The Weaving of Cyrno: The Silver Lining

Chapter 4 Sight

Seig

I might have a problem with getting knocked out lately. My eyes open to another cell. The mossy brick is the first thing my eyes land on. This one is smaller than the last one. The brickwork looks more loose here than in the last one. I can tell if I use a spell with a good enough kick I can get out of here. My eyes drift to my hands, which are suspended by some new clean chains that are wrapped around some bars to my ceiling. It seems I was dropped down in this cell since there are no bar doors. The cuffs have some odd runes carved on them. It takes me a second to read them, but it seems it cuts off magic going to my hands. Shit. Kinda, the whole point of spells is hands. Need to come up with something. I try pulling all my weight on the cuffs, but nothing gives way. I let my head drop in defeat, and my ears pick up the sound of footsteps echoing. My head shoots up to look above me.

Her emerald eyes stare down at me. I study them looking for a sign of whats happening. I soon get a feeling that  her eyes hold something that I just can't define. It’s not anger or contempt but something else. She says “You did a good attempt at breaking out. I’m not going to admit it to the others, but I’m glad you got the others out.” What? 

Confusion washes in. My mind races trying to figure things out. Why is she glad? I thought, but thought, it failed me to only do one thing. I simply ask “Why?” She leans down, and I get a closer look at her muscles. I see that they hold a strength my head has felt two times now. I feel lucky that I only have a headache. Maybe I have a thick head. Wait, that's an insult. I just insulted myself “The way my people do this is we don't keep prisoners for what I believe they wanted to do to them.” “What were they going to do?” “I heard whispers of them sacrificing people to do some ritual.” What could they be doing? I know of ritual spells, but they are normal spells but take longer to do and don't cost any inner mana to use. I might need some plants or some ingredients but nothing like a soul. Souls lead into dark magic like necromancy. It's something foul that I never wanted to learn about. Even when I got a book from a merchant, if it was necromancy, I never took it. 

I say “Nothing pleasant is going down if they need souls.” She nods and says “My clan elders always said when a soul is needed, something is going against the natural order. I should have stayed and not followed the promise of gold.” A deep shame now fills her face. It looks wrong on her face. Maybe she is like me, someone who can't see this cruelty and stand by. “What if we stop them?” Her eyes focus on mine, and it seems she is now finally looking at me. I feel her intense gaze stare into my blue eyes. The last time she looked at me, she was trying to take me down, but I think she never looked me in the eyes at the time. 

She stops looking and says “You already got the prisoners out of here.” I nod but quickly add in a desperate plea “There is always another time for them to just get new prisoners. Now I have a possible plan to make sure they can’t do this again.” She gives me a gesture which I take as I go on and continue by saying “Now unless they have powerful wizards to teleport them, they had to march here, right? Well, if so, they need a lot of supplies, and sadly, Hapton has been having a slow harvest. Hopefully, they took the food with those lucky to leave or have already gotten it.” “That's a lot of luck for a plan.” “Hey, I'm working on so little information here. Well, it must take a long time for them to march to other places. If we destroy their food supplies, either a lot of them starve to death or must work on getting food, and we get some proper time to warn any nearby towns.” After I said my piece, she just took a thoughtful look. Please go with this plan. My ears focus on some dripping noise while I wait for her answer. Gods, it was stupid to tell her my idea, but I hope she will help me. 

“Alright, I'll help you, magic man.” A giant grin is plastered on my face as I say “Well since we are allies now, will you care to share your name? My is Seigmund.” She steps back and grabs the bars, and I hear a horrible groan as the metal is getting ripped out of the stone. After a few bars are ripped out, she grabs the one my chains are tied to, and she takes hold of it. I see her muscles strain as she pulls on it, and I see the metal start to break. The chains give, and my arms drop, and I feel my shoulders acke at the forced position I was in. 

I then got yanked out of the hole I was in and heard her say “My name is Marie. It seems we shall be allies for now, Seigmund. I hope you still have some magic you can cast.” I chuckle as I look at the cuffs still on my hands. She nods and takes out a small axe. I stretch out my arms so she can get a good swing at them. Please don’t miss Marie. I kinda like my hands. As I brace for the axe to hit my chains, I feel a force hit my wrist. My eyes open, and I see the cuffs have broken. I start to feel the magic enter my body once more. I let the magic on my hands and start preparing a spell to see if I can cast a simple fire spell. My hands start to produce a flame, and a giant smile takes my face. It’s back! 

“Seems it was the cuffs stopping you from trying to break out. Now I must ask if you have any training with weapons.” I give a forced smile and panic fills me. Crap I should have taken up Jin’s offer to train me with crossbows. Marie sighs as I see the disappointment in her eyes, and I quickly say “I know how to use a knife…maybe?” I shrug at the end, and Marie just says “So that is no training whatsoever. Alright, if i remember correctly, you can only use so many spells a day, right?” She starts walking, and I follow her while adding “Yes. I can only use a few complex spells starting at a level 1 complex ending at 10, but those are rarely seen. Now I can do simple spells like fire, that lighting hand, and a simple message spell. I can cast spells like that all the live long day, but they are very weak. I can’t kill a dragon by simply casting any of those spells once. It’s like digging a tunnel with a spoon.” We have taken a few turns and have not seen one guard yet. That seems odd.

“Why are there no guards out here?” Marie takes another left and says “Right now, they are in an hour prayer to the Goddess Tiamat. We got lucky that these seem to be very religious Dragonborns. Fuck I should say I’m leading us to their makeshift temple. I remember that they have two guards out of the temple. I can knock them out but it might make some noise. So I need you to help me get them out. I can lead them and you do your lighting hand thing. You got it?” I nod and take a deep breath. I can do this. I hope. 

Cogan   

I watch as that Jin fellow aims his bow at a guard. The guard is guarding one of the exits. I will give him credit for being a good Marksman. His skills are already well founded and just need some more practice to be great. If he can use magic then he may be an arcane Archer. That will help us a lot. I should try and ask Glenda to persuade him to join us on the hunt for the Silver Library. Sadly my charm will not work on him. I think. I need to get better at reading people. 

I look behind us to see the two dragons still fighting in the distance. I wonder where the Black Dragon's legion is. The white one's legion took Jon's friend but where is the other. Is the Black Dragon a deserter from Tiamat? From the tales I've heard, that's not good. 

“Alright, that's the guards.” I turn my head to see Jin has killed the guards and stripped them of anything valuable. Also resourceful. Now I really want him on our journey. Jin asks “So how are we going to find Seig in this Fortress?” Glenda walks up to him and says “Don't worry about it. If you give me a bit I can use my ability.” A confused look befalls Jin.

I see the blind eyes of Glenda once more. She once told me her eyes were completely destroyed. They were restored but at the cost of her never seeing again. I thought clerics were able to cure stuff like that but I never pushed her on talking about it. Jin asks “How can you see? Oh I meant-.” Glenda cuts him off and says “I am constantly gifted with a soft clairvoyance that acts like normal sight. I will never see the world with my own two eyes.” 

We start heading in the fortress and my nose picks up a smell that immediately sets off alarms in my head. The smell of a fire! I start to run ahead and ignore the others yelling. I turn a corner and run into a door. I fall down and I see the soft glow in the corner of my eyes. Ok shit balls. 

Hey if you want to see chapters faster support me on my Patreon
https://www.patreon.com/EdwinRhodes?utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator