Teramyn had seen the girl and her accomplice in his dreams that nente they stayed in Desmek. He’d seen ruins swirling past and dark sands that stretched on; he recognized one of the dead zones. Suddenly he was plunged beneath the sands into not the ruins of a long lost city but of Djramei, of their shining capital. Fire rained down from the sky in a burning hail and everything around him smoked. At the center of it all was the smoldering specter. A swirling inferno surrounded them and magma flowed out and away. Everything they’d worked for was in ruin, falling to ashes around him. He’d awoken in a cold sweat that had nothing to do with the chill that permeated the room around him.
In the drievette he tried to scry for the girl and the Infinite Creature but wasn’t able to locate them with only the trace amounts of residual fen left over at the site. He had both Sahayna and Carmis join him back at the temple to perform emurafen. There were just some things it took more than one person to accomplish.
Finally, with their combined fen he was able to catch a glimpse of the girl. Her companion for whatever reason was impossible to lock onto, seeming more like a vague impression than another person he could track. The visions he was given showed him more of the ruins he’d seen in his dreams. It was enough for him to identify the enormous broken remains of the convergence platform that, once upon a time, channeled the natural power well deep within the planet and powered the city around it.
Of all the places they could have chosen he was surprised that it was Wulphera. There was an enormous amount of history in the ruins of the once-capital city of the old world but there was a darkness attached to it and people tended to stay far away from the stretch of black sands that preceded the ruins. It was also the place that the [last mage] had used to come through the cosmos to their world, nearly leveling the inner city with the aftershock.
He saw the creature and for the briefest moment he even saw through its dizzying monocular vision. He wasn’t sure what he was looking at exactly, mostly just a dizzying swirl of shapes and colors slapped across the otherwise desolate background. He saw the girl and he could see that she was unwell. He needed to catch up to her as soon as possible.
Two royal guards arrived in a skipper in Desmek that driev, having been stuck behind them due to the weather in the pass. He decided he would take them and the tevvy up to Wulphera. He sent Sahayna and Carmis back to Djramei; Carmis to retrieve some essentials from the capital and bring them to him, and Sahayna because she’d been asking a variety of unwelcome questions following her interviews with the devotees. Had he considered appealing to the girl? What would they do with her once they had her? As if the girl had control over the Infinite Creature, something so beyond their understanding. If there was anything left of the girl by the time he found her it was surely only enough to play pretend at being a person, like a puppet.
He had seen the visions of the creature all his life. He knew it, along with the figure from his visions, was the key to the end of everything. He only needed to track it down and complete the binding. Once he controlled it he would be able to stop the end of all things. He would be able to figure out how to reverse the shift, even refill the fen wells, with that kind of power. He thought about these things on the long drive to the ruined city.
The land became dry and arid well before the ruins of the former city were visible on the horizon. The ground was cracked and dusty, the tevvy kicking up a vast cloud behind them as they zipped along over the scar on the land. When they finally arrived it took some time to get to the heart of the ruins as they had to go most of the way on foot, the barely existing roads too decayed to safely navigate the tevvy.
It was when they found themselves looking down at the ancient, broken, convergence point that Teramyn felt the familiar swell in his brain of a vision pushing itself through his background thoughts to the forefront of his mind. Images swirled behind his eyes and he felt light headed, reaching out to place a steadying hand on one of his companions.
She has been there. Her and the other person, who he could not for the life of him get a read on. He knew they were with the girl but they were always only vague. He wasn’t concerned about that so much as where they had gone. In his mind he saw the convergence point, a light, a swell of energy and then…nothing.
He tried and tried for lofvs to scry for where they had gone but he couldn’t get anything that gave up their whereabouts, only glimpses that meant nothing to him. It was fine though, he had at least two driev’ before his requested aid arrived and he would find her before then. He could feel that he was getting closer. The residual energy left behind by the creature was stronger, cleaner, there in the ruins only because it wasn’t muddied with the lingering fen of all the others in the temple.
He would not underestimate the power or the trickiness of the creature, even at the risk of the new crown appearing aggressive by sending a proper troop of mages to assist in apprehending it. The political impacts were trivial in the grand scheme of things though. None of it would matter if the prophecy was allowed to proceed. He would do whatever it took to get his ultimate weapon against the [ivellacht vail’le] back. If everyone had seen what he’d seen they would understand that the ends would justify the means.
…
…
…
They took a skipper back over the mountains, just Sahayna, Carmis and their chauffeur, and she deeply regretted complaining about the tevvy. There was hardly room to move in the cramped cabin and in comparison the tevvy seemed luxurious. The skipper was faster, sure, pulled by a small team of arcter’s steady hooves instead of the sail due to the inclement weather. The trade-off was that the cabin roof was so low it required them to stay on their knees at the best of times and there was just barely enough room inside for all three people to lay down and sleep for the nentes they would have to spend in it before they arrived back in Djramei.
Teramyn had announced that he would not return with them and instead continue to pursue the girl. She had tried to talk him into coming back to the capital with them, to regroup and figure out a better plan but the man was resolute. It concerned her because she didn’t need the kind of fen he had to feel the dark desperation growing in him. He’d had a vision while they were there, producing another prophecy stone. Then he’d had a dream that nente that left him shaken. He’d confided in her the following dreivette that he was afraid they were running out of time. Sahayna touched her hand to her pocket, within which she could feel the enclosed stone she’d been tasked with taking back to the capital. She’d spent several lof rolling it in her hand, trying to glean everything she could from the glimpses it offered.
She saw it in her mind''s eye, the fiery figure the stone showed. She’d seen it before in her own vision. It’s what had brought her and many others to Teramyn in the first place.
Teramyn had his first vision of the end of everything as a child. It came as a recurring nightmare that he woke from screaming each nente. His family quickly became familiar with the events that were unfolding in his head but they did not have the ability to travel the long distance to see a priestess or an oracle. However when he became an adolescent and produced his first prophecy stone his family could no longer ignore the signs. He went to them, stone in hand and prophetic words spilling from his lips and it was decided he would be sent bid with the farming caravans come that Sol season. His ana traveled with him all the way to the Grand Temple in Karnen where they had been expected and Teramyn was immediately welcomed into the ranks as one of the youngest prophets.
As the solcen passed one after another, more and more people were drawn to the Grand Temple in search of the boy. They all claimed visions or dreams that led them there in search of a boy that they immediately recognized as the young prophet.
Sahayna had been one of them.
She’d been the only other one to receive visions of the figure bathed in flames. Teramyn called the figure in the visions the Seltoldev, god of the end. She had only seen it once but it had been enough. The toll of being in the presence of that figure was immense, the heat pressing in on all sides, choking out any air, sucking it from her lungs. More than that though was the overpowering waves of despair that rolled out from them. It was enough to bring her to her knees, even in a vision. It was enough for her to pledge to keep the vision from coming to fruition no matter what.
She believed in the cause.
Again she rolled the tiny stone through the fabric of her pocket and reminded herself of that until sleep found her.
***
It was late when they finally arrived in Djramei and the palace could be seen on the hill through the single tiny window in the skipper. It was one of her favorite things about the capital, how picturesque the landscape leading up to the castle was, even during Votton. It was lush with short fluffy trees surrounding the castle and the road. Wide patches of glowing Niesium dotted the land around the castle and trickled down the hill where the seeds had spread on the wind. They could hear the thundering of arcter hooves on the smooth paved streets rather than the snowy mountainside. She was equal parts excited and exhausted as she waited patiently to be let in through the palace gates and finally, finally the driver stopped the tiny craft and killed the engine, setting it down with a thunk.
Carmis hardly even waited for the drop before he was cranking the handle on the hatch and crawling out into the nente. The cold air rushed into the tiny compartment and while it chilled Sahayna straight through it was a welcome relief to the stuffy cabin. She crawled to the open door and scooted herself out feet-first onto the palace driveway and stuffed her hat over her messy hair. There were attendants and staff to take her single small bag and offer her a heavy cloak which she gladly took. There were voices speaking to her from multiple mouths and she barely processed any of it.
Nimel- thank the gods for Nimel, they were there to help field the questions and offered to get back to people ‘once the Grand Wizard Sahayna has had time to collect her thoughts’. The apprentice led her around the side of the palace the long way to the tower. She would have complained but she knew they’d done it to avoid further demanding generals and royal staff that no doubt had even more questions.
Everyone wanted to know about what had happened and what was going on, what had gone wrong at the summoning? What were they doing to recover the [the vott]? Sahayna didn’t have answers to those questions yet but she knew she’d have to provide something sooner rather than later.
They let themselves in through the staff door at the back of the tower. The lights were lit but if Carmis had already been there, there was no sign of him now. He was meant to meet with Teramyn somewhere along the route once he''d determined the girl''s location. She frankly wasn’t worried about whatever Carmis did, she just wanted to go and stretch herself across her bed like a star and sleep uninterrupted for at least a handful of lof before she had to get up and figure out all those answers.
The fire was lit in her chambers already and she nearly melted into the chair right across from it. She didn’t even realize her eyes had closed when Nimel made a soft noise in their throat and her eyes shot open to find the apprentice seated upon the plush ottoman across from her. She heaved herself up into a more upright position placing her elbows on her knees and lacing her fingers together.
“Alright, tell me only the most vital things now. The rest can wait on drievett after I’ve taken a meal.” she sighed. Nimel had several pages stacked together in their hands which they shuffled through. Once they had the one they wanted they leaned into the firelight.
“Grand Wizard Teramyn has called to mobilize the royal guard to meet him en route at a location near the ruins of Wulphera-”
“HE WHAT?!” Her voice echoed around the room. This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
“Yes, that is by far the most vital thing that everyone wants an answer for.” Their dry, factual delivery and level headedness was something Sahayna deeply appreciated about her student but sometimes their words struck like a fist. She placed her forehead in one of her hands and took a deep, grounding breath.
“When did this happen?”
“drievett arszo. He sent the message directly through an oracle at the temple and the news was out before Ahraan had risen.” They dutifully flipped a page in their stack and continued. “The captain of the guard has dedicated a group that will go however they want to meet with you first before they send off their team. As you can imagine everyone is concerned-”
“By what looks like a show of power or an act of war,” she finished.
“Correct. As per the consensus not everyone agrees with the new monarchy. It would be unwise to instigate anything at this point.”
“Teramyn said nothing of mobilizing before he and I parted ways.” Sahayna sighed again, long and pained. “Please tell me that is the only thing that needs my immediate attention…” She looked to Nimel as they flipped another page but then flipped back again and nodded seeming content.
“Yes. The rest can wait.”
“Fantastic. Please get some sleep if you can. Szoret driev will be long.”
They bid each other well for the nente and Sahayna stayed sat in her plush chair by the fire for quite some time. She let the heat soak into her aching bones until the fire began to burn down. When there were only embers left and the room had settled at a reasonable temperature she rose from her chair and went through her regular routine, hat on the post at the end of her bed and first to the washroom to wash away the stale smell of the skipper and then to her wardrobe for clean robes. She slipped on her palace shoes to keep the chill that settled in the stone floors out. She stared at her cloak on the hanger, torn because she should lie down and at least rest but she also knew she wouldn’t be able to sleep now.
She pulled her cloak out and threw it over herself.
She’d spent an entire driev interviewing members of the Desmek temple. They’d all been heavily shaken by what they’d seen and she’d had to interview them each one at a time in order to keep them from upsetting and interrupting each other. Most of them had similar accounts of what happened; they’d heard the commotion from wherever they had been in the building and rushed to the scene, they’d seen the creature, which none of them could describe. What they had been able to describe was gruesome, how it had…liquefied, or something akin to it, anyone that got near it.
What had her quietly slipping out of her quarters though and into the dark hall was something that one of the younger acolytes had told her in the quiet of the office they’d met in.
She ghosted down the long hall of the main floor from her chambers back to the tower, back to the stairs. She took her time up each step, dread weighing heavy on her as she went. What was she even going to do? Then she thought again of the acolytes'' snotty, teary face as she recounted her experience.
Like the others she couldn’t describe the monster but she did describe the girl. She’d been in the main hall when the creature had emerged into the open area. She saw as it slurped up other members of the temple as it moved. When a wave of energy and heat burst from the monster she’d been thrown back and trapped under a bench that went with her. She said she’d blacked out and when she woke the building was ablaze and she could hear someone sobbing. She looked up to see a figure on the debris covered floor as smoke quickly filled the room. She could see a young woman, her curly hair was a mess and she was covered in soot and some kind of shifting, iridescent goo.
The woman was sobbing into the floor and speaking between hiccups and tears. Between the flames cracking, bursts of activating tevedev and the crying it was hard to understand her but the acolyte had managed to catch several things. She’d screamed into the floor that she wanted it to end, that she wished she was dead. She was quiet for a moment after and the acolyte had thought maybe she was dead. That’s when she heard footsteps and the young man arrived. He quickly went to the woman, calling out to her- Mezalie was her name. When he roused her she cried that everyone was dead, why had they done this to her?
The acolyte didn''t hear what the other person said back but she saw the bright ring of light open up behind them and then they disappeared. The girl had called for help and thankfully had been rescued before the flames spread to where she was trapped. They’d been able to use the emergency procedures, meant in case of an especially bad burning hail, to put the fires out and save most of the building. It would take several ven if not an entire luel to truly clean the mess inside though. On top of that the trauma that the remaining oracles and devotees now carried may drive them away from the temple altogether. She and Teramyn had done their absolute best to counsel and assure the followers that the tragedy would not go unacknowledged. They would send help from the palace to clean and rebuild. They would send oracles and wizards from nearby temples to fill the gap in community needs.
She desperately hoped it would be enough. It had to be enough. They couldn''t afford to lose followers to Great Doubts now when things were still so unstable; Ahshka was barely on the throne. It had been unthinkable at first that it could even happen, a child king winning the favor but somehow Teramyn had done it. The man had a way with winning people’s faith.
Teramyn''s following had practically built itself, with more and more people arriving every driev in search of the face from their visions. Most of his initial followers were already Whisper sensitive before suddenly becoming plagued by visions of ‘the end of all things’ that drove them to seek out the End Prophet. Teramyn didn''t like the moniker, preferring instead to call themselves the Modern Devout of the Unknowable Expanse, or just The Modern Devout.
And he had a plan to stop The End.
As she reached the landing at the top of the tower she kept her steps light and immediately felt silly for doing so because there was no reason to sneak. She was allowed in her own tower. She was allowed in any room she wanted.
She believed in the plan. Everything was fine.
So what was she doing sneaking around in her own shared tower hoping to snoop through her colleague, and mentors, things? Because ultimately that''s what she was doing and she knew it.
She was maybe having doubts.
Small ones though. And perhaps sating her curiosity would remove them from her conscience. She could not afford to have doubts now.
The tower landing was dark, all the windows were in the rooms themselves and with no lamp she had to fumble her way to the door she knew led to the prophecy room. She''d done it many times before. The door was slightly ajar and pushed open easily. She felt around on the wall for the fen switch until she found the familiar shape and pushed her fen into it. The switch glowed green first before setting alight several overhead lights that also glowed with a slight green tint to them.
She wasn''t sure what she was looking for yet… Something that would prove to her that her feelings of unease, that Teramyn was hiding something from her, were false and that her devotion was good and just. She''d justified a lot of things in the name of the plan. She''d sacrificed a lot of things in the name of the plan.
She went immediately to the edge of Teramyn’s workspace and she paused, unsure if she could do it at first. She wanted to believe she wouldn''t but then her feet took her forward and she stepped down into the round recess in the stone floor that served as a multi-use space. It was identical to her own on the other side of the tower. There was a small round table in the center with just enough room on all sides to walk around it. Along the curved wall there were drawers that followed the curve of the wall. One of the drawers was slightly ajar and she went first to it. She put her hand on the handle and she wanted to simply push it closed and turn and go but she just…couldn’t. Something in her gut didn’t feel right and she knew she wouldn’t be able to go until she knew.
She rifled through the contents of the drawer and found nothing especially incriminating. The first drawer was mostly loose texts and booklets. They appeared to be notes on work they’d done but she’d already seen all of them, she’d written half of them. The next drawer was simply extra supplies and odd ends. Teramyn’s things were in especially careful order; everything had its place. She was on her third drawer, steam quickly dissipating as she felt uncertain about what she was even looking for. She certainly wasn’t going to find a confession of wrongdoing.
She had asked to look into the mind of the young acolyte for her memories of the experience. Her account had been so different from the others and she had needed to see it for herself. It had sent a cold shiver down her spine to hear the broken sobs of a girl pushed to her limits and not that of someone nefarious with ill intent towards those around them.
Teramyn had said that Infinite Creature had been stolen, that the girl had taken it from them. It had been implied that she was controlling the Infinite Creature to pursue her own ends but Sahayna couldn’t put the picture of the broken girl she’d seen and the supposed thief together into one. And on top of all that, what of the mystery person with her, who were they?
Something just didn’t add up. And now he was mobilizing forces in a move he had not discussed with her or with anyone, it seemed, before deciding on. The fear of war was still strong in the minds of the people, even two generations later. Their history was not quickly forgotten.
Teramyn warned of an impending war like nothing they’d seen previously, a war of the gods, if the prophecy came to pass. The fear that something so catastrophic was possible loomed in the minds of people now that word was spreading about what had happened, about the creature.
A noise came from behind her and Sahayna jumped, whipping around to look, scanning the room but she saw nobody. She did see however, that the stone case was open, which she found odd. She didn’t think the latch was faulty, at least not last she’d checked. She slowly pushed the drawer she’d been in closed and turned towards the case. She stepped up out of the recess and she saw on the floor in front of the case a small, round, white stone. A prophecy stone. She approached the area cautiously, unsure what was going on. A few steps away she stopped, looking at the case, door ajar, and to the stone, frowning.
“You shouldn’t be here.” she said.
She nearly jumped out of her skin, releasing a shriek when Carmis materialized in front of her. He had a look of shock in response and reached out to steady her. She placed a hand over her racing heart.
“I’m so sorry Grand Wizard Sahayna. I didn’t mean to scare you. I thought you knew. I thought you were talking to me.” She looked up into his apologetic face and couldn’t help the little chuckle that escaped her.
“No. I was talking to the stone. Which sounds silly out loud.” She took a deep, steadying breath. “And I suppose you were here the whole time?” She asked.
“I-yes…” he thought better of a lie. He had all but admitted guilt already.
“So, I caught you sneaking about and you’ve caught me sneaking about. Where does that leave us?” She took a step back, straightening up and regarding the apprentice with narrowed eyes. He looked pained and hesitant as she stared him down. While he was an incredibly gifted young man she knew that he would rather go unnoticed at any given point and being under scrutiny was not his strong suit.
“I swear to the gods I did not see anything and if I did I would never speak of it.” He insisted.
“Ah ah.” She tutted. She stooped down to scoop up the round stone off the floor, pulling the sleeve of her cloak over her fingers before touching it. “Maybe you didn’t but I certainly did.” She held the stone out between them, regarding it and then the young man. “What exactly compelled you into sneaking up here to go through your mentor’s things?”
“I really couldn’t say.” He kept his face blank giving nothing away. She knew she had to be delicate if she wanted the young man to talk to her. She realized that maybe he was what she had been looking for, a sign that her doubt wasn’t unfounded.
“Carmis. I’m asking you this as…as a friend. Not as a mentor, not as a Grand Wizard. Just me to you and I hope you can tell that I am sincere in asking. Do you understand?” She hoped that her face showed the desperation she was starting to feel. Slowly he nodded, saying nothing as he waited for her to go on. “I have reason to think that Teramyn may be hiding something from us all about his true intentions. What do you know that brought you up here?”
Carmis sighed deeply and brought both his hands up to rub his face before shifting his weight on his feet. “Miss Sahayna, if I may, my loyalties have and always will lie with Ahshka first and foremost. My position with Teramyn is a byproduct of politics but it keeps me close. That said I feel that mobilizing the guard is far too risky a move. I’ve felt for some time that something was off with Gran- with Teramyn. I’m so sorry, I know we cannot doubt but I couldn’t just stand by.”
“We are of the same mind on that, actually.” She told him. He''d voiced her concerns exactly. He looked down at the floor, his eyebrows drawing in and she could see him biting the inside of his cheek. She waited, letting him consider his words.
“I swore secrecy to Teramyn but I no longer feel it is in the best interests of Ahshka to keep it.” He said slowly, in a low voice. He took a deep breath. “Grand Wizard Teramyn is an extremely regular, routine-oriented individual and lately he has been acting increasingly erratic. He often goes into a frenzy where he will scry for lofvs and fill page after page with unintelligible writings. He says they''re coming from ‘the other side’ but I still don''t know what that means. He''s having nente-terrors. He''s becoming paranoid. The list goes on.”
Sahayna was shocked. She thought that she and Teramyn were rather close and that she had a good handle on his behavior but what Carmis was describing was far beyond her imagining. She couldn''t believe that she''d missed something so huge.
“Where are the writings?” She asked.
“He burns them but,” he leaned in and spoke softly, “I did keep one.”
“Meet me in my tower room with it. We have a lot to discuss before the drievett.”