by Joe Jackson
“Is this some remnant of your creator’s evil plans?” Max demanded.
The Tilcimer made a sound of exasperation and then clacked its teeth a couple of times. “Boy, if all that comes out of that mouth of yours is foolishness, best learn to close it now. You will find that your enemies are far less tolerant of it than I.” The creature moved in that barely perceptible blur, appearing behind Max for only a moment before it was gone again, now back where it had started. “Are you in such a position of strength that you can afford to not even hear me out?”
“Speak, Tilcimer. I’m listening,” Leighandra put in, gaining the creature’s attention. The others glanced at her, but though they took up wary stances, they made no further moves or sounds of protest aside from Max assuming the straight-backed, arms-across-his-chest posture.
“Something was buried beneath these lands long ago – not here in Laeranore, but beneath the lands of Terrassia as a whole – and I believe it has awakened. If it is as my creator remembers and endowed me with knowledge of, it is in possession of something of great power that I would very much like to add to my collection. That is the price I ask for my aid. What I can offer you in return is information of the sort Lady Karinda will not share, or even know.”
“We can’t promise you something we don’t know the value of,” Starlenia scoffed. “What kind of idiots do you take us for?”
The creature smiled, but it was not a pleasant sight. The teeth were too white, too sharp, and too numerous to take that grin for anything but predatory. “Oh, little woman… if I thought you were idiots, I would not have wasted my time even speaking with you. No, in you I see the potential to get what I want, all without attracting the attention of my enemies here on Citaria. In any case, I never expected an answer here and now. This is a proposal, an offer, one you may accept or decline at your leisure. But know that should you decline, you will have only so long to change your mind before I fade into the shadows and let this conflict play out as it may.”
“Let us speak with the Archmage,” Leighandra said. “I’m curious to see what she may have to say about you.”
Tilcimer let forth a humorless hmph. “As am I.”
“How about a token of your good faith?” Delkantar said, gesturing for Max and Galadon to be patient for a minute. “What can you offer us that will truly be of use? Can you give us something that proves you’re actually interested in helping us, and not simply baiting us into some clever trap?”
The creature folded his arms across his chest, which only made Max clutch his own arms that much tighter. “This one is worried about the gnolls to the north,” Tilcimer said at last. “And well he should be. There is a member of his extended family up that way, but the situation is quickly spiraling out of control.”
“What?” Max blurted, his stoicism cracked. “My family?”
“This is precisely why you need as much aid as you can get. Do you really think this plot is solely about raising the dead to attack your nations? Oh no, young prince. This is far bigger, far deadlier, far more consequential than some undead incursion or overthrow in the empire of the shakna-rir. This has the potential to be world-breaking… or world-saving. What part will you play in all this? I cannot say. But I can aid you.”
“Why?” Galadon challenged. “Why would you help us, demon?”
“I already told you that: I desire something of great power buried under these lands. It is my sole desire. The ultimate fate of this world is, admittedly, of little consequence to me,” the creature answered. He made a dismissive gesture. “But is that really of importance to you? Would you deny the aid you need simply because of its source? As I said, I do not expect an answer now. But think you well on what I have offered, and act you quickly on what I have already told you. There is something far larger afoot than I believe even Karinda suspects.”
With that, he was gone. He moved from the camp faster than the eye could follow, and the companions exchanged glances. Leighandra was intrigued; he could likely have killed them all easily if he could move that fast, but he had chosen to speak with them instead. More than that, he had offered them what seemed to be a valuable bit of information. Max hadn’t spoken much of the gnolls in the north but to mention he was preparing to head that way when he was summoned to Solaris.
“Should we look into the gnoll situation in the north after we see the archmage?” the chronicler asked.
“It could be a trick – something to draw us far away from the root of the problem while his other allies continue to plague our lands with the undead,” Galadon spat.
“What members of your family are up north already, Max?” Starlenia asked.
The luranar paladin shrugged. “As was mentioned earlier, I am the seventh son of a seventh son. Of course, that means I have a tremendous family, many of whom travel the lands to follow the will of the Lord. It could be any of a number of relatives – or possibly even one of my wife’s family. I cannot say with any certainty.”
“Maybe Lady Karinda will have some idea,” Yiilu said. “I am alarmed that such a being can walk the lands of my people with impunity. While we are here, I should like to send word and ask for it in turn, to find if he has been causing any trouble here. If he has not, then perhaps – though he be evil – his desires do align with ours enough to listen to what he has to say.”
“We shouldn’t trust him,” Galadon insisted.
“Nope, but we should still listen,” Delkantar agreed.
“We will listen first to the archmage,” the luranar paladin said with a sigh. “If what he told us of the gnolls to the north is true, that will be a far better indicator of how trustworthy he may be, though we will never trust him fully or with our lives.”
“Let us bed down for the evening, that we are refreshed when we reach the tower of the archmage tomorrow,” Yiilu offered. “Leighandra, would you grace us with a song to help get our minds off of the discomfort of this meeting?”
The chronicler smiled and reached into her backpack, pulling forth a miniature harp. She thought to herself while plucking the strings absently, and then she began to sing for her friends.
Chapter IV – Guidance
They reached the tower of Karinda Bakhor the next day. The appearance and intentions of the Tilcimer had dominated the discussion after breakfast. Everyone agreed the creature couldn’t be trusted, but at the same time, they questioned the wisdom of ignoring his help. Tilcimer had made no secret of what he wanted, as little as he explained its significance. It was certainly unusual for an evil creature to all but admit it was such and yet still make a case for being helpful. Ultimately, they stayed their original course, that they would ask the archmage about it before they committed to any particular path.
The tower was a rather nondescript ebon structure in a perfectly circular clearing. It felt out of place, soaking up the sun with no canopy of trees sheltering it from the open sky. Oddly, however, there were no visible windows of any kind, and only a single, plain wooden door sat at ground level on the south side. There was a hitching post, a trough for watering one’s mount, and a solitary covered stall for sheltering one, but there were no such animals present.
There was something surreal about the scene, and Leighandra couldn’t put her finger on it. Looking about, she figured it was how all the sense of wonder and amazement that came from being within the elven lands fled in this place. There was a pervasive silence that served to deepen the slight sense of foreboding that said this was the dwelling place of something of great power. If Leighandra hadn’t heard so many good things about the archmage, she surmised she might be terrified to approach.
Her companions were sorting through similar thoughts and feelings, she could tell. Max’s ears and nose twitched occasionally, his lupine senses probably trying to glean something from the surroundings to calm fraying nerves. As if sensing his anxiety, Vo’rii left her master’s side and sat beside the luranar paladin, and he absently stroked her head. That helped ease what remained of Leighandra’
s own anxiety, a chuckle resonating in her mind at the question of just how lupine the luranar truly were when one got down to details.
“This clearing seems… unnatural,” Delkantar commented to Yiilu, who agreed with a silent nod. “Yet I suspect if the forest were put out by her presence, it would encroach.”
“Well, no sense being rude,” Starlenia said, striding forward and rapping on the door.
“No, I suppose not,” Galadon commented, following behind her.
Leighandra and the others gathered at a respectful distance by the time the door was opened. A young elven girl answered the knock, though the chronicler kept in mind that young was sometimes a relative term when dealing with her mother’s people. The girl could be as young as fifteen or one hundred years beyond that and still be considered a youth by elven standards. Even Leighandra had trouble telling at times, though in this case, she suspected the girl truly was a youth even by human standards.
“Sister D’ansu!” the girl said, chattering away in elvish. “Oh my goodness, you brought visitors to our lands and the archmage’s tower? And they even have a luranar with them! I…”
She trailed off and her cheeks flushed. “Where are my manners?” she said now in the common trade tongue. “Welcome to the Archmage’s tower. I am Duaana, her apprentice. Are you here to see Lady Karinda?”
“We are, Sister,” Yiilu said with a polite bow of the head. “We have many questions, and I believe Lady Karinda will be the one best suited to answering them.”
Duaana gasped suddenly. “Prince Auremax?”
“Yes?”
The elven girl beamed with excitement, sucking in her lip for a moment. “Come in, come in. Make yourselves comfortable, and I will alert Lady Karinda to your arrival.”
“No need, dear,” came a pleasant voice from behind her. “I have been expecting them. Show them in and then return to your studies.”
“Yes, my lady,” Duaana said, and she stepped back and gestured the group inside.
The inside of the tower was nearly as nondescript as the outside, but Leighandra looked immediately to the windows. It was a fascinating use of arcane power to create windows that were one-way, completely invisible from the outside. They somehow allowed a pleasant amount of light in to augment that coming from the room’s hearth. For the archmage, it was probably a trivial use of arcane power, but to the chronicler, it was amazing. She had barely learned to tap the sorcery in her mother’s blood that flowed in her veins; to do something even as “simple” as this astounded her.
Before the fireplace – which was emitting light but no heat – was a semicircle of chairs and benches. Sitting in a high-backed rocking chair was the archmage, studying the group with eyes that were almost solidly ebon. It was a bit unsettling to meet them, and Leighandra used the excuse of finding a seat to break eye contact. Karinda Bakhor wore a black robe trimmed in white, and despite the stateliness of it, the length of blood-red hair that ran down her back, and those unsettling eyes, there was nothing to say this was one of the strongest wizards in the world, if not beyond. If anything, the woman looked unassuming and harmless – a dangerous misconception, Leighandra knew.
Duaana retreated up the tower’s winding staircase once the companions were seated, leaving them alone with her master. Karinda smiled softly but still said nothing, taking in each of the companions studiously, as though somehow reading their life story at a glance instead of putting questions to them. She took a sip of the tea she was holding that had somehow escaped Leighandra’s notice until then. It was those eyes; they were inescapable.
“You have been expecting us, Lady Bakhor?” Max finally asked when under her gaze.
“Please, call me Karinda,” she said with a dismissive gesture. “Yes, I have watched you since the moment the first meeting came to order in Solaris. Though I did not attend in person, I watched from afar, and am quite familiar not only with the goings-on in our lands, but what has transpired since and the resolutions reached by the council of ambassadors. Prince Auremax, your people often say that there are no coincidences in life; are you a believer in this proverb?”
“I am. Though there are little coincidences at times, the larger, more specific ones tend to be the work of divine providence. At least, that is how my people see it.”
“The six of you,” she began, but then she glanced down at the wolf lying on her floor in an attentive, sphinx-like pose. “Seven of you did not come together by chance. It was not by coincidence that you were chosen to attend the meeting, nor that you all chose to act, nor that you have banded together and come here to see me. Without a lesson in theology or a tangential explanation, suffice to say that each of you was… nudged in this direction to accomplish the will of the gods.”
Delkantar leaned forward. “Do you speak of prophecy?”
“Not as such, no,” the archmage said with a shake of her head. “There is no prophecy per se; but there have been signs that fall in line with superstitions, and they do seem to point to a significant event coming to pass here on Terrassia. That being said, there is no indication what that event might be, either for good or ill, and of course, one must consider that these may just be superstitions and nothing more.”
“What sorts of signs?” Starlenia asked, her brow furrowed. “The shamans of my home have been speaking of changes in the balance for over a decade, but many of my people have stopped paying attention to them.”
Leighandra whipped her gaze to the secretive little woman, and she wasn’t the only one to do so. “You didn’t mention that before…”
“We hadn’t talked about any prophecies or signs before, and I sure wasn’t going to be the one that brought it up when I don’t really know much about it.”
“There is a being of light… I believe an angel,” Karinda answered. “I have watched it moving through history for some time, effecting change and influencing events across the world, most recently the work of Karian Vanador here. I suspect your shamans may have been sensitive to a very real change, and if their sensitivity reaches back more than a decade, the resurrection of Karian Vanador roughly twelve years ago may not solely be another sign, but perhaps the most important of them.”
Delkantar thrust his fist into his other palm. “I knew it! I knew her presence and her work at Fort Sabbath had to play into this somehow! It’s not every day a resurrected hunter rides into town on the back of a silver dragon and kills a centuries-old vampire. And for the dead to start rising in the wake of it? Well, Max’s people may say it best: It can’t be coincidence.”
Karinda tilted her head and studied the human again. “Were you one of the Red Mask who accompanied Lady Vanador?”
Delkantar squared his jaw and shook his head. “I wish I had been, but no. I was actually in the west, near the Village of Winds, when Lady Vanador and the Red Mask killed Annabelle. But the stories that were being passed around when I returned home to Chandler’s Grove… amazing stuff. Strange, but amazing.”
Galadon bobbed his head at the assessment. “What other signs have you seen that make you suspect something is coming?”
“I will reveal that to you in time, for they are numerous and vague,” she said, gesturing for no interruptions. “For now, I believe we should speak of your encounter with the Tilcimer.”
“The Tilcimer?” Starlenia echoed.
“So you know of him, my lady?” Yiilu asked, sitting up a little straighter.
The archmage took a sip of her tea, staring into the fire for a few moments. “Oh, I have known of him for some time. At times, useful. Other times, a pest the likes of which you could hardly imagine. I assume he told you that I would keep secrets from you, all the better to drive a wedge between us and force you to go to him for answers?”
“Well, he’s not entirely wrong,” Starlenia said.
The archmage turned those black eyes on the Okonashai woman. “When you stood over your enemies in the cemetery, contemplating what all of it meant, what did you feel?”
Starlenia
started to speak but then stopped and furrowed her brow, her mouth tightened. “Overwhelmed.”
“And how do you think you would feel if I began telling you a list of vague signs and the various folk tales, legends, and proverbs they either point to or are pointed toward, when you are already overwhelmed by what you face? If I keep anything from you, young ones, know that it is to prevent you from being paralyzed by fear or – worse – indecision. Some massive evil has awakened in these lands, and the rising of the dead is either a charade to mask it, or a byproduct of it. But the rising itself is not the event we should be concerned with.”
Karinda took another sip of her tea. “Understand foremost that the weight of the world does not rest solely on your shoulders. You are in a position to serve as a pivot, to tip the balance in favor of the forces of goodness and light. If you fail, it is not the end of the world. Likewise, if you refuse, there are many others who can and will stand in that gap. Accordingly, you are not pawns or puppets. If you choose to serve as this pivot, it will be your free will decision. You are under no compulsion, and I will not force or guilt you into doing anything you do not wish to do. This is a dangerous road you walk, and there is no guarantee of survival, much less success. I can aid you with information and certain trinkets, but these things must be done slowly and subtly so as not to attract our enemies’ attention directly to you.”
She swept that black-eyed gaze across the group, then settled it on Starlenia. “Now… is there anything you haven’t told me?”
The Okonashai woman perked up. “We found these on the necromancer we killed in the Solaris cemetery,” she said, handing the silver skull on the chain and the note to the archmage.
Karinda regarded the pendant and set it to float in the air before her. Her eyes seemed to turn even darker and her blood-red hair moved with a life of its own, but ultimately, she shook her head. “This would appear to have been a focus of some kind, but whatever force was using it has ceased and masked itself well from my sight. I suspect it will not be the last of these we see, though. Should you encounter more necromancers in your work, search them for similar items.”