Chereads / For the God's Amusement / Chapter 18 - Calmness

Chapter 18 - Calmness

Soon the beating rhythm of the core began to hasten, it was pumping with evermore force, the stone slab was beginning to crack from the center.

[QUICKLY! NOW! ACOLYTE!] shouted Throzahk, instructing the acolyte to place the cores in the slots [NOW! MOVE AWAY FROM THE WALLS!] shouted Throzahk, as the acolyte hastily placed the last core on its slot and backed away from there with haste.

[THIS WILL NOT STOP ME! DAMNED PRIEST! I AM INEVITABLE! AS IS THE DEEP LAKE THAT BEGETS US ALL! YOU HEAR ME! YOU SHALL BE DEVOURED! LORD MALKAITH WILL RISE! AND I SHALL STAND TO HIS SIDE!] shouted the voice, crazed by the resistance that had been put by Throzahk and the Skeletal Acolyte.

[O! Lords of the North! Give way to protection! O! Lauded Lady Of The East! Give way to protection! O! Master of the West! Give way to protection! O! Blessed Sprites of the South! Give way to protection!] chanted Throzahk, as he dropped to the ground, extending tendrils of mana towards each mana core, engraving more and more runes onto the walls [May the shields of Dalarmothl be risen!] Shouted Throzahk, ending his chant, breaking the mana tendrils, he tried to stand, but staggered, as his mana had been almost completely drained by the spell.

The densely packed runic formation looked like the flowing branches of an old oak tree, the numerous scriptures flowed in a mystical way, some runes were clustered in different places, then the enormous thing began to glow dimly, pushing back against the pressure that came forth from the hallway.

Soon the runes shone brighter, but not blindingly so, they light up the egg chamber, taking by surprise the skeletal acolyte, the color of the petrified egg had been revealed in his color limited vision, a deep blue shade covered the egg, and a multitude of scales decorated the egg, it was bigger than he had seen before, and a faint light shone inside, growing sometimes dim and some times bright, like a heartbeat, causing the skeletal acolyte to walk towards the egg.

Throzahk spoke the moment he saw the acolyte approaching the egg [Do not touch the egg! I haven't finished the spell!] commanded Throzahk, beckoning the acolyte to not approach the egg.

[Yess… yess… no touching! Yess…] said the acolyte refraining from touching the egg, as he had been ordered.

Then another shout came from the hallway [I SEE! YOU ARE NO SIMPLE PRIEST! NO! YOU ARE NOT! THIS SIMPLE BARRIER WILL ONLY DELAY THE INEVITABLE! LORD MALKAITH SHALL RISE! I SHALL RETRIEVE HIS VESSEL AND FEAST ON YOUR SOUL!] the voice shouted; the strength that came from it seemed to physically clash with the shield that had risen from Throzahk spell, the blue light soon enshrined the hallway, silencing the voice.

[Foul beast! You too shall be expunged from Eal'Itzhal! Cursed may you be! She-daemon!] cursed Throzahk, as he walked towards the egg.

[She-daemon? Was that Icceamond?] asked the acolyte, as calm had begun to reign again in the chamber.

[Yes… it was her… that damned harlot has become a She-deamon… or to be more precise the host of one of those foul beasts… O! Blessed Quilrorry!] lamented Throzahk, as he sat on the stone chair.

[I see… then how will you deal with it?] asked the skeletal acolyte.

[Me? No… I won't be able to do anything… besides of what I have already done… however… if you gain a body! Now that would be useful, and it would mess with that She-daemon! Ha!] laughed Throzahk, as he spoke [But before all of that! This spell should endure for a while… it will keep that She-daemon quite for the time being… but to expunge that foul beast from this sacred place will take a truly enormous spell… it would cover all of the upper levels, and it would take time, but it should be possible…] said Throzahk, who for a moment kept silent while sinking downwards in the chair.

[Yes! That would do it! Like hitting two birds with one stone! You will need to bring me all the cores you can find… and don't forget to bring anything you can from the apothecary, if there are any Drakeroots bring them, Forget that! Just bring me all the herbs you can find!] said Throzahk, as he had found the way to finally get rid of the foul daemon.

[Fine… I will do that; however, I have one question… how do you plan to have me get a body?] asked the acolyte, he had been intrigued by Throzahk's plan.

[It won't be simple, nonetheless, in High Seeress Faldrari's abode should be a book on the rituals relating to souls… recreating them won't be an easy thing either… but what must be done, will be done… this should allow me to fulfill my role and to finally pass on to Most Holy Quilrorry side… or at least be allowed to dive into the river by the Most Wise Keeper…] said Throzahk, looking towards the egg.

[I see… then I shall be going… yesss… Yess…] said the acolyte, walking towards the hallway.

Seeing the acolyte move made Throzahk speak [I haven't told you to leave! You must learn to use your mana! To cast the most common of non-elemental spells! Seeing that you have cracks all over your bones, it's easy to see that you fought like a fool or in the same manner that a beast would, if you get completely destroyed it would do us no good!] said Throzahk, gesturing the skeletal acolyte to stop.

[O! finally! Yess yesss!] said the skeletal acolyte, this development had surprised the acolyte, as he hadn't expected to be taught so easily.

[Yes, you will learn, now do as I do with your mana] instructed Throzahk, as he produced two runes, one was a circle with a small star inside of it, the other was a straight arrow.

He then launched the first rune towards the stone slab, that glued itself to the surface of the slab. [That acolyte is a targeting rune, it does as its name suggest, but to put it simple, it creates a path for mana to travel, and this one is a simple tracking rune, it is not part of the spell, however, It will serve to illustrate what this spell does!] said Throzahk, sending the arrow rune flying, it followed a stray looking path, bending and twisting in the way to its target, never travelling in a straight line.

[I see…] said the acolyte, producing the same runes, however his were unstable, breaking their shape with minimal movements, the targeting rune dissipated when the he tried to send it to the slab, and the tracking rune disappeared the moment he relaxed his hold on his mana.

[That's it! Good! You already can create them! Very good! However, to use them you need greater concentration, but this progress is good enough! Keep in mind that you will need to learn each rune when learning a new spell, so do not falter! And do not give into laziness!] said Throzahk, as he watched the progress made by the acolyte.

Seeing the skeletal acolyte reproduce the runes each time they dissipated [Now that you have learned the runes you should try to make them stable, but that will only come with practice, now you should try to learn the chant, it is a short chant, as it is the name of the spell] said Throzahk, as he casted a spell that collected the dust from the room, creating a dust pillar [For example, this spell is simply called Dust Pillar, as it does just that] said Throzahk, as he released the spell, cutting a thin glowing mana strand that came from his hand.

[However, it dispels as soon as I want to do something else, to make it endure I must add more things to the spell] said Throzahk as he remade the dust pillar, this time it was thicker, with more dust to it [This one is a modified version of Dust Pillar, It is Caller Athunohl Colum, is used in distractions and protection] said Throzahk, cutting the mana strand once again before speaking [It should endure quite a bit of punishment form the spell I'm about to teach you, and should you drain your mana… well it should stay activated for a while…] said Throzahk.

[Now, you must practice the formation of the runes, after they are stable enough you must use them as I showed you, now begin!] said Throzahk, ordering the skeletal acolyte to practice the use of the runes as he had demonstrated.

As soon as Throzahk had ordered the acolyte had resumed his practice, recreating the runes, and failing to stabilize them, he stubbornly continued to do this, time and time again, until the targeting rune had moved a bit away from the skeletal acolyte before disappearing 'Yes! Progress! Yesss Yess…" Thought the skeletal acolyte as he continued.