Prologue
A solitary, wavering glow lit the cavern. Four men walked along carefully, all of them marveling at the glowing pulse that spidered through the stone like veins. The two leading the way were older. One grasped a staff firmly, the constant clattering as it found its way back to the tunnel’s rock floor the only noise other than the unyielding dripping of water from above.
“I really don’t like it down here.” The young black-haired man fidgeted as he followed his master.
“No need to be worried kid.” The older man without a staff responded.
“I am not a child! And I have a name you know.”
The other young man snickered; his hands clasped behind his orange-haired head. “Yeah, he’s got a name, Alvin.”
“Show some respect. Alvin is your superior by many years.” The staff slammed into the ground and the orange-haired boy flinched.
“Right. Sorry Master Knell.” He scratched his neck. “Um. But I do agree with Nora. Something about this just feels wrong. We shouldn’t be down here.”
“It feels like it’s going to collapse in on us any second,” Nora’s eyes flickered along the walls. “Or like it’s alive.”
“I didn’t realize we managed to raise such paranoid apprentices.” Master Knell shook his head.
“Look,” Master Alvin said. “We’re mages. The world is running out of magic, don’t try to tell me you don’t feel it. If there’s this much tucked away and trapped in the earth, we should release it.”
“You don’t think it might be tucked away for a reason?” Knell’s apprentice reached out and tapped the wall. Electricity snapped around his fingers and he jerked back. “This is a really bad…” He tore his eyes from the wall and looked forward.
A huge cavern sprawled out before them, spires of marbled grey-white shoving their way through the capacious ceiling. Water leapt from the spikes in a near constant flow. Like drool from a hound’s fang. A thin rim ran around the edge of the cavern, which was somehow bequeathed with a lush carpet of moss and thick twisting vines that grew out into almost-bare trees, the bases of their growth visible through the vine-laced crystalline structures, making them seem more like exotic house plants than wild designs of nature. Below the rim the enormous hemisphere was echoed in the stalactites that bore through the surface of an ever-rippling pool of water that was clearer than the wells of every city, town, or village any of the four had ever been to. Every tiny fish, every bright green slime, every piece of moss that tainted the white spires easily visible.
The pulsing had stopped. A steady, clean glow had taken its place, emitted by an orb which remained stock-still smack in the middle of the cavern. Its light warmed the sun-deprived skin of the visitors as if in a graceful welcome or blessing.
Seconds dripped by. Then minutes. At last Alvin broke the silence. “This has got to be the most striking place I’ve ever seen.”
Master Knell swung his staff in a gentle underhand arc, sending up a misting of pollen, fragments of moss, and tiny flowers. They swam and wafted through the air before falling to rest upon an invisible path. “After you Alvin.”
“No no, I insist you go first.” Master Alvin smiled.
Master Knell knitted his eyebrows together. “Oh, but it’s so amusing to watch you try to navigate my bridges.”
His apprentice sniggered, trying in vain to hide it behind his hand. Nora glared at him.
Master Knell stepped onto the invisible platform, closely followed by Master Alvin. The golden pollen and bits of plant sprung up around their feet before floating over the edge and into the water below.
Master Alvin glanced back at the two apprentices. “You two stay here and put up a barrier. The last thing I want is for you two to get overwhelmed by the amount of raw magic.”
“What about you two?”
Master Alvin’s eyes shifted from one apprentice to the other, a wide smile on his face. “Relax, this is what we’re trained to do.”
“Sort of anyway.” Master Knell chimed merrily as they approached the orb.
“I’ve still got a bad feeling about this…” Nora slowly raised his hands, spreading his fingers wide.
“You and me both.” Master Knell’s apprentice did the same.
The two masters stood directly on either side of the orb.
“Ready?” Master Knell said.
“Might as well be.” He glanced sidelong at Nora who let out a deep breath.
The two masters spread out on the invisible supports, standing to either side of the orb, crystalline keys glinting in the pulsating light emanating from the massive orb. They lifted their hands to the orb, eyes closed. Then a pulse ripped through the cavern.