"Where are we?" Auren pulled his eyes downward, looking for the man and finding him, he fixed his gaze on the supposed wizard's face until he spoke. "The Codalin'Naal." Ebony stone walls in front of me. Vines encircling them, twinkling blue-green in the moonlight. Nothing else around. All is silent. "You're him." Akalian's mouth worked as if he meant to utter more words, though none came out.
"I'm he."
"So the wall is where the spirals begin?"
"It is."
"What do you ask of me? The stories say you only call prophets and heroes to your side. Which am I?"
"The former."
A god. A god wants me to be a conduit. It's all real. It's all happening.
Then Krajan began to speak as if he were a monk, chanting an ancient verse.
"Resurrect the older order. Bring back the Brotherhood and Sisterhood. Drive away the dark. It begins with the boy, Viktor Kyrgan, and his friends. It extends to Roderick Gaerlan of Cealano, Jacqueline Avenier of Romyr, Lord Valayre of Sarsallen, Malek Stormhammer of Heaven's Hold, Theodore Francis, Lord of Caer Mithrin, Solara Noriaki of Foxmoor, and oh, Rupert Auvere."
"And just how does one even begin to bring all of those conflicting minds out of their hiding spots and into one place?" Auren shook his head and his hands simultaneously. "They will come when I show them who I am bringing along." Krajan grinned from ear to ear and Auren frowned at him. "Have you brought me here to simply give me a prophecy?"
"No, you're to be a conduit in your own right. You must walk the path." Krajan's eyes began to shine, consumed with pure, white light and he pointed to the wall behind them, where the vines began to pulse with the same, strange glow as the wall itself. "Walk and return to me with your answer."
"What answer?" Auren asked, but in his mind, he knew. All of the stories are the same. The Sun King himself or whatever power was behind Krajan always spoke to prophets who walked the path. There's only one way to go.
"The Kyrgan boy, the Elven Prince, and the Western Princess, among others, they hold the keys." Krajan pointed to the wall again and his eyes lit up green as he did, luminous as a wolf's if not more. "What is happening?" Auren fell to his knees, feeling as if his entire world was spinning.
"Stand up, Auren Akalian, King of Folthryr, Protector of the Last Refuge. There will come a day when the seven will stand in front of the gates of darkness, awaiting the coming of night, with half the might of the world behind them and bones strewn in their wake. The Cheshen'ai will amass to face them, with Agrandal at their side. Before they swallow the world, you must have already brought the descendants together. Remember the Maeran'thyr is not to be trusted alone, yet without a true understanding of it, everything is for naught."
"An impossible quest." Auren snorted, but though he tried with all of his might to remain where he was, he found his feet moving ahead towards the wall. Krajan continued to chant behind him, even as the wall moved outward and opened before him. "An archer, an assassin, a joker, a prince, a princess, a carpenter's boy, an intellectual, a rebel, and a daughter of the vines."
"How am I supposed to understand this?" Auren whirled around but found himself staring at a blank black wall.
“Touch it and go forward.”
Groaning, he pressed a hand to the wall, shivering as he watched it melt away into a green-ringed pathway, leading deeper into a maze. Nowhere to go but forward. Nothing to do but let my path unfold.
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