A Warrior through and through

Gates and Bridges.

It got darker as we walked down the long hall. The only sound we could hear was the shuffling of Dara's leg as he walked. However, the silence was not an uncomfortable one; It was a friendly silence, like the quiet between friends next to a warm fireplace. After a little while, when it had gotten so dark that even I had trouble seeing, Dara mumbled to himself and tapped one of the walls with a stained finger.

Blue coloured runes began to glow, softly increasing in brightness we continued down the hallway. I felt a soft tug in my gut, easy to overlook. It was as If something was taking power from me.

"That's new," Clementine said beside me.

"Well, I have a boy here who has a gift for the old languages. Powering the runes takes quite a toll on me, but today I have me a reaper who is practically oozing with magick right here!" he explained. Honestly, I had not felt anything sapping my power. But once he mentioned it, I could feel a soft pull in my energy reserves, too soft to notice if one is not paying attention. I focused a little more energy into the runes and sure enough, they suddenly brightened, the colour changing from blue to white to red. 

"You said you have a boy who did this? Are you teaching him magick?" I asked. Dara was an old teacher, but he had not taught anybody in the last thirty years or so. He believed that the young nowadays had no affinity for the old magick.

"Not exactly teaching him, just showing him a few things so that he doesn't kill himself. He's in the main hall, though I doubt he is actually doing what I told him to do," He said, shuffling faster down the rune-covered passageway. We quickened our pace to follow him, the runes behind us dimming while the ones in front of us glowing brighter as we passed by them.

"Good craftmanship," Clementine commented. I nodded in agreement. Carving a few runes in the wall was hard enough. Carving a hallway this long was damn near extraordinary. Written magick this old was very complicated to carve. One has to know what runes produce light without heat in a confined space. Once one has found a few hundred of them, One needed to know which runes react with each other violently in order to avoid accidents in the carving. One has to then put other runes over the original runes so that the light runes do not absorb too much energy which can lead to unwanted explosions.

This was part of the reason that the old magick was eradicated, due to its unpredictability. Any old fool with a misunderstanding of magick could kill themselves and possibly entire villages around them. The other reason was plain greed form the council.

After a little while, I saw a light at the end of the hallway. 

"It's about time, I swear those halls get longer every month," Dara muttered as we made our way to the opening. As we got out of the hallway, I felt the runes cut their connection to my energy reserves automatically. Another extremely difficult thing to do.

The library was exactly as I remembered it. The room was so vast one could not see the opposite ends of it if there was one. Shelves full of books rose higher than castle towers. Floating orbs gave a soft yellow light, suitable for reading. The air was surprisingly fresh, with no trace of dust.

"Tell me Walter, what exactly do you need from me? I know this is not a simple courtesy call," Dara said as he took a seat behind a huge desk littered with random papers and books.

"We need to use the gate," I answered. He quickly looked up at me, eyes full of suspicion.

"Why do you need to use that cursed thing? Are you continuing your campaign reaper? Have you forgotten that you were banished from using it?" He looked at both of us with a wild look in his eye. I slowly shook my head.

"I have not forgotten, Dara. But Tor is back, and we need to send word into the deadlands quickly,"

"Tor is back? Impossible! I thought you killed him with death's own blade!"

"Somehow he found a way back into this world," Clementine said.

"Tell me everything. I need to know," Dara said, leaning back tiredly in his chair.