Valentine lay flat on a rock as he chewed on a stalk of foreign grass. The long blue stem waved lazily up and down as he moved his mouth. Tania watched her Chosen in fascination wondering if she should make a dash for the stalk as it bounced enticingly at her. The beautiful tawny wolf bunched her powerful muscles and was just about to pounce on the tempting reed when the Thief spat it out and sat up.

Awwww, Tania relaxed her hind legs sitting back down and licked her nose in disappointment.

"What is taking her so long?" Valentine asked aloud.

"Her nose isn't as good as mine," Tania replied bluntly.

Valentine smiled and reached out to pat his Familiar. "Of course not. Kasakh is an orc not an amazing wolf like you. She won't be able to sniff out stuff. Come, I'm tired of waiting. Let's go help her whether she wants us to or not."

"She will chase you out of her cave again."

The Gatekeeper snorted. "So what? I ..."

They were cut off by a sudden soulful wolf howl. The haunting cry pierced the silence and hung in the air.

"Anya!!" Valentine cried in fright as he ran anxiously over to the white wolf. She was howling mournfully at the edge of the clearing. "Anya, what is it? Is it Laz? Is he o'kay?!!"

Anya lowered her great furry head to sniff noses with Tania as she came bounding up.

"Sister! What is it? Your Chosen ...?"

"He is injured but alive." Anya heaved and hung her head. A moment later her ears perked up and she tilted her head to one side. "Oh! That is good. The fighting has ended. It was a close call. Xico helped."

"Xico?" Valentine asked as he listened to the three-way conversation in his head.

"Yes, the great Warlock could not tell the difference between my Chosen and the orc. He ..." she referred to her Chosen lovingly, "... told me and I told our winged brother and he told his Chosen. The Warlock killed the right one," she finished smugly.

"You are giving me a headache. How could Constantine not be able to distinguish between Laz and an orc? Seriously."

"My Chosen is o'kay now," Anya announced and stood up shaking herself vigorously. Then she looked hopefully at Valentine, "Eat?"

"Yesss! Eat!" Tania agreed heartily wagging her tail.

The handsome Thief laughed. He retrieved some juicy meat from his Inventory and tossed the Items to the Familiars. If Anya had regained her good spirits, Laz was definitely o'kay but the roundabout vague explanation left much to be desired. He would get details from his two friends after this session. Meanwhile he should be doing his part. He left the two eating wolves and headed for Kasakh's cave.

"Hey! I'm done waiting. Despite what you think of humans, I can actually help ..." Valentine stopped as he spied the young orc squatting in a corner, hunched over several pieces of parchment. Around her were rubble, she had smashed through something to get those, he guessed. The Banished One must have left somrthingfor his daughter in a place only she would know.

The gatekeeper went closer, was she crying? He gaped astounded at the unexpected sight. The loss of her father must have hit her hard now that she was back. His tone softened, "Hey ... Kasakh, you o'kay?"

Valentine jumped back agilely out of the way when she turned swiping one strong hand at him. "I hate him, I hate him, I HATE HIM!!"

"Ummmm, him not me right?" Poor guy whoever she was referring to, the Thief thought. He was a dead man. It was not a good thing to be hated by an angry orc.

Kasakh turned to the Thief, "Sharak should not have died!"

Oh? The poor guy was already dead. Lucky him. Better to be dead than face an angry emotional orc.

She waved the pieces of parchment wildly at him. "See?! I knew it!! This is proof! He should not have died. My poor, poor ... father! Stupid father. He risked his life for nothing. Nothing!" She broke down sobbing, snorting and cursing vehemently at her dead father.

"What do you mean? He shouldn't have died? But he took the poison right?"

"Yes, he drank a diluted concoction of the poison to assess its effects first hand. It was to fool the Overlord's Necromancer."

"Fool him? I don't understand."

"Of course not. You are only a human after all." She sniffed at him in destain.

Valentine gritted his teeth. Seriously, this orc was getting on his nerves. "Explain," he said curtly.

The nauk dzi vras is a unique poison. It will not work if ingested." She flapped Sharak's notes authoritatively to prove her point. "Since he drank it, the poison would only weaken him temporarily and pass through his body harmlessly in a few days. That way, father would have experience several symptoms enough to gauge the actual effects. He was that good with what he did."

The green orc paused thinking of her father. Letting out a great sigh, she continued.

"There is only one way to properly administer it. The nauk dzi vras must be injected directly into ones bloodstream through the living blade. Upon contact with live flesh, the Illaru will corrode leaking the milky white poison into the victim. It only works this way because the nauk dzi vras will mix with the special corroding metallic mineral from the Illaru. The combination of the substance and the mineral is the true poison," she summed up blowing a huge gooey orange glob of snort from her nose.

"So-ooo, Sharak should be alive. Then why..."

"When he was commanded by the Overlord to find a cure or die, father started his research into this rare drug. He discovered several things and had a few suspicions. Father took his findings to the Overlord and another deal was struck. He would find the one behind the prince's assassination attempt and the Overlord would clear his name. The Banished One is not a grand title. Father was framed, you know."

"I'm sure he was," Valentine coughed and bit his lips in an attempt to keep his face straight.

"He was!! He did not do all those things with black magic! Father did not know any of the forbidden arts!" Kasakh insisted vehemently glaring at the Thief. "Well, maybe only the bits that had to do with substances ..."

"That would be a lot, right? I mean, it will include potions and stuff ..."

Kasakh glared at the human. "Anyways, Father took the poison as an excuse to get into the Stronghold. It was supposed to be by the Overlord's order to encourage him to find the antidote faster. Death is a great motivator. Mallarg should have believed he was poisoned too and not a threat at all, so the Overlord allowed him near the jaav ukon."

"Makes sense, I guess. The Overlord would help if it would mean saving his son," Valentine narrowed his eyes, "So you are saying Sharak was killed?"

"Father only discussed the special properties of the nauk dzi vras with the Overlord. Not everyone would know of it's special properties but I think, no ..." she shook her head, "I am certain Mallarg knew about it too. How else could we not fool him?"

"Mallarg? The Necromancer? Isn't he on the Overlord's side?"

"Father suspected something but there is no proof, only circumstantial evidence. He wrote it all down. See?"

The female orc trusted the cured skins at him. Curious to see the evidence, Valentine eagerly reached for notes. He was immediately disappointed. He could not make out the black marks. The lettering was nothing he had ever seen before. It was not the familiar alphabet used in real life. If it were that, he could probably make something of it. The symbols did not resemble any known language or lettering in the real world. He sighed. It was a totally new made up alphabet for Orc Wars.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk." Kasakh shook her head pityingly at him. "You should have told me you were illiterate."

"Me? ME!!? Illiterate?" Valentine spluttered, greatly insulted. Besides Jace, he too was pretty well known for being smart in the real world. To think that someone thought he couldn't read!!

"It's o'kay, human, nothing to be ashamed of. Not everyone can learn how to read and write," the green orc reasoned smugly.

Valentine made a face. Now she thought he couldn't write either. Seriously!!

Kasakh guffawed loudly at the Thief's comical reaction. "Ha, ha, ha, you are so funny. I was just teasing you." She took back the precious notes. "Not even our kind will be able to read these. It's a special code between father and myself. Only the two of us can decipher this." She hugged the parchments to her green chest.

"Anyways, it says here that father needed to get into the Stronghold. He also needed to study the Illaru to test out a theory and find out the source. Unfortunately ... " her face screwed up again.

"Hey, hey, don't cry," Valentine said hastily. "But you know, there is no orc blade in the Stronghold. The one used against the jaav ukon was destroyed."

"How do you know?"

"Laz told me."

"So all is lost?"

"Hmmmm," Valentine muttered thinking, "maybe not. The others are there. Maybe they will find something." He had to warn Lazarus and Constantine. If Sharak had gone to the Stronghold to investigate the poison and find the blade but was murdered, that could only mean one thing. The murderer was in the Stronghold and the Banished One had found something significant.

"What is that?"

"What?"

"That thing you were trying to hide," Valentine said grinning. He had noticed she had carefully ignored a few scrolls hoping he would overlook them. "It looks old, older than your father's notes. Is it something that could help Laz?"

"Oh, it's nothing, just something I wanted to check up on. Nothing to do with the dark one."

Valentine's blue eyes narrowed. His instincts told him she was hiding something, something important. "Tell me."

She backed away.

"You know I can take it from you." Valentine went into battle mode, heightening his awareness. His stance changed, ready to move at a moment's notice. "Tell me when I am asking nicely." His hand touched the hilt of his sword warningly. If it was something that could help them ... Laz did not have much time left. He had been very easy going so far but she should know that he was no pushover, not when the stakes were high. Every bit of information helped.

"Tania, Anya, guard the entrance of the cave. No one gets out until I say so," he said aloud as he gave the mental commands to the Familiars. He wanted Kasakh to know there was no escape. The huge wolves appeared immediately at the mouth of the cave. Valentine's tone of command was serious.

The female orc growled feeling threatened.

"Kasakh, please. I need to know," he said entreatingly.

"Fine!!" Kasakh relented ungraciously. "Take it!!"

Valentine clenched his jaw. "You know I can't read orc, even if it is not in your special code. You read it to me."

"Illiterate!!" she snorted as she unrolled the scroll.

The Thief rolled his eyes but kept his peace.

"It is the Prophesy. It says you humans are the destroyers of our world and to kill you on sight."

Valentine sighed. "I'm pretty sure it does not say that. Read it. I want to hear the actual thing, it may not be what you think."

Kasakh made an irritated sound, licked her green cracked lips with her purple tongue and started.

"Behold! The end is near when human Ghost Lords appear in the Realm. Take heed for they will destroy the Ukacrun Asht and the life force within it that sustains our land. The sacred Ukacrun Asht shall be no more."

"Beware! Any and all who dares oppose the Ghost Lords will perish." Kasakh's black beady eyes flicked to Valentine warily before returning to the manuscript in her hands.

"Thus, ends all that we know. A Power, never before seen shall rise to usher in a new Age."

The green orc fell silent. This was the first time she had read the full Prophecy. It's solemn forecast of a terrible future for her kind rocked her. All this time, Kasakh had not thought it was really doomsday but the ancient words sounded so final. Father had told her about it in her studies with him but had never let her hold the transcript. The one Sharak had wasn't even the original. The valuable original Prophesy was kept in the Overlord's Stronghold ever since it was recorded by the Ancient Seer.

Was it really the end for all of them?, she wondered suddenly afraid. She did not want to die. The Prophesy had always been a vague threat, used to frighten naughty small orcs to sleep, lazy orcs to work en cetera. Go to sleep or the Ghost Lords will get you, practice and build up your strength or the Ghost Lords will annihilate you, the list of threats was long ...

The inconceivable reality had materialised with the sudden appearance of the humans. Any and all who opposes the Ghost Lords will perish? She looked fearfully at Valentine. The human in front of her was one of the fabled Ghost Lords. Size did not matter, power did. He probably had all kinds of unimaginable power in his little body, she thought agitatedly.

"Awww, c'mon. I'm still the same."

"No you are not. I did not fully recognise you before ..." she gulped.

"What exactly is the Ukacrun Asht? It says we will destroy it."

"The Ukacrun Asht? It is the scared bone that gives life to everything here. It is a power that releases magic into our Realm to sustain all Life. The ferocious Bello monster protects it, don't you know anything?"

The Thief arched an eyebrow at her.

"Umm, I mean of course you don't. I forget, you are not from here," she amended hastily. "Without it, we will all die ..." Kasakh's eyes widened and her mouth hung open at the realisation of what she had just said. "Please, don't destroy it?"

"Of course not. Why would we want to sabotage your Realm's energy source?" Valentine said indignantly, "We don't go around wrecking things for fun. Who do you think we are?"

"Ermmm, the prophesied human Ghost Lords ... the Destroyers of the Realm?"

"Nonsense. It's probably some others, not us. We are the good guys."

The young green orc relaxed. "Good. So you promise you won't destroy the Lifestone."

"Wait!! What?" Valentine asked shocked. He probably heard wrong. "What did you say?"

"I said, you promised not to destroy us, right? You said you wouldn't," she stressed anxiously. "You will keep your word?"

"No, the other thing. Say it again."

"What the Lifestone?"

"Yes ..." The Thief breathed. "The Lifestone."

"The Ukacrun Asht is also known as the Lifestone. After all, it does provide energy for all living beings and thus life to us."

'Well, I'll be ..." Valentine muttered thinking of Simtrixx's main quest. What would the others think of his discovery? "So it all comes back to the Lifestone."