Chapter 392: Forbidden Arts
"Hmpf," Erkembalt snorted, snatching the bottle from his friend and pouring another cup for himself. "You don’t know what’s in the vaults. No one does. Once something is lowered into the vault, all records of it are destroyed. For all we know, it’s the same five ideas, locked away every time someone discovers them and we all panic."
"I might have agreed with you once," Aspakos said. "But things haven’t been the same for more than fifteen years now. The first tumblers all fell together, just as the records said, and the second tumblers are moving much faster than the first. We may only have a few years before the first vault opens."
"But if the vaults aren’t open," Erkembalt asked, shifting uncomfortably on his chair. "Then what is it that’s come over you? You were never so dark before." Calling the feathered man ’dark’ felt like an understatement but looking at the lurid red energy that clung to the man’s talons like a bloodstain that could never be washed away, Erkembalt was hesitant to push too directly on the matter.
As young sorcerers, he and Aspakos had constantly challenged each other. Whether it was a race to be the first to translate an obscure and ancient text or the first to apply an ancient art, the competitive bond they’d formed in their youth had turned them into two of the greatest sorcerers of their generation. If not for a chance encounter with the woman who stole his heart, Erkembalt might still have been standing alongside his old friend... and might been coated in just as much darkness and slaughter.
"Philosar has withdrawn his order of protection," Aspakos said. His talons scittered across the surface of the table, leaving shallow grooves as he formed fists, glowering at the table as though a dirty rat had come to perch between himself and his friend, one that he was forbidden from striking at for fear of what it’s bite could do to him.
"In his decree, he said that there may come a time when humans reach the Forsaken Lands, and that the Sorcerers of Sundered Earth must prove we can defend our vaults from anyone who would pillage them, or watch as he destroys them himself."
"Scheming rat," Erkembalt spat, momentarily ashamed to belong to the same clan as the Gnawing Death. "His predecessor worked with us, why can’t he just keep to the old accord? Do you really think it’s because of the humans?"
According to some of the most ancient records, dating back to the founding of the Sorcerers of Sundered Earth, the Sovereign of Stars had forged an accord with the Gnawing Death to allow their order to preserve knowledge that the Gnawing Death felt was too dangerous to be allowed in the world.
The terms governing the use and preservation of that knowledge were very, very strict, and many things were lowered into the order’s vaults, never to be seen again. Such knowledge was considered ’realized.’ The practice and application of that knowledge could threaten to upend the current order of the world and anyone who possessed it would gain a tremendous advantage over anyone who didn’t.