Atra Nox

The world of Gielinor. A literal timebomb, soon to explode. The only things that can save it are the deeds of the heroes of this world. But, out in the planet's solar system, a new bomb is ticking that no one could stop. And this bomb has a name. The Atra Nox. Gielinor, its moon, and the other planets and their moons are all aligning for a solar eclipse that happens only every thousand years. The Atra Nox is no normal solar eclipse; not at all. The Atra Nox, instead of darkening a small area on Gielinor, engulfs the entire planet in darkness for 14 hours, as the Moon is not the cause of the eclipse. A planet, on an irregular orbit, crosses the path with Gielinor every 1000 years, and not only darkens Gielinor, but all the other planets as well, as they are all aligned. As you know, nothing is normal on Gielinor, and the Atra Nox, for those who know how to harness its power, can magnify the power of magic by many, many, times. And to sweeten the pot... it's Easter!

We arrived back at the shop in Hemenster. After Dancus' home was destroyed, he had to stay with us. But I'm sure the Master doesn't mind. It was 6 o'clock in the morning. The Master and Dancus were asleep, but I, Raiah Gestoff, was awake, still trying to reanimate a dead rat. If I had been paying attention, I would have realized that a huge, dark circle was quickly moving across the sky. Towards the Sun. But, I was too focused on the rat to do much else. It was about 6:15. Yawwwwwwn! My Master had just awoken. He walked down the hallway and into the shop parlour, where I was practicing. "Happy Easter, Rai!" he said to me.

"Sure." I was still to distracted by my rodent cadaver to get into a conversation.

"Alright, Raiah. I'll put on your tea..." my Master walked into the kitchen and yawned again. 6:17. The first part of the dark circle in the sky touched the gleaming yellow ball that is the Sun. Shivers went down my spine. The room got darker. And an amazing thing happened. I swished my hand again, and the rat came to life! Well, unlife. You know what I mean. I swished my hand again, and it began to dance. I started to call my Master in to see this. "Hey M-" But once again, I was cut off.

"Raiah! You have to come see this! And Dancus too, get him!" Dancus had just walked into the parlour.

"What?" we asked in unison.

"I think it's an... eclipse!" Dancus and I ran into the kitchen and looked out the window. Indeed, it was. But I couldn't recognize any of the craters. The room got darker as the circle continued to move in front of the Sun.

"Guys," I said, "I don't think this is any regular ecli-" I was cut off once again.

"You're right Rai. This must be... no it can't! Raiah, fetch me the eclipse chart!" I went into the basement and got the chart.

"Here you are," I said. My Master stared at the chart intently for a couple of minutes.

"Raiah, Dr. Frumac, I'm afraid this is no eclipse," the expression on his face changed like lightning. "This is the Atra Nox."

"What's the Atra Nox?" I asked.

"Well, Dr. Frumac, it is a solar eclipse that happens every 1000 years. But it's not our Moon passing the Sun in the sky; it's a whole other planet," the Master answered.

"So, what's so special about it?" I asked again.

Raiah answered this time. "Dancus, the Atra Nox has the power to increase magical potential sixty-fold at its peak. And whatever is learned during the Nox is permanent."

"So, is that why your rat is doing the Macarena?"

"Pretty much." The planet covered more of the Sun. It was 6:34.

"Well, that's cool and all, but what if someone bad uses those powers?"

"That's what I'm worried about..." The Master stammered.

Falador. The city of white stone and clear waters. The intoxicating smell of the Park's sweet flowers fills the streets. Songbirds chirp overhead as you walk past. ''Chikachikachika-dee-dee-dee! Coo-o-o-ah, coo-o-o-coo-o-o-coo-o-o. Edy-o edy-o edy-o! Hoo choochoochoochoo CHOO!'' The chickadees and doves. The wrens and warblers. But nothing cheered the townsfolk on this day. Today was the day of a funeral for a well known Faladorian; Sir Vyvin. A preacher stood at the head of the grave and read his holy book to all those at the funeral. The entire White Knight and Temple Knight organizations were present. Friends and family stood, weeping at the death of one of the most selfless men in the history of Asgarnia. If only they had known what he had intended to do. Sir Amik Varze and two other Temple Knights carried the coffin containing one of the "greatest" men they had ever known to the grave. It was lowered down quickly, an covered with dirt. The mourners threw flowers on the tombstone. And then, they left. 7:26 AM. Sir Varze was the last to step up. He placed a blue rose on top of all the other flowers. Varze saluted Vyvin's tombstone, and left. The Sun was a quarter way covered.

Sir Amik was gazing out the window in his throne room. Strangely, a wide grin was opening on his face. Vyvin's gone! he thought. ''The High Council is almost completely dissolved! My plan is working!'' A White Knight suddenly walked in. Varze put on his saddest expression possible. 7:43.

"Sir, I have your Easter breakfast! Roasted lamb chops in cream velouté!" he said.

"Thanks, Callofon." Varze took the platter from the knight and began eating his lamb. He returned to his thoughts. ''Damn embarrassing that Denulth wasn't killed in the process, too. Ah well, I'm sure once that the coup is over that the Knights could easily overpower the Imperials.'' Varze carved a large chunk of flank from the side of a chop. ''Excellent velouté! Mmm...'' Varze looked out his window at the eclipse. Solar eclipses weren't uncommon, but Varze knew what this one meant. ''I could enable the coup right know, but the Mage Corp got destroyed during the last war with Kandarin. And barely any of the Knights know magic.'' Varze suddenly thought up an idea. "Callofon!" Amik yelled down the staircase, "Bring me a commorb!" Sir Callofon ran up the stairs and handed Varze a glistening glass ball. It activated, and brought Denulth up on the screen. "Denulth, I want you to find those Zamorakians again..."

"Raiah, that's so cool!" the Master exclaimed.

"I know, I know. You don't exactly see a dancing rat every day," Raiah replied. It was 8:19, and the Sun was was one third covered. Outside the door, Deulth and his squad were preparing to storm the shop. Denulth kicked down the door, again.

"You're under arrest!" he yelled.

"What the hell? Not this again!" the Master yelled. Raiah ran to her room and began ripping through the shelves. She found what she was looking for; a book entitled Necromancy: The Basics of the Undead. Practically ripping the pages, she found the spell she was looking for. The Atra Nox had given her amplified powers, and she used them. Raiah ran down the hallway and into the kitchen, where the Master and Dancus were attempting to keep Denulth from destroying all the potions and other merchandise. A pair of black claws ripped through the Master's back. He screamed in pain as he fell to the ground. Raiah, now enraged by the attempted murder of her Master, used her spell.

"Amnios Mortim!" she cried out, crushing several runes with her hands. The entire squad of Imperial guardsmen fell to the ground, comatose. "Do it Dancus!" she hollered. Dancus reluctantly used telekinesis on the guardsmen, and threw them into the lake. Meanwhile Raiah rushed downstairs to get some of the Verto Fabrica Nox. She sped back up and force fed the teal potion to her Master. There was no reaction. Then, the same yellow burst of light filled the room. And there he was, completely fine. The Master was okay. Raiah began to sob as she hugged the man.

"There there, Rai," he said, "There there."

Sir Amik was laughing with glee has he watched the skirmish from a commorb in Falador. "Excellent. Stage one of my plan, is finished."

With our second encounter with the Imperial Guard over with, we began to calm down. It was almost certain that Denulth and his men had died. I poured some tea for Raiah and the Master. As we tipped our drinks, I knew we were all thinking the same thoughts. It's not safe here! The Master dropped three cubes of sugar into his tea. He began to talk to us as he stirred his Lady Gray.

"We should... shut down for a while, I think. Wait until these attacks from Asgarnia cool down," he said.

"But we just deposed of at least half of the Imperials and their presiding officer!" Raiah hollered. As she grew more feisty, I grew less comfortable; exponentially.

"But Rai, there are thousands more! The White Knights, the Temple Knights, the rest of the Imperial Guard..-"

"We could defeat them; It's the Atra Nox!" she yelled, "And they just killed you!"

Gulp!-

As the dark circle moved across the sky and continued to block the Sun, Raiah felt her powers increase even more. It seemed, as her powers increased, so did her rage.

"Well, if you guys aren't going to find out what happened with those Asgarnian imbeciles, I will, personally." Raiah stomped out of the kitchen and slammed the door. She threw a teletab on to the ground, and yelled "Falador!" She was enveloped in purple light.

As she landed in Falador, she quickly darted behind the Statue of Saradomin and looked around to make sure no one was watching her. It was only 11:01; half the city was still asleep. Using her cat-like agility, she had climbed the statue in no time flat. Raiah jumped stealthily from the bald head of the stone likeness onto the room of the General Store. From there she ran, as quiet as a mouse, from rooftop to rooftop until she reached the Rising Sun. From her perfect vantage point, she could see into the Castle's throne room window. By now it was 11:23. What Raiah saw in the window intrigued her. It looked like Sir Amik Varze was under some sort of trance! She just had to see more of this. Raiah jumped from the top of the building and landed in the lake surrounding the Castle. The water was clear as day. Raiah got out of the water and handholds in the brick's cracks. She climbed to the throne room window and began to overhear a conversation.

"Purrr... You, my servant, are doing very well with my plan, meow. Now, unless you've forgotten my plan in your idiocy, here's how it goes."

"Yes Master Bob," said Sir Varze, his voice droning and robotic.

"Mew, I set that teletab down in Ardougne to make sure our pawns would be teleported to Falador, looking for their herbs. Once they got them, they 'openly' revealed their religion! Now that Vyvin and Denulth are gone because of our plan, meow, only Cashien remains!"

So that's how this all happened! Raiah thought to herself, clinging to the wall. She drifted back into the conversation.

"...and that's why Cashien must be eliminated! In fact, why don't you go do that now, purr?"

"Yes Master Bob. Tiffy Cashien will be out of the equation once I am finished!" Varze's robotic voice said. Raiah heard steps going down the staircase.

Oh no! she thought. ''Sir Cashien is going to be...wait why do I care? Those Asgarnians tried to kill me! No, wait they didn't; it was this cat's fault! Oh, what am I saying?'' Sir Varze exited the building below, a longsword in hand. I don't have time for this; and I won't let another innocent person die at the hands of this idiotic feline! Raiah propelled herself off the wall and fell into the lake, again. As she ran out, shivering, Varze was already halfway to the Park! Raiah, ignoring the her cold, sopping clothes weighing her down, ran quickly towards the park, darting behind trees and bushes. Jumping the fence, Raiah ran over to where Sir Cashien was sitting. Varze had just arrived at the gate. "Sir Cashien! You must come with me and leave!" she said.

"Well, why, ma'am? It looks like my good friend Sir Amik is coming over to chat!" Sir Cashien waved over to Amik.

"With all due respect, sir... he's about to kill you!"

"Poppycock! I think he's just come over for a nice cup of Merlot!"

"You insane imbecile! Are you goi-" Raiah was cut off.

"Why hello, Sir Cashien! Having a nice day?" Varze asked, unsheathing his longsword behind his back. Raiah pulled out her spellbook and looked for a certain spell.

"Why yes I am, Ammy!" Sir Amik smiled.

"Well, your day won't be so nice anymore!" Amik swung his longsword at Cashien's neck. At that very moment, Raiah suddenly blurted out the name of her spell.

"Saevio Attero!" Barely a centimetre from Cashien's neck, Sir Varze suddenly dropped his sword. His eyes retained their friendly glow. His trance was nullified.

"What...what happened?" he asked.

"Well, a crazed cat possessed you and you were almost about to kill your last remaining adviser," Raiah replied.

"What happened to my other two?"

"They were both killed at the butt end of the cat's plan."

"Well then, this cat must be defeated!"

"I concur!" As Varze and Raiah left the Park, Cashien was laying in the fetal position on the ground. He was in shock.

11:46 AM. The Sun was almost completely blocked. The entire city was slowly waking up to find Ester chocolates tucked under their pillows and into their shoes. But not for us. Sir Varze and I were about to storm White Knight Castle, and destroy the evil cat. We entered the courtyard and raced up the stairs to the throne room door, where we could hear a cat purring as it groomed itself. Ugly things. Never did like 'em. "You ready?" I whispered to Sir Varze.

"When you are, Ms...?"

"Gestoff, thank you. Let's go!" I kicked down the door and ran inside.

"Purr.... Why hello, slave! Why have you taken a prisoner?" he coolly asked.

"I didn't, because I'm no longer under your trance!" Varze said, whipping out his sword.

"Oh, a rebellion. 'Fraid I'll have to squash that if I want my coup to go as planned." The cat fired a teleother spell at Amik.

"Oh, no you won't! Tlido ridectum!" I yelled. The purple beam of the teleother spell was redirected to the wall, where a brick was teleported to wherever the cat meant us to be.

"Oh, really then?" The cat launched another spell, which I redirected. It burnt a whole in the window. The cat lunged itself at my face, but before he could, I used necromancy to create a wall of undead insects which blocked his advance. "What are you doing?" he yelled, "No one escapes the advance of Evil Bob!!!" As he said that I commanded the insects to surround him. Through the tiniest possible hole, however, he managed to launch a teleother, which gave me an idea.

"Tlido ridectum!" I redirected the spell at the evil cat, an he was promptly teleported.

"NOOOOOOO!" he screamed, as the purple light enveloped him.

"Job well done, Ms. Gestoff," said Sir Varze. We shook hands. "Say, you're a necromancer, right?"

"Yes...please don't arres-" I was cut off.

"Might you have anything that could bring my advisers back to life?" I was shocked. Where were the handcuffs???

"Umm... yes. Back in my shop... but that's in Hemenster."

"I see. Callofon! Bring this woman a commorb!" The White Knight promptly brought me a glass orb. "Just tap it thrice and say the name of the man you'd like to talk to."

"Um...my Master?" The Master's bearded face suddenly appeared on the glass surface. "Hello?"

"Raiah?" My Master asked.

"Yeah, um... hi... Do we have any Verto left?"

"Plenty."

"Then teleother a phial to Falador."

"Okay." I saw a purple flash on the screen. About a second later, a phial of aquamarine liquid appeared on the table beside us.

"Thanks!" The Master's face disappeared.

"Well, is that it?" Sir Varze asked.

"Yes. Unfortunately, I'm afraid your adviser... Denulth, was it? He can't be saved. We'd never find him. He's probably floating some place north of Relleka by now."

"Oh. But we can still save Vyvin, yes?"

"Yes." The bell in the Bank's bell tower rang. It was 12 o'clock noon.

12:13. Sir Amik and I were digging up the grave of Sir Vyvin in the Park. Thankfully, the entire city was so busy eating chocolate that no one noticed. Because of the rocky topsoil of Falador, graves are very shallow. We only had to dig about half a meter before we stuck the coffin. Before long we had exposed the entire sarcophagus. Carefully, we pried open the lid... and there he was, his brown hair still as spiky as the day he died... yesterday. I tipped the phial full of potion into Vyvin's mouth. Once again, there was a delayed reaction, then, an explosion of golden light nearly blinded us. 12:42. There he was, standing in his coffin. Sir Vyvin. And guess what the first thing he said was. "Zamorakian!" he whipped out his sword. the sky was nearly black. My powers were almost at their zenith. I summoned another horde of dead insects. His sword slashed through them.

"Kyhaaaaaa!" I used necromancy to thrust my horde forwards. Just as the first cadaver was about to touch his gleaming armour, and his sword about to pierce my heart, Varze bolted out.

"STOP THIS! Vyvin, don't you realize this woman just brought you back to life?" he yelled.

"Don't you realize she's Zamorakian?" he hollered.

"Yes, I do." The look on Vyvin face changed suddenly. "But she's a Zamorakian with some good still left inside." I dispersed my insect horde.

"Thank you," I said to Varze. "Now that that's over with, could you please teleother me to Hemenster?"

"Only too happy to!" I was enveloped in purple light...

...and as that purple light receded, I found myself in the shop's parlour. "Hey, Rai. Want to practice some necromancy?" my Master asked in the pitch dark.

"Are you kidding? I'm pooped!" I exclaimed. And with that, I ran up to my room and lay on my bed, and fell asleep.