The ritual of initiation effectively establishes a bond between the Mage conducting the ritual and the one partaking in it, giving the former complete control of the latter’s Inner Landscape. With naught but a thought, excruciating pain may be transmitted to the Mage branded by the ritual. I doubt many members of the Guild are aware of this. After all, the benefits of their spells are unquestionable. And those that become aware of it are sure to be silenced.

Thousands of Mages, each one trained in combat magics. Each one a puppet under the Archmage’s strings. Even Aspects have no hope to fight against the branding. Once established, its control is absolute. I dread the day anyone goes against the Archmage, the one in control of it all. What have you done, Gorn?

Excerpt from Of righteous Evil by Elusco, bane of the Sadmora. Published 540 a.f, banned throughout Ceraviehl in the same year. No known copies exist.

Winged shadows blackened out the fading light from the tunnel’s entrance. The vulture’s flapping echoed over the walls, their leathery wings coming nearer with each heartbeat. “They’re too fast, we can’t shake them off.” Silas threw a knowing look to Zaya, who immediately stopped and squared her feet as she faced the incoming vultures.

The walls broke apart, bits of stone hovering in front of her. “Ready, little boy?” she asked, her eyes glinting.

Silas knocked an arrow and joined her side. “My name is Silas,” he said absently. The first vulture fell to the ground. “One.”

“Oh, this be competition? I like.” Zaya let loose a flurry of punches, propelling multiple stones forward. Two vultures tumbled through the air as their wings broke, their caws piercing their ears.

Silas grunted. With all that rock around them and little to no wood around, he could only rely on the few arrows he still had left. Losing to Zaya in a shooting contest, however, wasn’t an option.

Another arrow blasted through the tunnel, shredding apart the first vulture it met and continued to bring two more down before it lost its momentum. “Four,” he screamed over the incessant cawing.

By now, the flock was barely half its original size. The remaining vultures eventually fled to search for easier prey. “Not bad, little boy. Almost good.”

Silas took a forced breath. He knew reacting to Zaya would only encourage her to continue, but that didn’t make her comments any less infuriating. The tunnel ended in a platform similar to the one before, although this one had a much better appearance. Curved patterns drew themselves over the base of it. Even a few gemstones could be seen here and there.

“That’s a long climb,” Nurana said as she craned her neck.

“Creak?” Gnarly offered her one of the fruits he had grabbed on the way to the entry of the tunnel.

“No thanks. I really don’t think you guys should eat those, by the way” eyeing the glowing fruit warily.

“Have ever eaten this kind of fruit? I not,” Zaya gave a nod of thanks to Gnarly as he also gave her one.

Holding it up close, Silas was even more fascinated with the fruit. It had a surprisingly solid, yet transparent peel, white wisps swimming through the swirling mass within.

A content creak came from Gnarly. Silver liquid ran across his mouth as he took the first bite, his eyes wide. The threads in his eyes spun with increasing speed, condensing to focus on the fruit held in both of his hands.

“Creaaak,” Gnarly buried his face in the fruit, intent on shoving it into his mouth as fast as possible.

A flood of emotions momentarily overwhelmed Silas, sending shivers of pleasure down his spine. With a final shrug, Silas bit into the fruit. Warm, sweet liquid flowed down his throat and into his stomach, filling it with a comforting warmth. “Oh, this is good,” Silas mumbled as he took another bite.

“Creak,” Gnarly had just finished his one, lapping up the remaining juice around his mouth and letting out a satisfied burp as he sat down to put one hand over his stomach.

Waves of energy spread from Silas’ stomach into his whole body, permeating through his Inner Landscape. “This is no normal fruit,” he commented as he turned his perception inward to observe the white tendrils integrating into the mist of his Inner Landscape.

“How surprising. Nobody could have possibly predicted that eating a glowing, spherical fruit would be more than a simple pear.” Nurana commented with a flat tone.

“Tastes good, though,” Silas shrugged.

“Creak.”

Walking up to the shaft, Silas turned to his friends with a grin on his face. “Who’s down for some climbing?”

Making it to the top, Nurana immediately collapsed onto the stone in exhaustion. “I am not doing that again.” Broken lamps hung from the ceiling, and thick metal lattices kept branching off the tunnel. Following the tunnel to its end, a large, heavy-set steel door soon greeted their sight. There were no handles. Instead, wavy patterns adorned its surface, depicting a city in all its splendor. Proud buildings stood between canals of white porcelain. A round square was in the middle of the door, a statue of Aqueel in its center. Before it, near the top of the door, a building with three domes towered over everything else, a massive tube reaching towards the ceiling.

“What do you think is behind this door?”

“If what I’ve read is correct, then this should be the ground level of Al-Talash, home of the famous academy. Only people with high status were allowed to take residence here.” She walked towards the lever beside the door. “I don’t know if there are any creatures on the other side, but better be prepared.” Nurana pulled the level, an ominous metallic creak sounding through the tunnel. The door didn’t budge an inch.

“We are going to be stuck here, aren’t we?” she sighed in defeat.

“Door no open, so we break door,” Zaya lectured Nurana as if she were speaking to a child. “Not be much difficult.”

“You’re welcome to try,” Nurana gestured towards the door of solid metal.

Zaya nodded. “Little boy, you help. I make stone hammer, you hit door.”

“Not my name,” he glared at her. Ignoring him, she held a newly-formed hammer in front of his face.

Zaya and Silas quickly got into a rhythm, each one beating against the middle part of the door. With every hit, the door slightly bent, revealing two thick metal bars holding both sides together.

A sharp hiss made Silas turn around. Something about Nurana seemed off.

“Already tired, little boy?” Zaya continued swinging at the door with her makeshift hammer. Silas ignored her.

“Nurana, what’s wrong with your arm?” Wet blood soaked through the shirt.

Nurana frowned as she pulled up the sleeve. “What are you,” her eyes widened in terror as she looked at her bloody arm. “By the Gods, what happened?”

Red rivulets of blood flowed freely from multiple wounds, looking as if claws had raked over her skin. Crusted blood stuck to her nails. “Are you alright?” Silas asked her. The steady beat of Zaya’s hammering stopped.

“I just started scratching because it itched a bit, but I didn’t do this,” she mumbled. “I would’ve noticed, right?”

Zaya and Silas exchanged a look.

Silas pulled up one leg of his pants. Three deep marks went from his ankle all the way up to his knee. “Did this while sleeping. I just can’t shake the feeling that someone is watching us.”

“Me too,” Zaya admitted. “Also have… odd thoughts. All I want is destroy, sometimes.”

Silas looked at her to continue, but Zaya stayed silent. He could see it in her eyes. Some thoughts were better left unspoken. The other day, he had nearly attacked Nurana when she’d woken him. Zaya couldn’t be much better off.

“Is this it?” Silas asked as they passed the door and beheld the first level of Al-Talash.

“It should be.”

“Not be much city left,” Zaya commented.

There were more ruins than houses, most of the once-opulent houses and buildings now reduced to a pile of rubble. Barely a stone had been left unturned. The only thing still standing was what appeared to be the academy. Between its three domes, a single, massive pipe was covered with wires that wormed their way up and disappeared somewhere within the rock. One of its domes was cracked, sporting a gaping hole, the bronze metal long faded with time.

“What happened here?”

Nurana’s gaze lingered on the right side of the city where the destruction was most apparent. The ceiling of the massive cavern seemed to have collapsed onto the city, crushing the buildings underneath it. On the end of the cavern wall, three long, deep fissures were carved into the stone, each one as wide as Silas was tall.

“What be those?”

“Creak.” Gnarly shifted uneasily beside Silas.

“That’s why Al-Talash simply disappeared over night,” Nurana wondered as she gazed up at the massive fissures within the rock. “The mountains collapsed onto it. Those are claw marks.”

“What? No creature could be that huge. What kind of monster would even be able to make claw marks in solid stone?” They fissures were easily over four feet wide. If those came from claws, Silas did not want to know who, or what, made them.

“I don’t know, but I doubt it matters,” Nurana reasoned. “Al-Talash disappeared over a millennium ago, it’s probably dead already.”

“So where be exit?”

Nurana threw a meaningful glance towards the small mountain of stones covering the right part of the city.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

“Creak.” Gnarly sat down in defeat.

“There has to be another way.”

A moment of silence passed between the group before Nurana spoke up again. “If those pipes go into the ceiling, they would have to come out somewhere, right?” she gestured towards the metal tubes set between the three domes. “Assuming there isn’t anything in them, we could try to climb them.”

“Quiet,” Zaya hissed.

Nurana frowned at her. “What’s the matter wi—” Zaya pressed one hand over the Drakh’s mouth, her gaze flickering between the ruins.

The rattling sound of metal emerged from somewhere ahead of them. Each of them went stock-still. Silas couldn’t believe his eyes. Ahead of them, a six-foot-tall construction waltzed over the ground, a collection of wheels propelling it forward. Humanoid in shape, it was made completely out of metal, one arm ending in a claw and blade, the other having a hollow tube over its forearm.

They slowly crept back behind the covers of a half-crumbled wall. “What is that thing?” Silas asked.

“The better question would be, how is it still working. No one has seen this place in a thousand years, Silas. What does it eat? How does it sustain itself?”

“No matter,” Zaya shrugged. “Even metal bend if you hit it hard enough with stone.”

Nurana threw an exasperated look at Zaya.

“She’s got a point,” Silas said with a small shrug.

“This is revolutionary! Are these things alive? How does it know what to do and where to go?”

Zaya cracked a yawn.

Silas peeked over the wall. “If we want to get into the academy, we should avoid fighting these creatures.”

“Machines,” Nurana corrected him.

“I still don’t want to fight them. I don’t think my spear or bow would do much to them.”

“Is because you be weak little boy.”

Silas took a breath to get the twitch in his right eye under control. “We don’t know how many of them there are or what they’re capable of. I think we should scout the area first and then decide how we get into the academy.”

“What, you’re not trying to brute-force your way in this time?”

Silas frowned. “Why would I do that?”

“You ate an unknown, spherical, glowing fruit because it looked tasty.”

“That was different.”

“Do enlighten me.”

Silas looked at Nurana for a moment before letting out a soft sigh. “I’ll scout ahead, you guys stay here. We need to know what we’re up against.”

Zaya perked up. “Sure want go alone?”

Turning his head, he met her gaze, brown curls falling over his face. Something passed in her eyes. “I’ll be fine.”

Silas weaved through the once-opulent buildings, their engraved walls barely distinguishable from the clutter of rocks everywhere. He was surprised by the lack of creatures roaming around. This part of the city seemed nearly deserted, devoid of any life. Apart from those metal creatures, of course. To his dismay, the academy only had one entry. A massive door stood between two stone pillars, a complex net of metal bars and gears on its surface. Silas crouched hidden behind a pile of rubble, observing the creatures as they went back and forth along the parameter.

“Ok, so this is how it’s gonna go,” Silas declared as he got back to the group.

“Creak,” Gnarly nodded, who had stayed with Zaya and Nurana.

“The only way inside is through the front door. There doesn’t seem to be any order as to where the machines go and when, and I saw a couple of them almost bumping into one another. However, two of them always stand stationary before the entrance. We will need to take these out if we want to go in. We can wait until the rest is gone, take the two guards out as soon as possible and enter the academy.”

“Good plan,” Zaya nodded.

“That’s a horrible plan,” Nurana objected. “What if we can’t take them out? What if the noise attracts more of the machines before we can get past the two by the entrance? What do we do then?”

“That’s why we need to take them out fast.”

“What if we lure the automata away from the entrance instead of trying to fight them?” Nurana proposed.

Silas and Zaya looked at her with a dumbfounded expression. “Haven’t thought about that,” he said.

“Somehow, that doesn’t surprise me.”

“Be boring,” Zaya chimed in. “Also, I want look at the things from inside. Is interesting.”

Despite the numerous automata controlling the streets, they quickly reached the edge of the square, hiding behind a half-crumbled wall. From up close, the statue of Aqueel was even more impressive, the metal cube in his hand looking like nothing they had ever seen before.

The two machines at the academy’s door might as well have been statues. Silas couldn’t even discern whether they had eyes or not. Near the academy, a tall building stood on its last legs, one wall already missing a couple of bricks.

“If we can make that building collapse from here, the noise might distract the guards and give us an opportunity to get to the door.”

“So I shoot stone at wall?”

“Yes. You shoot stone at wall,” Nurana repeated. “As soon as the guards move, we make a run for the door. Everyone ready?”

Zaya lifted a stone up, shaping it so the tip was pointed. She gave one last glance at Silas and Nurana before putting her whole body into a punch that propelled the heavy projectile forward in a burst of speed.

Everyone watched with bated breath as the stone spike shot towards the wall. It blasted straight through it, coming to a stop somewhere within the house with a deep set of cracks. A few bricks cluttered to the ground. For a few heartbeats, nothing happened. Some of the automata were already moving to investigate the noise. The stone cracked. One sound set loose an avalanche of noise, a series of sharp bursts echoing across the ruins. Clouds of dust exploded into the air. The building leaned precariously to the side until the stone eventually gave way under the accumulating pressure and crashed into a smaller house to its left.

“Well, that’s certainly a distraction,” Nurana whispered.

However, the two guards in front of the entrance hadn’t moved an inch. Instead, automata from all around the city began swarming towards the disturbance, some already circling the collapsed building.

“I don’t think they’re going to leave their posts. We need to take them out now before the rest gets back.”

“Smash metal creatures. Good idea,” Zaya nodded.

“They’re machines,” Nurana corrected her.

“Where be difference?”

Nurana gaped at her, not knowing where to begin.

Silas had already drawn his bow, charging his shot with energy. He didn’t know how much use they would be against the metal creatures, but something was better than nothing. He reached out to Gnarly with his mind, inviting him to connect himself to the arrow.

“Creak.”

“Zaya, you take care of the left one,” he told her as the mounting pressure in the arrow reached its crescendo.

The arrow let go of the string. A burst of air rippled at Silas’ cloak and cleared the dust and sand covering the ground, the projectile growing mid-flight. The heads of the two guards twitched. One of them raised its arms to block the spear shooting towards it.

To his surprise, the spear went straight through the automata’s arm and embedded itself into its chest. A shover of sharp rocks pelted the other one as soon as it started to move. It got about ten feet before the ground under it erupted. A spike of stone shot upwards, spearing the automata through its midsection and nailing it in place.

As one, the group dashed towards the door to finish off the remaining automaton. Thick vines sprouted from Gnarly’s arms to entangle the machine, its arms slicing at the vines to free itself. A thin, sharp slab of stone cut into its neck, cleanly separating its head from the rest of its body. The metallic head toppled to the ground with a loud clang, the machine going still.

The door looked even more massive up close. A fist-sized indentation the shape of a pentagon stood in its center. Tiny, metal patterns sprouted from the pentagon, the small tubes and bars gradually increasing in size as they crawled towards the edges of the door. The whole door seemed to be made of these patterns, only getting more intricate the deeper Silas looked.

The whirring sound of wheels made Silas turn his head. From between the ruins, the first automata were already coming back. “What are you waiting for? Open the door!” Nurana urged him.

“Uhh…” Silas began. “It doesn’t have a handle.”

Nurana’s head whipped around. “What? Open it!”

“But how?” he shouted back at her.

Zaya stared at the hole in the middle of the door, hand clenching into a fist as stone compressed to form into the shape of the hole. Giving it a shove, the stone embedded itself right into it.

Nothing happened.

Three machines now went straight towards them, their bladed arms raised high. Nurana edged close to the door. “Do something!”

“Calm down. We can fight a few metal—” she stopped. More and more machines kept swarming out of the ruins, some bigger than others. There were dozens of them. “Bukha, now we need open door.”

Silas focused on the hole and tried to shut out the noise of the steadily approaching automata. Zaya would handle those that got too close. He had first thought the hole to be a lock, but that didn’t seem to be the case. Small, golden tubes spread from the hole into the rest of the grey, metal door. What were those for? Using his Artsight, he guided a bit of energy into the hole to get a feel for the mechanism. To his surprise, his energy immediately got sucked in by the tubes, disappearing somewhere within the mechanism. “Huh.”

“What huh? Open the door already!”

Silas shot Nurana an irritated glance. Opening his Inner Landscape, he let more and more energy flow into the tubes surrounding the hole of the door. All of it was gone in a heartbeat. The door clacked, some of the metal patterns shifting before growing still again.

““Stupid. Metal. Creatures,” Zaya forced out, sending the automaton flying into another one behind it.

More and more automata kept coming for them. The ground was littered with metallic arms, legs, and wheels, many of the automata lying dead on the ground. Disregarding finesse, Silas shoved more and more energy into the pentagon. His Inner Landscape was nearly half depleted before the gears near the middle of the door started turning again, causing the bars to shift.

An automata dodged one of Gnarly’s vines and swung a bladed arm at Silas. With his attention still on the hole, he barely noticed it before a stone-covered fist rushed by his face and knocked the blade away. Zaya let out a primal scream, rushing forward as she punched more and more rocks at the incoming automata.

“Zaya, stay back!” Silas shouted above the noise of clanging metal, although she didn’t seem to react. They needed to hold their position to rush into the academy as soon as the door opened. If the automata surrounded them, they’d get overwhelmed.

The gears surrounding the pentagon began to churn. Metal bars clacked and shifted, the patterns rearranging themselves. Soon afterwards, the whole door writhed with movement. It reminded Silas of a story Batu had told him once.

The great academy of Al-Talash, holding secrets no one may dare to comprehend. Its door a writhing net of snakes, its watchers, sleeping, yet waiting for the return of their creator. Ready to smite any intruder that dares to soil its holy grounds with their greed. The cursed sands of the Crimson Dunes shelter the fabled city, hidden, but never forgotten.

Silas felt a sudden spike of pain in his chest as he remembered his father’s voice. At least the memories would stay with him. Silas watched in amazement as the patterns seemingly fled from the middle towards its edges. Finally, a loud clack came from the door. The pentagon split in two. Metal ground against stone. A gap tore itself through the middle of the door as it hesitantly swung open.

Nurana was the first to rush into the academy. Silas turned to follow her, then stopped. “Zaya, it’s open!”

She didn’t hear him. The automata continued to swing at her with blades and spears, her leather clothing already torn in multiple places. Red gashes drew their ways over her legs and arms where the machine’s blades had connected.

“Zaya, we need to get inside, now!”

A guttural growl escaped her throat as a spear sank into her thigh. Silas cursed and lunged forward, striking at the nearest automata to cover her left. When she looked at him, violet, writhing wisps flashed in her eyes, and Silas knew something was wrong. Flooding his arms with energy, he grabbed Zaya by the hand and pulled her into the academy, using his strength to push the doors shut behind them.

Pain suddenly flared in his back, taking the breath out of his lungs. Silas whirled around. Zaya stood hunched over, facing him, mad rage shining in her eyes. Another stone came from his left, but Silas deftly sidestepped it. How dare that barbarian attack him after saving her life? If she wanted a fight, she would get one.

“What are you guys doing, stop!” Nurana’s high-pitched scream tore through Silas’ bubbling anger, lifting the veil that had drawn itself over his vision. Silas took a deep breath, clamping down on the foreign energy that screamed at him to loosen the grip on his barely contained fury. No. He wouldn’t let himself be controlled by anyone, let alone this Taint.

Silas dropped his spear and held up his hands. “Zaya, it’s me.”

Confusion flickered over her face, yet she continued her attack. Silas crouched low to dodge the incoming rock and sprang towards her. Tackling her with his shoulder, they rolled over the stone ground. Before she could react, he sat on top of her and grabbed her wrists.

“Stop fighting me, Zaya! Wake up!” he shouted, looking down at her emerald eyes.

Her features relaxed, her eyes regaining their usual clarity. “How long you want sit on top of me, little boy?”

“That’s not what I—” Silas stammered as he got off her, the heat rising in his cheeks. No use in arguing with her. “You’re welcome,” he said instead, sitting down on the hard stone ground to rest.

Nurana joined Zaya, laying a hand on the small girl’s thigh. Zaya hissed through clenched teeth, arching her neck. “Not know what do without you, Nurana. Many thanks.”

Silas watched the flesh slowly knit itself back together, until only a shallow wound remained. Nurana ripped a piece of cloth from her robe. “Die, probably. Care to explain why you two nearly killed each other?”

“It’s the Taint.” Silas broke in before Zaya could answer. “I noticed it in my Landscape a few days ago and saw it flashing in Zaya’s eyes when we held off the automata.”

“Is much stronger when we fight,” Zaya said. “Hard to stay in control.”

“Then you guys should probably keep a tight reign on your emotions. I don’t think any of us is getting out of here alone,” she said as she finished bandaging Zaya.

Silas grunted his assent, leaving his doubts unspoken. They hadn’t even made it to the surface.