Chapter 12 – The Guild

            The ship had lowered down into a valley surrounded by jagged mountains with part of the shoreline creeping up through it. The ridge of the mountain was dense with pine trees that towered upwards seeming to reach up for the sky. Each of the needles of the trees were as thick as pencils and the bark had a rough metallic texture, having small dents where most trees would have chips. As the mountain descended the needles on the trees became more and more leafy until at the base, the forest floor was shrouded by thick bushy trees. The dense forest became sparse near the coast, with a large sandy beach empty of trees at the shoreline.

            Alos was looking out through the window of the lobby down at the scenery. He had never seen such natural beauty before in his life. His seventeen years had been spent in the center of a city and the beaches back home couldn’t compare to this.

            The ship was beginning to land down on the opening in the beach, sand kicking up into mini tornadoes as the ship’s turbines drew near. Then, there was a sudden shake as the ship touched down.

            The crew got off, save Merick and Bert, taking the boarding platform down. As they descended, Alos could hear Merick’s grumbling in the background, “…pretentious sagits. Bunch uh loafers is what they ar’.”

            Upon landing, Xri led the crew over to the tree line.

            The forest was shrouded with darkness but small patches of sunlight beamed through. It was difficult for Alos to see very far but Xri seemed to know where they were going, so he followed along blindly.           Along the way breaking up the thick foliage, they had walked past several giant mounds on the floor, each with a burrow at its center. The mound-like pits were several yards in diameter, bulging upwards to Alos’ height. They looked like massive ant hills that had been untouched by the destructive hand of time. There was no apparent sign of use and all of the dirt forming the mounds had crusted together into a rocky concrete.

Whatever had once called these their homes were no longer there.

            After walking a mile into the forest, past dozens of the makeshift mounds, Xri stopped. Before them was the largest mound by far. It was more than double the size of the previous mounds, with a small trench dug into the front. Like the others, the edges were crusted over and hard. Unlike the others, the soil leading to the top was fresh and loose. If there was ever a sign of use, that seemed to be it.

            Xri gracefully waltzed up the path with no trouble, even with the loose dirt cascading down the hill with each step. Levitas dashed up the hill quick enough to not slip, but was clearly lacking the same finesse. Just behind, Dardaños kept losing his footing as he stumbled up, grasping for the sides of the trench at several instances. Alos had no regard for dexterity however and instead immediately threw himself onto his knees, using his good hand and his legs to work his way up the trench to the top. At the top just past the descending slope to the center, Xri stood waiting.

            There was no burrow on this mound, but instead a platform engraved with an unknown runic language encircling the rim.

            “Ehmrek Ohenden!” Xri’s voice boomed through the forest. The rune beside Xri lit up a vibrant glowing green, emitting a low humming noise. Then, as if in response, each other rune followed, lighting up in a clockwise fashion until the circle of runes had all lit up. Below the feet of the crew, a triangle lining the perimeter of the platform illuminated. A loud creaking noise escaped, like the sound of rusted gears being forced to turn, and then the platform began to descend.

            “I think I am beginning to understand why Merick didn’t come with us,” Alos started to say as he looked down and then turned towards Xri. He hesitated before finishing his sentence,

            “But why not Bert?”

            “He is a bit… bitter about this place.” Xri responded. While the upper half of Xri’s face was covered by his freakish hat as usual, Alos could see tension in his clenching jaw. “Bert is not one of the Guild.”

            “Bert hasn’t exactly had the easiest time with the Guild.” Levitas said, his voice as low and gravely as ever.

            “Iee ‘ave never been tuh ‘ere myself so Iee dun’t really undehrstand,” Dardaños said as he placed his hand on Levitas’ shoulder. “But from what Iee ‘ear dis place is truly amazin’.”

            Alos hesitated momentarily. “If it is as amazing as they say, why doesn’t Bert come? What does he have to be bitter about? I’m not a part of the Guild and yet you’re letting me.” Alos asked as he stared at Levitas and then up at Dardaños. Levitas and Dardaños exchanged glances of obvious frustration over Alos’ never ending bombardment of questions.

            The platform reached the bottom, shaking the room as it made contact with the floor. At the bottom was a long, circular tunnel, illuminated with glowing green domes that emerged in a staggering pattern switching from side to side every few feet. On the walls beside the platform, giant rusty racks scaled the walls at four points around the platform, each with the matching gears resting inside. The metal of the gears was clearly ancient, covered with rust and cobwebs, and looked as though they could crumble to pieces at any second. Alos gulped after realizing what they had just gone down.

            Alos followed behind the rest of the crew down the long tunnel. Along the wall in between the domes, small spastic flickers of light would randomly spark, running from one dome to the next in a circuitry pattern. On the floor that they were walking along, Alos noticed the same effect, but with this, it seemed to radiate out toward the walls with each step of the crew. Everything had the same fluorescent green color, glowing into one large connected pattern. The flickers of light would reflect off Dardaños large metallic arm shining light back onto the walls, revealing the circuit like pattern cut into the wall. The rest of the crew didn’t even seem to notice.

            The tunnel went on and on and then on some more. It must have been a few miles at least from the descending platform. Alos wasn’t in terrible shape, but neither was he in great shape, and he definitely was not used to walking this much in one go. His feet were aching in his shoes and he could feel the weight of his backpack pull on his shoulders.

            “Is this teh slope den?” Dardaños asked as the crew stopped abruptly. 

            Alos’ immediate thought was that they had reached the end of the tunnel and excited to sit, he began poking his head around trying to get look.

            “Aye, Dard this is indeed the slope.” Xri replied; the right side of his mouth pulled up into a snarky grin.

            “’Ow deh yeh suggest gettin’ down den?”

            “I’m surprised you don’t know.” Levitas replied, arching his eyebrow in the green light.

            “Dis isn’t teh hall Iee was initiated intuh. Iee was put through the sect o’er in teh north. Dis doesn’t look fahmiliar teh me.”

            “Well then, we have two newbies here today.” Xri smiled, turning towards Levitas. “Allow me to demonstrate.”

            Xri walked over to the right wall of the tunnel and stopped. He placed his hand against the wall, spreading his fingers outwards, pressing his palm firm against it. The flickering of green circuitry radiated from his hand. Then, Xri’s shoulders rose, and with a roar like a bear, he released a sonic pulse into the tunnel, which echoed down the hall, oscillating from wall to wall. The word Xri pronounced was no word familiar to Alos, and it barely seemed like a word at all, but somehow he knew this harsh forcing of the larynx was language. The guttural growl did create a response though. From a tunnel directly above them descended two of the most frightening beasts Alos had ever laid his eyes on. The dark shadowy figures of two behemoth spiders came spindling down by their webs. Alos nearly fainted from the sight.

            “Gentlemen, your transportation has arrived.” Xri said, walking over to one of the spiders. On top of the spiders were foreign objects, and while they weren’t exactly saddles, it was the closest thing he could relate them to. To the side of each saddle was a dangling fabric ladder that worked its way up to the top of the spider. With the spiders being over nine feet tall, these ladders seemed more than appropriate. Instead of having stirrups for the rider’s feet, the saddles had four giant openings for the rider and passenger to place their legs into. When Alos realized he was going to have his legs enveloped by the saddle, and then strapped in to the monster of a creature, he became hesitant.

            “I’m not so sure about this.” Alos said, staggering back away from the massive arachnids.

            “Do not worry,” Xri grabbed the ladder and swung himself up onto the spider in one smooth motion, “You are coming with me.”

            Levitas mounted the other spider, Dardaños following suit. They placed their legs into the slots on the saddle and the slots closed in around their legs locking them into place. Sticking out in front of each seat was a rectangular handle which Levitas and Dardaños were quick to grab hold of. They both turned to Alos, impatience carved into their expressions.

            “Come on lad, they are just giant friendly bugs.” Xri said facetiously, his teeth bearing from under his hat.

            “Fuck that! I haaaaate spiders, what makes you think GIANT, ENORMOUS, HULKS FOR SPIDERS ARE BETTER?” Fear ran through Alos voice causing it to crack several times.

            “Well then boys, it looks like we are going to have to replace another crew member after today.” Xri announced with a lack of concern.

            Dardaños immediately picked up on Xri’s play. “Aye, and tis so hard tuh find a guhd Omninet user nowadays, tis a shame we’re gonna ‘ave to replace ‘im.”

            Alos’ face went blank.

            “I’ll send word back to the ship to start looking for a new user.” Levitas said, joining in on the provocation. “At least he’ll go for a pretty penny on the market.”

            “You guys can all go to hell.” Alos blurted, walking towards Xri’s spider timidly. He stood in front of the dangling ladder for several moments, taking deep breaths trying to convince himself to go up it. Courage was one thing, but towering super spiders was just not fair.

            A large gulp passed through his throat and he stretched his hand out for the ladder. Alos couldn’t bear to look at the monstrosity he was climbing, keeping his eyes forced shut as he pulled himself slowly up the ladder with one hand. When he finally reached the top, Xri reached back, effortlessly picking him up and then placed him onto the seat, Alos’ legs inserting into the slots. The slots instantly wrapped tight around his legs, a small shriek escaping through his pursed lips. When it was all done and over with Alos’ face bore the expression of someone who had just witnessed a murder, his eyes being wider than the spiders they were on.

            “See that was not so bad.” Xri said, his slanted smile mocking Alos. “Now hold on tight, or you might actually have something to be afraid of.”

            Alos’ arms shot out, his good hand grabbing hold of the rectangular handle with unprecedented strength.  His whole body leaned forward into the grip, bracing for anything and everything that was to come.

            The slope in front of the crew dropped almost straight down into an endless pit. The darkness seemed to billow out of the pit feasting on all approaching light. Alos reluctantly peeked out of his right eye and glanced down at the pit. Did they really expect him to go down that? They had to be out of their god damned minds.

            Before Alos could think another discontentful thought, the spiders jumped over the side of the cliff and began sailing down through the air. He squeezed the handle bar, holding on for dear life as the wind came whistling past, shoving back his facial features. He could feel his heart hitting the inside of his chest, drawing him closer to his undeniable death with each beat. Nervous sweat poured from his face, instantly being caught up in the rushing air. Then, just when he thought he was about to pass out, Alos felt a tremendous jerk and the entire spider bungeed back up into the air before stalling out, hanging just meters from the ground. They were dangling from the inch thick cordage that was the spider’s web.

            “Get up kid, we're only getting started.” Levitas grunted as his spider released from its web landing onto the ground below.

            The spider that Alos was an unfortunate passenger on followed suit, releasing from its web and landing softly onto the ground. Alos didn’t immediately realize that Levitas was talking to him, as he was too busy squeezing the handle with every muscle in his body. When he realized they had landed on the ground, his grip loosened and he sat up.

            “I…I need to lay down.” Alos panted as he clenched his chest.

            Xri commanded his spider into the opening of a cavern which lay at the bottom of the pit, followed closely behind by Levitas. At the mouth of the cavern, jagged rocks pointed out from every wall, including the floor, giving the cavernous mouth the appearance of having teeth. The cave was moist with scattered puddles of water shimmering from an unknown light source in the distance. Water dripped from long stalagmites hanging from the ceiling like the saliva dripping from the mouth of a starving lion.

            “I really hope we're going the right way,” Alos stammered, cautiously looking around the passing cavern, “this doesn’t exactly seem like a paved road.”

             “Your observations are beyond keen.” Xri said sarcastically as they continued through the cavern. Alos drew a flat expression to this remark. The passive aggressiveness in Xri’s comment was almost worth reacting to. Almost.

            “Do not worryee myee friend, wee are soon to come upon tuh towers of trials. Once wee pass through wee will have arrived at tuh guild.” Dardaños was calm and reassuring in his statement. It was nice for Alos to hear something supportive for a change, even if it was from slave driving pirate that was holding him captive. Then his train of thought slammed to a halt.

            “I thought you have never been here? And waaaaait… did you say towers of trials?” Alos squinted in suspicion. “That sounds anything but good.”

            “I ‘ave seen uh map err two in my time in the guild lad.”

            Dardaños’ voice suddenly froze. The light previously filling the cavern had slowly been dimming without Alos realizing it, and now they were in complete darkness. Alos looked back behind him, but he couldn’t even see his own body in the lack of light. Cold chills crawled up his spine and into the back of his head. His body began to shiver unconsciously with small needle like pricks stretching out over his skin. The temperature in the area had suddenly dropped to a frigid, icy frost. The air was thick and permeated with a lack of heat that sucked the warmth from everything it touched. Alos could feel the heat from his breath push back into his face and then dissipate into icy frost as they continued through the pitch black cavern.

            Finally off in the distance, Alos could begin to make out a feint green light. As they drew closer, he realized it was the same green glowing circuitry pattern they had seen when they first entered this place. It formed a trail on the floor leading down to a bright square Alos could make out for a room down at the end. The trail along the ground began to ride up the side of the wall continuing along onto the ceiling then came back down the other side. It continued in this spiral shape growing in width until it finally reached the cutout at the end. With the new found light Alos could see they had been in a completely round hall, with rivets carved out creating staggering circles.

            Bright with the soft radiance of condensed plasma, Alos could clearly make out the next room. Hoisted on the walls of the narrow room were levitating spheres, bobbing ever so slightly from side to side, confined to the magnetic field they were designated. They illuminated the room with bluish purple light that became deeper as it projected further from the source. As the plasma’s light passed from the room to the tunnel, it changed into an emerald green, becoming bent from its original straight path and creating the illusion of a doorway. The room consisted of giant pillars and columns extending up from the ground and out from the walls. Most were razor sharp and jagged, each high enough that if a person were to fall off, he would surely be lost to the darkness below.

            On the other side was a balcony with another doorway; for whatever reason it was the obvious next step. With the giant hairy spiders they were riding, Alos was actually pretty confident that they would cross to the other side with ease. Even so, something was unsettling. There was something else adding a strange hue to the light of the room. Then Alos looked up.

            A smoldering red napalm like substance crawled across the ceiling of the room, Massive flaming drops released falling onto the course below. While most missed the scattered pillars, one managed to drop pinpoint onto one of the only flat columns. The top section of the column began screaming with loud sizzles as it rapidly melted away like butter in a hot pan. After eating through several inches of the pillar, the napalm deteriorated leaving only scorch marks and a newly formed jagged top to the column.

            “Welcome to the Wizard’s Guild, where even crossing a room is a challenge.” Xri’s left cheek scrunched upwards pulling the corner of his mouth up with it. “Now come friends, let us tempt fate.”

            “And here I was thinking we would just swing over on a web from the ceiling…” Alos said pulling his hood up over his head and down over his face. “You lead me through what I think is hell, only to actually bring me TO hell. If you’re going to make me die at least don’t make me watch.”

            “Have some dignity kid,” Levitas rode up beside them, reaching over and pulling Alos’ hood off, “we wouldn’t bring you here if it wasn’t safe.”

            Alos’ head rotated slowly from side to side with disapproval and flat glaring eyes. “Are you fucking kidding me? You bring me along with you guys; slavers, have me break into a slave facility complete with armed mercenaries, you bring me to a sketchy auction out in the middle of nowhere, packed to the god damned gills with creeps and criminals, only to have me shot at and Zeith abducted. Then you bring me to this shit hole. Do you honestly expect me to believe that you would never bring me to anything dangerous?”

            “Aye but lad, you’re still ‘ere, aren’t chya?” Dardaños added, with a ring of genuine sympathy in his voice. Alos eyed Dardaños from the corners of his eyes, before closing his eyes, palming his face and shaking his head.

            “Alright then it is settled. Let's go see the Guild.” Xri added with a nod of his head.

            It was really tempting for Alos to pull his hood back over again. He didn’t want to watch any of this; hell, he didn’t even want to be there. Maybe he should have just stayed back at the ship. Maybe he should have just stayed at home. The neural de-nerving couldn’t have been as bad as any of this. He may have lost his autonomy and been a turned into a vegetable, but at least he wouldn’t have lost his life. The spiders began moving towards the side of the cliff and as they reached the edge, Xri turned back to Levitas and nodded.

            With a running leap, the spiders sprung through the air, whipping their bodies around one hundred and eighty degrees. Time seemed to slow down with every punching beat of Alos’ heart as they flew through the air. Halfway across, the spiders were losing speed, and like bricks tossed off the side of a building, plummeted downwards. Time stood still. Thick webs shot out, latching onto columns sticking out from the wall, swinging the spiders and their riders around. At the apex of the swing, the spiders released, flying meters through the air and whipping their bodies around once again. Before the web could be shot out, a clump of napalm embers dropped heading straight for Levitas and Dardaños. With near prescient reaction speed, Levitas commanded his spider to web the adjacent wall and pull them in. They shot across, and then zipped over to the wall with the hyperbolic arachnid clinging onto the side. While Levitas seemed to be completely unfazed, Dardaños sat wide eyed in the realization of his near death.

            Suddenly, the ceiling let out a barking rumble.

            The entirety of the room shook violently, the columns shaking off pieces of loose rubble, and the plasma spheres bouncing around like pinballs in a machine. Hellfire began pouring from the sky, with chunks ranging from golf balls to watermelons raining down from the ceiling with each vibration of the room.

            What happened next, Alos was not entirely sure of. He saw a sequence of images blurred together by the watering of his eyes, coupled with the sensation of him being thrown around to the point of whiplash. His body screamed as he felt the blackness overtaking his vision and then with the overwhelming stench of metal, he finally he blacked out.

            When Alos awoke, he realized it had only been a few minutes, if that, from when he lost consciousness. He found himself still locked into the back of the spider, but now they were on the other side, on the balcony.

            “So wat ‘appened back dare? I thought wee was done for.” Dardaños said nervously.

            “It would appear that there was a quake as we were crossing.” Xri replied. “A smidgen of bad luck, that is all.” He shrugged.

            “Bad luck?! We almost all died in the most horrible way possible, and you want to chalk it up to bad luck?” Alos responded, his face bearing sharp pressed lines of deep anger.

            “It happened, it’s done, get over it.” Levitas interjected.

            Alos shook his head, eyes wide and bloodshot with frustration, staring down at the rectangular handle.

            “I hate you all so much.”

             Carved out of the wall on the balcony they were on was a wide, irregularly shaped passageway. Like the hallways before, it was lined with glowing circuitry on the walls, floor, and ceiling. Something felt different though. The air took on a thickness only describable by the increase of perceived density they seemed to be pushing through with each stride. Chills ran throughout Alos body, his skin puckering into bumps at the sensation. His breathing became rhythmic and forceful, each breath more full than the last. This was unlike anything Alos had ever felt before; a blend of unreasonable excitement, physical stimulation, and complete clarity of thought. Alos felt as though the back of his eyes opened up and his subjective biases melted away. He was overcome with supreme awareness, down to each individual floating dust particle drifting before his eyes. The intentions of the other three with him were laid out before him, each flushed out with full access. Empathetic understanding of his role within this crew came to him; he finally came to acceptance of being with these people. He suddenly knew that these were not bad people, that these were martyrs for a moralistic ideal and that he, well he was just an unfortunate traveler intersecting with their lives. His chains to them were only chains if he lets them be. He realized this, but how and more specifically why? Only seconds earlier he had been furious with them and now this? Alos did not understand.

            Just then, they passed through the end of the passageway, stepping out of the darkness of the tunnel, and into the area of one of the most majestic sights eyes could behold. There was an underground city with natural stone walkways bridging throughout. Concentrically built architecture stretched out from the center point which stood above the rest of the city. At the center was a massive column with something at the top Alos couldn’t quite make out. Around the perimeter of the city, stairways led down, cutting into the ground and allowing access to the depths which lay even further underneath.

            “Welcome, friends.” Xri removed his hat, pushing it back, and letting it hang from his neck. It was the first glance Alos had actually seen of Xri’s uncovered face. His face was narrow and lean with his mouth lined by a black goatee. The electric amethyst eyes that Alos had previously seen sat strong and held an edge even the sharpest blade would envy. Small stripes of yellow appeared to be almost beaming from each of his pupils. Below both eyes were small tattooed runic symbols, both glistened like platinum, in fact, Alos could swear they were platinum. They were small boxes with lines extending from the top of the boxes to his lower eyelids. Between his two eyes, just above on his brow ridge, there was a third emblem. It was the invert of the others being a box with a line extending from the bottom down between his two eyes and stopping over his nose ridge. Unlike the other two this emblem glistened with the color of Xri’s eyes. The color shifted and danced with the morphing violet colors of his eyes. Above his brow, tied over his head was a light black bandana. A mane of bandanas tied first into the black one then connected like links on a chain, streaming down his back, with one thin white bandana hanging forward around his throat.

            Alos’ eyes went blank. He refocused them onto the goosebumps covering his right stub.

            “Why…why do I feel this way?” Alos’ voice stammered, unsure of what to make of all that was happening.

            “The guild manufactures an artificial atmosphere down here. It is several times more oxygen rich.” Xri said as he commanded his spider down the slope leading into the city. “Most of the initiated feel like you do constantly.”

            “You three included?” Alos’ question was met with three nodding heads.

            They had arrived at the bottom of the slope, where a band of bards were playing a bizarre arrangement of music, standing in front of a massive road that cut straight through the encompassing buildings and right to the center pillar of the city. Bright strings accompanied by the high pitched whistle of a flute carried the song. A spiderhorn was being played with its low nasally notes resonating through the music.

            The four stopped in front of the band, the saddle finally releasing them from the monstrosities they were riding. Alos could not get off fast enough, nearly falling on his face in his attempt to scurry down the ladder one handed. Xri and Levitas jumped down from the nine foot tall spiders as if it were nothing, landing with incomparable grace. Dardaños slowly descended down the ladder, struggling some but eventually joining the rest. The spiders returned back to the way they came from, walking up the slope and then disappearing back into the darkness of the passageway.

            Xri led the other three past the group of musicians. As he passed them, the spiderhorn player paused mid note and did a double take towards Xri. His mouth sagged open around the mouthpiece of his instrument in astonishment, joined soon after by the rest of the band with the exact same reaction. Alos could hear them murmuring to each other but could only pick out Xri’s name from what they said. They spoke his name with an upwards, surprised inflection.

            “What's their deal?” Alos said out loud to no one in particular.

            “Xri is somtin’ uhf a celebrity ‘round the Guild. Tis been ‘while since eee’s been ‘ere too.” Dardaños said, as he stared down at his mechanical hand, trying to entertain himself by making it spin. “People get excited when ‘ee comes ‘round.”

            “You make me sound like some kind of superhero.” Xri said, laughingly.

            “To these people you are.” Levitas added, his voice coarse like stiff bristles brushing over asphalt.

            Along the path Alos noticed more and more people turning and staring at their group, Xri particularly. It was strange to him how these busy people would stop abruptly at whatever they were doing and turn their attention to Xri. It reminded him of his parents back at home. It was then when he noticed the initial elation of the increased oxygen has lessened.

            The crew was closing in on the center pillar of the city, its height becoming more exaggerated as they drew nearer. Glowing lines stretched from the path towards and then up the pillar onto the top. Alos had no idea what they led to, but with it being at the center of the city mounted on a massive pillar, he figured it had to be important.

            Off in the distance, Alos could see a small dark shape moving towards them. It grew larger and larger until he could finally make out what it was. A strangely dressed man with dark skin was running towards them. He was wearing a body suit that wrapped nearly skin tight, with giant baggy sleeves occupying both the arms and legs of the suit. Around the man’s neckline, Alos could tell a large draping hood hung behind, and on top of his head rested a hat, brown and bamboo like Xri’s, but only about a quarter of the size. Fists pumped in and out of the hanging sleeves as the man ran towards them.

            “XRI!” The man shouted, finally catching up to them. His speech was broken up by a plethora of pants and gasps for air. “Xri… the council… has been broken!” The man paused and took take a deep breath. “I was monitoring the trackers, when Zeith’s just shut off!”

            “He was kidnapped by none other than Captain Van’s Rashakaan sphere ship.” With Xri’s hat off, Alos could see the uneasiness in his eyes.

            “Captain Van?! THEE CAPTAIN VAN!?” The dark skinned wizards eyes opened so wide Alos was expecting his eyes to roll right out of their sockets.

            “If Divimatia is involved to the point that they are employing not only the Rashakaan, but Van himself, they want Zeith for more than just his crimes.”

            Alos was less interested in the conversation they were having and was more interested in the dark skinned wizard himself. He was not just interested, he was fascinated. He had never seen a dark skinned person before; the vast majority of them were rounded up and killed during The Cleansing over a hundred years ago, making them beyond rare. Sure, that had happened countless generations ago and yeah, the survivors probably bred those genes out or died, but genocide is genocide and yet sure enough, here was a dark skinned person alive and kicking. This man was a statistical impossibility. As Alos tuned his attention back into the conversation, he realized he had missed quite a bit.

            “I am not even sure how they managed to find him; part of the point of him being on my ship in the first place was to help hide his whereabouts.” Xri shook his head. “All I know is that they did find him, and all that matters now is that we go get him. Do not worry Raszen, I will not allow them to hold my master.

            “This is not good, not good, not good.” The Raszen said, paranoia ringing through his voice, his head bobbing back and forth.

            “Without Zeith the council is broken and we cannot conduct the ritual of commune; how are we supposed to initiate? Without Zeith we cannot commence the Ritual if need be; how are we to summon help?! Without him we lack necessary power to defend the Guild halls! Without him the guild is vulnerable…"

            “Raszen, calm down.” Xri looked down into Raszen's eyes. “We'll get him back, before any of that has a chance to happen.”

            “I... okay Xri.” Raszen’s eyes rolled back and forth along the floor. “Just make sure you hurry, there are rumors of war, and I have no idea how long stability can be maintained.” He looked up with obvious fear in his eyes and a horrified expression that burnt into Alos’ mind.

            Xri lightly clenched his hand onto the shoulder of Raszen, his eyes piercing through him,

            “We will be back soon.”

            Raszen released a sigh of trust.

            “ee-ae-ee oh-wee-ooh, my friend, my brother, my counselor.”