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Congrats. No, really, congrats. |
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Zakerin felt warm. His whole body ached, but he felt safe, and warm and.... not really all there. His clothes were torn, and most of his body was scratched up. He experimentally felt at his face, and sighed when he felt it all there. He stood up and felt a little light headed, he thought it was due to blood loss. He seemed to be in a cave of some sort, one that was the home of something humanlike, or at the very least sentient.
Stumbling outside, the light blinded him. It was a grassy meadow, at the foot of some mountain. A waterfall rushed down into a lake, and the lake opened up to several small streams. Dragons of every shape and size rested, flew, played and swam. It was... strangely comfortable.
"Welcome back to the land of the living Zakerin." the voice from his dream said.
Zakerin spun around to see the man sitting on a large rock. "You've passed your three tests, and now you have your final mission."
Zakerin looked around. Tests? Mission? "Did you and Terika set this up? And... those visions... what was that?" for some reason his left arm wouldnt move. the right ached, but... it was almost as if the arm just wasnt there.
The man sighed. "Walk with me Zakerin." he said, jumping down and starting to walk to the largest stream. Zakerin rushed after him, and fell into step alongside him.
"First, let me tell you that you are safe here. Nothing will attack you, no one but you and I will be here for the next six months." the man began. "Second, This, where we are, is called by many names, but it was first known as the Garden of the Stars. It has been here for as long as I have, you can call me Gardener by the way." the man, Gardener, seemed relaxed.
"That's not your real name, is it?" Zakerin asked. It seemed redundant to name someone gardener.
"Its as real as any other name. You are your job, otherwise you dont do it correctly."
"And you and Terika set this up as a... test?"
"No, I did this as a test. I needed to know if you had the capabilities to succeed someone very important."
At thirteen, Zakerin had been somewhat of a third wheel in everything, so he doubted that he was going to be acceptable. He walked along in silence.
"Im sorry about your clothes and arm..." Gardener said quietly. "You had been out for a day, and the scavengers had come... The only reason you'd been found was that you're descended from the Mage King."
It took a little bit for Zakerin to work out what Gardener was talking about, but then he realized. His arm wasnt broken... it wasnt there.
"It always comes back to the blood, doesnt it."
"In the end, no... for the people of this world? yes. They gave themselves to Magic, and in return killed the very thing that tried to save them."
"This world?"
"I'll explain later, we've reached it."
'It' was a grassy knoll roughly 100 feet wide. In the center was a huge pillar. Around the pillar were six more pillars, and on the ground was a six pointed star inscribed. Around that were four stone pedestals, one in each of the four compass directions. Encircling that was an inscription of the Uroborus, and a five pointed star.
"What... is it?" The amount of magic it radiated was more than Zakerin could imagine. Being this close was like static buildup through his entire body, electrifying the very air with mana.
"It's a powerful seal on the Mage King's Tomb." the Gardener said sourly, as if it was a personal affront for it to be there. "They stabbed him in the back and sealed his a** there so that they could have free reign on screwing this place up. But they overlooked certain rules, and so there was a small hole for him to slip through... but that's a story for another time. You need to see something."
He gestured for Zakerin to follow and approached the seals. Stepping through each seal was easy, though it felt almost like walking through a gelatin wall. They finally reached the central pillar.
It was bigger than it had looked, made of a greyish white stone, one solid piece. From one side it looked unblemished, beautiful...
"This Cursed stone is the main part of the spell, drawing energy from the other seals..." he drew Zakerin around to the front, and Zakerin gasped. There was a... thing... embedded into the pillar. An anathema to everything, it extruded such a dark feeling that made Zakerin sure that its purpose was to kill, maim, destroy anything and everything- even itself.
"The sword is the Unamed Blade. It appeared there after they tried sealing him a second time. Can you read the inscription on the tablet? It should be easy enough, its in your modern speech." Zakerin nodded and looked over to the stone tablet.
"I exist in defiance. Love, Kindness, anger, pain. Sword, shield, life and death. I consume it all. I am the Devourer in Red, the Darkness of Oblivion...." The words seemed cold in Zakerin's ears, and he could've sworn he had seen the sword move.
"That." the Gardener said, beginning to fade. "Is the Secret of the Canyon. Come see me when you've solved the riddle. I'll be by the falls."
There was still a small portion left on the tablet, that part made Zakerin shiver.
To Fail is to Die.
 Azzy Rael · Sun May 09, 2010 @ 09:38pm · 0 Comments |
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