Chapter 2 – First Steps.

The massive tomb lay deep beneath the capital, a relic of a past long forgotten by man. Shadows of nightmares crept along the etched stone walls as the pale blue flames of the torches flickered in a phantom breeze. An ancient skeleton sat in the obsidian throne at the at the end of the central chamber, black flames dancing along his bones, a pair of fierce red eyes glowing in its skull. Prince Zorthac watched as the cloaked figures walked their way across the stone bridge at the chambers entrance, below which there was nothing but the void of darkness, and approached his throne, kneeling to him. These were his agents in the land above, his Masks, those who had sworn their fealty to him in exchange for a portion of his power. His magic was recovering must faster now, and while he was not yet ready to walk the surface, it would not be long before he would do so. His preparations of the last two decades was paying off, and in the interim the Masks did his work for him.

“Speak.” Prince Zorthac commanded as he stirred.

“The Witch was captured, but has escaped, and Air is still in flight,” the Mask of Earth said as he stood, frustration in his voice. “That was the last that we heard, as the wards right across the kingdom have been taken down, and with it our communication network.”

“I am not surprised.” The Demon King chuckled to himself. “She has a millennia of experience on you.”

The Witch had been a thorn in the side of the Prince ever since his unsealing. After her initial burst of activity directly after he had been released, likely due to how his unsealing had been handled, she had then been quiet and inactive. However in the last few years that had changed, and he could always feel her influence as she meddled ever so slightly with the tasks of his Masks, so that the result was never quite what he had expected. But this most recent event had been different. She had never directly pulled attention to herself like that. The stakes must have been much higher, but in doing so she had also triggered the start of the next era in the history of the kingdom.

“There is more to this than meets the eye,” stated Zorthac. “She has taken out the wards as there is something there that she wants, or doesn’t want us to see. You will find out what it is. However, she has also done us a favour. With the Wards now down my children can walk free without interference.”

The skeleton raised up an arm, drawing runes of flame in the air. “Awaken my Children,” he commanded, the runes flying into the void beneath the bridge, before the earth itself groaned in response and hundreds of balls of purple light rose out of the pit which then dispersed, flying up in every direction and disappearing.

“We move now to the next phase,” Zorthac said as he stood and walked down to the cloaked figures, his body radiating power.

“Fire, Sound, join Air and investigate exactly what has occurred at the Riders Temple. Leave no stone unturned, and follow up on every lead. We will know she is hiding from us. Keep your eyes open and your vision clear. She is not to be underestimated. Earth, it’s about time the Guild learnt to cooperate with our wishes. I believe an audience with the remaining three captains is appropriate. And if they aren’t willing to come, remove them. There are plenty who can take their places. Metal, Water, it is time we reclaimed what is rightfully mine. Bring to me Soulrender and Spellbinder.”

“Finally, I will require more subjects, willing or not. The darker the gem the better.” He gestured to the pile of blackened corpses by the throne. “For harbingers they were... lacking.”

The Masks all stood up. “It will be done.”

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No, she definitely was not going to face the Council Myne had decided. Not when so much of what had happened could be very easily pinned on her whether it was her fault or not. Instead, she was either going to find the Witch or the man (or lady, or whatever she was. The Ash Rider would probably be a better term for her). The latter was probably preferable as well, as the easy capture of the Witch had indeed been a set up, and she had no idea of her true power. While the Ash Rider apparently had a Prime for a familiar, she was likely untrained in the use of whatever magic she had, which would give Myne the advantage. How the summoning had occurred in the first place was also a baffling mystery, as the summoning rituals were a closely guarded secret of the Clans, and also took quite some time to prepare.

She had spent the next few hours aiding in the clean-up while also asking around, trying to piece together what else had transpired, but not really learning anything that she didn’t already know. When the group of Riders had returned to the complex with the prisoners, the Witch had been taken straight to the most secure dungeon room. The young man had been taken to Sister Cammine for treatment, and once they had finally settled the wound down, which took a while as it had been both magical as well as physical, they had put him into the same cell as the Witch. While that probably hadn’t been the best of ideas, the Witch had been compliant, and so the Sisters had become overconfident with her.

Then just before dawn the changing guards had discovered the wounded body of the Ash Rider on the stairs and the prison cell empty, and the cry went out that the prisoners had escaped. Panic settled its claws into the complex, and then all hell had broken loose. In that order too she was certain, as if someone in the background had been pulling the strings of the events. The rest she had been directly involved in.

Word had been sent out to the rest of the Clan of what had happened here, and all throughout the morning more Riders arrived to help clean up the mess and strengthen the defences of the complex. The temple itself was at high risk of completely collapsing, which was putting the Chamber of Runes at further risk as well, and a number of other buildings were now just a pile of rubble including one of the stables. Flight took time so those from the further away complexes were going to take a while to arrive, but as some had already been en-route from when the news of the Witch’s capture had been sent, a couple of the Clan’s Lady Knights had already arrived. This included the famed Lady Sylph, possessor of a Wind Lattice Soul, and Lady Knight Ruby (who ironically was possessed of a powerful Ruby Gem). The most senior of the Lady Knights, who was usually considered to be the leader of the Clan, Lady Knight Amber, wasn’t expected till evening, but once she was there the Council of Knights would convene and serious questions would be asked. They wouldn’t get the answers they wanted though, and with the reputation of the Clan at stake punishment would also be metted out. For that Myne was certain that she would be the focus. She had made some mistakes for sure, but the mess was also much bigger than just her, and so she made her decision. She had no idea what she would do when she made to return to the Clan either, but as she usually had the privilege of being a free agent she hoped that, along with whatever she managed to achieve, she’d be able to spin it in her favour. Assuming of course that they didn’t martyr her in her absence.

Keeping a low profile, she packed up what she thought she’d need for a longer journey, along with an extra set of clothes, and a discarded set of the Ash Riders bandages which she collected from the infirmary. After informing Sister Cammine of her intention, so that at least someone would be able to speak in her defence, she made her way to the stables. She intended to leave as soon as practical, to give herself as much time as possible before the Council started looking for her. Vel’nas was pacing impatiently as she arrived, and while he could not communicate directly with her (as Familiars were incapable of doing so), the bond that they shared as Familiar and Rider meant they understood the feelings and intentions of the other and he was just as ready to leave as her. Because of the way that the Riders magic worked, the Familiars were both a part of the Rider and a fully independent creature, having being created from the Rider’s magic when they were first summoned, a manifestation of the Riders power. The stronger the bond that they held, the more potential that each could draw out of the other. On the other side though, such Riders usually had difficulty forming any sort of relationship with other people, especially those who were not Riders. Myne’s bond with Vel’nas was stronger than most of her peers and it showed in how well they worked together.

Ensuring that no one inconvenient was watching, she mounted Vel’nas, and rising quickly headed north.

Myne scanned the forest as they flew over, looking for any possible signs of a Prime Dragon’s decent. While the forest only took a couple of hours to fly over, she was gambling on the whole suddenness of the situation to enable her to pick up her trail. While she had no idea how long the Ash Riders had been a she for, her gut feel from what she had seen of her actions was that she was inexperienced, both in her skills and her riding. Couple that with the Familiar being recently summoned, as they never came into being with a full reserve, and an early landing was quite likely. Granted she didn’t know much about Primes, but she had hope. Myne looked over her shoulder as well on occasion to see if anyone had followed her, but to her relief the sky was empty, and after a while she gave up doing so, settling down into Vel’nas to concentrate on the task at hand.

They were nearing the edge of the forest before Myne finally spotted what she was looking for – a fresh clearing in the forest, uprooted trees and trunks snapped off like twigs scattered near its northern edge. Fortunately they had pretty much flown in a straight line, and while their was no sign of the Rider or Familiar, it was a good start. Myne glided down gently on Vel’nas into the clearing, dismounting to have a look around. The destruction of a sudden landing was apparent, but what she couldn’t see was any evidence of it taking off again. The Prime was huge, and given the mess that it had made at the temple complex when it had left she would have suspected to see something similar here, but there was not. Myne took a deep breath, letting her rising anger settle down again. Everything was wrong in this entire situation, like it was a bad dream, so it was foolish of her to expect things to go smoothly even when something went her way. Steadying herself, she hummed quietly, scanning the magic of the surrounding area. She wasn’t expecting to find anything useful as the Ash Rider would by now be well out her range, but it was worth a try in the off chance. She could sense a few prowling Night Beasts, the term commonly assigned to the more dangerous creatures that could either wield their shard in some way or had been mutated by it, something else more powerful wandering to the north, and also to the north near the forests edge the scars of a battle where someone had released enough magic that it still lingered. She was weary of the creature near the scars, being a signature she had never felt before, but as the scars felt familiar she needed to have a look at them before they faded. She would have to go now, and hope that she didn’t run into it. Vel’nas was too big to go through the forest with her, so she sent him to fly overhead while she made her way through the trees to the battle site.

The Night Beast that she assumed had stalked the Ash Rider had met a grizzly end. At one point in time it probably had been a Great Cat, and survived its fair share of encounters as evidenced by its numerous scars, but now it lay in two, torn in half by a great force. Giant claw marks also scared the nearby trees, and looking around she could make out the footprints of Rider having dodged around the area quite a bit. It was hard to tell if there was any blood of the Rider present given the mess from the Night Beast, but as far as she could tell it looked as though he had held his own quite well until the final blow had been landed. Of the presence of the Familiar there was no hint at all. Being at the point of discharge, she could tell that the magic was definitely of the Ash Rider, but it’s affinity wasn’t one that she could identify at all. It wasn’t any of the elements, nor did it align with any of the known Gems.

Her investigation was interrupted by the arrival of the creature that she had originally sensed nearby as it burst out of the trees and lunged straight for her. It stood taller than her, and look like a brown bear standing on it’s hind legs, except that it also had blood red spiky plates right down its back, its claws dripped with a glistening purple liquid, and its eyes glowed a vengeful red. A Demon! They were the stuff of legends and nightmares, and there had been no reports of any being seen in the kingdom in her lifetime. Until now that was. Myne dodged out of the way, calling upon the magic of her Gem to reinforce her fists and feet, as well as all of her body that wasn’t protected by her bone armour. She was afraid. Demons weren’t to be trifled with, and this thing was more dangerous than she had anticipated, it’s tainted nature having masked its true power to her sensing magic. While her enchanted Skeon might deflect a few swipes of the demons claws, the poison on them was a different matter entirely, its hissing on the ground suggesting that it would probably eat right through it in a short space of time. She could do without being wounded. The demon crashed into the tree where she had been standing, and turned to face her again just as Myne launched herself off a tree into it’s head, narrowly avoiding a wild swing of its claws. She then rebounded soundly off its head to propel herself up into a nearby tree, channelling as much power into the blow as possible. Momentarily stunned, it stepped back as Myne scrambled up into the higher branches of the tree, and then jumped over into a higher one. She needed to get high enough to get within range of Vel’nas, as escape by air was her best chance. ‘Assuming that it doesn’t knock me down out of my tree’ she thought to herself as the tree that she had initially scrambled up shuddered violently. She changed trees two more times before she broke through the canopy, the Demon below systematically attacking the trees that she had just been on, as if sensing her presence by instinct. Seeing Vel’nas as he swung in to collect her, she held on tight to the tree as it rocked violently, and then launched herself into the air, grabbing hold onto his talons as he then lifted her away from the forest, and towards the grasslands to the north so that she could mount more comfortably. Myne considered herself lucky that she had only run into a bulky ground based Demon, and not something more agile, as that may have been the end of her. She was highly confident in her combat abilities, but they had been taught to be fearful of Demons, and rightly so. In the legends of old, Demons had always been taken down by those with Lattice Souls, remnants of the great war that resurfaced occasionally. While she had had a slim hope that she might have been able to find Ash Rider by following her, as she had realistically expected, this lead had been a dead end. She didn’t know exactly how they had left from the forest, and in which direction they were now headed. Her sensing magic had limited range, and she was currently too unsettled to be able to use it anyways.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Her other lead, which she considered would have been the more sensible first option but ran with the risk that she might run into some Sisters earlier than she wanted, was to go back to the Ash Riders village. The Ash Rider may well return there, or failing that she may be able to glean a hint from his past that would help her locate him. Myne had to take a longer route, flying wide as to avoid the airspace of the temple complex after having had a quick aerial survey of the rolling hills north of the forest, but not finding anything. So night had well and truly fallen by the time that she got in range of the village. It was far too late for her to be making queries and fatigue was starting to catch up with her, so she she set down in the middle of the abandoned mining facilities, and finding that the refinery plant was still solid enough and of an adequate size to shelter Vel’nas, they settled inside it for the night. Myne snuggled into her Familiar, appreciating his warmth and comfort as she fell asleep.

Myne woke the following morning to find a skinny young girl dressed in rags staring in at her as the sun’s morning rays streamed past her back and bathed both Rider and Familiar in its warm glow.

“You’re the one that took Izen away,” the girl accused bluntly.

Myne looked at her confused for a moment, before working out what she thought the child meant. “You mean the young man we took with us when we captured the Witch two days ago? His name was Izen?”

The girl nodded.

“I had to,” Myne replied softly after a brief pause. “she, sorry, he was badly wounded and needed medical attention.”

“But didn’t you cause his wounds?” the girl queried.

Myne hesitated. What had the villagers said amongst themselves about the events two days prior?

“Only some of them,” she answered. “I’m sorry. He was just in the wrong place.”

“He is getting better though,” she added as a half truth.

“Did you bring him back then?” the girl asked, looking hopeful. “He isn’t with the others.”

Myne stood up with a start, Vel’nas suddenly alert as well. “What others?” she queried, a hint of worry in her voice.

“A Rider, and two others.” The girl scrunched her face up in concentration, “She was dressed richly in green and black, like she was trying to show off or something. The others were were hiding in cloaks.”

“Don’t worry, they don’t know that you are here though. Just me.” she added.

Myne relaxed a little.

“So why are you here then, if you’re not bringing him back, and you’re not with the others? It’s odd for a Rider to be sleeping in a mine,”

The girl was perceptive. Myne would give her that.

“It’s a little complicated. I was hoping to speak to the village elder,” she replied.

“About Izen? Are you sure he’s really okay?” the girl quickly asked, stepping closer.

“Yes, and yes.” Myne answered, ‘well, at least for the moment’ she thought to herself. “He’s very important to me.”

“Do you like him?” the girl teased?

“No, no, not in that way,” Myne replied quickly, blushing in spite of her self and wondering why she did so.

“Well you should!” the girl said, folding her arms and giving a disapproving look that said that if she didn’t then she obviously had terrible tastes. “He’s the best in the village.”

“He’s just very important to me.” Myne reiterated.

“Fine, fine. The elder will be a while tho. They wanted every detail of what happened when you were last here, and they’re being very pushy. Were asking about you too.” the girl chatted.

“You seem to know a lot of what is going on,” Myne commented.

“That’s ‘cause I’m nosy,” the girl proudly declared.

“Do you know much about Izen and his past then?” she asked.

The girl padded over, and sat beside Myne, hunching up her legs and wrapping her arms around them, staring back out the door.

“Izen’s smart, intelligent, resourceful and strong. He’s been the pillar keeping the village surviving, trying to keep the plants growing and hunting for food. But he has no family here. Granddad said that a dying Rider dropped him off here when he was very young. One of the mining families had been raising him, but they’re all dead now, even before the mine had been depleted.” The girls face looked sad.

“So he has nothing left tying him here then?” she asked the girl.

“We’re all his family.” the girl stated with conviction, but then let the sadness return. “But not really. He’s not coming back is he? He’ll have a lot to learn out there, but whose going to teach him?”

Myne felt a bit guilty. What was she going to do when she found him? She needed answers, but Izen may not have any for her. She could capture him and take him back to the council, but there were too many unanswered question nagging at the back of her mind, that was making her think twice about that option, especially as it seemed like, as she had said, he was just in the wrong place (though that didn’t explain any of what he’d become). The Witch would have all of the answers, but finding her would be near impossible without some divine intervention, and even then that may not change her fate at the hands of the council, assuming that she survived another encounter with the Witch, as she doubted that she’d be able to get her before the council. Myne had to face the truth. Deep inside, she was really really afraid. A selfish fear. Her conviction from yesterday was already wavering, having been first shaken by her encounter with the Demon, and compounded by all the unknowns that she kept on discovering, or realizing after the fact. Myne steeled herself. Seek the Ash Rider, and seek answers, and then make a decision from there. How she was going to find him now was anyone's guess tho. Even coming here hadn’t been her best plan, especially since a Sister was making inquiries, and she was not ready to be found yet. She knew they would come to the village after the convening of the Council, but had vainly hoped that she would have been and gone before nightfall yesterday. Not that that had worked out. She was also regretting telling Sister Cammine her intentions now as well, but what was done was done. Her only hopes was that the Clan didn’t realize that Izen was the Ash Rider, and that they’d also be seeking a Prime that had as far as she could tell, had disappeared.

Myne reached into the satchel on Vel’nas, and pulled out a small loaf of bread, part of her quickly dwindling provisions, accidentally spilling out the bandage as well. She offered the loaf to the girl, who readily took it and started conservatively eating it, then picked up the bandage, holding it in her hands.

“What’s your name?” she asked her.

“Lyrissa,” the girl replied between small bites.

“That’s an ...interesting name,” Myne commented, as she absently wrapped the bandage around her hand.

The girl shrugged. “I was named before the name was an issue.” she stated before asking, “What’s that?”

“One of Izen's bandages,” Myne replied, seeing no reason not to tell the truth.

“Oh. You’re a Rider aren’t you, can’t you use magic on it to find him?” the girl suggested.

Myne was about to dismiss the idea as nonsense, before she realized that there was merit to it. Her Onyx alignment meant that she could use sensing magic. Surely there would be a way to boost it to seeking magic. Just because it hadn’t been part of her training (nor could she think of anyone who possessed such techniques) didn’t mean that it couldn’t be done. It was actually a good idea, and she’d only originally taken the bandage to keep a record of his signature.

“You’re right. It’s worth a shot,” Myne ceded.

The girl smiled, and stood up. “You’re welcome miss. I’ll keep watch and let you know when the others have left? As a thank you for the food,” she said, indicating to the loaf.

Myne nodded, stashing the bandage carefully in the bottom of the satchel.

It was two hours later before the Rider and her companions left, during which time Myne was deep in thought trying to figure out how seeking magic would work, while the girl kept watch and tried befriending Vel’nas. She was wary about expending any magic while in the village, least it be felt given that her Gem was detectable in the first place, so everything was based on theory as she poured through her studies in her mind for any hints. While she had a few ideas, it would take testing to work out if they were viable, and if she would even be able to provide enough power to get the desired range. While a persons magic wasn’t spent on use, as you had what you did, continued use of your magic for most people took a toll on your stamina, which only recovered when you ate and slept. Hence the potency of any seeking magic she did was reliant on how powerful her Gem was, especially since for Riders the raw use of magic wasn’t their forte, and she would now be playing in unknown ground. At the least, she had the possibility of success. She was meant to be a prodigy after all. She had a lot of experimentation ahead of her, so she would need to find a suitable location to practice.

Magic had a lot of potential and uses, but what exactly you were able to do with it roughly depended on what grade of magic that you had within you. It had been classified a long time ago into three tiers, Shard, Gem, and Lattice Soul, with shards being the weakest and Lattice Souls being the top end of the scale. While the classifications roughly indicated the potency and amount of magic that you had, it wasn’t strictly fixed levels, as some gems were more powerful than others for example, but on the other hand there wasn’t any known occurrences of people with magical power sitting in the large gulf between gem and lattice. Shardlings were pretty much limited to small manipulations of the element to which their shard was aligned, such as directing the flow of water, softening and hardening stone etc. Useful in skilled labour and daily life, and usually caused them to be better respected than those who could not use magic. Gem holders were more powerful and had a bigger range in what they could achieve, but their abilities did depend on the affinity of the Gem as well as the alignment. Like Shardlings, all Gems could also manipulate the element(s) to which their gem was aligned, but to a larger degree and scale, and also create small amounts of it. Gem alignments were a bit more complex, and often gems were aligned to multiple elements, or even abstract elements/concepts as well. With the appropriate rituals (which were very time consuming) and tools, possessors of Gems could create much larger quantities of the associated elements, create enchantments, and summon magical creatures and effects. Working together much more complex effects were possible, and though the overall power of the effect was dependent on the potency of those involved, increasing the numbers gave diminishing returns.

Of the three Gem affinities, Casters were the most straight forward, their power focused into their Gems alignment and hence the raw use of magic. They were always able to achieve significantly more and get better and faster returns than the other two affinities in the use of raw magic, that is in the creation, manipulation and enchantment of the elements. They also took to rituals more naturally. For the Dragon Riders and Ferals however, the bulk of their power was focused into their affinity, and as a result they were limited in the raw use of magic. Ferals manifested animalistic traits related to their totem animal, along with associated enhanced features and abilities. A Cat Feral for example may have cat ears and tail, possessing superior hearing, agility and balance, and be able to manifest claws. All Feral were also able to Reinforce themselves, using their magic to further boost their abilities, and communicate with the associated animal. The more animalistic traits that a Feral showed, the stronger their traits, and the weaker their ability to use raw magic. Finally was the gender bias Dragon Rider affinity, the most unique of the three. The magic of the Dragon Riders was focused into their Dragon Familiar and Bone Armaments, even before they had summoned it to them, and as a result they were generally the weakest of the three at the raw use of magic. However their Familiars were powerful, as were their armaments, and the completion of their initiation which summoned (or some say created) both of these to the Rider, along with allowing communication with dracokin, also significantly enhanced them physically, making them natural warriors. Hence Combat training was mandatory for Riders.

Finally there were Lattice Souls, which were bounds more powerful than Gems. All Lattice Souls were unique, and even if one happened to share an alignment with another, they manifested in different ways. While Lattice Souls could also possess the Feral and Rider affinities that Gems had, it was only a small portion of the magic, and did not restrict it in any way (apart from the requirement that only females could be Riders). The potential in the use of magic for one possessing a Lattice soul was only limited by the talent, knowledge, and energy of the person, making them very powerful and dangerous people. But they did have to learn and suss out how to use it first – especially for Lattice Souls but equally applying to all grades of magic, hard work was required to use your magic to its potential.

Once the Riders had left and were out of range Lyrissa came back up to Myne to let her know the coast was clear. Myne waited another half hour before preparing to leave, to make sure they were well and truly gone.

“Thank you for your help,” she said to Lyrissa.

“You’re welcome miss,” Lyrissa replied, smiling. “Please, take care of Izen when you find him.”

“I will,” Myne nodded to her, before mounting Vel’nas and taking off. She saw no need to talk to the elder as she knew that what the girl had told her was the truth, and the less the number of people that knew about her actions the better. At least now she had some direction.