Chronicles of a Mage, Book One

Chapter 9- Slight Detour

After relieving myself  I asked Mathra. "You said you were from Ilhalas right?" To which he replied
"Yes"
"Well I thought you might know something about this" I lifted my right hand in front my face to show Mathra the ring I obtained not too long ago.
"It's a ring. The craftsmanship on it is pretty old and it has a red gemstone in it. And that's... wait, that's the ring of tenebrous!" Mathra said
"Ring of tenebrous?"
"If I remember right our family once had a relic with a description just like this one, passed down through the ages. But it was supposed to have been lost centuries ago! Where did you find it?"
"I found it in a tomb in the Grune Forest. I don't know how it got there. What does it even do?"
"Well that's the thing. Nobody besides the head of House Illhalas knows what it does. My father probably knows. And his father probably knew as well."

"Well do you want it back? It's your family's relic after all."

"I-" Mathra thought for a moment "No. You should keep it for now. Whatever that ring is I feel like... I feel like it ended up in your hands for a reason, Sorace. Some day I will become the head of my house. I'd like for you to keep it safe until then." 

"That's an awful lot of trust for you to put in one person." I said coldly "I guess I'll at least try to keep it safe, but don't be surprised if I put my own safety first."

"Haha." That seemed to make him chuckle. What is it he finds so funny?

"Something feels familiar about this ring." Eeuna informed me. "Can't you feel it too? It's almost like the ring... no it's like the gemstone inside is alive somehow? I can almost feel it pulsing much like the beating of a heart." Indeed, I could feel what felt like a heart beat from the garnet. Mana, pulsing at regular intervals. Badum, badum. It almost seems like it's trying to communicate with me. But it can't right? It's not like it's actually alive is it?

The next day I told Mathra that we'd have to make a stop at a nearby town "I originally bought 2 weeks worth of rations. Now that you're here my rations are being eaten twice as much as I expected. And neither us aren't exactly the outdoorsy type so gathering food would be a pain. We could always forage for berries or something but I'd rather not take the risk of eating something we shouldn't if we don't have to." Come to think of it, eating wild raspberries like I did that other night was probably not the brightest ideas. Those berries ended up harmless but I very easily could've mistaken them for the poisonous kind and given myself a bad case of the runs at best, and an early grave at worst.
"Oh I am terribly sorry. I did not mean to inconvenience you like this." Mathra apologized with the most noblest of noble apologies.
"It's fine. It'll only be a few days detour and it's not like we're in any rush. Besides, we might be able to look at the library if they have one."

"Pfft. Nerd." Eeuna said unhelpfully

And so we decided to take the road north, to a settlement called Ryalashal. I had heard of it before but I didn't know anything about it besides it's location on a map.
We walked the road for 2 and a half days until we came to a nice little coastal town. It's overall architecture very much reminded me of my home town but it was bigger and uh still in one piece. The streets bustled in stark contrast to Tlalil which was much more peaceful. The markets had a wide variety of rations to choose but I ended up buying fish because it reminded me of home. All in all I ended up with enough food to sustain me and Mathra for a month
"That should be all. Woah when did it get so dark?" I said rather shocked. The sun had almost set
"You spent quite some time browsing the markets" Mathra responded. And in my defense, Eeuna was telling me to look all the items on display, even ones that I couldn't afford. "You go should find an inn. In the mean time I'm going to browse the library. Unless you'd like to come with me?" I said
"I'm not much of a reader but I suppose they might have something interesting" Mathra answered. In truth I wanted to find information on Eeuna or ring of tenebrous. Alas, I found nothing on voices in people's heads and no mention of house Ilhalas' relic. I did however find a tome about jewellery. Apparently diamonds can come in many different colours, like purple, red, green or blue. (No significance to those specific colours in that specific order by the way. None at all.)
After a fruitless visit to the library we went to the inn. Mathra, went to bed while I stayed downstairs for a glass of apple juice. The innkeeper there was... Well she was inebriated on her own supply of booze and kept complaining about how her husband left her for some rich girl in the capital by cutting through a pass in the mountain between Thele City (Yes I know. The kingdom is named after the city) and Ryalashal. I tuned out for a lot of it, mostly because her speech had devolved into crying, hiccuping and spouting a bunch of nonsense but that part actually sounded like a solid bit of information. It could shave of a few days of our journey. Thanks innkeeper lady! I give your inn 8 and a half stars! The drinks (the non alcoholic drinks that is. Though if she's already downed 3 pints of the stuff then it must be at least ok) are good and the establishment is clean, even if the innkeeper is a bit unprofessional. After finishing my beverage I stood up and left a silver piece on the table.