End of Days: XXVI

The Haunting Past of Morgul

I awoke to Morgul shaking my shoulder. It was dark in our room, minus the light from an ever-burning candle near the door to the hallway. There was no way to tell what time it was being that we were underground. I felt well-rested so it must have been close to morning.

“Good morning Cinredi. The squires should be here to fetch us soon, best we start getting ready so we can get on the road to the capital.” Said Morgul in a groggy tone. I shot out of bed and quickly dressed. Morgul was completely ready when he woke me, Elves not needing to sleep was a great advantage during times like this.

“I guess this is when things start to get interesting. I still find it odd that one of The Murder is going to be taking us personally to the capital. I wonder if any of The Queen’s Paladins will be able to see my powers like Death does. I guess we should start calling him Thannix or General so we don’t blow his cover. “I rambled. It was clear that my many questions caused some annoyance, but I felt that they were valid. The more information we had the better plan we could come up with. Morgul tightened a few clasps on his dark leather armor and shifted his rapier and long sword that hung from his many belts.

“There are a few too many unknowns for my liking as well. You don’t get to live as a countries most wanted terrorist as long as I have without having good intelligence.” He confessed. “I am at a loss. Death has never been this helpful to me in the past. The first time I practiced my magic he almost took my life for upsetting the balance. It has had more than one avatar after me for as long as I can remember. The first few I saw were startling. Specters that only a practiced necromancer could notice. Most of the time they just watch me, waiting for a chance to take my soul back Death.” As I finished tucking my bedding back to the way they were before we had arrived, Morgul continued to divulge more information about his past.

“When The Queen’s men found me after they burned Celeste to the ground, that all changed. My most prized possession, my Owl pendant, a symbol of my status in the Eleven government. I had enchanted it to save my soul should I die. It also recreated my body from the ashes of my first body. I only had the materials to store such a spell once. So as I stood there naked atop a mountain of smoldering ash made of the other Owls, thousands of Elves, The Tree of Life, and the castle that stood around it.” I sat on my bed and listened intensely. I could almost feel that this was the first time he had told anyone this information.

“You saw the courtyard where the tree stood. In your visions when I brought you back to life. It was beautiful, but it was gone. All of it. And I didn’t have a spare life to save me. All I had was my knowledge of necromancy. So in order to spare my life, I offered my services to build an army of the undead to serve The Queen. Thus the beginning of the crypts, and all of the undead abominations. Death did not like this. The undead were very hard to control. But as time went on I got better and perfected my knowledge, soon I controlled them like it was nothing. When I had what I needed I set the undead towards the workers and overseers of each of the crypts and began looking for the souls of the strongest that I could use to take my revenge on those behind the downfall of my people, of my civilization.” A knock on the door punctuated his final statement.

“Good morning sirs, I am to take you to the stables.” The squire said. “Please follow me.” He lead us back up through the underground and into the courtyards and then we were left at the stable to check our supplies and our horses. Once the squire left I began my questioning.

“Morgul, why have you not told us more of your struggles. You brought us back to help you. Let us help you.” I pleaded.