Bella, Khalid and Zoz made their way to the registration desk to the right of the door. On the counter lay three black crystal slates about six inches in length and four inches in width, with the words KHAOS Kard written on them. A small female goblin behind the counter noticed their approach, looked up and spoke.
“Welcome to registration. Take your Khaos Kards and register your name and password. You can do this by flipping over your Khaos Kard and using the lettering on the screen. Your final grade will be available to view under the grade menu. This grade will determine your access to academy resources now that you have graduated. You will receive a group message once assigned an Intern Leader.”
Turning from the counter and flipping over the Khaos Kards, a projected image appeared on the now illuminated face. Following the instructions given by the goblin, all three were met and image on the screen.
A large B greeted Khalid and Bella on the screen, while Zoz received a C. A flash occurred on all screens simultaneously with rhythmic vibrations from the Khaos Kards. From the top of each screen, a message descended.
Notification from KhaosScroll: Narzz - Just got assigned my first interns mission to locate and secure the Spellforge #Corporate Badboy. Then
a second but different rhythmic vibration co-occurred on each Khaos Kard. Another message descended from the top of the screen. Khaos Notification - You have been assigned to Intern Leader Narzz.
“Ummm, excuse me..?” A timid-sounding voice appeared behind the trio.
Turning around, they were met with a thin dark grey-skinned elf, a pure white fringe covering his left eye. A mix of cloth, tight-fitted layered steel over his torso and lower half, and a short purple cape around his neck.
“Are you Bella, Zoz, and Khalid?”
The three silently nodded.
“Oh good! I had heard you three would be. First, I still wasn’t sure if I was late or not.”
A still silence lingered.
“Ummm, I guess I should tell you about our mission. We’ll be seeking the Spellforge somewhere around Dalyn, just a bit south of Vetur in Moija. There is a dwarf somewhere near Vetur who is gathering adventurers to help him move supplies, getting ready to find the Spellforge as well. There is a group called the Bluebrands in Dalyn, the town just south of Vetur, which should have some information about the current environment of the area. I have to speak to Amoy, get permission to operate within her domain and get all the paperwork done for this assignment. If you want to start making contact with groups in the area and establish us, I’ll be along once the administration is finished.”
As soon as he finished talking, he turned and ran off.
“Who was that small child?” Khalid asked.
“I think that was Narzz..” Zoz replied.
“and he’s in charge of us?” Bella added.
“Well, off to the summoning room?” Zoz questioned.
“Onward!” Khalid announced.
The group made their way through the academy halls to what was effectively the front entrance. They passed new students and alums who had come for business, both coming and going. They entered the summoning room through the open doorway.
They were met by an otherwise closed-off room as they entered the lower right-side corner of the room. No other doors or windows were present. Instead, a very different mode of exiting and entering was available inside.
From their perspective, a familiar room came into view to their right and left, a series of five evenly spaced runic circles engraved into the floor. Along the centre of the room were three evenly spaced ten by thirty-foot sections of walls, each separated by a twenty-foot gap. Along each of the thirty-foot divisions on each side were plain wooden benches, some partially filled, awaiting to leave or for others to arrive. The walls and flooring were matte white stone designed, they were told, to prevent any unwanted reflections. Directly behind the runic engravings and connected to the wall were centred ten-foot wide by ten-foot-tall clear crystal boxes. Contained in each crystal box was a robed body embedded with various magical tubing and metal needles fed by thin metallic strands. The figures themselves were devoid of any colour, as were their robes. Various symbols marred across their hairless scalps, and two tendrils wound from either side just behind their ears. A permanent look of pain was frozen on their faces. A single metal rod stood before the crystal box with a small circular button, the word ‘motivate’ written upon it.
“I’ve used these many times before,” Bella announced as she walked to the engraved circle closest to the door on the left side of the room.
“You simply step into the runic circle, speak your destination and press the button,” she continued.
“So where are we going again?” Zoz asked.
“I’m pretty sure he said something about a dwarf in Vetur. So that has to be the place, right?” Khalid asked
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“Yes, but he also said something about Dalyn,” Bella said
“He did, but was he just using Dalyn as a reference point for Vetur?” Zoz said
“Or he was using Vetur as a place to reference Dalyn,” Khalid said
“Should we just flip a coin and decide?” Bella questioned
“What’s the downside of us going to the wrong place?” Zoz asked
“Have either of you ever been to Dalyn or Vetur?” Khalid asked.
“I’ve been to Vetur!” Zoz said
“I think I have anyway. I was once summoned to help this old man retrieve some parchment to wipe his um.. well, I don’t remember the specifics, but I saw a map on his desk with the word Vetur on it.”
“Was that a poop joke Zoz?” Khalid asked chuckling
“Oh yes! I remember he had to wipe his” Zoz was cut off mid-sentence by a loud explosion and was blown backwards.
The sheer weight of Khalid held him steady while Bella reacted quickly by leaning into the blast and nearly lost her footing when the force subsided.
Before the group stood three figures in the fifty-foot gap between the third crystal box of their row and the middle row of benches. The three figures were arranged in an arrowhead formation.
Bella immediately recognized the closest of the three as a Dreka. Although she was familiar with the race, this was by far the most enormous and most intimidating Dreka she had ever seen, much less been face to face with. She began to sweat uncontrollably as her eyes darted, panicked, trying to assess the figures.
A species brought about by the mating of a dragon and a mortal race. The orange-skinned beast of a humanoid stood eight feet tall, and her guess by his width and muscles weighed more than six hundred pounds easily. The jaw point in line with his protruding snout created a dragon-like maw that receded into a broad skull ending with a small mountain range of sharp rocks. His eyes glowed a deep red.
The massive neck needed to support such a large head was met on his right and guarded by a gambeson of white bear hide that acted as a lining for the massive bronze pauldron. The pauldron extended down his arm, met by a matching gauntlet. A small white bear claw at the end of the bear’s hide protruded at the convergence and grasped his gauntlet forearm. The only other armour on his upper body was a bronze chain wrapped around his left forearm. His chest was scarred from the countless past battles he’d been in. His mid torso resumed the thick bronze armouring and continued down to massive bronze sabatons. The gigantic battle mace he displayed held in two hands was a bit longer than he was tall. The weapon was made of dark steel, and the head was lined with six large jagged blades spaced around it with four smaller sets in between them. The bottom looked like a spearhead. How someone could throw that accurately as a spear, she couldn’t fathom.
Behind the Dreka and to his left was a fair-looking blond-haired elf. The elf donned a similar bronze-coloured armour, though his armour seemed to be a complete set discounting a helm and a slimmer, tighter fit. Through the small gaps in the armour, a blue cloth fabric extended down to his knees ending in about an inch of pure white. The material seemed one piece, with the matching cape behind him descended to the same length. A massive shield was carried in his left hand, lined with gold. The guard was pointed at the top and extended wider downward before an inward then outward flare. Her gaze continued down the shield to a second smaller inward than outward flair before it reached a point. Inside the gold lining was pure white metal. Two black streaks started at the outer edges, met with the lining, and waved downward in unison toward the point, also lined by gold.
His sword of equal intricacy from point to pommel, she guessed it would stand to his eye line. A strange symbol made of black and gold was displayed in the centre of the shield, with two black orbs on either side of the first flange at the top. The cross of the hilt bore the same symbol as the center of his shield, with golden feathers extended up toward the point of the blade. Two small flairs in the metal of the blade, one shortly after the extended feathers and the second just before the half of the blade. In the center of each flare, a red gem embedded the metal surrounded by gold. The gold extended to connect the hilt, the first gem, and the second gem and faded three-quarters up the blade.
The figure to the right and the rear of the Dreka was a lightly bearded human male who floated off the ground. He was dressed in a combination of fine robes coloured dark purple and blue. A frontal spine of pointed plate metal ran the length of the robes, coloured black with grey lining. The spine came to a flair around his neck. The collar was almost akin to the neck of some lizards she had encountered in various places. A blue and purple iridescent cloak covered his arms, up to the wrist, extended outward to the side. Foreign symbols lined the outside of the cloak in an illuminated white. A simple wooden staff in his right hand shaped like a bent T, and his left glowed a bright green. The reflection of this illumination gave a tinge of green to his helm, which otherwise, she guessed would match the frontal metal spine. The final thing she noticed, not dissimilar to her own, was a large brown tomb on his left hip armoured to match his frontal metal spine.
Bella’s senses were overloaded by trying to process these terrifying figures. One other entered her mind. These figures reminded her of the raw power of the presence of her father. Frozen and distracted by the figures, she didn’t notice the small girl directly in front of the Dreka. The girl was Aisha, a werewolf girl from a year behind them. As the Dreka looked down at her, she let out a scream as a burst of fur sprouted from her skin as it tore open, and she began to transform. The Dreka knelt, held out a hand and placed it on her head. Her transformation continued, but the hand provided no place for her to grow into her complete form. The sounds of bones breaking and flesh tearing would have been audible if not for the rise into a piercing scream of pain. He moved his grip around her neck as he stood back to his full height. The broken body, in his grasp, continued its disturbing transformation. He exhaled a burst of fire from his nostrils, charring the fur. With seemingly little effort tossed her toward the crystal box to his right. As the body connected with the crystal box, a bright flash of purple branches of energy like electricity engulfed her and continued to spew forth and held the silent, broken, and burned body aloft.
With a grunt, the Dreka affirmed his grip on his battle mace and launched it toward the center crystal box on the opposite side of the room.
It careened, spinning, across the room without effort, crashing through the walled center section. Several students had sought shelter behind, found themselves in its path, and were victims of chunks cleaved violently from them.
The massive battle mace connected with the crystal box, then broke through it as if it was made from paper. Crushing the grey figure into the walled area behind it.
Finally, having come to a halt, a bloody path in its wake began twitching. As the Dreka held his left hand out toward it. The battle mace retreaded it’s way back to his grasp.
Catching his battle mace, he slammed his sizeable orange tail into the ground. Faster than they could perceive, it launched forward directly toward Bella, Khalid, and the tumbled Zoz.