Driving their horses hard, the carriage finally arrived at Elendil, 200 miles away from Cemeteria, and and second largest city in Erandelucia.
They were not due to arrive there till several days later, but due to the incident at Cemetaria, they decided not to stay the night there and went directly to Elendil instead.
Elandil was a city at the border of the human kingdom Erandalusia and Elven kingdom of Elanil. The city was thriving from the trade between the races, and was popular because the people mixed freely. There is a large community of half-elves living here, where they do not face prejudice nor were subject to pointing fingers and weird looks.
They stopped at a large inn, where the teachers of StarRock arranged for accommodation for everyone and the guards took all the horses to the stables to rest. Once they knew their sleeping arrangements, Cyril and Kyra decided to go explore the city.
They've never left their small town of Westhaven, let alone been to a large city. Although it was late at night, they wondered the city and decided to look for the nearest Mercantile Trading Branch in the city. After asking for directions they headed towards an exclusive section of the city.
They were stopped at the entrance, but after Kyra showed the guards her family ring, they immediately bowed and escorted them in.
An old wise looking man welcomed them, and even greeted them by name, surprising both Cyril and Kyra. He introduced himself as Mandrake Mercantile, the patriarch of the Mercantile family in the city.
Noticing their discomfort, he explained that the Mercantile family not only dealt with magical weapons and rare items, they also dealt with information.
While not completely comfortable, Cyril nodded and asked him if he could identify the magic dagger he retrieved from Cemeteria. Seeing the dagger, Mandrake's face turned dark. "I can't identify the dagger but it is teeming with dark magics" replied Mandrake. The lights in the room started flickering, and the floors and walls started shaking.
Cyril shook his head and dropped the dagger back into the bag of frozen time, as he is now calling it. Mandrake looked at the bag of holding with great interest. An interspacial ring was already extremely rare. A interspacial bag is practically unheard of.
Cyril then asked if he has heard of Asgard or any of the Norse Gods. Mandrake looked confused and shook his head. He has never heard of any of the people or places Cyril mentioned.
Cyril sighed and looked around. "Perhaps there are books or items here that might interest you?" asked the old man. Cyril and Kyra's face brightened and nodded. So they were given the guided tour of all their most rarest items. As he regarded Kyra as family, he was happy to show off even the most precious items.
There were numerous elemental items and weapons, and Cyril had a quick but thorough glance of all of them. He began to understand how the elemental items and weapons were enhanced, and if given the right materials, he could reproduce them at will. It also gave him deeper insight to how the elements worked in items and weapons, and in fact how to improve on them.
Cyril picked up a staff of healing. "The law of life" exclaimed Cyril as he absorbed knowledge from the staff. This is a good staff, he thought as he passed it to Kyra. She picked it up and twirled it around and smiled.
Cyril continued looking around. Suddenly he was attracted to something behind a counter. He moved towards it and took out a bent metallic spear. It was obviously ruined but looked like it was once a weapon to be feared. As he touched it, he felt a huge divine power within the bent spear. "This spear might maybe once be even a match for Odin's mighty spear Gungnir" thought Cyril. "What is this?" Cyril asked looking at Mandrake.
"This spear was delivered to us to investigate, but we are unable to identify it. Its indestructible to our forges' hammers and anvils, we cannot even fix it." he replied.
"Can I buy it? I'll purchase this and that staff of healing" asked Cyril. Mandrake was startled. The staff of healing was of a high quality and could be used without any time limitations, unlike regular staffs of healing. Furthermore, the bent spear was something of a mystery, made of an unknown indestructible material.
As family, Mandrake intended to give them some minor magical items as a sign of goodwill, but these were extremely expensive items.
Cyril took out one of his spare bags of holding and gave it to Mandrake. This bag is one of his original experiments, and is not linked to the bags Cyril and Kyra had. "I believe this is sufficient in exchange?" stated Cyril.
Mandrake was startled for a while, then smiled and nodded. "Thank you. This is more than sufficient. In fact, please take another high quality item, otherwise I would feel like I am cheating you" he replied.
Cyril raised one eyebrow in surprise. He gestured to Kyra to choose anything, since he is already satisfied with his spear and kept it in his bag of holding. Kyra wondered into the jewelry area and picked out a simple but beautiful pendant.
"Ah, we named that the Pendant of Protection, a good choice" Mandrake stated with a smile. "It can create a field of force around the wearer protecting her from all harm. We are not entirely sure how it works, or where it came from, but its a very high quality item". Cyril went up to Kyra and looked at the pendant. "The law of force? Amazing" he noted to himself.
"You young ones really know how to pick the best items in the shop" said Mandrake. "Actually that pendant and the other two items are worth together more than your interspacial bag. However, I am pleased to make this exchange as a token of friendship and in recognition of our family ties." continued Mandrake.
He was making an investment in making friends with these two youths, who have more than succeeded his expectations when choosing their items. They clearly were not normal kids and were destined for greatness.
Cyril and Kyra thanked Mandrake and after a brief chat, excused themselves and headed back to the inn.
It was already after midnight as they left, and the streets were dark. As they retraced their way back to their inn, they passed through a dark street. Cyril sensed they were followed and stayed alert. Suddenly 12 or so robbers came out of the shadows surrounding them.
"You came out of the Mercantile shop. You must have bought or sold something. Remove all your belongings and pass them over here" smiled one of the robbers. "Yeah, remove your clothing" laughed another robber licking his lips looking at Kyra.
"Cover your ears" whispered Cyril to Kyra. He wanted to test out one of his tricks. Kyra instantly covered her ears as Cyril took out his whistle.
He willed his ears to close themselves as he blew his whistle. There was no noise coming out, but an ultrasonic sound went out and hit everyone in earshot.
Suddenly all the robbers bent over in unbearable pain. Diarrhea shot out from all their asses in an uncontrollable spray as they all simultaneously cried out in pain.
Cyril kept his whistle and pulled Kyra along and made their way back to their inn, leaving the robbers behind. Their last sight of the robbers is them lying on the ground shitting puddles of diarrhea.
They eventually found their inn and entered their individual rooms for the night.
Wednesday 17 February 2016
Chapter 13: Journey from Westhaven
Cyril and Kyra arrived at Westhaven riding on the outside of a carriage owned by the Silkweaver family. Both Bart Soulsong and Victoria Merchantile were there to see their child off. Kyra had a large chest along with her while Cyril had a large bag.
Although they did not need to bring anything as they had all their possessions in their bag of holding, they thought it prudent to pretend to bring their belongings to keep up the pretense. So her chest and his large bag was filled with extra clothes that they may or may not use.
Kyra had more than 5,000 gold coins in her ring, more than enough for 10 years of living expenses, if she needs it. Cyril had 500 gold coins in his ring. This should be enough for several years living expenses, if he didn't splurge like a king.
His family was financially comfortable, but nowhere near as rich as the Silkweaver, or even more so, the Mercantile family.
Kyra was wearing undergarments crafted from their best silks. They were light, thin but able to withstand cuts and stabs from swords and arrows. This was the prize silks of the family and were only sold to royalty. She wore them comfortably under her clothes, which resembled a dress, but allowed her movement.
As they arrived, they saw Captain Williard, who was talking to the guards that were to accompany the students to StarRock. Gildor from StarRock was there as well, as were two other women dressed in similar looking robes. Cyril assumed they were fellow teachers from StarRock.
They bid their parents goodbye and loaded their luggage onto a large luggage wagon. They then boarded a huge carriage that could fit 20 people, and was pulled by 30 large horses.
As they boarded they recognized several students who tested the same day they tested, as well as several other unfamiliar faces. It appeared the carriage went from town to town collecting all the students who passed the test, so these faces were from different town.
They departed and went towards the next town Freeport which was 150 miles away, where they picked up several more students. Behind the carriage was a huge luggage wagon for their luggage, pulled by 10 large horses and the whole entourage was escorted by 10 guards on horses.
As the carriage fit 20 people, the seats were arranged in seats of 4. The 3 teachers sat in front, while Cyril and Kyra sat by themselves right at the back.
At Freeport, a small fire weaver with bright red hair and a flowing red dress and bare feet sat next to Kyra and introduced herself as Violet. She seemed a little odd. She found everything extremely fascinating and loved asking questions about the most mundane things.
Cyril looked at her for a long time and gasped with surprise. "Can it be that she's a a fire elemental gained sentience or something similar? How can someone have such a strong fire aura?" he thought.
He approached and asked her questions about fire, and they began an animated conversation. Every time he asked her something, she would demonstrate something about fire in her hands. Cyril would watch and his understanding of fire grew. She even showed how lightning could also be formed using fire weaving. Cyril was amazed that lightning could be used this way.
As they approached the next town which was 200 miles from Freeport, suddenly the atmosphere became eerily quiet. There wasn't any birds chirping, and even the horses were spooked.
The town they were reaching is called Cemeteria, named so simply because it had the most number of cemeteries in the region and is among the most ancient towns in the region.
A guard rode out to a farmer standing not too far from the road to ask what was going on. As he did so, Cyril suddenly recognized magic in the air. "This is death magic!" exclaimed Cyril out loud. How could he not recognize it? After all, his daughter was the Goddess of Death.
The farmer suddenly grabbed hold of the guard and pulled him off his horse and started biting him on his neck. As the guard screamed, several guards charged and promptly beheaded the farmer.
One of the guards got down to help his fellow guard. As he did that, Cyril opened the carriage door and yelled "Don't!". But it was too late, as the fallen guard suddenly grabbed his fellow guard and bit him as well.
"Zombies! Move!" yelled Cyril at the driver of the carriage. "What? What are zombies?" answered the driver. "Undead!" explained Cyril in a hurry.
The driver immediately drove the carriage forwards, with the other guards following close by. Thinking they should turn back, Cyril looked behind but saw that the luggage wagon was already being attacked by several other zombies, and the driver of the wagon was already bitten blocking the road.
They drove through the town as more and more zombies started running at them from all sides. Not only zombies, but skeletons were rising from the graves of all the many cemeteries in town.
The guards were falling one by one as they were pulled off their horses. The two female teachers started shooting wind blades and ice daggers out the windows. Gildor joined in and shot rocks at the undead. However, even impaled by ice daggers, or hit by rocks, or decapitated by wind blades, the zombies and skeletons kept coming. They were not affected at all by missing limbs or being cut or stabbed.
"Protect the inside of the carriage!" Cyril instructed Kyra while he leapt out onto the roof of the carriage.
He started shooting shooting wind blades at the undead all around them. Although the undead feel no pain, limbs were dropping off their bodies. Violet joined Cyril on the roof and started shooting pillars of flame setting the whole town on fire as they passed through.
Cyril suddenly looked ahead using his divine sense. "There's the source of this necromancy" he thought as he identified a large building up ahead. He could sense a group of necromancers in a magic circle drawn in blood on the floor.
They were also surrounded by zombies but the zombies could not enter the magic circle. The necromancers looked scared as they were trapped in their own circle of protection with no escape.
Necromancy is the practice of death magic and usually involves evil practices such as human sacrifice and conjuring the undead. Necromancers are rare as practice of necromancy is banned and is punishable by death. Furthermore, usage of necromancy usually backfires, and it appears this is one such example.
Cyril looked at the circle with his godly senses and saw a dead naked woman in the middle on what appears to be an alter. Impaled into the chest of the dead woman is a dagger with a mysterious gem in its hilt. "There's the cause of the problem" thought Cyril.
He used wind to propel him into the air in the direction of the building, and sliced a hole through the walls using wind. He landed in front of the necromancers.
With a wave of his hand he created a strong gust of wind and brushed all the undead as well as the necromancers aside, out of the circle, without caring what happens to the necromancers.
He then walked up to the alter and removed the dagger from the chest of the dead woman.
He tried to destroy the gem and the dagger with his wind blades, but discovered that the dagger was a magical item, a high level item that prevented even him from destroying it with his powers.
As he held it, knowledge of the law of death entered his mind. His understanding went beyond the mere levels of necromancy, and he felt a deeper level of understanding of the law his daughter Hela, the Asgardian Goddess of Death, controls.
He suddenly thought of something, and took out a bag of holding that freezes time inside it. He deposited the dagger inside it, and immediately all the zombies and skeletons fell like puppets that had their strings cut.
He threw his freezing bag of holding inside is ring and looked around. The zombies had already killed the necromancers, so he went outside to catch up with the carriage.
The carriage had slowed down when they noticed that the undead were no longer a threat and Cyril, using wind to assist him, caught up. "What happened?" asked the teachers.
"Necromancers. They're dead now" Cyril answered, and everyone assumed that was the end of that. Cyril did not want to reveal anything about the dagger he found.
The whole town was dead. As they couldn't do anything more in the town, they decided that although it was getting dark, they would go to the next town to make a report.
They lost 5 guards, and only 5 remained. They also lost all the horses and driver for the luggage wagon. They had no choice but to continue their journey forward.
Although they did not need to bring anything as they had all their possessions in their bag of holding, they thought it prudent to pretend to bring their belongings to keep up the pretense. So her chest and his large bag was filled with extra clothes that they may or may not use.
Kyra had more than 5,000 gold coins in her ring, more than enough for 10 years of living expenses, if she needs it. Cyril had 500 gold coins in his ring. This should be enough for several years living expenses, if he didn't splurge like a king.
His family was financially comfortable, but nowhere near as rich as the Silkweaver, or even more so, the Mercantile family.
Kyra was wearing undergarments crafted from their best silks. They were light, thin but able to withstand cuts and stabs from swords and arrows. This was the prize silks of the family and were only sold to royalty. She wore them comfortably under her clothes, which resembled a dress, but allowed her movement.
As they arrived, they saw Captain Williard, who was talking to the guards that were to accompany the students to StarRock. Gildor from StarRock was there as well, as were two other women dressed in similar looking robes. Cyril assumed they were fellow teachers from StarRock.
They bid their parents goodbye and loaded their luggage onto a large luggage wagon. They then boarded a huge carriage that could fit 20 people, and was pulled by 30 large horses.
As they boarded they recognized several students who tested the same day they tested, as well as several other unfamiliar faces. It appeared the carriage went from town to town collecting all the students who passed the test, so these faces were from different town.
They departed and went towards the next town Freeport which was 150 miles away, where they picked up several more students. Behind the carriage was a huge luggage wagon for their luggage, pulled by 10 large horses and the whole entourage was escorted by 10 guards on horses.
As the carriage fit 20 people, the seats were arranged in seats of 4. The 3 teachers sat in front, while Cyril and Kyra sat by themselves right at the back.
At Freeport, a small fire weaver with bright red hair and a flowing red dress and bare feet sat next to Kyra and introduced herself as Violet. She seemed a little odd. She found everything extremely fascinating and loved asking questions about the most mundane things.
Cyril looked at her for a long time and gasped with surprise. "Can it be that she's a a fire elemental gained sentience or something similar? How can someone have such a strong fire aura?" he thought.
He approached and asked her questions about fire, and they began an animated conversation. Every time he asked her something, she would demonstrate something about fire in her hands. Cyril would watch and his understanding of fire grew. She even showed how lightning could also be formed using fire weaving. Cyril was amazed that lightning could be used this way.
As they approached the next town which was 200 miles from Freeport, suddenly the atmosphere became eerily quiet. There wasn't any birds chirping, and even the horses were spooked.
The town they were reaching is called Cemeteria, named so simply because it had the most number of cemeteries in the region and is among the most ancient towns in the region.
A guard rode out to a farmer standing not too far from the road to ask what was going on. As he did so, Cyril suddenly recognized magic in the air. "This is death magic!" exclaimed Cyril out loud. How could he not recognize it? After all, his daughter was the Goddess of Death.
The farmer suddenly grabbed hold of the guard and pulled him off his horse and started biting him on his neck. As the guard screamed, several guards charged and promptly beheaded the farmer.
One of the guards got down to help his fellow guard. As he did that, Cyril opened the carriage door and yelled "Don't!". But it was too late, as the fallen guard suddenly grabbed his fellow guard and bit him as well.
"Zombies! Move!" yelled Cyril at the driver of the carriage. "What? What are zombies?" answered the driver. "Undead!" explained Cyril in a hurry.
The driver immediately drove the carriage forwards, with the other guards following close by. Thinking they should turn back, Cyril looked behind but saw that the luggage wagon was already being attacked by several other zombies, and the driver of the wagon was already bitten blocking the road.
They drove through the town as more and more zombies started running at them from all sides. Not only zombies, but skeletons were rising from the graves of all the many cemeteries in town.
The guards were falling one by one as they were pulled off their horses. The two female teachers started shooting wind blades and ice daggers out the windows. Gildor joined in and shot rocks at the undead. However, even impaled by ice daggers, or hit by rocks, or decapitated by wind blades, the zombies and skeletons kept coming. They were not affected at all by missing limbs or being cut or stabbed.
"Protect the inside of the carriage!" Cyril instructed Kyra while he leapt out onto the roof of the carriage.
He started shooting shooting wind blades at the undead all around them. Although the undead feel no pain, limbs were dropping off their bodies. Violet joined Cyril on the roof and started shooting pillars of flame setting the whole town on fire as they passed through.
Cyril suddenly looked ahead using his divine sense. "There's the source of this necromancy" he thought as he identified a large building up ahead. He could sense a group of necromancers in a magic circle drawn in blood on the floor.
They were also surrounded by zombies but the zombies could not enter the magic circle. The necromancers looked scared as they were trapped in their own circle of protection with no escape.
Necromancy is the practice of death magic and usually involves evil practices such as human sacrifice and conjuring the undead. Necromancers are rare as practice of necromancy is banned and is punishable by death. Furthermore, usage of necromancy usually backfires, and it appears this is one such example.
Cyril looked at the circle with his godly senses and saw a dead naked woman in the middle on what appears to be an alter. Impaled into the chest of the dead woman is a dagger with a mysterious gem in its hilt. "There's the cause of the problem" thought Cyril.
He used wind to propel him into the air in the direction of the building, and sliced a hole through the walls using wind. He landed in front of the necromancers.
With a wave of his hand he created a strong gust of wind and brushed all the undead as well as the necromancers aside, out of the circle, without caring what happens to the necromancers.
He then walked up to the alter and removed the dagger from the chest of the dead woman.
He tried to destroy the gem and the dagger with his wind blades, but discovered that the dagger was a magical item, a high level item that prevented even him from destroying it with his powers.
As he held it, knowledge of the law of death entered his mind. His understanding went beyond the mere levels of necromancy, and he felt a deeper level of understanding of the law his daughter Hela, the Asgardian Goddess of Death, controls.
He suddenly thought of something, and took out a bag of holding that freezes time inside it. He deposited the dagger inside it, and immediately all the zombies and skeletons fell like puppets that had their strings cut.
He threw his freezing bag of holding inside is ring and looked around. The zombies had already killed the necromancers, so he went outside to catch up with the carriage.
The carriage had slowed down when they noticed that the undead were no longer a threat and Cyril, using wind to assist him, caught up. "What happened?" asked the teachers.
"Necromancers. They're dead now" Cyril answered, and everyone assumed that was the end of that. Cyril did not want to reveal anything about the dagger he found.
The whole town was dead. As they couldn't do anything more in the town, they decided that although it was getting dark, they would go to the next town to make a report.
They lost 5 guards, and only 5 remained. They also lost all the horses and driver for the luggage wagon. They had no choice but to continue their journey forward.
Chapter 12: Preparations for StarRock
Over the following days, Cyril busied himself with several matters. Firstly, he wanted to consolidate his abilities to see which abilities he had and which ones he did not.
He had none of Loki's abilities, no shapeshifting, telekinesis, nor even spell casting.
He was still able to make potions here, and although the names of herbs and plants were different, he could recognize them by sight and smell, and the potions worked the way they should.
His ability to decipher laws was something he never had before. Maybe this is an effect of the waters of Mimir, he even gained insight to several other laws as he went about his days.
While concocting potions, he started to understand why the ingredients worked together, not merely memorizing those that went together. In this way, he could concoct his own potions without worry of side effects, and also able to improve on potions he already knew.
He experimented with the elemental laws. Unlike everyone else, he couldn't conjure up any element, but once an element was present, he could control it. Luckily for him, air is everywhere and thus has been his main weapon so far.
After a while he decided to leave experimenting on the 4 elements after he learns more at StarRock and the Sects. After all, the uses of the elements are simple enough to him, and the limits are his imagination.
He then started experiments using the law of space-time. He found he could stop time in a limited area, and teleport to places within eyesight. Both abilities require him to be focused otherwise some people might be frozen, while others are not, and he might teleport into objects or things.
After studying the interspacial ring, he experimented and made a few bags of holding. While the ring could only hold 5 by 5 meters of space, his bags of holding does not seem to have a limit.
He found that while the interspacial ring could only store inanimate objects, the bags of holding he created could store living things like plants and animals.
He also discovered using the laws of space-time that he could make items that could store and freeze time inside within them, which made them perfect for preserving things indefinitely. So he made a bracelet that stores and preserves things in suspended animation.
He also made a bag that sped up time inside the bag. He didn't really know what the use of for this, but he kept it anyway.
He made several "real time" bags of holding for himself and gave one to Kyra, and made them linked to each other. So one can enter through his many bags, and exit from her bag and vice versa. In real time bags, time inside moves the same as on the outside.
Although he had such unlimited space, he really didn't have that many possessions to bring. His ring and bag were practically empty.
He looked in his bag and could see that Kyra was had moved her entire bedroom in there, including her wardrobe, mirror and even her bed. "Why is she bringing her bed?" thought Cyril as he shook his head.
He filled his side inside the bag with herbs and ingredients that he thought might be useful, his spare bags of holding, several changes of clothes, some dried food, wineskins full of water, multiple daggers and a mountain of stink bombs of his own concoction.
He couldn't get the same ingredients to make the same stinkbomb he used on Heimdall, but this was so much better. He only wants to disable, not kill with these new stinkbombs.
He also had a whistle he specially made for emergencies. "This will be fun" he thought, the God of Mischief in him rising up.
The next day, they were heading off to a new adventure
He had none of Loki's abilities, no shapeshifting, telekinesis, nor even spell casting.
He was still able to make potions here, and although the names of herbs and plants were different, he could recognize them by sight and smell, and the potions worked the way they should.
His ability to decipher laws was something he never had before. Maybe this is an effect of the waters of Mimir, he even gained insight to several other laws as he went about his days.
While concocting potions, he started to understand why the ingredients worked together, not merely memorizing those that went together. In this way, he could concoct his own potions without worry of side effects, and also able to improve on potions he already knew.
He experimented with the elemental laws. Unlike everyone else, he couldn't conjure up any element, but once an element was present, he could control it. Luckily for him, air is everywhere and thus has been his main weapon so far.
After a while he decided to leave experimenting on the 4 elements after he learns more at StarRock and the Sects. After all, the uses of the elements are simple enough to him, and the limits are his imagination.
He then started experiments using the law of space-time. He found he could stop time in a limited area, and teleport to places within eyesight. Both abilities require him to be focused otherwise some people might be frozen, while others are not, and he might teleport into objects or things.
After studying the interspacial ring, he experimented and made a few bags of holding. While the ring could only hold 5 by 5 meters of space, his bags of holding does not seem to have a limit.
He found that while the interspacial ring could only store inanimate objects, the bags of holding he created could store living things like plants and animals.
He also discovered using the laws of space-time that he could make items that could store and freeze time inside within them, which made them perfect for preserving things indefinitely. So he made a bracelet that stores and preserves things in suspended animation.
He also made a bag that sped up time inside the bag. He didn't really know what the use of for this, but he kept it anyway.
He made several "real time" bags of holding for himself and gave one to Kyra, and made them linked to each other. So one can enter through his many bags, and exit from her bag and vice versa. In real time bags, time inside moves the same as on the outside.
Although he had such unlimited space, he really didn't have that many possessions to bring. His ring and bag were practically empty.
He looked in his bag and could see that Kyra was had moved her entire bedroom in there, including her wardrobe, mirror and even her bed. "Why is she bringing her bed?" thought Cyril as he shook his head.
He filled his side inside the bag with herbs and ingredients that he thought might be useful, his spare bags of holding, several changes of clothes, some dried food, wineskins full of water, multiple daggers and a mountain of stink bombs of his own concoction.
He couldn't get the same ingredients to make the same stinkbomb he used on Heimdall, but this was so much better. He only wants to disable, not kill with these new stinkbombs.
He also had a whistle he specially made for emergencies. "This will be fun" he thought, the God of Mischief in him rising up.
The next day, they were heading off to a new adventure
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