I felt like all I'd done since I came to this world was walk through dark and dreary tunnels. I kept the torch alight, since there was no way whoever had taken Noel didn't already know I was here. I'd taken out those humans as quietly as possible, but the red glow on the artifacts suggested whatever they were doing was important, so their absence would be noticed sooner rather than later.
I slowed down. Bright, natural light flooded the end of the tunnel. I snuffed the torch and stepped closer. The tunnel arched downwards, opening up to a massive, open space. I rubbed my eyes to get used to the brightness. I blinked them open again.
Flowing water, chirping birds, and a great splash of greenery. Tall rocky walls surrounded the ravine on two sides. To my right and left, the ravine stretched into the distance, dissolving into the bright sunlight that managed to hit the bottom very easily, thanks to the great width of the ravine. Ivy-like plants clung to the rock. Tiny creatures flitted through the bushes and trees. Something resembling a butterfly flew in front of my eyes. Fresh forest smells drifted through the humid air.
Humming buzzed through the air. Three distinct voices. One rough. One smooth. One faltering and hesitant. The humming cut through the relaxing sounds of nature. The humming was jarringly imperfect, yet it felt pleasant to my ear. I followed the humming, carefully. I approached a thicket of trees, with long vines drooping down like a beaded oriental curtain. I brushed them aside.
A surreal sight revealed itself to me. The thicket was actually a thick ring of trees surrounding an almost perfectly circular clearing. In the middle of the clearing were three ancient, black stumps, that looked as if they had been turned into charcoal. On each stump sat a human, cross legged, eyes closed in concentration. The stumps were arranged such that the three humans were sitting in a circle, with their hands outstretched towards the very center of the clearing.
Red light flooded out of the humans' hands like spotlights trained at the glowing red orb suspended above the ground. The orb had strange, ornate symbols carved onto its surface by ever-revolving beams of silver light. The beams of silver light kept chipping away at the red orb, rending chunks of red light off the object. The chunks faded once they were separated from the orb, and were replaced by fresh bits of red light that were being fed to the orb by the three humans.
There was more red light coming out of the humans' hands than the silver beams could separate, so the red orb was getting larger while plugging in all the holes being created by the silver beams. Around the orb and the silver beams, circled tiny specks of color. The specks were small but numerous, and came in all sorts of colors. Somehow, I was sure there were many more specks of color that I could not see. These tiny specks were circling the orb while staying clear of the silver beams. When the silver beams swung downward, the specks of color would collide against them, making them lose some force. The silver beams never seemed to be able to avoid the onslaught of the specks, but it also looked like they weren't trying to avoid them at all.
I observed this bizarre scene from a safe distance behind a tree right beside the clearing. I squinted through the flashing lights to try to identify the three humans. Confirming my suspicions, the one nearest my side looked to be the old Jora priest, Oxi. Droplets of sweat cascaded off his wrinkly skin, and his ragged breathing made me wonder just how much longer he could keep going.
The next human I could identify, was the elder of another tribe that I had met at Bek Tepe: elder Rann of the Nare tribe. He had a head full of green hair, and didn't look particularly old. If I had to guess, I'd say he was in his early fifties. I'd laughed a little at his short green beard, but his hair looked surprisingly intimidating when highlighted by the red glow of the ominous energy coming out of his hands.
I had to walk around the perimeter a little to identify the last human. I frowned. Elder Sunki's bald head and wild, white beard cut an impressive sight on the far side of the clearing. His eyes were closed, but his face was distorted by the effort he was putting into the red light. He was humming, just like the other two, but his tone felt the most forced.
I looked around the clearing one more time from my hiding spot, but I couldn't find Noel anyway. I considered, for a moment, the idea that I walk around the three old men doing creepy magical things and go find Noel elsewhere, but figured they might know where she was. Besides, foiling whatever was going on here would definitely save me some trouble in the future. There was no way these guys were up to any good. They never mentioned this part of the festival to the elves that they supposedly revered so much!
I prepared a plan in my head. Elder Sunki seemed like the best brawler, so it was in my best interest to knock him out first. I had a feeling a blow to the back of the neck wouldn't work on him, so I decided to hit him on the head with a large rock. Priest Oxi was old, but I had a feeling his magic would be the most powerful. He was also the one most likely to know where Noel was, so I decided to set him on fire, which should distract him long enough for me to take out the other two. I had no clue what elder Rann was like, so I decided this was a good time to practice one of the two new types of magic Noel and I had worked on while we were waiting for the other tribes to arrive at Bek Tepe.
Since I'd established that knowledge would be 'justified, true belief,' and that the easiest way to justify most beliefs about the material world would be through experimentation, Noel and I had done a few experiments for magic that I thought would be the most useful and versatile. First, since we lacked good stealth techniques, I had us experiment with light. In particular, we experimented on the way our eyes interacted with light to help us see things. This was how our disguise magic was born.
We hadn't been able to do a lot of experiments around light, which meant the energy requirements of flashy spells like laser beams were still too high, but we could do simple optical illusions and tricks.
The second type of magic was, of course, the gravity magic for which we'd thrown masses off of cliffs. We didn't have enough time to smooth out the edges, which meant it was difficult to set up and expensive to cast, but it was still an incredibly powerful bit of magic. I didn't want to take any chances on elder Rann, so I figured he'd be the perfect target for gravity magic!
I took a deep breath. I held out my hands and prepared to cast a bunch of spells in quick succession.
The humming stopped. The red beams flickered and shut off. The red orb continued to spin in the middle of the clearing, but the bits that were gouged out by the silver spears were no longer being replaced. All three elders opened their eyes and looked at me.
"Great one," said Priest Oxi, "what are you doing here?"
I straightened up. "Oh, you know. Just thought I'd go for a walk."
"A walk?" said elder Rann.
I locked gazes with elder Sunki. His confident face flinched. I chuckled. "Well, that isn't the whole story. Noel got a little angry last night, as you remember, and she didn't come back to her tent. I was just out looking for her, that's all."
Priest Oxi nodded with a smile. "I see. It is most troubling that a great elf like her chose to sleep outside out of anger. You have my apologies for upsetting her."
"No, no," I said, "don't apologize. I'm sure she'll get over it. Just do me a favor, okay?"
"Anything, great one," said Priest Oxi.
"If you see her, let her know I'm waiting for her at the pit, alright?" I said.
"The pit?" he said.
"You know, the one where you keep this skull," I said as I showed him the elfin skull. Elder Rann narrowed his eyes. "I can't believe some upstart kids took these relics and moved them down the secret tunnel."
"Yes, great one," said Oxi, "that is quite unbelievable." He looked at the other elders. "Do not worry, great elf. If we see your companion, we will pass along your message."
I nodded. "Thanks. And could you pass along another message for me? This time to the dude who makes his subordinates super easy to identify by making them all glow red and stuff." I smiled and chucked the elfin skull right at the glowing red orb.
"Tell him he needs to try a new color!"