CHAPTER FOUR


Vicril shut the door once the others had left and considered the situation, what the elf had said, and what Jothal mentioned just before he left: "I know Trailo is your son, but if what they say is true and his arm will not heal, I feel like this is an opportunity for him to start anew. For whatever reason, fate has decided to entangle our destinies together and I think there is a lot he could learn by coming along."

He turned to his son, still sitting atop the bed and looking quite unsatisfied with being barred from leaving. Trailo spoke, angrily, “Why? I am useless here in Foabur!”

Vicril sighs again, considering how to respond, "I just want you to be safe. Who knows what dangers they may face... You encountered a mere boar and look at you! I don't want to relegate my son to merely taking an arrow for that elf! You have a full life ahead of you to live, and I'm not going to let you throw it away like that!"

"Father, if I can't continue my apprenticeship what do you expect me to do here? If I go with them to Triln I'll learn a lot, I'll have others to potentially help somehow and have a purpose. I'd rather do something for them after what happened to me instead of sitting around the house. You know you aren't going to let me go get herbs ever again. Just let me go. I'll promise to come back some day."

After several more minutes of seemingly fruitless argument with Vicril adamantly refusing, a knock comes to the door. Vicril sighs, takes a deep breath to calm down, and heads to the door.

Opening it, there are three men at the door, "May I help you?" Vicril eyes them a bit, and the one in front suddenly pulls out a knife and starts to move forward. Surprised, Vicril began trying to shut the door immediately, but the man was faster. His foot blocked the door and the knife came to Vicril’s neck.

Taking several steps back, the man kept the knife against his throat threateningly. Once he is fully inside he speaks to the other men coming in behind him, “Check for others and keep them silent but alive... for now.”

The other two spread out. One heads for Trailo with a mace, speaking, “Say anything and my little friend here will be saying hello, and he is really looking forward to it...” His statement was referring to his vicious-looking mace, which he waved in front of Trailo’s face.

The other man, who was notably larger than the first two, scoured the adjoining rooms, but found nobody and returned to the main room shortly. The one with a knife to Vicril’s throat begins to speak menacingly into the cleric’s ear, “There was a woman here! Where is she!?”

Vicril, still stunned by the situation, opens and closes his mouth several times before managing to speak, his voice stuttering several times, “I am but a s-simple cleric... I-I treat women all the time, who c-could you be asking about...?”

The man now shoves him against the wall a bit and tightens his grip on the knife and Vicril’s collar, “Shot by an arrow in the shoulder! Where did she go!?”

Vicril now realized that they were after Alithana. He wondered to himself whether these were the ones whom she mentioned would be coming after her. With widened eyes he is about to speak, but Trailo speaks up first, “T-they already left! They said they were headed for Chorster to c-catch a ferry or something.”

Vicril was about to agree with his son to try to mislead these men, but immediately the one with the knife responds, “She came in with a caravan, and we just saw that caravan still in the market! Tell us where she is if you want to live!” Vicril feels some pressure on his neck and the knife begins to draw some blood.

He swallows hard and speaks desperately, “Please! He's my son! I don't care what you do to me, but please spare him, he is young and has a full life ahead of him!” He took a breath and was about to continue, but the man cuts him off.

"Where is she!? Tell me and we will spare his life!"

Before Vicril can answer, though, Trailo speaks loudly now, “NO! Don't tell them!” The man next to Trailo immediately covers his mouth to shut him up and says to the cleric, “Tell us now or you get to watch your son die right in front of you!”

Vicril knew his priorities. The life of his son was at the top of his list, and he’d do anything to try preserving that. He explains to the men that she left with several others barely 15 minutes before, and were headed to the stables before going north toward Nalvo, and after that Triln.

The man grins a bit, satisfied at the answer. Turning to the man holding Trailo, he orders, "Knock the boy out. Neither will wake until after we are long gone." He then forcefully hits the side of the Vicril’s head with the pommel of his dagger.

His vision fading, Vicril immediately loses consciousness, slumping to the ground.



Alithana was exhausted. Calling forth such a spell is rarely so tiring for her, but she was without her staff for now, and needing to maintain control over such a large area with so many people in it drained energy quickly. Faintly, she hears Jothal asking from about 20 yards away, near the others, “Are you alright?” She was facing away from them, and took a few more breathes to recover a bit from the drain of the spell.

Rising slowly and a little unsteady, she turns back to the group and begins walking forward. Gregor begins moving toward her and lends her a shoulder for the rest of the walk back to the group. He has a stoic, stern look on his face. It seems that he decided to wait until later before asking any questions.

Alithana finally speaks, "They are gone for now, but they may return. That archer from yesterday wasn't here, so as soon as the wagons catch up we should move on before making any sort of camp for the night."

Several of them agree. Jothal simply nods his head in agreement. The wagons arrive shortly. There are three wagons that arrive, and Gregor speaks, "Guess the others weren't interested. Oh well." Gregor and Elda helped Alithana into the second wagon to ride. Jothal, Gregor, and three others continued riding horses alongside the wagons as they headed north past the clearing.

Next to Alithana in the wagon was Seraphi, who questioned how she was doing with a concerned look on her face. Alithana reassured her that she would be fine. Her staff was laying down in the wagon, and she grabbed it, holding it beside her. She could already feel energy returning to her now, beginning to feel refreshed and renewed.

The caravan continues to head north for several hours until dusk begins to set. The crew position the wagons to form walls covering part of the camp and construct a campfire. It was plain that these people were accustomed to travelling and setting up camps. It seemed almost second-nature to them.

Food was being prepared and served, and Alithana counted 14 others, including Jothal and Ash. She was sitting nearby, the hood of her cloak down and her staff beside her. She had fully recovered by this point.

Gregor seemed to decide that this was the time to get a few answers about what had happened. Approaching Alithana, he spoke, “We are escorting you to Triln, but I feel it is important for everyone to understand each other. Most of us are simple merchants and caravan crew, and I must admit that what happened back there during the fight was a bit unnerving. I have never seen anything like it, so if you can calm my nerves and explain what happened, I'm sure we would all appreciate it...”

Alithana looked around a bit at everyone at the caravan. During the trip after the clearing, it seems that everyone has heard what occurred, and is gathered near, apprehensive. Her gaze passes to Jothal as he leans against a nearby tree, with Ash beside him. She considers how to explain things.



Tranan Chandler slumped down into his chair, breathing a heavy sigh of relief. It was late at night now, and he had just finished presenting his theories and evidence to the rest of the Archmages. He was exhausted from the day, but this was merely the beginning.

Tranan had been studying magical auras for over 20 years now, and was considered the foremost expert on them within the Mages Guild. He was granted the title of Archmage last year, although for him it was primarily an honorary title, as he never fully took advantage of any of the perks of the position.

The Archmages oversaw the Guild, directed its efforts, and were considered the most powerful and capable of mages. Tranan, however, had comparatively little capacity for large or complex spells. Instead, he has been focusing his life on understanding the basis of magic, the auras. Seeing them, deciphering their meaning, and in some cases manipulating them in specific ways.

His first interaction with the Guild was at the age of eleven. Usually, most recruits are found when their own auras manifest and the Guild notices them, but for Tranan he had actually been able to view the auras of the Guild members and approached them, asking why they seemed to glow. They had been hesitant at first, but he was taken into the Guild and began learning and practicing magic. It became evident early on that he was largely unable to manifest his energy into distinct spells above the most basic levels, and eventually he turned away from such and toward the auras themselves.

As most mages focused on harnessing their energy and crafting spells of increasing complexity over the years, Tranan developed new types of spells to aid him in analyzing and studying the auras. Using these, he has made numerous findings, and the renown he earned from them are what got him the Archmage title.

Mages and spells do not generate the auras, as had been previously believed, but the aura was something universal and expansive, and those who manifested magic were directly interacting with the aura, condensing and pulling it around themselves into the spells they would craft. Instead of magic causing auras, he had discovered that the auras are what allows magic to exist.

And now he had noticed something strange in the aura. A quake or a vibration perhaps, but in general it was an instability in the aura. If the instability grew, Tranan believed that it could make magic harder to control, more uncertain, and potentially dangerous.

He needed to leave Triln. The aura was too distorted here. He assumed it was a result of many years of the Mages Guild practicing spells, the aura constantly being dragged toward the city had left it dense and thick. He needed to go where it would be calm, so he could more easily study the instability and try to find the cause of it.

As he had tried explaining it all to the other Archmages, they had been hesitant about believing him. Expressing concerns and doubts at it, as they had noticed no difference in the usage of spells and everything felt perfectly normal to them. Eventually, Tranan had convinced them to allow him to lead a small expedition to find out for certain the situation.

He would be taking several volunteers with him. Some of his students would come, and they would be requesting for some knights to volunteer to be escorts just in case some brute strength was needed.



Late the next morning, Tranan was standing on a raised platform near the center of a large, crowded training field. A few yards away, several knight captains were calling for all the knights to gather around. The captains explain that six volunteers are being requested to provide escort to a Mages Guild field research expedition.

Several knights volunteer, and six are chosen. Tranan, the captains, and the volunteers begin heading toward a structure on the edge of the fields to provide details of the expedition. Suddenly, after a few dozen yards, someone calls out to one of the volunteered knights. Everyone turned, and Tranan recognized the approaching man to be the son of Lord Davben, Adolin.

Tranan has had little interaction with the young lord, but the loss of Lady Davben two years ago had been a tragic event for the entire city, and it was well known that Adolin had taken the loss of his mother especially hard. He came and spoke briefly with one of the volunteers, although Tranan paid little attention to it.

Eventually they arrived at the building and Tranan was able to confront the volunteer knights, “Good day, Knights of Triln. My name is Tranan Chandler, one of the Archmages of the Mages Guild. I will be leading this field research, and you volunteering to accompany us is appreciated, and you will be compensated well for your services.

“In the morning we will leave for Gellantara. Once there, we will take a riverboat to Tarmikos, where we'll be staying for three weeks. The trips there and back will each take ten days, so this expedition will last for the next six weeks. From Tarmikos, we'll be doing a few excursions into the forest, the longest of which will last a week before we return to Tarmikos.

“Your duty and responsibility during this time will simply be to stay nearby and in the event of a bandit attack to fight and defend myself and my crew. This will mainly be needed during the excursions into the forests, as we won't be expecting anything to happen until then. So, any questions?”

The knights consider this for a moment, and one asks some questions, “In the event of a bandit attack, will we be taking prisoners, and should we pursue fleeing bandits after such an attack? Also, should we be aware of the purpose or goal of this expedition?”

Tranan explains, “The purpose of this expedition is not to slay or capture bandits around Tarmikos. If they attack, we defend ourselves, but making them flee should be enough. We won't mourn for any casualties on their side, however, so no need to hold back during a fight." He pauses for a moment. "Our goals are purely academic. We'll be studying magical auras.”

He asks the rest of the group if they have any other questions. None express any concerns, so he dismisses and informs them to gather at the northeastern gate at sunrise. The knights seemed capable, and a few were eager to be able to leave the city.



Partway back to the Mages Guild, there was a large public courtyard. It was a large grassy hill, one of several places throughout the city where you could relax in a small bit of nature, and near the middle was a single old tree. There were several kids playing around it, and one person was sitting with his back against the bark.

The person was dressed in the standard Mages Guild robes. It was Jorin, one of Tranan’s top students and one of the ones helping him organize the expedition. Tranan walked up to him and spoke, “An escort of six knights will be accompanying us as we leave in the morning. Is everything else prepared?”

Jorin replied, “Yes, we will be ready to leave by first light, Archmage Tranan. Myself and the others will meet you at the gate as planned, although there will only be four others. Ianden won't be coming with us.”

Tranan reponded, “That is regrettable, but nonetheless we go as planned.” They continued speaking for a few minutes, mostly of general supplies they would need for the trip. Then they headed back toward the Mages Guild to prepare for the next morning…



TO BE CONTINUED...