Chapter 12

"I thank you everyone for your goodwill on my birthday." Aldale said as he got to his feet and held his own wine filled goblet aloft.

"Grayson, my friend, I hope that I will grow into the wise man you wish me to be. If there is anything you need from me ask and if it is within my power to grant it, it will be done." he said to Grayson. As he took a drink from his goblet as he found himself not only trusting Grayson but also respecting him deeply.

Grayson could see that Aldale had meant what he had said and he could not help but to feel a deep sense of security now that he was truly home, even though this was not the world of his birth and the party began to get into full swing.

The party last well into the late night and when everyone was more or less passed out from the night long revelry. Grayson suddenly awoke from his slumber for some unknown reason. Detra moaned contently in his arms.

"Something is not right here." he thought to himself as he felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. He tried to shake off the effects of all booze and weed he had consumed during the party.

He focused his senses as he looked around the throne room to see if he could find what had alerted him. Everything seemed normal.

Then he saw something moving in the shadows. He watched as the shadowy figure was stealthily making its way through the tangled bodies of the sleeping revelers.

Suddenly, he felt an icy chill run up his spine as he saw the shadowy figure standing over Lord Gammanal with what looking like a dagger poised to strike Lord Gammanal in his sleep.

"OH NO YOU DON'T, YOU SON OF A BITCH!" he yelled at the top of his lungs as he got to his feet and used his psionic powers to boost his speed and launch himself into a flying tackle as the dagger plunged towards Lord Gammanal's unprotected neck.

Whoever the cloaked assassin was barely had time to get out of the way as Grayson landed on top of Lord Gammanal, who awoke with a startled cry. Which woke up some of the others in the throne room as Grayson unhooked and activated his energy sword.

But before anyone could react the cloaked assassin slammed something onto the floor of the throne room and there was a blinding flash of light that caused everyone to cry out in fearful surprise.

"SHIT!" Grayson snarled as he focused his psychic senses on the unknown assassin who was running out of the throne room and gave chase to the fleeing assassin as he was using his psychic sight to home in on the fleeing assassin while everyone else was stumbling around due to their sudden blindness.

As he was chasing the fleeing assassin Grayson tried to probe the assassin's mind. He found that he could not sense the assassin's thoughts or feelings as they sped out of Lord Gammanal's household and into the night.

"Must run faster!" Grayson thought to himself as he boosted his speed with his psionic powers. He was clearly surprised to feel the assassin seemed to speed up even more. The assassin was leading him on a merry chase through the noble quarter of the city.

"Damn it! Where the fuck did he go?" Grayson snarled as he lost sight of the fleeing assassin.

He looked around and saw that he was in a part of the city that he did not know. Suddenly he sensed someone behind him and quickly spun around and lashed out with his energy sword to see it cut through the right wrist of the cloaked assassin, severing it's right hand that held a strange looking dagger.

"What the hell?!" he thought to himself as the wounded assassin made no sound, the severed hand landed on the ground and burst into flames.

"Ok asshole, don't even think to trying to escape!" he snarled as he noticed that the maimed assassin was not bleeding from the stump of its severed wrist but before he could say or do anything the cloaked assassin burst into flames and was reduced to ashes in less than a second without even uttering a sound.

"What the fuck?!" Grayson thought to himself. He did a quick psychic scan to make sure there were no other assassins in the area. Once he was sure that he was alone he walked over to the assassin's dagger and saw that it was six inches long and looked to be made of dark forest green crystallized bone.

"I don't think I should touch that." he thought to himself. He could sense something evil about the strange dagger. He used his telekinesis to levitate the dagger into a small bag tied to his belt.

After he had returned to Lord Gammanal's home he saw some of his Lordship's personal guards at the front gate. When they saw him they drew their weapons.

"Take me to Lord Gammanal ... NOW!" Grayson snarled with a strong and commanding tone of voice and he used his psionic powers to bend the guards' wills to his own.

"Would you mind explaining what in the Black Hells happened?" Gammanal asked with a slightly weary tone of voice when he saw Grayson.