Chapter 269 - Forwards (2/2)
Vilga grew somber as her eyes took in the scenery. ”I did not just leave to fight strong beings, though I would like that. I left because I wanted to know if there was something more for my life than fighting. I never knew anything else other than it because it was forced on me.
Maybe, in this big world, I thought, I would find something else to make my heart race. This place makes me feel small, but like the old man said, I like the feeling. It makes me hopeful that the world has something else other than the fight.”
Asala scribbled on her tablet as she glanced up at Vilga. ”That is the first that thou hath spoken so much. I mean no offense, but thy words are quite elegant. Far moreso than I would have thought. It is evident that thou hath done much reflection into thy self, and I shalt say now that thy story is one that I too eagerly record.”
Vilga blushed but maintained her stoic, crossed arms posture, her tree trunk like arms rippling with muscle. ”I…I do not like to speak much, but I think much, and just now, I felt it right to speak my mind. Something about this place.”
”And a good thing you did,” said Li. He deactivated the chrysalis, and it faded like a mirage. ”All the better for us to know each other better.”
”This place has magic,” said Sheela. ”Maybe why you felt like talking more.” She tapped her foot on the floor, drawing attention to it.
The mountaintop was small and carved down to a flat surface inscribed with countless runes in a circular pattern. When Li read them, he found they were runes symbolizing reflection, thought, and understanding.
”I am shaman, so I know,” said Sheela. ”We focus in places of power. Like this one. Makes us think and feel in some way. Connect to spirits. This place used for shamans. Dwarf shamans, I think.” She tilted her head, closing her eyes and letting the feeling of the place sink into her. ”A calm place. For calm magic. Thinking magic. Not like mine.”
”And what do you practice?” asked Mercer.
Sheela smiled. ”Blood magic. We focus in blood pools. Guts of the hunted on us. Makes us hungry. Fiercer. Close to the hunt.” She licked her lips. ”Want to hunt.”
”Aha…I understand,” said Mercer as he stepped back, quite intimidated.
”There must be a spirit this connects to, then,” said Li.
”No more.” Sheela shook her head. ”Place has some power, but spirit dead. Would have been gentle spirit.”
”This was altar of Vale, primal spirit of sight. Farsight, insight – all of it under her domain,” said Asala as she looked down at the runes, reading them and remembering from her own studies and readings. ”It is recorded that dwarves devoted to Vale were gifted her eyes. Eyes pale red like blood. Hair silver like tempered steel.”
”I see,” said Li. He filed the knowledge in his head, but he focused more on the feeling of the place around him.
It had a scholarly air to it too. One he rather liked. Were the spirit Vale to have been alive, no doubt, he felt he would have gotten along with her. But now was not time to dwell in the past. There was much adventure waiting ahead.
He snapped his fingers, bidding the Vukanovi to reach his location. It had been unable to enter the tunnels leading into the Triforge mountains, but Li had beckoned it to scale the mountain while keeping track of Li's location so that when they left the mountain, they would have transport ready and available.
Because Tyr had so suddenly taken Li and the party out of the mountain, the Vukanovi was scrambling to scale the mountainside to reach them, but it would come in due time.
”Many things dead or lost from demons,” said Sheela. She balled her hand into a resolute fist. ”But I fix that. Take back Nadir and protect my people. Give them freedom.”
”All of you have such grand goals, and the strength to achieve them.” Mason spoke up, his voice a little quiet. ”And I am here merely trying to get a good adventure in.”
”And in adventure, we will find grand goals and more,” said Mercer. He lightly punched his older brother's shoulder in comforting gesture.
”Aye,” said Old Thane. ”And did ye lads not draw your blades to defend your homes? That is noble goal enough. Let not others and their goals distract ye from yours. After all, for now, we are all in this party together, and together, we will adventure, no matter how small or big or weak or strong we are.”
”Always together!” said Tia as she nuzzled into Li's c.h.e.s.t, hugging him far tighter than usual, and it was because he knew she had felt alone and afraid. Feelings from synchronizing with Tyr. They were feelings she hated the most, but she had been strong and not let them show in front of Tyr because she did not want him to feel bad.
Li put his arms around Tia, running a hand through her roughened hair. He looked out to the horizon, westward, beyond the veil of cloud, where past the bridges linking the Triforge peaks together, there would be an entirely new land.
The Hinterlands. The Shibboleth. Then, even further west than that, En Arkennan - land of the demons. It filled him with a sense of anticipation, of adventure, that he thought he had long lost.
But no matter the scale of adventure, where it would lead him, he knew one thing to be sure:
”Always together,” he repeated as held Tia tight to him, feeling the life of the rest of his party also beating, relying on him, and yet also striving ever forwards.