The Omen, page 30
part #5 of Eden's Gate Series
“Darion,” Eanos said sharply. “Don’t play dumb. If Solomon is walking around Eden’s Gate with an Old One’s eye, it could be disastrous. There’s no telling what forces he could unleash. We have to find him!”
“This is the King’s errand,” Darion said, shaking his head. “Not the mages’.”
“You’re wrong!” Eanos shouted. “This is an errand for any capable person in Eden’s Gate. If the Ancients are unleashed, you won’t be sitting here rich and pretty in Highcastle anymore. The Kings and Queens will no longer matter. The whole world could be turned upside down.”
“You’re speaking only of campfire tales,” Darion said. “Nothing more.”
“Two days ago, a dragon was spotted only a few hundred meters from Linden. It was the talk of the town. People were frightened out of their mind.” Eanos pressed his lips together. “There were whispers that this is an Omen leading to the prophecy. That the—“
“That the Reborns will arrive, and the dragons will breathe fire once more,” Darion said. “We both know the prophecy, Eanos. Is that why you brought the Reborn?”
Eanos tilted his head to the side. “The Reborn?”
Darion creased his brow. “What? You don’t know? A dragon touched down in Highcastle’s Arena, and Gunnar here is a Reborn.” Darion grinned curiously. “He resurrects upon death.”
Eanos looked at me, and I could see veins beginning to swell on on his temples. “What? You’re a Reborn?”
I took a deep breath and nodded.
Eanos looked towards the ground, and his eyes darted back and forth. “That would explain why you showed up in my shop at level 3 with your head so far up your ass. That would explain how you survived Gramora, how you’ve grown so quickly.” He looked up at me. “Someone as dumb as you should be in the ground by now!”
I nodded. “I died in Gramora. I’ve died several times already, actually.”
Eanos swallowed hard, then turned back to Darion. “If you know he’s a Reborn, how can you take this so lightly?! And a dragon in the Arena? This is the prophecy! The dragons are an Omen!”
“Or a mere coincidence,” Darion said contrarily. “There’ve been no reports of dragons the last two days or so. It’s too much to assume that they’ll start spewing fire on us anytime soon.”
I cleared my throat. “I’ve seen a dragon breathe fire. Across the Serpent Sea, a man named Dryden Bloodletter has a dragon of his own.”
Darion huffed. “Impossible…”
“It’s true,” I countered.
“Darion,” Eanos said pointedly. “Whether he’s lying or not is of no measure. If there’s even a chance that Solomon could unleash the Ancients by using the eye, we must do something.”
“Do what?” Darion said. “If the King doesn’t know where Solomon is then—“
“You can find him,” Eanos interrupted.
“No.” Darion shook his head. “I assume you’re proposing that I do the same thing that had one of your students removed from the guild?”
“Not the same,” Eanos said. “Not even close.”
“It is forbidden for members of the Mage’s Faction to use Dark Magic!”
“But you’ve also sworn that you’ll use your magic for good,” Eanos explained. “Can you think of any better good than to use a spell in an effort to save Eden’s Gate from chaos?”
Darion crossed his arms. “This is your mess, Eanos. You should’ve never left Highcastle and let Solomon go about doing whatever the hell he pleases.”
Eanos nodded and lowered his head. “You’re right. It is my mess, and I’ll take care of it. Simply do this one thing, and Gunnar and I will handle the rest.”
I raised an eyebrow and wanted to say, ‘I will?’ but I stayed silent anyway.
Darion swallowed hard and took a deep breath. “You served the Mage’s Guild well for many years, and for this fact alone, I will help you, Eanos.”
“Thank you,” Eanos replied.
Darion dropped his arms and turned towards the trapdoor. “Follow me. I hope you know how much I’m risking.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
2/6/0001
I followed the two mages down the ladder into the Mages Hall, and the top floor consisted of a square library filled from floor to ceiling with books. In the center sat a wooden desk with a pen, a few runestones, an open book, and several pieces of paper on top. The entire room was lit, but it was unclear where the lighting source was.
“Nothing has changed up here, I see,” Eanos said.
“Yes,” Darion chuckled. “I was just studying the history of water magic before I heard you touch down.”
At the far edge of the wall was a grey, metal door—the only non-bookshelf segment of the room.
Darion pushed the door open but turned to us as we were about to follow. “You two stay up here. If any of the other mages find out what I’m about to do, there’ll be all-hell to pay.”
Eanos nodded as Darion slid through the door and closed it behind him. I could hear footsteps heading downward outside of the walls.
“What’s going on?” I asked Eanos.
Eanos took a deep breath and walked to the edge of the room. He looked closely at the books on the wall, then reached up and gently rubbed his fingers across one of them. “Darion learned Dark Magic before he joined the Mage’s Faction. Though it’s prohibited for members to use, it’s the only branch of magic that has a location spell.”
“Okay, so he’s going to cast a location spell, and then what?”
“Hopefully, he’ll be able to locate Solomon,” Eanos said. “And if he’s able to, we’ll head there to retrieve the All-Seeing Eye.”
I shook my head, and my voice rattled. “I think you misunderstood something. If Darion can find Solomon, that’s great and all, but we should tell the King so that he can handle it. Maybe one day I’ll be strong enough to collect Solomon’s bounty but…” I creased my brow. “The Faithsworn were able to defeat a commander and a few of his men. He said there were a lot of them. There’s no way we can stand up to them.”
“Don’t worry about how we’ll take them on,” Eanos said. He turned to me and glared. “And if you’re a Reborn, what are you worried about anyway? Immortals should not fear.”
I sighed, feeling like it was the thousandth time an NPC questioned why I feared death. “It hurts, Eanos. Death is terrible even for a Reborn.”
“I see…” He scanned me up and down. “You have four branches of magic. What kind of Reborn powers do you have?”
I lifted my shoulder slightly. “None. Reborns are just as normal as any other humans aside from the fact that we can respawn.”
Eanos grabbed his beard and tugged on it gently. His voice took a somber tone. “I can’t believe that Solomon was right, but still… I can’t believe what he’s done.”
“He was right about what? And how do you know him anyway? Is it true that you were kicked out of the Mage’s Guild?”
“Not quite.” Eanos took a half step forward then turned his back to me again. He slowly paced around the room and scanned the books, pausing to inspect some more closely here and there. “Solomon was my student, Gunnar.”
“Your student?” I chuckled. “He’s nearly as old as you.”
Eanos ignored my comment. “Each master mage in the Mage’s Guild may take up to two students, and I had two—Solomon and Valeran.” He glanced to me. “They were probably a little younger than you when they first joined.”
I shifted in confusion. How was Solomon so old yet Eanos was able to take him as a student when he was younger than me? Was Eanos somehow able to live longer than normal? Something wasn’t making sense.
“Solomon and Valeran were both great students when they were novices, but it was sometime after they both obtained their yellow belts that Solomon discovered scriptures.” His finger trailed up a thick, leather-bound book, pulled it out, and held it out for me to see. On the cover was a simple rune and the title, but the spine had the image of a dragon running its length. Of Reborns and Dragons. “When he read this book, he became obsessed with the idea that the Ancients would once again wreak havoc on Eden’s Gate and had a fear that Reborns would take over the world.”
Eanos sighed, rubbed his palm over the cover, then slid it back into the shelf. “He was consumed by the idea of immortality and thought the only way to live in a world with Reborns was to become an immortal himself. Solomon’s magic studies began to falter, and it was clear that he would never reach master status. Valeran, however, continued to grow and was favored to become a top mage in the guild.
“Valeran and Solomon grew to be best friends as they trained, and though Valeran was a vastly stronger mage, he trusted and admired Solomon. When I saw Valeran was following in Solomon’s footsteps, I was concerned, but what kind of man would I have been to impose on another’s faith?”
I just shook my head, trying to process all the information he was feeding.
“It was shortly before each of them were to be tested to become master mages that I sent them on a training quest. It should have been simple—defeat a few specters in Castlebury Downs, but no…” Eanos shook his head. “Something went terribly wrong.
“Solomon returned to the Mage’s Guild covered in blood from neck to toe, and he looked no less than 40 years older than before. He was terrified and shaken, but when questioned on what happened, he offered no viable explanation of what went wrong. Valeran had simply vanished.”
“You think Solomon killed Valeran?” I asked.
Eanos nodded slightly. “Many in the guild suspected so, but without any evidence, there was no way to charge him. It could have been anything that killed Valeran. But, when we sent Mages to Castlebury Downs to investigate Valeran’s disappearance, we found blood trails that were consistent with Solomon’s and a pentacle of blood on the floor. Solomon was removed from the Mage’s guild on suspicion of practicing forbidden magic. Valeran was never found.”
“And what happened to you?” I asked.
“I was ashamed,” Eanos said. “One of my students was dead, and the other one removed from the faction. What kind of teacher am I to allow such a thing? I left Highcastle and the Mages Faction and set up my shop in Linden to live out the rest of my wretched life.”
“It doesn’t sound like it was your fault,” I consoled. “Solomon is to blame.”
Eanos shook his head. “I should’ve done something. I should’ve seen that Solomon was becoming radicalized! If I had just—“
“I would’ve done the same,” I interrupted with a shrug. “I mean, I’m not a master mage, but I would’ve let my students believe what they wanted to believe if I were in your situation.”
Eanos looked down and bobbed his head slightly. “Well, thank you for trying to comfort me, but I’ll never forgive myself for what was done.”
The metal door of the room swung open, and Darion stepped inside, carrying a small iron pot and a basket filled with herbs. He locked the door behind him and moved to the desk. “Let’s get this done quickly.”
I didn’t get the chance to ask Eanos anything else about Solomon and Valeran, but with the dark look on his face, I had the feeling he wasn’t interested in talking about it anymore.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
2/6/0001
The small iron pot was placed on an elevated stand atop the desk in the room, and underneath the pot were three candles, causing the liquid inside to come to a boil. Darion had put a variety of reagents into the pot, and a heavy scent of magic filled the room.
Darion had instructed us to watch the door and break him out of his trance if anyone happened to come. Neither Darion or Eanos expected an interruption as magic was regularly practiced in the tower, so feeling a strong magic field wouldn’t be uncommon.
Eanos and I watched as Darion held his hand out towards the steam that rose from the pot, and his eyes lit up with a hue of white. Within the steam, I could see a faint, first-person image of what appeared to be someone running. The movement was so rapid that it was hard to make out where the image was.
“I’m pretty sure I saw the orcs do something like this,” I said as I stood idly nearby. “A long time ago when I was accompanying Princess Adeelee on a mission.”
“You’ve fought with Princess Adeelee?” Eanos asked.
I nodded, and the thought made me feel really annoyed. I wasn’t one-hundred percent confident in what Eanos and Darion were doing, and a voice inside of me was telling me to just recall to the Vale. I wanted to inform Adeelee what was going on and spend some time with her. I mean… her parents were out of town. “Yeah, and I’m pretty sure they were casting the spell for some time. How long is this going to take?”
Eanos straightened his shoulders. “Darion is a high-level, master mage. He alone can channel the spell at many multiples the speed of some low-level, idiotic group of orcs.”
“How do you know they were low level?” I asked.
Eanos rolled his eyes towards me. “A high-level orc would eat you alive—Adeelee too for that matter. I’m guessing she’s still below level 30.” He grinned. “And you said a group, right? A high-level orc mage would just channel this spell without assistance.”
I crossed my arms and smirked at Mr. Smartypants.
Thirty minutes passed, and I started to get impatient. I lay on the floor with my head resting on some books from the lower shelf, and Eanos was still standing nearby, leaning near the door.
“Hey, how did you change Xandree from small to large the way you did?” I asked. “I’ve never seen that before.”
Eanos slid his hand into his bag and produced two of the balls he had deposited inside—one white and one grey. “Suppression pellets.”
“What are those?” I asked.
He rolled the two pearl-like pellets in his hands. “Some Great Beasts grow rather large and can be difficult to manage, especially if you want to keep them on this side of Eden’s Gate for an extended amount of time. A grey suppression pellet will reduce them to a manageable size. A white suppression tablet will return them to their normal state.”
The pellets sounded extremely useful, and I was surprised that it was the first I was hearing about them. Since Sora had grown large, I had assumed I’d always have to leave her outside if I visited a city, and it was difficult to have her outside my home in Edgewood, because she had the tendency to scare customers away. If I could reduce her to something a little less frightening—like Eanos did with his bird—that would allow me to spend even more time with her.
“Where can I get them?” I asked.
“Some alchemists and herbalists may carry them,” Eanos said. “They’re made of nightshade, sulfur’s ash, and wintergreen, so if you can get the ingredients, you might even be able to make the pellets yourself. It’s a basic concoction, but the reagents are hard to come by—particularly the wintergreen.”
“Where is wintergreen?” I questioned.
Eanos rolled his eyes as if he were sick of my questions. “It’s common near Tillos—far from here—or any ice and snow-covered region. As you’re aware, there’s no significant snow near the Freelands, so thus, no wintergreen. I suppose the people in the ice region are starving for nightshade, which you can find in just about any crypt or cemetery in the Freelands. They’d be more than willing to trade.”
Darion stumbled forward, then caught himself on the desk before falling face-forward in the pot. He shook his head rapidly and muttered, “I found him…”
“Where?” Solomon asked anxiously.
“Several miles north of Knuckle Bay—a barren, unregulated territory between two large hills. They’ve got a large tent and several camps setup. There’s…”
“What?” Solomon pressed.
“There’s so many of them.” Darion reached up and grabbed his lips. “How did he get so many soldiers?”
“He’s been at it for several years,” Eanos said. “Even if he could recruit a single person per day, that’d be enough to form an army.”
“Are you sure you want to get involved in this?” Darion asked. “I’m afraid even for you, it would be a challenge.”
“Are you sure you don’t wish to join me?” Eanos countered.
“I’m not prepared to lose my life to an ancient relic or get the Mage’s Guild involved in this fiasco. I’ve done too much already by casting that spell,” Darion said. “If you were wise, you’d take the information to the King.”
Eanos shook his head. “Kings only do what’s necessary to stay in power and keep the people from revolting. He wouldn’t understand the type of threat we’re dealing with, nor would he know how to solve it.”
“Well then, good luck, Eanos.” Darion said. “Just try to stay alive. If you don’t succeed, I’ll make sure King Rutherford finds out where Solomon is.”
Eanos turned to me and raised his chin. “And are you willing to help?” he asked.
You’ve received a quest offer: Retrieve the Eye!
Eanos would like your assistance in retrieving the All-Seeing Eye
Reward: 10,000 XP
Do you accept this quest? Accept/Decline
“I don’t know how I’ll be much help at my level,” I explained. “I agree with Darion that we should take the information to the King.”
“Pfft,” Eanos spat. “An immortal afraid of mortals. If all Reborns are this cowardly, I see no reason why anyone would fear them.”
“I explained to you that death is painful,” I said.
“We only need to return the eye. If you can somehow snatch it, we can fly away. You can hang back if you need to. And If I happen to die, bring the news and any information you learn back to Darion.”
“Eanos Grey die?” Darion asked. “If you hadn’t grown into such an old fart now, I’d laugh at the idea.”
“If I die, it will be a small price to return the eye to its rightful owners.” He took a deep breath. “And if Solomon keeps the eye, it’s only a matter of time before we’re all dead.”
