by Zac Atie
”Didn’t you find the Arcana?” Bastion asked.
”No…No, we didn’t.”
”Then it may have not been an Arcana. You were a kid; you likely don’t even know what one looked like.” Bastion argues, “Plus, she ran because she was taken as a kid by them. She was wearing rags… well I don’t know, she doesn’t take good care of her stuff.”
”That’s all well and good…” Yaevinn says, “But, whose blood was on her? She wasn’t wounded… And, if the blood wasn’t consumable, then it could only mean it came from one of her own…”
”Who knows, we don’t know the facts, this is just speculation.” Bastion says.
”This is why I don’t talk about her with you, man. Though, you’re right… we shouldn’t talk about her, we don’t know what she’s been through…” Yaevinn concludes “But that was inarguably Arcana, though.”
Upon reaching the ground, the pair took themselves before Varnis, who welcomed them warmly into his dug-out home. They sat down in front of him, awaiting their orders, but before Varnis began, Bastion interrupted. “Why is Veronica not here? Why can’t she come?” Bastion asked, making Yaevinn sigh under his breath.
”Well… we’ll get to that…” Varnis said, “She’s not in any danger, I assure you… it’s just that this mission I'm about to give you is related to her. Before we get into that, there are things that I'm going to have to explain to you, before giving you the mission.”
”Alright.” Bastion says, sitting back. He enjoyed learning the odd history and obscure ways of the magi. “Well, back when we had settled lands and during our war against the Blue Magi, it was hard to assist settlements fast enough from their onslaughts, due to the barbaric ways that the Blue magi used to settle. They were identical to barbarians, just setting up a bunch of tents to sleep in from place to place, only they were ten times as effective in combat, and ten times in size. This attracted bandits and outlaws, which wanted to get away from the normal lives inside semi-civilized tribes. Of course, they ended up being converted to the magi, and kept in the group. We’d band together and attack them, but we were usually repelled. We were sworn to stop them, even as they were gearing up to attack us. However, they would settle down on the borders of our settlements and get ready to attack, making makeshift siege equipment on the spot. As you know, humans use this same tactic, but unlike them, we received word of this immediately through magic. We’d all set out and attempt to crush the blue magi, but we were almost always too late due to their magic speeding up the siege equipment building. This led to low morale, when a great magician named Toluca Raven came up with a seemingly pointless magic, which was the ability to enchant dirt to surround you and break up your cells into dirt. You still had control of your body though, and could piece yourself back together.” Varnis explained.
”How did that help you?” Bastion asked.
”The underground caverns were first invented to hide from Blue Magi, giving them no way to get down to the children and defenceless. It usually worked, and the Magi had no clue whatsoever that there was even such things as an underground cavern, which is due to the sensory block that you no doubt have noticed. However, they had no way to get out, but luckily they had supplies down there. That usually saved their lives. Magi had a daughter in one of the caverns, and had paid a bunch of magi to dig from one close-by settlement’s caverns, to another’s. Toluca was in this group, she was a huge slacker, and would take frequent breaks to mess around with dirt and magic. However, it was in that instance of chance that she made a ring of dirt and enchanted it to shape shift into dirt itself. Shape shifting is a tricky art when you tried to shape shift into animals, but into inanimate objects like dirt? It was rarely thought of. She enchanted the earthen walls that they had dug through and practiced, then showed the magi. Word spread, and more and more magi in other settlements heard of this, and Toluca was famous in no time. So why was she famous for this? Because, settlements could be reached extremely fast by digging tunnels and transforming to dirt to travel from each, making us able to respond to help requests much faster than normal. It was really because of her that we were able to save people from the caverns and beat back the blue magi.” Varnis beamed.
”I see… so what happened to the caverns?” Bastion asked
”Most had to be gotten rid of when the humans’ industrialization came into play. If they found the tunnels, they would find the caverns. Then we’d be in turmoil. However, there is still a few around, ones that are extremely deep in the ground… like the one here in Korreal. It connects to Rhenium, the so called capital of Magi, which is basically just a ceasefire zone for Blue and Red Magi, allowing them to come to terms there in peace. Declarations are made there, and are relayed across Britain. Rhenium has become popular, now owns many Magi settlements here in the south, both Blue and Red. However, we are the only settlement that has been able to sustain an underground connection with them. Just as well, since they own us. Now, to the Mission I’ve assigned you.” Varnis says, clearing his throat and sitting in a more formal and at attention stance. “As you know, a portal opened up here in the south sometime over a decade ago, and we’ve all been searching for it competitively. Now, Veronica came back to us claiming she had found it, but she is among over a thousand that also claim they have found the portal site. Now, it’s being reviewed, and it’s came to her turn to be investigated. However, there have been several attacks on Magi from other Magi. They use the portal as an excuse to slaughter some Rhenium Magi, weakening it’s place. Through paranoia and caution, there has to be a background check on everyone, to see if there are ties to the Blue or Red Magi. We all know that Veronica had come from a Blue Magi stronghold and that she had stumbled her away across to us, suffering from Bloodlust, but…” Varnis pauses, hesitating.
”What?” Bastion asks, suspicious.
”I'm a little worried. They found something, something apparently big, so big that they decided not to relay it through telepathic magic in case it was intercepted. Usually, things like this are a matter of peace between factions. It may be nothing, or it may be that Veronica is some sort of monarch among the Blue Magi. Who knows… but it was enough to make them use the tunnel that is connected to us. Usually, it takes about 4 hours to get from here to Rhenium, which is in Canterbury, and two days ago they announced they had dispatched the messenger. But… he’s not here.” Varnis said.
”So you want us to go check it out?” Bastion asks.
”Yeah, go find the messenger and bring him back here.” Varnis says. “Sure, the briefing may have been a little long for such a simple task, but it’s rare something as important as this comes up.”
”Alright…” Bastion said “But I have no idea how to do that dirt magic. It sounds extremely complicated, sir.”
”Come with me.” Varnis said, ushering Yaevinn and Bastion up and out the door. He brings them to down to the cavern floor, where he grabs two swords from the armoury as well as their holsters and passes them to Yaevinn and Bastion. He then takes them toward a small, easily missable door. He opens it, and it reveals a corridor. It wasn’t very large, and Bastion wouldn’t be able to fit if he was about ½ of his size bigger. “Yaevinn has done this before, since he’s well known here and in Rhenium. He’ll show you how it works. Remember, your objective is to find the messenger. If he’s dead, leave his body, don’t touch it, just come back and tell me. If he’s injured, Yaevinn will set up a telepathic communications… There may be a chance that Blue Magi are involved.” Varnis said. “That’s why you’re going too. We can’t send an army, and you’re both good with magic.”
”Alright.” Yaevinn said. “We’ll do it. It’ll be easy.”
”I'm counting on you.” Varnis said, and then he backs away, turning to go about his normal duties as elder of Korreal.
Bastion shuts the tunnel door behind him. In the tunnel, there was only one light, not too far down the tunnel from where he is. Then, there’s just a seemingly endless, pitch black passage that looks
as if it goes on for eternity. It looked like a tunnel to hell, some nether gate that his soul will be sucked into… He was lucky he wasn’t claustrophobic, because this would be the ultimate nightmare for him. Trapped in a small, enclosed corridor, running forever, trying to get out with no hope in sight. Thinking about it intimidated him, to the point of almost sweating. “Couple of things that you should know…” Yaevinn said, turning towards him, “First off, I know it looks scary, buddy, but it’s not that bad. When you cast Cerastes, which is the name for the dirt form magic, you can’t see anything anyway. The dirt down this whole tunnel is enchanted, so you can do this magic with extreme ease. Just, think about becoming dirt, and place your hands on the floor or walls. After that, your cells break up into dirt. You can put yourself back together easily; it’s almost automatic thanks to the enchantment on the dirt around us.”
”Alright… But, something I'm curious about. Armies went through here?” Bastion asked.
”Hahaha! No, not this tunnel. This tunnel was a failure. This tunnel is supposed to go in a straight line, but it ends up stopping and taking a turn, because due to the tunnel’s failure in size, they lost a settlement halfway along here that has caverns called Esper. It belongs to the blue Magi now, so… if the messenger is dead, it was likely them. Oh, and, we travel extremely fast and use up a lot of our magic along the way, so every 20 minutes or so, we’ll come across a rest zone with spring water and a magical pillar that we can use to recharge.” Yaevinn explained. Bastion had a medallion in hand filled up. Another fear that popped into his head was the fact that if he runs out of mana in the medallion, he’ll end up stuck in the tunnel, halfway in there… but he dismissed the claim, and decided to stay strong. “Alright, watch this.” Yaevinn said, as he raises his hands and touches the walls of the tunnel. “It’s easy; just… transfer your magic…” Yaevinn’s aura began to change slightly, and Bastion observed Yaevinn with one of his eyes closed. Magic from within the boy seeped through his hands and into the surrounding walls, and it created a circle from the walls, to the floor, to the ceilings. Eventually, Yaevinn’s appearance began to turn blurry… then, he was barely recognizable, his features dampened, as if becoming pixilated. Bastion was amazed at what he was seeing, but also a little frightened. He was lucky he had been around magic all his life, though he didn’t know it at the time, sure, but he had felt it. If he had been shaped into the completely scientific mindset that all of his friends had, and then his discovery would have led to extreme trauma, perhaps even madness. The dirt around Yaevinn had turned to a perfect sphere, and it was suspended within the air. Suddenly, the ball shot down the tunnel, fast! Bastion saw this through his closed eye, and could see that the ball was already far down the tunnel, and as the aura moved through the tunnel, ending up becoming a dim light at the end of the long passage. Bastion simply watched for around a minute, taken by awe. He had never done such an action within his time at Korreal. He had practiced with shields, perfecting using objects are projectiles, converted magic into offensive spells… but never shot down a tunnel at lightning fast speed as a dirt ball… But, he clears his head, and remembers his goal. “First thing’s first… the dirt…” Bastion says, as he places his hands on the wall. He runs his magic to his hands, as if he was healing a comrade. He had healed Veronica a few times during their sparring matches, and she him, so this process was familiar to him. His magic seeped into the dirt walls, like ink contaminating water, and the magic from his right hand made it’s way around the walls clockwise, trying to reach his other hand, while his left hand was doing the same, only counter clockwise. After a while, the magic created a circle around his body, and locked onto position. His hands felt as if they were stuck on the dirt, but it was fine, because he knew if he wanted to be released all he had to do was break the magic that he had allowed to take a hold of him. Next was easy. The conversion. The magic in the enchanted dirt, and the mana on the medallion connected, and now all he had to do was thing of his cells being made into dirt, temporarily. It was harder than he thought, and it seemed like a slow process, but through trial and error, the process began to speed up. Eventually, the rest of his body came apart and was transformed into a neat cluster that was a sphere. He had expected it to turn out shoddy, being more of a pentagon than anything else, but he ended up copying Yaevinn exactly. He felt normal, as if he was curled up into a ball, like an embryo. He hovered there for another minute, thinking about how it was going to feel, and how to do it. Was it going to be like a rollercoaster ride, that Bastion hated ever so much? Was it going to be like riding a motorcycle at high speed? Or was he going to feel nothing, cushioned inside this sphere? “Don’t know if I want to do this…” He mumbled to himself “I mean, shooting forward I-“ He began, before realizing his mistake a split second before saying it. He thought of shooting forward, which of course, made him shoot forward.
Bastion was hunched over in the corner of the first rest room, puking in the most dizzy state he had ever been in. The rest zone was a rather large room, with light crystals on the ceiling and a small pillar of magic in the middle, like Yaevinn had promised, only it was submerged and surrounded by clear, clean, natural, spring water. ”Hahaha! What’s wrong, what happened? It couldn’t have been THAT bad!” Yaevinn laughed, sitting at the rest zone. “I didn’t expect it to be that fast… it was like a rollercoaster ride without any seatbelts, like I was grabbing onto the seats for dear life. Plus, I accidentally set it off, I wasn’t ready…” Bastion said, which furthered Yaevinn’s amusement. “Shapeshifting is goddamned awful, is there any other stuff like that?”
”Yeah, the whole Shapeshifting class is called Metamorphosis. The easiest thing to change to is water, though, it’s really hard to master. It’s likely that you’d be spotted with hollow sight whatever you morph into.”
”Gah… Looks like I found that type of magic that I'm awful at, like you said before…” Bastion sighed.
”Hahaha! Goddamn…” Yaevinn laughed, washing his face. “Well, anyway… it seems like the messenger didn’t get this far, for some reason.” Yaevinn said, as he walked around the room, examining the walls and ceiling. “Each rest point we get to, we must check for any signs of kidnapping, or such. Something to explain why the messenger hasn’t gotten this far.”
”You sure the messenger had been dispatched? Why haven’t the Rhenium Magi asked where he is?” Bastion asked.
”Well, it’s custom to welcome visitors from Rhenium into their home. Plus, I don’t think the message was high priority… but they DID say he was dispatched. There’s no reason to lie, I mean, they know we’d react this way.” Yaevinn explains.
”What do YOU think happened?” Bastion asked.
”I don’t know… there have been reports of minor skirmishes outside of settlements… perhaps the messenger ran into a group from Esper who decided they wanted to amp up the action.” Yaevinn said “If that’s the case… Then it’s good for us.”
”Why?” Bastion asked.
”Because the Blue Magi would have killed a Rhenium official for no reason whatsoever, making them the villains in the conflict. If Rhenium were to see the Blue Magi for the scum they are, they would aid us tremendously in breaking them apart.” Yaevinn said.
”You don’t really like them, do you?” Bastion said, and Yaevinn sighed.
”No… They killed the last Ispii of earth, not too long ago… My parents among them... I'm alone now. There were about 14 of us, heading over to Rhenium for a meeting yearly meeting, where Blue and Red Magi of Britain get together to discuss changes and make declarations. Well, this particular year, Sanctum made an appearance, which threw Dante into a fit of rage? He ordered his blue Magi to strike them down, and in doing so, chaos erupted. The Blue Magi that were nearby invaded Rhenium, thinking the Red Magi were attacking, and many were killed. Of course, Rhenium cleaned everything up and forgave all sides, saying it was a ‘Misunderstanding’… but… I saw the brutality of the Blue Magi first hand… What they did…” Yaevinn
explained, his good mood fading.
”It’s alright, Yaevinn. You need not say anymore…” Bastion said.
”Alright…” Yaevinn said, getting up. “Let’s continue, got a lot more ground to cover.”
They passed through 6 rest zones, finding no signs of struggle or escape in each, when they were advancing upon the seventh out of the tenth. Bastion came up behind Yaevinn and exited the tunnel that they were making their way through. Bastion got out of Cerastes to be greeted with a dim-litted room full of horror, and a traumatic Yaevinn. “W-What happened here?” Yaevinn asked, eyes wide with shock. He trembled as his eyes scanned the malevolence that had occurred within the zone. When Bastion’s vision returned to him fully, his jaw dropped at the carnage that lay before him. “Oh my god…” Bastion says, covering his mouth. He didn’t fear puking though, he had nothing to bring up after the wild rides through here, but if he had, the smell alone would have had him reeling. The spring water was running red with blood, surrounding the pillar of magic as if it was some evil Voodoo totem, and it looked like one, since the bruised, beaten, bloodied head of a man was mounted upon it. The smell was awful, it was obvious that the dead man was the messenger due to the fact that he had been here long enough to smell this bad. The armless body was slumped over to the right against the wall, where the blood trail from his neck starts into the spring water. The whole room had an eerie atmosphere, and even though all was still, including Bastion and Yaevinn, it felt like the danger was still present. “Y-Yaevinn…” Bastion wheezes, finally finding the courage to break the stunning silence. He looks at Yaevinn’s still, shocked face. It was obvious he saw nothing like this in his time. “This… This looks like…” Yaevinn begins, and Bastion turns towards him fully. “What happened here? Why… Who did this?” Bastion asks.