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Date Posted: 03:16:49 03/31/01 Sat
Author: Elric
Author Host/IP: ip249.hutchison.ks.pub-ip.psi.net / 38.27.1.249
Subject: ACC part eight
Erin managed to finish the translation the next day. The first few lines were some sort of prophecy:
'An arcanium
shall receive from one
who is older, yet younger
the wisdom of the ages
for the good of many.'
"Does anybody know what this means?" I asked.
"Well, 'an arcanium' means a wizard." Alia said. "It's what we call them on Oerth."
"Do you know what the rest means?" Darrev asked.
She shook her head. "Not a clue."
"You said it was some sort of summoning spell before." I said to Erin. "Were you able to understand it?"
She shook her head. "A few parts, but most of it was beyond me. Even if I could've understood it, it wouldn't matter, since the last line is still missing."
"Could you fill in the last line if you could understand it?" Alia asked.
She shrugged. "Maybe. It depends on how powerful it is."
"How much do you understand? Half? A quarter?" I asked.
"About a quarter. I would need a lot more practice with my magic before I could understand it all."
"Can't wizards cast spells from scrolls?"
"We can, but since I don't know exactly what it does, it would be too dangerous to try it."
"Okay. Let's take these scrolls back to the organization and see what the wizards there think." I glanced out the window. "We still have about six hours of daylight left. We should probably make the most of it."
We gathered our things, restocked our food supply from the pantry, and left. This hadn't been much of an assignment, but at least it wasn't life threatening.
As we began out the front door, Erin suddenly stopped.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"There's some sort of force field here." She said.
I reached over and felt the air in front of her. "There's nothing here."
"It's there for me."
I thought for a moment. "Give me the scrolls."
She took off her backpack and gave me the scrolls rolled up inside. Holding the scrolls in one hand, I reached out again with the other. This time I felt the force field she had mentioned.
"Try it now." I said to her.
She stepped forward and through the field. "Looks like the scrolls can't leave the castle." She said.
"Yeah."
"So what do we do about it?" Alia asked.
I sighed. "We'll have to leave them here. The wizards back at the organization will have to come here themselves."
"They aren't going to be happy about that." Darrev said.
"Do you have any better ideas?" I asked.
He shook his head. "No."
"Okay then." I took the scrolls back inside and hid them under a rug in one of the bedrooms. It wasn't likely that anybody would come here, but there was no point in taking unnecessary risks.
I repositioned the rug and headed downstairs. I didn't notice how the sky had suddenly darkened until I was outside. I glanced up at the sky, noticing it was now full of dark, ominous-looking clouds.
I shrugged and started across the drawbridge. My partners were nowhere in sight. Fearing the worst, I hurried across the drawbridge and looked for tracks. Oddly enough, I found none. It was as though nobody had passed this way in years.
Wondering what was going on, I turned and went back into the castle, noting as I crossed it that the drawbridge was much less study than it had been when I had crossed it with the others just a few minutes ago. It was as though it had aged years in just moments.
I approached the large double doors to the castle, noting how they too, had aged. As I pushed one open, it let out a loud creak and fell off the hinges, falling forward and landing with a loud thud and a cloud of dust.
I waited a moment for the dust to settle down, then stepped over the fallen door, my hand on my sword. I glanced around, checking to see if anything was waiting in the dark for a feast of human entrails.
The interior was more or less the same, save for the much thicker layer of dust on everything. It was heavy enough to obscure the black and white checker pattern of the tiled floor. I started across the hall toward the stairs, kicking up a cloud of dust with every step.
The stairs' wooden railing fell apart as I touched it, falling off the side of the stairway and shattering on the dust covered floor below. Ignoring the railing, I continued up the stairs, going back into the bedroom I had hidden the scrolls in. The edge of the rug came off in my hand as I tried to lift it. Grabbing the middle of the rug, I lifted it off the floor and threw it against the wall, where it emitted a cloud of dust and fell to the floor in a heap of rotting hemp.
The scrolls were not under the rug. I cursed out loud and straightened, wondering once again just what in the Nine Hells had happened.
I decided that I had better check to see if there was anything salvageable left in the entire castle. As I left the room, there was a sudden flash of light. Before me, hovering a few inches above the floor, was an indistinct white figure.
The apparition let out a low moan and began to take shape. Four tendrils formed from the mass and took on the semblance of arms and legs, while a spherical mass moved to the top and positioned itself where a head would be. As I watched, the mass began to take on greater definition, becoming recognizably human.
It was a man in the latter years of life. He had a full beard and mustache, and was wearing the robes of a cleric. He reached out for me, his face wearing an expression of pain. I allowed the spectral hand to touch me, the sprit was obviously not malevolent.
His hand touched my forearm. I felt a coolness that passed through my entire arm as his hand did, chilling the muscles. The ghost turned and floated down the hallway, stopping at the end and turning to face me.
I glanced around, thinking that this might just be an illusion from some prankish wizard. I saw nobody, but I knew that that didn't mean anything. Wizard could project illusions from miles away.
I sighed and started toward the ghost, who was waiting patiently for me. As I neared him, he turned and floated down the stairs. I followed him to the front room and down a hallway. He stopped in front of the door at the end of the hall and floated through it.
I opened the door, or at leas t I attempted to. The door fell forward in a cloud of dust the same way the fist one had. I stepped over the fallen door and looked around the room. This was the room I had found the scrap with the ancient elven script on it.
The room was now empty except for a large block of what appeared to be ice. Entombed within the block of ice was a boy of about thirteen. He was wearing robes like the one the ghost had been wearing, and had dark red hair. Clenched in his left hand was a rolled up scroll. Engraved upon the surface of the ice was a single word: IMMOTION
I tapped the ice. It was solid all the way through, but not at all cold. I reached down and drew my dagger from the scabbard inside my boot and tapped at the ice with it. The ice fell away and melted, leaving nothing behind, not even a puddle of water.
"Interesting." I said to myself. I began chipping away at the ice again, this time around the engraved word. My intention was to get the scroll from the boys hand, but the name might mean something, and I didn't want to destroy it.
Several hours and joint pains later, I finally broke the engraved word apart from the rest of the mass and removed it. Unlike the other pieces of ice I had removed, the ice with the engraved word didn't melt. Instead, the rest of the ice began to melt. It stated slowly, but quickly accelerated. The boy in the melting block of ice slumped forward as the ice around his waist melted, and dropped to the ground as the rest melted seconds later. I was sure he was dead until he tried to roll over onto his back.
I hurried over to him and helped him sit up. He was breathing heavily, and seemed exhausted.
"Are you okay?" I asked.
He looked up sharply as I spoke. "You speak the holy tongue?"
"What? No, I don't know about any holy tongue."
"You are speaking it now!" He insisted angrily, attempting to stand. His knees buckled and he sat down again.
"We should probably introduce ourselves. You are?"
"I am Cedric, cleric of Immotion. And you are?"
"I'm Venric."
He gave me an odd look. "You cannot be Venric. It is against the doctrine of the church for anyone to name their child that."
"What? What are you talking about?"
"It is against doctrine for parents to name their child Venric. Everybody knows that. It has been that way since Venric and his allies saved the world from the demons two thousand years ago."
"What!?"
"Do you not know the holy scriptures?"
"No, I don't. Who's Immotion?"
"Immotion is the goddess of purity, good, and fire."
"So what were you doing in that block of ice?"
He opened his mouth to speak, but didn't say anything. He frowned and thought for a few minutes, staring at the floor, then looked up at me and shook his head. "I do not know."
"What's the last thing you remember?"
He thought for a moment. "Nothing. I remember nothing."
"Nothing? You know about your deity."
"But I remember nothing else."
"Damn." I helped him to his feet. "Well, come on. Let's get you something to eat and I'll tell you what I know."
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LOOKIN GOOD!!! -- Phoenix The Rebirth A.K.A. Horned Beast, 09:49:23 03/31/01 Sat (p3ee33fd5.dip0.t-ipconnect.de/62.227.63.213)
I like it!!! You are a really good writer and when you are done with this series of them do you think that you will write a sequel thingy?!!?!???!?!??!?!?!!??!?!
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Phoenix, I'm not bitching here, but... -- DJ Inky, 20:27:03 03/31/01 Sat (webcacheh07a.cache.pol.co.uk/195.92.67.71)
Why do you always type in too many question/exclamation marks? I mean, 'thingy' isn't so funny a word that you need that many !s on the end of it!?!?"??£$^*%&(?"?!!@|}!!!
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Re: LOOKIN GOOD!! -- Elric, 00:23:58 04/01/01 Sun (ip173.hutchison.ks.pub-ip.psi.net/38.27.1.173)
A sequel is out of the question because I already have the ending written, and it wraps up almost everything completely. What it doesn't finish out is best left to the imagination of the reader. I'll continue to write when I finish this, and I may use similar characters, but once the story is finished, I intend to retire the characters forever. So, in short, no, there will never be a sequel, although I will probably revise the entire thing at least twice before I attempt to get it published.
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Published? -- DJ Inky, 21:23:36 04/01/01 Sun (webcachem02b.cache.pol.co.uk/195.92.194.12)
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Elric, your stories DO have the depth and potential to get published. I say go for it! ^.~ -- Alia^^, 22:48:18 04/01/01 Sun (m165-mp1-cvx3a.nth.ntl.com/62.255.188.165)
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