Chapter One

Long before the era of kings, there were only scattered villages, and the people of these villages lived simple, contented lives. In one such village, on a Wake unlike any other, Lum burned brighter than it ever had before.

Joan, a young person, and Dorn, the first of his name, gave themselves wholly to one another beneath that intensified light. Whether knowingly or not, they poured the full essence of their beings into a single act of unity, leaving nothing preserved for themselves. When the next Wake arrived, Dorn and Joan were gone, and a baby lay alone in a field.

The village's chief, Erik the Bold, had never chosen to bring forth life. Moved by sorrow, or perhaps fate, he took in the newborn as his own.

Erik named the child Egast. Egast never became the child Erik had hoped for. Erik was a large man, known to many as a bold risk-taker, while Egast was scrawny, articulate, cautious, and deliberate in every move he made. That did not mean, however, that Egast was afraid of a little adventure.

He was often seen running off into the woods, even though he had been forbidden to enter them on many occasions. The villagers wondered and feared what the boy might find or do in the forest. Yet most never dared ask why he went so often or what he did while he was there. They were all too afraid of the unknown.

Erik found cows in a field near the village. The first thing he tried to do was ride them, and that is how he earned the title Erik the Bold. After failing miserably in his attempts, he brought the animals back to the village. They built a fence, and from then on, the village raised cows for generations.

Egast found the cows fascinating. He stood at the fence and studied them, noting how they endured the cold of the winter Cycles without any covering upon their skin.

Curious, he asked his father,

Egast: "Erik, could I have one of these cows?"

Erik: "One of my cows? What for?"

Egast: "I want to see what their hide is like."

Erik fixed his gaze on the boy for a long moment.

Erik: "Its hide? ... Fine, but only the smallest one, boy."

Egast walked into his father's field that same Wake. He sat on the fence and observed the cows for some time. As the great shadow of the stasis-bound beast began to drift across the land, dimming Lum's glow in his region of the world, he knew which cow to choose.

Toward the back of the herd was a fully grown cow, slim, almost sickly in appearance. Egast doubted it would survive the cold cycle ahead, even if left alone. He approached it gently, petting its neck to calm it while the rest of the herd moved farther ahead. Then, with quiet purpose, he sealed its mouth and covered its nostrils until it passed. Egast worked through the Leep, skinning the animal there in the field. He buried its remains and stacked three stones as a marker of thanks for its sacrifice.

He cut the hide into squares and fashioned a rather crude, gaudy-looking book. Though his people already had a written language carved into stone, Egast became the first to put words on skin, using a branch from a coalwood tree, charred at the tip and used like ink.

Using the book and coalwood branch, Egast began documenting the animals he observed in the wild. It is thanks to him that many of that region's creatures were recorded and illustrated in his book, "The Natural Creatures of the World".

In time, the village came into contact with others. Realizing they would need a name of their own, they called their homeland Moondor. To the south lived a people who had mastered the art of farming; they named their land Farveal. To the west, by the coast, a village had learned the art of fishing and called their region Waterdale. To the east stood a great forest, where folk lived by hunting and gathering; they named their home Tresor.

To the north lived greedy people who took much and gave little. They found shelter in caves and survived on what grew within them, digging for gems and other buried resources. Their land was called Mountour. These were the neighboring tribes known to Moondor.

At first, trade flourished between them. Each village offered something the others lacked. But over time, the people of Farveal stopped trading with Moondor, having found it easier to raise their own cattle than rely on exchange.

Once all the villages had named themselves, they agreed to begin marking time. A council of wise folk, some from nearby tribes and others from lands unknown to Moondor, was assembled. They established a calendar based on the rhythm of their world. Each Wake and Leep spanned twelve Lumers. A Spanth was thirty six Wakes and Leeps, and a Cycle was twelve Spanths in length.

It was Cycle Seventeen, Egast had reached the age of twenty. By then, he had documented nearly every creature that inhabited Moondor and Tresor. His journey had taken him often to Tresor, where he spent much time learning from the forest dwellers. They taught him how to use a bow; in return, he taught them how to properly skin an animal.

One Wake, on his way back to Moondor, Egast came across a tree unlike any he had seen before. It seemed to glow faintly, almost whispering to him with an unseen voice: "Come to me. Come to me."

He placed his hand upon the bark and felt a slow, powerful rhythm pulsing beneath it like a heartbeat. The energy of the tree surged through him, warm and alive, flooding from root to leaf and into his arm. His hand began to glow.

At that moment, the tree's life force passed into him. Then, before his eyes, the tree shriveled into itself and died. The forest around him fell silent.

Egast returned to his dwelling and carried on as though nothing had transpired. He awoke to heavy breathing though this time it was not his father's. Upon further observation he came to the realization the sound came from all directions.
Stepping outside, it became clear: the breathing belonged to the woods themselves. Never before had he truly considered that the trees surrounding him were alive in such a way. Yet the matter pressing upon him was not wonder, but noise. The sound was overwhelming, a constant, suffocating rhythm occupying each passing Lumin.
Egast stood beneath that endless breath, his jaw tightening with each passing Lumin, his hands pressed hard against his ears. In a desperate cry, he raised his voice into the Wakes and shouted, "Silence!"
At once, the world obeyed. The woods grew still. The Exhale of the trees had never cared for the realm of humankind, yet this one possessed power over them. Soon, what little breath remained thinned into hushed whispers.

This was no way to begin a wake. Nonetheless, he had to take it for what it was. Curiosity stirred within him. What else might now differ from the familiar? He set out into the woods, expecting their presence would weigh heavier than before, stripping them of their usual comfort. Yet the opposite proved true. Egast felt at peace beneath their canopy. Not only did he sense the lifeforce weaving through root and branch, he also heard faint voices. Egast followed the voice to its source.

There before him stood two skunks, speaking to one another.

Male Skunk: "Come on, you know you love me."

Second Skunk: "I will not ever love a low class skunk."

Male Skunk: "I can live with that, but how about you and I have some fun behind that tree."

Egast stepped in at this moment.

Egast: "If you do not leave that nice skunk alone I will have to stop you myself."

Female Skunk: "Oh my."

Male Skunk: "Since when could the walkers talk to us."

Female Skunk: "I do not know but I like it."

Egast kicked the male skunk across the ground. The male skunk hissed and then walked away. The female skunk thanked Egast and began walking away as well. Egast at this moment grew animated with wonder at his new ability. The ability to talk to the creatures and organisms of the woods would allow him to go even further in depth in his book, "The Normal Creatures of The World". More than that he had to find out what these powers meant for him, and why he had them. Doing what he always did when it came to situations he did not understand, he began meditating. Today's meditation ended with an unexpected result, Egast heard a voice that seemed to echo throughout the forest.

The voice: "I am Dirnu, fastened to truth. I am the god of nature and from this Wake forward you will be known as East Father of Dirn. I created the creatures of the world and the plants they feed on. I have chosen you as my shepherd to guide the people of your world to the one true faith. I grant you permission to write a Codex for the People of the Dirn to follow and you will tell them to pray to me through temples of the various things I have put on this world."

Egast was hesitant to listen to a voice in his head, but he did not see the harm in it since he had just about run out of things to do. He looked down at his hands, then lifted his gaze to the trees surrounding him, and spoke aloud: "I need something to write on." Paper appeared before him, which was something entirely unfamiliar to him. He then said aloud: "I need a coal branch," and there it was. He stood very still, eyes wide, turning the objects over in his hands. He looked upward as though addressing the air: "Can Dirnu hear my thoughts right now, if he is so powerful?" Silence followed. Egast lowered his gaze and returned his attention to the task at hand. Writing a Codex for the People of the Dirn.

Egast looked upon the coal branch, and it began to move. He addressed the question, who would participate in this religion? He then decided the people he would want to shepherd were the educated and worthy. So the start of the page was "To those who seek knowledge and purpose, follow the rules of this Codex, and you will be given all you desire through the Dirn faith". About a paragraph down the page Egast wrote "Rule No. ONE Do not kill in spite, killing is only permitted out of necessity.". This was about all he could think of on the spot. So he did something that he would regret for the rest of his life. He glanced about the room and spoke aloud: "I need something that can write this thing for me without my input". Once again something appeared before him, this was something he had never seen before. To his eyes it was just a stick, but to the eyes of any magic knowing entity it was most definitely a wand.

Stix: "Howdy, I am called Stix the wand but you can just call me Stix."

The wand floated in front of Egast.

Egast's eyes widened and he straightened where he stood, plainly eager to have someone who could do his work for him.

Egast: "Can you finish this Codex for me."

Stix: "Anything you wish."

The wand spoke with a slight tone of guff. The wand swung itself in the air and words began to appear on the paper. "Rule No. TWO No creature or entity will perform magic without the permission of the council". Egast looked at the wand.

Egast: "Wait what council? and what is magic?"

Stix ignored Egast and kept writing. "Rule No. THREE No law will be made outside of the original Codex for the People of the Dirn". The wand began making words appear faster and faster. Egast could not keep up with the wand. "Rule No. FOUR The performance of dark magic as deemed by the council is strictly forbidden". Egast did catch the sight of the word council.

Egast: "STOP and tell me what are these things you are writing."

Though the wand was still waving above the book no words were appearing anymore.

Stix: "Well if you must know it is your future, the first five people you teach the art of magic will become members of the magic council, and you will be the leader of said council."

Stix spoke once again with a guff to his tone. Then the wand began to make the words appear again. "Rule No. FIVE No one may share the council's secrets"

Stix: "Almost finished."

The wand began to write one final law. "Rule No. SIX The punishment for breaking any of the laws is trial before the council or death.".

With the document complete, the wand floated the parchment over to Egast and flew itself into Egast's back pocket. He looked over the paper and put his hand on a nearby tree and communicated his voice to Dirnu "would this Codex serve the Dirn faith properly Dirnu god of life" Egast felt a breeze through the trees that seemed excepting to Egast so he made his way back to the village. When Egast arrived at the village there was something foreign about it to him or it was more like he was foreign to it. Egast had a realization that he would not be able to make residence in this town any longer. He decided it made the most sense to grab a few of the boys who had no family from the streets and take them as his apprentices. Egast began to walk down the road when he came across the first boy. It was a child named Orleus. Egast walked up to the boy and said "you're Orleus aren't you" and the boy responded "yes, that's me sir" with his head down. Egast said to the boy "come with me now" and though the child was hesitant he never dared to disobey his elders so he went with Egast following close behind him. It was at this time the two encountered Egast's father Erik. Knowing this might be the only opportunity for Egast to tell Erik his intentions, Egast spoke "I'm leaving with some of the village children" and Erik almost didn't notice him, instead he kept walking and looked at Egast as if he was crazy.

Assuming this was some unknown effect of the magic he ignored the matter entirely and went on with his quest. Egast came across four children in total who came with him almost completely without any regard for their safety. The children were Orleus, Fafsior, Yothar, and Vigil. On their way out of the village Egast noticed a boy fighting one of the older members of the village.

The old person shouted "Give me back my knife boy".

The boy responded "It's mine I stole it fair and square, if you liked what you had you should have taken better care not to have it stolen".

Egast stepped in and said "hey boy did you take this man's knife"

The boy said "of course I did what are ya deaf I said clear as Lum I took it fair and square"

Egast grabbed at the boy's hand and was able to get a small pocket knife from it. As his fingers closed around the boy's wrist, that same deep warmth he had felt in the cow's hide and in the crystal formations at the fence line passed through his palm, brief and unmistakable. Egast released the boy's wrist and looked at his own hand. The warmth faded. He looked at the boy.

The knife in his other hand had grown faintly warm as well, the bone handle of it pulsing once and going still. It was an ordinary knife, yet Egast turned it over slowly before handing it to the old person, looking at the place where the boy's grip had worn the handle smooth. Animals left their essence in hide. Perhaps people left something of themselves in the things they held long enough and closely enough. He filed the observation away in the same unhurried manner he gave to all things he could not yet explain.

The boy shouted "Stop that's mine"

Egast gave the old person his knife and the old person thanked him then left.

The boy asked "what's your problem man, mind your own business.?"

Egast told the boy "Your every action is my business now. I am going to teach you the ways of magic and make you my apprentice"

The boy had a quick tongue "Not on your life I don't want to learn nuttin"

Egast said "what do you want to do? if you don't want to learn anything"

The boy responded "my name is Emedus and I will die doing nothing"

Egast grabbed at the boy's hand and was able to get a small pocket knife from it.

The boy shouted "Stop that's mine"

Egast gave the old person his knife and the old person thanked him then left.

The boy asked "what's your problem man, mind your own business.?"

Egast told the boy "Your every action is my business now. I am going to teach you the ways of magic and make you my apprentice"

The boy had a quick tongue "Not on your life I don't want to learn nuttin"

Egast said "what do you want to do? if you don't want to learn anything"

The boy responded "my name is Emedus and I will die doing nothing"

Egast decided to take matters into his own hands, and use his magic to make the boy come with him. Egast spoke the words aloud in a low voice: "I need this boy to come and follow me," but nothing seemed to happen. Egast spoke again, more firmly, these specific words: "Emedus follow me." Then the boy began to mindlessly follow. Egast left the village with the five boys in tow and made it back into the woods where he had found the tree that gave him his powers. The seven of them stood before the shriveled up tree in awe. It seemed different from any tree in the woods.

Emedus asked "what happened to it?"

Egast: "It gave me magic so that I could give it to you."

Vigil stomped his feet on the ground.
Vigil: "What? Why only him!"

Egast: "Not only him, boy! All of you. You will be my apprentices until you or I die."

All of the boy's eyes seemed to sparkle but Vigil and Emedus seemed to be the most excited. Egast stepped closer to the tree and rested his pointed hat at the top of it. Egast then pushed the boys back away from the tree and put his hand on it. A light began to pulse where Egast's hand rested then the same light began to swirl around the tree as it began to regain life. Emedus jumped on the tree just as it began to grow taller and soon he was three Lu in the air. Vigil followed and also jumped on the tree. Fafsior was the next to jump on though he did not wait very long after Vigil, as a result the two of them were barely a Lu apart. Last was Yothar who did not seem to understand what was going on at all simply that what the other boys were doing seemed fun. Orleus stood at Egast's side and did not even move a Lumecimal closer to the tree.

Egast: "Why did you not do what the other boys did?"

Orleus: "I am not so quick to follow, not to mention we do not even know how far the tree will grow."

Egast kicked Orleus towards the tree.
Egast: "Indeed you are right, but I do."

Orleus grabbed on as he looked back down at Egast, his brow furrowed. Orleus gripped the bark and held still as the tree continued its rise. The tree grew two hundred and forty Lu in the air which made it tower much higher than anything in the whole area. Egast shouted up to the children: "Whoever brings me back my hat wins my magic wand." The nearest to the top was Emedus who was one hundred and twenty Lu from it. Next was Vigil who was one hundred and thirty five Lu from the top. Fafsior was just six Lu behind Vigil. Second from last place was Yothar who was now making a hasty approach on Fafsior who was thirty Lu from him. Naturally last was Orleus who was sixty Lu from the ground. Orleus sat on the thickest branch in his vicinity and waited, intending to claim the hat from whichever boy descended with it.

Using magic Egast set up a small hut at the base of the tree with a table and two chairs. One end of the hut had a door about Egast's size, the other had a hole that a deer could fit through. Egast pulled out his Book The Natural Creatures of The World and the wand which he had previously used to write the Codex.

Stix: "How can I help you today, oh mighty and great wizard?"

Egast frowned.
Egast: "Frankly the only way you can help me is by keeping your mouth shut."

Stix did not seem offended in the slightest.
Stix: "Tis the nature of the beast."

Stix did not say another word.

Egast: "I am sorry. I need you as a writing utensil for the time being."

Egast had never seen a wand before this one and it was the first wand to ever exist in this world, yet somehow he had a sense that it was not natural for wands to talk and something about it was altogether unsettling. The thought crossed his mind to do away with the wand entirely but as he processed the idea the wand seemed to heat up and almost burned his hand. Egast was unsure if it was his doing or the wands but he disregarded the issue for now and began to write in his book. He flipped to the first page of his book and read the title "The Albatross" ; this would be the first on his list of animals to talk to. He spoke aloud: "Albatross, come to me and answer my questions." Sure enough an albatross arrived through the door Egast had put on the other side.

Meanwhile at the top of the tree Emedus was making a strong effort to get to the hat but he was not the most athletic of the boys. For every Lu Emedus was able to climb Vigil was able to climb two. Then gaining on him was Fafsior, the most athletic of the group who was moving at twice the speed of Vigil. His movement was comparable to that of a squirrel. Vigil looked down and saw his competition coming up quickly. He waited in place for a Lumin, which threw Fafsior off because he ran into Vigil sooner than he expected. Vigil proceeded to kick him in the face causing Fafsior to fall. He started screaming as he rapidly approached the ground. Egast looked up through a hole in his hut allowing him to see Fafsior was falling. He spoke aloud: "Give Fafsior a soft and safe landing." Tree branches began moving under Fafsior slowing him down gradually, until his eventual soft landing at the bottom. Fafsior took a seat at the base of the tree looking up in disappointment and curiosity.

Yothar was moving at about the same pace as Vigil and was thirty Lu from him. Emedus was now ninety Lu from the top and Vigil was still thirty Lu behind him. All the boys were making a steady climb up the tree when a ominous cawing could be heard. A great shadow was cast upon the tree and the immediate area around it. What looked like a giant black moving blob was directly above the tree and coming down towards it. As the blob approached, Emedus could make out that it was a murder of crows. Hundreds of crows were coming towards him and he began to climb faster. The first few crows swept by him scratching with their talons. They were able to draw blood, Emedus was covered with scratches already. He kept climbing he would not let a few crows stop him from winning. Most of the crows swooped around Emedus but some of them began going down towards Vigil and Yothar. The first few crows to strike at Vigil met a speedy demise. He would grab them right out of the air and smash them against the tree, then drop them down to try and hit Yothar. Meanwhile Yothar used his baggy clothes to cover all exposed areas to prevent the crows from scratching him. This strategy worked well but it slowed him down. He was now moving at half the speed of Vigil.

Emedus was now fifteen Lu from the top and drenched in his own blood he did not resist the crows in the slightest, ignoring them was his strategy. His blood was dripping down onto Vigil and Yothar who did not seem that bothered by it. But Orleus was incredibly bothered by the blood dripping down on him. He did his best to create a leafy umbrella but it only kind of worked keeping a majority of the blood off him but some still got through. Vigil was fifteen Lu behind Emedus and Yothar was forty five Lu behind Vigil. Emedus was growing weak from blood loss each branch he grabbed was painful to touch. He was so close he could see the hat and was positive he was going to win. He pushed through the pain and made it to the hat, it was as blue as he imagined the darkest depths of the ocean would be. He grasped it in his left hand and tried to lift it from the top. The hat would not budge it had to weigh as much as a whole herd of cattle the fact that the top of the tree was supporting it was astounding. Emedus remembered that this was a tree infused with magic and went back to coming up with a way to get this hat off before Vigil got there.

Emedus tried everything he could think of from using leverage to get off, to just pure strength nothing seemed to work. Now Vigil was right behind him just three Lu away and covered in blood of different shades. Vigil's eyes at the moment were wide open, his smile was from ear to ear and it most closely resembled a serial killer about to partake in his daily killing. Emedus's jaw tightened and his body drew back as Vigil drew near. He called down to Vigil.
Emedus: "I give up, you can have the hat, I can't do it on my own."
Vigil continued to climb with the same menacing look, he no longer paid any attention to the crows that would swoop down to attack him. He had his mind set on defeating his competition more than anything else.

Vigil reached up and grabbed Emedus's foot. He pulled as hard as he could, gripping the tree with his left hand and the foot with his right. Emedus had both hands on the tree so his grip was much better than Vigil's. Taking his left hand off the tree Vigil grabbed on to Emedus with both hands to rip him off. Emedus held onto the hat as tightly as he could but with Vigil pulling he noticed the top of the tree began to crack. Emedus's eyes went wide and he glanced upward at the hat, then at the cracking wood beneath it. The hat was too heavy for the tree, so the tree had a magic cast on it that allowed it to support the hat; by taking the tree with the hat he would be able to carry down the hat. Then the tree top snapped and it began to fall along with Vigil and Emedus. Just as Yothar reached the point that both Emedus and Vigil where at they fell leaving him at the top to have to climb back down. He let out a loud *sigh* and began to make his way back down to the bottom in a gloomy fashion. Vigil and Emedus were clawing at each other throwing punches and everything else they could manage to get the hat. In addition to fighting each other the crows had swarmed around the two and were ripping away flesh. They were falling fast as they approached Orleus. Orleus's gaze fixed on the tumbling ball of blood and feathers, and his hands tensed around the branch he gripped, before he released a slow breath and also began working his way down the tree.

With a big *CRASH* the boys and the birds hit the ground still ripping at each other. Egast finished the page of the book he was working on and closed it. After slipping it into some unknown pocket of his robe he began to walk towards the two fighting on the ground. The crows slowly began to dissipate into thin air as Egast got closer. Once Fafsior could make out the difference between Vigil and Emedus he walked over and kicked Vigil in the back of the head knocking him out.

Emedus stood up with the hat and stick in his hands proclaiming "I win I got the hat" as he ran over to Egast.

Egast: "So be it, this was a learning experience for me and you."

He pulled the wand out of his back pocket and threw it to Emedus.

Stix: "Stix at your service sir… wait you're just a child I won't serve anyone I do not deem worthy."

Everyone stood in stunned silence at this, including Egast, whose eyes went wide.

Emedus: "Now you listen I was promised you as a reward for getting our Masters hat and you're it so you had better behave the way I want you to."

Stix: "Sorry kid it doesn't work that way, when I was made I was given as much life as you have so I get to choose what I want to do and what I don't."

Egast walked up to Stix, put his hat on, and grabbed him.

Egast: "Stix do as Emedus tells you to."

Stix: "If you're trying to cast a spell on me you need to know my true name and that ain't information I just share."

Egast: "Is your true name not Stix?"

Stix chuckled.

Stix: "Obviously not, it's an abbreviation of my full name."

Egast: "Sorry to say but I did not promise anything more than my wand, the fact that you can't use it is not my concern."

Vigil began to wake up now and the other boys found the whole situation fairly amusing. Emedus began to pout and at the same time look the wand over in hopes of finding some way to exploit it. Egast signaled for all the boys to follow him and began walking towards the small house he had made earlier. He put his hand on it causing it to glow, planks began folding off the walls creating floors around the building until they folded into what appeared to be a total of six rooms with a large meeting space in the middle leaving the small house a left wing attachment. They all walked in and Egast said "sleep and you will all awake healed I made this house with the intent of restoring any who rest here too their most perfect form, this way not only will we be healed but also animals and anything from tools to plants". They each went into their rooms which were all identical aside from Egast's room which had a very large bed and various animal pictures on the wall. Everyone found their sleep to be the most peaceful and wondrous sleep they had ever experienced, like resting in the arms of an angel.

Everyone awoke due to a loud *crash* from the room Emedus had chosen. Fasfior was the first to arrive at the scene. The roof had caved in and Stix was floating in the center of the room. Sitting on the rubble was a giant green person with fangs. He was more muscular than even Erik the bold, he was naked and looked very confused. Stix said "These are the new people of Farveal, next time you ask me to do something I will summon much worse, oh and they're called Orc's". The Orc yelled "where am I!" as he began grabbing some of the rubble off the ground to throw at the group. Egast stood in the doorway with the other boys unsure of what to do exactly all he could think of was to stop the incoming projectiles. Meanwhile Orleus paced quietly and Vigil leaned against the wall with a faint smile on his face. Fafsior ran at the Orc and punched it in the stomach which was about as high as Fafsior could punch. The Orc was totally unaffected by the punch and sweeped Fafsior with its fist throwing him against the wall. Fafsior landed right next to where Emedus had been lying under some rubble. He dug Emedus out as quickly as he could, then the Orc came up from behind, grabbed him by the shirt and lifted him in the air. Fafsior's face went pale and his eyes grew wide; in an act of desperation he thrust his hands outward and a sword twice his size appeared in them. Using gravity and surprise as his ally he let the sword fall into the Orc putting as much force into it as he could. He managed to strike around the ribcage the sword sank through to the stomach. The Orc dropped Fafsior and fell to his knees crying in pain. Fafsior put all his strength into one great swing chopping the creature's head clean off and nearly throwing Fafsior off his feat.

Everyone was shocked. Vigil's eyes glowed and his lips drew back in a thin, hungry smile at the sight of the kill. No one noticed this though considering they just saw Fafsior not only perform magic without being taught but killing a creature three times his size.

Emedus: "Thanks for that, Fafsior."

Egast walked over demanding an explanation from Stix or Emedus. Stix floated over the back of Emedus's pocket acting as if he were just some sort of pawn in all this and Emedus offered an explanation.

Emedus: "I demanded that Stix teach me the secrets it knew of the world that I did not and Stix said he would show me one thing."

The rest was fairly self explanatory so he left it that everyone seemed to understand and Egast told the boys:

Egast: "Your next mission is to restore this room to its previous state, you are welcome to try and use magic to do it if you think you can muster it, I have some business in the south."

Orleus thinking that would be simple enough rushed over to Fafsior and said:

Orleus: "Tell us how you performed magic so we can do it too."

Fafsior: "Well I just thought, 'give me something that could kill this Orc' and the sword appeared in my hands."

Orleus stood quietly for a moment, his brow furrowed, then spoke just loud enough that all the other boys heard it:

Orleus: "I see, so thought is how we perform magic, I imagine we must be very specific otherwise we could end up with an unexpected result."

Fafsior turned the sword over in his hands, studying the blade with a craftsman's eye rather than a warrior's. The weapon had appeared fully formed at his thought, yet now that the urgency of the moment had passed, he could feel something through the hilt that he had not noticed during the fight: a slow, dual-pull resonance moving through the metal, the same two-directional tension that exists in all composed matter, but concentrated and deliberate, as though the sword remembered being made. He set it point-down in the earth and watched it stand without leaning.

Yothar crouched before the fallen Orc's severed remains and studied them with the particular stillness of a person cataloguing rather than grieving. The creature's green skin had already begun to change at the edges, the color withdrawing from the extremities the way warmth withdraws from a fire newly banked. He did not touch anything. He looked at the pattern of withdrawal, the order in which the magic that had composed the Orc was releasing itself back into the ambient field of the room, and his lips moved very slightly as though he were counting.

Vigil watched Yothar watch the body, and he watched Fafsior watch the sword, and he watched Orleus watch everyone with that careful distance Orleus kept between himself and all events he had not chosen to enter. Vigil's own hands were loose at his sides, the dried blood from the tree still dark beneath his nails. When the room had been quiet long enough for the absence of Stix's voice to become noticeable, Vigil walked to the far wall, sat down with his back against it, and closed his eyes. His breathing slowed to the measured rhythm of someone who has decided, for the moment, to wait.

Vigil stood apart from the others, arms crossed, his eyes moving from boy to boy with the slow patience of something that hunts by waiting. He had listened to Orleus speak without expression, without the eager brightness that had overtaken Fafsior's face or the calculating stillness that had settled over Yothar. When Orleus finished, Vigil uncrossed his arms and turned to look at the ceiling of the restored room, as if reading something written there in the grain of the wood.

Vigil: "So if I think Kill Emedus, he will just drop dead?"

The room went very quiet. Emedus stopped turning the wand over in his hands. Fafsior's grip tightened on the doorframe. Yothar took one slow step backward, placing himself beside the window without appearing to have chosen to do so. No one laughed. No one spoke to correct Vigil or to answer him, and Vigil did not seem to require an answer. He lowered his gaze from the ceiling and let it rest on Emedus with the same unhurried attention, and then his mouth curved into something that was not quite a smile and he said nothing further. The blood from the tree still stained his hands in dark crescents beneath his nails, and he had not troubled himself to clean it.

At that moment Stix stepped in and summoned the Codex.

Stix: "All of you must know this text above all else. Memorize these rules and follow them. That will be your one requirement if you want to be wizards."

Orleus: "Since when did you care about anything?"

Stix: "Since I wrote most of the damn thing, you ungrateful punk."

Vigil: "What if we do not want to follow the rules?"

Stix: "That would be very problematic because each one of you will be in charge of one of these rules as each of you will become a member of the council of Dirn."

Yothar: "Wait, how do we decide who is in charge of what law, and will we have to do stuff?"

Stix: "Frankly I can already tell who will be in charge of what law just by looking at you."

Yothar: "You can?"

Stix: "Of course. First is Fafsior who will be responsible for the first law of killing as he will be the strongest of you and able to handle those who break the law."

Fafsior had a blank stare and Vigil looked at him like he had been robbed of something.

Stix: "Next is Yothar who will enforce the second law, followed by Orleus in charge of the third law, Vigil is in charge of the fourth law, lastly Emedus is in charge of the fifth law."

Orleus: "What about the sixth law, will the master handle that one?"

Stix: "Of course not. It will be shared between you. When you find someone has broken a law you will hold council, determine the punishment, and the person in charge of that law will enact said punishment."

Chapter Two

Egast was making his way to the south now, it had been a long time since anyone from Moondor had met the people of Farveal and Egast thought it was about time he found out what was going on. The questions were going through his mind: why did Stix say that creature was from Farveal, what could have changed them so much. He then had the idea to use magic to find the answer to these questions. He extended his hand and spoke aloud: "Show me the people of Farveal." A moving image of the town appeared before him, it was from the perspective of a bird. The town was completely changed from when Egast had visited seventeen Cycles before. Where wooden huts once sat there were Stone towers. The windows of the towers had clothes lines between them with various garments hanging from them. The farms were still there but they were being worked by small green creatures with very apparent spines and large hands for their small stature. The biggest of them was at most forty eight Lumecimal tall and the shortest thirty. The town of Farveal once had a large trading market where you could get anything the other villages had but in its place there was a pit that seemed to go endlessly into the depths. The most notable difference was the massive fortress with huge stone walls around it. There were many Orc's lining the walls with bows, spears and other weapons. At both the back left and right corner of the fortress was a large cylindrical tower with a bridge between them. At the center most portion of the bridge was a bulge with windows and a large fire burning on top of it. The bird swooped down to take a closer look at the tower and an arrow struck the bird then Egast's vision ended.

Egast was still two Wakes' walk from the town of Farveal and he was a little restless to get there. No definitive path had been made yet but there were some markings throughout the forest from traders that guided them in the general direction. While walking in the woods Egast began to hear what sounded like voices in the distance. He whispered "Make me unsee" and this turned him invisible and he began making his way towards the voices. He could make out that one voice was deep and each word was like a growl while the other voice was majestic but still firm and assertive. Egast got to a point where he could see a grizzly bear and a buck standing a few Lu from each other holding a conversation.

The buck said "with that matter out of the way we must now discuss the issue of the green men coming further into our woods".

The bear responded "they are no different from the others simply larger and more brutish I have found they are not a threat".

The deer's ears flattened and its legs stiffened.

The deer: "Not a threat to you maybe but countless deer have disappeared from the woods ever since their arrival. I fear for my species if they are left alone."

The bear did not look surprised. The bear: "I think you would find your inability to take care of your own is not my problem, but to help ease your burden I will provide you with information that may prove useful. The death of the deer is not due to the Orc's coming out into our woods it is because of a spirit of chaos altering your race into strange things that only come out at night"

The deer's head tilted sharply and its nostrils flared.

The deer: "Orc's? how do you know all these things and what of this spirit, what can be done?"

The bear's chest rose slowly before he spoke.

The bear: "the bear clan has countless spies in these woods that's how we obtain all our information, as for your survival I recommend migrating elsewhere, don't eat anything new in these woods, and if you can make a deal with a spirit they will grant you strength"

The deer stamped one hoof against the ground.

The deer: "What do you mean make a deal with a spirit?"

The bear thought this was a good time to show the deer the changes he had undergone. He stood on two legs like he was about to attack the deer. The deer stepped back ready to fight but then the bear's hair began to recede into his skin and his face began to shrink. His body was that of a person and his face was very ugly but also that of a man.

The bear: "By taking this form I have been able to steer hunters away from the lands of the bear clan, in their tongue I am Sustin the ferocious."

The deer turned to leave, pausing only long enough to speak.

The deer: "I think you will find the Orc's as you call them do not hunt for food they simply come to kill."

Egast stood at the edge of the clearing, his fingertips beginning to tingle, and a dual-gravity awareness pulsing through his entire body. His free hand pressed flat against the nearest trunk, and his jaw tightened as the bear's words about strange things that only come out at night settled around him.

Egast realized his frequent wanderings into the forbidden woods had not been mere curiosity or rebellion. Some innate connection to the magical forces that composed all matter had been drawing him toward disturbances in the natural order. The peculiar incidents during his forest expeditions, the way animals reacted to his presence, even the responsive behavior of the coalwood branch, all pointed to an ability he was only beginning to comprehend.

The cow hide tucked within his robes seemed to pulse with warmth against his chest. Perhaps his experimentation with animal materials had been the first step toward understanding how to detect and counter these chaotic transformations. If creatures were being altered by malevolent forces during the Leep Lumers, then someone with his growing abilities might be able to create protections or methods of identification.

Egast was not surprised to find that he was not the only person to have obtained magic, but the bear's revelation about chaotic spirits suggested threats beyond simple divine gifts. He felt he needed to consult with Dirnu about this spirit of chaos and understand why such opposing forces were allowed to corrupt the natural world. He put his hand on the tree he had been hiding behind and made its bark open, creating a small hole for him to meditate. He then closed the bark when he was inside the tree.

Egast closed his eyes and sat still within the hollow of the tree. A glow crept through the darkness behind his eyelids, growing steadily brighter, and his form seemed to drift forward through it. He pressed his focus toward the light, drawn onward through the luminous haze. Within moments he could make out what appeared to be a huge cave with giant trees lining the ceiling, walls, and floors. At the center of the cave was a ball of light illuminating the cave. He looked back and saw there was no entrance he could have entered from. He went back to looking around and directly beneath the light he noticed there was a giant creature sitting with legs crossed. He was floating towards it the closer he got the more of it he could make out. Its torso and neck were that of a man, it had a lion's mane and face of an eagle. Its legs were like the hind legs of a deer and its left arm was thick and like a bears while its right arm was thin and like a wolf's. Crowning its head were two antlers that connected to form a halo above its head.

Dirnu: "I am Dirnu, the one who talked to you before tell me what do you think of my appearance. You are the first to have ever viewed my true form."

Egast: "It makes me wonder did you base some of the creatures off yourself or did you change your form to look like them."

Dirnu: "I let every original creature create themselves; some were humble while others were greedy."

Egast: "I see, but more urgently I have questions that need to be answered. I saw one of your creatures change into a person before my own eyes. Why did you grant them this ability it is very different from the way I understood you to be"

Dirnu stood silent for a moment.

Dirnu: "You are very wise it was not like me at all to do something like that as it was not me who did it."

Egast stepped forward, his words rushing out before Dirnu had fully finished speaking.

Egast: "If it wasn't you, then who? I need to know what is going on here."

Dirnu: "I understand your need to know, but you will need to make a contract with me if you want information. If you make the prime objective of the Dirn faith and all its followers to protect the sanctity of my creatures and aid their survival, then I will tell you."

Egast: "Very well, it is your faith to command. I will gladly obey."

Dirnu: "I will tell you all you need to know. I am not the only self proclaimed god; there are four others like me. Mortem, self proclaimed god of death; the beautiful Alchemea, self proclaimed god of elements; Exitus, self proclaimed god of destruction; and Evant, self proclaimed god of fate. Each of them have likely chosen a hero who is supposed to spread their religion. The more followers, prayers, and offerings we have the stronger we are."

Egast: "So which of these gods changed the bear to a man?"

Dirnu turned his gaze downward, his expression falling.

Dirnu: "None of them did. Confus the god of chaos is credited with all the unnatural creatures of this world; he takes our creations and alters them."

Egast: "So what do you want me to do with these unnatural creatures?"

Dirnu: "I will let you decide what you think is best for your world, just so long as you maintain our contract."

Egast: "Then our counsel is over. I thank you and I will now take my leave."

With that Egast extended his focus toward the place he had been before, but nothing happened. He fixed an exact picture of that place in his mind, concentrating as hard as he could, and reached inward once more. With that he appeared in the forest right where he had left next to the tree. He continued his journey through the woods following game trails in the general direction of Farveal. Eventually Egast reached a small cottage on the outskirts of Farveal he had once met the family that lived there, a giant of a man, his wife and six children. Egast approached the door and could hear children inside playing. He hesitated for a moment then knocked on the door. The whole cottage became silent the moment he knocked, large footsteps could be heard coming towards the door and it opened. Standing before him was an Orc even larger than the one he had seen before so big he had to keep his neck bent to stand inside.

The Orc looked him over for a moment then said "what brings you to my neck of the woods stranger?".

"I have come to investigate what seems to be a freak occurrence happening in Farveal" Egast told the Orc.

The Orc said "well that's no business of mine" and began to close the door.

Egast willed the door open and stepped inside then said "you see I used to know the family that lived here and I was interested in learning of what has happened to them"

The Orc looked angrily at Egast then responded "me and my family have always lived here we built this cottage" as he gestured towards his wife and six children who seemed frightened.

"Remain calm my friend I am not here to cause you trouble" said Egast

"I understand very well sit at my table and we can talk about this" responded the Orc

Both of them sat and the Orc asked his wife to fetch them both something to drink. The kids ran outside to play so they would not bother their father or his guest. Egast once again led the conversation.

Egast: "If I am not mistaken did you not used to be the chieftain of this town?"

The Orc responded "No I was never the chieftain of this town. I was the mayor elected by my peers, back before we changed, and I still am the mayor of this town but we recently got a King who does not seem to think I am all that necessary anymore."

Egast said "I am sorry but I am not familiar with the term King"

"Of course, a person came through one Wake with a cloaked companion, The person said that he would become the ruler of these lands and in time all of the lands. I told him I was the ruler of these lands and that if he wished to take leadership we could cast a vote to see who the people choose. He agreed to that and we held an election. He made all kinds of promises to the people that I could not, he said the crops would never dry up, the people would all be born strong and that meat would be abundant under his rule. Sure enough he got elected but once he was, he said he would not dethrone me as mayor he would simply become king making me a vassal of his. Then all the promises came true we all became these green creatures he called Orc's and we were all stronger because of it." said the Orc.

"What intrigues me the most about your story is the cloaked companion who was with the new king. What do you know of him?" Egast asked

The Orc said "well he is currently heading the construction of a citadel in the middle of town."

Egast thanked the Orc and said "with that I will be on my way expect another visit from me before I leave, also what was your name friend?"

"The name is Agnark" Responded the Orc.

Egast left the hut and began walking to the large town. He was still at the outskirts of the town and walking past lots of fields with the little green men working them. It was now apparent based on what he could tell the Orc's were slave drivers and the small green men were slaves. Slavery was not common but sometimes people would swear their lives to another for one reason or another. This was the first time Egast had ever seen slavery on this large a scale. At the very least the Orc's did not seem to be overly cruel to the small green men so Egast did not concern himself with the matter. As Egast approached the end of the fields and the start of stone towers more and more Orc's were looking at him suspiciously. He saw an Orc say something to one of the small green men then it ran over to Egast.

The creature said "Greetings, I am Bibs the goblin, what brings you to Farveal?"

Egast told the creature "I have business with the King".

Bibs responded "then let me guide you through town it can be dangerous to go alone"

"Then I would appreciate your company friend" said Egast.

After crossing the threshold from the farms to the towers it was immediately darker and the air was thick. All of the Orcs in the town seemed less happy than the Orcs Egast had previously seen on the farm land. There were also fewer goblins and the few that were there were treated very poorly. One Orc in an alley killed a goblin for sneezing, this made Bibs visibly tense and he walked closer to Egast after seeing it. Egast was already beginning to feel very glad this goblin had decided to help him because the town was very maze-like and he would have been lost without Bibs. There were lots of businesses at ground level from vegetable shops to weapon and armor stores. The Orcs tried to get other Orcs to come to their shops but none tried to get Egast to come over. After walking for fifteen lumins two very large Orcs blocked the path for Egast and Bibs. Egast walked up to the two of them who were both wearing full plate armor and were a little shorter than Agnark.

Egast: "Would you two mind moving, me and my friend are trying to get to the castle."

They looked at Egast and one snarled.

Orc: "What business do you have in the castle."

Egast: "My business is my own, now make way. I do not want any trouble."

One of the Orcs drew his sword.

Orc: "Well you got trouble the moment you walked into town."

The other drew an axe and was preparing to swing down at Egast. As the blade came towards Egast he spoke under his breath, "move me back one Lu," and they were both surprised to see him just disappear and appear a single Lu away. The other Orc was about to swing his sword but Egast was too fast. He spoke again, "heat their armor until it melts," and they immediately began to scream in pain. They dropped their weapons and both started to try to take off their armor but were only able to get handfuls of molten metal, as their flesh turned into ooze. Egast gestured for Bibs to follow him and they ran to the end of the center of town where a great wooden gate was, leaving behind the two melting orcs.

Orc: "What business do you have here?"

An Orc called down from on top of the wall.

Egast: "I request an audience with the king."

Orc: "And what of the little one?"

Bibs: "I am his guide and humble servant."

The Orc appeared to say something to someone behind him then after a few lumins of faint murmuring the gate opened. Egast and Bibs walked in the area they were now in was a courtyard above it was a bridge between two towers that had a bulge at the center. The wall and gate were connected to the towers which were six hundred lumecimal tall. The courtyard was full of warriors who were training with many different weapons. Bibs was the only goblin to be seen in the courtyard; a few Orcs even gave him the stink eye. An Orc approached wearing a robe that was made of red silk with golden trim. The Orc who was about Egast's height looked them both over and gestured for them to follow him.

Orc: "I am the king's advisor Edrik, follow me and you will have your counsel with the king."

He opened a door at the base of the left tower then spoke again.

Edrik: "This is Tower Naples totally run by the Nap family. That other tower is Tower Palermo run by the Pale family."

Egast: "Would you mind telling me of the two families while we walk up this seemingly endless staircase?"

Edrik responded very excitedly "I would love to. I have never actually had a guest before so this is the first opportunity I have had to tell someone from the outside of this place. To start, the Nap family is named for the eldest member of the family Grikug Nap who always caught sleeping but was still a great warrior. Then there was Furbog a pale Orc so his name was Frubog Pale."

Egast interrupted to ask "what does it mean for him to be a pale Orc?"

Edrik seemed pleased that Egast was listening and responded "It means his skin was white when we all changed to Orcs. We were all green except Furbog whose skin lost all color. Everyone in his family is the same way. The king saw that the other Orcs shunned them and were threatening to kill them unless they left the kingdom so King Rednar who found their skin to be very attractive and fell in love with Furbog's daughter offered for them to stay in the west tower.

Egast asked "so why does the nap family get to live in the east tower?"

Edrik smiled revealing a lot of very ugly and scary teeth which seemed to go in every direction except the right ones then said "another very good question. You see King Rednar's brother is Grikug Nap and their family built the whole castle expecting to be the only ones to live there. One can imagine the Nap family's surprise when King Rednar gave away half their home. You see they have a great lineage at the top is Grikug who married Prutha. They have six sons, Tilage, Mahk, Barnok… Oh we seem to have reached the top I suppose this will be a story for me to finish another time or if you prefer you could read my book on the great Orc familys of Farvael though it's still a work in progress"

Egast said "I would be very interested in getting a copy of the book once you complete it, perhaps you would be interested in a book I wrote"

Egast pulled out a copy of The Natural Creatures of the World and handed it to Edrik. Edrik was ecstatic as he put it away in one of his many pockets. The hall was long but one could just barely make out the main room. The hall was dark because the only light was from the windows. After five Lumends of silent walking the three of them had made their way to the Throne Room. Sitting on a giant stone throne that went all the way to the ceiling was an Orc wearing a crown of stone with a stone scepter in his hand. He seemed bored until the moment he caught a glimpse of his guests.

He immediately sat up and shouted "Ah! my long awaited guests, come in come in"

Edrik quickly ran to his side and announced to the room which was empty except for the four of them "I present Egast of Moondor son of Erik the Bold and Bibs of nowhere son of no one, to you guest though he needs no announcement here is King of Farveal Rednar the first king".

Rednar said "Don't be shy have a seat"

Edrik sat at the king's side on one of the steps of his massive throne. Egast looked around for a chair of some sort but other than a carpet that connected the two halls and ran through the room it was totally empty. Bibs sat on the floor then patted to his left gesturing for Egast to come over. Egast walked over to Bibs and acted like he was going to sit but then thought Chair appear beneath me and another chair rise under Bibs then stop after being fully revealed. They sat in their chairs though Bibs seemed confused. The King was immediately enraged, his face grew red then he began to breathe deeply trying to calm himself.

Rednar said breathing heavily "*Heavy Breath* I *Heavy Breath* am *Heavy Breath* intrigued *Heavy Breath* as to *Heavy Breath* what brings *Heavy Breath* you to my *Heavy Breath* humble abode."

Egast: "I dare not be casual with the first king but pardon me for I know not the standard for addressing a king. I Egast am the first dabler of magicks in all the lands and have come to offer you my services provided you accept the one true faith of Dirn."

Rednar now calmer began to laugh.

Rednar: "You amuse me boy, you are not the first to come to me with such a proposition, how do you think we all came to be Orc's and this castle erect. You see, a cloaked person came to me when I was nothing more than a contestant for mayor. He claimed he would aid me in the claiming of power but when I failed I cast him away. He returned saying why be mayor when I could be king. I promised to make all our city of Farveal full of strong men, women and children. Once they held me high and called me king he made it true and we all turned to these things which we have come to learn are known as Orc's."

Egast daring not to interrupt a king waited until he stopped talking then asked.

Egast: "And where might I find your person of magicks."

Rednar stood more furious before.

Rednar: "Do I bore you, if you feel you have somewhere better to be then why not be there."

He stood up, grabbed Egast and Bibs by the collar's and threw them out a window behind them. As they fell Bibs screamed but Egast's eyes went wide and in the last moments before he hit the ground he made Bibs and himself light so they would float down softly. Egast recalled being told that the strange person was heading the construction of a church. Now in the castle courtyard below there were pale orcs coming from the west and green orcs coming from the east all towards Egast and Bibs. Once each side was ten lumecimal away, Egast thought Make Egast and Bibs invisible to the eye's of mortals and snuck away. With no one for the orcs to unleash their anger on, they unleashed it on each other and a fight broke out between the green and pale orcs. Egast continued through the town with bibs while invisible until they reached a tall building with stained glass for windows which Egast had never seen before. He thought Make Egast and Bibs visible again. They appeared and some goblins who had been working on the church's roof saw and were so surprised they jumped back and rolled off the building splatting on the ground leaving behind a mess of bones, flesh, and blood.

Almost immediately two massive wolf-like creatures ran out of the building and started ripping into the piles. Egast's eyes went wide at the sight of these creatures, as he had not documented them in his book. Bibs stepped behind Egast's leg, trembling, and said "Wargs!". A cloaked person soon came out of the building and whistled; the wargs immediately stopped eating. They then fell in at his sides and he took notice of Egast.

The person: "Ahoy there friend, what brings you here?"

Egast: "I came in search of individual with great power."

The person raised his eyebrows and gestured to the half constructed building.

The person: "We should take this talk inside; would you be willing to come in."

Egast: "Lead the way."

Egast marched toward the building with Bibs, who was hesitant but still followed.

The inside was far more complete than the outside. It looked exactly like a church with hues facing a stage that had an altar on it.

The person: "This is where the yearly sacrifice will take place."

Egast at this point was sure this person had the same responsibilities as a religious leader as he had and asked a question.

Egast: "What do you sacrifice to your god?"

The person: "Whatever is most readily available, it's not complete yet so we haven't done any sacrifices but I am thinking our first sacrifice will be one of the greater beast's of the nearby forest."

A note of menace entered the person's voice as he finished speaking.

Egast: "Say no beast was readily available, what would you sacrifice then."

The person repeated himself, nearly word for word: "Whatever is most readily available."

Egast: "But what name are you called?"

The person: "They call me The Wizard around here. If you don't mind me asking, whom is it that you serve? I can tell by your aura that you too must be a wizard."

Egast: "I serve only myself."

Egast fell quiet, his face showing nothing more. They walked under a mezzanine which was mostly a frame at this point.

The Wizard: "Hmmm. You cannot fool me, your aura is not that of a lesser god's magic so I am positive you spoke to your God. But which one, perhaps one that would send you in ill prepared like Dirn or Blank. You see, my god warned me there would be others and gave me much information that will prove quite useful. He even told me some gods put too much faith in men and would not tell them of the other gods. But you need not worry I shouldn't interfere with your affairs much at all. So long as you do not meddle with mine. These people known as orcs are mine. You can fight with the other profits for the other races."

Egast: "I see, now I am on the back foot in this conversation; you seem to know far more than I, but perhaps too much knowledge can be a weakness."

The Wizard: "Spoken like a true fool, knowledge is truly the ultimate power."

Bibs, who had been silent up until this point, ran out the door.

Bibs: "Time to go, time to go."

Egast: "Until we meet again."

Egast ran out the door after him.

Egast: "What was that about."

Bibs simply pointed to the sky where a dark cloud had begun to circle around the church. Then the grass that had been on the ground in toy patches no bigger than four Lumecimal were now a Lu and a half tall and sprawling with life.

Egast now realized that the whole time they had been in the church his and The Wizard's aura had been battling and these were the side effects. Egast instructed bibs to follow him and egast began to walk to the hut he visited when he first arrived in the town.

As Egast left the town he had a newfound understanding of Orc kind and was interested in discovering other races of the land. First he had to check in and see how his apprentice's were doing.

Same characters, different story.
Meanwhile in a totally different time and place there were events taking place that someone might actually consider interesting. A tale of ten kings, a girl and a land torn in two. This story takes place in a world not unlike our own very similar in fact. Close in scale and just as awful or fantastic if you prefer. The story begins with a person and a small girl no bigger than a thumb.

Joanne: "You think they will have pudding in Dabenshire?"

Alex: "Of course they will have pudding. It's Debenshire the capital of the world."

The two walked down a dirt road the size of three of the largest fr

As Egast spread the hide flat upon the ground, something peculiar occurred. The material seemed to respond to his touch, growing smoother beneath his palms. The rough patches evened out, and tears mended themselves as if guided by an unseen force. Egast paused, studying his hands with newfound curiosity, but attributed the phenomenon to careful preparation.

Yet when he pressed both palms against the hide and concentrated, he felt a strange pull, not downward toward the surface as expected, nor upward toward Lum, but something else entirely. The hide seemed to vibrate with an energy that made his fingertips tingle. Through the material, he sensed something profound: the cow's essence had not departed with its breath, but remained woven into every fiber of its skin.

Intrigued by this discovery, Egast began testing other materials. Stone remained cold and unresponsive. Wood from the trees felt ordinary beneath his touch. But when he handled bones from their cooking fires, the same peculiar sensation stirred within his palms. Animal materials, he realized, retained traces of the magic that had once animated them, the fundamental force that composed all matter in their world, but concentrated and accessible in ways that plant and mineral matter were not.

As he worked with methodical precision, Egast noticed something extraordinary about the cow's hide. Where his fingers traced across the surface, faint patterns emerged, delicate lines that seemed to map the creature's former circulation, but with curious bifurcations that made no sense according to his understanding of animal anatomy. The lines appeared to flow in two distinct directions, some pulling toward what would have been the creature's center, others spreading outward toward its extremities.

Egast pressed his palm firmly against one of these divergent pathways and felt the dual pull he had experienced in his own body when climbing tall trees, the sensation of being drawn simultaneously toward Lum's light and toward the solid matter beneath his feet. The cow, it seemed, had possessed the same dual-gravity awareness that all creatures of IntEarth carried within them, and somehow this fundamental force had been preserved in the very structure of its hide.

This revelation sparked a methodical curiosity unlike anything Egast had encountered before. He began to examine the hide with the same careful attention he gave to his forest observations, noting how different sections responded to pressure and warmth. The hide from areas closer to the creature's heart showed stronger magical resonance, while sections from the extremities seemed to pulse with the memory of the dual forces that had once governed the animal's movement and balance.

Erik approached as Egast worked, drawn by an uncharacteristic stillness that had settled over the remaining cattle. They stood in a perfect circle around where their companion had fallen, their heads lowered and eyes fixed upon the boy's movements. Not one of them grazed or wandered, despite the fresh grass at their hooves.

Erik's weathered face grew pale as he watched Egast's hands move across the hide with impossible precision, smoothing imperfections that should have required a tanner's tools and knowledge gained through Cycles of experience. The boy worked as if guided by instinct older than learning, shaping the material with a sureness that belonged to master craftsmen, not untrained youth.

He cut the hide into squares and fashioned a rather crude, gaudy-looking book. Though his people already had a written language carved into stone, Egast became the first to put words on skin, using a branch from a coalwood tree, charred at the tip and used like ink.

Using the book and coalwood branch, Egast began documenting the animals he observed in the wild. During his forest expeditions, he noticed the parchment pages seemed to accept his words with unusual eagerness, the ink flowing more smoothly than it should have across the treated hide. More curious still, when he wrote descriptions of creatures while touching items made from similar animals, a bird's feather while writing about flight, or fish scales while documenting water dwellers, the words seemed to glow faintly before settling into permanence.

On one such expedition, as Egast knelt beside a stream to observe the fish with silver scales that darted beneath the surface, he became aware of a presence watching him from the treeline. The sensation was neither threatening nor particularly comforting, simply an awareness that pressed against the edges of his perception like a whispered name just beyond hearing. When he turned to investigate, he found only the gentle swaying of branches in the breeze, yet the feeling persisted. As he dipped his coalwood branch in the stream to clean it, the water around the tip began to glow faintly, casting dancing patterns across the riverbed stones before fading as quickly as it had appeared.

The patterns lingered in Egast's vision even after the water had returned to its natural state, spiraling geometries that seemed to echo the dual-gravity pathways he had discovered in the cow's hide. He traced his finger through the air above the stream, following the memory of those luminous whorls, and noticed how the motion seemed to disturb something invisible yet present, like drawing through thick honey that existed only at the boundary between air and water.

His finger slowed. He pressed it forward more deliberately, into the invisible resistance at that boundary, not at the surface of the water but in the air just above it, where the two substances met without touching. The resistance was real and distinct, not wind, not imagination. His fingertip met it the way a hand meets still water before breaking through: a yielding that first pushes back.

Egast drew his finger sideways along this invisible seam, and the stream responded. The water did not splash or surge. It simply rose in a thin unbroken sheet, no wider than his finger's path, curling upward from the surface in a slow arc before hanging suspended in the air between the bank and the opposite shore. The arc held its shape, water bent like a branch, trembling at its highest point where the dual pull of Lum above and surface below competed for it in equal measure.

He held very still. The arc held.

Then a sound reached him from the direction of the village, a child's shout, followed by the quick bark of a dog, and Egast's attention broke. The arc collapsed all at once, the water dropping back into the stream in a single flat slap that rang out across the quiet forest like a hand struck against a table. Birds left the canopy above in a sudden black scatter. The silver-scaled fish beneath the surface were gone between one Lumend and the next.

A rustling in the nearby sedge grass caught his attention. Three rabbits had emerged from their burrow and now sat in a perfect triangle formation, each one precisely the same distance from the others, their ears twitched in unison toward the spot where the light had danced. They remained motionless for exactly seven heartbeats, before bounding away in three different directions, each following one of the spiral paths his finger had traced moments before.

Egast sat back on his heels, staring at the now-ordinary water. The silver-scaled fish had vanished the moment the light appeared, leaving only ripples to mark their presence. He held the coalwood branch up to examine it in Lum's filtered light that streamed through the canopy above. The charred tip appeared unchanged, yet something within it hummed with a frequency he could almost hear.

A soft splash drew his attention back to the stream. One of the fish had returned, but this one moved differently than the others. Where its kin darted in quick, nervous bursts, this creature glided with deliberate purpose toward the spot where the water had glowed. It circled the area thrice before lifting its head above the surface and fixing Egast with an unblinking stare.

The fish opened and closed its mouth several times, as if testing the air, before sinking back beneath the surface and swimming away with the same unhurried grace. Egast dipped the branch again, but the water remained ordinary. Whatever had awakened in that moment had already passed, leaving him with more questions than answers about the changes stirring within both himself and the world around him.

Erik: "Its hide? ... Fine, but only the smallest one, boy."

Curious, he asked his father,

Egast: "Erik, could I have one of these cows?"

Erik paused in his work, straightening to his full height. His weathered hands gripped the fence post tighter, and his eyes narrowed as they fixed on his adopted son. The question hung in the air between them like smoke from a dying fire.

Erik: "One of my cows? What for?"

Egast: "I want to see what their hide is like."

The silence stretched between them. Erik's jaw worked as if chewing on words he could not quite swallow. His gaze shifted from Egast to the herd, then back again. Other villagers had spoken of the boy's strange expeditions into the forbidden woods, whispered of things that seemed to follow him home though none could say what. Even now, Erik noticed how the nearest cow had lifted its head and was staring directly at Egast with an intensity that made the hairs on his neck stand on end.

Erik: "Its hide? Fine, but only the smallest one, boy."

Erik turned away as he spoke those words, his massive frame hunching slightly as if the weight of agreement pressed down upon his shoulders. He had seen the way animals reacted to Egast, how they would cease their grazing when the boy approached, how birds would perch closer than natural caution should allow. There was something in Egast that called to the beasts, and Erik feared what might answer that call. The other villagers whispered of strange lights glimpsed through the forest canopy on Wakes when Egast wandered longest, of how the milk cows gave richer cream after the boy had walked among them.

As Erik's footsteps faded toward the village center, Egast remained by the fence, studying the herd with new purpose. The smallest cow, a mottled brown creature with patches of white along its flanks, had separated itself from the others and now stood directly before him. Its dark eyes held an intelligence that seemed almost expectant, as if it too understood the transaction that had just taken place. The other cattle had formed a loose circle around their smaller companion, their heads lowered in what might have been reverence or mourning.

Egast extended his hand toward the chosen cow, and the creature stepped forward without hesitation. As his palm made contact with the coarse fur between its ears, a subtle tremor passed through both boy and beast. The cow's breathing deepened, becoming rhythmic and peaceful, while warmth spread up Egast's arm, not the heat of fever, but something more akin to the gentle pull he felt when touching the coalwood branch. Around them, the other cattle began a low, harmonious lowing that seemed less like the ordinary sounds of their kind and more like a song of farewell.

The warmth in Egast's arm pulsed in rhythm with the cow's heartbeat, and for a moment his face went distant and still, his eyes unfocused, as though something beyond ordinary perception had taken hold of him. The sensation appeared overwhelming yet comforting, like glimpsing the vast network of connections that bound all living things together.

As the cow's eyes slowly closed, Egast whispered words that came from some deep well within him, though he had never learned them from any teacher. The other cattle fell silent as one, their song complete. When the chosen cow's breathing finally stilled, Egast's expression shifted, his brow smoothing, his posture settling into a kind of quiet stillness, as if something had passed through him and left him changed.

The village beyond the pasture continued its daily rhythm, unaware that something fundamental had shifted in the relationship between the boy and the living world. Erik's retreating figure grew smaller as he walked toward the clustered dwellings, his shoulders still bowed beneath an unspoken burden. Above them all, Lum's light filtered through a thin layer of clouds, casting everything in hues of amber and gold that made even the most mundane moments seem touched by ancient significance.

In the village square, the daily market was drawing to a close as merchants from neighboring settlements packed their remaining wares. A trader from Waterdale wrapped lengths of sea-kelp rope while muttering about the strange stillness that had settled over Moondor's cattle. Another, bearing the forest-scent of Tresor on his clothes, glanced repeatedly toward the pasture where Egast stood among the beasts. Many had noticed the boy's peculiar effect on animals during their visits, how their pack horses would crane their necks to watch him pass, how even the wildest hunting dogs would fall silent in his presence.

The Waterdale merchant secured his bundle with quick, nervous movements, eager to begin the journey home before the Leep brought deeper shadows to the unfamiliar roads. Yet his eyes lingered on the scene beyond the village edge, where the boy's small form seemed to command the attention of creatures that should have been indifferent to human affairs. Something was changing in Moondor, the traders agreed with wordless glances, and they would carry whispers of it back to their own peoples when they departed with the next Wake's light.

As the merchants gathered their final goods, one of them, a weather-worn woman from the northern settlements, paused beside her loaded cart. From within her traveling pack, she withdrew a small bundle wrapped in oiled cloth. Inside lay three feathers unlike any the traders had seen: each one shimmered with an inner light that pulsed gently, as if responding to some distant heartbeat. She had found them scattered along the forest paths during her journey to Moondor, always in groups of three, always arranged in perfect triangles.

The Tresor trader approached, his eyes widening as he recognized something significant about the feathers' pattern. In his homeland, the hunters spoke of ancient markers, signs left by creatures that moved between the world of flesh and the world of spirit. He had dismissed such tales as folklore, yet these feathers bore the exact spiral markings his grandmother had described in her stories of the time before memory. The two merchants exchanged no words, but both understood they had witnessed something that would reshape their understanding of the natural world.

Back in the pasture, Egast remained beside the still form of the cow as Lum's light began to soften toward the approaching Leep. The other cattle maintained their vigil, forming an unbroken circle that seemed to pulse with collective breath. As he prepared to begin his work, Egast noticed that the ground beneath the cow had changed. Where once ordinary grass had grown, now tiny crystalline formations pushed through the earth, each no larger than a grain of sand but gleaming with their own inner radiance. The crystals formed intricate patterns that spiraled outward from the cow's body, creating geometric designs that echoed the pathways he had felt pulsing through the creature's hide.

Egast knelt and touched one of the crystal formations with the tip of his finger. A gentle warmth traveled up his arm, carrying with it a sensation of profound completeness. The coalwood branch in his other hand began to glow faintly, responding to the magical resonance that now permeated the very ground around them. Whatever transformation was taking place here would change not only how he understood the materials he worked with, but how he understood the fundamental connections between all living things in their world.

As the crystalline formations continued to spread in their spiral patterns, Egast became aware of a new sound drifting across the pasture. From the direction of the village came a low, rhythmic chanting that seemed to pulse in harmony with the glowing crystals. The voices belonged to the village elders, though their words were too distant to distinguish clearly. Erik's voice could be heard among them, deeper and more resonant than the others, as if he too felt the pull of whatever force was awakening in the earth.

The remaining cattle began to move in slow, measured steps, each animal positioning itself at precise points around the growing crystal formations. Their hoofprints left faint impressions that glowed briefly before fading, creating a temporary map of pathways that connected each glimmering point. Egast realized that the animals were not simply bearing witness to this transformation, they were actively participating in it, their movements guided by an ancient knowledge that predated human understanding of the magical forces that composed their world.

Then, as suddenly as it had begun, the chanting ceased. The cattle stilled. The crystal formations ceased their spreading and held their patterns in silence, each facet catching Lum's amber light and scattering it in thin filaments across the grass. Egast sat motionless at the center of it all, his palms pressed flat against the earth, feeling the last tremors of the event pass through the ground like the final note of a song too vast to name.

After a long moment, he rose and took up the coalwood branch. He opened the crude hide book to a fresh page, smoothed the surface with his thumb, and began to write. He did not record what he had witnessed in the language of observation he used for the birds and the fish and the forest creatures. Instead the words that emerged were different, slower, pressed deeper into the skin. He wrote of the cow's warmth traveling up his arm. He wrote of the dual pull he felt in all things. He wrote of the cattle forming their circle without anyone to tell them to. He did not title the entry with the name of a creature. He left the heading blank.

Farther down the pasture, where the last of the crystal spirals had come to rest at the edge of the fence line, a single crow landed without sound. It turned its head once toward Egast, then once toward the village where Erik and the elders had fallen quiet. It did not caw. It sat for three long breaths, then lifted away into the pale haze above Moondor, climbing until it was only a dark point against the glow of Lum, and then nothing at all.

Egast closed the hide book and held it against his chest for a long moment. The crystalline formations at the fence line had already begun to dim, their light retreating into the earth as a tide retreats from stone, leaving behind no trace save a faint discoloration in the soil, pale and circular, like the memory of a fire long cold. He walked to the edge of the fence and crouched beside it, pressing two fingers into the discolored earth. It was warm still, and faintly resistant, as though the ground itself was reluctant to let go of what had passed through it.

The Leep was not yet upon Moondor, but the quality of Lum's light had shifted to that particular amber that preceded dimming, long and horizontal and heavy with the patience of the world. Egast rose and began walking toward the village, the hide book tucked beneath his arm and the coalwood branch held loosely at his side. He passed the market square where the last of the merchants had gone, leaving behind only the pressed marks of cart wheels in the dirt and a scattering of dried herbs that no one had thought worth collecting. He did not walk toward his father's house. He walked instead toward the far edge of the village, where the fence gave way to open ground and the open ground gave way to the first dark line of the forest. He stopped at that border and stood with his boots at the very boundary between cleared earth and root-broken soil, neither entering nor retreating.

From the direction of Erik's house, a door opened and closed. Heavy footsteps moved across packed earth, pausing when they reached the market square. Erik stood there in the amber half-light, his broad frame unmistakable even at distance. He did not call out. He looked at the boy standing at the forest's edge, and he looked at the fence line where the soil had gone pale in a wide ring, and he looked at the sky where the crow had long since vanished. His hands opened and closed at his sides. He turned back toward his house without a word, but at the threshold he stopped and set one large palm against the doorframe, holding it there for several Lumends before going inside.

The forest offered no further sound. Whatever had spoken from within the treeline kept its silence now, and the darkness between the trunks thickened with the patient indifference of old things that have learned to wait. A small wind moved along the forest floor and crossed the boundary into the cleared ground, carrying with it the smell of deep bark and turned earth and something beneath those, faint and mineral, like stone that has been warm for a very long time. Egast's fingers tightened on the hide book at his side. The blank heading of the last entry pressed against his palm through the cover.

He turned from the forest at last and walked back through the village toward the dwelling Erik had given him. The crystalline discoloration at the fence line was invisible now in the gathering dark, indistinguishable from ordinary soil. A person passing in the morning would see nothing to mark the place. Egast paused once to look back at it, standing still in the lane with Lum's dimming glow spread thin and red across the far curve of the world above. Then he walked on, and the lane was empty, and the village settled into its Leep.

He did not sleep when the Leep came fully down over Moondor. He sat instead at the low table in his dwelling with the hide book open before him and the coalwood branch resting across his knuckles, and he looked at the blank heading of the last entry for a long time without writing in it. The single tallow candle on the table burned without flickering, its light so steady it seemed less like combustion and more like a small decision the flame had made and intended to keep. Outside, the village made its ordinary Leep sounds: the settling of roof timbers, the distant low of cattle, the particular silence that fills a place when all its people have drawn inward to their rest.

Then, from beneath the table, a sound. Not loud. A slow and regular tapping, as of something small testing the underside of a plank with one deliberate finger. Egast did not move at first. He lowered his gaze to the table's edge and waited. The tapping came again, three times, then stopped. When he pulled the table away from the wall and crouched to look beneath it, he found only bare earth and the compressed dust of ordinary habitation. Yet the earth there was warm to the touch, the same deep and patient warmth he had felt at the fence line, and in the center of the bare patch a single small crystal had pushed itself up through the floor, no larger than a thumbnail, gleaming with a pale interior light that pulsed once when his finger neared it, then went dark and did not pulse again.

Egast sat back on his heels and studied the dark crystal for several Lumins. At last he took the coalwood branch and wrote something in the margin of the hide book, beside the blank-headed entry. He wrote only four words, small and pressed firmly into the skin. He did not write a name. He wrote a question, and left it there, and closed the book over it, and did not open it again before the Wake came.

From somewhere within the treeline, a low sound rose and faded. It was not wind, and it was not animal. It lasted no longer than two or three Lumends before the forest returned to its ordinary silence. Egast looked down at the hide book in his hands. The blank heading of the last entry he had written caught what remained of Lum's amber light, and for a moment the empty space above the words seemed less like an absence and more like a deliberate reservation, room left for a name not yet known.

The Wake came as it always did, Lum's brightening pressing through the gaps in the dwelling walls in long pale fingers that crossed the floor and climbed the far wall in silence. Egast had not moved from his place at the table. The tallow candle had burned to nothing, its wick a cold black thread in a shallow pool of hardened wax. The hide book remained closed under his hand, and the dark crystal beneath the table had not pulsed again through the full length of the Leep.

He rose when the brightening reached the table's edge and stood for a moment with both hands pressed flat against the wood, looking at the closed book without reaching for it. Then he took it, tucked it beneath his arm, and stepped outside into the early Wake. The village was stirring. Smoke rose from two cookfires. A child chased a dog through the lane without looking at him. The market square held only the pressed wheel-marks from the merchants of the previous Wake, already softening at their edges in the morning damp.

Egast walked to the well at the center of the village and drew water, and while he drank he looked toward the pasture fence. The pale ring in the soil was invisible from this distance, lost among ordinary shadow and grass. A single cow stood at the far end of the herd, apart from the others, its back to the village, its head lowered toward the ground at a point Egast could not precisely identify but did not need to. He watched it for a long while. It did not graze. It did not move. When at last one of Erik's farmhands approached the herd with feed, all the other cattle pressed forward in the ordinary way of hungry animals, and the lone cow at the far end turned and followed, and was indistinguishable from the rest.

Egast waited until the king had fully exhausted his telling before speaking again.

Egast: "And where might I find your person of magicks."

A memory surfaced unbidden as he asked it, one he had carried without examining since the Wake he first pressed his palms against the cow's hide in the pasture at Moondor. The animal's skin had smoothed beneath his hands in ways no tanning knowledge could account for. He had attributed the phenomenon to careful preparation, told himself it was nothing, and closed the hide book over the blank-headed entry without returning to the question pressed into its margin. Yet the cloaked person's words about auras and gods choosing their prophets had shaken something loose in him. The hide had known his hands before he knew what his hands could do. The cow had walked forward without being led. The cattle had formed their circle without being told. Whatever force now coursed through his blood had been present long before the dying tree in the forest had given it a name, and standing in the throne room of the first king of Farveal, Egast understood at last that the hides of animals were not passive materials but reservoirs, vessels in which the dual pull of Lum and surface remained impressed long after the creature that had felt it was gone. A wizard who understood that principle would be able to do far more than smooth rough leather. The creature's winter survival, the richness of the milk the cows gave after he walked among them, the way the chosen cow had stepped forward without prompting: these were not coincidences but evidence of something woven into the very fabric of living matter, something he had been touching his entire life without knowing he was touching it.

He cut the hide into squares and fashioned a rather crude, gaudy-looking book. Though his people already had a written language carved into stone, Egast became the first to put words on skin, using a branch from a coalwood tree, charred at the tip and used like ink.

Yet the making of the book had not been without strangeness. As Egast spread the hide flat upon the ground to cut his squares, the material had responded to his touch in ways he could not account for. Rough patches smoothed themselves beneath his palms. A long tear along one edge drew itself closed as his fingers passed over it, the fibers knitting together without needle or thread. He paused over this, pressing his hands flat and holding them still. The hide grew warm, warmer than Lum's filtered light and the ambient air could explain, and beneath that warmth he felt two distinct pulls moving through the material in opposite directions, one drawing toward some invisible center, one spreading outward toward the edges, the same dual sensation he knew from climbing tall trees but now present in a piece of dead skin laid flat upon the ground.

Egast lifted his hands and looked at his palms. Nothing had changed in their appearance. He set them down again, and again the hide responded, smoothing further, the warmth deepening. He sat back on his heels and stayed very still for a long moment. Then, with the deliberate care he gave to all observations worth recording, he pressed one fingertip to the surface and drew it slowly in a long line across the hide. Where his finger passed, a faint luminescence rose and faded, lasting no longer than a breath. He drew another line crossing the first. The glow returned at the intersection and held slightly longer before dimming.

He did not yet have words for what this meant. He set the phenomenon aside in the way he set aside things he could not yet explain, not dismissing it but marking it for return, the way a hunter marks a trail too faint to follow in failing light. He took up the coalwood branch and began to cut his squares.

Using the book and coalwood branch, Egast began documenting the animals he observed in the wild. It is thanks to him that many of that region's creatures were recorded and illustrated in his book, "The Natural Creatures of the World".

Orleus said to himself, "I see, so thought is how we perform magic. I imagine we must be very specific, otherwise we could end up with an unexpected result."

He said it loud enough that all the other boys heard it

Fafsior turned the sword over in his hands once more, then set it point-down in the earth between his feet and let go. It stood without leaning. He looked at Orleus, then at his own open palms, and a line formed between his brows as something in the words settled into him the way water settles into dry ground, slowly and without announcement.

Yothar crouched where he stood and pressed two fingers against the floor of the restored room. His lips moved slightly, counting something only he could follow. After a moment he lifted his fingers and studied the faint warmth they carried, then looked toward the window and the world curving upward beyond it, cities glimmering like distant embers against the vast pale arc of the Spherve.

Yothar: "If thought is the instrument, then the first thing each of us ought to do before attempting anything is decide precisely what we want. Not roughly. Precisely. The sword Fafsior made was exactly what the moment required, no more and no less. I do not think that was chance."

The room held that observation for several Lumends. Emedus turned the wand over in his hands, his eyes moving from Yothar to the sword still standing point-down in the earth, then back again. His jaw worked as though testing words before committing to them.

Emedus: "Then what Vigil said about Killing me, that was not precise. That was general and half-formed and said to frighten. And nothing happened."

Vigil opened his eyes from where he sat against the far wall. He did not look at Emedus. He looked at the sword. His hands, still dark beneath the nails with dried blood from the tree, settled flat against his knees, and he held that posture with the patience of someone who has decided that a thing worth understanding is worth understanding slowly. After a long moment he rose from the wall without a word, crossed the room, and crouched before the sword. He studied the blade at close distance, the line of it, the way the magic that had made it still hummed faintly along the edge. He did not touch it.

Vigil rose from his crouch and stepped back from the sword by two paces. He stood with his arms loose at his sides and his eyes still fixed on the blade. Then, without announcing his intention, he closed his eyes. His breathing slowed to something measured and deliberate. The room grew very quiet. For a span of several Lumins nothing changed, and the other boys watched without speaking. Then a faint vibration moved through the air near the sword, not visible but felt, the way one feels the approach of something large before hearing it. The sword's hum deepened by a single degree and then returned to what it had been. Vigil opened his eyes.

Vigil: "It resisted. Not the blade itself. The intention beneath it."

He turned away from the sword and walked back to the far wall, settling against it with the same patience he had kept before. The other boys looked at the sword and then at one another. Fafsior crouched beside it and pressed his palm flat to the floor near the point where it stood, and his expression shifted, the line between his brows deepening, as if the floor had answered him with something he had not expected to hear.

Orleus had not moved from the center of the room. He stood with his arms folded and his gaze moving slowly from Fafsior's hand pressed against the floor to Vigil's settled stillness against the wall to the sword itself, reading the arrangement of them the way he might read a passage of stone carvings whose meaning was not yet clear but whose importance was plain. After a long moment he walked to the sword, crouched beside Fafsior, and placed his own palm flat on the floor at a different point, equidistant from the blade but on the opposite side.

The two of them held that position without speaking. Then Fafsior lifted his hand from the floor and held it up, palm outward, fingers spread, and looked at the faint warmth that moved across the skin there. The warmth gathered at the center of his palm, then dispersed outward toward each finger in turn, following some internal order. He turned his hand over and back, watching the motion repeat.

Orleus: "It is not the sword resisting. Vigil said the intention beneath it. The sword was made in urgency. Whatever shaped it is still in it, the shape of that specific moment, the weight of what was needed and nothing else. A second intention layered on top of the first would have to answer to it before it could do anything at all."

Fafsior lowered his hand and looked at the blade. The faint hum along its edge had not changed. Yothar, still crouched at the window, turned his head toward Orleus without rising, and his lips moved once, as though confirming something he had already counted and found correct.

Emedus set the wand down on the surface of the restored table with a small deliberate click and stepped toward the sword. He circled it once at a distance of two paces, arms crossed, his chin low. He stopped at the point farthest from where Vigil sat and looked at the blade from that angle, along the length of it rather than across, the way one sights down a branch to judge whether it is truly straight. The hum along the edge did not change for him either. He crouched, not to touch the floor as the others had, but to bring his eyes level with the point where the blade entered the earth, studying the seam between metal and soil with the close attention of someone checking whether a lock has been properly set.

Emedus: "It will not let anyone else shape it because the person who made it is still in the room."

No one replied immediately. Fafsior looked at his own hands again, then at the sword, and his jaw tightened once before releasing. The observation hung in the restored room the way smoke hangs after a fire is put out, thinning but present, carrying the information of what had burned. Orleus unfolded his arms and let them fall to his sides. Yothar rose at last from his crouch by the window and turned fully inward toward the group, his back to the curving world beyond the glass, and stood there with the patient stillness of someone who has finished counting and is waiting to see whether anyone else arrives at the same number.

As Egast spread the hide flat upon the ground, something peculiar occurred. The material seemed to respond to his touch, growing smoother beneath his palms. The rough patches evened out, and tears mended themselves as if guided by an unseen force. Egast paused, studying his hands with newfound curiosity, but set the observation aside in the manner he reserved for things he could not yet name, marking it for return the way a hunter marks a trail too faint to follow in failing light.

He cut the hide into squares and fashioned a rather crude, gaudy-looking book. Though his people already had a written language carved into stone, Egast became the first to put words on skin, using a branch from a coalwood tree, charred at the tip and used like ink.

Using the book and coalwood branch, Egast began documenting the animals he observed in the wild. During his forest expeditions, he noticed the parchment pages seemed to accept his words with unusual eagerness, the ink flowing more smoothly than it should have across the treated hide. More curious still, when he wrote descriptions of creatures while touching items made from similar animals, a bird's feather while writing about flight, or fish scales while documenting water dwellers, the words glowed faintly before settling into permanence on the page.