Reports were already coming in describing large monsters and smaller ones already roaming outside the city. The fog produced by the pillars had done its job for a century keeping them from spawning out there in large quantities but now with the pillars destroyed, there was nothing to prevent them from spawning out there.
We’ve got our work cut out for us if we’re to make it out of this alive.
With the limited time that they had, Rinas and Frederek dealt with the daunting task of trying to secure peace between the green cloaks and whoever else possibly held power above them while Yorais went to gain access to the Grand Sorcerer’s Tower at the Liall Sorcerer’s University. Abigail continued to work towards trying to find Noreko and then there was Kiran who was inside his companion’s bedchamber who actively drank a potion that supposedly would help rejuvenate her.
“Feeling any better?” he said.
Lar stuck out her tongue and held a look of disgust after drinking the potion. She stood up from the bed and stretched a little causing the bones in her arms and legs to crack a little. “I think so. I’m already starting to feel a bit more energetic.” She continued to showcase a bit of disgust on her face. “Although I’m not sure if it was worth it. I’m pretty sure this wretched taste will linger in my mouth for many more hours.”
Whatever would help get her moving better, he figured it would be worth it even if she appeared to suffer afterward from drinking it. “Well, we should probably get going. Yorais wants us to meet her at the tower but I need to make a quick stop and go pick up Silvy.”
“Aw, can’t leave her behind can you?”
“Don’t start getting jealous now Lar.”
“Oh I’m not jealous at all mister.” Must you tease me at this time? She smiled and gave him a soft punch on the shoulder. “Come on then. Let’s go get her while I have enough energy to walk on my two feet. Although, be warned. I may have to change forms if I get too tired leaving you to carry me at a certain point.”
If I must I will. He wanted Lar to at least try to be able to travel for an extended period of time without his assistance. She hadn’t been very active recently due to her still weakened state. She did say recovery would take quite a while. I certainly didn’t expect it to take quite this long though.
They left her guest bedchamber for the last time. It was just them left in Rinas’s mansion. Everyone else had left including his children and any staff.
“Where’s Juna at?” she asked while closing the door to her private guest room that she was never to see again.
They motioned down the hall together. “She ran off to go pick up Fred.”
Lar sighed.
“What?”
“Don’t tell her I said this but that dog annoys me.”
“I know he annoys you.”
“Couldn’t she just leave him there? It’s just a dog after all.”
“I wouldn’t tell her that if I were you.”
She furrowed her brows as they reached the front door. “If you were me, you’d understand.”
“I don’t think I would. Maybe if you tried smiling more towards Fred he’d be more likely to not scowl or bark at you.”
“What, like this?” The corners of her lips went up creating quite the evil-looking smile.
“No, not like that. Your smile has to be genuine.”
They exited the mansion with him leading the way. She walked a bit slower so he made sure to not walk too fast so that she could keep up with him.
“Damn, it really does look bad out here.” She had only seen whatever she could see out the windows. Now that she was outside, she could really take in the amount of destruction that existed within Liall. “I knew it sounded bad out here, but phew. This place has gone to utter ruin.” She let out a weary sigh as she kept up with him. “What a shame. Had I known this place would end up like this, I would’ve had us living out in the fog for all this time instead.”
Smoked continually filled his nostrils. The city continually burned since the beginning of the central pillar’s destruction. Buildings not yet touched by all of the roaring flames soon would be. This particular area hadn’t been destroyed to the same extent as many other areas, but in time it would not be spared.
Navigating to the location Silvy remained at grew troublesome as certain streets were not navigable any longer. They took a left down a darkened alley to try to walk in a northward direction on the back streets.
A group of dirtied folk hunkered down alongside the back of a building. They looked up at them as they walked by appearing fearful of them. They had nothing to fear from them and yet they did.
He imagined many others in Liall felt similarly. They had no idea what was going on or why things were the way they were. Not knowing the why made for an easy time to succumb to fear. He wasn’t sure why he hadn’t succumbed to it himself. He was able to handle stressful situations, even especially dire ones without losing his grasp with reality.
There’s too much on the line for me to just sit in some dark corner and wallow in despair. If he had nothing, he could see himself being in that situation, but he had companions, friends, and a duty to try to preserve life as best as he could. He also still had so many questions that he wished to have answered one of these days. If he did nothing, he would die without getting any answers or at the very least an opportunity to have them answered.
They began to near Silvy’s location. They walked around a corner, took a right, and there the structure she was in appeared mostly undamaged. He felt some relief as they walked up to it.
Debris littered the ground at the front of it and bits and pieces of the slanted roof had been damaged, but nothing major. When he knocked on the front door, no one immediately answered.
However, stomping feet motioned within getting louder as they reached the door. “Password,” a muffled voice said.
He said the password to them getting the door to open. Both he and Lar went in seeing the four worried coalition members inside.
At the back, he opened the door to Silvy’s room that she was supposed to stay inside of. When he went inside, she was seated at the same table he had played a game of cards with her previously. She looked up at him while he gestured for her to get up and come forward.
“It’s time we go,” he said.
“I’m free to leave?”
He nodded that noggin of his. “These strenuous circumstances have given me some leeway to grant you more freedom.”
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“Can I get my sword and armor then before we leave?”
Kiran looked towards the guard that stood towards the left of the door. “Can you go retrieve those things for her?”
Without a word, they left to go grab it.
“What exactly is going on out there?”
He didn’t want to tell her that their plan to seize and power the central pillar themselves had backfired in the worst way imaginable. Still, he wasn’t going to lie to her and try to weasel his way out of it. Silvy deserved to hear the truth like all others did so he explained it to her as best as he could.
After hearing his explanation of all of the recent events, she lowered her shoulders and cracked a nervous smile. “You were right after all,” she replied, “to feel the way you did earlier today. We can’t go back though, now can we?”
“Unfortunately not,” he said sadly.
“Well then. There’s no sense in wallowing in what’s been done. We can only look forward. Let us try to not die over the next day then, shall we?”
The man eventually returned with her armor and sword. He chose to help her put it on. She chose to not wear her green cloak this time around but wore the silver plate armor that her former order of knights always wear. She kept her sword sheathed and appeared ready to go.
As she herself has said. We indeed can only move forward from here.
With their bodies facing forward towards the entrance, they proceeded to leave this building after he told the men there to abandon it and proceed to the Liall Sorcerer’s University.
One problem that they had briefly considered earlier that night was whether the tower or the university had been damaged when the central pillar was destroyed. That would cause serious problems with their plans but thankfully it appeared mostly unscathed including the black tower that he saw reaching for the dark sky above.
They began to enter through an open gated entrance leading into the university that had coalition members motioning by them in both directions. He found himself moving by the various inner university buildings until eventually he found himself approaching the giant tower. The tower was surrounded by a field of snow-covered ground. Some of the nearby buildings on the outer perimeter of the tower had their windows shattered. The tower itself appeared undamaged for the most part which was a positive development. That was the only thing they needed from this place as far as he was aware.
When he craned his neck back to take in the height of the tower, it was tall enough that it appeared almost capable of piercing through the sky itself.
A group of people began to walk behind them. Rinas along with Frederek appeared. The two of them looked drained after what must’ve been an intense encounter with the green cloaks.
“I assume everything went well?” Kiran asked with Silvy to his left and Lar to his right.
Rinas looked at Silvy before responding. “It could’ve gone better. But it appears we have ensured peace between ourselves and Grand Master Harold who has thankfully agreed to work alongside us to evacuate as many people as possible.”
“You met with Grand Master Harold?” Silvy said.
“We did. Since you know him better than any of us, is he someone who we can trust to keep his word?”
“He is a man of honor although he is also quite cold and brutish. If what you say is true that you’ve secured peace with him—temporary or not—then yes, I would say you shouldn’t have to worry. Although I would still act cautiously.”
Frederek gestured with his hand. “Most are sensible enough to avoid certain death. He knows if he were to enact his vengeance on us at this time, he would only be sentencing himself and everyone else to their deaths. Given everything, I don’t believe we have reason to fear any immediate retaliation from them.”
It was nearly unfathomable to think they would garner peace between the coalition and the currently reigning regime. And yet it was happening nonetheless all due to the ruined state of Liall and the dangers posed to every soul within. Everyone knew if they weren’t willing to help each other, the number of deaths would only grow even more unfathomable. Life had to be preserved and all the varying sides—no matter how much they hated each other—were willing to commit themselves to this at least for now.
Kiran felt thankful that everyone was willing to set aside their grievances so that they could properly evacuate the city. They could all bicker and fight afterward.
When he eventually went inside the tower, he found his body begin to feel strange. It felt lighter in some way.
The tower’s exterior was quite dark, unlike the inside which was the opposite with bright white floors, walls, pillars, and golden geometric shapes etched onto almost all of the surfaces. Tons of aura-infused lamps were also used throughout the complex along the walls to keep it brightly lit inside. The golden glyphs etched onto most of the surfaces glowed and pulsated while near the center of the bottom floor, Yorais had her arms stretched outward from her body.
A strange and constantly reshaping aura formed at the center of this enlarged chamber as Yorais tried to form what must’ve been the portal that would lead them to the fourth domain.
“Do you feel the energy in this place?” An older lady sorceress stared at the aura being manipulated by Yorais. She wore completely white robes and even her irises were somewhat white as she stood nearby him.
“I certainly feel something whilst being inside here,” Kiran said whilst Lar and Silvy stood behind him. “Maybe I’m only imagining it, but I do seem to feel lighter as well.” It was a strange sensation. He wasn’t sure whether he liked it or not. If he were to do anything magic related, supposedly he wouldn’t be as drained because of the tower’s special functions in refilling an individual’s mana reserves at a faster rate than normal.
“All whose soul’s are attuned to the arcane arts often feel lighter here. Although some have suggested that their bodies feel heavier. I’ve never quite figured out why one may feel lighter and another may feel heavier. Regardless of that, what you are in effect feeling right now is your body being en-wrapped by all of the excess magical energy that is drawn here.”
“What makes that possible?”
The older sorceress with wrinkles on her face and completely white hair draped down the back and front of her shoulders looked up towards the immensely high vaulted ceiling. “This tower has mana absorption glyphs strewn throughout it as you can see. They essentially absorb all of the excess mana on the outside.”
“It almost sounds like this tower is trying to do what an arcane root does.”
She looked down from the ceiling to look him directly in the eye. “Ah, yes. Although this tower could never empower one quite like those mystical objects. Nor is this tower as dangerous or addicting as the power those objects provide to those who are in possession of them. But I shall digress no more. I wouldn’t wish to bore you with such arcane information meant more for my peers and the students who attend this university.”
“You’re not boring me at all, although I can’t speak for this one over here.” He jabbed his elbow back to gently hit up against his companion. He imagined her making a mean face at him but he didn’t dare look back to tell.
“Well, let me finally introduce myself. I am the Grand Arch Sorceress Junavel. I am the administrator for this university.”
For a moment he looked over towards Yorais who was there standing all alone focused on creating the portal. She stood there completely still as she continually worked towards empowering that chaotic sliver of dark aura trying to manifest in reality. “I’m Kiran,” he said courteously to Junavel. “Thanks for letting us use this tower by the way.”
“I see no better use for it than to serve the purpose of saving people. This tower is seldom ever used anymore. I am glad that you all will make great use of it even if it is to be used for one final time. I am also admittedly saddened to hear that we must all abandon Liall and this university. I’ve been here practically my entire life.”
“Perhaps a new one can be started in the fourth domain.”
“If that is at all possible,” she said, “then most certainly.”
The quick pattering of feet motioned behind him. He twisted his body around finding the fierce gaze from Abigail as she stood there looking up at him. “Kiran, I have need of you,” Abigail said in a hurry. He left the old sorceress to see what Abigail needed.
She led him outside allowing for a chilly breeze to brush up against his face. “What’s this about?” he asked.
“I may have a lead on Noreko’s whereabouts.”
He was a bit shocked to hear that.
“Calm yourself,” she said before he could even make a reply. “It’s only a lead. One of my agents believes they might’ve found him but for all we know it’s not him. Whether it is or isn’t, I believe we ought to go investigate.”
“You want me to come with you?”
“Of course I do. If we’re going to kill or capture that bastard, I’m going to need someone with your skills to assist me.”
“I’m flattered Abigail that you’d even think to ask for my assistance.”
She began to frown. “What is even with you? I’m trying to be serious and you’re just—“ she stopped herself to let out a long drawn-out sigh. She shook her head and put her hands on her hips. “Oh whatever. Let’s just go already. We’ve got to hurry otherwise we may lose this lead. Come on, let’s not waste any more time.”