Allagahn's Diary

Chapter 19 - Deconstructing Allagahn

Inside the doors we saw two figures. They turned out to be Corwin and the Serpent. Corwin had a word with his daughter Cordelia and then left us. It doesn't look like there is any love lost between those two. We spoke briefly to the Serpent and let him know we no longer had the book of Selheim. He didn't see that as an immediate problem, he said we had enough to conduct the ritual to summon the Phoenix. We walked through some sort of gate or passageway, which took us to the Font of Power, a massive stream of energy, emitting from the centre of a raised platform. There were three other exits from the chamber, but we had no time to investigate where they led.

The Serpent began the ritual and Cordelia was instructed up the stairs of the platform and into the centre of the energy stream, where she was tossed around for a while before finally going limp. The ritual proceeded, with the Serpent visiting different points around the raised platform, in the order in which Sorcha had touched the stones when summoning the Unicorn.

I braced myself against the wall in case the end of the ritual caused a surge of power, as when the Unicorn was summoned, but it did not come. At the end, there was the Phoenix standing on Cordelia's body and the energy stream was gone. After a brief discussion with the Serpent and assurances that Cordelia would live, the Serpent and the Phoenix left to make preparations with the Unicorn.

We walked back down to the main doors of the chamber and considered our next move. We contacted Deirdre and had her collect the unconscious Cordelia and began making preparations for retrieving the book. During this time we were contacted by Merlin, claiming there was an imminent attack on Ygg and all Amberites should go there to lend assistance. Charity contacted my father via Corwin and opened a gate for Alfred and myself to go there and survey the scene.

We arrived and saw no signs of an enemy. Alfred spoke to Ygg, who knew nothing of the approaching attack. I scanned the local shadows and could see no approaching army. We returned to the font of power and told the others that it appeared all clear, at least for the meantime, so we decided to continue with the plan to retrieve the book.

With my armour in a workable condition, and a functions Gauss Rifle, the plan was for Isla to make me undetectable (invisible, inaudible etc) and for me to fly in there and recover the book. During the preparations, Charity surveyed the path ahead, so I would know how to get out of the keep. Unfortunately she did that in a fairly half-arsed (she will probably claim she used her whole arse!) manner and after two doors, I found I was still inside the keep. After three doors, I was surrounded by demons. After three doors, three minutes and two floors, I was surrounded by demons, who could see me (three minutes should be enough to achieve just about anything right Isla???). After a bunch of dead demons, I made it to the courtyard, but thanks to a very loud, fully automatic weapon, most creatures in the castle knew I was there. I then became the target of quite a few spells, one of which felt like a fireball. I got quite a few of them and made my way into the building where the book was. I moved tactically, through it and looked for a bit of a reprieve in a random room. I was just looking for enough time to be able to pattern search for the book.

Unfortunately it was occupied by the largest Rodian demon I have seen. I smacked him in the face with the butt of the gun, (which hurt the gun more than him!) and tried to shoot him a few times, but the rounds all bounced off his armour. He threw me across the room and then came for me, the last thing I remember, I squeezed off a few rounds at his head, then it all went black.

I woke up, quite a while later covered in shale. I must of killed the big guy, ‘cause they found me, took me for dead, stripped me of my armour and through me off the wall of the keep. I just shadowwalked the hell out of there and holed up in an inn. I havn't had any contact from the others, I hope they weren't discovered.

Next step is to get myself back to Elysium.