“We still have a chance.” – a weak and soft voice came from behind of us in the bedroom where Albano was being treated. A heron in Craftsmit’s robes passed through the door and came to our encounter.

“My name is Freena and I am one of the few inhabitants of Craftsmir who managed to escape the tremor. I am a descendant of Emmarin and it is time for a new portrait to be made to eternalize our new king in our quest for saving this world. And for that, we need to retake Craftsmir. ”

I knew what had to be done.I went down to the sanctuary of Mithaurian, connected with the Starun energy, and told all the Verges who were now aware of it’s existence.

“I am Nettor, descendant of Malthus, the first of the New Verge. I call upon all of you to join me in Mithaurian and awaken heroes for you. We will train in Arcada and in six months time we will leave to reclaim Craftsmir. Our enemy must begin to fear us. Our king needs our support. Our world needs our power. “

When facing hard times, good news are always accompanied by the bad ones. As we finished our discovery we heard the opening of the gate and several voices yelling for help flooded the library. I went up to the soldiers who were with us and found Neeno a little wounded and bathed in Yrian blood carrying Albano badly wounded surrounded by his troops.

Without delay we opened the door to the sanctuary and took Albano to Mithaurian with all his soldiers. We arrived just in time for the doctors to close the wounds with correct bandages and administer medicines and herbs to make it stable. His old age now weighed against his health.

“He can not improve,” said Neeno. “We were attacked by Yrians corrupted with black energy. It is now inside the king. He will no longer be able to fight and his days should not exceed a year.”

We have finally figured out the secrets behind the doors. Complex symbols must be drawn with Starun in order to energize a door, since the altars in front of them have no cavities. The Starun needs not be consumed for this. At least some great news. We have performed the several tests on the Library and the Shrine doors, which has led us to conclude that a Verge bearing a single Starun shard is strong enough to activate the doorway.

Mapping the ones we were able to activate, we have reached Spellenrune to recruit sufficient sages to help us decipher symbols that were not only in an ancient language, but coded as well. After putting in a hard working week did we discover the name of each door.

The Shrine of Heroes in Mithaurian, The Forge in Technokrest, The Hall of Titles in Spellenrune, The Atelier in Craftsmir, The Workshop in Basiliah, The Laboratory in Agadeera, The Armorial in Grymill, The Hall of Doors in Arcada, The Library of the Ancients also in Arcada and three other places outside cities called The Tower of Magic, The Ranch of Monsters and The Temple of Myridian.

Returning through the darkness to the common area of Arcada, we found the Verge and the soldiers carrying books all around due to the lack of tables upstairs. I told everyone what I had seen, then drew the symbols found on the trapdoor along with Malthus’ symbol on an empty scroll. I divided tasks so we could look for both the door that was supposed to lead to the sanctuary below us and also find information on how to use it.

Neeno and Albano began to stand guard outside and fight any Yrian patrols looking for us, as to prevent more attention being drawn towards this construction.

Then one of the soldiers taking part in the search for the door found a chest with the symbol of the trapdoor, filled with gems with the capacity to infuse Starun. At the bottom of the box there was a book with instructions on activating what seemed to be a training room.

“Arcada is the base camp for training any Verge whose will is that of binding with Legendary Heroes. The Quest for the Gems is an exercise for synchronizing Verge and Hero. So may they prepare mind and body for the deadly battles this bond carries within.

Malthus Prudens Aluminum “

“A king of Mithaurian never gets lost – is what Carlo always said.” said Neeno as they all stared at a huge cave carved by powers yet unknown to the team.

I let the Verge who came with me to Arcada stay in the library conducting research. In the meantime, Neeno and Albano and I entered the basement of the Library of Elders through tunnels that harbored the densest atmosphere I had ever been through. Tunnels of such impenetrable darkness that our torches dwindled into nothing. As much as Neeno had told us we had only been there for an hour, it felt as if days had passed.

We arrived in a huge atrium inwrought with Starun housing chandeliers I did hesitate before lighting. Twelve altars facing carved wooden doors, a large trapdoor in the center and only a symbol for each door carved on the walls. The trapdoor wood is notched too and that is all there is.

“I know that one of these doors will grant access to the library above us and it must probably be the one to the right, engraved with Malthus’ symbol. But I can not read the symbols, ” Neeno said as he walked around the room.

Now I guess my next mission is to figure out how to activate the doors and what this trapdoor is all about.

For some reason our enemies had known both this place and our location. I do not think luck alone had set Albano and Neeno on our path, since we had had terrible conflicts against Yrians near the beaches bathed by the Hondur river.

The sands of the northern portion of the continent that are bathed by the northern sea of Algaro are white and cold. But I had never heard of the dunes we were now visiting. Mounts of sand several meters high tall could hide entire castles and fortresses underneath.

Neeno requested that I used some Starun in the sand, thus revealing a multitude of symbols and runes. One of the Verge with us followed the drawings up to a small rock with a cavity. When energized, a huge tower was revealed to everyone. High as 40 meters, shielded by a large reinforced steel gate and more of those many symbols in ancient runic.

As soon as Albano and Neeno forced the door, the Verge felt a forceful current of Starun energy coming from inside. It was able to illuminate the largest collection of books any Merid or Verge had ever seen, dozens of times larger than the Spellenrune Main Temple Library. In the center of it a large crystal statue, only matched in size to Tusk’s height.

“This is the Verge Library and this is the statue of Malthus. Behind it lies the access to the lower floors with dormitories and living rooms and somewhere downstairs, the passage to the portals room ” – explained Neeno.

We have set up a team with soldiers, Verge and Technokrest machines strong enough to take us south, past the belt of Mithaurian trees and again invading the rocky plains surrounding the city of machines.

A brief stop to stock our supplies and weapons led us into Albano and Neeno. The king was wounded and patched, but as imposing as ever.

“Dear Nettor, we need your services back at Mithaurian. New Rune Crystals will soon be ready for us to awaken the portraits that came from Spellenrune. ”

“We have acquired more knowledge, my king. We are heading southeast in search of a construction once used by the ancient Verge … ”

“… named Arcada.” – Neeno interrupted me. His voice, almost a whisper – “I remember this place young Nettor. Its entrance is sealed by ancient magic. You will need my help. This temple connects all those that have been touched by Starun. Conquering it we will be able to travel between the forge, the sanctuary and the armorial under Spellenrune without problems. ”

“I do not usually like surprises,” said Albano, “but apparently this is the best plan we have. I’ll gather my troops, Ale, and we shall leave at once. To Arcada! “

At last, I need to register that we have found a goal. From the complex texts written in ancient runic we could get a description of the place where the Verge have kept and hidden their knowledge. Descriptions of two large mansions bathed by the Hondur River, protected by sculptures made of a mixture of magic and natural forms that hide them within the landscape. In addition we have the coordinates to those constructions, which seem to be incredible from what the inscriptions suggest.

After consulting the Great Atlas of Myridian and making a faithful copy of the maps, we have marked two possible chances of finding more chapters of the incredible Book of the Ages. An issue risen is that one of them is beyond Grymill, a land long devastated by both natural disasters and looting. We must then to settle for the second, located south of Technokrest.

I have ached for rest and a few lines to be dropped. My head is throbbing with the amount of information I have acquired these last days. I hope the Verge who have remained in the Forge and the Shrine under Mithaurian have progressed as well. After working to exhaustion, we have been able to separate hundreds of pages after looking for the same marks Carlo told me had existed. United, they are but one chapter. We do not know how many they are or what part of it they belong to.

But thrice more information than we did before is what we have. The expectation amongst us researchers is that we have discovered places to find the remainders. There are astonishing descriptions of a place seemingly important to the ancients. Some of us have also recognized the name of the document we are trying to retrieve. Myrandium, the Book of the Ages.

We have found more Starun.

Our days have been exhausting, our forces barely able to keep the enemy away and our advancing with the wall, inefficient. Albano now bears my spear as means to wound the creatures from the underground, the least of problems. Other creatures have been awakened by Starun and now lurk around us.

We need the portraits from Spellenrune. We need them to be awake. We are sending the Starun we have collected to the Forge in Technokrest in the morning of the fourteenth day inside the forests. Albano leads the convoy accompanied by Neeno. Donna will stand beside me to protect the works on the wall. We will gain as much ground as we can.