In the year 890, High Mage Domon of Ti’Vaeth rose up against the king of Ti’Vaeth, Glenidar, and challenged him to a duel. There are many claims to his reasons, most of them having to do with injustice against his noble family, but historians agree that he cornered Glenidar politically in a way that he could not refuse. Glenidar was an accomplished mage in his own right, of the water branch, but was no match for the ruthless bearer of earth magic.
— From Secrets of Mani, by Sor the Lark
(Norvaen 14, 997—Waning Day)
Rhidea performed the last necessary teleport back, and a short while later we were down in the shadowy, twilit streets of Ti’Vaeth. She looked exhausted at that point, having used up most of her own power in addition to the artifact, and we practically had to drag her back to the Sleepy Dragon.
We all slept well that night. Surprisingly, as exhausted as I was, I had no dreams of White.
(Norvaen 15, 997—Waning Day)
The next morning was a groggy one for me. Even Rhidea slept in late. Coaction took a lot out of a mage, so both Rhidea and I were drained bodily and mentally from the previous day’s exertion. She looked like a walking nightmare, hair a mess and eyes dark and ringed. “Hello, children . . . good morning,” she moaned, closing her eyes briefly and then reopening them. “Oh, I need more sleep after that.”
Mydia and the others had no idea what had transpired the previous night, so we gave them a rough report of our exploits in the enemy territory of the Inner Citadel and the tunnels that twisted below the Hall of Eternity, a maze that guarded the Wellspring of Life. The queen was, of course, very worried, but also jealous that she had missed out on “so much fun!” She could never make up her mind how to feel about a thing, of course.
That day, we constructed our plan. Rhidea called everyone together and declared that we knew enough to go on. This was mostly due to the fact that we had already found the Well, or rather, had gotten close . . . so we had something to go on. The issues we needed to address were as follows:
- How to get into the tunnels above the Wellspring again.
- How to distract the Archlord’s men, and hopefully the Archlord as well, to divert their attention from our actual doings.
- How to find our way through the tunnels.
- How to get inside the Well (It was said to be sealed with an ancient seal).
- What to do while inside.
So we chipped away at all these points, brainstorming ideas. We all agreed that whatever seal was on the Well must be broken, no matter what it took. The problem was . . . how?
We decided to come back to that one later. Rhidea seemed confident enough that brute force would work if all else failed. The distraction was a big one we needed to focus on. We wouldn’t be so lucky with avoiding attention twice. The Wellspring itself would be heavily guarded, and we needed something to occupy the forces of the Archlord.
Finding our way through the tunnels would really just be a matter of time. With a bit of magic and a reasonably intelligent plan—and of course the power of sticking together—we would get through.
Finally, we had a strategy outlined. We would go back tomorrow. We would execute the plan much like the coup at Nytaea. Disguise, distract, break in, extract. Hopefully, things went a bit smoother. There would be no taking over the government here. No indeed, we could not handle Ti’Vaeth like that. Our only purpose was to get inside the Well and find out what was going on—what the Archlord was hiding. The man himself said he didn’t care, so . . . we did, and we were going to get to the bottom of it.
Kaen, Mydia and the two soldiers were to handle the distraction. (Kaen was willing to take care of Mydia after some coaxing from me, but he didn’t like it.)
Rhidea, Kath and I would go for the Well. But we had a backup plan. We would go the same exact way as before, but if we couldn’t end up getting to it, we would extract and go in through the palace. That was, of course, only a last resort, because going through the Hall of Eternity would be very dangerous. And without being seen . . . next to impossible. It would not be a silent mission in that case.
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My team would use Mydia’s illusions, nearly-full shadows and as little magic as possible to get from the inn to the inner sanctum of the Hall of Eternity. I hoped Kaen and the others would be all right, and that he wouldn’t be . . . well, Kaen. Reckless was his middle name, after all. He was supposed to start the distractions after we would already be inside the tunnels above the Well. That way we had time. But he was intelligent, and we had a good . . . well, okay, a decent plan.
We had already tried to sneak into the Citadel, of course, but that was Kaen and I, without Rhidea’s aid. This time, we would use Rhidea’s superior Authority to get in much quicker.
(Norvaen 15, 997—Sunset)
We set off in the early morning hours. The night was dark, and the sun was beginning to set, so we had excellent cover. Sure, the guardsmen had torches everywhere, but what good were torches when the intruders had magic? No one expected a faithful mage soldier or a rogue mage and student to be trying to get in . . . well, actually, they probably did. It made me a bit uneasy, how low the security appeared to be.
We made it past the first Citadel wall with ease, Rhidea using her Earth Authority to help us climb it, and proceeded onward, across the courtyard and alleys and over fancy gabled roofs of important government buildings, heading toward the second wall. We climbed this one with a mix of my natural aptitude for the thing and Rhidea’s gravity Authority, and then we were in the Inner Citadel.
Here, Rhidea warped us straight up to the top of the Hall of Eternity. We gazed down once more upon the gaping hole that went straight down to the stone floor some two hundred feet below. Rhidea leapt first, and Kath and I followed after. Neither one of us had the Authority in earth magic to do as Rhidea did, so she stopped our fall for us. It was a very unnerving feeling to have her do it, but what a miraculous ability. . . . Not for the first time, I was grateful to have such a powerful mage on my side.
We then searched for a doorway. “Remember,” Rhidea said to us now, “This time, we will go in separately. Kath, you already know spells of guidance. Lyn, I will set a tracking spell on you and then we will enter the caves.” She set the guiding spell on me, which would apparently lead me toward the others no matter where I went, and then we found the closest three cavern entrances, marking them and then entering. We left the one we had explored the previous night with the invisible string, deciding to come back to it if all the others returned no results.
It was just as unsettling a place as before, dimly lit by eerie, sporadic torchlight from the ceiling. I had a flame in hand (I was good with flames, remember?) to light my way, so I didn’t mind. But I was glad for Rhidea’s spell, without which I would never have entered such a place. Kaen should be causing an uproar right about now. . . . Hopefully, we found the actual Well in time.
The passage twisted and turned in front of me, never still, until my sense of direction was completely lost. All I could tell was that I was going progressively downward. I hummed old lullabies to myself as I went. Kaen wasn’t here to complain about how off-pitch I was.
A shudder went forth from below me, and I heard a loud screech a moment later. A shiver ran down my spine in reply to this.
I felt another shudder, this time from deeper below, and a long, low moaning sound echoed forth from down the tunnel, making my arm hairs stand on end. “What in the . . . ?” Perhaps it was the door to the Well. I couldn’t know, so I just proceeded further in.
In a moment, however, I felt a tug on the invisible string of magic that tied me back to the entrance. Someone had found the door. Whew. That saved me from having to find out what was down this tunnel. I turned around and hurriedly retraced my steps. It was much quicker to go back out via a single path than to wander about downward, and so in five minutes’ time I found myself at the entrance, looking Rhidea in the face. Kath was by her side. “Did you find it?” I asked.
Kath nodded.
“Indeed,” Rhidea confirmed. “Kath stumbled upon it on his second tunnel. Let us make haste!”
I glanced up briefly before ducking inside the cave, listening to the distant sound of horns and alarms. Hopefully, Kaen and Mydia were safe.
Then I followed Rhidea and the mage soldier underground. Our path twisted and turned along with the tunnels as Kath led us back along his route. It was only a few minutes before he said, “Here it is.” At the end of the tunnel, the tunnel walls became more of a hallway, rough stone transitioning into stonework lining walls and floors. We ascended a flight of stairs that curved sharply to the right, and then were faced with a door of glimmering silver. It emanated a cold . . . energy. This is it.
Kath stepped aside to let Rhidea approach the silver door. She put a hand on it and concentrated, then stopped and listened.
I spun, looking the other way. “That’s the guards.”
Rhidea transferred energy into the door and it rumbled and began to open as the footsteps and shouting grew louder. And then I recognized the voices. It was our friends . . . probably being chased.
The door slowly continued to rise. Kaen and his three companions burst through the corridor and into sight at the bottom of the stairs, just as the door was opening wide enough to slip under.
“Hurry, hurry!” cried Mydia, lifting her skirts as she dashed to keep up with the men. “They’re close on our tail!”
Rhidea stopped us, stepping in first and looking down into the darkness. “I’ll go first.” The mage ducked inside, palm flame glimmering, and then waved us inside. “Come on, quickly.”
I was one of the last to enter. I kept looking backward, until I saw the torchlight of the guardsmen coming. They were going to catch us. “Rhidea!” I shouted. “They’ve already caught up to us!”
“It’s all right,” she answered, “we can—” She cut off as her flame went out.