Scripts from the Great Library in Nycene:
From 'Professions', a list of official jobs compiled by the State Mages of Nycene,
"Treasure Hunter": a treasure hunter is a man or woman, usually a mage, who travels great distances in search of rare and sometime powerful artifacts left behind from the Magic Wars. Some treasure hunters seek objects of historical value, such as Ancient artwork. Others, and the majority, seek out artifacts that contain some measure of magical energy.
Many of these treasures can be found in abandoned Ancient cities, which were used during the Magic Wars as places of shelter and bases for wartime operations. Nycene is the prime example of such a city, and continues to harbor the largest collection of state and private treasure hunters in the world. Other cities have been picked clean by hunters, leaving very little to be discovered by anyone considering joining the profession.
As a result, the number of private treasure hunters has fallen dramatically in the past twenty years (Edit: private treasure hunting is now illegal by decree of King of Nycene). Any young hunter may wish to consider joining the state treasure hunters, who are consistently provided with steady work payed for by the state...
"So your parents were nobles?" I asked Celeste, who was blazing the trail ahead of me with deft skill, sometimes slicing through the thicker underbrush with her dagger.
She nodded, her blond hair bouncing across her shoulders, "But they had me pegged as a nymph early, so I was never treated like the lady they wished I would be."
"Hm," I mused, eyeing her swinging hips appreciatively as we scaled an incline, "You are most certainly a nymph. I'm not surprised they saw right through you. But I doubt you're missing much. The life of a nobel, at least a human nobel, sounds highly unappealing from what little I know of it."
"That's what I've always figured," Celeste agreed and blazed onward, toward Hester Roc.
We had gotten up later than I usually did while on the hunt. Deciding to make up for sleep lost the night before, I had been deliberately lazy. When I had finally woken, Celeste was draped across my body and her hand had found it's way through the open neck of my tunic sometime in the night and she was busy idly playing with the springy hair that grew there. Gently I had woken her, and after a light breakfast of little talk we were off. But not until I had given back her dagger, intending it as a gesture of trust.
"Do you need to stop wherever you live and get anything?" I had asked.
The question was met with a coy smile, "Wandering elves do not respond well to the security and bondage of a home," she had explained, "I have no belongings. I sleep where the land provides me shelter."
"Lonely existence," I mentioned.
"That's why I have you now," she responded and began to lead the way north.
Now it was just past noon and the land, while still hilly, was beginning to level out. Celeste had said that Hester Roc was only a day's walk away, which at the time had baffled me. I had come north from Lancaster after selling off my latest bit of treasure, deciding that it was time to explore the claim that there was a city of Ancients somewhere in the northeast wilderness. At the Green Seo outpost, on the edge of the true wilderness, I had asked the locals if they had ever heard of such a thing. Only one old, grizzled trapper had taken me up on my offer, swearing to me that he had come across a city somewhere to the east of the outpost that had been abandoned for centuries.
Figuring I had nothing to lose and everything to gain from not only seeking out unknown treasure, but also leaving civilization behind, I had decided to take the loony man at his word and head toward the fabled city.
Directly east would have eventually led me closer to Nycene than I ever wanted to get, so I had tracked north and east instead. Although apparently further north than I had intended. Anything close to where I had thought I was would have been remote indeed, but not secret Ancient city remote. The knowledge that I had gone so radically off course frightening me a little. I did a lot of traveling on my own, and needed to remain deft in my tracking skills.
"How did you find this place exactly?" I asked Celeste, falling in beside her.
"When you've wandered the wilderness as long as I have, you tend to run into things that are out of the ordinary and very much out of the way."
"And how long as that been?"
She glanced at me sideways and winked, "Wouldn't you like to know?"
Elves could live for centuries. As far as I knew, Celeste could have been living in the forest for longer than I had been alive. It was an interesting thought, but I did not press the issue. She would tell me if she wanted, if not, what did it matter.
We crested the top of a small rise, and the trees suddenly cleared, giving us a nice view far into the distance. I could see the snaking path of a river cutting it's way through the green forests below, it's water sparkling in the bright summer sun. Along a gentle bend of the shore, and thrusting up against the backdrop of the blue, flawless sky was a tall rectangular, obviously man-made structure. Still small in the distance, I could tell that it was gray and filled with holes through which sunlight filtered through. Beneath it were smaller, similar structures, all clustered along the bend in the river. The clear remains of a city.
"Wow," I breathed, genuinely impressed, "Is that it?"
Celeste nodded, "We'll reach it by nightfall if we make good time. There are plenty of buildings we can take shelter in for the night. Tomorrow you can hunt for your treasure, whatever it is."
"I wish I knew myself," I admitted, picking up the pace again with Celeste close behind, "All I know is that Hester Roc must be one of the few cities left in the world that hasn't already been combed over by a hundred different treasure hunters."
"So I'm assuming you don't work for the state," Celeste ventured, "Having ventured out so far on your own in order to avoid the helpful cooperation of fellow treasure hunters."
I shook my head and adjusted my pack, "No love lost between the King and I, that's all I'll say."
"So I guess we're both a bit rebellious," Celeste smirked, and I laughed.
"I guess we are," I agreed and we made our way toward the river and city that lay along it.
The sun had just begun to set when we reached the outside of Hester Roc. Centuries of forest growth had reclaimed the streets and many of the buildings, leaving the only indications that we were at our destination the river and the few, tall structures that remained. These were falling down and rusted and I began to wonder if there would be any worthwhile treasure within them. Hester Roc was certainly one of the more run down Ancient cities I had visited.
"Have you explored this place much?" I asked Celeste, who was leading us toward the river and a barely-there stone bridge that crossed it.
"Hardly," she responded, stepping over a low stone wall that had once belonged to a sizable building, "But that big tower we saw is still very much intact, relatively speaking. There could be any number of things inside. It's where I figured we'd spend the night."
"Works for me," I said, and watched as we neared the bridge, the tower in mention growing bigger.
We crossed the river, watching our steps on the crumbling stone. It wasn't really stone, but the fused, seamless, stone-like material that was prevalent in Ancient cities. Whatever it was made out of eluded modern mages and engineers, though it appeared to be composed of a large number of smaller rocks somehow bonded together.
By the time we were across the river, the sun had all but set. Muttering a word of activation, a spot on my arm flared, and then Celeste and I were bathed in a warm light emanating from a floating orb above us.
"Interesting trick," Celeste commented, "But how do you use magic without writing runes? I've seen you use a number of castings but you don't have any artifacts on you that have etchings."
I rolled up my right sleeve, baring the cluster of tattooed runes that almost completely covered my skin from wrist to elbow in colorful ink, "I'm surprised you didn't notice them last night," I said, "I've got another one on my back that's fairly large. I got that one for payment on one of my more lucrative hunting excursions."
Celeste touched the runes with the tips of her fingers and marveled, "I did not know mages could do this. Why bother with artifacts and paper when you could have etchings with you at all time?"
"Because it's illegal," I explained, "According to the state, no one should have easy access to such large amounts of power. I think it makes the illustrious King nervous up there in his throne room, which is why state mages have permission to kill any mage they see with tattooed ruins on the spot."
Celeste spoke, "Sounds like the very type of thing that made me want to leave Lake Land so much as a child. The upper echelon telling the lower class how they should live. How much power they're allowed to have."
"You're from Lake Land?" I asked, trying to gently steer the conversation away from those things that caused me anger, namely the King and the state.
"I am," she nodded, looking toward the west where the sun had just set, "And sometimes I still feel too close to home, even though I know how far away I am."
Lake Land was located far west of where we were, at around the same latitude. During the time of the Ancients it was sparsely populated. It was filled with beautiful lakes and forests which became the home of one of the largest groups of forest elves after their arrival during the time of the Ancient. If Celeste had been of nobility in Lake Land than she must have truly been a disappointment to her family, having given up such a powerful title.
"We're here," Celeste announced suddenly, and indeed we were.
Covered with ivy and hidden behind a small cluster of young trees was the facade of the building, or what was left of it. A small incline led up to squat, triangular bases, the remains of some long ago destroyed columns lined the front of the building's wall. Behind the wall, through what had once been the entrance, I could make out more trees and plants where sunlight was able to filter down through the many crumbling floors and provide life giving energy. Stepping through this entrance, I looked around, my light orb illuminating the area.
Looking up, I could see the crumbling floors of the upper story by the orb's light, all but withered away by time. Climbing up would be dangerous, but I had tackled greater obstacles before.
"Must have been an important place at one point," I commented, marveling at the size of this first floor. I could barely make out the far wall even in the bright light.
Celeste nodded her agreement, "Perhaps it was where the government of Hester Roc once ruled."
"How do you know the name of this place?" I asked, realizing I had seen no sign or indication of the Ancient city's former title.
