"The way flames move is known only to them, listen closely and they will share their secrets." - Excerpts from an Ember Mage
Hawar pulled past the bend and down several streets while Solle told him where to go. Hawar could hear the armed men’s approaching footsteps when Solle pointed to a nearby building.
“Down there.” He said, pulling Hawar with him.
“Wait, it’s on fire!” Hawar protested, but Solle pushed him forward. The sound of footsteps approaching could be heard in front of them now as well, the Dructini had begun to spread all through the village and were searching the streets.
“Not the building itself.” Solle stated and shifted Hawar’s gaze towards a small staircase that led down to a stone wall. “Down there is where we’ll escape for now.”
Hawar blinked and looked at Solle, ‘Did this man get hit in the head too?’ he thought to himself. Helping Solle along they walked down the stairs towards the wall.
“Now what?” Hawar asked, helping Solle lean up against the wall so he could check the streets. Solle started placing his hands up against the wall, feeling the different stones.
“It’s been a while, but one of these leads down to a secret passageway.” He said, pressing up against several stones. Hawar spared a glance at the stone wall, curious how it worked and what spell managed to keep it running. He shook his head and peeked up into the street, looking back towards the bend where he hoped his Teacher would come running past.
“Your teacher is gonna be alright,” Solle said, as if reading Hawar’s thoughts. “Many greater men have tried to kill him, those mindless scavengers won’t be the ones to take him down.”
Hawar frowned, he knew his teacher was strong, but there were still so many of the scavengers. He heard footsteps approaching from the bend and crouched behind the wall, eyes just barely peeking over to watch. Several scavengers walked past, even with large wounds all over their bodies they continued to search the streets.
“Why are they doing this?” Hawar asked. Solle grunted as he pressed the proper stone and the wall began to move. He turned back to Hawar and motioned for him to follow.
“Do you know much about the Dructini?” Solle asked. Hawar shrugged and followed him down into the darkness.
“Very little, just that they’re scavengers.” Hawar replied, he held a hand up to cover his nose, the room they entered reeked. Solle nodded and procured a light stone from his pocket. The small orb shaped crystals were very popular amongst merchants for their ability to always provide light. It lit up the room, which appeared to just be a tunnel that followed the same path as the street above. A small stream of water flowed along the opposite wall, Hawar noticed the smell emanating from there.
“Yes, they are surely scavengers.” Solle said with disdain as he walked along, using the wall to support himself. “They scavenge all sorts of things, weapons, armor, food, houses,” he paused and looked at Hawar. “They’ll even scavenge people.”
Hawar frowned and tilted his head. Solle turned back and continued talking before Hawar could ask a question. “They used to come down over that mountain pass often, take the hunters and villagers that wandered off on their own.” He spoke with a heaviness in his voice, as if remembering those lost. Hawar kept silent, he imagined going out for a walk one day and then never returning back home, he knew he’d never stop fighting to make it home. They continued in silence, with only the flow of water and footsteps above punctuating the silence.
“Surely they will try to make it back though? Why would they give up their lives so easily?” Hawar asked finally. Solle was quiet, when he spoke his voice was barely above a whisper.
“They’re never the same if they do. Dructin Chief’s have ways of controlling those underneath them, ways that turn a person into a beast.”
Hawar nodded and pressed on with his questions, eager to learn more of the Dructini.
“Did you lose someone that way?”
Solle stopped in his tracks, Hawar bumped into him and fell back. As he rubbed his face he thought of how soft the wall seemed in comparison.
“Let’s keep moving, no more questions.” Solle added the last part with a grumble. As they walked the sounds of footsteps above seemed to recede into the distance and they were left with just the flow of water and the light of the light stone. Hawar continued to think of the Dructini, if they were capable of controlling people against their will, would they be able to do something similar to his teacher? If they found his teacher again, would he even be the same man? He felt his heart racing with fear at the thought of never seeing his teacher again.
“We’re here.” Solle said with a grunt as they approached a wooden door on the side of the wall. It looked to be made of a dark stone with traces of gold. He held a hand up to it and the gold began to glow and hum. With a creak it began to move inwards, opening up a door to another room. As they stepped inside Hawar noticed several families huddled close to each other up against the wall. On the other end of the room was a circular stone stairway leading upwards. Multiple light stones lit up the room as several of the maids from the manor guarded the stairway.
“Where are we?” Hawar asked.
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“This won’t be the last time our village is attacked, Young Mage.” Solle replied grimly and marched over to the maids, clutching the wound on his shoulder. The maids all looked exhausted but their eyes shined with hope upon seeing Solle. They gathered around him and looked at the wounds on his body, they forced him to take a nearby seat. One of them pulled her hair back into a ponytail and grabbed a small tone, then she began chanting words too faint for Hawar to make out. A faint light emanated from her hands and Solle’s shoulder. Hawar stood and watched, amazed by the simple act of what he guessed was healing magic. He looked back at the families against the wall, although their clothing appeared cut and bloodied, there were no wounds on their bodies. Several of the children in the group looked to be wearing the robes he had seen earlier, their hopes of celebrating at the festival ruined by the turn of events. He also recognized Euwen, sitting huddled in the corner next to several others. Hawar felt a hand on his shoulder and looked back to see Solle fully healed. He looked at Hawar sternly. Before the words came out of his mouth, Hawar knew what he was going to say.
“Young Mage, I have a favor to ask of you.”
Or at least, he thought he did.
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Siwan stood in the Manor Garden, her home for as long as she could remember. Full days she would spend among the flowers, listening to the birds speak their songs, it had always been peaceful. She looked at the birds, with their bright feathers they represented the greens of the forest surrounding them. Her mother used to tell her all about them, what they would eat, the different songs they sang and what they meant. She smiled at the memory. One of the birds turned to her and she leaned forward, expecting a beautiful song to come out of its beak.
“Wake up.” It said, in the tone of an annoyed person.
Siwan blinked, the voice of the bird felt like it was hissing in her ear even though it stood several feet from her. She blinked, realizing the garden was just a dream. She felt the warmth of her bed, which felt harder than she remembered, and rolled over. The sun was shining brightly against her eyelids, making all she could see orange.
“Close the curtains.” She mumbled. She reached down to try and pull the sheets back up but couldn’t find them, she must’ve kicked them off the bed, which explained the pain in her leg.
“Curtains?” The voice said in disbelief, and Siwan recognized it as Nerri. Why was Nerri coming to wake her up?
“Go away Nerri.” She mumbled again, her leg throbbed. ‘I must’ve really kicked it.’ She thought. She tried to go back to her dream of the garden but it eluded her. All she could see was the orange, it overtook everything as she closed her eyes.
“Get up!” Nerri hissed again, and Siwan felt her hand against her shoulder, rocking her body back and forth. Siwan mumbled and opened up her eyes. She blinked several times as she tried to take stock of her surroundings, everything was on fire. The buildings on the sides of the street had collapsed, their wooden beams, still aflame, had fallen into the streets. Nerri stood over her, her spirit weapon spear in hand, she looked anxiously back and forth over her shoulder.
“Nerri? What’s going on?” Siwan asked, memories of running through the forest flooded her mind. She remembered seeing Salvin Mince’s dead body and her stomach went weak. She retched what little lunch she had on the stone pavement. Nerri rolled her eyes as she watched.
“Great work Ms. Lady, you’re finally finding out what it’s like to party.” She mocked.
Siwan didn’t hear her, she just stared at the pavement, tear drops dripping down to the cracks between the stone. “This is all my fault.” She said quietly.
Nerri grabbed her by the neck and hoisted Siwan to her feet. Siwan could feel the maid’s yellow eyes boring down on her.
“Really Ms. Lady? Your fault? Why don’t I get you a torch so you can continue burning this place down?” Nerri groaned as Siwan continued to cry. “Look, we’ve got more Dructini bearing down on us and we can’t stay here.” She pointed a finger at Siwan. “Now if you’re going to continue to cry I’ll happily prepare a nice bath for you and you can spend all night there. Otherwise we can stay here and then you’ll be crying in the afterlife.”
Siwan wiped the tears from her face with her wrists.
“You’re really mean Nerri, you know that?” She said.
Nerri rolled her shoulders and smiled. “Your father doesn’t pay me to be nice, you get Miss Phell for that.”
Siwan closed her eyes, an image of the elderly baker popping into her head, she was offering freshly baked sweet treats. Siwan opened her mouth to ask a question but Nerri cut her off.
“Yes, I’m sure she’s fine, no I don’t know where she is right now.” Nerri raised her eyebrows and forced a smile. “Can we get going now?”
Siwan nodded and tried to take a step forward, her legs buckled and she fell to the ground. She could hear Nerri mumble something under her breath and her spear dissipated as she pulled her back to her feet. Her arm coming under her shoulder to support her. Siwan braced for a remark or sly comment but none came, Nerri simply continued to help her in silence. They walked several more feet past the burning buildings before she commented.
“You’re joining me in the morning for training after this.” Nerri grunted.
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They came around the final street bend and reached the town center, now a completely different place from what it was several hours prior. Siwan gasped at the transformation. All the stalls had collapsed and were slowly burning away. What remained of the large banners flapped, charred, in the wind. In the center of it all stood the bonfire, now lit, at its base stood several figures. Behind those figures stood a large crowd of the scavengers. Nerri grunted and pulled Siwan to the side, hiding behind one of the broken stalls. She held a finger up to her mouth and slowly peeked up. Siwan tugged at her arm, mouthing the word ‘father’ to her. Nerri shook her head and Siwan breathed a sigh of relief. She looked out to the side of the stall to see. There right next to the bonfire were several figures, two of them kneeled as another paced in front of them. One of the kneelers she recognized as Thorn, he was bloodied but still breathing. The other she recognized as the Magic Man from festivals in the past. Her mind raced, she wanted to help them but feared her intervention would make matters worse. She turned back to Nerri, who had ducked back down and was biting the edge of her fingernail.
“What do we do?” Siwan whispered.
“Thinking.” Nerri replied.
Siwan looked around at the town square, the large crowd of followers stood between them and the figures by the bonfire. She bit the side of her lip as she tried to think of a way past them. The nearest entrance to the sewers was directly behind the crowd, it was the one she most commonly used to sneak into town by. If her legs weren’t in pain she'd be able to sneak over there and get some help, or just escape.
“Wait, they’re doing something.” Nerri whispered, as both her and Siwan felt compelled to stick their heads above the stall to watch.