Legends of Belariath

Scathien

Revenge of the Phoenix: Chapter 2: Discoveries

As the morning sun rose over the horizon Scathien shifted and finally rose to his feet, freed of the grasp of sleep. He felt energetic and fully prepared to face the challenge that now lay ahead of him. Quietly he shouldered his pack of belongings and took his flame scarred staff in hand as he set off for the Western Guild of Fire Mages.

It took half of the day to finally reach the base of the mountain and the cave that led into its darkened corridors. Without hesitation he stepped within, a few short words slipping past his lips as the tip of his wooden staff began to glow. The light flooded into the darkened passage, revealing well worked stone and old symbols of earthen power. For a moment he halted, curious about the symbols and their meaning in this place.

Memories took him back to the tower of Unigo and his basic mage training. It was there that he first saw those symbols. After a few more moments he realized that they were runes of power that early geomancers used when they shaped stone because their magic only temporarily altered the shape for an amount of time dependant on the geomancer’s power and focus. The runes applied after worked to prolong the geomancer’s effect on the stone and came to be known as a minor permanence rune. As time passed however, Geomancers learned how to affect stone permanently without the usage of runes.

As Scathien emerged from the depths of his memories he realized something else rather odd. The various runes that adorned the stone were of different qualities but of the same strength. With this discovery a possibility suddenly shot through his mind. What if the Western Guild of Fire Mages had not always been such? He could not be sure of the details but his suspicions grew and grew as he walked through the tunnel and still saw more and more of the masterfully worked tunnel he knew one thing, a guild of geomancers had existed in the area at one point in time. The older members were training the younger members in the use of the rune as they shaped this passage into the heart of the mountain and strengthen the runes that were too weak to hold up.

He would definitely have to look into the possibilities that this had unraveled for him. Perhaps they could be valuable allies in this little plan that was changing as details popped up. Finally he emerged from the small passage into the expansive underground city of the Western Mountain.

Although he couldn’t feel it, the place was fairly cold. The geothermal core had not been kick started by the sacred fireball in months and the city was effectively dead because the only inhabitants resided within the large tower that rose up toward the ceiling of the cavern where the Western Guild of Fire Mages resided.

He didn’t bother to stop, continuing to walk toward the entrance gate. As he approached, a voice from above called out telling him to halt and identify himself. Scathien just grinned softly as he raised his hands in a gesture of peace, identifying himself as Marcus…

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