Читать книгу The Vlishgnath Chronicles - Daniel Mitchell - Страница 21

Episode 2

As Vlishgnath exited the high priest’s office, Sidonia hurried to his side, staying close and weaving through the bustling traffic of paladins and clerics as she spoke. “So what, you’re just going to go to Khaarm on the whim of a drunken old man?”

Glancing over his left shoulder at Sidonia with a frown, Vlishgnath shook his head. “You of all people should be able to appreciate my instincts on when someone is telling the truth…and when they are not.”

Her cheeks flushing a deep red, Sidonia glared at him and went silent for several moments, not speaking again until Vlishgnath pushed open a set of tall wooden double doors. “Where are we going?”

Without glancing over his shoulder this time, Vlishgnath continued on through the doors, pausing to hold one open for her as he answered her question. “I am going to speak to Loremaster Garadain about what could have potentially caused such a thing, and you are following me for reasons yet unknown.”

Stepping through the door Vlishgnath had held open, Sidonia sounded completely unfazed by his remark when she answered. “Guess you’re just lucky.”

Making their way through the record hall, the smell of ancient books and tomes of compiled notes was unmistakable. Huge shelves that reached to the high ceiling were crammed full of a collection of knowledge so vast that it rivaled the arcane university’s. In the very back, at a large oak desk piled high with yet more books looking to have been shoved in the corner, perfectly formed rings of thick, milky white smoke floated up from behind the literature fortress.

Approaching slowly, Vlishgnath peered over the top of the book wall, calling out in an inquiring tone. “Loremaster? Do you have a moment?”

The chain of smoke rings broke as the most recent one floated up to join the others in their eventual disappearance. Then, a pair of bony, wrinkled hands wedged their way between the columns of books in the middle, prying them apart to create a window through which the loremaster could be seen. If Vogoth was old, then Garadain was ancient—his dark gray hair hung down far beyond his shoulders in wild waves, and a full gray beard down past his chest adorned his gaunt face. His eyes, steel blue in color, gazed up at the young paladin and the even younger woman at his side, his right hand returning to grasp the long-stemmed pipe he clenched in his teeth. Though similar in design to those worn by the arch mages of the arcane university, his robes looked to be of a much older design.

Garadain smiled at the two as he leaned back in his cushioned chair, a scroll still wet with recent scrawlings in black ink lying before him, a quill pen sticking out from an ink well not far away. When he spoke, he spoke slowly and deliberately as if each word were carefully measured, his gaze directed at Vlishgnath. “Greetings, Garr. It’s been quite a while since you’ve paid me a visit, has it not?”

Sidonia scoffed, but abruptly went silent, averting her gaze as Garadain focused his attention on her for a moment before looking back to Vlishgnath

Vlishgnath answered in an amiable tone. “Greetings, Loremaster. I apologize for not visiting sooner, but—”

“There is no need to apologize, child. Truth be told, if everyone visited me more often, I’d likely end up sealing off the doors.” Garadain’s smile widened into a grin, and with a draw on his pipe he emitted another perfect smoke ring. “That being said, there’s usually only one of two reasons people come to visit me, and I imagine you aren’t here to have an artifact appraised. So...what knowledge do you seek? Sidonia Vyce, keep your hands to yourself!”

Sidonia recoiled, her finger perched precariously on the verge of touching a fascinating contraption that spun in a self-containing green orb, her eyes widening first at being caught and then at the realization that Garadain knew who she was.

Vlishgnath, looking over and chuckling silently at her bewildered expression turned back to the loremaster. “I travel for Khaarm soon to investigate rumors of an impenetrable dome of blue light that has encapsulated the entire city. I was wondering if perhaps you’d heard of any such thing?”

Garadain nodded, standing from his desk and turning to face a bookshelf behind him, scanning titles in search of a particular volume.

Seizing the opportunity, Sidonia quickly reached out and tapped the green orb defiantly. Immediately, her hand crackled with electricity. Sidonia winced in pain, looking on with horror as the energy continued to encompass her hand, then quickly hiding it behind her back as Garadain turned around with a large leather-bound tome. His frail fingers handled the book with surprising ease as he leafed through the thick pages until coming upon one with a drawing. Done to scale, the city inside appeared to be surrounded by a massive dome that perfectly covered it in its entirety. The text below described the dangers of coming into contact with the dome’s surface.

“It is magic of an ancient kind, and one that few remember, spoken of only in arcane history books. The spell was lost long ago during the War of the Magi, but if what you are describing is actually happening to Khaarm, then I would be confident in venturing a guess that this is what you will be facing.”

Vlishgnath nodded, looking over the page carefully and trying to retain as much as he could. “How does one get through it?”

Producing another smoke ring before answering, Garadain shook his head, already reseated in his big, comfy chair. “One does not pass through such a barrier.”

Looking up from the book, Vlishgnath knew his question was a hopeless one before he spoke it. “Could you dispel it, Loremaster?”

Garadain smiled at Vlishgnath sadly, leaning forward and setting his pipe down in a specially carved holder for it, the rich, aromatic smoke continuing to billow upward. “I am afraid not, Garr. The difference in magic prevents me from doing so. Unless you know of a sorcerer, and a powerful one at that, I am afraid the city of Khaarm shall remain inaccessible until whatever has a hold of it decides to let go. There is nothing I can do.”

Vlishgnath’s expression sank. Nodding in resignation, he remained polite and appreciative in tone when he spoke. “I see. Thank you for your time, Loremaster. Mithos’ blessings be upon you.”

Long Garadain nodded, almost apologetically. As Vlishgnath turned to leave, Sidonia nodded to Garadain, trying her hardest to keep her eye from twitching and conceal her hand as she went to follow behind Vlishgnath. Garadain’s voice lulled out. “Sidonia Vyce...come here...”

Pausing, Sidonia slowly turned around and trudged over to the desk, doing a remarkable job of keeping her expression sweet and perfectly innocent.

Quirking an eyebrow, Garadain spoke again. “Your hand. And before you even try, you know which one I mean.”

Sighing heavily, Sidonia thrust out her left hand, still crackling with arcane energy.

Reaching forward, Garadain gently placed the tips of his index and middle fingers in her palm, drawing the coursing arcs of power into his own hand before bringing it to hover over the green orb and depositing it back in its source. “When I tell you something, it is for your own good. In the future, I would advise you to listen. Understood?”

Marveling at her newly restored hand, Sidonia nodded appreciatively. “Yes, sir. Thank you.”

Grasping his pipe once again, with a gesture and a nod, Garadain waved her away, the young woman hurrying off to catch up with Vlishgnath. Garadain slumped back in his chair, resuming his smoke ring production for several moments before speaking aloud to himself. “I wonder who else he’ll find to go with him.” After another moment of contemplation, he shrugged and returned to his work.

Once outside the record hall, Sidonia easily caught up with Vlishgnath, who had resigned to a slow, somber pace as he made his way towards the church’s main doors. He looked to be lost in thought, and as Sidonia strode up next to him, her excited expression quickly sank to see him in such a way.

After taking a few seconds to decide how to approach him, she spoke quietly. “So what now?”

With a loud sigh and a helpless shrug of his shoulders, Vlishgnath shook his head. “I’m honestly not sure. Finding a sorcerer isn’t like finding a wizard.”

Furrowing her brows in confusion, Sidonia thought this over for a moment before speaking again. “What’s the difference? They’re all spellcasters, aren’t they?”

Nodding once slowly to indicate that was partially the case, Vlishgnath answered in a patient tone. “Technically, yes, they both are, but the means by which they go about it is very different. Wizards are not born; they are self-made through years of intensive study and countless hours of practice under careful guidance. Sorcerers are born with an innate ability to control the arcane; typically they hail from a bloodline of sorcerous ability. They don’t learn spells from a painstakingly transcribed tome the way wizards do, it comes as naturally to them as breathing. Unfortunately, their abilities are usually mistaken for a bad omen or something similar, and they are often ostracized from their villages even at young ages. Not many of them survive on their own, and as a result there are few of them nowadays.”

Nodding, Sidonia responded with a curious tone to match her expression. “Then why doesn’t the university take them in?”

Frowning slightly as he spoke, Vlishgnath tilted his head slightly to the side. “Well...there’s still some bad blood between the two that has carried over from the War of the Magi, if you can believe it. They don’t openly admit it, but the university is strongly opposed to sorcery.”

Sidonia perked up. “Hey, yeah, what is that anyways? Garadain mentioned it back in his study.”

Looking over at Sidonia incredulously, Vlishgnath’s right eyebrow quirked. “You mean to tell me you don’t know about the great Magi Wars?”

Turning her nose up at him indignantly and folding her arms across her chest, Sidonia huffed at him. “Not all of us had the luxury of being raised right next to a living history book, you know.”

After a moment, Vlishgnath nodded his consent and continued. “Over a millennia ago, there was a great war between the wizards of ancient times and the sorcerers of the world. Sorcerers claimed that the arcane was their birthright, and that wizards were laying claim to something that was not theirs with their spell books and their mage circles. Wizards were of the mindset that sorcerers were wild and unpredictable, their raw power a threat to the safety of the world itself since even then sorcerers did not formally train in any way. The result was the War of the Magi, a clashing of wizards and sorcerers back before the gods put a limit on the arcane power mortal beings could attain. In the end the wizards prevailed, although historical texts are rather unclear as to exactly how. What we do know, however, is that sorcerers became increasingly scarce as time progressed and are all but unheard of now. I guess it makes sense you wouldn’t have heard of it; the university doesn’t discuss it openly.”

Sidonia nodded as she listened, pondering all that Vlishgnath had said for several minutes as they slowly meandered through Ascention’s streets with no real direction. Then, finally, Sidonia broke the silence. “So what you’re saying is you think you’re going to need the help of a sorcerer to get in to Khaarm?”

Vlishgnath nodded. “According to the loremaster, yes.”

“But you can’t just follow the clouds of stinky pipe smoke to locate the nearest sorcerer the way you would with a wizard.”

Vlishgnath chuckled, nodding again. “That is correct.”

Sidonia thought this over for several seconds, then looked up to Vlishgnath. “I might be able to help you. I know a guy, and if he doesn’t know where to find a sorcerer then I’d wager they don’t exist anymore.”

Vlishgnath’s eyes widened, his tone quickly becoming uncertain. “Oh, erm, that’s really very generous of you, but I don’t think the church would approve if I knowingly collaborated with the Thieves Guild, and besides I—”

Sidonia shook her head, cutting him off. “Don’t be ridiculous. You know full well I’d never show you where the Guild is located, anyways.”

Furrowing his eyebrows at her, Vlishgnath still sounded a bit apprehensive when he spoke. “What do you mean, then?”

Sidonia’s eyes widened a bit, her voice lingering as she began to speak. “Well...let’s just say...I know a guy, and...he’s never really been the kind of team player the Thieves Guild wants in their ranks.”