Shards of Felwyn

The Curse of Avarice

"Cosmo. I think I've found something." Lysander nudged his cousin, propping his book against the table. It had been four days since they had begun researching Elarra's collection and morale had run low. After reading nearly every volume available and finding that they contained little useful information, the four were less than ecstatic to be spending another gloomy, overcast morning reading old books.

However, the important information they had been able to glean brightened Cosmo's spirits somewhat. Just yesterday they found enough information regarding the Decay to predict how fast its effects spread. Galdernad would have had to steal the Prism almost a decade ago in order for the environment to yield the results that it was. What the Lord of Felwyn seemed to be doing was recent. There was a chance that Varren or Galdernad hadn't taken it yet, and a chance was all Cosmo needed.

"Lysander, how many times have I told you to read what's on the table?" Cosmo looked up from his book, more frustrated than tired. He had been falling asleep once every five minutes for the past hour, attempting to read the novel in his hands. "That spellbook won't help us while researching the Decay." Lysander looked irritated.

"Those books are impossible to read." He glanced bitterly towards them, leaning back with the spellbook in his lap. "I'm sick of translating every other word off of another book."

"Lysander, how else will we be able to complete what Tatiova has willed us to do?" Elias asked, looking up from his book with tired eyes. "Only six volumes remain."

"But I think I've found something real here." He opened the book in his lap and leafed through a few pages, turning it around and showing the other three an extensive list of materials. "This is a spellbook on shadow magic, but there's an index of different channelers in the back." Cosmo tilted the book towards him and looked down the list.

The author had sorted channelers by size, shape, and effectiveness, listing spells that each one could cast more or less efficiently. Next to every description was an artful ink sketch of its appearance, with notes about it written in the margins.

"How could this be relevant to our search for the Prism?" Molniya asked, impatient.

"This wasn't really what caught my attention." Lysander leaned down and grabbed the page they had been looking at, flipping through the list. "The last page of this index, it's... extraordinary." Finding the page, he pressed the book onto the table, facing Cosmo, Elias, and Molniya.

"Musor..." Molniya swore, gazing at the page. Cosmo couldn't believe his eyes, either. The following two pages were a spread of dark ink drawings, with crazed warnings written at odd angles around the illustrations, some scrawled in the Ancient Language. In the center of the two pages was a detailed sketch of a large crystal, surrounded by bolded words, all proclaiming danger. The biggest letters on the page sat just below that illustration:

THE CURSE OF AVARICE

"Meaning 'great or excessive greed, namely for power' as defined by this book." Lysander explained, turning it back around. "The unsettling images of people in flames and decaying bodies are the supposed consequence. However, I think all three of you are interested in that sketch. Doesn't it look familiar?"

"It's not possible." Elias said, looking at the book in disbelief. "Out of everything we've read, the only thing that contains any information about the Prism is something Elarra hasn't even laid an eye on?"

"He's right." Molniya nodded. "If it contained anything to do with the Divine Prism, Elarra would've grouped it in with these." She gestured at a stack of finished books nearby.

"But it can't be anything else." Cosmo gave a knowing look to Lysander, who returned it.

"And what exactly makes you so sure, Kyosah?" Molniya asked, raising an eyebrow.