The Invasion Of The Sombers. Jordi Villalobos

Mother. Now I must go," replied the mirror.

      Queen Baldia was thoughtful with a worried countenance, looking at her image on the silver surface, where her daughter's face could be seen just before.

      A somber detachment of about two hundred and eighty warriors and twenty magicians, led by Princess Elenir herself, began the ascent of the mountain in pursuit of the dragons.

      The dragons that populated the enormous ancient volcano normally lived isolated from the beings of the flat terrain, at a considerable height, in large caves that crossed the entrails of the mountainous mass. They rarely ventured out of their elevated territory, since its extension, both in height and in vast valleys, plateaus and rivers at different levels in pursuit of the unreachable summits, meant that dragons, one of the numerous species of beings that inhabited the cliff, were not lacking in hunting.

      Elenir and her dark ones advanced with extreme caution, since the scarce references of other previous explorers were not very encouraging, rather on the contrary. Aside from dragons, there were other dangerous species that could prove as deadly or more deadly than the mountain kings themselves.

      General Baldin, along with three hundred others sombers, remained in the camp preparing an infallible ambush against the enemy princes, in the hope of regaining his lady's trust, and not out of appreciation for her person precisely, but rather out of fear of her terrible anger.

      That same day, after making all the necessary preparations, men, orcs, dwarves, mediam and elves set out for the Dragons’ Mountains.

      They advanced smoothly until nightfall, when they all lay down to sleep. All except the chosen ones as sentries and Syriel who began the reading of the book entrusted to him by the albino wizard.

      The Dragon Armor

      Frienia, year 1600 of the first era (The White Magician’s notes).

      Some parts of what is written in these notes are the result of suppositions or hypotheses, but which, in view of the events, of the inquiries made and the testimonies of protagonists and witnesses should not differ too much from what happened in reality.

      I imagine that everything must have started around the year 1600 of the first era, when a young and up-and-coming magician named Mazorik found black magic ancient writings on the gems of light describing the steps to create precious magical stones, using the dragon’s heart which had countless properties. One of them was to absorb the essences or the characteristics of the beings that where in its presence for a period of time. As a result, these main aspects were passed on to the wearer of the jewelry.

      The desire of Mazorik, who was also called the Dark Magician, was to create the seven stones of power, each one with one of the hearts of the existing dragon races. It seems that gems of the same color nullify each other and lose their power, so they had to be seven jewels of different color and could only be made with the hearts of the different dragon races. Each one would serve to capture the essence of one of the seven races that populated Frienia. Everything hovered around the magical number seven.

      His plan consisted of forging seven objects with each one of the seven jewels, once loaded with the essence of each race, forming with all of them the Dragon Armor, which would confer on him an unlimited power to subjugate all the beings of Frienia, erecting himself as the only emperor of all the known earth.

      The list of objects he intended to forge was as follows:

      In those days, it was talked about a fierce giant warrior who was a master in the art of hunting dragons. Mazorik soon recruited him for his purposes. Garrak, who called himself the “dragon slayer” would have to kill one dragon of each variety and give him the hearts of all of them.

      Mazorik also recruited seven disciples, one from each of the races, so that once the jewels were obtained, they returned to their places of origin and, for seven years, the jewels acquired the essence of each one of them. After those seven years, all the disciples had to return with each gem filled with the corresponding nature. A single failure in any of the seven precious stones and their plans would be wrecked.

      In my opinion, it all began the day Mazorik entered Belquecia, the city of the elves in which I lived. Mazorik was also an elf, although very dark, unlike me, who was so blond that he was almost white in both hair and skin color, which caused me to be known not only as Fariel, but also as the albino elf, although I was also called "the Magician Boy" or "White Magician", as I had begun to show certain skills for magic, which undoubtedly attracted Mazorik to turn me into his disciple, using false promises very attractive to an inexperienced young man like me.

      At that time, I was nothing more than a curious boy, eager for knowledge and avid to discover the limits of my magical powers.

      Mazorik approached me little by little, teaching me some things and dazzling me with his wisdom and apparent goodness.

      One day, when I was beginning to have some confidence in him, he explained to me that he had a school of young magicians and that he wanted to recruit a magician from each of Frienia's races, who was only missing the elf.

      He told me that his school was in the Badlands and that he would soon begin to obtain the stones for a special spell and that it would take him approximately three years to gather them. During this time, his disciples would learn various matters of magic such as mental exploration, telekinesis, domination of beings, transmutation of elements, healing, meteorological influence and many more.

      When I was offered that vacancy, I hesitated at first. But when he explained to me his false plans for the stones, which each one of his disciples would have to expose each one for seven years to our race in order to fill it with our essence and, in this way, with the seven gems to perform a spell that would eradicate war forever, he ended up convincing me.

      He visited my family and asked my father for permission to allow me to go with him as a pupil without having to pay anything, indicating that with our work, as we learned, we could already afford the classes.

      My enthusiasm was such and my conviction so high that Mazorik's intentions did not harbor any evil that, finally, my father agreed to let me go after telling him that this was what I wanted and that I would return once my apprenticeship had been completed.

      In the following days, some of Mazorik's students and my companions arrived in Belquecia: Burak the giant, Masarif the mediam-sized, Jorin the dwarf and Marlen the human who was the only female of the group.

      Several days later, we left Belquecia together for Urkaroth, where we picked up Maluak, the Orc student. From there, we would pass through Angorian, where we were joined by the somber Esporiel, the last one missing to complete the group.

      During the long journey to Mazorik's lair in the Badlands, we already began intense and interesting magic lessons by mastering small beasts, turning sand into water when we needed it, and even causing small but timely rains.

      Mazorik's wisdom was so great and his kindness and good disposition so high that soon we all began to feel admiration and affection for him.

      In addition, among us the disciples began to weave bonds of friendship, some stronger than others, as well as manifest aversions such as that of Jorin, the dwarf, with Maluak, the orc, who took advantage of any excuse to enter into brawls and bragging that Mazorik, always with patience and total justice for both, tried to cut off at the root.

      The disciple who aroused the greatest sympathy among all, even in Mazorik, was Masarif, the mediam one. His constant good humor and sympathetic jokes distributed to everyone equally made him soon the most loved, even by Jorin, who, without a doubt, was the shiest and the most difficult in character.

      One of the disciples with whom I began to make a good friendship was, curiously, Maluak, the orc, given the mutual aversion that elves and orcs normally profess to each other. But as we got to know each other, we discovered quite a few things in common which, little by little, made it easier for us to forge