1 A Faithful Meeting (1)

Aldryn has been spending the past couple of months on the outskirts of the Eastern borders belonging to the Silver City, investigating a unique case, following a phenomenon that he could not understand. He was approached earlier that summer by a messenger of King Ildurin. It appeared that villagers have been found dead in fields and forests. While it was not unheard of for some people to get lost during the night and be attacked by wild animals, their cause of death brought forth many questions.

A few months ago, around the same time that people have begun appearing dead not far from their villages, what seemed to be a river made out of pure light has fallen from the sky. But just as quick as what many now called the waterfall of light appeared was gone just as suddenly.

Aldryn tried his best to pursuit whatever creature snuck into this world, but all without success.

When he arrived at the empty field, despite a few weeks having passed, Aldryn could still feel electricity in the air and knew, he was at the right destination. There was not a soul to be found anywhere in sight, but some of the grass was burnt. A black circle stood surrounded by fresh grass. Some of it was flattened, a clear sign that someone has walked on it. There was no sign that more than a single entity has walked out of that field, which gave the Oracle a small comfort.

"Well this is interesting", he suddenly heard a voice speak up at the back of his mind.

"Do you know something about it?" he asked the fox Thrae that shared a body with him.

"It feels strange. The magic in the air feels foreign" it simply said back.

The blonde wasn't sure what to say in reply. He was never good with magic. Whenever he tried to use it or feel it, Aldryn would feel immense sadness. For some reason, his inability of magic would remind him of his family, one that he no longer had. Of his father's numerous attempts to teach him, only to fail. His laughter and smile. Life seemed so much easier back then.

"There we go again" the fox huffed and if it had a body, would have rolled its eyes.

"What?" he asked it, feeling it invading his memories.

"You know... You should stop thinking about the past so much" it told him.

At those words, Aldryn could not help but roll his eyes this time. Despite often telling him to think of the future, the Thrae itself lived in the past. The two of them often shared dreams and the blonde could sometimes see it. The fox would dream of its former life. When it still had a body and humans saw it as a God and bowed to it. Surprisingly, after living through such a life, the fox didn't become arrogant or considered all humans as feeble creatures. No, it was kind to them, saw it as its duty to protect them.

"Soo..." the blonde then begun, but wasn't sure how to continue.

For some reason, despite his happy-go-lucky attitude he often felt awkward.

'Perks of being raised in a group of nomads and having nearly zero human interaction' the blonde thought, remembering his father again, who never had trouble communicating with others.

"Soo..." the Thrae mockingly said, trying to lift the mood, "We follow the body trail obviously"

And true to its words the location of said field was also coincidentally close to the place where the first supposed victim was found. Several people have turned up dead in the first two months since the waterfall of light, all of them dying from the same reason. Every person was found with blood running down from their ears, while their eyes were red. From what Aldryn understood from Ildurin, who heard from his court physician, the victim's blood vessels have simply exploded for an unknown reason. Most damage having been found in the brain.

"And the magic?" the blonde asked it unsure, feeling glad that he was not alone in this.

"Simple. We find the creature. We find the magic source" the fox explained.

"Let's hope it's that easy" Aldryn only sighed again.

After the first two months, it seemed that just like the waterfall of light, whatever entity has come through and killed those innocent people has disappeared. Life seemed to return back to normal and villagers were no longer afraid to leave their houses. While glad that there were no more victims, it made their job of finding the creature harder.

Despite the normalcy, Aldryn also feared that it could have been a sign for a deeper concern, such as dark forces finding the entity before him. Those thoughts plagued his mind and did not allow him a minute of rest during the night. He feared those two joining forces and the great harm that they might cause together. He thought about the ongoing war, between the humans and the Nalrits. He thought how this one entity might tilt the scales. If whatever it was that arrived through the waterfall of light had the power to decide the winner of this war that was hundreds of years old.

At the same time, the priest could not help but be curious. There were no spells that he knew of, or creatures for that matter, that could have caused such a horrible death. Aldryn could not help but feel glad to have such a companion, he no longer felt alone and had someone to lean on whenever he was in a difficult situation. It was difficult at first, having travelled for many years alone. But now, he could not imagine his life without the Fox. Many believed that the Thrae possessed him, and some even grew fearful of the blonde. But in truth, while their meeting was somewhat a coincidence and its spirit now indeed lived inside his body, the two of them grew to be quite close friends, despite the often bickering.

Not seeing anything around that would be of any use, Aldryn decided to leave the field and headed to the place where Ildurin said a dead body was last found. Judging by the trail of bodies, the entity headed North, toward Ralloh, a land ruled King Ilmar, who had two sons and a daughter. King Ilmar was an old friend of Ildurin's father, late King Sylphen. His youngest and only daughter was promised to Ildurin and the two were considered a beautiful match in nearby kingdoms. Their engagement was broken though, not long after Ildurin, who was still a prince at the time, has returned from his most famous quest and declared that he met the love of his life, Lady Lunahera, the youngest daughter of a King from a far-away Northern Kingdom.

Of course, fair Lady Lunahera was not the only reason why the-now-King Ildurin broke off the engagement. Ever since hearing the news, on his eighteenth birthday, he refused to acknowledge his engagement with Lady Maya, who was only eight herself at the time.

After that incident, despite there being no obvious conflict between the two Kings, Ildurin avoided those lands at all cost. While King Ilmar himself no longer visited the Silver City as often as he used to when King Sylphen was still alive.

On that note, Aldryn headed toward Merabil, the capital of Ralloh. Despite his well-known friendship with Ildurin, the oracle had no doubts that the old King would welcome him in his court. He planned to ask some questions, speak with the King's physician and compare their findings to the knowledge he already possessed.

"More like write everything down and then take it all to Ildurin" the Fox quietly murmured.

"I'm not an idiot you know" the blonde scowled back.

"You know... You might fool others... But that's mostly because they are not stuck with you 24/7" it laughed back.

With a silent curse, Aldryn decided to ignore the fox and walked stomping a bit on the ground. Which caused the Thrae to only laugh harder and mock him for being childish.

It has been quite some time since he last visited the Ralloh. The blonde Oracle could still remember the days, from a long time ago, when he wandered around Merabil. Despite looking as someone who was in their late teenage years, Aldryn was far older than that. He was one of the few individuals of the world blessed with the powers of a God.

It was impossible to say just how many of such people existed, as there were many different entities that have songs sung with their names and stories told over the fire. Not to mention that not all of those blessed with such gifts came forward. There were those like Aldryn, people serving Gods of the various nebulas, who often interacted with simple humans. But there were also those who chose to live in solitary and simply respect the teaching of their masters.

Aldryn's group was made out of six people. The six of them having received the blessing of six Gods whose names were well known around the South. They were also called the six founders, as their story was believed in the South to be the foundation of the world. It was not the only story that speaks of how the world came to be by far, as there were many other legends and stories that speak of other great Gods that partook in creation. Each more different than the other. Aldryn's group belonged to one of those. Their religion was the main one believed in the South, causing the six of them to have certain prestige around those lands, simply for their status. To a certain degree, it was even considered that the more well-known the God was, the more of his blessing could he pass down into the human realm.

Only for this reason, there was no doubt in Aldryn's mind that he would be welcomed in any Kingdom from the South. The blonde's steps seemed airy, as if Aldryn was gliding through the air at a rapid pace. An easy smile was also plastered on his face, one that might fool an untrained eye. But his eyes, they were filled with sickening worry and a million thoughts seemed to flash through his mind at that moment.

'Just what sort of creature could it be' Aldryn wondered.

"Shouldn't be that hard to find it" the fox shrugged after hearing his thoughts, "It's definitely not human so it will stand out."

"Yeah" the blonde agreed, "No way it's a human. We just need to see if there are any rumours about a strange creature being seen around those parts."

At the same time, some way beyond Merabil, a young handsome man stood in a village. His presence has attracted the attention of every villager. The men were looking at him in jealousy. The women were glancing at him from the corner of their eyes and giggling among themselves, while children could not tear their eyes from that strange looking person.

He looked to be quite out of place. His features screamed nobility and his hands were not those belonging to a commoner, as they were delicate and seemed to be frail. Unlike the roughened hands of the villagers, who spend years wielding tools and working the soil.

It was also not solely his looks that caused people to believe that the man belonged to a royal family, but his clothes as well. While they seemed to be rather simple at first, there was nothing simple about them spare for the shirt. The jacket he wore was obviously made out of some form of leather, as well as his boots. While leather items were rather common in that part of the world, the man's clothes were of a black colour, much too dark to be natural. They were dyed, every villager thought, and while black was a rather plain colour to them, it looked elegant on the young man. The pitch black colour also made the silver and golden elements that decorated him to be more visible. All the buckles were made out of silver, while a crest was sewn with gold on the man's chest. Even his pants, made out of some unknown material seemed special. Many pockets could be found on the trousers, decorated by silver chains. It caused many from the village to be curious what treasures could be hidden there. There was no doubt in their minds that the young man had at least a few pieces of gold hidden in one of the pockets. It made many eyes shine with greed, yet nobody was brave enough to attempt to rob him. The sword that he had strapped to his hip was also decorated in jewels like none that the villagers have ever seen.

Many started wondering who the young man was and where he came from. He must have been from far away, they all thought, remembering the travellers that they have seen sometimes passing through their village. All of them having clothes that were unique and stroke them as strange.

Everyone would stare at the man, yet nobody was brave enough to venture to him, except for a young lady, who approached him with a basket filled with flowers. She offered one to him, to which he bowed his head in gratitude, which made the girl to giggle and run to her friends to gossip about what happened. Just as quietly as he came, without ever saying a word, the young man left the next morning.