I climbed up, my hands fitting into the last of the stone slots, and then finally I saw light above me. Zehal pushed aside the cover that had obscured us from the surface world and climbed out, I followed a moment after. Exhausted and gasping down fresh lungfuls of air that didn’t stink of sewage I rolled onto my back and rested there. The sun had long since risen in our flight to the pit of it all and in the mad dash back but I found it was still overcast but not raining. I remembered little of our flight back, besides running from the engulfing flame that had chased us for so long.
I sat there, just focusing on breathing and nothing else for so long, unable to think of anything besides the fact that we had seen a dragon and lived.
Finally I summoned the will to sit up and look about me, I almost regretted it. Where once there had been an ancient fortress that had stood for untold millennia, there now stood only a few outlying towers and crumbling walls, all ravaged with either great scorch markings of flame or gouge marks of great raking claws. The dragon had torn its way back up through the depths and directly back up through the very fortress it had been forced to occupy for so long. Ash pervaded in the air, anything flammable had burned within the vicinity of the fortress including a great part of the city. An Offarion city would have been made of flammable retardant materials but this city had long lain in the hands of tyrants with no concept of maintaining it. The fires had burned unchallenged in the face of that which had created it, those who could have helped to put it out had fled for their lives. I couldn't blame them. I'd run from that inferno myself.
Looking about me I found most of the bodies about me wore the garb of the city guard, assuming at first this might have been the work of the dragon I realized that though their bodies were charred, their armor was intact. The release of the dragon, its energies restored, ripping forth from the fortress… the dragon didn’t physically kill them, but it was possible that seeing it in all its glory and might could have driven the creatures possessing these men to madness, and they burned their victims from within in a desperate gambit to escape the mere sight of such a terrifyingly majestic creature.
I stood slowly, feeling my weary muscles protesting and looked around at the city, where before during the rain filled night people had slept or slunk through the city, now it simply contained an aura of death. People had fled here in blind panic, seeing the one symbol of defense that showed the indomitable might of a fortress that could protect them from an army torn asunder by an aspect of pure fury. The city was utterly empty now, of that I had little doubt. Only the carrion feeders would stay, those that would foolhardily risk to their presence here to loot and pillage that which had been left behind. Considering that the Nobility quarter of the city had mostly been burned due to its close proximity to the castle that had been meant to offer protection that meant little of real value would have survived the devastation, but regardless anyone we met here now would be most likely less than friendly.
Zehal stood up next to me, staring at the ruin of the distant fortress. “So what now?” She asked softly.
“Now, we go to the house.” I responded, looking at her. She stared back at me, her eyes empty and weary. “Yes, that sounds like a good idea, perhaps we can rest there.”
“Maybe, but perhaps we should just go there and collect supplies. I’ve little doubt in my mind that the Vrokandin Varr is probably awake now and still about somewhere, even after this. Vrokandin Varr are a spiteful lot, hate burns all too readily in their hearts and even without this.” I thumbed back at the staff still mounted on my back. “He can still be dangerous.”
Zehal nodded but said nothing, apparently too tired to respond and with that we set off in the direction of the house.
The walk wasn’t a long one, but it felt that way. I led the way as Zehal had never actually seen the city herself, she’d been bundled into it and had little idea of what the house even looked like from the outside.
We arrived and approached the wreckage I'd left over from the stone slab. We walked inside, finding the place was as disorderly as we had left it, but there was no sign that anyone was there and the Vrokandin Varr was gone. Zehal now led the way. Through the main room we traveled down what I realized was the very corridor Zehal had first come down when she'd heard me come in, staggering around as I had it wouldn't have been hard to deduce where I was. We passed many gilded doors that looked auspicious in nature till we reached the end of the corridor, facing a blank wall.
“What is this?” I asked.
She turned to look back at me, sighing deeply and shrugged. “Not rightly sure, but I know that the Vrokandin Varr kept a few things here of value, but the things of most value I know they kept in this room.”
“What room?” I asked, raising an eyebrow she couldn't see as I cocked my head to the side.
Oh, right.” She said, smiling lopsidedly. “A spell, I mean a uh, whatever you call it, they have something up that blocks most normal perceptions from sensing it, I know its there because I got curious a few times and followed them down the hall, watched them go in with something when they dropped me off here the last time but they didn't go back out with it, a box. They seemed rather agitated about leaving it here, something about two birds and one nest, I'm not sure what that was supposed to mean, but they never came out with it so I'm assuming its still in there.”
“Any idea how to get in?” I asked, touching the seemingly wooden wall as I retrieved the Energetic Crystalis.
“No.” She shook her head. “I never really understood that part and they definitely never bothered to tell me, they'd probably have been horrified to even know I'd watched them go in and out of there, they'd always thought that I was always where they wanted me to be.”
“Can't say they were a very observant lot.” I said, chuckling as I removed my helmet.
“More like I was a very sneaky woman.” She said, grinning mischievously.
“More or less.” I propped the Energetic Crystalis over my eyes and almost right away noticed the lack of energy in front of me. An illusion disguised by a nullification spell, someone hiding something within a hidden house, not terribly original but if there was something valuable here Zehal was right, it'd be in here.
I put the Energetic Crystalis back and replaced my helmet and as the clasps locked into place I raised my right gauntlet and began charging a lightly unstable energy mix, would be enough to shatter the illusion and better let me understand what I was dealing with. After fully coagulating the energy I cautioned Zehal, gesturing her backward with my left hand and after she was safely further down the hall I unleashed the energy in a small cone directly into the door. The results manifested in a small explosion as the illusion was shattered, quickly followed by the wooden door it was disguising. Wood splinters and metal fragments skittered off my armor and I was doubly thankful for my precautions with Zehal, without armor this would have been deadly.
I quickly exchanged my helmet for the Energetic Crystalis and examined the room beyond, plain gray walls on all sides with a brown wooden floor to the naked eye and the Crystalis revealed only trace energies of those who had come before. In the center of the room was a rickety table upon which stood a plain wooden chest. Re-exchanging the helmet for Crystalis I stepped into the room and to the chest and gently opened the lid. I had almost expected a trap of some kind but nothing happened. Inside the chest I found a smaller one, this one however had a single mark upon the surface of its lid.
“Teshuari.” I whispered the hallowed name.
Examining the chest I found it was smaller in size, square, two feet in height and width. It had no locks or any kind or even a catch; I touched the lid again with both hands and slowly lifted it off. It came completely free so I placed it to the side and then peered at the contents. Nothing, there was nothing inside. Just red velvet and the imprint of something that was circular but that blasted Varr must have already gotten inside somehow and taken it. I cursed under my breath and stared at the empty chest when I saw the faint outline of something.
“Find anything?” Zehal said as she stepped up to my side, eyeing the room cautiously as she then looked down into the chest. Her face immediately became crestfallen as she saw that it looked empty before nodded.
“I may just have.” I said.
I reached out a single gauntleted hand and gently laid it to rest against the outline I could ever so faintly see and it came to rest against something. I almost hopped with joy, but luckily for my dignity I managed to refrain.
Gently, I reached in with my second hand and pulled out the object. Now that I had lifted it clear I could see it in better detail and found it to be a breathtakingly perfect sphere, utterly perfect, there was not one flaw, not one scratch. Whatever this thing was, it had been made this way and had remained unblemished since its first creation.
“What is it?” Zehal asked curiously.
“I’ve no idea.” I said honestly. “But I fully intend to find out, anything the Vrokandin Varr want to keep secret is worth investigating.”
I gently laid it back into the inner chest, replaced the lid then closed the outer chest's lid.
“Think you can carry this while we find a safe place to sleep in here?” I asked. “Best I remain unencumbered in case those two are lying in ambush somewhere.
Zehal nodded but as she attempted to lift the chest her strength gave out and she crumpled against it instead.
“Wow, are you alright?” I asked and she slowly nodded her head in response.
“Yes.” She said after a moment. “I’m just… more tired than I thought I was.”
“I’ll take the chest, you follow me, watch my back. If either of those two try anything, I’ll just bludgeon them with it.” I smiled and then realized she couldn’t see it as her weary eyes came to look up at me. She couldn’t seem to find the will to speak so she just nodded again. I realized she must be crashing, everything was catching up with her, but we weren’t quite out of danger, not just yet.
I gently placed a gauntlet on her shoulder and opened a slight link to her, nothing telepathic, just a small energy conduit, then I gently poured energy into her. Her eyes flickered back open and she looked to my gauntleted hand on her shoulder and I knew from experience that she would be feeling the warmth coming from it, flooding her system before I ended the conduit and pulled my hand away.
“Feel better?” I asked.
She nodded. “Much better.” She replied. “Still tired but I can go on now. What did you just do?”
“Gave you a small measure of my own energy, just enough to keep you going.”
“Felt… good.” She said, “Like someone had draped a warm blanket over me. Still tingles.”
“Good. Let’s go.”
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I led the way back to the common room before Zehal directed me left through yet another doorway. This led to a flight of stairs that Zehal had to use the handrails on either side to make it up, we made it to the second story before she came to a rather unremarkable doorway and pushed it open, she gestured for me to go in first and I did so without preamble. Once inside I saw two beds, furnished well as the rest of the house was, a gilded mirror, nightstands made of polished wood, a kind I could not name.
Zehal glided past me after closing the door behind me, she walked, half stumbled to the closest bed before collapsing into it. I set the chest down between the two beds before turning to Zehal. I picked her up, pulled the covers on the bed aside then set her down. She nodded to me, thankful and utterly spent. After I pulled the covers back over her she was already asleep, her sapphire eyes closed, her breathing regular, her red golden hair fanned out around her like a sunset. I nodded to myself, she was resting, recovering from what was likely the most trying time in her life. I looked back at the door, wondering if I should explore the rest of the house but deciding against it. That would mean leaving Zehal here, not to mention the chest, both of which would be defenseless without me.
Deciding to stay put I went to the door and placed both hands on it, I uttered words of Sealing and Warding as I mentally channeled the necessary energy and soon the door was guarded, minorly but efficiently, if anyone attempted to breach the door in any way, even if they could detect the wards I would be alerted right away. I walked to the other bed and sat down on it and I sunk into it far deeper than I probably should have given my weight but I didn’t care. Almost right away I felt exhaustion sweep over me. I hadn’t realized just how tired I was till now; my body sagged against the wall behind me as I leaned back in the bed.
I stared across the room at Zehal's sleeping form. She was strong, a more than capable fighter considering she had managed to actually hurt me a couple of times (though that had been when I’d been without my helmet,) yet now she was utterly spent, barely able to even walk. I could feel her exhaustion radiating from her, it was much greater than my own. She had expended energies that she hadn’t even been aware she had, energies I had channeled yes, but I was used to channeling such amounts of energy, just not from any one single individual. As far as I knew, she was the single most powerful living thing I knew of (besides, likely, that dragon.) I’d never met someone who could have done what she had, not even a master of the Order could not have done that, not even in their prime.
I felt sleep tugging at me and I gazed around the room once more. There was no window, so there was no need to worry about that. The door was warded and it would alert me even if I was deep in slumber should anyone attempt to breach it but regardless I concentrated again and cast another ward around the room, if someone attempted to come in any other way it would also alert me.
I let sleep take me and my eyes closed, my mind drifting to another plain, one whose dreams took prevalence over everything else.
ns 15.158.61.8da2
