Chapter 74: Maribor, Triss and Ruins (Part 8)
Alan was hurled into the air and positioned himself with a twist, landing on uneven rocky floor on all fours. The slimy surface didn't stop his slide down, where he rolled for several times feeling a rough but still even tilled ground.
He made the last roll to remove strong momentum of the fall and hopped up, while unsheathing the sword. Albeit steel one, Coen still applied it with oil and did it thoroughly, so it will work.
Taking a lower stance of wolf school with a cold weapon near his head parallel to the ground. First thing you need to do is to cover you head, neck and heart with steel and mind your liver – the four points of human bodies that monsters attack the most. Even if one doesn't know what foe might attack, covering these parts will most likely ensure survival from unexpected assault, even if one got wounds, they will not be life threatening.
Alan willed for the light to appear and finally was able to look around. He wasn't alone here, several members of Order took a mandatory nap here and there inside the space of the cave. It had slight resemblance to artificial structure, as only the balcony they were hurled to was clearly build inside already existing cave.
He looked up and saw a dim light dying down between something that could be said to be ruined teleportation gates. Two antler like arcs superimposed on each other with focal crystal as a point of unity, but the later broke apart. And apparently just now, as shards of it are still glowing with turquoise light.
"What a great adventure I got on my ass this time?" - sighed Alan in frustration. - "And what to do with them?"
These people were dead weight. A serious and heavy dead weight. They will only slow him down or even worse – become the cause of his death. And it is not like any of them will be thankful.
Alan concluded one thing for sure – this place is relatively safe. If he left them here, knights should be fine. Like so is way better than following him wherever he is going now. But what really went through his mind was that he had no luxury to stay here, as he needs to find his companions. So he carried them slightly away, in secluded place and walked to the seemingly solid cave wall.
He used Isu Rivelio all around himself in a wave and saw illusion disappearing. It was unbelievable, because it felt real. Albeit an illusion, one can't simply walk through it. But even so, it was just a hole in the wall, nothing more.
Alan made his way through with great difficulty, he even stored his sword inside the ring.
What greeted him was another broken room, dilapidated and moist walls with ice cold water on the ground. But he felt a calling, not like a speech, no, it was attraction on the level of pure magic. And it came from two places simultaneously. One gave him strange weak feeling, familiar, but weak. Another was way more tremendous and felt like a web of different connections with the center glowing with eerie feeling of death and decay.
He moved to the weaker one as it was closer and gave him less instinctive fear.
Just as he was about to go further Alan stopped, simply freezing in place and looked down with slight sigh.
"Ah, that was close like hell. I nearly lost a leg." - it wasn't anything, but a trivial bear trap under the layer of water. - "Who even placed this shit here? Where is honey or trees? Do they think that there are bears nearby? Goddammit, this is hilarious."
He threw a torch from the wall, that long ago served its purpose and watched how a rusty teeth of steel closed with a loud sound, echoing through the surrounding environment.
"And it still works. Marvelous." - grumbled Alan and stepped forward.
He moved forward with caution and saw nothing but narrow pathway with several small rooms by every side. It looked like a prison with cells, but they all were empty. Not even bones left inside. Alan moved to the door, stepping on the stairs leading higher.
Door wasn't that good and barely held together after so many years of decay. He just pushed it and everything fell to the floor, breaking apart as if it was constructed from sand. A particular sight to remember.
What greeted him was another room, bigger with tables and chairs, never the less everything was destroyed and in moss with spider webs. The said spiders were nowhere to be seen, perhaps they died long ago due to lack of prey too. He moved to the side of another collapsed wall, as at the top there was indentation large enough to call a little cave for a person to sit comfortably.
After climbing up on large blocks and steep surface, Alan found himself in front of even darker place. Somehow glow from mana stones that served as a source of dim lighting in this dungeon never got there. Alan snapped his finger and nearly fell out of the miniature cave.
"Damn!" - he felt a slither of fright rush into his head with adrenaline in tow but calmed down, understanding that he found a skeleton of a man.
Around his bone neck there was a medallion in the shape of a dragon head and by his side only one sword survived, the other decomposed to unrecognizable state. By it's side there was a ruined bag with potions that already evaporated and several ingots.
Alan looked at them and lead Eye of Eternium to identify the alloy.
"Dimeritium ingots, a pure one at that, not alloy with it. This thing costs a fortune." - he placed a hand on it and felt uncomfortable with his mana being suppressed a bit. If Alan didn't train with odmonitor, just this touch would have easily frozen mana inside him. It was a notch stronger than anything Alan knew to limit magic force.
His look shifted to half destroyed armor and traced it's arm plates, noticing a book.
A slight mana was radiating from it, apparently it was protected by a spell, but it already was wearing off. Alan clearly saw that it had no defensive or offensive enchantment, only protection from damage to keep it intact, and with that thought he took it and opened at the last page, hopping to find the newest entry with explanation regardless this place and hit the jackpot.
"My name is Vincent Helgratt, I am a true witcher of the School of the Dragon.
Hereby I will write of the coven that now became my resting place. If thou thinks it is some elven ruins, reconsider, for it was built with the help of dragons to seal what is kept here, as it shan't and couldn't be killed. With it's freedom He will become whole and the world will face it's end.
Now He can't kill for He is just a manifestation of many things and different forces. He is incomplete and so shall it be for eternity. He can only play, trick and entice, but not kill thou. He lacks what we sealed deep down in the cavern.
Remember, oh the one who trespassed, thou shan't kill inside these walls or thou risk to free the final part of Him. Thou shan't bring rest to ones who dead, for fear of doing the same. Thou should leave and seal the place anew not taking anything from here instead of what thou found in my possessions. Thou take my sword Dearg Aeann, Crimson Edge, let it see the light of day and drink the blood of foes of thou again, I will appreciate thou for doing so.
If thou is able to put medallion on, rejoice for thou is talented to be true witcher, not the ones that were created with mutations and learned signs as they are to make numbers among the real witchers, the battle mages.
Witchers were an attempt of mages to create a stronger race to survive inside the world full of monsters, but we failed. We were unable to remove crucial drawback – infertility. Thus we relented and gave up, turning to creation of them as ideal weapon of humanity and perfect soldiers of upcoming war.
I don't know when and who will find my journal, but thou who did, should be prepared for They will come back, for Convergence of Spheres was their first invasion. Beware of the time it repeats again."
"Okay..." - Alan rubbed his nose bridge in frustration. - "What the hell is that all about? Dude can write some creepy tales, alright."
He sighed and stored the journal inside the ring for future investigation. Who knows, maybe there is something hidden he failed to notice.
"Dearg Aeann, Crimson Edge, huh." - he took the sword from the side and partly unsheathed it. - "Wow! Although it is called Crimson, it is actually a silver witcher sword! And very high quality at that."
It had some ancient runes and enchantment along the whole blade. Outstanding sword indeed. Alan just lacked a weapon to use against monsters, so he put it near the steel one behind his back and took a dragon amulet.
"It is very heavy!" - he couldn't help but exclaim in surprise. The medallion looked similar to wolf head he saw on Lambert, albeit clearly was one of the dragon ancestry.
Alan forced himself to bare the weight and with some difficulty pressed it on his neck. The moment chainlet was locked over his neck medallion trembled and send a wave of something unknown throughout his whole body, as if trying to find a comfortable position to stay in.
Wave went over and gathered in the dragon head again, making ruby eyes flash with crimson spark and all went silent. With that strange ritual of acceptance weight disappeared completely and medallion started to tremble slightly.
Alan felt connection to it and was awed at it's functions. It not only roughly warned him about any magic and magical presence around, but let him have a clear understanding of direction. Also it had several places marked, as he could sense some sort of calling from them all. These locations seemed to be related to the School of Dragon, however Alan had no idea where or how far they were, but callings turned out to be of various intensity, so it could be said that either it shown distance or, perhaps, importance.
Or maybe it was a connection between medallions and he might find other witchers of Dragon School there. Witchers or their medallions. But among these were four very different beacons, they seemed to be colored in diverse manner to others. Three in green and one in blue, while others were all gray. Somehow he himself knew, that his color is red.
What it meant he had no idea.
'Perhaps it is better to ask Coen or Lambert about it? Wait... I'm an idiot! Should have checked it firsthand, but no, my sorry ass was craving for adventure... okay, Vibe.'
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