Chapter 5

The Venomwood began to thin as the trio approached the calm and quiet town of Sandros the next morning. They had had to stop after a while and make camp the previous night. Lani had stood watch to let Zan get a good nights sleep. She didn’t mind keeping the fire lit and listening for nocturnal predators, her Viera hearing was very sensitive when she couldn’t see well. She had fought off a few little critters but nothing she couldn’t handle swiftly and without waking the others.

As they neared the town Zan noticed that the creatures, and even the animals, shied away from them and the town. When they drew nearer, there were none at all.

Sandros was a big town but not big enough to call a city. It was quiet because few travellers had reason to go there unless they had business there. Other than traders, few people’s journeys brought them to Sandros and so at least eighty percent of the townspeople were Nu Mou. Sandros was the town where Nu Mou ancestry led.

Almost immediately after reaching the main street, the friends were greeted by two Nu Mou who insisted that the trio bring their injured friend to the town healer. Not knowing what else to do, Mist was carried to a house just off the main road.

It was a nice small house. The roof was pointed and made of thatch and the walls were made of large stones. Once inside, a short, old Nu Mou wearing a white robe and wielding a gnarled staff greeted them.

“I am Meranim. Please, sit while I heal your friend,” she said, gesturing for Zan and Lani to sit in the two armchairs in the front room of the house.

The room was cosy, with strange symbols marking many objects like rugs and cushions. The house was dimly lit. Only candles gave light since the curtains, which also had strange and likely magical symbols on them, were stretched out to cover the windows and show the symbols properly.

Mist lay down on the sofa across from Lani and Zan. The three chairs, a rug and two tables were the only furnishings in the room. The kindly old mage stood next to Mist and undid the bandage around Mist’s stomach. She held her hands in front of her as if holding an invisible ball with one hand on and one hand under it. Next, she slid her hands around the imaginary ball until they had swapped places. She then brought her hands together pointing up, fingers and thumbs perfectly aligned and tilted them towards Mist.

“Cura!” cried the old mage in a hoarse voice.

Small green flashes of light surrounded Mist as two semi-transparent bells rang almost silently above her. The sight lasted only a few seconds and then disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared. As it did, so did Mist’s wound.

“There you go, young sorceress. Now I suppose you’ll be wanting to go about your business. Off you go then,” Meranim said in a cheery way.

“Sorry, but I’m not a sorceress,” Mist replied as she got up, a little careful of where her wound had been.

“Well strike me down if this be the day when I don’t recognise a sorceress’ aura,” Meranim said just a little offended, “You have a powerful magical presence about you, and all around you. If you aren’t a sorceress then you should be. A sorcerer would be proud to have one like you as their apprentice.”

“Well while we’re here, maybe you can learn a few new spells,” Lani told her enthusiastically.

Mist shrugged, “I guess I could.”

“If I may ask,” Zan interrupted, “Why don’t the creatures from the surrounding woods enter the town? I find it curious that they are afraid to come near the town border.”

“That’s because of the Expel Barrier,” Meranim explained, “A large and powerful barrier surrounds our town, preventing any creatures from crossing it. They instinctively avoid it, so that’s why they don’t even come close. The original barrier was made by the Nine Sorcerers themselves.”

“Original barrier?” Zan queried.

“Oh, yes. The barrier was breached once and we were forced to erect a new one,” Meranim replied.

“How could the Nine Sorcerers magic be breached?” Lani asked, quite stunned.

“Well that was our fault,” Meranim answered, “A few elemental monsters attacked the outskirts of the town with magic so we tried to add a magic proof barrier as well but the two spells cancelled each other out. After that we had to re-erect the original barrier using an ancient spell that very few sorcerers know of.”

“That’s pretty interesting, Meranim. But, guys, lets not forget to do what we came to do,” Mist said.

“And what is that, young one?” Meranim asked, now rather curious of the children.

“Oh, we came to investigate the noises coming from the Mages Tower,” Lani answered, caught off guard by the unexpected question.

The white mage frowned and turned away. “Evil things be in there now. None have dared enter since we found the dead apprentice. Such a nice girl she was, Eve.”

“Did you say Eve?” Mist asked hurriedly and with more energy than she thought she had, “A sorceress named Eve?” She sounded both shocked and frightened.

“Yes, that’s right. Her name was Evelyn, but we all called her Eve,” Meranim replied. She smiled as she thought of the kind, young girl, “Why? What’s wrong dear?” she asked Mist.

“Yeah, Mist. What’s wrong?” Zan asked with concern.

Mist had paled a bit at the reminder of her odd dream. It was a dream, she told herself, wasn’t it? “It’s nothing,” she told them.

They thanked Meranim for her help and offered to pay her but the kindly mage refused.

“I work for free in this town and in return everyone around here helps this old Nu Mou for free as well. It’s just a nicer way for the world to work, I think,” she told them.

The friends headed to the tallest building in the town. It wasn’t hard to find. The Mages Tower was a seven-tiered, octagonal building with a wide level at the bottom, and slightly smaller levels as the tower got higher. The ground level was made of red bricks and the others were made of sand-colored weatherboards. Each level had a rim of red tiles that ran around the edge of the roof and the top floor had a cone of tiles on it.

As they approached the tower they heard them. They heard the sounds that had been occurring since the morning of the apprentice’s death. Eve’s death.

First was a piercing scream, then a deep, beastly roar and finally a loud, muffled sound that even Lani’s Viera hearing couldn’t identify.

“That happens every hour and a bit,” a voice said from in front of them.

The trio had been paying all of their attention to the tower so they didn’t notice that a human sorcerer had approached them from the tower steps.

“None are allowed to enter until the Head Sorcerer has deemed it safe. He is investigating it now,” said the sorcerer. He was wearing the light blue robe of a sorcerer who had trained in the tower. Sorcerers from Sandros often came to Andandrea.

“But we’ve come to help. Word was supposed to have been sent from Andandrea,” Zan told him.

The sorcerer went to confer with his companion still waiting at the steps.

“What are you doing?” Lani asked in a shouted whisper.

“Getting us inside. You don’t want to have to go home now after all this, do you?” Zan replied as the sorcerer returned.

“We did receive word that some adventurers would be coming to investigate. You’ll find the Head Sorcerer inside somewhere. Be careful,” the sorcerer told them as he went to open the door.

Zan followed in a manner that implied that he had expected nothing less while the girls stood dumbfounded that his plan had actually worked. After a discrete gesture from Zan they recovered and hurriedly caught up to him before he reached the door. They entered the dark structure together and the door was shut behind them.

The torches that normally illuminated the tower were, for the most part, extinguished. Only a few of them that would normally have lit the main entrance hall were burning in their notches along the walls. Under the assumption that the rest of the tower would be lit in the same way and with the possibility of creatures as well, the trio took an extinguished torch each and lit them from the burning ones.

They began to venture along the hallway and came upon a stone, spiral staircase. The torches along it were sparsely lit and it had a very eerie presence, but that wasn’t going to stop them. Nothing could be as terrifying as those sounds. They went up the counter-clockwise spiral and found that it only went up one floor.

“How are we supposed to go up from here? Magic?” Lani asked in anger. She seemed to be directing her question at the roof.

“The tower is set out as a test for apprentice sorcerers,” Zan explained as they went around a corner into another spooky corridor, “They must face their masters on each floor and can only reach the next floor if they can cross the one that they are on.”

“I’m glad we don’t have to do that,” Lani said as they turned a corner and she was forced to eat her words.

In the middle of the floor were four gelatinous blobs. The room was better lit than the main entrance and they could be identified easily.

“Flans,” Mist stated, “I figured that magical creatures, if any, would hide out in here,” She had a touch of worry in her voice. Flans were very resistant to physical damage and could only be seriously hurt by magic.

The flans turned to face the intruders and began breathing heavily. Their colour and breath revealed their elemental alignments. One of them was orange and breathed fire, so it was obviously a Heat Flan. Another one was blue and breathed bubbles, that meant that it was an Aqua Flan. The third was green and breathed electricity, making it a Shock Flan. Finally, the fourth one was blue but breathed frost, which meant that it was an Ice Flan. Because they knew their opponents elements it was possible to use the right magic to severely harm them and use the least amount of magical energy needed to beat them.

The Ice Flan and Aqua Flan began shuddering as if they were about to explode.

“They’re casting spells. Move!” Zan shouted and the trio moved just in time to avoid a column of water and a barrage of icicles.

They all dropped their torches and prepared their spells. Mist raised her hand and thought of a candle flame, burning in darkness. She pointed her outstretched arm at the Ice Flan.

“Fire!” she shouted and a fireball leapt from her hand to the flan. It writhed in pain as the flames scorched its body making it slump over, refusing to die. Another fireball finished it off and it turned into a shadow and vanished in a whiff of smoke.

Simultaneously, Zan held out his hand with his middle and index fingers outstretched and his palm down. He focused on a rolling storm cloud and jerked his wrist down.

“Thunder!” he called and a bolt of lightning struck the Aqua Flan, seemingly from nowhere. It too faded to black and vanished in a wisp of smoke.

Lani held her hand out, palm up and with her three middle fingers outstretched. Her focus was a single drop of water; once she was ready she flicked her fingers straight up.

“Water!” she called. A column of water erupted from beneath the Shock Flan, it tilted its head back and began to melt into the now damp floorboards, and then it vanished into smoke as well.

Now only the Heat Flan remained but since none of them had been watching it, they were caught by surprise when it cast a fireball right at Lani. She ducked swiftly but not fast enough to completely avoid the flames. The fireball zoomed past her and singed her left ear.

She yelped as the pain quickly registered. Zan didn’t see where she had been hurt and immediately rushed to see if she was all right. That left Mist to deal with the flan. She held her hand out palm up but with her wrist twisted back. She thought of a simple snowflake and flung her hand outwards.

“Blizzard!” she shouted as a volley of ice fragments flew towards the flan, pin cushioning it, making it turn into a shadow and vanish just like the others.

“Is she going to be ok?” Mist asked Zan who was examining Lani’s ear. She didn’t look too happy about that.

“She’ll be fine. Her fur is blackened a bit but she isn’t hurt,” he announced.

“Don’t talk like my fur doesn’t matter,” Lani said trying to act as offended as she could. Like every Viera, she was very concerned about her fur.

The rest of the tower was much like the first part. Every level, the trio would encounter a group of magical creatures like flans and elementals, becoming more powerful each time. After they had defeated them they were able to reach the next staircase.

On the fifth floor after they had beaten a group of Gold and Red elementals, lightning and fire types respectively, they found a small, dry fountain in the wall. The instructions read that a water spell cast in this fountain would produce a healing drink.

“Let’s try it,” Lani said enthusiastically. She just wanted to get rid of the burn marks in her fur.

“Fine, but you’re the test subject,” Zan said as he cast the spell and the fountain filled up. Lani cupped her hands and drank some water. Slowly the burn on her ear vanished and she bounced up and down joyously, so the other two drank some and felt rejuvenated.

“I think we’ve stopped long enough,” Zan said after a few moments rest. The water did make them feel rested. They proceeded to the next staircase and climbed to the sixth floor where they encountered a large and fierce looking creature.

The chimera was eight feet tall and it had three heads, a bull, a lion and an eagle. It had a very muscular, red-purple, human like body and a snake for a tail. Its hands were claws and its feet were hooves. Large black wings stuck out from its back and flames spouted from the bull’s mouth.

“If I recall correctly, the heads and tail all have their own elements, so if we use the right spells on the right parts then we can beat it,” Zan said quietly while the Chimera still hadn’t noticed them.

They each prepared to cast different spells and entered the room. The creature turned from the nearby corner and roared at them. It crouched down and curled the snake over its back. Static crackled along the snake.

“Mine,” said Mist who had been preparing a water spell. She forced the water to fall from the roof to reach the snake, a very difficult variation of the water spell sometimes used to imitate rain. The snake hissed and sizzled before collapsing on the Chimeras back. It wasn’t too pleased with that and took a swipe with its claw just short of reaching the trio. They split up, Mist and Zan on the creatures left and Lani on its right.

The bull’s head was still spitting flames and it was side on to Zan who was ready to cast a blizzard spell. He took aim and flung the ice shards, which struck it in the face when it turned as it heard him cast the spell. Its vision was not impaired in the least since it still had an eagle’s sight. The lion’s side arm, the right arm lifted above its heads and formed a ball of water.

It was about to splash it down on Mist and Zan when Lani called out, “Mine,” and cast a thunder spell on the lion’s head. The Chimera was disoriented and weakened and had only one target and one element left.

“Mine,” Zan called and he launched a fireball right at the eagle’s head. It screeched and the Chimera backed up leaving a defenceless body. The three of them drew their weapons and attacked head on. Their swords and arrows hit without resistance and the Chimera fell to the floor. It turned into a giant shadow and slowly shrank as wisps of smoke blew away, leaving a tiny pile of gil and two ethers. They were most likely things that it had found in the tower.

The trio knew that this wasn’t the source of the sounds for it had sounded nothing like what they had heard outside. That meant that the top floor, as they had suspected, was where they would finally get answers.

As they began to walk towards the staircase at the back of the room they heard a strange sound unlike that of before and very soft. They spun around to face the corner behind them, weapons raised in a defensive posture.

A man sat in the corner with his arms wrapped around his knees. His eyes were as wide as they could be, maybe wider if that were possible. His pupils were tiny and he looked as if he had truly lost his mind. His bushy grey eyebrows were raised almost to his white hair that was covered mostly by his wizard’s hat. He wore a blue robe like all other sorcerers who had trained in the tower and he also wore a white cape that could barely be seen against the wall behind him. He was mumbling something inaudibly.

“Who is he?” Mist pondered.

“Obviously he’s the Head Sorcerer,” Zan stated.

“What do you mean ‘obviously’?” Mist asked sounding honestly curious but a little hurt.

“The only person other than us who is allowed in here is the Head Sorcerer according to those guards. Therefore he could only be the Head Sorcerer,” he explained in a deductive tone.

“Well, what is he mumbling then? Lani?” Mist looked at Lani who understood the request.

She twitched her long ears and focused very hard on the sorcerer. She could barely make out the sounds but she put them together using the movement of his mouth.

“I think he keeps repeating ‘The beast has risen,’ or something like that,” she told them.

Mist frowned. It couldn’t be, but I’ll bet it is. She turned in a swift motion picking up her torch, which had once again been dropped in apprehension of battle, and she dashed for the staircase.

The other two followed her after a brief moment of confusion. They wondered what could make Mist so eager to go that she would risk going without them.

They reached the top of the stairs and entered an antechamber. It was better lit than the rest of the tower and it had a tapestry on the left and right walls depicting a battle where magic was being used to defeat strange creatures. There was a similarly decorated rug running from the stairs to the double doors on the opposite wall.

Mist approached the door and her friends stood to either side, no longer as curious about why Mist had run off as they were about what was beyond the door. Their journey from the entrance must have taken over an hour but they would finally find out what was making those awful sounds.

Mist reached for the silver door handles and pushed the doors open, and she went pale at the sight that was revealed.

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Dun dun dun! I finally got to use a cliffy! Wait, what finally? I’m only up to chapter 5. Wow, this was a long one too. Oh well, tune in next time for the dramatic conclusion. Oh, by the way, if anyone is interested I have posted the link to a map of my world on my bio stated under the link, the map is my intellectual property, not the property of Square-Enix.I still don’t own Final Fantasy, which is the property of Square-Enix, who I have not given proper credit for their wonderful material until now.