The World Moves On

As the morning arrived on the 7th of Highbright, the town of Glory’s Coast was bustling as always. Merchants prepared for the day ahead of them, adventurers started their daily commute to the guild hall, and the harbor was already busy with the sounds of cargo being loaded and unloaded. As the town was buzzing with activity, there was a man sitting at a table in a tavern. His pale green skin and fine clothes were already commonplace in this tavern.

As he sat at this table alone, there was a sound of a bell ringing as the door to the tavern opened behind him. He looked back to see who it was, but it wasn’t the people he was looking for. As he waited, he looked at his newly purchased gear. It was already well after sunrise, but there was still some time before his party had decided to leave for their job, so he had gone to a blacksmith to purchase new gear to replace the ones he had tossed into the ocean. His new shield was still very high-quality, but it didn’t compare to his old shield on that matter. It was still a tower shield, but it had a very simple design and was made from simple steel. His new spear was nowhere near as high quality as his glaive was. His new spear was much shorter and could be used with one hand, so he could dual wield his shield and spear, but the design was crude, simply a steel spearhead on a wooden pole. The man hadn’t wanted to spend all of his money on high-quality weapons, so he just chose to get a good shield.

The door opened once more as a woman with golden skin and black, ram-like horns walked in and sat at the table next to the man. The man was clearly confused at seeing her alone, but she reassured, “Give her a few more minutes to get here. She said she needed to buy something.” As the woman sat there, she opened a birdcage she was carrying and let out a sleeping imp. The imp was gently laid onto the table as the woman pulled out an assortment of grapes. She slowly began destemming the grapes while she waited for the imp to awaken. She was quickly followed by a different woman opening the door to the tavern. Her pale blue skin and lavender hair acted as proof enough for the two at the table to signal her to join them. She was carrying a large leather tube that she opened to reveal a large map of the continent. “This should be helpful in our coming tasks, so I decided to buy it.” As the three sat and waited for their final companion, the woman in green robes and polished armor silently held the hand of the woman next to her. The woman in armor slowly polished her mace with her free hand while the other continued to feed grapes to the now-awake imp with hers.

The door opened one last time as a tall half-dragon with red scales rushed in. He looked at the table while the other three stared back, waiting for him to join them. “Damn. I thought I’d be here first.” The man set down his staff on the table, taking up all of the open space that would have been perfect for eating. Then, he stepped in between the two women and squeezed himself between the two on the bench. He had a roguish smirk on his face when he said, “Oh, am I interrupting something?” Unfortunately for him, the other man picked up the staff to smack him in the head. As he clutched his swelling forehead, he cried, “What did I do?! It was just a joke!” The two women scooted aside to make room for the wide man as the other man called over a tavern maid. “Let’s get some food and then go get this job done quickly.” As the party known as Yurasha began their day, the world around them kept moving…

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In the easternmost city of the Hidden Lands, the most populated city and the capital of the Pearl Republic, Triangle’s Coast, there were two well-known adventuring parties that were currently on the move throughout the massive port city. One had just disembarked from a passenger ship in the harbor, while the other was about to board that same ship. These two parties were both familiar with each other, being the most experienced parties from Glory’s Coast, the greatest hub for adventurers. One member stepped forward from each party to meet in the middle of the harbor that was quickly growing in tension.

From the party that was about to board the ship, a short and stout dwarf woman carrying a golden shield embedded with diamonds on her back stepped forward. In response, a human man with tired eyes and a staff topped with a crystal stepped forward. Both were the leaders of their respective parties. The dwarf woman was the first to speak, venom in her words as she spat, “Do you wanna fight, Swiftstone? Or will you run away again?” “Ms. Wildaxe, I assure you that I have no intention to fight, but that doesn’t mean I’ll be running away.” “That would be a first for the League of Silver, wouldn’t it?”

The members of the League of Silver were about to step forward to fight, but their leader, Gavin Swiftstone, held his hand out to stop them. “I’m actually here because I found some useful information. I’d be willing to sell it to you for a reasonable price.”

“Just stop right there, Swiftstone. Lost Watch doesn’t need your information.” The leader of the party called Lost Watch, Whitney Wildaxe, began to walk toward the waiting ship, but Gavin Swiftstone called out to her with a simple phrase: “The Staff of Sands.”

She stopped. “You have five minutes, then I choose how much that information is worth.”

“I knew you’d see reason. I’ve heard of a tool from my goddess. It apparently has the ability to destroy The Sands of Time. If we destroy that power, the Tomb wouldn’t reset and we could finally kill The Forgotten-”

“That’s your goal, not mine. We need to leave now, so here’s ten gold.” She tossed him a small pouch as her party began pushing past the League of Silver.

As Whitney Wildaxe and Lost Watch boarded their ship to the port city of Ies’ta in N’daro, Gavin Swiftstone and the League of Silver began walking through the city of Triangle’s Coast. Triangle’s Coast, as the largest city on the continent and the de facto capital of the Pearl Republic, was home to many people of many different walks of life. Being a major port city on the Triangle Sea, it was home to a large harbor that welcomed ships from its two sister cities in N’daro: El’aa and Ies’ta. El’aa was a small island in the middle of the Triangle Sea, while Ies’ta was a port city on the mainland of N’daro. The Triangle Sea had strange currents that circled around El’aa, making travel between Ies’ta and Triangle’s Coast simple, but travel to El’aa difficult. However, El’aa was also rich in high-quality jewels and minerals, so the difficult journey was well worth its potential cost.

In addition to the harbor, the oldest and most famous temple of the Holy Erdeniin Church was located in Triangle’s Coast. The Azure Temple was the only structure that survived a massive magical disaster that destroyed the nation that previously lived in the Hidden Lands. Because of that, it became a popular destination for pilgrimage among believers, as well as a place that priests would stop at before or after a journey to the Hidden Lands. That was where Gavin Swiftstone was headed, leaving his party to find boarding for the night while he attended to his personal business.

As Swiftstone approached the large temple built out of fine marble and decorated with small blue gems, a small orc man exited the building to greet him. The orc man was covered in wrinkles, his posture was nearly curled over the cane that he needed to hold himself in a standing position, and his eyes were pale with cataracts, but his smile was ever-present.

“Gavin, is that you? I heard from Lady Amidra that you would be arriving here soon.”

“Father Verdan, I completed my task that Lady Sanaa gave to me. I found information about the tool that will lead to the true death of The Forgotten. I now plan to begin a search for the Staff of Sands.”

“That’s very good, Gavin, but I would hope that you take some time to rest. Doing good work is important, but you cannot forget your own health.”

“I understand, Father Verdan, but I do need to stay on the trail of this lead.”

“Then I will ask you to stay here in town for two nights. We do have a great deal of information at the temple library. Please, for my peace of mind, rest.”

As William Verdan and Gavin Swiftstone entered the temple, the world around them kept moving…

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As the sun was high in the midday sky, Whitney Wildaxe and Lost Watch were on a ship bound for Ies’ta. While her party was currently trying to avoid losing their lunch, she was laying on her bed in her room. She had made this journey between the Hidden Lands and N’daro many times before, so she was already adjusted to the rocking of the waves. She was keeping herself busy by polishing her holy symbol, her shield, and waiting for dinner.

“Hey, Whit, could you do some healing stuff on me? I’m really not taking the waves well.”

A young elf girl with normally bright sky-blue eyes and suntanned skin walked in, looking nearly green. She carried a gnarled and knotted tree branch with a crook at its top where a small brass bell hung. She wore rather normal traveling clothes, which were abnormal, given her perceived specialty, but also wore a mantle of ruby red feathers around her neck.

“Git over here, I’ll help ya out, Astrid.” As the dwarf woman began chanting a small healing prayer, the color began to return to the elf girl’s face. “Ease the pain of this one, o Golden Day.” As the elf girl stood back up, feeling somewhat better, Whitney Wildaxe chuckled slightly and said, “Ya know, you of all people should be better at handlin’ this. Can’t you turn into a bird or somethin’?”

“And then have to fly all the way to Aunt Roz? No thanks. I’ll stick with getting healed when I’m about to lose my stomach.”

“What about Cyg? How’s your brother takin’ things?”

“He’s doing better than me, but not much. Ezza’s having the most trouble. They’ve been leaning over the side of the ship basically since we left.”

Whitney took the news as proof that she should join her party on the deck. If she was with the others, she could do some healing to make sure that no one had too much trouble with the rocking. She stood up and was about to open the door when Astrid asked a question.

“Hey, Whit? What are we going to do after we check on Aunt Roz? Are we going to go after the thing that the League of Silver mentioned?”

“I’ve got a plan for that. We should go check with yer folks. Uncle Cygnus or Aunt Tris should know more about magic stuff than me. We’ll go check on Aunt Roz, then find our way to Lingyu. It might take us a month to git to Glory’s Coast after that, but if that info’s good, we’ll be set fer a while.”

With that, Whitney Wildaxe made her way to the deck to help heal her party. As the members of Lost Watch embarked on a journey across the Triangle Sea, the world around them kept moving…

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Shortly after midday, in the town of Fog’s Spear, on the eastern bank of the Gulf of Tsooyil, there was an important meeting happening between two people who didn’t know each other. One was an old elven man with long white hair and black robes. The other was a tall human woman with skin pale as a sheet and hair that was more white than blonde. The town was always inundated with fog, seemingly appearing from nowhere, but today, the fog was thicker than normal.

“I have answered your summons because I was told that I could receive funding for my research. This will not be a waste of my time, I hope.”

The woman’s mouth didn’t move when she spoke. The voice simply seemed to emanate from the area around her head. “I have an amount of currency that is worth your time. My lady simply requests that you kill any Speakers that cross your path. In exchange, you will be given 500 standard gold per head. If you wish to accept this offer, you will begin with this one right here.”

The woman’s hand burst into purple flames as a bound and gagged human woman fell to the ground in front of the elven man, seemingly from out of nowhere. She wore loose linen clothes with a heavy leather apron and thick leather gloves. Around her neck was a small flame-like ruby on a leather cord, the symbol of Khail, the Burning Flame. “Kill this woman and you will be given this small chest of 500 standard gold.”

There was a long pause while the elven man considered, but with a wave of his hand, the woman disappeared. “This was a waste of my time. I receive 1000 gold per year from the Mage Guild. Nothing you can provide to me is worth the wasted time and effort. Tell your lady that she must find a less busy ally.”

“I see. There is one more piece of information that can change your mind. A certain young woman who escaped from your grasp is currently being accompanied by a Speaker. If you kill that Speaker, you will reobtain your escaped experiment. For that information and the payment, I would ask that you kill the Speaker that you just teleported into your tower.”

The elven man slowly twisted a bracelet engraved with arcane symbol on his wrist while he thought. With a simple tap on the bracelet, the bound and gagged woman suddenly appeared in the sky, 50 feet above the two who were talking. As she landed on the ground with a sickening squelch, Aether Illibraut snapped his fingers and teleported himself and the chest of gold back into his tower. His laboratory was scattered with half-finished experiments. In a cage that previously been occupied by the experiment that granted him the title of Archmage, there was now a pane of cloudy glass that was half-covered in runes. In front of it, there was a small red glass orb that glowed faintly.

“Have you returned from your meeting yet, worm?”

“Yes, Your Eminence. I have returned. With this additional funding, I should be able to procure the materials to finish the Mirror of The Endless. With that, you will be able to make your return soon.”

“Get on with it then, worm. We only have this short opportunity to capture a fallen angel. Itheros, that brainless buffoon. He truly underestimates my abilities. When I make my return, we have our two targets: the fallen archangel, Itheros, and your unfinished experiment.”

“And on that matter, I have found where to find the experiment. With that knowledge, we will be able to finish your request for a spell to corrupt the celestial forces.”

“Things are moving well ahead of schedule. I will leave you to it then, worm.” With that, the red orb stopped glowing and Aether Illibraut returned to his work of slowly carving symbols into glass. But around him, the world kept moving…

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In the early evening, a short distance outside the outer walls of Glory’s Coast, Yurasha was silently watching a group of bandits begin to build a bonfire in the mouth of a cave while they sat on large wooden crates that hadn’t been opened. They had spent the earlier part of the day searching the area around the town for any evidence of bandits, but had no luck. Shortly after midday, Ulyx the imp, who had been flying around looking for the bandits, returned to Asyr with a lead. In a cave secreted away within the hills of the northern coast of the Hidden Lands, a group of bandits were hiding from sight while they planned what to do with their ill-gotten loot.

“I think we just secretly go into town and sell the stuff. Surely someone’ll buy it.”

“You moron, we stole it from the town. If we sell it there, they’ve gotta know it was us.”

“Pipe down, you two. You’re both equally idiots. We just need to get to a different city, then we can sell it. Someone needs to go out and steal a cart with a horse.”

With that, the plan was set into motion. As a single bandit exited from the cave, a large figure was there, waiting for him. Dorak cracked the bandit across the jaw with his staff, leaving him rattled in the brain enough for Asyr to speak a word into his ear: “Exepnos.” With that, the bandit passed out and began snoring loudly. There was a sound of commotion coming from inside the cave.

“Hey, who’s snorin’? No sleepin’ on the job!”

“Dammit, why does he snore?!” Dorak whisper-shouted at Asyr while quickly motioning to Hal and Isha, who were waiting on the other side of the cave mouth.

With that signal, Hal leapt into action, carrying his new shield and spear, while Isha began to chant a prayer behind him. Hal quickly ran to the nearest bandit and bashed him with the shield, knocking him onto the ground, then smacked him in the head with the flat butt of the spear. There were 17 more. The numbers weren’t to their advantage.

“I summon your storms, my goddess.”

Hal was approached by two bandits who both held daggers. Hal had the length advantage and a shield, so he’d be fine, but there were three more following closely behind those two. He’d quickly get outnumbered at this rate.

Suddenly, in a flash from behind, a staff got thrown at one of the bandits that was approaching Hal. It sparked with a small hint of lightning, but nothing lethal. It smacked into the bandit’s head, knocking him unconscious as a small jolt went through his body.

One of the other approaching bandits made eye contact with someone behind Hal. “Halt!” The bandit was suddenly unable to move a muscle, allowing Dorak to grab his thrown staff and whip it around to crack the unmoving bandit across the head. “Hey, I think that power word might be overkill for a couple of bandits.”

“It’s one of the weaker spells I can use that’ll work for this.”

“That doesn’t make me feel good, ya know.”

“I summon the four winds and the five waters,”

“Let’s get the rest of these guys so we don’t have to rely on the backup plan, please?”

With that, Hal, Dorak, and Asyr became a waltz. Step one, Asyr Halts a bandit. Step two, Hal knocks a different bandit to the ground. Step three, Dorak knocks both out. This was by no means a well-oiled machine, but it got the job done well enough.

“So that you may bring destruction to these non-believers!”

Trying to kill a person is much easier than trying to just knock them out, so the job was more difficult than many would expect, but it wasn’t hard. The biggest problem, of course, were the numbers. There were only nine left, but the bandits were retreating to the back of the cave. At this point, they were out of time for the original plan. Hal, Dorak, and Asyr ran out of the cave. This left the bandits confused as a single word was spoken by Isha: “HURRICANE!”

Gale-force winds and torrential rain were summoned forth, directly into the cave. The bandits were already at the back of the cave, so there wasn’t anywhere for the winds to push them, but this also left them with no ability to move from their positions, pinned against the rocky wall.

As Isha stepped forward, her mace raised, the winds grew in pressure. The storm was entirely emanating from the mace, which left the area behind Isha unaffected. This allowed Hal and Dorak to begin grabbing the unopened crates while Asyr checked to make sure none of the bandits had died. As the pressure from the wind and rain continued to grow, the bandits who were pressed against the wall grew more and more exhausted by trying to fight the pressure, eventually leading to one bandit passing out, then two, then five, then all of the bandits were unconscious.

With a heavy breath, Isha stopped the hurricane and stumbled to one knee. Asyr ran over to her side, but Isha brushed her off. “I’m fine. That miracle isn’t exactly meant to work like that. I was having to use my own magic to control the winds and rain.”

“Nice work, Sparky! Let’s tie up these guys and get them on the carts. We don’t wanna be out past dark without any lights.” As the party gathered the unconscious bandits on one cart and the cargo on the other, Hal and Dorak each took one of the driver’s seats, Hal driving the cargo and Dorak driving the bandits.

“There’s only enough room for one of each of you on either cart, so pick one,” explained Hal, trying to hurry the two who hadn’t climbed aboard a cart.

“Yeah, we didn’t want the two of you getting distracted while we’re working.”

“What’s that supposed to mean, Dorak?!” accused Isha, her face trying not to turn a flustered purple.

“I can go with Dorak. If one of the bandits is about to wake up, I can put them back to sleep.”

“No. You know what, Asyr? We’re going to be sitting with the cargo.” Isha grabbed Asyr’s hand and began dragging her to the cart driven by Hal. As Isha climbed into the back of the cart, she lifted Asyr with her and sat the two of them down next to the large crates. It wasn’t a comfortable fit, but that just meant that the two of them had to sit closer together. As they looked back at Dorak’s cart, he made a gesture like he was snapping his own neck while Isha rolled her eyes.

Hal snapped the reins and gave a whistle to get the carts moving. As the party made their way back to Glory’s Coast, the sun began to set, but the world around them kept moving…

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In an unknown place, where the sun could not reach, there were only four things: ocean water, rocky cliffs, a glaive, and a shield. While the sun was already set, even during the day, the sun would not be able to reach this deep underwater. While the waves were strong against the coast, they were too weak to move the weapons that had been discarded. However, there was one thing that could see those weapons. A force beyond the mortal realm which desired nothing more than to consume and devour.

“Thisss hasss been quite long enough. I think I ssshall return these to their proper owner now.”

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In a simple room on the second floor of The Sea’s Embrace, Hal Sevenoaks was polishing his new shield and spear. He set them down beside his bed for a moment to remove his outer gear. However, when he turned around, he heard a clatter behind him. He turned back only to find that his new spear and shield were gone, replaced by a familiar, yet frightening sight. There was a long glaive that had toppled over. Its silver hilt and golden blade were joined together by a golden snake-like carving. On the pommel, there was a simple blue tassel on the golden cap. This was the glaive, Extol. Beside it was a tall tower shield. Its steel face had golden trim and a golden circle at the center connected to the area on the back where it would be held. The face was painted white with a golden snake emerging from the center. This was the shield, Trius.

Hal searched around the bed where he had set the new shield and spear, but they were nowhere to be found. As he desperately searched, a quiet, hissing laughter began to make its presence known within the depths of his mind.

“I told you that I am not the glaive, nor am I the ssshield.”

“Why are they back?”

“Asss much asss I enjoy ssseeing you believe that you can avoid me, I alssso enjoy ssseeing you try to avoid me. Your other ssspear and ssshield are ssspending sssome time where you thought I could not reach you.”

“Why can’t you just leave me alone?”

“Oh, that’sss not fun! I will eat you lassst.” The change in tone between the two sentences indicated a complete change in the level of danger in the room.

“I will remind you, Hal Sssevenoaksss, that I am going to return. It will happen and it will be by your hand. If you wisssh to make thisss difficult, I can exert sssome minor control over luck. I feed on hope, leaving only dessspair in itsss place. There will come a time when you feel hope ssso great that it will be powerful enough for me to return once I feed on it. If you wisssh to prevent that, then wallow in dessspair. Your life will end in misssery either way. Know sssimply that you cannot avoid me. Thessse ssshall act asss that reminder.”

As Hal stared at the glaive and shield, he could almost swear that he saw the snakes move, but there was nothing he could do to fight back against a creature that had no physical form. With a breath held within his throat, he sat on the bed, hoping that he would be able to fall asleep. As the night continued on, Hal simply stared at the ceiling above him, unable to sleep with the constant sound of hissing in the back of his mind, but as his thoughts raced, the world around him kept moving as night turned once more into day and the sun rose once more. Extoltrius may come some day, but until that happens, the world continues to turn. As Yurasha wakes to take on a request that will bring them across the continent, the world keeps moving. As forces in the world work to bring about plans that will someday bear fruit, time continues to move forward, grain of sand after grain of sand. And in the one place where time does not move, an unknowable force awaits.