Chapter: 185
“Don’t let the sausage get cold” he would say before it got too close to the ground, needing to say this a few times so that it didn’t get dirty. He patiently did this a few times before it was cool enough for her to eat.
By now, the others had woken up and were preparing a meal for themselves.
“Thanks for starting the fire” Mark said as he pulled out a pan.
Mark had pieces of meat cooking on a pan, while Kel added some grey mushrooms to the same pan. Anya had a muffin, which somehow wasn’t stale; she ate it while boiling some water for a coffee.
They all chatted together as they had breakfast by the fire, and their conversation made the forest seem a little warmer because of it. Mark mentioned that he must have slept on a stone as he cracked his back, while Kel talked about a weird dream she had which involved all of them running a race around Losla.
Jay and Anya mostly talked about different tactics they could have used to slay the leeches if they had more time, but joked that tactics don’t matter when they could have just sent Mark in by himself – his spell sword was the perfect counter to their passive body skill, ending them in one hit.
Jay described the massive bird he saw earlier in the morning, but no one believed him.
Of course, he wasn’t offended that no one believed him, in fact he even expected this; he started the story by saying ‘you guys won’t believe this, but something crazy happened this morning…’
After a finishing breakfast and enjoying the fire for a while, they put it out and packed up their gear, beginning to stretch before starting their journey back to Losla.
“All ready?” Everyone nodded back in response.
“Good, let’s go. We should arrive a little after lunch time.” Jay said, taking the lead once again.
A dark snowstorm was rolling over a sprawling range of icy white mountains. The mountains appeared to be nearly endless, a rocky ocean of ice covered in a never-ending winter. There were no trees on them, and they were void of life.
In the midst of these ice mountains, a circular stone tower stands defiantly against the blizzard. There is no entrance to the tower, no hatch on the roof, and no iron door. It’s only features are two spade-shaped windows on each side.
From inside the tower a dim glow radiates through it’s iron glass windows, the warmth inside concealed from the storm.
A fireplace consistently crackles away while an empty wooden chair sits silently before it. A series of fire pokers stand near one side of the chair while on the other side a small blackwood table hosts a golden bowl. A decorative crystal glass and a bottle which was half-filled with a dark-brown alcohol sit next to the bowl.
Various large paintings hang around the room, most of them depicting warm sunny environments. On the other side of the room, a staircase which leads down deeper into the tower has a desk next to it.
Sitting in a studded leather chair behind the desk, a bald man with spectacles and a great black beard sits. His robes are loose and majestic, with patterns of green, gold and blue trailing over them; the blue colours of the robe periodically move as if they’re ribbons waving in a gentle wind.
He watches over a magic quill as it writes for him; the symbols being written on the page aren’t in any known language, as it’s a language invented to specifically send secret messages.
Suddenly, the magic quill stops as he senses something in the ambient mana.
An energy signature is rapidly approaching.
“Mmh” He gets up with a grunt and walks to one of the two windows.
“I see…” he relaxed “It’s been quite a while since we’ve had one of these..”.
His suspicions were confirmed when he saw the glowing orb travelling his way.
Orbs containing messages usually came to this tower with a specific energy signature, however this one was different.
At first, he was slightly alarmed as the energy signature was different to the usual orbs he would receive, and the colour of the orb was different too, but he recognised it nonetheless.