{working on pictures}
The void and the realm of undeath are but one in close relation…. A beauty of untapped power! Of course, they each come with their own individual cost… a choice must be made on who to serve and what to become… A living corpse or a fountain of energy… the gods of darkness or the gods of death… though similar, they are completely different in their meaning. But they whisper to me… and I think I have made my choice…
→Excerpt by Drathir←
Within the dawn spire, lay broken constructs, missing limbs, and broken crystals! A dusty floor that has not seen the presence of anything living for ages… laid in the architecture of the elves, the colors held, and so too did the artworks of their hands… but beneath the dust, old paintings have succumbed to the ages of time, weary and damage but still held within their bright stokes and colors, the portrait was still recognizable of an noble elf… a man, with a women…
A smile in bright red, with deep blue eyes… contained in blonde hair… a dress fit for nobility, locked sitting on a chair under her husband's hands… a rare smile, in tranquility and peace…
{hey... Layla, is this who I think it is?}
[I'm not sure if it's Drathir, after all, it could just be any number of nobles from that time... What do you think, Lady Vynna?
[hmm... I don't remember reading any records of Drathir's past, stating he once had a wife, but to be fair, most records from that time are lost when Silvermoon burned…]
Continuing to stare into the old portrait, Lanthios said with an odd feeling:
{Hmm, well, in any case, it doesn't matter, even if this is him and even if it's true he once had a wife, it doesn't change what he has become, though maybe it can justify it a little, but so what, he is still a monster who betrayed his people and sunk them to near extinction. As such, I have no pity for this man…}
After saying his peace, and noticing the girls with him agreeing through head nods, Lanthios put down the painting as he found what they came to the spire for…
{Ah! I found it! Drathir Umbric notes!}
[wait! Lanthios! Don't open the notebook!]
{why?}
[Well, one, it could be enchanted with a trap!]
{oh… Really?} asked Lanthios, knowing full well there was no trap per the game quest, but decided it was better to play along and just agree.
[Yes, it could be... Now if you please,] replied, Layla with her hand stretched out and puffy cheeks.
{Alright, I can't argue with that... Here…} replied Lanthios while smiling into Layla's eyes.
Watching from the side, Vynna raised a brow, thinking…
[sigh, these two… I swear that spark is going to be the ruin of the Sunstriker family…]
But within Vynna's thoughts, the book in Layla's hand hummed a strange sound as she held it… its color going from a dusty brown to a slight hue of blue, with a purple rune fairly growing brighter as she stared at it. Her eyes, mesmerized in orange, revealed the book's secrets as she turned the page. However, the words revealed were written in cryptic symbols…
Watching Layla stare into the book for a while, but not saying anything, Lanthios began to worry and asked a simple question to disrupt the worrisome atmosphere.
{So, Layla, don't leave us in suspense! Is it a trap or…}
Hearing Lanthios' worried voice, Layal snapped out of her stupor, and while looking at him, then back down to the book, Layla said:
[sigh, it's not a trap...]
{Well, that's good...}
[yeah…It's just that... I can't seem to be able to read a single thing… It's like it's written in another language…]
{It, okay, Layla, we weren't sent here to read it anyway, just to take it back, let's leave the reading to the magistrate to figure out.} Replied Lanthios, seeing Layla disheartened.
[I guess…]
{fine, Layla, since it bothers you so much, why don't you try to decipher what you can as we make our way back to the magistrate, it's going to take us a while to get back to him anyway, the dam guy never leaves his tower…} replied Lanthios feeling a little guilty as he remember a few lines of game text involving the notes. But also on that note, he felt confusion as in the game the player could read it normally, or at least the subtext…
Breathing out a sigh of disappointment, Layla looked out from the balcony, into the forest and the rain, seeing shades and undead abominations wandering aimlessly… And as she was about to put the book away, Vynna asked:
[Wait, my lady, why don't you let me take a look at the book?]
Hearing her suggestion, Lanthios and Layla looked at each other for a brief moment, and seeing Lanthios shrug and not mind, Layla said:
[sure… just be careful with it…]
[I know, I know, but... It is safe, right, Layla… no magic jargon?]
[hmm… Sorry, when it comes to magic, especially dark magic, anything is possible…]
Hearing Layla warning, but still wanting to check the book contents, Vynna peeled back the cover to read…
[huh? Layla, I'm confused...]
[What do you mean?]
[I mean, I can read this… It's… written in our common language…see.]
As Vynna held the book open and shuffled through the pages, Layla still couldn't read the words. Yet, Lanthios noticed he could also read the written words, much to Layla's and Vynna's confusion and shock.
[wait! The mut… I mean, Lanthios can read?] said Vynna, stumbling on her words mid-sentence as she noticed Layla's eyes glowing a hint of a dangerous color.
{Of course, I can read… I was especially trained after all… As what kind of pally/sham would I be if I couldn't read!} replied Lanthios with a grr.
[oh… I mean it's still strange… even with that explanation, after all, what noble would waste time teaching a slave how to read?]
[watch it Vynna!]
[Oh! My lady, I mean no disrespect, it's just that's how it's always been…]
{It's fine, Layla, let it go… In any case, how is it that I and our watchdog here can read the text, but Layla can't? Is this a magical thing?}
[Probably, it's like I said earlier, it could be some kind of magic I do not understand…or maybe it's just a safeguard against other mages.]
{hmm… I guess or perhaps…}
[Perhaps what? Mister doooo, I mean Lanthios,] replied Vynna, biting her tongue.
{What I mean "Vynna" is that what you and I are seeing may be what Drathir wanted us to see, but what Layla is seeing might be the true contents of this book, but that's just a theory, maybe only the magistrate could tell us for sure which it is.}
[well… I suppose you're right… as only someone as grand as the magistrate would know this type of… magics…] replied Vynna with a raised chin.
Nodding and heading to the door, Layla suddenly stopped for a moment as what Vynna said struck a chord inside her mind:
[Wait a minute, now that I think about it…The Magistrate never asked us to get this book… So then just… how did Lanthios know it was here? And not just that… this tower… and its location… how did…] thought Layla with widening eyes, as she continued to stare at Lanthios's back.
[Is… even… he… hiding things from me? FROM ME!]
But with such thoughts in her head, Lanthios reached for the broken wooden door, but paused just before, as he could see through the hollowed holes, a glowing glow! Reaching for his weapon, just as the thunder sounded in the sky, the wooden door below apart!
As the wooden shards flew like sharpened blades, bouncing off Vynna metals, and Lanthios blocking what he could with his forearms, together they heard a loud noise scream that resembled the sounds of rushing winds through rock, that came from a construct as it tried to get inside!
{These damn reavers never learn!} Lanthios complained as he aimed for its core!
[Careful, Lant! That reaver is different than the others! It's strange…] screamed Vynna, trying to get his attention.
But ignoring her words, and filling his weapon with thunder, his glaives hummed with the fury of nature, imbued with light, and as he spun for a hit, but as his blades crossed that threshold, the reaver sent out a burst of shards! Blue and heavy, crystals shaped like a knife, blew Lanthios' back and onto his back!
Sliding and hitting the wall, Vynna, took his place by shooting the shard down with her bow! But her arrow, even imbued with the arcane, could not penetrate the reaver's hard outer shell! Bouncing off even at his crystal cores…
Frustrated, Vynna played the distracting game by pestering the reaver with pop shots, while dodging his own burst of attacks! But in the game of cat and mouse, she got too close, as the reaver slammed his armor forearms into the tiled floor! Smashing debris and rocks, in the air and by pressure, Vynna was knocked back and into Lanthios just as he stood up in recovery!
As the pair tumbled back onto the floor, in an awkward mixed position, the reaver's center eye glowed a dangerous hint of white! Within frost and arcane, the reaver planned to freeze the pair, in frost fire, but the moment he gathered the energy, a flying butterfly in a pair of three exploded in his face!
Within divine fire, the reaver missed, causing him to burst out in a scream of hot compressed air, mixed within that scream, faint words could be heard:
[The spire… protect… will…master… secrete…]
{It can talk!} questioned Lanthios as if not believing his ears.
[ugh! See, I told you this one was different… just look at its eye.. I think it has some level of intelligence!]
Reeling back from the scream, the reaver, armor glowed brighter! Its crystal cores spinning and humming as loud as a freight train! With incomprehensible noises, white air escapes through a thin layer of its skin, freezing the air and rock around, so cold and desperate…
Layla stared at the machine in wonder and thought to herself, What a shame… for such a beauty in design to be left and forgotten, what could have been if Drathir stuck to this kind of work, instead of chasing after death…
For in Layla's eyes as she stared at the machine, she could see the arcane spells, the genus in the magic circles that spun naked to the untrained eye… the power it drew from nature, and the lay lines, and its sadness…
[intruders… death….DEath…. DEATH!] screamed the reaver with a mind like a child, with arms wide, with cores "sinning" in a suicidal manner!
Knowing she couldn't let it do it, to explode and take the tower with it… Layla... Set off her living bombs inside the reaver crystal cores! A magic spell she had infiltrated during the construct's gathering of energy!
Three explosions, one for each core, cracks, and spent energy leaking, coupled with a reaver scream, Lanthios raced on all fours and stabbed the reaver at the center core, with his blade between his teeth! As cracks gathered, Lanthios sent a shock through his weapon!
Continuing to scream, the reaver tried to close its arms, to strangle Lanthios in its embrace, to at the very least take one of the intruders with it, but to its dismay, Vynna aimed as her explosion shot fired and below back the reaver's arms from the shock!
Crack spread like a spider web, armor crumbled, and light shone ever brighter as the magic cycles used in the reaver construction began to unwind… then silence… silence as Lanthios took a step back, silence as Vynna hosted her arrows, and silence as Layla built a wall of ice between her companions and the reaver!
With the last of its eye shine, seen through the wall of ice, the reaver stared at the party, and knowingly, it was going to fail in its duty. Screamed its last words…
[fail… I'm sorry… mast…er] words with mixed emotions… the reaver looked to the night sky as if it was an act of remembrance.
With those words as its last, the constructed reaver, with a hallowed crown and a mind to free think, exploded and crumbled away… to frozen dust… to be nothing more than a ghost… in a land it once called…home.