Journey Stones

With the daylight quickly fading, Criff convinced us to stay another night in the cove so that we could avoid the risks that came with travelling in the dark. We slept on the same layer of straw as the previous night which was far from comfortable and left a sore ache in my neck, though this time we were fortunate enough to not be woken for battle.

The next day we gathered our packs and said our farewells to the Grimhawks, Korin seemed to have made friends with a good many of them as they drank together the night before until most of them were blubbering on the floor. Sara and Cleo had also been taught a new healing technique by one of the healers and they said a fond goodbye to her as we exited through the flap and out to the beach.

Shana was outside as we left, and she turned around to look at me, her braid hung over her shoulder and the sun shining from her skin. After the kiss that we shared the previous evening, we had talked some more and shared a few laughs as we watched Korin outdrink the Grimhawks. She had made me feel good, sending a wave of butterflies through my stomach as our hands brushed over each other. Her lips turned up into a smile as we looked at each other and I asked the others to wait for me whilst I went over to talk to her.

“You don’t have to leave, you know” she said, her chest puffing out as she looked up to meet my eyes, “you can stay here and join our fight, you’re a good fighter, there’s always room for someone like you”

I shook my head sadly; I couldn’t deny that a part of me wanted to stay there with her. We hadn’t known each other for long, but I felt something to her, she had comforted me when I needed it, and her words had revived the beliefs that I had held before my life had been flipped on its axis. The Grimhawks were something that I hadn’t seen in the rest of the kingdom, a band of fighters that fought to protect the defenceless with no expectations of reward. “I can’t” I **** the words out. “There are things I still need to do, the enemies in the east are a danger to the innocent, my mother needs my help, and I can’t help but think that Zarin is a threat to others besides myself” I told her.

Her expression shifted, she looked disappointed but not surprised by my answer, “If we rid ourselves of the raiders, we’ll try to find you. You seem like a man that I could fight with” she said and wrapped me in a hug. I smiled as we embraced and held her tightly for a long while.

Eventually we separated and looked at each other, “Goodbye” we said almost at the same time, smiling as we recognised the blunder of speech. I sighed and re-joined the others, departing from the Grimhawk’s cove. I looked back and could see the figure of Shana still stood on the beach, watching us as we disappeared into the distance.

The contract that we had been sent on wasn’t a complete success, we hadn’t been able to gain the allegiance of the rebels, but we had cleared the pass over the mountains into the west and it seemed that there wouldn’t be any attacks coming from the Grimhawks. We had done all we could, and I felt good about the actions we had taken to protect the people of Sotren, it was a different feeling than I had after our last contract, it felt like I had actually helped people.

We left the beach as we walked and used the trodden path that we had taken to reach the cove. Instead of following it to where we had came from, Aladra led us away from it and towards one of the mountains. We accepted that she had more experience with travelling than we had and didn’t object as she led us up a mountain. It was hardly a mountain in my mind, nowhere near as impressive as the one that we had came over, it was more of a large hill.

As we reached the summit of the hill, we saw a great stone monolith. It was nearly three times my height and thick, with twelve ridges running down the side at regular intervals. It stood on a circular dais made of the same stone and had arcane runes carved into it with great precision, making it look like a fragment of a defaced wall. “What is it?” I asked as we all looked at the impressive monument.

“A journey stone” Aladra said as she stepped forwards, tracing her finger through the grooves of the runes. “There are dozens of them scattered throughout the world, I don’t know who made them, I’ve never been able to do it myself” she walked around the monolith, still examining the runes. “One of my abilities lets me activate them, you can travel through them to other journey stones. I don’t know how to explain it but space… folds over itself within the stones. A journey that would take a week could be done in a day, if you know where you’re going”

“How long to reach Alynthir?” I asked as I moved closer to take a look at the arcane inscriptions that Aladra was examining.

“Why doesn’t everyone know about these, they could be used for so many things” Cleo said as she came over to look at it with us.

Aladra sighed as she came to a full circle around the monolith, “Not really, my ability is quite rare. There are only a handful of us that can use the stones, and most of them are in inconvenient locations. I went through one once and came out beneath a mountain, I nearly suffocated before I could use it again to get out of there.” She glanced over to me, “From this one, I think it should take a few hours to reach the stone near Alynthir. It will probably be night when we get there.”

“What’s it like in there?” Sara asked, sounding a bit nervous as we all stood closer to the stone, looking at the magic that was written into the runes.

“It’s dark and foggy, you’ll have to stay close to me are you will get lost. You don’t want to get lost in there” she said

“Uh… why?” Cleo asked, joining Sara in her anxiety

Aladra snorted with what could have been amusement, “You can’t die inside of the stones, it’s a big space and you’ll end up wandering for years before you can even find another stone to leave from. And then, you could be waiting for years more before someone that can use the stones comes through them and can bring you out. You’ll probably end up going mad”

Cleo paled at the explanation, “You do know where you’re going, right?”

She shrugged her shoulders, “Well enough, probably” she saw Cleo’s expression and laughed. “Relax, my ability shows me where all of the stones are. Just stay close and you’ll be fine”

“Fuck me” Korin grumbled as he looked at the stone that had become far more intimidating since we saw it for the first-time minutes ago.

Aladra placed her hand on the monolith and closed her eyes as she concentrated. The stone crumbled down and revealed a dark expanse with swirling fog that leaked out into the world. “We’re really going through it, aren’t we?” I asked.

She nodded her head, “Yeah, we sent our horses back. It could take a month to walk back to Alynthir without them, this’ll get us there tonight”

I sighed and looked at the others who seemed nervous but were readying themselves to go through the gateway in the stone. “Okay” I let out the words, ignoring the fear as I watched Aladra step through and into the darkness of the stone.

I sucked in a few breaths and bounced up ad down on the balls of my feet before hurrying through the gap and holding onto Aladra, not wanting to lose her in the darkness. The others followed quickly behind me, I felt Sara’s hand hold onto my back as I looked back and saw the stone of the monolith rebuilding itself in a reversal of the crumbling until all light was extinguished.

We walked through the abyss, holding onto each other tightly in an attempt to avert the risks of getting lost. The fog danced around us as we moved; I couldn’t see it, but I felt the drop in temperature as we walked through pockets of the fog. My heart raced as I heard the distant sounds of some unnatural beast roaring out into the darkness. I **** down a lump in my throat as we continued moving.

We walked for hours in endless darkness, I couldn’t see a thing within the journey stone and dreaded the idea of spending years in the void that we travelled through. I lost track of the time without the sun to measure it by and continued with the repetitive motion of placing one foot ahead of the other.

I couldn’t say how long it was before Aladra stopped and I felt Sara and the others behind me bump into me as they became caught up in the momentum. “What is it? Are we there?” I asked, hoping desperately that we were. The last thing that I wanted was to spend more time in this dreadful expanse.

She hummed and I panicked as she moved away from me, my hand losing contact on her back, “Aladra!” I called out with worry, “Where are you?”

She shushed me and I moved my head to where the sound came from, “I need to focus” she said, I listened carefully for any signs of movement from her.

I heard a rumbling sound and was relieved to see the crumbling of the stone, blessed moonlight leaking into the darkness as it illuminated the space around us. I forgot about Aladra and quickly rushed trough the gap, leaving the darkness and coming out to the world that I had missed for so long.

We came out onto a field, the verdant plains reached out far and wide and even in the dark of night with just the moon to light up the world, it was so bright. I hadn’t realised how much I could miss light, but after a few hours of endless darkness it was the most precious thing in my world. Everyone else had similar reactions, gasping sighs of relief as they looked around, putting the monolith behind us.

Aladra came out last and looked at our relief, “Calm down” she chided us, “It was just a bit of darkness, I’ve travelled through there for weeks at a time” I didn’t pay any attention to her attitude, so relieved to be seeing again.

She looked around for a minute, glancing up to the sky and moving her fingers as though counting something. She was silent for a moment longer before pointing in a direction. “That way, I think” she said, nodding her head as she became surer of herself. “I’m pretty sure Alynthir is that way”

We set off in the direction that Aladra had pointed to. I couldn’t help but see of the benefits of the journey stone ability that she had displayed; it would allow me to travel great distances in almost no time. The darkness was uncomfortable and stifling, but it was a small price to pay to shave weeks off of a journey. I wanted to ask her how she used the ability, to teach me how to do it, but I didn’t know how to ask without telling her of my capacity to learn all of the adventurer’s abilities. Instead, I kept the question in my mind, hoping to find an occasion to ask her how to use the ability in the future.

It was another hour before we reached the city, seeing the lights illuminating the enormity of buildings long before we arrived. We showed our rings to the guards at the gates and walked on through to the city.

Standing on the cobbles of the street, Aladra turned to us, “I need to go to the Citadel and make my report to Orsat. I’ll pick up the reward for the contract whilst I’m there and bring it to your house.” Exhausted, I nodded my head and let her leave us.

With Aladra gone, the rest of us walked down the streets to the house where we went inside and immediately collapsed on the furniture, tired after days of non-stop fatigue.