Writing Thread I guess

[CuratorOTL IG]

I'll mostly just be posting one short story as I finish the chapters, so it's not like a real thread where I'll post a whole bunch of different stuff.

Anyways, I like mixing genres, and I had this idea for a mystery story set in a fantasy world, so I went ahead and stuck it in an existing world I've been workshopping called Diranell. Here's the map of said world:

Spoilers for size

Spoiler

This world is definitely the one I've spent the most time on, and I'm very proud of it. But it's expansive, and as such, the story does have an Appendices, which I'll have to add somewhere, and footnotes, which I'm sure I'll have to figure out how to fit in there. 

Anyways, I'm rambling. Here's the prologue(along with a note to the reader):

Prologue

Spoiler

Note to the Reader:

 

In my extensive research into the world of Diranell, and the people therein, I have been able to uncover many true historical accounts of the numerous different cultures there. And, for the most part, these stories have proven to be verifiable in their authenticity through one means or another. However, this story seems to be a bit of a unique one. I found it while going through the archives of a city in Mirelle by the name of Elevri. The people of Elevri did have a tendency to exaggerate many details of their stories, and to make matters more complicated, they also kept both historical accounts and fictional tales stored in the same buildings, with no indication as to which was which. Sorting through them, and finding which ones are indeed fact, and which are fiction, has been a living nightmare. However, I do believe that this particular story is at least somewhat accurate. All of the characters in it did in fact exist, and many of the details are correct. Be that as it may, as you read on, please keep in mind that some events, such as the appearance of a great dragon who used Ethamancy, may not have occurred just as they were written.

 

At Your Service,

The Curator of the Legends

 

 

Prologue

 

Day 7 of the Month Volloya in the Ancient Traxian Calendar(1), 52 5E, 6526 AS(2)

Talle-revin, Talgrum, Mirelle(3)

 

The screams started close to midnight.

Palit-jev shot up in his bed, beads of sweat running down his face. The screams echoed through the town, reverberating between walls and echoing through the houses. Next to him, his wife, Jara-jevi, sat up, eyes wide, golden hair(4) shining in the moonlight. She looked at him, and he at her. A whole conversation seemed to pass between them without either one saying a single word.

It was happening again.

Palit jumped out of the bed, throwing off the covers, and went to the door. “Watch the children,” he said as he left, going through the front door and into the street. There, he met several other men. A couple of them had knives. Palit waved his hand at them as he approached.

“Those will not be necessary,” he said. “Knives cannot harm what is killing them.”

The men with knives murmured, but nodded and put the knives away. In the background, the screams echoed incessantly in the night. Palit looked around at the men, and noticed someone missing.

“Where is Jano?” he asked, turning to a man near him.

“We do not know,” the man said. “He did not come out.”

Palit whirled around and faced the direction of Jano-taemio’s house - the town center. “Then it is him,” he muttered. He took off in a run, racing to Jano’s house, with the group of men close behind him. Palit stopped, slamming into the door and pounding on it. The screams were getting louder.

“Jano!” Palit cried, and many others joined him, their voices rising in a crescendo in the night. “Jano, open the door!”

But the door did not open. Palit backed up from the door, the others making way for him. With a mighty thrust, he kicked the door near the handle. It flew open, revealing a dark hallway. The screams were now louder than ever.

“Jano!” Palit screamed, running through the house to where he knew Jano slept. The door was locked, barricaded from the other side. Palit threw his body against it, driving his shoulder into the hard wood again and again until it started splintering. The scream echoed out from inside the room.

The screams stopped. An eerie silence filled the room as Palit broke through the door and dove into the room. Slowly, he stood up and went to the bed. The man in it was unmoving, his eyes and mouth wide open in shock.

With gentle hands, Palit grabbed the sheets on the bed and pulled them over Jano’s face. He bowed his head in respect, then turned to the other men gathered at the door.

“Jano is dead,” he said. “The phantom has struck again.”

 

Footnotes

(1) See Appendices

(2) See Appendices

(3) See Map

(4) An intelligent species called the aul are a group of people whose hair is made of pure gold. Especially during the Second and Third Eras, they were poached because of this.

Relevant Appendices Pages:

Spoiler

The Ancient Traxian Calendar

 

The most commonplace calendar used in Diranell, and especially on Tormelle and Corselle, is the Ancient Traxian Calendar, named after Traxi Guldorm, the Tamandera who created it. This calendar divides the year into eight months, two for each season, based on the revolution of the planet around Nallësovan, the planet's star. Each month has approximately twenty days, making for one-hundred sixty-six days in each year. The months are as follows:

 

Jalin(Spring) - 21 Days

Teiary(Spring) - 20 Days

Radiny(Summer) - 22 Days

Tundiay(Summer) - 21 Days

Kanday(Fall) - 19 Days

Idooray(Fall) - 22 Days

Volloya(Winter) - 21 Days

Tiggoorday(Winter) - 20 Days

 

Each month is named after one of the seven Ancient Kindri gods, with the exception of Tiggoorday, which was named after Tiggoor, the king of Kindril during Traxi’s days. Jalin is named after Jalin, the king of the gods and the creator of Diranell. Teiary is named for Teiarin, the designer of the mortals and the one who put them on Diranell. Radiny is named for Radoin, the Mother of Nature, who created the beasts and plants that cover the earth. Radoin is also the wife of Jalin, according to the mythology. Tundiay is named after Tundin, the child of Jalin and Radoin, who is the Master of Beasts. Kanday is named for Kandi the Beautiful, who was the fairest of all the gods. Idooray is named for Idoorn the Honorable, the son of Kandi and Tundin, who was the embodiment of honor and justice. Volloya was named for Volli, the illegitimate daughter of Kandi and Jalin, who represented the evil and hate of the world.

 

 

 

 

The Years and Dating System of Diranell

 

The entirety of Diranell’s 9273 years of history is divided into seven different Eras, sometimes called Ages. Each Era is defined not by a number of years, but rather by large, potentially world-changing events that happened in the Era. For example, the Fourth Era was dubbed the Age of Glory. During that Era, the seven Masters of Ethamancy essentially ruled the world in a tyrannical government. They themselves named the Era the Age of Glory, for that is what it was to them. I have yet been unable to compile a full recollection of the timeline of Diranell - the Fifth and Sixth Eras especially are matters of little knowledge to me, as I have been unable to find many meaningful references to those periods in time. This story is one of the only ones, and I discovered it from the archives of the Talgrum people. Whether it is fact or fiction, I still do not know, and neither do many of the ones that I have interviewed. The First, Second, and Third Eras are also rather mysterious to me, as many historical documents were destroyed by the Seven during the Age of Glory. Much of what I have collected is legends rather than fact, though they are largely shared throughout Diranell, which does add to its credibility.

Let me know what you think and if yall want more, I guess

Edited April 11 by CuratorOTL

[Edema Rue]

Ooh, that was a very intense prologue! I love your map too!

[CuratorOTL IG]

1 hour ago, Edema Rue said:

Ooh, that was a very intense prologue! I love your map too!

Thank you!

[CuratorOTL IG]

Chapter 1

Spoiler

Chapter 1

Day 11 of the Month Volloya in the Ancient Traxian Calendar, 52 5E, 6526 AS

Elevri, Talgrum, Mirelle

 

Herth cad-Dorn strolled through the massive hallways of Keep Pori, hands in his pockets. Though he held himself nonchalantly, his hands and feet fidgeted with pent up energy. It was finally happening. It was finally. Spitting. Happening.

He nodded to a few servant girls as they walked by, smiling at them, recalling their names in his mind as he did so. That one’s Peri ges-Tenu. There’s Ria ges-Del. And Lorni ges-Fell. She’s a pretty one.

“Flirting with the servant girls again, are we, Herth?”

Herth looked away from Lorni to see Anti cad-Frio walking down the long hallway towards him.

“You know I can’t help myself, Anti,” Herth said, winking to Lorni. She blushed, clearly abashed, and hurried on. Herth walked to Anti and hit the side of his fist into his friend’s shoulder. Anti did the same(5).

“So,” Anti said when they had separated, “I hear somebody got called down to old ved-Veda’s office.”

Herth grinned and took a letter from his pocket, waving it in front of Anti. “Got it this morning.”

“Do you think it’s really going to happen today?” Anti asked, his voice quieter than normal, as if in awe.

Herth shrugged. “Don’t know,” he said. “But it would be rather stupid of them not to. I am the highest ranked cad in the force, and I all but aced every exam I’ve ever taken.”

“Then it’s settled!” Anti said. “We’ll get all of the boys together tonight, after your promotion, and have a feast.”

Herth smiled and said goodbye to his friend, then turned and walked down the hallway. Shara ved-Veda’s office was at the very center of Keep Pori - the Law Keeping House of Elevri, and the country of Talgrum as a whole. The building was round, with a domed roof. A spiraling hallway led to the center of the building, until it eventually came to the office of the ved himself - the leader of Keep Pori, named for the founder, Poria nil-Veda(6).

Herth finally reached the door to Shara’s office and knocked lightly on the door. From inside, a gruff voice said, “Come in.” Pushing open the door, Herth walked in and stopped on a large, red carpet(7) that sat in front of a desk made from the wood of a sildemortem tree(8).

As he waited for Shara to acknowledge him, Herth contented himself to look around the man’s office, taking in everything. The walls rose at least twenty feet into the air - probably around two floors high. Bookshelves covered every inch of the wall, and most of the books on them had been rebound to have a red leather binding.

“Well?” Shara finally said. “What do you want?”

Herth looked back to his superior. “Sir? You called me down here. I’m Herth cad-Dorn.”

Shara squinted at him for a few seconds before recognition sparked in his eyes.

“Ah, Herth! Yes, yes. I did call you down here, didn’t I? Please, sit down.” The older man gestured to a seat sitting in front of the desk, and Herth took it.

“Now,” Shara said, sitting back in his chair. Even though he was old and significantly wizened - especially for a bellador(9) - he set an imposing figure. His bright orange eyes seemed to drill into Herth. “As I’m sure you know, you are at the top of the rankings in your system.”

“Thank you sir,” Herth said, nodding with respect.

Shara eyed Herth for a few seconds, then said, “Have you heard of any disturbances in the west?”

What? What does that have to do with anything? Herth opened and closed his mouth several times, shocked by the sudden change of subject. Finally, he said, “I’ve heard something about… mysterious killings or something? But, sir, with all due respect, what does that have to do with anything?”

“Because, Herth,” Shara said, leaning forward in his seat and crossing his fingers, “you are our best cad. We need somebody to investigate this. There have been dozens upon dozens of requests to go out there and do so, and if I wait any longer with sending somebody, we might have a revolt on our hands.”

No… What are you saying, Shara? Herth’s blood ran cold, and he felt his skin go clammy as he said, “What are you saying sir?”

“I’m saying, Herth,” Shara replied, “that I’m going to send you out. Once you finish this job successfully, I may consider giving you that promotion you’ve been so obviously pining for. What do you think of that?”

 

Footnotes

(5) A common greeting among the Eastern Mirelli. Almost like waving to say hello to someone.

(6) Each Keep, or House, of Elevri oversaw a different part of everyday life - some for commerce, some for peacekeeping, and some for lawmaking. The first part of a person’s second name indicated someone’s occupation. In this case, ved signifies the leader of Keep Pori, nil signifies someone with no job, and cad signifies an investigator of some sort.

(7)  I would just like to note that I have found official accounts stating that red is indeed Shara ved-Veda’s favorite color. So that part of the story is accurate.

(8)  Sildemortem trees are trees that actively kill those around them with intoxicants from their leaves. As such, their wood is incredibly difficult to harvest and therefore a sign of wealth. See Appendices pg. X for a diagram(I dont have a drawing of it yet, but im working on one).

(9)  A group of species that seem to be ridiculously similar to humans, save for a few characteristics. One, they don’t visibly age much. They have similar life spans to humans, but it's much less noticeable. Two, their eyes are typically much brighter in color, usually a lavender purple or orange. Third, and most important, the females of the species are incredibly striking, and are known across Diranell as the most beautiful creatures in existence.

Here's the first chapter, introducing the main character of the story: Herth cad-Dorn.

Edited April 13 by CuratorOTL
Italicized thoughts

[CuratorOTL IG]

I don't know if anyone even reads these, but here's Chaoter two, in which we get a glimpse of the magic system: Ethamancy.

 

Chapter 2

Spoiler

Chapter 2

Day 14 of the Month Volloya in the Ancient Traxian Calendar, 52 5E, 6526 AS

Just outside of Talle-Revin, Talgrum, Mirelle

 

Herth rested his head against the carriage window, his heart heavy. He had been riding for three days since his departure from Elevri. Right before he had left, Anti had made good on his promise of a feast, though the climate had felt subdued at the news that he wasn’t getting the promotion.

Not yet, he reminded himself. Get this job done quickly, come back, then claim it. You can do it. Surely the job isn’t that difficult.

Of course, Shara had chosen to send him, the best cad in Elevri, to cover this case, which was a pretty sure sign that it was indeed a rather difficult one.

A strong gust of wind blew through a gap in the carriage window, blowing out the small candle - the only thing that illuminated the cramped cabin. With a sigh, Herth dug into his pockets and produced a handful of seeds. To his trained mind, they pulsed slightly with something that could be described as a heartbeat - their Etha, or life force. Carefully, he picked out a few of the seeds - just enough for what he intended to do - and pocketed the rest.

He clenched the seeds tightly in his hands, focusing on the pulsing beat of their Etha, and attuned his own Etha to theirs, drawing the seeds’ away. A small, flickering glow appeared around his body, and when he opened his hand, the seeds were black and rotten. Casting these aside, he turned to the candle and touched his finger to the wick. The contact wasn’t necessary, but it did help him to concentrate a little better. He touched the newfound power in him and gathered it, stockpiling it, getting ready to release it. When he was sure he was ready, he muttered a single word.

“Pyren.”

At the same time, he pushed the excess Etha out of himself and into the wick. Immediately, a small lick of flame leapt from his fingers, catching the candle and lighting it up once more. He drew his hand back from the flame and sat back in his chair. Feeling in his pocket, he drew out the extra seeds that he hadn’t used and began picking through them. Several now had sprouts poking between their shells. These ones he picked up and threw aside. That always happened whenever Ethamancy(10) was used in proximity with living things, but it was a nuisance nonetheless. He couldn’t carry sprouts around with him - they would die too fast, and then they would be useless. Seeds, meanwhile, kept until you used them. Most Ethamancers would carry them around as a backup.

“Coming up on Talle-revin!” the carriage driver called from up front. Herth looked out his window to see a cluster of buildings up the road.

That's what they call a town? There isn't even a main road!

When the carriage stopped just outside of the small barely-a-town-thing, Herth didn't wait for the carriage driver to open his door. He opened it himself and jumped out onto the grass.

“Stay here for a bit,” Herth told the carriage driver. “This shouldn't take too long.”

The driver nodded, but seemed doubtful. Herth ignored his dubious glances and walked towards the small town. A group of people had gathered there, standing suspiciously, as if threatened by Herth. 

They're just a bunch of primitives, he thought, noting the noticeable lack of shoes and the men's barechestedness. One even held a stone spear in his hand, pointing it at Herth. As Herth approached, the spear-man moved to attack, but another held him back.

“No, Kina. Do not attack until we know his purpose.” The man who had stopped spear-man turned to Herth and stepped up to him. He had dark skin and broad shoulders, and his forearms were nearly twice as thick as Herth's.

“Who are you?” the man asked, his voice coated with a light accent. Herth struggled to place it.

“My name is Herth cad-Dorn. I've been sent by my authorities at multiple requests to investigate the killings that have been happening over the past few months. If you could point me in the direction of the corpses, I'll get working right away. I hope to finish this before morning.”

The other man tensed at the mention of the murders.

“What?” Herth asked.

“You will not be able to stop what is happening to our people. It is of the gods and the afterlife.”

Herth sighed, exasperated, and looked up at the sky. “Well, then why in Diranell did you ask us to investigate?” 

The man looked to the other people, who all shook their heads. “We did not ask you to come.”

For the briefest moment, Herth considered simply going back to Elevri and lying to Shara to collect his promotion, but quickly tossed the idea aside. Shara would be able to see right through him immediately.

He turned his attention back to townspeople. “Well, I’m here already, so could you at least let me help?”

The man he was talking to turned and conversed with his companions for a few moments. Eventually, he turned back. “We cannot stop you from staying here,” he said, in the same strange accent. “But you must not interfere with the deaths. They are of gods and spirits, not men. We cannot have a say in what happens.”

“Yeah, well, we’ll see about that,” Herth said under his breath. Louder, he said, “Can you at least show me where the bodies have been kept?”

The man shook his head. “No. You must not interfere. We will not stop you from staying, but we will stop you if you try to interfere with the dealings of the gods.”

Herth growled in frustration. “Fine. You won’t let me help you. But could you at the very least give me a place I could stay.” At this, the man finally nodded. 

“Follow me.”

* * * *

The man - who by now Herth had deduced was the leader of the village - led him to the edge of town, where a small house stood. It was even smaller than the rest of the houses in the village, which were already small in comparison to the ones in Elevri.

As they approached, someone came out of the front of the house. He had a slim figure, and his hair was blonde, almost white. On his head, a pair of goggles rested.

“Palit-jev!” he called, waving to the man in front of Herth. The man waved back. “What are you doing on my side of town? Or, well… outside of town.”

The man - Palit - gestured to Herth. “This man,” he said, “wishes to stay with us for a time. Since you are of the same species, I imagine you would not turn him away.”

The blonde man looked Herth up and down, and Herth noted the man’s bright blue eyes. Much too light to be human. Another bellador, he realized. So far, the rest of the people in the village had been auls or humans.

“He seems like a decent fellow and all,” the other bellador said, “but as you know, my house really isn’t all that large.” Herth snorted. That’s an understatement. “I’m not sure I could fit him.”

“I’m sure you will find a way,” Palit said. Without another word, he turned and walked back to the village. The other bellador frowned at him as he went, then turned back to Herth. “Well, I guess you’ll be staying with me, then. I’m Aurien.”

Aurien held out his hand, and Herth took it and shook it. That’s not a Talgrum name. Or even a Mirellian one. Sounds more Sourvan. I wonder what he’s doing all the way down here.

Out loud, he said, “Herth cad-Dorn. I was sent by my authorities in Elevri to investigate the deaths that have been occurring recently.”

Aurien nodded. “Aah. So you’re who they sent. I was wondering when they would reply to my messages.”

“So you were the one sending requests?”

“Yes. The rest of the people in the village are good and all, but they tend not to bother with anything too supernatural. Won’t even touch Ethamancy.” He leaned in, as if sharing something conspiratorial with Herth. “They say it’s of the gods, and things like that. Between you and me, I think they’re just too scared to do anything.”

“Sounds like it,” Herth replied. “So, where are you from?”

“Is it that obvious I’m not from around here?” Aurien said sheepishly. Herth nodded affirmation.

“Between the fact that you didn’t introduce yourself with a title, and that your name doesn’t sound remotely like a Mirellian one, it wasn’t all that difficult to tell.”

Aurien chuckled. “I can see why they sent you down here. You’re rather observant.”

“Yup. Top of my class.” The conversation lapsed into silence, filled only by occasional gusts of wind. Finally, Aurien gestured for Herth to follow him into the small building they called a house.

“My house isn’t very large,” he said, “but there should be room for you. Maybe on the floor or sofa somewhere. I’ll try my best to make you comfortable.”

“Well, I hope to not be here very long,” Herth said as they entered the front door. “Just want to solve the case and get out of here.”

“Well, you might have a bit of a problem with this one,” Aurien chuckled. “It’s a bit of a doozy.”

“Trust me. I’ve seen these sorts of things all the time. What are the specifics?”

Aurien sighed and leaned back against a counter, as if thinking. “Well, let’s see. It started a few months ago. Ivai-fath - a farmer - died in his sleep one night. But the thing is, he was screaming louder than the souls in Torment themselves, which certainly isn’t natural. Ever since then, it's happened to somebody every couple of weeks or so: they die screaming while still asleep. And always at midnight, too.”

Herth nodded thoughtfully, filtering everything through his mind. “Do you happen to know where the bodies are?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Aurien said. “They have a graveyard a little bit away from the town. Why?”

“I’d like to take a look at one of them, if that’s alright. Could you lead me to the graveyard?”

* * * *

Herth had been spooked before - most notably that one time a ghost had tried to grab him - and he had been in graveyards plenty of times before. But this particular graveyard was downright eerie, filling him with a sense of dread that he had never felt the like of before.

The graveyard was placed in the center of a circle of trees, sprouting from the ground and curling over the earth, as if forming a barrier over the dead. The branches cast a shadow over the area, making it hard to see. Dry leaves crunched under Herth’s feet as he stepped over and inspected the gravestones.

“Which of these was a part of the killings?” he asked.

“That one,” Aurien answered, pointing to a particular tombstone. “That one, that one, that one, that one, and… I think that one.”

Herth held out his hand. “Pass me the shovel.” Aurien complied, handing Herth the shovel they had taken from his house, and Herth walked over to the nearest grave that Aurien had pointed out. With a grunt, he thrust the shovel into the dirt and began digging.

It didn’t take him more than ten minutes to hit something. But the thing he hit wasn’t hard, like a coffin, but soft. More like…

“Ugh,” he grunted in disgust. “Where’s the spitting coffin?”

“They don’t use them,” Aurien said. “They prefer to be ‘one with the earth’ when they die.”

Herth grumbled under his breath, but continued to dig around the corpse, uncovering it bit by bit. “Spitting idiot primal customs. Just get a spitting coffin so you can be nice to kindly grave robbers.”

When he had finished digging, he threw his shovel aside and gestured for Aurien to help him. The goggled man crouched down and took a hold of the corpse’s feet, while Herth grabbed its legs. Together, they hauled the body out of the grave and laid it down gently on the leaves.

“They don’t bury them with shirts, either?” Herth said, inspecting the body. Outside of the gash he had cut with his shovel, the man appeared to have no wounds on him. Certainly not any life threatening ones. After a moment of digging around in his satchel, he produced a glass vial and a small knife.

“What are you doing?” Aurien asked, peering interestedly over Herth’s shoulder.

“Taking a blood sample. Some tests should be able to prove whether or not he was poisoned.”

Holding the knife in one hand, Herth cut a small slit in the dead man’s wrist, holding the vial underneath the scarlet flow. After the vial was filled with blood, he recorked it and placed it gently into his satchel.

Herth stood up and looked at the sky. The sun was already low on the horizon, casting an orange and pink glow on the normally blue sky.

“It’s getting late,” he said. “We should head back now.”

* * * *

Aurien gave Herth a place on the floor of his living room to sleep on, along with a pillow and several sheets. As Herth lay there on the hardwood floor, staring up at the ceiling, Aurien came into the room and knocked on the wall. Herth looked up.

“What is it?” he asked.

“I forgot to mention it today - amidst all the grave robbing - but I wanted to let you know that my sister will be visiting town tomorrow, so it’ll be a bit more cramped for a few weeks.”

Herth shrugged. “I don’t have a problem. This is probably more her home than mine. I’m just a visitor.”

Aurien smiled and nodded, then left the room. 

Herth didn’t go to sleep until late into the night, his mind occupied by killers in the night and corpses with no wounds.

 

Footnotes

(10) See Appendices

Relevant Appendices

Spoiler

The Factions of Ethamancy

Faunimancy- magic of animals and communicating with them and sometimes controlling them

Floramancy- magic of plants, communicating with them, and controlling them

Chriomancy- a mostly dead magic, though there are some branches that are still alive, controlling space

Portalism- making portals to go to other places, though you must know what the place looks like

Summoning - a powerful form of Chriomancy that allows you to pull on the ethereal threads connecting everything so you can pull various items or beings from one place to you. Think reverse Portalism

Bending- the dead, and most powerful, part of Chriomancy that allows someone to alter the very essence of the things around them, contorting the space or bending it to their will. Last person to use it was Nelgaro the Great, who died in the Fourth Era of Diranell, killed by Kalvanem, the Master of Necromancy

Chronomancy- a mostly dead form of magic that distorts time

Scrying- allows the user to see through time, both forwards and backwards. This form of Chronomancy is mostly dead, and almost completely unreliable. Users will see visions at complete random, and those sightings sometimes manifest as prophecies

Commuting- the dead part of Chronomancy, allows user to travel through time

Bending- a purely theoretical form of magic that deals with altering the course of time entirely. There have been no confirmed cases of this ever happening, but legend has it that one man did it during the third era to bring back his deceased wife

Necromancy - a looked down upon form of magic that deals with altering life and death. Users can create undead creatures by instilling artificial souls into them

Elementalism- can harness the elements of the world

Telekinesis - the ability to move things with your mind

Elemental Bending - the ability to control the elements and the environment

Mentalism- the magic of the mind

Telepathy - the ability to read minds and project to them

Illusionism - creates illusions for yourself or others to see

The Eighth Magic - A purely theoretical form of magic that appears mainly in legends and myths, and the occasional bedtime story. Details as to what it can do vary story by story, and most scholars dismiss it as a simple wive’s tale

 

On the Workings of Ethamancy

Ethamancy is a phenomenon unique to the world of Diranell. The source of this power is the subject of some debate among historians, but that is a question for another time.

The art of Ethamancy is primarily the harnessing and usage of Etha, another name for the unique life force of inhabitants of Diranell. The quality and power of something’s Etha varies greatly, and depends on several factors. One, for instance, is intelligence. Plants, having next to no intelligence, have the least Etha, while more intelligent species, such as alkra or humans, have far, far more. The species with the most powerful Etha are dragons, but they rarely tap into it, as it is taboo among many of their cultures.

Beings with larger - and therefore more powerful - Etha also tend to be better at manipulating Etha. For instance, animals, which have very little Etha compared to most intelligent species, can’t use it at all, while humans, who have, on average, a mid-tier amount of Etha, are decently proficient at using it. Of course, there are always exceptions to any rule, such as some humans who are far more proficient at using Ethamancy than any dragon in history has ever been(See A Brief History of Ethamancy, pg. 1433 for more information).

Now onto the actual workings of Ethamancy. As already stated, Ethamancy is the harnessing and manipulation of a substance called Etha - essentially something’s life force. Every living thing has a certain amount of Etha, and they each resonate at a different frequency. More intelligent species have the ability to attune themselves to other things’ Etha and suck it out of them, adding it to their own. However, the stronger the Etha, the harder it is to pull out. That is why, while plants, and especially seeds, give you less Etha, most Ethamacers will use them to perform their magic.

Once you have sucked the Etha out of another living thing, it is temporarily added to your own Etha. However, because that Etha exceeds your own Reservoir(your own personal Etha), it will slowly leak out of you. This is a process that is not unlike osmosis, and it will oftentimes cause other living things around you - especially plants - to grow at an increased rate. Because of this, Ethamaers are forced to use their excess Etha rapidly before it is all drained from them. However, the more you repeat this process, the larger your own Reservoir will become, and therefore you will be able to hold more at one time. Ethamancers also have the ability to tap into their own Reservoir to use their own Etha, but this can be potentially deadly, as once you drain your Etha entirely, you will die.

Ethamancers can use their Etha in a variety of different ways. The different categories of abilities are outlined above, in the section titled “The Factions of Ethamancy.” In order to use those certain abilities, though, one must first say certain words to channel power into the world.

Once channeled, Ethamancy can take the form of several different kinds of magic; seven variations, or factions, and one faction that is purely legend.

The first of these factions is that of Faunimancy, the magic of animals. Typically, this will be used to speak to animals. Its counterpart, Floramancy, does the same, only with plants.

The third faction is called Elementalism. Those who use it are given power over their environment. Though people tend to think it only applies to the four basic elements - those being fire, air, earth, and water - it actually applies to everything in the world. Practiced Elementalists can do a wide variety of things, though it all boils down to, as I said before, controlling one’s environment.

The counterpart of Elementalism, however, deals not in the environment, but rather in people’s minds. Mentalism, as it is called, surrounds a variety of things, including Telepathy. While many people believe that Telekinesis is a part of Mentalism, it is, in fact, a part of Elementalism - controlling of the environment, rather than the mastery of the mind.

 

 

There's chapter 2. The magic system for this world, Ethamancy, is one that's been through a lot of changes - originally, it was just bad Elemental Magic, then later changed into a magic slightly resembling Ethamancy, only without the Etha. It was only recently that I got the idea to combine a magic fueled by life force with the one already in Diranell. Thus Ethamancy was born. It's still not perfect, and many changes will likely be made, but right now, it's where it needs to be.

[CuratorOTL IG]

Here's Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Spoiler

Chapter 3

Day 15 of the Month Volloya in the Ancient Traxian Calendar, 52 5E, 6526 AS

Talle-Revin, Talgrum, Mirelle

 

The scream jolted Herth out of his dreams. He sat up sharply, his eyes wide but still sleepy. His vision was blurry from his exhaustion, but he forced himself to stand up and go to the door of his room. Aurien was still sleeping in his bed, though how he could through all of that screaming, Herth didn’t know.

He went to the front door and looked frantically around in the night. Where were the screams coming from? He had to find out. It could provide vital information for the case. But the screams echoed in his ears, robbing him of his concentration

Focus, Herth. Focus, you spitting fool.

Slowly, arduously, he managed to reel himself back in and listen with a discerning ear. 

Go to the village first. It’ll be easier to tell from there.

Herth took off in a sprint towards the village, heart racing in his chest. Ever-present in the background, the screams continued, pausing now and then for breath, but always picking it back up. Herth followed the noise with his ears, his eyes only open a slit to let him know where he was going.

He stopped in front of a house with its door locked. Pausing only a second to clarify, he threw his shoulder into the rough wood. It cracked, and bent slightly under his weight, but it didn’t break. He did it again, and this time tumbled straight through the door, splinters falling to the ground around him. In an instant, he was back on his feet, following the screams to a bedroom. This door wasn’t locked. Herth flung it open and rushed inside.

He stopped dead in his tracks. There was a single bed in the room, and only one person lay in it on his back. Next to it, a woman stood in a nightdress, eyes wide, mouth moving quickly in what Herth assumed to be prayers(11). The man on the bed didn’t move, as Herth had expected. He had assumed that the victims would writhe and convulse while they died, but this man only screamed, his eyes still closed and his face twisted in an expression of pure agony.

“What are you doing?!” Herth demanded, turning to the woman. “He’s your husband, isn’t he? Help him!”

The woman just shook her head, not taking her eyes off of the dying man and continuing her prayers. Growling in frustration, Herth went to the side of the bed and shook the screaming man.

“Wake up! Torment(12), wake up!” he cried. But the man stayed sleeping, his eyes shut tightly.

“I didn’t want to do this,” Herth muttered. He drew back his hand and punched the man in the face. The man didn’t respond, so he did it again, one, two, three, four more times. Still, he kept on screaming.

Then he stopped.

The silence that followed was almost deafening. Herth stared at the man, breathing heavily.

The man suddenly shot up in his bed, gasping, his eyes wide open. Herth jumped back, startled, but the man had already dropped down into his sheets. He took in several deep, desperate breaths.

Then he breathed no more.

* * * *

Herth sat on the floor of the room that Aurien had given him, thinking. Before him were spread sheets of yellowed paper, on which he had written every piece of evidence he had gathered so far.

It wasn’t much.

“Is that… all?”

Herth looked up to see Aurien standing above him, his goggles over his eyes.

“Well, I’ve only been here for one day,” Herth said bitingly, “and it’s not like the locals are being any help, anyways. What’d you expect, that I’d solve it in a few minutes?”

No. That’s what you thought, said a voice in the back of his mind. He pushed it away.

“Well, no. It’s just… I thought you’d have a bit more than just two papers.”

“Yeah, well, whoever the killer is, they’re a tricky one. Clever. And not the least bit evil,” Herth said. For a moment, the spark of why he had become a cad flared inside of him - the spark that had been dimmed by the bureaucracy and numbness of life in Elevri. “I swear, by whatever gods are out there, I’m going to catch him. And when I do, they’re going to face the wrath of Torment itself.”

Something that looked like trepidation came into Aurien’s eyes, and the spark dimmed once more, Herth hanging his head. That had always been how others had reacted to his fire. It had made them nervous. Maybe they had even feared it. Eventually, Herth had decided to simply douse the spark, rather than continue to drive people away.

“Why do you have your goggles on?” he asked eventually, in a ploy to change the subject.

“I was checking some of my plants,” Aurien answered.

“Plants? What plants?”

“They’re the reason I even live here,” Aurien said, reaching out a hand to Herth. Herth took it, and Aurien helped him to his feet. “I’m a botanist - of sorts. The truth is, I’m trying to breed a species of flowers that can give Ethamancers a greater amount of Etha.”

“Huh,” Herth said. “Interesting. Do you mind if I see?”

Aurien glanced at the two sheets of paper on the floor. “But aren’t you…?”

“I need a rest from it anyway,” Herth replied.

“Alright. If you’re sure,” Aurien said slowly. He gestured for Herth to follow him, and led him outside of the house, to a small building that Herth hadn’t noticed before. It was even smaller than Aurien’s house, with just enough room to not have to squat. Glass and wire framing made up the entirety of the structure, so that the sun could shine in on the plants inside. Aurien ducked into an opening in the side, and Herth followed.

All around him, plants stood in black soil. When Herth looked closely at them, it almost looked as if they were…

“Are the plants moving?” he asked, as one flower twitched a petal.

Aurien nodded, smiling proudly. “They’re called evdrians(13),” he said. “Living flowers. They’re the most sentient form of plant life that we know. Don’t touch it, it might bite you.”

Herth froze, then whipped his finger away from one of the flowers, where dozens of tooth-like protrusions formed a circle.

“So… those are real teeth?” he asked.

“Yes,” Aurien answered. “Made of enamel, just like yours and mine.”

“How do they eat?”

“The flowers are just a ruse.” Aurien moved to inspect one of the flowers. “They’ll grab something from the ground nearby, and drag it into the pit of the flower, where digestive juices are. Then the prey is digested, and the nutrients are absorbed by the plant. Watch.”

As Herth looked on, Aurien dug into a bag at his waist and produced a small, limp rodent, which he then tossed onto the soil next to an evdrian. The plant swayed for a few moments, before a flower on its side whipped out, the petals bending to grab the rodent in its teeth. When it came back up, Herth could see the silhouette of the rodent through the petals. He shuddered.

“That’s disgusting.”

Aurien shrugged. “To each his own.”

“What exactly are you trying to do with these?” Herth asked.

“I’m trying to make it so that they can produce more Etha for Ethamancers,” Aurien answered, tossing another rodent at the flower. It snapped it up in a similarly gruesome fashion. “Evdrians already produce more Etha than any other plant, but I wanted to see if they could produce more. So I’ve been cross-breeding them with certain traits to see if I can do that.”

“Aurien?” Herth whirled around, looking for who had said the words. A smile spread across Aurien’s face.

“That’s my sister,” he said. “You’ll love her.”

Herth followed Aurien out of the glass building, and back to the small house, where a young woman was just hopping off of a horse.

“Aurien, are you playing with your nasty plants again?” The woman dusted her dress off and went to hug Aurien.

“Indeed I was. And Evdrians aren’t nasty, Ellian. They’re majestic and beautiful,” Aurien said after they had embraced.

The woman looked dubiously at Aurien. “They have teeth, Aurien. Call it what you want, but those aren’t beautiful.” She turned to Herth, as if noticing him for the first time. “Who’s this? He looks posh.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. Ellian, this is Herth. He’s a cad from Elevri. Herth, this is Ellian, my sister.”

Ellian held out her hand for Herth to shake, but Herth was frozen. His muscles refused to respond to any orders he gave, and his eyes were locked onto Ellian’s. They were a bright, sea green. Rare among belladors. Her blonde hair fell past her shoulders and was tied in a messy riding braid, ending near the middle of her back.

Torment, Herth. What are you doing looking at her? Shake her hand!

Finally, he forced himself to reach out and take her hand, shaking it. “Herth cad-Dorn, at your service,” he said, bowing his head slightly. 

Ellian looked at him strangely. “You’re an odd fellow, Herth. Nice to meet you,” she said. “You said you’re from Elevri?” When Herth nodded, she continued. “What are you doing all the way out here?”

“I was called in by your brother,” Herth said, nodding to Aurien, “to investigate a string of murders in Talle-revin - er, that town over there.”

Ellian’s eyes widened, and she spun on her brother. “Murders? What kind of murders?”

“Something… strange, certainly,” Aurien said. “People keep dying screaming in their beds at night. It’s quite… unnerving, to be honest.”

Ellian hit Aurien’s chest with her palm. “Why didn’t you tell me you were in danger?” she cried. “Murderers about, and you really didn’t tell your own sister about them?”

Aurien’s face blushed scarlet. “Well, they didn’t really seem to affect me,” he said. “Mostly just the people in the town. And I didn’t want you to worry.”

“Worry?! Aurien, are you spitting kidding me? Don’t you think it’d be a lot worse if I got notice of your death with no notice months from now. Torment, you're supposed to be the smart one, Aurien. I’m the rough and tumble one who doesn’t care if she gets killed.”

“Well, I don’t think that’s a very fair assessment,” Aurien muttered.

Herth watched this all with a bemused gaze. So this is what having siblings is like. Glad I missed out on that, he thought, his eyes on the discussion. Well, mostly on Ellian.

What in Diranell are you doing, Herth? Would you quit staring at her like a smitten school boy?

It was at this moment that Ellian noticed Herth standing awkwardly to the side. Her eyes widened and her hands flew to her mouth.

“Oh, I’m so sorry!” she cried. “Please, please come in.” She ushered Herth into the house.

“This is my house,” Aurien muttered, but he quieted at a glare from Ellian. Ellian walked through the house as if she had lived there all her life, leading Herth to the kitchen - though, admittedly, it wouldn’t have been all that difficult to memorize the layout. Herth had only been there for a couple of days, and he knew where most of the rooms were located.

Ellian rummaged in a few drawers and cabinets for several moments, producing a knife and some uncut fruits.

“Hey, what are you doing?” Aurien asked, coming into the small kitchen. “That’s my food!”

“Yes, and you have a guest present. You should probably feed him if you want him around any longer.”

Herth snorted, but didn’t say anything as Ellian began slicing the fruits into slices. “By the way, why do you have so many seeds back there?”

“Emergencies,” Aurien said quickly. “Ellian, you can’t just come into my house and start messing around with my things. It’s my house.”

“And I’m your sister, so it’s half my house, too.” Ellian scraped the sliced fruit onto a tray and presented it to Aurien, who took several, munching on them reluctantly. His expression had shifted from its joviality from earlier to a more sullen expression, like a child who had been forced to share his favorite toy.

Ellian went to Herth next, holding out the tray for him. He took a slice of the fruit, nodding to her in thanks.

“Oh, take a little more,” she said. “Upsetting Aurien is all good and well, but I do like people to enjoy the food I prepare for them.”

Herth smiled, and took a few more slices, popping them into his mouth. Ellian eyes him dubiously. “Good enough.” She went back to the counter and sat on it, popping a few fruit slices into her mouth.

“So, Herth,” she said, her mouth still full, “you’re a cad from Elevri? Why’d they send you all the way down here just for a few murders?”

Herth swallowed his own fruit before speaking. “Well, this case seems to be a particularly tricky one,” he said, “and I was all due for a promotion. So they sent the best they had as a sort of… proving of sorts. If I get this job done, I’ll get the promotion.”

“I see,” Ellian said, finally swallowing. “So you’re not here out of the goodness of your heart or sympathy for the townspeople.”

Despite himself, Herth chuckled, shaking his head. “You’d be surprised how little the goodness of my heart actually comes into it. When you see the things I have, you begin to forget that side of yourself.”

Ellian seemed to think about that for a moment, then nodded. “Makes sense. Anyways, what are the specifics of the case? What clues have you uncovered?”

“To be honest, not much. Like I said, this case seems to be a particularly tricky one.”

“Well, if you can’t solve it, are you really the best of the cad?”

“Certainly the best in Elevri,” Herth said. “Though that may be in part due to the incompetence of all the others.”

Ellian smiled at that, and Herth felt as if he had just experienced a great victory. “What are the specifics of the case?” Ellian asked. “Maybe I can help.”

“Aurien would probably be able to fill you in on that better than I,” Herth said. The other man looked up from his place at the corner of his room.

“Oh. Right,” he said, standing up a bit straighter. “Well, it started a few months back, when a farmer died screaming in his bed. Not a single wound on him, and no hints of poisoning as far as we could tell. It might be a heart attack, though, come to think about it.”

Herth raised an eyebrow. “A heart attack? That makes people scream like that? And that strikes multiple victims periodically?”

Aurien shrugged. “It’s a thought.”

Herth expected Ellian to make a snarky comment, but when he looked at her, she seemed to be deep in thought. “I think…” she said slowly, “I might know who’s doing it.”

* * * *

“There’s a dragon,” Ellian said, laying a map on the small table in the dining room. She pointed to a portion of the map above the village they were in. It looked to be a mountain range. “She lives up here. Or at least, that’s how the stories go. When I was traveling here, lots of the nearby villages reported that a dragon who used Ethamancy lived up in these mountains. Talle-revin is even closer to those mountains, so I bet if you asked any of these people about it, they’d say the same.”

“Okay, cool. A dragon,” Herth said. “What does this have to do with the murders?”

“Well, that’s where the fun part comes in,” Ellian said. “You see, the same people who say these things also claim that the dragon uses Ethamancy to kill those she doesn’t like. Through their dreams. Lots of people worship her as a deity just so they don’t die.”

Herth shook his head. “A dragon that uses Ethamancy? Isn’t that sort of taboo for them?”

“It’s also taboo to marry a widow where I’m from, but I know somebody who’s done it,” Ellian said. “Just because it’s taboo doesn’t mean she won’t do it.”

Killing people through their dreams. Probably in some form of Telemancy. That would almost perfectly describe the way these people are dying. “Okay, let’s say this dragon is real, and let’s say she does use Ethamancy to kill people,” Herth said. “Why would she be targeting this town?”

At this, Ellian shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe they did something to upset her or something. Either way, don’t think it’s worth looking into?”

Herth thought for a few moments. Then he nodded. “It probably would be worth looking into.”

Aurien, who stood to the side of the room, cleared his throat, and they both looked at him. “What is it?” Ellian asked.

“You two seem to be forgetting one vitally important detail,” he said.

“And that is?”

“How exactly you’re going to manage to kill a dragon. I mean, they’re supposed to be huge, right? With scales as impenetrable as steel? How do you expect to stop something like that from killing?”

Herth shrugged. “We don’t know what kind of dragon we’ll be dealing with. It probably won’t be a Crownhead; probably either a Swithtongue or a Twistail(14). We could handle those.”

“But-”

“Don’t worry Aurien,” Ellian said. “We’ll do a stakeout before we do anything, alright?”

Aurien’s mouth opened and closed repeatedly, as if he wasn’t sure how to respond. Finally, he said, “Fine. But I can’t go with you. I need to care for my plants.”

“Oh, forget those plants!” Ellian waved her hand dismissively at her brother. “They’re creepy, anyway. Leave them alone for a time.”

“I can’t just leave them, Ell. They’re my life’s work. They’re the whole reason I even live here in the first place.”

Ellian rolled her eyes at Herth. “Fine. Stay here with your weird plants. We’ll leave in the morning.”

 

Footnotes

(11) Herth was correct in this assumption. I won’t go into details, as it is rather complicated and could probably fill a book of its own.

(12)  A common curse all across Diranell. It comes from the name of the Hyrite afterlife, a burning landscape of death and brimstone called Torment. Some euphemisms for Torment are: Torrents and Tearings.

(13)Named such by ancient tamandera, a lizard-like species, from the words evaia(“to live”) and andrial(“flower” or “plant”).

(14) In the world of Diranell, there are many different species of dragons, ranging greatly in size and shape. Crownhead dragons are the largest, named for the Crownhead mountains - between Corselle and Tormelle - which is where most of them are found. Swithtongues are the smallest, only about as large as a large horse, and live mainly in forests. Twistails are a strange species of dragons, as they closely resemble snakes with arms that fly with no wings. They’re also the only dragons species to have hair and antler-like horns.

 

 

[CuratorOTL IG]

Chapter 4

Spoiler

Chapter 4

Day 16 of the Month Volloya in the Ancient Traxian Calendar, 52 5E, 6526 AS

Talle-Revin, Talgrum, Mirelle

 

“Don’t spend all of your time with those creepy plants!” Ellian cried, waving to Aurien, who stood next to his house, waving. Herth stood next to Ellian, a pack on his back and a large bag dragging on the ground behind him.

“Stay safe!” Aurien answered his sister. Herth saluted him, then turned away, walking in the other direction. Ellian drew level with him, glancing at the bag sliding across the ground behind them.

“So… what’s in the body bag?” she asked.

“A body.”

Ellian laughed, shaking her head, then seemed to notice that Herth wasn’t smiling.

“Wait, you’re serious?”

Herth nodded. “Yes.”

A smile spread slowly across Ellian’s face. “Why in Torment do you have a body?” she asked.

“It’s one of the people who were killed,” Herth answered. “I’m hoping that if we show this dragon evidence of her killings, then it’ll persuade her to admit what she’s done.”

“You think that’ll work?”

Herth shrugged. The truth was, he had no idea if it would work. He mostly had experience with mammalian species, like belladors, auls, and humans. Creatures like dragons were not what he was used to. 

“We’ll find out,” he said out loud. “First, let’s try to get there.”

* * * *

By nightfall, they had reached the mountain range that was the home of the dragon, and managed to climb a good way up before being forced to set up camp. 

“How cold do you think it’s gonna get at night?” Ellian asked as they set up their tents.

Herth shrugged, focusing on putting two ends of a wooden stake into the ground. Anytime he would get close, one end would pop up out of the ground, flinging snow and dirt into the air. “We’re not too far up the mountain,” he said, “so it shouldn’t be too bad. If it gets to that, we have plenty of blankets and furs.” He grunted, trying to dig one stake into the ground. On the other end, the other stake flew out of the ground and cracked Herth in the face. Hard. He cried out in pain and threw the stake into the snow.

Ellian laughed, and Herth glared at her. She returned it with a smile. “I take it you haven’t been camping much?”

Herth didn’t answer.

“Aw, come on! Quit pouting.” She stood up and walked over to where the stake had landed, bending over to pick it up. “Here. I’ll show you how to do it.”

Herth stayed where he was, arms crossed and glowering.

“What are you going to do, stay out in the cold all night? Get over here.”

Reluctantly, Herth stood up and walked over to her, crouching down next to her. The snow was only about a quarter of the way up his boot, but the cold crept through the tough leather like a thief sneaking in silently during the night.

“What you’re doing,” Ellian started, “is trying to put each end in one at a time. What you want to do is put each end in at the same time, so the tension naturally keeps them both in place.” She grabbed each end of the stake, bringing them together to create a large arch over her head. “Understand?”

Herth grunted, and Ellian handed the rod to him. He took it, trying her method. It stuck soundly in the ground, not budging an inch. When Herth looked up again, Ellian was smiling widely. He grunted again, repeating the process with another rod, and fixing the tent cloth onto them. Then he climbed in and draped several blankets on top of himself.

“You know, a thank you would be welcome!”

* * * *

Herth stared out at the valley below him. He didn’t move from where he sat precariously on the edge of the cliff. His cheeks were red and his ears were cold from the beginnings of frostbite, but still he didn’t move. So occupied was he in his own thoughts that he hardly even noticed the affliction of the cold on his body.

His violet eyes stared keenly over the lush green of the valley below. The colors were so inviting. Almost intoxicating.

In his mind, he shared a back and forth with himself.

What do I do if it’s not the dragon?

That’s ridiculous. Who else could it be?

I don’t know. It’s just… What if? What do we do then?

We’ll figure it out when we get there. That’s what we’ve always done, and it’s what we’ll always do. It’s us.

But these people. They need me. They might not realize it, but they do. They’re just too content with letting themselves get slaughtered by some unknown source just because they think a god is doing it to them.

These people don’t need you. What they need is help, and you just happen to be the way they get it.

“Couldn’t sleep?”

Shocked out of his stupor, Herth turned to see Ellian approaching, treading lightly on the snow. He glanced up at the sky. The moon was still far above the horizon, so it wasn’t time to leave.

“What are you doing here?” he asked.

“I could ask you the same thing.” Ellian walked up next to him and sat down in the snow, looking up at the sky.

“I believe you just answered that question,” Herth said, turning his eyes back to the green vale. It looked so comfortable and tempting. He wanted to go back to it, feel the warmth of the sun on his skin again, instead of this bitter cold.

“Was it nightmares?” Ellian asked.

Herth shook his head. “No. I haven’t been able to sleep well for a long time now. Sometimes I go weeks without it.” He looked to Ellian, who still had her neck craned to look at the stars. The pale light seemed to play off of her, shining off of her skin and reflecting in her sea green eyes. Her cheeks were red from the cold, and a plume of white air puffed as she breathed.

“They’re beautiful, aren’t they?” she said. Herth followed her gaze to look up at the stars. Millions of them, maybe more. Like tiny grains of salt on an enormous tapestry of black and blue.

“Yes… I suppose they are.” Herth’s eyes roved the sky, taking it all in. Suddenly, he felt very… small. The enormous mountains he stood on, compared with the grand majesty of the starry night sky served to remind him of his own miniscule size in the grand scope of things. A feeling he was profoundly uncomfortable with.

He looked pointedly back at the green vale. “You never answered my question,” he said. “Why are you up?”

Ellian shrugged. “I have trouble falling asleep alone. Most of the time, there are animals or other people making noise around me to help, but up here, it’s just…”

“Silent.” Herth pulled his coat around him tighter as the biting cold attacked with a newfound ferocity. An interminable silence fell upon them, somehow punctuating Herth’s statement by its mere presence. He suddenly became aware of Ellian’s shoulder touching his own.

He didn’t blush. He had been in plenty of relationships before - more than was probably socially acceptable - all in an attempt to fill the emptiness in him that his job had created; the emptiness of nothing. Loss of hope. Loss of dreams. Loss of the will to keep on trying.

But this feeling… it was different, somehow. More pure. It crept through the cracks in the walls he had built and managed to fill the void where many others had failed.

Something flared in his chest - something he couldn’t rightly identify. The cold seemed to retreat from him, driven back by the inner warmth that he felt.

Ellian’s head rested on his shoulder, and the warmth flared up tenfold. Looking at her, with her eyes closed, her cheeks blushed a bright red from the cold, Herth realized something. Something that he had needed for a long, long time.

He was broken. Utterly and irrevocably broken, shattered seemingly beyond repair.

But for the first time in many, many years, he was starting to feel whole.

 

Enjoy!

[CuratorOTL IG]

BTW, I forgot to mention, but the map has some special stuff going on with it. The thickest lines, that make up the most noticeable shapes, are the landmass that make up the continents. Inside them, the lines are the countries(obviously). The slightly thinner lines outside the continents are actually what the people of Diranell classify as the oceans. These are where the water-dwellers(like the merpeople and aquestrians[might change their name]) live and where they set up their kingdoms. There are 5 continents, and 9 oceans. Just some interesting world building tidbits for whoever is interested.

[CuratorOTL IG]

Chapter 5

Spoiler

Chapter 5

Day 20 of the Month Volloya in the Ancient Traxian Calendar, 52 5E, 6526 AS

Varri-Talle Mountains, Talgrum, Mirelle

 

“Torment,” Herth muttered. “There is a dragon.”

“What? You think I was lying to you?” Ellian crouched next to him, behind a large boulder just outside an enormous cavern. Rolling out of the cavern was an enormous, gray tail. It was just taller than Herth’s waist, and was longer than he was tall - at least, the part that Herth could see. Thick scales layered up and down the length of the tail, showing no apparent weak spots.

“That thing is enormous,” Herth hissed, dropping back behind the boulder and crouching next to Ellian.

She shrugged. “Well, what’d you expect? It’s a dragon. Being big is kind of their thing.”

“Not all of them! I thought it’d be a Swithtongue, or something small. That thing has to be at least a Stonehorn(15). It could rip us to shreds!”

“Not if we get it first.” A sly smile crept along Ellian’s face, and Herth immediately grew nervous at the sight of it.

“Oh, no,” he said. “Whatever you’re thinking, no.”

“But-”

“No. I don’t care what it is. Odds are, it has high chances of us getting maimed, killed, or otherwise seriously injured.”

Ellian rolled her eyes, crossing her arms with a huff. She muttered something that sounded like, “No fun.”

Herth ignored her, thinking hard. He glanced at the bag that held the body of the man who had been killed. An idea struck him.

He turned to Ellian. “Well, maybe you will be able to put yourself in harm’s way after all.”

* * * *

Herth dragged the body bag to just outside of the cave, right next to the tail of the dragon. Judging by the noises inside, it was probably sleeping. They were safe for now.

“I still don’t understand the plan,” Ellian said, walking up behind Herth. “What’s it supposed to do?”

“We’re trying to solve who killed the people, right?” Herth said. “Well, this is going to help to prove that.”

“How?”

“Just play along.”

Then Herth turned and kicked the tail as hard as he could.

His foot bounced off of the scales, rebounding into the dirt, and he cursed loudly, startling several birds roosting on the rocks several yards away.

“What in Torment?” Ellian cried. “What were you thinking?”

“Not much, apparently,” Herth grunted, cradling his foot. His big toe pulsed with pain. That might be broken.

“What exactly were you trying to accomplish by kicking a spitting dragon?”

“Waking it up.” Herth winced as tears of pain came to his eyes. Ellian’s stunned silence spoke volumes. Herth winced again, but pushed what he figured was a charming smile onto his face.

“What in Torment, Herth?!” Ellian shouted, her wide, intense eyes focused on Herth. “How is that even remotely intelligent?! You're supposed to be smart! Top of the class, was it? Ha! How spitting stupid was your class if they let you beat th-”

Herth held up a finger, stopping her. “Sh,” he said, then turned to listen. Ellian got the cue and froze.

The sounds of the sleeping dragon had stopped.

Slowly, almost deliberately, the gray tail receded into the cave. A low rumbling came from the darkness, and something flashed through the shadows. Herth’s blood froze.

That was definitely not a Stonehorn.

The two of them remained frozen to their spot as a form seemed to solidify. Something huge. Something enormous, with two spiraling horns on either side of its head. Herth knew what it was long before it came into the light.

A long, sinuous body covered from head to tail in thick, gray scales, longer than the length of the city of Elevri by leaps and bounds. A foot slammed down next to Herth, throwing up stones, displaying four, enormous claws, longer than he was tall. Another foot hit the ground nearby, while two others gripped the slope of the mountain as the dragon began to climb, so the rest of her body could get out of the cave. The legs were muscular, but not bulky, muscles rippling visibly through the scales. The dragon’s body curled all the way around the tip of the mountain and stood there, silhouetted against the sun.

Herth’s pulse quickened, thinking fast. He remained rooted to the spot as the enormous beast stared them down, eyeing them with two emerald- green eyes.

“What… What in Torment is that?” Ellian croaked. She stared up at the dragon, neck craned.

“A Crownhead dragon,” Herth whispered back.

“But aren’t those…?”

“Native to the Crownhead Mountains(16)?” Herth said. “Yes. What is one of them doing way out here?”

“Well, call me weird, but I’m not really all that interested in that question right now,” Ellian hissed. The strain in her voice was obvious. “I’m more interested in what in Torment we’re going to do about the huge spitting dragon.”

“I’m working on it.” Herth eyed the dragon, assessing the best course of action. Anything that might lead to their own survival.

He couldn’t see any.

Up until then, the dragon had remained motionless, like an enormous stone statue. Now, as Herth watched, the dragon leaned down from its perch, bringing her head just above Herth. Slowly, her mouth began to open. The hair on the back of Herth’s neck rose, and he fell backward, stumbling to get away.

“Run!” he shouted, gesturing furiously at Ellian. “It’s about to-”

Peace, small one.

The loud, resounding voice seemed to come from everywhere at once, speaking directly into Herth’s head. He froze, looking at Ellian, who stood rooted at her spot, staring at the dragon, awed. Judging by her expression, she could hear the voice, too. Carefully, he turned to look back at the dragon, making sure to not make any sudden movements.

The dragon’s head was almost level with Herth, her emerald green eyes piercing him, seeming to see right through him. It was enormous - at least twice as tall as Herth. He shivered at the thought of this thing attacking him. He would have no chance.

You… are an interesting individual, said the voice again. 

The dragon, Herth realized. It’s talking to us. Then another part of him thought, I need to get Ellian out of here.

You think much for your own safety, the dragon said again, as if reading Herth’s mind, but also for the safety of this woman. You have feelings for her, but you don’t want to let yourself feel them. You are broken on the inside, but also… healing.

The dragon’s head moved forward, and Herth flinched, but didn’t flee.

It is as if you exist in a constant state of limbo. Always bridging the gap between hope and despair.

Herth stared at the dragon, his face flushed. How did it know so much about him?

“Telepathy,” Ellian hissed from behind him. Understanding dawned on Herth. Of course! That was why they had suspected the dragon in the first place. Given its propensity towards magic, it was logical that it would use that same magic to communicate, rather than roaring whenever it wanted to speak.

Who are you? The dragon squinted at Herth, who had to keep himself from trembling. This thing could kill him at any second.

“I am Herth cad-Dorn,” he said, standing up a little straighter and projecting his voice. “I come-”

And who are you? The dragon turned to face Ellian. The movement was tiny in comparison to the rest of her body, but it seemed enormous to Herth, her whole head pivoting on one point on her neck. Ellian's chin trembled as she lifted it to face the dragon.

“I am Ellian,” she said, voice wavering slightly. After a moment's pause, she added, “Ellian the Wanderer.”

The dragon withdrew its head and eyed the both of them from higher up. Why have you come to my territory?

“We have come,” Herth said, “to accuse you of the murder of several auls and humans from the town of Talle-revin.”

The air seemed to still, as if completely frozen. Nobody said a word, and Herth found himself holding his breath. The dragon leaned down close, so that its face was almost touching Herth. Interest showed in its keen eyes as it seemed to inspect him.

An interesting claim. What leads you to believe that I would do such a thing?

Herth had to force his mouth to open so he could speak. “We have seen your killings. I witnessed one myself.” With a trembling hand, he reached to the body bag next to him and opened it slowly. “We brought one of your victims. You can hide no longer. We already know what you have done.”

A rumbling sound came from deep within the throat of the dragon as she growled at the claim, though when she spoke next, her voice remained calm.

You dare to accuse me of such a thing? she said. You trespass on my domain and accuse me, Yarata the Ancient, of murder? I have been spurned enough by my own kind for my gifts, but to have such a foolish, fleshy being act so arrogantly towards me is nothing short of an offense. I could kill you right here.

Herth's heart skipped a beat, but the dragon didn't seem especially inclined to do as she threatened.

“So you deny the claims?” Ellian shouted from behind Herth. Her voice held no tremble of fear in her voice that Herth could feel in his bones. 

Deny, child? I do much more than deny. Under the Everlasting Eyes of Hyral and of my kin, I revoke your accusation. I wish not to speak of it more.

What? Herth thought. This couldn't be possible. His one lead had been this dragon. Nothing else could help him. He was stuck. A dead end on a one way street.

“How?” he muttered. “If she didn't do it, then who could have? Nobody in the town uses Ethamancy.”

“Maybe it wasn't Ethamancy,” Ellian said.

Pardon, Children of Etië, the dragon said in their minds. Herth looked up to see that the dragon had pulled close to the body and seemed to be tasting the air around it.

“What is it?” Herth asked.

This body, the dragon said, was not killed by my Ethamancy. But it certainly was killed using Ethamancy. Magic's scent has not yet been washed from the corpse.

“What?!” Herth spoke out loud this time, surprise evident in his voice. “But how?! Nobody in Talle-revin will touch Ethamancy. Only you, myself, and-”

Herth cut off with a choking sound as he came to a realization. The dots connected, the puzzle pieces falling into place. Slowly, he turned towards Ellian. By the look on her face, she had come to the exact same conclusion as he had just moments before. Herth's voice croaked as he spoke.

“Aurien.”

 

Footnotes

(15) Stonehorn dragons are several times the size of a horse, with stone-gray scales and, more distinctively, eight eyes, eight horns, and eight tails. Eight is also the number of the incompletion and of Anrioch in Hyritism, and for this reason, Stonehorns are typically thought of as evil and/or devil-like.

(16) Located between the Sister Continents of Corselle and Tormelle

Also, just FYI for anyone who reads these, the first draft of the story is finished, and it's come out to a rough 16,300 words(a short novella). I might post the remaining chapters tomorrow, or just continue posting one at a time.

Edited April 20 by CuratorOTL

[CuratorOTL IG]

Chapter 6

Spoiler

Chapter 6

Day 21 of the Month Volloya in the Ancient Traxian Calendar, 52 5E, 6526 AS

Varri-Talle Mountains, Talgrum, Mirelle

 

Herth heard the crying long before he decided to do anything about it. He sat in his tent, staring at the cloth over him, thinking. Just… thinking. How he had come to this place.

Eventually, he stood up and went out of the tent. He found Ellian farther away, shadowed under the branches of a group of trees. She didn't look up as he approached, though his footsteps were plenty loud in the snow. Without a word, he sat down next to her and rested his head on the tree. He didn't say anything, but just sat there with her. He had a feeling that that was all she really wanted. 

“How?”

The question came as unexpected as snowfall in summer. Ellian's head was still cradled between her legs, and her voice was hoarse from the crying.

“How what?” Herth asked. He tried to sound gentle, but his voice still held a bit of the edge from before.

“How do you deal with it?” Ellian asked. “The constant betrayal and subversion? You're a cad. You must deal with these things a lot. How do you deal with it?”

Herth didn't say anything for a long while. Thoughts whirled around in his head as he tried desperately to grasp for an answer. Anything to comfort this woman that he had come to love.

“I… don't know,” he said after the silence had become unbearable. “I don't know that I do. I just… shove it aside with the false promise that I'll deal with it some other day.”

“How do you live with this pain?” Ellian said, looking at Herth. Her eyes were red and puffy, and streaks from her tears ran down her face.

“I don't,” Herth whispered. “Not really. I haven't truly lived in a long, long time. For years now, I’ve been walking around like a wounded soldier, leaking my life out through every cut and bruise. I act like it’s different, like I still feel things and not this complete numbness. But… it’s all just a lie.”

His statement was followed by a complete silence under the trees. Not a sound was heard, not even the chirping of the crickets. Even Ellian had stopped crying. Only the wind made any noise as it blew over the cold, lonely mountain. Herth looked pointedly down at the ground, fighting back the tears. He had known how broken he was for a long while, but telling it to someone else had broken a dam in him. The tears fought to get out, but he fought harder. He wouldn’t let them out.

Something cool to the touch wrapped around Herth’s shoulder. He became aware of Ellian’s warmth surrounding him, combining with his own. Suddenly, the tears would no longer stay put. The dam broke, and they burst forth with such a fury that Herth found himself clutching Ellian desperately. They rolled down his cheeks and onto the snow. Herth couldn’t control himself as sob after sob ripped its way out of his throat.

Long into the night he cried. And long into the night Ellian held him, comforting him, filling the cracks in his being with something he hadn’t felt since he had first signed up to be a cad - a feeling of knowing that someone cared. That someone in this god-forsaken land knew how he felt and wanted to help.

Knowing that somebody in this hellscape called life freely and unashamedly loved him.

Chapter 7

Spoiler

Chapter 7

Day 4 of the Month Tiggoorday in the Ancient Traxian Calendar, 52 5E, 6526 AS

Talle-revin, Talgrum, Mirelle

 

By the time they got back to Talle-revin, Aurien was already gone. His house was empty and cluttered, as if he had left in a hurry. His greenhouse had been emptied, save for a few of his evdrians, which swayed to and fro with no breeze. Occasionally, one of the flowers would snap at something in the air, then draw back, as if disappointed that nothing was there.

Herth sat in a stool on one side of the greenhouse, looking at the three that were left. He eyed them - not in a suspicious manner, or even in a disgusted one, as he once had. Rather, he looked upon them with a certain… fondness. 

The stool creaked as Herth stood and walked over to the plants. One seemed to shift towards him, but he made sure to keep a safe distance away from it. He doubted it could eat a man whole, but he didn’t want to get bitten either way.

Herth closed his eyes and reached out his hand, still keeping it a safe distance away from the teeth. With a practiced mind, he tapped into his own Reservoir of Etha, careful not to drain any of it, and attuned his own with the Etha of the evdrian. He could feel its life, pulsing slightly. Not as loudly as a rat in the corner, but loud enough that Herth could tell it was much larger than an ordinary plant.

And when he tried to steal the Etha of the evdrian, it resisted.

He pulled harder, and he could feel a give as the barrier weakened. Something snuck past the breach, and a white, ethereal light seemed to float from the plant. The strand was thin, not even as thick as a finger, but it was getting bigger as Herth enforced his will over the plant.

Something touched his shoulder, and Herth’s concentration broke. The Etha from the evdrian dissipated into the air, leaving nothing behind and breaking Herth’s connection with it. He spun on his heel, gasping slightly from the exertion. Ellian flinched a bit as he did so, but quickly relaxed.

“What is it?” Herth asked, his gaze softening when he saw her.

“Nothing,” Ellian said. Her sea-blue eyes were still red from crying - she had done it most nights after discovering the truth about Aurien, and Herth had left her to herself when they had found the house empty. “I was just wondering if you were going to go to sleep tonight.”

Herth glanced outside. The sun was low on the horizon now - it had gotten dark fast. He shrugged. “Probably not,” he said. “Even if I tried, I probably wouldn’t be able to. And besides, I need to think through some things.”

“Oh,” Ellian said. “Alright. I’ll… be in the house if you need me.”

She turned to leave, and Herth watched her go. His mouth hung open in the beginning of a word, but nothing came out. He felt that he needed to say something. Anything to comfort her, but no words came to him.

“Ellian!” he said.

Ellian paused, her hand halfway to the doorknob. She turned her face to Herth. Something in her eyes told him that she wanted him to say something as well. “Yes?”

“I…” His words trailed off. What could he say after what she had been through?

“About the other night,” he began. “I’m sorr-”

“No,” Ellian said, cutting him off. “Don’t… don’t do that. You don’t need to apologize for anything. It was what you needed.”

“But… you needed it more,” Herth said. He was grasping desperately for the right words, and coming up with nothing. They evaded him like a fly at the hands of a clumsy toddler.

Ellian walked up to him. Herth could feel his face grow warm.

“I can manage myself, Herth,” she said. “Right now, you’re the one who needs help. And you’ve needed it far longer than I have, from what I can tell.”

“Ellian, I…” Herth suddenly became aware of how close the two of them were. Almost touching. 

Stop thinking like a schoolboy, Herth, he scolded himself. But still, he could not keep himself from staring into those eyes. Deep and blue like the sea. “I…”

“Just say it, Herth,” Ellian said. Her face was close to Herth’s. He could feel her breath on his cheeks as she spoke. “You can stop denying yourself these feelings. You can be free. You just have to say it.”

Herth couldn’t think straight. His mind was a blur, his blood pumping with adrenaline. All of the feelings that he had pushed down for weeks were now resurfacing with a vigor that he had never experienced before.

Torment. He loved this woman. He knew he did. That was the only logical explanation for what these emotions were.

“I…” He tried to say the words. He tried to force them out into the world. But looking into Ellian’s eyes, a deep and vicious fear suddenly took hold of him. He couldn’t say the words. He was far too fearful of the consequences they would bring. The hurt that he would feel when it inevitably failed. He had tried keeping commitments in the past. Time after time, they failed miserably, breaking Herth down even more.

Deep down, he knew that if this commitment failed, it would break him down even more than the others, and he would be left shattered like a ceramic pot dropped from the top of a building.

“I… need to get some sleep.”

Ellian seemed to wilt at the words, but she nodded and turned away. The hurt was visible in her eyes, piercing Herth to his core. But still, he didn’t say the words. He let her go, wordlessly into the night. Without stopping her. Without even trying.

The door to the greenhouse closed with a click that seemed to bounce off the walls in a million different ways. Emotions welled up inside of Herth, but he pushed them down. They wouldn’t do him any good right now, anyways.

 

 

[Edema Rue]

On 4/18/2024 at 4:23 PM, CuratorOTL said:

Chapter 5

  Reveal hidden contents

Chapter 5

Day 20 of the Month Volloya in the Ancient Traxian Calendar, 52 5E, 6526 AS

Varri-Talle Mountains, Talgrum, Mirelle

 

“Torment,” Herth muttered. “There is a dragon.”

“What? You think I was lying to you?” Ellian crouched next to him, behind a large boulder just outside an enormous cavern. Rolling out of the cavern was an enormous, gray tail. It was just taller than Herth’s waist, and was longer than he was tall - at least, the part that Herth could see. Thick scales layered up and down the length of the tail, showing no apparent weak spots.

“That thing is enormous,” Herth hissed, dropping back behind the boulder and crouching next to Ellian.

She shrugged. “Well, what’d you expect? It’s a dragon. Being big is kind of their thing.”

“Not all of them! I thought it’d be a Swithtongue, or something small. That thing has to be at least a Stonehorn(15). It could rip us to shreds!”

“Not if we get it first.” A sly smile crept along Ellian’s face, and Herth immediately grew nervous at the sight of it.

“Oh, no,” he said. “Whatever you’re thinking, no.”

“But-”

“No. I don’t care what it is. Odds are, it has high chances of us getting maimed, killed, or otherwise seriously injured.”

Ellian rolled her eyes, crossing her arms with a huff. She muttered something that sounded like, “No fun.”

Herth ignored her, thinking hard. He glanced at the bag that held the body of the man who had been killed. An idea struck him.

He turned to Ellian. “Well, maybe you will be able to put yourself in harm’s way after all.”

* * * *

Herth dragged the body bag to just outside of the cave, right next to the tail of the dragon. Judging by the noises inside, it was probably sleeping. They were safe for now.

“I still don’t understand the plan,” Ellian said, walking up behind Herth. “What’s it supposed to do?”

“We’re trying to solve who killed the people, right?” Herth said. “Well, this is going to help to prove that.”

“How?”

“Just play along.”

Then Herth turned and kicked the tail as hard as he could.

His foot bounced off of the scales, rebounding into the dirt, and he cursed loudly, startling several birds roosting on the rocks several yards away.

“What in Torment?” Ellian cried. “What were you thinking?”

“Not much, apparently,” Herth grunted, cradling his foot. His big toe pulsed with pain. That might be broken.

“What exactly were you trying to accomplish by kicking a spitting dragon?”

“Waking it up.” Herth winced as tears of pain came to his eyes. Ellian’s stunned silence spoke volumes. Herth winced again, but pushed what he figured was a charming smile onto his face.

“What in Torment, Herth?!” Ellian shouted, her wide, intense eyes focused on Herth. “How is that even remotely intelligent?! You're supposed to be smart! Top of the class, was it? Ha! How spitting stupid was your class if they let you beat th-”

Herth held up a finger, stopping her. “Sh,” he said, then turned to listen. Ellian got the cue and froze.

The sounds of the sleeping dragon had stopped.

Slowly, almost deliberately, the gray tail receded into the cave. A low rumbling came from the darkness, and something flashed through the shadows. Herth’s blood froze.

That was definitely not a Stonehorn.

The two of them remained frozen to their spot as a form seemed to solidify. Something huge. Something enormous, with two spiraling horns on either side of its head. Herth knew what it was long before it came into the light.

A long, sinuous body covered from head to tail in thick, gray scales, longer than the length of the city of Elevri by leaps and bounds. A foot slammed down next to Herth, throwing up stones, displaying four, enormous claws, longer than he was tall. Another foot hit the ground nearby, while two others gripped the slope of the mountain as the dragon began to climb, so the rest of her body could get out of the cave. The legs were muscular, but not bulky, muscles rippling visibly through the scales. The dragon’s body curled all the way around the tip of the mountain and stood there, silhouetted against the sun.

Herth’s pulse quickened, thinking fast. He remained rooted to the spot as the enormous beast stared them down, eyeing them with two emerald- green eyes.

“What… What in Torment is that?” Ellian croaked. She stared up at the dragon, neck craned.

“A Crownhead dragon,” Herth whispered back.

“But aren’t those…?”

“Native to the Crownhead Mountains(16)?” Herth said. “Yes. What is one of them doing way out here?”

“Well, call me weird, but I’m not really all that interested in that question right now,” Ellian hissed. The strain in her voice was obvious. “I’m more interested in what in Torment we’re going to do about the huge spitting dragon.”

“I’m working on it.” Herth eyed the dragon, assessing the best course of action. Anything that might lead to their own survival.

He couldn’t see any.

Up until then, the dragon had remained motionless, like an enormous stone statue. Now, as Herth watched, the dragon leaned down from its perch, bringing her head just above Herth. Slowly, her mouth began to open. The hair on the back of Herth’s neck rose, and he fell backward, stumbling to get away.

“Run!” he shouted, gesturing furiously at Ellian. “It’s about to-”

Peace, small one.

The loud, resounding voice seemed to come from everywhere at once, speaking directly into Herth’s head. He froze, looking at Ellian, who stood rooted at her spot, staring at the dragon, awed. Judging by her expression, she could hear the voice, too. Carefully, he turned to look back at the dragon, making sure to not make any sudden movements.

The dragon’s head was almost level with Herth, her emerald green eyes piercing him, seeming to see right through him. It was enormous - at least twice as tall as Herth. He shivered at the thought of this thing attacking him. He would have no chance.

You… are an interesting individual, said the voice again. 

The dragon, Herth realized. It’s talking to us. Then another part of him thought, I need to get Ellian out of here.

You think much for your own safety, the dragon said again, as if reading Herth’s mind, but also for the safety of this woman. You have feelings for her, but you don’t want to let yourself feel them. You are broken on the inside, but also… healing.

The dragon’s head moved forward, and Herth flinched, but didn’t flee.

It is as if you exist in a constant state of limbo. Always bridging the gap between hope and despair.

Herth stared at the dragon, his face flushed. How did it know so much about him?

“Telepathy,” Ellian hissed from behind him. Understanding dawned on Herth. Of course! That was why they had suspected the dragon in the first place. Given its propensity towards magic, it was logical that it would use that same magic to communicate, rather than roaring whenever it wanted to speak.

Who are you? The dragon squinted at Herth, who had to keep himself from trembling. This thing could kill him at any second.

“I am Herth cad-Dorn,” he said, standing up a little straighter and projecting his voice. “I come-”

And who are you? The dragon turned to face Ellian. The movement was tiny in comparison to the rest of her body, but it seemed enormous to Herth, her whole head pivoting on one point on her neck. Ellian's chin trembled as she lifted it to face the dragon.

“I am Ellian,” she said, voice wavering slightly. After a moment's pause, she added, “Ellian the Wanderer.”

The dragon withdrew its head and eyed the both of them from higher up. Why have you come to my territory?

“We have come,” Herth said, “to accuse you of the murder of several auls and humans from the town of Talle-revin.”

The air seemed to still, as if completely frozen. Nobody said a word, and Herth found himself holding his breath. The dragon leaned down close, so that its face was almost touching Herth. Interest showed in its keen eyes as it seemed to inspect him.

An interesting claim. What leads you to believe that I would do such a thing?

Herth had to force his mouth to open so he could speak. “We have seen your killings. I witnessed one myself.” With a trembling hand, he reached to the body bag next to him and opened it slowly. “We brought one of your victims. You can hide no longer. We already know what you have done.”

A rumbling sound came from deep within the throat of the dragon as she growled at the claim, though when she spoke next, her voice remained calm.

You dare to accuse me of such a thing? she said. You trespass on my domain and accuse me, Yarata the Ancient, of murder? I have been spurned enough by my own kind for my gifts, but to have such a foolish, fleshy being act so arrogantly towards me is nothing short of an offense. I could kill you right here.

Herth's heart skipped a beat, but the dragon didn't seem especially inclined to do as she threatened.

“So you deny the claims?” Ellian shouted from behind Herth. Her voice held no tremble of fear in her voice that Herth could feel in his bones. 

Deny, child? I do much more than deny. Under the Everlasting Eyes of Hyral and of my kin, I revoke your accusation. I wish not to speak of it more.

What? Herth thought. This couldn't be possible. His one lead had been this dragon. Nothing else could help him. He was stuck. A dead end on a one way street.

“How?” he muttered. “If she didn't do it, then who could have? Nobody in the town uses Ethamancy.”

“Maybe it wasn't Ethamancy,” Ellian said.

Pardon, Children of Etië, the dragon said in their minds. Herth looked up to see that the dragon had pulled close to the body and seemed to be tasting the air around it.

“What is it?” Herth asked.

This body, the dragon said, was not killed by my Ethamancy. But it certainly was killed using Ethamancy. Magic's scent has not yet been washed from the corpse.

“What?!” Herth spoke out loud this time, surprise evident in his voice. “But how?! Nobody in Talle-revin will touch Ethamancy. Only you, myself, and-”

Herth cut off with a choking sound as he came to a realization. The dots connected, the puzzle pieces falling into place. Slowly, he turned towards Ellian. By the look on her face, she had come to the exact same conclusion as he had just moments before. Herth's voice croaked as he spoke.

“Aurien.”

 

Footnotes

(15) Stonehorn dragons are several times the size of a horse, with stone-gray scales and, more distinctively, eight eyes, eight horns, and eight tails. Eight is also the number of the incompletion and of Anrioch in Hyritism, and for this reason, Stonehorns are typically thought of as evil and/or devil-like.

(16) Located between the Sister Continents of Corselle and Tormelle

Also, just FYI for anyone who reads these, the first draft of the story is finished, and it's come out to a rough 16,300 words(a short novella). I might post the remaining chapters tomorrow, or just continue posting one at a time.

Ahhhh I'm so busy right now but I was enjoying it so far, I'll read them all at some point and let you know what I think!

[CuratorOTL IG]

6 hours ago, Edema Rue said:

Ahhhh I'm so busy right now but I was enjoying it so far, I'll read them all at some point and let you know what I think!

Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoy it.

[CuratorOTL IG]

Chapter 8

Spoiler

Chapter 8

Day 5 of the Month Tiggoorday in the Ancient Traxian Calendar, 52 5E, 6526 AS

Talle-revin, Talgrum, Mirelle

 

Herth dreamed of the forest that night. Snow fell from the sky and crunched under his boots as he walked. A sound seemed to echo through the trees. It took Herth a few seconds to identify what it was.

Crying.

He stopped and turned in a full circle, squinting through the darkness. Something caught his eye. Between two of the trees, a shadowed form sat on the ground, trembling slightly. The crying sounds seemed to be coming from it.

“Ellian?” he said tentatively, taking a few steps towards the form. She didn't turn at the sound of his voice or his footsteps. He took several more steps, reaching out to touch her shoulder. Wind blew through the clearing, whistling.

“Ellian?” He touched her shoulder, and she spun around. Herth gasped and stumbled back. The figure wasn’t Ellian.

It was him.

Only… it wasn’t. Not quite. The face seemed messed up, all of the proportions completely wrong. The nose too big, the eyes out of line. Tears streamed down his misshapen face, twisting it even more in a look of agony.

“What… what are you?” Herth murmured, staring at the being.

The thing only groaned in response, as if it couldn’t speak. Herth walked warily up to it and reached out his hand. He hesitated only a second before touching it.

Then the pain overtook him.

A pain so bright and sharp that it made Herth gasp as his brain struggled with the reality of what had just happened.

A knife was protruding from his chest. No blood stained the blade, but Herth could feel his energy draining rapidly. With a slick sound of metal on flesh, the knife was pulled out, and Herth fell to the ground. With a great effort, he turned his head to look at his attacker.

Someone stood above him, wearing a silver cloak that seemed to glisten like the snow at his feet. The person’s face was shadowed in the hood of the cloak, but Herth knew who it was anyway.

“Aurien,” he grunted. The simple action of speaking sent a shot of pain coursing through his body. He struggled to stand up, but his legs gave out under him. Aurien took a step toward him, knife raised to strike again. Herth looked around, eyes wild, for some sort of weapon. Any weapon. Nothing showed itself.

The knife fell once more.

Something jumped from behind Herth, tackling the shadowed figure of Aurien into the snow. Aurien cried out as the two shapes tussled on the ground. Herth gasped when he saw who was attacking Aurien.

It was him. Or rather, it was the other him. The one that wasn’t quite him.

The moment of relief was short lived, as Aurien quickly dispatched of the Other Herth, throwing the corpse to the side. He stood, brushing his pants free of snow. Herth struggled to get to his feet and faced Aurien. He cast his mind about, searching for something to use. If he could get ahold of some Etha. The trees around him offered no help - they weren’t real. Likely, drawing from them would only be drawing from his own Reservoir.

Aurien raised his arm and began to say something. Power resonated from the words, echoing in the depths of Herth’s being. The area around them seemed to haze and grow blurry.

His Ethamancy is messing with mine, Herth realized. He’s trying to get us out of the dream. 

The trees and snow disappeared, melting into blackness in which only Herth and Aurien stood. Aurien stepped towards Herth. In one last desperate attempt, Herth threw his consciousness around, searching for a source to fuel his Ethamancy.

His mind locked onto something. A source of Etha bubbling over its vessel. He locked onto it, and by instinct, he matched his resonance to his own. Immediately, he was flooded with excess Etha. With a push, he forced the power out of him, aiming it at Aurien. Aurien froze, as if shocked, and his image began to fuzz. A scream echoed in Herth’s head, bouncing all around as Aurien fought against the magic. But Herth was stronger than him. He shouted a few words in the language of magic, solidifying it. Power coursed through his veins, pushing its way out as it pulsed out. Aurien began to disappear, his form fading in and out.

Finally, with one last furious scream, Aurien dissolved completely, melting into the darkness.

* * * *

The screams started close to midnight.

It took Herth several moments to realize that they weren’t his own.

He shot up from the ground, where he had fallen during his battle with Aurien. The screams echoed in the night, pausing only occasionally for breath. Hastily throwing on his cloak, he rushed out of the greenhouse, not bothering to close the door behind it. He took off towards the village. But soon, he slowed down.

Something was wrong.

Something was very, very wrong.

The screams weren’t coming from the village.

Herth turned on his heel, his eyes wide as they focused on the singular house on the outskirts of the village. His voice was barely a whisper as he spoke.

“Ellian.”

He took off in a sprint, but he already knew that he was going to be too late. Her screams echoed in his ears as he reached the door to the house and threw it open. He found her in the main bedroom, dressed in her nightclothes, writhing on the bed, as if in tremendous pain.

Herth grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her.

“Ellian!” he screamed. “Ellian, wake up!” His blood pounded in his ears. Ellian wasn't waking up. Her face twisted in pain as she screamed again, loud and shrill.

Herth couldn't concentrate. He couldn't think through the screams. He couldn't do anything. Ellian was dying, and he was frozen to his spot, petrified. He stared at her as she writhed on the bed, his eyes wide, unable to do anything but watch. 

Watch, as she died right before his eyes.

He fell to the floor, limp. He felt weak. Helpless. Broken. The screams reverberated through the room, bouncing off of the walls every which way.

Then they stopped. 

For the briefest moment, everything stilled. In that single moment, everything seemed peaceful. 

Ellian's eyes shot open. A singular scream ripped from her throat, before she fell back onto the bed, motionless. Herth trembled as he stood up. His legs felt weak. Flimsy, as if they could hardly hold him up. He went to the bed and forced himself to look.

Her eyes were wide open, staring but not seeing. If it wasn’t for the lack of breathing, Herth could almost believe that she was simply sleeping. But she wasn’t. Herth knew this.

And that simple fact broke him.

All of the healing he had undergone from the past three weeks was undone in that single moment. Emotions that he had shoved to the side welled up with the fury of all the corrupted beings of Torment coming up on the day of judgment.

Something wet rolled across his cheek and fell onto the sheets, discoloring them. He tried to stop himself, but his attempts were in vain. The tears came as the flow of a river from a broken dam. A dam that hadn’t been emptied - truly emptied - in seventeen years.

“God,” he moaned, falling to his knees. “God, no! No!”

He beat the bed with his fists, his grief mixing with anger. Anger at whatever God or gods were out there, watching, for allowing something like this to happen. Anger at the townspeople for letting the killings go on. Anger at Aurien for doing it in the first place.

And more than anyone else, he felt anger at himself, for not being able to protect those that he cared for.

* * * *

He buried Ellian behind the house, deep enough that nobody would disturb her. He didn’t have a coffin, but he hadn’t needed one. Perhaps the townspeople had a point about letting people be one with the earth when they died. It seemed a fitting end for Ellian.

Herth didn’t cry as he shoveled the dirt onto Ellian’s lifeless corpse. His eyes felt puffy and dry. He had cried himself dry, and no more tears would come. 

After the last shovelful of dirt had been tossed onto the mound, Herth stood back and looked at her final resting place. He frowned. It seemed far too bland for someone such as Ellian. Someone who had such a fire to live while she could. And her only burial place was a mound of dirt in the middle of nowhere.

An idea struck Herth, and he left the mound, going in the direction of the greenhouse. When he came back, he held one of Aurien’s evdrians in his hands. Standing at the foot of the grave mound, he closed his eyes. The Etha of the evdrian beat at him, like a heartbeat right next to his ear. Tuning out the beats of the townspeople and of other creatures, he attuned his own Etha to the beat of the evdrian’s. The barrier gave much quicker this time, the line of silver spreading rapidly and absorbing into Herth.

He let it flow through him freely, allowing it to move as it wished. The excess Etha pulsed from his skin, almost like smoke, but not quite.

He didn’t channel the Etha as he normally would. He simply let it flow away from him, letting everything else grow. Slowly, blades of grass poke out from the loose-packed dirt, followed swiftly by flowers. Bright reds and yellows dotted what once was brown. Near the head of the grave, the sprout of a tree began to grow. It grew rapidly, curling and spiraling towards the sky. The main trunk broke off into branches, which separated into even smaller branches, which sprouted small flowers. Each petal was a bright, sea blue.

Just like her eyes, Herth thought. Eyes that will never see the light of day again.

His excess Etha dissipated, and the plants stopped growing. Ellian’s grave was left as a grove of greenery. Colorful flowers broke through the dirt, dotting the mound like bits of a rainbow, fallen from the sky. The blades of grass were lush and green, vibrant in comparison to the dullness of the surrounding grass.

But more majestic than anything else was the tree. It stood just before where Ellian’s head would be, and climbed a bit taller than Herth. The bark was a light brown, with fine swirls going through its entirety, making it appear as if it had been engraved with a chisel. The branches curled out from the top, making a natural shade over the grave. Whereas the shade in the other gravesite had contributed to its eeriness, this shadow gave Ellian’s resting place a sense of peace and sereneness. 

Herth bowed his head in a final moment of respect. Then he turned and went back to the house. He had unfinished business to take care of.

>:)

[CuratorOTL IG]

And heres the finale

Chapter 9

Spoiler

Chapter 9

Day 6 of the Month Tiggoorday in the Ancient Traxian Calendar, 52 5E, 6526 AS

Talle-revin, Talgrum, Mirelle

 

Herth crept through the forest, his senses acutely attuned to everything around him. The Etha of the plants resonated all around, but he blocked them out, listening for one particular Etha. The Etha of a bellador.

He had followed Aurien’s trail from his house to a nearby forest. The botanist clearly hadn’t been used to covering his tracks, as they were easy to find and follow. 

He was close - he could feel it, both in his bones and the plant-life’s Etha. Something had disturbed them recently. Their Etha was slightly off. That always happened when an intelligent species came near to plants or animals.

Something snapped, and Herth froze, alert in an instant. Something was moving this way. Something with an Etha matching his own.

Aurien.

A figure broke through the trees nearby, and Herth leaped, unsheathing a knife at his waist in the same motion. Aurien let out a cry as Herth landed on him and wrestled him to the ground. He struggled hard, but in the end, he was still just a botanist. He wasn’t trained in fighting, and he was far weaker than Herth was. Herth managed to wrestle him to the ground and hold him there, his knife held to the man’s throat.

“Do you have anything to say?” Herth growled.

Aurien didn’t answer. His eyes were fixated on the knife at his throat, and his mouth opened and closed in shock.

“Very well,” Herth said. He began to drag the knife across Aurien’s neck.

“I didn’t mean to kill her, Herth,” Aurien whispered, his voice nothing but a croak. Herth froze.

“What?”

“I didn’t mean to kill her,” Aurien repeated, his voice slightly stronger now. “I was going for you.”

Now that Herth looked closely at the man’s face, he could see streaks of red from crying. He lowered the knife slightly, but didn’t take it away completely.

“Do you really think that matters in the grand scope of things?”

“No,” Aurien said, hanging his head. “But I know it matters to you.”

A nearby tree withered suddenly, blackening and twisting. A line of Etha sped from it and to Aurien, who leaped back.

“Hydris Effel!” he shouted. Ice coalesced around Herth’s hands, latching him to the ground. He struggled against his bonds, but the ice was something supernatural. Ice made from Ethamancy wouldn’t melt as easily as naturally formed ice as long as the caster was nearby. Herth cursed.

Aurien crouched next to him, and Herth glowered at him. Think. You need to buy some time. Get him talking.

“Why’d you do it, Aurien?” he said. “Why did you kill them, only to report yourself to Elevri?”

Aurien opened his mouth, as if to answer, but stopped himself, a smile spreading across his lips. “Oh. I see what you’re doing. You’re trying to catch me monologuing so you can buy some time. Am I right?”

Herth’s glare darkened as he struggled against the ice. Something shifted. Not his hands, but rather the ice itself, as it seemed to dislodge slightly from the earth. A spark of hope ignited in him. Just a little longer.

“I’m a cad, Aurien. An investigator,” Herth said. “It’s my job to find out the why, as well as the who.”

“Well then surely you’ve already figured it out,” Aurien said. “What was it that you said? Top of your class? Come now. Don’t tell me that the best cad in Elevri can’t figure out why somebody would report themselves?”

Herth had figured it out, in fact. He had dealt with people like Aurien before. People who were starved of attention for one reason or another, and would go to drastic measures to get it.

“You wanted the notoriety,” Herth said, with another discrete tug on the ice. “You wanted people to know your name. The one who could kill without touching his victims.”

Aurien closed his eyes and let out a breath. “Ah, yes. To be known across the world. I’d tried other ways, of course. You saw one of them - the evdrians. Scientific wonders. But nobody wanted to fund it. Called it too risky. Unorthodox, they said. So it became a cover for something far more… effective.”

“But then you got scared.” Just a few more tugs. “You heard how I spoke about what would be done to the killer when he was caught, and you suddenly realized your folly. Everybody would know your name, but at what cost? Death? So you decided to kill me.”

Aurien’s expression soured, and he glared at Herth. “I’m not scared. I never get scared. Not of you, not of Elevri, not of Hyral Himself. I wanted you out of the picture because it wasn’t worth the risk. But then you made me kill Ellian - my sister - and everything fell apart.”

Herth gave one more, mighty heave, and the chunk of ice came loose from the earth. Swinging his arms in a wide arc, he hit Aurien across the side of his face. A look of surprise and shock flashed across the bellador’s face as he fell to the ground, cradling his face. Herth focused on a tree nearby, stealing its Etha. The tree withered rapidly, and Herth glowed with Etha.

“Pyren,” he said. The ice suddenly melted off of his hands, heated by the magical fire, and Herth jumped on Aurien, who was scrambling to pick up Herth’s dropped knife. Herth grabbed the other man’s arms and twisted them behind his back. Aurien let out a cry of pain.

“You’re insane,” Herth growled, pulling back Aurien’s arm even further. Tears began to roll down the man’s face, and it took Herth several moments to realize they weren’t from the pain.

“I didn’t mean to kill her,” Aurien said, crying into the hard-packed dirt. “I didn’t mean to, I swear. It was an accident.”

Herth paused, but didn’t loosen his grip on Aurien’s arm. He had learned that lesson the hard way. “What do you mean?”

“I was trying to kill you,” Aurien sobbed. “But you pushed me out, and I was forced into Ellian. I swear I didn’t want her to die. She was my sister. Hyral forgive me, I killed my sister.”

The last sentence was spoken in a raised voice, the words swollen with grief, as if Aurien was just now realizing what he had done. Herth had to remind himself that no matter what it seemed, this man was a killer. A murderer. He wasn’t innocent.

But still, he couldn’t help feeling guilty as he began to tug on Aurien’s Etha, pulling it from the sobbing man. The Etha resisted, much more than any plant, but the man was in a broken state, his Etha vulnerable to any outsiders, and Herth broke through. A thread of Etha leaked from the center of his back, connecting with Herth’s chest. Aurien didn’t even appear to notice as his skin began to wrinkle and grow dark, so engrossed was he in his grief. His tears soaked the ground, forming a puddle, until he let out one, final sob, and fell limp.

Herth stepped away from the withered body, silent but for the crunch of his boots on frostbitten ground. He stared at the fallen form, barely noticing the excess Etha flowing from his body. Grass sprouted out of the ground, despite the cold climate, and flowers popped up like colorful fish in a sea of green. The blades of grass grew over and through Aurien’s corpse, piercing the thin skin and climbing out of his mouth and around his arms. Herth didn’t move as the grass grew up around him. He sat quietly, like a silent guardian over Aurien’s final resting place.

The Etha lasted far longer than usual - twentyfold more than that of any plant. When it was depleted, the grass had grown high into the sky, many strands standing higher than Herth. As the power left him, he turned away from Aurien’s body, walking in the other direction

Now that it was over - the investigation, his revenge, everything - Herth was left feeling… hollow. He felt as if a part of him that he hadn’t realized he had had been ripped out, leaving a giant, heart-shaped hole in his chest. A numbness washed over him like a cool rain shower. He didn’t feel cold as it crept through his coat. He didn’t feel the plants brush against his hand. He didn’t feel the earth under his feet as he walked. He simply walked.

He walked until Aurien’s house came back into view. A lone building, outcast from the nearby society, yoked only with a simple building of glass and wire. Herth passed both of these until he came to a patch of grass and flowers. A tree stood amid the green, with blossoms the color of the sea.

Herth went up to this tree and stood before it, looking at it. The swirling, ivory-colored bark. The lush, green leaves. But most of all, he looked upon the sea green flowers that adorned the branches.

He bent down and sat at the foot of the tree, his head resting on the trunk. He closed his eyes and breathed in the smell of the flowers. Then he settled in between a crook in the roots.

And he sat there forevermore.

 

 

~ The End ~

 

There you go. That's Broken, by me. Hope you enjoyed it.

Edited April 24 by CuratorOTL