Mark of the Fool
Chapter 624: The Coming Storm

It was subtle.

So subtle that most folk wouldn’t have noticed it.

From deep within Alex’s mind, anintruding urge and an insistent whisper sprouted.

There’s nothing down there, it said.

I’m wasting time here, it whispered.

Spending time here will only delay us, I need to stay away from there, it murmured.

Each thought followed deep feelings of aversion; a range of emotions bubbled inside of him. That sense of discomfort, of growing fear, a persistent urge to be away, and even irritation, all slowly simmered in his mind, surging, demanding not to be ignored when his attention stayed too long on the forest below.

At the same time, his mind rationalised those feelings, working to justify them:

‘It’s just a forest. An empty one at that. There’s no way Carey would be down there. Maybe someone, or something’s influencing Professor Jules’ device. That’s what I’d do. I’d find a way to stop Carey from being tracked. I’d find a way to hide my location from any magic that could track her. There’s no way a regular-looking bit of woodland has Carey and Merzhin hidden in it. I don’t feel any mana or dungeon core magic down there. Time’s precious, we can’t spare any wasting it on this place.’

The more Alex tried focusing on the woods below them, the more insistent his thoughts encouraging him to leave became.

He had to anchor himself.

“Illusion,” he heard Thundar suddenly say. Though he couldn’t see him, he could hear the strain in his friend’s voice. “Listen to your own voice, Thundar,” the minotaur said to himself. “Ground yourself. Let it go. It’s just like in the hells: intruding thoughts worming their way into your head. Let them pass. Let it pass.”

“Yes,” Drestra’s voice crackled. “Just like in Tenebrama. Just like the hells. We’ve dealt with this before. It’s not new. Let it go.”

Together the three wizards took on the power invading their minds, letting it pass over them while acknowledging the interfering thoughts as something not their own.

“What is…happening?” Claygon asked.

Slowly, Alex felt the aversion begin quieting, loosening its hold on his mind, never fully dying, but by being mindful of its presence, he could sort through it to anchor to his own thoughts.

Moments later, Drestra and Thundar’s breathing returned to a calm, even pace.

“We’re alright now, Claygon,” Alex said. “I think we’ve got things under control.”

“Damn, that was rough,” Thundar growled. “It felt like we were right back in the hells again. I could see shit like that happening in the hells, but not out here in Thameland, and it came right outta the blue too. No warning, no nothing.”

“I find anything controlling someone else’s mind is beyond any line that should ever be crossed.” the Sage of Uldar’s voice crackled with heat. “What was it? I didn’t feel any mana, and I don’t know of any dungeon capable of doing something like that.”

“Might’ve been a divinity,” Alex focused on the forest. “I haven’t studied divine power much, so I can’t say for sure, but…”

“...it’d explain a lot,” Thundar finished. “Would pretty much confirm that it was the church that took Merzhin and Carey, wouldn’t it?”

“Yes, and that would explain why Merzhin disappeared without a fight; if some priest told him to follow, he might have gone willingly…” She paused. “…which means, we might have to fight him too—Wait, hold on. What about the Ravener-spawn? Those petrifying monsters couldn’t be a coincidence. If the church took Merzhin and Carey, does that mean they’re working with the Ravener?”

“At this point, I’d believe just about anything.” Alex muttered, his jaw tensing. “I would—Claygon!”

The Thameish wizard suddenly remembered what the golem had said. “Did you say that the aeld branch remembers this place, or did I imagine that? I still feel like someone was trying to turn my mind into scrambled eggs.”

“You didn’t…imagine it…father…” Claygon said. “The…staff…remembers…since it’s connected to the tree…it remembers this place.”

“What does it remember?” Alex asked, “What does it remember before it was taken by the hags?”

“It…remembers…growing in this place…undisturbed…but always sensing great power nearby…” Claygon said slowly.

Alex could feel waves of emotion and thought passing between the staff and the golem.

“There was always power…near. But it never saw who…the power belonged to…then…one day…humans came…” he continued.

“What’d they say? Who were they?” Thundar asked.

“It…doesn’t…know…things are too foggy…but…humans intended to dig the tree up…take it. It knew their hearts…it knew they were selfish…but also not.”

“Is that a riddle?” Drestra asked.

“Maybe not,” Alex thought carefully. “Selfish and not selfish…maybe they meant to take the tree for someone else. A god, for instance.”

“Well that’d fit with the theme of the day,” Thundar said.

“Yeah,” Alex said, feeling a mix of growing excitement and dread as his mind fought the aversion that was still trying to control it.

He checked the third eye, it was fixed on a point somewhere below them.

But when he followed its gaze, all he saw was the vast forest.

The trees were unusually tall—abnormally so for Thameland, in fact—and thick—but there was no sign of any mortal activity. As a matter of fact…

…the forest was strangely quiet even from where he and his companions floated.

“There’s no sign of birds anywhere,” Alex pointed out. “I don’t hear a single peep, or see any flying around where the eye’s pointing to.”

“There’re some quite a ways in the distance,” Drestra pointed. “I can see them…but you’re right, there aren’t any directly below us or closeby. Another illusion, maybe?”

“Well, if it is an illusion, it’s one of the best I’ve ever seen,” Thundar said. “There’s nothing that gives it away if it is one, because it moves with the wind, the trees are rustling, the sunlight’s dappling the leaves properly. So, if it is an illusion, it’s basically perfect.”

A feeling of dread was moving along Alex’s spine.

“The Traveller said to find where Uldar ascended from…and she also told me to look for the hidden church.” He watched the mysterious forest below with its strange features. “Something tells me we found it…”

“Irony…”

“Hm? What is it, Claygon?”

“I read…about irony in a book on humour…it can mean…a kind of surprise, or a contradiction between what someone expects to happen, and what actually happens…” the golem’s voice was quiet. “People from the church…used Carey to try to find us…now we used what they did…to find them. After thousands of years…we found them. The first…ones…to do it…”

“Thank the Traveller for that,” Drestra said.

As she invoked Hannah, Alex felt the feelings of aversion lessen…something drew him to the forest. Like a beacon.

“I dunno about that Claygon,” Thundar said. “Thing is, this place is damned hard to find unless you got something guiding you here like Professor Jules’ invention, right? And if you stumbled across it by accident, with those thoughts taking over your mind and making you want to get away from here, most folk probably left without giving it a second thought. But would everybody have left? I don’t know if Professor Jules or Baelin would buy that. What I would buy is that even if just one person got around their magic and got inside…well, I doubt they woulda been in any position to tell anybody much of anything afterward.”

“Well, all of that stops today,” Drestra’s voice crackled.

“I’m with you on that one…” Alex said, pulling the far-speaker from his belt. “Let’s get everyone together, if they’ve gone to so much trouble to hide for all this time, I’d bet my life they have wards up to detect outsiders. Damn, this’d be so much easier with Baelin around. But…he warned us that he wouldn’t always be there. Now, we just have to think for ourselves and adapt.”

He activated the far-speaker. “Professor? I think we found them. Get everyone together. Tell them to get ready, it’s going to be rough. We’re on our way back.”

The valley was idyllic.

In fact, it strangely matched Merzhin’s most private imaginings of what the after-world at Uldar’s side might be like. Surrounded by lush forests and greenery on all sides, the land of the hidden church was built in a depression carved deep into the earth.

Perhaps it was less of a natural valley and more of a crater; Merzhin did not know enough about such things to tell.

What he could easily tell, though, was that those who lived here were some of the happiest people he’d ever known in his young life. In the centre of the valley rose an enormous escarpment of stone—Uldar’s Rise—taller than the tallest trees he could have ever imagined.

An outer wall of stone surrounded farm houses built of granite quarried from mines below the escarpment, the same stone had also been used to craft countless statues of Uldar. They lined the roads in the village. They stood outside nearly every door.

They rose from bountiful fields—filled with an abundance of thriving vegetables, fruit trees, golden wheat, and the promise of a fine harvest—watching over all with his wondrous smile.

Everyone here—from the oldest to the youngest—were trained warriors of Uldar, performing the gods’ most special tasks. Merzhin watched children—easily half his age—training on an extensive course built solely for that purpose.

Weapons that bled Uldar’s divine power hung from nearly every hip…yet these contented people did not have the foul look of Hart Redfletcher, or the haunted one of a veteran from Thameland’s army.

Rather, they appeared innocent to the ways of the world; like hardship had never touched them. As though—beneath the shimmering half-sphere barrier that defended the area—they were unscathedby all of the evils consuming Thameland and beyond.

Yet, despite this idyllic atmosphere, a deep frown creased Merzhin’s brow.

So why did he—

“—look troubled?” Third Apostle Izas asked.

“I’m sorry, what was that, Third Apostle?” Merzhin asked. Young children giggled as they ran past him, caught up in a game of tag. The Saint watched them with melancholy; when was the last time he’d seen a child. Two years now?

Two long years of constant war against the Ravener.

The Third Apostle gave the young man a kindly smile. Behind them, Eldin and a pair of guards followed closely. For a fleeting moment, their eyes reminded Merzhin of a loyal bloodhound’s.

“I asked if you knew that you looked troubled,” Izas said gently. “I can see that something weighs on you. What is it, my child?”

“Was it so obvious? Apologies, Third Apostle, I should be more disciplined,” Merzhin responded sheepishly.

“Think nothing of it. We all have thoughts that plague us. Unburden yourself.”

“I…” Merzhin looked up at Uldar’s Rise, at the top of the escarpment. It was the very last place on this earth that had been graced by Uldar’s feet before he’d ascended to full divinity, never to touch Thameland’s soil again. Never to walk among its people. Never to fight along their side.

The Saint looked around at those who lived here in idyllic bliss.

He remembered the eyes of the soldiers killed in Uldar’s name, battling the Ravener. The dead eyes. And the entire time, these lively children…and these unburdened warriors had been living here in peace.

“Is it alright for those in this place to enjoy such…comfort, Third Apostle?” he asked. “Is that truly Uldar’s will. Many suffer to defend Thameland and save Uldar’s kingdom. And yet these warriors—”

“Are among the best in all of Thameland,” Eldin said proudly. “Few can serve Uldar’s will so well.”

Merzhin paused at that, trying to gather his thoughts. He questioned his thoughts. His feelings. He desperately tried to avoid temptation and blasphemy. He desperately tried to stamp down that seed of doubt in his mind.

“Yes…I imagine so,” he stammered. “But then why not go out and fight the Ravener? Should each of us not focus on the enemy? I…understand that the cycle has a purpose we do not know, and it would harm us all if it ended. I do not doubt Uldar’s word, but surely making sure the Ravener is defeated quickly would lessen harm while serving his will, would it not?”

“Hm.” Izas nodded. “A fair point and also a definite point of theological debate. To this, I ask you, have you ever laid an ambush for Ravener-spawn?”

“Yes,” Merzhin said.

“And was it effective?”

“Yes.”

“But, why?”

“Because they did not know we were there.”

“Precisely, my child,” Izas extended his hands before him. He spoke a short incantation, conjuring a ball of fire in one hand, then spoke a short prayer. The Saint felt a pulse of divinity as another ball of flame was conjured. Both orbs reached up, swirling around each other in a helix.

Merzhin was captivated by the sight. “Beautiful.”

“It is, isn't it?” Izas chuckled. “The blending of divinity and spellcraft is something that the First Apostle has mastered in a way few have. It is an art practised by very few in Thameland, save for Uldar’s Chosen and a few others, though many who live with us here learn it.” His eyes drifted to the training course before continuing. “Yet another of our surprises. Much like an ambush, our skills and our very existence rely on secrecy to be effective. None of Uldar’s foes would think to watch for us because—to them—we do not exist. To support Uldar’s will, that secret requires sacrifices.”

“And we do sacrifice,” Eldin rumbled. “We give up our lives in the outside world for this. In exchange, we have safety and power.”

“I…see…” Merzhin said.

‘It makes sense,’ he told himself. ‘Priests give up much of their secular choices to serve Uldar, just as I have, and in return, they have their livelihood and comfort provided for by the church. So why…does this feel?’ He looked around at the village one more time. ‘Decadent.’

“Come, it’s time to go inside,” Izas said, glancing at the sky. “These old bones are hurting and there’s darkness in the offing. A storm’s definitely on its way.”

“Third Apostle, before we go…Carey’s and my companions will be looking for us. If they come, their wrath could be terrible. Will you be able to explain to them your divine purpose?” he asked.

“Worry not, Merzhin. We will not be found unless we wish to be found. For millennia, Uldar’s Rise has remained safe and hidden from outsiders. Others have searched to no avail, combing the land for us, and have never found us. There is no reason to trouble yourself; we live in complete safety here.”

Something twisted in Merzhin’s belly; that confidence from Izas. That quiet demeanour, as though he was separate from the world. It did not feel right. It did not feel holy.

But he bit his tongue.

“Yes, yes Third Apostle,” Merzhin said, turning toward Uldar’s Rise.

He resolved to see Carey again.

Hopefully, without an escort.

‘Uldar, guide me,’ he thought.

Of course, Uldar didn’t answer.

If anything, here in this valley, his silence somehow seemed more deafening than usual.

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