Torna stepped through the doors into a long sim-steel tunnel, spartan and blank except for a few strip-lights, painting the walls with soft blue pulses. His gaze drifted absent-mindedly, drifting along the walls and briefly across the other candidates, before settling on an elder, dressed in formal mage attire in contrast to the other younger individuals.
Directly behind him stood a serene-looking man, tall and strongly built, towering at least a head above even Torna, dressed in soft trousers covered by a flowing overskirt, woven from a light fabric the colour of forest canopies, fastened around his waist with an austere brown ribbon, and adorned with a crude emerald pendant, bound around his neck with thick black string. His torso was clad in high-collared robes with layered sleeves, ending in cloth gauntlets, wrapping around his long-fingered hands like those of a pianist, his long brown hair pulled into a neat bun, and his feet were bare apart from tattered foot wrappings, like those of the Shanna ascetics in the Mountained systems.
And his face, chiselled and handsome, was crinkled with a soft smile, and his noble grey eyes were clouded and slightly blurry, like Torna's own left eye, and the fog shrouding his irises, grey like weathered rock, was ever-shifting, undulating and drifting like clouds after the rain, and the solemnity in his soft gaze reminded Torna of his father's kindly stare, and of the warmth and affection of his long lost home. The languid crawling of the fog reminded him of the serenity of the ice, and the beauty of the green lights dancing through the mist of the old man's eyes was captivating in the wake of his memories.
And in the centre of his forehead, an ancient rune was tattooed in the crude shape of an eye. Within the lines, an almost imperceptible glimmer of magical light twisted through the jet-black ink like a firefly, elusive and magnetic, leaping through the dark.
This was the High Priest of the Academy, a position only given to those at 'wizard' rank or above.
A mage authorised in the elemental spells up to Stage 4, in cantrips up to Stage 3, and arrays up to Stage 2. A powerhouse with the ability to wipe out a planet, and to snuff out the smallest of stars.
This was 'Mother Earth's Poet', the Geomancer, Sir Cristopher.
Torna frowned upon noticing his presence, subtle, yet cloying and oppressive, like intoxicating petrichor, and his fingers twitched unconsciously towards the book at his side.
'A wizard...! I just hope he doesn't notice the Book...' he thought nervously, eyes darting towards the serene elder, and jumped as he met the cloudy gaze of the man's blind eyes, milky and unseeing, yet the stone-like stare pierced him, sending a chill through his blood, like the wizard was seeing through his very soul.
Sir Cristopher smiled genially, tapping his temple gently with a finger, and with that, the chamber hissed, fine white mist dispersing over the residents of the tunnel, and their bodies broke without warning into fragments of glimmering blue light, dancing to the rhythm of the eye-like rune on the Geomancer's forehead, before soundlessly dissolving into the air.
---
[Teleportation complete.]
Torna opened his eyes, and immediately jumped, disturbed by the sight before him.
A sea of endless black extended in all directions in his gaze, monotonous and infinite, vast and unmoving. Flicking his eyes to his feet, he started again, seeing...nothing resting beneath his feet.
An unchanging void, empty and lonely.
Suddenly, with a hiss of static, a black rectangle extended out of thin air, dotted with glowing white text, settling before Torna's eyes.
[Loading...]
[Candidate #3EA06B recognised.]
[Assessing...]
[Name: Torna Avidair. Status: static. Magic potential: -22. Rank: #405 (ASA). Element: 'space'.]
[Known spells: 'Inventory' (Stage 1, L-II), 'Mindscape' (Stage I, L-II), 'Ima...]
[Known cantrips: 'Flicker' (Stage 1, L-I)]
[Physical rank: #230 (ASA), Intent Rank: #14 (ASA)]
"Rank 14? It seems I'm quite the talent!" Torna muttered humorously, before continuing through the text, scrolling languidly until he eventually settled upon the long-awaited commencement screen.
[Examination: 'static' to 'awakened'. Commence
A blindingly bright button wove itself into existence before Torna, and a wickedly cold wind slammed into his body, chilling his bones and startling him yet again. Raving howls swirled in and out of earshot, infecting his thoughts with a spine-chilling terror, and he felt the magic flowing through his channels growing turbulent and restless as he began to lose control of the power within him.
'The first test.'
Torna closed his eyes, stilled his mind, and regathered his frazzled thoughts. Clarity rushed back to his mind in an instant, and the memories of his past flashed through his head like a film reel, clicking through laughter and joy and tears and blood and tragedy and love and death and hate and laughter again in an unending cycle, reminding him of who he was, and what he lived for, and the task that he had vowed to complete, many years ago, alone in the House of Rebirth, alone in the gaze of the endless snows.
"Remember who you live for," Torna mumbled, a sad smile flickering across his face, and a pang of regret piercing his heart, and he slammed his fist onto the glowing white button, and then he was shrouded in light, and his body was burning, pain building and building until he was broken in pieces, and he gritted his teeth with the agony as he was pulled from the world of black into his trial.
[Commencing
[Quest: 'Chained Agony'. Time: 48:00:00.]
[Good fortune, challengers!]
---
Whipping winds, searing and rough. A land of sun and golden heat.
Torna closed his eyes, swaying as if in a trance.
Before his unseeing eyes, he saw a desert, sands extending in all direction, like an endless sea of gold extending into and past the horizon.
"As'vahna. Promise of the distant sun; new moon."
In his mind, he pictured a field of unending snow, infinite and absolute, and the piercing cold in his heart was the fire that scorched his chestnut skin, and the sun was the blessing in the unmoving frigidity of the snowscape.
In his mind, he pictured an opulent mansion, erected proudly in the middle of the field of snow, carved of blinding white quartz and blood-red wood, huge beyond reason, and eerily terrifying, emanating the smell of blood.
In his mind, Torna let his arms flow like water, and his fingers danced like a musician's song, the melody of his mind playing over his body and twisting in tendrils of beautiful grey light, whipping up the sand around him.
In the middle of an endless desert, Torna danced to the song of the shaman, and the grace of his arms beckoned the rain.
[Spell 'Mindscape' has been activated.]
Across the field of gold, many miles away, a figure wove itself into existence out of numerous glowing fragments of light, wrapped in a sleek metal bodysuit, with the emblem of the sun blazing brilliantly with deep orange light, and the figure's eyes burning in hot determination, boiling in her chest. A mask slid soundlessly over her face, only revealing the girl's glowing eyes, and as she gazed over the lustrous dunes and the golden flats, and the hostile light of the sun on the horizon, her stare settled on a figure, far, far away, swaying on the sands, dancing as if in a waking dream, and she began to walk in its direction, grimly advancing in a mechanical march.
[Arranging internal array: 'Heat Shield', 'Eye of Ember', 'Steel Skin', 'Devil-Hunting'.]
[Activating...]
Thunder rumbled in the sky, and she paused, staring cautiously upwards as clouds began to gather over the distant figure, and her brilliant eyes narrowed.
'Mindless, endless, listless. A machine to desire...' she reminded herself, anchoring her mind to the resolve in her words, quenching the emotion in her heart and leaving her cold and empty in the blazing heat of the sun.
"Desh'th'ryavahn. The brilliant birth, the tender lights; generation." she hummed softly, her voice layering with magical power as she continued on her journey towards the dancing shaman, and the ever-growing shelter of the clouds, and the sweet embrace of the coming rain.