Ravnica and the Star of Kael'thas
Book 1: Rise of the Undead Queen

Author Notes:
-- This will be used for scene breaks and for when the story switches to another character, but it does not mean that a new section of the story has started.
xXx This will identify where each paragraph breaks.
'Character Thought'

xXx

Chapter 2: Rising Dead

Gerrard was walking along at a nice pace in the alleyways when a strange sound and feeling drew his attention. Turning, Gerrard looked a slightly cracked door down a dead end alleyway. Walking slowly towards it, Gerrard kept his hand on his machete. He was caught by surprise when the door suddenly slammed open and a sandshrew morph stormed out. "The dead walk." The boy shouted running past Gerrard in terror.


Gerrard looked on slightly confused and walked up to the opened door. Something had that young boy frightened and Gerrard had this nasty feeling in his gut, he just had to check it out. Keeping one hand on his machete just in case, Gerrard walked inside. At first glance, it appeared to be a small pottery shop, several tall clay vases scattered about the room, all of them well spaced and recently cleaned, a number of them with designs etched into their sides, a few even had faces etched on them. None of this could have scared the boy though and Gerrard walked deeper into the room, a single hallway on the other side with the faint glow of a torch around the corner. Walking carefully not to disturb any of the vases, Gerrard walked through the room and through the passage on the other side following the hall around the corner.

Both sides of the hall were lined with doors now aside from the staircase heading down on his right side. Gerrard heard something shift behind the door to his left though and turned to face it. The feeling in his gut grew and he knew he recognized it now, it was the same feeling he got whenever bandits or something else with bad intentions showed up. With his hand firmly gripping his sheathed machete, Gerrard gently took the doorknob and gave it a twist opening the door.

Walking into the room, Gerrard came face to face with an eevee, the young lady still getting dressed as she turned around to see who had opened the door on her. Gerrard's face went red with embarrassment and he stepped back while the young eevee lass screamed out and grabbed a vase. Gerrard ducked just in time to avoid getting hit by the vase that was thrown at him as he shouted out his apologies.

Leaning up against the door as another vase slammed against it, Gerrard stood there surprised. How he had strangely made a habit of walking in on the ladies while they were getting dressed was beyond him, but it seemed to have been an unneeded and most definitely unwanted habit. Gerrard had lowered his head to try and calm down, only to raise it back up a few seconds later at the same feeling in his gut. A small gust of air blew up from down the stairs and the torch went out leaving the hall dark.

Before Gerrard could grab either of his blades, something large had tackled him. Gerrard and his attacker broke through the door into the eevee's room as she screamed out for a second time, this time in utter horror at the thing that was trying to bite at Gerrard.

"What the hell is this thing?" Gerrard half shouted, one hand firmly placed on the decaying neck of the ampharos morph that was trying to eat him. The creature was much larger then him and it was times like this that Gerrard wished he wasn't so small. Most of the skin on this thing had been eaten away, exposing muscles and bone in some places, with one dead eye and a glowing red mist serving as its other.

Try as he might, Gerrard was unable to reach for his swords and his attacker was slowly overpowering him, its mouth snapping hard at him. The eevee quickly took another vase and slammed it down on the ampharos's head, a bit of flesh getting torn off and landing on Gerrard's head as the vase shattered.

"Sac...ri...fice. Get...sac...ri...fice." The thing muttered looking up to the eevee, a large chunk of its cheek was starting to fall off now. The thing slowly tried to get up, giving Gerrard his chance to finally reach for his swords.

"Help." The eevee shouted out backing into the corner of the room. Now instead of trying to hold the thing back from biting his neck, Gerrard was now trying to keep the thing down and away from the eevee. The ampharos looked back down to Gerrard and reached down to grab his head. Still unable to draw his blades, Gerrard reached over and grabbed a large chunk of the broken vase and smashed it over the head. The thing faltered for a second and Gerrard rolled it over so that he was no on top of it and finally able to draw his katana and plunged the blade into its gut.

The creature let out a loud groan and the mist that made up its left eye dimmed. Gerrard quickly backed off and the eevee ran over grabbing him. "Wha...what is that thing?" She asked.

"The walking dead." Gerrard stated panting a bit. "I thought it was just a myth, but there's no way that thing could be alive."

The ampharos twitched a bit before it once again started moving. "Sac...ri...fice."

"Run." Gerrard stated as he walked back out of the room with the eevee. He may have had some experience dealing with criminals and even helped out with a lesser demon before, but Gerrard was at a lost in this situation. All he knew was that magic had reanimated this body and his normal method of dealing with foes was useless.

Gerrard ran down the hall with the underdressed eevee gripping his arm as he reentered the storeroom only to find that the door had been shut and a pile of crates had been toppled next to it. The sound of a small moan behind them drew their attention. "Get into the corner, hide." Gerrard whispered as he drew his machete ready to fight. Rounding the corner, the ampharos stumbled along, Gerrard's katana still stuck hard in its gut, a large chunk of its face having fallen off reveal muscle and bone to him. It slowly kept its pace towards Gerrard as he readied his machete.

"I don't what manor of magic gave you birth." Gerrard stated. "But I'm not about to be your meal."

Before Gerrard could strike though, the small twang in behind it and a the tip of crossbow bolt break through the front of its skull, its barbed surface preventing the bolt from digging through the whole way and hitting Gerrard. The zombie's red mist like eye faded and blow out in a wisp of blood before the creature fell to its knees and then over flat. "Gerrard, are you alright?" An enforcer asked standing the closed hallway, the small sandshrew boy next to him.

"Dex?" Gerrard asked as the marill dropped his crossbow to his side.

"Your back one day and I already have to save your ass." Dex stated walking up and drawing his blade stabbing the thing in the back to make sure it was dead. "What is this thing?"

"How would I know?" Gerrard asked walking over to where the eevee had hid and pulled off his cloak covering her with it.

"Its really dead...right?" She asked slowly standing up and quickly covering herself with Gerrard's cloak.

"I put my last blessed barbed spearhead bolt into and I have yet to find a thing that could survive a bolt like that through its skull." Dex walked up to the thing and kicked it onto its side, its flesh decaying a bit leaving a foul odor in the air as Dex covered his nose along with everyone else.

"It tackled me from the cellar staircase." Gerrard stated. "What all's down there?" He looked to the eevee.

"My father owns the pottery story out front, but when my grandfather built this house, there was a store room connected to the sewers." The eevee explained.

"Wait, the sewers?" Gerrard turned and looked at her. The eevee nodded.

"You know something Gerrard?" Dex asked as he pulled his blade from the now skinless ampharos.

"Last night, I has a strange vision of running through the sewers." Gerrard stated looking at the wooden panels where the zombie's blood had began to spread. "I ended up in some tomb and some voice was asking for help." He said quickly taking his blade before the blood began to spill onto the grip.

"This is some seriously foul magic." Dex stated as he saw the blood bubble a bit as he spread. "We'll have to call a priest out here to remove the worst of it and make sure that this thing stays dead. We better go down and check the sewer entrance. We don't want any more of those things showing up."

"It might be best to call for some more enforcers first." Gerrard stated as he walked with the eevee back to her room to at least get some clothes. As he came up to her room, he noticed another armored figure standing there.

"Hey, keep an eye on her and give her a chance to get dressed. Don't let anyone but us back up these stairs for now. That's an order." Dex stated as he walked down the stairs to the cellar after grabbing the last lit torch in the hallway. The armored figure turned around, the absol's face mostly hidden by his helmet and saluted as Dex and Gerrard walked downstairs.

As they moved down the stair, the absol moved its hand a bit and looked at it, a soft flash of red coming from its eyes as it shook its head before turning to the eevee's room.

The cellar was filled with various unfinished and broken pots, a large turntable and other things all used in the pottery business. It didn't take them long to find the sewer entrance passage and find the wooden door had been broken through. "It's just like the boy said." Dex stated handing the torch to Gerrard and loading another barbed spearhead bolt into his crossbow. Gerrard drew his machete in preparation as well moving up the to the door and through the small passage, the torch leading the way for him.

As with the now completely dead ampharos in the backroom of the store, a foul odor lingered here. Moving into the sewer, Gerrard could see the remains of small rattata and other pests thrown in the murky waters, all of them flowing towards the ocean that the city was built next to.

"I don't see anything." Dex stated, his crossbow still raised a bit as he looked around, a small gem with a light enchantment built into providing just enough light for him to see by. "Looks like someone went to the trouble of tearing down all the light gems though." He stated turning to look at the top of the door to find a large cracked stone over. "Change that, destroyed the light crystals." He nodded for Gerrard to look up at it.

"Those gems were never strong to begin with." Gerrard turned to lean by the water. "I don't sense anything else, well nothing that's looking for trouble anyway."

"That doesn't mean that there aren't more down here." Dex countered. "We should inform Sokar and Krates about this though."

"Sokar?" Gerrard asked looking into the water noticing small crystal flecks, no doubt the remains of light crystal.

"One of the royal advisors. He's in charge of advising the king over military operations and he's the one who gives Krates his marching orders. Like Valix, he's a mewtwo." Dex explained. "What I want to know is why they showed up here though? This sewer path only has two exits, this one and the one by the docks." Dex looked around a bit more checking for any more of the light crystals. "I find it odd that they didn't show up somewhere else."

"That thing did mention something about a sacrifice, whatever that means." Gerrard shrugged a bit.

"Sacrifice?" Dex asked turning to face him. "For what?"

"Your guess..." Gerrard looked around as that feeling came back strong, but it took him a few to realize it was behind him. Gerrard went to turn, but something had crashed hard over his head knocking him out as he fell over, his torch landing in the sewer water.

xXx

Gerrard got a rough wake up call as he was pushed into a large pit, it was dark all around, but there were some faint voices. It took Gerrard a few to collect himself before he was finally able to make out what was around. Large stone walls surrounded the pit he was, a light layer of water filled the bottom and he was wet and cold because of it. Once again the voices spoke up.

"You idiot." A low deep voice stated. "You....things were given a simple task, grab the girl and bring her here without anyone noticing."

"They're zombies, you can't expect them to follow detailed commands." A second voice stated followed by the sound of a few groans. "It's the best we have right now, our skills are still limited without our spellbooks and labs. Necromancy isn't exactly the most welcome class of magic there is, so of course finding the less common reagents will prove difficult for now. Only the priests and healers are really allowed to study it and they are forbidden from learning much other then learning how to try and revive the recently deceased."

The first voice let out a small groan of his own. "Would you quit with the lecturing. At least we got the first sacrifice and isn't that was counts." Gerrard then heard the sound of footsteps above him and he looked up to see a large set of bars over the pit and two dark figures walking up to its edge. "This one could make a great sacrifice as well. Lucarios were known for their aura abilities and that ability may just make him perfect for her to feed off of." Gerrard stood up slowly and tried to look for anyway to tell where he, but his limited view in the pit didn't help.

"So, what do we do with him?" The larger of the two figures asked, a new voice meaning that were at least three men above him, plus however many undead they had.

"We keep him for now." The smaller figure stated, proving to be the second voice he had heard. "You." The figure pointed to something out of his view. "Bring him up here, I want to test something on him." Gerrard didn't like the sound of that, but smiled as he felt his captors had been rather foolish as he felt that he still had his machete with him. Two more figures showed up by the top of the pit, both of them stumbling a bit and moving slowly, even in the dim light, Gerrard could tell that these two were zombies. "Hey Drew, come over here. You too Nick." The first voice called out and the two cloaked figures turned.

"Idiot, never use our real names." The smaller one shouted as both of the cloaked figures walked away leaving the zombies to get Gerrard. They both leaned over the cage and Gerrard got ready as they started to lift the bars up.

It took the zombies a few to do it, but at last the cage was lifted up and one of them fell down into the pit. Gerrard acted quickly and drew his blade hoping that his plan would work as he made a downward cut right on the zombie's neck before it could get up. The wisp of red that up its eyes vanished even though he didn't behead it as the second zombie hopped down with a loud groan and moved towards Gerrard. he moved fast and made a cut at it's throat, putting a nice good cut in the front of it, but it only stumbled back. "Bring him to the table and hold him there until we return." The first voice shouted out as there was the creak of a large door shutting above him, he could only hope that this gave him a chance to escape.

With another strong cut against the thing's skull, Gerrard was thankful that both of these zombies were much weaker then the one that had tackled him the first time, with both of them laying still, he could now see how decayed there were. Being as short as he was though, he was having a bit of trouble getting out of the pit, but thankfully, he didn't see anyone other then the eevee girl who was bound and gagged on a table in the corner. Gerrard smiled as he walked up thanking his luck.

Moving up, he used his blade to cut the eevee's bonds and then gently shook her to try and wake her. It took her a few to wake, but she screamed out and Gerrard covered her mouth just incase their kidnappers could be alerted. "Shhh, quiet." Gerrard said softly. "I'm going to try and get us out of here." The eevee still looked up at him scared, but she did quiet down.

There was a loud creaking sound behind them and Gerrard turned to see that the door to the room had opened. "What's...." The figure in another cloak asked seeing Gerrard standing over the eevee, his voice identifying him as the first voice he was able to hear. "You worthless thing." The figure shouted back handing the zombie that was next to it. "I told you to check him for weapons."

The zombie groaned as it staggered back, but did nothing else. "Get him." The figure shouted as Gerrard readied himself for another attack as the zombie charged forward but tripped over the bars that had been moved to the side from the pit he woke up in. The cloaked figure cried out in rage as he threw his hands up, a dark glow surrounding them as he began to chant something. Gerrard quickly flipped the table that eevee had been lying on taking cover behind it as a shadowy bolt flew and hit the table.

Looking around for something, Gerrard knew he was out matched right. He could once again hear the figure beginning to chant behind him. Looking down, Gerrard saw a large rusty dagger and picked it and prepared to throw it. Just as he threw the rusted blade however, the figure finished his spell and a small glowing orb was sent flying at Gerrard. Gerrard started to duck down, but the small orb still hit him in the shoulder, a surge of pain rushed over him as his shoulder burned. He could still hear the figure's own yell however meaning that at the very least, he had gotten his attacker as well.

Deciding to take a chance, Gerrard looked over the table and saw that he had hit the figure in the leg, the knife still sticking out as the mon kneeled down trying to pull it out, but the blade had caught on his robe. Moving quickly, the figure saw Gerrard moving in and once again began to chant as a black mist covered his hands. Gerrard was a little slow to move in fast enough as another glowing orb flew from the figure's hands and struck Gerrard in the same shoulder. The burning and pain only intensified as he moved, but still got off a lucky cut on the mon across his chest, not a deep cut, but enough to draw blood and knock him back.

Gerrard fell to his knees for a second before getting back up and calling the eevee over. The cloaked mon was slow to get up, but he shouted in anger as the eevee came running over to Gerrard. "You two are more trouble then your worth." He shouted as the black mist surrounded him again and he began another dark chant dropping a small bag in front of him. As he bag hit the ground, an even darker mist began to flow out of the bag, a few skeletons by his feet getting enveloped by the mist. Gerrard moved in quickly and shoved the mon back into the wall interrupting his spell as Gerrard rushed out of the room into the sewers with the eevee holding his arm behind him. At least here, the light crystals had been left in tact as he ran down the right side path looking for a way up.

Rounding the first corner they could, they walked right into another pair of zombies. Gerrard took a step back as the zombies turned to look at him groaning a bit. "Sac...ri...fice." They moaned as they stepped forward, one tripping and landing in the sewer water as it fell back and tried to stand up. Gerrard ignored it for now though and moved in towards the other one.

The zombie groaned as it tried to grab Gerrard, but he stepped back and made a cut at its legs before shoving it off to the side. He knew he was injured and his only concern was a quick escape right now. With the eevee still behind him, Gerrard made a mad dash through the sewers looking for anyway up. At last, he found one, the metal bars of the ladder old and rusty, but at least it was a way up. A quick look up told them that the grating was inside a building, a very small hole in the roof of said building showing that it was still light out, but it was fading. Behind them, they could hear some more groans and Gerrard saw that they had a few zombies after them. "Go." Gerrard's stated as the eevee began to climb up. Gerrard held his spot waiting for the eevee to get out as she reached the top and tried to push open the sewer grate, but it was stuck.

"I can't get it." She yelled before looking down and screaming as a zombie had grabbed Gerrard by the throat.

"Try...harder." Gerrard managed to say while he tried to push the zombie off of him, but he had dropped his blade. The eevee tried pounding on the grate now, but she couldn't get it and no one was there.

With a bit of fancy foot work, Gerrard managed to get his leg behind the zombies and with a swift turn managed to trip the zombie grabbing his sword and stabbing it in the back before rolling it into the sewer water. The eevee was still having trouble though as she continued to grab at the grating and shake it. Gerrard looked up and then back down to the sewers were more zombies were moving towards him. "Move aside." He shouted trying one of his more unique abilities of gathering aura. Gerrard had never managed to use this attack with real results before, but now was a good as time as any to try again. The eevee saw what he was doing and quickly moved to the side of the ladder trying to give him a good shot. Gerrard threw the small unstable orb up at the grate as another zombie tackled him from behind.

There was a small blast as the lock on the grate broke as it flung open, the eevee quickly crawling out into the large storeroom above them. Gerrard was still pinned though as the eevee turned to look down the sewer entrance. "Go." He shouted managing to shove his elbow into the zombie's gut, but that didn't do much more then make it groan. "Sac...ri...fice."

The eevee screamed for help as she looked around trying to find something, anything to try and help Gerrard. It took her a few, but at last, she found a cannon ball among the mess of old crates and boxes. She was just barely able to pick it up as another zombie was trying to slowly get up the ladder to get her. Letting the cannon ball drop, she got the zombie that was trying to climb up the ladder, a sickening crunch of bone as it's skull broke before falling back and landing on Gerrard and the other zombie that had him pinned. Gerrard cried out in pain with all the added weight that fell on him, but mostly because of the cannon ball that had managed to fall on his leg in the process. Despite being in pain, he saw a chance and rolled over a bit, with the one zombie stunned and other now really dead, the biggest problem he had was the weight he was trying to push off of himself, but he seceded rolling them both into the sewer water.

He tried to stand, but quickly found out that his leg was broken. Sheathing his machete, he wobbled over to the ladder and began to climb up, thankfully strong enough to pull himself up since his one leg was broken. By the time he was nearing the top though, the one zombie that had tackled him was already back onto the walkway and moving to climb up the ladder behind him, this one finding the task much easier then the one that the eevee had killed.

Seeing the zombie start to climb up the ladder, the eevee held her hand out for Gerrard to grab and help him up still screaming for help. At last, Gerrard was up and with the eevee's help, moving towards the door of the room. Reaching the door, they found it was locked as a groan sounded behind them. Turning around, they saw that the zombie was on in the room with them. Gerrard went to try and summon another. Unfortunately, this time Gerrard was unable to gather up enough aura for a second aura sphere as a door across the room opened up. "Who the hell's in my storeroom." A very tall aggron walked into the room shouting out partially tired, but mostly angry. "The fuck is that." He stated looking at the zombie as it turned to face him.

"Not...sac...ri....fice. Kill....wit...ness." It moaned as it moved towards the aggron

"Oh no you don't." The aggron shouted out. "I'm going to rip you in two." He pounded his knuckles together ready for a fight. The zombie started to stumble towards the aggron as he charged forward. With a powerful shoulder slam, the zombie was knocked into a large pile of crates that toppled back. The eevee and Gerrard both had to move to the side to avoid getting hit by the falling crates.

The aggron quickly ran up the piled of toppled crates and grabbed the zombie as it groaned again, this time shoving it into the wall before slam a fit into its shoulder. "I'll teach you to mess with the best pit fighter this town has." The aggron shouted getting ready to punch the zombie again as a door behind the eevee and Grant was forced opened and a few enforcers charged in.

"John, this is the third disturbance you've caused this month." The leader of the group shouted, all of them with crossbows trained on the aggron. "Drop the man now."

The aggron quickly dropped the zombie and placed his foot over it as it groaned again. "Hey, this thing broke into my house and threatened me." John stated. "I have every right to defend myself in such cases and I doubt this thing was alive in the first place."

"What do you mean?" The lead enforcer asked moving close to look at what John was holding down with his foot. "What in the name of Arceus?" The enforcer quickly aimed and fired his crossbow into the skull of the zombie as it fell back and blood began to pool around it, a foul stench quickly filling the room. "Oh, someone get go a priest to clean this mess up."

"Chris, what about these two." Another enforcer asked as the eevee and Gerrard stepped up from their hiding spot.

"Natasha?" The enforcer in the back of the group stepped forward. "What's going on and where are your clothes?" The enforcer demanded.

The eevee quickly ran into the arms of the jolteon morph. "Oh Mike." She cried. "It was horrible."

"Did he hurt you?" Mike asked pointing his crossbow at Gerrard.

Natasha quickly smacked Mike though. "Don't point that thing at him, he saved my life." Natasha screamed as Mike rubbed his cheek.

The lead enforcer walked and looked at Gerrard. "I remember seeing you this morning, it was.... Grant.... right?"

Gerrard shook his head. "It's Gerrard." He stated hopping over keeping his injured leg raised a bit behind him while he supported himself on the wall. He looked around, his shoulder was starting to hurt more and more as he looked at it, a good section of his shoulder had the fur burned right off. "And you need to search the sewers and fast."

"Just what all is going on?" Mike asked.

"Zombies attacked us." Natasha shouted. "They kidnapped me and Gerrard and then someone tried to kill us." She stated as Mike covered her with his cloak.

"Why would a zombie kidnap anyone?" John asked. "I though they only cared about getting their next meal or adding more to their ranks."

"There were three cloaked men down there giving them orders." Gerrard stated as he gripped his shoulder groaning a bit leaning against the wall. "I think one of them called the others.... Drew... I think, Rick or something like that." Gerrard groaned out as he felled back in serious pain, his shoulder now burning badly.

One of the enforcers quickly rushed over to his side looking at his shoulder injury. "Chris, this is definitely dark magic." The enforcer stated. "We need to get him to the church fast, this wound looks bad and it appears to be spreading a bit." Gerrard was grabbing his shoulder hard now as the pain only grew. "I'm no expert, but this could be a cursed wound."

"I'll take him there, he can't weight that much." John stated quickly walking up and picking Gerrard up over his shoulder. "I need to make a stop over there anyway, you guys can look around the sewers while your here though."

"I'll go with them and take Natasha with me." Mike stated putting his crossbow away. "Once there inside, I'll head back to command and tell Krates about this."

"Hurry then." Chris stated walking over to the grate and looked down. "I got another body over here." He stated as his men moved over to him as he got ready to climb into the sewers while John began to walk at a quick pace with Mike and Natasha having to move at a light jog to keep up with him. Gerrard kept groaning in pain the whole time as his shoulder continued to get worse. The last thing Gerrard could recall was seeing the fountain outside the church before he passed out hearing faint voices.

xXx

Gerrard awoke with a stir quickly getting up panting hard. The room was dark and he couldn't see much aside from the glow of a candle around the corner. He slowly began to recall what was going on, realizing that the pain his shoulder was nearly gone and his arm and leg had both been bandaged up. Turning to get off the bed, Gerrard realized that his leg, while like his shoulder was doing much better, he was still couldn't much weight on it. Even in the dim light, he was at least able to find a crutch and used that get up keep the weight off of his leg for now walking over to where he saw the candle light.

Moving slowly around the corner, he walked up to large desk filled with various herbs and a large case filled with a number of different color vials and jars filled with all sorts of reagents for healing and holy spells.

Gerrard looked around the small room, but didn't see anyone as he walked over to the next door. Just as he was about to open it, the door opened on him smacking him in the snout as he grumbled holding his nose.

A medicham rounded the corner into the room, a large box full of extra potions and reagents. She saw Gerrard there and knew that she had got him. "Oh, I'm so sorry." She stated setting the box down to look at him. "I didn't see you there." She rested her hand on his nose and closed her eyes, a soft glow resting on her hand giving a small chant as the pain dulled to just being sore rather then throbbing.

"It still hurts, but thanks." He stated still rubbing his nose a bit.

"I'm just an apprentice healer." She stated. "It's the best I can do." She looked over to the candle and picked it up lighting a larger lamp.

Gerrard stepped back and took a seat on empty cot. "What time is it?" He asked.

"Just a bit before dawn." She stated taking the lamp and looking him over. "Your shoulder looks a lot better, how does it feel?"

"It still burns just a bit, but its doing much better." Gerrard stated.

"That was serious wound you got." She explained. "The high priest was called in as soon as you were dropped off here, someone really wanted you dead."

"Yea, criminals don't tend to like it when someone tries to free their hostages." He stated.

"Your lucky you still have an arm. That was wound was meant to grow worse in sunlight." She turned and pulled out a book flipping through it.

"What was I hit with?" He asked.

"I don't know, the high priest only said that it was a very dark kind of magic, powerful necromancy." She stated finding the page she was looking for detailing an odd style of healing salve. "He says it was a twisted kind of holy spell, meant to attack the undead, at least that what I heard anyway." Picking up a few herbs, she ground them up in a small dish she had and then added a bit of yellow fluid to it before adding a few other herbs into the mix until she had a small bluish green paste like substance. "This is supposed to help your arm heal." She got up and looked at the bandages on his shoulder. Gerrard nodded giving her the okay to remove them as he got a better look at the wound. His fur was gone in the place where that dark orb had hit his shoulder; the flesh looking a bit singed, but still healthy.

"This will sting a bit." The medicham quickly picked up the dish with the paste in it and took a small bit applying that to his shoulder. The original feel of the paste felt sort of like wet sand, but it was cool right now. There wasn't much stinging until after the medicham had started to apply a small second coating, and then it felt like his shoulder was starting to burn a bit again. "That burning is salve removing the last of the dark energy from the wound." She explained. "I can't give you anything for the pain, I'm sorry."

Gerrard just nodded, his face showing a bit of his pain. The medicham then applied some new bandages to his shoulder. "The salve should harden into a shell like substance, a good bath will removed any bits that don't just peel right off." She said as she finished the bandages and looked down at his leg. "You should be back up on your feet in a by midday, your leg was an easy fix, but this wound may be around for a few weeks before it heals completely. This was some strong dark magic, your lucky you didn't stay in the sun that long."

"What would sunlight have to do with it?" Gerrard asked.

"That's what's so odd about the wound, it acts like a spell that used about 200 years ago during the last vampire raids." The medicham explained. "It was meant to grow and burn more in moonlight, but this spell looks to have twisted it and grows on sunlight. I could go get the book with the original spell in it and explain it a bit better, or at least how the high priest tried to explain while they were looking for a way to heal it."

Gerrard just nodded again, he was no caster and knew that he was out of league with trying to understand it. "How will know when to remove this shell?" He asked looking at his shoulder.

"Once it removes the last of the dark energies, it will start to feel like a soft relaxing chill." The medicham explained. "After that, let it sit there for a few more hours to help heal your shoulder and it should be good to come off. It should heal on its own after that." She smiled and got up putting her box of things away. Once she was done, she held open the door. "Its my job to prepare breakfast this morning if your hungry, I was told to make sure you at least got something to eat when woke up."

Gerrard looked down at his stomach, which gave a light growl. He has skipped breakfast yesterday thinking that he could get lunch later on, but of course, plans changed and he missed eating anything at all yesterday. "Yes please." He asked following her.

She led him down the dark hall with the lamp in her hand as she headed into the kitchen. While she went to work worrying if she had enough eggs to make breakfast for the church that morning, another opened as a large wobbufet walked in. The medicham turned to see who had entered the kitchen so early and quick went wide eyed. "Father Alexander Anderson?!" She looked up in shock.

Alexander turned and looked at the medicham. "Ah, Sister Grace." He smiled looked over at her before looking to Gerrard. "And Gerrard." He looked over him. "I was just coming to see you."

"Me?" Gerrard asked pulling out a few oran berries.

"Advisor Sokar and the king had some questions for you." Alexander stated. "They tasked me with making sure you were in proper health before hand though, so once you finish your breakfast, we can begin the final mending that leg." He smiled and walked into the next room.

Gerrard was a bit confused as to why the king wanted to see him, but recalled that Sokar was the man in charge of advising the king in military operations. If he was being requested though, he knew that he had to be there if possible, and luckily, he had a high priest there to make sure he was ready. As Gerrard walked into his room, Alexander already had a small set of crystalline shards on his desk, looking them over for one that would suit him best right now. "Ah, come sit." He smiled as he found a small shard no bigger then a sewing needle. Gerrard quickly walked up to the chair in front of Alexander and sat. "A shard of Rashi, powerful healing crystal." He smiled holding up the small shard and pressed it to Gerrard's leg. He closed his eyes and gave a small chant, another soft blue glow engulfed his leg again as he felt his a warmth flow into his leg. Alexander kept up his chant for about a minute before he stopped and opened his eyes. "You'll have to watch out, using these shards comes a price." Alexander told him. "They work the body hard when used to help heal someone, you'll probably start feeling tired again in just a few hours. As long as you don't go and strain yourself for a day, you'll be fine." He smiled and got up. "The king is already waiting for you, he wants to know what happened down there."

"He's already up?" Gerrard looked out the window, the sun was just finally rising over the sea.

"He's been up for hours now." Alexander stated. "When news of the undead was confirmed, he was notified and he's been up talking with his advisors ever since. The Star of Kael'thas is beginning its next pass soon and that does not bode well."

Gerrard looked down recalling that events from the last time that the Star of Kael'thas has passed by the planet, two entire kingdoms had been lost to demons then and Ravnica was nearly destroyed from within as well. "I'd better get going then." He quickly got up but Alexander put a hand on his shoulder.

"You might want to get your things first, they're back by the cot we had you in." Alexander smiled before getting up and walking out. "Oh, Sister Grace. I'd like you to come with me." He walked down the hall with the medicham by his side. Gerrard returned to the room he woke up in and found his things in a rack over his bed, but his katana and coin pouch were both missing. A gardevoir walked into the room to look over the others there and Gerrard asked about his missing things only to be informed that what was there was all the he walked in with. He knew that he must have lost them in sewers.

He quickly made his way from the church district back to the keep and was greeted by a guard who led him up to one of the libraries on the second floor. There standing in the middle of the room was the king, a slowking wearing a large bed robe, but also had his belt and sword with him, a pair of guards on either side of the door. Standing with the king though were his three best advisors, Gerrard recognized Valix, but there was also another mewtwo there, which Gerrard assumed to be Sokar. Unlike Valix and his orange tinted fur, Sokar had his died black. Standing across from the king was a xatu, the only female in the room. All four of them seemed to be arguing as they kept hitting and poking something on the table while Gerrard approached.

"Gerrard is here." Valix stated looking up.

The king turned around and looked at him. "So, you're the lad who was taken." He looked over him. "The healers did a good job, you're here sooner then I have hoped. We didn't get much out of the young eevee lass, she had been knocked out for most of the time she was kidnapped and was left confused by what happened during your escape." The king motioned for Gerrard to join them at the table where a few maps had been placed out, one detailing the city itself, very large and detailed, another map showing the sewers beneath the city, and a third map showing all of Ravnica. "This is where the enforcers found you after your disappearance." The king stated pointing to a spot on the city map, and then to a sewer entrance point on the sewer map. "Can you show us where you were kept?"

Gerrard looked at the map looking for a large chamber near the sewer entrance he escaped at, but there wasn't any large chamber anywhere in that section of the map. "Uh, okay let me think." He closed his eyes trying to recall which way he had turned to reach the sewer entrance. He traced the map with his finger a to help him remember, and it was working, he began to recall the turns. At last he stopped his finger. "You're sure this map is correct?" He asked.

"This map was made four weeks ago, it can't be wrong." Sokar stated.

"Then there should be a massive chamber right now, a large solid iron rusted door separated it from the rest of the sewer" Gerrard looked confused as the map was marked just with a hallway, no chamber within two tunnels of the passage he was pointing to.

"I told you we can't trust some young brat." Sokar stated and Gerrard just looked and glared a bit at him. "Wipe that look off your face." He snarled.

"Sokar..." the king just gave him a mean look. "You cause enough problems as it is."

"I cause problems?" Sokar stated.

"Sokar, calm down." Valix said calmly, but Sokar turned to yell at him.

"You be quiet, you're only here because of that contract." Sokar snapped.

"Sokar, enough." The king shouted.

"I'm telling this is an attack from Mistvale. They have a number of necromancers there and they've been looking into the dark arts ever since the last passing of the comet." Sokar shouted back causing the king's guards to step forward.

"Mistvale has been our ally since before the demon war began. I'll not have you risk that alliance because you lost your wife in their lands." The king shouted.

"You should lock up every caster in the city and quickly. We can't risk any of them getting loose." Sokar slammed his fist on the table. "Let me gather the enforcers and I'll have them all hung and their bodies..."

The king had enough. "Sokar, leave this castle at once." The king's guards were now at his side. "There was a time when you were the most intelligent military advisor a king could ask for, but you've damn near lost your mind."

"I do what has to be done to protect this kingdom." Sokar countered. "I won't let the comet tear this kingdom apart."

"Sokar, get out." He shouted. "After that last raid on the merchants caravans, I don't why I didn't just throw you out." The king shouted drawing his blade. "I've put up with you're a long while hoping the mon I knew would return, but its not going to happen."

"I'll see this kingdom safe even if I have to do it myself." Sokar glared at the king. "Even if that means I have to the take the crown to get it done." He quickly stormed out of the library, one of the king's guards behind him.

The king sighed. "I hate to see him go, but he's not the honorable man I once knew." The king looked to Valix.

"It was said that the coming of the comet changes people." Valix watched as Sokar turned a corner and headed for the nearest staircase. "Perhaps the stories about the comet possessing them was right. I would recommend a man keep watch over him, make sure he doesn't get himself into any trouble." The king just nodded before turning to Gerrard.

"I'm sorry you had to see that, but we have work to do. You said something about this map being wrong. Are you sure?" The king asked leaning back over the maps. Gerrard once again began to recall the memories as the king and now two advisors went t work.