@HorridJulian JunctionPiper watched as Julian retired to the Cave-Inn. Was that his room they had been sleeping in? Maybe. The old man was wonderfully generous. It was great to hear there was a library. Not so great that Julian didn’t think there was anything of value there, but he likely didn’t have the same access to indexing spells that Piper did. She’d find out.
This place, the junction, seemed like it was safe from the Vigils. Despite having a direct link to them, if Julian had wanted for them to be cursed already, he would have called them. Perhaps they didn’t have access to the keys Julian had given them.
Once they were wherever the ornate door lead to, though, they would need to be on guard for when the monsters appeared. Chumi could sense them well enough, as evidenced by his detection of them the night they were attacked. So long as she stuck with him, they would have warning enough to escape.
Speaking of escape, she wasn’t entirely sure if the keys could be used in a hurry, the same way that orbs could. She nudged Chumi, who was watching the Vigil’s doorway.
“Chumi, could you enchant an orb or two to bring us back here in a hurry?” she asked. While doing so was a prohibitively expensive measure, they had access to a very large supply of raw orbs if they could make it back to the mining site.
Chumi nodded, pulling the orbs out of the master orb, and did a few quick motions with them. Such a powerful spell was deceptively quick to cast. She knew that if she were the one trying to cast it, though, it would take many minutes. Chumi was very good at enchantments.
“Done,” he said, handing one of the two escapes back to her. Good, that was the emergency measure taken care of. Time to go.
They looked at each other, and nodded. Upon reaching the door, they both turned to the Cave-Inn.
“Thank you, Julian!” they said in unison, before turning back to the door, and opening it. Before them was a long cavernous passageway of rock, with a wooden floor. The place was lit with a dim light of some sort, though no source of it was visible. The door shut behind them, letting out a thunderous slam that echoed through the cave.
“Looks like this is the way,” Chumi said, taking the first steps. The wooden flooring was smooth and clean. It almost felt criminal to be standing on it with her muddy boots. She pressed forward regardless, though. Maybe there was a servant responsible for maintaining the place.
Soon enough, as they continued through the seemingly pointlessly well kept cavern path, they reached another door, just as beautiful as the last one. The doorway itself was recessed deep within a wall of stone, with wooden paneling overtaking the walls and ceiling. Piper opened it.
Beyond the doorway, there were books. Many, many books. There was a titanic bookcase before them, stretching indefinitely upwards, and a good distance to either side. Once the team was through the doorway and into the wide hall, they could see that not only was there one giant bookcase, but the walls were entirely made from them. The whole place was impressively well kept, and thin lines of violet fire on the floor lit the area well enough to read the book’s edges by. Strangely, the fire provided heat, but did not burn.
Piper turned to see the door they had come through, but was greeted by yet more books. The door had vanished. Perhaps this was how the junction kept itself protected.
Suddenly, Piper noticed a strange looking little ball of purple fire had appeared over Chumi’s head. Chumi noticed her stare, and looked up himself. Upon being noticed, the little fireball spun around his head, bobbing about.
“What is that thing?” Piper asked, watching it spin.
“Some sort of arcane fire. What is it doing, though?” Chumi replied.
The fire spun and spun and spun, luring Piper into staring at it. Soon enough, only the fire could be seen.
Yaxato WoodlandsHungry.
Enrique was hungry. He had no food, but hopefully that wouldn’t be a problem soon enough. With the compass’ help, he was able to locate his general location and head in the direction of Rockvale. It would be easy enough to see, when he came close enough to it that he could see it.
He’d also been meaning to ask his rather silent, hairless follower a question, but it was a rather hard one to ask. He’d asked it of several different newcomers to the mysterious land before, with slight variations to the reasoning behind it, but he wasn’t sure he even needed to. From what he could learn from the man, he was a pirate, a captain, no less, who’d been the target of a mutiny. A really unfortunate way to lose your livelihood, all things considered. Particularly considering just where he’d been thrown out. It did have to be asked, though. He’d lead up to it as best as he could.
“So, Captain,” Enrique said, “I’ve been meaning to ask, have you been approached by a very tall man with a seashell for a head, since you made landfall?”
Depending on how he answered the question, Enrique had his ticket to a bit of key knowledge.
