The First Mage

The moment we peeked out the building housing the entrance to the tunnel, a general alarm started disturbing the silence all around us. The timing alone was enough to surprise me, but it couldn’t logically have been about us. With the bells also signaling that the event happened to the east—the opposite direction from our target destination—we were presumably safe to ignore it. After briefly checking our surroundings, we entered Alarna’s office district despite the commotion and continued our journey towards the temple. Clad in black cloaks and with our lamps extinguished, we were difficult to spot.

So far, things had gone rather smoothly. Two of the three locked doors we had to go through, Reurig was able to pick. The last one was sealed shut, but of course this didn’t stop me, and I employed one of my new saw scripts to cut the door open in such a way that what happened wouldn’t be too obvious at first glance. I could only hope that this mission’s difficulty level would remain where it was.

Sneaking through dark alleyways, we edged closer to the temple and soon reached the street running north from the main square. After a quick sprint across it and down the next side-street, we finally reached the hidden entrance to the temple gardens Aelene had shown us. This gate was locked as well, but since she had held onto the key to it, the obstacles in our path almost seemed to become easier to overcome, rather than harder. The gate unlocked and swung open without making a single noise, and once we were past this point, there wouldn’t even be locks anymore. Although there was the human component, of course.

We didn’t get very far into the garden before we spotted two guards in the distance, standing on either side of the door leading into the temple. Two lamp posts illuminated only the nearby area—they wouldn’t spot us on the other side of the grounds.

“I know one of them,” Bren whispered, carefully peering over a hedge. “He won’t be able to stop us, but he does take his job seriously.”

Neither of them appeared to be a hurdle in my eyes, and for good reason. As far as I knew, guard jobs like this weren’t usually assigned to experienced Fighters, but newbies. If you didn’t get sent out into the Wildlands because you were seen as disposable, you were most likely to end up with an assignment that involved standing around in front of a structure or door for hours on end—often at night—and with nothing of actual importance to protect. It couldn’t be helped really, that’s what guard duty was, but there certainly existed posts that were more or less desirable. Maybe this one would become even less desirable after tonight.

“Alright, let’s stick to the plan,” I said quietly.

Reurig and Berla nodded and headed off in opposite directions, rounding the garden to flank the guards. They crept quietly, their footsteps muffled by the soft grass. The two approached the guards from the sides, one from the left and one from the right. Once they were in position, I sneaked closer towards them as well, from hedge to hedge and bush to bush. I stopped close to the center of the garden, where they would be able to see me once I stood. I removed my dark cloak, revealing the white priest’s robe underneath, and proceeded to pull its hood low over my face. All the pieces were now in place. What remained to initiate our plan for real was to activate a certain script and get up. Taking a deep breath, I steeled myself.

The actions we were going to take tonight were drastic, but in this moment I also felt a hint of anticipation rise up within me, and my mouth contorted into an accidental smile.

***

Emeryn followed the shadows down a street she had never been to. Going slowly, as to not alert them to her presence, she might have lost them if it weren’t for the fact that it was a rather short street with a dead end and no branching paths. She could see them clearly against the backdrop of the white temple walls, though it did come as a surprise when they reached the wall and suddenly vanished behind the row of houses to their right. It didn’t look like it should be possible from a distance, but as she got closer, she found a narrow gap in between—just enough for one person to walk through.

The group was already gone when she reached it, but the path they took appeared obvious to her when she noticed a gate in the wall. Squinting her eyes in suspicion, she kept on following them, thoughts about who they were and what they were doing swirling around her mind. Were they agents on a secret mission? Maybe they were returning to the temple? This seemed like the most reasonable explanation on the surface, but there weren’t supposed to be any agents.

Her theoryzing was interrupted when she peeked into the garden from behind a wall. It was a large, neatly-kept green space with many plants she had never seen before. Rectangular walls of greenery snaked through the garden, creating paths to wander through and areas to relax in. Her eyes widened as she realized that the temple had their own little peaceful Wildlands, and she cursed her bad luck of being here in the middle of the night, when she could barely make out half of it.

Clicking her tongue, she surveyed the area. Her misfortune seemed to continue, as her targets were nowhere to be seen. The only people in sight were two guards posted next to the temple doors. She briefly wondered whether the shadows hadn’t gone this way after all, when something hit her from above.

Huh?

She looked up and there it was again. Something hit her right on the nose, before gliding down her cheek. The sensation of cold water drops from the heavens running down her face wasn’t common to Emeryn.

Rain?

She was flabbergasted when her guess turned out to be true and large drops began raining down from above. The garden was suddenly filled with the crackling of water hitting various surfaces. For as long as she could remember, it had never rained once during the summer. The times she had experienced rain at all could be counted on one hand. To make matters even more baffling, the sky she was looking towards was clear. She couldn’t see even one cloud in it, which were said to be prerequisites for rain. It defied common sense.

When she lowered her gaze again, another surprise hit her, as there was suddenly another figure standing in the garden. It stood smack in the middle of it—facing the guards—and its white robe shone as the lights from the moon and the lamps hit it. It took the guards longer to notice it than Emeryn, having also been surprised by the rain, but the moment their eyes did fall on the person, they immediately brandished their spears and shouted, “Who are you!?”

Their eyes grew wide and their skin pale as an oppressive air washed over the guards watching them—including Emeryn. She had never been in the presence of a god herself, but she assumed that this must be what it felt like. It at least matched some descriptions she had heard.

In this moment of awe, it didn’t even come as a surprise to her when the guards collapsed under the pressure. They stood closer to the presumed god, and might have experienced it tenfold. She couldn’t blame them. Though she froze when the rain suddenly stopped, she realized two shadows stood where the guards had been before, and three more left their hiding spots. The group gathered in front of the door, exchanging looks of triumph, and it finally clicked.

There you are! Emeryn thought. Wait... Is that not a god then?

The answer became readily apparent when the person in white pulled their dripping robe over their head and let it drop to the ground with a wet thud. She didn’t recognize the young man under it from behind and from this distance, but he was undeniably human. Another handed him a fresh robe they had tucked away and he quickly slipped into it, while the others extinguished the lamps and hid the guards, who were either unconscious or dead.

With the only man-made light source gone, only the moon remained, and Emeryn had difficulties making out what happened next. Though she could tell with certainty that three of the shadows were guards after they took off their cloaks, their chainmail glittering in the moonlight. She also saw that five of them went inside, like a priest escorted by four Fighters, while the last remained in front of the door, acting as guard. Unless she were to fight him, this was the end of her chase.

Initially, Emeryn didn’t quite know what to make of all this. The only thing that was clear to her was that these people had snuck around town. Well, they also attacked two guards. And then entered the temple unauthorized in the middle of the night... In all her excitement, it took her a moment to fully realize the ramifications of these events.

This can’t be good... right? she wondered, frowning.

Her plan had been to leave Alarna behind tonight, and her sense of duty was moderate at best, but she still was a guard, and she felt a slight responsibility towards the town. Whatever this group was doing in there, duty demanded for her to report them. On the other hand, she had never seen or even heard about anything even close to what she just witnessed. She didn’t want it to end.

With these conflicting emotions battling inside her, she stayed rooted to the spot, contemplating what to do. Minutes passed without her making a decision, and also without the group exiting the temple. Time was running out, they would surely leave soon.

Can someone please tell me what to do? she complained to herself.

As if on cue, a loud noise suddenly shot through the night, briefly supplanting the quietness once more. Emeryn’s head snapped in the direction it came from: The roof at the eastern edge of the temple. Debris was flying through the air and a small pillar stretched from the roof up into the sky endlessly. Or maybe it was the other way around, and it bored down into the temple from above. It dispersed after just a second or two, and Emeryn was left speechless—almost.

“Whoa...”