We continued into the forest and I sensed nothing, but despite that, I had a nagging feeling of unease, there was something happening outside the scope of my abilities, something was clearly wrong but despite knowing that I was unable to do anything.
What felt like hours or seconds passed, and I started to see things, spectral shadows flashing in and out of existence, it felt like the linchpin of reality had been displaced, leaving the world to fall into chaos, colours around me blurred, becoming more vibrant, more ominous.
The outline of the twisted trees distorted further, curling around themselves into spirals, the world took on a cartoonish look, I felt a harrowing feeling as if something was grinding against my very soul, but despite the agonising pain, I felt it tempering me, strengthening my soul.
Then unexpectedly one of the materialising Spector's, approached me, its shadowy form indistinct, I heard it murmuring, the thing was White, admitting a faint light that obscured its form.
It floated around me before being joined by others, they seemed to be speaking amongst themself as one of them approached me perching upon my shoulder, it lit up and words started floating around me.
'Hello welcome, we hold nothing against you, in the end, you are one of the few capable of communicating with us',
I read the words as they floated into view, 'you know, people like you are rare, we've never seen a soul like yours, it holds potential, we the fae would love for you to come to play with us, and when you fulfill your potential don't about forget us, strong friends always make for the most lively of playmates'
As the words continued to appear in a trail the ones at the end faded, and the new ones that continually appeared started growing faint and hurried 'were running out of time today remember to return, when you are stronger.'
the words disappeared as the warped surroundings recovered their normalcy, and the world became more defined as I became aware of a voice seeking, "Alexander were almost there." the topsy-turvy world had faded fully into reality; I feel like I'd recovered from a trance.
The recovered treeline opened revealing a large temple, the temple had a graveyard to one side and a tower to the other, its towering majesty dwarfing me and the others.
The temple was old, looking to be from the deepest depths of antiquity, it was made from marble, flowing in lines of black and grey, with a large domed top and jutting spires, its arched entryways held tall mottled wooden doors, there were moss and vines creeping across the face of the building, it looked abandoned.
The tower adversely looked brand new, and pristine, its sweeping shadow blocking all light, it was made of the same marble as the temple, constructed in the same antiquated style, except it was clearly not of the same age.
As for the graveyard, it was large packed full of monoliths and mausoleums, the occasional twisted tree grew, its hanging leaves covering the gravestones, the graveyard was encircled by an old fence, the fence was tall and rusted, with intricate metalworking creating the scene of a cat, walking around it, over mountains and trough valleys.
The open landscape was welcoming compared to the claustrophobic forest, "we're here, please find arcanist James, he should be waiting for you at the reception center of the tower, farewell acolytes, apprentices, or whatever you are, I hope to never see you again."
Arcanist Kite shouted as he rushed into the graveyard, opening one of the mausoleums, disappearing down a shadowy staircase.
Earl walked up Infront of us, smiling wryly "arcanist Kite is a very busy man, he has important affairs. I'll lead all the acolytes, the rest of you from my generation can return to their master, research, or whatever is occupying their attention." most of the seniors left amicably, only the two injured being carried by the servants from the ship, who were apparently slaves.
Earl led us into the tower, looking round I counted the other apprentices, there where twenty including me and Toby, the tower was one hundred meters across at the base, so when we entered, we were greeted by a large open reception room, it was lit using large hanging chandeliers, the room was semi-circular the other half sectioned off by a wall, there where staircases lining the curved edge.
When we entered a short man came up to us, as he approached Earl bowed, respectfully chanting "exalted lord James, these are the new members, and here are their statistics."
He handed over a stack of papers their edges frayed, addressing him the short man, apparently, arcanist James, said stone-faced
"Excellent job, supervising the new members, as you master and teacher, I will not forget your aid towards our order, you are dismissed. Come to my mausoleum, later and collect your reward."
The short arcanist rubbed his stubbled chin, turning to us as Earl departed, he greeted "as some of you may have guessed I am arcanist James, it is in my authority to help guide new members, settling them down within the order. So, the first order of business, is to find you a master to apprentice under, currently, in this branch of the order there are fifty arcanists willing to adopt apprentices, firstly."
He said as he flicked through the stack of paper given to him, then he took out a patchwork leather notebook, flicking through the pages, he took out another stack of paper inscribing something on the first page.
After filling the first page, he snapped his finger red light sparking, he handed out each page, the page I was handed was blanketed in a sheet of words, and reading through I found that they were names.
The names were separated into, element and 'class,' an example would be, reverent arcanist Irys void, her emphasis is on the darkness and astral elements, the name reverent is bestowed upon arcanists who are exceptionally powerful or someone who has made advances in their respective 'class'.
The 'class' is more of a specialisation, specialisations can be infinitely split into branches, this world known as the arcanum world focuses on the arcane.
The arcane refers to an ancient technique, this technique was pioneered by an Eldrich God, the 'stargazed blighted, Granderon'. Granderon was a human from this world eons passed, he crawled his way through life, back then humans were weak, and he hated it, he hated the injustice, so he decided to create a new path, to lead his people to prosper, or so the legend goes, but that legendry epic doesn't end well, according to it upon the fruition of his dream, he was blinded by his own power and started interplanar wars, perishing in his pursuit of power, other tales tell of his success and ascension to a higher level, but either way his conquest was true, in this conquest he seized resources in the dozens, he plundered techniques to, different methods of powers now known as 'classes'.
The classes can be split into substrates, alchemists, warmongers, deranged practitioners, etc. But all the substrates are generalised under the term arcanist, out of respect for Granderon, a true arcanist like Granderon focuses on the aspect of true power outside of elements, focusing on the more fundamental archaic power, however, to get to the level where you can freely use these powers you have to be at least a third level arcanist, and that's just the minimum to start.
As for third-level arcanists, there are three of them currently in this branch, the 'caliginous order of the frayed', the three of them are the vice leader, disciplinary organiser, and the honorable general, as for the fabled leader he is said to be a fourth level arcanist, capable of terraforming mountains, with sheer might.
As for the arcanists on the list, twenty of them are true arcanists, two of those being at the second level, one specializing in darkness and fire the other in darkness and water.