Season 2 Intro – A burning Sky

A light flickers on the Wekgronds side and pierces the night. It has first been sighted a week ago as a small glimmer and since then steadily grown in intensity. In Brikstrat the ladies of the city are worried about such a phenomenon but with the male population in turmoil they don’t dare to send even a small party to look after the light.

The surrounding villages look at the light with mixed feelings. Some claim that this is a warning of whatever gods they pray too, other dismiss it as a natural happening. Few rightfully bring it into connection with the mage that is rumoured to run rampant in these parts of the queendom.

Finally, only a few hundred metres away from the base of the Wekgrond, a trio of witches sits in chairs that they took out of the old base. One of them is Tarzana, a brunette and leader of the local branch of the cult of five, until yesterday she has been in constant fighting with the second member at the table. Catherine, Ulal’s black haired apprentice, looks tiredly towards the light and occasionally exchanges a challenging glance with Tarzana as they sip tea. Finally, between them, sits Aclysia, the witch of the south turned immortal via transmutation gnaws on a sword.

“Stop.” She says after the other two’s occasional glances turn into staring at each other. The two oblige quickly and Catherine stares back at the mountain as she remembers what transpired yesterday.

Tarzana and she had butted heads over how her cult was treating the members of the shelter. Their argument and spiralled into a mage duel and Tarzana had thrown the first fireball towards Catherine, a blue one hinting at the intensity of the spell work, when Aclysia had suddenly stepped between them.

Aclysia had been missing ever since Ulal left so at first Catherine was relieved to see her. After all, if the Witch of the South were to disappear Catherine would never hear the end of it. However, she then remembered that there was a giant blue fireball flying towards her and by extension Aclysia.

Once the fireball touched the immortal, however it simply vanished. A lot of confusion insued. Aclysia explained that magic couldn’t harm her anymore as her body used it to function, she simply absorbed it. Stunted by that, and the revelation of whom she was dealing with, Tarzana backed down from the duel.

Now the two young witches are being kept in check by the presence of the newly awakened one. Aclysia finishes the rest of the blade, “Conflict is good for progress.” She says in her usual melancholic tone, “Hurting each other isn’t. Survival of people with high magical power is integral for humanities advancement.”

“Why so?” Tarzana asks, “So you can breed out the lesser elements.” Aclysia responds and moves on the swords hilt. Catherine finishes the cup of tea she is holding and puts it on the small table in front of them. “Did you have children Aclysia? With your look on things I am sure you wanted to pass on your superior abilities.”

Aclysia shakes her head. “Infertile. I had ten different males try but I wouldn’t get pregnant.” “What did you to the men afterwards?” Tarzana asks with mild curiosity. “I kept them around. Desires can be annoying to deal with on your own.”

“Tell me more about that.” Kay, Tarzana’s incubus, chimes in and leans on her mistress’s chair. “Your knowledge about intercourse surpass my own, incubus.” Aclysia says, “There are no information’s to be gained from this exchange.” The incubus sighs, “What a bore you are Aclysia. I always thought Anklahet just didn’t like you but you really don’t talk much.”

“Talking is a waste of time.” “But you are immortal now.” Kay returns, “Factors remain the same. Talking for entertainment is unproductive. If you don’t want to genuinely find knowledge about something cease to speak.” Aclysia’s eyes remain glued to the light on the Wekgrond’s side as the rest of the people around the table move on to different topics.

Whatever the man that awakened her is planning, it very much has her interest. Her artificial body’s eyes are so much sharper than her old ones, even in her youth, had been. A small fire appears above the light.

“It begins.” Aclysia says and points at the light. The whole camp grows silent as they watch. At first they don’t see anything, the single flame to distant to be distinct from the light, but then a second one lights above it, twice as big. A third, then a fourth one and they can make out the shape of circles. A fifth one appears around the former and then flies a bit upwards. The process repeats numerous times, each circle appearing about the former one and flying upwards. The burning red shapes in the sky grow in size each time as they grow towards the stars.

A last circle rises to the height of the Wekgronds peak. A segmented cone made of fiery circles floats like a twisted inverted mocking of the mountain. Then the light rises from the ground and flies upwards, pulling each circle with it until they all arrive within the biggest one at the top and become a single shape. Hundreds of rings lying within each other, empty circles of fire. Then shapes appear in the void between each circle.

“That looks like…those are runic circles.” Tarzana mumbles, her eyes going wide, “You can’t tell me…” “I was right.” Catherine says, similarly unbelieving, “He is going to transmute the damn mountain.”

Aclysia smiles for the second time since her rebirth.

The earth starts to rumble, stone disregards the laws of physics and flows upwards as air becomes semi liquid and forms bubbles of dark violet, reflecting the fire of the transmutation circle above. Then, with a discharge of enormous energy, the light in the middle of the circle explodes into a cloud of myriad colours. The circle turns blue, then white, the fluctuating matter under it behaving less and less logical.

Then a flash. Catherine is blinded for a moment, so is Tarzana or the poor guard in Brikstrat that looked at the whole thing happening, her iron boots rattling as she tried her hardest not top piss herself. She falls unconscious once she can see instead.

There is a giant hole in the Wekgrond. Several kilometres in diameter it is big enough to contain a giant lake, a holy side or a fortress city meant to hold between twenty and fifty thousand people as well as all the facilities such a city would need.

“Let’s not keep Ulal waiting.” Aclysia says, Catherine sighs in agreement, “Yeah let’s not.” They both get up and Ulal’s followers pack their things. “How are you so calm about this?” Tarzana asks, her voice cracking as she stares at the gate that appeared where the entrance to Ulal’s base had been. “You get used to this kind of shit happening around our Lord.” Alratha says as she drives by on a cart pulled by two of the lesser members of the organization.