Entering through the portal Artanis finds himself in a hallway similar to that of a Greek set up. White column pillars with grassy green vines and tree leaves wrapped around each one, going slowly down the hall looking for a door he sees no guards and torches light along the column’s sides as he passes them. Artanis then reaches the end of the hallway to find one single door, light emanates from the edges of the door seam bright and gripping his blade tight at his side opening the door Artanis is blinded from the light until his eyes come into focus.
Uncovering his eyes when the light doesn’t hurt anymore he then sees a most breathtaking sight. An alter sits in the middle of the room, or so what he still thinks is a room for the pillar columns now make a connecting stone ring at the top of them. No walls hold the chamber in tacked just miles and miles of ocean scenery all around is surrounding this little island like room, blue sky in the air above him with a gentle wind blowing and the sun shining down. Artanis sees a pedestal in the middle of the alter, going up to it he appraises the pedestal material, “It’s diamond, the whole pedestal is fashioned from diamond, my god this would be worth more than all the gold in the world any king has” Artanis says loudly and through the pedestal’s clarity does he notice a book closed on the podium. The book looks like it could be from a simple shop for nothing amazing stood out; it just looked like a simple book. Artanis then strokes the side binding on the book and just looking at it he hears a voice.
“Go ahead pick it up” echo’s from the island room and drawing his sword quickly Artanis spins around stopping the blade at the cloaked figures throat, or so he hopes, “My, my you are a fast one aren’t you” it echo’s again,
“Who are you?” asked Artanis not removing the blade just yet.
“My name is of no consequence and for as to what I am, that’s a little tricky, in simplest terms I’m a consulate of this room and of its message to be passed on to leaving descendants of the members of the Zenith Tower” the figure said unmasking himself to reveal a normal human looking man with a fatherly look to him.
“To consulate who? And for what purpose?” Artanis then inquired
“Why for you Artanis”
“And why me, I’m not of this place nor am I anyone’s kin”
“I beg to differ for you are of this place or you would simply not be here, and for being no one’s kin well that’s wrong too….for you are mine”
Raising an eyebrow Artanis judders out with a small laugh “I think you’ve been haunting here too long…I’m not your son” the figure says no reply, only raises his left hand revealing it and a ring wrapped to his index finger. Staring at it Artanis holds a glare as the color drains from his face, “Where did you get that” Artanis demanded
“It’s mine son”
“You lie” Artanis gritted with heat, “I hold no reason to deceive you son”
“Shut-up!” spat Artanis jolting his blade in intimidation, Artanis move backward toward the door and feeling for the handle he turns it and quickly spins to exit. Slamming the door hard his head hits the wood and Artanis holds deep thought, clearing his mind once more Artanis goes to leave but opening his eyes does he see he still stands in the same wall less chamber. Artanis holds a glare for still to his eyes is the figure, “Son…”
“What the hell is this” Artanis interrupts and spins to again leave only to walk again to the same room and the sword falls from his hand clanging to the floor, Artanis lifts his shaking arm to point a finger at the man.
“YOU! YOU ARE NOT MY FATHER!” he bolted “That’s impossible”
“No Artanis just improbable…..please let me explain before a judgment is past”
Going into a story of how Artanis was born, the man said that it started with him working on some things in the lab when he heard the alarm sound, going around and detecting life in every room he finally found the intruder a woman, Tiefling in nature, she was a thief and judging by what she had taking the best he had ever seen, she had weapons and scrolls from the armory and enough magic to use against him in a battle, they fought for some time until finally she was beaten, exhausted from wasting almost half of his magic he was to say the least curiously impressed, with her knowledge of the craft and hearing the guards approaching, he knew what would become of her so in the short time he had to think. He made a decision that would forever alter his life; he let her go, and taking back the items she stole. Telling the guards that she escaped while he was confronting her about the items, days later she returned but instead of fighting she confronted him about a problem she had with another. Weeks went by and he eventually helped her through the troubled times and in so doing they started to fall in love.
The relationship being unlawful to the code he lived but mattered to him not, and stretching across years they always meet in secret. One day, a child was conceived through their love, the start of their problems than begin; for the council was then magically alerted to the crisis at hand. They had a seer in the membership who told what was happening and finally he was confronted about it, not lying because of not being ashamed for what he had done he told the council the truth. He was told that his union of togetherness was forbidden and as for desecrating their laws, even further by having a child, he would then be punished. He had to choose between his family and his involvement with the Zenith clan, but loving his family as much as he did he could not bring himself to resign from the group. He told his wife that they had to stay apart and not understanding the reason for his decision as any wife would she grew angry. She would do as he was asked under one condition, that he cast a spell to remove his fatherly involvement from their child’s mind, and understanding that she didn’t want emotions of hate to hinder upon his son’s life he reluctantly agreed. And they were never seen again.
Sitting on the floor with his mouth open Artanis was speechless as well as shocked beyond all thought, finally after a long couple moments passed he then asked
“So are you umm alive?”
“I’m sorry son I was among those fighting against Colossus when he attacked the tower, he killed all of us, I am a spirit but due to the fact you are still alive and carry my blood you have the right to be in this tower”
“This is a little much to handle for me right now, I would like to go and come back when it is sorted through my head”
“Very well my son, with you still being alive means that I will remain until you fully understand you position here, but before you go please take the book with you and keep it safe”
“What is it?”
“It’s called the Tome compendium of Celestial Arcane, and it is the most complete record of events in the timeless continuum, you simply need to touch it and upon thinking of what you want to know the pages will appear with the information you seek”. Taking the book he then tries it out, thinking of something he opens the book to see three words written there, Your fathers Magic, and turning around Artanis asks his father “I thought of how my defilement from Logan was possible, and this came up” he said showing him the page and reading it for himself Artanis’s father answers him
“It must have been from when I blocked your mind from my images of being your father, and against his blood control they must have counteracted with each other” Artanis’s father explains. Absorbing the explanation although still not understanding any better, Artanis then leaves the room with the book.
The next morning at the castle Alisianna is out for an early ride on a horse at the stables when Elanee goes out to meet her with Anubis in tow, watching Alisianna ride for a time by herself Elanee then waves her over.
“Hey new day to you” says Alisianna to Elanee riding up to the fence, and getting on a horse herself she asks if she can join her
“Sure, is Namor coming too?” Alisianna asks
“Nope just me and Anubis” replied Elanee “Apparently Tristan is over concerned for my welfare and not being able to guard me himself he gave me his cat”
“Well sorry I stole him away” Alisianna said laughing
“Where is he anyway?” Elanee said
“Oh he went hunting with a band of men at the crack of dawn” and showing a look of worry she then thought to herself for a second
“Hey he’ll be back soon, don’t worry you can have some of my bodyguard till he gets back if you want” Elanee smiled
“It’s not that” she replied
“I’m sure Cloud is fine Alisianna, besides the elders are there with him to make sure they didn’t get mislead” Elanee comforted
“It’s not them I don’t trust” Alisianna stated
“I know, I don’t trust her either, I mean when has Rain ever gone with a girl he hardly knew without getting some rude punches off on them first” Elanee said concerned
“Hey there’s only room for one worried and suspicious lady over here Elanee, besides why are so uptight about her anyway, she’s with Rain not Namor…..unless your worrying is not for that purpose?” she says to Elanee with a confused but small grin.
“I have no idea what you’re getting at” responded Elanee kicking her horse to start riding and Anubis then follows, and following her Alisianna catches up
“I think you do…Elanee…do you have feelings for Rain?” and Elanee says nothing “Elanee, come on its me here, you can talk to me”
And pausing for a moment Elanee then answers her “Ok, remember what I told you and Dawn about the tests at the Shadowell dance” and nodding Elanee then goes on “Well, I left one on them out, you see there was a kiss we had to share…” and interrupting her Alisianna gasps and covers her mouth excited like
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“You and Rain had to kiss, well how was it, did you like it?” she asked and looking around and getting a little bashful she nodded her head
“It…it was the best I had ever had” and growing a worried look again she lowered her head a bit “And therein lies the problem, I’m so scared and confused I don’t know what to do, after that kiss I have saw Rain differently, and not just physical either I mean how he thinks, talks, makes direct eye contact”
“Do you love Rain?” Alisianna asks her
“Maybe, no, I mean I care for them both a lot and…..god I’m so confused” Elanee says
“Well as your friend Elanee, if you love Namor, don’t risk anything to jeopardizes that, stay with him, but if there is no feelings of love don’t string him along”
“And what about Rain” Elanee asks
“Do yourself and Rain a favor, forget about him, I’m not saying that it will be easy but it’s right Elanee, but one things for sure if you try to hold on to both you’ll lose both, you need to choose and choose soon” and understanding Elanee and her then ride off down the trail.
Writing out the sections of text on scrolls Rain then spends time studying them while everyone else spends their time enjoying the rest of the tower. With Cynn busy reading a book intently Rain suddenly perks up, “Hey! I got it” Rain said standing up scaring Cynn and making her drop her book, “Sorry” Rain said going over to her and Eve joins in the group, “You see this marking, and the description of misty hills, and then finally this saying, they who would walk for a second lifetime”
“Yeah” Cynn replies thinking of where he’s going with this
“I think the first essence is at the shaded hills” Rain said excitedly looking to Cynn who returns to Rain a most distressing look of worry, “Something wrong, Cynn?”
“Well, there’s something you don’t know about the hills there” she stated
“Look I know that they’re rumored to be haunted but really you believe that?” Rain asks
“NO, but believe me Rain it’s much more than a rumor, you see about seven hundred years ago, two small keeps ran by two wealthy lords lived in the area. They lived in peace and harmony but the armies didn’t understand why, one night both armies rose up against one another without the approval of the lords and they attacked each other in those very hills slaughtering almost everyone. Returning from a battle that gained no ground for either side the lords were furious with their men, so at night when all the men left were asleep the lords crept in to their rooms killing off the rest of them, burying them with the others out in the hills, the two lords then put a hex on the ground telling them they could never rest until the armies forgave, and could work together toward a common goal that was mutually benefiting for both parties” Cynn explained
“Wow, interesting tale, I’m surprised I’d never heard that one for a bed time story from uncle” Rain said interested
“Oh he would have if it wasn’t for us camping there a few nights not at first believing in the tale ourselves, then one night nine of our men disappeared from watch, we searched everywhere to find them thinking they wondered off, and then it happened” Cynn elaborated
“What, what happened?” asked Rain totally grossed with the story
“We were attacked by skeletons we had never encountered before, they were very skilled fighters matching skills with Straud himself, and even more stressing is that some of them weren’t affected by magic at all, but could cast it, priests were of no use due to the fact they were cursed which at the time we didn’t know, I think now if Maylor was to lift the curse he could then use his holy word ability to destroy them. But even more distressing about the situation was that we had thought some of us saw a Mummy of great power who dwelled there” Cynn finished “You might not know of the tale but of the other name the hills have been called, the tome of the restless dead!”
“Hey, I have heard of that” Rain replied
“So what essence is said to be there Rain” asked Eve after hearing the tale
“Um….Fear I think, it says that it is forsaking to be touched by any other than that of a cold embrace, whatever that means, I don’t know” Rain says
“Well we’ll have to figure it for ourselves, but we should gather the others and tell them what you have found out” and about to leave Cynn turns to ask Eve “You wouldn’t by chance know if this place keeps maps of these places somewhere would you, for those hills have catacombs buried underneath and we’ve never been down in there”
“It could take days to find them in here Judicator” said Rain, “but Silverspire carries some from a quest they did there, that well didn’t go very well”
“See if you can get them and I’ll bring our clan up to date” Cynn commanded and Rain was escorted by Eve out of the tower to the exit gate.
“Just walk through and picture where you want to be, the gate will send you there” Eve explains and upon thinking of it Rain is transported to the Silverspire gates, he is greeted by men armed from seeing the portal of clouds open and not knowing what it was, he is then granted access and let in.
He is met by Tristan who informs him of Artanis still awaiting their arrival back, Rain then quickly teleports to his location and telling all about the tower and first that everyone is ok and unharmed. He explains his findings and about where the first essences is, telling Rain that Logan has been there with having memories of the place, Artanis partitions to be able to accompany them, “That’ll work good because they are immune to spells which renders me useless…again and also this way I can work on finding the location of the next one by the time you return from getting the first” and putting the plan into motion they teleport back to the city.
Meanwhile Elanee coming back from a busy day to her quarters is scared again by the forge mage, who has her item requested in hand awaiting her return.
“I thought you said a couple of days, it’s only been one?” Elanee asks
“Actually I have been done for about half the day with this; your blood is truly great, it bonded almost instantly with the headband which is odd, they generally take more time than that” and handing it to her she takes it and thanks him for the service, also she tells him that she wants this kept a secret from anyone knowing she created it for him and nodding saying most customers like it that way. He’s used to keeping his mouth shut, gesturing her to use it wisely he leaves in a puff of smoke. She sits down to write a letter to Rain explaining the use of the headband and upon finishing it sees Captain Tristan entering her room, knocking he asks if he could disturb her to tell her that Rain has returned from the tower to grab some maps.
“He’s here...Now!” she says crumpling up the note and tossing it away, “Where?” she asks
“In the Library, Lady Elanee” and going up to him and apologizing for not talking with him she explains she must see him and with Anubis on her heels she goes past him. And smiling to himself he continues down the hall.
Rain and Artanis are in the mists of gathering the maps of the known areas of the catacombs, Artanis was unusually calm and quite which got Rain to inquire as to what was wrong.
“I met on my return here an informant that has been left to notify me of guild activity from you know who’s band that we eliminated from Silverspire”
“What you mean the Nod Guild?” said Rain
“Yeah”
“And” gestured Rain for more
“Well there was talk that some members were wanting that cache of weapons that Elanee and you broke up last year, not being able to locate you for retribution they know she is here …”
“Where are they?” Rain scampered for an answer
“I don’t know”
“When do they plan on attacking?”
“No idea”
“Artanis” Rain hyped out
“Hey Rain it’s only talk, but if it is true”
“She won’t even see the attack coming” ended Rain “I need to protect her but with Namor lurking around every turn she makes I can’t even get close”
“To hell with that pile of worm goop, you do what you need to Rain, this is Elanee were talking about” Artanis ends huffed with Rain calming him with motions of his hand that someone was coming.
As Artanis organizes them by levels he sees Elanee come in to the room.
“Elanee” says Artanis and Rain lifts his head, she waves to him and he nods to her while he keeps looking for more maps and scrolls.
“Could I have a moment with Rain in private Artanis?” she asks him, replying Artanis grins “Sure, I needed to go and make sure the torches in the hall were perpendicular anyway” and leaves the room.
Going up to Rain Elanee takes a breath and holding the head band in her hands she says to him.
“Going on a treasure hunt, or something” and looking up at her he laughs
“Treasure hunt no, I found the first evil essence and need some maps of the area to navigate quickly through and beat Colossus to it” he says and going past her he notices the item in her hands. “What is that?”
“Oh this, it’s for you, I had it made” she said and putting down the scrolls he gently takes it from her offering hands and looks at it.
“Is this what I think it is Elanee, is this a Circlet of mind shielding” and smiling she answers “Yes it is, and to get it made took more effort than I thought, that guy needed some of my blood to finish it”, standing there stunned Rain just looks at it.
“Is something wrong Rain, is it made poorly?” she said worrying
“Oh no it’s fine, actually it’s amazing, it’s just no one has ever does this kind of thing for me before…..Thank you Elanee” he says going up to give her a hug.
“You’re welcome Rain” she replied “It was supposed to take longer but the ….person who made it for me said my blood was very strong for a seer, and it only took half a day” and snapping his fingers Rain bolted out
“That reminds me of something”
“What?”
“It was the thing I was looking in to before all this happened”
“And that was?”
“You actually Elanee, your seer abilities, Lalandra’s tome collection is really quite amazing….anyways I don’t think you’re a seer at all”
“Really” she said taking a chair to listen
“No, you see seer powers don’t advance like you have said yours are, plus they aren’t found in girls anyway, only males carry the seer ability, something in their makeup I think, anyways…Elanee I think you’re an Oracle” he says
“A…Oracle? What is that?”
“It’s like a seer but you have the power for the time you are connected to another to borrow their powers like you have done, and dig through minds like you have also done, seers don’t do those things they can only see things that have happened and some future premonition powers but nothing like you have done” Rain explained excitedly
“And how many of these Oracles are there?” Elanee asks
“Only one born a generation per realm, a very rare, rare find you are Elanee”
“Well thanks, I think…” Elanee says and saying nothing Rain breaks the uncomfortable silence, “Well I should be heading off here”
“Is that other girl coming too?”
“You mean Eve” Rain says “No, I’m not going either me and her are staying back to locate the second one”
“Rain I know we have had our differences and I know that you don’t like me that much...” thinking of the words to state her worries,
“Hey, you’re wrong Elanee, I do care for you, especially after all we have gone through together to save my family” and smiling at Rain’s words she says
“Rain I don’t trust that Guardian I don’t trust her one bit”
“Eve Templaris? Why?”
“She just gives off a bad feeling for me, and since you now say I’m an Oracle, just be careful around her ok” she said sympathetically to him
“Alright I will Elanee, but I don’t think you need to worry, I’ll be fine” and nodding her head she goes to leave but closing her eyes and stopping her tracks she turns around.
“Rain, one more thing….a question actually”
“Yes”
“Back at the Shadowell city dance when we had to you know…kiss…did you…did you feel anything…for me that is, after that?” and having his back turned to her he closed his eyes and took a breath “No! Nothing outside of the regular feelings I have for you, why?”
“Oh nothing I was just wondering” and walking away again Rain stops her with the same question.
“Did you feel anything different for me Elanee” turning around she looks at the ground not making eye contact she answers him,
“n-No” Elanee stutters out, “just after the kiss I thought that maybe the other was thinking something that wasn’t true, that’s all. Just wanted to clear up any misunderstandings” and concluding her thoughts she then looks up at him with a disappointing look to his back, “Sorry to break up any intimate moments that were going on but we really should get going Rain” Artanis interrupted entering the room again, with both Rain and Elanee warding off such a guess of his. Artanis picks up half the scrolls in his hands and with Rain doing the same teleport away. Elanee seeing them off after the light show goes to leave when she hears the falling of a book to the floor, turning around she sees the book Artanis had, that seemed to have slipped out of his belt under his wraps from gripping all the scrolls, picking it up she reads the title tome of Celestial Arcane to herself and figures that it is Rains book, she takes it with her out of the room to hold it for him till he returns, and goes to her own room then after.