Biography of an Archmage

Kyle slept, and dreamed. He dreamed dark dreams of blood and steel and fire. Dreams of death, and ashes.

But he woke slowly, and as the dreams faded their details melted like fog, and he could no longer remember them. His nightmares were replaced by reality, and that was almost more frightening than the dreams.

He sat up slowly, the soreness in his muscles a reminder of yesterday, of running for his life. He groaned, and looked around. Dim light was filtering through roots that made up the entrance of the cave, morning light. Pocahontas was sitting with her back against the wall a few feet away. As far away as she could, actually. It was a small cave. Read the rest of this entry »

Llara did not say anything as he told her his story. Kyle sounded somewhat awkward, almost like he was trying to describe a dream that did quite make sense the next morning.

Honestly, it sounded like a dream. Or the ravings of a madman. But there was a hint of truth to it. For one thing, although the world was large, and there were many lands Llara had never seen, she had never heard of any place like the ones he spoke of. The names were strange, and from what she could tell from what he was saying, the customs even stranger. How could he have flown from one land to another? Were their Wizards that powerful there? Read the rest of this entry »

The stone glowed a brilliant green. Kyle just stared at it for a second, really shocked. There it was, the egg-sized stone he had grabbed from the stream, covered in the strange writing, glowing like a light bulb. It almost hurt his eyes a little to look at it. He held it out in front of him, palm up, and his fingers cast shadows on the walls.

He looked at Pocahontas – er, Llara. He could see her quite clearly now in the bright light from the stone. Her pale skin was green in the light, and she looked almost as shocked as he felt.

Then he felt it. The tingle of something in his palm, like a tiny, gentle spark of electricity between his hand and the stone. His memory flashed back to what had happened last time he held the stone, and he dropped it. Read the rest of this entry »

Kyle collapsed onto the dirt floor of the cave, gasping for breath. His lungs felt like they were on fire, and there were little white spots dancing in his vision. He had not run that hard for that long in, well, ever.

Of course, Pocahontas was not even breathing hard.

They had run for what seemed like hours. It had not even been a simple run over even ground, which would have been hard. Instead it had been a crouched darting and weaving through trees and undergrowth, trying to make as little noise as possible. His legs had started to hurt after only a few minutes, but every time he started to think about stopping there would be a noise or movement in the forest, just out of sight. A constant reminder of their pursuit. Each time they heard or saw something the girl he was following would change directions and speed up, and somehow they managed to avoid contact. Read the rest of this entry »

Llara moved quickly, but not nearly as quickly as she would have liked. The soft, untrained city dweller she had following her made sure of that. And although she made almost no noise as she moved through the undergrowth, he made more than enough noise for the both of them. It was a wonder that the orcs had not found them yet.

She glanced back at the man, and sighed. Honestly, he was not doing all that bad. He was no hunter, but he moved much quieter than most cityfolk. It seemed he did have some experience in traveling in the forest, and he was keeping up with her rather well. He was breathing heavily, obviously pushing himself, but they were moving quickly. Not as quickly as she would have liked, but faster than she had expected a city dweller to manage. Read the rest of this entry »

Kyle blinked.

The dream had been so vivid, it had almost felt like it was real. He could almost feel the cold from the snow on his feet.

He blinked again, and looked around. He was standing, somehow, and breathing heavily. He was holding something, and when he looked down it was – the sword from the dream!

Kyle shook his head. What the hell? It was wet, and dripping onto the floor. Read the rest of this entry »

He stood in the snow, the cold seeping through his boots. The steel on the outside did nothing to stop it, and the leather within did not do enough. The snow was dry, the powdery kind that made creaking noises as his feet moved.

It creaked when his enemy moved as well. Read the rest of this entry »

Kyle groaned. His left shoulder hurt, and his back, and his head. The wind had been knocked out of him, and he was just now recovering his breath.

He rolled over, slowly, dirt and bits of heather falling off him, and looked around.

He could not see much. Light was pouring in from the hole overhead, and brightly illuminating the immediate area, and blinding him to the darkness beyond. He could not see any walls, so the chamber had to be fairly large. The floor was flat and stone, and he was sitting in a rather large pile of dirt and small stones. The ceiling looked like it was made of large blocks of smooth stone, and he had fallen through a hole where one of the blocks had fallen out. He could see it, just at the edge of the circle of light. The pile of dirt he had luckily landed in must have fallen through the hole before, and weakened that area until it was only a network of roots. And of course, his weight had carried him right through it. Head-first. Read the rest of this entry »

Kyle woke, cold, sore, and stiff, face down on hard ground. He rolled over, and grunted softly as the slight exertion sent pain lancing from his muscles, and twigs poked at him. He looked up at the crystal clear sky, and rested for a moment, before trying to move again.

The crystal clear sky, with no clouds in sight.

Or trees. Or mountains. Read the rest of this entry »

Llara pushed her way through the undergrowth at the edge of the woods with practiced ease, into the large field between the woods and the tiny village of New Rinsdale. The villagers kept the field meticulously clear of anything that reached above knee-high, and as much as Llara loved the forest, she understood their reasoning. Anything bigger than that could provide cover for something coming out of the forest, and the villagers were a nervous lot. Their nervousness was certainly understandable, because Old Rinsdale had been leveled by a raiding band of orcs less than forty years ago. It had been a nice place, but it didn’t have a three hundred pace clearing between the edge of town and the forest. The orcs had snuck up to the low palisade surrounding the town, and had been climbing the wall before the alarm was even raised. Read the rest of this entry »