Timothy opened his eyes and wiped the blur away. He still felt tired but nothing like he did, after doing, whatever it was that he did. He tried to remember what happened, the thoughts slipping through his mind like sand slips through open fingers. The memories were right there, he could almost see them but the harder he tried to focus on them the more they slipped out of his mind. It took some time before he gave way to the fact that he was not going to remember at this time. He rubbed his eyes again and saw that Rift was sitting on a chair, staring at him.
“How long was I out?” Timothy asked.
“About three days,” Rift replied. “I kept waiting for you to fade away. I guess your soul strength is greater than we thought. How do you feel?”
Timothy thought about that for a minute. His body did not hurt, his muscles were not stiff and if he had been here, sitting in the same position for three days, he would have expected something to bother him.
“Other than being a little tired, surprisingly good,” Timothy said as he stood up in one smooth motion. “What happened?”
“I was hoping you could tell me; I am not entirely sure. You were sitting there when the attunement rejected you, tossing you off the square. Next, you returned to the plinth and somehow, changed it. Forcing it to attune to you, not you attuning to it. In turn, that changed the magic of the room, though I am not sure what the changes are. After this, the room activated, as it should have if you attuned to it, and then you fell asleep. I have been here keeping an eye on you since. Waiting for you to fade but hoping you didn’t. To my surprise, you persisted for three days,” Rift explained.
As Rift went through the details of what happened after Timothy was rejected from the plinth, the memories started to float back to him. Timothy took a few seconds to collect his thoughts into some sort of order.
“I remember sitting there, trying to attune to it but there was something…wrong…about it. It felt like something was, I am not sure of the right words, invading me maybe,” Timothy said.
“That was the room trying to have you attune to it,” Rift responded.
Timothy gave Rift a disgusted look, “It was if I was being touched by something so cold that it felt hot, I couldn’t let that happen, it had to stop. Once I made the decision that I would not allow that, I was thrown from the plinth. I could feel the rejection, even after I was thrown off. That was when I remembered what you said, ‘That I would fade away,’ if I couldn’t attune to the room. All of the sudden I could see everything, the magic, the structure and more importantly, I understood it. I was determined to change it, make it conform to me, so I reprogrammed it.”
“Reprogrammed?” Rift asked.
“Well… that is the best way I can describe it. After I finished there was an exhaustion that fell over me that I never felt before. It was irresistible and then the next thing I remembered was waking up. You said three days later, shouldn’t I be gone?”
“It depends on the strength of the soul,” Rift said. “Your soul must be far stronger than we thought, which is fortuitous. I would like to sit here and study you, but I think we should continue first.”
“Probably a good idea,” Timothy agreed. “So, what’s next? I choose a door?”
“Yes,” Rift answered. “The order doesn’t matter. Word of warning, I will not be there to guide you once you go through the door. What you will have is the knowledge of the user you are inhabiting. The user will be a sort of avatar for you. You will have full control and know how to use the abilities, or if you prefer, you can let the avatar handle things. It is up to you.”
“Got it,” Timothy said. “I am going for the caster first.”
Rift gestured toward the northern door. Timothy took a deep breath and walked that way. As he approached the door, he somehow knew that he needed to place his four fingers and thumb on the bright stars on the left of the door. He flexed his left hand a few times before placing it on those stars. As he did, they lit up under his fingers and thumb. The light started to flow toward the door frame, running along its edges.
With a click, the door creaked open. Timothy removed his left hand from the wall and used it to push the door open. The entryway was a swirl of colors, constantly flowing and changing. Timothy looked back at Rift. Rift simply gave him a nod, Timothy nodded back and turned to the doorway, stepping through.
Lights and colors rushed by him as he felt himself being pulled through this fluorescent tunnel. It was exhilarating, like he was on the best rollercoaster of his life. It twisted and turned, moved up and down, as he felt his mind start to lock onto foreign knowledge and memories. With each of these fragments the ride slowed down and the colors started to fade. The first thing he knew was his name was not his name. His name is Khloe.
No! Her name is Khloe, Timothy thought.
Khloe is a tall elf of about six feet with long golden hair, smooth features and purple eyes. She wore a long cream-colored robe with green accents at its hems.
Since she is an elf gem caster she is allowed to have three more gems than her level. One, because anyone can use one gem, even normal people not trained formally to use them. Another because gem caster was her primary path and the extra one was for being an elf. One of the elf’s racial bonuses was to wield one extra gem.
She broke through the wall some time ago and is close to level seven. Being level six she can have nine gems. Khloe knew that she already had the nine gems but she was in a type of limbo right now. Allowing her, or more accurately, Timothy, to choose her own for this trial period.
But what did the gems do? As Timothy thought this, the knowledge flowed from Khloe to Timothy.
Red, fire.
White, air.
Blue, water.
Brown, earth.
Black, metal.
Green, life.
Purple, force.
Clear, dimension.
Cat’s eye of any gem, mental.
Khloe took some time to think about all her options. Another piece of information that came to her was the amount of gems determined the power level of the spells that could be channeled through them. More of the same gem allowed for more of that magic to be channeled. It was not additive, there was a factor of diminishing returns. Two gems would make the magic one and a half times more powerful. Three gems, one and three quarters, to a max of five gems doubling the power level.
She made her decision. Two red, one blue, one white, two green, one purple, one clear and one cat’s eye. Once she selected the last gem the lights of the tunnel vanished and she was standing in a large tent with her two companions and three other men.
Her two other companions, Teagan and Nigel, were human and dwarf respectively. Teagan was even taller than Khloe at about six foot two inches. He had short, dark brown hair and wide shoulders. He was armored in a combination of leather and banded mail and carried a large sword on his back. Nigel was the shortest of the three with a small frame and a large bushy beard that made his head look too big for his body. He was dressed in loose fitting light brown leathers.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
“Thank the moons you have arrived,” said Captain Victor Wilson, the officer in charge of the contingent outside of the formerly abandoned, Fort Berkshire. “The Dragon Cult has been held up in the fort for the past three days and we have been unable to breach. In fact, we have not been able to get close enough to start an effort to enter the fort. They have some casters on the turrets keeping our forces at bay.”
“Our only regret is that we couldn’t get here sooner,” Teagan told the Captain. “I am Teagan Brody. These are my companions, Khloe Quinn and Nigel Franks. What is the situation, Captain?”
Captain Wilson, a tall man in his mid-thirties with medium length brown hair, dark eyes and a complexion to match, waved the group over to a large wooden table. He and the two sergeants took a moment to clear it before he pulled a map out from a chest behind him. As he rolled it out on the table, placing rocks in each corner to keep it in place.
Captain Wilson looked up at the three of them before saying, “We do not have any solid intel, what we estimate is this. First, there are fifteen to twenty hostages being held, most likely, in the courtyard here,” pointing to the bailey just inside the gatehouse before the keep. “We can sometimes hear cries from inside the walls, which tells us that these hostages are being kept outdoors and not in some room that would muffle the noise. Next, we estimate between twenty and forty hostiles. Four to six of which are gem users. We know there are two on the turrets, one on the north and one on the south. Those two have been holding our forces off from breaching the doors. We estimate at least one more on the hostages but realistically, probably two or three. Lastly, we know that Lady Jilisa Cole is leading the cult. She is a level five caster. My best guess is this is her attempt to push through the wall. She has been stuck there for a few years now. It has been more evident with each passing year that her frustration with not breaking through has been affecting her judgement. Rumor has it, she is trying to summon one of the old dragons.”
The three looked over the map of the fort. There was a gatehouse flanked by curtain walls on each side leading to turrets. From there, the walls turned to the east before making a nighty to the central keep. There was a bailey between the inside of the gatehouse and the portcullis of the keep. The keep could be accessed by one of three ways. From the north or south, through where the curtain wall attached to the keep or through the portcullis.
Inside the keep, on the first floor was a great room, squared off at the entrance. The opposite side was a semicircle with two sets of stairs on each side leading up to a landing with a set of double doors. Through the doors was a smaller room that had a set of stairs on the left and right leading up to the second floor.
The second floor was more basic than the first. The stairs led to a large throne room with rounded walls and a cutout on the far side of the stairs lined with three pillars on each leading to a dais. The cutout had two sets of double doors, one on each side of the dais that led to the master’s chambers. In the circular part of the room there were four single doors, two on each side, leading to smaller bedrooms for the master’s children or possibly servant’s quarters.
Teagan looked at his companions. “I think we start off quietly and enter through the balistraria on either side of the main gate. From there we clear the two turrets. Next, we move to the courtyard and free the hostages. At that point captain Wilson can have his men move in to secure the perimeter and evacuate the hostages. Once the hostages are out we can go into the keep hard. Khloe, we will need you to get us close without being detected. Can you handle that?”
Instead of Khloe responding, Nigel cut in. “Tea, I got this. We have time. Let me craft a few quick use items for us so we can save Khloe’s mana.”
“That sounds good to me,” Khloe said. “That should allow me to have the mana to lock down the casters on the turrets. I should be able to create a false image there as well. That should keep any other guards from being alerted to our presence.”
“I like it. Nigel, how much time will you need?” Teagan asked.
“Single use items with limited duration, give me a few hours,” Nigel said.
“Good,” Teagan replied. “That will give me and Khloe some time to rest up before we move in.”
Nigel took no offense to this, being a dwarf he was able to go longer without rest. Dwarves were among the most robust of all the common races on Draconous. They were able to go for days before needing any rest.
This is one of the reasons that dwarves made such good forgers. There were times during the forging process where the work could not be interrupted, even for a short rest, otherwise the magics being worked into the item could dissipate or even corrupt the item itself if not locked to its purpose.
Teagan went to a cot on the one side of the room while Khloe settled down to meditate. After a few hours Khloe was roused out of her meditation by a comforting hand placed on her shoulder by Nigel. Teagan was standing a few steps behind examining a small trinket. Khloe blinked her eyes a few times as Nigel offered her a hand to stand up. She took his hand and stood, beginning to stretch her limbs and back.
“Thanks Nigel,” she said and looked at Teagan. “What have you got there?” Khloe asked.
“This is what I came up with,” Nigel beamed! “It is a short-lived enchantment that will bestow a sort of invisibility to the wearer once activated. It is not very powerful but should give us a good five minutes as long as no one is actively looking for visual distortion. See, I figured their casters may be watching out for true invisibility. Instead, I made this.”
Nigel held up a trinket that Khloe now realized was actually a broach that looked like a tiny mirror, but the inside did not reflect and image. It projected whatever was behind the broach onto the mirror surface. Making the center almost look like it wasn’t there.
“It is more a trick of mirrors than invisibility. I got the idea from watching a stage magician who made someone disappear in front of an entire audience without real magic. It was brilliant!” Nigel said as he brought another one out of his jacket pocket, handing it to Khloe.
Khloe took a few moments to look it over before saying, “Not bad Nige! It looks like it is single use, correct?”
Nigel nodded before Khloe continued, “It is elegant in its simplicity. I can see the magics running through it, but I doubt I could have created this. Especially three in only a few hours.” She turned to Teagan, “When do we begin?”
“An hour before sunset. This will put the sun at our backs and should partially sun blind them to our approach. That gives us a little over an hour to prepare. Is there anything else you need?” Teagan said.
He was not one for long speeches, preferring to be as direct as possible, often times forgoing common niceties. It could be off-putting to many people at first, but people soon realized that his devotion to the group was second to none. Doing whatever it took to keep his group safe, no matter what the cost may be to himself.
“Na, we are good,” both Nigel and Khloe said to Teagan.
Over the next hour the group of three gathered their gear and mentally prepared themselves for the battle ahead. They then pulled Captain Wilson over to review the plan and contingencies.
Teagan started in, “Captain. Our plan is to approach the main gate as quickly as possible under the cover of Nigel’s invisibility broaches. Once there we will break for the southern arrow slit and phase through the wall. Next, we will clear the gatehouse, unlocking the doors but leaving them closed. This will be your point of entry. We will then clear the southern turret. Afterwards the northern turret will be the next clear. Following so far?”
“Yes,” the captain said.
“Good,” Teagan said as he continued, “Next, we will open the main doors, this is the signal for you and your men to move in. We will need your help to secure the hostages, you and your men secure then and engage any non-gem users. My team will target the remaining gem users and keep them off your men.”
The captain nodded his agreement before Teagan continued, “If at any time this plan goes to the dark gods we will send up a signal flare. This means we have been discovered and need your assistance quickly. Keep your approach to the south as we will be clearing that portion first. It should give your men the most cover.”
“Got it,” the captain said quickly, allowing Teagan to continue.
“As we all know, most plans do not survive first contact, you will need to make decisions on the fly if this happens. Either way, we meet in the courtyard to defend the hostages. The rest of the plan stays the same, your men clear the normals, my group will clear the gem users,” Teagan looked at the captain.
Captain Wilson thought about things for a moment before nodding his agreement. “Lastly, you and your men will escort the hostages out and sweep the rest of the fort. My team will make their way to the ballroom and clear it before moving to the throne room. Once all gem users have been cleared we will leave any mop-up to you. Anything to add?”
Captain Wilson looked at Teagan, “I think this is the best plan we can have, as you said, no plan survives first contact. As long as we know the overall direction your team is moving through and the meeting spot, we should be good. Again, thank you for your help, we will be ready on your signal.”
“It is our job and our pleasure to help. What they are doing is not what the power is supposed to be used for,” Teagan concluded. He turned to Khloe and Nigel, “Get ready, we move in five.”
When the time was right, they affixed their broaches to their outer garments and injected a bit of their will into them to activate the trinkets. As they did their images shimmered a bit before blurring and finally fading out. They made their way out of the tent and started heading down the old dilapidated road to the fort.