The Curse

[Lucas Drachen]

Gabriel walked slowly towards his home. He had spent many nights doing the same repetitive task of patrolling Altmere late with the lack of other duties.  Tonight however appeared to be different. Upon his stroll along the road of Altmere he came across an odd scene.

Ahead of him was a grizzly sight, Seven gypsies lay dead in the road and in the center of the chaos stood a single figure. The Figure stood calmly amongst the corpses as if it were only natural to do so. He was clad in orange leather armor with a mask over his face. The Figure stared at Gabriel with an eerie calm in his eyes.

"Hold it right there, did you kill these people!?" Gabriel shouted towards the man.

"Practice....just a bit of an appetizer before the main course Drachen" The Man spoke.

"How the hell do you know my name..Who are yeh?!" Gabriel yelled as he drew his blade.


"Easy there... I stand no chance against your physical might..." The man said almost tauntingly.

Gabriel put his helm on and drew his shield and got into a ready position to battle the orange clad figure.

"I see....You shall fight me anyways I take it?" The Man said a grin forming beneath his mask.

Gabriel without response rushed the figure and began swinging his sword. The man responded by drawing a kryss and parrying. They exchanged blows neither able to land one upon the other. Suddenly the blade of the man glanced across Gabriel's side cutting shallowly into his side. Gabriel stepped back and winced gripping his side a moment.

"Well....That is all for now Drachen....Let the curse play out as it was intended....I hope you remember it after all...I know you do.." The man spoke in almost a laugh.

"What do you know of a Curse?!" Gabriel retorted in almost a snarl.

"Born of light and Dark....Magic and Steel...One will follow the light...The other will seek to destroy it..Sound familiar?" The figure spoke grinning beneath the mask.

"The fuckin prophet...Who the hell are you..How do you even know of this?" Gabriel shouted.

"You may call me The Fox...I am a Purveyor of Chaos...and you shall be my first experiment in Cove of the subject." The man said calmly.

"Oh yeah? and how do you plan on doing that once I cut you down?" Gabriel roared with a smirk.

"You won't cut me down Drachen....you won't be doing much soon..." The Man spoke looking over his blade as a strange gleam came over it.

"Poison?!" Gabriel said as a slight paleness overtook him.

"Let us hope....that the curse is false...or that you can suppress what you always knew existed..." The man spoke as he threw a round object to the ground.

The object exploded into smoke and upon clearing "The Fox" was gone. Gabriel stared on for a few moments then the realization of the poison returned to him. He rushed back towards the town in hopes of it not being too late to deal with.......

***To Be Continued...***

[Lucas Drachen]

Gabriel sat at his home in a near depression. He clenched and unclenched his fists the effects of the poison in his body seeming quite obvious at this point. He was unsure what this would mean to him, This Fox character had inflicted a great handicap upon him..One he was not sure he would recover from. Never in his entire life had Gabriel felt so vulnerable as he did now.

Delving into the chest of junk he had inherited from his father ages ago Gabriel came across an item he had hoped to never lift. The cover of the old book was worn and faded but the title was still legible. The Drachen Family Grimoire contained all the spells used by Lucious Drachen, Gabriel's estranged and long deceased father.

Lucious was never known for using his magic for any good... in fact his last known deed of magic was the cursing of Gabriel's own mother to be condemned to walk Britannia as a ghost unable to cross over for eternity.

"Thanks to him we never got to know our mother....If only I had known this when I was younger...maybe I could have done something..." Gabriel spoke to himself in a sad tone.

Justice never found his father, In fact he lived to the ripe old age of 98 before dieing in his bed one evening. Of course Gabriel only found out out the story about his parents after his father's death when all of his belongings were separated between the brothers. This was when the two began drifting far apart from each other as the truth of their lives unfolded before them in the form of their father's journals....

**To be Continued...**

[Lucas Drachen]

Once upon a time...yes that is a good start for a story, That is if the story was a happy one. But this one however is a story filled with greed, Lust, and sadness.

Born in the town of Trinsic was a young woman named Seraphina Le'Grail. Born of a small family she had many dreams, One of which was to become a Paladin. At the age of eighteen she was accepted as an apprentice by one of their ranks and  began her training. She was a beautiful woman and Innocent to boot. It was no surprise that many had their eyes on her and were in awe of her beauty. Gabriel D'Arc another Paladin of Trinsic spent weeks courting Seraphina and the two fell in love spending night after night chatting and watching the stars. They were considered a happy couple by most of the city...but their happiness was not to be...

Born in Moonglow was the young mage Lucious Drachen. At the age of fifteen his parents enrolled him into The Lycaeum to learn the arts of the mage and become a powerful wizard. Lucious developed into a skilled mage, But his attitude towards magic and dishonesty soon left him to be banished from The Lycaeum after experiments with Necromancy. Not one to be held back by any Peers Lucious found his way to Trinsic where he soon had his eyes on the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. However the young lady seemed to already have a suitor, A fact that meant nothing to Lucious...

One dark evening as Seraphina and Gabriel said their goodbyes the young woman was met by Lucious. With a snap of his fingers three armed men stepped from the shadows grabbing her and gagging her under Lucious' command. She was dragged off to his estate and locked up to await her captor's demands.

Lucious Held the young woman for months, Though her love searched and searched he was never able to find her as Lucious left no evidence of his crime and let no one into his home except his own servants. The rest of Seraphina's life played out day by day as a slave to Lucious' desires. Every evening he would ask her "Do you love him still?"  and her answer was always "Yes I do". And it played out until one evening she spoke to Lucious...

"I am pregnant with your child...." Seraphina spoke sadly to her captor.

"You will bear my child, yet you still love him?" Lucious asked her coldly.

"I will bear this child because it is mine....Not because it is yours" She spoke in return.

"We shall see..." Lucious rose and exited her room locking it as he did.

Nine months after this news Seraphina gave birth to twin boys. The first one born she named after the one person she loved, Gabriel. Lucious named the second born after himself, Lucas. The boys were taken from their mother and handed over to be raised by Lucious' servants. However The Monk who delivered the Children left Lucious with a disturbing prophecy. "Born of Light and Dark, Magic and  Steel, One will Embrace The Light, The Other will Seek to Destroy it. One shall be your undoing..".  Intrigued by this but not shaken at all Lucious ignored the Monk and continued with things as usual. A month after the birth Lucious told Seraphina dark news. Her Love Gabriel D'arc was killed a week beforehand and "He will not be seeing you again" as Lucious politely put it.

Pushed too far by the news of her Love's passing, Seraphina took her own life that evening hanging herself using the sheets from her own bed. Upon discovering her body Lucious was enraged. He quickly brought the body to his lab and began his dark deed. For as far as Lucious could see things, If he couldn't have her then no one could. He removed three items from her body... Her Spine, Heart, and Tongue. Casting a powerful curse using these items as reagents he condemned Seraphina's soul to be bound to Britannia...

"May She Speak No Truth....May She know no Courage... May She feel no Love!" Lucious' Dark curse bound Seraphina's soul but also his own in the process.

Upon dieing on his deathbed at the age of 98 he left his belongings to his children. Lucas received half of his wealth and his estate. Gabriel was given the other half of the wealth and all of his Father's journals and books. Hoping that he could corrupt Gabriel into becoming an heir to The Drachen family's magical history, Not to mention corrupt the name of the one man that Seraphina ever loved...

When Gabriel finally read over the journals left for him he was shaken to no end. He felt sadness for The Mother he never knew and hatred for the father who was never there. scouring through his father's memoirs he came across the curse used on his mother's soul and began looking for some way to undo it. though it had been many years since it was cast he was sure there was some way to free her...And he was going to find it.

**Present Day**

Gabriel closed The Grimoire and sighed. His brother knew of all this as well and only wished to abuse the knowledge his father had possessed. In Gabriel's mind he had saved Lucas from corruption by keeping the Grimoire out of his hands. However he was not so sure he had saved himself. The Fox had done a great toll on Gabriel's physical being. If this didn't wear off then perhaps delving into The Arcane will be the only way to continue on...

Setting The Grimoire aside Gabriel pushed himself to his feet with his staff and slowly climbed the stairs to his bedroom. He laid upon the bed and soon drifted off. Unsure if the next day would hold salvation from the damage dealt to him...

**To Be Continued**

[Lucas Drachen]

Gabriel flipped through The Grimoire slowly. Remembering with each page the lessons taught to him by his father's servants all those years before. It had always been in him to control The Arcane though he had always refused it's allure after he found out what his father had used it for. He seemed to be running out of choices though as the poison was more and more seeming like an effect that wasn't leaving his body anytime soon. He knew if he didn't do something his time in The Army would come to an end for his lack of an ability to be any use. So he got to it...

Each page of The Grimoire sparked old memories of his old classes and the words of power seemed like familiar old friends upon their use. He had always been the natural out of the two brothers, A fact that his brother Lucas had always held against him for the fact of his affinity towards their father. Gabriel was still unsettled by his choice. For he knew The Grimoire had been used by his father for many years for dark purposes. He didn't wish for it to corrupt him in the same way.

He studied in secret, He didn't want anyone to know of it in case the poison did indeed wear off and he would have no reason to even use it. He needed to regain his control over The Arcane first otherwise he would have another "exploding staff" incident....

**To Be Continued**