Kallem stood next to Lorien on the edge of Kalamethas, they both looked across what was left of the wood elf village,
“What am I going to do Kallem?” Lorien sighed.
“Get revenge,” he replied.
“Revenge on who, do you even know who is responsible for this?”
“Yes. I do.” The elf girl spun around and grabbed him by the shoulders,
“Who did this?” He could see immense anger in her green eyes.
“Your village was wiped out because of Maphesto the Sorcerer, he is the one raising the undead.”
“But he is on the other side of the country, how can there be undead here?” she asked. Kallem shrugged,
“I haven’t figured that out yet, it might just be because he is raising any army of undead warriors around his fortress, the spell is spreading and causing more undead to arise from the ground.”
“We have to stop him!” She let go of his shoulders and stood up straight
. “That’s what we want to do, but I had to come on this sword quest first.”
“Sword quest, what exactly is that?” she raised one eyebrow.
“Well I told you about me becoming a hunter right?”
“You mean back when you burnt down the woods?” she smirked. Kallem laughed,
“Must everyone keep bringing that up?” he shook his head and continued, “Well part of being a hunter is that I must go on a quest to find my sword.”
“How do you know where it is?”
“I can feel it, there is a magic that kind of pulls me to it where ever it is.”
“So you can feel it right now?” Kallem nodded, he pointed to a part of the mountain he could just see from here,
“It’s right there.” Lorien’s face paled,
“No that cant be right, there is no way it can be up there.” Kallem frowned,
“What do you mean?”
“Kallem,” she put her hands on here hips, “That is the hall of the gods.”
“The hall of the what’s?” Carter asked, he had just appeared behind them with Tuvas and the three horses. Kallem and Lorien turned around to face the rangers,
“The hall of the gods,” the elf repeated. Kallem scratched his blonde head,
“And what exactly is that?” Her eyes dropped a bit,
“Well I don’t really know, father only took me there once when I was real young I can only remember these big statues, lots of statues.”
“How do we get up there?” Kallem asked.
“There is a magic stairway on the side of the mountain, I will take you there. But I’m telling you now you probably wont even be able to get in.”
“Why not?” She winked,
“I’ll show you went we get there.” Tuvas spoke up,
“Ok so are we ready to go?” he said. Kallem and Lorien picked up their backpacks off the ground, she had taken her father’s long sword with her and now had it sheathed and hanging at her hip. She had also grabbed her bow and found a new elven bow for Kallem. Tuvas had collected a heap of quivers and filled them up with arrows. As there were only three horses Lorien jumped up behind Kallem, he looked back at Kalamethas one last time, Maphesto was going to pay for what he had done, he would make sure of that. The ride to the base of the peak was only a short journey as it was not far from the village so they arrived in a couple of minutes.

Once the reached the base of the peak, they all dismounted and tied the horses to some trees on the edge of the woods. The four walked up to the base of Ravenstorm peaks, Kallem scanned the mountain with his eyes looking for the magic of the staircase. He eventually found it, but it was not until he was standing right in front of the stairs, it was well hidden. He could now see that there was a long stairway that spiralled up the peak. When Lorien spoke an elvish word that Kallem had not heard before, the magic disappeared and the stairway became visible to the other three. Carter let out a low whistle looking up the side of the peak, “Wow, its pretty steep.”
“Long would have been the word I used Carter,” said Tuvas.
“Who else knows about this place?” asked Kallem.
“My village was the only place that knew about this, now only the four of us know the secret of this place.” Lorien started up the stairs, “Come on it’s not as bad as it looks.” Kallem went next, followed by Carter and Tuvas,
“Try not to fall off eh?” Cater looked back,
“If I go Tuvas, you’re coming with me.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of.” It took them four hours to reach the top of the staircase and by then all of them where terribly exhausted. At the top of the climb they found a small cave entrance cut out of the side of the rocky peak, they entered the tunnel and followed it a short way before it opened up into small cavern, where the roof was thirty feet off the ground. On the opposite wall to them was a doorway and on each side of the door there was a huge stone warrior. The guardians would have been close to ten feet tall, they were both dressed in full plate mail and each held a giant two-handed sword.
“Ah so that’s what you meant.” Kallem folded his arms and he started walking toward the giants, “Lets go see if they’ll let me in.” Carter looked shocked,
“Are you crazy?” Lorien ran to catch up with Kallem,
“Wait for me,” she called. Tuvas shrugged and followed the two. Carter shook his head,
“I’ll take that as a yes,” he said grudgingly as he walked after the group. When they got close to the doorway the two stone statues suddenly came to life, their swords swung down and blocked the way to the door. The four of them all jumped back.
“Who dares approach the hall of the gods?” one of the warriors boomed out in a loud voice. Kallem stepped forward, “I do, I am Hunter Kallem Ravenstorm and I have come to collect my sword.”
“Sword, there is no sword here,” the giant replied,
“My gift has guided me here so I assure you that it is.”
“Very well since you posses the correct magic I am aloud to let you to enter,” he said, he then pointed his sword at Lorien, “As do you.” His sword turned to Tuvas and Carter, “You two may not enter.” Carter sighed,
“Whew, I didn’t really want to go in anyway,” he said tucking his thumbs in his belt. Tuvas nodded in agreement,
“Me neither.” They moved back away from the door,
“We’ll wait here for you two here, ok?” Carter said as he sat down on the ground.
“Ok,” Kallem replied. The two giants stood back upright and returned to their immobile state, the wooden doorway slowly opened inwards.
“What did he mean by correct magic?” Kallem whispered to Lorien.
“I’m not sure,” she replied. Kallem and Lorien walked through the doorway and entered a giant hallway and they could see that on each side of the hall every couple of metres there was a huge stone statue, the statues continued on as far as they could see.
“What is this place?” he asked.
“From what I know, each carving that you see before you is an image of a god. There is a statue here for every deity.” Kallem walked up the first one, it was a huge troll, he looked down, there was a gold plate at the base of the statue and on it were some scratched runes. He figured that it had to be the name of the troll.
“I didn’t know troll’s had gods, Ugly.” They walked down the hall, passing statues of dwarves, elves, humans, and halflings. “I never realised there were so many.” Kallem said in wonder as the walked down the long hallway, he figured that they had gone so far in a straight line that technically they should be out in mid air right now, this was strong magic unlike anything he had felt before.
“We are just a small part of a huge world,” Lorien said. Kallem nodded in agreement,
“A very small part.” When they reached the end of the hall they must have passed more than a hundred statues they found that it came to a dead end and facing out from the wall were two huge statues. Unlike any of the others these were made two were made from pure marble one white the other black. The white statue was of a woman, she was the most beautiful thing Kallem had ever seen, tall and graceful with long flowing hair and she wore a long robe that went from her graceful shoulders right down to her bare feet. The other statue was quite a sight, this man was armoured from head to foot in full plate mail with only his face showing, all over his amour there were huge pointed spikes, his arms were folded and he had a mocking grin on his face. Lorien looked at the names on the plaques,
“Aramethella, Goddess of Life and Daognis, God of Death. King and Queen of the gods,” she said. Kallem lifted his hand up to touch the white statue,
“It’s amazing,” he said as he laid his hand on the marble. Lorien went to stop his hand but she was too late,
“No, Kallem don’t touch it.” Kallem turned to look at his elven companion,
“Why not?” Before she could answer there was a bright flash of light and when her vision returned Kallem was gone.

Kallem opened his eyes and looked around, all that he could see around himself was white it was like he was back in the void again only this time the place was white instead of black. He looked down at himself, everything was there, he checked to see if his sword was loose in it scabbard, it was.
“There will be no need for weapons in here mortal,” a female voice called out from nowhere. Kallem turned around looking for the source of the voice. “Why have you entered my plane of existence?” she asked him.
“Who are you?” Kallem asked back. Aramethella the Goddess of life stood a few feet away from Kallem, she had cloaked herself with a spell of invisibility so as not to be seen and was watching the intruder with interest. She had been shocked to hear the mortal ask her a question, normally mortals were compelled to answer a question from a god straight away because of the sheer force of will being pressed down on them. This one was different somehow he had been able to ignore her questioning. Kallem went to use his gift to search the area for magic, the moment that he grasped his power he was shocked to find that it had somehow increased ten fold, and without really trying he found he could reach out for miles across the strange white land, but he could sense nothing. The voice spoke again,
“I am Aramethella, Queen of the Gods and who are you to question me?” she asked him again. The moment she started talking Kallem had concentrated on the voice with his gift and he followed it to the source of the sound. As far as he could see there was no-one there only white in front of him,
“I am Hunter Kallem Ravenstorm,” he said. Aramethella stared at the young man that was looking straight in her direction, she couldn’t figure out how he knew where she was. Then he smiled at her, “Come on, I know where you are, show yourself.” She was starting to get angry, who was this boy that could somehow sense where she was, she had grown weary of the invisible game and she decided to reveal herself. With a blast of her power she shattered the shield of magic that had hidden her, Kallem had to dodge a large chunk of magic that flew past his head. Kallem looked upon the goddess, she was even more beautiful than the statue, and she had long blonde hair that hung down past her shoulders.
“Now you can see me, are you happy now?” she said. Kallem smiled,
“Yes much better,” he looked up into her eyes and he was startled to see that she had golden eyes. She pointed at him,
“I will ask my question again mortal, why are you in my realm?” Kallem shrugged simply,
“I didn’t mean to come here, I just touched your statue in the hall of the gods. If you could help me get back out I would be grateful, I’m looking for my sword.” She shook her head,
“That’s impossible no one can enter through the statues, but the gods themselves.”
“Well that’s how I got here.” She strode up to the young hunter and put her hands on either side of Kallems head, “What are you doing?”
“Don’t worry this wont hurt, much,” she replied. Kallem looked into her eyes, he felt no pain, for a second he thought he saw her eyes suddenly widen in surprise before she continued her gaze. Finally she removed her hands from his head, “I see now, you are my sons offspring.” Kallem almost fell over,
“I’m your what?”
“My grandson.” This time he did fall over,
“That’s not possible, is it? Who is your son?”
“Aragath, the god of war.” Kallem was stunned,
“So what are you saying? Am I a god?” Aramethella laughed out loud,
“You are no god little boy, you are just some human half-breed. You were conceived just before your father ascended into the heavens. Some of our blood flows through your veins, that is how you entered my realm”
“How is that possible?”
“We gods do not just appear out of no where, we are born just like any other child in the world. When a god is born they live a life as a mortal until the time comes for them to ascend.” Kallems mind was reeling, he wondered if maybe he was dreaming this. “This is no dream, Kallem Ravenstorm,” she said.
“But Aragath, has always been the god of war.” She shook her head,
“Not true, he has only been in power these last seventeen years, mortals do not notice the changing of a god they don’t even realise the name has changed.” Kallem frowned,
“What happens when you ascend?”
“The positions of the gods always remain the same, Life, Death, War, Magic, only sometimes the person holding that position is changed. When a young god is ready he will come to the hall you were in and kill another god to ascend.” Kallem was shocked,
“So what, do you just randomly pick a spot or something?” She glared at him,
“Foolish boy, when they enter they know what position they were born for. They are pulled much like you to your swords which takes them to the right statue.”
“So that’s what my father did?”
“Correct, he easily defeated the old god of war. As a human your father was a great warrior, he lead a huge army, they all believe that he died in battle protecting his king.”
“Did my mother know this?”
“No she also believes that he died in battle.”
“Believed, she is dead now,” Kallem said sadly.
“Is she?” she said, “I have tiered of this, it is time for you to return to the real world.” She raised both her hands up and pointed them at Kallem, he felt a surge of magic before a huge bolt of energy shot from her hands and Kallem had no time to dodge it.

“Kallem, Kallem.” He slowly opened his eyes when he heard Lorien’s voice, “What happened to you? Where did you go,” she asked. Kallem checked himself for any signs of injury from that energy attack, he sighed in relief to find he was ok,
“I met the goddess,” he said in wonder.
“Well what did she say?” Kallem frowned thinking of the meeting,
“I… I can’t seem to remember, I remember seeing her and talking with her but I don’t know what she told me, she must have cast a spell on me.”
“Oh well it’s probably for the best,” she said. Kallem suddenly looked up,
“Hey I can feel the sword now,” he stood up and he looked down the row of gods a short way before he saw where it was. Kallem ran down the hall until he reached the statue, Lorien quickly followed, he looked up at the stone statue, the man was encased in full plate amour so that Kallem could not see his face. His gaze dropped down to the hand of the statue, it held two swords! Kallem reached up and grabbed the two sheaths, as he did the statues hand slowly opened and realised the swords. The two blades weren’t quite long swords but they were clearly longer than a short sword each had a clear gem embedded in the end of the hilt.
“Two swords?” Lorien asked, “What can that mean?” Kallem shrugged as he quickly belted the sheaths around his waist. Once he had them attached he drew his new blades, instantly a surge of magic came through the blades, the gems began to glow and change to a dark green colour.
“What can that mean?” he asked back. Kallem inspected the blades, they were a work of art he did not need to test the sharpness of the double edged blades because he could see that they would probably cut through just about anything. He slammed the swords back into their holders. He then looked up at the statue again and then down at the name plaque on the bottom, “Thanks, Aragath,” he said reading the name off the plate he then turned to Lorien, “Come on I don’t want to stay in here any longer, let’s go.” They both turned and started walking back to the doorway and the giant guardians.

Chapter 9 - The Journey..... Coming Soon