by Jim Galford
Having little he could see of the people, Therec tried to walk around them to see better. He had always been taught to minimize interaction when viewing or the spell would likely end. To his surprise, he was able to walk through the snow without having to concentrate on maintaining his spell, as if the staff wanted him to see this.
The first person of the group Therec could see appeared bulky under their heavy cloak. He had barely gotten halfway around that person before he could see it was a woman, though some among the Turessians would hardly call her a “person.” A short muzzle and white fur with black spots marked her unquestionably as a wildling, which would explain the odd fit to her clothing. The fur pattern identified her as a snow leopard from what Therec could see, though he concerned himself very little with the unenlightened races. Once he knew to look, he easily spotted her long tail hanging out below the bottom of her cloak, practically disappearing into the snow. The woman’s pale blue eyes watched the person with the staff unblinkingly.
Continuing around the group—none of whom seemed to notice Therec—he found the largest member of the group to be a stocky orcish man. Huge even by orcish standards, his wide shoulders barely fit into the heavy leather armor Therec could see through the open front of his cloak. What caught Therec’s attention about him was not his size but the fact that he had Turessian markings of rank on his face.
“There are no records of non-humans being allowed to study. Who would mark an unenlightened?” mused Therec, trying to remember as much as he could about the orc. Whoever he was, Therec wanted to find out more when the vision ended. He might have to remember these details until he returned to Turessi and had access to the temple’s library again.
On a whim, Therec gave the wildling woman another look and realized she also had rank tattoos. Neither of these two were marked as being from a clan Therec knew, but he decided that was not surprising, since no modern clan would have accepted them as anything but slaves. Only humans could earn the markings that told of great wisdom and experience. These two would have been executed on sight if they walked into any Turessian camp.
Coming to the front of the group, Therec got a look at the man holding the staff. He stared in disbelief, having seen artistic renderings he believed to be bad guesses at who he now looked at. There were enough details they got right that he recognized the man.
Turess. The founder of a nation.
He was of average build, though his face told of years spent struggling against weather and other adversity. Deep worry lines marred his hard face, despite Therec gauging him as no more than forty years. Unlike the people Therec had known from Turessi, the actual Turess had somewhat long hair that reached his shoulders…a style that would have been considered vain by modern standards.
Therec walked a full circle around Turess, taking in every minute detail.. Aside from his black winter clothing, he wore battered old brown boots and a black mantle that covered him like a jacket, hanging low enough that Therec had initially thought it to be a cloak. Despite how cold Therec guessed the weather to be, Turess wore the top of his shirt open to expose a coin that had been fitted to a necklace, beside several mismatched feathers. His hands were even bare, revealing a matching set of worn gold rings, one on each hand. Never had Therec seen any jewelry depicted in art of the man.
Leaning closer, Therec studied the necklace and the rings, but the wavering of the vision made fine details difficult to make out. He could be sure the items had inscriptions, though he could not see them clearly enough.
Turess’s clothing bore all the signs of a long journey. Mud coated his robes and boots in wide, dry spatters and much of his clothing had been torn or worn threadbare. Like Therec, Turess normally appeared in pictures as clean-shaven, but his face was covered with stubble, something that most Turessian men would not have allowed.
On a second glance, Therec realized Turess was afraid. Whatever was coming had the idol of a nation terrified, though he hid it reasonably well. He was staring straight through Therec to point farther off in the snow as though waiting for something that he dreaded.
The one detail about the man Therec had always seen depicted that was most noticeably different were Turess’s rank markings. Compared to Therec’s own tattoos or even those of the orc and wildling, the man’s face was sparsely marked. The few thin symbols that ran from above his brows to his cheekbones marked him as a married man and a reasonably educated, but nothing else Therec could recognize. In every depiction Therec had seen, Turess was always shown with the markings of a master of all magic and with symbols of every known clan, but this man had none of that.
“My master, when did you have time to have a wife while conquering the known world?” Therec asked Turess, smiling at the idea that the man could not hear him. “The history books said you died alone. How much do we not know about you?”
The wildling woman took a step forward and placed a hand on Turess’s arm, shocking Therec. Beyond the Turessian dislike of public contact, having a slave touch Turess should have prompted a violent attack on the woman.
“Is this wise?” asked the snow leopardess while giving Turess a look of genuine concern. “There may still be time to run.”
“A wildling for a friend, not just a companion,” mused Therec, giving the woman a more conscientious look-over. “The scholars will never believe me.”
Turess shook his head and smiled at the woman, patting her hand before answering, “No, Kharali, I must stay. This is the only way…and how often have you ever known me to run when it is time to face my fate?”
The wilding smiled in return and stepped away from Turess again.
This time, one of the others Therec had initially ignored stepped forward, bowing his head as he approached Turess. “Much as I hate to say it, she’s right, Turess. We should not be here. If this does not go as you planned, we are all dead.”
“I am aware of your concerns. The time for debate is over, Dorralt. I can feel them coming.”
Therec’s skin went cold and he hurried over to follow the man that had just spoken. Though the man kept his face shrouded by his cloak, Therec managed to get a glimpse of him. There was no doubt: this man was the same he had met with in Altis, unchanged even with centuries between the two events.
“What are you, Dorralt? Even preserved dead don’t live over two thousand years. Ghosts are lucky to hold themselves together that long, and you are no ghost.” Therec tried to get a better look at the man. He could not see much, but he did realize several of the man’s tattoos were incomplete compared with how they had appeared in Altis.
A sudden rumble behind him made Therec spin. There was no sound accompanying the vibrations at first, and then a crackle of energy ripped through the air, vanishing again. It seemed as though, much like the scenery, the sound was unstable in the vision and the spell could not maintain it consistently. Then, an eruption of snow and the stone under it burst from the ground, and something rose to nearly fifty feet above the group. With the snow and debris still clearing, Therec could only make out a stone surface.
Dorralt and the orc backed away, quickly followed by the fourth man, but Turess and Kharali both stepped forward with no appearance of fear. This renewed Therec’s awe of Turess, given that, even as a visitor in the vision, Therec wanted to run from whatever stood in front of them.
“Welcome back to Eldvar,” Turess said loudly, taking a knee. “We have fulfilled our bargain. I call on you to fulfill your portion.”
The snow and falling dirt finally cleared enough that Therec could see. Standing before them was the largest elemental creature he had ever seen. Made entirely of mismatched stones torn from the ground, the elemental shifted until the stones had formed into the vague form of a human and the “head” turned to look down on Turess. The creature was so large Therec believed it could have crushed a city in minutes.
“I felt the passing of the servants of air in the east,” rumbled the elemental, its words shaking the ground violently. Each word was slow
and rattled Therec’s bones even through the magic of the vision. “You and your servants have done what we have asked. As promised, name your request, and if it is within my power, you will have it, mortal.”
Turess walked toward the elemental, raising his staff as he approached. “You will come to either myself or my heirs when we call you against a foe of our choosing,” Turess shouted, his voice still almost swallowed by the crackling of the stone elemental. “Mark your boon on my staff that I may pass it down to my heirs if I do not call in this favor during my lifetime. Hide this mark from the others like you so they will never know I serve you.”
The human and the elemental stared at one another for longer than Therec felt comfortable with. Surely in the same situation, he would have reconsidered his request long before then.
“It is agreed,” the elemental finally answered. The staff in Turess’s hands flickered in Therec’s vision, the magic that allowed him to see the scene unable to properly show him the staff during that moment. “We will answer the call to strike at a foe. Beyond that, you have no pledge from the elementals of stone.” The giant stone elemental then collapsed, the magic holding it together gone back to wherever it had come from.
In the minute of crashing stones, Turess and his companions fled away from the area to avoid being crushed. Once things had settled again, the five gave each other hugs and cheered at their accomplishment.
“Well done, Turess,” said Therec, grinning as if he were part of the celebration. “A deal with the stone elementals. That’s quite a feat.”
He waited patiently for the vision to end, but it did not. Instead, the group before him settled down and began waiting again, resuming much the same posturing they had held when the vision started. All of their nervousness had returned as well.
Soon, the air began to buzz, causing Therec’s ears ring and his skin itch. The intensity of the sensation grew until his hair stood on end and his clothing crackled with static. Similar reactions were clearly visible on all of the people in the vision, though the wildling woman seemed the worst off, wincing as sparks danced across her fur.
As abruptly as the stone elemental had appeared, this time the air condensed into a massive being made of a combination of solid air like glass and crackling lightning. The being slowly reshaped itself until it had the barest resemblance of a human body.
“Welcome back,” shouted Turess, stepping forward. “Your task is complete.”
Therec watched the air elemental turn and walk toward the giant crater where the stone elemental had been minutes earlier. It circled the area, then came back to face Turess and his companions. “Impressive,” answered the elemental, making the air snap with static each time it uttered a word. “I did not think you could drive off the lord of stone without aid. The stone lord has destroyed far more powerful beings than you for simply speaking in its presence. My beliefs in mortal beings has been proven wrong.”
Turess’s smile hinted at conspiracy, but while Therec knew how to read human body language, the elemental could not.
Stepping forward to tower over the group, the air elemental said, “I wagered against you, human. You have already named your price of victory. Do you still wish it?”
Bowing before the elemental, Turess advanced and raised his staff as he had for the stone elemental. “I still wish it. One visit from you and whatever forces you need to battle one foe at the request of myself or my heirs.”
The elemental reached toward Turess, its enormous hand nearly engulfing him. When it neared the staff, sparks and tiny bolts of lightning crackled between its palm and the wood of the staff. After several seconds, the elemental took its hand away.
“It is done, mortal. Do not call on me or my army again until you are ready to use up that gift.” Before Turess could reply, the elemental dissipated into thin air, taking the raw energy that filled the area with it.
“Two down, two to go,” Dorralt said once the group had relaxed again. “Are we really that lucky, Turess? Should we even try? If either of them refuses, we have already lost.”
Turess grinned and turned his back on Therec as he replied. “We’ve been lucky because we did everything right. I am staying through the visits of fire and water, whether you wish to remain here or not. I already know Kharali’s decision. What of the rest of you?”
Almost immediately, the orc dropped to one knee in front of Turess. “I will follow you wherever you lead,” the orc said in a gruff voice. He thumped his large fist against the chest plate of his armor hard enough for Therec to realize he had no desire to ever be struck by an orc. “You have my life.”
“Always overly formal, On’esquin. Thank you again, friend,” said Turess, touching the orc’s shoulder.
With a sneer, Dorralt and the other human turned and walked away, heading toward the east. The unstable vision wavered as they got farther away, and soon they vanished, the vision no longer bothering to follow them.
Turess stared off in the direction Dorralt had gone, then asked, “Did you truly mean to oppose your own master? He will be angry with you a long time.”
“I have never lied in saying that I follow you, even if my lessons come from him,” On’esquin confessed. Standing, he continued, “Let him be angry. There is little more his cowardice and pride can teach me, anyway. I would rather die here, fighting to keep both of you alive than to walk away and spend my days questioning my own resolve.”
Therec noticed the snow was melting around him and the remaining three people in the vision. He began to turn, catching a huge ball of flame at the edge of his sight right before the vision crumbled around him.
Collapsing to the floor of his room, Therec gasped and wheezed and tried to make his head stop spinning. He felt blood trickling down his face from his nose and his heart was racing, but he could not bring himself to even try to pull together enough healing energy to mend himself. His body would barely function through the exhaustion the vision had forced on him.
Therec cursed and rolled onto his back, wondering how much more there had been of the vision. His body had failed him, and he doubted he had the strength to survive a longer vision. It would take someone far stronger to see the whole scene unfold, though he had at least gotten a good idea what he had found in the staff.
“Sir,” came a voice from outside the room’s door, accompanied by a gentle rapping on the door itself, “you have missed the midday meal. I wished to make sure that you are well.”
Laughing, Therec reached over with a shaking arm to pick up the staff and pull it onto his chest. Now that he knew what to search for in it, he could feel the ties to the four elements within the wood beneath his fingers, pulsing like raw magic. None of the boons had been used by Turess.
“I am quite well,” he called back to the servant. “I will come down shortly.”
Therec pressed his forehead against the cool wood of the staff, trying not to laugh hysterically. With this weapon Dorralt and his kind would fall, and Therec could restore Turessi to its former glory. Four elemental lords could probably tear Eldvar apart and ensure nothing the fallen Turessians like Dorralt did would matter. The war between Altis and Lantonne would be over and the true winner would be Therec himself.
He would see Lantonne through to victory, and then the heirs of Turess would reclaim the nations that once flew their banners. He could march on Turessi to see to the safety of his family, if they still lived, and he would march on the council and destroy them if they did not act to save the clans.
The northern lands would bow before him, as they had to Turess millennia before. He could see it as clearly in his mind as if it were a memory and not a hope.
Someday, he would be seen as the next Turess.
Chapter Thirteen
“Departure”
Ilarra sat on the windowsill of her room in the keep, watching the heavy snowfall outside cover the city in a blanket of white. The two months since she had arrived in Lantonne had gone slowly, bringing more winter weather with each pas
sing day and little else to pay attention to, other than her own thoughts. At times, she forgot that the season was getting late, and soon the storms might break and leave the plains green and lush with the arrival of spring.
“You managed to avoid using your magic for a full week. That is progress.”
She smiled to herself and did not look away from the city. Day after day, the man had loomed in her room, offering unwanted suggestions.
“I spent my whole life looking forward to finding new ways to use magic,” she replied, leaning on the windowsill. The cold air no longer bothered her. “This hasn’t been easy.”
Each day when Raeln and Greth would leave to practice with the keep’s soldiers—a concession Ilarra believed Therec had made simply to get them away from her—Nenophar would appear in her room. Every time, the door was locked and the guards outside heard nothing.
When Nenophar remained silent, Ilarra turned on him. “Are you going to tell me whether my father’s alright? Whether I am? Nearly two months you’ve been coming here, tormenting me, but you haven’t helped at all.”
“Haven’t I?” asked the man. As always, his expression was so neutral it was unreadable. “Do you understand what the man was that came to your village?”
“No…a necromancer or something. Greth knows better than I do. I think he said the man was from the same place as Therec.”
“Not at all. The man you saw was from somewhere else, but the spirit controlling his actions did come from the lands of Turessi. What he did to you is the same thing he has done to thousands across several nations, with Altis being the most recent. He intends to control you and that is something I cannot allow.”