Acquisition

Chapter Two - Spiro's Discovery

Spiro

Year 2 Part 1

The peace of the inn was broken at noon when the party started. I avoided any confrontation with them. Why put myself under unnecessary pressure? I sat in a quiet, almost meditative state. I could go out, but why? What is there for me to do? I only had a few days left. Then I could leave. Go home. Leave this wretched place trapped between time. I tried to stop it, tried to unite it. Only the power. The power of The Six could stop it. What was the sixth? Light, dark, fire, nature, water and the sixth. There were three element based and two, maybe three, alignment based. What was the sixth god of Dalion?

"Master Spiro, there is someone here to see you."

"Thank you, Arima."

She left and another came in. He wore a rather menacing black cloak that waved in the cross breeze of the inn. He had a mask that covered all but his eyes that lacked expression.

I began the conversation. "What is it you know of the spell plaguing the land?"

"I know the sixth. And I know where you can find it."

***

I headed east. The road split upon exiting the city. One to the landmark of the town destroyed in the Great War, and the other the gravesite of warriors and kings. I headed for the gravesite. The town was abandoned and everyone knew it. I felt as though someone-- or something-- was watching me as I walked. I took the path to the right and walked about the hills and fields for a time. The road ended where a hill began. As I climbed it, the rain started to pour. The sky turned from a beautiful sunlit paradise to a tool of precipitation. Used to carry water to the ground. It's enslavement darkened it with clouds of grey and black. It expressed its sadness with thunder and lightning as I receded underground. I have my reasons for staying inside.

The dark interior was lit by torches decorating the walls. I started with a choice of left and right and I knew this maze would take a while to navigate. I hugged the left wall and shimmied along the hall. The floor was absent at a point aside from the areas less than a few inches from the wall. I slid across the cracked floor to the end of the hall where it once again offered a choice: left or right. I went left again and walked more confidently down the center of the hall. This was where I fell. Far.

                                                    ***

I woke up on a pile of now cracked and split bones. One jabbed into my shoulder and when I removed it, blood pooled onto the damp cold floor. The bones suggested anyone that fell previously had less luck than I did, so why did I survive? I had less strength than most others and didn't particularly land well. I would consider this later; but for now, I needed to see if the cloaked man was correct. I entered the dark chamber that I now knew as the burial chamber of King Gashrin.

I stepped towards the heavy stone block in the center of the chamber. Stairs led upward and a beam of light shot downward, white particles dancing in its pale light. As I approached the coffin I raised my arms in a way that made me ready for anything that may have struck at me and pushed the lid to the ground. It crashed heavily and made a cracking noise. There was nothing in the coffin but a lump of bone and dust. The underside of the lid, however, was another story.

I have found the sixth.

I am the sixth.