Chapter 1
Part 1
“I’ve assembled you all here to talk about a new request I’ve had, from Orothar across town. A client of his would like us to investigate an ancient obelisk in Fandelran Forest, apparently in the middle of Denthir Lake.” Hephaestus shuffled papers on his desk as he spoke, keeping his hands busy. “Due to the nature of the location, we can’t set up an active research site within the forest – Holiwier, the treant that guards the forest, would get rather upset to have a sustained human presence in his domain.” Hephaestus glanced across the room, his eyes bobbing over his guildsmen, all eagerly awaiting his decision on who will lead the quest. Ifan, the silver haired cleric, a spry young man with piercing blue eyes; his sister, Mari, a master of the arcane, her eyes wide with anticipation and earnest desire to explore the unknown; Gustov, an axe wielding outlander, the size of an ox with the temperament to match; and finally, Angharad, an ex-guardswoman and new recruit to the guild, eager to cut her teeth on a promising new mission.
Hephaestus continued his lecture, “Now, under these conditions, we’re therefore required to retrieve the obelisk from the forest and return it to the guild for research. I believe that the proper skillset for this mission lies with you, Mari.” Hephaestus gestured to the young woman, her ponytail bobbing as she nodded in affirmation. “Take whomever you’d like to accompany you, but I’ll need two of you for another request from Ben Grufudd, the alchemist.”
“In that case, I’ll take Ifan with me.” Mari looked over her shoulder at her brother, who grinned back at her.
Gustov lightly shrugged his shoulders and scratched at the exposed hairs on his chest, his thick accent smothering his exclamation, “Looks like you are with me, little Angharad.” Angharad nodded gently in acceptance.
“Right then.” Hephaestus scrawled the pair’s names on a paper on his desk and stamped it authoritatively. Rolling the paper up and holding it over the mahogany wood of his writing bureau, he proffered it up to Mari, his short arms barely reaching midway across the desk.
Mari stood up and reached over the desk, her loose sleeves dragging across its surface, ruffling a few of the documents scattered across its surface. Taking the paper with one hand, and shaking Hephaestus’ claw like hand with the other, she offered an affirmation, “I hope to prove your trust was well placed.”
Hephaestus smiled, his pin like teeth coming together to create an unsettling visage despite his earnest demeanour. His eyes squinted behind thin glass spectacles as he replied, “I’m sure you’ll do great, as you always do.”
“Right, Mari, let’s go get ready.” Ifan stood up from his seat, smiled at Gustov and Angharad, who returned with their own friendly glances, and moved to shake Hephaestus’ hand after his sister stepped backwards. “Thanks for the opportunity, sir.”
Hephaestus took Ifan’s hand and beamed warmly at him, “Not a problem! You two with your formalities; you’re going to have to start whipping the others into shape as I’m getting too accustomed to it.” Ifan laughed dryly at Hephaestus’ remarks and Mari smiled, looking down at her feet briefly. “There’s maps of the area down in the Cartographer’s Archives, be sure to grab one if you need it.”
“Will do.” Ifan released Hephaestus’ hand and walked towards the office’s exit, following closely behind his sister. Mari opened the door and stepped out into the guild proper, holding the door open for Ifan as he moved to walk alongside her. As the door closed behind them, they could hear Hephaestus begin debriefing the other pair on their mission, his voice disappearing behind the thick yew barrier.
The two walked through the guild’s main office space, escaping into a boisterous plume of debate as some of the guild’s administrators procrastinated by discussing politics. “Well then, as you’re in charge I better defer to your wisdom. What do you reckon we’ll need?” asked Ifan. Making their way through the office, the pair soon arrived at another door that read:
MARI FERCH RHYDIAN
Magus
Mari grasped at the bronze doorhandle and pushed open the door to her private office, “I’ll have a think about it and hand you a list of things to gather when I’m done, if that’s alright?” Her desk sat proud at the centre of the room, its lightly stained surface providing a warmth to the surroundings against the mossy green carpet that filled most of the guild’s office space. Mari sidled around its breadth, squeezing between the walls and the desk’s edges to get to her seat.
“No problem, I’ll grab the maps we’ll need from the archives and collect some general supplies for the trip while you work.” Ifan stood in the doorway for a moment, waiting for Mari’s response as she sat down in her oversized desk chair; its padded back reaching well above the top of her head.
“That would be perfect, thanks, Ifan.” Mari searched through the drawers of her desk, before placing an ink bottle and quill on its surface. “If you come back at around lunchtime, I should hopefully have finished by then and we can grab a bite to eat in the cafeteria.”
Ifan nodded and clutched at the door to Mari’s office, “If I’m running a little late, just order my regular.”
“So, a steaming pickle on dark rye?” responded Mari, a smirk emerging at the corner of her lips.
“Cute. Right, see you in a few hours.”
As Ifan turned and began pulling the door to, Mari squeaked out, “See you.” Mari readied her quill and began her list, her brain rattling through the possible origins of the obelisk and its potential properties. After scribbling a few notes, Mari paused in pensive reflection. Stepping out of her chair, she turned to face the bookcase reaching along the entirety of her office’s backwall.
Using her index finger, she scanned the spines of her vast collection of literature, before landing on a burgundy, leather bound tome; The Mysteries of Fandelran Forest by Iorwerth ap Gwyn. Sliding it off the shelf, Mari glanced at the gold leaf titling on the book’s cover. Turning on her heel, she placed the book gently on her desk and sat back in her chair. With a thud, Mari opened its being and began perusing the encyclopaedia’s index pages. Deftly thumbing through to a variety of potential pages of interest, Mari soon found mention of the purported obelisk in Denthir’s Lake:
IN THE HEART OF DENTHIR LAKE OUR RESEARCH TEAM DISCOVERED A LARGE, BLACK CRYSTALLINE OBELISK.
IN LINE WITH OUR OTHER FINDINGS IN THE AREA, WE BELIEVE THE STRUCTURE TO BE SEVARI IN ORIGIN.
UPON FURTHER RESEARCH BY OUR TEAM OF MAGI-SCIENTISTS, WE IMAGINE THE SEVARI WOULD HAVE USED THE OBELISK FOR WARDING RITUALS, BASED ON ITS SHAPE AND SIMILARITIES WITH OTHER STRUCTURES FOUND TODAY IN ELVEN SOCIETY.
WITH THE OBELISK SEEMINGLY STILL ACTIVE, WE APPROACHED HOLIWIER REGARDING ITS PURPOSE AND ORIGINS, BUT HE DECLINED TO RESPOND.
WE ARE INCLINED TO BELIEVE THAT EITHER HOLIWIER IS UNAWARE OF ITS EXACT PURPOSE (OR HAS SIMPLY FORGOTTEN – WE HAVE AGED THE OBELISK AT AROUND 10,000 YEARS OLD; KNOWLEDGE RECALL OF EVENTS BEYOND ONE OR TWO MILLENNIA HAS PREVIOUSLY PROVEN DIFFICULT FOR TREANTS) OR ALTERNATIVELY DOES NOT WANT ITS PURPOSE TO FIND ITS WAY INTO THE REALMS OF COMMON KNOWLEDGE.
Mari put the large tome to one side and continued writing her list; her mind racing with magical implements that could potentially move the obelisk. Its possible Elven origins gave her a good idea of what she might need, and after a time Mari became satisfied with the contents of her fetch quest for Ifan. Mari cleaned the quill of ink and stowed it away in the desk’s drawers, before closing The Mysteries of Fandelran Forest and placing it back on her bookcase, its removal having slightly upset the balance of the remaining citizens of the bookshelf. Peering over the bookcase’s contents once more, she pulled a smaller book from the shelves and made herself comfortable. The Redmond Farmhand; the new romance novel from one of the more infamous erotica authors of Inarell, Cariad Rhys. Mari settled back into her chair and opened the book to her bookmarked position, enjoying the rest of her morning before her meeting with Ifan.
If you managed to get through all that, thank you so much for giving your time today to read my story.
This is my Work-In-Progress novel, and I'm hoping to share the first draft with the Hive community as I write it.
I'm currently near the end of chapter 2, so have enough content to serialise this for the next 4 or 5 weeks at the bare minimum, so there should be new content guaranteed for at least that long!
Mari and Ifan have shown up in lots of my other creative writing on my blog, so do take a look at some of my older posts for backstory and development for them if you're interested.
Thanks again,
Zedcell