Walking through forests and jungles had been a rough and slow trek, but the caves of Dalizar made Keolah wish she were back out under the trees. City of Adamant was a long way from Pearl, out on the far northwest tip of Kalor, and that journey wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t through endless, confusing caves and tunnels where she never had any idea whether it was night or day outside. How the Windriders could live like this was beyond her.
“Can’t we just fly there?” Hawthorne griped.
Right. That was how the Windriders could live like this.
“Floka aren’t nearly as strong or capable of long-range flight as people think they are,” Silver said. “Yes, they could manage two people, but they’d have to stop constantly. They’re designed to carry their own weight. While they could carry off a horse, they wouldn’t be able to carry it off far.”
“Do they often… carry off horses?” Zendellor asked.
“Usually goats,” Silver chuckled.
“I guess it would stand to reason, even if they’re using magic,” Hawthorne mumbled. “My own Wind Magic isn’t strong enough to fly. I just really wanted to fly.”
“You already had a chance to fly,” Delven pointed out.
“Yeah, but I was too freaked out to enjoy it,” Hawthorne replied.
“What’s this, now?” Keolah asked.
“Hawthorne fell off a cliff,” Delven said.
Keolah put her face in her palm.
“I wonder if the floka use Wind Magic to augment their flight,” Hawthorne said.
“I don’t see why they couldn’t be full mages,” Keolah said. “They have the same sort of auras as elves do.” Keolah glanced to Delven. “And elvenoids.”
“Elvenoids?” Delven repeated with a smirk. “I’ll not comment on how we say ‘humanoid’ in common. I guess from your perspective, we’re the ones who are similar to you…”
“Do ordinary animals not have auras?” Hawthorne asked.
“They do,” Keolah said. “But they’re dimmer and duller than intelligent beings. Don’t ask me why or what that means. Non-magical plants don’t have auras. Some magical plants do.”
“Right, well,” Hawthorne said. “I want to fly. You guys can crawl through tunnels if you want, but I’m going to go praise Narcella and her pretty, pretty feathers a bit more in hopes of convincing her to fly me there.”
“Ah, but you’ll miss out on the waterfall caves and the hot springs,” Silver said, grinning at her. “And there’s a reasonably friendly dragon who lives—”
Hawthorne rushed back up to him. “You had me at ‘dragon.’”
“You’re not still caught up on being descended from dragons, are you?” Keolah asked.
“Come on, dragons are awesome,” Hawthorne said.
“Provided they aren’t trying to eat you or something,” Keolah said.
“Penthelnor probably won’t try to eat you.” Silver smirked.
“Probably, he says,” Delven muttered.
Silver had said that City of Adamant was the largest of the cave cities in Dalizar, and Keolah could readily believe it. The tunnel they’d been following opened into a vast, glittering cavern the scale of which she hadn’t even imagined being down here. The place bustled with energy as a throng of blue elves went about their daily lives. Shops lit up with glowing signs branched off the tunnel-streets, and vendor stalls lined the ledges.
In the heart of the city stood the largest fountain Keolah had ever seen. One vast central geyser spurted out a flow of rainbow water, surrounded by several slightly smaller magnificent spouts in different colors.
“I’m guessing they keep the fountain going by magic and not pumps?” Delven asked quietly.
“They’re elves,” Sedder mumbled in reply. “everything is going to be magic. Even the things that don’t strictly need to be.”
“Especially the things that don’t strictly need to be,” Hawthorne added. “Where’s the tavern around here? I, for one, am parched. I don’t even care if the booze is magic, too.”
Once the others had gone off to get something to drink, Silver pointed out the place Keolah wanted to go. Adamant didn’t simply have a relatively small library like Pearl had, but a sprawling academy teaching a variety of subjects, some of which she’d never even considered. If Keolah ever wished to learn magical basket-weaving, she now knew where to go.
The library in the Adamant Academy touted itself as being the last true bastion of the League of Wizards. These books had been carefully preserved and copied with magic, and they still dripped with mana in multiple colors. Keolah was almost afraid to touch them, without knowing what sort of enchantments or residue might be on them.
A woman with a purple aura noticed her hesitation and came up to her. “So you are here. Don’t worry. The books won’t bite you.” She tilted her head. “Elanyr. I teach magical theory and help look after the library.”
“Keolah Kedaire. Please tell me you’re not also related to Silver.”
Elanyr chuckled. “Not closely, and only by marriage.”
“That’s kind of a relief?” Keolah said. “I hadn’t realized until I came here how many Windriders were closely related to one another.”
“Well, Queen Therrin had seven children,” Elanyr said. “And most of them had several children of their own. Silver’s a member of House Renneck. Renneck had no less than thirteen children.”
“Thirteen?” Keolah exclaimed. “That’s a little ridiculous.”
“You’re telling me,” Elanyr said.
Keolah gestured to the bookshelves. “How did the Windriders bring so many materials across the ocean?”
“Contrary to popular myth, we did not fly across the sea on the backs of floka,” Elanyr said. “Nor did we cross aloft an island floating in the sky.”
“What, don’t tell me you did something so mundane as sailing?” Keolah said with a grin.
“Nope,” Elanyr replied. “The twins, Cammer and Tammer, opened a portal between here and the city of Tentisalu.”
“Damn, that must have been convenient,” Keolah said. “I don’t suppose it’s still accessible? I may wind up having to visit Zarhanna if I can’t find any answers here.”
Elanyr shook her head. “It took quite a bit of mana to maintain, and the only reason they were able to pull it off was because they were born inborn Motion Mages. One stood on each side of the ocean, and they cast the spell in unison.”
“Right, most Motion Mages can only move themselves or smaller objects, and not over large distances,” Keolah said. “Impressive that those two could pull that off.”
“If we’d gone by ship, it would have been a loud, noticeable event,” Elanyr said. “Everyone would have known we’d left, even if not precisely where we were going. The way we went, we were simply there one day and gone the next.”
“Why all the secrecy, though?” Keolah asked.
“At that point, the League of Wizards was already under fire. War was brewing. We didn’t leave Zarhanna just for the sake of settling in uncharted territory far from home. Although we did choose the place for its high level of mana and its relative inaccessibility to anyone that can’t fly.”
“I’m surprised there isn’t anything on the surface of Dalizar,” Keolah said.
Elanyr shrugged. “Nothing but jagged, barren rock. We suspect that it might be a side effect of the makeup of Dalizar, but we never came up with a conclusive explanation.”
“Alright, I need to go find out which inn my friends have decided we’re staying at,” Keolah said. “And they’ll smack me if I forget to eat while reading again. I’ll definitely be back soon, though.”
Keolah headed back out into the main cavern-plaza and looked around for the others. She wound up having to track them by their auras, which was difficult with so many other people around, but not impossible. Every person had a unique magical signature, after all, but it took a good deal of attention to be able to tell the shade and pattern of one Wind Mage from another. While most of the local Wind Mages she saw had fairly sedate auras, Hawthorne’s was wild and lively.
The party had settled in at a cavern called the Song’s Hearth. Keolah went to get something to eat, and while she thought Hawthorne was trying to get her attention, her mind was wandering and more intent upon her research. Hawthorne stormed off in a huff, leaving Keolah staring after her in puzzlement. The girl must just be being bored and weird again, she figured. Hawthorne wasn’t nearly as interested in reading as Keolah, after all. Hopefully she wouldn’t wind up falling off a cliff again.
Upon returning to the academy library in the morning, or at least what she thought was the morning, she found Elanyr was not present at the moment, so she just set about to milling through the library herself. For completeness rather than because she thought they might actually have much information about it, Keolah started with the Witchwood. Unsurprisingly, the only books they had were ones she’d already read in Scalyr, although at least it wasn’t mixed up with the fiction. From there on, she dove into the aisle on languages. She’d get to the bottom of this yet.
So long as he was in Dalizar, Sedder figured he should collect as much intel as he could about it. He wasn’t sure how much of it would wind up being useful to Sardill, but it’s not like he didn’t have other things to “Collect” while collecting intel. Spying, after all, sometimes involved rooting through people’s possessions and confiscating goods. Sedder snorted quietly to himself. He was a thief. He’d never minced words about it, to himself. He had no need to justify it to himself.
In a way, though, he was glad that Sardill stated that he, at least for the moment, meant no harm toward Dalizar. He was probably still just trying to keep tabs on his ex, for whatever reason.
He poked his nose into various homes cautiously. They were elves. everything in here was probably enchanted, and might have traps or alarms if he wasn’t careful about it. And unlike Keolah, he couldn’t just look at things and see mana in them. Still, it was worth a shot. He figured he could feign ignorance and get away with it at least once.
Although the Windriders didn’t usually put doors on their caves, that didn’t mean that they left their valuables out in the open for the most part. They did keep some things in locked containers, some of which were even affixed to the rock or too large to readily move. Sedder wondered what the point was in locking up jewelry in a small box, when he could just make off with the box and worry about figuring out how to get it open later. While he wasn’t an inborn Wind Mage, he had learned to use it to open simple mechanical locks. Most of the Windriders seemed to use locks that were too complicated or protected with magic, but he was able to get into some of them.
The residence he was currently burgling appeared to belong to a warrior of some sort, judging by the sword and crossbow sitting near the hammock. Not a paranoid enough warrior to be constantly armed even while wandering the city, or perhaps they simply had more than one sword.
A heavy wardrobe sat at the other side of the room, made of dark wood that looked like it had been grown there somehow. It had been left unlocked, which Sedder took to indicate that there was probably nothing of any great value inside, but he looked anyway. In addition to a few sets of clothes, the wardrobe contained no less than three sets of leather armor of various styles, and four different styles of boots. Maybe they had different enchantments, he speculated. And if they were enchanted, that meant they were probably valuable.
Clothes were considerably harder to conceal to make off with than money or jewelry, but Sedder wasn’t disappointed to find a half-hidden side compartment in the wardrobe containing a several rings and amulets. Sedder quickly scooped them all up into a sound-warded pouch and tucked it away in his trousers. He closed up the compartment and the doors to the wardrobe, but froze. Footsteps were approaching, getting louder. He was still cloaked in illusion, and hoped none of the Windriders could see through it, but he didn’t want to bump into anyone.
A blue elf woman with midnight blue hair, almost black, came into the room. Sedder shuffled back into the corner beside the wardrobe. She gave no indication of realizing someone was in here, however, and just went over to the wardrobe, opened it up, and started stripping. Sedder mentally grumbled to himself. Like he needed to watch a woman strip. She was blocking the way to the door, too.
practically holding his breath, Sedder waited patiently while the woman set aside her clothes and went over into a side room. Probably a bathroom, though he hadn’t looked in there. He didn’t care right now, either. He took the opportunity to get out of there, before she noticed her jewelry was missing.
Sedder wondered if there was anywhere in City of Adamant that was willing to fence hot goods. He kept an eye out, until he spotted what looked to be a tavern with a mat in front of the entrance depicting a gray five-pointed star against a background that was white on the left side and black on the right. The Shadowstar, one of the symbols associated with the Trickster. He recognized it instantly.
Once he stepped inside the cave, he froze again, and only after a moment remembered not to block an entrance while invisible. He recognized the bard’s multicolored coat instantly, too. Delven sat on a stool at the far side of the room, strumming on his lute. What was he doing in here? Making money in his own way, apparently. No help for it. Sedder moved out of sight of anyone and dispelled his illusions, then strolled back into the tavern like he had every right to be there and definitely wasn’t up to anything suspicious.
Delven acknowledged Sedder’s entry with a nod and continued playing without missing a beat. Sedder went up to the bar and took a seat. The bar looked like it had been grown here, too. Why were the elves growing trees underground, anyway?
“What can I get for you?” asked the barkeep in song elvish.
“Looking to trade some items,” Sedder said quietly in the same language. The barkeep didn’t introduce himself, and neither did he. Names were best left at the door, in this sort of business.
The barkeep chuckled. “What makes you think I can help you with that?”
“In day how dark the shadows are,” Sedder murmured.
“But in the Void, the shade’s a star,” the barkeep whispered. “Have a drink, then I’ll tell you where to go.”
Sedder nodded, then said aloud. “Pour me a glass of your magic elf wine. And tell me how in the Abyss you grow grapes underground.”
The barkeep laughed as he put a glass on the bar and filled it up with deep purple wine. “Magic. That’ll be a silver. But if all you got is human money, I’ll take two Hannaderres shillings, or a Flylish mark and two pennies.”
Sedder passed over two shillings. “What, you’re not worried about the chance of me being Flylish?”
“You speak Zarhian with a Flylish accent,” the barkeep pointed out.
“Wait, really?” Sedder raised an eyebrow. He switched to snow elvish. “What about Tevric? I have an accent in that, too, don’t I.”
“Yep,” the barkeep said. “Even worse. Even more obvious. You probably haven’t actually used Tevric much, have you. Stick to Zarhian or common.”
Sedder switched to common. “Do people around here speak much common?”
“The ones who will want to talk to a half-elf probably do,” the barkeep replied. “There, see? No accent in common. And no, I don’t care if you’re Flylish. Especially since you’re part elf. You’re hardly the only half-elf here. At any rate, if you got this far into Dalizar, someone must have let you pass. Not my business. I pour drinks, not guard gates.”
Sedder sipped his wine. He felt positively snooty drinking expensive elf wine. He bet he could have bought the whole bottle for the price of two shillings. Oh well, the price of information and not being ratted out as a thief, he figured. Unless the barkeep had secretly triggered an alarm or called the guards telepathically and was just keeping him here drinking until they arrived. But no, he knew the proper response to the code phrase.
“Head down the left tunnel ‘til you see an entrance with two glowing blue and amber crystals,” the barkeep murmured. “Look for a purple-haired elf. Tell him you want violin lessons.”
“Right.” Sedder nodded, finished his wine, and headed out with a polite nod to Delven as he went.
The room in question was harder to find than the barkeep had let on, and Sedder spent far too much time wandering around in the twisting tunnels of City of Adamant. He could swear that he’d somehow wound up on the wrong floor entirely, as some of them sloped up or down. Once he did find the place matching that description, he stood awkwardly at the entrance for a moment. What in the Abyss did Windriders do instead of knock, since they had no doors?
Fortunately for him, a purple-haired elf noticed him standing there, and addressed him in common, “Don’t just stand there. Are you going to come in or not?”
“Sorry,” Sedder muttered and went inside. If they were going to speak common, that was just fine by him.
“So, what are you looking for?” the man asked.
“Violin lessons,” Sedder said.
“Figured as much. Call me Jones.”
“Shadow,” Sedder replied. A sure sign of an elf using an alias, when they used an obvious human name.
“The room’s sound-warded, so speak freely,” Jones said. “What have you got for me?”
Sedder pulled the pouch out of his trousers and started laying out the stolen jewelry on the table. Jones peered them over carefully, looking at each item thoughtfully.
“Is it enchanted?” Sedder asked.
“This belongs to Talmara,” Jones observed.
“Who?” Sedder asked. “Was she that woman with almost-black hair I saw?”
“Yes,” Jones said. “She didn’t see you, did she?”
Sedder shook his head. “I was invisible, and she gave no indication she knew I was there.”
“Hmm,” Jones said. “Alright, I can take these two rings. They’re generic enough that she won’t connect them. This one’s water breathing, and this one’s protection from the sun and heat. There are people who make these by the dozen. But the rest of this, I won’t touch. It’s too specific and some of it even has her name keyed into it.”
“You can’t file it off?” Sedder asked. “Or send it elsewhere?”
“Take it elsewhere yourself,” Jones said. “It’s not worth my life. This sapphire amulet in particular, I recommend taking across the damned ocean. She’d recognize that in a heartbeat.”
“Noted,” Sedder said. “Can you tell me what they all do?”
“Sure,” Jones said. “Nothing to protect them from being stolen, clearly. Aside from the common ones I mentioned, this ring here is more interesting. Looks like it grants a small amount of protection against most common forms of magical attack, plus deflect incoming mundane projectiles.”
“Useful,” Sedder said.
Jones pointed to the amethyst talisman. “This amulet here is a translator charm. Wear it and you’ll be able to understand and speak any language that the enchanter could. It’s not unique, but rare enough that it would stand out if I tried to fence it.” He paused. “And depending on how old it is, it might make you sound rather archaic in whatever languages it was enchanted with. I doubt Talmara has replaced it recently. Well, maybe this incident will encourage her to buy a new one with updated languages.” He chuckled.
“And what does this one do?” Sedder gestured at the sapphire amulet. “You said it was special?”
Jones nodded. “I’ll bet you that if you sneak back into her apartment and put that one back, she won’t even bother investigating the others and write them off as just lost. Otherwise, well, I recommend leaving the country. Or the continent.”
“If she’s that attached to it, it must be an awfully powerful magic item,” Sedder said.
Jones laughed. “No, not at all. It’s not enchanted at all. It was a gift from Talmara’s former lover.” He indicated a small engraving on the edge of the setting. “Or don’t you read elvish script?”
“I hadn’t really taken a close look at them before I came over here,” Sedder said.
Jones tsked. “Lucky for you, she doesn’t have any tracking enchantments of any sort on these.”
“So her lover died?” Sedder asked.
Jones shook his head. “It would have been kinder. No, rumor has it that the women had some sort of falling out, and one of them moved to the other side of the country to get away from the other. I don’t know the specifics, but Talmara always seemed to blame herself for it. Which was probably why this keepsake was hidden away somewhere and not around her neck.”
“If it’s not enchanted, then it’s only really valuable for the metal, gems, and craftsmanship anyway.” Which weren’t insignificant, but now he was feeling bad about it.
“Right,” Jones said.
They agreed on a price for the water breathing and heat protection rings, and made the exchange. Sedder put the other ring and the two amulets away, cloaked himself in shadow, and headed back out into the tunnels. He slipped on the shielding ring on the way out and made sure to cover it with an extra illusion so that no one would see he was wearing it. That one might just be too useful to sell. Now if he could just find Talmara’s residence again before she checked on her jewelry cubbyhole.
He wound up taking several wrong turns and poking his head into the wrong apartment a few times, almost winding up being detected a few times after being surprised by people. Heart pounding, he finally found the place again. Why had he decided to do this again? Sighing silently, he looked around to make sure Talmara wasn’t anywhere in sight before going up to the wardrobe and hurriedly opening it. The sapphire pendant went back into the secret compartment. He still half expected her to show up again before he could make good his escape, and skewer him with that sword.
Talmara didn’t show up again, but Sedder didn’t relax until he’d gotten back to the Song’s Hearth and safely back in his room. In hindsight, maybe it had been foolish to trust Jones to properly appraise the jewelry. He could have vastly undervalued the items he bought, or lied about the enchantments on the shield ring. Sedder wished he could just ask Keolah to identify them for him, instead, but he doubted she would be quite as open-minded about what he did for a living.
Keolah went out of the library, feeling like she’d barely scratched the surface. Still pondering the mystery, Keolah returned to the inn. The others were out doing who knows what, but Sedder was in his room. Two additional magical signatures registered on his body, in addition to the magic item enchanted with Mind Magic that he’d picked up before leaving Scalyr. He must have bought some new magic items. Probably wise, considering she thought they were due for more traveling in the near future. One of them had formed a wispy layer of cyan around the outside of his aura. Some form of ward, clearly.
She went over to Sedder’s room and paused in the entrance, awkwardly looking around for something to knock on, even raising her hand before realizing there was nothing but rock. She was going to have to ask Silver just how Windriders announced their presence and requested entrance to a room.
Maybe they just did it verbally. Feeling silly for not thinking of it sooner, Keolah said aloud, “Hey, Sedder. Mind if I come in? You’re not naked in there, are you?”
Sedder barked a laugh. “Nah, come on in.” Once she was inside, he observed, “You tried to knock, too? I kept doing the same damned thing. You find out anything interesting at the library?”
“Plenty, but I’m still missing something,” Keolah said. “I see you’ve been out shopping.”
“Oh?” Sedder looked surprised for a moment. “Oh. Oh, yeah.”
“A… warding ring?” Keolah asked. “And an amulet with Speech Magic, I think that is?”
“Yes, the ring gives some protection against arrows and attack spells,” Sedder said. “And it’s a translation amulet! I’m not actually sure what languages are in it.”
“Did you buy that for Hawthorne?” Keolah asked.
“Uh…”
“That was kind of you,” Keolah said. “She’s really been struggling, and I’m sure she’ll appreciate it.”
“I’m sure,” Sedder replied in a strained voice.
“Oh, but it must have been expensive.” Keolah pulled out her pouch. “How much did it cost? I’ll compensate you. And, uh, I’ll throw in a bonus if can we pretend it was a gift from me? I think she’s a little annoyed at me right now.”
“Sure, no problem,” Sedder said, chuckling and relaxing. “How much do you have? I don’t want to take all your money.”
A quick discussion later saw Keolah with her pouch lighter and Sedder with his heavier, and an amethyst talisman in her hands. Now she just had to find Hawthorne. She scanned the city, trying to pinpoint Hawthorne’s energetic cyan aura. Hopefully the girl hadn’t gotten up to too much trouble in the meantime.
She didn’t have to go far. Hawthorne was dancing on the edge of the rainbow fountain and looked in danger of falling in at any moment. Sighing, Keolah clambered over to her, climbing down precariously and slipping in the process. Hawthorne caught her before she fell into the water.
“Hey,” Hawthorne said with a grin.
“You’re a real pain in the butt, you know that?” Keolah smirked.
“No, that’s just from hitting the rock,” Hawthorne said. “You okay?”
“Nothing’s hurt but my dignity,” Keolah said. “Let me guess, you wanted to get a closer look at the fountain? Being up top wasn’t good enough?”
“Live adventurously, my dear,” Hawthorne said. “The chance may never come to you again.”
“Well, technically our souls will be reborn into new bodies after we die,” Keolah said.
“But the world may be different, then,” Hawthorne said, pulling off her boots. “And we won’t remember anything, anyway.” She set aside her boots onto the rocks beside her, sat down on the damp rocks, and dangled her toes into the water. “Mm, the water’s cool. Come on, put your feet in.”
“Only if you pull me out if I slip and fall so I don’t drown,” Keolah said with a crooked grin, pulling off her boots.
“It’s okay,” Hawthorne said. “I’m a Wind Mage. I’ll just breathe fresh air into your mouth.”
“I’m sure kissing is not strictly necessary for Wind Magic.” Keolah sat down next to Hawthorne and put her legs over the edge.
“You’ve been spending so much time reading I was wondering if you were ever going to come up for air,” Hawthorne said.
“I’m not even entirely certain that I’m making progress,” Keolah said. “I can’t even identify the language, never mind decipher it enough to learn what it does and use it.”
Her mind drifted as she watched the spurting water. Red, magenta, green, purple, white, blue, cyan, yellow… Eight jets of water in a circle around a ninth central one that combined all their colors. She counted the jets again. Eight plus one. No wonder Lumenth had thought it unlikely that the eight-spoked wheel was of elven origin, just because it was an even number. There were eight spokes, but there was also the hub. Could this be a missing link?
“No idea who even built it?” Hawthorne asked.
Keolah shook her head. “I think I need to look into the League of Wizards, though.” She gestured to the fountain. “Take a look at that fountain. Do you see the resemblance, too, or am I just imagining things?”
Hawthorne cocked her head at the fountain. “How do you mean?”
“The pattern,” Keolah said. “The way the jets are arranged.”
“In a circle, with one big one in the middle?” Hawthorne said, then blinked. “Eight jets? I suppose it could be coincidence, but yeah. I see your point. I wonder if we just need to activate it by putting eight fountains around the circle of runes.”
“Probably not literal fountains,” Keolah said. “I don’t know. But if the Windriders built this fountain, and they’re descended from the League of Wizards…”
“Before you run off back to the library, want to stay and cuddle first?” Hawthorne asked.
Keolah giggled. “Sure. Oh! Before I forget. I got something for you.”
“A present?” Hawthorne asked. “For me?”
Keolah pulled out the amethyst talisman and handed it over to her. “For you.”
“Oh, pretty!” Hawthorne held it up against the water and looked at it. “What’s it do?”
“It’s a translation charm,” Keolah said. “It—”
Hawthorne leaned over and pressed her lips against Keolah’s, interrupting her.
The next time Keolah went to the Adamant Academy library, Elanyr was in again. While she felt like she’d made a bit of progress on her own, maybe Elanyr could answer a few questions for her. No, she corrected herself. She felt like she’d made absolutely zero progress on her own. Not from the library, at any rate.
“So you are here, Elanyr,” Keolah said, approaching her.
Elanyr nodded to her and returned her greeting. “What brings you to Adamant Academy, anyway?”
“I came here looking for information about the League of Wizards,” Keolah said.
“You’ve come to the right place, then,” Elanyr said.
“Let me ask you a question here,” Keolah said. “A book I read in Scalyr indicated that the League of Wizards once covered the ‘entire world’. Was this actually the entire world? The League of Wizards knew about Kalor and Albrynnia?”
Elanyr nodded. “It was indeed the entire world.”
“The world must have lost a lot when it fell,” Keolah said. “How did that happen, anyway? What sort of enemy took it down?”
“It wasn’t anyone of any particular race or nation,” Elanyr said. “They were necromancers and demon summoners. Before we left Zarhanna, we kept getting reports about battles that wound up with both sides wiped out when demons turned on those who summoned them before returning to the Abyss.”
“I can see why the Windriders wanted to get out of there, then…” Keolah said.
Elanyr nodded. “Some decades after the move we sent a small team to scout things out and get a status report. Our former city, Tentisalu, had been completely taken over by undead.”
“Did the League of Wizards use any sort of magical constructs covered in runes of some sort?” Keolah asked.
“Runes? Not really, no,” Elanyr said. “Although the rebel wizards used large enchanted constructs. Reanimation and summoning platforms, for instance.”
Keolah’s blood went cold. “You mean there could be random structures around the world still that they used to summon demons with?”
Elanyr nodded. “Yeah, if you see one, don’t mess with it. Destroy it if you can, or come back and ask us to do it if you’re afraid it might still be cursed.”
“How would I recognize one?” Keolah asked.
“They were generally made up of circles drawn or engraved on the ground,” Elanyr said. “It would not surprise me, though, if whoever survived the war destroyed any evidence of them and deliberately suppressed the information.”
“What about obelisks?” Keolah asked.
“Hmm,” Elanyr said. “Obelisks are generally used as stabilizing structures. One by itself would generally be used to do something like confer a blessing to those nearby. A line of obelisks might be used to hold up a wide-area ward.”
“What about a circle of obelisks?” Keolah asked. “Would that also be used for warding?”
“It could,” Elanyr said. “But a circle or square would have much greater applications.”
“A square?” Keolah asked. “I thought elves eschewed even numbers.”
“We do,” Elanyr said. “Humans use them extensively, though, and humans were members of the League of Wizards, too.”
“How about a circle of eight obelisks?” Keolah asked.
Elanyr raised an eyebrow. “What, exactly, did you run across?”
“Here, let me pull out my diagrams,” Keolah said.
She was growing increasingly concerned about the arcane construct in the pocket-world, and seriously hoped that Hawthorne’s impulsive attempt at activating it hadn’t almost summoned demons or something. Keolah laid out the notes they’d taken on the table for Elanyr to see.
“What in the Abyss?” Elanyr breathed, picking up one sheet and staring at it intently.
“No one else I’ve talked to has been able to explain this,” Keolah said.
“Well, add my name to the list of people who are stumped,” Elanyr said. “This may be a summoning platform of some sort, yes. But I’ve never runes like this before. The wizards normally used markings like this for indicating information, but never anything this complex. What could possibly require so many indicators? For all I know, it could be some sort of warding scheme, or a teleportation platform, or a time dilation field.”
“Do you think it might be Tinean?” Keolah asked.
Elanyr shrugged. “That guess is as good as mine. Tinean is a dead tongue. The only extant examples of it were the Tinean books, and those have long been lost. I don’t know how you’d be able to confirm or disprove that, though, barring finding another match.”
“I’ve been able to find very little information about Tinean, never mind its writing,” Keolah said. “Is there anything here that even does more than mention it in passing?”
“Hmm, there’s got to be at least one,” Elanyr said, frowning.
“Tell me at least one of you has invented a spell to search for words in nearby books,” Keolah said.
Elanyr chuckled. “Sadly not. That might be very difficult to do. But you’re welcome to try, if you like. I’m going to check the index.”
The index, apparently, was a glowing yellow-green crystal near the front of the library that Elanyr activated with a touch. After several moments of concentration, Elanyr turned around and went down one aisle, and brought out a book for Keolah labeled Tinean: The Lost Tongue.
Keolah thanked her and read through it. Although it was mostly wild speculation rather than actual facts, she learned a few interesting things. The language was supposedly taught to the teppers, by the ‘great trees’, whatever those were. Keolah had run across reference to the teppers in other books, but so far as she could tell, it was just a term for humans with Mind Magic, although the books called them a separate race.
There was a set of magic books written in Tinean that the early League of Wizards had translated into their own languages. No one knew where the Tinean books came from, never mind where they disappeared to, and the book speculated that they never actually existed in the first place and that the Wizards had simply claimed their magic to be of ancient origin in order to aggrandize themselves.
The book promptly went on to speculate that the Tinean language, the ancient tongue of magic and the great trees, also never existed as such. It called it a fanciful mythological term for the Proto-Zarhannic language from which the various languages spoken by the elves, gnomes, and goblins had been derived, and that anyone who attributed it to an arcane tongue was merely ignorant in linguistic science.
Only one mention was made of the writing system associated with Tinean, and that that the Tinean books were supposedly written in a runic system unlike any other used in the world. It naturally went on to dismiss this as being most likely an early version of the common script used by the elves and gnomes.
Trying to find any information about these supposed ‘great trees’, Keolah found a book aptly titled Trees of Lezaria. While Albrynnia and Kedresida contained some remarkable trees, the largest trees in the world were apparently the giant trees of Thalarey, but they were inhabited by a primitive society of flying furry creatures called zephyli who didn’t let elves get close. Keolah doubted that the spear-shakers had anything to do with archaic magical languages, and figured the only reason the elves left them alone was because the elves didn’t really care about their stupid trees.
Keolah returned to the Song’s Hearth and got a drink with Hawthorne. She really didn’t feel like eating at the moment. Delven sat across the room speaking animatedly with what looked to be a Windrider bard. Not even feeling very social, Keolah just bought a bottle of wine and dragged Hawthorne into their room.
“Wine and privacy, but you don’t seem very romantic at the moment,” Hawthorne said with a smirk.”
“Yeah, you could say that,” Keolah chuckled.
“You look glum,” Hawthorne said. “All that reading getting you down?”
“I keep running into dead ends,” Keolah said.
“Well, maybe you’re going about this the wrong way, then,” Hawthorne said.
“What would you suggest?” Keolah asked.
“Alright, tell me what you have learned and your best guess,” Hawthorne said.
“My best, wild guess, purely speculation with no foundation whatsoever, is that it’s a pre-League of Wizards structure engraved with Tinean runes, built by whoever it was who actually used the Tinean runes.”
“Huh,” Hawthorne said.
“Note that I only say that because it’s the only thing so far that I haven’t yet disproven,” Keolah said. “If only because of the complete lack of information on Tinean.”
“Well, hey, finding out what something isn’t is important to finding out what it is, right?” Hawthorne said.
“I guess.” Keolah stared at the wine in her glass, swirling it around. “But I have no idea how I’m going to get anymore information on Tinean. Researching a dead language might be more interesting if it weren’t also so frustrating.”
“Is there anything connected to Tinean that we could look for?” Hawthorne asked.
“Hmm,” Keolah leaned back against the wall thoughtfully. “There were supposedly a number of magic books written in Tinean, but they were long since lost. The League of Wizards made copies of these books translated into each of their languages.”
“So why don’t we try to find one of these sets of books?” Hawthorne asked.
“How would that get us closer to finding information about Tinean?” Keolah asked.
“I don’t know,” Hawthorne said. “But they’re old as hell magic books. Even if we find out nothing about Tinean from them, we still found some legendary relics. And they might just be able to lead us to the Tinean books.”
Delven’s voice came from outside the doorway. “Hey, are you ladies clothed in there? Or is talk of dead languages the strangest sort of pillow talk ever?”
Keolah snickered. “Come on in, Delven.”
Delven entered the room. “I’ve been learning some new songs and teaching the local bards some. What did I miss?”
Keolah filled him in, then finished her wine.
“Hmm,” Delven said. “Yes, definitely look for these magic books. Think about it. Even if you did somehow manage to find the Tinean books, you wouldn’t be able to translate them.”
“That… is a good point,” Keolah said. “I hadn’t thought of that.”
“And just where might we look for them?” Hawthorne asked, brightening. “This smells like an adventure.”
“Libraries?” Delven ventured.
“Libraries aren’t adventures!” Hawthorne insisted.
“Finding them can be,” Keolah said.
“Well, maybe,” Hawthorne said. “Okay, where might these libraries be found, then?”
“I’ll ask Elanyr,” Keolah said.
“Elanyr?” Hawthorne asked.
“The lady who’s been helping me in the library.”
“Have you been hitting on a sexy librarian?” Hawthorne asked.
Keolah rolled her eyes. “No. Besides, she’s married.”
“To a man or a woman?” Hawthorne asked. “Because it doesn’t count unless she’s married to a woman.”
“Five pounds says she doesn’t know,” Delven said.
“That’s awfully negative,” Keolah said.
Delven shrugged. “That’s just the way things go.”
“Alright, I am going back to that library, and you two are coming with me.” Keolah handed the half-empty bottle of wine to Hawthorne, and dragged them off.
Fortunately, Elanyr was still hanging around the library. “So you are here. Friends of yours?”
Keolah made quick introductions. “Would you happen to know where any of the magic books of the League of Wizards that were translated from the Tinean books might be located?”
“No idea,” Elanyr said.
“You owe me five pounds,” Delven said.
“I never agreed to that bet,” Keolah muttered.
“Alright, I have one idea,” Elanyr said, chuckling. “There used to be a thriving magical society in the Valley of Gal, before the fall of the League of Wizards. It was probably the magical center of Zarhanna. I don’t know what might be there these days, but if you’re determined to find those magic books, that might be a good place to start looking for clues.”
“I take it there aren’t any of them here,” Keolah said.
Elanyr shook her head. “The Windriders never had any of them in our possession.”
“This sounds like an adventure!” Hawthorne said. “Where in the Abyss is the Valley of Gal?”
“Zarhanna, I assume,” Delven said.
“Wait, you’re not just trying to get rid of us by sending us on a wild goat chase to the other side of the world, are you?” Hawthorne asked.
“Do you care?” Delven asked.
“Well, no,” Hawthorne said. “But if we’re leaving soon, can I at least fly for a bit? Pleeeeeease?”
“You’ll have to convince a floka for that,” Elanyr said with a touch of amusement. “As for where Gal is, I recommend consulting a map.”
“She was cute,” Hawthorne commented.
“She’s married,” Keolah said.
“Oh, don’t worry,” Hawthorne said. “Aside from the fact that she’s married, she’s also boring. She saw all these exciting things, untold mysteries we’re looking to uncover, and what does she do? She just sits around in that school of hers. She didn’t seem even the slightest bit tempted to drop everything and come with us to the other side of the world. Ah, well. She had nice tits.”
“Hawthorne!” Keolah exclaimed.
Hawthorne grinned back at her. “You know, I think I’ll keep that name. I like the way you say it.”
“Did I hear we are heading back to Scalyr soon?” Silver asked.
“Ugh, it’s a long walk back there, and there’s a perfectly serviceable seaport not far from Dalizar,” Hawthorne said. “You Windriders don’t seem to have any ports, do you?”
“We don’t really have much need of them,” Silver said. “Especially not given how secretive we are. We don’t have trade with other countries, period.”
“If you’re supposed to be such a big secret, why were you parading Narcella so openly in Scalyr?” Hawthorne asked.
“Because she likes the attention and doesn’t care,” Silver said.
“I don’t think we should hire a ship in Starton,” Delven said.
“Why not?” Hawthorne wondered.
“I don’t really like the place,” Delven said. “They’re kind of shady there.”
“Do you think they’ll give us trouble?” Keolah asked.
“They’d probably overcharge us, and we might wind up on a smuggler ship by mistake,” Delven said. “Port Fins or Scalyr would be a better option.”
“Starton is already a long way to walk,” Hawthorne grumbled. “Why couldn’t we fly there?”
“I’ll take us back by a different route,” Silver said. “I heard rumor that City of Topaz has been having trouble with an infestation of giant spiders in its deep mines.”
“Excellent!” Hawthorne said gleefully. “Yes! Let’s kill some spiders!”
“Hey!” called out a woman with a blue aura, approaching them, a cloud of bluish ebony hair trailing behind her and a sword hanging from her belt. “Is that a translation charm you’re wearing?”
“Yes,” Hawthorne said. “Why?”
“Thief!” the woman cried.
“Excuse me?” Keolah said. “Who are you?”
“I am Talmara the Unforgettable. You are strangers in this city, and my translation charm went missing shortly after you arrived.”
“Talmara the Unforgettable?” Hawthorne repeated. “Seriously?”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Keolah said. “I bought that amulet for her in City of Amethyst.”
So, it seemed Sedder was a thief. She’d thought the price he asked was very low, especially after she double-checked on their prices at a nearby magic item shop, but had figured he was just being generous to the group. But no, she figured he just wanted to get a stolen item off of his hands that badly and gaining the goodwill of the group was worth taking a loss for it. She didn’t for a moment think he’d actually bought it. Not after Talmara showed up looking for her stolen amulet.
Silver stepped in. “Talmara. You can’t go accusing people of thievery without evidence, just because you misplaced your charm.”
“Do you know these people?” Talmara demanded.
Silver sighed. “Yes. They’re my friends. I brought them here to do research.”
“Really now, I’ve spent most of my time here in the academy library,” Keolah said. “And Hawthorne couldn’t be stealthy to save her life.”
“I’d protest that characterization, but under the circumstances I’ll not argue.” Hawthorne smirked.
“You vouch for them, Cenemor?” Talmara asked Silver.
Silver made a face. “Call me Silver, please. And yes. I’ll vouch for them.”
“Fine,” Talmara said. “But if I ever find out otherwise, I’m skinning you all alive.” She stormed off, still annoyed.
Keolah scanned the area for Sedder’s dark gray aura. He’d been hanging around nearby when they were talking, but he’d fled like a panicked horse when Talmara showed up. Not that she could blame him. Talmara had looked about ready to use that sword of hers if she didn’t get the response she wanted. His aura was pretty distinctive, though. Come to think, none of the Windriders had a black aura.
Sedder hadn’t gone back to the inn. That would have been too easy to find, most likely. He was probably hiding from her, too. Keolah was the only one who knew he’d had the amulet, after all. It was difficult to track a specific aura in the middle of a crowd, but since his stood out so much, she was easily able to pinpoint him, and caught up to him in a tunnel at the outskirts of the city. He was invisible, of course, but that did nothing to stop her from seeing his aura perfectly clearly. She went up to him and tapped him on the shoulder.
“Ah… so you are here, Keolah,” Sedder stammered, casting about hastily and letting down the illusion.
“So you are here,” Keolah replied. “You owe me.”
“W-What?” Sedder said.
“And you owe Silver, too,” Keolah added. “I told Talmara I bought the translation charm in City of Amethyst, and Silver vouched for us. You don’t have to worry about her skinning you.”
“Ah… thank you.” Sedder relaxed a little.
Keolah folded her arms across her chest. “Did you sneak into that room in the Scalyr library we were working in just to ogle Silver, or were you planning to rob us?”
“I really wasn’t planning on robbing you,” Sedder said.
“Then stick with us,” Keolah said.
“You’re not angry with me?” Sedder said.
Keolah shrugged. “You didn’t steal from me, and the others don’t know where the amulet really came from. I’m going to expect that you use your skills to help me, though.”
“Of course,” Sedder said. “How did you even find me?”
“I’m a Seeker, remember?” Keolah said. “Nobody else around here has an aura even close to yours.”
Sedder winced. “That black aura is always getting me in trouble.”
“I only just found out exactly why people take a dim view of necromancers,” Keolah said.
“I’m not even a necromancer,” Sedder said. “I’m an inborn Illusionist.”
“Black is the aura color associated with Death Magic, regardless,” Keolah said.
“Yeah,” Sedder sighed. “Don’t I know it.”
“And I guess you can’t just use illusions to mask it,” Keolah said.
“If there is a way to do that, I don’t know it,” Sedder said.
“Well, I won’t tell anyone,” Keolah said. “Why didn’t you just tell me you’d stolen it? Well… I guess I don’t need to wonder that.”
“I didn’t know how you’d react,” Sedder said. “You know, I was afraid you’d give me some rant about how stealing is wrong and demand that I return it, or haul me off to be imprisoned or executed.”
“No,” Keolah said. “I really don’t care all that much. At any rate, it’s not like you’re sacrificing babies or anything. You don’t sacrifice babies or anything, do you?”
“I have never sacrificed a baby,” Sedder said. “I’ve never even sacrificed a goat.”
“Let’s get back to the others before they start wondering where we ran off to. We’ll be leaving City of Adamant in the morning and making our way out of Dalizar, anyway, so even if Talmara figures it out in hindsight we’ll be long gone by then.”
As they headed back out to the Song’s Hearth, Keolah mulled over in her head just how useful those sorts of skills might be. She was willing to bet money on the fact that the magic books she was looking for weren’t in some public library. Some might be unguarded in forgotten ruins, but she would have bet that most of them were in private collections. Keolah had believed Elanyr when she’d said she didn’t know where any of them were, but that didn’t preclude the possibility that one Windrider or another brought some of the books across in secret. And if the League of Wizards really covered the entire world and they’d translated the books into every language spoken, then the ones written in human languages – or earlier versions of human languages, at least – should be somewhere in Kalor, Albrynnia, or the Sunrise Islands.
Keolah really hoped that these books had been magically preserved somehow, although she figured that was pretty much a given. People tended to put protection spells of various sorts on every rare or important book, and she didn’t think magic books based on ancient arcane tomes would be any different. If anything, they’d have more protections than usual on them. Still, it would be just her luck if the reason that they couldn’t find them and no one knew where they were anymore was because they’d already decayed into dust because they were thousands of years old.
Still thinking, she went in to get dinner and something to drink. For once, she was in high spirits. While she had no idea whether the lost magic books would lead her to the Tinean books, even if the language in the pocket-world really was Tinean, finding them would be a great achievement in and of itself. Just think of the forgotten secrets and magical techniques that might be contained therein! That alone would make their quest worthwhile.