Scripts from the Great Library of Nycene:
From "The World's Cities":
Nycene:
Considered by many to be the greatest city in the world, Nycene is the only Ancient city that is still inhabited by humans. Located on a large island on the north east coast of the Feudal Continent, it is the seat of state power in the eastern kingdom.
Ancient buildings left standing after the Magic Wars were rebuilt and refortified throughout Nycene, and it boasts many towers that would be impossible to build with modern technology. One of these towers is used as a palace for the King of Nycene. Another houses the Great Library, which contains the largest collection of scripts in the world, compiled by generations of librarians to preserve the world's history.
The state mages also call Nycene home, and enforce the King's rule as far as the west as the Great Divide mountain range.
All people who reside between the Great Divide in the west, the desert in the south, and the ocean are considered under the King's, and Nycene's rule.
Chapter Five: The Road to Nycene
We were back on the road to Nycene, Celeste and I were mounted and Maverick walked behind us, keeping up with his inhuman endurance. The sky was ashen grey, and a light drizzle soaked us, chilling our bodies despite the muggy weather. We were silent, and I was lost in thought.
Having fallen asleep before Maverick had made it back from setting wards around the camp, I had woken very well rested. My sleep had only been disturbed briefly when I opened my eyes to a dark camp, lit only by a dim campfire, and the soft mewls of Celeste as Maverick thrust into her from behind on the other side of the fire. Something was dripping from between her naked thighs, and I suspected it was not their first round of the night, but I was too tired to join in so I had fallen back into a deep slumber immediately.
That morning, both Celeste and Maverick were up and dressed, eating a light breakfast in comfortable silence. All of our spirits were already dampened by the rain by the time we got packed up and on the road, and I knew that it would be a long day's travel.
It was mid morning when I had unconsciously moved a low hanging tree branch that would have scraped the top of my head if I had ridden under it, using the rune for manipulating plants. It was ten minutes later that I realized that I should not have been able to move the branch at all. My energy was replete and I had had no chance to replenish. There certainly had been no unpleasant emotions around the night before for me to feed on.
So where had the energy come from? I quick check and I knew that I was completely full of it.
Only one thing could account for the discrepancy, and I eyed my pack with The Source cautiously, a fresh idea of where its name may have come from forming in my mind.
"Maverick?" I called, and the Summoned trotted up to the side of my horse, his head coming to about my waist.
"Master?"
"Do you know of any elvish artifact known as 'The Source'?" I asked, and Celeste tuned a curious ear toward us.
"Hmmm," Maverick thought, rubbing his chin, "It might sound familiar. But I don't know much about your kind of magic."
"Celeste," I said, turning to her, "Let me run an idea past you."
"Sure."
"Do you think The Source is an actual source of magic? Maybe it's how the first human mages were able to learn the craft; with an actual, physical center of power," it was a crazy idea, really. Magic was found all around in nature. There would be no reason for any one object to contain it as long as a mage had a technique for syphoning this energy from their surroundings; such as empathic links. But as I had suggested to Celeste, it was not out of the realm of possibility that humans would need a starting point before developing these techniques. Perhaps a gift from elves to faithful cities.
"Interesting thought," Celeste said, frowning, "But from I know about magic, it doesn't make sense. Why have a source of magic like the orb if magic can be found all around?"
"That's what I was thinking," I said, glad Celeste was on the same page, "But maybe it acted as a kind of early conduit. A training apparatus of sorts."
"You humans do need a lot of help with magic," Maverick boomed from my side, "It makes a semblance of sense."
"I don't know," I shrugged, "I guess my friend in Nycene will know more." I didn't want to tell them about my miraculous return to full energy quite yet. It troubled me enough as it was. I didn't need them, or at least Celeste, fretting over it as well. Free energy could be a very dangerous thing. It violated fundamental principles of magic that kept all mages, dark and state alike, in check.
"Who exactly is this friend anyway?" Celeste asked conversationally.
"An old friend of my master's," I explained, "He works in the Great Library and is an expert in Ancient history. No love lost between he and the state either. He was a supporter of my master's when..." I trailed off, aware I was about to reveal a secret of my past I wasn't ready to.
"I don't doubt he's a very wise man if he is a librarian in the Great Library," Celeste said, ignoring my unfinished sentence, "I've always wanted to visit."
"It's the only place I feel safe in Nycene," I admitted, "The state mages stay away for the most part. They have their own collection of knowledge in their tower."
We walked in silence for a while then. Sometime after noon, I think, we passed a wooden building hiding among the trees with the torch of Nycene painted on the front door. A guards' outpost. It was empty and dark, its only three apparent inhabitants having fallen victim to Maverick's blade. There were similar outposts scattered all around the wilderness, but that had been the only one we had seen so far. And it was new. The last time I had taken this road it had not been there. Perhaps the King thought he was losing control of his people.
It was hard to tell what time it was by the sun, seeing how the clouds refused to break their cover. When we did stop, it was only because it had suddenly become too hard to see the road.
"Where would you say we are?" Celeste asked miserably as we made a pitiful camp that night.
"A day and half more of all day riding like today and we'll be there," I promised, adjusting the tree branches above us to keep most of the rain off, "We'll start seeing towns tomorrow afternoon. We can even get a room at an inn if it's still raining."
"Good," Celeste grumbled and wrapped herself up in blankets, "Because this is miserable."
Needless to say, all three of us passed that night without any activity.
The rain did not let up the next day and even Maverick and the horses starting to show wariness from walking so far in it. But the trees began to thin by around noon that day and we came upon our first town, a small cluster of houses and not much else, soon after.
"There's an inn about ten miles down the road if I remember correctly," I said, speaking for the first time that day, "We'll stop. Have a hot meal and get a good night's sleep in a warm bed."
Maverick had gone the long way around the town, opting for a longer journey rather than face a mob of angry villagers when they caught a glimpse of his grey skin and red eyes.
I doubted we would run into any enemies in this village, so it felt safe letting Maverick separate from us. The guards that had run us down had apparently been the only ones contacted. And by the time the other guards found out what had happened, if they ever did, we would be in and out of Nycene already. I hoped.
"Good," Celeste said, "This rain is driving me insane."
By late afternoon we had arrived at the small inn between the last town and the next, along a long stretch of road that cut through gentle, green hills of grass weighted down by the rain. With grateful groans, Celeste and I dismounted and gave our horses to the stableboy, who looked just as miserable as we were, and then we went inside.
It was clean and warm and the innkeeper was a friendly, fat man with a booming laugh and a charming smile. He informed us he had plenty of room for two young lovers such as ourselves and called for his young son to please take our packs upstairs.
Next we sat at a table near the fire, where a smattering of other folks, local farmers I didn't doubt, were drinking and playing cards, just grateful to be out of the rain.
Our dinner was good and hot, and by the end of my second mug of ale I was feeling like my old self again, chatting with Celeste in the carefree manner we had developed of the past two and a half weeks.
When it got dark out and the inn started to get more crowded with local folks, I suggested to Celeste that we retire, call Maverick, and chat about our next move. We would be arriving in Nycene before the end of the next day and we needed a plan before we proceeded. She agreed and we went up together, catching knowing glances from a number of the patrons.
The room we were given was small, but the bed was large, covering more than half of the space. Other than that, there was only a small table with a mirror above and a wash bowl on top. Even a sparsely furnished room was better than being out in this rain, though.
With a little push of energy, I sent a signal out to Maverick that he could follow back to us. I inspected the curtained window next to the table and noted it looked out the back of the inn, which would be perfect for the Summoned to climb through undetected.
Satisfied, I turned around and was treated with the sight of Celeste stripping out of her soaked tunic. Her tiny nipples standing at hard points on her chest.
"What are you doing?" I asked, grinning, "We have some business to discuss..."
"Calm down," Celeste returned, draping her tunic over the table to dry, "I just couldn't stand the damn wet material anymore. You'll just have to try to keep your hands off me."
"For now,"I promised, and heard the creak of the window's hinges open and Maverick climbed through like a giant spider, his leather armor dripping with rain water and his long black hair plastered to his head.
"Getting started without me?" he asked, eyeing Celeste and starting to unbuckle his armor. I feared he would be naked in no time, so I dived right in to the business we had to discuss.
"Before our hormones get the better of us," I said, "We will be on the outskirts of Nycene by tomorrow evening and we need to discuss how to best enter the city undetected."
