The men stood in a circle, their hands weaving expert patterns in the air. Their skin shown a deathly gray while bright purple and blue lights danced along runes that they each individually had embedded in their extremities. They each wore dark purple robes which hid their faces. The robes were fastened to their right shoulder with the emblem of a comet. The comet itself was gold. There was also a tail that spiraled out from the center which tapered to a fine point. Each man had the end of the tail at the top, as required.
The sparks dancing on their skin grew in intensity and the air started to grow hazy. The orb that sat in the middle of this group started to take on the same glow of each man. The pattern of movement that they had each taken shifted. Abruptly they had stopped. And each sat on the ground. The haze that had filled the room gradually dissipated, however the orb that seemed to be drawing on the raw energy that flowed in the room. Eventually one of the men left the ritual and switched on a mechanism that started the process of cutting off the flow of mana into the room.The other men walked to the other side to wait as the flow diminished to a trickle, then ceased. First man lifted a box that had been placed by the shut off mechanism and carefully enclosed the orb that still maintained it’s position floating in the middle of the room. Once the orb was secured the man near the door pushed his hand on a button and the door near him opened. Outside the replacement team waited, Three mages and the four escorts.
The first mage Two of the men lifted the orb enclosed orb and hauled it off down the corridor lined with countless door each similarly marked and closed. There were many other teams hauling similar boxes off in the same direction. The second team entered the room with another core and with practiced routine they opened their box leaving an orb in the same location as the first, floating in the middle of the room. The put the transportation box in the same location as the first and quickly exited. One of the new group placed his hand on the shoulder of the old group of the mages, pulling him aside and turning his back to the group.
“Good work in there, you all finished a bit early!” one of the new mages spoke. “If you keep this up we may even be blessed by a visit from The Emperor!”
The other man opened his mouth to reply, but instead of words a deep wheezing crawled out followed by a slow moving paralysis. A look of confusion twisted across his face as his body was locked into place. The new mage moved his head close.
“It’s only temporary,” The man whispered and releasing the now stiff man, “Please don’t make this any harder than it has to be.”
The man stood still for a moment, as the new mage joined everyone else. The two remaining mages from the chamber started to notice it. There was something off with this new group. While the pins of the old group had been uniform in their placement with the tail of the comet terminating at the, the new group’s emblems had been haphazardly fixed onto their cloaks. Their suspicions were confirmed when the man fell over backwards revealing a heavily etched and runed dagger buried in his chest.
“That didn’t last as long as it was supposed to.” Said the now disappointed mage, clearly the leader.
“They probably had more work done than we anticipated.” Came the reply from the third mage, vaguely gesturing at their rune work.
The two remaining mages had been met with the same fate. A dagger had been worked up under his ribcage piercing his lung. The three bodies on the floor didn’t show any blood being spilled. Thankfully the daggers at least did that correctly. It was short work dragging the bodies back into the chamber. Thankfully the muscle atrophy that affected all mages made it easier, they had been quite light. The leader glanced around furtively. It seemed the intelligence they gathered seemed to mostly be correct. The escorts hauled the newly energized core to be processed and shipped to one of the far reaches of the empire. They had half expected this intitailly as any attempt to strike up a conversation with the mindless drones was med with a slack-jawed expression and a copious amount of drool.
Ones the bodies of the mages had been gathered, the chamber was sealed. One of the men pulled the orb out of the center and set to work altering the set of runes that had been etched into surface. Once they were satisfied with their work they dragged the bodies of the now deceased mages and arranged them onto the floor into a specific triangle pattern matching their etched runes with those that had been etched on to the orb. Satisfied with their work they took it upon them selves to remove their weapons and piled them into the box that originally contained the orb. They removed their cloaks, their arms and visible skin looked far healthier as well as the fact they had more of a healthy looking weight. The muscle atrophy that came with magic work had not taken it’s toll yet.
Now down to their light undergarments, two of the men stood at opposite ends of each other. The leader strode over to the mana flow switch and placed his hand over it.
“Are you ready for it?” the leader asked.
“We’ve already made it this far,” One of the men near the orb answered
The other man just simply nodded his head and raised his hands in anticipation.
The leader pushed out a harsh breath through his nose and pushed the button. There was a satisfying thunk as the internal mechanisms of the chamber came to life. A charge came through the air as well as a slight almost unnoticed haze. The two men near the orb started their movements which was quite similar to the first group’s. The dance progressed and they worked to include the leader. He joined them with practiced fluidity. Once all three men started to move in sync with each other, the runes that had been implanted in their skin started to glow and spark with the same shades as the first groups. The bodies on the floor acted as a filter however, the runes in their skin did not have the same blue and purple colors dancing in them. They instead were a dark purple and red. Lines of the mana were drawn up into the orb in the shape of a tetrahedron and the orb itself started to take on the red glow.
A crystal jutted out of the sphere cracking it with a loud pop. It was a dark red like the mana that was being channeled into it. The sphere started to fall apart with sudden points breaking out from the center. The sphere’s pieces started to crack dissolve from the core, falling away and dissipating into the air leaving no trace. Once the core was exposed The men continued their work carefully channeling the mana into the room. A light crackling noise started as the core itself started to crystallize. Points of the crystal then started growing along the lines that were focused into it. There was another crack that reverberated in the room staggering each of the still living men, throwing off their routine. The core’s size started increasing. With a low thumping that could only be felt through the air. The men quickly grew familiar with the vibrations that shook through the air fell back into their routine.
The break in the routine had allowed the crystal forming on the core to grow in an unanticipated way. It started pulsing with new found energy. With each pulse it grew asymmetrically. A outgrowth of the crystal reached one of the bodies on the floor, with the next pulse the runes on the body had started to become encrusted with shards growing out of each rune that had been embedded. The other two bodies on the floor were engulfed shortly after. One of the men noticed the bodies starting to grow similar and stopped moving. He tried to draw attention o the issue but instead shouted out in pain the crystalline growths shot out pulsed out from the body piercing him in the shoulder instantly immobilizing him. The pulsing increased it’s tempo upon finding a new conduit of energy.
The two remaining men rushed to the mana cutoff one of the men reached the button and the instant he smashed it with his hand a shard blew through his chest. The remaining man turned abruptly and rolled under the shard that cut through the first man. He reached the button near the door and hit it.Once the door opened he attempted to dive under it where he was caught by a shard exploding through his knee. There was a burning pain as he felt his the runes under his skin hardening and the shards working themselves slowly into the muscle.
Unlike the men inside the mana rich chamber the crystal grew slower once the chamber was opened. The man knew his death would be slower than that of his fellow conspirators. He could feel that his leg was mostly numb at this point and gnawing pain of the runes as they got converted to the crystalline structure. He could see in the distance a retrieval team coming to relieve another crew. The man laughed once they spotted him and put down their box to rush to his aid. With effort a great amount of effort the man twisted himself to look back into the chamber. The red crystal had grown exponentially and if not already, it would be working its way to the origin channels that the entire factory was built on.
He didn’t have much knowledge about what would happen once the crystal snaked its way to the origin, most of the work at this point had been theoretical at this point, but he knew it was something that was desperately needed. He read the same books, followed the same data. He felt a pang of sadness that touched under everything as he laughed. He wasn’t going to get out of this building. He couldn’t even make it out of the chamber. After all that work, he wouldn’t be able to see the world be remade.
The retrieval crew made it to him. The crystal that reached his leg was now fully visible to them. The mages upon seeing this quickly ran back down the hall while the man cackled. It wouldn’t be much longer now.
——
Malik sat at his desk, busying himself with the paperwork that sat on his desk. There were always never ending piles of paperwork that needed his seal of approval. He did as much as he could stand to do. He was never the type that liked sitting on his hands tied behind the desk. He absent-mindedly placed his seal on the more official orders, and for the average day to day work he used his ink stamp. It was always a constant struggle with what he felt were the mountains of paperwork.
Malik looked wistfully out the window. It was a nice day. He glanced over at his paperwork. It was about time that one of the clerical workers would come in and deposit some extra work and empty the out-box. He looked at the daunting pile of work and frowned. It didn’t really look like much objectively, but to him it felt like a mountain. He stamped a few more forms and fixed his seal to a couple more. He leaned back in his chair. He was thankful that it was comfortable. How long had he been here, It felt like half a day at least.
Malik looked to the suits of armor that he had brought into the room. He haddone his best to get them to match the men that were depicted on the desk, however many of the current modern adaptations for mobility and light weight builds seemed to accent the ancient feel of soldiers that had been carved in to the desk itself. It most likely was second age design, but only the mages had a basic idea, even then he was sure they wouldn’t be able to place it accurately either. The pieces were also rather hard to find as the more modern equipment had been lighter and tended to be etched to increase their durability.
Malik thought back to when he had been first assigned his post. The transit system had only taken him to the nearest hub. Once he got off the plate it sped off returning to it’s home. Malik had been instructed to not bring anything with him, in fact, he was explicitly told to wear the plainest clothes he could find. He left the grand, yet empty building, and was greeted by a horse drawn cart. The man driving the two horses greeted him with a gesture and a grunt. The man was unloading what appeared to be large sacks of grain off his cart and Malik took it upon himself to do the same. Once the cart was empty, they worked on loading other goods onto the cart that had been stored nearby. Malik wasn’t as used to doing physical labor as the cart’s driver, but he worked without complaint. Malik figured that secrecy was key here and he decided that he should follow along.
Malik got onto the cart and they set off. The driver wasn’t the most talkative sort of people. Malik asked a few questions to try and learn more about the man as an individual, but was met with either some sort of grunt or single word answer and Malik quickly gave up any hopes of a conversation. The driver appeared to have the muscular build of a farmer, but as far as Malik could tell there seemed to be an odd edge of discipline that couldn’t be explained. There had been none of the military scarring underneath his right eye nor any of the corresponding ink work tattooed on his neck. The driver seemed to notice Malik’s scrutiny, but simply ignored it.
The road that seemed to curve randomly though a forest seeming to zig and zag at the strangest times almost as if it were following something different than the topography of the forest itself. The plant life along the edge seemed to cut off abruptly from the path that had been worn into the ground They finally arrived at their destination. There was a large circular open area within the forest that had the same abruptly end of vegetation as the road along the perimeter, there were white bricks with faintly glowing blue ruins that were subtly raised above the surrounding ground. A handful of tents surrounded a central unassuming stone tower that appeared to have been made out of the same material as the bricks. The ground in this area had been covered in grass, with only a few paths cut through which appeared to be more word from constant walking than that of the circle that surround the opening.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
Malik found himself staring again at the pile of papers on his desk. He often found himself daydreaming at his desk. It wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, he just was not a fan of feeding the bureaucratic beast. With a sigh he again and got back to work. He put a little more care into stamping of his papers, but his heart still wasn’t into it. He knew at this point the majority of all the paperwork was just a formality. Basic lip-service for the bureaucrats in the capitol. The work had already been done. There was a lot going on in the fort. He knew what exactly he could and should sign off on and also what else that he specifically had to have no knowledge of. He signed up for this. It was all his show at this point.
He heard a slight whine outside of his office, pushing the distraction. It sound of a cart, wheels in desperate need of maintenance. He groaned it was almost the time he dreaded most. He could hear the whine intermittently, growing louder each time it started again. Each time it started he winced slightly. There was a faint knock at the door. There was no avoiding it now.
“Come in” Malik called, trying to hide his disappointment.
The clerical assistant arrived, dressed in uniform that had been meticulously cared for. The man had to be at least two hundred, Malik often theorized. When he first met the man, he was also just as wrinkly then as he as now. Malik was sure he hadn’t fared any better. It had been ten years since he first accepted the posting. The man must have been some kind of immortal. He could picture the man in a freshly pressed suit presenting unsigned papers to Malik’s dry and dusty bones, piling papers to the ceiling. Malik suppressed a groan. He didn’t want to be remembered pushing the endless paper wheel, but that’s how it felt at this point.
The cart was wheeled in and the clerical assistant pulled out a modest stack of papers. Malik groaned audibly. The assistant placed the new papers underneath the current pile that sat in the box. Many of the people that he worked with knew that he wasn’t a fan of paperwork, and they did their part to keep his desk cleared. The clerical assistant emptied the out-box and loaded the finished work onto his cart, quickly binding the documents The clerical assistant nodded giving a quick, yet respectful bow to the commander. He did what he needed to do and after turning his cart around he wheeled it out of the room just as quickly as he had entered. Malik simply loathed the work and in an effort to remain civil, he remained quiet whenever he had been presented with paperwork.
Malik took the exit of the clerical assistant as a cue for a break. He got up from his chair and paced to a window. He could make out some of the men practicing their drills in the courtyard. Malik could just barely make out the fresh red dot underneath the sergeant’s right eye. With time the color would fade and it would just be a raised bump, but with how he seemed to be working the men Malik could tell that the man was striving for more than just that single dot.
There was another knock at the door. This one was louder. Before Malik could call out for the person to enter the door was quickly opened and shut.
“Magister, always a pleasure.” Malik said, without turning.
“I see you’re doing paper work.”
Malik waved his hand dismissively in the air, ”Just budget allocation. Nothing major.”
Malik turned to look at the Magister. He wore Loose white cloth that seemingly flowed around his person. A single blue sash had been tied around his middle. The runes embeded into his skin shone through the cloth along his arms and legs. While the magister had been younger than Malik when he had been assigned the magic coursing through the runes had aged him considerably. This had not sapped his energy however and Malik felt the man was still as fit as Malik had been on the cutting of his first dot.
“What is it, Klaas?”
They had initially tried to like each other. The more they worked together, the more they found themselves stepping on each other’s toes in issues with the initial construction of the fort but also with staff selection. They could never see eye to eye, no matter how hard either of them tried. With construction of the fort finished they had found themselves in a rather comfortable working situation. While their opinions of each other had never really improved, it hadn’t worsened either.
“We’ve been having some trouble with the scrying,” The magister replied, “Something happened in Imperial Gardens.”
Worry drew across Malik’s face. “Show me.”
They both urgently left the room and descended the tower. The original structure had mostly been unaltered from the construction of the fort, however there was the addition of further rooms and a maze like path to the center of the tower. All which originated from the tower itself. The stonework had been commissioned to have a similar look to that of the tower, however the work that had been done to the tower could easily be seen by Malik and many of the other that had been on board to see the construction of the fort itself.
The base of the tower had wide open arches on the outside with a single spiral staircase that went directly to the top. Most of the arches had been long since filled in and closed off, and the remaining arches had been fitted with archer slits as well as a murder hold set directly above the door. If it weren’t for the almost sun like light that had been etched through-out the fort, Malik would have found the entire place rather gloomy and wouldn’t have found himself surprised to see the the tower suddenly become as overgrown as it had been when he had first arrived.
Below the tower, there had been eight giant chambers carved into the earth itself. Initially the chambers held a wealth of books and writing, but upon discovery the works had been distributed among a wide selection of Magisters and Mage-Wrights in an effort for further understanding of the craft. There was still a wide selection of the First and second age relics and artifacts that had remained, however they had been deemed innocuous or useless to the empire. Whatever could be used was quickly carted off and given the same treatment as the books and writings.
At the bottom of the spiral staircase the floor flashed with a barely perceptible pulse after Malik stepped off the final step. Malik and Klaas walked into the scrying chamber. The mages were definitely busy, but Malik had little understanding of magic. He could see groups of mages changing out large basins of water and then pouring the water into different basins. When he first set eyes on the chamber, it was empty. There had been bare shelves as far as he could see. The floors had been reworked to accommodate the scrying work, and there were many new ramps and stairs between the multiple levels of the chamber. It had also felt a great deal darker than before, but Malik had understood the need for darkness for this type of work.
The occasional footfall would echo through the chamber as well as hushed conversation. Malik would catch the occasional word but quickly dismiss it. The sound of water pouring would break through but it only seemed to break the almost sacred atmosphere that seemed to permeate the place. Malik always felt out of place in the lower levels. He figured that it was something to do with the fact he had little authority over what happened with the ongoing mission that they had been tasked with, but another part felt that it was the fact that he had no grasp over how the Magister and his mages did their work.It always felt like an ever moving torch in an endless hallway. The more he found himself understanding, the less he felt he knew.
He tried to maintain a relatively good working relationship with Klaas because of how little he understood of what Klaas did. During the construction of the actual fort Klaas had been tasked with setting up many of the magical defenses, but as with most magic, once it was set it didn’t look like anything had actually been done. Even though Malik felt that he couldn’t begin to understand what it was that Klaas and his mages were working on he did respect the man. It was hard to work with him without ruffling a few feathers at first, but as they got an idea of how to preform their roles, a trust had begun to form between the two men. As that trust grew, a certain understanding had formed.
Klaas lead Malik to the central basin in a chamber. The water Gently rippled across the surface. Two scryers approached as it on cue, one male, the other female. They both wore a simple loincloth to maintain an air of modesty, although Malik was quite convinced that they did it for everyone else’s benefit rather than their own. Malik averted his eyes and chose to focus on the basin. The two scryers stood at opposite ends of each other and started to take deep breaths. They both were quite lean and appeared to be a little thin, although they hadn’t shown much of any physical atrophy at this point. The mage runes had been set deeper into their skin than most of the other mages, only leaving faint lines where they had been embedded. They silently nodded their greetings to Klass and Malik. Malik always had an odd feeling when dealing with mages. They reacted to things differently than most people, had generally a shorter lifespan. He couldn’t understand mages all that well, but he was still grateful for them and their work.
“Can you show us what you showed me before?” Klaas asked.
The scryers both nodded dutifully. Klaas guided Malik to the edge of the chamber. Once they were situated Klaas gestured at the scryers. They took up their positions facing inward toward the basin. They stood still, their embedded runes started to glow a dim blue light at first which then shifted to a brighter green. Once the green was at it’s brightest they started to move slowly. It didn’t take long before the scryers dance through an intricate routine twisting and contorting their bodies and limbs into an intricate weave aligning Their runes in specific yet fluid patterns that in some way managed to mirror that of the water. With each of their movements the water in the basin began to still and the ripples eventually reversed. Lights danced across the water. At first it was just a random set of flashes, but eventually Malik could make out a picture. It was gray and blurry but there at.least was something there
The scryers both stopped moving at once. They both moved to a different location around the basin, facing outward. They both started their movements again, somehow in sync. The gray images reflected in the pool started to gain color and grow more in focus. It was the hub. At first first it was outside the building itself, appearing just as grand as Malik remembered it. The image shifted shifting through the entrance past a few passengers lined up waiting for the arrival of their plate. The image went through to the loading and unloading area and panned upward looking toward the line. Plates were hauling goods too and from the nearby town zipped through the air along predetermined paths. The picture focused on a plate as it started to lift off and followed it. A few other plates that were departing had been close almost to the point of colliding but they were clearly in no danger of doing exactly that. Everything was precise and calculated. The hub had been constructed and over-engineered to the point that it could hold a majority of the traffic of one of the larger cities and still maintain little to no errors in the handling of the plates.
Malik didn’t notice it at first until Klaas pointed it out to him. The plate they were focused on had a definite wobble to it. The picture projected in the basin broke focus from the plate and zoomed down the line past others. The arriving plates seemed to be stabilizing while the ones that were leaving appeared to become a bit more erratic. The scryers moved fast keeping pace with the quickly moving image, they had started to sweat, their mostly naked bodies shining from the light being emitted from the basin. The image stopped. It felt as though they had been plunged into darkness. Once Malik’s eyes adjusted to darker ambient light he could still see the scryers in their soundless dance. Where their dance had been fluid before,however, their dance seemed to be jerky and incomplete, their embedded runes also had stopped glowing just as the basin had.
“What was that?” Malik asked, as he tried to understand what happened.
“I’m not quite sure what that was.” Klaas stated. He excused the scryers with a few words telling them to rest up. And they left without any ceremony.
Malik continued to stare into the basin. It’s water gently lapped at the sides. Once He was convinced they had some privacy, Malik looked at Klaas. He knew that if the transportation lines stopped working there wouldn’t be any fresh goods or supplies able to arrive for quite some time. The lines themselves were the backbone of the empire. They kept the empire on a whole well fed and well equipped. He knew that the surrounding area, while it had initially been deeply forested before had been successfully farmed for quite some time. The addition for the new military base had also seen growth of a town filled with eager people willing to help the soldier part with their coin, as well as those willing to take up a farming trade. Any major disruption wouldn’t hurt too much in the short term because food wasn’t exactly scarce. The replacement of any broken equipment and anything needed for general maintenance would be a bit harder. They weren’t exactly in the heart of any industry.
“What do you want to do?” asked Malik simply.
“I want to get some eyes on this,” Klaas answered, “We don’t have much of an idea what exactly is happening, but we at least have a good idea of where it is. I just hope it’s nothing.”
“I’ll gather some people, And we’ll get a look at this,” Malik agreed with Klaas, “we might even have to stop anyone from leaving the hub.”
After a brief pause he added, “Did you see anyone arriving?”
