The Spark And The Flame

Once Again, The Nameless Wanderer

Theran awoke to find himself in a familiar land, the air carried the scent of old bloodshed. He looked around and found himself on the edge of a forest, and a large field. It appeared to be dusk, the sky, a dark violet. Night would soon approach, and this place was not forgiving to unprepared travelers in the dark. He took a minute to gain his bearings and stood up, his muscles were stiff, as if he were huddled in a small box. Even though the light was fading it seemed as though it was brighter than normal, it hurt his eyes. He could see everything around him, and he could smell the distant scent of old books, oily coins, and rotten flesh. He ventured towards those scents, and happened upon a road, where he saw a fallen carriage. Next to it was the corpse of a horse. After examination, he had determined the horse had been there for about a week. Turning back to the carriage, he scrounged through it. At first glance it seemed empty, but the smell that had drawn him was strong in the carriage. It wasn't coming only from the horse. He started to remove the wood from the conveyance, having not yet found the source of the smell. The first he removed was that of the seat, under which he found a hidden stash. Among that stash, three books, labeled "History of the Land, and the Gods", "Encyclopedia of Wild, Tame, and Supernatural Beasts" and an unnamed book that was empty. He picked up the books to see what was under them. He beheld a sack of gold coins, and a dagger. Theran looked at the items he now held in his hands, and realized he could not carry all of it. So he walked over to the horse, found the satchel, which was fastened to the saddle, and removed it from the horses side. He put the knife into it's sheath and then he onto his waist, the books in the satchel and put the satchel on. Only to be completely surprised when it started to move, and turn into a piece of leather armor that wrapped around his ribs. Immediately he started to pat the armor down and found a pocket. He reached into the pocket and pulled out the history textbook. It had a lock on it, one of high quality, and appeared as if it had been in place since it was written. He grabbed it and tightened his grip until the lock broke off.

As soon as the lock broke he heard a voice, "Hello!" Immediately, Theran turned around with the dagger drawn, only to find that no one was there. "Reveal yourself! Now!" He said in a low guarded voice.

"Im afraid I can not do that." The voice seemed off, it echoed slightly, and sounded as if it was coming from all directions.

"Why the hell not?" Theran asked.

"Because, I'm in your hands"

"You lie"

"Look for yourself"

In spite of himself, Theran looked down at the book in his hand, it was open, the pages were mostly blank. On the first page after the table of contents, were the words he had just heard, written into the page. What the hell kind of book is this? Theran wondered.

"My counterpart and I, are arcane tomes, meant for the royal families that survived the war. We are bound to the first person to break that seal on the ground there, which, by the way, is impossible for anyone to do, except the gods, and kings. And yes, I can read your mind, and yes, I am speaking to you in your mind."

"What were you doing in a random carriage on the side of the road?"

"Well, from what you can see, it appears this particular merchant was alone to attract less attention."

"I see, anyway, back to what I need to know, what is this I'm wearing, just a second ago it was a satchel, now its armor."

The pages started to flip on their own, the book seemed to never end, after every page that was flipped another seemed to take its place on the bottom. Eventually the pages stopped moving and the book started speaking again.

"In the year 303 of the second dawning, a merchant of the mystical arts by the name of Freiwer Dales created the Satchel of Grund to protect him on his travels to distant markets. Since then the satchel has been accepted as the standard for merchantile use, accessible to all official merchants."