Shadows

Vaygenspire

A man strode through empty, cobwebbed corridors and up uneven, precarious staircases as he hurried up the central spire at the heart of the capital. Hardly anyone used these passages any more – the structural integrity of the spire had been compromised years ago and now it stood more as a symbol than as a palace. Stood, perhaps, was the wrong word – bits slipped, snapped and shattered off daily – so much so that the area surrounding the base of the spire had long since been abandoned. Only the mad and the destitute wandered near the spire these days, making it the perfect place for things to be hidden; secret conversations to take place; surreptitious plans to unfurl.

The man has had many names over the course of his life, picking them up and shedding them as others do clothing. For now he was called Edwyn Slant, but that would change as quickly as the weather. Edwyn ascended another set of stairs, not even breaking step where one of the stone slabs had cracked off and dropped down into the nothingness below. Instead he glided over the gap, not looking down, and continued to rise.

The staircase led out onto another dark, windowless corridor that he sped down silently.

How could he have been so stupid? He thought to himself as he turned a corner out onto a long, curved balcony and stalked along it. He should have destroyed the scrying disc as soon as the Skadirr had been destroyed by that damn girl! Leaving it lying around was careless – if she was to find it and work out what he’d been doing behind her back, she would not be happy. Not happy in the slightest. The wounds from the last time he’d disobeyed her had only just begun to fade.

Edwyn paused briefly for breath and looked down and out across the city of Vaygenspire. Gods, it was a mess. A great sprawling heap of people and noise and problems. There was no doubt in Edwyn’s mind that what they were doing was going to bring about an end to all that.

If, of course, she let him continue once she found out what he’d done. If she found out what he’d done, he thought to himself, and forced himself on and up the collapsing ruin of the spire. Up, up, up, through crumbling crenellations and slanting staircases he went, climbing his way towards the room in which he’d stashed the scrying disc.

Edwyn entered the room through a crumpled archway and rushed over towards the woodworm-ridden desk he’d hidden the disc in. He pulled open the drawer with force, dust and wood shavings groaning forth, and stared down.

The drawer was empty.

He hurriedly searched the other doors, wrenching them open and slamming them shut, gradually growing more and more panicked. At a loss, he began furiously ripping the drawers out of the desk and searching in the gaps behind, hoping beyond hope he would catch a glimpse of the small circle of enchanted metal.

“What are you looking for, Edwyn?” came an icy voice, sending chills through Edwyn’s soul. Slowly he dropped the drawer he was holding, which landed on the floor with a dull thud, and turned to face the source of the voice.

It was her. Of course it was her.

Stepping forth from the shadows and holding the scrying disc between two thin fingers came a woman. She was not beautiful. She was not ugly. She did not slink like a whisper, nor stamp like a shout. She wore plain grey robes and her light blonde hair hung down as far as her shoulders. She had no distinctive features. She was, for all purposes of description, utterly plain. Completely forgettable. Which is what she liked. A person could achieve a lot when they were so nondescript.

“Is it just possible you’re looking for this?” she asked, her mouth a thin line.

Edwyn nodded grimly.

“Use your words.”

“Yes.”

“Well done. Why, though, would you be looking for this? It’s mine. Why, now I think about it, was my scrying disc hidden in a desk drawer halfway up the spire? I’m sure I didn’t leave it there. Did I, Edwyn?”

Edwyn shook his head.

“No? Is ‘no’ an answer to ‘why would you be looking for this?’ I don’t think so, do you Edwyn?”

Edwyn gulped, and shook his head again.

“Oh please, do speak up. If I have to contend with another head movement or monosyllabic answer I’ll throw you off the side of the spire and be done with you. I assure you, if you chose to scream as you fell, you’d have time to run out of breath before you reached the bottom. Let’s try again. Why were you looking for this, Edwyn? Honesty is the best policy.”

Edwyn took a deep breath.

“I was looking for it so I could destroy it. Or try and find a way to return it to your private stocks undetected.”

“Why would you want to do that?”

“Because I didn’t want you to know that I had it.”

“Don’t start a sentence with a conjunction if you’re not going to include a main clause, Edwyn. At the moment I’m struggling to decide if I’m more annoyed by your treachery or your poor grammar.”

“Please, I didn’t mean to go behind your back!” Edwyn pleaded. “I just wanted to retrieve the Orb before Art could get his hands on it and unlock the power within. I wanted to bring it back to you.”

“A likely story. If you wanted to bring it back to me, why did you try to do it behind my back? Did you at least manage to retrieve the Orb?”

“I’m afraid not. I did my best. I summoned a Skadirr to travel after it and collect it, but there was a girl who destroyed it before it could get the Orb.”

“A girl?”

“Just some redheaded girl. I don’t know who she was.”

“How did she destroy the Skadirr? Did she use magic?”

“No, she didn’t. She lured the Skadirr into a wagon and blew it up.”

The woman paused for a moment and smirked.

“You say she lured the Skadirr into the wagon. A Skadirr cannot conjure itself. A Skadirr cannot control itself – if it’s being controlled properly,” she sneered. “So really what you’re saying is that this girl lured you into the wagon. You let yourself be tricked by her.”

“Yes, I did. I made a mistake.” Edwyn admitted, bowing his head.

“You made several mistakes,” scowled the woman. “If it wasn’t for your prestigious position amongst this slum of a city’s elite you’d already be off the side of the spire. I hope you realise how lucky you are, Edwyn?”

“Yes. I’m sorry, truly I am. I won’t do anything like it again.” Edwyn grovelled. Gone were his dreams of retrieving the Orb and using the power vested within it to overthrow the hateful woman.

“You had better not, you understand?” sighed the woman. She didn’t sound angry so much as she sounded disappointed, as if a child of hers had done something wrong. “I don’t care about you causing chaos in some miserable border state of the Empire, but if you were to draw attention to our efforts right here in the capital it would go exceptionally poorly for you. Did you even think what might happen if our plans were exposed? Did you even think what might happen to you? I will be a lot less generous with the terms of your death if you screw up what I’ve spent so many years trying to achieve, do you hear me Edwyn?”

“I do. I do. I will do nothing without your say-so from now on, I promise.”

“Make sure that that is indeed the case. Enough of this, though. Where is the Orb now?” asked the woman.

“From reports, I believe it has been… destroyed.” Edwyn cringed, fearing the woman’s impending wrath. Instead she only sighed, which somehow felt a thousand times worse.

“That is an annoyance. The power, at least, will still exist – it will just rest in a new host now. A host that could take a considerable amount of time to discover.”

Edwyn bowed his head once more in shame.

“That is your punishment, then,” continued the woman. “We had discovered the locations of two of the Heavenly Powers and now, thanks to your incompetence, we have lost one. As penance you must locate where the power of Destruction is now, and you had better hope you can do it quickly. The time draws near in which we make our move, and none can be found lacking.”

“I understand. I shall do my best,” Edwyn said, grateful to have escaped this time with his life.

“You shall do better,” spat the woman. “If you did your best in trying to retrieve the Orb, it wasn’t good enough. Fail me again, Edwyn, and…” the woman sighed. “I grow tired of threatening your death. You may go.”

“Thank you,” said Edwyn, rising to his feet and backing out towards the archway.

“Thank you, what?” asked the woman coldly.

“Thank you… Celeste.”

THE END