Hunting for knowledge

Their search for knowledge would have to wait a few hours unfortunately, as the the sun was setting.

"We have to fix the seal on the door before it gets completely dark - Cass and Elira, find some wood, as much as you can. Isa and I are going to assess the damage to the enchament."

A few minutes later he was standing in fron of the main gate.

"The scratch is fresh, the restoration spell should work if we do it together."

Isara nodded and said:

"This seal is a part of larger array of enchantments that protect a large area around the temple. Also I'm fairly sure it's missing something, perhaps there's a secondary power involved? You know, something else than magic."

"Maybe a divine blessing? It's a temple after all."

"Maybe..."

Elira and Cassian finally joined them, carrying quite a lot of various planks an broken furniture.

"Will this be enough?" Asked the alchemist.

"Should be plenty, thanks. Put it next to the door and we can start." Replied Calen

He and Isara were standing with one hand on the heap of wood, and the other on the door. They were chanting for a while before anything happened.

Slowly at first, the pieces of wood began disappearing, and the shredded wood of the gates began mending.

A minute later, the only indication that the great door was ever damaged was a patch of differently coloured wood.

"Right, the enchament will activate on its own in a few minutes, so we better go inside and find somewhere to sleep." Stated Isara

The temple was equipped with numerous bedrooms that were supposed to host both priests and pilgrims, and like everything in the building there were in a good state.

They picked rooms close to each other and quickly went to sleep.

_________________________

The group began their day with a breakfast comprising of the enormous birds meat, and some bread from Asharil. After they were done eating, they started searching the building.

The temple's library was enormous, and had a lot of natural light, thanks to the large ornate sunroof.

It was also filled with useless stuff.

It quickly became obvious that what they were looking for was either very well hidden, or in a completely different place.

Three hours later the four of them checked every single title on the grand shelves, but they didn't find the knowledge they were promised.

They did find some interesting books, but they were clearly from the temple's collection. Calen picked up copies of 'A brief history of the Flamebearers','Understanding the divine flame' and 'Wyrms and Dragons'.

Isara's choice was a bit stranger, she borrowed a book titled 'Mastery of warding' - it was weird because she already had that book back home, and she never finished it, always complaining how boring it was.

"Our lives depend on wards now, I'll have to tough it out."

Was all she said.

Elira picked a particularly thick and old looking tome, it's bane was a bit faded, but one could still make out the letters spelling 'The first pantheon'

Cassian was never a very literary person, but even he chose something - a thin book titled 'The guardian of humanity: myth or fact?'.

Setting aside their chosen reading materials, they went back to searching. The temple was very big, and full of semi hidden rooms, so finding finding something specific wasn't an easy task.

"Guys, I think I've found something!" Shouted Calen.

His companions found him standing at the bottom of the stairs leading underground, in front of a heavy doorwith a runic inscription scribbled into the surface.

It wasn't glowing, and it wasn't set up in any enchantment formation.

It was a message.

"I think I recognise this text, but for the life of me I can't remember from where." Said Calen with a slightly frustrated voice.

"Those who want to take, must give first - for nothing is granted for free... Those are the first lines in 'The rebirth of the Sun Kingdom'." Responded Isara.

"Considering the words and the title itself I think we can all agree it's a message for us, right?"

Calen's companions all nodded.

"So, any ideas what are we supposed to 'give' to get in?"

"It must be something only you can have, otherwise locking the door wouldn't make much sense." Thoughtfully said Cassian.

"The flame?"

Calen summoned some of the fire into his palm and held it up to the door. He held his breath and after a few seconds... nothing happened.

"That was anticlimactic. Any other suggestions?"

"I-I think the flame is the right direction, we just have to use it elsewhere." Mumbled Elira.

"Sure, but where?"

"The basin at the center of the atrium looked like it was made to hold fire - it was filled with oil and had an enchantment around the edges." Suggested Isara.

The group moved to the garden area to test that theory. It looked exactly the same as yesterday, except the corpse of the bird monster fell to the bottom of the pond during the night.

The island containing the enchanted bowl was quite small, and the four of them had to squeeze a little to fit.

At least Auren was comfortable - the wyrm was napping atop the great tree, right above them.

Isara read the runes at the edges of the altar-like structure and a big smile spread on her face as she exclaimed:

"I was right! The basin is designed specifically for the divine flame and it's a part of the general security enchantment. We also need to fill the pond with water for the spell to be fully functional, but we can do that afterwards."

"Okay then, here goes nothing."

Calen summoned the flame once more and brought it closer to the oily substance contained in the bowl, and it immediately caught on fire.

The runes lining the edges lit up, but the glow was different from regular faint blue light of magic - it was bright and golden.

When the enchament was activated a wave of light rushed in all directions, and a profound change took place around them.

All the dried and dead parts of plants were burned away - same for the corpse of the abomination, it was turned to dust as if it never existed in the first place, and even the blood stains it left behind disappeared.

The most noticeable change was that the lighting - the sky didn't change at all, but the fire made the temple and its surrounding look like on a normal day before the apocalypse, unless you look up, of course.

The landscape in and around the temple was transformed - from dying and withered hellscape, into a dormant one that looked like a place at the end of a winter, awaiting the rebirth of spring.

Without wasting any time Calen and Isara began creating water to fill the pond. Control over the basic elements was the first thing a young mage learned, so with the two of them filling the entire thing took only a few minutes.

This time there was no magical spectacle or any strange effects, but Calen was willing to bet that in a few days every plant in a hundred meter radius would start blooming.

"I think we have to change the name of this place, calling it 'putrid grove' won't make much sense when everything is green and full of life." Announced Calen

"How about 'the last grove'?" Suggested Isara.

In response, Cassian spoke up:

"That doesn't make much sense though, it's the first place we purified - the begging of our journey. We should call it 'the first grove'"

Cassian tried to sound confident, but Calen knew him long enough to detect a hint of uncertainty in his friend's voice. It was probably because of those comments yesterday.

"I guess you got better with names as you got older, that's a pretty good one. Anyone thinks otherwise?" Asked Calen

No one said anything.

"Right then, 'the first grove' it is. Now, let's check on that door."

The passage was already open, revealing a spiral staircase lit with enchanted lights, leading even deeper underground.

All this time, they were looking for answers, and they would find them at the bottom.

Hopefully.

_____________________

Even though the hunt was a mission ordered as a punishment for his blunder, Tharosk still enjoyed it.

He and his companion were riding on Dravharns, but they decided against taking any Chirrix with them - they would slow them down and they weren't particularly useful while tracking smaller pray.

"Sir, may I ask a question?" Asked Kaerith.

"You already did, but I will allow another one." Answered Tharosk, not even turning to face his second-in-command.

"Apologies, sir. I was simply curious as to what are we hunting, exactly."

"Are you familiar with the breeding grounds to the west, boy?"

"I know they exist but nothing more, sir."

"There was a creature living there that we used as a population control, something killed it recently, and we are to find out what it was and eliminate it."

"With all due respect sir, why are we concerned about the death of some bug?"

Tharosk finally turned to Kaerith - his eyes were were full of contempt.

"Quiet, boy. Lady Blightwarden ordered us to do it, so we will."

The Mindcarver was silent for a bit, but he decided to press his commander a little:

"But sir, why would Lady Nethur make us do something so pointless?"

Tharosk stopped and stared at Kaerith a bit, before he answered:

"Because she never liked me."

They spent the rest of the journey in silence.

The dilapidated manor was located in the middle of the breeding grounds, so they had to avoid the livestock - for its sake, not theirs.

A young Dravharn would never attack a fully grown one, so they were safe on that front, and in order to scare away the Chirrix their mounts were equipped with special rings around their legs that exponentially increased produced vibrations.

"Kaerith, inspect the building, and report." Ordered Tharosk.

"Of course, sir."

The young Mindcarver approached the building and started examining every surface in search of clues. Soon enough, he found them.

"The building is covered in Dustling sorcery, sir."

"Dustlings? I thought they were gone from this sector. Good, it means the hunt will be enjoyable at least. Can you perform a Blightcalling here to learn what happened to them?"

"Certainly, sir."

Kaerith sat on the ground with crossed legs and pulled out a long dagger.

He cut his palm open, and did the same to a particular thick vine of the Creeping veil. Then he put his wounded hand over the growth, and his eyes became clouded by a white fog.

He was swaying from left to right for a bit, but suddenly stopped and returned to normal.

"There were four of them, sir. They moved in the direction of the mountains, so if they kept moving they're long out of the area blessed by the blight. Should we return and ask for permission to purse?"

"Lady Blightwarden was clear, we mustn't return until we remove the threat."

"Understood, sir."

"Kaerith, should we destroy the dustling's sorcery before we leave?"

"I believe we shouldn't, sir."

Tharosk's brows furrowed.

"Why?"

"Because if they come back they would know someone is working against them, we would lose the element of surprise, sir."

"Fine, let that filth stay then. What do you suggest we do now?"

"We should try to catch up with them before they go further from the ground zero, sir."

"I agree, If we're too slow or unlucky enough they'll find the green witch and we'll loose them forever."

Without wasting any more time they mounted their steeds, and traveled south.

___________________

The underground passage led to a medium sized room, filled with various artifacts and books. The most eye-catching was an illusion disk laying right in the middle of the chamber.

The meaning was pretty clear - use this first.

Calen crouched, and activated the device.

A semi-transparent figure appeared - it was Koravel, but Clearly much younger. The wasn't completely corrupted yet, only his left arm was large and misshapen, other than that he looked like any other Archmage: seemingly middle aged, and handsome.

The illusion wasn't still for long, as it started speaking:

"Hello Flamebearer, I'm Archmage Koravel, but you probably already know me. I'm here to explain your mission in detail, and provide you with the knowledge and resources I have painstakingly gathered for the last few centuries."

Just from those few sentences Calen learned quite a lot - first of all it seems Koravel lost his title long after the invasion started, did it mean the high council was still operational in some capacity? Or did he renounce the title on his own, because of something he did?

The other thing he noticed was Koravel's manner of speech - the Archmage was decidedly less formal in the past.

There was no time for further observation though, because the message continued:

"Congratulations are in order, you've managed to secure your first permanent outpost. Unlike other safehouses you might have visited before, this one is protected by the divine flame.

Corruption cannot enter the barrier created by this temple's enchantments, so the building is completely safe from both the abominations, and the Blightborn - oh, that's the name humanity adopted for the invaders, by the way."

The illusory Archmage seemed to be lost in thought for a bit, but he recovered quickly:

"Anyway, your task for now is to locate the remaining eleven templates of the old gods and do the same thing you did here, more or less. It's a vital step to restoring the world, but you'll find more about it in my journals.

The figure gestured to one of the shelves, full of thick leather bound notebooks, and continued:

"For now I can tell you that the temples are located all around the country. The guardians can help you locate them, so find them if you're able to."

Koravel's image started pacing around the room.

"What else, what else... Ah! I probably told you this already but please remember: strengthen the three aspects of the flame control equally - bad things happen to those who don't."

He stopped and looked straight at Calen.

"And finally - your ultimate goal is to destroy the bridge between our world and the invader, and more importantly remove the source of the corruption that keeps the sun dim."

"One could say... You'll have to ignite the sun."