Hints of Conflict

Serric led us down the stairs. We descended for about 15 seconds before coming to a small underground room. The walls were dirt, and there was no clear source of light anywhere, but despite that, it was reasonably well lit. It contained nothing but a spherical void, floating in the center of the room, with a radius of roughly 2 meters.

"This is the pinnacle of my own aspect, Augur of the Pilgrims. Lay your hand on the apparatus and it will reveal to you the name of yours, determined from your own unconscious perception of it."

I felt uneasy about touching this mystery orb, but I steeled my resolve and walked up to it, placing my hand on the surface. It was the color of space, and cool to the touch. And as I stared at it, I could feel it reaching into me, until it finally gave off a resonance that shook me to my core. And within that tone I could feel something. It was abstract, but I knew this was what I was looking for.

"Sovereign of the Gray Tower." I said. "That's what I heard."

Serric looked pale.

"You're certain? The Gray Tower?"

"Is that bad?"

He began walking back up the stairs. Rowan seemed as confused as I was, but I could tell we were both interested in what had him acting like this.

He led us back into the house and up the stairs in the living room. However, instead of turning at the landing, he continued forward, making a gesture with his arm as if he were turning a doorknob. He then proceeded to walk through the wall right in front of me. Rowan seemed unperturbed, so I figured she had seen this before. She walked through the wall as well.

Although I was doubting my eyes at this point, standing in front of what all my senses were telling me was a hard wooden wall, I had already seen enough to realize that this was no ordinary wall. I stepped forward right through it as well.

Upon entering, I assumed immediately that this must be Serric's room. It had a bed, dresser, bookshelf, and a large desk covered with papers and notebooks. Another door near the back of the room was open, revealing a luxurious bathroom. Similar to the underground room we were just in, the place was well lit but contained no apparent sources of light that I could see.

For the first time, I wondered who this Serric man might be. He seemed like a simple old guy living out in a simple cottage, but most old guys don't have numerous secret rooms in their house that don't even fit inside of it, and giant orbs that tell you about what kind of magic you use. Maybe old men in this world were far more mysterious and cool than I anticipated.

Serric closed the door behind us and walked over to the bookshelf, scanning its contents. To my delight, I could actually read all the titles I could see. I saw several interesting sounding books, with titles like "Fall of the City of Ebony" and "Comprehensive Guide to Magical Theory: Greater Edition" and "Almanac of Demonic Entities" but the book he pulled of the shelf was a massive hardcover without any particular designs or images anywhere on it. The title simply read "Assorted Poetry of Reverie".

He began flipping through the pages, but after only a few seconds had passed, he froze.

"Someone's at the front door. You two, stay behind me." He whispered.

He closed the book back up and tossed it onto the bed, while me and Rowan exchanged worried glances.

"Can't you see who it is?" Rowan asked.

Serric shook his head.

"They're completely obscured to me. Knowing that, it's probably a member of the Radicals. They've likely come because they sensed Asher's arrival." Serric said.

Rowan's eyes widened.

"Let me fight it. This is my chance to show you how far I've come." She begged.

"No! You still need much more practice. You should—"

The door burst open. Standing there was a figure dressed in black robes, its face obscured by a veil.

Rowan drew her sword. It raised its hand. I had no way of knowing what was coming next, but I could tell it wasn't good.

I ran forward and lunged at it. To my astonishment, this actually seemed to surprise it. That was understandable, since I had even surprised myself. It probably never expected such a boldly stupid attack. I tackled it to the ground, but then I felt a cold chill run up my spine.

Above me.

I rolled out of the way just before a brilliant spear of energy shot down through the ceiling, suspending itself directly above the attacker—right where my body was a second ago. The spear disappeared and the figure stood back up. It raised its hand, probably to summon another one and really kill me this time.

And then I felt an overwhelming aura behind me. I glanced back. Rowan was standing there, staring at the hooded figure.

Rowan's eyes had a dangerous glint in them. I realized that this was awfully similar to what I saw when I first opened that front door, on my first day in this world. I understood her worry now. If this was the kind of intruder they were expecting, then no wonder she was so hostile at first.

"Don't move."

I wasn't entirely certain who she was speaking to, but I held very still regardless. She was like a predator with its eyes locked on frozen prey.

Rowan was holding her sword with her right arm, but she made no move to attack. Her sheer presence was an attack. The air itself seemed to be holding a blade to my neck.

The robed figure stood very still. And then, it made a slight movement of its head. Barely a twitch.

To say it was in an instant would be an understatement. In a movement surpassing even the most unimaginable speeds, Rowan was behind the attacker, and its head was severed. 

In a single fluid movement, she had leapt past it and decapitated it.

In hardly a second, the robed figure was a headless corpse staining the floor of the room.

Rowan grinned.

"Was that cool enough for you?"

Then, she too collapsed on the floor.