Chapter 27

Magic & Lance. There it was in a crater of snow, seemingly untouched by winter. Verglade city lay just a valley beyond the guild. I lost sight of it as we descended the trail that led us to the entrance of the guild. My attention was wholly on the guild now. It was a small city on its own, with a myriad of buildings.

I saw the warrior’s lodge, glowing like metal about to be smithed. The building was made of iron and red stone. What would normally be mortar between each brick of either iron or stone glowed like molten metal. Rows of massive warhammers and battle axes were stuck deep in the ground. The warhammer heads were nearly the size of wagons. The blade of the battle axes were twice the length of a wagon. The gigantic weapon’s handle stretched like tipping columns taller than the dorm building.

I saw the mages lodge in the dusk light, glowing a sharp blue. The walls were made of sheets of what seemed like pure mana. The walls were creased in a very expressionist fashion, and the building seemed like it was built from the mind of an architectural madman who’d broken a sheet of glass and became inspired.

One could not ignore the evergreen gardens that encircled the ancienne’s lodge of course. The walls were all white marble, extending several stories high. What was most remarkable were the massive beams that supported the whole structure every dozen meters. They weren’t beams per say. Well they were, but they were made entirely of flames. Yellow and green flames that flickered calmly. Whatever magic the beams were made of, the whole structure stood sound.

Then of course there was the rogue’s dorm building. It was a sight to behold. Stacked several stories high were a series of cantilevered floors. Every component of the building was made of obsidian glass, and there seemed to be no entrance.

At last, there was the healer’s lodge. It was perhaps a little simple compared to the other lodges. It was made of massive blocks of stone with thick wooden beams that converged to form a tall A-frame. Around the building were pools of ultra-gold pools of light that sent beams to the stratosphere.

We lost sight once more as we descended further. Massive walls of snow bordered the path, having been plowed by adventures or trainers from Magic & Lance. The closer we got, the more wagons and carriages we saw, delivering students one after the other.

The feeling was almost like arriving for the first time. I’d learned so much only last month, and I had no idea what would be in store for the rest of winter.

“Alright now, young lads,” our driver said. His words came mumbled from the dense bush that was his beard. Almost as though everything he said had to struggle through thicket and thorn, before arriving battered and torn.

As thanks, I handed him a silver piece, but he refused at first, saying the guild saw him well off.

“A token of thanks then,” I said.

The mages had gone off without a word, and I stood for a moment to simply take in the scene. Arrivals were dwindling this late in the date. It seemed that students all had bigger and better weapons. I’m one hundred percent sure I’m not the only one who went dungeon diving over break. I thought of life and death once more, and hoped Pelle and Arris were safe.

I hoped every student was safe, but I know from what Garmar had taught us that it's more than likely some students won’t be returning.

I wouldn’t know until Garmar or another trainer said something about it. However, I would know if Pelle had arrived, since we shared our room.

The door to our room was thick and made from a single panel of wood. Deep carved relief work depicted Axthose’s Gourd, growing from a bountiful tree. I knocked on one of the fruits, then entered.

“Tosin?” Pelle said. “Tosin!”

“Hey old friend!” I said, smiling from ear to ear.

She rushed me and gave me a mighty hug, nearly lifting me off my feet.

“Old friends—Tosin we’ve only been gone for a few weeks… old friends he says.”

“I know, it just feels like it’s been forever,” I said, ending our hug and pushing her back at arms length to get a better look at her. My heart sank with depressive weight when I really got to get a good look at her.

“Pelle. What happened?”

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A quarter of her hair was missing. The rest of it was laid over to hide the baldness and the bandage she wore over one eye. Her cheek and nose were bruised, and her smile was half what it used to be.

“What happened?” I said again.

“I might have lost my eye,” she said dejectedly, then sat back upon her bed.

I leaned my flagstaff against the wall, careful not to disturb the several piles of Pyrrhon’s potions we hoarded.

“You might have?” I said.

“It’s still healing, but it could not heal completely and I could still lose it if I wasn’t careful.”

“What can we do about it? Why are you here? Why aren’t you in a hospital or apothecary or-or,”

“I had been, and the healers have done all they could—which was a lot honestly. Tosin, I nearly died on my last dungeon run. We went for a level 3 and it was…”

“Brutal?”

“Yes.”

“Pelle, I’m so sorry.”

“Like my mom says, that’s life for you.”

“Well what do we do now?”

“I was able to speak to Garmar, and he put in a request seeking legendary healers. Hopefully someone will humble themselves enough to help me.”

“I would, if I could,” I said. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

“No, not really. I’ll let you know though.”

“There’s nothing anyone can do in the meantime?”

“Well, Garmar had mentioned that deep wounds would be something we cover soon which goes over exactly what happened to me, and,” she paused and gestured to my missing finger. “...what happened to you.”

“There’s no way someone could heal this,” I said, flexing my fist, feeling the phantom finger move with the others. “...but your eye. It’s not too late right?”

“According to the healers at the hospital, it’s not too late. For what it’s worth, Garmar was confident someone would respond to his request. He said it had something to do with high level adventurers and divines and such widening their influence and lore. So we’ll see, I guess.”

“Ok, so how did this happen?” I said.

“Well It all started with a collector. They were looking for grass weave tunics.”

An older gentleman had put in a request for a party to retrieve the likely spawn of a grass woven tunic in a dungeon located on High Plains.

Pelle had been recruited along with a party of six other adventurers. The only problem is that they’d dungeon crawled without a rogue. Therefore they were constantly caught in traps. Pelle had taken a dart to eye from beneath her when she’d been the last one to step off a trap switch.

The dart had struck through her eye and gone right through her skull. The other healer had managed to heal some internal wounds, except the eye which remained mangled and disfigured.

“No you can’t see it!” She said after I haltingly asked.

“Yea, yea, I’m sorry I shouldn’t have asked, I’m just super curious.”

“It’s gross, plus I have to keep it bandaged. I have to replace it once a day and heal any persistent bleeding that occurs.”

“What are the chances you’ll get your eye fixed?”

“According to Garmar, it’s highly likely.”

“That’s a good sign isn’t it?”

“We shall see,” she said in a tremendously weary sigh.

We talked some more of our time off from the guild. We shared our dungeon experiences back and forth and the loot we’d received. I mentioned the spellbook, but omitted the part where crystals grew from it.

We talked well into late evening until we heard a knock on the door. We opened up, and Garmar asked for Pelle to come quickly as a demi-deity had answered their request.

Pelle practically threw herself down six flights of zigzagging stairs. Garmar and I raced to catch up to her. As we broke out of the threshold of the healer’s lodge, we came upon the demi-deity standing before Pelle.

It was obvious who the demi-deity was. She had on a summer dress that had been made from the fabric of three different suns. There was no chance that threads of that color and brilliance could have come from anywhere else. It was blinding. So much so, that the woman's face remained silhouetted against the brilliance.

“You must be Pelle,” the demi-deity said.

The demi-deity’s voice dripped from the atmosphere like stalactites. Her voice rose in volume as it descended on me and the gathering crowd. Other adventurers from neighboring lodges were coming quickly to witness the demi-deity in action.

“She’s doing this for show,” someone whispered beside me.

“I am demi-deity Alastrella. My patrons call me bone mender. Behold the wonders that I possess!”

In an instant she slid forward without having moved a foot until she was right in front of Pelle. Her sun-threaded dress snapped around her as though a wind had caught up.

“Kneel child,” Alastrella told Pelle.

Pelle knelt, and Alastrella’s hand came out of the silhouette. She placed her palm gently over Pelle’s eye. An ooze of divine light began to spread from Alastrella’s hand and covered Pelle’s eye and forehead.

The light exploded violently and I was afraid something had gone terrible wrong. I was assaulted by a massive explosion of light and threw out my hands to protect my face. Even though I closed my eyes, I could almost see through my eyelids.

When it was all over, it took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the late evening. Alastrella was gone, and Pelle stood and tentatively touched her eye. Her smile returned and she cautiously removed the bandage. Her eye was intact, though she was a portion still bald.

“Not a bad way to introduce some of what we’ll be discussing these coming weeks!” Garmar said with a jolly boom to his voice.