“Such as whom?”
“I cannot say, but his ambition is without precedent.”
There was a pause for a moment, and the near-silent rustle of material indicated to Obrett that the figures that held them captive were discussing this silently, with hand gestures.
“What did Garias Gibden want of you, and how did you escape?” The whispering voice eventually asked.
“What he wanted of me? Who can say?” Obrett paused to recall the time he had spent hung by his arms, asked pointless questions and given demands he was unable to meet by a madman and his servants. “He asked me of the location of my students mostly, but seeing as he had held me captive for several months, I was unable to answer him. How I escaped? With the aid of my friend here, and two more who have ridden on to warn their orders about what is likely to happen. We used stones in our cells to decipher the focus that permeates the entire region, and subverted it to our needs. We added subliminal messages to it in order to cause the citizens he had trapped to riot, and escaped in the confusion.”
An indrawn breath caused Obrett to sit up straight. Something he had said had an import of great significance, but what was it?
“It was you,” the whispered voice said, a little louder this time. “You altered the focus!” A second later, somebody started to loosen his bindings, and he could hear Brendan groan as he stretched. When the sack was pulled from his head, he had to blink for a moment as his eyes adjusted to the eerie blue. He checked on Brendan, and then looked back in front of him where three figures stood. An old man was robed in red in complete contrast to the pervading colour of the light. The younger man had brown hair tied in a tail and wore leather clothes. He had the appearance of one more used to the outside of a building. The woman was dressed in white to match the silver of her hair, but with the light she appeared as an avatar of Holy Jettiba. Obrett was quite stunned by her appearance. This emotion was reciprocated. The old man and woman had looks of awe upon their faces, and even the younger man looked surprised.
“Clearly you are not what you seem to be,” stated the old man with a newfound respect.
“Truly,” Obrett answered sarcastically, angered that he had been trussed up for so long. “What about you? Who are you and why are you here?”
The old man took the lead. “We are watchers, inhabitants of the tower in which you sit and defenders of the land against the great evil.”
Brendan looked hard at him with a scornful glance that indicated he was less than impressed by their answer.
The old man noticed the look, and expanded his introduction. “I am Endarius, the watcher to the North. My companions are Tani, the watcher to the West and keeper of our records, my younger companion is Irmgard, the watcher to the South.”
Obrett picked up on the fact that something was missing, and posed a question. “Endarius, what of the East?”
The old man looked down to the floor sadly, remembering something lost to them all. “Alas we are perhaps no longer worthy for our chosen position. Chandra, the watcher to the East has been lost to us for at least a dozen seasons, maybe more. She was the weaver of illusions, and without her we can do nothing to keep the tower secret.”
Obrett grinned over at Brendan. “Told you.” He turned back towards the old man. “We would have been living in the desert tower now but for things that were starting to go wrong with your illusions. The steps in the tower show too much use, and the scent of the meadow can be smelled inside the tower but not outside of it. The sand inside the door resets itself as well.”
Endarius groaned, “Alas for Chandra!”
Tani looked at him with contempt. “Stop moaning about things long gone, you.” The old man quietened, but it was still clear he was having trouble letting go of the thought. “How did you know to use the rock to shift time?” She said as she addressed Obrett.
He heard Brendan gasp at the implication. “Shift time? But I thought that you said we pierced an illusion?”
Obrett looked across at his friend, and then back at the woman. “Please Tani if you would, explain to us just exactly where we are.”
Tani settled herself, composing her thoughts. “By focussing the way that you did, you two have taken yourselves outside of time. The concept of time has no meaning here; we exist as always we have. Time passes in the world as you know it, but not here. As a consequence, things appear differently in this reality. Please, if you will.” Tani indicated that they should stand up and approach the window. As they did so, it became very clear where the source of the bright blue light came from. It emanated in a solid wave across the horizon.
“That is magnificent.” Obrett said in awe as he looked on at the spectacle. “But what is it?”
“That is the focus created by the man you know as Garias Gibden. He seeks to enter this reality by pitting forces against one another to cause discord.”
Brendan cackled. “He is doing that all right.”
“Our people have been set here for generations uncounted to observe his creation, and put a stop to it.” Said Irmgard, who until now had preferred to keep silent. “We have not made much progress to tell you the truth, but now you have offered us a new way of looking at things. When as you claim you did, you altered the focus, we saw ripples of red within the clear blue light you perceive. This is the first new event we have documented in a long, long time. If it is possible to do such a thing, then we might find a way of countering it permanently. It grows you see, and has been doing so for a very long time now.”
“Why is it that you can see the focus in this way?” Obrett asked, genuine curiosity overcoming and previous hesitance.
“You have to understand a bit more about the nature of where you are.” Endarius replied, apparently over his brief mourning for the missing Chandra. “You already understand the nature of the focus stone, and the art of calling upon its properties in order to accomplish deeds.”
Obrett nodded.
“Consider then that there is a place that the process takes you to that allows for its energies to be converted into use by your mind.”
This last sentence confused Obrett, but Brendan seemed to understand the logic. “Are you saying that when we focus with a stone, it is actually taking something from this reality and bringing it back into our own?”
“That is exactly what I am saying. This reality is in essence what you would term 'magic'. When you focus, the process allows you a glimpse into this world, a temporary relocation to put it one way. Furthermore it affords you the ability to use some of its essence to accomplish your desires. Consider us, for we do not look much older than you. Would it surprise you to know that we have been here for what would pass as hundreds of seasons? The mere structure of this reality is a positive one, and encourages healing.”
“Hence the restorative and life-preserving properties of focussing!” Obrett exclaimed in growing excitement. “That little window into this reality that wizards get by focussing is enough to heal them and extend their lives!” Obrett glanced at Irmgard. “Which is why you spoke of the Order of Law with such disdain when we were blindfolded.”
“That is true,” the youngest of the watchers replied. “Before I joined this watch tower, I had experience of the Guild of Law, and watched old men who might have been great and influential become nothing more that dotards extending their lives by focussing once a day. They had no idea why it helped them live for so long, just that it did. You are the first and only Law Wizard that I have encountered who seeks to go beyond his limits. That you are here testifies to your success. You are a unique individual.”
“I beg to differ,” Obrett countered, “there are three more.”
“And what of you, good Earth wizard?” Endarius asked Brendan. “How did you come to be mixed up in all of this?”
“I was captured by the Witch Finder, and forced to do his bidding under pain of something worse than death. He keeps a creature.”
“The Golem.” Endarius nodded, and his two companions murmured som
ething too quiet to hear.
“It was chance that led to the meeting of Obrett and the two companions we have previously mentioned, for Obrett found a way to communicate through focussing.”
“We have heard your conversations from afar.” Endarius replied. “They are accessible if one knows how to listen, and we have studied the distant mountain city for a very long time now.”
Brendan gazed out of the window. “The Golem has too many people scared to act, and it was not until Obrett convinced me that it could be done that anyone would defy Garias.”
Endarius nodded in acceptance of Brendan's words. “We do not see it as you do, for it has a different form in this place. But we do see it as it travels, even from this far. It is as a hole in the fabric of reality, sucking all into it. It is the reason we have lost one of our number.” He sat down on a stool that was by the window. “She made a rare journey in the direction you would have come from, to study the focus up close and from within its borders. We felt the Golem reach out to her, and by the time it had taken her, we were helpless to do anything. That was twenty seasons ago, and we have mourned every moment since.”
“If I may be so bold as to ask, what are you doing here, and who sent you?” The question posed by Obrett caused the three to go silent as they considered it.
It was Tani that answered, reluctantly, it appeared. “We volunteered to watch here for an artefact that was lost a long time ago. By default we have ended up watching the mountain fortress you call Raessa, though it has been known by a different name once.”
“What has Raessa to do with your artefact?”
“We believe that the master of the mountain city desires this object for his own purposes, none of them good. If he gets it, we need to act swiftly to take it from him and to that end we wait and we watch.”
Obrett sensed very clearly that they were trying to get around his questions without giving too much away, but he persisted. “Will you know when he has it?”
“We will know, for his great work will be altered immensely by its presence. It is at that time we will take it from him.”
“Good luck,” said Obrett doubtfully.
“It sounds to me that rather than an illusion slipping, time is almost catching up with you in certain parts of this tower,” Brendan observed, “is that how you would see it?”
“Yes, time has been catching up with us all of late,” Irmgard confirmed.
“Come, we have kept you in here overlong.” Endarius rose and opened the door. “Since you won't be going anywhere for a while, let us show you more of what we do here.”
With an oblique look at Brendan that spoke volumes about the sudden evasiveness and change in subject, Obrett followed the ancient wizard out of the door. The two of them would have plenty of time to discuss this, if time were of no moment here. They were in the small square building adjacent to the tower, which appeared to act as living quarters for the three. The blue glare was interspersed with branches, so instead of being bright and consistent to the point of leaving them all with blinding headaches the blue was suffused with green to make the light less invasive. They were ushered into a study that appeared to be a communal room, and sat while Endarius poured drinks for them all. The room was stuffed with books, scrolls and anything that would take ink to it. Where there were not shelves, there were works of art depicting scenery. The whole room spoke of a tremendous amount of patience. “To your very good health, and prosperous beginnings,” toasted Endarius. “So you have seen the tower in its other guise? What did you think?”
Obrett took a sip of his drink, and to his delight found it to be sparkling, with a flowery taste. “It passes as a ruin quite successfully. This is wonderful.” He held up the glass to admire the liquid in the cerulean glow.
Tani shone with pride. “I make it from the fresh buds of wildflowers. It is a rare taste that must be savoured and appreciated.” She eyed Irmgard, who had drained his glass in a swallow.
“It's the way that I drink it,” he replied in defence, “I always have.”
“Some people have no appreciation for quality,” Tani replied.
“I must ask out of respect for your cause, but where did you come from?” Obrett persisted, remembering how they had latched onto his other question and avoided any reference to their origins.
Having been asked directly, Endarius looked at his two companions. “We cannot avoid answers.” He said sadly. “It will only hurt us in the long run. Obrett, our people, a clan that lives far to the East in a mountain refuge, have sent us here. We can offer you no more than that, for we have been bound by a covenant more sacred and more binding than anything anybody could use to try and force information out of us. We wait here in this netherworld trying to read signs that will lead us to the whereabouts of an object of such immense value and power that it cannot be revealed even to those that would aid us. We are the few people capable of bringing under control, and if needs be destroying it utterly rather than letting it become subverted.” He held up his hands. “You have to believe me when I say that is all any of us can physically tell you, and that is stretching the boundaries.”
“I believe you,” Obrett replied.
Brendan nodded in agreement. “It may be that we can help you somehow.”
Endarius shrugged. “There is little enough that we can do, but you are welcome to try.”
“Well consider this.” Obrett passed the window, and looked outside. “Can we go out to the meadow?”
Intrigued by this, Endarius signalled that they should all accede to Obrett's request, so the five of them walked out into the strange half-twilight.
“You told us that this reality, this world that you inhabit is the place that we visit when we cast a focus. We borrow something of this place when we focus, and that helps us attain our needs.”
“That is correct,” Endarius replied, unsure of where this was leading.
“So therefore, going by what you have told us, this reality is in all essence magic personified.”
“That also is correct. What exactly are you getting at?”
“If focussing provides a conduit, it limits the magic that passes between worlds. Where are the limits on this magic if you are here?” Obrett paced, thinking. Suddenly he stopped, his stomach clenched as if he had suddenly taken ill. The gathered four were all staring at him. “He knows your secret. He knows of this reality.”
“He does.” Irmgard confirmed.
Obrett looked at Brendan, who had already guessed his logic. The look of despite in the eyes of the Earth wizard that had become his friend was enough to tell him everything. “He is trying to invade this reality of magic, that he will be able to bend it to his will. He is trying to forge a gateway through, trying to remove the limits on our world. To keep it permanently open” The tone in Obrett's voice was enough to chill water to ice, and if it was tempered by anything, then it was the conviction with which he spoke.
“How could you know this?” Asked Tani, who was clearly stunned with the thought that somebody could be seeking to use the reality that she had called home for a very long time for their own selfish purposes.
“Things he said, things he did,” Obrett replied vaguely. When he realised that they were watching him in expectation of more of an answer than that, he expanded. “He was repulsed by the notion of focussing. This may have been something to do with the fact that he rendered his mind impotent by creating that massive blue light you see between the trees. He would rather employ somebody else to direct a focus. What if he doesn't need to focus? What if he could just dip into a limitless well of power at whim?”
“Being here would give him no advantage.” Irmgard stated.
“Not true, Irmgard. He has the training, that much is obvious. Furthermore, he has a desire for power unlike any man woman or creature you have ever seen before.” Obrett pierced their minds with his speech, resulting in the three watchers almost jumping in surprise, and only a grin in response from Brendan.”
�
��You knew,” accused Tani.
“I guessed,” corrected Obrett. “What could be better for somebody that has no love of focussing than a doorway to the very place it sends us? What better for such a person than to be able to simply reach out and grab magic with his open palm and drain it all in a worthless and selfish cause? I will tell you this now, he is trying to find a way through. I cannot prove this, but I'm sure of it. Did you find out through your studies that he is using emotive magic to try and further his gains?”
“We guessed that had something to do with his plans,” Endarius admitted.
“The Golem absorbs negative energy given off by any source. All it needs to be is close by. It feeds on fear, but from time to time I believe it takes more than that. I think that it takes the souls of people in order to satiate its appetite, yet the hunger is growing.”
“We have seen that much as it passes,” Irmgard admitted. “The black nothingness that marks its movements has become much denser of late.”
“Pray that it does not grow too much,” Brendan warned, “else there will be nobody left to greet you when you abandon this exile.”
“That will never happen, for we cannot leave.”
The finality with which Endarius said this made Obrett pause in his striding. It had never occurred to him that the three were trapped here. “Why can you not? The focus is simple”
“We are trapped, as are you.” Endarius replied. “The focus to take you out of time cannot be reversed. Once here, it only takes an artefact of great power to return somebody to the normal world. That is the one restriction, and is the price imposed for allowing wizards to draw on this reality. We have studied this extensively.”
Obrett held up the stone he had taken from the tower. “Well what about this? It brought us here.”
“Exactly. It brought you to a reality where stones are not needed to focus, therefore they will not be able to help you leave. That is the curse if you like that afflicts us all. That is why the loss of Chandra is so great, for we cannot send for another. We cannot even let them know that she is lost. We are isolated here.”
The Path of Dreams (The Tome of Law Book 2) Page 45