✨ Voices in the Night (Part 1 of 3)

In response to a public posting from aunt cyn seeking guardians of the earth guild, i took a waystone yestreday evening (now that it's after the mid-night) to valbrough, the seat of county koroshi, to spend a two-night over the market day. By the time i reached the city many of our adventuring kindred, many of whom i already knew, had already found their way into guild halls and inns, and bedding was short. The mywe pyke and i, both somewhat at a loss for the safety of a roof over our heads, were offered bunks in the private lodgings of the guild «moonless nights», in exchange for pyke warding the door of the building.

The exchange complete, we accompanied the moonless nights back to the local watering hole, named the hall of heroes tavern & brew house. There i was officially introduced to the leader of the moonless nights, an elf named saro, as well as one of the other members, a skunkkin named 13. She expressed interest in my joining their gang - assuring us it was not in fact a guild - and after asking about the unusual pattern of my sela gems, suggested a gang nickname for myself - «starface.» I told her i would think about the possibility of going through an initiation after sleeping on it. I also made the acquaintance of a human named aragon, who was celebrating his upcoming birthday with an abundance of intoxication. Fortunately the man was well trained in his own overindulgence and had set himself up to drink an elixir of purify. Once his drunkenness had abated we had more meaningful conversation and shared several sweet biscuits as a toast to his celebration.

In the meantime a travelling market called the dragon hoard had come to dragonreach, owned and operated by a pair of humans, joseph smith and emric. In addition to selling many fascinating trinkets and useful scrolls, mister smith also bought or traded items as well. I traded some polished gems for some raw crystals and examined his other wares for the future. It was a well thought-out plan that emric and mister smith had surrounded their table in the corner of the mead hall with a circle of power, for it was not long before the front door of the hall of heroes opened and it was not an adventurer.

Lesser elemental spirits, particularly those of stone, water, or ice, were being rifted onto our prime plane, and the poor creatures were drawn to the sounds of drunken celebration and the movement of persons and flickering lights within the hall. Myself, and others more experienced than i shall be for some time, guarded near the entryway when the first few managed to push the door open. That is not to say it was an endless barrage, more like one every few or several minutes. It allowed us to easily heal and refit, and return to social activities briefly, between each arrival. At one point the selunari head of the celestial guild, gend mikol vinchent astrum soposa, met with aunt cyn in the front of the tavern, so i stood directly by her and the door as a first line of defence against the occasional continuance of elemental incursion.

This is not to imply that it was only elementals who were coming into the hall of heroes later than me, and several times the door opened and persons such as arai and myself got into a battle stance, only to see that it was a human or elf or some other sentient, and then we'd relax and go about our business. One such time i was actually crossing back toward the door after getting a drink, so i did not know who the cloaked figure was even though arai let him by. As i returned to my post i saw aunt cyn look at the cloak and immediately leave gend mid-sentence to go embrace the man, who had pulled his hood back to reveal his sela gems but did not seem to react to cyn's hug right away, if at all.

My heart skipped a beat. This had to be banradi.

Certain enough by the sense of the sela between us all, i apologised to gend on aunt cyn's behalf to explain that it was her son, and though he looked confused as he turned around and examined the scene, he made no comment. After a few minutes of talking (solely on cyn's part, as radi was extremely fixated on some of the maps and parchments he had pulled out of his storage tube), aunt cyn returned and finished her discussion with gend, but i hesitated to go over to meet radi. I could tell something was··· not wrong, just off. When aunt cyn's business meeting was ended, i asked if it would be wise or not for me to try and say hello, and she had a half-sad look as she replied «you could try. I don't know. He's been in the stone for seven months.»

As someone who lived alone and out of touch with society myself, i gauged it more prudent to give radi time to adjust. I'd heard stories from both ardos and aunt cyn about radi, of course, including his incredible knowledge of the waymaker network (giving him the well-earned title of «the waymaker» himself) and his dismissal from the kingdom of wayside when he sought to make the network accessible to the common people. If he had been communing with the stones, or repairing the network from inside, i did not need to overload his mind with meeting a stranger. A member of the familia, but a stranger nonetheless.

Ultimately that plan failed. Radi didn't remain at his tavern table by himself for long, and simply got up and headed toward us - toward the front doors. Aunt cyn stood and asked where he was going, and in halting uncertain tones almost as if talking to himself instead of her, he could only say «i have to go.» Cyn followed him outside trying to determine why he had to leave so soon after coming home, and where, and of course i followed after her. Radi abruptly started turning and whirling around as if looking for something - he walks and moves at alarming speeds - and when cyn inquired what he needed, he said «a berry.» I did not understand and still don't understand the significance, but aunt cyn pulled one such berry out of one of her many satchels and gave it to radi, who started off down the west road out of the city wordlessly. Aunt cyn grabbed my shoulder and implored me «follow him, and make sure he's okay.»

Nodding assent i followed at a distance of two stânjens or so, wanting to make sure radi did not feel crowded or threatened but that he was not too far away from me in the deep darkness of the late night. At one point he paused and looked over his shoulder at me and i stopped, and after a few beats i said gently «it's okay, i'm just making sure you're safe» and he rather emotionlessly responded «i don't know you.» Unruffled by this, i said just as gently «you don't know me yet, but i'm your cousin. aunt cyn asked me to keep an eye on you.» Whether he accepted this or no longer cared, he resumed his path and i continued at the same distance, even as he stepped off the road into some brush that made the walking harder··· until i heard aunt cyn screaming.

I am upset to say i hesitated, even if just for half a beat. I was unsure whether to continue following radi on cyn's orders, or go to rescue cyn. But realising that cyn was in immediate danger and radi was not, i raced back up the road into valbrough where aunt cyn let out one more scream before being knocked unconscious into the marsh astride the road by a lesser stone elemental. Roaring i swung çerhêni and dszeni at the beast, swiftly joined by other allies from the tavern and even more swiftly destroying the creature. We pulled aunt cyn out of the mud and resuscitated her, and she seemed to be okay other than having been taken by surprise. She then panicked again and asked where radi was, and cursing i ran back up the path partway until she and others called me back; radi had (again with his unnerving speed) already come back full round and was approaching from the south. Our entire group went right back into the hall of heroes, taking radi with us.

After some time had passed and no other elementals came into the tavern (though a few tried hitting the door but it was too thick to break), aunt cyn fretted that she needed to check on the headquarters of the earth healers' guild of koroshi, which she serves as guildmistress. Radi sort of mutely came outside with myself, aunt cyn, and a few others; we had barely stepped off the stoop of the tavern when a growling from the north raised our alarms. Blades came out and mystical energy glowed, as the growling creature came closer and started cackling «woo~oo~oo, i'm a monster!»

As it approached the light, being followed by a dragonkin (naomi), its features became clear as a goblin. I didn't need aunt cyn's rush to hug this one as well to realise that this was the last member of my irani cousins, taios, radi's twin brother. In fact in seeing and embracing taios, radi himself started to become more coherent more quickly. Together with the twins, naomi, aragon, mister smith and emric, and myself, aunt cyn made her way down the south road a short distance, but not short enough; in the dark within her vision was not great, aunt cyn's tripped over a box placed at the root of a tree, and before i could do more than offer her a hand, another elemental seemed to rift out of nowhere and knocked us both unconscious.

It was i believe radi who revived aunt cyn after naomi decimated the elemental creature, and aunt cyn revived me before grabbing the box and leading us swiftly into the guild building. There she noted that this box matched the description of one of six which were to be delivered by courier to the earth and celestial guilds, and she had been about to post a contract to locate the boxes after rumours of ambushes in the vicinity. While she worked to unlock the box, emric, mister smith, aragon, naomi and myself stood just outside and just inside the entrance of the guild to combat the still-appearing elementals. We were all mentally thrown beyond comprehension when the sound of a rift came from behind us -- within the earth guild -- within aunt cyn's greater circle of power, which radi was also invested in from many months ago.

Radi tackled aunt cyn and himself out of the circle while the elemental was originally stuck within it, but to our horror it was powerful enough to try destroying the circle, starting to bash at the circumference and making flashes of magical cracks in the air. Aunt cyn recognised naomi into the circle and our scaly friend quickly disposed of the creature, but now we had to be wary both without and within since these elementals were truly rifting ᴀɴʏᴡʜᴇʀᴇ. Aragon had the brilliant idea to place a wall of force within the doorway, which would all but eliminate the rifting and breaking in of the creatures. We held our position in that way for some time, until aunt cyn expressed concern that anyone trying to reach the earth guild for healing would be trapped outside with the elementals. By that point the sounds of knocking and banging from outside had subsided anyway, so after aragon lifted the force wall and we cautiously opened the door, we made our way slowly and carefully back to the tavern (encountering one more elemental but easily outpacing its slow stony movement).

By this time other adventurers had left to their own guild homes or the inns of valbrough, so the quietness of the tavern lent itself to the disinterest of the remaining rifting roamers. We all took time to truly relax, the revelry of the earlier evening drifted into a serene communal time. Emric even took time to teach me the card game of dragon poker. I pay little attention to concerns of finances so i confess i do not know whether i actually made a profit or not, but i did win two hands with one loss between. Eventually we all tired even of this sort of joviality, and fell on to last drinks before we all departed to our temporary homes. The moonless nights were out on a mission of their own outside the city walls, presumably harrying the bandits they like to dispose of, but i was joined on the return to their gang headquarters by the elf velnaeus and the humans scarlet and aragon.

We prepared for slumber and were very near to it, but we made an unfortunate discovery that, like the circle of power within the earth guild, a ward was insufficient to stop the rifting of the elementals. In various states of partial undress and partial fatigue we were forced to defend ourselves, and in the midst of the struggle another guest of the moonless nights, a barbarian named ethan, was not only killed but fallen within the shadows of the corner of the house, so that we did not realise he had passed until his spirit left his body and it dissipated. Horrorstricken we prayed he would be able to resurrect at the earth circle in spite of the extremely late hour of the night - or by now morning - and we resigned ourselves to a half-sleep with our blades and magics waiting in our hands. If i am sent to resurrect again and something goes wrong, my reformed body unable to reach this site and explain what happened, let this journal serve as a testament to the inexplicable magic that struck us down.