“Come now, surely you can do more than this!” Hodin unleashes a flurry of strikes, each one aimed squarely at Marn’s heart. She parries each blow but one of the attacks glances her exposed arm. “You’ll never win if all you’re doing is playing defense,” Hodin says as he pierces the space where Marn was a moment ago. “ How fortunate for you to be a Gladius, that tremendous physical ability is all that’s keeping you in this.”
Marn lands a few feet back after dodging the last thrust. She didn’t want to admit it to Hodin, but what he said was true. When a Gladius wields a weapon, their physical abilities are greatly magnified, allowing them to draw out the full potential of their respective weapons. In Marn’s case, her speed, reflexes, durability and strength are greatly increased to maximize her swordplay. “ You seem to know a lot about the 13 Blades Style of Swordsmanship, are you a practitioner?”
“A pathetic attempt to buy yourself time to look for an opening. I was expecting more from you since you easily killed my recruits,” Hodin says, “ oh well, guess not every 13 Blades user can be Zorya.”
Marn’s blood burns at the mention of her name. Zorya Hakismar, leader of the largest nomadic tribe in Grezia and an Exalted. “Where did you meet her? Is she here? If she is, then take me to her right now!” In Marn’s excited state, she temporarily lets her guard down, giving Hodin the opportunity he was waiting for. He lunges with his inhuman speed and power, once again aiming for the heart. The tip of his blade draws blood but is still inches away from his target. Hodin, with his arm still fully extended, looks to his left to see what stopped his attack.
“It’s not like you to lose your head like that Marn,” Adelie says as his invisibility wears off. His right hand is gripped firmly on Hodin’s blade, not allowing the man to pull back. “I thought I said to beat this guy by the time I get back,” a smiling Adelie says.
“Ah so I take it I’ll need an entire batch of new recruits,” Hodin says nonchalantly. He tries once again to free his blade from Adelie’s grip, but his hold only tightens. “ Your physical strength is impressive, you must also be a Gladius..though I don’t sense a weapon on you, how interesting.”
“Ok, you’re weird,” Adelie says. He inhales sharply and breaks the blade, causing Hodin to jump a few feet back. “ You’re with Night’s End, one of the epikisi ndako. Why are you in Mwinda?” A guild that’s been classified as epikisi ndako is one that has been banned from the Association for gross violation of the rules.
“You call me weird yet you refer to us in such an outdated way?” Hodin relaxes his battle stance and looks at his bladeless weapon. “ As if I’d explain anything to a person that just insulted me.” Hodin looks over to Marn, who now appears to be back to her stoic self, “ I will tell you something however. If you want to know her whereabouts, come to the Caisin islands.”
“So you’re retreating,” Marn says to Hodin, “ after all your talk about beating a 13 Blades user?”
“Surely you can’t be this stupid. I’m giving you an opportunity to provide an actual challenge for me. Besides,” Hodin stares at Adelie, “I’d prefer to not have any interruptions.” Hodin presses his necklaces and a swirl of black mist envelops him before dispersing into nothingness.
Adelie examines the scars left on the ground by the battle. Small impact craters dither the ground around him and Marn. The water that should be in the swamp is all over the desert side, turning one face of the dune into a mud wall. It would have been enough to know how strong of a Gladius Hodin was just by the damage to the environment and his hand, but seeing Marn’s wounds and the seething disappointment in her eyes told him everything he needed to know. “ Hey, are you-”
“Zorya is here, Adelie,” Marn says with cold objectivity, “he said her name, like he knew her.”
Of course, it makes sense to Adelie now why Marn had let her guard down. “Why would she be there? That’s unclaimed territory isn’t it?” Outside of the Unam Kingdom, the rest of the continent was under the control of The Seven High Tribes and their lesser tribes. Adelie doesn’t know why none of the Tribes had tried to claim it.
“Why did you go into the swamp?” Marn puts her blade back into its scabbard and exhales slowly.
“Oh, I found our contact! She said she’d go ahead to the Longhouse and set things up for us. She also gave me this.” Adelie pulls out a crumpled piece of paper from his robes. “ It’s supposed to give us access to her or something, but we have to be at the place to use it.”
“Well then let’s go, the faster we join, the better.”
The trek to the Longhouse was remarkably uneventful, and remarkably quiet. Adelie didn’t say a word to Marn the rest of the way and, truthfully, Marn didn’t want him to. It wasn’t until they crested over the hill and caught a glimpse of the Eversea that Adelie broke his silence. “Whoa, that’s the Eversea! Marn, look, it’s the Eversea!”
“I thought we were here for the Longhouse?” Marn points to the 200 foot wooden structure that spans the length of the docks. Empty lanterns hang from long, silver chains attached to the roof of the two story building. “It’s a pretty impressive looking place, and it’s also where we need to be.”
“Impressive? It’s a wooden building with no flair and…” Adelie wanted to say “and that’s probably why you like it,” but didn’t think she’d be in a joking mood. “But that’s the Eversea, the sea of 1000 seas. I wonder if we’ll see a Weytin here.” Marn rolls her eyes and proceeds down the hill towards the Longhouse, leaving Adelie to trail behind her.
“Ok, now what? Do we enter or?”
“Give me a second,” Adelie says as he pulls the piece of paper out, “looks like I just have to say these words before we go inside.”
“Then say it already.”
“Geez you’re so bossy, I’m the guildmaster here.”
Marn stares daggers at Adelie.
“Let those who live in the light traverse where darkness can not follow. Let those that live in the darkness blot out the light.” Adelie and Marn look around to see if anything has changed. “I was expecting something cool to happen like a flash of light or-” The door to the Longhouse flies open and tendrils of light wrap around Adelie and Marn before the pair can react. The tendrils pull them through the door and they find themselves inside of what looks the insides of some building. The immediate area has a few wooden tables and chairs and a light source coming from an indeterminate area. The light shines on only one area, leaving the rest in shadow.
“Apologies for the rough approach,” Izia says, “ I had to make 10 incantins and sometimes you can’t put the right amount of ather into each.” Adelie and Marn look down to see Izia standing in the center of two tables. The tendrils lower them down into the room.
“An Evoker,” Marn says as the light tendrils fade, “can’t ever just do things the normal way.”
“My name is Izia. Izia Holcroa and I couldn’t do things the normal way because I need to make sure only the people who’ve taken the request can enter here.” Marn looks around and sees 8 other people with them. Warriors to be certain but she can’t tell if they're Gladius or not. Marn draws her blade and points it at Izia.
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“Marn, what are you doing?” Adelie jumps in front of Izia, “ This is our potential client.”
“She’s done something. I can’t feel my ather or sense any other presences.”
Izia pokes her head from behind Adelie, “ If you would have let me finish, I would have told you that this is a temporary space I created. As such, the only one who can use ather here is me.” Marn’s blade stays pointed at Izia and she can tell she’s thinking of ways to get around Adelie. “I promise I’m not going to attack you or anyone, I just need to make sure that everyone here is safe. It’s as much for your safety as it is for mine.”
Adelie gives Marn a look and she reluctantly sheathes her blade. He turns to Izia, still blocking Marn’s path to her. “Ok, you got our attention.”
Izia nods appreciatively towards Adelie and does a sweeping gesture towards the room. “As you can see, this temporary space is only large enough to seat those who’ve answered my request. I know some of you might be wondering why someone would go through this just to get an escort; the simple truth is that I lied.” Izia pauses, standing directly in front of presumably angry warriors that know a few dozen ways to separate her head from her body. She might have stained her shirt with sweat if it weren’t for the engraved black cloak she had on.
“Lied about what? The lim or the place,” a stocky man with two hatchets on his waist asks.
“Neither. The money is real and so is the location. In fact, I’ll pay you the 1,000 lim for just listening,” Izia responds. “ Is that ok with you?”
“Hell, for 1,000 lim you can put me in a dress and send me to the Maidens.” Everyone’s eyes shift towards the man before focusing back onto Izia.
“I appreciate your enthusiasm. Now then, the expedition to the Caisin Archipelagois real, but it’s for a treasure hunt.” A few of the warriors begin to murmur. “ I have reason to believe that on one of the islands lies a Forge.” The murmurs quickly turn into groans of disbelief. “ Now I know they are places of legend, but-”
“Legend?!” one of the warriors shouts, “ Lyzian the Storm-Eyed, Meya the Slayer, Bolus the Tinkerer, those are legends. The Forges are nothing but fairy tales from those little iths.”
“So we can accept that the Atherials existed and left us fragments of their power but a Forge is nothing but myth?” Izia turns to the rest of the group, “ I know no one has ever found a Forge, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t out there. Look at this.” Izia places her hand in front of her chest, palms facing upward. A piece of black stone materializes a few inches above her hand with glowing glyphs written all around it. “ I found this on the islands, it’s a waystone. The humans that worked with the Atherials were granted waystones so they could access the Forges. Um, yes?”
Adelie, with his hand raised in the air, speaks. “ If the waystones tell you where the Forge is, then why do you need our help? Can’t you just go there yourself?”
“The waystones react to the energies of both the Atherials and wielder. Since the Atherials haven’t been in this plane for thousands of years, the stone has lost a lot of its power.”
“Oh I see, so if you have a bunch of awakened people present, you think we might be a substitute for an Atherial?” Marn and Izia both give Adelie a quizzical look. “What? I’m not stupid you know, I’m just dumb sometimes.”
“No, that’s precisely it,” Izia says. “ Since the Atherials have blessed the ith with their power, and the ith awaken us, it stands to reason that with enough ather in one area that we can imitate an Atherial’s presence.”
“Ok, just one more question then,” Adelie says, “ how come those guys attacked us? One of them said we were snooping around. Do they have something to do with this expedition?”
The entire crowd looks to Izia, dozens of questions forming in their minds. “ It’s a possibility,” Izia says, “ after all, there’s supposedly an untold amount of wealth in a Forge. Is that going to be a problem?”
The man with the two hatchets interrupts, “ If you’re too afraid, then leave. More money for the rest of us.” Adelie eyes the man but he continues, “ I’ll join your little quest, I’d have to be an idiot to pass up on that kind of lim. When does it start?”
“We board a ship tonight. It’s a 3 day voyage by sea. If everything goes well, then in 2 weeks time we’ll return. I’ll have found the Forge and you all will be some of the richest people in all of Grezia, sound good?” Everyone nods in agreement. “ Good. So you all know, I’ve prepared a room for each of you upstairs. Once I dismiss this space, we’ll be surrounded by people so don’t freak out or anything.”
“Promise we won’t kid, now hurry up so I can get to bed. Took me a week to get down here.” The hatchet man rubs the back of his neck as the rest of the group laughs. One of them mentions how it took him a week because he wouldn’t leave the red shops of Aphenus. “ Hey, who am I to turn down such good company?” They erupt into laughter and call out his name, Zav.
Adelie turns around quickly.“Did they say Zav?”
“Hm?” Marn looks in the direction of the laughing group, “what about it?”
“There was a Zav in the Naka Hunt. Remember?”
“Not really. Do you remember what he looked like?”
“I-” The room begins to glow with an intense light. Adelie and everyone else looks to Izia, who is mid-incantation. Pull back the veil and pierce the darkness. Lay bare, that which was hidden. The shadows on the perimeter of the room peel away, revealing a room full of drunk dock workers, sailors and travelers. “Evoker crafts are so cool! Being able to transport people and summon things is so useful,” Adelie gleefully says, “ of course it’s not as fun as fighting someone hand to hand.”
Marn scoffs, “If their crafts were so great, why did that invisibility spell wear off so fast? And weren’t you about to say something about Zav?”
Adelie watches as Zav and the rest head to the upstairs lodging. “ Yeah, I don’t remember him looking like that. I know it was 3 years ago, but he looks totally different.” During the Naka Hunt, Zav had joined as an assistant to the Blockers, a group of Stalls that block the escape paths during a hunt. Back then, he was bald and could barely carry his own equipment, but now? Now he was a man with bright red hair and commanding a crew of his own. “ Man, just what the hell happened to him?”
“Who cares? I need a drink after today,so I'm headed to the bar.”
“Excuse me?” Izia stands in front of the much larger Marn, “Did you have a critique about my crafting?”
“Yeah, care to explain how you can make incantins and create small spaces but fail at an invisibility spell?”
“That’s not possible! Crafts like that can only be dispelled by the caster or by another Evoker.” Izia looks at Adelie, “Right? The spell didn’t wear off?”
“Uh, actually…”
Marn rolls her eyes and moves away from Izia, heading to her original destination of the bar. Izia moves to Adelie to examine him. “ How can that be? I put enough ather in that for you to grab Marn and share the invisibility with her.”
Adelie puts an arm out to keep Izia from getting closer. “Well that’s what happened, I don’t know what else to tell you.” Adelie looks as a waitress carries a massive plate of food by him. The smell of freshly cooked meat fills his nostrils. “Oh man, I haven’t eaten all day...I hate being broke.”
“If you want something, I can get you a plate or two,” Izia says.
“Wait? Really?”
“Of course. I can’t have you dying of hunger before the expedition.” Izia gives Adelie a toothless smile and she raises a hand towards one of the passing waiters. “Well, what are you in the mood for?”
Adelie walks upstairs, his consciousness slipping away as a casualty of his feat. He ate 5 plates of food, plus half of Izia’s. She told him she didn’t mind since she wasn’t very hungry, but he still felt bad for not even stopping to offer her some of his. “I’ll have to pay her back when I get paid..from her..” Adelie pauses at the top of the stairs as he comes to terms that he’s going to pay Izia back with the money she’s going to be giving him. “ This is too much thinking after eating, I need to go to bed.” The hallway of the lodging area stretches on for miles, at least, it feels that way to Adelie. Row after row of heavy steel doors adorn both sides of the hallway, each with a lit lantern hanging nearby. “I forgot which room is mine,” Adelie groggily says, “that’s fine though, I’m the only one still up so it’s probably the room without the lit lantern.”
Adelie opens the door to his room and immediately heads for the large, circular bed in the center of the room and falls down face first. He tries to settle in, but his balcony window is open. “Geez, it’s freezing in here!” Adelie wills himself out of bed and attempts to close the window when he sees the ships at the docks. One of the ships barely registers due to its small size, especially against the huge cargo ships docked near it. “Hey wait a minute? What’s that?” Adelie strains to see a figure near a ship. If it were later in Szal, the twin suns would leave a permanent twilight effect at night, but unfortunately for Adelie that was still two months away. Adelie can’t tell if the figure is alone or not due to the near total darkness and the series of docked ships blocking his way. “Well, it’s probably just dock security making sure no one is stealing anything. Either way, it’s none of my business.” Adelie closes his windows and makes his way back to bed, falling asleep with a smile on his face; tomorrow was the day he’d go on his first assignment as a guildmaster.