It Began in a Tavern - Official Legacy Roleplay (Part 2)

[Louanne Learning]

Ben, standing between Katara and Ravenna, extended his arms. “Take my wrists,” he said to them.

They obeyed. A whoosh of air rushed past them, and Ben’s glow went out. A total and complete darkness engulfed them, and a strong wind whipped up. “Hold on,” Ben said.

Katara felt no ground beneath her feet, but they were not flying. Suspended in what rippled like a divine pattern of time and air, encircling them, flowing past them, Katara felt no fear. She held on to Ben, and a great sense of anticipation for their destination thundered her heart.

“Where are you taking us?” Ravenna cried.

“To the primal threshold,” Ben answered.

A soothing hum sounded, and the wind calmed. An amber illumination, from a wider space, emanated from the ground and then bled up to reveal a clouded sky. In the gentle light, they stood on the cobbled banks of a green river. High, grassy hills speckled with yellow and orange flowers rose up some distance from the banks, on both sides.

Katara, transfixed, murmured, “This place is strange.”

“The River of Beginnings,” Ben simply stated. “In a place removed … a place new to you.”

Katara and Ravenna exchanged wide-eyed glances. “What—what do we do now?” Katara asked.

“We need to go back,” Ravenna insisted, in a rush.

Ben smiled. “You will have the chance,” he said, then turned about, putting his back to the river. Facing the ridge, he said, “Look. Look here.” The girls turned about, too. “Do you see those two openings—those entrances to caverns within?”

“Yes, I see them,” Katara replied. “They are openings to caves?”

“Yes, and passageways that provide the easy way out, for both of you.”

Katara furrowed her brow. “What are you talking about?”

“Hear me out … Ravenna,” he turned a calm expression to her, “you have endured terrors. I have seen much, and yet I flinch at your past. Here lies your opportunity to resolve all that plagues you, from what you have endured. If you enter that cave,” he raised a hand to the entrance on the left, “it will lead you to your family. But you must go alone.” He turned an open look to Katara. “Katara,” he said, “I know you want nothing more than to write poetry in the safety of your little window nook. The opportunity to do that presents itself here. If you enter that cave,” he gestured to the entrance on the right, “you can be removed from all this danger, and find yourself in your room, back at the tavern. But you must go alone.”

“Oh!”

Katara and Ravenna rushed towards one another. Desperately, they grasped hands between them and searched one another’s eyes. “It can all be over for us now,” Ravenna breathed.

“We can go home.”

Their eyes widened as if they had the same awful thought at the same time. “But—what about Olive?”

“And the fate of existence.” Katara’s face fell. “It makes our meaning small, to only think about ourselves.”

“I cannot only belong to myself.”

“What shelter can there be for us, if we leave Olive out in the cold?”

Rather than let go of one another, they drew together, and embraced. In the comfort of the proximity, clinging to one another, Katara fixed a face of anguish on Ben. “If we refuse the exit, where do we go next?”

He rolled his eyes up to the clouds. The young women followed his line of vision. A hole in the sky, resplendent with glittering rays of hope, appeared. “Up there,” he said.

Katara felt the pull, even as she had a thousand questions about it. “Have you been there?” she asked.

“No … it will be my awakening, as well as yours.”

“But, but,” Ravenna stuttered, “how do we do any of this without magic? We are not mages!”

Ben opened his hands. “There is magic in friendship.”

“Enough to move worlds?!”

“Well … there is only one way to find out. But friendship is creative, so let’s see what you can create.”

Ravenna and Katara drew apart, and locked eyes. “I feel it in my bones,” Ravenna said. “I feel that this is the way I can put my trauma to good use.”

“We have to go.”

“Yes, we have to go.”

“But we will be together.”

“Together.”

They put determined eyes on Ben. “We are ready,” Katara said.

“We are ready,” Ravenna added, “to go through the hole in the sky.”

***

Dusca awoke in the arms of Barnabas. “Are you awake?” she murmured.

“I am … Nice to dream in the midst of this nightmare.”

“Are dreams even real?”

“I don’t know what is real, except my love for you.”

“My mother used to tell me, love, but be careful what you love.”

“Do you love me?”

“I do.”

“And why must you take care with that?”

“Wounds take time to heal.”

He laid his hand on her cheek. “I will spend the rest of my life earning your trust.”

Their lips met in a tender kiss.

Slowly, they brought themselves up to sit. Dusca wiped her eyes, then scanned the space where all slept. “Where is Katara?” she asked. Her panic rose. “Where is Katara?” she shrieked.

Barnabas sprang up on his feet, and Brother Silas came to confront him. “She is gone, with Ravenna, and Ben, to recover fragments of the Celestial Gear. I have great faith that they will meet the challenge. And we have a challenge for you, too. We need you; we need you and Dusca, to recover a fragment—the Indigo fragment, representing Eros, the god of love.”

“Why us?”

“Because … only true love can capture it.”

 

[IgnitedxSoul]

With the help of several citizens, Wren, Olten, and Pria calmed down the chaos that had become of Cliffcross. Olten tied the orb of light to the tallest bell tower. With it shining down on them, the whole city felt like the hours just before dawn rather than the total darkness it once suffered.

Most of the people, uncertain of how to proceed, either shuffled their way back to their homes or resorted to their places of worship for comfort. Wren fielded some questions of what had happened as best he could, but truthfully he had not the knowledge nor the time to give anyone a proper response. He mostly told people to take some time to rest, that there are others working to solve everything. Wren prayed they didn’t need to worry and he ached for anyone who harbored even a fraction of the uncertainty and fear he felt in his chest.

Eventually, Wren tasked himself with repairing the damage he caused to the street and building foundations during his outburst. On the way there, Pria and Olten filled him in on the last few hours. Olten was most forthcoming, with Pria slow to speak and avoiding eye contact. Eventually, she told the whole truth. She tried to kill the Queen. Wren could hardly fathom it. His late master’s words echoed in his head.

A lackey who can’t even care for a charge of two younger mages. Do you even know the torment young Priscilla just endured? Or were you too preoccupied in your own pride to notice?

Once Olten and Pria finished their tale, in its full absurdity, Wren stopped and met Pria’s eyes. She attempted to look away, but Wren grabbed onto her shoulders firmly. She jolted and met his gaze, her face shrouded in a consuming guilt, tears welling in her eyes. Wren did not look away.

“Listen, Priscilla,” Wren said. “I know what it means to take a life. I know how painful it is to carry that weight.”

The tears flowed down Pria’s face, she seemed unable to stop them. Despite wiping the back of her hand across her eyes, they kept coming. With an awkward clearing of his throat, Olten offered a shred of cloth to her, which she took with a pained smile.

Wren continued. “I do not blame you. I do not fear you. I know your heart is true.”

“But I did something terrible,” Pria said. “How can I ever come back from that? How do I come back from being something so… inhuman.”

Wren squeezed her shoulders once more. “By doing good, every chance you get, one day at a time.”

“We still need to bury her,” Pria said. “We didn’t have any tools, and it was just the two of us… We heard the commotion in the city and came to help, leaving her out there in the dark. Do you think you could…?”

Wren nodded. “Of course, let’s take care of this here first, and then we can bury the body.”

Olten stepped forward and crouched beside one of the cracks Wren had formed in the ground. “Wait, come look at this,” he said.

The two of them joined Olten at the crack where he pointed at a particularly wide section. The separation in the soil ran so deep Wren could not begin to estimate its depth, but there, to the north, was a subtly pulsating green glow.

“What is it?” Pria asked.

“I’m not certain,” Wren said. “And it’s probably none of our business, we should let it be.”

Olten shook his head. “You can’t tell me you aren’t curious.”

“Do you really think curiosity is an appropriate emotion to satiate right now?” Wren asked.

Pria tsked. “I don’t know,” she said. “We still don’t fully know why the city froze in time. What if whatever is down there has some answers?”

The three gazed along the length of the crack, which expanded into a sewer entrance and further into the darkness beyond. The subtle green glow hardly visible.

Wren took a step back, shaking his head. “No, the city needs us. We can’t go traipsing about the sewers.”

Olten spread his arms in a grand gesture. “The streets are empty, Wren. The people are grieving the loss of the sun. There’s nothing more we need to do.”

With a sigh, Wren looked back at the sewer entrance. “Fine, but you’re going first.”

~ ~ ~

They spent what felt like several hours worth of venturing through the sewers dozens of feet below the surface, following the ever intensifying green glow through the cracks. Eventually, after dozens of maze-like turns, they came upon a large vault door left slightly ajar, the glow pouring out from within.

Olten took off for the door, but Wren grabbed his arm to stop him just short of the threshold. “Are you mad? That room could be trapped.”

The fire mage sighed. “But the door is already opened!”

“Just be patient,” Wren said. He pooled his ether at his finger tips and raked his arms slowly in front of him from right to left. The earth shifted and the floor beneath the door rose like a wave, pivoting it on its hinges and opening with an ear piercing squeal.

They waited. When nothing stirred Wren finally nodded to Olten. “But don’t touch anything!"

Olten ran ahead, Pria and Wren followed close behind. The three were in awe at the structure before them. The cavern seemed in places natural and in others excavated. The walls were saturated with veins of a phosphorous white ore, which were surrounded everywhere by large shards of glowing green crystal that seemed to grow from the stone. The entire room was carved with thousands of intricate symbols, all interconnected in a maddening pattern that swirled inward to a center dais, upon which sat nothing by dust.

“Of course,” Wren said, his face slack-jawed in awe.

“Of course what?” Pria and Olten asked in unison.

“This must be where Gaia’s gear fragment was held. This spell…” Wren trailed off as he examined the carvings. “It would take me a century to even begin to decipher the purpose of these markings.”

“What if it was meant to protect the fragment?” Pria proposed.

“That could be…” Wren replied. “Perhaps the city freezing in time was an effort to contain the thief until the fragment could be restored to the dais.”

“That’s just wild speculation,” Olten mocked. “Who’s the curious one now?”

Wren shushed him. “Either way, I think we need to find those mages you fought against, Pria. They need to see this.”