Neophyte World Builder

VOSEN

As he slid down the slope, Vosen took in the lay of the land with his usual instinctive caution.

He knew he didn’t need to. When he came to a stop, Kala was already at the base of the hill, waiting for him. A rare Calen Elf, she’d never shown any discomfort with being in the band of Aravel, nor felt the need to work extra hard to prove herself. She’d merely been the competent and tough scout they needed, and did her duty carefully and diligently.

Vosen loved that about her.

“I don’t really like this,” she grumbled as the rest of the expedition eased down the slope. “We haven’t encountered any monsters for nearly a day, and my skin is tingling. We shouldn’t stay long, I’m almost certain we’ll get mana poisoning if we do.”

“You’re probably right,” Vosen agreed. He stomped his foot, feeling the hard surface of an ancient road buried beneath the thin layer of dust and dirt. He breathed in, and even his senses could almost taste the mana saturating the air. It tickled the back of his nose and throat, almost like the springtime sickness that some of his people got.

Savos, one of the few Casters he’d brought with him, clucked lightly. “This area is so heavy with mana even the more violent monsters avoid it. You’re not wrong. Are you sure this is where we need to be going?”

Vosen flicked an ear dismissively at the question. It was rare that his choices were questioned… the casual attempt at clarification had a lot more weight to it than it sounded. He really couldn’t blame the [Fellcaster] at all, either. He’d led his band on a merry chase through some of the most dangerous regions in the Old Empire without even a Quest to guide him.

Not that the other elves under his leadership knew that last part. Only Kala was privy to the secret that his feeling, his compulsion, had no basis in the System at all. She worried for him—he worried for himself—but some of his Aravel memories had told him that not everything was modeled by the System. That gave him some relief, even if the compulsion itself was worrying.

“What is this place?” One of the younger elves couldn’t help voicing the question aloud. Vosen twitched an ear at the question, but reminded himself that not everyone had his centuries of bloodline memories for context. This one was a first or second lifer, most likely.

“The city of Telesi, also called the Jewel of Seven Waters,” Vosen answered with a gesture. The crumbling buildings were still mostly intact, even if anything over about three stories tall had collapsed. “In the First Empire’s time, it was a major trade hub. The Second Upheaval turned the area into a wasteland and diverted the rivers, not to mention made the local mana dangerously high for anyone to live here.”

Now with proper context, the youth gave a light chuff of admiration. “I had no idea we’d gone so deep already. Is this where we’ve been heading the entire time?”

The question was loaded, Vosen knew. If this had been their destination all along, why hadn’t Vosen told them? That was what the elf was really asking. It was a good question, since he was sure the expedition would have been more excited, not less, to follow him to such a famous location.

“I only know rough proximity and direction,” he answered. Now that they were close, he felt that was safe to do. “I couldn’t be sure that what we’re looking for was here until we were this close.”

Vosen turned around as the rest of his small party dusted themselves off and tightened their gear. “I know you’re all tired, because I am as well. We can’t stop here, though. We’re almost to our objective, so I’m going to push on. That way we can be finished and out of here before the mana sinks in and starts making us sick.”

The others fell into line with minimal grumbling, he was glad to see. His little community of outcasts and disgruntled Imperials had really grown, and Vosen was a little surprised at how quickly it had formed. His previous lives had all been servants of established families, and nowhere in his past memories had he found any inclination to lead. Every life before this, all seven of them, had been quietly meek and subservient.

Meanwhile, in his latest life he’d immediately chafed at the idea of continuing to serve the Silver Bloodline. Unlike every other life, he’d immediately looked at how the Silver family had consolidated power and spent so many resources on their own pleasure and security. It was so glaringly obvious that the rickety and failing infrastructure of the province was due to their own corruption.

Some of the unpleasant past memories hadn’t helped. He couldn’t understand why his past selves hadn’t already done something about the matter. His stomach still turned remembering what they did to his self three lives back. That sort of violation was bad enough when it happened once, but when it was a common systemic pattern with the family…

Vosen shook his head firmly as he continued walking. That didn’t matter now. He wasn’t proud of his exile, nor the deaths he’d caused to earn it, but he was proud that somehow, gathering disillusioned elves to him had been easier than expected. None of his lives had experience organizing a group, but it had come naturally, especially once he’d found reliable people to advise him.

“Do you think it’s still here?” Kala asked, interrupting his thoughts. She had probably seen his eyes starting to lose focus and asked the question just to break him out of his spiral. She was good like that. He might have to accept her request to bear his child after this was all over… he’d only resisted this long because of their asymmetric relationship.

He flicked an ear in response. “I still have the feeling. I don’t think whatever we’re looking for has been seen by anyone for a long while. Just because it has been so long since I felt the pull begin doesn’t mean it will be gone.”

Kala’s trust meant a lot, but she was the only one who knew his secret. Not only did his need to move this direction come from something the System couldn’t seem to document, but it had begun the very same moment that the notification declaring the Age of Silence to be at an end had posted. Vosen wasn’t sure what that meant, but the exact timing was far too suspicious to ignore.

“Careful, it could be a little unstable,” Vosen called out behind him to the others. “Some of you should stay outside in case it collapses.”

The indescribable sensation of proximity had grown even stronger as the group wandered through the ancient barren city, leading him to a large and sprawling complex. The warning came because of the age of the structure, but Vosen suspected it was structurally sound. Most of the fancier buildings of this era used magic to sustain themselves to some degree, and in an area of high mana like this it wouldn’t have a chance to decay much, if at all. The crumbling facade was just that: a facade.

“Think there are any valuables in here?”

The question came from someone behind him, but Vosen couldn’t blame the kid. His band was growing fast, and they had managed to carve out a nice little home for themselves in the wild lands, but he couldn’t say they were wealthy. None of them were starving, but neither were they well-fed. Too bad he had no good news here.

“Probably not,” Vosen answered honestly. “This wasn’t a city that they fled all at once in a panic. It was a careful, planned evacuation so they would have brought anything useful. Which makes me wonder exactly what we’re looking for that it wasn’t brought with them.”

Kala flicked a light spell up higher as the small group of elves worked their way further into the large building. The Lumen ball cast odd shadows all around, showing the stark absence of anything useful. No furniture, no animals… not even vegetation grew in this place. It was completely dead.

“The mana saturation has really messed up this region,” one of the group muttered.

“Yes, and it is only getting worse,” Vosen agreed. “Soon there won’t even be any low mana areas…” He trailed off and looked at Kala, but she didn’t react. She’d either come to terms with the extinction of her species and the Sylen Elves, or she’d decided she wouldn’t react in public. He’d have to apologize for bringing it up later. Even then he was sure he’d be sleeping alone for a few nights for his comment.

His chest ached. That was how it was, for him… a faint feeling of something missing. Like a piece of him wanted to slot in where nothing existed. Now that he was finally close to his goal after octades of searching and building up a support network to force through the dangerous lands around it, the missing portion was almost painful.

His toes barely noticed the pebbles and debris on the floor as he ducked into one room then the next, looking for anything of interest. A few pieces of furniture yet remained, most of it made from desiccated wood that had dried up before it could rot, or perhaps been preserved with protective enchantments long ago. Despite the opulence that the building seemed to embody, nothing interesting had leapt out at him.

The entire place was both dead and dull.

“There’s nothing here,” someone muttered. Vosen was close to agreeing with them. Perhaps it was… deep underground? Or hidden in the walls?

The actual find was so mundane that he nearly passed over it.

With the aching throb in his chest telling him he was so close, Vosen could tell that if it was anywhere, it was in this room. The small side room with a single window letting in a warm breeze, cooling the sweltering ruin somewhat. Once more, it was nothing but scattered remnants of the plaster used to smooth the walls and chips of stone and other detritus.

He paused as he saw it. One larger rock, smooth and out of place, roughly the size of his head. It wasn’t anything strange, other than the fact that it was an oblong stone that didn’t match anything else. It was a complete mismatch of the surrounding interior.

Just… utterly ordinary.

Vosen flicked his ears down. Was this what his soul had yearned for during his entire adult life?

He heard Kala step into the room and pause, arriving just in time for him to reach down and touch the stone.

Vosen froze… and in that moment, he felt something flow from him, surging into the plain white stone. The throbbing ache in his chest relaxed, easing into full comfort for the first time since he could remember in this life. He could feel how the emptiness somehow saturated the stone, wrapping around it and causing it to crumble away from the structure hidden within.

A structure that was… all angles yet with no sharp edges. Curves twisting within one another, interconnecting in places yet somehow never touching at the same time. A mess of contradictions that he couldn’t keep his eyes on without seeing it differently each moment he tried to understand it.

The ache in his chest was replaced with a throb behind his eyes as his mind failed to understand what he was seeing.

Vosen jerked his hand back quickly, gasping sharply.

Behind him, Kala flinched. “Vosen, what is it? What is that… thing?”

He finally tore his gaze away from the twisting not-stone, only to see Kala looking at him with worry… and a strange new Aravel Elf standing slightly behind her and to the side, arms crossed. Her ears dipped slightly, but her expression was more perplexed and annoyed than anything else, her emerald eyes fixed on the anomaly.

With a quiet sigh, she announced her presence.

“I should have known you had one more trick up your sleeve, grandmother.”