Home at Last

Arino stood tall with twin blades drawn, a hideous skeleton coated in blue petals rising in front of him. This one didn't seem to be as weak as the others, it was an Awakened beast.

From one of it's hands grew a massive bone blade, longer than Arino's entire wingspan. He wasn't going to let some Lucent bastard to knock him around regardless of it's rank so when the monster charged he pulled another surge of essence from his soul, this one rooting much more deeply into his body.

His instincts were screaming at him to not let that blade touch him so he pushed his blades forth to block.

He felt something begin to give, but before he could pull back, one of his daggers shattered into silver sparks. That wasn't the end of the disastrous attack, and the bastard's un-bladed hand came from behind the sword to smack him in the chest.

Arino's chest plate dented before he hit the wall, and his body didn't appreciate the deformation either. He dismissed the upper portion of his armor keeping just the gauntlets on. He tried to release all the built up essence into the spine of the skeleton, but it's blade came between them.

This time, it wasn't just Arino's blade that shattered. The bone sword exploded into tiny shards which tried to reform but Arino kicked them into the wind as he picked his pace back up to continue fleeing the tide of roses behind him.

The clattering of hundreds of Lucent Skeletons sounded across the entire Titanic Plains, reaching the senses of Elder Iranea near the opposite border of the Azalea Plateau. She signaled for the warriors behind her to stop as she nodded to Elder Orik.

"You always make me deal with the Lucent Iranea, can't you do it for once?"

With a desolate sigh, she responded "I've killed every abomination that's slowed us down, you can take care of a couple hundred dormant and awakened beasts."

Rather than retorting, Orik leapt into the sky, quickly disappearing from the warrior's sight.

Meanwhile, Arino continued to run for his life. Dodging flying femurs and metacarpals, he leapt from outcropping to outcropping praying his instincts wouldn't send him off a cliff. Every time he made contact with the stone, he felt it whisper-screaming at him to move faster.

For such an old plateau, it's spirits sure were impatient.

A glimpse of blue and white flashed like a star above him, drawing his attention. Unlike a star, it was shooting straight at him. He had no time to think further than diving forward to the ground before it impacted behind him, sending a massive wave of electricity through the horde of Lucent.

Arino couldn't tell if they were melting or exploding, but the heat being given off was immense. A glimmering silhouette formed from the lightning and Arino realized with pride who his saviors were. The rescue team was nearby, having sent forth Elder Orik to shatter the opposition. He expected nothing less of a Transcendent, especially one of the Storm's lineage.

Judging by the huge chunks of bone flying overhead, there must have been some truly massive corpses trying to convert him to their lifestyle.

He stumbled to try to bow before Elder Orik as he approached, only for him to be patted on the shoulder.

"Rise, Arino. You've done well to reach dormancy."

They arrived home in Acoria without any delays despite the shifting Titans forming the landscape, leading him first to have his wounds tended to. He was glad none were left from his Nightmare, and if it weren't for the essence he could feel strengthening himself, he'd think it had just been that.

All the little scratches and scrapes were healed easily, and luckily the wound on Arino's chest felt like a rough bruise after a nights rest. By noon the next day he was heading to meet Elder Iranea in the Hall of Scrolls.

The elders never sent a reason with their summons before, but he knew it would be about his journey.

A tree stump barely wide enough to fit the door in it stood with a horribly centered sign hanging from a short branch. On it, were the words 'Watch your step.' Now that he had some soul essence in his body, the handle didn't sting to the touch like it had in his youth.

Arino almost snagged his foot on the cause of the sign in front, a tripwire which he knew must be connected to something wickedly dangerous. The few defenses here were meant for if an enemy managed to fell the Transcendent elders after all.

In front of him was a set of curved stairs carved into the stump, and at the bottom was another door. This one was ajar, and when he went to open it, his eyes widened at the scene behind it.

The Hall of Scrolls never made sense to him before today, as it seemed like some shack carved from a dead stump, but it was so much more. Dozens of bookshelves taller than all of Acoria lined a dark wooden hall that was carved from one immense block of wood.

Passing through he realized that a lot of the shelves were not fully stocked with scrolls, but the amount of knowledge contained here was like nothing he could imagine. To one side was a section labeled "Extinct Noble Beasts" which seemed regularly updated, and on the other was a wall of scrolls locked in bone chains.

He wasn't looking for long before the very elder he was sent for appeared behind him.

Elder Iranea first took a look towards Arino's heart, 'Maybe at my core,' before smiling and gesturing for him to follow.

They went through a door in a shelf which he was certain wasn't there before and a set of wooden doll like creatures clattered from indents in the walls and shook themselves into the shape of chairs and a table.

"Sit."

Arino sat down very quickly as he watched another doll reach into the wall and a tearing sound came from it. The doll looked back at Elder Iranea as she sat with panic, but she seemed to be unaware or uncaring.

The Dolls gaze fell on Arino but he shrugged unsure of how to help. Defeatedly, the doll pulled out two halves of a scroll and placed them in front of Elder Iranea and bowed it's head deep into the ground.

With a wave of her hand, the scroll's parts grew into a whole again and the poor doll shattered into splinters.

Arino was worried he may have caught the Elder at a bad time until the doll reformed in a swirl of silver strings he hadn't even seen until then.

"I can sense Weaver's sorcery within you boy. Why?"

His shoulders sank in relief hearing her voice was still warm, and he told her the truth.

He recounted the strange moving and speaking 'thing' he saw in the ruins, the call of their God which knocked him from the Soul Tree's branches. He recounted the horrible caverns he found himself wandering in, the armor he received from his first enemy in that place, Lorial and his failure to deal with him accordingly.

Iranea's eyes lit up when he spoke of the strange workshop he had found and the strange dome depicting a raging storm. He saw a hint of pride in her eyes when he mentioned his killing of the Silver Lotus. He described the Spell's 'appraisal' of his trial but he didn't mention the ranking of his aspect.

It was common knowledge in Acoria to not share certain details with anyone, such as one's flaw, and the Elder's fully supported this practice. Why would a Transcendent worry about the flaw of a mere Awakened?