Alexander the Great Mage

"That's it?" Aleyria asked with a frown.

"Yes, that's it." Caerose nodded. 

Alexander laughed out loud. "And you couldn't merely say that right away? Why go through the history lesson first? It made the story so long!" 

Caerose narrowed her eyes and glared at Alexander in irritation. Everybody she knew had always said that she was long winded, but she never expected Alexander to pick on her ONE weakness so soon. They had only met a few minutes ago! Minutes!

"Forget that, the main issue is, why did Dragostan say he was dying?!" Aleyria said worriedly. "Were there any accounts or stories about Dragostan's final days? Other diaries or official accounts, perhaps?"

"That was exactly what I asked myself after reading that diary! You have the instincts of a historian, Aleyria." Caerose praised. "Anyway, I got a few thousand librarians to search through the Royal Library to look for an answer to that. After several long months of intensively searching for that information, that search finally bore fruit! I found two diaries which mentioned Dragostan during those final days." She paused again.

"What? What were those two accounts? Don't keep pausing in the middle of your story!" Aleyria reprimanded Caerose. 

Alexander and Caerose laughed. 

Alexander was actually taking this whole affair of the curse pretty lightly. He felt great, and he didn't feel like anything was wrong. And even if anything went wrong, Fluff-fluff, his lucky cat, should be waking up very soon. She would probably somehow manage to cancel the curse.

"One account was from a soldier in Dragostan's unit. He talked about how Dragostan seemed to be vastly more powerful than before. He briefly mentioned in passing that Dragostan would be the key to victory, especially with his recent increase in power which somehow allowed him to instantly kill thousands of orcs without so much as batting an eyelid. 

The other account was much darker. It was from a servant in his household. She wrote that two servant girls had died recently, and those two were in charge of cleaning up Dragostan's room. A day before they died, they were complaining to her about how much foul blood there was in his room. They had to work really hard to clean it up so that no trace remained."

"That's not much…" Aleyria said disappointedly. 

"Yes, not much, and definitely nothing to worry about!" Alexander stood up and smiled at Aleyria. "We don't know for sure that the blood belonged to Dragostan, or if Dragostan was merely feeling sick with worry over the fact that he had betrayed his Gods that caused him to feel as though he was dying. And most importantly, I feel great! Brimming with health, if I may say so." 

Aleyria glanced up and smiled back at Alexander. She leaned against his body gently and sighed. "I really hope that is true."

Caerose looked at the loving couple and sighed too. Her instincts were telling her that the curse was real. But she didn't have the heart to press home this point at this moment. 

However, she didn't have to. 

Alexander opened his mouth and was about to say something when he suddenly choked and began to cough wildly. 

Splash.

Foul smelling black blood left his mouth and hit the table. 

As one, Caerose, Aleyria and Alexander stared at it silently. 

"Erhmm." Alexander cleared his throat. 

Aleyria and Caerose swivelled their heads around to look at Alexander, one filled with worry, the other filled with surprise. Both didn't expect that the eyewitness account of the maid to be true. And if it was true… Was Alexander truly dying, as Dragostan was, according to what he had written in his diary?

"How do you feel?" Aleyria asked softly as she held Alexander's hand.

Alexander was about to brighten up and say that he was feeling absolutely fine when he suddenly felt a bout of weakness strike him. He gripped Aleyria's hand tightly for support. 

However, the bout of weakness worsened and his body began to grow hot. 

"UGH!" Alexander spat out another glob of black, foul-smelling blood onto the ground. 

"Alexander!" Aleyria cried out in alarm.

"I'm fine." Alexander managed to croak out, right before he passed out. 

"Alexanderrr!!!!"

*-*-*-*-*

"I would have defeated you every single time if you didn't cheat." Kan-Dari remarked lightly. She glanced at Shira, and felt rather annoyed that she wasn't looking at her. 

"Ha ha, Dari, Dari, my sweet little Dari…" Shira chuckled evilly. She had her eyes closed and was enjoying the cool evening breeze atop Firestorm. 

They had successfully made excellent time in their mission. They had spread in twelve different directions, each Archmage accompanied by the troll representatives of each area, and had spent a very quick two days picking up all the trolls that they could get their hands on. All the trolls responded extremely well, and within two days, they met their quota and quickly began their journey back to Rin-Turah. 

And what a quota it was. They had rounded up over three hundred thousand trolls, and had assigned ten large trolls per Wyvern. Shira had insisted that they bring all thirty thousand Wyverns to pick up the trolls, so that the transfer of trolls into the Rin-Turah interior would be expedited. 

Liz'An had agreed and smiled ruefully at the twists and turns of fate. They had slaughtered almost a hundred thousand trolls a few weeks ago for trying to enter Rin-Turah. Now, they themselves were bringing in over three hundred thousand.

Thirty thousand Wyverns flying in relatively neat formations was a fearsome, fearsome sight. They filled the sky with guttural roars and almost completely turned day into night as they blocked the sun from shining upon the land. 

Liz'An, Shira and Kan-Dari were flying ahead in their 3rd Generation Wyverns. Isabella and the rest of the King's Guard took positions in the other three cardinal directions, three per direction. With that, they managed to keep the Wyverns in relatively good order. 

As usual, Shira and Kan-Dari were engaging in their bickering. 

"Don't call me sweet little Dari!" Kan-Dari snapped rather unsweetly.

Shira opened one of her eyes lazily and gave Kan-Dari a smirk. "Come on now, Dari, just enjoy the flight. We both know that even without Firestorm's influence upon Princess Yellow, which by the way, is also a type of strength, I would have smacked you senseless more times than not anyway."

Kan-Dari was about to retort passionately as she would have done normally, when she decided to take a different tactic.

She remained silent for a moment and put on a slightly pouty face. 

Not hearing Kan-Dari's usual furious retort, Shira opened both eyes to peek at Kan-Dari. She was rather surprised by Kan-Dari's slightly morose face. After a moment, she started to feel slightly guilty.

"Was I too rough on her?" She wondered privately.

As if on cue, Liz'An, ever considerate and thoughtful, asked Kan-Dari. "Dari, are you alright?"

YES!! Kan-Dari exclaimed in her heart. Perfect timing, Liz'An!

Kan-Dari put on an even sadder look and sighed deeply. 

"Hey, are you okay?" Shira finally asked.

"I… I think…" Kan-Dari stammered lightly.

"What? What are you thinking about?" Liz'An pressed on. She brought her Wyvern slightly closer to Dari's. After a moment, Shira did the same too. 

"I think… I am the weakest among the three of us!" Kan-Dari finally blurted out, her voice cracking perfectly at the last syllable. 

"Heyy… That's not true.!" Liz'An comforted Kan-Dari. 

"No, it's true! Shira beat me hands down so many times, and I definitely couldn't beat YOU Liz'An, with your infinite mana pool and strong physical combat abilities…" Kan-Dari sniffed loudly, as if holding back her tears.

"Look! Now that Shira found a powerful 3rd Generation Wyvern… The gap between us would only grow wider and wider! Within a few years, I would be… I would be the group's weakest link!! Boo hoo hoo!" 

Liz'An glanced at Shira, who had narrowed her eyes suspiciously at Kan-Dari. She motioned her head towards Kan-Dari, silently telling Shira to go comfort her.

Shira finally obliged and executed a mid-air hop that defied common sense and which would probably have generated countless Oooohs and Ahhhhs if viewed by an audience. She landed agilely on Kan-Dari's yellow Wyvern and sat down opposite Kan-Dari.

"Look here…" Shira began.

"BOO! HOO! HOO!" Kan-Dari wailed even louder. "I should definitely win a prize for the best elven actress, Kan-Dari thought smugly to herself. Shira must be about to praise me now! And maybe, she might even put herself down to make me feel better! Hee hee!

Shira's eyes narrowed even more. She had long suspected that something was off, and Kan-Dari's uncharacteristic loud wailing had finally confirmed her suspicions. This little mynx, Shira realized. She's acting! Let me teach her a lesson. 

"Yes! You're the group's weakest link! You're a weak little elven girl who could only whine and cry like a little baby! It's great that you finally realize that! HA! HA! HA!" Shira hooted loudly in Kan-Dari's face.