10th of Martzea, 1258th of the First Age.
Warmer winds blew in the wide streets of Autharsovath as the second week of the of season of growth and fertility started. The month during which the Divine Mother of aevhen kin, the Gentle Weaver of Maghia blesses the folks of Elhyrissian. During this month their spells manifested even more powerful, while their limits were pushed a little by Her will.
“Hey Sigi, what are you doing there?” Priernuss who just finished buying his breakfast in the village market noticed Sigiwaer in between his homestead and their neighbors. The slightly warmer slow at his small feet condensed into spheres and flew into his tiny hands before he threw them at the wall of their’ homestead.
“Just practicing uncle Priernuss.” He said quite innocently as he focused both his eyes on the twig grabbed by two hands grown from the stacked stones that made up their home. The thick stick was covered in dripping, mashed snow that fell back to the ground. Then once again it collected itself into a sphere and flew into his hands before he threw it against the stick.
“How’s it going?” Priernuss asked as he stepped a bit closer.
“Well, I just hit it with the thirty-sixth snow ball at the same point.” Sigi said with a bored expression.
“Then let me make it a bit more exciting.” Priernuss leaned onto his head while his right index finger moved in the air as his mana flowed into and out from its tip. From the mud a small featureless golem rose and waved at the chuckling Sigi. “Better to practice with a moving target.”
“Wait!” Sigi yelled after it as the golem ran away just as snow from the ground condensed into a sphere hovering above his small palms. Priernuss watched his back disappear as Sigi turned towards their garden with his arm prepared to launch the snowball.
“Oh shit.” He said to himself as he looked at the sky with a wave of amber running across the sea of white clouds and endless blueness.
**
“Are you sure I am ready for this?” Eadwald asked as he stepped inside.
“There is no point delaying the inevitable my dear old son.” Ulrich said as he stalwartly patted Eadwald on his now well-honed shoulders.
“I still feel like this is early.” Eadwald resisted the little push his father exerted upon him as the floor creaked under their heavy, yet soft steps.
“This is our free day before your rite. And it is never too early for a keg of good mead.” Ulrich stretched his left arm out and grabbed onto Eadwald’s shoulder as he dragged his resistant son further into the belly of the beast.
“Just the usual.” The bartender said as he looked at the two as soon as they stepped within five meter range.
Ulrich placed a sack full of minerals that grew under the snow during the final weeks of the previous season. “And add a bottle of Yearium to it.” Yearium was a dark alcoholic beverage best consumed in small dosages with a break between each being half an hour – otherwise it would cause varying hallucinations. It was essentially made from local plants that were often used as ingredients to restorative potions. But one time the bartender’s dwarven father accidentally mixed them into one of his mead barrels and the result was this drink that was spread far and wide in the northern provinces of the Empire.
“Ulrich, Eadwald come here.” As their faces contorted extremely – a hundred creases appeared on each their visages – Priernuss stood up and called them to the largest of the tables in the far right corner. There Gna and Azugh, Aelfsigior, Yudmout sat beside him and greeted the pair with kegs clashed against kegs.
“So how does the alcohol taste for you the first time?” Aelfsigior asked while he gently created a wave of chill that kept his own mead cold.
“Bitter like certain days.” He said while the taste remained in his mouth, creeping at the corners like certain accursed spirits tend to haunt their victims.
Gna snorted. “Seems like a little artistry attached onto your son.” His muscled arms with which he poked Ulrich side felt like being poked by blunt ended spear that tickled a little.
Eadwald turned to Azugh who sat right beside him. “How was it for you Azu?” While Azugh was a few years younger than Eadwald, he looked the same age as him. His outer tusks were more prominent while he also gained two smaller inner bulging tenderly from behind his lower lip. His thick, greasy dark brownish hair ran along his back in a singly thick braid.
“The mead is so far good. But that, I’ll make our maker in all honesty.” Azugh said as his eyes focused onto the bottle of dark liquid that was Yearium.
“Then let’s poor one for everyone. And listen to the valiant tales of the elders on how they tackled their first major trial in life.” Priernuss said in an enthusiastic tone as the bottle popped open by itself and flew into his firm grip.
Eadwald looked at Azugh and said with his eyes to brace himself, then turned back to Priernuss happily pouring one for everyone. Unlike them, their elders all had excited looks on their faces. “Say Priernuss, we already listened a dozen hundred times to the tales of our old man’s. Why not start with you, we’re interested what are the customs of the south.”
“Well since the new age, the customary trials have been merged in with the legions. Or to be precise – became the trials of the legion.” Priernuss stopped for a moment and then spoke after filling one to Azugh and Gna.
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“Remember one of my brothers mention that.” Ulrich jumped in as he recalled meeting with a few auxiliaries from the south.
“I must mention – but this is a long tale from centuries ago. Are you two fine with listening to it?” Priernuss asked as he located the cork back into its place. The two looked at each other and everyone at the table nodded with gleaming eyes.
Priernuss mouth bent slightly. “Then where should I start? Ah yes, it was the eight day of the week in the year 356th of the First Age of the very same month.” He drank a quarter of his mead to moisten his throat, then started.
He chuckled a little as he recalled how he met with his fellow auxiliaries at a tavern in the colonial town of Potamyrn – named after the river it was built around a thousand year before the Dawn Age ended. “Those were fine lads I tell you. Muzzulda who was a fine dwarven woman of the Hogstol clan with the finest of braided chin beards. Makthym a four century old aurevh from the golden deserts of the far south with an expressionless handsome face and long, gleaming dark hair that went nicely with his radiant complexion. Ollognus, a changed-kin that came from a parents augmented with parts of Uzrhum. He was as tall and massive as the mountains, covered in thick fur that had an earthly quality, appearance to it. And his face, scary and monstrous.
Then he stopped for a moment and his eyes were filled with nostalgic sorrow before he continued. “And we were all like enough to be led by none another than Moistyria Terrisitae Elhyrrisiar herself. Even though she just set out prove herself worthy of being the thousandth upon thousandth child of the Emperor himself.”
“What was she like?” Aelfsigior spoke up first as he went silent for a moment.
Priernuss tittered softly with teary eyes. “I would lie – but I can’t. Her haunting beauty – a clear sign of the Silent Shepherd’s blessed kiss upon her animus – etched into my mind. Even to this day I can see her cold smile, her haunting chuckle that fills you with a calm. And a kindness never seen before by any of her kin. She was a rare onyx grafted once in an eon by the Deossos and the Almodo I’m most sure of it.”
Priernuss stared at his reflection in the mead. “Is she someone dearest to your heart?” Eadwald asked.
“Akin to a lass who just witnessed a mermaid for the first time in their short life.” Priernuss answered after he exhaled. “Her beauty enamors me even now when I just think about it, but I think we of the elderly can safely say we all experienced this sensation.”
“What sensation?” Azugh asked this time around.
“It differs slightly. For me it never bloomed into proper love, just respect when I learnt of her ideals that in the end doomed her to join the endless dream before her two thousandth winter.” His smile became bitter while the others after a bit of pondering nodded their heads and added in their experience – surprising Eadwald too when he looked at Ulrich.
“Love comes in many forms son. My first was a dwarven adventurer who passed by here when I was a small child. To me, it was her strength and bravery that led to a premature love.” He said while his dry, creased hands ran across Eadwald’s thick, black hair that made the two look almost the same.
“Now where was I? Oh yes, the five of us met up in this homely tavern reeking of fish, sweet water and the stench of the previous night where we each took an oath to watch out for each other, as we were all equals at the moment – even if there was Makthym whom thought otherwise.” As he continued on with his tale, the stomach-churning smell, the loud noises of the early customers and the faces of his former comrades all returned in his mind and sight.
Before he continued the tale of his trial – he closed down his eyes and inhaled deeply while he collected mana in the surroundings, and manifested miniature humanoid shapes on the table. Everyone – and even some passerby’s – watched with clear amazement in their eyes and with their jaws wide open.
First the faint arkhaine silhouette of Muzzulda appeared holding a battleaxe twice her size, then the tall and regal Makthym and hulking Ollognus manifested. Then lastly him and Moistyria appeared with the latter enveloped in a dark yet divine aura. Just like he said they sat on unseen chairs around an unseen table lifting their hands – and axe – in the air.
“I must add, but while it is a trial of performance and measure, in fact it is a small task overseen by a senior member of the legion. And in our case, it was the total elimination of the savages hiding out in the local forest whom terrorized the province and the caravans passing through.” As he continued the shapes of the five shifted into a standing posture and they all started walking without moving. Now they all held their weapons in hand.
“Why not monsters or undead?” Eadwald questioned naively.
“To prove you are a capable warrior or sorcerer. We all can drive our blades through the undead or beasts. But ending the life of the living is a different matter altogether.” Priernuss said as additional shapes surrounded the five. Gwe’elves whom sported varying antlers, hair with a fine grass like texture and sharp animalistic claws appeared alongside savage humans, orkh, gobokhs and large wild beasts clearly altered by maghia aspect of nature itself.
“And to prove that you can stand your ground against enemies driven not only by instinct. That are intelligent enough for the most basic tactics of outnumbering you and your fellows.” Priernuss continued while the five shapes tightened the space between each. Moistyria’s shape held its frail arm up and a ward grown around the group as a hail of arrows rained upon them.
Roots converged out from the table and slithered onto the ward, cracks formed slowly as nature’s tendrils gained the weight of the largest of dragons. “To see if you can handle the direst of circumstances.” The five stood valiantly even as certain death seemed to loom over them. Yet death didn’t smile upon them in a wicked manner, but offered a smile akin to a protective mother’s.
First the shape of Priernuss raised its hand and in the next moment, flames of myriad hues lit up the roots and devoured them within a blink of an eye. Then Ollognus and Muzzulda rushed out from under the ward as the second hail of arrows stopped. With unnatural speed they rushed at the enemies hiding in the veil of bushes and trees. Their spear and axe swung and thrusted and the number of the enemies lessened by the second.
Moistyria, Priernuss and Makthym remained under the ward each supporting the two from long range. Priernuss by hurling lesser spells onto the enemies hoping to gain distance from the two warriors or just simply fleeing. Makthym who in appearance was a master of close range combat with blades, supported Muzzulda by replenishing her stamina or by conjuring smaller wards in the way of arrows and spells.
Moirstyria in a similar vein wrapped Ollognus’s form in a ward that also supplied him with stamina to keep on going. While some shapes simply fell as her deathly spells empowered by her blessing snuffed the life from the enemies in a mere moment.
“That was awesome!” As Eadwald uttered those words, the other’s started slowly clapping followed by everyone inside who converged around the table to watch the maghia trick. “Thank you.” Priernuss stood up and bowed deeply.
“Now I know, you two said you heard their tales a thousand times. But let me hear the tales of valor of this table.” As the crowd started returning to the counter or to their tables, Priernuss sat down and asked for the meager payment of tale told and shown.