"Doyle!"
"Ugh!"
"Don't tell me you're hoping to see the students returning?"
I groaned again before turning over and down to Zeff. Always cheeky, the halfling was. Even more so than he was strong. And he was as strong as he was small. "Why wouldn't I? I'm their teacher, aren't I?"
"Are you?" He innocuously quipped. "If so, for how much longer?"
Innocuous, his words were. But true all the same.
"Hard to think it's only been a week." He chortled, uncaring of my dismissive gaze. "The time has gone by so slowly."
"Yeah." I distantly chortled. A slow week of contemplative silence and two weeks since the chaos of the mid-year ceremony. "Slow indeed."
But not slow enough.
It was so peaceful. Almost like a vacation filled with the stresses of the job. I went to my classroom with the same enthusiasm as always, only to find it empty for the majority of the day. A few faces found their way to my office every so often, which was to be expected at this point of the year. But, it was the same faces that dropped by my room. Here or elsewhere around campus. Always the same ones. Rhot and Butuss. Snusz Silentjaw. Zaos Torhorn. Vlorlyn and Zohnos Lagunath. Zeke Silva.
And of course, Lance Morningstar.
Everyone else was just… gone.
46 students, scattered among the classes, took to the wilds and disappeared.
We had an idea of where they went, but scrying was no longer available to us. We could only see their bodies reaching a critical condition on a regular basis and we could see that, while they were in dire need of healing, the conflicts in which they were engaged were settled quickly thereafter.
They were in no danger of dying. So, we had no obligation to intervene with their training, for the first step down any path was a personal endeavor. And some steps were immensely dangerous.
In regards to that, my job was to be here, in my small domain. Ever-present to advise anyone who came my way. That was my coveted job. One of many years.
No matter how boring that job now was, I did it in the same way as in years past. I sat in the rooms and rehearsed the lectures that would have taken place. Alone. Accompanied only by the hundred maddening reminders of the chaos looming around me.
Everything from mere candles to the great sun itself reminded me of the Guilds of Light, stepping through the Bifrost with looks of embarrassment or indignation or both.
Virtually everything else, from flashes of lightning to the leaves falling to the ground to my very shadow, reminded me of the arbiter of change. Of Amun, who paid the events he was the center of no mind. He ignored the target on his back and dragged eighty-five percent of the class with him into the wilds.
To do what was something I obsessed over.
Zeff and Olga too, it seemed.
Whenever we crossed paths, like now, they couldn't help but openly conjecture about what was transpiring deep in the expansive wilds of the Bodhi Tree. And I, for better or worse, couldn't help but look up in the sky every so often. Searching for the pale rock floating high above the clouds.
Like now.
"I look up at it often too."
I- we both turned to see Olga, standing tall and tired as she stared at the same point we all seemed to study in times of respite.
"It's like Zarzok said." I sighed in resignation. Not from my claim, but from the aberrant skip in my heart from her claim. "It makes you wonder and hope and dream.
"It's romantic."
"I put in my resignation letter."
"You wha-"
"DO NOT!" She wheeled around, pointing a slender finger into the bridge of the halflings belled nose. Forcing him and even me back a step. "Do not tell me that I'm making a mistake. Do not try to convince me to change my mind. Just be happy for me.
"Can you do that?"
Her voice quivered with that final question. Trembled in a tune that resonated with my mind. Surfaced the memory of our last encounter.
"Can I ask why?" Came a soft reply, moments later.
"Because I'm tired, Zeff." Olga groaned, and then I saw the despair in her eyes. I felt it in the way she threw her arms in frustration. I had been the same not too long ago.
"I'm tired of this shit!" She waved around her. "I'm retiring and going somewhere to live. Not to teach. Not to fight. Not to play whatever game this is." She threw her arms again, this time at the Tree.
"And before you ask." She wheeled around to me. "I don't know. If he can give me the retirement I'm looking for. Sure- maybe. But I just want to live."
"Well," Zeff suddenly pointed, pulling our eyes down to a small figure with dark skin, walking side-by-side with a horned man of red skin. "You may as well ask him. Or at least get your arrangements in order before the semester ends."
While my eyes fell to the Demon and Devil, they then fell to Zeff. Though I could only see the back of his head, I could almost see the weariness mirrored from his voice onto his face. To lose not only one but two peers. It was heartbreaking. Especially to a halfling.
There was the option to come with us, he knew. But still… preconceptions and ties.
"I'm not going to say anything," Olga said. "Not yet. I'm going to see what all the fuss is about for myself and come to my own conclusions."
She trotted off after that. Naturally, I did as well. But only after exchanging a long and pleading eye to Zeff did I trod down to the roots. Trailing just behind Olga but not necessarily following her out into the courtyard to where the vined archway the two emerged from stood.
They were absent, Amun and Zarzok, attending to whatever business they returned for. Leaving us to wait and look through the glimmering entryway in the face of a tree, staring at a vast cave brightly illuminated in an orange-yellow light.
"Well, that was easy." Zarzok's voice rang through the courtyard like a bell. A red-skinned bell, nasally tuned with a boyishly high pitch.
"If you're looking for Amun, I'm afraid you missed him," he sang after prancing around to us. "Disappeared in a mist once his business was done. Ever elusive, that one."
"It seems you two have become quite the friends now." Zeff stepped in, chuckling warmly.
Zarzok looked at him and turned away a moment later, lazily shrugging. "Family."
All of our heads recoiled at once. "Family?"
"Parent and child!" Zarzok beamed. "A Legionary!" He stepped closer to us, waving a clawed finger precariously close to our noses. "Of the Night."
"But, you're a pride demon." Zeff shook his head.
"Yes."
"And yet, you joined this- Amun's… Legion?"
"Why wouldn't I?" Zarzok scoffed. "Where else would I not only be accepted but find myself within such a beating heart of pride? In this mere week, we've come to see that Amun's words were no mere boast. His arrogance is warranted and his knowledge is indeed boundless.
"That knowledge is now ours." He nearly growled with… something burning in his voice. Passion, perhaps.
"Ours?" Olga asked with a raised brow.
"The Legion." Zarzok smiled.
"Amun's guild." I nodded in confirmation, but the look Zarzok gave me had me feeling like a dunce. Because perhaps I was.
"We are proud of our station." Zarzok continued, turning back to my peers. "Such pride empowers me, thus supporting my peers in turn. I am lucky. Fortunate- blessed, even! To have this opportunity placed before me. Blessed to have my soul claimed by the Sovereign of Death.
"You sold your soul?" Zeff gasped.
And so too did Zarzok. "See, you people have always had such a negative perception of soul-binding contracts." He threw his hands upwards and turned away. Only to turn back in the next breath, waving his clawed finger in Zeff's nose. "They have different flavors of malevolence, depending on the Fiend or Fey in question. Regardless, breaking a contract leads to irreparable consequences. That's the bottom line."
"And Amun can make contracts about whatever or with whoever he likes?" Olga openly conjectured.
"All powerful Fiends, Fey, and even some vampires can." Zarzok shrugged. "The clauses are only in tune with the nature of the Dealer. A Fiend dedicated to the Infernal War wouldn't care to make a contract unless it gave them an edge against their enemy for example.
"So then, the question to ask is. What is Amun's nature?" Zarzok pressed on before we could begin to reply. "Based on your observations of him, how malevolent is he?"
"Depends," I found myself saying. "Normally? Not at all. But, if he's been scorned…"
"Exactly!" Zarzok clapped much like Zeff would and pointed to me. "Exactly as it should be!"
"That's what I want to find out," Olga said, fully ignoring my answer and Zarzok's response. "That, and I want to learn more about my students."
Very well then!" Zarzok beamed. "let's start the tour!"
"The… tour?" I heard Zeff mutter.
But Zarzok skipped away at that, leaving the three of us staring awkwardly at each other until, one by one, we followed behind the tiefling.
Though I saw it from the other side, stepping through the portal was like traveling to another realm entirely. It was almost as if we were deep underground. Standing within a vast dome of eerily smooth stone illuminated by radiant pipes and glowing balls of what appeared to be glass. Though that wasn't to say other sources of light weren't present. A small point of pale light hugged the ceiling, dozens if not a hundred meters above us. Drifting ever so slowly in a circle, like the moon so far away.
While encapsulated in stone, the rest of the space was filled with a relatively large ring of grasses, vines, and small trees, interspersed with busts and paintings of snowy landscapes and renderings of individuals known by none present.
"Welcome to Noctis Reach!" Zarzok pranced before us and bowed. "Specifically, the seventh floor. My room is there."
He let out a small chuckle as our eyes followed to where he was pointing. An alcove of cracked black stones with a red material set within the voids.
"Your… room?" The two muttered in unison as they turned their eyes about the rest of the structure. It was a source of amusement to him, Zarzok. The way he looked and laughed was eerily similar to the way Amun would. Or rather did when I reacted to the absurdity of the Cove.
This… tower was essentially the Cove scaled up to a village or perhaps larger. As Zarzok said, the vast floor in which we entered was but one of at least seven. More stood above us, but we were guided down a short set of stairs set within the central dais to look down on the sixth floor from above.
The way down was… eccentric. Though Zarzok and the other students we saw making their way up never seemed to mind.
On the contrary, they seemed jovial about it and everything around them. Even the meeker students like Mary Farmer seemed transformed almost, in only a week.
It was more than them becoming friends or like family. It was almost as if they were… seasoned. Veterans who'd been through thick and thin together. In only a week, all who befell our eyes were seen carrying the same swagger held by the members of Cooke Party after the first few months of the school year.
Nearly all of them were trailing behind us when we arrived at the outer yard, a vast ring of flora atop a ring of apparently floating stone. They stood in relative silence, muttering among themselves as we admired the tower, their home, from afar.
In a way, it was similar to the Bodhi Tree. A tall spire, topped with branches and leaves that towered at the center of a small grove thriving in the shade of its canopy. Only, the trunk was made of stone and the grove was more of a farm or garden than a wild forest. Within it was an abundance of wheat, faerie flax, corn, cotton, tobacco, and acres of smokeleaf. Plus an array of more crops, all being tended to by a few undead.
There was even a pair of them on the lake. A skeleton and a shadow in a canopied boat, fishing and throwing nets out into the water without pause.
They were everywhere. Even following the students around like lost puppies. They were in the ridiculously sized lounge, playing stringed and percussive instruments throughout the day and night.
Eventually, the two greatest, we assumed, stepped through the darkness to guide us to the twelfth floor. To where an hourglass-shaped platform gave us unbridled views of the surrounding waters.
While the space was vast, elegant, and undoubtedly worthy of becoming an esteemed gathering spot, the space was nearly empty. As vast as it was, only us three foreigners were present. Accompanied by a woman composed of darkness and a draugr with a cruel weapon impaled into his ribs.
It was the five of us. Standing before an elven man sitting with his back facing us.
For whatever reason, I felt a cold shudder run through my spine after seeing him. Immobilizing me for a terrible instant while the undead gestured to the three seats arranged on the far side of a small table.
While I was sure they felt it as well, Olga wound up being the first to break through it and take a seat. She stormed before him, not out of anger, but with purpose, and sat before Amun as his teacher. Not as a mere mortal.
"What is all this?" She curtly asked.
"Noctis Reach." Amun bluntly answered. "The current habitat for the Legion."
"Your guild?" Olga asked. Though it wasn't a question in the slightest. "It won't be considered legitimate until you possess a divine tree and wise rock pebble."
"I am aware." Amun calmly smiled. "However, recent events made this a necessity."
"You're preparing for war?"
"It's insurance." Amun corrected her. "Humans can be vindictive creatures, as I'm sure you're aware. Dende will never forget our encounter. All he needs is an excuse and he'll have one eventually. I can't protect everyone I care about when that time comes. I can only teach them and give them the tools to protect themselves."
"And that's what this is for?" Olga asserted once again with a gesture around us.
"Yes." Amun nodded. "Everyone here is a candidate to become an officer within my guild. After we graduate, they'll begin forming parties that will later become the Legion's first subguilds. Their finest subordinates will become their first officers. And their friends or families will live in peace within their territories." Amun gestured to the tower below us. "Under my protection.
"That offer was extended to everyone and those you see here accepted." Amun turned his grin to me. "I extended that offer to Doyle and, naturally, that extends to the two of you as well. Should you be interested."
"I'm not." Olga quickly spat, surprising Amun quite a bit. "I don't want to fight anymore. I'm retiring."
"Well." Amun chuckled. "There are more ways to serve than fighting. But I understand. In that case, you could live as you please in one of our territories."
"You mean… the rooms within this place?" Zeff asked with an incredulous chortle. "And how do you plan to acquire this land?"
"Oh, I'll let you in on a little secret." Amun grimly chuckled. "The headmaster found a way to cheat death."
"Oh... OH!" Zeff began cackling madly. "That explains so much!"
"Right... anyway." Amun lowered his brow and turned away after a short pause. "He has been cursed many times as a result, but law dictates that I curse him once more. Or kill him." He amiably shrugged, sending a cold flash over my mind at once. To destroy the headmaster meant to destroy the Bodhi Tree itself. But if there was anything eerier than his joking attitude towards such death and destruction, it was what he said next.
"Instead of doing either, I plan on cutting a deal with him. I won't kill or curse him." He grinned at me, then Zeff. "In exchange for, but not limited to." He gestured below once more. "Some land.
"Now," he continued after a short pause. "As I've said, you have an invitation to join the Legion. But so too do you have an invitation to live freely within our territories as a civilian. Only the former has to swear themselves in."
Olga said nothing after that. She only nodded her head ever so subtly and stared off into nowhere for a long minute. Only to snap her eyes back to Amun and say. "Good to know. I'll stop by the next time I'm free. I'd like to see you all train."
And with that, she turned away to leave. Giving me leeway to spring forward. "If I may," I said perhaps a bit too loudly and gave Zeff a curious glance before continuing. "I'd like to explore this tower throughout the night.
"Fine by me." Amun carelessly shrugged. "Tomorrow's a training day, so you two can stay as well."
"Well." Zeff meekly chortled. "I'll stick around for a bit and get a lay of the land with Mr. Wolfgang. But-."
"O- ooh!" I stammered in place. "I was going to sit up here for a while. Tie up a few things before I take to exploring."
"Right." With a final shrug and a dismissive nod, Amun and his undead disappeared into the shade of a nearby pillar. Leaving the three of us alone once again, if only for a few moments.
Once Olga and Zeff descended to the lower floors, I found one of the many seats and withdrew a sheet of parchment, an ink well, and a quill. Then looked to the distant moon, now no bigger than the nail of my thumb.
It wasn't long now. Soon, I would be free.