Arkadia: Lightbringer Clan

Chapter Five

"and thus, we were brought to an era of peace, Rex Regent and his Leagues of Rexitors brought low the Pit Demon Dequester, ending what could've been a dark time for us. Dequester defeated by the Mighty Rex, his followers scatter and flee...."

The bard continues the story till late evening, the band walks in, eyeing around the tavern for a familliar face, the tavern is mostly wood, with only the fireplace made of stone, with a second floor upstairs, the fire crackles as chatter by patrons of the tavern is on-going, about their own personal adventure and some critique of the bard's performance.

The group continued upstairs to search for their friends, as Leaf appears atop the ladder, "Leaf, over here!" he sees Tots wave him over, the group moves towards the backend of the floor, next to an open window.

Seating next to Tots is Lehrerin, a Half Orc woman with glasses on her face, slightly green skin, and a stern face wearing a large fur overcoat, with leather garbs beneath. "Girls, it's good to see you" the Half Orc face softens, "I hope you two have been keeping yourselves out of trouble"

The two elven ladies nods happily, "we have, we have" said in unison, "it's so good to see you Ms Lehrerin" and they rush over to give Lehrerin a hug, "Miss? You don't have to call me "Miss" anymore" she smiles at the nostolgia, "you can call me Lehrerin"
The girls nod in agreement.
"And what of you?" her salt and pepper head turns to Leaf.
"Leaf" he nods and smiles.
"Leaf." and she returns the smile.

They gather around the table, sharing food from the tavern, hot fresh from the kitchen, toasted buns, juicy steaks, steamed vegetables, a beautiful rotisserie chicken right down in the middle of the table. The group chows down the meal and ended the night in their rooms.

-

The next morning, the group sneak their way back of the tavern, slightly further and out about a mile away, in a small forest clearing, the carriage can be seen guarded by the Lightbringer soldiers.

"aye Tots, we're ready to move out"
"Let's do a small brief before we do, Duchess Verra and her group will return back to town and we'll pick them up a mile after."
The group nods, Verra darts around the cart looking for the stone, "wher-"as she says that, the stone materializes where it should be, slowly revealing itself, a huge chunk of stone with a rune spiraling inwards.
"The calling stone." Lehrerin gives Verra a gentle pat on the shoulder.
"this will bring us far beyond the realm of possibilities."
"How so?" Alisif asks
"It is like your spell "Message", but instead of using much Flow, it is instead scribed to this rune." She points toward it, "it is then etched upon a stone, and from there, we can start speaking instantaneously." she nods approvingly.
"We discovered these stones in one of the caves in Frigardia, the miners there reported a strange blue rune on a large stone, when we wizards came to determine what it is, it started pulsing blue energy and from it, and to our surprise, we can hear our old friends in Fortia Logi."
"What a coincidence! at the same time!" Alisif shocked.
"What a councidence indeed." Lehrerin continues, "we were able to communicate through the stone, and a lot of progress of whence the stone came from and how it functions were completed in a matter of days instead of weeks and months."
"We were able to determine that this piece of arcane work is from the around the very beginning of Arkadia."
"That's... impossible, history says that most of Arkadia's arcane genesis was destroyed by a magical purge from an unknown source, the stones shouldn't work like it used to."Verra points out
"and we are lucky that it is still usable then, and good on you for remembering that" their old mentor winks. "it may have been created after the purge, that's why we sent word for Rex Dono and the Magical Circle to join us in this research, we believe that it will help us progress forward into a more advance state quicker, as it did for our research on it."
"What is the magical purge?" Leaf asks.
"The Magical Purge happened at an undetermined time in Arkadia, the Magical Purge is an event that wiped all of magic save for a few. Items and buildings were said to be made of magic or magically constructed collapsed, and people that had that magical nature was stripped away from their arcane abilities. Save for a few that survived it." Verra explains.
"and that explains why there aren't too many magic people going around." Alisif finishes that sentence as she whips around flying in a circle.
"Yes, most of us that don't have the arcane aptitude because of that, we study and cast spells through a focus, usually through scrolls or other objects we can infuse magic with." Lehrerin perks up her glasses to look at Verra.
"I'm much more comfortable with conjuring weapons." Verra whips out her slingbag and produces a hilt, "watch" from her hand that's holding the hilt, magic of pure light curls around the hilt and "vroom" a rapier of pure light and points it forward. "pretty neat huh?" she smiles.
Leaf looks on in amazement. "it takes us wizards years to conjure anything, much less cast a spell. "The Highness has a gift, she learned all that in a months time." Lehrerin pats Leafs' shoulder.
"The Talented One" muses Alisif.
"I'm just lucky to have enough Flow to do what I do, nothing talented about that." Duchess Verra sheaths her rapier.
"Conceal". Lehrerin pulls a scroll out of her backpack, and waves it on the stone. The stone, cart and the hinges that are connected to the carriage slowly disappears into thin air.
"Let's go."

The group departs, went ahead and reconvene a mile out of Starten Trag, on the way to Anfangmen.

-

Night time comes, and the group sets up campfire near shurbs, just out of the forest.

"Ay, it's my turn to scout ahead." Tots says, "I'll be back in an hour or two." and she walks ahead. Slowly, but surely her cloak shields her from prying eyes, and blends in with the environment, her figure disappears into the night.

The group gathers around, Leaf materializes from a shadow of the cart.
"Hey." Verra smiles as she approaches him.
Leaf nods, and turns to her. "Hello."
"Let's talk somewhere." Verra averts her eyes from Leaf and looks over a tree, just a little off the campfire.
Leaf blushes and nods. They both head over to the spot where the Duchess looked over, they sit across each other on the base root.

"So Leaf, how'd you come about to meeting Mr Eid?"
"I was an orphan, and Mr Eid found me."
Verra puts her hands over her mouth, "oh.. I'm sorry I asked..."
"No, no, that's alright." he smiles, "it's not something I don't talk about, I could barely remember when I was alone, all I remember was Mr Eid was with me when I was a babe, and also Mrs Wigglesmiths."
He sits crosslegged, getting comfortable, "those two and Tots have been by my side for all I can remember, Mr Eid is my mentor for my magic, Mrs Wigglesmiths is our caretaker and Tots is the one who taught me ranger skills to survive."
Verra smiles at this and puts a hand on his leg, "that sounds wonderful, at least there is that."
"and you?"
Verra recounts. "I have lived in the Lightbringer Spire for all my life, my parents the Viscount Uvam and Viscountess Dulcis have put me in magical studies, I wasn't born with massive Flow like my cousin but it's just enough for me to do what I did."
"I don't have too many friends, but I have my cousin and Alisif, and Alisif and I met when she saved me from a bully when I was young."
"You? bullied?"
"Yes, because of my lack of Flow and my Lightbringer status, we're a proud clan and always wielded great amount of Flow, so when it was discovered that I didn't possess as much as my other family members, I was... cast aside for a bit until I proved myself." Verra has a determined look, and she smiles.
"That's why I'm glad to have been able to do that, and I won them over by my use of magical devices, hehe."
"I saved a couple of people from wild beasts and really, it was from the people's voice and support that elevated me in the clan..."
"Hey I understand that." Leaf puts his hand on Verras', and he squeezes her hand gently.
"I'm cast aside too in a way, wouldn't be an orphan if I wasn't" The two both look at each other, had a warm moment and stayed there for a bit.