The Morgle Unmasked: Chapter 1, Part 3

11 September 2026

Greetings to all our readers! We continue from where we left off last week, as Rokwolf recounted the legend of Morokolu, in the ongoing serialization of the third book of The Redemption series, Morgle Unmasked. . . . (11 January 2016) The full ebook version of this book is available for purchase from all ebook sellers. We remind all that the first book in this series, Chosen of the One, and the second book, Staff of Shigmar, are both free from Smashwords! Glossary links: Book 3, Book 2, Book 1

Chapter 1, Part 3

Rokwolf stopped and shook his head. “I’m not sure I believe the legend–it is a story told by old seklesem to frighten the green members of their squad.”

“Don’t all legends contain a grain of truth?” Marilee asked.

Thal nodded. “That is the supposition,” he said, “although we have to understand that there is always another purpose behind the telling of the story in that way; in this particular case, I would bet that the story is told to young parents, to frighten them into being less indulgent with their children, or maybe to explain the errant behavior of rebellious youth.”

“There is wisdom in that approach,” Marilee noted.

Tevvy shook his head. “Not to break your reflections here,” he said, interrupting, “but it sounds like a perfect place for the morgle to hide, close to the ocean, since his race comes from the sea.”

“Not precisely,” Thal said, “remember that the morgle are corruptions by Gar of the wedorem.”

“True,” Tevvy admitted, “and the purem are corruptions of your wethi ancestors, but my point was to get you back on task. Don’t we need to track down this morgle and retrieve the rod?”

“Obviously,” Thal said.

“We cannot do anything,” Delgart said, “until my brother and sister-in-law recover.”

“We have other work to perform,” Marilee noted, “that we will very soon need to return to.”

“Yes, mistress,” Delgart smiled, “and so I think we will take Tevvy with us on our return, leaving the rest of you here.”

Blakstar shook his head. “I must return to Karble and report what happened on the Mountain of Vision, delayed when I was sent north to help retrieve the staff.”

“Why Tevvy?” Thal asked.

“I can travel south and gather information,” Tevvy said. “My father might have more information on the area, since his school is in Rykelle, which is on the edge of the Mariskal.”

“Shouldn’t one of us go with you?” Blakstar asked skeptically.

“To keep an eye on me?” Tevvy replied, anger rising.

“Someone should, thief,” Blakstar spat back at him.

“Enough!” Delgart exclaimed, slapping his hand on the table. “You two need to put your prejudices aside: we have work to perform.”

Thal cleared his throat. “I need to return to my . . . ,” he started to say, a stab of pain causing him to stutter, then went on, “my tower and enter the geuskeldu there, in order to advance. Also, my parents may have left information for us, to help us with our work.”

Delgart nodded, then thought for a moment. “I think that Blakstar and Thal should travel to Karble, and then Thal’s tower. Tevvy can travel with us back to Holvar, then on to his father in Rykelle.” He turned to look at each of them in turn, then looked at his younger brother with a wry smile. “That leaves you, Rokwolf, to stay here with Klare and Klaybear.” He held his eye for a moment until Rokwolf shrugged and looked down. “The only problem I see is with communication.”

Both Thal and Tevvy shook their heads.

“That is no problem,” Thal noted, “we learned that with the keys we can communicate by opening a small archway to whomever we want to communicate with.”

“Tevvy does not have a key,” Delgart noted.

“Nor is that a problem,” Tevvy said. “We can also signal each other through our verghrenum,” he went on, holding up one arm. “We can set up a time each night when we will check our verghrenum: when I have information to communicate, I can signal either Thal or Klaybear, who can then open the small archway to me, that way I can share whatever I find.”

“What if my twin brother does not wake before you have information to share?” Rokwolf asked.

Tevvy thought for a moment. “I could contact you, instead.”

“How will I know?” Rokwolf asked.

“I’ll show you,” Tevvy said, raising his arm and preparing to touch the proper symbol on his verghrenum. “Just wait a moment, and you’ll understand,” Tevvy instructed, then he touched the symbol and said, “Rokwolf.”

Immediately, Rokwolf’s eyes widened. “Can I do that?”

Tevvy shrugged. “I guess, although no one else has tried.”

Rokwolf looked down at his verghrenum, then touched the symbol for the klitodweri, then said his name.

Tevvy nodded. “Yes, it seems to work.”

“How will you return?” Delgart asked.

“I can contact Klaybear or Rokwolf,” Tevvy said, “either one can bring me back here.”

Delgart’s brow wrinkled. “I think we need to be very careful about whom we talk to or share information with. Remember what happened here a few days ago, and that some of us are under the sentence of death.”

“From what we saw above,” Thal noted, “I doubt there is anyone alive who will remember that sentence.”

“It was unjust,” the kortexi said.

“Nevertheless,” Delgart said, “word of what has happened here, and who is responsible, will travel faster than we will. We must be very, very cautious.”

Thal nodded. “Shigmar said as much,” he said, then went on to explain what they had seen when the staff and sword were inserted into the altar of Shigmar’s tomb.

“We must enter the city above and look for survivors,” Delgart said, “before we go anywhere.”

“Yes,” Marilee said. “When Rellik returns with our squad, we will be doing exactly that.”

“I don’t think we should share the knowledge, or the location, of this sanctuary with our squad,” Delgart said to Marilee.

Marilee nodded. “That is why I said we would meet them at the gate. Then we can enter the city through one of the sewer grates, or the main sewer entrance.”

“I can show you where that is,” Tevvy added.

Marilee nodded.

Several hours later, Thal and Blakstar were awakened again by the sword; the kortexi pulled out his sword and held it up, green flames touched the edges of the blade, then red flames lashed at the green, and soon extinguished the green. Thal opened his mouth to speak, but as he did, white light erupted from the sword, causing both to squint, and the white light consumed the red, winking out as suddenly as it appeared, plunging them into golden silence. For a moment, both of them sat silent and still, then Thal reached out, as before, and saw the white thread going in the same direction.

“What does it mean?” Blakstar asked.

“I don’t know,” Thal replied, “maybe the rod itself lashed out at both the morgle and whoever attacked him.”

“Right at the point where the green,” Blakstar said, “appeared to have been overcome by the red.”

Thal sighed and sank back into bed. Blakstar returned the sword to its sheath, plunging them into darkness, and lay down. Moments later, his breathing slowed and Thal could tell he had fallen asleep for the third time that night. Thal continued to think and wonder about what had happened to the morgle holding the rod. He had survived the first encounter, but what about the second? If he had been operating, as Thal believed he was, under orders from Gar, Thal wondered what the price of failure was to Gar: is that why the morgle was attacked? Agents of Gar, or Gar himself, come to punish him for his failure? And what had happened at the end, when the white light consumed the red and green flames? Who had won? Or did some other power intervene? These questions continued to trouble Thal’s mind as the white maghi fell into a fitful slumber, red and green flames, and brilliant white light, flashing across the surface of his troubled thoughts, punctuated by a rumbling sound as enigmatic as the lights.

We will pick up the story next week as our heroes seek to enter the ruins of Shigmar. Until then, we remind all that the first two books of this series, Chosen of the One and Staff of Shigmar, are free from Smashwords. Get this book, The Morgle Unmasked, from the links provided. Good reading!