nanowrimo Archives - Page 5 of 7 - Tales of the Aggronaut

NaNoWriMo 14–Parting the Veil

November 15, 2013 by Belghast

NaNoWriMo 14

Last night was a pretty crazy night. I had to go eat dinner with my mother-in-law… and her boyfriend. The awkward was strong with that one. So as a result I got started on my wordcount super late, but still managed to knock out around 1900 words taking my total wordcount at this point to 24,297. So I am now within spitting distance of the halfway point. Still managing to drum up something to write about, even though I keep deviating from the path I had set aside as it feels right. It feels a lot like Doctor Who, with fixed points but everything between them is wibbly wobby timey wimey.

Here is the story to date. Just a friendly reminder no editing at all has been applied. That will start probably in January.

14 – Parting the Veil

The sensation of passing through the portal was something that Pico was simply not prepared for. It was like submerging yourself in a pool and then breaking the surface again. There was a rush that came with the air pressure change, a burst of wind, and then a feeling of falling. She had been unable to keep her balance when she broke through to the other side as she toppled over clumsily. As she righted herself and climbed back to her feet she noticed that she was in a very similar circular room save for a few pretty significant changes.

Firstly there was no stone frame on this side, and even more shockingly no sign of the portal she had just come through. Before stepping through she could clearly see the other side, but from this side there was absolutely no sign of anything even resembling a portal. Slight difference number two, there was nothing that appeared to be a doorway leading out of the room. The round stone dome appeared to be completely sealed. Pico had done many foolish things in her time, but this may in fact be the worst.

She sat down on the cold stone floor trying to tell herself that she was not in fact now trapped in a sealed room in another dimension. The two rooms had been connected at one point, that much was certain, but as she examined the floor around her she saw what appeared to be the remnants of the stone frame in the form of a thinly strewn line of rubble. So someone or something had seemingly broken the frame, but the real question was why. If they were trying to keep someone from travelling from her world they obviously had failed. More likely it seemed to her that they were trying to keep someone from returning.

She laid down on her back and began examining the entirity of the room. The shapes were significantly different from that of the dome on the other side, however after some time she started to piece together a sort of symbology. She noticed there was this one shape that repeated itself at regular intervals around the room. It was a sort of S shape with a bar intersecting it diagonally making it look like a really oddly formed dollar sign. There was one place however where the symbol changed slightly. In that location in the pattern it was upside down.

Pushing off the floor and getting to her feet again she moved over to the place with the upside down version of the symbol. At first she tried to turn it but it seemed as though something was in the way. Digging through her pack she uncovered a small flathead screwdriver, the kind that you would use to take apart delicate electronics. She often found it handy if she got into a jam, and had used it to bypass more locks that she would ever admit. She gently used the tip to work around the bevel at the base of the symbol. She cleared a bit of debris that had built up over time, and when she tried the symbol again it began to turn every so slowly.

When she reached the upright position that the rest of the symbols were in there was a clicking sound and the room began to shake. At first Pico thought a crack was forming along one of the walls, but as it grew she realized it was the edge of a doorway swinging inwards. Within a few minutes the fissure was wide enough that she could pass through it. She stowed the screwdriver and picked up her pack slinging it over her shoulder. “That wasn’t so hard” she thought to herself as she inched towards the now open doorway.

When she passed through she saw a long hallway, that appeared to be a mirror of the one she had seen on the other side. Similarly she passed along chambers on either side choked with dust and cobwebs but containing the same deep bookshelves as the ones underneath Cambridge. The two bases had at one time or another been used by the same group. She found the staircase in exactly the spot she would expect it and begin climbing up. Wherever she was, she as now committed to the mission, as she had no real way back.

At the top of the stairs she saw a sort of hatch, and could see a thin line of light protruding around it. She pushed up slightly testing it, and saw that she could push it open. She slid it up and over to the side noticing that some sort of a rug was also covering the opening. It did not take much to find the edge and roll it back as well. She climbed up into what appeared to be a kitchen. There was a great pot of something cooking on the stove and it smelt amazing. Nothing in the kitchen looked modern, but instead something she would imagine as medieval.

The house appeared to be made from the same sturdy stone that the under chamber had been, leading to the appearance that the house itself was built at the same time as the other. She had pulled herself out of the hatch and gotten to her feet when she heard a shuffling of feet off to the far side of the room. Within a few moments a blond haired boy came bounding into the room making a direct line for a cupboard on the far side of the stove seemingly oblivious to the woman standing there. He rifled through the cupboard for a moment producing what looked to be some sort of a sweet roll.

It was around this time that Pico must have made a sound, as the boy spun around quickly staring in her direction. His happy face quickly turned to terror as his eyes widened to saucers. At the top of his lungs he screamed and before Pico could react went running out of the room and from the sound of it upstairs. “Shit” was all she could bring herself to say, there was really no place to hide other than to go back down into the chamber below. However it was pretty certain that the houses owner knew that the chamber existed and would find her before long despite her best efforts. No she thought, she would face whatever was to come and hope for the best.

There was a sound of footsteps rushing towards the kitchen door. A similarly blond man wearing thick blue robes came rushing into the room. He was holding out some sort of a staff in front of him, the tip of it emitting a bright green light. “Who are you? Where did you come from?” the man yammered nervously all the while pointing the end of the staff in Pico’s direction. “I came from a portal in the chamber below.” was the best explanation that she could muster. She sheepishly raised her hands showing her empty palms “I come in peace?” she said with a slight shrug.

The look of surprise faded slightly from the mans face, but he no less continued pointing the staff at her. “What do you mean you came from the other side? The portal has been destroyed for decades.” She shrugged again explaining “apparently it doesn’t work that way. There was a giant stone frame with two crystals on our side. I’ve come here in search of the Order of Merlin.” With the utterance of “Merlin” the man’s expression changed drastically to a look of terror. Looking around quickly he stammered “Never say that name. Never say it again!”

“They have enchantments listening for that word, we can never say it. We’ve created counter measures, but no place is safe. Instead just say ‘The Order’.” He furiously looked around listening for a few more tense seconds before relaxing again “Well… they would have arrived by now so I think we are safe. I am Astanax the steward of the former order house. There are not many of us left.” She saw a look of concern flash across his face “I’m Pico, I come from the other side. Over there we have a thing called the Watch, that guard the wards… but they are failing.”

She explained how over the years the wards have continued to degrade in strength, and how her own analytical weapons had managed to damage them further. “We need dragon bones to repair them.” she said without much thought to it. With that the other started chuckling. “So you ONLY need dragon bones? You might as well ask for a diamond scepter or for a magical gold laying goose. Dragons are extremely powerful beings, and even more so are extremely secretive. It might take us years to find a single dragon, let alone the list of types that you claim to need.”

It was as though all the wind was let out of a balloon as Pico almost shrunk visibly under the news. She was not sure exactly what she had expected. To some extent she thought she would bumble over to this magical realm and ask to borrow a cup of dragon bone and be back by dinner. Nothing was ever as easy as she made it out to be in her head, and now she just had to prepare a contingency plan. “Are there any dragon bones at all that we can get?” She mused looking at Astanax.

“I will have to make some inquiries, but in the mean time we have to get you into something less obvious. You cannot be found to be from the other realm. Merlin became a pariah when he built the wards, and inadvertently damned all magic users to exile here in this realm. His opponents brutally hunted the members of his order, and now only a handful of us remain.” Astanax leveled his eyes at her “You would be all the proof those same opponents would need to destroy my family.”

Astanax lead Pico upstairs to a large bedroom, as they went the young boy returned apparently changing from fear to amusement at the new guest. “You should be able to find something here suiting you. These wardrobes belonged to my wife. She was…” he trailed off but Pico could guess that she had passed on, and not in a pleasant way. She thanked him for being so understanding. “I will leave you to it, I have to go out now for fear I will be missed and they will get suspicious.” There would be time for answers later, but she wanted to know who exactly “they” were.

Pico rifled through the wardrobe attempting to disturb as little as possible. Before long she had found a rather lovely lavender gown. She felt like she belonged in a period faire, but she supposed it did look nice on her. Hopefully Astanax could help her find what she needed, and if not that a way back home. She could only imagine how infuriated Farragut must be by now, but this was yet another in a long line of decisions she had made where it was simply easier to ask forgiveness. As she sat down on the bed she wondered if maybe she had finally leapt one step too far.

NaNoWriMo 13–Woodbinding

November 14, 2013 by Belghast

NaNoWriMo 13

Yesterday was pretty busy but I managed to squeeze in some writing time before our 8 man night in Final Fantasy XIV. I had started this earlier in the day in a lag between meetings but only made it a few paragraphs before having to stop again. I have essentially lost the lead I once had and am hoping this weekend I can make it up again. This week I have felt under the gun to produce something each day. As always this is completely unedited and that will occur sometime in the future. Here is a recap of the story so far if you are wanting to catch up.

13 – Woodbinding

Jace sat on a rock near the campfire trying to piece together just how many days had passed since he had been drug into the shadowlands by Kale. He found the day night of the shadowlands often times hard to perceive. Night time looked like night time to him, and while the ambient light varied it very much felt like a single hellishly long night to him. At his best guess he would say it had been three days since the events of the farmhouse. Kale agreed that this was likely the case. He would say they had been walking all day, but he was uncertain when the day actually began.

They had left the wildfae camp with Merowyn and a small band of sprites, comprised mostly of Dobin’s Wingard as he called them. The made a hard march for as long as their strength lasted and finally had stopped to rest near this stream. With the help of Dimcy they had a roaring fire in no time and Jace had settled down on the rock he was currently perched. After some time staring at the crackling mushroom logs he broke the silence. “I have no idea how we are going to find… mom” the word still felt odd in his mouth. He still thought her as Aunt Beth even though he knew the truth.

Merowyn spoke up from across the camp “If we follow this stream it should lead us eventually to the wildfae enclave that borders Valkore territory. From there we should be able to find our way to Hagengarde, and to the Trogjan forces on their border. The Queens crystal will be wherever the forces are preparing to strike.” she explained in a flat and even tone. Jace sat quietly for a moment before continuing “Why will the crystal be there? How do you know that?” Merowyn assessed the boy and spoke again in a very flat and even tone, as though this should all be common sense. “The only chance they will have to strike at the summerwall is during the equinox, the moment which the powers of summer begin to wain as the forces of winter begin to rise. With the combined powers of summer and winter, they should be able to take out the summerwall.”

Kale did some calculation in her head and burst out “But that is less than two weeks away!” She had sat patiently through many of these conversations but time was running out. “That doesn’t give us much time to get there, let alone do we really know how to defeat them. I know I am strong but I don’t think I can take on a single Ort and we will be facing an army.” Jace got animated chiming in as well “And I don’t even have half the strength Kale does. Benj taught me to fight, and he was dead set on me learning to sword fight, but it is going to take more than that to defeat an army.”

“Do you know nothing at all?” Merowyn exclaimed coldly “Jace you are the prince of summer, this makes you a formidable woodbinder. You Kale are an ortkin, you are capable of possessing far more strength can you could even imagine yet.” Mero motioned to the staff that was laying on the ground beside Jace “You use that as a walking stick, but it is a powerful weapon that you apparently don’t even know how to wield. In fact all of the gifts you were given were done so for a very specific purpose, to prepare you for battle.” Merowyn rose up from her seat “Put that cloak on, we will start with it.”

Jace rummaged in the pack and unfolded the cloak standing up, sitting the pack down on the rock. He pulled on the cloak, wrapping it around him. “Close your eyes, imagine yourself being wrapped in leaves. Imagine them pressing upon your body forming a tight mesh” Merowyn explained. Jace did just that, he imagined a huge pile of leaves stepping into it. He imagined the leaves flying up from the pile and coating his body. He felt warm and safe and as his opened his eyes, much to his surprise the cloak was morphing around him, wrapping his body forming a mesh of tiny silver leaves. The end result was a sort of scale male, with the tiny leaves making up the individual leaves.

Jace stood there a bit dumbstruck flexing his arms and watching the scales ripple to his movements. “How did I do that?” Merowyn laughed “Boy you are a wood binder and a prince of summer, you simply utilized the magic in the item to bend it to your will. This is far from the only form that cloak can take, but we will keep it simply to the armored form for now.” Kale watched in fascination wondering if her own gifts had a special purpose as well. “What do the other things do” he mused.

“That staff can be morphed into a grand weapon, and that lyre can turn into a shield or a bow to protect you. See if you can bend them on your own without my explaination.” Jace picked up the staff and reached into the pack for the lyre. He never really understood why they had given him a musical instrument, but if it was in fact what Mero suggested it all made a little sense. Once again he closed his eyes imagining the staff was a longsword and the lyre his shield. When he opened his eyes he watched as the staff shortened in length and morphed into a long skinny blade with a curved handle.

He knew that the sword was called a Scimitar. Benj had showed him about many different kinds of swords. At the time he thought it was just a hobby, but he never could have imagined that all the sword fighting was an attempt to prepare him for something greater. The blame gleamed in the firelight as he thrashed it back and forth. The lyre had turned into a long pointed shield. He knew that it was called a kite shield, and it was emblazoned with a ring of leaves that looked similar to the medallion that he was given. The primary difference was that instead of fall leaves they were brilliant green with a ring of fire in the center of them.

Jace was beginning to feel like a proper warrior. He knew how to wield the weapons thanks to the tutelage of Benj. He held the broad kite shield up to his shoulder forming a barrier and practiced taking strikes around the shield. While wielding the weapons he felt more powerful than he ever had in his life. It felt as though his muscles and even his focus were tightening in preparation. “So I really am a warrior aren’t I?” Jace mumbled slightly slackjawed. “Yes Jace, you were born to be a warrior for the court of summer. Benjanatos taught you in the ways of combat. He was the greatest court swordsman, so much so that he was given the coveted position of woodsblade, the queens protector.” Merowyn explained.

Turning her attention to Kale she looked over at the tall ortkin. “I believe you recieved gifts as well. Your cloak reacts the same way that Jaces does, and similarly you can use it to protect you. However the most special item you have is that mirror.” She said pointing at that pack sitting at Kales feet. “My sister had a mirror just like that, if I had to guess she left it for you. Pull it out of your pack and I will show you out to use it.” Kale did as the woman requested, reaching down and grasping the mirror by the handle. She was not sure how the mirror could be of any use to her. She was not really fond of looking at her own reflection, so she had almost forgotten it was in the pack.

She stood up turning to face Merowyn “What do you want me to do now?” Kale had serious doubt that she would be able to use the mirror. “Hold the mirror with both hands out in front of you. Imagine your anger welling up inside of you. Imagine that anger striking down your enemies.” Kale did as she said and remembered the way she felt the day the scatchers got to her. She imagined the anger washing over her as she struck the gobbley in his head causing it to explode in a shower of ichor. As the anger pooled up inside of her, the mirror began shifting in her hands. The handled expanded in size and the mirror itself flattened into a square and them morphed into the shape of a great silver hammer.

She remembered catching a glimpse of Morrow wielding a hammer that looked exactly like this one. The weight felt perfect in her hands and she swung it through the air like a baseball bat. She imagined what it would feel like to bring it down upon her foes. The anger still building inside her cascaded through her arms and she brought the hammer down on a nearby rock. The campsite was showered in a blinding white light as the rock exploded into shards. She stood there staring at what the hammer had just done, heaving slightly as she took long deep breaths trying to calm down. She felt powerful. She felt as though she had a chance against the army that awaits them.

“See, I told you that great power lay within you both. You simply lacked the tools to free it.” Merowyn returned to her rather flat tone. “Now you should both get some rest. We have a long way to travel before we reach the Wildfae enclave. I am sure you both will see battle before this is all said and done” Mero stood up and moved towards a canopy of shroomstalks where they had arranged some makeshift bedding. Jace and Kale stood there for a moment, looking at each other, their weapons, and trying to wrap their heads around what had happened. They managed to morph the items back into their resting form, stowing them away in their packs before joining Merowyn and drifting off to sleep.

NaNoWriMo 12–Prisoner of War

November 13, 2013 by Belghast

NaNoWriMo 12

I am still maintaining forward momentum, but yesterday was one of those “bare minimum” type days. I needed to right roughly 1600 words and that is pretty much exactly what I wrote. I feel like I could probably go through the chapter and fluff it up a bit if needed but I am trying my best not to go rework anything just yet. If I reach the conclusion of the story arc and I am still shy, I will do that. Here is the story so far for anyone who wants to catch up.

12 – Prisoner of War

The plan had gone extremely well, better than the master had expected, and as such Baigan had been richly rewarded with greater responsibility in the scope of the proceedings. As such he was dispatched to Fort Kraken and had fancied himself a king over the Trogjan army that slowly began coalescing around him. Morgo however had grown impatient waiting for the right moment to strike and on this day he had stormed his way into the keep demanding to speak with the self appointed manor lord. “I demand to know the meaning of this delay.” the elder gorund screamed, a stark contrast to the calm he displayed in their first meeting. “I have sent my forces, and here they sit waiting for you to give the order to attack. Explain yourself shade!”

“Morgo, everything in good time. Your Orts are no match for the summer wall, and regardless of how much ‘meat’ you choose to throw at it, it will not fall” Baigan raised up off the newly assembled throne so that he could peer down upon Morgo. “It is by magic that we will prevail and this magic requires time. The day of the attack draws near. You are of course more than welcome to wait here with me.” Baigan made a mock gracious sweeping gesture. In the weeks since the battle with his father, he could feel the power of winter growing within him. When they first met Morgo might have been a match for him, but now with the combined powers of winter and summer he could dispatch the old gorund without breaking a sweat.

The fur on the elder bain rippled visibly as he fought every instinct to leap upon the throne and throttle the puppet ruler. He forced himself to calm down, now was not the time to strike. There was clearly an unseen force behind this throne, and until the Elfen had lead him to his master, he could not risk anything that hasty. “When exactly is this moment you are waiting on?” Bain replied as calmly as he could muster. Baigan took his seat again “We wait for the Equinox. The moment when the power of summer begins to wane as the power of winter grows in strength. It is then that we can destroy the summer wall and push forward.”

The more Bain thought about it the more it actually made sense. Never once had he thought to time his attacks against summer to coincide with the waning of their powers. He thought however that the shade had more planned than just to beat down the wall with brute force. Rippling again, this time more with frustration “Fine, you have my forces until the equinox, but not one day longer. That gives you two weeks, use them well. I will not be taking up your offer” turning to look at the gobbley steward at his side “We return to Tjorba tonight, ready my caravan” With that the white tuft strode out of the keeps main hall and out of Baigan’s sight.

“Who does he think he is, against the true might of winter” Baigan murmured beneath his breath. The killing of his father had not only strengthened his abilities but also emboldened his appetite for power. There was quite a bit riding on this plan working, but he had little doubt that he would be able to figure out how to tap into the Queens powers within the coming weeks. He held the orange crystal with its glow out in front of him, twirling it around within his grasp. From another pouch at his belt he pulled out a similar white crystal that made a slight crackling noise. “Father if only you had known I would drain you, you might have guarded against it.” He raised the white crystal to his lips kissing it lightly “You were always so short sighted.”

He slid each crystal into sockets at the tip of a newly carved staff. He had been able to channel the white crystal with ease, but being able to also channel the force of fire had been a challenge. Baigan raised from his throne taking the staff in his hand he focused on an unlit torch across the room. He closed his eyes, and tried to push away the cold thinking on his warmest memories. He found this harder than anything he could imagine. From a young age he had insulated himself from the warm of the world, making his heart cold and brutal all the better to wield the power of winter. His father had been so proud of him the moment he learned to channel ice magic for the first time, but little did he know how deep Bai’s font of power had grown.

Within a few short years he was able to summon snow, freeze rivers, and at the age of twelve he was able to produce his very first ice spear. It was then that the master took an interest in his education. He showed him the more subtle ways of winter, the ability to sap the life out of someone, drain them of all their energy and capture the results in a essence gem. He knew his father was short sighted and could not see the true power of winter, yet he was the one chosen to represent its might on the council. He remembered the day he was chosen by the master, to be his secret heir, to gather all of his knowledge and employ it to deadly purpose.

There it was, he had his warm memory. The day the master chose him, was the happiest day in his life. He dwelled upon the joy he felt, the exaltation of being looked so favorably by someone so powerful. Inside his core the warmth spread flowing out from his fingertips into the staff and coalescing upon the summer crystal. Baigan opened his eyes to witness a jet of flame spewing forth from his staff striking the torch and catching it ablaze. From this warm core he thought about the power of frost, the majesty of ice, and the endless strength of cold.

The staff erupted in a subtle light as this new power poured through the white crystal producing something that he had only heard about in legends. Stormfire, the merging of frost and fire producing something new like two storm systems clashing against each other. From the tip of the staff shot a spiral of flame and ice bound together by white veins of lightning. The powerful bolt lept past the torch striking the column of rock shattering it. Beaming with pride he eased off of the staff causing the stormfire to die down. He finally had done it, he had mastered both seasons and had become something more.

Exhausted he collapsed into the throne. Baigan did not expect channeling both to have been quite so draining. No matter how much so he had done it… he was now Baigan the Stormlord. He very much liked the sound of that. There were few things that could possibly stand up to him now. He had even eclipsed the knowledge of the master, just as he had done his own father. It was then that a sound caught his attention. It was the sound of orts but with them was a metallic scraping. He set up in the throne as he watched a procession of Orts leading a man bound in shackles into the main hall.

The four Orts parted allowed a shade to pass between them. “Captain Wyrmspire, what is this that you have brought before me” Baigan echoed down at the shade captain. Reaching down and lifting the head of the prisoner he Wyrmspire revealed a face Bai was extremely well acquainted with. “We captured this one on the edge of the keep, doing what looked to be scouting. He refuses to give his name.” Baigan stood slowly descending the dias. “Captain I am very well aware of who he is. This is Benjanatos Waxwood, the Woodsblade protector of the former Queen.”

Benj looked up from his yoke a grimace echoed the churning anger he felt deep inside. He looked at the shade and his eyes flickered upwards to the staff he held. Much to his horror he noticed the familiar orange crystal that now contained his queen. Thrashing against his chains he screamed “You bastard! Free her at once!” Despite his efforts he could not break the hold of the chains or manacles holding him in place, and after a brief amount of progress towards Baigan the orts had managed to reign him. A long rolling laughter echoed through the chamber as Baigan savored the sight of the imprisoned protector.

“Captain Wyrmspire, drag him to the dungeon and chain him there. I want him to witness as the power of his queen is used to destroy the summer wall.” Baigan motioned for the captain to take him away. After a few guttural sounding gestures the Orts lead by the captain moved out of the great hall. Benj had devolved into a stream of curses as he was drug from the room. Baigan returned to his throne. He murmured to himself “Yes, things were definitely going better than he could have planned.”

NaNoWriMo 11–Cambridge Beneath

November 12, 2013 by Belghast

NaNoWriMo 11

I am starting to embrace the fact that I am going to end up rewriting most of this anyway. Yesterday was a real struggle to push through roughly 2000 words. Its like now that I know roughly where I am going, this is no longer as exciting of an act for me. Previously it is like I had been running off the adrenaline created by envisioning an entire world, but now that I know what is going on it is no longer as exciting to me. It feels as though all I am really doing now is just documenting the thing I already created, and as a programmer I tend to hate documentation.

However I have committed to do this thing, so onwards we go! I figure I will let it sit for awhile after finishing and then revise the living shit out of it. All the things need work, but right now I am just trying to brute force out the story. As always take what I have written with a grain of salt because it is likely to change, but here we go with todays installment. At this point I am just shy of 20,000 words. Here is the story so far, if anyone is reading this and wants to catch up.

11 – Cambridge Beneath

Pico had always been intrigued with the old tomes she found laying around the various ward houses she had worked out of. She took every available opportunity to travel to a new one to see what great secrets should could unlock. It was during a summer at the London house that she first found the library. She had taken a day trip up to Cambridge to check the restricted section of the library for any veiled watch related references. It was there that she had followed a series of watch symbols on the shelves and uncovered a hidden panel. Upon opening the panel she uncovered a staircase winding down deep within the bowels of the earth. At the bottom she found what appeared to be an ancient watch house.

She wondered why they had moved to the London house after having such a elegant and well hidden one at Cambridge. The walls of the corridors were ornamented in various tapestries depicting creatures and places she had never seen before. Each chamber was filled with thousands of leather bound tomes, depicting the history of the watch. It would take her decades to pour through them all, she she grabbed a few of the more choice looking ones and carried them back with her to the Lonestar watch. She was certain that the answer to how to repair the wards was laying somewhere within the walls of that catacomb.

She had teetered back and forth on how to explain to the watch that she had uncovered a vast tome of knowledge… but had kept it completely secret all these years. It is not that she meant to be selfish, or had wanted the glory of the discovery, it is more that she wanted to be the first person to have read it all. It took her awhile to work up the courage to explain to Farragut where they needed to go and why she was so certain what she was looking for would be hidden within those chambers.

She had however explained and after giving her a stern scolding and a long speech about duty and honor, he agreed to send her to the archives. The cost however was that she would have to also explain to the London house where the entrance was and turn over the contents to them. While definitely not a complete history of the Cambridge house, the books she had been able to recover seemed to indicate that the Ward Watch started there. If there was any place that would have the information on how to repair the wards or even where to find that knowledge it had to be there.

More importantly than that, she was hoping to find more information about the illusive Order of Merlin. The tomes she had recovered made it unclear if this group was associated with the watch or not. She pondered all of these things and more as she was trapped on board the disguised watch cargo plane headed towards the Cambridge airport. As far as planes went this one was rather nice, and the inside was furnished out in a series of individual suites. She was able to do some work while on board because unlike most airlines, this one had onboard wifi.

No matter how posh a plane is a fourteen hour flight is enough to make anyone a bit claustrophobic. By the time they landed at Cambridge she was up, packed and pacing the plane until she was given leave to depart. She rushed out onto the tarmac and was greeted by a rather cheery fellow named Alfred Sterns. She was reluctant to get back into another vehicle, but she knew that walking really was not that practical. The van she was ushered into was marked like some sort of delivery company, which she assumed was a needed ruse to get them onto the Cambridge campus without serious questioning.

Thirty minutes later Pico and Sterns stood in the restricted section of the Cambridge library. Once again her forged credentials had worked like a charm. She followed the symbols like before that lead her to a false panel. She explained how the process worked to Sterns, and pressed the correct inlaid panel. There was a grinding sound briefly as panel swung inwards revealing a stone passageway. The pair followed it to the staircase and downwards the eight flights of stairs to the ancient watch house. It was as she remembered it exactly, in fact she could still make out her footprints from the last time she was here in the dust.

Pico had spent roughly five hours pouring over the books when she found something that looked promising. It was a narrative description of the founding of the wards. The watch went further back than she could have possibly imagined. It seems as though the Watch itself was founded by the offspring of the order of merlin. She had long wondered the significance of that name. Growing up like any of us, she thought Merlin and King Arthur were just a myth. But according to the tome Merlin at the least was very real.

Nearing the end of his unnaturally long life, Merlin determined that mankind was better off not living in the shadow of Magic. The passage referred to him devising machines using the “Magic of Man”. They were comprised of Dragon bone, that much she knew from the earlier diagrams she had found. However it went into further details that included black iron, and sapphire and amethyst bearings much like the jewels in a watch. The design itself was deceptively simple and from what she could see from the text it simply calculated the decimal places of Pi.

She had been to one of the wards before, deep beneath Dublin… the Green Ward as the watch called it. The dragon bone was cracked deeply, and while at the time she did not understand what the material was, she assumed that this was causing the drop in the ward levels. If all of the wards were suffering similar wear, she would need enough bone to replace them all in order to stop the decay of their power. The problem is… Dragons were not real, at least not as far as she knew.

Reading further into the text she found the source of the wards names. Each of the wards was named after the species of dragon that was slain to build it. The first ward was built out of the bones of a green dragon. She was afraid that this had significance and potentially amplified the power of the machines. Pico sighed deeply… where was she going to find a single dragon, let alone green, black, white, blue, orange and blue ones. She would have to find a way to cross over, and do so with a large enough strike team to be able to take down one or more dragons.

This was a puzzle she just didn’t have the answers to. The analytical weapons did their job on the mortal plane, but it was completely unknown if they would have any effect at all in the shadowlands. On top of this, she didn’t know if conventional weapons or even the laws of physics worked the same. If she could contact the Order of Merlin, she might have a chance and they might be able to tell her just what she needed to do to accomplish her mission. There was the sounds of movement in the hallway as Sterns entered the doorway of the room.

“Miss Pico, I believe you should come see this” Sterns had a look of concern on his face. Pico nodded and followed behind him. He moved down the hall to a chamber at the end. She remembered on her first trip she thought the room was curiously sparse, but in the presence of so many chambers filled with books she ignored it. Alfred it seems did not have the blinders on that she apparently did. “I came across this chamber, and it felt wrong. I followed the same pattern you did above in the library, and found that this panel opened in a similar fashion” Sterns explained triggering the switch and causing a stone doorway to swing inwards to another tunnel. She followed him down the tunnel to a large circular room at the end of the corridor.

The walls of the chamber were covered in intricate carvings, the likes of which she had never seen before. In the center of the room was what looked like a stone picture frame, free standing. She wondered if maybe there had once been a tapestry hanging there. Her eyes moved to stone chests resting on either side of the frame. Above each chest was an indentation and running her finger over it she found no clear purpose for it. “Help me lift the lid off this chest” she said crouching down to slide the stone slab off. It was far lighter than she would have expected and between the two of them they removed it easily.

The moment the lid had shifted the chamber was flooded with a blinding blue light. After removing the lid she saw that there was a small crystal pulsing with a humming blue light. The stone case seemingly had muffled the sound, but now it was absolutely deafening echoing around the circular chamber. She had a hunch and lifted the stone out, and it slid neatly into the side of the stone frame. Alfred gave her a cautioning look of shock as he had not expected her to act quite so carelessly.

LIke an excited child on christmas morning, she moved swiftly to the second chest and found that she could easily slide the lid off without assistance. Once the lid slid free this time a red light poured out of the chamber with a similar humming in a slightly different pitch. Together the stones bathed the circular chamber in a purple glow. Just the same as the blue gem, she was able to slid it neatly into the slot. Immediately upon doing so the chamber was flooded with a blinding purple light and there was what she could only describe as wind.

When Picos eyes adjusted to the brightness she found herself staring at a glowing ring of purple light. Shockingly instead of the other side of the room, she now saw what appeared to be a stone chamber on the other end. It was similarly decorated but had completely different symbology. She had read about these in one of the tomes she took the first time. “It’s a waygate” she said half to herself and half for the benefit of Alfred. “These used to exist as stable portals between the mortal realm and the shadowlands”.

She had found her way to the other side. “Alfred, once I go through contact the Ward house. We have to guard this. Tell Farragut what I have done, I will take his scolding when I get back.” Alfred looked her over cautiously “Miss Pico, are you certain this is entirely prudent?” She shook off his concern “We don’t know if the stones have enough power to open the doorway again. I have to take this advantage while I have it.” She grabbed her pack, not that she had anything in it that would help her slay a dragon, but she felt more prepared with it on her back. Closing her eyes she stepped through the portal and vanished from the circular room below Cambridge.