A Quest for the Stars

"I'll only warn you once; walk away from this lifestyle and never return. Go home to your wife."

Winds buffeted those present as clouds gathered above Cedar Forest. The trees danced with them, presenting a feeling of dread and doom. Spark stood on edge, while his associates formed a line with him. The path was open for Starflower to retreat, but he elected to have a little fun, instead.

"You're bluffing." Spark tried his best to remain confident, but Chet and Valerie knew better. Starflower's earlier remark was like a jab to a glass jaw. "We have been watching the road to Helix City and we haven't seen a smarmy brat like you at all. There is no way you came from the capital."

"Ah, but I did, Rutherford-"

"Stop calling me that!"

Starflower smiled. "What's the matter, Rutherford? Did the thought of a child trespassing on your privacy scare you? Or maybe you have seen the Reaper himself?"

"All I see is a dead man! George!"

The portly George stepped forward. "Yes, sir?"

"The Order needs you. We could use a sacrifice to take back to HQ."

"Hey, you guys gave me my youth back and all you want is a dead elf?" George cracked his knuckles while Starflower braced himself. "You're making it too easy to pay you back for your kindness!"

Out of the three, Chet appeared to be the most concerned. "Spark, are you sure about this? That guy fessed up to a lot of murders when he joined us, you know?"

Spark smirked. "Precisely who we want on the team. Besides, you know how much demons love elves. A sacrifice like this one will restore our reputation for sure."

The Blue Jays had their eyes away from the action for five seconds at best when they heard the rustling of branches not far off. George was gone while Starflower posed with his back turned on them.

"Where did he go?"

A gasp escaped from Valerie. "Over there!"

Spark and Chet looked at where Valerie was pointing; a tree Starflower was looking at was dripping with blood, and when they looked at the base they saw the bloated body of their new member prone on the ground.

What they had not witnessed in those five seconds was George charging in at Starflower, but all Starflower had to do was grab his attacker's fist to hurl him at one of the nearby trees. George's back slammed against the bark of the tree and painfully slid down to the ground and lied there. The portly man's shirtless back bled thanks to the tree's rough exterior, causing him to groan in pain.

"That shouldn't have hurt anything other than his pride," said the former headmaster. "Now, where were we?"

Staring at the prone George at the base of the tree, the Blue Jays couldn't hide their own surprise at the sight. They refused to believe that an elf not only parried the blow of someone twice his girth, but also tossed him away like a master of martial arts.

But this was very real, and they had to accept it. "What do you want," Spark asked nervously.

"Don't make me repeat myself, Rutherford," the elf said tenderly, like a father speaking to his child. "Your wife misses you very, very much."

"That fat cow?" A smile stretched over Spark's cheeks, trying his best to hold a laugh. "Did she arrange this? Did she find out about the affair?"

"Affair? That would explain why she hasn't seen him. I should have known."

Watching Starflower express a saddened look made Spark burst into laughter. He slightly bent over to hold on to his stomach as his cackling screeched as far across the forest as his voice could carry it. "You're in love with her, aren't you? Oh man, and here I thought she was an angel."

"Love? Is that what this is?"

"Looks like your wife has some demons of her own, Sparky," Valerie giggled. "Looks like she isn't so pure, after all."

"Maybe she's the one who needs to go to jail," Chet quipped.

"Why does this hurt so much?" Other painful times, such as Beau manhandling him and Horseface's minion striking him with the shovel, came to mind. As painful as those instances were, Starflower could no longer feel his previous injuries. But the mockery he was facing now? That cut deep into his soul.

After all the humiliation he had endured, strands of Starflower's hair levitated in place. "Make a mockery out of me and her, will you? I was debating on what to do next after my escape, and thanks to you, I have found my answer."

When George finally looked up, he was blinded by the intensity of the electric currents that had spawned from Starflower's fingertips.

"I won't allow you to disrespect her like this! I'm taking out the trash that litters my country! Starting with you!"

A ray of electricity pierced through George and stretched out well beyond a hundred feet. The youthful man's hair and skin darkened and burned from the heat, and his eyes rolled over right when his body hit the ground, limp this time.

One down, three to go.

"Spark," Chet said, "I-I think he's a wizard."

"B-big deal," Spark retorted, "we killed plenty of wizards, remember?"

"Yeah, apprentice wizards." Chet gulped once his eyes locked with Starflower's. "H-he looks l-like the real deal!"

"Nice going, Sparky!" Valerie punched Spark on the arm. "We lost another frontliner."

"It's fine, Valerie. He signed the contract, so there's no loss there." Spark smacked Chet on the back of the head and snapped his fingers. "Alright, Chet. You're up."

Chet backed away, looking at the cave's dark entrance and debated on running inside instead. "W-what? Why me?"

"You're a caster, aren't you? You can take him."

"Wouldn't it be better for us to fight him together? W-we might stand a chance that way."

Valerie laughed mockingly. "What's the matter, Chet? Scared of dying all of a sudden?"

"Yes," the bard said bluntly. "He just blasted our new recruit to death with a single [Lightning Bolt]. You'll have to forgive me for having second thoughts about this."

"What a baby." Valerie clasped her hands together and stretched her arms to the left as much as her muscles allowed her. "Men are so useless. I'll show you clowns how it's done."

Starflower maintained his posture - arms folded behind his back - as Valerie charged in. Instead of attacking, however, she revealed a black sphere in her hand at the last second and threw it at Starflower's feet.

Spark elicited a grin as his confidence slowly returned. "That's our Val. She's great with the art of feinting and fake-outs. He'll need sharp eyes just to keep up with her movements."

The black sphere shook the ground beneath Starflower to release a black cloud of smoke that covered him up quickly. Inside the smokescreen, the Blue Jays could hear coughing inside the foul, sulfur-smelling cloud.

"Of course, once Valerie acts, it's already too late for you. That smoke bomb is effectively tear gas." Spark grinned. "You'll be down for a while."

"Valerie, please end this quickly!" Chet urged his companion. "You got him on the ropes! Kill him before he recovers!"

"Quit your whining! I got this." Valerie brandished a knife, waiting for the smoke to disappear. But once it did, she was in for a surprise. "No, this isn't right!"

Without the worse for wear, Starflower already conjured a purple glyph at the palm of his hand. He positioned himself so that Valerie was in front of him and the Blue Jays were to his left. "That is a neat trick. Unfortunately for you, I already smelled something far worse in jail."

"Tch. This just means you can handle poison better. But my alchemy is top notch!"

"My friend was an alchemist, just like you. I learned a lot from him, and I'm even willing to call him one of the greatest of all time. Top notch, you say?" Starflower angrily set one foot forward. "You insult his memory by calling this crap top notch. You call that poison? This is real poison!"

The glyph Starflower summoned stopped glowing, and immediately a bank of purple fog appeared in the area. Staring Valerie down, Starflower made sure the fog - spreading in a 20-ft radius and 20 feet high - only had Valerie inside of it.

Breathing in the purple vapors, Valerie soon felt something come out of her nose. She wiped her mouth with her hand, shocked to find blood. Her vision soon became a blur, and her throat felt a burning sensation. Her head spun with agonizing lightheadedness.

"That, my dear, is a [Cloudkill] spell," Starflower said emotionlessly. "I specifically made this spell so that it affects your nervous system. All [Cloudkill] spells are the same, but I managed to give it my own touch."

"[Cloudkill]?!" Valerie widened her now-bloodshot eyes. She could feel blood coming out of them, which immediately hardened around her lashes. She was unable to open her eyes again due to the hardened crust weighing on them. "What the hell? That spell can be used to take down groups of people!" She coughed more blood. "Why use it on me?!"

"I've just been released from jail and got all of my spells back. I feel like a boy with a magnifying glass." Starflower closed his fist. "And you are the ants!"

With her vision gone and blood coming out of her eyes, nose, and mouth, Valerie wailed until the poison took its effect and shut down her nervous system permanently. All she could feel was the cold embrace of the afterlife just as she stopped breathing.

"Next." Starflower set his sights on Chet. One Blue Jay had been fried with electricity and the other's life was snuffed out in a matter of seconds. Spark and Chet were understandably frightened. "Heh. You've done nothing to help your friends. Are you the manservant?"

"What are you waiting for, Chet? Do something," Spark ordered.

Chet struggled to hold back his tears. "H-Hunter's dead...that old loser is dead...and now Valerie's dead..."

"And their deaths will be in vain if you do nothing to avenge them!"

Sensing a crumbling partnership, Starflower went in for the killing bite like a predator on an injured offspring. "It doesn't have to be this way. Rutherford sealed his fate by starting this fight, but at least you can save yourself, bard."

Spark became so enraged that a vein visibly throbbed on his forehead. "Don't listen to him, Chet! He's just using you to get to me!"

"He's half right, Chet," Starflower said. "Rutherford's my only target; I want nothing to do with you. Your friends died because this bastard sent them to their deaths. Even his affair partner bit the dust, and he didn't even bat an eye. I've never met someone so heartless, and I was right when I made the decision to kill him so that his wife doesn't suffer the same fate as that hapless bitch on the forest soil. If you protect him now, would he not turn his back on you just as swiftly?"

Another glyph appeared on Starflower's hand, his fingertips now aiming for Chet.

"This is your only out. Based on what I've seen, I can only assume each member of the Order is contractually bound to a demon, and if you threw away your life now, you'll join your friends as some demon's plaything. But if you step aside, you'll not only live, but you'll have the honor of being the first to witness history in the making; the downfall of the Order of the Blue Jay!"

"You have some nerve! We're the ones who intimidate our enemies, not the other way around! Children, babies, it doesn't matter who we hurt as long as the Order can twist the story to make them the evil ones! If you kill me, you'll make it to the top of their list of enemies, pal!"

Grabbing his lute, Chet screamed at the top of his lungs. "Both of you shut up!"

A few strums from Chet's lute were enough to make Spark quiet down. But Starflower, as expected, stood unaffected.

"Did you just try to hypnotize me," the former headmaster asked angrily. "I gave you an out, but you not only closed the door to your salvation; you swallowed the key, too."

"N-no...no!" Chet dropped his instrument and dashed for the woods. "Stay away f-from me!"

Starflower sighed. He was so furious he held back the glyph he had conjured and instead turned to the tree branches. "Valentine, I have no patience to leave loose ends. Execute him."

The leaves above Starflower rustled as a shadow in the trees went from branch to branch towards the same direction Chet ran to. It didn't take long for the bard to scream which was abruptly cut by a squelching sound.

All that was left was Spark. "I-I don't have any more meat shields..." He nervously pointed at Starflower. "What are you, some servant of the Hammer? Y-you're supposed to forgive those who wrong you!" His grin twisted into a impious expression. "T-that's right, you're supposed to submit to your enemies and let them hurt you!"

"Sorry, but you're preaching to the wrong altar boy." Starflower grinned. "I do recall a fraction of the Hammer's tenets, however. His lowest of servants should accept justice with humility, while those directly blessed by him are to mete it out fairly. You've committed so many crimes today, Spark, that even a layman would be justified in killing you."

Starflower mumbled something under his breath and turned his back on the frightened warrior.

"But I'm tired. Your pathetic whimpering has saved you. Consider this your lucky day. Let's go, Valentine."

Starflower walked away from the cave and was quickly rejoined by Valentine when the leaves and branches rustled above him once again. Spark, confused, roared angrily.

"Bastards, both of you! Just who do you think you are?" When he didn't hear a response, this only served for Spark to yell at them even louder. "Hey, look at me when I'm talking to you! You take away my meat shields, and now you're too scared to fight me, you fruity elf?!"

Sighing, Starflower continued on without a word. Humiliated, angered, and alone, Spark sank to his knees.

"I'm supposed to be the hero. How did this happen?"

----------

Spark thought back two years ago, back to when he joined the Order of the Blue Jay. He knelt before a robed man dressed in azure garments, who tapped his shoulders with a blue feather. Flanking him were several horned creatures - some small as a kid goat, others as big as ogres - who joined their hands in a dark prayer.

"Rutherford Spark. You are special; no one has shown as much potential to join our warrior ranks as you have. You represent everything we stand for, and for this we grant you the rank of Lieutenant. You shall be assigned to lead a group of our own members, and you must do so efficiently." The robed man gave him a sinister grin. "If they become a liability, then the sting of betrayal before they can deal heavy damage to our name shall be a pleasant tribute to our dark lord. It matters little how you go about it; as long as the sting of betrayal is fresh in their wounds at the time of their death, then you'd have done your duty well."

The robed man stretched his arms into the heavens, as if pleading to anyone above who was watching this.

"O, dark master, may this new soul be pleasing to you! May he carry out his duty efficiently. May he lead children astray, cow the innocent into silence, force even the righteous into submission, and most importantly, deceive the populace and represent the Order in the name of 'benevolence.' And should he grow powerful enough to lead us, may he become your greatest champion!"

----------

Mentally receiving a second wind, Spark rose to his feet, grabbed his partisan, and aimed his weapon at Starflower.

"Bless me, dark master," Spark prayed, "for I am your chosen champion!"

Screaming at the top of his lungs, Spark ran towards Starflower. His polearm shifted back and forth between targets - Starflower's head, back, and rear - unable to decide what he wanted to impale. No longer afraid of Starflower's power, he was confident he would survive. He was the Order's chosen hero, and even if he bled, there was no way he could die.

But the glyph in Starflower's hand never faded away. First emitting a blinding light, then it disappeared. Immediately after, a mass of black, rubbery tentacles erupted from the forest soil beneath Spark and grabbed his arms and legs. One stray tentacle wrapped itself around his neck, straining his voice.

"Fight...me...you fruity...elf..."

"I knew your type couldn't resist a target with its back on you. I was always in control, Spark. The only reason your Order exists in the first place is because I retired from adventuring by the time they became public. But the time has come for me to come out of retirement." Starflower flashed a sinister grin. "I had only come out here to convince you to go home to your wife, but thanks to your incessant mocking, you've motivated me to not only kill you, but to make everything you've done to amount to nothing by exterminating your organization with my bare hands. How does it feel, Spark, knowing that in your final moments, you contributed to the downfall of your Order? How does it feel knowing that you literally damned yourself serving an Order that will soon cease to exist?"

"I won't...die here!" Spark tried to break free but failed. "I'm...the hero...Helix needs. Release me...and fight me like a man..."

"No. You had all this time to confront me yourself, but instead you sent three people to die needlessly for you. I'm not going to be the one who will kill you." Starflower lifted his arms into the air. "Valentine! Come to my aid and show this ant the true meaning of fear!"

Spark braced himself for an attack, unaware of its origin but still ready, nonetheless. He anxiously scanned the road ahead, then the cave behind him, and finally the sides of the road. He then heard the skyward scream of a creature he never heard before. He glanced above him and felt a sharp pain on his shoulder stabbing at him like a piercing spike and screamed at the intensity of it. He tried to reach for his injured shoulder, but the tentacles did not allow him the opportunity to do so much as move his hand by an inch.

He glanced at his shoulder and noticed a stream of blood coming out of his pierced pauldron. Spark was definitely struck with a weapon and could still feel it on his shoulder, but all he could see was his wound. "Bastard! Fight me like a man!"

"It's more amusing this way," Starflower said with a chuckle. "Had you been brave enough to fight me from the beginning, you might have gotten a good hit in or two. I might have even shown mercy with a single killing blow. But now? I refuse to give you the satisfaction of even laying your hands on me."

Spark heard the screech of the same creature from earlier, much closer this time. When he looked up, the sight of a bird of prey on a tree branch - with gray feathers, a double crown on its head, and a stitch near its belly - scared him to silence.

"You smug prick!" As an act of defiance, Spark gathered whatever contents he could from his mouth and shot them out. Anticipating this, Starflower weaved to the side to avoid the spittle. This act irritated Spark even more, but Starflower made sure to keep his distance.

"Suffer." Starflower snapped his fingers. "Valentine, the knees, please."

A glimmer of light reflected from the creature's sky-blue gemstone, which was held by a necklace around its neck. With one giant flap of its wings, Spark screamed as the pain in his shoulder now extended to both of his knees. Blood spurted out of them as invisible spikes lodged themselves in him.

"Good girl," Starflower praised the bird before facing Spark again. "You have a habit of making things harder on yourself. One of the saner people in the village - I think he was named Lewis - talked about how you convinced an angry mob to rally against a group of adventurers because, according to you, they planned to rescue a girl from the giants that kidnapped her, then cut off her hands, and use the rest of her as ransom. What you failed to account for was the adventurers actually rescuing the girl and bringing her back safely. It was your own idiocy that led to your downfall then, and it is that same idiocy that has led to your own demise."

Starflower knelt to Spark's level. The latter had grown numb below the knees and could no longer stand on the ground. It was then, and only then, when the tentacles showed a modicum of leniency by allowing Spark to kneel.

"Just...kill me," said a weakened Spark.

"In a moment." Starflower was less amused and was losing patience with Spark's insolence. "Would you like to know the best part, Rutherford? Two of the adventurers that tried to stop you were my own students."

The tentacles finally vanished, and in no time at all Spark jabbed his polearm at Starflower. "Your students?!" The elf, for his efforts, stopped the attack with a single hand. Spark tried to pull his weapon away, but Starflower placed a firm grip on it.

"My students don't have a heart of ice, so they won't hunt you down. Constable Richards will do his best to arrest you without lethal force. And Sarnai? If I let you live, you'll only take advantage of her good nature again. The least I can do for her opening my eyes is to make a world where she can live happily. And the first building block for that world with be painted with your blood."

Nodding to Valentine, Starflower released his grip on the polearm, turned his back on Spark for the final time, and walked away.

"Don't you look down on me-" Spark screamed again when another invisible spike impaled his hand, forcing him to drop his weapon as the agony continued. This time, Valentine swooped down and sank her talons into Spark's head. Spark flailed his arms to grab the bird as its sharp talons sank deeply into his eyes, but the blood loss had weakened him to the point of near-unconsciousness, and all the flailing did was tire him out more.

The 'champion' of the Order could only scream in excruciating pain as the harpy eagle immediately began feasting on the flesh of his face after plucking his left eye out of its socket and felt the resulting blood stream trickling down his cheek and into the forest soil beneath him.

"Chet! Dark master! Anyone!" Spark was instantly silenced when Valentine sank her beak into his throat, his voice now gurgling with the blood he continued to lose. None of the people he betrayed came to his aid, for he would soon join them.

"Be thankful, Spark. Since you consorted with demons, you and your friends will reunite soon in the pits of the Abyss." Starflower chuckled. "Valentine, when you're done eating, we'll need to arrange a delivery to Helix City. Sarnai needs to know about her newfound freedom."