The Obsidian Empire

Chapter 2: Miracle

Llwell makes his way across the ramparts of Tibratall's wall, his eyes trained on the tall archive tower he approaches, but his mind wanders so much that he might as well be staring into the middle distance. He waited for the party to end before leaving his room again to speak with Dumaine.

He may have been excited at the prospect of a date with the mage, platonic it may be, but now that he's caught running through his head exactly what he's going to say, more and more that excitement shifts into anxiety.

He agreed to this for Etho and Bella, but what if Dumaine says 'no'? What if he considers this going too far over the borders of just being friends? What if Llwell has done something to upset him, and that's why Dumaine has been avoiding him for the past month?

He shuts his eyes, takes a deep breath, and enters the tower. As he begins climbing the spiral stone staircase, he proceeds to take more calming breaths and tries telling his mind to shut up. He hates overthinking, yet that seems to be all he's been doing lately. Granted, overthinking about relationships is a far cry from contemplating his place in the universe and the inevitability of death, but with nothing else to contemplate with the silence of the possible impending war, this is all he has.

Llwell reaches the top of the stairs and tries to prepare himself before reaching towards the door to knock, when his hand jolts with pain and he muffles a grunt and grabs his wrist, balling his hand in a fist.

He holds his arm against his stomach for a moment until the pain subsides and the tension in his body relaxes. He flexes his fingers a few times before taking one last deep breath and knocking on the wooden door to the archive.

He hears rustling of pages and a sigh. "Come in, Llwell," comes Dumaine's voice from the other side.

Llwell notes the somewhat distant tone in his voice that if he wasn't already on edge, he probably would have missed or disregarded as simply fatigue from how much he's been supposedly working lately, but perhaps the elf's paranoia or maybe even just his keen hearing tells him that tone of voice is more on the side of frustrated, annoyed even.

Llwell cautiously opens the door and steps into the circular room at the top of the tower. The walls are lined with bookshelves and tables stacked with old books and scrolls, much like the archive back in Ayiolas only a bit bigger and with windows and two separate doors that lead out to the balcony that wraps around the tower.

Dumaine himself is standing hunched over one of the tables with his back to the elf, staring down at some papers. Even from across the room, Llwell can see the tension in his shoulders.

"How did you know it was me?" Llwell asks as he shuts the door to then start slowly walking over.

The mage glances back at him with a slight chuckle. "Because there are only two people who visit me. And on the rare occasion it's you, you're the one who doesn't magically teleport and appear sitting directly on whatever I'm working on. I sometimes question if Etho is trying to be a human, or if this whole time he has been aspiring to achieve the status of 'indigent housecat,'" he states.

"Maybe, though I think Etho is too compassionate to ever be a cat," the elf says and leans against a bookshelf a few feet away from the mage.

Dumaine laughs and turns around, leaning back against the table with his arms crossed. "Excellent point. I had a cat back in Tessiavar. Vile creature. Tried to start up its own cult by killing some peasant girl simply because I forgot to add the extra rice to its kitty cuisine."

Llwell stares at him with worried eyes. "Are... you being serious?"

"Oh yes. When I left I may have heard a rumor about that cat joining the Magisterium. Has its own throne and everything. I think it might even have its own slaves."