At first, the glow from the spell was too great for Gabe to properly register the image. Gradually however, the glow subsided, allowing the image, this vision of the future wrought by Professor Alrik’s magic to become clear. Four figures, each shining with a different colored light, stood at the end of a cliff that overlooked a city that sparkled with multicolored lights. One of the figures, the one covered in orange light, stood apart from the others, their light dimmer and less solid compared to the bright green, brown, and yellow lights of the others. Above them was a tapestry of twinkling light that shone like stars in the night. Gabe thought he recognized some of the constellations but the image bore little similarities to the night sky of Forlet and Aranthia.
The more Gabe looked at it, the less he understood. This was their future? How were there stars underground and why was the figure in orange raising their arms to them? Did this mean that they would have to leave the tunnels to find the answers they sought? None of it made sense to him.
The light radiating from Professor Alrik began to fade. Despite having been sitting mostly still for the last 15 minutes, he was breathing heavily and his shoulders were slumped. Finally, the last of the light dispersed, leaving only the image of the figures shining against the wall. Gabe could tell that it too was dimming, though at a slower rate that led him to believe that it would last for another few minutes.
Simon walked up to his master, a waterskin in hand. He held the opening up the professor’s lips and tilted it for him so he could take several gulps. After he finished, Professor Alrik waved away Simon’s attempts to help him and slowly began to stand up.
“So Gabriel, what do you think?” he asked, breathing still labored. “Not the most efficient of spells but it certainly leaves an impression.”
“That was incredible,” replied Gabe, his voice tinged with awe. “I’ve never seen anything so wondrous before. The sheer amount of mana that came off you, it was extraordinary.”
Professor Alrik chuckled, but then it morphed into a fit of coughing. Simon, who had been standing nearby, quickly handed over the waterskin and after a few moments Professor Alrik was able to collect himself. With a quiet smile he looked over at Gabe.
“My hope for you is that you have the opportunity to see some of the true wonders of this world. Now, let us take a look at what lies on the path ahead.”
With slow, shuffling steps, he made his way over the magical image. It was noticeably dimmer than it had been, but it possessed enough light that all the details could be visible. Gabe walked up next to Professor Alrik and Simon, who had accompanied his master. Only Drevock didn’t approach the image as he was still in the process of cooking.
It amazed Gabe how much depth and variation was in the image. Some parts of it were vague and non-descript, such as the glowing figures. He reasoned that they represented the four of them, but aside from the colors and postures there wasn’t a whole lot of detail. This was contrasted by the depiction of the city in which he could count the individual bricks that made up one of the buildings.
“How does this work Professor?” asked Gabe. “I mean, I understand that this represents our future but how does it help us? Unless you guys are seeing something I’m not, this doesn’t exactly help us decide which path to take.”
Professor Alrik opened his mouth to reply but before he could get the first word out, he started coughing again. What started as a sporadic burst quickly transitioned into a relentless fit that wracked his small frame. A gesture from Simon caused a short pillar of stone to rise underneath Professor Alrik, allowing him to take a seat and catch his breath.
“Are you okay?” Seeing him like this worried Gabe. “Would my magic be helpful right now?”
It was Simon who answered
“He’ll be fine. The spell takes a lot out of him. It’s actually similar to what we were just talking about. To cast it, Master Alrik channels nearly his entire mana pool through his soul. It puts a lot of strain on it, especially since he’s mixing mana types outside of what his soul is attuned to. If someone who didn’t have over a century’s worth of dedicated practice expanding and strengthening their soul attempted it, well let’s just say that bad things would happen.”
A gleam of admiration danced in Simon’s eyes as he spoke about his master’s power and a small, soft, proud smile graced his lips. The smile quickly turned to a frown as another coughing fit overtook Professor Alrik.
“Though maybe a little magical assistance wouldn’t hurt. I don’t think there’s anything directly wrong that Repair can fix, but maybe the boosts from your aura will help him.”
Without another word Gabe went through the motions to cast Aura of Vitality and soon the room was suffused in green light. Professor Alrik was able to take a deep breath and his body visibly relaxed on its stone support.
“That is much appreciated Gabriel.” The olde gnome took another long sip of water before continuing. “I had hoped that by keeping the temporal parameters limited the strain would not be as bad but the spell is still a work in progress. Getting back to your questions, I designed this spell to use a question as the focus. In this case, I asked ‘Will taking the center path lead us to our goals?’ If we assume that the city of lights represents the location where the information on compound nodes is stored, then it appears that we know which path to take.”
While Gabe was impressed with Professor Alrik’s magical ability, listening to how the spell operated brought up some questions.
“It’s good to know which path to take, but wouldn’t it have been better just to ask ‘which path will take us the compound nodes’?” Seeing the look of disapproval on Simon’s face, Gabe quickly added. “That wasn’t meant as a criticism, I was just thinking that what if the spell showed us all dying or something. Since it was just about the central path, you would have had to cast it again to check the others. In fact, shouldn’t we do that regardless? I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t like that the figure I assume represents Drevock has a dimmer light than the others. Maybe that’s supposed to mean he’s injured. One of the other paths might be safer.”
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
Gabe didn’t like to point out what he thought were valid concerns regarding the plan, but they’d already had a few close calls. It was only going to get more dangerous as they continued, so it just made sense to explore all the options.
Simon opened his mouth, likely prepared to issue some sharp rebuke of Gabe’s questions, but Professor Alrik waved him off. The old gnome took another sip of water and then looked up at Gabe.
“Your concerns hold merit Gabriel. I do wish that my spell allowed for such open-ended questions, but alas I am afraid that it is restricted by my limitations. I have found that it produces the clearest images with very specific questions. If the image did not inspire confidence that the central path is a viable route to take, then yes I would have insisted on casting the spell again. Fortunately, that does not seem to be necessary, though if you think it would be prudent to gather information about the other paths, I have no qualms about doing so. I will just need some time to recover my mana.”
Despite Gabe’s aura infusing his body with vitality and strength, Professor Alrik still seemed frail sitting on his stone seat. If casting the spell once caused such a reaction, Gabe couldn’t imagine what state the professor would be in if he needed to do it again. With the scowl adorning Simon’s face, Gabe got the impression that asking Professor Alrik to repeat his spell so soon would not be well received, regardless of what the gnome said.
He turned back towards the image, which by this point was just a pale translucent imitation of what it had been in the beginning. As he watched, the light slowly faded out completely. The last parts to go where the four figures, now just faint blotches of color against the stone wall. The orange figure was the first to disappear completely and Gabe hoped that wasn’t part of the prediction.
“No professor, I don’t think that’ll be necessary. I trust your judgment, you know the capabilities of your magic the best. If you think that the image indicates the central pathway is the way to go, then that’s the path we’ll take.”
From the way Simon’s scowl softened into a mixture of approval and exasperation, Gabe knew that this was the best decision for the group. And it wasn’t like they were going to go charging down the pathway recklessly. With any other group, they would have made the decisions without any information to go on, so they were actually in a better position than they would have been in normally.
He still had some lingering doubts regarding just what some of the details meant though. Apparently he hadn’t been able to keep his concerns off his face because Professor Alrik commented on it.
“A word of advice Gabriel. Do not dwell on what the vision depicted. My spell attempts to carve an intricate sculpture using only a dull stick. It is crude and imperfect, usefully only in showcasing the most general of what will happen. It allows us to get a glimpse at where we might end up. The path there is ours to determine.”
Leaving Gabe to ponder those words, Professor Alrik got up from his seat and began to slowly make his way over to the stone table where Drevock was setting out plates of food. Gabe noticed that Professor Alrik stumbled slightly as he left the range of his aura and he didn’t need a look from Simon to know that he should walk over to the table as well.
Gabe hadn’t realized how hungry he was until he had a plate of sizzling food in front of him. The mix of vegetables and thin slices of beef were seasoned with spices Gabe was unfamiliar with but was very much growing to enjoy. A perfect blend of heat, sweetness, and a hint of something he couldn't quite place.
“This is really good Drevock,” he said between bites. “Where did you learn to cook so well?”
This wasn’t the first time Gabe had tried to strike up a conversation with Drevock, though he was hoping it would be more productive than the others. So far he hadn’t been able to learn much about the man, the few tidbits he did know came second-hand from Simon. After a few awkward moments of silence, Gabe thought Drevock was just going to ignore his question but then, to his pleasant surprise, he answered.
“In tribe, all help vith cooking. I learn there.”
Gabe waited to see if he was going to add anything else, but the large man was apparently satisfied with his response.
“Oh, well that’s cool. I helped out a bit in the kitchen back in Forlet, though your food is way better than anything I could make. Do you miss being with your tribe?”
This time the silence stretched longer than just a few moments. Gabe hoped that Drevock was simply thinking about what he wanted to say, but after almost two minutes it was evident that the man was done talking. Oh well, at least Gabe made some progress in getting to know him better. He counted it as a win.
“So professor, I’ve been thinking about something you said.”
“Oh is that so? I doubt there is nary a moment in which your mind is not musing upon something,” replied Professor Alrik with a weak smile.
Even with the effects of Aura of Vitality and the meal Drevock made, the professor still seemed much more frail than he had before casting his divination spell. As much as all of them wanted to keep pressing into the tunnels, Gabe knew that they were going to need to camp here for a good while to let Professor Alrik regain his strength.
“You mentioned that your spell uses a question as the focus. I was just wondering what question you asked when you had the vision with me getting um, you know.”
Even though he’d mostly come to terms with the vision of him bleeding out, it still wasn’t something that he liked to dwell on. Especially after seeing the spell in action, it was all the more foreboding knowing that such a powerful output of mana foretold his demise. He took a swig from a wineskin to settle his nerves and as a result didn’t see the look that passed between Simon and Professor Alrk.
“Ah, yes. That is a reasonable thing to wonder, particularly given the circumstance, though I am sorry to say that I cannot give you a satisfactory answer.” he said, his voice trembling slightly. “Futurweaver’s Insight takes so much out of me, it is difficult for me to remember the exact phrasing I used for that specific casting, especially since it was some time ago.”
Gabe was disappointed in hearing this but it made sense. He’d been nearly knocked insensate when he overloaded his soul, he couldn’t even begin to imagine what it was like to channel that much mana at once. He’d been so concerned about the physical toll the spell took on the old gnome, he hadn’t even considered if there were other effects.
“That’s alright professor, I was just curious.” Gabe ate the last few bites of his meal before pushing his plate away and stepping up from the table. “If you gentlemen will excuse me, I’m going to walk a ways down that tunnel and see if I can’t find some ‘running water’. I figure that since the last adventurers who stayed here came through there, it’ll probably be safe enough if I don’t go too far. That was an excellent meal Drevock, thank you again.”
As Gabe disappeared down the tunnel to relieve himself, Simon spoke in a hushed voice to his Master.
“I think we should tell him. He deserves to know the full story, and I don’t think he would turn his back on us now.”
In that moment, Professor Alrik seemed even more frail and tired than he had been after casting his spell, as if the weight of the world was resting on his shoulders. “We cannot risk it. There is too much at stake.”
“But Master, if we just-”
“No Simon. This is not up for debate. We will proceed as we have been and when the time comes, we will do what we must.”