Aeldrathian Folklore #1: The Lantern Below
The engine hummed somewhere beneath the cargo deck.
Not loudly, just a low, steady hum. It was the familiar rhythmic pulse
every gnome on Lake Et Skymorin knew by heart.
The great cargo barge slipped effortlessly through the black water, its
brass lamps casting warm pools of light across polished railings while
the endless lake disappeared into darkness beyond.
Miri sat alone on the forward observation deck, enjoying a few quiet
minutes before his watch resumed.
The lake was calm.
The stars were bright.
Then something moved beneath him.
At first, he thought it was moonlight.
A trick of the water.
But moonlight did not walk.
Far below the surface, deep down against the lake bottom, a tiny blue
light moved through the darkness.
One slow step.
Then another.
Miri leaned farther over the rail.
"...What?"
The light disappeared behind a ridge of stone.
Then emerged again.
Walking.
"Miri?"
Fen climbed onto the observation deck carrying a mug of tea.
"You look like you've seen a ghost."
Miri never looked away.
"Look."
Fen leaned over the rail.
At first he saw nothing.
Then...
"There."
The blue light took another slow step.
Fen frowned.
"What in Ael's name..."
Within moments, the rest of the apprentices had gathered.
Cori insisted it had to be some strange fish.
Veli argued fish did not walk.
The debate grew louder until Captain Bram wandered over from the helm.
"What have we here?"
"They say something's walking under the lake."
Bram snorted.
"It's moonlight."
"It isn't," Miri answered quietly.
The captain leaned over the rail.
The tiny blue light appeared again.
It walked several paces before vanishing beneath darkness once more.
Bram shrugged.
"Marsh gas."
"There's no marsh."
"Then it's reflected starlight."
"It moved."
"Everything moves if you stare at the water long enough."
The apprentices looked unconvinced.
Finally, Veli glanced toward the stern.
"Ask Thal."
Old Thalivorenquillis looked up from the brass valve he had been
polishing.
Most simply called him Thal.
He had sailed Skymorin longer than any apprentice aboard had been alive.
"What is it now?"
Miri pointed toward the lake.
"The blue light."
For the first time that evening, Thal stopped smiling.
He climbed the ladder without another word.
By the time he reached the rail, the light had disappeared again.
He stared into the darkness for a long while.
Then he quietly said,
"This isn't the first time I've seen it."
The apprentices gathered around him.
Even Captain Bram lingered nearby, pretending not to listen.
"I was about your age," Thal began.
"I wasn't alone."
"My closest friend saw it too."
"Rell."
Thal rubbed one thumb across the edge of the valve rag in his hand.
"He couldn't leave it alone."
"At first it was harmless."
"He drew maps."
"Built little models."
"Calculated depths."
"Asked questions. So many questions."
"But every answer only led to another question."
Thal smiled sadly.
"I used to think he'd grow out of it."
"I was wrong."
"One spring morning, he was simply gone."
"No farewell."
"No note."
"Just an empty berth."
"The only thing missing from the workshop was his diving gear."
Thal looked back toward the black water.
"We searched for weeks."
"They dragged hooks."
"Divers searched the shallows."
"The Hierarchy even sent engineers."
"They found nothing."
Silence settled over the deck.
Finally, Cori asked quietly,
"Do you think he found it?"
Thal did not answer.
Instead, he settled onto a nearby cargo crate.
"My own master told me a story after Rell disappeared."
"He said his master had told him."
"And his master's master before that."
"So perhaps there's enough truth left in it to matter."
Thal settled more comfortably on the old crate.
For a moment, he watched the fire crackle in the brazier.
The barge creaked softly beneath them as it moved across the dark waters
of Lake Et Skymorin.
At last, he smiled.
"You know..."
"Master Hewim always began this part the same way."
A few of the apprentices looked up.
"I've heard other engineers tell it differently over the years."
He shrugged.
"But I never cared much for changing a good story."
"So..."
"This is the way Master Hewim first told it to me."
He folded his hands.
"This happened long before Gnomeshaven."
"Before the Great Lift."
"Before the oldest roads found their way to Lake Et Skymorin."
"In those days there lived a gnome engineer named Ellisar."
"They say he could never leave a broken thing broken."
"If a kettle leaked..."
"he mended it."
"If a mill wheel groaned..."
"he climbed it."
"And if someone claimed something couldn't be built..."
A grin spread across Thal's face.
"...well..."
"That was usually enough to convince Ellisar it could."
The apprentices laughed.
"He wasn't stubborn."
"Not exactly."
"He was curious."
"And Master Hewim always said curiosity is the finest tool an engineer
can carry..."
"...right up until it becomes the only one."
The laughter faded.
"Folks said Ellisar built toys that walked."
"Locks that opened only for the proper song."
"Little brass birds that perched on windowsills and sang with the
sunrise."
Thal raised a finger.
"Mind you..."
"I've heard engineers add a new invention every time they tell the
story."
"So who's to say which ones are true?"
"But every version agrees on one thing."
"Ellisar never stopped asking questions."
He wanted to know what rested beneath Lake Et Skymorin.
Not the fish.
Not the weeds.
Not the old wrecks every fisherman already knew.
He wanted to know what lay upon the lakebed...
where no one's feet had ever walked.
People laughed.
"You can sail a lake."
"You can swim a lake."
"But no one walks beneath one."
Ellisar only smiled.
Then one morning...
he stopped arguing.
He simply walked into his workshop.
For months the chimney never cooled.
The ringing of a hammer on brass echoed across the harbor from dawn
until well after dark.
Merchants wondered why every gear, spring, and sheet of bronze seemed to
disappear the moment it reached their shelves.
Children lingered outside the workshop hoping for a glimpse through the
windows.
Even the older engineers admitted they had no idea what Ellisar was
building.
Whenever anyone asked...
he would simply smile.
"Not yet."
"Come back when it's finished."
Finally...
on a bright spring morning...
the great workshop doors swung open.
The entire town gathered.
Some stood upon barrels.
Others climbed fences.
A few children even scrambled onto rooftops.
Standing inside the workshop, bathed in the morning sun, was the
strangest machine anyone had ever seen.
Its broad bronze hull sat low to the ground, more like a great diving
bell than any wagon or boat. The rounded dome stretched wider than it
stood tall, its smooth curves broken only by thick crystal viewing ports that bulged slightly from the front like enormous watchful eyes.
Four heavy articulated legs supported the hull, each built from thick
bronze castings joined by powerful pivots and enclosed linkages. They
looked almost insect-like in their design, not delicate, but purposeful, built to climb broken stone, step across deep crevices, and carry the great machine over ground no wheel could ever cross.
Brass conduits disappeared beneath the armored hull where no one could
quite see how they worked. Every plate, every rivet, every joint
appeared to exist for a reason. Nothing had been added for beauty alone.
It looked...
as though it had been built to walk where nothing else could.
Ellisar climbed inside.
The machine hissed.
Steam drifted from polished vents.
Then...
for the very first time...
one great leg lifted.
It took a single step.
Then another.
Slow.
Heavy.
Deliberate.
The whole town watched in silence as the impossible machine crossed the
shore...
and walked directly into Lake Et Skymorin.
The water rose around its legs.
Its body.
Its crystal windows.
Until, at last...
the lake swallowed it whole.
No one spoke.
Minutes passed.
Then bubbles rose to the surface.
Someone gasped.
Someone else muttered that the fool had finally drowned himself.
Just as a few men ran for their boats...
the water broke.
The great walker emerged from the lake exactly where it had entered.
Steam hissed from its joints.
Water poured from its legs.
Ellisar climbed out smiling like a schoolboy.
When people rushed forward asking what he had found...
he only laughed.
"Mud."
The apprentices laughed.
Even Miri smiled.
Thal chuckled softly.
"Master Hewim always laughed at that part."
"He said every engineer knows..."
"The first answer to a great question is usually disappointing."
His smile slowly faded.
"But that first walk beneath the lake..."
"It proved something."
"If a gnome could walk where no one had ever walked before..."
"...then perhaps one day..."
"...he might discover something no one had ever seen."
Thal looked toward the dark water stretching beyond the barge.
After a moment, he continued.
For years, Ellisar wandered the floor of Lake Et Skymorin.
Most journeys lasted no more than a handful of days.
Sometimes he returned with nothing more than muddy boots, a notebook
full of sketches, and a dozen new questions.
Other times he came back eager to tell anyone who would listen about the
wonders hidden beneath the lake.
He spoke of broad stone roads buried beneath drifting silt.
Of towering arches disappearing into the darkness.
Of pale fish that glowed like distant stars.
Of silent halls where every footstep echoed, even though no one had
walked there for ages.
Whether every tale was true...
or whether Ellisar's imagination occasionally outran his words...
depended entirely on who was listening.
The children believed every story.
The fishermen believed about half.
Ellisar never seemed to mind either way.
Every journey answered one question...
and uncovered three more.
Then, after one expedition that lasted no longer than the rest...
the walker climbed from the lake once again.
The children hurried to the shore.
The fishermen looked up from their nets.
Everyone waited to see what strange curiosity the old engineer had
discovered this time.
Ellisar climbed down smiling.
In his hands rested a small blue crystal.
It was no larger than Ellisar's fist.
He turned it slowly in the afternoon sun, and for a moment the crystal
seemed to hold the sunlight in a way no one there had ever quite seen
before.
Someone asked if it was valuable.
Ellisar chuckled.
"I couldn't begin to tell you."
Someone else asked what it was.
He studied it for another moment before answering.
"I think..."
"...it's something worth understanding."
That answer seemed to satisfy Ellisar more than anyone else.
After a few moments, he carefully wrapped the crystal in a square of
cloth, tucked it beneath one arm, and walked home.
According to Master Hewim...
no one ever saw the crystal again.
The workshop lamps burned later into the night.
The sound of hammers echoed long after the rest of the village had gone
to sleep.
New drawings covered every table.
Fresh ideas grew from old ones almost as quickly as they could be
sketched.
Ellisar was still the same cheerful engineer everyone knew.
He still stopped to mend a broken cart.
Still sharpened a child's pocketknife.
Still smiled whenever someone asked about the lake.
But something had changed.
The questions came faster now.
And somehow...
so did the answers.
Then one morning the great workshop doors opened once more.
At first glance, the walker seemed much the same.
Its bronze legs still stood firmly upon the earth.
Its crystal windows still gleamed in the morning light.
Then someone frowned.
"The boiler..."
It was gone.
So were the heavy pipes and great pressure valves that had once filled
its belly.
No smoke drifted from its stack.
No magical fire burned within the machine.
Ellisar climbed inside.
For a long moment...
nothing happened.
Then, somewhere deep within the machine...
a gentle blue light awakened.
Soft.
Steady.
Almost like moonlight beneath clear water.
Those standing nearby heard a low, steady tone.
Not loud enough to drown out the waves against the shore.
Barely loud enough to notice at all.
The walker took a step.
Then another.
Gone were the shuddering jolts and hissing bursts of steam.
It moved with an easy confidence, each stride flowing into the next as
though the machine had finally found its own rhythm.
Thal smiled into the fire.
"Master Hewim always ended this part the same way."
He looked around at the young apprentices gathered aboard the barge.
"He'd say..."
"That was the day the first Arcane Engine awakened."
Thal stood and stretched his legs. He leaned over the rail, peering deep
into the dark waters before continuing.
Then, one morning...
someone knocked upon his workshop door.
She introduced herself as Salanyxalithiana.
Most simply called her Sala.
She was young.
Bright.
Curious.
She had crossed half the world, she claimed, simply to see the great
walking engine with her own eyes.
Ellisar smiled.
"Anyone willing to travel that far deserves a tour."
Sala wandered quietly through the workshop.
She paused before the crowded workbench, where sketches lay scattered in
untidy piles.
Some were neatly inked.
Others were little more than hurried lines upon crumpled scraps of
paper.
She picked one up.
Then another.
Finally, she unfolded a discarded page from the wastebasket.
"You should never throw these away."
Ellisar shrugged.
"They're failures."
Sala shook her head.
"No."
She laid the crumpled sketch beside one of his finished drawings.
"They're part of the path."
She looked slowly around the workshop.
"Most engineers build machines to solve problems."
Her eyes settled upon the great walker.
"You build machines..."
"...to keep searching."
Ellisar said nothing.
For the first time in many years...
someone had described his life's work better than he ever had.
Soon the workshop no longer belonged to one engineer.
It belonged to two.
The townsfolk approved.
"That young engineer has done wonders for him."
"He smiles again."
"He actually sleeps now."
Perhaps, for a little while, he did.
Together they descended into the depths of Lake Et Skymorin.
They argued over the placement of conduits.
Laughed when new mechanisms failed spectacularly.
Spent days exploring forgotten halls beneath the lake.
When they discovered something they could not explain, they stayed until
they understood it.
Or thought they did.
One expedition became another.
Days became months.
Months became years.
Before either of them seemed to notice...
nearly a decade had passed.
Throughout that time, the workshop remained as lively as ever.
The walker carried them beneath the waters of Lake Et Skymorin, again
and again.
Each journey answered a question...
and uncovered two more.
Ellisar never complained.
If anything, the mysteries below the lake only seemed to grow.
But time exacts its price from every mortal.
One evening, after returning from another expedition, several friends
gathered in the workshop.
A group of young engineers listened while Ellisar recounted the day's
discoveries.
The old engineer smiled as he spoke, but when he reached for his mug,
his hand trembled ever so slightly.
He noticed.
So did everyone else.
"It seems," he chuckled, "my mind still races ahead while the rest of
me struggles to keep pace."
The workshop filled with gentle laughter.
One of his friends grinned.
"Perhaps you've earned a day's rest."
"Rest?" Ellisar laughed. "I've no time for rest."
He glanced toward the great walker standing quietly nearby.
"The answers won't present themselves in my dreams."
His smile softened.
"I only fear I'll run out of strength before I find all the answers."
The room grew thoughtful.
It was Sala who finally spoke.
"Such a curious thing... mortality."
The others turned toward her.
"The mind continues to grow..."
"...just as the body begins to fail."
Her voice carried neither sadness nor pity.
Only quiet wonder.
"What beautiful things your people might build..."
"...if only you had forever."
No one responded.
It was an unusual thing to say.
The evening drifted on.
But Ellisar heard little else.
In the days that followed, the words returned to him again and again.
A question no engineer had ever answered.
Must a mind end simply because the body grows old?
The question refused to leave him.
The seasons changed.
But Ellisar could not let it go.
Was it even right to consider such a thing?
All living things must come to an end.
But what if they did not?
Until, one quiet morning...
he stopped asking whether such a thing should be done...
and began asking only...
how.
The apprentices sat quietly around the brazier.
Finally, one of the youngest frowned.
"But Master..."
"...how does someone outlive his body?"
Thal smiled beneath his gray beard.
"Ah..."
"Now we're getting to the good part."
The old gnome leaned back against the cargo stacked behind him.
"The old tales say Ellisar puzzled over that question for many
months."
"How does a mind outlive its body?"
"No one truly knows what happened inside that workshop."
"Only that Ellisar and Sala closed the doors..."
"...and did not emerge again until the season had begun to turn."
Some claimed strange lights danced through the windows each night.
Others swore they heard the ringing of hammers until dawn.
A few even insisted the workshop itself had begun to hum.
Thal chuckled.
"But you know how stories grow."
"When the doors finally opened..."
"...everyone expected to see a marvelous new walker."
Instead...
they found the very same one.
The townsfolk looked at one another in confusion.
One brave soul finally asked,
"Ellisar..."
"...what have you been doing all this time?"
The old engineer smiled.
"I've found a way."
"A way to become one with the walker itself."
Silence settled over the workshop.
No one quite understood what he meant.
One of the older engineers finally cleared his throat.
"And..."
"...if you become one with the walker..."
"...can you become yourself again?"
Ellisar laughed.
"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it."
"For now..."
"I simply need to see if it works."
The room erupted with worried voices.
Someone turned toward Sala.
"You must stop him."
"This is madness."
Sala looked at Ellisar for a long moment.
Then she smiled softly.
"You know him."
"Once a question takes hold of his mind..."
"...it must be answered."
She glanced toward the walker.
"Besides, to stop him now..."
"...would be like asking a flower not to bloom."
And so, as they had done countless times before...
Ellisar and Sala climbed into the walker.
The hatch closed.
The blue light stirred to life.
With a familiar hum...
the great machine walked into the waters of Lake Et Skymorin.
No one watching from the shore imagined...
that this journey would change the old engineer forever.
Days passed.
Then weeks.
The people of the village slowly began to fear the experiment had
failed.
Some believed the walker had been lost beneath the lake.
Others believed Ellisar had simply wandered too far into the forgotten
places below.
Then, one evening...
a blue light appeared beneath the waters of Lake Et Skymorin.
A fisherman saw it first.
Before long, the shoreline was filled with anxious faces.
The light drifted toward the harbor.
The great walker emerged from the lake exactly as it always had.
Water streamed from its bronze frame.
Its heavy feet settled upon the stone quay.
The hatch slowly opened.
Sala climbed down.
They waited for Ellisar.
No one moved.
No one spoke.
At last, someone broke the silence.
"Where is Ellisar?"
Sala turned.
She rested a hand against the walker.
Then quietly answered...
"Here."
Confused glances passed through the crowd.
For a long moment there was silence.
Then a familiar voice came from somewhere deep within the walker.
"My friends..."
"Please..."
"...don't be afraid."
The shoreline fell silent.
One of Ellisar's oldest companions stepped forward.
"Ellisar?"
"Yes."
His voice was unmistakable.
Changed only by the quiet echo of brass and crystal.
"What happened?"
"It worked."
"I've become one with the walker."
A murmur swept through the crowd.
Another voice called out,
"Then come out."
Silence.
Long enough that everyone already knew the answer.
Finally...
"I cannot."
No cry escaped the crowd.
Only silence.
The kind that settles over friends whose hearts have all broken at once.
Ellisar spoke again.
"Please don't grieve."
"I've lost nothing."
"My search can continue."
"I no longer fear that my body will fail before I find the answers."
"Now..."
"I finally have the time."
One of the younger engineers looked toward Sala.
"You let him do this."
She never lifted her hand from the bronze.
"He chose this."
No one answered.
Because they all knew...
there had never been any stopping Ellisar once he had made up his mind.
After a long silence, Ellisar spoke once more.
"My workshop belongs to you now."
"My drawings."
"My tools."
"My unfinished ideas."
"They were never meant to end with me."
"Take them."
"Improve them."
"Build things I never imagined."
Several of the younger engineers quietly wiped tears from their eyes.
Ellisar's oldest friend stepped closer and rested his own hand beside
Sala's.
"Will we see you again?"
Ellisar's voice carried a familiar warmth.
"Of course."
"I've only just begun."
The old gnome smiled through wet eyes.
"Then don't stay away too long."
The blue light within the walker slowly brightened.
Sala climbed back on board.
The great machine turned toward the lake.
No one tried to stop them.
They simply stood together...
watching their friend disappear beneath the waters of Lake Et Skymorin.
The days became weeks.
The weeks became years.
The people of the village waited for the day Ellisar would return.
But he never did.
Only the gentle pulse of the hidden engine beneath the barge could be
heard.
No one laughed now.
Even Fen had stopped pretending he was not afraid.
Miri looked over the rail again, though the water below had gone black
and empty. For a moment he thought he saw the blue glow far beneath
them, but it may have been only a star shimmering upon the surface.
Cori swallowed.
"So it's still down there?"
Thal folded the rag in his hands once.
Then again.
"Some say it is."
Veli frowned.
"The walker?"
"Aye."
"And Ellisar?"
Thal looked toward the lake.
"If there's any difference left between the two, no story I ever heard
could tell it."
The apprentices were quiet after that.
Finally Fen gave a nervous little laugh.
"So..."
"The lesson is don't build walking machines?"
A few of the others chuckled, mostly because they wanted permission to
breathe again.
Thal smiled.
"No."
"The lesson is much older than that."
He looked at each of them in turn.
"Our gifts are wonderful things."
"They build bridges."
"They move barges."
"They solve impossible problems."
"But if you ever let your gift become your master..."
"You'll never know when to stop."
He rose slowly from the crate.
"Remember."
"Every engine needs a brake."
No one spoke.
The barge continued across Lake Et Skymorin, steady and smooth, its
lamps glowing warm against the endless dark.
At last Captain Bram stretched his shoulders and gave a soft snort.
"Good story."
He turned and wandered back toward the helm.
The pilot looked over.
"Captain?"
Bram watched the darkness ahead for several moments.
Then quietly said,
"Come two points to starboard."
The pilot blinked.
"I thought you said it was only moonlight."
Bram never looked back.
"I did."
A pause.
"Now steer."
Original artwork generated for the Aeldrath campaign using ChatGPT (OpenAI).
