"Woe unto you Lords of the Northern Tundras! Woe unto you Queen of Conheim! Woe unto you Blasphemer, the "god-king of mankind"! For the Gods shall be upon your shoulders and will make you kneel in humiliation. You shall be as a spectacle before your people and the world shall scoff and pity your low estate." - Mani the Mad Prophet, Bk 1, Ch. 10, Vs. 1-2
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Within a sea of pine trees under a thick blanket of fog, a pair of stone tablets lean on a tall Live Oak tree. Dew on the blades of grass and leaves of trees fall from their precipice and make a “Drip… Drip…” sound as they crash into the ground. Silence reigns over the forest; however, the sound of the dew overthrows this silence every ten seconds.
Silence, drip, silence, drip, silence, drip, … .
The World is chained by the Way.
Drip, silence, drip, silence, drip, silence, … .
Cycles upon cycles upon cycles forevermore.
Silence, drip, silence, drip, silence, drip, … .
Aria is not free.
“OOOOOMMMMM ….” Suddenly, the tablets levitate from the Live Oak and move to the center of a grove of Golden Willows. A flash of lightning strikes the tablets. It does nothing to them. Even more flashes of lightning start striking the tablets until the whole sky is filled with rivers and streams of lightning of all colors. Then, everything stops. The tablets slam the ground kicking up dust into the air. The world regains its silence. With the sound of a “drip”, the tablets stand up and start making a kaleidoscope of colors the world has never seen. A voice can be heard from it.
“Testing, testing, one, two, three. Why, hello again, dear reader, did anything surprise you today? How about anything I said earlier in my narrative? I hope it was to your liking. Now, were we? Ah, yes, I thickened myself as two tablets of stone in a forest somewhere. Now, I believe someone is coming here to discover me soon; however, I do want to give you two little tidbits of information first, dear reader. First, most measurements of time are the same as your world. Second, I believe Tempus calls this current epoch the Fifth Age.”
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Hiking eastward, a quiet old man appears. He has a lean build and a comely appearance despite his white whiskers and the folds on his forehead indicating his advanced age. He is wearing big black boots, a black top hat, brown trousers, and a grey trench coat over his colorful flannel shirt. His most distinctive feature is his monocle on his left eye and his Black Lead cane held by his right hand.
He sticks out like a sore thumb.
He then stops and with his left hand takes out a golden pen from his coat pocket.
“Scribere,” he whispers to the watch.
The golden watch then floats from his right hand into the air facing away from him. The pen then writes three sentences in Old Latin followed by a triangle with an eye in the center. The writing glows yellow and encircles the pen. Suddenly, the pen engulfs the magical script and glows a black color with a yellow eye hovering over it. The golden pen then points to the man’s left.
Smirking, the old man starts walking to his left following the general direction where the pen was pointing. After hiking through the brush for about one hour, the man hears thunder ahead and his golden pen starts shaking erratically in all directions. In a firm voice, he says, “Reditum!” The hovering yellow eye disappears and the pen loses all its colors turning black. The man quickly grabs the black pen and puts it into his coat pocket. Sighing, the old man dashes toward the sound of thunder making afterimages through the gloomy forest.
Elsewhere, north of the grove of Golden Willows where the tablets reside. A young woman and young man are trekking southward. The woman is a demon, their key features being the two horns on the top of their foreheads and their distinctive smooth, black tails which ends with a unique shape. The woman has black horns decorated with Arcanic Gold and a smooth black tail that ends in a purple triangle. She has tanned light brown skin, piercing scarlet eyes, an athletic body, and is wearing an out - of - place school uniform. The man is a human and clearly hails from the North. He has blond hair, blue eyes, and has a tall and muscular build. He also has the same type of uniform as the women except that he is wearing pants instead of a skirt and has a brown leather sheath made of wyvern bone with the hilt bespeckled with a rainbow of magic jewels.
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."Look at that Live Oak, Titus!" a young energetic woman says.
"Be more careful, Ashtarte! Our teachers said that Blackmist Forest can be a dangerous place!" Titus replies.
The duo then senses a disturbance in the air around them with mana twirling and gyrating across the air and the ground toward the south.
They raise their heads looking toward the direction where the mana is swirling towards.
“Hey, Titus, let’s go over there.” Ashtarte says grinning madly.
“I do not think that is the best idea, Ashtarte,” Titus replies. “We should not even be this deep in Blackmist Forest. I think it would be a better idea to go back and tell the teachers what is happening in the forest.”
“And get punished for not following directions?” Ashtarte says, rolling her eyes. “It is fine Titus. Remember that I am a Demon Lord! There is nothing in this forest that can harm me!” Ashtarte says while laughing.
Titus sighs, “C’mon, Tarty, you just became a Demon Lord last year. Besides the sudden disturbance in this place is NOT normal. It would be a safer and wiser option to just go back and report this to our teachers and have a formal process for handling the anomaly.”
“Don’t call me Tarty, Titus!” Ashtarte says, glaring at him. Stopping where she is at, she turns around and looks at Titus straight in his eyes. She asks,“Do you know why we need to go there, Titus?”
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Titus is silent for a moment. “No,” he replies. “It would be better if we head back. Personally, I think you just want to go there to blow off some steam and beat the living shit out of some monster, human, or artifact.”
Ashtarte responds, “No, Titus, think about it. The flow of the magic here is as you said NOT normal. Say, for example, that we went with your idea. We go back to the training area where our teachers are at. The best thing that happens is that nothing happens in Blackmist Forest (highly unlikely) but we get punished for straying too deep into the forest. Our grades might even suffer. However, consider the worst thing that will happen if we go with your idea. Something major happens in this forest. A monster overflow, a gigantic mana explosion, mass illusions, endless nightmares, compulsion toward suicides, and so on. We do not know what will happen, but there is a large chance that our friends and the people around here will die, the University might also fall, we could also perish due to our negligence. So what if we risk our lives in this investigation, it is our duty as nobles to protect the weak; and if we cannot overcome this obstacle while we are in our youth, can we surmount the obstacles we face once we graduate and start ruling our respective territories, Titus?”
“Huh, ffffiiiinnnee, Ashtarte, but I still think you are lying through your teeth about helping the weak, but you do raise some good points; however, please try to be more cautious of your surroundings,” Titus replies.
“It’s okay, Titus, now TIME TO BREAK SOME SKULLS!” Ashtarte yells.
She then bolts towards the magical anomaly. Titus, sighing, sprints and follows close behind.
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The old man suddenly stops and observes the grove of Golden Willows. He then closes his eyes and chants, “Videre!”
A third eye appears on the top of his forehead. The barrier between the essences of things and the appearance of things disappears. What does he see? He sees the Golden Willows bowing before the stone tablets. The tablets themselves emit colors that are not of this world. He then sees a host of different divine creatures circling above the tablet which spontaneously begin praising it saying, “Holy, Holy, Holy!” repeatedly in constant cycles.
Looking closely, he sees mighty men and women made of emeralds, sapphires, rubies and other precious gems above the trees in the sky, above them giant interlocking flaming wheels circling above the willows covered in eyes, above the wheels living creatures with four heads of different beasts with each head pointing toward a different cardinal direction with wings covering their feet, hands, and eyes on their face, above them Cherubim, beings of pure light representing fire, air, water, and earth appear in the form of heavenly tribulations with eyes, and finally above the Cherubim four great Seraphim also known as everlasting dragons circle the thing at the pinnacle of these swarming creatures. An unapproachable light with colors no one has ever seen covers something indescribable and Wholly Other. Madness ensues.
“Prohibere!” the old man shouts while closing his eyes. His vision is gone but the voices in his are still muttering “Entertain the Reader!” He collapses on the ground near the tablets in the grove. His eyes, ears, and mouth bleeding profusely. His brain almost becoming mush. He then hears a small voice, “Silence.” The world stops from the swaying trees and the wind to the dew drops falling toward the ground. Color begins draining away from the world with the appearances of things vanishing as a vapor soon after. The voice then says, “Life!”
The world starts moving and the old man now sitting next to the stone tablets is conscious and completely healed with his Black Lead cane next to him. Picking his cane up with his right hand and remembering what he just endured, he starts chanting in Ancient Latin the following supplication:
“O Lord of Secrets, the One Who Peers into the Abyss,
The Grey Eminence of History, the God of Illumination,
I pray for your mercy, I pray for you judgment,
I pray for your loving-kindness,
True God of Hidden History, please help divine
If these tablets will harm me.”
Taking the golden pen from his coat pocket he recalls that if his pen glows light blue then his divination says that the tablets are safe for him to interact with; otherwise, if his pen glows dark red then those tablets are incredibly dangerous to his person. Pouring his magic power into the pen, a light blue light comes from the pen. Nodding, he then takes the golden pen and puts it back in his coat pocket. Still spooked about what happened to him earlier, he starts tapping the tablets lightly to see if he can detect any more anomalies using his magic power. The tablets then sigh.
Chills run through the hair on the back of his neck. He jumps away from the tablets and observes them with narrowed eyes. The Author says in Urbinan,”Huh, look, I can understand why you would be cautious of me with that crazy vision you saw almost killing you, but look at the bright side. You did not die since I healed you and you probably learned something about me.”
The old man replies cautiously, “True.” He pauses. “I know that you must be at least an angel or a God’s item. What do you want from a mortal such as myself?”
“I just want to experience a good story which I know you can provide. Also, do not worry I am not affiliated with any of the current pantheons. I can prove it.”
“What do you mean by experiencing a good story? Also, how can you prove that you are not affiliated with them?”
“I know who you are not a full human, are a worshipper of an Outer God (my grandchild is sooo adorable!), and are a very powerful noble of the Kingdom of Roland. I believe I will experience a very good story about political intrigue and deceptions if I hang around you. Also, you can chant any God’s name right now and They will not hear it and respond to show to you that I am telling the Truth. It does not require any magic power and from what I remember as long as you do not blaspheme Them, They will not harm you.”
Nodding at this common-sense explanation, the old man proceeds to call upon the Gods from the White, Black, and Grey Pantheons, respectively. Seeing that there are no reactions in his third eye, the man looks at the tablets with less hostility and with more questions.
Nodding his head and putting his hand on his chin the old man says, “Okay, I trust you have no intentions to harm me at the moment. I know that you are probably an Angel or some other divine being; hence, I will acquiesce to your request; however, can I utilize some of your power in my future ventures.”
“Quite the thoughtful one. You can think of Me for now as a powerful magical artifact. Pour magic into me and I can display that vision you saw earlier to others. I will also occasionally give you a heads up about future events.”
“How often can I call upon the power of foresight?” the man asked.
“Not often, I prefer that my partners are not overly reliant on me,” the tablets replied.
“As you wish, my Lord, also how may I address you?”
“Please, call me, Author, you can talk to me like a friend no need for the honorifics. Also, you can store me with your item pouch now.”
“Okay, Author, anything else you want to let me know?”
“Why, yes, two more things. I can telepathically communicate with you in your item pouch and there are two interesting people coming to this place soon.”
“Is that all?” the old man replies.
The tablets are silent.
The old man sighs and says, “Just what have I gotten myself into during my vacation?”
Sighing again, he puts the stone tablets in his item pouch and starts casting different magical spells around the grove.
“Hopefully, they are not violent.” he says. “But I am probably wrong aren’t I?”
Author chuckles in his mind.