You Awaken

You’re pulled from your vision by the voice of your mentor, both of you in the center of a large chamber with intricate runes painted and glowing on the floor around you, only one of the many rooms of the Library, the place your mentor and now you, call home.

The only sight of the outside world you spot is the morning sun shining in through the high windows scattered around the chamber.

Your memory comes back to you in pieces, a side effect of the recollection ritual.

Many months had passed sense that fateful night, you had been introduced to the world of arcanum, a practice you had always believed to be the stuff of legend.

What’s more you’ve begun to train in its varied forms, learning to bend the flow of arcana to fulfill your own ends.

Granted, you’ve not been able to master more then the most basic of spellcraft, chiefly among them being the ability to levitate your own body.

Your spine never did heal properly, it seems there are some things that Magic cannot control, or perhaps your mentor never considered your ability to walk important.

“I hope you’ve found what you sought, child” says your mentor, a magical being you’ve come to know as Azar, even now their appearance is in constant flux.

In truth you had not, for some strange reason during the ritual, as your mind is brought back to that moment you had pushed to the back of your sub conscious.

It felt like something was missing, like there was something just out of the periphery of your senses that you couldn’t grasp.

Before you can say as much there’s a strange chime that reverberates throughout the chamber and shakes the chamber as if you were standing in a bell tower.

“It is time” Azar states.

“Time…? Time for what…?”

“You’ve learned much, it is time to put you to the test” they say as a tear in reality forms creating an opening that swirls purple light within.

“Come, there’s much to do and I’ve spent too much time away from my duties”

You focus your mind to lift yourself from the floor before slowly gliding through the portal, while in the clutches of the purple swirling energy, it’s almost like sleeping, it’s over as soon as it began though you could feel that you had spent a considerable amount of time within that purple void.

You find yourself in a section of forest coated in snow with a full moons light casting a colorless glow onto the white surface.

In the distance you can see the ruins of some ancient castle long forgotten by the sands of time.

Your mentor asks you a simple question though you feel it holds a great unseen weight.

“What is wrong here…?”

You look around examining the snow, the nearby foliage but then it finally hits you.

As it was explained to you, the Library was a place outside of time, capable of dropping its inhabitants into any point in time the proprietor wishes.

“The Library should have dropped us into this realm in the morning… to avoid temporal whiplash…”

There’s a deafening silence before their reply comes. “Close, The Library DID drop us into this realm in the morning”

You look to the moon, a glowing white orb in the sky, strangely enough it seems a little larger than it be, or perhaps it’s merely closer?

“The moon has hung in the sky here for the last 3 weeks”

“How… how is that possible…?” You ask dumbfounded, to your understanding it would take a great deal of magical energy to sustain this for an hour let alone several weeks.

“This is no doubt the work of a powerful vampire… and if it’s who I believe it to be… you mustn’t tarry long…”

“Wha… what about you…? Where the hell are you going?!”

“I am needed elsewhere, it’s as I said, there’s much work to do”

“So I gotta duke it out with Dracula on my own…?!”

“I’ve trained you to the utmost of my abilities, you will be able to banish her just as I would, you need only remember one VERY important thing”

“Under no circumstances are you to believe ANYTHING she says, Feravore is a being of lies and misdirection”

And with that he renters the portal before it closes behind him, stitching the fabric of reality back together and stranding you out here alone.

And so your hike through this forest begins with your destination being clear, if vampires are known for anything it’s kicking around spooky ass castles.

But on the bright side, at least you can hover over the calf-deep snow.