Of The Line Of Estelondo: Percival's Tale.

Chapter Nine: Trials and Tribulations

Percival woke in a long hallway that was dimly lit by hanging rectangular lights. The lights were dwarven in make and were covered in small carvings and words. There were no windows, and the walls appeared to be made of sheets of aluminum or tin.

Sitting up, Percival clutched the sides of his head and tried to ignore the headache that arced through his skull. As the pain faded, he looked at the lights and tried to read them, but quickly remembered that he couldn't read Dwarvish, or Kazadul, as it is called.

Standing up on the carved stone floor, he stumbled groggily, but quickly righted himself. He was a little disoriented, as he tried to remember how he had gotten to this location, but the last thing he remembered was sitting down to dinner with Canoelloestel. It was in that moment, that Percival realised that he was alone, and began to run down the hallway, shouted his sister's name.

A deep-rooted panic set in, as he sprinted, his throat quickly becoming sore due to the vehemence and volume with which he cried out her name. "FARAMAUREA! FARAMAUREA! FARA--"

Percival was cut off in surprise as he reached a dead end in the hallway, and Immediately the floor fell out from underneath him. He descended into darkness, almost instantly losing his bearing.

With a splash, he fell into a warm, viscous liquid, the impact-preventing him from obtaining any severe injuries. It was enough, however, to knock the air out of his lungs. He then proceeded to drag himself, wheezing, and coughing, out of this liquid, onto the steel platform surrounding this vat. Lifting himself up onto his hands and knees, he retched out the portion of the liquid he had accidentally ingested.

Spitting to clear his mouth of the vile taste of bile, and iron, Percival waited impatiently for his eyes to adjust. They did this rather quickly, and his elven heritage assisted his ability to see in the darkness. Looking around, Percival saw that he was at the very edge of yet another hallway, but this one was much shorter, and a swirling mercury door barred the end of it. Admiring the door's craftsmanship, he drew his sword, and stabbed it into the center of the vortex, before casting "ollye sívë helcë!" 

As his voice rang out in a commanding tone, the flow of the mercury slowed before eventually coming to a complete stop. A snowflake appeared on the door, and within a minute, the door had frozen solid. Using all of the force in his body, he pulled the sword out of the frozen door, and, whirling, brought his sword down on the door, shattering the door into pieces. Pushing the frozen mercury out of his way, he stepped through the doorway, into the room before him.

As he waited once again for his eyes to adjust this time to the light of the tunnel, he tried to observe his surroundings. He was in what he had assumed was a tunnel, but it was actually a roofless hallway, barred at one end with a tungsten gate.  In the center of the hallway, there was a pedestal, with an open book on it. He saw nothing else that seemed important, so he approached it, getting halfway there before, falling to his knees, and grasping the sides of his head with a shout. He had never had such an agonizing headache, and it took him almost three minutes until the pain subsided enough so that he could continue.

When Percival reached the Book, the cover said "Parma Ello Le Sairina Eva Nar ar Nen ar Helcë," which he quickly translated to: "Book of The Magic of Fire, Water, and Ice." He opened up the silver rune inscribed cover, and inside was a voice, specifically the voice of Canoelloestel, that said: "This book I placed inside your mind to study wherever you go, and to know the spells, to use them well, against any foe. The sum of all my knowledge, in forever inscribed herein, that all of it is all you need to with certainty win."

Percival stood there, before the pedestal, and flipped through the pages of the manuscript. There are spells in here that I have never even heard of. He scanned through the book quickly, then picked it up to tuck the small tome into an inside cover of his cloak.