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New world
Light is an interesting topic in the new world. While we as a technological advanced civilisation never had this problem, it is a serious issue for men.
Light acts as protection as well as a guide, but torches are problematic underground because of their carbon monoxide which makes breathing hard. They also inform predators, light sources are not uncommon and only shine so far, but the smell can alert predators hundreds of meters away.
Runes are too valuable, as such they use light marbles, an organ harvested from small fluffy animals, which glow when thrown into water with beast bones. As such they are also called bone lanterns.
The fuels isn't that valuable but the iron they are build out of costs a fortune.
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Resting after that march yesterday was heaven. It is always a pleasure to sleep after doing much work, although I was not as tired as the others,a fact I noticed after waking up in the morning and watching the sun rise by myself.
As I was sitting there in the empty land, I could only admirer the beautiful sight.
The blue rays of light were reflecting from the morning dew.
You could smell the slight scent of metal but also the freshness of the morning.
I was growing into this world, although still alien at times I can relate to the people living here.
Especially the light of the moon, I even called Aurora by her name lately. Lost in my dreams about ancient mysterious ruins and lost civilisations I would uncover from this world, time quickly passed.
An hour later Leonard and Jack went to find me.
„The others are still sleeping?"
„Yeah" Jack nodded „they are out for good after walking for that long. What about you, the last days were better but what about your psyche. It is dangerous to let matters brood to long."
Making a big sight I laid back on the ground, getting a change of scenery helped and although the problem was still there it was much less serve. I wouldn't need any help.
„Everything is good, I have fully recovered."
Ending the discussion I stood up and walked towards the tents.
„About our agreement, so where can we find a good Guide, someone who can get us deep enough."
He nodded and took us to his vice leader. I still don't know his name, I learned there is a tradition in human society not to speak out your name carelessly, something about curses. Although how much that is superstition I have no idea. On that front Jack may very well be an alias, a name used for trades. But that mattered litle.
Standing in front of the all around unremarkable man, I waited for jack to announce his purpose.
"You will lead the caravan back by yourself, I trust you. Don't think I will abandon you after all we have gone through but it may take awhile for us to regroup. Don't do anything too drastic and don't get yourself killed. That is all, have a nice day."
With that apparently settled he began packing his tent and was expecting us to do the same. What a personality, although I have to say that I could not help but doubt his reliability. But he was the best we could possible get.
After finishing we immediately departed to find an entrance to the caves and tunnels beneath our feet that he called the lightless world, where we would find our guide as well as our destination. As he later explained it spanned across the whole region, The battlefield we found should also be connected to this underground world.
Apparently this was were most humans lived, which explained the noticeable absent of them on the surface.
While I, Jack, Leonard and the child were walking back to the mountain on a different route than what we came from, I decided to ask Jack about his magic.
"Huh so you noticed? Well considering that I did nothing to hide it, I am more surprised that you only ask now."
Smiling forcible I looked at Leonard he must have noticed too but said nothing the whole journey.
He shrugged his shoulders.
"I don't care, you said that he is an ally so it is not like he will stab us in the back. The only thing I care about is finding the archives, they might give us a clearer picture of how to get to our main target."
Turning back to jack, I could see an annoying grin plastered over his face. " oh don't look at me like that, its funny."
"so what magic do you have and can you teach it to us?"
Now it was Jacks time to look helpless.
"Well the spell is rather straight forward as it gives me the ability to perceive malicious intent. That doesn't mean I can read minds, or predict the future, it only helps me understand the subtle expressions in people. Quite us full especially in dealing with merchandise, it saved my life a few times.
That doesn't mean its infallible however, you for example meant no real harm and coupled with your mastery over your own muscles it made me fall for the trap. Or Monsters, they are a pain to read.
Now for the thing that probably interests you the most, can I teach it?
Sadly no. while I would like or rather have to because of the contract, it is simply impossible. The magic was transferred to me by an ancient artefact by accident."
Hah that was truly sad. I would have loved to find more magic so that I can understand the art of spell work better. Sooner or later I would create my own magic.
Discarding the many unrealistic dreams that already surfaced in my mind I concentrated on the hole we were standing in front.
"That's it?"
I was expecting something more grandiose like the entrance to the valley. Giant archways of a long forgotten civilisation.
But in front of me was the disappointing reality, a 3 by 3 meter wide hole in the muddy ground that extended down for an indefinite time.
Worked into the stones were small holes probably meant as a ladder.
"Well it is not the only entrance, but it is the nearest and most convenient, as there are not many people using it."
No wonder, who in their right mind would go down there and risk falling down just to go to visit a town a bit faster? Well we.
We used a rope woven into a complicated system to connect us together, so when anyone fell he would be held by the others.
The child went first, Leonard after him, than Jack and lastly me. The order was decided by who was the weakest, with them being positions below, so that their weight would be distributed to the most people. And although the child was an excellent climber, he simply had too little stamina.
One reason why I was at the top, the other being the special gloves I took with me that generated enough friction so that I wouldn't slip even if I tried. Technology was wonderful.
Climbing first into the hole I was surprised how calm the kid was, in stark contrast to me.
Do you know how it feels when you wait for the inevitable to happen while you stand in line, one person after another disappearing before you?
So I stood there, the rope the only sign that anyone was beneath me, the moonlight was far to week to illuminate that far into the hole.
Making up my mind I proceeded, hesitation would get me nowhere.
It was surprisingly warm down here. I thought that the underground would be wet and cold like our base.
After nearly an hour of climbing downward I could hear an exited yell beneath me, we finally made it.
It took me a while to arrive, but I was greeted with the warm light of a lantern metal lantern.
The kid looked exhausted but Leonard and Jack were quite fine. I myself was more tired of the constant isolation than the physical stress.
We were currently inside a cave with 3 exits, who were conveniently marked by strange symbols I identified as runes, but with my meagre knowledge I was only able to identify the character for Path, which was of course a great help.
Luckily I was not alone and just had to follow the one Jack picked. Someone to teach me current runes would be great, Leonard had some knowledge, but he was more experienced with the one from the empire which diverged somehow from the rune language of today.
An interesting disscusion emerged when one considerd that other than a language, runes were also a way to apply magic. And both the empire and modern runes functiond, so there was no one true way. I would later need to investigate which ones were more efficient to work out our own rune language.