Aireaz stared blankly at the man. Her jaw had gone slack at some point during his speech, she didn’t know what to think or how to proceed. When Ixidor mentioned a mage friend, Aireaz knew that he could only mean Elric. She didn’t have many friends, and only one was a mage. While Ixidor was obviously crazy, he knew something about Elric and seemed to believe that he could see her friend.


“I don’t understand, why would you want to help me and how did you know that I needed help?” If he really could help her then she would gladly take any assistance that was offered but she would need to keep her guard up. She wondered if he could see her thoughts. That would be problematic.


She forced herself to loosen her grip on her staff, she hadn’t realized that her knuckles had gone white. “I assume you know that I was on my way to Espladar to find a mage who could assist me in helping my friend. Would you be willing to tell me what you know? We would need something to talk about if we traveled together. My name is Aireaz, by the way. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” The words seemed to come out by themselves, she hoped that she was reading this man correctly.
If she wasn't then she could be in for a difficult fight, but better to have him close where she could keep an eye on him.

Elric was discouraged when the demon seemed to focus on Zaan. He shuffled backwards in an attempt to avoid the barbed chain but there was not a lot of room to maneuver in the tiny shack. The chain coiled up his leg and wrapped around him, stabbing him again with its sharp edges before the tip aimed itself at his eye. He wasn’t sure how real his body was but the barbs seemed to slip deeper into his skin as he struggled and he could feel hot blood gushing from multiple wounds on his torso and arms. Beads of sweat began to form on his forehead as the point of the chain moved dangerously close to his left eye.

Elric struggled to take in a jagged breath before responding, “Zaan? Why would you care about scum like him? The Lords of the Sandspire are all corrupt. They don’t call it the “City of Greed” for nothing. They all have dealings with criminals. Zaan isn’t anything special.” The black mage had no idea how much Azazel knew about the world outside of hell but he hoped it wasn’t too much. “Besides, the Sandspire trades with many lands. Airships aren’t all that uncommon these days.” His eyes bagan to water and he squinted them shut as he made a quick attempt to change the subject, “Like I was saying, The EnStone is probably in the Sandspire.”

    "Hmm, how Did I know you needed help? Well again long story, let's just say I've been watching your friend and you and well most everyone for a very long time." he said with a nod of his head. "As for why I'd be willing to help you well let's just say I have a vested interest in you and Elric's survival," he made a thoughtful humming noise to himself and scratched his chin "no survival isn't the word, success... yes... that's it" he finished. 

   Ixidor slid his branch into his much shorter sleeve it seemed to disappear as he pushed it in "Well, no need for that thing right now." He turned back to Aireaz "As for finding a mage in Espladar that can assist you I'm afraid that is a lost cause: he's beyond the reach of most now. However, I can take you to Elric if you'd like but it will not be a fun journey."

    "I would suggest you gather anything you might need, you won't be back here for a while" he said motioning to Mallaston. "When you're ready just tell me and we'll be there, but when we get there don't say I didn't warn you... " he trailed off grinning and readied himself to follow the girl. 

Aireaz was confused, Ixidor must be the mage that she had been searching for. Either that or he was more insane than she had originally believed. She would have to take the chance. It may be the only one she would ever get.


She considered for a moment whether there was anything else that she needed for a trip to the underworld. She didn’t know, she had thought that whomever she found to take her there could prepare her for the journey. She could see that she would get no information from Ixidor, he had not been forthcoming so far. She had her staff, her dagger and some water in her pack. Anything else that she needed would not be accessible to her right now anyway.


“Ixidor, I think that I am ready. I don’t have the ability to gather any other supplies. I don’t suppose that you could let me in on the secrets of what may be waiting on the other side?” She knew that it was pointless to ask, and she did not want to stall any longer. She stepped forward and took a deep breath, “Never mind, Ixidor, I’m ready. I need to get to Elric now.”

    Ixidor smiled slyly at the girl as she pronounced her readiness, "Well then let us be off." Ixidor led Aireaz a bit off of the road into the woods so that the travelers on the road would not see them and stopped in a clearing that bordered a huge old oak tree. The Mad Mage looked around at the clearing and nodded his head then placed his hand on ground in the middle of the clearing and there was a brilliant blue flash. As the flash abated the whole clearing was now full of blue luminescent runes covering the ground forming concentric magical circles filled with arcane writing and symbols. He sat down in a meditation position in the middle of the circles and closed his eyes letting his mind's eye cast out across space and time. He cocked his head slightly "Good god... Ridwan help me if I ever tell Elric anything important...Maybe this isn't... nope already made the plans let's do this..." he said out loud and with a sigh. 

    Ixidor began chanting arcane words of power and moving his hands forming ancient seals. As he did this the runes on the ground began to glow and pulsate with an eerie blue light that grew faster and faster as his chanting the hand seals did also. After what must of been five minutes of this the light finally reached a crescendo and abruptly stopped. Ixidor leapt to his feat and stood bolt upright "The ritual has been completed," he said in a booming voice his what could be seen of his face and his body language seemed stern and resolute for the first time.

    Ixidor then smiled and slouched, "Did I have you? Eh? I totally did. Sorry just wanted to make sure you got your monies worth. I'm not a cheap date you know... I'm not sure if you know this but I'm actually a pretty big deal around here." He let out what could only be described as a mad cackle and walked over the huge oak tree: the runes and circles in the clearing fading as he went. Ixidor pointed his finger at the tree and drew a crude drawing of a door on it in blue luminescence; really it looked like something a 5 year old might draw in crayon. He grasped the lopsided door knob of the drawing as though it were real and turned it. To most it would have been silent but to the elf girls trained ears it sounded like paper tearing as Ixidor pulled on the knob and opened a doorway to another dimension. 

    The oak looked intact but in the center of it was a wobbly and uneven doorway standing roughly 6 feet tall and 3 wide. Its look seemed so absolutely out of place the immaturity and ridiculousness of the door clashed so completely with what appeared inside of its center. There there was a landscape that could only be hell itself. Ixidor looked at the girl and swept his arm toward the door as if to beckon her in, "Ladies first," he said with a grin.

"It is rude to lie..." Azazel said as he grinned at Elric, "Do you think that we know nothing of the world above? Mortals like you come in every day, willing to spill their guts," he said with a laugh as he looked down at Elric's bile. Azazel surprisingly let the chain loose, and it retracted back towards him into his dusky flesh. Maintaining his grin he took a step back from the mage, towards the door that exited the little shack.

"No matter, you've already given me more than enough information for me to work with... welcome to hell by the way," Azazel said as he began heading towards the door. As he go to the exit, he seemed to exhale a thick black smoke that fell to the ground like a thick fog. Within a few moments the room began to fill up with the black substance, which would cause Elric to have hallucinations of some of his greatest terrors if he were to inhale it.

Azazel swung open the door to the chamber, and then stepped outside shutting the door behind him. He then began manipulating a lock on the door, intending to lock Elric in for an indefinite amount of time. This was always Azazel's favorite part, he would listen to the mortal scream for awhile before he would take him to the pins to meet whoever his new maser would be. Azazel had gotten a good lead out of this one, someone with a lot of connections on their hands.

Aireaz watched as Ixidor concentrated and began some strange ritual. She did not understand what he was saying, it must have been some language that had died long ago. He stood and pronounced that it had all been a ruse. What kind of madman had she gotten involved with? He walked over to the tree and created what he believed to be a portal but at that moment Aireaz had doubts about whether he could do any of the things he claimed. She was about to run in the other direction when he opened the door in the tree and indicated for her to walk through it.


She led with her staff, stepping through the doorway cautiously. She stumbled a bit on the other side, trying to get her bearings. She had gone from the forest outside of Mallaston into a rocky landscape in what she could only assume was the underworld. It felt strange, wrong somehow but she steadied herself on the new ground and turned around to take in the scene. It appeared to be a canyon, with tall walls on either side and a large gate at the farthest end. She inhaled sharply. She knew where she was, there were tales of this place that were whispered around campfires. The kind that were told to children to get them to behave. She didn’t know if she had believed them until now.


Everything seemed to be the same grey color, it was so depressing. Aireaz could not imagine being here for any length of time, but that wasn’t the point of this place. This was just a stop on the longer journey. She knew that after all this time, Elric would not be here.

The mage fell onto the hard dirt floor with a thump. He couldn’t understand why Azazel was leaving when he clearly knew that Elric had been lying. Azazel’s plan hit the mage like a sledgehammer to the guts as he closed the door and began locking it from the outside. Guilt crept in faster than the black smoke that Elric failed to notice. Of course he had enough information to find Zaan, even if he hadn’t given away any other details. He looked around the shack for another exit. He was sure the front door would be guarded but he needed to find a way to send a warning to the prince. He managed to scramble to his feet and stumbled through the dark shack towards the back wall. The place seemed empty except for a large Mallastonian device with metal grates to his right and a few randomly scattered bones that Elric recognized as human.

By the time he noticed the thick black fog it was already enveloping him. Elric grabbed the back wall to steady himself as he choked on the poison. It seemed to dissipate quickly enough but as he struggled to catch his breath he felt a weight in his pocket. Elric reached into his duster and pulled out an old leather bound book. The title was faded off the cover but he didn’t need it as he flipped through the pages. He remembered each of the many notes he had scribbled in the margins and the important pages he had dog-eared in the novice spellbook. It was the first book he’d ever been given and more importantly a memento of his mother. He couldn’t believe the book was here. He had been certain he had lost it when he died. The gentle sounds of a woman humming floated from a dark corner behind him, causing Elric’s blood to freeze despite the sweltering heat. He fell to his knees and grabbing a jagged bone he began digging feverishly under the wall. He desperately did not want to see what was behind him. Elric knew his mother had been a prostitute but she was a kind woman. Surely she would have ended up in the good place. Whatever was happening now must be a trick.

His bone-shovel cracked with a snap and Elric cast it aside to continue digging with his fingers. Finally he felt the air on the other side and he slipped under the wall head first. He only got stuck a couple of times but he managed to struggle out of the hole and began limping away from the shack. He didn’t see Azazel but he was sure the demon couldn’t be too far off. It seemed as if the shack were on the outskirts of the domain of greed. The hot air was thick with the smell of brimstone and the earth was molten rock and occasional streams of lava flowed over the black earth. Elric could see a few demons in the corner of his eye but they hadn’t noticed him yet.

He burst into a run, despite the pain in his leg. However, he soon felt a presence to his left. Looking over he noticed a beautiful drow elf with dark hair and a gaunt sickly completion. Keira reached out to take his hand as she ran beside him. He couldn’t be sure if she was a hallucination or a shape shifter but he reached out to her anyways. A friendly face was a welcome change in this place, even if she wasn’t real. Elric came to a sudden halt, swinging his arms wildly in an attempt to balance himself as he nearly fell down the rocky bank of a red river. On the other side he could see a large empty plain that could only be the domain of sloth. There was an unnatural stillness that made him uneasy but he was sure it would be a safer place to hide. Elric furrowed his brow as he inspected the river. Upon first glance he had suspected it was made of lava but now he could tell it was flowing blood. Mangled body parts floated in the blood and ghostly voices rose from the mouths of decapitated heads. “Turn back” whispered one voice, “you’ll never escape” responded another. Elric backed up a little and fell backwards to sit on the bank. He tried to wipe some of the dirt out of his eyes but his bloody fingers only made matters worse. Depression set in as he listened to the voices. They were right. There was no way out of this. He rubbed his injured knee and gave into the feeling of exhaustion. Keira looked down at him with pity, “You got what you deserved.”

    Ixidor smiled as the girl entered the portal and stepped through himself. He reached back grasped the infantile doodle of a knob and pulled the door shut with a thud. "Well here we are little miss," he said in a capricious tone with the same grin still on his face.

    Ixidor stepped out onto the grey ground, "Ahh just as bleak as I remember it, Ohh is that the gate? Perhaps we should go play with Aspuzoch he just adores me, he told me so himself. Well to be exact he said he'd see me again if I kept breaking his rules but I'm assuming he's just playing hard to get," he said as he rolled back and forth on the balls of his feet.

   Ixidor began lolling his head from side to side while staring at the elf, "Now where shall we go from here? Where is your dashing wizard of a friend and however shall we get to him?" he mused to the girl.
 "Remember this in your quest, I'm just here to facilitate, more of an observer, I'll stick around to protect my investment but I'm really not a party to this 'madness'," he again made air quotes for emphasis. "So lead on to your great endeavor; perhaps you'll even get out of this alive," he finished with a mad cackle as he faded out of existence.

Aireaz thought for a moment, she knew that there were many different sections of hell.  Well, she supposed she didn't really know anything from here on out.  The information she had gathered was sketchy at best.  She turned to Ixidor, "The first place we need to get to is hell.  Elric was taken by the staff of Takeshi, he became consumed with greed. That is where he will be."  She assumed that anything they would need to find would be past those gates.

"Come on, we have to get around the gates.  I don't think that the living can go through them, but I also think that they were built to keep the dead in, not to keep the living out."  She moved quickly and quietly trying to stay in the shadows of the larger boulders and the canyon walls.  She didn't look at Ixidor, she could not imagine what the man looked like trying to be stealthy but she assumed it would frustrate her.  They reached as close to the gate as she thought was possible.  She surveyed the area with the eyes of a thief.  Yes, this place wold be difficult to get out of, but it seemed that climbing down into the pit would not be out of the realm of possibility.

She bolted to the edge, squeezing through narrow breaks in the landscape and peered over at the other side.  Her heart beat quickly and her breathing was too fast.  She hadn't been afraid like this in a long time but she had come too far.  She wondered if she would be able to tell where the Aspect of Greed kept his charges.  She doubted there would be a sign, but she couldn't worry about that now.  Perhaps she would be able to get some help from Ixidor when the time came, if he was still around.  The procrastinating had to end, she swung herself over and began her descent into hell.

 Azazel had wandered about three hundred feet away from the helish little shack over a hill to the east, overlooking the fields of greed. He was supposed to turn in any good leads that he had to the temple of greed for them to exploit, yet Azazel would get nothing from that. He spit on the ground, thinking about how long he had been down here and all he had done but yet he was still only a little higher than a mortal in the pecking order around here. He frowned as he wondered if existence had anything more to offer than this boring life in the depths of hell. 

 Azazel slowly began making his way down the hill towards the shack where he had left Elric. He still had to turn this new mortal into the pit boss, unless he wanted to have a really bad day himself. Azazel opened up the door and noticed that the prisoner was nowhere in sight. Azazel's heart began to pound, he could get in a lot of trouble for this. He thought better than to raise the alarm, it could just make things worse for him.

 Noticing the hole the wizard had made, Azazel exited the shack and began walking in a fast pace up the hill with hopes that he would spot the fool before it was too late.

Elric lay there listening to the gurgling sounds of the river of blood for what might have been a long time. He had become lost in his own fears and the weight of his hopeless situation seemed to hold him down. When he heard door of the shack slam closed he managed to roll down the steep gravel bank and out of sight. He stopped just short of touching the flowing blood and sat up against the crumbling wall of pebbles. He looked up and sighed realizing how steep the climb back up would be. Not that he ever wanted to go back there. He had seen quite enough of the domain of greed.

Elric glanced across the river. He noticed the bank on the other side seemed much easier to manage but the river itself seemed a little too wide to jump across. He stood up as he made the decision to follow the river in the hopes that he would come to a place where it narrowed enough to get across without having to wade through it. He crouched down and began making his way to the left, and away from Azazel, as stealthy as his injured leg allowed.

Aireaz' arms shook as she made her way slowly down the steep rock face. She nearly dropped her staff every time she shifted her weight. She hadn't seen Ixidor in a while and she could only assume that meant she was on her own. Trying not to look down as she climbed she tried to focus on her fingers. The dirt climbing to her fingernails, the sweat dripping down the palms of her hands distracted her until finally she reached flat ground.                            

Crouching low, she scanned the area quickly. It was surprisingly quiet but she could hear water flowing.  If nothing else, the water would serve as a landmark to help her find her way back here. She made her way toward the sound as she sipped a little of the water from her pack. She would never think of drinking or eating anything that came from this place so she had to be careful with her supplies. 

After walking for what felt like days but was probably only a few hours, she began to hear sounds. Unidentifiable to someone still living, but unnerving.  Her emotions seemed heightened, she began to think that she had made a mistake. Maybe she should have accepted Elrics death and claimed his possessions as her own. She probably should have just taken them while he was alive. These were the thoughts that consumed her as she walked. Not fear, as she had thought would be the case but greed. It occurred to her that perhaps her fatal flaw would be greed as well. She thought she had been a thief to survive, but she had been drawn to this place, the home of greed.

She was so deep in thought and so wrought with the internal struggle between greed and her love for Elric that she nearly missed the shadow in the corner of her eye.  She looked closer at the familiar shape huddled, as if hiding.  She approached carefully, slowly in case it was a trick.  In this place she didn't think that her own senses could be trusted.  "Elric," she whispered when she got close enough.  Then she gasped, if someone was trying to trick her then they had done a great job, she would never had thought that Elric could look like this.

Elric continued to stumble forward across the rough and jagged stones, always keeping the river in sight. His feet seemed to get heavier with each step as he continued to listen to the babbling of the pessimistic spirits. He wiped the sweat off his brow and took in a deep breath in a futile attempt to motivate himself but he choked on the thick smokey air. He struggled to continue moving as he coughed but as he drug his feet forward he felt a throbbing pain in his knee that brought him to a sudden halt. He realized that staying near the river had been a mistake. He was much too close to the domain of sloth, if he wasn't careful he could stay here forever.

That's when he saw the slender frame of an approaching elf. Her straight dark hair was longer than he remembered but her angled eyebrows furrowed with concern and he knew it was Aireaz. To the eyes of the dead mage she seemed to glow with life, her absoluteness seeming almost unreal against the dull background of the spirit world. Happiness overwhelmed him for a moment and he was forced to close his eyes. He decided he wasn't thinking clearly. This couldn't be real. His student was alive and well in Espladar. She had to be. He looked around suspiciously realizing he must have caught another dose of Azazel's hallucinogenic mist.

He twitched nervously as wild animals sometimes do and began muttering under his breath, "musn't be distracted by illusion... he is near... must continue on." He turned his attention back towards the endless path he seemed determined to follow.

At first, she thought that her mind was playing tricks on her.  The weight of being alive in this land of the dead was heavy on her consciousness.  Elric seemed not to know her, or possibly he was afraid of her.  He seemed beaten and it broke her heart.  Almost as if he was past hope, and perhaps he was.  She didn't know how long he had been wandering here or what had happened to him to make him so different than the vibrant, confident teacher she had known.  

"Elric, please, wait.  I have come for you. I am so sorry that it took this me this long."  Tears threatened to fall as she lowered her head.  Maybe it was too late, she had wasted so much time.  But, she would not give up now, not when she had come so far and gotten so close. "You are going the wrong way, we have to get you out of here."  

As she spoke she tried to read his face, she didn't know if he understood her words.  She started to reach out to him but feared what reaction he might have.  She turned all the way around, trying to spot any threats but knowing that she probably wouldn't see anything approaching until it was too late.  She had made it here, but she had no plan only speculation.  This place was draining her of hope and motivation.  It was as if there was a voice inside her saying that she had failed, she should lay there and truly join her friend for eternity.  

The tears that she had been trying to hold back came flooding down, leaving shining streaks down her dirt and sweat coated cheeks.