Tale of Four

”Finally,” Alice said to herself, looking at the town in the distance. After speaking with the old man for a little bit and using his hut to rest for a day, she set off on her travels, arriving at the nearest town a half-day walk away. ”Do you know where that place the guy spoke about was?”

Alice looked to Chesh, who shrugged. ”Beats me, but it didn’t seem like he was lying, and in that forest, we did see a bunch of herbs useful for potion brewing. It wouldn’t surprise me if those guys from the Mad House have set up a shop here to fund their research.” The two gave a nod. Even if she had never set foot outside in over a decade, she knew well enough from the tales that the other Magi told her that some materials could only be bought with coins or traded, finding them oneself a time-consuming process.

Signs of life started to show the closer they got, carriages and horses strolling past with the occasional group of travellers walking alongside them. ”Excuse me.” Stopping one group, Alice stared at them and smiled, ”Where can I find the Magi?”

The group looked her up and down before shrugging and looking back at the town, ”Follow the main road, and once you reach the centre of HazelTown, you’ll see a statue. By that, you’ll see a large stone building. That’s it.” The man gave a nod and rode off, leaving the rest to Alice. With the location in mind, she ran off, barging past the travellers who occasionally left the town, and looked around.

The town was large, settled just outside the forest, each building wood and stone. The roads, cobbled stone, neatly tucked against one another. Looking at the people, Alice smiled. The overwhelming smell of nature was gone, replaced by city life, the air warm, carrying a breeze. Small stalls and shops littered the main road, as a flood of people walked around, going about their day, mixed in with them, men dressed in light armour patrolled the road.

Despite it, she noticed the distrustful gazes of men and women sprinkled throughout. The men all wore long, flowing robes, white and blue in colour. Around their necks, each wore a necklace, some gold, some silver, some bronze, all with the same symbol on it, a planet wrapped in leaves. When she met their gazes, they didn’t look away; instead, they stared deeper and whispered to one another before retreating into the crowd.

The women were no different, only dressed differently. At the head of them was a lady wearing a grey wimple over her head, not letting a strand of hair free, that became one with the white tunic that extended to the ground, with a golden necklace. Behind her, women wore the same outfit, but in navy colour, wearing bronze and silver necklaces.

”Why are they looking at us like that?” Alice looked to her right, asking Chesh, and frowned when the black-haired girl had vanished. ”Don’t help me carry anything, and now you run away.” Muttering to herself, she kicked a loose pebble and carried on, seeing the statue of a thin naked man kneeling, scars carved into his back, to look like he had been whipped.

In the statue’s hand, he held the same necklace that the men and women did up in the air, his thin face staring up to the sky, morphed in pain and agony, screaming. From his eyes, rubies were carved and inserted to act like tears of blood rolling down his cheek. Alice paused, placed a hand over her chest, and stared at the statue, feeling her heart beating wildly.

’What is this...’ Her mind flooded with emotion, entranced by the statue, unsure why it struck her. ’Nothing like this.. Nothing of the kind is in the Mad House.’ Even if it couldn’t move, even if the person wasn’t real, she could feel every emotion the statue felt. The pain, the hate, the despair. And behind it all, the worship, the love, the desperate desire for salvation. The need to repent. It all merged, telling her a story of whoever the man was, of their dedication, their suffering, their longing for soemthing that was beyond them all, soemthing that seemed like it should have been the Arcane but wasn’t. It was soemthing beyond it all.

’It can’t be.’

There was only one thing that the screaming man could be calling to, that she understood. Stepping towards it, she rested a hand on its feet, lowered her head, before the screaming figure, with one thought to herself.

’The voice, the command. If it wasn’t the arcane that spoke to me, but what this man calls, then does he understand what it was, what I am, what I am destined for?’ Alice gulped and smiled, staring up at the statue’s chin, ’Make the world your own. To become the God he craves, the one he needs. There are no coincidences in this world. The first door led me here.’

”Child.” A soft hand rested on Alice’s shoulder. Looking back, she saw a middle-aged man wearing a white Magi robe. ”Come, those religious fools don’t like us touching their things.” Alice looked around and saw the gazes that had been looking at her, multiplied even with a few ordinary people mixed in now.

Nodding, she queitly followed behind towards the stone monument that was out of place in the quaint town, only suppressed by the temple built opposite that towered an inch higher. ”Who is that?” Alice asked, looking back at the statue.

The Magi chuckled and shook his head, pushing her into the building and closing the door behind her, ”Those religious fools call him Azwald. So they claim, he was the first to see the creator and committed the first sin of his followers. The sin of claiming he knew better than God for the people.” The Magi shook his head, ”You’re new out of the Mad House, I assume.”

Alice nodded, ”This is my first time out.” Happily, she pulled the bag closer to her, fearing that the man might try to steal it, covering the quill with it. The man chuckled, seeing her actions and shook her head.

”Your teacher was smart in letting you come here first. This is the only place that is friendly enough to us that the clergy lets us have a large presence. It’s best you get used to working around them, becuase in some places they won’t let you walk around easily.” Alice tilted her head and stared into his gaze.

”Why?”

With a sigh, he rubbed the back of his head and groaned, ”Because they are idiots. The Arcane exists to let humans delve into the secrets of the world, and yet those fools call our truth heretical and say that humans must rely on God to guide them, that the knowledge God bestows is all the knowledge humanity needs.” The man held back his urge to spit after saying that and carried on, ”Before, a long time ago, we may have killed one another to prove ourselves correct, but now, we simply stay out of one another’s way. Anything to suppress the other side is left for the senior Magi to deal with. All you need to know is to be proud of what we are, and don’t let those blind fanatics tell you otherwise.”

Half understanding, she nodded and stopped before a door. ”In the meantime, you can stay here. If you wish to eat, just ask one of the guys who run this place, and they will sort you out. If you want to carry out any experiments, alchemy, or brew a potion, ask before you do. There is one thing off limits.” The man looked Alice up and down and smiled, ”No destruction. Be it an Arcnae spell or recklessness, we can’t give the clergy a chance to force us out.”

”It’s fine.” Alice waved her hand and stepped in, ”I just want to read.” The man nodded and smiled.

”Then, I hope you enjoy your stay. If you wish to leave, just cast a spell on any door back to the Madhouse; nothing is in place to stop you.” With that, he smiled and walked off. Closing the door and placing a chair behind it, Alice squealed in delight at the space available to her and took out all the books, scrolls and papers, spreading them out on the bed.

Even if she hated the guy who made the puzzle, finding him abnoxious, the skill he showed in runecraft was real, soemthing that even if she didn’t want to admit it, far surpassed her. Staring at everything, she almost drooled at the knowledge lying around, unable to decide where to start, knowing that everything inside would be as much of a puzzle as the cave was.