Ecliptica

by T G W Becker

  “You will find your path clear to the holds below. May Shadows favour the bold and the strong,” and with that, the mage moved away up the staircase.

  “That was well handled youngling,” Zeek congratulated Drake, “we could not have asked for a more favourable outcome from that encounter.”

  “Good call with the grand hold there Zeek. I think if we had been vague on which we wanted access to, he would not have been so forthcoming.”

  “It seemed to me that with nine holds, there must be varying levels of importance placed upon each.”

  The trio made their way around the outer wall of the great room in the direction that the smaller mage had taken.

  “I could not have done better myself,” Rossa said in a hushed whisper, “let’s hope that there is truth behind what he said and we are not walking into a trap.”

  Making their way across the room the voice that had started as an indistinguishable echo, became clearer. The room was filled with mages, all listening intently to what one was saying. It seemed that this was their meeting hall. The variation in size and shape of mage was incredible to behold. Some stood no taller than Rossa, whilst others were almost double the height of Drake; and he was no shorter than the average man.

  They had now drawn close enough to clearly hear what was being said.

  “...and so it has come to pass that I have been instructed to form a new order. The order of The Twelve. Into these vessels, shall we pour all our knowledge and understanding so they might go forth and spread the word of Oriomus to all. May Shadow favour the bold and the strong.”

  “MAY SHADOW FAVOUR THE BOLD AND THE STRONG,” the congregation repeated.

  The whole experience was becoming more unnerving with every second. Yet, the three stopped to hear what was being said. It might be that something useful about their upcoming plans would be divulged.

  “My Brothers, it is clear as the rising of the sun each day, that all others require our guidance in this world.”

  A mumble of agreement swept over the crowd. It seemed that this man was The Channeller, his clothes seemed more elaborate and were covered in small black gems. He raised his arms to hush his brethren.

  “Zeek. I didn’t realise they were a full on religious order as well?” Drake was somewhat surprised as to what he was seeing. For all he knew the Shadows were just practioners of dark magic.

  “I did not either. When I last knew them, they were not so organised and fanatical about their beliefs. It seems much has changed since then.”

  The audience was hushed and the speech continued.

  “Let us bring the realms together and unite all under our tutelage and the wisdom of Oriomus. It is through his eternal teachings that we make this our purpose, for without purpose, we are lost. In his name.”

  “IN HIS NAME,” the chant followed.

  “Bring forth those willing to undertake his will. Bring forth our Twelve Brothers.”

  A small chime sounded, a door behind The Channeller opened and mages, wearing deep black robes with scarlet red trim, came out in single file to stand next to The Channeller.

  “Time we made our way below, while they are all here and busy with...whatever this is,” Drake whispered to the others. Slowly they continued across the room to the staircase at the far end where the small mage had descended earlier.

  “I’m not sure we want to see what happens next,” Nethalie said as they began to climb down towards the holds.

  . . .

  “Well, at least we now know that the domes above ground are all holds. The only problem is, it will take months to search through all of them to find anything that might help us!” The worrying part was, Nethalie was right; searching through nine holds of this size would take too long to go unnoticed.

  “Then we must hope that this grand hold contains the piece we seek. Or at least something that narrows down the location of where it might be held.”

  The vast floor they had now reached, set below the ritualising mages above, was back to the same layout of main corridor down the middle with chambers attached. The main difference however, was there were nine very large sets of double wooden doors, each with a large chamber behind that seemed to act as a guards-room and then the holds were further on again.

  “They could have at least marked out which hold is which,” Nethalie hissed under her breath “How are we going to find out which is the one we want?” At that moment, the small mage appeared in the centre of the corridor.

  “I think that’s your answer walking up to us now” Rossa muttered in replied.

  The short mage stopped just in front of them and bowed. “Brothers, please follow me,” he spoke so softly they almost didn’t hear him. Turning, he led them back to the pair of ornate wooden doors in the centre of the corridor. The swirls and twirls of metal on the door were delicately shaped out of gold. No hammer or smith could produce such pristine metal work, indicating again that almost all the building had been carved and shaped with magic.

  The mage gestured for them to enter the chamber inside. “You will find the grand hold at the far end through the doors. I shall await your return.”

  Not wanting to risk saying the wrong thing, Drake simply nodded and moved forward into the chamber, Rossa and Nethalie at his side. At the far end of the room, some fifty paces away, sat a wooden table. To the left of the table, was a large black door, flanked on either side by a guard; each dressed in silver plate and matching helmet. They nodded to the three as they drew near and one opened the door for them to proceed through.

  The hold on the other side was as black as the doors they passed. The door closed behind them, plunging them into darkness.

  “Not good,” Drake whispered.

  Moments later, a pair of orbs lit up either side of the trio. Then another pair, ten paces in front of them, then another after that.

  “I don’t believe it,” Drake muttered. Both Nethalie and Rossa gasped.

  “We are with great certainty, in the correct room,” Zeek said to the group.

  ~ 27 ~

  When the last of the globe lights finally illuminated the hold, it became clear as to the scale of which the Shadows had followed their desire to accumulate knowledge and artefacts. The hold they had raided some days past would have fit in this one room five times over. Combine that with the fact there were nine such rooms here, meant the amount of magical related writings and objects was breath-taking. What they were searching for had to be in here somewhere.

  “We’ll cover more ground if we split up,” Rossa said. “We all know what we’re looking for, so let’s get to it.”

  Looking round at the room, Nethalie sighed. Where to even start in this place. There is everything from shrunken heads to golden feathers in here, she thought to herself as she looked at the nearest cabinet of objects. Looking around the rest of the hold would take time, particularly for something that was small enough to fit in the palm of her hand.

  “If we work from the outside shelves and cabinets and work inward. I’m sure we’ll find something,” Drake suggested.

  “It might also be wise, so as to keep up our pretence, to occasionally move artefacts and texts to the central table, to make it appear we are collecting for The Channeller,” Zeek wisely suggested to maintain their cover.

  Once they had decided on how to divide up the circular hold, each one headed for a different part of the room and began opening, rummaging and checking.

  “I just hope that we don’t get checked up on any time soon. We could be here a while.” Drake said to Zeek.

  “Fortune has been generous in her graces so far. Let us hope our luck and fortune hold.”

  It took the three of them what felt like half a day to check around all the outer areas before they met back up again at the central table.

  “This is ridiculous. How are we supposed find the piece in here, let alone that it might be in one of the other eight holds,” Drake was feeling the pressure of time pressing down on him, on all of them. How
long could they keep looking before someone else came in and questioned them or, worse, the mage from earlier noticing there was no ritual?

  “We must not lose hope. There are still many other places to check before we need to consider our next more. I still feel like this is our most likely location to search and find the piece,” Zeek’s words were of little comfort, but they all knew that it was senseless to rush off and move on without thoroughly checking this hold.

  “Well, I guess we keep going. Let’s each take an area to start at,” Rossa suggested. “I’ll take this end,” and she was off.

  “A bit too keen sometimes, that Bluecap friend of yours. Still, her energy very easily rubs off on you,” Drake mused to Nethalie who had just pushed herself up from leaning on the table.

  “Sometimes, but she is good at what she does and always seems to be able to find the right thing to say. In any situation.”

  “Oh really. Remind me when we’re out of here about that. I’d be interested to hear what situations you two got yourselves into whilst trying to find me.”

  Nethalie gave a hurumph of laughter, “it’s nowhere near as exciting as you want it to be.”

  “That maybe so, but I’d still like to hear about it,” Drake then spun and walked off to the other side of the room.

  . . .

  “Still nothing! I really thought we might find it in the inner cabinets, I had such a good feeling,” Nethalie flailed her hands in the air, her hood falling to reveal her ears. “I just thought, for a second, we might catch a break and be able to get out of this horrible place. I hate not being able to see the sky or feel the wind. It’s so...walled up in here.”

  “Maybe we missed something. There’s always the chance that it’s in one of the other holds. Maybe it has its own hold all to itself, sitting on a solitary table right in the middle,” Rossa tired to make light of the situation and the length of time they had spent searching.

  “Rossa is correct. This was a one in nine chance of being the correct hold to start looking in. Granted, being the grand hold, I thought that it was most likely. Assuming however, that it is even here at all.”

  Nethalie suddenly let out a cry of frustration and gave the table a swift kick with her boot.

  “Feel better?” Drake asked, smirking.

  “Much” she smiled sweetly back despite her now throbbing foot.

  “Really helpful that,” Rossa sighed looking from one to the other.

  The table gave a slight shake. Then it gave a faint clicking sound, as though a gear were turning somewhere.

  “Oh no..,” Drake moaned, “why does this keep happening? Collapsing floors, hidden pedestals...”

  “Err...collapsing floors?” Nethalie looked concerned.

  “Only once,” he winked.

  All three now watched as the top of the table split into half right down the centre and began to slowly slide back.

  “That’s a first,” mused Rossa as she watched the wooden table top retract.

  “Maybe for you. Zeek and I see this thing more often than we’d like,” Drake sighed

  With a soft click, the opening finished to reveal a shallow hollow. It was neatly upholstered with a rich scarlet cloth. In the centre sat a small silver object.

  “I don’t believe it,” Rossa stuttered.

  “Neth. You are a genius,” Drake beamed.

  “Excuse me Brothers. I..,” came a voice from near the door.

  The three turned to look towards the voice. The door to the hold was partially open and by it stood the small mage. They had all forgotten his words to them earlier, ‘I shall await your return’, he had said. Had he been waiting outside the hold all this time? Drake suddenly noticed Nethalie’s hood, which was still lowered.

  “Neth, your hood!” he hissed.

  Too late. The small underling mage had spotted the lowered hood and presumably the pointed ears and the fact that she was a woman. Drake began moving towards the door, but the mage had already slipped back into the outer room and the faint cries of “A woman. An elven woman!” came floating back. Drake pushed the door closed thinking fast.

  “Damn. Now we have really got to move. Rossa, grab the piece. Neth, starting looking for another way out of this room.”

  Rossa grabbed the Ecliptica piece from the table and jammed it down her top. Smiling she said, “for safe keeping.”

  “Let’s just hope that we can take it with us when we leave and not find that we become permanent features of this place. E’lif.” Drake gestured towards a large bookcase. It rose from the floor as he directed it to a firm stance in front of the door, to blocking any entry by unwanted guests. “Go help Nethalie look for another way out of here,” he called to Rossa as the bookcase slammed down onto the floor: tomes and scrolls falling as it landed.

  “Remember; be aware of the flow around us. You can only use so much magic before it will start to run out,” Zeek warned.

  “I will,” he replied, checking the flow around him quickly. It was still plentiful. “If worst comes to worst, I have at least got the jaden insets on the blades.”

  “Let us hope it does not come to that.”

  . . .

  Nethalie slide to Drake’s side across the polished floor and shook her head.

  “No luck at all. As far as I can see, there is only one door. We’ll just have to hope Rossa finds something. I’d hate to have to try and fight our way out of here, who knows how many have been alerted by now.”

  “There they are. The intruders into our most hallowed of chambers,” came a cry from the other side of the hold. Drake looked across to see a small gathering of three Shadow mages and a half dozen guards near the main entrance to the room. The bookcase had already been shifted to one side. So much for my barricade buying us some time, he thought. Still, there were far fewer standing in the open door than he expected, and much better odds than he could have hoped for.

  “Drake, shut the door, there’s a draft,” Rossa said as she came speeding around the back of a bookcase, “...oh...”

  “Oh indeed short one. Oh indeed,” grinned the mage maliciously at the front of the group that approached them.

  ~ 28 ~

  Spells flew left and right as the three dove for cover. Nethalie and Drake ducked down behind the table in the middle of the room and Rossa skittered behind a darkwood bookcase.

  “What, no warning or option to surrender?” Rossa said as she hit the stone floor behind one of the columns.

  “I’d say they don’t like unwelcome guests. Furthermore, I would say they are a little upset that we got this far,” Nethalie answered as a ball of fire flew over the table top, closely followed by two more directed at Rossa.

  “Be careful what you hit you fool,” the mage shouted. “We don’t know what a direct strike will do to some of the artefacts in this chamber. Do you want to be the one who is responsible for destroying us?”

  Drake leant around the panelled end of the table and let loose two blasts of crystallised ice. For a moment he had hope that they would impact on the lead mage, but three paces in front of him they were reduced to a fine dust.

  “They have barriers!” he called across to Rossa.

  “Of course they do! These are trained mages, did you really think they wouldn’t be protecting themselves?”

  Drake flushed a red. Of course he would have known they were using barriers had he had time to stop and think for a moment.

  “Do not be so hard on yourself youngling. Magic is a skill that takes many years of training to understand. Even then, no one being will ever understand all there is to know. Do you remember the first time we encountered a shadow mage?”

  “Of course. Not the most fun wakeup call I’ve ever had, but still...ahhh...I see where you’re going with that,” Drake’s sudden realisation of a tactic that may allow them to run for an escape gave him hope, but they still needed a way out that didn’t involve facing the mages head on.

  “Rossa, did you find anything back there?” Drake called a
cross to her as she let a ball of fire hurtle its way towards the band of mages.

  “I’d take even a sewer pipe at this point,” said Nethalie as she tucked herself closer to the table, “I’m not sure how much longer this thing will hold out against those spells. In a magical battle like this, Nethalie had little she could do; her bow was outside with the packs that they had buried for safe keeping. Not that it would be much help, she thought.

  “That’s what I was going to tell you,” Rossa yelled over the sudden hail of small shards of ice. “There’s a grate towards the back, near the shelves full of red tomes, there was air coming down it, so I’m guessing it leads somewhere.”

  “Anywhere is better than here right now. I say we go for it and make a break for the grate. Rossa lead the way; Nethalie you follow. I’ll distract them,” Drake began drawing magic to himself.

  “What are you...?” Rossa began.

  “Don’t argue, just go..,” Drake stood up, “NOW!” He focused on the various artefacts and tomes around the mages and released the magic. “E’lif.”

  Suddenly the air around the mages filled with objects. Anything that wasn’t fixed to the ground rose in the air and shot towards the group. The mages yelped and ducked, the barriers not prepared for all these physical objects. Loud cursing flowed as they tried to collect themselves.

  Rossa was already on her feet and heading for the grate with Nethalie close behind. Drake began to follow, walking backwards away from the mages.

  “E’fli,” he said again, focusing on more objects and hurling them at the mages. This time, some were deflected as new barriers were raised.

  “Time to make our departure youngling,” Zeek suggested. Drake ran.

  Running through the hold, Drake could hear the mages yelling as they collected themselves and regrouped. As he made his way after his two companions, and what he hoped was a way out, he toppled shelves and bookcases with magic to try and slow down their pursuers.