Kade had only been missing one thing about Salarus that had discounted him as a potential partner for the trial. He’d known about the man’s arrogance, his temper, his noble house, and even his fashion sense, but he hadn’t known the man’s power. There was nothing holding it back now, and Kade was certain he could feel it tingling against his skin.
It was a curious sensation, as he’d been next to numerous powerful individuals, but the sense had always been that they had some great internal power, where Salarus’ power emanated like waves of heat–except this time Kade’s frozen nature offered no protection. He realized he had stopped walking forward with his escort, and was visibly cringing–barely resisting an instinct to swat at the air around him, as if at a swarm of bugs. Salarus clearly noticed this reaction, and his mouth twitched into a smirk.
Selina, however, did not seem impressed at the display, and spoke loudly enough for everyone in the courtyard to hear, “Please allow me to apologize for our young Keeper, Kade. Clearly his power has grown faster than his control, and I take full responsibility for this truly embarrassing display,” while she addressed Kade, she was looking directly at Salarus, who appeared suitably chided. The man closed his eyes for a moment, and Kade saw his brow wrinkle in concentration before the unusual feeling finally abated–though not entirely.
Selina nodded once before briskly completing their walk to the gathered priests, “Brother Aludus, are you ready to proceed with the Ritual?” She addressed a shorter priest with very dark skin, the rest of his features hidden by his black hood.
“Actually, Keeper Selina, the Abbot is scheduled to lead this Ritual. You know how he tries to find the time at least once a month–he doesn’t want to become out of touch with the next generation of Keepers,” he lowered his voice and leaned closer to Selina, but Kade still managed to hear. “He is also very interested in our rising star, here, as you can imagine,” he glanced pointedly at Salarus, who somehow managed to look even more cocky at the attention.
Not knowing what else to do with himself, Kade joined the taller man near the mountain wall, giving him a better view of the Ritual semicircle. It extended out from the wall on either side of him, and Kade realized there was a faint tracing actually carved into the mountain itself which completed the circle, and gave the distinct impression of a doorway. The part of the semicircle on the ground was divided into eight sections, and after counting the seven priests, Kade inferred that this Abbot would take the final spot.
Salarus surprised him slightly by addressing Kade in what could only be described as a friendly manner, “Don’t worry, Selina and Markis have gone over all the peculiarities of your rather unique situation with me. We’ll be as prepared as we can be for any surprises the old monster throws our way.” Kade blinked in near-astonishment, comfort being the last thing he expected. He stared into the man’s eyes for a moment, searching his tone for something performative for the crowd, but the man had been quiet enough that they likely didn’t even hear. Seeming confused by his scrutiny, Salarus simply said, “What?”
“Nothing, um…thank you?” Salarus nodded indifferently, once more either not noticing or not caring about Kade’s tone.
“I know this is your first Trial, and it’s a little ridiculous that it’s going to be designed for someone with a full Path under their belt, but I’ve been preparing for this my entire life. I won’t let anything in there stand in my way.” Again Kade considered his words, and wondered if overconfidence–or possibly well-earned confidence–was the reason for his new attitude with Kade. Did he just see this as another way to show off? Was being able to treat Kade as the novice he was, simply another way of bolstering the man’s own ego?
Further consideration was cut short when another man entered the courtyard, also wearing the robes of a priest, but with the hood thrown back, and the rope belt that the others kept tied tight, left loose. This revealed extravagant clothing that put Salarus to shame, as he got closer, Kade realized even the dark robes had stylized patterns woven into the fabric. None of these embellishments seemed necessary, however, after seeing the man’s face.
He was uncomfortably handsome, with platinum hair pulled swept back and disappearing into his robes. Icy, penetrating blue eyes looked out over the courtyard as if he owned everything in it–which Kade realized he sort of did. His face was clean shaven, and his jawline was razor sharp. With dirty blonde hair, green eyes, and stubble, Kade couldn’t help but feel like they had worn the same outfit to a party, with his being a cheap knockoff. He heard a barked laugh, and saw that Salarus was looking back and forth between Kade and the Abbot, and had evidently drawn the same unflattering conclusion.
The laugh drew the attention of all assembled, and Salarus had to make an effort to hide his mirth behind a raised hand. Once the Abbot reached Selina, the austere expression was replaced with one of warmth, and he leaned forward to give her a quick kiss on the cheek, which she returned happily. “Little Selina,” he began, shaking his head, “I must continually remind myself that you’re nearly ready for Quartus, when in my mind’s eye you’re still running around the Abbey with the other children.”
“You lose track of the centuries too easily when locked in your study, Uncle Lothros. Someone must remind you that there are other people to talk to aside from a silent Elder,” Selina replied good-naturedly.
“Ah yes, but the tragedy is they always seem to talk back. Many know some of the good qualities Karthas’ possess, but I sometimes think good listener is among the greatest,” he walked past her as she let out a small chuckle, and he approached the two young men. He all but ignored Kade as he took in Salarus, inspecting his staff for a long moment. “Sometimes I think I’ve simply grown too old. Sorcery still seems unnatural to me,” Kade could sense that the man was barely aware of the others as he spoke, but Salarus bristled at the words, and color rose to his cheeks. Thankfully Selina came to his rescue.
“Sorcery was rediscovered nearly ten millennia ago, Uncle.” The Abbot nodded in agreement.
“Barely into its infancy, I know. And yet who can deny the man that stands before us?” He finished by finally meeting Salarus’ eyes, as if only just accepting that the taller man was there. “Are you certain you’re ready for this trial, young one? The Path of the Magus is only recently revealed to us, and I understand you will have little help in this Trial,” the last was a reference to Kade, indicated by the slightest tilting of his head.
Kade wanted to be offended, but found himself inclined to agree with the man. He had imagined someone almost too powerful for this Trial might accompany him, not someone apparently exploring a nearly unknown Path while walking a questionable one already. He had noticed a disturbing lack of Sorcerers amongst the Keepers he’d seen, despite it being considered a common path. He also recalled having nearly zero affinity for the vocation personally.
If anything though, Salarus appeared even more resolved in the face of the Abbot’s challenge. “Sorcery is the future of this world, Abbot Lothros, and I will have lifetimes to prove it.” Kade found himself nodding at the man’s words in respect, which for once was all conviction and no arrogance. The Abbot was less impressed.
“We shall see,” was all he said, before making a gesture which had all the other priests leaping to obey. In moments they were gathered around the semicircle, and falling into various poses of deep concentration. Kade felt the wall behind him begin to vibrate immediately, and realized things would likely start very soon.
Selina had backed off a great deal, and merely nodded once at the two men standing inside the Ritual. Once the Abbot took his position directly opposite the two, he spoke in what sounded like a practiced speech. “We beseech you, oh great Karthas, to look upon these supplicants. Weigh them, measure them, and in your great wisdom, see them rise or fall at your whim. Show them what must be seen, and open to them the Path.” As he spoke the words, the Ritual began to glow with the same deep purple extending from the mountain wall, and everything else seemed to darken.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Soon Kade could only see the priests, with blackness beyond, and a moment later it seemed as though he and the tall Sorcerer were alone in an endless abyss of blackness. Kade was worried something might have gone wrong, when purple light erupted around him, and he felt himself jerked backward, into the mountain.
***
Kade couldn’t be certain if he’d lost consciousness, but when he could at last see once more, the world was truly changed. He felt rough stone beneath him, and had to slowly pull his body off the ground, feeling as if he’d awoken from an impossibly long sleep. The first thing he noticed was the sun and sky, which were both deep shades of red, painting the landscape in unnatural blood-tones. There wasn’t much variety to speak of in the landscape, though, as everything he could see before him was a barren wasteland.
He appeared to be part way up a mountain, possibly even the mountain on which Karthas now sat, though Kade didn’t recognize any landmarks, and the giant Elder was certainly nowhere to be seen. Instead, as far as his eyes could see was an endless battlefield, though it looked like the true battle was long over. The dead were piled so high that they formed the very topography of the landscape, giving the impression of rolling hills and valleys, but Kade could plainly see the countless bodies forming them.
Interestingly, they all had the appearance that Kade associated with Elders, as their bodies rarely resembled anything one might describe as human. Most had multiple arms or legs–or both–and many had insectoid-like shapes and segmented bodies. They were of various sizes, though Kade’s perspective was limited, given how high above the battle he was, perched on the side of the mountain. In small pockets–mostly vast distances away–Kade could see the fighting continued. The only creatures left were all clearly massive, though there was still considerable variety to their scale, with the largest being easily several times the size of the smallest.
Curiously, most battles were effectively duals, with two Elders of similar size facing off in bloody death-matches. The rare exception would be a two-on-one battle, which invariably saw two smaller creatures struggling against a larger. Kade wasn’t sure how long he had been staring before he noticed Salarus standing next to him, appearing fascinated, “This is not something I ever expected to see,” he said simply, staring with equal interest to Kade.
“What are we looking at?” Kade asked after a long moment. It was not Salarus who answered.
YOU STAND ON THE PRECIPICE OF RUIN. WITNESS THE WILL OF IROS. SEE YOUR TRUE PLACE.
Kade whipped around, looking for the source of the voice, but sensing he wouldn’t find it. Salarus’ lack of reaction suggested he either didn’t hear the voice, or wasn’t surprised. When he noticed Kade’s frantic searching, he gestured back toward the scene, “You should watch, Kade, I doubt we’ll see this again,” he paused for a moment, then added, “I hope no one will ever see this again.” Kade obligingly turned back to the battle.
Something was happening, and at first it was only a feeling Kade couldn’t describe, but quickly it became an unmissable spectacle. The sky was lightening, which Kade couldn’t understand as the Sun was still in the same place, but it became clear as he focused on the sky. There were at least a dozen moons now visible, though they had been lost in the daylight until they began to shine with their own brightness. Soon they were too bright to look at, and Kade returned his gaze to the battlefield.
He noticed that all the fighting had abruptly stopped, and every Elder he could see was staring at the sky. All of a sudden a horrible screeching filled the air, and the world lit up with countless bolts of lightning. For a moment it seemed that the lightning would stay trapped in the sky, but then they began raining down ceaselessly, as far as Kade could see. He was surprised that the bolts appeared to dodge around the living Elders entirely, and instead struck the largest mounds of the dead, which didn’t explode as Kade expected, but instead took on an eerie, red glow. The display continued for many minutes, Kade, Salarus, and the Elders, all captivated and unmoving.
At last the sky settled and the bolts stopped, though the intense moonlight continued to shine ominously. There was a moment of calm, like the eye of a storm, and then the ground began to shake slightly beneath their feet. Kade watched in stunned horror as the piles of dead began to move. Not reanimating as he briefly feared, but simply appearing to collapse and tip over, as if some great force were slowly pushing them. As the massive, disfigured bodies of countless dead Elders began to slowly shift as one, Kade realized that they were all being pulled toward a central point, and the process was accelerating.
Soon, the entire battlefield looked like a rolling sea, as bodies tumbled and crashed together, forming immense waves from horizon to horizon, all flowing toward a point directly ahead of the two young men, but leagues distant. Kade watched in fascination and disgust as the waves began to meet at that central point, which swirled and tossed them up like nothing so much as a blender of unimaginable scale.
Kade was surprised that rather than the swirling mess growing upward as more mass kept being added to the mix, it instead appeared to tunnel downward, deep into the very bowels of Iros. Soon the majority of the mass was disappearing into the ground, and an enormous, growing fissure became visible in its place. It was soon large enough that the waves of the dead simply disappeared into it more and more rapidly, until Kade realized the battlefield had been nearly wiped clean. As the last of bodies was pulled into the fissure, the ground ceased to shake, and there was a sudden and disturbing quiet.
Kade wanted to believe the display was somehow over, but he could sense the truth in what he now understood to be a look of anticipation on the various disturbing faces of the remaining Elders. Sure enough, after a few moments the darkness of the fissure became a pulsing, silver light, and the crack grew even wider under some unseen pressure. The Elders now appeared to be bracing themselves, and many of those farthest from the fissure were either inching slowing closer, or desperately fleeing in the opposite direction.
The glow grew stronger and stronger, and Kade realized the light was a perfect reflection of the moonlight from above. After several minutes of the display, the silver glow abruptly seemed to switch off, and the moonlight followed suit. Moments later the moons were once again lost in red sunlight, and the day seemed calm. Kade was about to turn to Salarus when the ground once more began to shake, though this time with a deep, persistent rumble. Turning back to the fissure, Kade saw nothing for a moment, and then all at once a mass of pink flesh seemed to rise up and ooze out of the fissure, pouring out in all directions.
It took Kade a moment to realize it wasn’t a single massive object, but was instead millions of pink, fleshy creatures, packed so densely that they were indistinguishable until they crashed over one another, spilling onto the ground in sickening heaps. This was apparently what the Elders had been waiting for, as they began to charge the teeming mass all at once, energy and other less exotic weapons readying.
For the part of the living mass of creatures, they seemed disoriented at first, but slowly began to pick themselves up, and upon seeing the Elders, didn’t hesitate before taking up their own charge. As they ran and separated from the still spilling mass of bodies, Kade was able to better see them individually, and noted they were all the same. Their form was comparatively simple against the cacophony of horrors that was the only way to describe the charging Elders. Each had four legs, and two arms, though the arms were enormous and seemed to pull the odd creatures along as much as the legs pushed.
It also became clear that their pinkish color was temporary, and they took on more muted colors the farther they got from the fissure, reminding Kade of metal cooling from the forge. It wasn’t long before the two sides met, and the ensuing slaughter was brutal in a way that reminded Kade of his affinity Ritual, though he couldn’t recall why. The Elders were united in their wanton destruction of the smaller creatures, forgetting whatever conflict had set them against each other only minutes before.
The much smaller creatures died in droves, as beams of different colored energy tore through their ranks, and massive bladed limbs scythed through countless small bodies. At first it seemed like the uniform army would be slaughtered en masse, but their numbers were virtually endless, and before long they had reached the line of Elders, swarming over them like ants. They didn’t use any type of energy attack, or even seem to notice as they were savaged to pieces; they just mindlessly tore into the larger beings, with claws, teeth, and even exposed bone. Still, the battlefield was immense, and the living Elders were many, and staggeringly powerful. None fell without killing thousands, and many others were large and powerful enough to seem entirely unbothered by the countless smaller creatures, desperately clinging to them.
Soon there was an impasse, as those Elders that could be slain, had been slain, and those remaining were methodically slaughtering their tiny, vicious opponents. This seemed to signal a surprisingly immediate reaction, and the entire wave of newly formed beings abruptly scattered in all directions, desperate to escape the massive beings hunting them. It seemed like the spectacle was over, for now, and Kade felt Salarus tug on his arm.
“Time to go. I’m sure we were meant to see this, but it’s only the beginning of our Trial. It’s time to see how Karthas truly means to test us.”