Welcoming Party
The last vestiges of his fellow champions' faces faded away as a bright light enveloped his vision before abruptly becoming almost pitch-black. A wave of nausea passed over Rai as he fell to his knees, hands outstretched to brace against the almost-imperceptible ground in front of him. This time, he was able to hold in his dignity as he avoided an unbecoming bout of vomiting. His hands felt the cool stone below. His vision was still obscured by air thick with soot and incense. Ears still ringing, he began to make out a low humming of some ominous choir that resonated in what seemed to be a large and poorly-lit hall.As his vision adjusted to his dark surroundings, he could make out a detailed and carefully-drawn circle with various symbols beneath him, foreign and incomprehensible, yet somehow familiar. He looked around and began to identify silhouettes of figures spaced around him. Their visages and constitutions were hidden by thin but excessive robes. With great alarm, Rai began searching for mana around him in hopes of blasting away the stagnant air. When all he could muster was a feeble spark, he froze. With a flurry of thought, his eyes were drawn back to the drawn circle and its complex symbols. Rai began to reverse-engineer this world’s magic from the glyphs and carefully drew from what he felt was a font of mana beneath his very feet.
Eureka. A small, fiery tempest sparked from his hands and blasted away the air. The low thrum dissipated as the hooded figures stumbled backward, the large hoods now hanging off the shoulders of their wearers. Ashen-white faces with wide eyes stared at Rai in silence as the heated winds died down. Rai anxiously readied himself as he, too, returned their expectant gazes.
Suddenly, one of the pale-faced beings spoke. “Byal kor-ul.” Byal kor-ul, Byal kor-ul, repeated in hushed voices, echoed in the chamber. Bolstered by the recoiling snake-like people, Rai grew confident and adopted a more appropriate composure and a fierce gaze.
“I am called Rai. Where am I?” he inquired, his voice somewhat amplified by magic he still had the strength to call upon after that extravagant blast. Transported to an unknown place in an unknown world without bearing, Rai desperately sought answers. A strange pattern drawn on the ground. Suspicious and shifty humanoids surrounding him. Rai attempted two guesses: Is this some native tribe or a group of cultists? Rai again pondered on this curious situation.
Rai Byal kor-ul. Once again, the hushed voices began chanting in low tones. Rai, now resolved, smirked with a nearly demonic grin. With one hand, he swept back his hair.
I guess I’ll enjoy this welcoming party.
Introductions
He began gazing around the room, hoping to identify some leader or chief among these curious beings. At one end of the hall, a loud groaning began as large doors separated, bright orange-red light spilling between, streaking the musty air. A tall figure emerged from the light, striding carefully with purpose towards Rai as the other yet-undetermined existences stepped back and bowed their heads. Muffled steps quietly resonated in the hall. Rai maintained his composure, though he gulped anxiously. Had the tall figure been any closer, it might have perceived this.The steps stopped and the figure paused. Carefully, two long arms took down the rather ornate hood before revealing a very human face. Wrinkles adorned his forehead and eyes. He carried a modest brown beard speckled with white and minimally-burnt hairs. His skin was somewhat fair but not quite as ashen as the other cultists who dared not look up. He looked down towards Rai with an inquisitive gaze briefly before gracefully bowing down at Rai’s feet. From his now-meek form, a voice emerged. “We greet you, O’ Great One.”
These guys are definitely cultists.
“We humbly prostrate ourselves to the Great One who has been inconvenienced by us in being brought to this putrid world through ritual.”
“Then you can assist the great me by giving me what I shall need. My power has waned through your petty magic and I require insight into this realm. As you see, I am currently trapped in this insignificant body. I sense great power here. It is here I shall rest, for the time being.” Taking advantage of this fortuitous misunderstanding, Rai hoped to secure a place to rest comfortably. Should his fortune continue, he might attain some lead as to where he must later venture. Whether his travel from The Grand Archive to this location was sheer coincidence or influenced by what he theorized might just be one of the leylines of this world, it was at least clear that this group was not capable of bringing about the end of the world.
“Forgive us,” the apparent head-cultist replied calmly. “Of course, you may rest here as long as you need to regain your power. With humility, I ask you to use your power to punish the sinful of the land I come from.” He took a long pause, furrowed his brow, and released a heavy and somber sigh. “In the last few years, nobles began treating the common folk as trash worse than they ever had. My own family…” He paused again. “That land, Aesa, is now filled with savagery and sorrow, and battlefields are more plentiful than fields of crops.”
Rai relaxed slightly. With a reassuring smile, he said “That is why I have come.”
The cult leader quickly rose to his feet, possessed by great emotion, and exclaimed, “The Gods of this world do not listen and stand idly by as chaos descends. We beseech you, go to Aesa and strike at the heart of this forsaken turmoil. O' Gre-” Rai crumpled his composure, one hand falling loose at his side while his head was caught in the other.
“Look,” he began. “Truthfully, I’m not whatever ‘Great One’ you have tried to summon; My name is Rai. And your ‘mana circle’ is half-assed, at best. You might have been lucky enough to summon a chicken. I’m a champion sent from another realm to stop some end-of-world disaster. If you could just point me towards Aesa, I’ll get out of your ever-so-slightly singed hair.”
The man stared directly at Rai, eyes wide. After a brief moment, he began chuckling, and before long, erupted into laughter with the noise reverberating throughout the halls. He gently brushed a tear away from his left eye. His countenance glowed even redder in the ambient light. With a broad and kind smile he said, “Truthfully, I happened upon this place in my travels and met the locals you can see around us. Their religion is based around a great spirit of fire they believe lives in these mountains. I participated in their rituals and they gave me this robe you see here. Imagine my surprise when one of the rituals ‘worked!’ I have been praying in earnest, though, and so have many in Aesa. Perhaps you have come to answer them after all. Though, that might be difficult at the moment. Come, I will guide you.”
Rai felt at ease now that both of their stories became known to one another. With quick and light steps, he kept up with the tall man who he followed behind closely.
“Robert Eaves.”
Rai almost glanced up at the man and said, “Sorry?”
“My name. It’s Robert Eaves.”
They gradually made their way to the end of the hall towards the source of that bright red-orange glow. Before long, the intense light mixed with the darkly-lit sky and full orange moon above.
Atop the Spire
Rai glanced at the new surroundings. To his right were large columns carrying torches that quietly burned, their flames flickering in warm gusts of air. To his left were parapets that stood almost as tall as him, though not quite tall enough to obstruct his vision. Mesmerized, Rai watched flows of lava wind through the mountain ridges and the shimmer of air above them with particles of ash dancing in the air as they wafted upwards. The lava itself seemed to contain mana and, without obvious sources from many of the paths it took, he guessed that it was the leyline’s dense mana precipitating rather than magma spouting from beneath the crust.Rai noticed the absence of Robert’s steps and hurriedly glanced again to the stone path ahead. Robert casually and patiently waited, hands folded behind his back as he curiously watched Rai. After having caught up, Robert inquired, “You can sense it, can’t you? The mana of this place? It is called Varuck. This keep, fortress, or whatever you wish to call it had been constructed very long ago and has fallen into disrepair more than once; this area is not exactly hospitable to mankind and its creations. Those pale-faced beings you saw are cave-dwellers native to this land. They have made residence here and they have been maintaining it as their own home after everyone else had left.”
He lightly lifted his right arm and pointed towards the expanse of land in the valley below. It was difficult to assess exactly how far the land spanned, whether it was simply a rugged and mountainous island, or whether it was an entire continent with variegated biomes and other civilizations. “At daybreak, you shall see a swath of charred land nearby. There lie fierce hounds that have attuned to the mana and are formidable threats. They are dormant during the high tides at sea and we can gather from the pockets of fertile land around. What you seek lies far beyond this perilous valley, though traversing it is a death wish, unless you have some way to fly, perhaps. Behind the keep is just a steep precipice facing the Great Ocean.”
“What about ships?” Rai’s expression betrayed his concerns about becoming stuck.
“Very rare in these parts. Who would want to come to this god-forsaken place? As I said, you’re welcome to stay as long as you can afford. There might be a place of interest for a mage, such as yourself. Follow me once again.” Robert summarily departed back towards the hall, the back of his robe dyed with volcanic color.
Not much point to remain upset, is there? With one last glance towards the foreboding unknown below the spire, he joined Robert back inside the central hall.
A Place to Rest
Robert led Rai out of the hall into one of the several wings attached to the keep. He explained that it was once a sort of research facility of mages, artificers, alchemists, and several other specialists, all drawn to the power of the leyline. Within the wings, each dedicated to a different practice, were remnants of research materials and collections of texts regarding the magic of this world. Expressing to Rai that he had hoped at least one wing would be of use to Rai, Robert first led him to the mage’s section.The wing itself had signs of structural deterioration but otherwise was relatively clean considering the ash-strewn atmosphere. There were ordinary bookshelves strewn throughout the connecting hallway without ornate or personal touches to suggest unique makers. Each was perhaps less than half-filled with books and otherwise had disorganized papers in untidy stacks strewn about. Most of the sheets were largely illegible, their ink largely faded by time. The hallway eventually led to an open room, the contents of which were far better maintained. Glass encasements presented various tools with only light collections of dust. Far more detailed bookshelves were neatly filled with complete volumes and tidy manuscripts. Rai leafed through various texts, possessed by a renewed curiosity. Robert’s wrinkles deepened as his teeth showed through his lips.
“I guess this is acceptable.” Rai gave his best effort to contain his excitement. How could he behave like a kid who had just been given presents when the task ahead carried such weight?
“I’m pleased you think so.” Robert grinned. A child was still a child, after all. Though Rai now had a means of regaining his power, he was, both in capability and location, far from being able to find out the cause of this world’s imminent demise. For now, he could satisfy his yearning for magical knowledge.
