Embers in the Dust

Berkton Academy’s Library was the oldest building in the city, and rivaled only a couple buildings for its enormous size. Built during a time of knowledge growth, the city had made use of the building’s safety for many reasons over the years. Walls and corridors were stacked high with books, scrolls, and journals from some of the most prolific mages and experts of all time. Today, Leaf wasn’t focused on the quiet of the library, the comfortable smell of dusty pages, or the librarian, Aravine, her student aides, or Wulfgar standing behind him at a safe distance. Instead, his concentration was on the smooth, metallic, silver sphere in the center of the room.

The Eye of Spellbound Storms was a lengthy name, created by one of the first Deans of Berkton Academy. Originally an item that had to be enchanted on daily, artifice was added later to ensure it lasted decades without any technical or arcane work. Instead, the dials, levers, and other apparati controlled its range of ability, changed the weather, and provided a list of protections over the school’s perimeter. The Eye was protected by an arcane field, and usually hovered, rotating slowly in its space. Today, it did none of these things. It sat on the platform, unmoving.

“It just stopped working yesterday?” Leaf asked Aravine.

“It fell slowly, thankfully, or it would have broken the mechanics below it, but yes.”

Leaf examined it at a distance. It still hummed slightly with arcane power, but seemed unable to do anything of use. He pulled out a pearl from his satchel, whispered the incantation, and looked through it as the stone became transparent. Inspecting the usually invisible, glowing runes that rotated around it, he tried to read the enchantments. It was time-consuming, but as he focused, he noticed something and looked further into it.

Each rune seemed to be a word, which together wrote a lengthy paragraph, like a contract, explaining its use and commanding it to life. The rune he was studying contained a piece to mean five gem dragons. Realizing the issue, he plucked the rune away, shifted it in his hands, and transformed the rune to four. As he placed it back into its placement in the circle, others started to alight, meaning that he was on the right track.

“This is going to take a minute…”

Placing his hands together, Leaf pulled the enchantment away from the Eye and let it rotate around him. Like this, he could examine each piece quickly, then move on to the next. As he started, he saw the party, along with Darion, arrive. He nodded, then went back to his work.

Piece by piece, he inspected each rune, then moved to the next. Realizing his frustration, Darion pulled his spellbook out and cast a spell in Leaf’s direction, allowing him to read the runes without his pearl. Excitedly, he placed the stone back in his bag and saw that he could work even faster. Pulling one, then another, eventually having four or five runes out at once from its sequence, he shifted the spell, then released it back. After half an hour, he stood there smiling, content with his work, and lifted his hands up to carry the arcana back to the sphere. Once in place, the Eye of Spellbound Storms hummed louder, then went silent as it lifted off the ground, rotated slowly in place, and emitted a soft glow. Finished, he turned to his friends.

“Quite impressive, Leaf!” Darion exclaimed amidst cheers and clapping by Aravine and the students.

Beyond the party, Leaf saw the bubble start to grow out from the library and begin forming over the school grounds. Glazing over at Wulfgar, he saw his proud expression, and smiled again.

“We haven’t had many wins lately. This was needed,” Leaf said with a sigh of relief.

“It seems like there are a few accomplishments to get through, then we do have matters to attend to,” Darion replied.

Pulling his hand forward, a scroll appeared in his hand. Slowly, he walked over to Leaf, clasped his shoulder with his free hand, and handed the scroll over to Leaf.

“As the only currently available Dean of Berkton Academy, I want to congratulate you, Archmage Leaf of Cecela. We can have a more formal celebration after matters are dealt with. I hear from your friends that your Mastery Testing was quite extraordinary and terrifying?”

“Yes, Darion. It was not what I had expected at all.”

Darion stepped over to Aravine.

“I do apologize, but would it be okay if we had some privacy with the Eye for about an hour? We have some matters to attend to.”

“Of course! Alright everyone, let’s go see how the rest of the academy is faring. Come, come!”

Aravine waved her hands, gesturing for the student aides to march out of the library, where she closed the doors behind her. Leaf heard a lock turn, and assumed this would be the most privacy they could have.

“There are two others that I do not know here. Are they friends of yours as well?” Darion asked.

“Yes. This is Wulgar, and the one over there is Gisela.”

“Nice to meet you both. I’m sure we’ll have time to discuss more later. First, let’s try and find the others.”

Darion turned to the Eye again and whispered an incantation Leaf knew for divination. Before him, he watched as the orb shifted, turning to look like a glass scrying ball. As clouds formed in the center of it, he saw the orb move itself through space internally, where it stopped in a dark stone chamber. They examined the room, but it was too simple a space that Leaf couldn’t tell where they were looking. What he did see was chains around the wrists, ankles, and neck of each of the Deans and gem dragons, who were all unconscious. Runes glowed from them, and he assumed it stopped magic from casting through while wearing them.

“Where are they?” Darion wondered aloud.

As if listening to his question, the Eye scaled out, moving beyond walls, ceilings, and more, until they were above a large statue of a five-headed statue of a dragon. The land around it was cracked and barren of any plant life. The sky was black, and red clouds rolled across with lightning shooting across to others, then hitting the ground and blasting the soil below, leaving enormous craters in its wake.

“Tiamat’s Temple… In Avernus,” Darion explained.

“How convenient,” Mr. Muffins added.

“Why?”

“That’s where we’re going next,” Rhokhishi answered. “We’re going to find a weapon to stop Zarin.”

“Wait, I’m missing some information here, I think. Zarin the Just?”

“We can explain later,” Myla added while holding her journal in front of her. “I’ve been taking notes to make it easier.”

“What’s that, though?” Gisela asked.

Leaf turned to see what she meant. On the ground, a quarter of a mile away from the temple, was a firelight that seemed to be moving. Darion focused in on it, and the Eye soared closer. Walking along the barren expanse were a group of people. Leaf focused on two of the figures toward the front, as they were recognisable immediately. The shorter gnomish figure waddled along quickly to keep pace with the elven woman next to him. He held his pocket watch in one hand, and a Book of Vecna in his other, withered and grotesque hand. The woman beside him wore clean, white robes with golden embroidery. Her blond hair was braided back, and she stepped with purpose, a fire hovering over her palm as she walked ahead of most of the group.