Ethria- the Pioneer

by Aaron Holloway

  I decided to try and do something that I had stopped myself from doing for proprieties sake over the last week or so. I analyzed the room. First, I used the skill looking at every nook and cranny myself, but from a larger perspective than my friends were doing. I found nothing of note, save that I did think that Tol’geth could fit, but probably not easily get back out again. I smiled at the thought of my friend getting stuck in the entryway into the room.

  Still bored, and annoyed that we hadn’t found anything of any real merit yet, I decided to hell with social customs and used my Analyzes Ability. As before, I didn't actually feel myself do anything different, instead, it felt like I just knew more about eh room I was in. Salina could actively control her use of the ability, I wonder when you get that, I thought as information about the composition of the stone, it's color, the lines in the room and the shadows all seemed to simply flow into my mind and form a single notification.

  “You have successfully used your Analyze ability. There is one thing special about the room you have Analyzed that you have found. See Interesting Feature, marked in red.”

  I minimized the prompt and found a small corner at the very back of the tiny room outlined in red. It was shadowed and looked more like flat stone cave wall than anything else. I walked past my now glowering friends, who had probably felt my use of the ability as it filled the room. “Sorry guys, but look I found something.” I reached my hand into the tiny space and found a three by three alcove carved into the stone.

  I felt around and found what felt like a small woolen sack. I yanked and it appeared in the room with us. I opened the small brown sack and found a set of four scrolls. I produced them and let my friends see.

  “Oh, this one is interesting.” Ailsa pulled open one of the scrolls labeled “Ritual of Calling” but let out a disappointed sigh. “The center of this one is ruined by water damage. Who hides scrolls in a bottom alcove?” She asked disgusted by the audacity and stupidity.

  I opened one of the scrolls labeled “Summon Creature 1” and found it too was destroyed. Tol’geth found the third was likewise damaged, to the point the name title wasn’t even legible.

  I reached for the last scroll, the title on the outside was illegible from water damage, so I didn’t hold out much hope. When I opened it, I got the following prompt.

  “You have found “Scroll of True Familiar Summoning 2!” With the use of this scroll by a master of Spatial Magic, or with one's aid, a spell caster can summon forth their souls True Familiar. Most Familiars are creatures that a caster forms a temporary bond with to gain and give power. A True Familiar spell reaches across the multiverse and summons a creature of magic that matches as closely with the caster's soul as can be found in the multiverse. Such creatures provide power, insight, guidance, and strength to their masters, and are always from minor sapient species. Examples include Dolphins, Ravens, and Intelligent Fungi. Requirements: 1,000,000 Mana; Spatial Magic Mastery (or a Masters assistance); 2 days casting time. Quality: Exquisitely Masterworked. Durability: 593 / 800.”

  Wow! Now that is cool!” I passed the scroll around so everyone could read the description for themselves. It was my first Exquisitely Masterworked anything, and simply holding the thing in my hand seemed to be a privilege. “Imagine me with an intelligent talking Ravin on my shoulder.”

  “You’d be more annoying then you are now.” Commander Tegan said from where he stood with Tol’geth at the entrance.

  “Need some ointment for that burn?” Ailsa asked me in a whisper. She flew away giggling as I playfully swatted at her.

  “Yeah, yeah. Har, har very funny. But really, do you think it's worth it? It seems like a lot of work for little more than an annoying talking pet.”

  “Mayhap you should receive a familiar first before you judge their usefulness. Pina had her sabertooth with her, and it saved her from many a hard trial in our time. I have been told by others that a familiar can be just as useful, and a true one doubly so.” We all looked at the hulking man who nearly blocked the entranceway by himself, in a mixture of disbelief, or confusion. When I realized what he was talking about I sputtered.

  “W-w-wait. You’re telling me that this druid lady has a sab, a sab, a sabertooth tiger? As an animal companion?!” Tol’geth nodded once. “Those things are the size of horses!” When I was a kid, I remember going to a museum first live 3d holographic display opening. The sabertooth had been as large as a horse and had haunted my nightmares for months. So, I had my reasons for being scared of the things.

  “Her’s was not so big. The runt of the litter I think.” He said shrugging his massive shoulders.

  “Alright then, well,” I said standing up from where I had been kneeling, leaning on my staff slightly for support. “I think we found everything there is to be found.” We left together, all four of us, Ma’vone having already left for the surface. It felt good to finally be leaving the place of death and misery behind.

  ----

  When the moonlight finally touched my face, it was a palpable feeling of relief. I let out a deep sigh. “Let's find a spot, and sleep for the next month.”

  “Agreed,” Ailsa said, and we were joined by Tol’geths grunt of agreement.

  “I think I will visit my uncle first. From what I hear his wound is deep, though not threatening. Priest Micheal even now attends to him. I should be by his side. My cousins will need me if anything goes tragic.” We all said our goodbyes to Traser as he left for his uncle's tent, which I suspected was the large red one right in the middle of still lightly falling ash from the forest fire I had set hours earlier.

  The first camp we came across had a handful of militia, including three women in tattered ripped armor, huddled around a small fire. None of them looked like they would be sleeping that night, and I didn’t blame them.

  “Hail the camp,” I said as I walked into the firelight. “Care if we join your fire?”

  “Aye,” said one of the women, she was large and tending the stew pot over another, even smaller fire on the opposite side to us. “There’s even a bit o’stew in it for those who went below.” She smiled, as much of a smile as anyone could amid the falling ash, and with the day's memories plaguing them.

  The militiamen and women made room for us around the fire. It was close, but it was also warm and comfortable. My robe was dry, and my staff and ring stopped emitting fire at my command. “Oh cool, didn’t know I could turn it off.”

  “Really wouldn’t be very practical if you couldn’t,” Ailsa said as she settled herself into my bedroll without me. I nodded as it shoveled another spoon full of stew into my mouth.

  “Hilda, thank you again for the food. It's really good.” Tol’geth grunted agreement, and Ailsa sighed contentedly.

  “You’re welcome, wizard. You're one of them who went below. I heard some tales about what you all faced down there.” I nodded as I chewed on the pieces of unknown meat that tasted like chicken. “As bad as things were up here, I don’t know if I coulda done or saw the things yall saw and did.” A few of the group nodded along with her words, most of the others simply stared into the fire or tried to fight the nightmares for sleep.

  I finished the bowl of stew, and then crawled into my sleeping roll with Ailsa next to me. Her little body was warm, but more of a nuisance than a comfort. I didn’t think I would be able to sleep, to be honest, but as soon as my head hit the bedroll, I was out like a light.

  ---

  I was in a black void, dark and filled with terror. But somehow, none of that touched me. A blue, almost white light surrounded and infused me, as I watched the void roil and convulse in heaving motions. My mind had trouble conceiving of much of what I saw then, but all I remember now is that it was bad. It was alive, and it hungered.

  Then, a voice as deep as the earth, and as dark as midnight on an overcast and moonless night, spoke and shook my mind to nearly breaking. “You, I have noticed you, you insect. You have taken, something, something precious from me, though I know not what it
was my parents left for me in that place.” The voice was sexless, wordless, and yet, somehow both at the same time. It wasn’t madness like the necromancer had been, it wasn’t hatred or fear, it was just hunger and blackness.

  The desire for more, the desire for, for everything. Everything that had been taken from the voice, and everything else that ever was and is. Maddening hunger was what I faced, and it had been denied something it wanted.

  “Leave this place child!” A voice called out. I recognized the voice, it was the woman from before. The sanity that had saved me from the necromancer. “He is mine, and I will not share him with you!” A force of silver-blue light radiated from somewhere behind me and pushed the void back.

  “He is ours, sister.” Came a third, masculine voice. It sounded familiar too, though far less so. It was the voice of a young man, by contrast to the mature female voice. “Let me assist you.”

  Yellow light, as pure and bright as the sun joined the silver, and the void was driven back, and then as quickly as the sun bursts from the clouds, the void was no longer there. Silver and golden light surrounded me, and two figures appeared before me, one female the other male.

  “You have cost us much, wizard.” The male accused.

  “But,” The woman's silver hand reached out and touched the male on the shoulder. “You have given much more in return. Our people have a haven, even if it is small and reliant on others. And you brother,” The female said, her voice filled with more than just familial affection for the golden figure. “Are more, because of the wizard's gift.” She looked directly at me then “That book you burned days ago, helped my brother to regain some of himself.”

  The golden figure bowed slightly before he began staring off into the distance. “We must be finished here soon. This indecision has cost us much, even if it was allowed by the laws of Ethria. The darkness that is Tesh, does not know you yet. Neither can it gain that knowledge without you willing it so, as the protection your patron has cast on you is far stronger than even Ethria itself could contend with.” The male said gesturing to the white glow around me, that had protected me from the void.

  “But be warned, you are now known by your chosen name here on this world. Your patron is, unwilling or somehow unable, to intervene directly unless Ethria itself, or your free will on matters of eternal significance, is in jeopardy. Use caution wizard.” The female said as she raised her hand to point it at me.

  “And thank you.” They said in unison as her male counterpart joined her, and a string of light hit me square in the chest.

  ---

  “Aaaagh!”

  “Rayid! What is the matter?!”

  I didn't know who was speaking, but my chest was burning. I opened my eyes and somehow my robe had caught fire.

  “Quick get water to put it out!” Someone else yelled as people began to run around in panic. I slapped at the fire with both hands, but that only spread the fire to my arms. The bedroll caught fire next, and somehow I felt all of it, the heat, the pain, it engulfed me totally.

  “The waters not working!” Another voice called out. “I don’t know what to do!”

  “He’s not losing any health! What on Ethria is going on!?”

  As time passed, I gave myself to the pain. I lay there not moving, not even really thinking, just letting the pain go through me. Then, just as quickly as it had come, it was gone. And I slept.

  ---

  I woke gasping for air from some nightmare I forgot as quickly as I sat up straight. The sun was well overhead, and the fire, and camp were gone. People scurried about me, but the camp had been broken down and packed up for travel. “Wah!? What? Where? Wha…?” My voice trailed off as I blinked madly against the light.

  “He’s awake!” Tol’geth shouted from next to me. “Ailsa, come! The wizard wakes!” Strong powerful hands grabbed me and lifted me off the ground.

  “Tol’geth? What's going on?” I asked as my vision regained focus.

  “I am taking you to Ailsa. Now, hush.” And I did so. As my friend carried me like a sleeping child, I looked around me.

  I saw the camp was all packed up and the men and women of the military force we had brought with us, the roughly half who had survived, looked bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. They went about their work with smiles on their faces. Some even laughed and joked together as they went about their work. I wasn’t expecting to see that this morning, I thought. But I suppose it's better than gloomy and sleepless.

  “Okay, why is everyone so happy Tol’geth?” I asked, breaking his moratorium on talking. The large man grumbled but answered anyway.

  “Why wouldn’t they be happy? Last night was feast night! Everyone loves feast night after a victory, everyone! Too bad you were asleep, you missed it.”

  It was my turn to grumble slightly. I wanted a feast too, dang it! Wait, that means I was asleep for what? a day, a night, and… I looked up and saw the sun was just passing noon … another half day?! What the heck happened to me?!

  We eventually got to a large tent, one of only three that were still standing at the center of the camp. We entered, and the air was thick with the smell of incense burning desperately trying to cover the smell of antiseptic and death. Well, this is a medical tent if I had to guess.

  A man in a large white robe, and two women in blue aprons with strange blue feathers sticking out of their hair that both had their hair up in a bun, turned almost as one to face us. “He is awake, where is Ailsa the fae? She said she would be here.” Tol’geth put me down gently on my feet. My head swam for a moment, and I held onto him as I regained my feet.

  “She just left for a moment, she will be right back,” one of the two water witches said. “She has been most helpful with the injured.”

  “As to our patient here,” the priest Micheal gently turned me to face him and steadied me by gripping my shoulders. He looked me up and down, and I felt the odd sensation of his awareness moving along with his eyes through an Analyze.

  “Well, despite what he went through, he is right rain on a sunny day, oddly enough he's slightly better actually. His robes, however” I felt another Analyze, but this time instead of going over my skin, it felt like someone was touching the fabric of my clothes. The process took nearly two full minutes of just standing there, letting my clothes be examined.

  “Ah, I think I know what happened. Or, rather I suspect I do.” The old man said as he turned towards the two witches. They were rather nice, looked rather matronly and helpful for witches, at least to me. He pulled out a large tomb, from under the standing desk he had been working on, and began to flip through the pages. “Do you think it's on page 398? Or was it 689?” He asked the older of the two witches.

  “Oh let me see it.” She said, taking the large book from the old man, licking her finger, grabbing a large chunk of the book, and flipping right the page she knew he needed.

  “Oh, yes. Thank you Girdi, very kind of you.” Girdi beamed lovingly at the old priest, as she handed him back the book. “Right, yes here it is. Holy symbols, holy symbols. Right. Holy symbol changes, changes, rituals, ah here we go blessings and curses!” He turned around, holding the large book with both hands, only with the help of both of the women at his sides.

  “Here you go, it looks like the robe you took had a holy symbol embedded just over the heart. That symbol was one for Tesh, look here.” He removed one hand from holding the book up and pointed at the picture of a circle with a single sprew coming off the top left side. The younger of the two witches, she had to be no older than thirty, huffed as she ducked under the large book and propped it up on her shoulder.

  The older woman shook her head slightly, and let out an exasperated sigh. This was obviously a common occurrence, and the women, instead of letting the priceless book be damaged, or chide the old priest in front of others had decided to simply help him.

  “It looks like it changed to a rather old, some thought long gone holy symbol. The god who uses it is not really remembered anymore, but it is th
ought to be a benevolent spirit of some kind. My thinking is, this Tesh character was using the holy symbol in that robe to attack you. The spirit or slumbering god of whatever long-dead civilization that used to call this place home stirred just long enough to protect you. Unfortunately, that protection came in the form of mixing of theurgic powers, which can cause a lot of discomfort of us mortal beings.”

  I was about to reply that ‘discomfort’ was the greatest understatement of the old man's life! But one glare from the older witch, as the priest turned around and placed the book back on his desk, to the relief of the younger witch, froze me still.

  “I suspect that whatever spirit or god that protected you is no longer capable of interacting with this plane, your life being saved must have cost it greatly! Tell me, boy, did you see any visions while you slept? Or perhaps while you…” The old man hesitated looking for the right word. “Burned?”

  As I thought about what to say, Ailsa burst into the room a riot of colors and energy. She cast spell after spell on me examining me from every medical angle she could think of before finally, blissfully, she stopped and hovered just before my face. “What. Happened.”

  “I believe he just answered that question.” I pointed at the priest who nodded solemnly. Ailsa turned to him, and the priest repeated everything that he had just told me. Then, repeated the question.

  “I don't really remember. There were a lot of lights, and I had nightmares that I think intermixed with whatever was going on.” I said, for the most part, I was being honest. My recollection of the events, other than being set on fire and having something bad attack me and then being saved by something or things good, was getting muddied by the nightmares that had woken me up.

  After some more back and forth between Ailsa and the priest discussing some finer details regarding the mixing of different theurgic magics, we three left the tent and found Tegin and Ma’vone Traser waiting for us just outside.