Into the Dark

[Atelos]

The wooden old door swung shut being the Spartan. His laugh trailed off soon as he exited the room. Atelos missed the old banter with the sorcerer. As the two had become more solidified in their official positions, their interactions became much more formal and less friendly as the two were in their adventures. Atelos had begun his spartan training of the garrison, the pampered recruits needed to be toughened up. Shang, however, had to deal with the rising politics of Darkshire. The two heroes saw each other less and less and their interactions were now sparse and mostly at the city hall.

Atelos started down the steps and into the city of Darkshire, the town being more pleasant than he ever could have thought. Many of its citizens passed by freely doing business during the day, as well as the occasional guard patrolling the streets. Atelos couldn’t help but feel as if the new atmosphere of this town was due to him. Sure, the politics that Shang had to deal with enabled Atelos keeping the peace, but he wasn’t doing anything important. The Spartan came upon the barracks, glad he was able to refurbish it as he liked now that he was in charge.

As he pushed open the heavy iron door, he could hear the training battles occur in the courtyard. He walked towards the sound of wood swords banging on one another, heavy footsteps, and aggressive grunts. As he passed through another corridor, he could begin to see the green grass of the courtyard shortly ahead. Figures, clad in leather bound, sparred with wooden swords. The Spartan laid against the stone arch, observing the mock fights that were occuring. These were some of his new recruits, young and energetic. A loud *THWACK* resonated through the air as one of the wooden swords collided with the recruits arm, leaving a nasty mark. Atelos eyebrow raised, their punches were not pulled, very clearly shown by the numerous bruises on their appendages.

The Spartan loudly cleared his throat, each recruit turning their eyes to meet his gaze. Driving each of their swords into the ground, they saluted Atelos and in unison, “Yes Captain Atelos!” He smirked and waved them to be at ease, “Recruit Lopez. What are you four doing right now? Combat training isn’t till sundown.” The recruits were breathing heavily, clearly having been working on their combat for hours at this point.

The latino women, Lopez, had sweat dripping down her forehead as she reluctantly let down her saluting arm. The other cadets were also extremely formal, their arms still not fading from the salute. Atelos laughed a little at their formalities, rookies.  “There's never a moment to waste, sir! We want to be able to defend Darkshire at our best, sir!” The recruits “sirs” were as stiff as the beds that they all slept on.

Atelos chuckled, startling the rookies that were taking this so seriously. He waved his arm again at them as he laughed, encouraging them to not be so formal. “At ease cadets. You aren’t in trouble. It's respectable that you spend your time so.” He brought his hand up to his chain, stroking his beard lost in thought.

“I have a mission for you cadets.” Atelos walked over to the wooden table and seats in the courtyard, motioning the rest to sit down. The recruits followed hesitantly, before sitting across from where the Spartan was sitting. “Some of our scouts haven’t returned from their normal outposts near the drow and we need to send a force to find out what happened to them. Atelos smiled at the end of his sentence, And I want you to be that force.

The recruit’s faces paled, they made looks at each other to look as if this was some sort of cruel punishment. An uneasy silence permeated through the air before Lopez harshly broke it with a cough. “But Captain, we haven’t finished our training yet. Just us, this would be a death sentence.”

Exactly. Atelos spoke with a straight face not breaking eye contact. Lopez’s awkward smile had turned into a horrified, concerned look. Atelos couldn’t hold his straight face for long and broke out into laughter, pounding his fist on the table. “You should have seen the look on your faces. He cried out in the breathes between his thunderous laughter. “Oh my jokes do really liven up the place. He wiped a tear from his eyes and the recruits nervously laughed along with him.

He stopped his laughter but a large smile remained plastered on his face. “No, I will be escorting you along this mission. I believe you recruits show dedication and promise. Training is nothing compared to the hardened experience of the field. The recruits breathed a sigh of relief and whispered amongst themselves.

“Atelos will be coming with us,” and “He hasn’t gone on a mission in years,” and even, “We get to see him in combat. The Spartan stood up from the table and began walking away from the group. “Meet me at the gate at zero-five-hundred hours. You each will be getting a horse. You are dismissed.” The recruits resumed speaking with another excitedly. Atelos stopped at the archway of the courtyard before speaking to them once again. “If you are lucky, the Sorcerer will also accompany us. The students stood there confused for a slight moment, decoding what Atelos was talking about. He was heading into the staircase to his quarters before he could overhear the realization dawn onto them.

Atelos’ room was bare and plain. The only things present, the wooden bed and the Spartan shield that collected dust. He hasn’t donned his Grecian weaponry in many years. He wiped off the dust off of his ancient shield before an all to familiar voice spoke resoundly through his head.

Are you finally deciding to go for a stroll...Spartan. It’s been quite some time since Hades had spoken so clearly in the Spartan’s mind. You’ve been getting rusty and you have lost much of OUR power. Atelos has been able to maintain his ground in his contest with the daemon. Atelos had to give it to Hades, however, that he definitely felt weaker than he has felt in a long time. He flexed his fingers but the fire he had once felt in them had dwindled into a mere fraction of what it once was.

“Yes Hades, I am going out. I can feel it too. This is as much for you as it is for me.” Atelos bantered with him. Be on the lookout. Power comes in many forms… His voice whimpered away and dissipated. Hades’ interactions became less and less frequent and his hold on the Spartan had withdrawn. Atelos had a pit develop in his stomach. He know he should feel relieved but the God of Death had given so much power to the spartan. As his influence faded, so did the Spartan’s power. Should he feed into Hades’ power to defend Darkshire?

These thoughts plagued the Spartan over the course of the night, not allowing him to sleep. Atelos got from out of his bed and headed to the gate, preparing to summon his own mount before the recruits had gotten there. Atelos sat down, the musk of the morning floating in the air. He brought out the rainbow source of Omnillium and began to shape the horse with his mind. From nothing, the horse slowly began to form, it’s almond colored coat shining along with the rainbow material. With the quiet, it was easy to summon the horse, but as he just finished he heard the astonished gasp of a few people.

“I’ve never seen a prime summon something before. It’s so cool,” recruit Jones reached out to touch the mane of the horse that didn’t exist a few moments ago. “Are we heading out?” Lopez asked Atelos, eager to start their day.

His head turned to the direction of City Hall, half hoping that Shang would have accompanied them. He was about to turn his head and answer her before he saw a tiny figure walking towards them. A shit-eating grin burst across the Spartan’s face before he yelled into the darkness that enveloped the town, “Yes, Sorcerer!