Ashes to ashes

Cyrus and the elves stepped out of the caravans and looked around in awe. Once inside the gate they were met with the stables and cattle pens. 

To the left was what Cyrus assumed was meant for cattle and chickens.

To the right were the horse Pollocks and massive horse stables where the tired horses that brought them here were taken. 

There were guard posts just behind them. Cyrus was a bit overwhelmed from entering the kingdom of Vibhurik. It was nothing like Nual. The buildings were made of wood and metal, there were even bones and animal hide used to decorate and protect the buildings. It wasn't as bright and colorful as the stone cities of Nual were. But it had its own charms. 

Cyrus and the elves were guided by Thera through the main road of the gate town. Cyrus looked around curiously at the blacksmith they passed. As well as the many orcs who looked at the elves. They were all varying colors of greens and browns. their hair was various colors as well. None quite resembled Malach'karh Cyrus noticed.

Just in front of Thera, Cyrus could see the back of Malach'karh as he walked ahead. It seemed he was clearing a path through the busy street of the town they walked through. 

They passed by many tall buildings, Cyrus wasn't sure if they were homes or not. Some had smoke rising from them, the smells that wafted in the air made his stomach growl. 

Malach stepped to the side as 3 young orcs ran up to him, he crouched down to greet them as they hugged him. The 2 older kids, a boy and a girl looked nothing like Malach while the 3rd child, a younger boy, resembled him almost exactly. 

"Papa! How many did you kill on your journey?" The girl who hung onto his neck asked. She and the older boy both had dark grey skin and orange eyes with black hair. 

Cyrus and the elves watched curiously as the large man was being climbed on by, from what one child said, was his children. 

Malach picked them all up, the oldest boy hung on his back. He seemed ecstatic to be lifted up so high as Malach stood.

"I killed maybe 30. I was going easy on them." Malach affectionately nuzzled the girl and the young boy who looked like him. He couldn't quite reach the boy on his back but the kid seemed happy.

Cyrus and the elves were startled as a strange huts door flaps flew open just down the path a little ways.

An orc covered in bone jewelry and feathers walked out. They were a bit taller than Malach. They had mismatched eyes. One copper colored one and a light blue one. Their skin and hair split down the middle with a jagged patchy line. 

One half of them resembled Malachs colorings. With the blue eye they had teal skin and dark purple hair. The other side, dark grey skin with black hair that was greying. 

Her 4 tusks coming from her mouth were large and adorned in jewelry that had chains that connected to her ears. She rhythmically swung her arms toward herself, beckoning the elves to come inside the hut. 

"Come, elves of the fire eyes." Her voice was harrowing in a way, but she had a calming aura about her. 

"Syaket calls me to free you of your shackles. Let your fires light the night Fire eyes." 

Malach, while giving his 3 kids attention he looks at the Shaman with a slight huff. "I called you to set them free. Not your God." 

She hushes him with a wave of her hands. "Silence King Malach. Now, the babies must go back to their mothers. You will help me free them."

The elves go into the shaman hut hesitantly as Thera helps urge them in. Thera doesn't enter the Shaman hut as she stays outside. 

Malach grumbles and lowers the children back to the ground. Giving them each a kiss on the head before walking into the hut behind the elves. 

"I am not a Shaman. I cannot break the magic seals on the shackles they wear, where are the other Shamans?" He looked around the hut a bit annoyed.

Malach led the nervous Elves to sit down on a very large circular woven rug. The hut is filled with bones and mysterious jars. A large statue of a naga is right before them at the far end of the hut. Half man, half snake. The Shaman lights incense and places it in the statue's hand. Its clear that the statue is worshiped by the Shaman.

 "We are Nightshade. Don't pretend to forget your bloodline. The others are out looking for herbs. It is just I." The Shaman said as she flicked Malach's forehead. "And you."

"What does that mean? The Nightshade part.." Cyrus asked as he sat closely to Shireen. 

Malach gave a grumble. "It means we are half breeds." 

The Shaman clicked her tongue in annoyance and tapped Malach's head with a bundle of sage, making him hold onto it. She then grabbed a large stone bowl of what looked like ashes. Humming in an odd and eery toon she began making a circle of ashes around the elves. 

"Orcs like Malach and I, are indeed of half blood. But we come from special beings! When you become more accustomed to our culture, you will learn more of the Nightshade Orcs." 

Malach lit the sage by holding it to a candle below the statue of the Naga God. 

"Is there a reason you're called Nightshade?" Zestari asked as she eyed Malach and the Shaman.

The shaman gave a soft laugh. "When our kind first came to be, it was a nickname based on the first hybrid's hair resembling a deadly nightshade." 

She finished the ash circle as Malach cleansed the area with sage. The smell stinging his nose he looked disgusted by it.The Shaman stood before the elves and grabbed a handful of ash. 

"Now. Hush and close your eyes, children of fire." 

Once the elves complied she chanted in a deep tone and tossed the ash above them. Letting the powdery cloud cover them, the ash flakes raining down upon them. Their golden shackles began sparking as the ashes settled onto the metal.

The elves became uneasy. Some were afraid of the sparking but the Shaman hummed and chanted which oddly made them feel relaxed. She set the bowl back down, wiping her ash covered hand over her face.

The Shaman grabbed a tribal type of rattle that resembled a snake's rattling tail. She shook it rhythmically as she hummed.

With an annoyed face as she holds her eyes closed she whacks Malach's head with the rattle. 

She then holds the rattle above an elf's head. 

"My King, Syaket beckons you to break the bonds." 

"Isn't that your job?" Malach receives another whack on the head, resulting in small laughs coming from the elves. 

"You brought them here. You promised them freedom, now give it to them. I am but a vessel to remove the magic of the shackles which I have done." 

The elf before him trembled under the rattling above her. She looked at Malach, shrinking back in fear as he knelt before her. 

With gentle hands he took a hold of the girl's thin ankle. Looking at the shackle he thought over the best way to pry it open without hurting her. 

The hinges of the shackles were actually more fragile than they seemed, he twisted the two pieces of the interlocking cuff and they bent and crumbled immediately. The golden metal falling to the ground in metallic thuds. 

The girl looked at her bare ankle in pure shock. Touching it with trembling hands, her eyes watered with unshed tears. There was scaring and raw irritated skin where the shackle once was. 

To keep the elves from becoming too excited the Shaman shushed them with humming so the magic wouldn't come back into the shackles before they were finished. 

"Many more to break my king." The Shaman urged him along with a pat on his head. 

One by one. Malach and the Shaman removed the magic gold shackles that imprisoned the Fire Elves.

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