“Dragis! Are you awake?”
Dragis puts his hand to his head and opens eyes as he does he sees blue skies above him.
“What happened to my rock dome?”
“Dragis you said you would take me to the woods to play no time to sleep”
Dragis looks over and sees a young child
“Lyzrac what happened to you? You look like you did when you were a child.”
“What do you mean when? I am five and I have been for months. Now get up and let’s go to the woods where the ruins are," Lyzrac says as he grabs Dragis’s hand and starts pulling.
Dragis stood up with his little brother pulling him up and looked around. In the distance, he could see the old branch family compound but instead of being empty he could see people moving around and doing chores.
“What is going on here? Let's see the last thing I remember is Aquila’s spell entering my...wait what was it called again spirit cage or something like that.” As his mind wandered he followed his brother.
As Lyzrac walked down the path he started snapping his fingers causing sparks to come off of them as if he was hitting flint together.
“Brother when will my fire magic fully manifest?” Lyzrac asked with a slight bit of disappointment on his face.
“The average age when the starting phase like your sparks is about the age of five while full awakening is around the age of eight,” Dragis said without thinking as if he was teaching a lecture.
“Then why has your magic not awakened? You are nine so you should be able to summon your element right?”
As the question hit Dragis he panicked and tried to summon his elements but all he could pull out was a black void, the sign of no element.
“Wait if I have no element then this is before we found the cave! So this must be a memory of that day but why? Spirit cage must be a spell that locks a soul in a very strong memory to paralyze the body. Even if I know this the question is how to escape? Do I try to use will power to break free or follow it to the end of the memory? I got a rock dome around me and the elder will not let them kill me so no need to hurry.”
“Brother, why did you stop?” Lyzrac asked with clear annoyance in his voice.
Dragis had stopped and was stroking his chin as he thought.
“I am sorry. You lead the way.” Dragis said with a large smile on his face “I might as well tag along. It has been a while since I have spent time with my brother anyway.”
The pair followed the trail with Lyzrac stopping to try and catch random bugs or animals that Dragis said were safe to go after. This pattern continued for several minutes until Lyzrac took a turn and suddenly fail through the ground. As Lyzric left Dragis’s sight Dragis ran to the edge of the hole. As he looked he saw a smooth slanted surface.
“So it begins this is the entrance to the tomb.” Dragis thought and then yelled down “Hey are you alright down there.”
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Light could barely be seen as Lyzrac tried to start a fire with his sparkes. “I am fine but I can not climb up. I am scared it is dark down here.”
“Step away from the entrance I will be right down,” Dragis yelled down and then jumped down into the tomb's entrance.
After a few seconds, the slant of the drop straightened out till Dragis slid to a stop as the land becomes level.
“Brother I am scared I can barely see past the entrance,” Lyzrac said as Dragis stood up and patted the dirt off of himself
“Use your flame magic to make a little light. It should not take too much magic power or concentration.”
“if you say so,” Lyzrac said with doubt but still placed his hands together then separated to make a circle. He closed his eyes and focused on strain showing on his face. After a few seconds, a small flame appeared within the circle and lighting the surrounding area. Dragis looked to the left and saw an old torch.
“Here is hoping this old thing works”
He quickly grabbed the torch and placed the head to the small flame. Just as Lyzrac magi gave out the torch lit.
“See even with your partially manifested flame you can light a torch. One day your flame will be more powerful than uncles.”
Lyzrac even with his pale face grinned at the encouragement,
“Then we can move to the main house right?” Hope was clear in his eyes
“Yea, maybe one-day”Dragis laughed while patting his younger brother on the head. “ Now let us see if we can find an exit. From here there only seems to be one path to take. Stay close behind me” Dragis begins to walk forward with Lyzrac close behind him.
As they walked down the hallway they could see that nothing around them had survived the march of time. Even what was clearly magical infused metal had lost its luster.
“According to teacher magical metal keeps its power for at least 500 years at its weakest,” Lyzrac said curiosity winning over from his fear.
“Do not get too close to any of it we do not know if any of it has had its magic cross this critical line. If the runes engrained in the metal have been damaged the slightest jar could cause it to blow.” Dragis says grabbing Lyzrac’s had to make sure he stayed close
“Come on it can not have to much power with how little energy it gives off.” Lyzrac starts to fight Dragis grip on him
“That may be true but still enough to at least take a hand if you were to close.” Dragis stops looking back and tightening his grip.
“Fine, I won’t touch it,” Lyzrac says hanging his head in defeat.
After the exchange, they walked in silence for a few minutes.
“I forgot how old this place looked and how much danger we were really in. Had we landed wrong or hit a decayed rune we could have been goners.” As Dragis finished this thought they took a turn and saw an old door that had somehow kept its appearance of majesty.
“Whatever magic they used on this door must have been insanely strong,” Lyzrac said with his eyes and mouth open in awe.
Dragis steps up and places his hand on the door. Allowing things to play out like they did years ago. As his hand touched the door a loud voice sounded causing him to jump back and press his brother behind him.
“Who are you two young rats to disturb this one’s resting place? Do you not know who I am?”
Both kids cowered from the voice and held each other. Dragis meekly cries out. “No your grace. this is an unmarked tomb that we accidentally fell in.” Lyzrac barries his head into Dragis back.
“Unmarked! Accident! This should have been the grandest grave on all of the islands! Wait, How long ago was the rule of Old man Odin?”
“Odin has been dead for several thousand years now. Even the magic stones he left behind are losing power.”
“Thousands of years? Then I guess it is possible for this tomb to be lost.” After this line, the voice went silent for several minutes causing the pressure on the kids to drop.
“Listen when I say go take off running the way we came. Maybe we can find another way out.”
“Will he did not stop us?”
“I have no idea but at least we….”
Before he could finish the sentence a laugh came from the door.
“Well then if he is gone there is no reason for me to hide my legacy anymore. The magic placed on this area would have run out in a few more generations probably anyway so you kids are in luck. Even though this was meant for one I will split it into two.” As the last word faded the door flung open causing rays of light to engulf the kids.
“Brother! Help!” Were the last two words Dragis heard before his consciousness failed him