“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. ”
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.
“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.
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.
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