Time of the Mortals

 

It was a long night for the wizardress. Her robe was drenched from the snow. What was left of bodyheat has now gone away and she sits shivering in front of a fire. Should anyone care to look her way, they will see the lack of emotion in her face.

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It all started with a peasant who said, "make me a wizard." Not being with much else to do, the wizardress agreed to such a task. They talked a little bit as they approached the temple of veils.

"This is where you will decide your destiny. I cannot force you into it, nor tell you which route you will have to take. All I can say is remember that us wizards are freaks of nature. We chain and control the elements. We take the chaos and form into solid streams of energy. Keep that in mind." She lamented as they walked inside.

The peasant talked with Aoife for a little bit and then was wisked away by arcane magic older than the temple itself. The wizardress knowing the chant well, proceeded afterwards.

The young peasant was standing a little dazed and awed by such a rush of power. The wizardress looked at him and said, "when you are ready, we will walk through this door here. Your destiny awaits."

Deep into the depths of the temple they walked. He found much pain and suffering the more he walked on the ancient sigils. Voices would appear in his head giving him clues and leading him in certain directions. He was bewildered at the whole experience.

Before long they found themselves before the avatar of Luathas. The wizardress just smiled knowing that he must have heard what she said about what a wizard is. She knew so many who failed this test of destiny and ended up before Cail's avatar.

"This is the avatar of Luathas. He will guide you to your final destiny. Speak with him and I will honour you as your guide." She accepted his soul as a wizard's soul when the avatar spoke to her.

She sighed as she watched him get hurled through the aether back to the place where Aoife stood. Walking as quickly as she could, she hoped that he would not take off without her. "A mental note," she though, "we really have to talk the avatar into warping the guides as well."

Luckily he did wait, but mostly from confusion instead of actually waiting for her. The wizardress met up with him and gave him some coins. Both of them left the temple in haste. Their next destination, the dark wizard Dar.

Upon arriving at Dar's she talked in length about the elements. Srad, Creag, Athar, Sal, Deo, Dubh... none were missed. In the end, the young one decided he would take the quick gratification route of studying Srad. This was almost expected. Most wizards take this because their souls are fragile and they are not Aislings forever.

With little effort, Dar instilled the essense of how to chain Srad into the young man. Excited at this new found power, he was eager to "play" with it. So they headed to the crypt that lies beneath the city.

They both entered the dark place and instantly the stench of rotten corpses filled their noses. The wizardress found herself remembering a time when this was the only place she would hunt prey with her own newfound spells.

Heading down some stairs, they emerged to the first floor where prey loomed. It wasn't long before they noticed a few rats scurrying on the ground. Taking aim, the young man began reciting the arcane words taught to him by Dar.

An eruption of flame headed from the fingertips from the man and headed to the small rat. Almost in shock, the man did not aim well and the flame fizzled past and harmlessly bounced off the wall.

The wizardress chuckled softly, "now that you know what it does, think you can hit it this time?" She had a big grin on her face.

The young wizard saw this and smiled back. With more devout concentration he took perfect aim this time and the rat found a quick end to the hot fury of Srad.

A bit more rats and even a spider they encountered, before the wizardress said, "I must depart now.Your biggest strength is that the more you use your element, the more in touch you will become with it. Never forget that weapon."

Parting ways, she did not see much of him after this. This is another normal event that happens with those of fragile souls. She made it clear that should he need anything to look her up. She enjoyed to help the young to learn what being an elementalist is.

Many moons passed with no extrordinary events happening. The wizardress had not seen nor heard from the young man ever again. She had all but forgotten about him. Then fate stepped in.

Through telepathy, she received a whisper in her head. It was from the young man. He was pleading for assitance. Screaming much about death, creatures of great strength, and the rest being much too "loud" to understand.

Grabbing what items she thought necessary, she hurried to the location the young man had told her. Almost dropping her sack of fiors, ancusa deums, and other assorted potions, the wizardress approached a deep part in the eastern woodlands where she spied 4 hobgoblins and 2 goblin guards pacing around an area with 4 aislings who looked dead in a state of suspended animation.

The wizardress did not see the young man anywhere so called out to him in her mind. He responded and said that he sang a song and now found himself outside the temple of Fiosachd. Yes, "thank Fiosachd!" she thought. Now the hard part of weeding out these assailers.

It was a while since she stood in these woods. Long have they been surpased in being a useful hunting ground in her life. Without too much worry she softly incanted a ritual that would surround her in her dress of the master wizard.

Being fully protected, she was ready to take on the prey. "Stupid, stupid, stupid. How could I have been so dumb?" was all she could say to herself as the goblin-kin now saw her. She stood out like a sore thumb in a black dress against the fresh fallen snow in the woods.

Taking her staff high she called upon a few spells to amplify elemental interaction. Fits of energy surrounded the enemies, but seemingly they were not even concerned of such a happening.

Now came the favourite part of the wizardress. She darted at the creatures, one by one and touched them and instilled the power of Srad to each one. A dangerous task this is, as getting close to them caused her to take much beating herself. She stumbled back and around some trees when finally tagging them all.

Slowly and methodically, she began to chant a very old rite of the sage. The words echo'd in the wind. Any animals in the area ran, feeling the impending doom as the words rang in their ears. Seemingly the clouds darkened and silence suddenly bloomed with a chilled grasp like that of Sgrios claiming your soul.

The heavens almost seemed to tremble for a split second. From as far as she could see, a powerful wave of water emerged from the sky, splashing hard down onto all. Being in control of the force of Sal, the wizardress was seemingly unaffected by it. Even if not taking any harm from the spell, the power of it knocked her rolling head over heels for many yards.

The spell faded and the forest returned to normal. Picking herself up she saw the creatures had met their demise to the power of Gar. It was not often for her to use such a spell of destruction, but in times of need it was called upon.

Locating her bag, she quickly removed some fae liquor a nice Gliocan priest had given her and woke up the suspended Aislings one by one. In the while, the young wizard had returned to the area and thanked her for rescuing them all.

"I see your soul has become solid now. I am glad to hear it," noting a few sgrios scars on his body."What happened here?"

He explained about how the two monks were fighting and everyone got ambushed by the hobgoblins. Listening to the story he talked a bit of the spell commonly known as "fas."

"What of your Srad spells? How are they coming along?" He responded by telling her that he hadn't learned any new ones. All he uses is fas. Shaking her head disgusted, she walked home to Abel.

"The things I do to preserve sage-hood. What is the point anyways? Bah." A couple who were passing by looked at her funny as she spoke to herself some more. It wasn't long before she entered the bar.

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Suddenly looking up from the fire she speaks aloud, "No. There is little heart for a wizard now-a-days. Just one to be able to rise up to rededicate is all I see. Where has the power gone to?"

Taking a deep sigh, she continues, "anyways... I'm thirsty. Rum's on me everyone. Maybe I won't be so cold then."

-- Fremin Kendris