The mood atop Irlith Tower, the home of the Irindel Order, was especially somber. Hidden within a grey and breezeless pocket dimension outside of the world of El’Darin, it remained the only safe space left to the group. They had just endured the systematic murders of five colleagues in the past few months.
The last nine living archwizards of the order stood around the perimeter of a perfect circle inlaid into the floor, with each at a vertex of a nonagon also inlaid inside the circle. Dressed in pearlescent lamé robes, and with a nod from the diminutive form of Terissa, their leader, each of the rest began a part of a massive ritual.
They all had researched and contributed a facet of the complex spell and taught the rest the alephs necessary to utter or gesticulate so that everyone would cast in a synchronized fashion. Terissa alone stood still and awaited her final portion to bind everyone and release the energy after the others were done.
Finishing their parts, the archwizards offered their hands to those on the left and right of them, thus chaining themselves together. A soft, golden aura enveloped each of the eight of them, each aura pulsating slightly in accordance with the member’s heartbeat. Terissa continued to keep her arms at her sides, even while Stolvar and Myrindar held out their hands to her to await her grasp when the time was right.
As an empath, a capability which had served her well in leading the order over the years, Terissa felt the tension emanating from her order’s members. Although nothing of this magnitude had been done before, each of them had double-checked everyone else’s work and had absolute faith in the others’ skill.
She spoke softly but clearly. “As you all know, we shall have no control over the lives we assume once we leave this one behind. We now place our fortune in Veladris’s hands, and we will be hidden from ourselves, unable to recognize each other, during our future lifetimes should we meet again. We can but pray that, as time and circumstance demand our assistance, Veladris finds a way to see that our keys make their way back to us, be it across a century, a millennium, or more. Once reawakened, remember that unlocking the rest of us must always be our first priority. Reunited, we can accomplish more. Do not forget the letter we left behind; Ascadel's Guardian, if existent, would prove a valuable resource.”
Everyone nodded almost imperceptibly, and a curl of Merelaine’s untamable red mane fell out of place in front of her forehead. She gave a quick tightening of her grip on Phaedra’s ebon and Esric’s tanned hands, and she felt their reassuring squeeze in return. From his position opposite her on the circle, standing on the other side of Stolvar from Terissa, Cedarien’s lips upturned into a slight smile when he witnessed it.
Terissa continued. “Does anyone have anything further they wish to say before I seal the ritual and commit us to oblivion?”
Tandrilòn, the native Kel’Troveri of the group and the order’s healer, spoke up. His golden aura scintillated beautifully against his subtly emerald-tinted skin as it pulsated about him. “I do. Regardless of what happens, I have enjoyed being a part of the order and knowing all of you. Also, Cedarien, I will always love you, even when I won’t know you. Thank you, everyone, and Veladris bless and preserve us all.” He turned to his right to smile a bit regretfully at Cedarien, the solid frame of Goldwolf standing between them. The facets of the spell portions each had to control for the ritual had prevented the lovers from being able to stand beside each other. Goldwolf did his best to shrink away from interrupting their line of sight to each other and still retain their handholds.
Cedarien smiled at his lover and murmured in reply. “I love you too.”
Around the circle, heads nodded with echoes of the common blessing, “Veladris keep us.”
Terissa determined that the long moment of silence which followed meant that nobody had anything further to say. She concluded the gathering. “Very well, I will begin my final piece. Remain in contact with each other as long as you can.”
She then began the incantation to seal the ritual. Her delicate hands wove fine aleph symbols in the air while she articulated other, verbal ones with her voice. As she neared completion of the spell, a vibrant, indigo sphere materialized in the center of the gathering. A thin beam of steady energy lanced out from it in nine directions at each archwizard’s breastbone, creating a slight tingle within them. The eight golden auras latched onto the indigo energy and enveloped the beam upward to the sphere. The golden energy then traveled down the ninth beam toward Terissa and granted her a golden aura of her own.
Terissa completed the first stage of her spell, leaving her with only spoken alephs to continue. In response to this pivotal moment, the individual golden auras around the Irindel Order members shifted themselves by slowing or quickening their separate pulses to become one pulse for all simultaneously. Each collective aura pulse became successively brighter than the previous one.
No longer needing her fingers to draw in the air, she reached out and grabbed Stolvar’s and Myrindar’s outstretched hands. With the closing of the circle, orbs of dim silver light materialized and floated around each handhold. Pinpoint darts of bright silver light repeatedly appeared and streaked from one person’s left hand of the handhold, flowed through the orb, and passed into the right hand of the next, before disappearing.
The unending golden pulses continued to grow in intensity, and the painful brilliance of each pulse forced the group to close their eyes. Knuckles whitened as everyone subconsciously held hands more tightly in response, elevating tension all around. Phaedra and Cedarien both had streams of tears rolling down their cheeks from the stress.
Terissa strove to push back the psychic weight of anxiety threatening to crush her, and she was forced to shout the last three words of the spell in her preferred, measured pace of spellcasting with the effort of a strongman lifting an ox. Her training, skill, and long years of practice paid off; with a bit of a grunt through clenched teeth, the final word was spoken.
A ribbon of matching indigo light surrounded their backs; within the ribbon, a band of midnight blue runes floated and rotated. The ribbon blossomed into a vast sphere up and down around them. It then condensed toward the original indigo ball of light in the center, and as it did so, it swept the members, their golden auras, and the silver light orbs along with it. The lamé robes dropped to the floor as the archwizards became ghostly versions of themselves and drew inward, fading into nothingness. As the indigo energies then diminished, the tower fell silent.
Irlith Tower, however, was not deserted. The ritual was finished, and the Irindel Order now ceased to exist, yet a lone figure ascended the stairway from the prior floor of the tower and entered onto the roof. An ethereal, human-like entity formed of grey shades of light emerged. Appearing to be male and hovering instead of walking, it floated to the robes, picked them up, and draped them over one arm.
The entity took them downstairs to the large, walk-in closet that held such things and replaced them onto a row of hooks. While restoring the nine robes from the ritual participants, he looked at the other nine that had remained on the wall. He sighed in lamentation, reminded of the tragic loss of the five whose murders precipitated the drastic effort to hide that just took place.
Per Terissa’s previous instructions, he entered her office and retrieved a letter sitting on her desk. He carried it to one of the assigned guest bedrooms and laid its pages on the bed to await its intended recipient, leaving the gold-flecked, white wax seal face-up. His next task was to enter the order’s workroom to study and catalog some recently completed artifacts created by the now-departed members. He was well aware how the ritual worked and that it wasn’t even guaranteed to succeed. With no need to eat or sleep, the entity resigned itself to facing centuries of solitude.
*
The further fate of the mages of the Irindel Order will be revealed in The Bonds of Faith and Blood book series, Volume I: Omens of Dream and Shadow, Book I: A Thread of Waking Light.
