The sun rose, and the entire camp quietly came to life. Everyone went about their usual business, but distracted glances were shot at Noone who had remained sitting since morning dawned.
He breathed in the arid dry air around him, it felt different than the air down the side of the cliff, and it felt very different than the air of Tapestry. There was no salty ocean breeze or tepid staleness to take away from the natural feeling of the breeze.
Tobias remained on watch after his training. He watched Noone sink into his trance and did not disturb him. The paladin was unable to guess what the other was up to. As he watched curiously, he reminded himself to ask for a spell to understand language from the grand-priest.
Originally their group had an apprentice paladin who was well versed in a minor spell of understanding language however… his life was returned to the All during their encounter with the drow. Without being at the temple, they were not able to rotate their miracles and magics. If he had known they would encounter this other being, he would have tasked Raelith with gaining the miracle before they left.
Sally watched Noone in interest, a glint of familiarity flashed through her eyes.
One of the first things the acolytes noticed upon meeting sally was her hair - she had none. It suited her looks, and they did not find it off-putting despite the oddness of it. They couldn't help but feel it made her look more like the monks of Dragon Spine mountain range than any cleric they had ever met so far.
Over the course of their travel, they did discover that Sarah was indeed a monk. A long time ago, she said. Long before she ever thought of becoming a cleric within the order of life.
Switching lifestyles so drastically was something that most people would not do. It went against all reason.
In the common world, there existed various skills and 'classes' which people would either be born into, or gain through study or time or devotion. There was a dozen or so of these classes, and once you start going down one path, it is exceedingly hard to begin down another.
Feylin was a good example of someone born into a class, he was raised from birth in the temple and trained as a cleric.
Sarah did not come to be in the temple until she was 15, if nothing had occurred in her life to disrupt it, she would have most likely lived all of her days without specializing into any class.
Everyone comes from their own circumstances and has their own talents, the common world and the variations surrounding it formed a vast land of magical beings and miraculous individuals.
Sally couldn't help but become extremely interested in what Noone was doing. As breakfast was divvied out, she walked over to Noone. She moved in extreme silence, not wanting to disturb him. Not even a hint of dust was kicked up as she moved.
When she got within 15 feet of him, Noone's eyes suddenly shot open and he turned and looked at her.
She hesitated for a moment, shocked by the sudden attention. There should have been no way he could feel my approach, her eyebrows furrowed before relaxing again. She quietly continued.
She gestured out a hand as if to ask, "May I sit here?"
Noone nodded.
At this point everyone was watching from where they stood, curious about what Sally was going to do. Tobias stood by silently and picked at his breakfast.
Much to Noone's surprise, Sally sat in front of him in exactly the same position he was sat in. Her legs were crossed, and her back was straight, even her breathing steadied instantaneously as though she was well practiced in meditation. He saw that she adjusted to the position effortlessly. Although it seemed easy enough, Noone knew that the minutia of the position was straining on the body. It wasn't something that you could hold for a long period of time without practice.
Sally smiled at Noone and then outstretched a hand, putting a finger into the stone below she began drawing symbols into the stone-dust. Noone watched on curiously.
Different shapes he had never encountered before appeared one after the next. 15 in total. Their black forms seemed to subsist on the stone by some combination between skill and magic.
He could vaguely understand them, they were reminiscent of simplistic drawings of natural phenomena. A sun and a moon, natural elements like fire and water. Some of them were so abstract though, he could not begin to understand what they represent: circles inside of squares and squares inside of circles.
When she finally removed her hand, she looked at Noone waiting to see his response. He merely shook his head. He was unsure what she wanted, these symbols meant nothing to him.
Sally, without losing her gentle smile nodded and wiped the stone clean, removing the symbols.
"Were those the symbols of the different orders of the monks?" Tobias asked when she rejoined them. He had much better eyesight than Sarah and Feylin, so he was able to see her movements clearly.
"Mm." She looked back at Noone as if trying to decipher a puzzle. "The way he is sitting is how all monks are forced to sit upon being inducted into any order. It is a way of clearing the head of thought while training both the body and the mind, the first thing anyone who is set out on that path learns. Although I can't guess where he learned it from, he still has a little trouble with it. Obviously, it is new to him."
"How new?" Tobias scratched his bearded chin, looking on at Noone. He would have to ask about getting the spell to understand language sooner rather than later.
"Hmm. Assuming he advances at a normal rate, maybe five years? Five or six." Sally's mind gradually drifted back to her time at the monastery. "However, he didn't recognize the symbols of any of the biggest orders. So… either he was raised in a very secretive sect, or he learned it somewhere else."
While they spoke Noone closed off his session and put his soul at ease. Despite the quiet nature of that practice, it left a strain on his being that was neither physical or mental. To maintain the state, he had begun experiencing during his climb – it required immense amounts of discipline and attention.
After breakfast, they wasted no time to set off for the day. The sun was blaring overhead.
That night the cycle continued. The acolytes practiced their battle skills as well as their studies. Noone practiced language with Rae. Later on, when the paladin would take charge of watching over him, Noone would sit and begin to feel out the universe. His senses were opening to the subtle shifts in the world around him.
The stone around Noone filled with a gentle white glow like the moon on a clear night. His body thrummed with subtle power that only he could feel and yet could not understand.
Nearby Tobias quietly got used to his newfound one-handedness while keeping his eye on the strange being.
This pattern went on for another two days until one morning Sarah and Feylin woke up to find Noone laid sprawled out on the ground. They looked at each other briefly before going to ask what happened.
"Oh? I think he just fell asleep." Tobias spoke matter of factly. "Good thing too, if he didn't need sleep, I was really worried about how human he might be." He laughed the matter off, but the acolytes couldn't help but feel unnerved.
They had not considered it before, but now that it was right in front of them, how could they not have realized? Noone hadn't slept in 4 or 5 days since emerging from the cocoon. Even Tobias would not be able to function at that degree of sleeplessness.
Tobias said that it made him more human, but Feylin and Sarah only saw a monster in human clothing.
That day they finally found their cart again - Noone was surprised by the sudden encounter. He immediately understood what it was for, but couldn't help and feel that it was extremely alien.
Noone shamelessly began to examine the cart. It was made of wood for one. Noone could not understand why they would make a cart out of something as precious as wood. There was perfectly usable stone and metal ore just within the ground after all. Around the edge of the wooden wheels there was a thin layer of metal used to decrease the wear on the wood – as well as a metal axle and wheel hubs. Fascinating. Noone caressed the cart, not minding the gazes of the nearby party.
Then he remembered though, that this was a world far from his own. Perhaps not in distance, but in everything else. Maybe trees and plants were less scarce than stone? He looked around - seeing nothing but a forest of boulders and cracked rubble, Noone couldn't help but wonder.
That night Raelith and Sally set up a magic perimeter and everyone, including Noone, sat around the campfire.
Rations were divvied out much as they had always been. Sarah handed the portions to Noone who nodded and passed it on to Raelith. As he held the plate in his hand, he noticed the food this time was much more substantial than it has been on nights prior.
In fact, everyone had more food than he remembered seeing. His eyes widened in curiosity. This must be why they retrieved the cart.
He ate the strange food slowly, deciding as he went how he felt about it. It was still dry, but now various flavors he had never tasted before filled his mouth. The sweets of dried fruit and the saltiness of jerky overwhelmed his senses. Noone immediately understood what these foods were, but they tasted so alien compared to their Tapestry counterparts.
Despite the differences, as he ate sitting in front of the fire, his mind drifted back to Tapestry. Slowly he began to zone out, losing himself to the flickering embers in the fire. Orange light danced across the stones, creating a mesmerizing sight splayed across Noone's white-lined skin.
"How is it?" Tobias asked. A gentle smile on his lips which carried through in his rough voice.
"It's good…"
Noone's eyes widened violently and he nearly dropped his plate when his head shot up to look at Tobias. He froze.
Sarah and Feylin who were sitting next to him also froze.
Everyone looked at Noone in shock. Noone looked at Tobias in shock.
A chuckle escaped the paladin's body and he lifted his hand which he had been hiding casually behind his back. In Tobias's hand there was an unfurled scroll with a complicated runic design. It was glowing a gentle green light.
"This is a runic scroll that will let us understand your language, and you will be able to understand us." He spoke evenly, showing off the design. "It only lasts for one hour though. After that the material used to create it will experience magic degradation and it will become unusable. This is the only one I received, so until you learn to speak common, we will not be able to communicate again after this."
The words hung in the air, understood by everybody.
Noone had one hour to find out as much about them and their world as he could.
They had one hour to find out as much about Noone as they could.
There was no time to waste.