"Battle mages to the forefront! We need some counter explosions pronto!" shouted the acting commander. Charna was forced to do double duty, shield the encampment from the continually launching bombs and launch some well-calculated counter explosions as well. It was a lot, even for her, and Kain could see sweat along her brow.
"I have the shields, you go focus on the explosions. We need blasts with your kind of power to back them if we want to do any damage." Kain offered. Charna shook her head.
"The shields really aren't taking much, its just handling all the trajectory that's wearing me out. You have to disassemble and reassemble the spells each time." The bombs launchings were so erratic that the shield mages couldn't keep large enough shields to be effective. So they were waiting for the bombs to launch and then constructing a shield in their trajectory to catch the blast. "We'll have the other battle mages get some of the lesser blasts in while I work on a bigger, well calculated blast." She gritted her teeth as she erected a shield a moment too late and felt the blast knock her back. "I will need you to handle my share when I launch the spell though." She told him.
"Not a problem." Kain said, cocking a grin. It was gone in a second though as he dealt with two large bombs at once. High above the forming line of defense Air Elementals in their ethereal form caught advancing bombs and tossed them back at their assailants. Screams from both sides tore at the air. Behind Kain a bomb squeezed through the defending line and exploded onto the forming ground troops behind him. The blast from the thundercoal, for that was what the generals had started calling the bombs for the black dust they left behind, thrust him onto his stomach. The ringing in his ears was bad enough for him to pause and cast a quick healing rune on himself. As the sounds of battle returned to him foremost were the moans and cries of the injured before him.
The blast had left a hole in the earth, the ring of wounded and bodies thickening from the impact zone. Kain felt his stomach lurch and clutched at it a moment. But then the echo of a launching trebuchet bounded off the valley walls, and his attention was whipped to the sky above the advancing Crown. He caught the flying bomb in his sights and traced a fast shield spell in the air in front of him. Blazing blue glyphs formed in the air in front of him as he traced his fingers through the air, spelling out his magics intent and purpose.
The bomb slowed in midair, but instead of exploding like its compatriots it bounced off of Kain's newly erected shield. It lost momentum and reverberated back, falling onto the front lines of the Crown troops below it. This time it did erupt in a concussive blast, sending a shockwave back into Kain's smirking face.
"Nice," Charna said with only a touch of irony, and turned back to the complex spell structure that glowed before her. She tutted a moment at it before reaching forward and tweaking the curl of one particularly complicated glyph. "I'm ready with a blast Kain!" She shouted. Behind them the lines of the rebel soldiers were reaching their finish. Kain nodded at Charna and motioned her to hold her spell. Across the valley below them he could see the Crown troops forming up for a rush at the now battered ruins.
It was about to begin then, Kain thought grimly and turned to the generals and warlords that had amassed behind him.
"Ladies and Gentlemen," he called as he turned, clutching at the sword-hilt on his hip. "It would seem the Crown has finally come to us. We knew this day would come. Wait for my motion to advance. May the Gods be with us today and grant us a great victory the likes of which Sundast hasn't seen in centuries." The men and women of his command nodded and turned to relay their orders to their troops. Kain turned back to the advancing army before his home and watched as they began preparations to advance. The men in blue banged their swords angrily on their shields, thousands of amassed troops attempting to scare this last stronghold of magic within the borders of Sundast. Kain only grit his teeth and waited, his men and women silent at his back.
With a roar the men of the Crown rushed forward across the no-mans-land before them. The rebels watched them rush their home with grim faces, waiting for Kain's mark. Onward they raced, coming closer and closer to the ramshackle walls of the Bylis encampment. Charna gulped as they grew closer, sweat beading on her brow as she held the blasting spell in her magical grip, waiting.
Surely Kain had missed the spot, Charna began to think when she saw Kain's hand drop. Uttering a single word Charna released her magic. The ground in front of the advancing Crown exploded, sending the men who had just begun to trample on it skyward with screams of pain and terror. Momentarily the royal soldiers were stayed in their advance as they looked for a way across the new chasm in their path. They recovered quickly though and used their shields to build bridges across the hole filled with bodies.
"Ch-!" Kain began, but stopped as an ethereal silence embraced the battlefield. From the clouds above descended a great scarlet bird. The sound of tinkling bells rung across the field of destruction as his pale silver light lit up the carnage in a gruesome beauty. Both sides stood still as the phoenix descended to land before Kain and his commanders. From his back jumped a small figure cast in shadow from the holy being's light. Kain and his leaders knelt before the servant of Bitepu as the small figure advanced. Kain looked up to see Cienn come into light as he drew closer.
"Cienn!" He shouted and rose to embrace the young man. Cienn fell into his arms surprisingly willingly considering the way they had left things the day before but Kain paid it no mind as he hugged him close, simply glad he was safe. The phoenix, seeing his charge was safe, turned out to look over the silent troops of the Crown. Raising its brilliant crimson wings it let out a single note from its throat. It's beauty rung out over the battlefield, and as its call died the phoenix launched itself skyward. Back into the cloudbank it rose, leaving everyone dazed behind it.
Kain and Cienn were oblivious to the phoenix's effect however, their focus currently on each other.
"How did you?" Kain asked Cienn in his own dazed, retreating only far enough so he could cup the young man's face in his hand warmly. Cienn clutched the hand briefly before backing up himself.
"We haven't much time. The phoenix told me of a secret of vital importance." Quickly he explained the phoenix's message for Kain and his commanders. Before he had finished they were already nodding. Charna stepped forward from the huddle of leaders and put a hand on both Cienn and Kain's shoulders.
"We'll hold the front. You two have to get into the Chambers of Time and find this door." Both men nodded silently, first to Charna then to the assembled commanders, who nodded in return. Cienn grabbed Kain's hand and hauled him off through the throng of troops. Charna lit her hand ablaze with red battle fire and turned to the amassed troops.
"CHARGE!" she shouted, pumping her blazing fist skyward. The rebel forces roared in response and surged forward at the still dazed Crown troops. The two lines collided in the sounds of battle as Cienn and Kain reached the foot of the stairs leading up into the ruins proper.
They raced through the deserted streets of the camp, past hastily closed tents and shacks that were simply abandoned. It was eerily silent through out the camp, the sounds of battle muffled by the growing distance and structures between them. They raced up the mountainside to the entrance of the Chambers of Time. Both men paused briefly to look back at the battle below them.
This far up the battle seemed like the toy troops of Cienn's younger brother, only far more accurate and gruesome. Water, earth and fire blazed and surged across the field as Elemental's wielded their powers. The sounds and flares of explosions reverberated off the bowl as the crown continued to launch bombs at the battlefield, recklessly killing men and women of both sides without a second glance. Cienn looked away and pulled Kain up into the caverns.
Charna paid no more attention to her friends as they vanished into the crowd behind her. Her hands were alight with red battle fire as she charged forward at the advancing enemy. The two lines met in a brutal clash. The Crown had the numbers but the rebels could use their magic to tackle multiple opponents at once. The battlefield quickly began to ring with the sounds of battle as Charna closed in on a knot of soldiers. They noticed her amongst the expanding rebel troops and closed in with a smirk. Charna stopped in her tracks, standing awkwardly with her wild auburn hair hiding her face. The men jostled each other good naturedly as they closed in on the apparently awkward looking girl.
As they approached they could hear her muttering some dark curse, sending shivers up their spines. They were well trained to expect such black magic from these heathens and advanced closer still. The girl swerved to the left and the right, her hands glowing a menacing red. Her movement left after images in the men's eyes, which they blinked to dispel.
In that instant she charged forward, slashing out with her glowing red hands. The men reeled back screaming in pain. The skin where Charna's magic had touch burned as if with acid, sending up acerbic black smoke. She kicked low out at their ankles at a speed to fast for them to see, sending half the men sprawling on the ground writhing in agony. The other half fell back, stunned.
Red lightning jumped from Charna's hands at those still standing. Each man momentarily attached to her fingertips like gruesome puppets held up by electric red string. The moment the lines broke they crumpled to the ground, unconscious. Maybe dead. Charna didn't wait but jumped at the next available royal soldier, arresting their swing at a fellow rebel with a jolt. He nodded in thanks as Charna motioned behind him at the rising Crown troop.
Alcana swooped in and dove the man's face, shrieking bloody murder as she clawed viciously at his eyes. He dropped his sword and groped at her feathered back momentarily, pulling out a handful of pitch-black feathers before Alcana's might claws found his windpipe and slit it as she'd cut the throat of a rabbit. The man gurgled and shook beneath her a moment before she took off, alighting on her mage's shoulder with grim satisfaction as the man fell to the ground dead.
The battle didn't stop there, all around them sorcerer met with dozens of Crown troops per battler, the overwhelming odds quickly tiring the magical soldiers. Charna could already feel her own exhaustion building and pulled from the well of strength that was Alcana's presence. The Familiar had eons of powerful magic glowing at her core, a tie to the magical chamber that had birthed her and many others far away in the hidden mage city of Rodari. Few mages could do little more than pull strength from this pool in times of great need, but Charna could feel a pull there that begged her forward.
Alcana squawked on her shoulder and nipped at the woman's face. Charna started out of it and frowned at the great bird Familiar. A silent discussion passed between their eyes in a moment before the Familiar nodded once. Instantly Charna dove back into that well of power that existed just behind her Familiar's consciousness.
Power surged through her body in a painful rush. Her cheeks flushed and her hair stood on end as Charna's eyes snapped open, revealing them to glow a brilliant rainbow of shifting light, pupils hidden. Alcana's eyes began to glow as well as a blast birst forth from their combined existence. All battlers within a fifteen foot radius fell back from the wave of power as Charna charged with electricity. She smiled a slightly manic smile, her smile aglow with the same shifting light.
The mage rose slightly above the ground, floating there in a bubble of sparking power. Elementals in their ethereal forms rushed to her side, their flaming, surging bodies a terrifying counterpoint to her impressive power use. Even as her consciousness surged with delicious energy she knew her mortal body couldn't wield power like this for long without burning out. Already she felt the sting of her burning magical channels, a sting behind her eyes that felt slightly like sun-stroke.
Without further thought she blast forth into the heart of the Crown troops, well behind the front line of battle. The Elementals surged after her, leaving trails of fire, upturned earth and pools of water that rippled with the fall of thousands of feet behind them. Air Elementals dove in before Charna, blasting a hole in the soldiers with their wind swept spiritual bodies. Water Elementals, Imagehi in the forefront, dove in next drowning the troops in their deluge. Charna touched down along with a team of Fire Elementals, who's flaming smiles glowed with almost as much eerie malice as Charna's own. Many of the soldiers saw these writhing bodies of Fire and the terrifying image of Charna suspended in mid-air, eyes aglow and lost their metal.
Dropping weapons many fled, those who stayed to fight stood on wobbling feet. The Elementals and Charna didn't let the deserters get far. Two of the Fire Elementals jumped ahead again to light the mouth of the valley on fire. They brought Charna back the news that there were still thousands more Crown troops over the ridge. The fire wouldn't hold them for long.
Men of the Crown fell in droves before the might of the sorcerers of Bylis, but eventually the sheer number of royal soldiers began to show its toll on the moral of the rebels. Charna had lost much of her impressive act as the battle waged on into its second hour, the only sign that she still tapped into the flow of Familiar magic was the glow behind her eyes. She walked with her troops once more, planning her attacks carefully and using her daggers as much as she could. Men still fell in droves in front of her but there would soon come a time where even lifting her dagger was too much energy for the waning mage. Where were Cienn and Kain?
As the battle wore on those with any real vitality left on the rebels' side were the Elementals. Whether fighting in their physical or ethereal states, they wielded their Elements with quiet grace and certainty. Imagehi had been in the front lines since the beginning. She was certainly one of the most confident Elementals alive, and it was true that she wielded water like it was an extension of her body. She had switched to her physical form as the hours had waxed and the daylight waned, it took much less energy than her ethereal form did. And with a stream that followed at her feet like a lost puppy that was over 70ft long, it wasn't that hard for her to make the most use of her element.
Freezing and melting the water she glided across the battlefield like a silent anaconda through the waters of the tropic rivers in Kingali. She'd seen an anaconda before, one time while she had been sent as a cultural advisor for the royalty there. It had been in a river surrounding the Solar Palace in Valensa. She smiled at the memory, which looked eerily out of place as she raised a wave of water to engulf an advancing line, freezing it as it encased them. Once knowing they were dead from asphyxiation she melted the water and raced on, the stream behind her cutting a swath through the battlefield that offered many combatants a much needed rest as they waited for the dangerous slipstream to pass by.
Imagehi was impressed with the Crown troops' metal, she had to give them that. Few turned tail and ran at her presence, which is more than she could say of many of the rebels in Bylis. Her almost constant smile wavered into an angry frown at those particular memories. Elementals were certainly a strange lot, but you think all outcasts would be able to look past one's peculiarities. Her past had taught her otherwise as she whipped water through the air to slice at her opponent. The edge of her water blade was so sharp it sliced through his chest plate like butter, slashing deep. Imagehi pulled the water back over her head and sent it straight back out like a whip at the next visible Crown troop, looping his ankle and swinging him up to bash his head against the ground.
The battle waged on as the sun peaked and began its slow decent towards the opposite horizon. Imagehi betted on another three hours of good sunlight before the mountains hid the valleys and caused an early twilight. If the sorcerers could hold their own until sunset the Crown would certainly pull back as they lost visibility. Surely the idea of fighting magic and the dark was something even the Crown wouldn't be stupid enough to ignore.
Still for every man the rebels slew it seemed the Crown had a dozen more, each death bringing out a new wave of furious soldiers intent on exacting revenge for their fallen brethren. It made for a very exhausted army of sorcerers. Imagehi knew that in the back ranks there were healers working their asses off to get as many men and women back to the front as quickly as possible. She had to be grateful for her people honestly, the Elementals had stores of ancient energy bubbling beneath their skin. She knew if needed her and the others could hold the lines for a few good hours at least. It was a comfort she supposed.
How had the Crown gotten so many troops across the Woods? None of their reports had given true sight to actual number of these men. They had some of the best spy mages in the world working at giving the rebels accurate numbers. What had happened? As she thought that the sky began to fill with dark, unnatural looking clouds. A cold wind whipped through the battlefield, staying even the most vengeful of hands as they looked up at the sudden storm that brewed just outside the valley.
It's great black bulk covered the sun, sending the entire valley into a cruel, dark shadow. Imagehi stood there frozen staring at it, her unnatural looking eyes picking up strange swirling peculiarities in the clouds. There seemed to be an underlying of the most sickening of colors, and the lightning that raced across it's width left horrific after images in her vision. They were images of slaughter and decay and sadness. Imagehi noticed Charna not to far away and raced up to her.
"What is it?" She asked as the clouds grew and spread across the sky, enveloping the front of the valley in a cruel darkness. Charna simply shook her head. A deeper darkness flowed over the battlefield. As it enveloped the two woman sorcerers they felt themselves droop with sudden exhaustion. The enemy soldiers however seemed to feel empowered by this sudden dark energy, and turned back to their combatants with a new vicious zeal.
"This can't be good," Imagehi muttered under her breath. Charna nodded once more. Alcana took flight from the mage's shoulder and let out a ringing call across the battlefield. It paused the enchanted soldiers a moment as they stood their listening to its frightening beauty. Charna saw it as a much needed opportunity.
"FALL BACK!" she shouted to those around her, and reached down to help up a fallen comrade. "FALL BACK TO THE WALLS!" She shouted again. The rebels began to respond and retreat quickly to the protective walls of Bylis. Imagehi covered Charna's retreat as the Crown soldiers advanced. Her stream wasn't as responsive as usual however and she cried out as a lance made it past her attacks to graze at her shoulder.
"Oh, so that's how we want to play it huh?" She said angrily. In a sudden movement she brought the whole of her water to her, lifting her up in an impressive waterspout. Across the battlefield blazes of fire, towers of earth and columns of air burst forth along with other waterspouts. The Elementals were using their last and greatest physical trick to stop the advancing troops. The howl of wolves cried out eerily across the battlefield as a gigantic pack of transformed Wild Elementals surged forward into the advancing army.
But still the Crown troops pressed on with a strange, single-minded zeal. Imagehi couldn't explain it. As she brought a single soldier up to her height with a waterwhip she looked angrily into his eyes. He stared at her with a blank vagueness that gave Imagehi the chills, and she didn't get chills anymore. Uncaring of his position roughly 50ft above the ground the soldier swung his short-sword into the air between them. Imagehi scoffed and tossed him haphazardly across the battlefield without a second thought.
Imagehi wished she knew this sudden storms origin and its reason for such strange changes to the magical landscape. For Imagehi could feel the stronger pull her magic was using against her. Sweat beaded her brow and her fingers trembled. She couldn't remember a time since her Ordeal where she had felt so tired. She persevered however, if there was anything an Elemental had it was perseverance. Imagehi remembered a particular Kain comment on that concept, calling it closer to stubborn than anything else, which gave her a much needed smirk at his blatant attitude.
The handsome Fire Elemental on the Council, a woman named Heratise, surged over into shouting distance on her cyclone of fire.
"It feels of the Void!" she shouted. Imagehi's eyes widened as she blasted back a line of crazed Crown troops. It made sense now. Void magic altered regular magics flow, diverting power from the user into its connection to the endless nothing. And if there was void magic that meant only one thing.
"The One," both Elementals whispered as the dark void clouds washed completely over the valley of Bylis. Bright lightning crackled and on its tips the Elementals could hear a manic, terrifying laughter as a single lightning bolt struck down at the mouth of the valley, sending Crown troops and corpses alike flying. Imagehi and Heratise shielded their eyes from the blast and gasped as they looked back to see a horrifying black sludge bubble up from the hit zone.
It surged and rose. Imagehi bit back her rising bile as a giant malformed spine rose up from the ooze. A ribcage came next on one end, extending up into a neck and skull. It gasped, setting a fire alight in its chest cavity from the ooze there. The flames travelled up into its eye sockets. It breathed heavily, its rattling breath sounding out across the battlefield. Even some of the Crown troops turned to look at the horror that rose behind them, though most continued their zombie-like advance towards the walls of Bylis. The skeleton rose on invisible arms until skeletal hands rose from the dripping ooze. Suspended in mid-air, they rose to touch its face with rattling bones.
As bones touch it turned its head back to laugh. It was the same manic laughter Imagehi had heard earlier on the tips of the thunder rolls. It's crazed cadence rose in volume as the partial skeleton rose erect, hands spreading out from its face to drip ooze on the surrounding ground. Imagehi's eyes couldn't help but follow a drop as it crashed below. Immediately after its touch the ground turned brown and lifeless, possibly forever. From that stolen life the ooze rose up into glowing red-eyed demons. Their black ooze bodies solidifying as they added to the Crown's now clearly controlled troops.
Imagehi forced herself to look away as the body above it formed further. The voice of the laughter was definitely female, its cadence to impossibly high to be mistaken for anything else. She watched in horrific amazement as a golden headdress formed out of the ooze on her skull, a single eye feather at its heart.
-Finally,- She spoke, her voice full of a greedy awe. As if this monster didn't fully believe it's own existence. -After thousands of years. I am free.- And The One's laughter returned then, chilling the hearts of anyone with a heart left.
They raced past the Prophecy and into the chambers themselves. Kain pulled a torch off the wall from the spot where they had been so intimate only hours before and led Cienn deep into the Chambers of Time. The resounding explosions of the thundercoal bombs hitting the shields and ground outside made the ceiling rattle and dust to fall. Kain pulled Cienn along in earnest now, the flickering light of their torch bouncing off the ruins cobwebbed walls. It seemed as if the bombing had begun with more frequency, as if they knew the rebels had something to hide.
"They must have known we have new information." Kain said angrily.
"What with a giant red bird landing across the enemy's lines, whatever could have given them that idea?" Cienn asked acerbically but Kain continued on as if he hadn't heard him.
"It has to be here somewhere. What did the Phoenix say?"
"He said that'deep in the catacombs lies a door, where all the answers you seek shall be found. The Prophecy in its entirety is there. Find it, and find the path you were destined for.' Not exactly definite directions." Cienn supplied.
"We're lucky," Kain said. "The stories say the Gods often gave mortals less than that to go on. We should be grateful for the blessing." Kain flashed as quick smile back in Cienn's direction. But even the glimpse showed him that Kain was more worried than anything and his attempt at levity fell flat.
"Forgive me if I don't drop to my knees in gratitude." Cienn muttered under his breath. They skidded to a halt at the wall that once held the Prophecy. A large rectangular section was missing from the center of the dead end wall. Rubble lined the ground before it. Cienn knelt down and picked up a fist-sized piece. On it's opposite side sat a lone glyph, it's words incomprehensible without its brethren.
"What are we supposed to be looking for?" he asked as he stared up at the elaborate reliefs surrounding the hole where the Prophecy had once rested.
"Hell if I know," Kain replied, sweeping his torch around the edges of the carvings. "He said, 'find the door'. There is no door here though so I don't get it." He frowned as he swing the torch back above their heads. As the light flickered in movement Cienn caught sight of something at the edge of the shadows.
"Over there," He said, pointing. Kain brought the torch over. In the corner between two walls, so close to the ground it was more than easily missed, was a tiny gold carving of Qipori, the dragon god.
"Ok, so one of the carvings still has gold leaf on it, big deal." Kain said dismissively. It was true though, many of the carvings still glinted in the torchlight from precious metals. But none glinted on the wall of the Prophecy itself.
"Out of the entire wall of Prophecy? I doubt it." And with that Cienn touched the carving gingerly. Even his slight pressure was enough to enact the delicate hidden mechanism. The ground rumbled and groaned with apparent discomfort as the ancient gears turned. Cienn clung to Kain as the very walls shook violently. They watched in amazement as an entire section of the reliefs fell away, revealing a silent darkness beyond. Finally everything stilled and the doorway stood watching.
Cienn turned back to Kain and crossed his arms with a satisfied smirk. Kain only rolled his eyes and whipped up a quick shield around them. Silently they went inside. The torch flickered a moment as it passed into the stale air of the room, but steadied quickly as Kain's spell adjusted the air for them. The cavern was large, the high ceiling sinking off in the gloom above their heads; definitely carved out from the heart of the mountain Bylis stood on. Kain swung his torch up to the nearest wall to the door. Cienn gasped as the carvings came into focus. Kain startled too and almost dropped the torch. As its light flickered drastically Kain frowned and muttered a short spell. A glowing orb of white light tinged on its edges with blue formed in his hand. With a grunt he threw it up into the gloom. It took off and scattered its rays throughout the great chamber.
"It looks like a pictorial history of the war," he observed, his voice quiet in great reverence. For indeed Kain was right. The walls were covered with a distinct, exact retelling of the events that followed the fall of the Gods. "Whomever predicted this must have had some serious power." They walked onwards into the room, where gilt and glitter glimmered enticingly out of the gloom.
They paused as they passed the first of the great panels, marveling at the detail at which the carvings told the historical tale. Ships brought forth from the wild Outer Ocean a dark cult to the shores of Sundast. They landed in Loris and corrupted its people with their teachings of The One's "gospel". They convinced the noble family of Loris of their validity and sowed the seeds of treason in their wiling ears.
"The Adessas." Cienn muttered. He'd never seen the story told like this. The Royal Academy only told of The One's beautiful vision to Jadeus the Righteous of his holy quest to bring her teachings to those who worshiped the horrible Pantheon of Gods. But here he saw the church for what it really was, a cult who worshipped the darkest of beings. The Queens of Sundast let it live there however in their tolerance, determined to live up to their moral values.
The next panel showed Doverke lun'Adessa marrying Cerces la'Orater, and not long after that Cienn saw a panel with the gardens of the old Palace in Isaleo, the seat of power for the Sureen Queens, covered by the bodies of the dead. In the panel that immediately followed the head of the One's order crowned Doverke as King of Sundast. The panels that followed his rise to power were filled with bloody panel after bloody panel. Cienn began to dread the glint of ruby in the gloom for surely that would bring about more bloodshed as the new Crown eradicated magic within Sundast's borders. Then at the bottom of the seventh panel they saw something that brought a smile to the tips of Cienn's lips.
There at the bottom was a singular panel that was alone in its lack of bloodshed. It depicted a singular woman who held in her palms a diamond orb inlaid with the Sureen line at its clear crystalline heart. From then on at the top of every panel there stood a woman who held that symbol to her chest. A secret remnant of the ancient line of queens that lived alongside the rise of the One's vile church for centuries. The walls lit up with their brilliant glimmer of hope as Cienn and Kain continued into the heart of the chamber. Each panel showed the changes the One's ideals brought to Sundast, the continued resistance of the outlying lands of the nation, and the eventual founding of the Rebellion's forces at Bylis.
As they reached the opposite end of the vast chamber the women in the corner who held that hidden Sureen blood began to show features that looked very similar to Cienn. Eventually they reached the edge of the last panel and Cienn squinted at the last woman in the line.
"But that can't be. This one looks just like my mother." Cienn muttered in bewilderment as they moved onward still.
As the far wall lit up brighter with their torchlight both men gasped. Before them stood an exact carving of Cienn, right down to his now battered copy of Matters of the Mind. A silver circle sat upon his brow. At the heart of the circlet stood a Sureen emblazoned diamond. Next to his statue was an elaborate carving of the Prophecy. His eyes skimmed the words and the additional portion that sat below the familiar fragment. His eyes widened as he read.
"The Prophecy spoke of-" Kain muttered as he reached it just after Cienn.
"My sister?" Cienn gasped, and indeed standing on the other side of this correct version of the Prophecy was an elaborate statue of Cerenae la'Orater clothed like a queen with a golden crown atop her head and a golden scepter in her hands. The scepter's head was also emblazoned with the Sureen crest. Her clothing glittered with a wash of colors in brilliantly cut gemstones inlaid into the harsh mountain rock.
"There's no way," Kain muttered and read it again, this time aloud:
When blood of the Old lines arises
And a medium shall become a Great
The love of All Gods will shine down again
And the balance shall be righted.
Darkness shall loose to Light like never before
An unlikely ruler will be thrice tried and failed
Yet in the end shall choose right
A son of Movek shall guide the way
And bring Sundast home.
The Queen shall be righted,
What was thought will be falsehoods,
Magic shall be the guiding light,
And ultimately find its home once more.
But Cienn wasn't listening. He stared at the carving of Cerenae's face, regal and serene in stony silence. Gently he raised a hand as if to cup her stone cheek, but the statue was easily more than twice his height.
"It's been so long..." He said, his face tight with longing. He whipped around to face Kain. "We have to save her! She has no idea what any of this means and if the Crown breaks in and finds this they'll kill her without her ever even knowing why! We have to do something Kain." Kain was already nodding.
"I'll give the order to retreat. We can escape through the Portal in the Elemental city to Rodari and launch an immediate party to infiltrate the city and remove your family. Once safe we can explain to her -" Kain couldn't finish his next thought however as the room began to reverberate with an ethereal ringing. It rose in pitch and volume until both sorcerers gripped at their ears in agony. The sound continued to grow, and a shining light encased the wall of the Prophecy before them.
The statues of Majran, Qipori and Bitepu who guarded the giant carving of the correct Prophecy began to rumble with an unseen power. Cienn and Kain fell to their knees as the cacophony grew to a crescendo, the blinding white light bursting forth in sudden clarity.
Both sorcerers sat there, mouths' agape as the Gods came to life before their eyes.