Ch.25 Fainlik’s Necklace

"Welcome everyone I have brought you all here to fight in my army."

The small childish body of Zelon stood straight and proud in front of this one million man army.

"Many of you may have noticed that there is no magic energy from your worlds here."

"I ask that you do not be alarmed, we have found that with some study and practice the Force can substitute magical energy."

Most of the elves and dwarves paid no attention to his comments on magic. However, the druids and mages all were intrigued by his words.

"For now I will be splitting you all into groups to accomplish certain tasks."

"As of this moment we are in the process of conquering this planet. The natives are an annoyance, but not a threat to worry about."

Zelon turned his head then signaled Revion and Gadron to step forward.

"I am Gadron."

"And I am Revion."

"We are one of Lord Zelon's Ten Royal Knights."

"Everyone except for the mages, druids, 100,000 Dwarves, Altmer elves, and the five in front shall follow us."

Gadron and Revion began to walk towards the border of the territory, with majority of the army following behind them.

With most of the army out of the way, Zelon walked towards the five in front.

"All of you are great people in your worlds, I have brought you here to utilize your skills."

Before he could say another word, Kael'thas interrupted him.

"This Force you speak of, is it this strange feeling I've been having?"

Kael'thas looks at his hands, feeling changes within himself. As he feels the changes inside himself, the others also notice a change.

"Yes, in this world the Force is the source of all life. It is everywhere and within everyone."

As Zelon speaks rocks begin to float within the air, circling behind his head like a halo.

"Only a small amount of living creatures have the talent to utilize the force."

Within Illidan the force became more and more apparent. In his mind two calls echoed out, calling out to him.

On his left; a peaceful, serene, and calming voice drifted into his ear.

"Come!"

As he began to walk towards the left side, a terrible scream of rage blasted his right ear.

"Do not fall for such petty trickery, your rage shall not be quenched!"

"Remember the betrayal of those you trusted, as they casted you aside for your honorable deeds!"

"Remember the anger, the hatred, and the loathing faces of those who call you a betrayer!"

As he listened to the voices words, he began to remember his past. All the events that lead to his eventual fall, replayed in his mind.

As old memories played out his face grew darker and darker as his rage grew.

"Good, good, come join the dark side I will give you the power in which you seek."

As Zelon explained the Force to everyone his senses flared up.

He turned his head, instantly snapping to Illidan.

"Incredible, I should have expected him to lean more towards the dark side."

Zelon could sense a vast darkness engulfing the area around Illidan. Every emotion he has was being released to its fullest.

"The dark side must have tempted him during his connection to the force."

Zelon grinned.

"This is good, I've been needing more dark side wielders on my team."

Kael'thas stared at Illidan feeling many changes taking place within him.

He turned to look at Zelon them asked a question

"What is happening to him?"

The others walked closer, also feeling something happening to Illidan.

"He is becoming one with the dark side of the Force."

Celebrimbor eyebrow raised.

"The dark side? Is it some form of evil power?"

"No you misunderstand; the Force while neutral has two sides, the light and the dark."

"Both sides affects you in a different way."

"The light side is more in tune with selflessness putting everything else over one's self."

"While the dark side focuses more on one's self and the emotions that drive you."

"The dark side feeds upon your emotions giving you great strength, at a cost."

After a few minutes of waiting, Illidan opened his eyes.

"How do you feel?" Zelon asked smiling at the strength radiating off of Illidan.

The rage in his eyes slowly subsided as he turned and looked at Zelon.

Illidan smiled.

"I feel good."

"Wonderful, there will be training later on; on how to utilize the Force. For now we have a planet to conquer."

Zelon turned to Thorin.

"You and Illidan catch up with the army, I want you to help lead the dwarves. They will be more effective fighting under your leadership, King of Durin's Folk."

Thorin smiled.

"I will show our enemies the might of Durin's hammer."

Thorin pulled a mighty hammer from his back, holding it up for all to see.

Thorin and Illidan looked at each other then began walking towards the border.

"Kael'thas you will take the Altmer and Elven Mages back to the temple to begin studying the Force."

"At the moment; my people need a concrete understanding of the Force, how to train in it, and how to manipulate it to our advantage."

Kael'thas thought for a second then voiced his thoughts to Zelon.

"Trying to understand a new source of power will be hard without some form of teacher."

"I should be acquiring a Force Master shortly."

"There is an old Jedi Master laying in hibernation on this planet for a few thousand years. I plan to go wake him up and recruit him to my cause."

"That would be most helpful."

Zelon pointed back behind him towards the ships.

"Vuthinne will fly you all to the temple, when you arrive seek out Calemiriel.

"She will explain the layout of the temple and how to operate the Holorcrons."

"When it comes to studying the arcane, I am one of the best leave it to me."

Kael'thas and the Magic oriented elves began walking over to the ships.

Zelon nodded his head then turned to the rest.

"Celebrimbor your understanding of crafting and skill will be most useful to me."

"I will need you to return to Northor and begin studying with the Master dwarves on runes and crafting techniques."

"How are you able to lead both elves and dwarves?"

Zelon turns and faces the Holy Tree.

"The tree you see before you is a Holy Hearth Tree; an ancient tree of the elves that is able to create elves from life energy."

"I am able to create these trees, however mine is a tad different. I am able to create both elves and dwarves from any world."

"Amazing!"

Zelon snapped his fingers.

"Horus."

Horus's tall figure appeared from the tree, floating down in front of Zelon.

"Celebrimbor this is Horus the spirit of the tree, he shall show you around and help transport you back to Northor."

"When you arrive seek out Master Dwinley and Valin they will get you situated."

Celebrimbor continued to stare at the great tree almost ignoring the words of Zelon.

"Very well young one, I will see what this tree is all about."

Not giving any thought Celebrimbor walked towards the tree. Horus followed him as they made their way over.

With the troublesome ones out of the way he walked over to Echidna and the rest.

"Lady Echidna you will be following me and Nauthrien to awake our sleeping friend."

"Whatever you say boy."

Ignoring her remark, Zelon gave orders to the dwarves and elf druids.

"Half of the druids and dwarves will stay here. The dwarves will work with Drogula to finish construction efforts on this base."

"Druids I need you to begin researching the wildlife and flora nearby."

"I need a detailed understanding of the life on this planet."

"The rest of you will board the ships with the others to the temple."

"The remaining dwarves will help with reconstructing the temple."

"As for the druids; near the temple is a large area of deformed tree's."

"The tree's have decayed, but their life signs show that they are still health. Their bark is also very strong, quite similar to metal even."

"If at all possible I want to try developing Treants from these trees."

The group of druids and dwarves all bowed then split off into their groups.

With everyone given their orders, Zelon grabbed a few elf rangers and began making his way to the sleeping Jedi Master.

Back at the temple, Ninnien and her team had begun mining out an area at the back of the temple.

"From Lord Horus's senses the Artifacts should be buried around here somewhere."

The group of dwarves continued to blast away at the rubble expanding the pit further and further down.

After an hour or so of digging, the dwarves noticed the ground getting harder to drill through. The dwarves stopped drilling and began observing the ground below. After deliberating on the situation, the dwarves came to a conclusion.

"Ma'am whatever it is we are looking for it's close, we believe their is a room hidden away right under our feet."

"Good now let's bust it open so we can see what's inside."

The dwarves planted the charges over the ground then everyone cleared out. One of the dwarves handed Ninnien the detonator.

"Open wide!"

Boom!!

The ground shook and a cloud of smoke covered everyones sight.

Ninnien waved her hand in the air, utilizing the Force to sweep away the smoke. In front of everyone was a large whole, with light shining from within.

"Good job everyone let's go."

Ninnien led in front as everyone slowly walked into the opening. As they made their way inside they noticed many statues adorned against the wall.

The statues were surrounded by candles, lighting up the room.

Littered around the room were podiums holding items encased in glass boxes.

"Are these the artifacts our lord is looking for?"

As Ninnien walked up to one of the podiums; a dark aura enveloped her.

"What the hell!?"

She quickly jumped back in fear. Fear was plastered all over her face. Her brow was wet with sweat.

"Whatever the hell's in that case is shrouded in darkness, everyone keep your distance from the podiums!"

On a stand nearby rested a data-pad socketed into a hole, one of the elves walked up to the data-pad touching it with his finger.

"This data-pad seems fine everyone."

He activated the data-pad and began to information inside. After reading a few pages, his eyes opened wide in surprise.

He held the data-pad tightly and quickly walked over to Ninnien.

"Ma'am this data-pad has detailed information about the artifacts stowed away."

The elf handed Ninnien the data-pad, pointing to a section of the page he was reading.

"It says here that this podium holds the Necklace of Fainlik, a Lord of the Sith killed ages ago in the Great Sith War."