis to serve the very person who I thought was trying to destroy it was all that kept me from falling... at first."

    Kabel sighed and sat back down. He started writing something down on a piece of paper that sat on an otherwise empty desk to his side. "Eventually, almost two years later, I gave in, just a little bit. I took hold of the corrupted magic that had been tempting me and used it to put my torturer into a magically induced sleep. I felt the rush of the corrupted magic and decided then that I did not want to hold back. I knew that the paladins that once served the fallen Soladaris had been wrong. We needed to use the corrupted magic, not fear it. The dark paladins of Mythos trained me to become the powerful dark paladin I am today."

    Kabel drew his sword and smiled, lifting Razeem's chin with the flat section of the blade. "And now, my dear Razeem, you will see what I too was once blind to... and you will join me," he moved the sword so that the sharp point pressed lightly against Razeem's throat, "Or you will die."