Ahrden lost count of the days he had spent searching for this artefact. His first journey in search of it was a little over half a year ago, not long after he obtained an ancient scroll that had all the information he could work with. Similarly, to most of the other things he had acquired that were in some way related to magic, he got the old scroll from Felinda, who came back with it from one of her nation-wide travels. She had gone on her usual errand to stock up on ingredients that were running low, sometime after Ahrden had crushed into her workshop on that faithful day when he encountered the beast.
Ever since Ahrden got the scroll, he had been trying to dedicate at least a day in every week to this mission, with varying success. In most of the weeks, he managed to keep to the schedule, but some slipped by without him going looking for it. It was apparent right at the start that this wasn't going to be an easy artefact to find, but he started to get frustrated at the lack of progress he had made so far especially after he had dedicated so much effort towards finding it.
The scroll contained a poem and a map detailing where the artefact was hidden. With the combination of these, Ahrden estimated a zone based on a possible interpretation of the vague and uncertain lines of both the poem and the map and thoroughly searched that zone in the following few trips he took. After the lead turned out to be wrong, he started over, looking for another meaning that led him to another area, where he began his search anew. He usually took off on foot and teleported to the nearest place he had already been to. He started his journey there and walked till sundown or a little after that. Only when he was utterly exhausted did he teleport back straight into his bed.
The first few areas he had marked as possible locations were the ones the clues were most likely pointing to, but they all turned out to be wrong interpretations. Nevertheless, after he crossed out all the likely zones where the artefact might lay, he started looking at the whole problem with a broader mindset welcoming every possibility and dismissing locations only on rare occasions. The problem with this newly practised, welcoming mentality was that he felt that he was following too faint leads about where he believed the treasure might be, making the possible locations near countless.
The current lead which Ahrden was pursuing was one he had already visited a few times, so now he could pick up the trail where he had left it of last time. After a long day of uneventful walking, the sun was on its way down, and Ahrden felt he had wasted another day. He'd had a pleasant lunch at the bank of a small creek, but other than that, he had been walking during the entire day in a forest where the trees grew unusually close to each other with absolutely no undergrowth. He was walking in an area that once belonged to the Mentard nation, but now it was part of the Velintenal nation.
The scroll was very secretive about what the artifact was, but it promised it to be something with great power, wielded by only the greatest magi before. Or at least that is what Ahrden wanted to believe. He was sure that whatever this item was, it would be the most valuable and the most powerful in his modest but ever-expanding collection, or at the very least the one he spent the most time acquiring.
So far, during the current lead that Ahrden was following he hadn't encountered anything that would indicate that he was nearing a hidden site where a powerful relic lay, nor had he felt any trace or presence of arcane power, but this had been the cases for all the other places he had the pleasure visiting so he got used to it by now. The lack of reassurance towards the far-fetched interpretation of the scroll was worrying to some extent, but the reward was too great to just ignore, so Ahrden was more determined than to give up.
The sun was nearing the horizon, and Ahrden was planning to take a quick break to have dinner before he would continue his search for a final push in that day, with the aid of arcane light. He always enjoyed the steady stream of the comforting bluish arcane light better than that of the fire. He found it easier to concentrate with arcane light while it also reminded him about where his power level was. The light was supposed to change its colour as he progressed in the arts of magic, based on how powerful he was with the arcane forces, but so far, he had remained on the lowest; blue.
Ahrden wanted to press on a little longer before the quick supper, but his stomach won the battle, so he stopped. He found a tree, which was taller and broader than any of the others, and looked ancient at first glance. Its trunk shot straight up, reaching for the skies with far-stretching and strong branches that split off the trunk high up in the air. Ahrden focused on one of the main branches and teleported.
It was becoming a rarity for him to marvel at the beauty of teleportation even though, at first, it was something he couldn't get enough of. Ahrden cast to spell as slow as he could so that he could enjoy the stunning display of lights in the darkening forest. Deep but bright, blue lights flickered at different parts of his body and quickly spread fast until he was completely covered in a fine layer of blue energy. The instant his whole body was covered, he vanished and materialized again a little above the wide branch and landed on it steadily. He carefully walked over to the trunk and sat down comfortably, with his back against the smooth bark and his legs on either side of the branch. He took out some pieces of a smoked meat, a bit of soft bread and a flask of fresh water and started eating.
The sun was already gone, and it was getting dark fast, so he murmured a spell while waving his hands in the predetermined pattern to summon the small but bright orb of pure blue arcane light. As he ate, he took out the scroll he had seen a million times before just to feel productive while eating. He started with the map, knowing that it will not aid him as it had never before. The map looked more like a child's absent drawing consisting of a few lines at the edges, while the middle of it was a cluster of different sized dots, with the biggest one being in the centre.
Lately, Ahrden started to question if it even was a map or rather some other aid that might be of use once he found what he was looking for. For all that he knew, it might have been the key to a puzzle within the dungeon that hid the artefact. As always, he quickly turned the scroll over where the words lay and read them again and again and again.
There were words he didn't understand and others he couldn't even find in the library. Phrases were out of context; the fact that it was meant to locate something hidden was not obvious even after trying to force that meaning onto it. Ahrden couldn't define a clear flow of logic within, and not just in the context that he wanted it to be, but not in any way. The one thing that clearly came through was that the artefact was hidden in an ancient structure, built over many hundreds of years and surrounded by other similar but less delicate ones. The poem said that this building was only a temporary shelter for any, and the ones stranger to magic would walk right past it.
Ahrden suspected it to be some kind of ancient cathedral of sort, as those usually only provided shelter for a short period of time for anyone. A grant basilica also fit the part about being built for many centuries and regarding the map Ahrden suspected the dots to be its pillars. Since a stranger to magic would walk right past it, he guessed that the building had to be protected by cloaking spells to hide it from the unsuspecting eyes.
So far, Ahrden had been to many places with ancient buildings and even places where they only planned to build them. He was desperately looking for some trace of magic, some sliver of arcane which he could sense and from there, he could reverse the spell which hid the structure. He found nothing of the sort. Lately he had been focusing on the part about how it was hidden from the everyday people, so it had to be outside of places where people lived; thus he had been visiting dead and forgotten villages, towns and cities.
After finishing his dinner, Ahrden went back to the map. The dots seemed utterly random, and he found no pattern between them which he found to be an odd way to build the pillars of a cathedral. It was like someone splattered ink on the page, and on top of that, they were so weirdly positioned to each other that he couldn't imagine buildings or pillars being built in such fashion, number or proximity. He looked up, sighing; sad to be defeated by the ancient riddle once again. He rolled the map up and looked around, seeing far from where he sat in the darkening forest. He saw nothing but trees scattered around him. Some taller, some shorter, but all of them in the same disorganized way that reminded him of the dots on the paper.
The dots on the paper...
The realization hit Ahrden hard, and his heart started beating faster as he unrolled the scroll again, and turned it to the side that had the poem on it. He confirmed his suspicion that in no place did it say that the structures were actual buildings or that they were built by man. With this new revelation Ahrden read the whole thing through again and smiled how nicely trees fit the description of the poem now that he counted animals among those who need shelter.
With his heart now racing, he pushed himself off the branch and started falling. He usually enjoyed the rush of air from falling, but this time he didn't have time to marvel at it and he immediately teleported down to the base of the ancient tree. He recast the arcane light again, feeding a lot more energy into it.
He was furiously glancing down on the map then up at his surroundings while walking around the tree until he found three tightly clustered trees not far from him, that matched three tightly clustered dots on the map. He then used them as a reference, and all the rest of the trees matched the dots on the paper.
That was it. He beat the riddle.
Ahrden exhaled with relief and excitement. All the days he spent wondering, all the nights he spent sleeplessly researching the possible locations. It all paid off. Or so he hoped.
He circled the tree a few more times, checking the nearby trees, matching them with spots, just to be sure. When he was positive, he turned his attention towards the one he sat upon. The one a non-magic wielder would just walk past... The same way he had.
He looked up towards the crown, then down at the base of it. He touched it, pushed a little energy into it, but nothing was out of place. The tree had no extraordinary qualities, and it responded to magic as any ordinary object. The first wave of disappointment hit Ahrden, but he still felt confident. He paced a few steps back and started reading the poem.
The only part where it elaborated about the actual location of the artefact once the structure was found was a sentence fragment saying that the 'direction lay deep within it'. Ahrden didn't want to, but he was willing to cut the tree into splinters if that is what it took to obtain the relic.
Ahrden teleported up to the branch where he had dinner and did a few other jumps to position himself in the middle of the crown of the giant tree. He then summoned a great orb of light, bathing the whole tree in bright blue light. A few teleportation later, he was confident that what he expected to find would be down rather the up, so he dismissed the orb and went back to the ground.
Sitting down on the ground, Ahrden calmed himself, closing his eyes focusing inwards. He gathered the arcane energies within then let them out around him, feeling his surroundings. He fed the arcane field with more energy then let the power sink into the bark, the trunk, the ground beneath him. The energies flowed smoothly as Ahrden expected them to until they touched the ground under him. He wanted to let his power sink into the ground, but it wouldn't, no matter how hard he tried. The ground resisted. Something it wasn't supposed to do, yet Ahrden couldn't stop himself from smiling as he had finally stimulated the environment in a way that it responded to him.
He hadn't really thought through his initial plan about digging his way down to wherever this artefact was hidden, but with arcane it would have been feasible. Now that he knew the earth beneath him didn't respond to his arcane only the ordinary way of digging was left as an option. Digging up a tree as big as this one with a shovel was a task Ahrden preferred not to partake in. The only other option was to speculate that the relic was in a chamber rather than just being buried and that option allowed a new approach: teleportation.
Ahrden quickly disregarded the plan with the shovel and pondered about the second one even though it had a significant flaw: being at the blue power-level, he could only teleport safely where he could see or have been before. He has read tales about magi who had done the blind jump into the unknown successfully, but only the omnipotent ones were able to execute it flawlessly, while the ones who failed usually died in the process.
Ahrden opened his eyes, stood up and walked to the tree, placing his right hand on the bark. He closed his eyes and concentrated. He cast a simple spell that was used to extract information from objects, but instead of data fragments, he received a feeling of welcoming, mild warmth. Feeding more power into it, he recast the spell feeling a more intense burst of comforting calm that now spread to his chest. It was a pleasant feeling of security and peace. He asked the tree for information, and all it gave him was a feeling of tranquillity.
Placing his other palm on the tree, Ahrden pondered whether the artefact was worth the risk of trying to do the impossible. Usually, this wouldn't have been a question at all, given how far he was from being powerful enough to execute such a jump. Usually, he wouldn't even think about such a dilemma since no artefact had any value for someone dead. Usually, he wouldn't be preparing for teleportation before even deciding that he would jump or not. Yet the calming warmth in his chest gave him a certain feeling of confidence, a sense of trust, which kept him weighing the odds in favour of the leap of faith, as the reassuring feeling kept spreading to all parts of his body. Slowly the impossible turned to merely being improbable in his head.
Ahrden lost track of time, and he could not tell how long he stood there with his eyes closed and both palms on the tree. At a certain point, the warmth in his chest overwhelmed all the fears he had and one final time, he asked the tree, but rather than to ask it for information, he asked it to guide him, to 'direct' him. Then he cast the spell and teleported.
When Ahrden materialized he found himself on top of an enormous mountain with the freezing wind rushing deafeningly around him. He stood on a small flat area on the very top of a mountain, which was part of the vast mountain chain that spread as far as the eye could see in both directions. Ahrden was alone when he arrived, but he did feel a certain pulse of energy upon his arrival, which faded as fast as it came. All that remained now was the wind and the view as he stood on the top of the word.
Ahrden extended his energy around himself and made it resilient enough to keep out the rushing wind. He no longer felt that he was about to be blown off the plateau, but the cold remained. He decided not to do anything about the temperature since he already needed quite a bit of concentration to keep the shield up, which quietly hummed with a faint blue hue around him.
Looking around, Ahrden saw that the continuous mountain chain that elegantly curved in the far distance divided two very distinct lands from one another: one which was an endless desert with dunes covering it as far as the eye could see, while the other was one Ahrden knew well, but had never seen from this angle; the Valley. He marvelled at the sight of his home-world and at the new deserted one that lay just beyond it. Both of them magnificent with their own beauty and grace. Both worlds went further than his eyes could see, and although he knew that the mountains surrounding the Valley met on the other end, he had no idea how the dunes changed over where he could no longer see.
Ahrden was able to block out most of the wind, but with that, he shut the sounds out too, so he rather felt than heard that someone had materialized behind him. Before turning around, chills went down his back, and not due to the otherwise freezing temperature, but because if what he felt was indeed what it was, then this would be his first encounter with someone who could wield the arcane forces rather than just be enhanced by it like the beast. On top of that, he was at a place literally inaccessible to anyone who didn't possess the map with the poem, so the exiting chills quickly turned to something more worrisome.
Ahrden turned around and saw a tall man with broad shoulders standing on the other side of the small area. He wore a long robe, almost touching the ground, with ornate sewing elaborating its edges with a golden pattern that stood out from the deep purple of the fabric. The man had his arms behind his back, radiating confidence and authority, with two deeply set eyes that with a curious yet secretive spark in them. His mid-length, straight hair was freely dancing in the rushing wind, with some of it already turning grey from the deep black that it once was, while his shorter beard was mainly dominated by the silver colour. He didn't look old, but the lines on his face indicated that he had the experience of many elders combined. The man looked pleased, even smiled a little, and while he was curiously looking at Ahrden he moved his lips, saying words that were lost in the wind.
The air gently exploded from the plateau's centre and pushed out all traces of the outside world, leaving calm, quiet and warm inside. Ahrden could let his faint blue shield dissolve into nothing as there was no use for it now. Ahrden studied the man thoroughly, fully turning around to face him while his mind was racing, trying to work things out.
'Took you long enough,' the mage said in a deep and rich voice, clearly expecting this meeting to take place and pleased that it eventually did. 'But here you finally are.'
Ahrden forced himself to speak knowing that if he didn't, he'd just stare like a sheep for who knows how long.
'You set the whole thing up?' Ahrden asked, his voice sounding less sure than he wished it would.
The mage nodded.
'You made the map and wrote the poem, gave it to Felinda and enchanted the tree?' Ahrden asked again, still unable to believe that the whole thing was just to get him here.
The mage smiled, clearly enjoying hearing his own plan and nodded again.
'But why?'
The man smiled again, looked away and started pacing around while he talked.
'Let's start a little further back. My name is Kadelinas, and I'm a mage like you, Ahrden. My bloodline goes back many thousands of years, and you might even have read my family name; Minerinth.'
Beretandas Minerinth. The mightiest mage ever to walk this realm. His childhood hero. His role model. And many more. Ahrden could not breathe for a second. Kadelinas clearly saw the shock on his face because he smiled, then continued.
'I'm from a faraway land, but I've had the pleasure to visit your lovely Valley before. It's quite a charming place, but too much rivalry to my liking and not a single decent mage. In any case, I placed a trap in the Valley, one that would only spring if a mage, powerful enough to my liking, would come across it. You see, I'm looking for magi, powerful magi because although you probably do not know this, but terrible dark forces are gathering in the shadows, and when they come forth, we will need to be prepared.'
'Dark forces? Like demons?' Ahrden asked the darkest thing he had ever read about.
'Like demons, yes, but much worse, things that would wipe your Valley clean within a day and without a second thought, and there would be nothing any of the proud nations down there could do about it,' Kadelinas said, looking sadly down onto the quiet Valley. 'Anyway, my trap was sprung, and I was excited to learn that your beautiful Valley indeed housed a mage with potential. I went to the clearing and found the broken sword next to the slain beast. I traced your jump back to your city and brought you back the warrior's weapon, which is a rather unusual weapon choice for a mage. Then I did some digging to find out more about you. And I have to tell you I was astounded to learn how and among whom you have chosen the path of a mage.'
Ahrden just stood there, unable to do anything.
He knew he didn't take back Duskedge with him when he jumped to Felinda, but she insisted that it was among the rubble of the broken shelf the next day she cleaned up. She did go on his long travel after his encounter with the beast and she was excited to tell Ahrden about the scroll she got from a strange man, basically for free. Many coincidences and confusing details were starting to make sense now, but the answers only birthed more questions.
'First of all, I have to apologize because, at your level, you weren't supposed to activate the trap, but somehow you did, and that is how you, as a blue mage, got tangled up in an orange trap. The rest is history, but I must say that I have never read, let alone heard or seen anyone with blue power level defeat an orange trap. I was astounded and baffled to learn what you had achieved there. As glad as I was to have found you, with such control over your level of arcane powers, I was expecting someone a little more... experienced. So, I prepared another test for you in the form of the scroll to see if you truly had what it took to stand against what is coming. I placed a ward on this area that notified me of your arrival, and that is how we met now, but I still don't understand how you were able to make the jump here while still being at the lowest level… You are still at the blue arcane level, right?' Kadelinas asked fully knowing the answer but hoping to be mistaken.
Ahrden nodded, and a flash of disappointment washed over Kadelinas' expression.
'I spent there a lot of time too, so that shouldn't be a problem, don't feel bad, but I'm not sure that we have the luxury to wait for you to ascend from there unaided,' Kadelinas said absently stocking his beard. 'I'd like to see what you can do,' he said finally. 'I challenge you to a duel.'
Ahrden's mouth fell open, but he had no time to object as he saw an arcane bolt, the size of his head, fly towards him. He focused so he could think faster, which enabled him to realize that there were multiple things wrong with this duel. First of all, he had never even met a mage before, let alone duel one, but on top of that, the more pressing issue was that the arcane bolt heading his way was a bright and brilliant orange one. This made sense given that Kadelinas set the trap up which was orange power level, but there; arcane was not used directly against him. This was a whole different story.
Ahrden didn't dare to try blocking it, so he rather teleported sideways, out of the way of the attack. When he materialized, the first thing he noticed was that the protective shield around them was gone, and the deafening and freezing wind hit him again, which was mind-numbing after the comforting warmth of the dome. In the next instant, Ahrden felt his feet lose what little warmth was still in it, and when he looked down, he saw that Kadelinas had frozen him to the ground. His senses forced him to shot his head up again, and he saw that Kadelinas had already sent another bolt towards him.
Ahrden concentrated on wrapping his energy around the bolt and directing it away from him. The missile resisted at first, and only with immense effort could he make it miss him by no more than a few widths of a hair. He evaded the attack even if his jacked got scorched in the process. When he looked up at Kadelinas he smiled, then started to cast another spell. Ahrden wrapped arcane power around his legs and broke free from the icy trap, then he began to form a ball of energy of his own. Halfway through the casting, he saw Kadelinas finish his spell. Nothing visible happened, which scared Ahrden even more, but that swiftly turned to horror when he felt that no more air could reach his lungs.
The ball of arcane silently dissolved between his hands, not yet dense enough to create an explosion, as Ahrden was suffocating, helplessly gasping for air that was all around him. He tried to suppress his panic and think. He saw that Kadelinas was testing his limits, currently only waiting, not directing any more attacks towards him until he broke free of this one. Ahrden also noticed that his opponent needed to continuously power the spell to work, which meant that distracting him could break the spell.
Ahrden reached for his runed blades on his belt that he always carried no matter where he went. Aiming behind his opponent he tossed the runed blades at Kadelinas, who was surprised by the pitiful effort. Most of the blades missed him, and the ones that would have hit him bounced off lifelessly from the shield that momentarily flared up around him. With a motion of his hand, Ahrden directed most of the blades to slide behind Kadelinas. Most spells required both the incantation and the gestures of the spell to work, but based on how powerful the caster was and how difficult the spell was, one could be supplemented with the other. In this case, calling the runed blades to him was among the first spells Ahrden had learned and, based on the books he read, was considered extremely easy. Thus, he could call them to him with a mere motion of his hand.
The trick worked, and it worked brilliantly. He was able to surprise Kadelinas because the seasoned mage probably never met a single mage who used such runed blades as a form of attack, and while the spell itself was simple enough, it had a lot of power in it. The suffocating spell broke immediately as Kadelinas felt the blades enter his aura and concentrated on stopping them. Ahrden could feel the runed blades getting destroyed in the collision but he didn't care the slightest about that.
With air in his lungs again, Ahrden felt fury building up in him and channelled all of it into his next spell, which he yelled as a beam of pure arcane energy burst from his palm and hit Kadelinas' shield hard. The beam folded around the now fiercely flaring orange shield, and Kadelinas almost disappeared behind all the bright lights. The mage held his ground, and although Ahrden couldn't see his face, he knew he did so without breaking a sweat. Ahrden kept the beam going with one hand while he formed a ball of arcane energy with the other and sent it at Kadelinas, letting it explode when it hit the shield exactly where the beam was directed.
Ahrden was surprised to see that the energy didn't explode, then quickly saw that it was because Kadelinas wrapped it in his own arcane and fed it with more power, then launched it back at him. Ahrden stopped the futile beam and felt he could use his strength on better things than to block the coming explosion. He teleported behind his opponent and, with the two arcane blades that he conjured upon his arrival, stabbed at the orange shield.
Either because after the runed blades, Kadelinas kept his shield constantly reinforced or because it was simply that powerful by default, Ahrden could not pierce the orange shield, but he was able to dent it inwards as he did with the shield around the beast. He channelled more arcane into pushing the blades into the shield and wanted to think that they actually sunk deeper, but he suspected it was simply due to the blue arcane blades eroding on the surface of the orange shield.
When Kadelinas finally reacted, he did so by stepping aside to let the arcane bomb that he still hasn't released yet, pass him and hit Ahrden.
With no time to react rationally, Ahrden acted instinctively. He crouched down low, closed his eyes and placed his palms flat out on the stone ground. He focused on building up a shield around himself that would withstand the explosion hoping that since the attack was partially his own power, he would be able to endure it. His own blue energy mixed with the orange of Kadelinas' hit his shield hard, but somehow, he could keep the dome up. He shouted from the effort, unwilling to let the attack come through and fed even more arcane into it. He briefly opened his eyes and saw the blinding play of the bright colours exploding around him. The blast was followed by an arcane beam from Kadelinas, which kept constant, enormous pressure on the shield. The orange attack wrapped around the thinning but resilient blue shield.
Ahrden lifted his palms to better channel the powers, but it seemed almost pointless against the forces assailing him. His back was arched under the pressure, his body was shaking, and only his mind was able to stay on top of everything, but that too was not far from faltering. Ahrden knew that he could not keep this up, but he could also not halt his efforts to cast another spell, so he remained trapped under the deadly orange beam.
From crouching he fell on one knee and shortly after on both. From the two hands he had up he took down one and placed it back on the ground to better support the pressure that was on him, leaving only one hand up that channelled arcane into his shield. His closed eyes watered from the exertion and his muscles shook from the effort. The temperature inside the dome was rising and he felt the orange arcane seep through his defences.
When Ahrden felt to be at the end of his limits, he opened his eyes, ready to face his death. The orange beam was still washing over the entire purplish-blue arcane shield, which looked thicker and more vivid than before but not by much.
Purplish-blue.
Ahrden blinked twice.
Yes, there definitely was purple in that shield.
This revelation or the simple fact that he became more powerful unleashed some untapped energies within Ahrden, and he managed to stand up despite everything. When he was standing, he felt confident enough to teleport while keeping the shield up so he devised a plan. Ahrden took a deeper breath and did everything at the same time. He teleported behind Kadelinas once again, and just as he materialized, threw the purplish-blue arcane blade he had conjured at the back of his opponent. Kadelinas, however, started turning just as Ahrden was letting the blade leave his grasp and caught it with his own hand. Orange sparkles were flying as the fine protective layer of shield around Kadelinas' palm reacted to the hostile touch of Ahrden's blade.
Kadelinas admired the purple in the blade while he smiled brightly, then nodded approvingly. The wind and the cold escaped the top of the mountain again, and Ahrden could catch his breath as he let the blade dissolve.
'I knew you were already there; you just weren't pushed to embrace it yet,' Kadelinas said, still smiling, but after seeing the mixed emotions on Ahrden's face, he started explaining. 'I'm sorry about that, we rarely do this to students, but unfortunately, as I've said, time is not on our side. What is coming will not wait, and I believed that you...'
'Students?' Ahrden cut in excitedly while still panting from the duel, 'In schools?'
Kadelinas quickly understood the reason behind Ahrden's shock, so he addressed it.
'Yes, we have schools for magi students just like you have schools for warriors and rogues and hunters. Not every part of the world has forgotten about magic like your Valley has.'
'Take me with you. Can I attend? Please let me attend; I have so much more to learn. I could be your apprentice; I could help you with...' Ahrden was pleading, feeling more desperate than ever.
'No, you can't,' Kadelinas said firmly, raising a hand to put even more emphasis on the statement. 'Unfortunately, that is not how things work where I come from. But you will continue to learn on your own, you will improve your skills relentlessly and become more and more powerful. One day I'll come for you again. On that day, you'll challenge me for a duel, and if you can impress me, I'll take you in as my apprentice. Until then, you'll be my secret apprentice. Remember it, because it is a title not many gets to say. For now, I have to resume my search for magi who can aid us when the time comes. You just focus on improving yourself. You did good today, kid. Purple can rarely be forced out that easily; it really wanted to come out,' Kadelinas turned away, walking a few steps.
In that moment, Kadelinas' response was the worst possible Ahrden could imagine. He had just met the descended of his childhood hero and he already felt betrayed by him. He felt rejected by him. He felt unloved by him.
'You're leaving?' Ahrden asked, already feeling an emptiness inside him with the unshakeable sensation that he will never see Kadelinas again.
'I am. But I'll come back for you. You just make sure that I'll leave with you when I do,' Kadelinas said as he smiled, and bright orange sparks started appearing all over his body, spreading slower than Ahrden had ever managed to slow his teleportation down. 'This might help you in that,' Kadelinas added as he pulled out a small, simple, ancient-looking leather-bound black book from one of his inner pockets. He walked over to Ahrden with his teleportation spell still slowly progressing and handed the book to him.
'Guard it with your life; I'll be needing it back,' Kadelinas said, ready to leave now, but then remembered something else that made him look at Ahrden again. 'One more thing; you have immense potential in you, and I won't be the only one who will notice it. Not even in this forgotten Valley will you be overlooked. Arcane Agents will approach you, but you will resist the temptation. Let us both hope that you'll not wake the interest of an Arcane Knight, but if you do, you will flee like you have never fled before. Jump till the land you are in is so foreign that you might even be in another realm. But never give in to the temptation. I do not want to have you on the wrong side of the coming war. You do not want to be on the wrong side of history.'
When Kadelinas disappeared, the comforting environment under the dome went with him, and Ahrden was left there alone on the top of the mountain with more to think about than he ever had before. He just stood there, not yet able to move, when he noticed himself uttering the following:
'I'm not alone.'
When Ahrden materialized in his cosy study the first thing he heard was the bestial below and laughter of a group of drunk soldiers who were passing in front of his house. Ahrden looked down at the book he was clutching in his hands and wondered if he had ever felt so alone in his life.