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A dark snowstorm was rolling over a sprawling range of icy white mountains. The mountains appeared to be nearly endless, a rocky ocean of ice covered in a never-ending winter. There were no trees on them, and they were void of life.
In the midst of these ice mountains, a circular stone tower stands defiantly against the blizzard. There is no entrance to the tower, no hatch on the roof, and no iron door. It’s only features are two spade-shaped windows on each side.
From inside the tower a dim glow radiates through it’s iron glass windows, the warmth inside concealed from the storm.
A fireplace consistently crackles away while an empty wooden chair sits silently before it. A series of fire pokers stand near one side of the chair while on the other side a small blackwood table hosts a golden bowl. A decorative crystal glass and a bottle which was half-filled with a dark-brown alcohol sit next to the bowl.
Various large paintings hang around the room, most of them depicting warm sunny environments. On the other side of the room, a staircase which leads down deeper into the tower has a desk next to it.
Sitting in a studded leather chair behind the desk, a bald man with spectacles and a great black beard sits. His robes are loose and majestic, with patterns of green, gold and blue trailing over them; the blue colours of the robe periodically move as if they’re ribbons waving in a gentle wind.
He watches over a magic quill as it writes for him; the symbols being written on the page aren’t in any known language, as it’s a language invented to specifically send secret messages.
Suddenly, the magic quill stops as he senses something in the ambient mana.
An energy signature is rapidly approaching.
“Mmh” He gets up with a grunt and walks to one of the two windows.
“I see…” he relaxed “It’s been quite a while since we’ve had one of these..”
His suspicions were confirmed when he saw the glowing orb travelling his way.
Orbs containing messages usually came to this tower with a specific energy signature, however this one was different.
At first, he was slightly alarmed as the energy signature was different to the usual orbs he would receive, and the colour of the orb was different too, but he recognised it nonetheless.
This orb was dark-orange in colour, though typically, the ones he received were light-blue. This only meant the message came from someone outside of the secret society.
“This will be interesting… a dark-orange orb.” he squinted.
“A dark ORANGE orb, OOO! ORANGE!” he said orange with a weird, sarcastic voice as he repeated himself, announcing the colour seemingly to the sky.
He had been in this tower for a while without much contact, and was mentally starting to get a little weird. When he first came here, he had no beard at all with plenty of hair on his head.
Stroking his beard, he became seemingly normal again, “I wonder what it says.”
He sat down at the chair in front of the fireplace and poured himself a glass.
The dark-orange orb flew through the closed window as it could pass through physical objects.
Finally, it materialised into physical form and gently landed itself in the golden bowl.
The old wizard put a finger on the orb, scanning its contents before tapping it a few times, and the orb disintegrated leaving a message behind.
Without a pause, he opened it and began reading; after a moment his eyes bulged, shocked by what he read.
“A human necromancer…” he whispered to himself as he tried to come to terms with what he was reading.
Suddenly, he slammed his glass down and stood up. It was as if he was a soldier being called to arms, gone were the slightly mad parts of his attitude – replaced by diligence; no more was the casual demeanour that he previously had.
Folding the message, he added another of his own into it, then immediately formed an orb of his own – yet this one was not light-blue, but black: a top priority message.
With a flick of his wrist, he sent it off through the other window – which took the message to the mirror reality.
The tower he occupied was merely a separate pocket in space and time, acting as a bridge between reality and the mirror reality, a way station of sorts. This was the purpose of its two windows, each leading to a different reality. There would have been three windows if this was linked with another reality.
Suddenly, one of the walls shimmered for a moment before going back to normal.
The old wizard raised a brow and froze at seeing this – but nothing happened.
“Hmm, must have just been a distortion of some sort. Perhaps it was due to the different message type.”
He went back to his desk and continued to work.
– – –
A smile appeared on everyone’s faces as they saw Losla coming into sight, and each of them picked up their walking speed a little.
“That’s our home” Kel said to Naria who was walking by her side. Since the path near Losla was actually a flat path and not just wilderness, they stopped running and let Naria walk for the last part of the journey.
Naria didn’t say anything but her eyes looked bright and curious as she looked at the town. She had never left the hamlet before, and before this, seven houses were the most buildings she had ever seen.
Losla was considered a small country town, but it still consisted of nearly a thousand houses, each differing in size and shape.
“Let’s take her to the adventurer association, they’ll know what to do with her,” Jay said.
“Sure.” Anya quickly replied, an unofficial representative of the association. She didn’t let the others see it but she was feeling a little tense as she still hadn’t told her father about Kel having to go with Mark’s escort; she made a promise she wasn’t sure if she could keep or not – though she didn’t see the harm in Kel going too anyway.
“Me and Jay can take her. You guys can go home and rest, it’s been a long journey. I’ll update you about the escort when I find out the details.”
“Oh… ok. Well, thanks for the quest it was nice grouping with you two” Kel said, before giving a warm smile and a hug to Naria. “I’ll see you soon, take care of Jay and Anya for me”
Naria smiled back and nodded, hugging her back.
Mark smiled at Naria but didn’t say anything, this was his way of saying goodbye.
“It was good, thanks for the opportunity Anya. Maybe we’ll see you at the snakeraven sometime.”
The two walked off into Losla, but from the direction they were going, it was clear they were heading to the snakeraven inn to get lunch – and for Mark, probably a few beers.
Anya grabbed Naria’s hand as they made their way to the association, Jay walked up the hill alongside the two girls.
“So, you said the reward would be good.” Jay remembered as they passed the spot where he accepted the quest.
“You know, this ‘good reward’ will determine if I help the next time. If it’s mediocre, perhaps I won’t take any more quests.”
Anya gave him a look which seemed to say he was being petty, but she did make a promise after all.
“It will be good. I will make sure of it.” She tried to sound confident.
Jay could see right through her fake confidence, but he didn’t let her see his face as he regretfully smiled to himself.
Walking under the floating stone gate, Naria hesitated a little but kept going in, holding Anya’s hand. The guard gave them a strange look, wondering why they were bringing a little girl here, but it wasn’t his business so he let them through without saying a word.
A few various adventurers were still training on the courtyard dummies while others were going in and out of the association building for a dungeon or a quest.
Most of them were melee based classes, many carrying swords and shields as their weapons.
The mana and ranged based classes would have all been recruited into parties by now, raiding dungeons and making money. Since there were less of them around, they were in demand.
At the archery range, a few of the melee based classes were practising using a bow and arrows – they looked awkward, but with enough diligence it would pay off.
After enough training they could get a subclass and merge their melee class with a ranged one.
For instance, a tank class could practice with a whip and become a [Stone Snare]; using a whip, sword and shield, combined with aggression-pulling skills, they could keep a monster pinned down and fighting with them while their party members focus on doing damage.
Naria got distracted looking at the people training in the courtyard. The whole environment was a little overwhelming for her. The adventurer association was as large as her hamlet after all.
“Come on Naria, let’s go in” Anya smiled, patting behind her shoulder.