Free The Vitalis Chronicles: Tomb of the Relequim by Jay Swanson

rival rises again. He is yet imprisoned, but he reaches out from his tomb to claim lives and raise a host. He has enslaved the people we fought so hard to free and will soon destroy them all. I have not seen it myself, yet I am sure of it. All of the signs are showing themselves. I can sense his monsters, near even to here. I need you to travel to Grandia, Ardin. I need you to free your fellow man from the clutches of the Greater Demon before he ends them all.”
    Ardin stayed silent, the massive request dropping to the floor with a nearly audible thud. He had seen what horrors lay on Grandia, even if it had only been a glimpse. How on earth could it ask this of him? Didn't it know who he was? What he had done?
    “ Alisia, where is she?” He had to keep his mind elsewhere. “I'd like to see her statue.”
    “ Of course. She stands right behind you.”
    He turned, not having noticed who stood on the dais in the center of the room. It was indeed Alisia. The carving was so incredibly lifelike. For a moment his heart leaped within him at the hope that she might yet live. But the realization of what the statue meant in and of itself could leave him little doubt of the truth.
    He moved slowly towards her, the platform on which she stood level with his chest. He reached out only to touch her toes. They were bare in the soft grass that somehow grew to cover the surface on which she spun. Wild and free, happy, her skirt spun in the breeze with flowers in her hands. She looked at peace, full of joy. He had barely caught glimpses of her like this.
    His throat twisted violently as tears formed in his eyes. He would never see her again.
    “She came to visit me...”
    “ On the Magaic Plain, yes.”
    “How is that even possible?” His fingers brushed over the cold stone, wishing life into them with their passing. “Was it a vision?”
    “ It was no vision, Ardin. The Magi used the Plain for many things in life. To meditate, to practice their arts, to communicate. When they pass on to the next realm, they maintain connections to those who carry their Uriquim. When she visited you, she was truly there.”
    To be told as much only made the pain worse. She had been right there, in his presence, and he had missed that opportunity. I didn't even get a chance to tell her... anything. Ardin shook his head.
    “ She was meant for great things.” The Greater Being spoke gently again.
    Ardin rested his arm in the grass; his forehead followed.
    “ She was taken from them.”
    “ She was taken from you.”
    More to the point, he thought. Always more to the point with this one. It stung to have his love for her validated aloud.
    “ What would you know?”
    “ That when the Creator made this hall for the Magi, He made it with a very specific number of platforms and this central dais. I've always wondered why he didn't make it more flexible. When He carved it out of the rock there were but a dozen Magi, and now that the Magi are extinct there are none who are unaccounted for. This pedestal was made for two, I never understood that until now. It is your destiny to fight this battle. It is the work you were called to complete.”
    “ What about those empty spaces in the hall?”
    “ Annihilated, dead and nowhere. They were destroyed by the very spells and rituals you sought to invoke on Tertian. I imagine he is quite happy that you failed.”
    Surprisingly, a great sense of relief washed over Ardin to hear the news. He looked at Tertian's stern statue, grim even in death. He had no love of the Mage, but was glad to know he hadn't condemned him to nonexistence. However that worked, he wanted no part in it.
    “ But I knew what I was doing. Charsi's knowledge–”
    “ Charsi never knew the full incantation. Few do. To truly know it is a mark of the Demon's influence. It is a rare creature that bears that mark prominently enough to master such evil.”
    Ardin laid his head back down in the short grass. It was soft, moving gently as if caught