Travis Starnes
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The Threads of Destiny - Chapter 5
🕑 Added 2024-03-08 16:00:06 +0000 UTCChapter 5: Glimpses into the Past
They headed back into the crumbling hallway, still shaken by what they had witnessed. The wolf had stopped leading them. Now it only padded along beside Osric, its head swiveling and nose twitching. Not that they needed a guide any longer.
There was only one direction left, and the three turned and headed deeper into the secret underground complex. They didn't have to go far. The shadows had made the room seem larger than it was, deeper. In reality, they found the back wall after only a few thirty meters, a very large arched doorway in the center of it.
He felt Talia tense beside him and for a moment he thought maybe something about them frightened her, except her expression was one of wonder and amazement, not fear, as she approached the doorway, stopping in front of the intricate carvings around its arch.
Reaching out, she ran her hands over the glyphs. For a full minute, she said nothing. Just ran her hand back and forth over the symbols, tracing out the detailed patterns.
"It's some kind of barrier," she murmured. "The glyphs are for protection, to keep whatever's on the other side from crossing over to this side."
Osric glanced back the way they had come and asked, "So if we go through, we won't be able to get back?"
Talia traced a slender finger over one of the cracks spiderwebbing across the surface of the weathered glyphs.
“I don’t think so. Elder Miriam had books that talked about glyphs like this. They are very complex and take powerful mages to construct, but one thing was clear; the integrity of the glyphs is key. These are cracked and broken in places. They no longer hold any power, or function.”
“I would expect these to be for the other direction, keeping anyone from going deeper, sort of like a magic version of the guard room down there,” he said, gesturing vaguely behind them. “Was this some kind of prison?”
“Your guess is as good as mine. All I can tell you is that we’ll be able to return this way. Nothing about them suggests why they were put here.”
Osric thought for a moment, watching Talia examine the doorway and his glyphs and, not for the first time since she first showed her ability in Elder Miriam’s cottage, he wondered about how much she knew. And why she’d never told him.
“Talia, why didn’t you ever tell me about this? About magic?” The words tumbled from him almost against his will.
“Is this the right time to talk about this, Osric?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
She didn’t even look at him, her focus still on the glyphs.
“No, and it’s okay if you don’t want to talk about it. It’s just … every time I think I’ve come to terms with it, you do something even bigger, more impressive. We were friends for so long …”
He let his voice trail off. He wanted to let it go, just continue their search, but he couldn’t. He knew she had reasons for not telling him, and keeping it secret, and he didn’t want to pry, but their lives were on the line. The more he knew about her, and her amazing abilities, the safer they would be. Which is why he was surprised when she sighed and turned to face him. He’d expected anger or maybe annoyance. Instead, they were almost sad.
“It’s not because I didn’t trust you, Osric. I did. There’s just … a lot you don’t know about my life,” she said in a soft, resigned voice, before pausing for a long time.
He could see a battle playing out on her face, as if she was at war with herself. He was about to tell her never mind, that he didn’t want to pry, when she seemed to make up her mind.
“I didn’t say anything because it was a secret. It had to be. Elder Miriam was teaching magic outside the Conclave. While it’s not illegal or unallowed, it’s certainly frowned upon. We didn’t want to draw attention from them. They have strict rules about how magic should be taught and used. I’m not sure exactly what danger she would have been in from them, but she made me promise to tell no one. Ever.” She paused, her expression softening. “And I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want to put you in danger.”
Osric wanted to tell her she wouldn’t, and that he would take the danger if it meant their friendship being closer, but he didn’t. As she said, this was the wrong time for that and, with everything going on, it didn’t feel right. Something did confuse him about the story, though.
“Why not send you to the Conclave then? If what Elder Miriam was doing was so dangerous?”
Talia shrugged, “I don’t know. Elder Miriam left the Conclave over some disagreement but she never talked about it with me. She never talked about them at all, really, beyond telling me she left and I wasn’t to tell anyone what she was teaching me.”
“Okay,” he said.
She looked halfway between conflicted and relieved, and he didn’t want to pry anymore. Besides, the rest was Elder Miriam’s story to tell, although right now it seemed unlikely they’d ever get back home for her to tell it.
Instead, he turned and stepped through the doorway. Even though she’d said the magic carved into the doorway was long gone, he half expected to feel something, like when the ring did its magic. But he felt nothing.
It was just a normal doorway now.
A short hallway extended beyond the door before opening up into a vast, cavernous space, the ceiling soaring up into darkness. Talia made a series of motions with her hands, sending the glowing orb of light flying up and around the chamber, showing them just how large and deep the space really was - a rectangle stretching at least a hundred meters ahead of them toward another rough, stone wall and arched doorway.
The sheer size of the room was impressive, but even more amazing were the objects it contained. Arrayed along the perimeter were a dozen stone pedestals, six lining each long side of the chamber. Perched atop each pedestal was a large, upright stone ring, reminiscent of the one they had seen the rift appear in earlier, except these were completely unbroken and intact. The rings stood tall enough for a person to step through, if only there had been an opening on the other side. Instead, the back of each ring was smooth, flat stone. Steps led up the side of each pedestal, providing access to the solid rings, though they served no discernible purpose.
“What are these?” Osric murmured.
Talia drifted towards the nearest stone, scrutinizing the intricate symbols and patterns etched around its circumference. He reached out a hand, her fingers hovering just over the weathered engravings without touching them, as if the ancient carvings were something fragile to be handled with care.
“Some kind of portal...or they were meant to be, I think,” she said. “The markings look similar to teleportation circles I’ve read about in one of Elder Miriam’s books, those only exist within the Conclave’s major towers. Something about the unpredictable nature and dangers that can come from their use. The books were never clear on what those dangers were.”
“Could they have opened rifts like the one we saw earlier?”
“I’m not sure. Like I said, I only read about it in books. Elder Miriam never mentioned anything like this in her actual teachings. I think the magic required...it’s beyond anything I’ve encountered.”
Osric joined her beside the stone ring. This close, he could make out individual glyphs and symbols etched into the surface. They seemed crisp, untouched by time. He reached out a hand but paused before making contact.
“Should I touch it?”
“I don’t know. I don’t think they have any magic left in them, at least, I don’t feel it. But that other ring was all but melted, and we saw what that did when your ring came in contact with it.”
“Then … maybe I shouldn’t,” Osric said, backing away from it, choosing instead to stare around the room, in open-mouthed wonder.
“Probably not,” Talia said. “I’m not sure there’s much more to see. This is ruins, just like the rest of the place.”
“Yeah,” Osric said, still staring around the room. “I’d love to know what this was all about.”
“I know, but unless you have some way of asking the people who lived here…” She said, letting the words trail off. “Besides, we have other things to worry about. Like why we’re here, what that ring is, and what we’re going to do about it.”
“Yeah, I guess we keep going,” Osric said, taking one last look around before continuing to the open doorway at the end of the rectangular room.
To Osric’s surprise, when they reached it, they found another set of stairs going down even deeper into the earth. They looked at each other for a moment before Osric took the lead, walking down the steps.
The stairwell deposited them into another magnificent room. Though much of the room’s contents had long ago turned to dust, the soaring architecture still conveyed a sense of importance and grandeur.
The chamber had a high, arched ceiling, not quite as high as the room with the rings, but still very tall and impressive. Spaced evenly along the curving walls were something that looked like alcoves. The walls themselves looked like they might have once held some kind of mural or painting, although it was all so faded by time that it was impossible to tell what the images had been.
The two most notable, and intact, things in the room were a large stone table in the center of the room and a dark metal door at the far end, opposite where the stairwell dropped them off.
For a moment, Osric didn’t move, once again caught by his wonder, just staring at another in what was turning out to be a long line of incredible sights. Talia wasn’t so enamored, pushing past him and starting to walk the circumference of the room, forcing Osric to hurry after her.
He caught up as she paused to examine one of the recessed alcoves along the curving wall. Fragments of cracked pottery, what might have once been leather book covers, and shards of glass were heaped haphazardly amidst the rubble. She delicately shifted some pieces with her foot, squinting at them, but as far as Osric could see it was all destroyed beyond recognition.
With a sigh she pushed past him again, heading toward the large circular stone table. It was intricately carved from a single slab of black marble, with clawed feet and symbols etched around the rim. The surface was covered in some kind of engraving, but it was so worn down by time that Osric couldn’t make out what the markings were at first.
“It’s a map of the world,” Talia said, seeing his expression.
Osric tilted his head, trying to see it from a different vantage point. After a moment, he thought he could make out the outline of Peridia, although he didn’t know the shape that well. He’d seen it a few times in a shop he and Master Ironhand had gone to with finished orders, but studying in books and looking at maps had never held much interest for him.
“Are you sure?”
“I think so. I can sort of make out the mountains and the great forest. The shape is right,” she said, and then ran her hand over one side of it. “This is odd, though.”
“What?” he said, trying to make out what she was looking at.
“Here. This must have been important, since it’s the only symbol still large enough to still show. It’s in the wrong place, though. These are the Shadowfell Marshes. There’s nothing here and no one ever goes there.”
“I’ve heard of that, I think,” Osric said, trying to remember where he heard it mentioned.
“It’s in the far northwest between the Dun river and the Craigshire mountains. According to all the histories I’ve read, it’s a horrible place filled with monsters and exiled things and the occasional bandit on the run from justice. It’s not a place anyone would ever want to go to, at least not and survive, which is why having something marked in the middle of it makes no sense.”
“As opposed to the rest of this place,” Osric pointed out.
“I suppose that is true,” she said, running her hand over the map once more.
He knew she’d stay and stare at the tableau for the rest of the day if he let her. Mission or no, something this old and interesting was like sweets to an infant to her. For him, there was something more practical and much more interesting drawing his attention.
Now that they were in the center of the room, Osric had a better look at the door on the opposite end of the room, and it was obvious that it was quite a bit newer than everything else in this room.
Stepping away from Talia, he approached the door, running his hand along it. The metal wasn’t new exactly, but it wasn’t ancient either. Rusted and pitted in places, it might have been ten or fifteen years old, but probably not older than that. It also looked very sturdy. It was impossible to tell with it closed, but the way it hung, he had to guess it was very heavy, which meant thick. It swung inward, putting the hinges inside the room, which was smart.
Some might argue it’s better to have it swing out, put the pressure of the wall and closed hinge, in addition to the door, but that exposes the hinges to the people on this side, and they are almost always weaker than the door itself. If it had been that way, Osric could have potentially found a way to remove the door from its hinges. As it was, if the door was barred in any way from the other side, it would be all but impossible to budge.
"I can open it, I think," Talia said behind him, causing Osric to almost jump in the air. "Sorry."
"It's okay. You just move too damn quietly."
"You can open this? With magic?"
"Yes. Unless it's enchanted, the spell isn't that hard to weave."
"Be my guest," Osric said, stepping back and bowing, both arms extended toward the door in an exaggerated posture.
Shaking her head but otherwise ignoring him, Talia took a step closer.
Talia took a deep breath and closed her eyes, stepping apart slightly as if bracing herself. As Osric watched, she lifted her hands up in front of her chest, palms facing each other as if cradling an invisible sphere. Slowly, she interlaced her fingers, joining her thumbs together and pointing them upwards to form an oval shape. Keeping her fingers interlocked, she rotated her hands outward, pivoting her thumbs downwards.
Once her palms faced outward, she pulled her hands apart, stretching the invisible space between them. She moved her hands to shoulder width, palms still facing forward. With her right hand, Talia reached upward, while her left hand pointed down, both perpendicular to the door.
Finally, she slammed her palms together, striking the space before the door. As her hands connected, the metal door clicked and swung inward.
In any other instance, Osric would have stood there, mouth agape at this amazing feat of magic his friend once again completed. This time, however, he didn't have the luxury. As soon as the door swung open, they found themselves face to face with two men dressed very similarly to their previous attackers.
Both men’s eyes went wide with surprise, mirroring the shock on Osric and Talia’s faces. For a heartbeat, both groups stared at each other, frozen at the sudden appearance of the others.
Osric reacted first, anger and fury at seeing more of the men who’d hounded him, tried to kill him. Lunging forward, he sliced at the man on the left, his blade biting deep into the man's shoulder, eliciting a guttural cry as he stumbled back.
Talia, however, was not as fortunate. The man to her right was quicker; he pulled a dagger and lunged forward. The blade slashed through the muscle in Talia’s arm. She screamed, clutching at the injury.
Anger surged through Osric at the sight of her being wounded. He started to move toward her attacker but was forced back. Bringing up his sword just in time, he blocked a blow by the man on the left, who tried to pay Osric back for wounding him earlier.
Out of the corner of his eye, Osric saw Talia lift her hands to chest level, palms facing each other, close but not touching. In a sudden, swift motion, she clenched both hands into fists and then snapped her right hand open, pressing it flat against the man’s chest.
Crackling blue electricity erupted around her hand and coerced into the man’s body. He convulsed wildly, smoke rising from his clothes as the electricity coursed through him. With a strangled cry, he collapsed to the ground, twitching uncontrollably.
There wasn't time for Osric to react to that, as the man continued to press the attack. Osric, clearly not as well trained, could barely block the blows. Several of them got perilously close when suddenly a dark grey blur shot past him. The wolf slammed into the wounded man, jaws clamping down on his sword arm. The man screamed as fangs shredded flesh, forcing him to drop his blade.
Seizing the opportunity, Osric lunged forward and drove his sword deep into the man’s chest. A look of shock crossed the man's face before it went slack, his body sliding off Osric's blade and crumpling lifelessly to the ground.
A pained shout made Osric whirl around. The second man had regained his feet and now had Talia by the neck, his dagger pressed to her throat.
"Drop the sword or she dies!" he spat.
Osric hesitated briefly before reluctantly lowering his blade to the floor. The man grinned wickedly.
"Good, now kick it ov-" the man began before Talia went wild as his blade moved away from her neck slightly, clawing at his face, gasping for breath, eyes wide with fear.
The man acted on instinct, hands going to protect his face, giving her the opportunity to push away from him, backing up several steps. As Osric began to reach down for his sword, a furious Talia brought her hands up in front of her chest, rubbing her palms together rapidly. After a few quick circles, she pulled them apart and a flickering orange flame burst forth, hovering above her palms.
Before the man could react, she slammed her hands forward. A cone of roaring flames erupted, splashing across his chest, setting a part of his hair on fire and melting leather into skin.
The man dropped his blade entirely, trying to pat out the flames quickly gathering on his head as Talia stumbled away, massaging her bruised neck. Osric retrieved his sword and started to take a step forward, but the wolf moved faster. It leapt through the dissipating flames to clamp its jaws around the man’s neck, viciously tearing into flesh. With a sickening crunch, the man fell silent, his ravaged body dropping to the floor in a smoldering heap.
"Are you alright?" Osric said to Talia, who looked equally terrified and pained.
"Here, let me see," Osric said gently, taking her arm.
Talia winced but allowed him to examine the wound. Blood was already dripping from the wound and Osric could see sinew and muscle through the tear, showing how very deep the gash was.
Remembering the strange power the ring had the last time, how it had healed his own injuries before, Osric wrapped his hand around her arm and closed his eyes. Talia, maybe guessing what he was doing, muffled a cry of pain, but did not pull away.
Osric focused his mind, visualizing the ragged flesh knitting back together. At first, nothing happened, and then, as before, a soft white glow emanated from beneath his palms. After a few seconds, the light faded and he lifted his hands. The wound was completely healed, not even the trace of a scar to show her injury.
Talia flexed her arm in wonder. "That's amazing! I can't even feel any pain now."
"I still have no idea how I'm doing that, but I'm glad I could do it. Are you okay?"
"Yeah. I'm fine. Better than he is," she said, kicking the inert body of the man who’d hurt her.
"Good," Osric said, reaching out to rub her shoulder before turning to face the massive door the two men had obviously been guarding.
Osric walked up to it and pressed his palm to the surface, hoping that, since the ring, through the wolf, had brought them here, maybe it would somehow be a key. Instead, nothing happened. He concentrated hard, envisioning the door opening, but still nothing happened. No white light. No red light. Nothing. After a minute, he sighed and stepped back.
"Well, that didn't work. Can you do the thing you did last time?"
"It only works on more simple locks," Talia said, running her hand over the door, but a few inches away, as if it had an invisible coating. "I can also feel … energy, coming off this. I think someone has enchanted it, to keep it from opening."
"But they were protecting it, so they had to know what was in there, right?"
"Maybe they have a key?" Talia offered with a shrug.
Osric moved to check the bodies of their attackers, rifling through pouches and pockets. Aside from some coins and a dagger for Talia to arm herself with, he found a key and a map.
Pocketing the coins and handing the dagger and map to Talia, Osric started to walk toward the vault, trying to see where the key was supposed to go. He'd heard from Master IronHand, who had once told him of helping forge some of the vaults for the new bank in Wolfsridge, that they would hide the key hole, making it hard for someone who didn't know the door to open.
He'd just found it, hidden under a movable flap that had looked like just another bracket, when Talia gasped behind him.
"This has Eldham on it," Talia said, pointing at the map.
Osric walked back to her, looking at the map as she held it out for him. There were no names on the map, but there were markings, one of which did look like exactly where Eldham was.
"That makes this Silham, right?" Osric asked, pointing to another circled dot that looked to be in the place of their neighboring village.
"I think so. They were searching for something. The ring, and I guess you now. All of the circled areas are together, so they knew about where to find it. It's been updated too. They knew you left Eldham, and that was only a day ago. Which means these people either just came here or were in contact with someone outside the keep."
"Let's find out what's in this thing and get out of here before more show up," Osric said, turning to the vault door.
Osric led the way into the vault, Talia and the wolf close behind. The walls of the vault were metal, the glowing orb following them casting an eerie glow across it, creating strange shapes.
As the globe moved, however, he realized it wasn’t just shadows and a trick of the light. The wall wasn’t flat metal. There was an intricate image stamped, etched, into the metal face. Talia must have seen it too, because the globe began moving closer, sweeping around the walls, illuminating them directly.
It was all one image, wrapping all the way around them, showing a massive battle. Armored knights wielding swords and shields clashed against hideous horned beasts. Massive giants swung spiked clubs, crushing men beneath their feet. Winged demons dove from the sky, talons extended. Fire and lightning rained down amidst the chaos.
At the center of the fray stood an enormous tower, its peak disappearing into the heavens. Above it all, next to the tower, a rip in the sky yawned open, spewing forth even more nightmarish beings.
“What is this place?” Talia whispered reverently. “What kind of magic could create something like this?”
Osric didn’t have an answer. He was too busy staring at the pedestal in the center of the room, where what looked like half a piece of parchment rested. It was old and weathered, its edges frayed and crumbling. Osric walked to it, felt himself drawn to it as he reached out to pick the parchment up.
As Osric's fingers touched the parchment, a blinding light suddenly filled the room, seeming to come all around them, but brightest around the parchment and his hand, which glowed brighter than the sun. Osric shielded his eyes against the intensity, the light seeming to push even through his eyelids.
And then, just as quickly as it began, the light vanished, leaving Osric holding the parchment, blinking away the flashing afterimage in his vision.
“What was that?” Talia asked, hurrying over to Osric’s side.
“I don’t know,” Osric said, squinting at the parchment.
It looked unchanged, exactly as it had when he’d reached out to it. Talia stepped closer to him, bringing her hands up in front of her, palms facing outward, fingers spread apart. She slowly swept her hands out to the sides, keeping her palms outward. As her hands reached shoulder width, a light blue shimmer surrounded the area around her hands for a brief moment. As the shimmer faded, the light seemed to cling to the parchment for an extra moment, encircling it, causing it to glow.
It was amazing, but seemed simple compared to some of the other things she had done over the last few days. Which is why Osric was surprised when she inhaled sharply.
“What is it?” Osric asked.
“The ring,” Talia said in a hushed voice. “Its magic—it’s gone. I can’t sense it anymore.”
Osric’s stomach dropped. “What? How can that be?”
“I don’t know. Before, I could feel the power radiating from it. But now...” she waved her hand over the ring again, frowning. “There’s nothing.”
Osric reached up and cupped the ring dangling from around his neck in his palm, feeling the cold metal and ridges from the carvings in it.
“What does this mean?” he asked Talia urgently. “Is the magic gone for good? Was it destroyed somehow?”
“I don’t know. I’m sorry, but it was already beyond anything Elder Miriam had encountered, and she knew much more about this kind of thing than I ever will. I didn’t really even understand how your ring worked, let alone what gave it its magic. It was leading us to the parchment, which is magical somehow. Maybe it gave its magic over to the parchment? Transferred it somehow?”
Osric just nodded, looking down at the parchment in his hand. It made sense, even if it was a guess. The paper must have been ancient, but it looked new. Freshly made. It was covered in a strange script, the flowing, interconnected symbols were completely foreign to him. He turned and held the parchment out towards Talia.
“Can you make any sense of this?” he asked.
Talia didn’t take it from him, but stared at it for a long moment before slowly shaking her head.
“I’ve never seen writing like this before,” she said. “I can read and speak several languages, but this is nothing I recognize.”
Osric’s shoulders slumped. After everything they had gone through to find this parchment, now they couldn’t even read it.
“But it feels old,” Talia continued, tilting her head as she scrutinized the symbols. “Ancient, even. The writing, I mean.”
“So what do we do now?” Osric said, frustration creeping into his voice. “This parchment was so important it was hidden away and guarded down here. But it’s meaningless to us if we can’t understand it. We can’t just stand here. They had that map on them, meaning they don’t just live down here. They have contact with the outside world, at the very least. It’s only a matter of time before someone else comes down here.”
Talia didn’t answer right away, looking around the room.
“We should go to Silham,” she said after a moment. “We need to find out what’s happening beyond these woods. The only people who seem to know anything are these strange men that attacked us. If we could go to some of the places they’ve gone, or maybe even, maybe we could make them talk. Eldham was marked on the map, and they came for us there. It’s only reasonable that they would have been in Silham too.”
“That sounds dangerous,” Osric said doubtfully.
“So has everything we’ve done since I ran into you in the woods. Besides, is it more dangerous than waiting around here?”
“Alright, Silham it is,” he conceded.
