Of Stars and Swords Prose

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  • Cato – Part 38
  • Cato – Part 37
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  • Cato – Part 35
  • Cato – Part 34
Nov20

Cato – Part 23

by Graham on November 20, 2012 at 11:56 pm
Posted In: Cato

The southern reaches of Orincia were a vast, open land of rolling hills, high grass, and few people. Outside of the single road that ran down to Oriona, the south was covered in small dirt trails that acted as cart paths for the isolated villages and farms in the lonely expanse. The lack of people seemed odd to Cato, as the north of the continent was much the same, yet completely covered in networks of stone roads and vast cities across the northern coast.

But when Cato bothered to look back the way they’d come, he began to have an idea why so few wanted to live this far south. The horizon to the south was red, a constant reminder of the magical barrier dividing the world and, especially now, not something Cato wanted to be reminded of.

He turned to look north again. Anica, Pel, and Kyros were a few paces ahead along the small road they followed, and the sky was a much more comforting blue. It had been five days since the incident at the cave along the southern coast. Nothing had attacked them since then, but the entire time the four of them had kept careful watch each night. The local animals always kept their distance, but it was hard to shake the uncomfortable feeling that they were being watched.

Cato tried to shake off the paranoia. He had to remind himself that, despite all odds, they were still alive. The days had been long, and his legs ached, but the pain was worth dealing with to get as far away from the south as possible. The only true complaints that Cato had were the food and the shelter, both created by Pel’s magic. A magical roof over one’s head was nice enough, but sleeping on the ground was beginning to make his back ache. And the food…it was not necessarily bad. Rather, the magically created food was some kind of flavorless thing that only served to give them enough energy to go on.

Anica was insistent that they not stop at any villages that were nearby, both for fear of endangering the people there and because it would slow them down. Both Cato and Kyros had complained about this in the first couple of days, but had given up by now. The brothers knew when they weren’t going to win, and Anica was determined to keep them moving for as long as possible.

She claimed they were headed for a port that should only be a week away, but Cato was fairly sure that time was determined from horseback and not while on foot. From there, the plan was to find a ship that would taken them north, across the Achaen Sea to Cyronell. It was at that point that the plan seemed to grow vague, as Anica simply insisted they would deal with the problems as they presented themselves.

Cato looked up at the sky. The sun was still high above, and that meant quite a few more hours of travel ahead of them. He picked up his walking pace enough to catch up with the rest of the group, finding them walking in the silence that meant another argument was preparing to come to the surface.

So, Cato decided he might as well get it going himself, “Anica.”

The young woman turned and gave him a cautious look, already preparing to be on the defensive, “Hm?”

“Why is it that each time you attempt to convince us that this plan is a good idea, the details get very hazy once you talk about reaching Cyronell?” Cato decided that if he was going to start another fight to keep them busy, he was damn well going to do it the right way.

Anica’s eyes narrowed slowly. When she spoke, however, her voice remained calm and controlled. Somehow, that made Cato all the more uncomfortable, “Didn’t we just have this fight last night?”

“You never actually answered the question,” Kyros spoke up, a little too happily.

But Anica ignored him, already learning the best tactic for dealing with Cato’s brother, and let out a long sigh. Turning to look ahead as they walked, she eventually managed a shrug, “I don’t have an answer.”

“Why?” Cato tried his best not to raise his voice. There was something here he hadn’t seen before, and it was just below the surface.

Pel looked up from her studying of the book as she walked with them, raising an eyebrow far higher than seemed physically possible, “We cannot know until we arrive at the Citadel.”

Cato turned to try to read the Elf’s expression, but she quickly dove back into studying that maddening tome that seemed to be the only protection they had against ancient evils that were certainly following them.

Before he could ask the obvious question, however, Anica spoke up again, “Do you know anything about the Citadel?”

Cato shook his head, “Not at all.”

In fact, he knew very little about the continent to the north beyond some stories told by sailors when he was a boy, and those were not the things one tended to believe upon growing up.

Anica waved her had vaguely ahead of her, “It is what it sounds like. A fortress on the southern coast of Cyronell, occupied by a group of religious fanatics.”

“What?!”

Rather than feed into Cato’s shock at that fact, Anica turned to him and shrugged, barely managing to look sympathetic, “They have one of the greatest repositories of knowledge and are much less likely to brand us heretics and have us killed than the other options for learning about this tome.”

“Oh,” Cato sighed, “So you haven’t mentioned it before because you can’t be sure if they’ll help us or sacrifice us to some vengeful god?”

Anica smiled politely and nodded, “If it helps, I’m fairly certain their god is only concerned with punishment of those that offend him directly. We’ll probably be fine.”

“That’s comforting,” both Cato and Kyros spoke the words in unison.

Anica laughed at that before picking up the pace some, “You two don’t have to come, you know.”

Cato rolled his eyes and called after her, “Yes, of course. We can wander off and be killed by those horrible monsters instead.”

“Exactly!” Anica was suddenly in a disturbingly happy mood.

Cato just sighed and shook his head. This was what he got for asking questions: answers. Answers always seemed to make things worse. And there was no way he was getting away from this tome as long as those creatures were still afraid of whatever was held within.

So he simply resigned himself to the fact that, unless something drastic happened, they would soon be face to face with another group of religious madmen that would probably want them all dead not long after they arrived.

Some things would never change.

└ Tags: Ancient Ones, Anica, Cato, Elf, Kyros, Orincia, The Great Wall
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Oct31

Cato – Part 22

by Graham on October 31, 2012 at 1:00 am
Posted In: Cato

This world is not ours.

For thousands of years, we have walked the surface ignorant to this fact. Civilizations have risen and fallen. Entire peoples have come and gone. New lands discovered and claimed.

We look up and say the Gods watch from above. We look down and know that great Evils wait for a way to rise up. But all the while, we rest in between, on our home. Our world. Safe from the madness of the worlds above and below.

Yet we delude ourselves.

More than half of our world is cut off by a wall of unyielding magic. This Great Wall, rising from the very bottom of the seas to the top of the sky, has existed far longer than any of the mightiest civilizations. None have seen the other side. All that have seen it have wondered what lies on the other side.

But we know what lies beyond.

We have studied it from afar for six hundred years. All the while, we were being studied. Studied until one day, They came to us.

The world is not ours. They have been here since the beginning. They are why the Gods stay in their skies. They are why the Evils cower below. They own this world, and all the Planes know this…save for those of us here.

But ignorance and arrogance must always end.

They came to us for a reason. They saw our potential.

And so we do as They have instructed. We prepare. For the Time is coming. Soon, They will return for the rest of the world. Soon, They shall reclaim it all.

 

 

Pel closed the book and looked up at the night sky to clear her head. That was the first time the words within the book had not read like some kind of jumbled code. Instead, it was the ramblings of madmen, followed by pages upon pages of odd runes and then nothing for over half of the book.

It would all be different when she opened it again, of course.

The four of them had been traveling north for the past five days, hopefully nearing some kind of village soon. Each time they stopped to rest, Pel opened the book again, hoping to find some clue to what was hidden within. Now it had told her something. In many ways, nothing she had just read was terribly new.

It was, however, disturbing enough. As maddening as the words were, she knew that far more dangerous things must be hidden behind whatever spells protected the tome. Those ancient creatures would not be so afraid of it otherwise. And yet they still had not come for it.

Pel’s eyes scanned the grassy landscape around them as the others slept. A few nocturnal birds flew above the patches of trees in the distance. There were hints of movement off to the east, too. Probably some small predator out hunting. Nothing out of the ordinary. And likely nothing to worry about, though she made a note to keep an eye that direction.

But from far away, something else was watching. And it was patient.

└ Tags: Ancient Ones, Dorae-Kos, Elf, History, Planes, The Great Wall
1 Comment
Oct24

Cato – Part 21

by Graham on October 24, 2012 at 12:25 am
Posted In: Cato

The night was tense and uncomfortable. Neither the creatures nor their red-robed followers reappeared, but that seemed to only make things worse. Anything that could tear a whole in the world and simply walk through to anywhere would not be dissuaded for long. It would only be a matter of time before they came for the books again.

Cato was not alone in thinking this, as none of the others even attempted to sleep during the night. They had a simple, magically-created shelter thanks to Pel, and a small amount of food that Anica had brought with her from Oriona, but little else. Kyros sat against a tree that formed one root to the vaguely translucent magical roof above their heads. The walls were of similar ‘construction’, allowing for the four of them to see out but which, according to Pel, rendered them invisible to anything looking from the outside.

It took all of the self control he had left for Cato not to ask why they hadn’t just used this spell when things were trying to kill them. The last thing they needed was another argument, and that was if Pel even bothered to answer. The Elf woman was poring over the books she’d taken again, trying to find some clue to why they were so important to those black-skinned creatures.

Morning came quietly. They were well away from the rocky-beach, further inland and surrounded by grass that was clearly overpopulated by various small animals and little else. As nice as that was, Cato still watched each tiny movement his eyes caught very carefully. The silence among the four of them did nothing to help the tension, but what was there to say?

“None of this makes any sense!” Pel snapped, speaking some very appropriate words in Cato’s mind, “The words change each time I read them! I’ve tried every spell I know and nothing works!”

Cato, Kyros, and Anica all turned to look to Pel, where she was now sitting up and glaring at them all rather than the large tomes in front of her. A thousand questions crossed all of their minds at once.

“What about all that you read earlier?” Kyros got to his first, and it was exactly the question Cato was going to ask. It was always nice to hear his brother ask something intelligent.

Like an angry child, Pel kicked one of the tomes at Kyros, “The records say nothing we don’t already know! But this is clearly the text they did not want destroyed and the words are never the same twice!”

Kyros caught the tome that had been kicked his way, holding it away from him as if he’d never seen a book in his life. Cato just shook his head and turned back to Pel, “If you can’t read it, what are we supposed to do?”

“Find someone that can,” Anica, off to the side, answered the question.

Pel actually nodded at that, and her usual glare lightened somewhat, “I know of few that could decipher such a strong spell.”

“Too bad all of those priests and mages in Oriona are out to kill us,” Cato looked up at the sky above, shielded by magic that was just as alien to him as whatever spell protected the book, “This is right up their alley.”

When he looked back down, both Anica and Pel were glaring at him. Apparently this was not the time for even mild sarcasm, so Cato raised his hands in defense, “Right. Sorry. Stupid thing to say.”

Kyros, having now placed the book on the ground in front of him, decided that now was the time to return to being his usual self, “Well, who else is there?”

The glares turned, but after a few moments faded away. It was a fair question. They were in the southern reaches of the continent, where few people lived and far from any real city beyond one populated by a large group that wanted all of them dead. Where were they to find someone that had greater skill in magic than Pel out here?

“The Citadel,” Anica spoke the two words with meaning and weight that was completely lost on Cato.

Pel seemed to understand, however, “They are a very long way from here.”

Anica shrugged, starting to stand up and stretch, “It is that or to the east.”

“Better the demon we know,” Pel, too, stood up and began to gather the tomes up. Around them, the air shimmered for a moment, then the world around them became just slightly more clear. The magical shelter was gone.

Kyros and Cato looked to one another, neither of the brothers needing to say what they were both thinking. Was it worth going on with these two crazy women that were clearly happy to run straight at death as fast as possible? Wasn’t this the perfect time to go their separate ways and get back to normal life? Probably. But neither of the brothers were foolish enough to think those creatures would leave them be just for walking away.

No. No, they were in this for the long haul now. And that was probably alright, in Cato’s mind. Ancient, horrible creatures like the ones they’d gotten the attention of never had good plans for the world. Might as well work to stop that ahead of time rather than wandering off and just hoping all would be fine.

Cato stretched some, adjusting his belt so that his scabbard no longer dug into his side, and looked to Anica, “Lead on.”

From far away, something watched.

└ Tags: Ancient Ones, Anica, Cato, Dorae-Kos, Kyros, Orincia, Oriona
1 Comment
Oct17

Cato – Part 20

by Graham on October 17, 2012 at 3:17 am
Posted In: Cato

It was a relatively dark night, with the moon shining in a way that made it feel further off than usual. The ocean was somewhat visible, but directly ahead it was obscured by the form of the two narrow, unreal creatures that waited before an open portal in the sky. Cato and the others were frozen in place, the only sounds being that of the ocean beyond and their careful breathing.

And they were not dead.

That was the part that had Cato’s attention. The last time they had encountered one of these creatures in the open, it had torn a man twice Cato’s size in two without any effort. But here stood a pair of them, standing menacingly in front of them and demanding the book that Pel clutched tightly.

The creatures had not moved since they ‘spoke’ the demand. They wanted the book. But which book? Pel had taken two from the now-collapsed cave system, as well as the one they’d escaped the city of Oriona with. Why did they only want one? Or did they only know of the one? Or…

Or were they afraid?

Cato narrowed his eyes, trying to make out some hint of anything on the creatures just a few feet away. They were the same mask of jet-black, almost liquid-like skin from head to toe. There was no sign of any clothes, or anything beyond a stretched, humanoid shape to even hide beneath clothes. The faces were not really faces. Instead, all that Cato could see were oval shaped heads populated by two features: Solid black eyes that somehow were blacker than the skin around them.

There was no fear to be seen there. There was nothing to be seen except for a revolting feeling that what was there was a humanoid-shaped hole in the world. Or rather, two of them. Two of them, and then a literal hole between them, through which Cato could still see hints of red-robed priests and a landscape most politely described as “unpleasant.”

Give. Us. The. Book.

Cato’s bones shook at those words again. Somehow, even without sound, they were more forceful. More demanding. More…it was fear. They were afraid. They had to be. There was something in that book. Something in one of those books that scared these unnatural creatures.

It took some effort, but Cato managed to turn his head and look to the others. Kyros had his hand on his sword, gripping it tightly, but seemed frozen in place. The brothers exchanged a short glance, both unsure what exactly they could do but together sure that something here was different.

Anica was looking to her side to Pel. Cato thought he heard whispering, but somehow found it hard to focus on any sound other than his own breathing. Those creatures seemed to dull all of the senses and replace everything with a desire to get away that was not easy to combat. But Anica seemed to be handling it well, almost completely ignoring the creatures.

And then Pel moved. Just slightly. She nodded to Anica at first, then took a small hand off of the tome she held in her hands and made a quick motion. There was a brief contracting of the air, a cracking sounding, and then a small flame floated there in her hand. Slowly, she inverted her hand to hold the flame just above the tome, glaring over it all straight at the two creatures.

When Cato looked back to the pair, he saw something he had not expected. They had taken a step back, their oddly long arms raised just slightly.

Fear.

“You will leave this place or we will destroy the book,” it was Anica that spoke, her voice forceful enough to command an army.

You. Would. Not.

The ‘words’ did not shake Cato to the core as they usually did. They were wrong, yes. Just as wrong as the creatures that did not speak them, but the fear the not-words created previously was gone.

“We will,” Anica’s response was stronger than before, and very much a promise, “You will leave this place. You will not come back. Or the book burns.”

The two creatures shifted oddly, their bodies angling towards one another as if they were looking to see which one of them had an idea of what to do. A moment later, they took another step back, the both of them now just another step from the portal behind them.

We. Will. Not. Forget.

One of them backed through the portal first, a strange rippling of the air occurring at the same moment. The other stood tall, its head tilting down like a predator inspecting prey.

Time. Is. Irrelevant. We. Will. Find. You.

With those ‘words’, it backed through the portal. There was a ripple, a flash, and then they were alone on the beach. The four of them looked to one another briefly, and Pel still carefully held the magical fire above the book as she looked around them.

“That was different,” for the first time in years, Kyros said what everyone around him was thinking.

└ Tags: Ancient Ones, Anica, Cato, Dorae-Kos, Kyros, Oriona
1 Comment
Oct10

Cato – Part 19

by Graham on October 10, 2012 at 3:29 am
Posted In: Cato

For the first time in his life, Cato was beginning to rethink his feelings on magic. Magic had been the only thing keeping him alive for the past few days, for one thing. He had originally been resentful of that fact, but now considered it to only be fair as magic was also the primary method for nearly all of the attempts on his life in those same few days.

Currently, an entire cave network was trying to come down on top of them. Cato was fairly sure that only magic could do that, especially considering the size of the network of tunnels they were in. But the four of them sprinted down through the collapsing tunnels without the fear of concussion, as Pel was keeping up some sort of magical energy shield above them as they moved.

Anica led the way, backtracking their original path with ease. Cato and his brother took up the rear of the group, each with a sword in hand out of principle rather than for any practical reason. Since the collapse of the caves had begun, just a minute or so prior, there had been no sign of any of the red-robed priests. It would have been more unnerving if not for all the rocks trying to trap them. But the rapidly increasing amount of rocks coming down around them was a much more pressing concern, and Cato was doing his best to keep himself moving with the thought that they were managing to keep ahead of the majority of the collapse.

They rounded a corner, then another within a few seconds, winding through the caves towards what Cato truly hoped would be the exit. The rocks coming down on the magical shield above them were getting larger, and each hit created a strange, ripple of light around them that reminded Cato just how little stood between them and everything above.

Another corner, and now the path ahead was more difficult to follow. They must not be ahead of the collapse anymore, as larger rocks were blocking the path and coming down, threatening to trap them within. One by one, they ducked around a larger boulder blocking one side of the tunnel, trying to keep close so that Pel’s shield stayed over all of them. It wasn’t going to be much longer before they really did get trapped.

Anica turned them again, and this time Cato literally saw light at the end of the tunnel. It was a comforting sight for all of a few seconds before Cato realized what he didn’t see there.

“Is that the exit?!” Kyros had to yell to be heard over the roar of earth coming down around them. It was a stupid question, but Cato knew what his brother had meant.

“It seems to be clear!” Anica called back over her shoulder as she dodged a knee-high rock in the way.

It took only a few more seconds for the four of them to reach the exit and find themselves back out on the beach, still bathed in moonlight. There was no red, magical dome to trap them within, and no sign one had ever been there before. Cato turned around to see the entrance to the caves finally collapse in, but in turning his eyes noticed something else was missing.

Cato turned back again, looking to the rock cliff where they had hidden earlier, “The body is gone.”

There was a moment of silence as the three others took time to breathe. Anica looked to where the body of the first priest they had encountered should have been, seeing nothing at all, “We shouldn’t stay here.”

She was thinking three steps ahead again. Cato had to admit it was the smart thing to do, but he was still getting his breath back and trying to figure out exactly what had happened. Plus, his legs were aching and he didn’t want to move.

Give. Us. The. Book.

The ‘words’ shook through the four of them, and they spun around to see a pair of those terrifyingly unnatural black-skinned monsters. The two stood before a circular opening in the air, through which Cato could see a red-and black world of dust and death…and more than a few red robed figures.

Suddenly, though, Cato realized the aches in his body were completely gone. Everything in him was indicating that it was time to start running again. At least his body seemed to understand what needed to be done when things looked bad.

└ Tags: Ancient Ones, Anica, Cato, Kyros
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