The First Mage

At almost two meters, I had been pretty big in my old life, and I quite liked it. An imposing size, being able to reach high spots easily, there were very few drawbacks. Except when you were in an old house with low ceilings or door frames, where you had to constantly watch your head.

When I got to Erinn, it was a little weird to be considerably smaller in Tomar’s body, and Lilana wasn’t taller either. Right now, while walking through the tunnels below Alarna, however, I was happy about this size. If I were in my old body, I would have to crouch down the entire time, which would’ve been quite uncomfortable, seeing how the ceiling was maybe one meter ninety high and we’d already been down here for at least half an hour.

“Just a few more minutes,” Reurig said, as we followed him in single file.

‘Thank the gods... It’s scary down here...’

“Don’t worry, it’s safe,” I told her. Although, a dimly lit tunnel... barely wide enough for one person to walk through... Yea, I guess I can see how it could be scary.

For me and Lilana it was the first time, but the others had already gone through the tunnel below Cerus to escape town, and they seemed relatively comfortable. Though we hadn’t had much of a choice in how to get into town anyway. At least not with the arrival I had in mind.

The day before, after deciding to go to Alarna, I had made another trip to the worker camp and informed them about my plan to appear before the citizens today. Just getting into town wasn’t an issue, nor was talking to a few people, but we needed an audience, and ideally also an impressive appearance. To that end, I had asked the lumberjacks and guards to spread the word, so people would gather at the main square at noon, when most of them were on lunch break.

The workers and guards had had one day to tell as many people as possible, and we could only hope that that would be enough. Speaking to twenty people wouldn’t really accomplish anything. Instead, we would have to worry about getting surrounded by agents and guards. With enough people there, however, that would be much more difficult. Additionally, we would be walking up the main street from close to the south gate, where one of the tunnel entrances was. That way, even more people would see us and maybe get curious.

This was admittedly all very short notice, but if we waited too long, the other players would make a move first. The king would presumably want to capture Cerus, and the High Priest would want to keep furthering his plans to take over Alarna, by scaring the people with this new threat. This was the ideal time to forestall them.

“We’re here,” Reurig said eventually, as he rounded another corner. Following him, we finally reached an ever so slightly wider space with a ladder leading upwards. “The house we’ll arrive in is a little hidden, so unless there’s a patrol, we shouldn’t get spotted until we reach the main street.”

I nodded and he started climbing. We went after him one after the other, and we emerged in a simple room with minimal furnishing. The house was in the south west area of town, where the royalty resided, but you wouldn’t have been able to guess your location based on this interior design.

The tunnels had apparently been built to get in and out of town safely, but today they were only supposed to be used as escape tunnels for the leadership anymore, with the majority of people not even knowing about them. Were the tunnels to be built today, they would probably lead directly to the king’s villa, but for some reason they had kept the old entrances, from a time before this housing area had been built around this building.

I helped Riala and Berla climb up, out of the hole below a trapdoor, with both of them struggling a little with the widely spaced rungs for different reasons. Tomar came last and he immediately went for the nearest window, to take a look at his hometown.

“We’re really back...” he said.

“Indeed,” I said.

Walking over to the window as well, I could see a white building a couple dozen meters away that looked a little like the temple, towering over the other buildings around it. Knowing that we wouldn’t be able to see the temple from here, however, I knew that it had to be their secondary building, where they raised children of Worshippers. Due to her parent’s connections, Lilana apparently didn’t have to live there for long and barely remembered it. I thought it was weird that they didn’t get to live with their parents until they came of age, and except for Lilana everyone seemed to share that opinion. Generally speaking, people apparently felt sorry for these kids. Maybe we can do something about that as well at some point... Though it’s seen as perfectly normal by the people in the temple.

“If this doesn’t work, we’re screwed, right?” Tomar asked, glancing sideways at me.

“Oh, so you do have doubts,” I said with a chuckle.

“I have to admit, being inside Alarna again does make me a little nervous. I didn’t expect that. Though I’m also happy.”

“Well, you know the plan. Unless we don’t attract any people, the chances for failure should be pretty low.”

Tomar nodded at me with determination and we turned around to change. Now that we were out of the tunnel, we all dressed up as priests, with robes that Reurig had managed to “borrow” for everyone. We pulled the hoods over our heads, I took a deep breath, and finally opened the door. Briefly looking around outside I couldn’t see anyone and we quickly left the building, sticking to the shadows as we went westwards, in the direction of the main street. From there we would go north, to the main square.

“It’s so quiet...” I said. “Is that normal for this area?”

Even if we were a little off the beaten path, I would’ve expected to at least hear noises from the main street, or from nearby buildings. I thought that maybe this section of town was just isolated rather well, but apparently that wasn’t the case.

“No, it really is quiet...” Berla said. “It’s weird.”

After just a few minutes, we arrived at an open archway in a small wall that separated this area from the rest of town. As we finally stepped out into the open, I carefully glanced around from below my hood, but even though the main street should be quite busy at this time of day, I didn’t see any people, and I was starting to get worried.

‘Where is everybody?’ Lilana asked.

“That’s what I want to know...” I said. One explanation came to mind, but I couldn’t possibly believe in it, until I finally looked in the direction of our destination and my eyes widened. Far in the distance, I could see the white temple building, and it looked like there was a huge crowd in the main square in front of it. From here, it looked like a solid wall of people.

“Hey, Reurig... am I seeing things?” I asked.

“Why are you so surprised? This was the plan, wasn’t it?” he said.

“Didn’t you say there were still a lot of people who were skeptical? The street is empty! That makes it seem like... everybody is there!?”

“Well, yes. I did say that. But that was days ago, and it was before the attack on Cerus. Of course people would want to hear from you, not to mention that they are curious to see you for the first time. I assumed everybody would come who could. Didn’t I mention that?”

“You did not... That’s... Wow,” I said in a daze.

So that’s why he wasn’t worried. I said everything would work out if we had a big enough audience, and he was certain that we would have one...

“Well... Let’s go then,” I said and started walking, the others following a few steps behind me. “Do watch our surroundings though, we don’t want to be taken by surprise.”

I had planned to make a show on our way to the main square to attract more attention. That wouldn’t be necessary anymore now, but we also didn’t have any protection. If someone were to spot us here, alone on this street, they would be able to attack us with little difficulty. To make a good impression, however, this would be the way to go.

If Reurig was right, and this wall of people we were seeing in the distance was any indicator, we had apparently attracted way more citizens than I had expected. I had high hopes before coming here, but maybe I underestimated how well received our stories and deeds were. Or maybe they’re just curious to see the strange girl who lives in the Wildlands and can do weird things.

Slowly but surely we got closer to the main square, and eventually we started to hear the indistinct chatter of hundreds if not thousands of voices. There really were as many people there as it seemed, and in a couple of minutes I would have to give the performance of a lifetime.

“Wow! There’s so many people!” Riala said in wonder.

Does anything faze this girl...? I thought with an amused smile. Her comment relaxed me a little. To say that there were more people than expected would be an understatement, but this didn’t change anything.

“Here we go,” I said.

***

“Where is this damned anomaly...” a beast said to another in a displeased growl. “We’ve been searching for weeks!”

“First time? Somebody should’ve told you that it can take months to track them if they’re moving around.”

“Eh? Seriously...? I mean, I know they are difficult to detect, but I thought the leader was good at this.”

“That’s why our search radius is three hundred kilometers, and not ‘somewhere on this continent.’”

“I guess that’s better...”

“Look at it from the bright side, we rarely get to hunt so many humans.”

“Hah, that’s the whole reason I’m here,” the beast said with what looked somewhat like a grin, baring its teeth. “Though I’m starting to get bored. I wouldn’t mind finding it now.”

“It’s just a matter of time,” the second beast said and stopped at a crossroads. “What do you say, south or west?”

“Hm... south maybe? Wait, what about east? East feels right.”

“Either they haven’t explained anything to you or you didn’t listen...” the second beast said with a sigh. “We can’t go there. That’s private territory.”

“Ugh. What if it’s there though?”

“That area will be searched by another group, you need to get special permission. You said south, right? Let’s go.”

“Alright,” the beast said in disappointment, glancing eastwards. “I feel like we should go that way though...”