The stairs up from the arena were dimly lit and turned in a long spiral past several floors. My body was still aching from our fight, and I struggled to keep up with Hayvik as the older man wound his way upward. Eventually Hayvik pushed open a door that lead into a corridor of narrow shelves full of books.
“This is the upper library,” Hayvik explained as we wove around unoccupied tables piled in tomes. The smell of tanned leather and old ink filled my nostrils. The array of coloured spines were almost dizzying.
Hayvik lead the way through the maze of shelves to a series of rooms against the southern-most wall. “Our senior archivists have offices here.” He didn’t stop, instead he lead me to a door in the far corner that lead up another set of stairs. This time we only travelled one story before the stairs opening out onto a balcony.
I gasped as I saw a sprawling city layed out beneath us. We must have been hundreds of feet up. Some pinnacled buildings reached similar heights. Others remained low to the ground. Through them wove the trail of a wide river. The reflection of a cloudy sky, burned oranged by a rising sun, coloured its surface.
Hayvik cleared his throat and I turned, realising he waited impatiently at an open door. In the frame stood a lithe woman. Her skin was creased with age and her ebony hair streaked with white. The tips of her pointed ears were ringed and linked to delicate silver chains laced through her hair. She gazed out at the view too, a gentle smile curving her lips. “Beautiful, isn’t it?”
I nodded, mutely, unable to look back at the view. There was something almost ethereal in this woman. She appeared so delicate. Her fingers long. As her dark eyes met mine, I wondered exactly how many years of wisdom hers might hold. Of course, it’s not the done thing to ask. She chuckled, as if sensing my wonder. “Come, the one known as Lo’Kryn. I have been expecting you.”
I swallowed. “You have?” My gaze darted to Hayvik who seemed equally surprised.
“Indeed, I am Siria. Melvanis told me you would be coming.”
“Melvanis?” I wasn’t sure if I was becoming more lost or less. This had to be the weirdest dream I’d ever had. I pinched my arm, attempting to startle myself, but winced when the pain didn’t wake me. The woman chuckled. She turned away from us and gestured for me to enter.
I glanced at Hayvik who shook his head. “Come and find me when you are ready to train again.”
I swallowed, not at all sure I wanted to follow the woman, especially alone. Going home sounded like a much better choice.
“Lo’Kryn,” the woman called, “you cannot go home. At least not until your task is done. The Pantheon of Balance need you.”
“Go, boy,” Hayvik urged, nudging my shoulder. He crossed to begin heading down the stairs.
I gave the horizon, and the flickering lights of the dark before dawn city, one last glance before drawing a heavy breath into my lungs. If I couldn’t wake up, then I supposed there was nothing for it but to play along. If I were Lo’Kryn, I glanced down at myself, wondering exactly who or what Lo’Kryn might be, what would he do? Starting with knowledge seemed the best choice.
With a nod of resolution I crossed into the room. The woman was sitting in one of three comfortable chairs arrayed around a low coffee table set with tea. The pot and cups steamed, freshly brewed, and smelled sweet and minty. Her delicate hand gestured to the empty chairs across from her. “Please, sit. We will talk.”
I crossed, taking a seat. “I don’t really understand,” I began. She gave me a gentle smile and an empathizing nod.
“It must be very confusing for you, Lo’Kryn.”
“My name is Nik.”
She nodded again, the patience in the gesture frustrated me. “Yes, but here you are Lo’Kryn. Your manifest body is borrowed only and Lo’Kryn has a life here that you are stepping into for your quest.”
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I glanced down at Lo’Kryn’s body again. It felt odd to imagine I might be essentially possessing another man’s body. “And what happens to Lo’Kryn while I’m here?” I asked.
“When you quiet your mind you will find he is you. You share all. The memories of his life are yours. His training, brief as it has been is recalled in your mind and your muscles. All that Lo’Kryn has been is you and you are he.”
“And when I go home?”
“He will remember all you have done as if he himself had done it.” Siria leaned forward, reaching for her cup. She gestured to the other that had been poured. “Please, enjoy a cup with me. It will ease the ache of your bruises.”
I nodded, understanding, sort or. I eyed the tea, wary, but since the aches, particularly the one that still burned across my jaw, bothered me I reached forward to lift the cup to my lips. I blew on the steaming liquid before taking a sip, just as Siria had done, then sighed as the heat seeped into my muscles easing all of my aches and pain (Healing: 3+4+2=9). I closed my eyes, letting the tension ebb away. When I opened them again Siria was gazing at me.
“When can I go home?” I asked.
She sighed, took another sip, then placed her cup back on the table. “It is a complicated thing, Lo’Kryn. When Travellers are called it is always in times of great peril. You are needed, I know not for what exactly. Melvanis in their wisdom could not reveal that to me.”
“You’ve said that name before too,” I said, “Who is Melvanis?”
“They are one of the three powerful deities that are the Pantheon of Balance. The three work to maintain the balance between good and evil in our world.”
I nodded, understanding that. In the games we’d played my friend Bec had been a cleric of Goibradin, a god of healing. In those games the gods more often than not had the power to act at least through their followers if not independent of them. I wondered if that were true of this strange new world.
“What world is this, exactly?” I asked, wondering how far from home I might be.
“Essaedris, in the year 184 PD.”
“PD?”
She nodded, lifting her fragile fingers to tuck a stray strand of hair back behind her ear. “Post-Disequilibrium,” she explained. “That is a story long in the telling. Suffice it to say there were Travellers then too. There always are in times of great change.”
I swallowed, not sure I liked the sound of that at all. And that it had only been just over one-hundred years ago made me wonder exactly what kind of strife might have been wrought on this world in that era. “And Melvanis? What did he say of my coming?”
Siria lifted her chin, eyeing him. “They spoke only of your arrival. And that the Palladium Rise would be called to aid your cause.”
“The Palladium Rise?” I asked.
“Indeed.” Siria shook her head. “I get ahead of myself. There is much you would know without needing to be told if we start first with you finding yourself, Lo’Kryn.” I swallowed again, suddenly anxious. Siria smiled to reassure me. “Fear not, it will do neither of you harm to find unity. You need only trust in the process.”
I wasn’t sure I could trust anything. I still wasn’t convinced this wasn’t a dream but since I didn’t seem able to wake myself up I guess all I could do was play along. I took a moment to study the woman. I had to wonder if I should trust her. If it were one of the games I’d played I’d call for an insight check. Suddenly, I heard a gentle clatter at the edge of my mind (Insight: 13+2=15) and felt a sense of knowing. Siria seemed true, and honest, and I felt myself trusting what she’d said so far. I even started to wonder why I’d thought she might lie to me. There didn’t seem to be a reason.
She smiled more broadly then. “Yes,” she said. “You begin to sense it, don’t you?”
I shook my head. “Nothing, really.” I wasn’t sure what I’d sensed.
“You sense the game.” Her chin dipped and she looked at me as if gazing into my mind. “It is a gift of the Travellers, only they sense the turning of fate. In the annuls I’ve read they referred to it as a rolling of the dice.”
I shook my head. It can’t possibly be that. It would be ridiculous to think my thoughts and actions could be controlled by the roll of a dice. But that’s exactly how we’d played things. When I’d been Jax it had been the roll of the dice to see if I’d hit an enemy, how much damage my weapon dealt, even how much I could understand of others. My gaze narrowed and I looked deep into Siria’s features. “What are you?”
She chuckled, reaching for her cup, and leaned back in her chair. “Have you not worked that out yourself?”
I’m not sure I wanted to voice what I thought she was.
She nodded as if knowing my thoughts. “I am an elf. And as you’d no doubt guessed, Hayvik is a dragonborn.”
“But I am human,” I said. I spread my arms as I again looked down on this mundane, although muscular, body. My skin was more tanned than it had been. I was also more muscular and taller than before. I was dressed in simple clothing, similar to what Hayvik had worn, but my belt was blue and I had soft sandles on the soles of my feet.
Siria shook her head. “You are so much more than human, Lo’Kryn. But as you do not yet know your full potential I’m not one to enlighten you. Perhaps it will come when you connect with your whole self. Or perhaps it will reveal itself as you make your quest. But suffice to say, there is much within you that speaks of all you might one day become. You, and the companions you will discover. First, you must learn to listen. Let me show you.”