Jolen walked up to Lelwyn. “I’m not so sure,” he countered. “Outside of Elrlith, elves rarely become mages in the way that you’re thinking. Further, this writing doesn’t quite match what you’re all thinking,” he continued. “While the lettering is definitely from the High Elf language, the words are unknown to me.” Jolen walked to one of the other walls. “Similarly, these are High Elf letters but the words are something else entirely.”
Bewr turned to Jolen. “Could the two languages be written in the other’s letters?” she asked.
Jolen shook his head. “Not only would that be a very serious violation of accepted Elvish customs and sensibilities, neither language’s lettering really allows for the other’s sounds,” he countered.
Kirel walked over to them. “Okay, we don’t know any of what’s written down in here. Is there at least any way to figure out how old languages are?” he asked.
Bewr cast a spell and did some quick math. Once finished, she then let out a low whistle. “Twenty-five hundred years, give or take five hundred,” she informed the others. “Even older than Elrlith,” she pointed out for Jolen’s benefit.
Lelwyn scratched his chin. “Because this writing is older than Elrlith,” he began, “it must follow that it also predates the first uses of magic.”
Jolen raised his eyebrow. “From that, I take it that the country of Elrlith was founded before magic was discovered,” he deduced.
Lelwyn nodded his head. “That would be correct,” he answered. “But why would the necromancer bother with this ancient lore if it didn’t even provide insight into magic?” he asked rhetorically.
Kirel loudly sighed. “The only way to figure that out would be to actually read the text,” he pointed out.
Before Bewr could comment on Kirel’s latest act of rudeness, Rikel turned to Jolen, “to that end, how quickly do Elvish languages evolve?” she asked the elf.
Jolen chuckled. “Both languages have remained unchanged for five thousand years,” he boasted. “According to legend anyway,” he added with a shrug. “I do know that there are at least two other elvish dialects that have died out.”
Bewr’s eyes lit up. “There are other elvish dialects?” she demanded excitedly. “Do you know how to speak or read them? I’d love to try to learn a dead language or two! When we’re not busy trying to stop a necromancer’s curse, of course,” she added quickly, remembering the importance of their current quest.
Rikel turned to the mages. “If our own knowledge won’t work, what about a translation spell?” she asked them, trying to distract Bewr from taking the conversation along any other tangents.
Lelwyn shook his head. “Nay, such spells work through understanding the thoughts of the person being spoken with. They are unsuited to the written word,” he lectured. “Not even Nertel himself with the help of Tirledus aiding him could have managed such a feat.”
Jolen cleared throat. “Wait, didn’t you say that Nertel lived centuries ago?” he asked.
Lelwyn nodded. “What of it?” he asked.
Jolen looked at Lelwyn with confusion. “And isn’t Tirledus currently still serving on the Mage’s Council to this day?” he continued.
Bewr chuckled softly. “Ah!” she muttered to herself. “Your sister must not have explained this,” she concluded.
Kirel got between Bewr and Jolen and looked to him. “Here’s the short version: Yes, it’s the same Tirledus. Yes, that makes him centuries old. No, nobody knows how he’s still alive. Yes, he’s been checked for necromancy and other dark magic that might have unnaturally extended his life,” he quickly rattled off in a single breath.
Jolen blinked slowly while he assimilated the information he was just given. “Thank you,” he finally answered with a nod.
Bewr playfully swatted Kirel’s arm. “Sorry about him,” she apologized to Jolen on Kirel’s behalf. “Kirel tends to forget that not everybody can process data as quickly as a...” Kirel placed his hand over Bewr’s mouth, efficiently preventing her from completing her sentence.
Bewr looked at Kirel in annoyed shock. Once she recovered, he took his hand away. “I don’t need you to apologize for me,” he scolded her with little enthusiasm while Bewr blushed in response.
Rikel looked to Jolen in confusion. Jolen chuckled. “I believe I have just learned another thing in this little display: never trust Bewr with any important secrets,” he teased.
Bewr continued to look at the floor and blushed even more furiously.
Lelwyn cleared his throat. “If we’re done here, shall we continue on?” he asked the group.
Jolen nodded in answer before carefully opening another door and looking inside. Once he did, he stumbled backwards. “No!” he shouted. “How did you end up here, my friend?” he asked in anguish.
The others quickly ran up to him and saw the remains of an elf laying on a table, partially dissected.
Bewr ran out of the room to vomit while Lelwyn placed his hand on Jolen’s shoulder. “Do you wish to remove his remains from the tower before we press on?” he asked in quiet sympathy.
Jolen clenched his jaw. “No!” he countered. “Let us press on with great haste! I want to stop this necromancer from doing anything like this to anybody else!” he swore with tears in his eyes. “Just, cast that spell that makes it so his body can’t be returned to a false life for evil before we go,” he demanded with a pained voice.
Lelwyn nodded in agreement and cast the requested spell before the group headed for the last door on the floor. As the group made their way to the door, Rikel readied herself for anything while Jolen carefully opened the door.
Behind the door was another spiral staircase leading upwards, the top of the staircase still hidden from view.
Kirel sighed. “Another staircase,” he lamented in an annoyed tone. “How shall I ever contain my excitement?” he asked sarcastically.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Bewr made a face at him. “I’m not exactly a big fan of stairs, myself,” she reminded him.
Lewyn shook his head. “Nor I,” he added. “There is nothing for it but to continue upwards.”
Rikel laughed. “You mages need to take better care of your bodies!” she scolded them. “Magic can’t do everything you know.”
Before any of the mages could retort, Jolen started pushing them up the stairs. “Don’t use magic as an excuse,” he told them. “My sister would often climb the trees in our village as a youth. That’s a more difficult feat than simple stairs like these.”
Kirel turned his face over his shoulder. “Maybe when she was younger,” he conceded. “But I bet she stopped doing that after years of study.”
Rikel easily walked in front of the group up the stairs and opened the door to the next floor. “Maybe it has to do with eating all of that conjured food,” she suggested while waiting for the others to catch up.
Bewr panted and shook her head. “No,” she objected. “Properly conjured food is just as nutritious as regular food, if rather bland tasting.”
Jolen turned to Rikel. “How do you not know this?” he demanded in disbelief. “There hasn’t been a spell caster living in Midway for generations and everybody there knows that,” he pointed out.
Rikel sighed in annoyance. “Look,” she ordered while pointing a finger at his chest. “It’s not my fault that the Army of Elrlith is legally prevented from having any mages in its ranks or utilize, or even own, any magical equipment or items of any kind,” she complained.
Jolen raised an eyebrow. “Joking aside, what’s the real reason?” he demanded.
Lelwyn, finally having finished climbing the stairs, placed a hand on Jolen’s shoulder. “The knight speaks truthfully,” he assured the elf. “The only reason Rikel is able to freely associate with us during this quest is that she has retired; making her no longer an official part of the army.”
Jolen reeled in disbelief. “Then how does the crown prevent magical attacks on the county?” he asked.
Lelwyn chuckled. “As the army is forbidden magic, so to is the Mage’s Council forbidden from having a standing force,” he answered.
Kirel cleared his throat. “Are we really going to do the whole ‘history lesson’ thing right now?” he asked the others in annoyance.
Rikel shrugged and started walking to the next door to open. “We can’t talk and explore the tower at the same time?” she countered rhetorically. “It’s not like we haven’t been discussing other matters during our exploration of the tower,” she pointed out. Kirel nodded in concession to Rikel’s point.
Jolen quickly examined the door for any traps. Finding none, he opened the door and turned to the mages. “Okay, that might explain the lack of attack by mages from within the country,” he accepted. “Not that I’m accusing any of the mages from Elrlith of wanting to attack the crown, of course,” he added quickly. “But what about magical attacks from outside the country?”
Bewr laughed loudly. “Elrlith is the largest city on the face of the planet Terris, both by population and area,” she lectured. “Not only that, but the four most powerful mages alive make their home and spend all of their time there. How stupid would somebody have to be to stage such an attack against it? We may not be able to have an army, but we’re allowed to, and even encouraged to, defend ourselves if attacked,” she pointed out.
Rikel opened one of the door. “Sorry to interrupt, she told them. “But I found another staircase leading upwards,” she reported. “Do we continue upward or do we explore the rest of this floor?” she asked.
Lelwyn stroked his beard. “That is indeed quite the conundrum,” he acknowledged. “Any clues we can find as to the necromancer’s motives or actions could easily make the difference between success and failure. However, time is also of the essence.”
Bewr raised her hand. “It’s not like we even know for sure that the necromancer isn’t even on this floor,” she pointed out. “We need to be thorough and search every room possible until we find them.”
Kirel pulled Bewr’s hand down. “You don’t need to raise your hand to speak,” he told her. “We haven’t been students for years.” He turned to the rest of the group. “That aside, I agree with Bewr; if we don’t search thoroughly, we could easily go right past the necromancer.”
Lelwyn nodded. “You both make good points,” he admitted. “Very well, unless either of you have any objections, we shall leave this door open and continue searching this floor before moving on.” When neither Jolen nor Rikel said anything, he continued searching the floor.
Jolen walked up to Bewr. “So, if necromancers are so evil, why didn’t the other mages stop them from gaining power in the first place?” he asked.
Bewr hung her head. “That’s actually a bit of a very long story,” she told him. “And a lot of it has been lost to history,” she admitted.
Jolen nodded. “And the parts that we do know?”
Bewr sighed. “It all started a little over 800 years ago, back when people first started learning how to use magic,” she started. “One of the first mages was a man named Veorn, who many of our laws of magic are named after. Veorn gathered a group of people together to try to study the, at the time, new magic. What would become the Mage’s Academy started with Veorn’s efforts.
“Anyway, one of those who helped Veorn was Xosha, the first necromancer. Back then, nobody realized yet how dangerous necromancy could be. Xosha somehow prevented Veorn from realizing the truth about his actions. The only one who saw through Xosha’s scheming was Sira, one of the first healers and founder of the Order of the Golden Shield. She recruited her friend Ranutas to fight against Xosha. We don’t know how, but Xosha was able to turn Ranutas and make her turn against Sira.
“Together, Ranutas and Xosha were able to humiliate Sira and got her kicked out of Veorn’s fledgling academy. When the Mage’s Academy formally formed, there were five schools instead of the four we have now.
“Fortunately, the Order of the Golden Shield continued Sira’s work without her and, four centuries later, were able to expose the necromancers for what they were. This started the Mage’s War. For three years, the most power spell-casters on Terris fought against one another.
“The war ended with the necromancers ejected from the Mage’s Council and necromancy was forever made illegal in Elrlith. That’s the short version of what happened,” she concluded her story.
Jolen raised his eyebrow in astonishment. “That’s the short version?” he demanded. Before any of the mages could answer, Jolen scratched his chin in thought. “Though, 500 years is certainly long enough to explain why some of the details were since lost,” he acknowledged.
Lelwyn walked over to the two of them. “While there are several important details that Bewr left out of her tale,” he started, “her accounting is accurate as to the points that are immediately relevant.”
Jolen nodded. “That’s a lot to take in all at once,” he admitted while continuing to search the floor.
Kirel laughed loudly. “I don’t doubt it,” he joked. “Bewr just condensed almost an entire year of our magical history lectures into a few minutes.”
Rikel turned to Kirel. “You had courses in history at the Mage’s Academy?” she asked.
Kirel rolled his eyes. “Yes, Rikel, the Mage’s Academy does more than just teach us how to cast spells,” he informed her sarcastically.
Rikel nodded her head. “That isn’t what I meant,” she objected. “I was just thinking about how the first lessons of knight training was the founding of Elrlith,” she explained.
Lelwyn nodded. “I can easily believe that” he told her. “Understanding the lessons of the past is a virtue shared by both the Mage’s Academy and the Knights of Elrlith,” he pointed out.
Jolen stretched. “The only history lessons I ever got was the lineages of the elvish royal and noble families,” he explained. “With the occasional begrudged acknowledgment of the existence of Elrlith.”
Kirel rolled his eyes. “Do you want to know what I find even less interesting than the exploits of long-dead people?” he asked sarcastically. “The comparison of history lessons of various groups and races.”
Bewr playfully shoved Kirel with her shoulder. “Don’t mind him,” she ordered. “He studied the absolute minimum of history needed to pass those courses and forgot all of as soon as the last test ended,” she joked.
Kirel smiled. “Indeed,” he boasted. “Just like you did with our courses on summoning,” he teased.
Rikel laughed. “Wait,” she demanded. “Are you saying that there’s a subject that Bewr didn’t excel at?”
Bewr blushed. “I was rather rubbish with it,” she admitted. “Wasn’t I?” she asked rhetorically.
Jolen raised his eyebrow. “I fail to see what’s so funny,” he acknowledged. “It’s not like anybody can be good at everything,” he pointed out.
Bewr smiled at Jolen. “Thank you!” she told him. “At lease one person in this group has some sense,” she teased the others with a smile.
Jolen tilted his head. “Going off of your behavior such for this trip,” he began, “I take it that teasing each other is to humans as stealing each other’s minor possessions is to elves,” he concluded.
Bewr tapped her chin. “If by that you mean is it the way we annoy each other without causing undue burden, then yes, they’re the same,” she admitted.
Jolen cleared his throat. “That was not quite what I meant,” he countered. He thought to himself a moment before continuing. “How about I put it this way? Telina and I kept stealing minor items from each other, not to annoy. Well, not only to annoy, but as an odd way of showing affection,” he clarified for the humans.
The three mages blushed and tried to not answer Jolen’s question. Rikel saved the mages from having to answer by checking the next door and turning to the others. “Well, that’s the last door of this floor,” she reported.
Lelwyn nodded. “Then we should head up to the next floor of this accursed tower,” he told them.
The group returned to the door with the staircase that they had left earlier. Rikel went first while Jolen followed behind the others. As they neared the halfway point to the next floor, the step Jolen was standing on collapsed. As Jolen tried to grab the stair in front of him, it also disappeared.