Fading of the World

At the Base Floor of Moribidus' Palace.....

"This place is a huge maze." Tisias halted and hooted as the party reached another dead end.

"No There is a hidden door here. It is a secret entrance through the Emperor's personal dungeons that only the Black Hand may use." Locke said sliding his hands up and down the wall searching for something.

"How do you know about it then?" Kathael looked at Locke warily.

"Shaqaa fears Moribidus I think. With good reason too, I think we all do. He used to send Krokus in his place When Krokus disappeared I became his new emissary." Locke lapsed into some nostalgia.

"Krokus? That amphid Black Robe?" Adonis spoke up from his usual silence.

"Y-yea." Locke blushed red.

"Wait a minute! I know you! You're that lizard I saw a month a go dragging a poor family away to Moribidus!" Adonis shouted and pointed his staff at Locke.

"SILENCE!" Vokky held up his left hand and pinched his index finger and thumb. With his great magic he caught all the soundwaves before they could travel too far through the dark abode. Opening his eyes with a scowl he said hushed, "Whatever happened in the past is the past. Do not let it endanger the present."

"W-what happened to them." Adonis ' face was contorted with grief and rage, his voice quiverred with anger.

"As far as I know Krokus handed them over to the Army. I do not know what camp they ended up in. Probably camp 3 or 4. I pray they were not sent to Camp 6. Since your goblin friend Maximus lturned from the Emperor like I did, his replacement General Skar has increased the mortality rate of the camps threefold." Locke turned a sickly green color shaking and fightened.

"What happened to Krokus?" Kathael had recognized Locke now as the hooded lizard that accompanied one of her former rivals. However she felt a pain with hin her of pity. She put a hand gently on Locke's shoulder. Adonis turned away in rage and also to shed a tear away from the group for the family he had known somewhat that were surely dead or enslaved in some unknown horrorland of Moribidus' design.

"Krokus, nobody knows. I-I......" Locke turned away. "I was told by Shaqaa to send Krokus to Moribidus so that the Emperor could kill him. That is how I got that black robe. I threw that away when I left him." Locke turned and looked up at Tisias. "My son showed me another way. A better way."

"Enough banter. Our comrades are dying to buy us this time to take The Black Blade and turn it on the vile Emperor. Our friends may have been defeated even now, let us not make their sacrifices in vain." Vokky pushed his way forward tapping the wall in three places quickly. It melted away exposing the secret rooms of the Black Hand, the Emperor, and the Generals.