Chapter 2 : Elias

  1 week later

  Elias yawned as he rode his horse. He hadn’t been sleeping well ever since that night in the clearing. Neither Erika, nor the drunkard said anything to him. The drunkard was still lazing about in the second wagon, while Erika remained with the rear group. Ever since that night, Elias’s dreams had been eating at him. Elias couldn’t remember the last time he had nightmares, but the ones he was experiencing now were hurting his sleep. Even the “pilgrims” had begun taking notice.

  “Ser Elias” Elias almost jumped out of his saddle. He turned to see Trayalla, her snow white mare moving gracefully next to his own horse.

  “Lady Trayalla,” Elias bowed

  “what may I do for you?” Elias looked at Trayalla, her implacable features still as unreadable as ever.

  “There are rumors that you are not sleeping well, are these rumors true?” She was beside him now. Elias noticed that she had a sweet smelling aroma. Lavender Elias thought, hehesitated to respond for a moment.

  “Yes... I have been plagued by dreams for a week now” Elias decided to be straightforward, he would need to maintain a good relationship with the other group leaders.

  “What exactly do you dream of?” Trayalla’s normally calm and measured speech was noticeably quicker than usual.

  “It really is nothing my lady, Just some nightmares is al-” Trayalla cut him off

  “I asked you what exactly did you dream of, Ser knight” While her features didn’t change, it felt like Trayalla was glaring at him.

  Elias recalled the nightmare that he experienced last night. First he would find himself walking through darkness. His only guide a single dot of light in that darkness. Days would seem to pass as he walked towards that light. Then he found himself in the middle of a town of some sort. There was rain the drops soaking him down to his bones. He heard the whimpers of crying, turning his head he saw the girl from the clearing.

  She was older now, with her jet black pony tail now reaching between her shoulder blades. Her tears even visible in the rain. She herself was leaning on a sword almost as long as she was tall. A blade black as night. The end of the sword pierced into a body on the ground beneath her. When Elias looked to the body the sword was lodged in, he saw the boy. His own black hair now curly, covered his lifeless eyes.

  The boys pale flesh somehow even paler than it was before, almost lifeless. That same heavy book clutched in a single pale hand. Elias would move to the girl reaching out to touch her shoulder, before she turned and slammed a dagger into his gut. Elias would look into her eyes, eyes full of hate and sorrow.

  The scenery would return to the darkness, the light guiding Elias still the small dot. Again he found himself somewhere new. This time it was a meadow, the moon full, its light gently illuminating the darkness. This time Erika was there crouched by a figure. Elias grew closer not recognizing the figure at first. As the man on the ground blood pooling around his lifeless body, was not wearing his usual filth covered clothing. The drunkard, Erika’s uncle, was wearing dull gray armor. The image of the sun on his chest.

  Erika herself also wore different clothing, her adventurer’s attire replaced with a snow white dress, covered in gold filigree. She was crying, hands held together in prayer. She was speaking, but Elias could not hear it. He tried to approach, to try and comfort Erika. However, the moment he approached Erika would look up. Her once radiant blue eyes replaced by blazing light. Their radiance blinding, then he felt heat, an intense burning heat raged around him. His clothes and skin burning away, his scream drowned in the now raging inferno.

  Again he was walking in the darkness, this time the light was close. He felt he could reach out and touch the light, feeling that if he could just reach the light he would be safe. However, he heard a voice behind him.

  “E..l..i..as…” Elias turned seeing a sight he always hoped he could forget. A wooden platform, and a single body hung, swaying with the wind. Elias felt tears swelling in his eyes.

  “Eli..as” The corpse spoke its voice the same as the one he heard frequently in his waking hours.

  Elias turned back, he needed to get back, to get to that light. Yet when he turned there was nothing. Only the darkness, the voice grew louder

  “Elias” Elias would run, no sprint away but it grew louder and closer.

  “ELIas” eventually Elias turns and there in his vision is the decaying face of his mentor.

  “ELIAS” The first night Elias awoke screaming. His clothes soaked with sweat, his hands aching as if they had been clenched in his sleep.

  Elias recounted the dream to Trayalla. Her face unchanging, Elias had to force himself to stop clenching the reins of his mount when he got to the end. He hoped that Trayalla wouldn’t find him to be strange. Though she did ask him for the details.

  “As I said it appears to just be a nightmares” The details often change, some nights his mentor didn’t even show up.

  “the parties don’t change, and you are killed in them still correct?” Elias nodded, sweat began to form on the back of his neck. Trayalla said nothing for a long while. She then looked at him, Elias returned the gaze. To his shock he could tell, she was looking at him, genuinely looking at him. Not sharing her usual unchanging gaze. Elias could tell she was actually sharing her face with him.

  The only problem was, it was one that looked like a mixture of pity and concern.

  “This is either most fortuitous or terribly ruinous for you Ser Elias.” Elias was shocked, he looked towards Trayalla. It was the first time she had ever used his name. She had always referred to him as “Ser Knight” never by his name.

  “I am most curious about the people in this vision. Your mentor is obviously related to yourself. While the sly girl, and the “drunkard” as you call him are part of our present company. How do these 2 others fit in.” Elias stiffened, he didn’t mention where he had seen the 2 children. Only gave the description as he saw it in the dream.

  “It is only dreams lady Trayalla, they often make little sense.”

  “Unfortunately for us both ser Elias this is not the case.” She was staring ahead now, almost dazing, as if she were focusing on an object that she couldn’t quite see. Then she turned her head back to him, her eyes seeming to glow slightly with a faint white light. The light fading as quickly as it appeared she had the look of pity again.

  “these are no mere dreams of yours, they are sights. Visions granted to you, from whom I do not know, but sights nonetheless.” Elias swallowed, anxiety making his breathing difficult. He felt he knew the answer to the question that spilled out of his mouth.

  “Are you sure lady Trayalla?” For the first time since he had met the mysterious elf she frowned.

  “Yes, ser Elias. For I to have the gift of sight myself.” Elias could only nod as he took in the face of the lady elf. A face that had the visage of pain, and understanding.

  ---

  Trayalla 1 week later

  It had been a week since Trayalla had confirmed with the knight that he had been having sights. The boy had barely asked any questions. He had allowed her to see to him at night, she had needed to monitor him to see if they were truly, in fact, sights. She was near certain of course, but she had wanted to confirm it with her own eyes. As much as she loved, and was loved by magic. She still occasionally got the desire to confirm things with more mundane methods.

  She had given him a concoction to drink, one that she often used herself. It would allow a sleep without dreams, for dreams had a habit of getting in the way. It would still allow the body to repair itself so there were no real drawbacks. She really did hope that the young knight was just experiencing mere nightmares.

  These faint hopes were soon dashed as the young man before her began to toss and turn in his sleep.

  “Erika...wait...Sam…” Words mumbled by the boy as he recoiled by the sights he was shown. She immediately began to call magic. A normal magician would’ve needed to spend a great deal of time preparing for a spell like this. In fact the sequences required would make most average magicians balk at the very idea.

  However, Trayalla functioned differently. She was a Templa, she along with her people in the great Elven Domain weren’t entirely sure what Templa were. There were ideas that they were one of the progenitor species that had lived before the rise of the “lesser” peoples. That idea had an unnerving amount of traction among her people. She herself believed that they simply were. A natural occurrence of life in her opinion.

  All Templa were of course able to use magic. What separated a Templa from others was the simple fact that they could freely use the natural magical energy in their surroundings. Magical energy was everywhere, certain scholars in the floating city of Kunish posited that Magical energy was itself a byproduct of life, that through some unknown means life itself generated magical energy. Normal magicians were most often limited to the magical energy that they either generated, converted, or were able to store from in their bodies.

  A Templa however, was able to freely use the magic that surrounded them. The problem was that it was a tight balancing act. With all that free floating magical energy it was too easy, no, it was too alluring, to use too much. For a Templa still needed to channel the energy through their bodies to build their spells.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  Even for Templa, too much magical energy was dangerous. Many Templa have died sucking up more than their bodies could handle, Trayalla had seen it first hand. It was never a good sight, the image of a proud elf, their face drowning ecstasy and contorting in pain simultaneously. For some reason unknown to the wider magical society. External magical energy was inherently toxic to magicians. Templa seemed to be an exception, albeit a limited one.

  Trayalla was restraining herself even now, the pleasure of natural magic filling her body. She began to write her sequence. No Templa used magic the same way, some simply willed their spells into existence. Others relied on items with sequences built into them, only using their abilities to activate those sequences. Trayalla preferred to build her sequences herself, akin to how a traditional magician used magic. She wrote her commands, what she wanted the magic to do, individually forming the sequences that made her spell. Instead of drawing on her body’s magic, she used the free flowing natural magic.

  Trayalla now focused, building the sequence of commands to the Magical energy while she simultaneously pulled in from her surroundings. It was a familiar spell, the sequences came to Trayalla with little effort. After she built her sequence, she allowed the spell to activate. With her mage sense she monitored the spell ensuring that it didn’t break down. Anyone sensitive to magical energy could sense, or even see magical energy if they were particularly in tune with it. Magicians, Templa included, needed to learn how to discern the nuances of the energy. Most especially when a spell was involved.

  Normal magicians needed to know in order to be efficient with their comparatively small stores of magic. While Templa needed to ensure that their spells wouldn’t break down, or worse go rampant from the relative torrent of energy. Spell rampancy had caused a noticeable amount of carnage in the past. Ambient magical energy allowed to go rampant with out sequence commands to guide them, or worse a complete breakdown of the magical structure of the spell which never ended well.

  Trayalla’s spell finally took effect, she placed her hands against the sides of Elias’s head and allowed the spell to do as intended. She blinked and she found herself in darkness. She looked and there he was, walking towards a speck of light. She followed, her dream form carefully taking in the surroundings. Trayalla noted the exactness of the dreamscape, if it was a mere dream there would be inconsistencies, or idiosyncratic forms / structures unique to the dreamer. Everything in the dreamscape was too uniform, too concise, evidence that this was no mere dream, but a sight.

  While she had the gift of sight, she herself barely understood the phenomena. Even in the Eternal Domain, there were few who even researched them, let alone understood them. Trayalla had started having sights of her own after the war. As far as she understood, they were one of the methods that beings from separate planes were able to send information. Supposedly those who were experienced in sights, could communicate with the senders. How this was done, was apparently not important or comprehensible enough to be written down.

  She nearly got caught up in the transition of the dreamscape without noticing it, however, thanks to the effects of her mind walking spell she was able to see the dreamscape from an “outside” perspective. Elias was walking along a road. One Trayalla recognized, it was the parade road that lead to the palace of the king of Hartland. He was leading a procession, Trayalla herself was hovering above Elias floating along with him. She had more experience in the dreamscape than the young man thus was able to perceive her surroundings easily.

  She took in the surroundings focusing her mind allowing the spell to clear the natural fog of the dreamscape. Along the sides of the road were people who wore faces of sorrow, or were weeping. There were banners of course, some were of the various noble houses that infested Hartland. A notable one was one that she had thought dead along with its nation. A simple white banner with a yellow sun in its center, the symbol of Krantz.

  The banner of the current royal house was present as well. A field of royal purple with a red dragon’s claw gripping a white rose. Trayalla noticed that Elias himself was wearing armor that bore this same mark. The other knights around him were all wearing it. She turned towards the rest of the procession.

  “A funeral procession” Trayalla found that there were other knights here, they had the mark of Krantz upon their breasts.

  “Why show us this? Krantz is dead, the Romans they…” Her words trailed off and she spotted the center of the procession. Just now entering focus, and registering in her mind a massive dragon was walking with the grace of a feline. It was surrounded by the rest of the procession. Trayalla could feel the magical distortions coming from the beast even in the dreamscape.

  A dragon fully grown was a beast of pure magical power. Able to distort and project magical energy via its mere presence. Even in the dreamscape this power was making itself known. The dragon was making startlingly little noise considering its size. It stared ahead towards the palace, in front of its long toothed maw something hovered. A single snow white coffin was being levitated in front of the dragon. The dragon was bearing the coffin, whoever was inside was of great import it appeared.

  There was a commotion at the front of the procession, and Trayalla turned to look at it. At the front someone was standing in front of Elias. Trayalla recognized the man who was now shouting at Elias. It was the same tall man whom Elias referred to as “the drunkard”. He was wearing dull steel gray armor, on the breast plate was a scarred symbol that Trayalla couldn’t make out.

  The drunkard, no, the knight was staring daggers at Elias. The knight had his sword drawn, steel faintly shimmering with power. In his left hand was clutched around an object, with a silver chain falling from his grasped hand. The knight’s gaze hardened as the procession made its way near the knight, who still staring at Elias, refused to move.

  Elias looked confused, as the other escorts placed hands on the elder knight. Then with a speed that one normally wouldn’t think possible for a man of his age. The older knight decapitated both of the escorts. Their headless corpses collapsing to the ground. As the remaining escorts drew their weapons the crowd screamed.

  Elias still looked confused, then he stared at the older man who dashed forward ignoring the escorts. Elias made to draw his own sword, but was stopped when the older knight’s blade struck his skull. The moment the sword entered Elias’s skull the dreamscape distorted and changed.

  This time Elias found himself in the hallway of what appeared to be a manor of some kind. Trayalla was still recovering from the rapid transition, and took some time to look at the surroundings. The architecture was foreign to Trayalla, it didn’t appear to be like anything in Hartland, nor was it of the southern kingdom of Gaullente. The decoration was rich, yet simplistic, the architecture gave her the feeling of precision. Trayalla looked around and froze, she spotted a banner on one of the walls.

  It was split with one half being a rich blue, the other being a deep crimson. Centered on the banner was a golden eagle sitting within a snow white half-ring of leaves tied together. The personal banner of the leader of an enemy Trayalla had spent 2 decades struggling against. Fighting in a war she had stupidly decided to throw herself in, with her only reward being a swift exile from the Eternal Domain. The banner of the Emperor of the Roman empire.

  Trayalla felt sick, it took a force of will to remind herself that this was a vision, and that she would be safe, calming herself she looked to find Elias. He had walked down the hallway to a single unadorned door. Elias opened the door, which lead to a large open room. The room felt immense, with a high vaulted ceiling, making Trayalla gape at the size of the building they would be in. The center of the room was a single walkway paved in 4 colors of the empire. A pattern of red, white, blue, and gold swirled along the central walkway.

  Flanking the walkway were enormous pillars of marble, each of these pillars immaculately carved with intermittent rings that were inlaid with art. To their right the walkway lead to a set of stairs leading up to a platform. Upon this platform sat a throne carved from the same marble as the pillars. Behind the throne were 3 massive stained windows. The art of the windows was difficult to see from where Trayalla was.

  Elias, and Trayalla had entered through a side corridor. Again Trayalla almost missed the distortions of the vision. To her left an ornate set of double doors which had been closed, were now open. Spilling forth from the door were a few dozen people. These people were unrecognizable, a haze covered their forms preventing Trayalla from discerning their features.

  Ahead of these stood a single man, no not a man, a boy barely reaching what could be considered adulthood. He had skin pale as the moon, eyes as black as night, with hair to match. What caught Trayalla’s eye was not his features, but what exuded from him. The boy exuded pure power, magical energy seemed to radiate from his body, power that few could possess. He was also surrounded by several wisp like strands of a power that was peculiar, they didn’t radiate the pleasure of magic. They gave Trayalla a feeling of anxiety, no, fear…

  “curse user”

  Trayalla said so unconsciously, the boy was not only a powerful magician. He was also a curse user, Trayalla noticed the book then. The massive tome the boy held in his right hand was drenched in curses. The anxiety inducing energy spilled from the closed pages like a miasma.

  Standing before the boy and his followers was a sight that Trayalla had hoped she wouldn’t see again. A line of Imperial soldiers, all in various positions rifles raised. She looked up and on the balconies above, imperial machine gun teams had taken positions. A memory of the terrible sound those weapons made when used entered her mind. Behind the imperial troops there were a pair of men carrying an unconscious girl.

  The girl had similar features to the boy, pale skin, black hair and black eyes. What separated her from the boy was she appeared to be a bit older, and she clutched a sheathed sword. When Trayalla glanced back to the standoff she noticed an individual who was not there previously.

  He wasn’t a particularly imposing figure, his head was obscured, but Trayalla had a feeling of who it was. His clothes were of the imperial style, utilitarian, with a quality that was different to the other parts of the continent. His left shoulder had a half cape adorned with the same design as the banner in the hallway. On his head sat a crown of metal leaves. One half was blue and white which bled into red and gold.

  The Emperor watched the girl being taken, while she could not see his features, she could sense a feeling of sorrow. The Emperor then turned to the boy, he picked through the soldiers and approached. The boy made no movements, only staring up at the Emperor. The Emperor was now only a few feet from the boy, he then held out a hand.

  Nothing happened for what felt like an eternity, then quick as a flash the boy stepped forward his left hand now producing a sword black as night. It pierced the chest of the emperor with no resistance. What had been a previously silent seen was now shattered by a loud yell.

  “NO!” Trayalla turned and saw the girl, previously unconscious darting forward drawing her own sword. Trayalla was shocked as a massive amount of curses exploded from the girl, swirling around her enveloping her sword changing it to one of the same deep black as her own hair.

  “Her as well…” The scene froze, the girl frozen in the air, boy stock still. The shadowed figures rushing forwards stopped mid stride, some falling to the roman guns. The Emperor turned, sword through his chest curses dripping from the blade. The Emperor showed no signs of concern for the weapon impaling him, as he strode towards Elias and Trayalla.

  For the first time Elias seemed to notice Trayalla’s presence.

  “lady Trayalla?”

  Before Trayalla could reply, the emperor stood before the 2. He was a full head taller than Elias which put him eye level with the floating Trayalla. Trayalla still could not pick out any features besides the man’s clothing. His head was just as shrouded as the figures behind the boy in the walkway. The Emperor seemed to be regarding the 2 of them.

  He began to make motions with his hands, as if he were explaining something. With the shroud over his head, Trayalla couldn’t tell if he was talking. After a moment he stopped, pointing at the side of his head then turning his hand in question. Trayalla finally understanding the meaning made to speak however, Elias spoke first.

  “I cannot hear you if you speak sir,” Elias was shaking slightly, Trayalla couldn’t tell if it was fear or some other aliment. To Trayalla’s surprise the Emperor simply shrugged, crossing his arms he looked around. As if he was noticing his surroundings for the first time. Then it came, a twinge in the air around Trayalla and Elias. The Emperor turned to them nonchalant with a sword through his chest.

  Trayalla realized what was happening, the sight was collapsing. Too many observers of the vision were causing whatever power that sent it to be put under too much strain. Elias looked like he was going to panic.

  “calm yourself ser Elias, you will be alright, the sight is simply collapsing. You will wake up fine.” She turned back to the Emperor. To her surprise he was waving, like he was sending off a friend. Before she could do more her vision went black.

  Trayalla awoke, and she immediately noticed the sweat that now soaked even her robes. She felt exhausted, with a nausea coming to her she fought down the desire to vomit. She looked to Elias he was awake as well, it appeared he wasn’t as successful in battling his nausea. He was pushing the emptied contents of his stomach into a small hole he had dug.

  He had been sleeping in a simple shirt and riding pants. They too were soaked through with sweat.

  “we will both need water ser Elias.” She made to get up, she needed to clean herself and hydrate. Elias reached out and stopped her.

  “Please just tell me they are mere nightmares my lady” His eyes were sunken with exhaustion.

  “I’m afraid not ser Elias” She pulled a small phial from her belt she saw he was taking a water skin from his belongings. She quickly took it from him, with a look she was able to get Elias to release it to her.

  Pulling out the stopper she also opened up the water skin, she allowed a single drop of the soft violet liquid inside to enter the water. Recapping her phial she closed and lightly shook the water skin before handing it back to Elias.

  “drink all of this, you need to recover your fluids, the potion will help you sleep without having another sight. Though I do think the collapse of this one should do so anyway.” with that she got up and made her way to where she had set up her own tent. Not bothering with her usual rituals she took a sip from the phial, the taste of the undiluted potion threatening to ruin her control over her bowel.

  Exhaustion won however, and she quickly disrobed, putting on unsoiled small clothes before collapsing on her neatly arranged blankets. Sleep came quickly and she allowed it to take her.