4. Restless

Kingdom of Loradel, Lunodio Outpost, Present Day.

The stone-walled library was poorly lit due to the abundant number of torches.

“Torches are fire, fire burns books, books are knowledge, and knowledge is power,” the head scribe had said on specific occasion when Rebecca had insisted on doing her reading with hefty candle nearby. He was a rather peculiar man with the knowledge of a dozen libraries, yet his form of speech was…different.

Rebecca shuffled through a collection of books on a well-carved shelf. If there were answers, it’d be here. The outpost’s library: one of the few rooms of the old fort that wasn’t reduced to rubble. Come now. I know I saw it here before. She pulled a book from its place. It had a thick leather cover with the title: Scribe Gyriss’ Collection of Bliss and Aura. “This looks like a start.” She wiped her finger across the spines of countless other titles until another stood out because of its massive size. A History of Va’siel Emblems and Its Wielders: Short Edition. She pulled it from its place, it released with a thin cloud of dust. The cover was a full white with an image of a large red oval stone. “Va’siel?” she whispered. “Must be a settlement from Blackreach or Astinbelle.” She added the book to her already large collection and continued down the aisles of shelves for anything of relevance.

It was an hour after dark, which meant it was almost time for the owls and crickets to start their choregraphed symphony of hoots and chirps.

Rebecca continued her search, the wood flooring creaking as if in pain. The eerie echoes of the groaning wood reminded her that she was likely alone. Come nightfall, the scribes and most of the other knights would retreat to their quarters. Though the library was at times used as a place of respite due to the shortage of space in the camp. Knights often used the empty tables to sleep on whenever the head scribe wasn’t present to lecture them against it. Rebecca’s arms began to ache from the combined weight of her tower of books, it only grew larger as she added countless more and balanced her way to a wooden table with a candle she had lit earlier. After taking a seat she opened her first book; a thin leather diary with old runes painted on the front. The slimmer books were the first to go before she made her way to the heavier reads. She looked through the Demon-Hunt’s bestiary time and time again, hoping to find something she missed during a prior read. No such luck. The task at hand was made more difficult by the fact that not many people knew the origins of demons. The Dahae, or Demon-Hunt, was a branch of military from the Kingdom of Loradel that was younger than a century, thus little info was known of demons. One fact that they did come to realize was that demons often seemed to roam where death lingered, battlefields and the like.

Winds picked up and howled through the crevasse of the library, threatening to choke out the flickering candlelight.

Demons were unlike animals in that they didn’t hunt to survive. Yes, they would eat the flesh of anything with a heartbeat. But they never left evidence of droppings or anything that implied they digested their meals. And even though many of them were vastly different sizes and species, they never seemed provoked by one another’s presence, often herding together and enlarging their hunting party.

Rebecca leaned into her palm; it had been what seemed like hours before she stumbled onto something that was of use. A grin formed on her lips as she saw a coal-sketch elegant markings similar to the ones that were on the sphere from the inn. “Found you.” She licked her lips and pressed her finger on the words below the image, guiding her eyes from word to word.

The Forbidden Aura Spheres were said to be the holding cells for the deadliest form of magic. The four auras that are now banished across the Allied Kingdoms when they were sealed by the kings and queens of Eredia. Within their ranks was the Royal Family of Bloodstone; they used an unknown ability to lock the magic within the artifacts and thus keeping the habitants of the world from being born with such atrocious power. The four auras are known as:

-Biotic

-Blood

-Plague

-Necromancy

Rebecca’s eyes froze on the words. The first page’s description of Biotic and Blood seem to have been partly charred, making it impossible to read. Though she turned the page to find the description of Plague unaffected.

Plague, the ability to conjure one’s twisted nature into different forms of poisons and plagues such as summoning hordes of ravens, rats or even locusts.

Rebecca shuttered at the thought, rats had to be one of the most disgusting things to ever walk on Elsire. The thought of their bare, furless tails sent a shrill down to her gut. She turned the page and found another charcoal sketch of the orb she had seen at the inn. This is it! She felt a mixture of accomplishment accompanied by fear.

Necromancy could be used to control the horrific monstrosities that roamed the areas of death. The clergymen have chosen on calling these beasts; demons. These horrors would show next to no reaction to pain and would often break away from their master’s command, killing anything and anyone who was unfortunate enough to cross them. This became the purpose as to why the magic was titled a Forbidden Aura…though I never thought I would be a bearer of it. Zuria was right to hate me. And I was wrong to have followed this pursuit, I hope you that you live through this.

The coos of owls broke the veil of silence once more, followed by the groaning of the fort’s wooden beams.

Rebecca rubbed her eyes in hopes of wiping away some of the fatigue that had begun to take hold of her alongside a newly born headache. It felt like she had begun to hear the voices of the authors in her thoughts, the info began to merge and make it difficult to remember. She yawned aloud before returning her flawed focus onto the book. The ability to control demons and malforming their bodies into horrid creatures. She pulled her sweat-coated finger from the page. The heat of the candle seemed to be lighting her ablaze. She swallowed hard. If what they had witnessed was indeed a Forbidden Aura? Then there was no doubt that the situation that they now found themselves in was direr than they had anticipated. What if someone was creating and controlling these new demons? She stood; her ocean of questions was joined by worry alongside a sense of wonder. She made a hastily escape from the dark confinement and walked at a quickened pace. She had to let the others know. 

[𝗘𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗿]
𝗧𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗸𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗼𝗹𝗸𝘀. 𝗜 𝗽𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗺𝘆 𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴. 𝗕𝘂𝘁 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁'𝘀 𝗮 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗶𝘁? 𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗼𝗿 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝗮 𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗿 𝗲𝗿𝗿𝗼𝗿 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗹 𝗳𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗹𝗲𝘁 𝗺𝗲 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗯𝗲𝗹𝗼𝘄!