Blackrock bay, Bjorn’s memory was flooded with memories that he had tried to forget over the years. The anger at being drafted into their militia, the stench and fear of fighting the snatcher spiders, and finally all the good times when all of his family were still alive. Even though Meira and their son Alaric were technically his only “real” family, he considered their friends that they traveled with his family as well.
He was so inundated with memories that he barely noticed when Kairon and his crew faded into the woods. It was so tempting to attack them, even if it was a fool's errand. They were all there, and he was way weaker than even half of the group.
The prospect of them going to Blackrock Bay was both terrifying and exhilarating at the same time. He was fearful of what they could possibly do to the city, what their end goal was, and who they would kill along the way. At the same time he was exhilarated due to the fact that they were going to Blackrock Bay. He had people who were allies years ago, if they were still around he could get help dealing with this issue. Maybe his quest for vengeance wasn’t looking so bleak after all.
When he finished with his musing he finally snapped back to himself and made eye contact with Adriana. For the first time since his family's death she saw hope in his eyes. “This is good. I know the captain of the guard and the ruler of Blackrock Bay. There is a chance that we can get the governments help in dealing with these fuckers.”
“Alright, should we start making our way to Blackrock Bay? I think we should try and figure out what they were doing here.”
A frown crossed Bjorn’s face. “Yeah, did you hear everything that they said?”
“Not really, they were too far away for me to catch everything.”
Bjorn filled her in on the conversation that happened not more than 5 minutes ago. “What worries me is that Kairon was searching for something that he managed to find here, whatever that building is. I worry that whatever he found was something that won’t be good for anyone in Blackrock Bay or for us.”
“So we should for sure find out what they were doing here.” Adriana said.
“Most definitely.”
“Well what are we waiting for?” She asked as she got to her feet.
Bjorn put out his hand to get her to wait. “They haven’t gone too far yet. We should wait for a bit to make sure that they are gone. They also might post a rear guard scout. Vivian came dangerously close to noticing us, I don’t trust that she didn’t see something. If I were Kairon I would trust my companion’s senses and leave someone behind to make sure we weren’t being followed.”
She nodded. “We wait then.”
After half an hour of sitting and waiting they still hadn’t seen anything that would indicate that someone was left behind as a rear guard. They decided it was time to split up and go around either side of the building to make sure that no one was watching. Bjorn wanted to leave Adriana behind because she might tip someone off. She was decent at stealth but she still had a long way to go. She convinced him otherwise, he couldn’t keep trying to protect her. This quest of vengeance was just as much for her as it was for him. She would need strength to survive what was to come.
They split up and slowly made their way around the outside of the clearing walking around the building. As he made his way around the edge of the clearing he got a better view of the building. It was hard to describe what it looked like. Its architecture was a mix of molded and shaped trees mixed with strong stone walls. He wasn’t sure why but he got the feeling that the building was a temple of some kind. He found it weird as so far in the Eld he hadn’t seen any temple or religious looking building except for this one.
As he walked he saw the tall tale signs of long since destroyed buildings. All over surrounding the standing building he could see how the grass grew differently so that if you paid close enough attention you could make out the foundation of buildings. There were also stones that had obviously been cut here and there, sticking out of the ground. It looked as if there had once been a village or even a city in this part of the forest. Likely the remnants of the grove elf civilization that had once been here.
As he made his way around the edge he eventually came up to a small alcove in a grove of trees that had a perfect line of sight to the door of the building. Inside the alcove he found the remnants of what looked like someone’s dinner. Upon closer inspection it was still slightly warm, meaning that whoever had been eating it left not that long ago. He was glad that he had erred on the side of caution when they decided their course of action.
There was still some daylight left so Bjorn decided it was in his best interest to make sure that whoever it was that had been watching was actually gone. There was a set of boot prints that led out of the grove in the mud and soon caught up with the area that Kairon’s group left from. The trail met up with the group's trail and soon disappeared into the woods. After following for 15 minutes it was obvious that they hadn’t doubled back. Still he wanted to be careful.
He made his way back to the clearing where he found Adriana sitting on a rock by the door of the building. “What did you find?” She asked.
“There was someone who had been watching, I think they took off to meet up with the rest of the group. I am not sure if that was to report that they spotted us, or that they didn’t want to be left behind. I think we should get back into the trees and rest here tonight, keeping an eye on this area.”
She nodded. “Alright I agree.”
With that they scouted around till they found a mostly hidden spot where they could observe almost all of the clearing as well as having a great view of the area where Kairon’s crew left from. With that they settled in for the night, Bjorn took his turn sleeping first as there were 3 of the 6 moons hanging in the sky tonight providing plenty of light for Adriana to see by. They still didn’t know the lunar cycles, just in case the moons would disappear during the night Bjorn slept first.
The entire night passed by rather uneventfully and in the morning when they did another sweep there were no new tracks or anything that indicated someone had come back to explore the clearing. Finally convinced that they were well and truly gone, they decide to enter the building.
The building was an impressive structure, it was nearly 20 feet tall. The doorway leading inside was 9 feet tall and 5 feet wide, it was an arch doorway. All along the outside of the building there were impressively carved details cut into the stone. Scrollwork and lines that seemed to make no real sense other than that they were pleasant to look at had been cut into the stone.
The interior of the building had a single room with a large vaulted ceiling. All around the room there were stone and live tree pillars that were holding up the ceiling. In the very center of the room there was a pedestal, and after searching the interior of the room they found a set of stairs leading down. Upon closer inspection the pedestal had nothing on it or nothing to denote what had once been there.
With no other clues they decided to explore the stairs leading down. They took a set of stairs that spiraled as it led them deeper into the earth. The staircase had no lighting so Bjorn fixed that with his simple light spell. They followed the stairs for around a minute before they came to a landing and a hallway.
At the end of the hall there was another room, there was a light that emanated from the room. Cautiously they crept their way forward. The interior of this room wasn’t overly expansive but there were 7 total pedestals in it. 6 of them were in small alcoves surrounding the exterior of the room. The last one was in the very center of the room with a beam of light falling down on it.
Upon closer inspection there was a pool of liquid in the center pedestal that the beam of light fell down upon. The light landed exactly on the liquid, it didn’t land anywhere else but the liquid. As for the other 6 pedestals there were 3 that were intact. Two of them had items on top of them, the last one had a hole in the center just about the right size to fit an arm into. The other 3 pedestals were broken, toppled over, and had cracks running through them all.
One of the two items was a dagger, it didn’t look overly ornate, but it was long, almost a short sword more than a dagger. Bjorn tried to use his W.A.I.L.A. on the weapon and it was almost like the ability just slid off the item. He tried again and still got nothing, this puzzled him. So far through his exploration of the Eld he hadn’t come across anything that his identify ability couldn’t identify, even if sometimes it was misleading, it still always gave him some kind of information.
Confused, he reached his hand out to pick up the dagger. As his hand drew close to the item a small almost imperceptible green shield started to form around the weapon. When his hand passed an unknown threshold the shield flared and a small arc of green lightning shot out from the shield and into Bjorn’s hand.
Pain ran through Bjorn’s body stemming from his finger where the lightning touched. The electricity ran through his body making his muscles lock up and spasm uncontrollably. In the corner of his vision he watched as his health dropped to 9% in a moment. He collapsed to the ground as the pain overwhelmed his central nervous system and his legs folded.
He was glad that he put all of his 5 free points from his last level into constitution. Without it the lightning bolt would have killed him. Hell if it weren’t for the “attribute efficacy I” he purchased he would be dead right now. The extra 10% effect of his attributes gave him an additional 20 hp with his 20 constitution. He now had 19 health left in his health pool.
When the electricity finally dissipated his muscles that had become his prison finally relaxed. At the same time that happened he let out a painfilled yell. The agony didn’t just stem from his finger anymore. No, it was his whole body. He had little doubt that if not for him being immune to being knocked out now he would have passed out from the pain. With the agony running throughout his entire body he was glad that he had the 20% pain reduction that he earned from breaking most of the bones in his body all at once.
He lost all sense of time as his mind reeled trying to make sense of all of the new sensory information it was being flooded with. Slowly his mind began to sort and compartmentalize the pain information and the pain became more and more manageable. Slowly he began to gain back his senses. At first it was his hearing, it wasn’t perfect but he was finally able to regain a sense of his surroundings. He was vaguely aware of a voice off in the distance saying something that he couldn’t make out. The next thing he got back was his sense of taste, for some reason his mouth tasted of copper. After that his feeling, he started to feel the rock that his body lay upon. And finally his vision, where he saw Adriana standing over him with her hands glowing the familiar light of healing magic.
When the glow that covered her hands dissipated into Bjorn’s body the pain noticeably lessened over several seconds. During which time his senses grew sharper. He could hear slightly better, the taste of copper grew stronger, the feeling of that rock in the middle of his back grew sharper, and his vision cleared slightly making it easier to make out more of his surroundings. Another groan escaped his lips as he tried to sit up.
This action caused a new type of pain to flood his body. It wasn’t a sharp pain, but an ache. His entire body ached from every one of his muscles contracting. He knew that he would be extremely sore for several days after that. After one more round of Adriana’s magical healing Bjorn had the wherewithal to pull up his combat log and see what the hell just hit him.
Bjorn has been struck by earthy lightning. He takes 201 points of varied damage types. 36 points of air damage. 173 points of earth damage, reduced to 165 by 5% earth resistance.
Paralysis has been applied to you. Paralysis has taken effect.
Your body is reeling from the massive damage that it has suffered in a short amount of time. Attempting to resist death from massive damage. Resisted death.
Adriana has cast weak slow heal on you. You will regain 15 hp over the course of the next minute.
“Are you okay?” Adriana’s voice finally cut through the fog on his brain and he was able to fully understand what she said.
It took a second to answer but he did reply. “Yeah, I should be fine. I am no longer actively dying.”
“That’s good.” She said and then she hit him on the back of his head with the palm of her hand. “Now don’t ever do something like that again.” she admonished.
Bjorn looked up at his travel companion and saw fire in her eyes. “I’ll try my best.” He groaned as he got to his feet. “What the hell was that?”
“I don’t know. Your hand got close to the object and lightning shot from the pedestal to your hand. Then you fell to the ground convulsing.”
He gave her a flat look. “That was rhetorical. I didn’t expect you to have an answer.” he sighed, his annoyance at almost dying bleeding into his words and she didn’t deserve it. “Sorry. There has to be a way to get the items, after all I am pretty sure those other three pedestals used to have items on it. It’s the only thing that makes sense, otherwise why are there 6, why are the only ones that are broken the ones without something in it.”
“Maybe it’s a puzzle?”
“It could be, look around and see if you can find some sort of writing or inscription.”
While they both were looking for some sort of script Bjorn got a closer look at the other pedestal. On top of it was an orb, one that looked very similar to the one orb ate to gain a new ability. A rainbow of colorful orbs danced around on the inside of the orb. He had a fairly good idea of what it would do, but he didn’t want to jump to conclusions.
Bjorn was looking at the pedestal with the hole in the middle of it when Adriana called out that she found something. When he looked over she was kneeling on the ground right next to the pedestal with the light pouring onto the liquid in the center. He made his way over and saw that there was an inscription carved into the base of the stone.
Upon closer inspection the script was made up of large flowing letters with long strokes on the upper half of the script and curling strokes on the lower half. Meira had taught him how to read modern elvish, specifically wood elvish. This writing had some similarities to wood elvish but it was more than enough different that he couldn’t tell what it said.
“What does it say?” Adriana asked.
“I have no idea. Did you see anything else?”
“No, did you?”
“It looks like there is a mural on the wall where the hole in the pedestal is. But it is hard to tell, I was just starting to clean the wall off when you called me over.” They walked over there together and Bjorn pointed out what he had been talking about. The walls were coated with a thick layer of dust and dirt to the point where it was hard to make out anything. Where he was talking about was in the center of the back wall of the alcove. There was a spot where the grim of probably thousands of years had not been collected fully there and they could see where it looked like 6 small tiles came to a point.
They quickly got to work clearing the grim off of the wall and after a few hours of cleaning they got a clear view of the picture. The mural, which is exactly what was on the wall, was actually a series of scenes. As long as normal reading conventions held up with ancient grove elves reading they could understand the scene.
The first picture of the mural was a man holding his arm aloft in front of the pedestal in front of many other people watching. The arm he held aloft was missing its hand. In his other hand he held what looked like a ceremonial knife.
The second of the 4 pictures saw him draw the knife across the stump, severing the end of it as blood began to spurt out of the stump. The crowd of people watching the show or ceremony began to move around and chant or cheer, it was hard to tell.
In the third he had shoved the stump of his arm into the hole in the top of the hole. Finally in the fourth frame of the mural he withdrew his arm from the pedestal. When he withdrew his arm he held it aloft over his head much as he had in the first picture. The main difference was his arm that once had been missing a hand now had one.
If Bjorn was a gambling man it was that his understanding of the murals was that he had to sever the stump of his arm, and then shove it into the hole and something would happen to where he would regain a hand. That series of events was the only thing that would make sense to him based on the pictures. If it was the other way around it wouldn’t make much sense. If you cut your hand off and shove it into this hole, it will cauterize the wound making it so that you can run your knife across your flesh backwards to regrow the wound.
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Not that Bjorn was a gambling man but his hunch seemed right. But he didn’t want to chance touching the pedestal without knowing how to disarm the trap that had almost killed him with the dagger. He thought about it for a moment and came to a decision.
“Before we try anything I want to be at full health, or at least fairly close to full health. I think however we are going to get through this we will need to pass some kind of trial. I don’t want to chance facing a trial while weakened. I need to brew some health potions.”
“But what about Kairon’s crew?” Adriana asked.
Bjorn was biting his lip as he thought about his response. “We know where they are going, and if I was going to guess, this world doesn’t have any WMDs. So even if we get there a little after Kairon it won’t be the end of the world. Besides I think we will still need all of the help we can if we will stand a chance to beat Kairon.”
“What is a WMD?”
“Don’t worry about it.” Bjorn pointed first at the mural and then the pedestal holding the orb. “If my guess is right, this mural and the hole attached is my key to getting my hand back and giving us a better chance to get our revenge. Also I think that orb is an ability bead, if we can claim it somehow then that would also be a massive boon.”
“What is an ability bead?”
“I don't know the actual correct term for the item, it's just what I mentally call it. You know how everyone is born with two innate abilities?”
She nodded.
“Well I have seen an orb just like this once before. I was in a desperate situation so rather than let my captors take it from me I swallowed the bead. It granted me a third ability.”
Adriana's eyes grew wide with shock. “You have three abilities? That is amazing, what do they do?”
Bjorn gave her the same admonishing look that Meira gave him when he had asked an exceptionally rude question. “You shouldn't be asking something like that. But with that being said the first one increases my skill growth, the second one increases all xp I gain, the last one is what allows me to identify items that I come across.”
Adriana nodded. “That makes sense, I feel like you picked up farming way too quickly and were able to advance too fast as well. You're what? 27 in your farming skill?”
Bjorn shook his head. “No 37.”
His declaration left Adriana flabbergasted. “That is amazing, you are truly gifted to get such abilities.”
Bjorn just nodded grimly. “You don't know the half of it. Anyways if that is an ability bead we definitely want to get our hands on it and give it to either of us. An additional ability will always pay dividends.”
“Yeah no kidding. Alright, what do we need to do?”
“Well like I said, I am willing to bet that we will need to face some sort of trial to get the items here. I want to be full health by the time that happens, so we have two options. One is to wait and let my natural regeneration recover my health. I personally don't want to do that. The longer we wait the more time Kairon’s lackeys have a chance to cause harm to Blackrock Bay. The other option is for us to take a day and brew some potions. They raided most of my stock of herbs but they left a few behind that we can use to make healing potions. The last is that we use your life magic to regenerate my health, but unless I have missed my guess you don't have much mana left over anyways.”
Adriana nodded in assent. “You're right.”
“It sucks to lose extra time but I think the pay off is well worth it.” Bjorn said as he got to his feet. “Well shall we see if we can find what I need?”
They went up the stairs and out into the forest. It took the better part of a full day to finally find all of the herbs that he would need to brew a health potion. It sucked that he wasn't able to find the ideal herbs for a healing potion but what he found would have to do.
That night Bjorn began teaching her alchemy, earlier when they were back in Leefside, she had really shown little to no interest in learning how to do alchemy. But now that her life had changed so did her opinion. She drank in his words and teachings greedily.
By mid morning they had finished brewing a mediocre healing potion which would heal 62 health over 3 minutes. Bjorn greedily drank down two of the three doses they brewed. Adriana started to object but Bjorn lied and said that he got an alchemist talent that let him drink two potions before potion toxicity kicked in. He didn't hint at his “latent potential.”
6 minutes later he was nearly full health again and they decided it was time to try whatever trial awaited them. They descended the stairs once again and made their way back into the chamber. At this point the only thing that they hadn’t explored in full detail was the center liquid. They both thought that it had to have something to do with the answer. They made their way to either side of the pedestal and placed their hands on either side of the stone bowl.
“Alright. I am going to try and put my hand in the liquid. If no lightning shoots out and into my body I want you to try as well. Okay?”
Adriana nodded. She licked her lips, obviously a nervous tic and a moment later she squared her shoulders and nodded once again with more fervor this time. “Let’s do this.”
Bjorn slowly held out his hand. As it inched closer to the light shining down on the liquid his heart rate began to accelerate. His breath came quicker and his hand started to tremble. Slowly his fingers began to breach into the beam of light. To his surprise the light above his hand winked out. He had thought that it was coming through the hole in the ceiling. But no, it was coming from the liquid within the basin.
He tensed up expecting to feel the shock run though his body once again locking it up and rapidly draining his health away, but it never came. He relaxed and let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding in. He smiled at Adriana and started to move his hand downwards towards the liquid. After his hand was within 2 inches of the liquid Adriana’s hand joined Bjorns.
“On the count of three.” She said, “One, two.”
On two Bjorn pushed his hand past that last little distance and his hand came in contact with the liquid in the bowl. His fingers fully sank down into the basin. He had a moment to think, “This liquid feels like nothing.” before his world became white.
He wasn’t sure how much time had passed since he put his hand into the liquid in the basin, all that he knew was that his world looked oddly familiar to when he met Charon the first time. He was surrounded by nothing but white emptiness that seemed to stretch on forever.
Just to make sure that he hadn’t died for some reason again he looked down. His vision was filled with the clothes he had been wearing when he touched the mysterious liquid. His body was intact, at least as much of his body that he normally had now. Obviously his hand was still gone. Looking back up he started looking all over to see if there was something he was missing.
“Welcome traveler, to the trials of Sakara.” The voice that spoke was layered, as if it was speaking several different languages all at the same time. It wasn't loud or overly quiet. It was both difficult to pick out the common it was speaking and easy to understand at the same time.
“Uh hello?” Bjorn asked.
“Are you ready to attempt the trials of Sakara?”
“What are the trials? What am I expected to do? Where are we?”
Bjorn was quiet for a while waiting trying to see if the voice would answer his questions. When it became apparent that it wouldn't answer him he took in a breath and simply said yes.
In an instant the world shrank and then expanded. It grew foggy and then clear. It became divided into vertical bars and then reformed. The entire experience was extremely disorienting. When his mind stopped being warped by whatever was happening his surroundings changed.
It took a brief moment for him to recognize his surroundings. He was back on earth. In a moment of vertigo he saw himself sitting in front of him. Not the him that he was now, but who he had been back on earth. The view he was seeing was familiar as well. He was sitting at the top of the M that was on the north east side of town looking over the city. He could see the Brick Breeden field house off in the distance as well as north and south hedges. From his vantage he could see for miles and miles out down over the valley almost to Manhattan.
He wasn't alone, he was sitting at the top of the hike with a friend of his. Her name was Katie Krause. The two of them were sitting there watching the sun set as they talked about life together. This memory happened right after he had gotten out of a very unhealthy relationship.
“What is this?” Bjorn asked.
Instead of an answer his world shifted again. This time it was earlier in his life again, it was summer and he was at the public pool in Conrad Montana. He just jumped off of the diving board in an attempt to do a flip. He ultimately did a back flop instead of completing a full rotation. His friends laughing good naturedly at him as his head broke the surface of the water.
When he swam to the edge he saw his mom standing there. “It's time to get out.” She said in her stern motherly voice. He and his friends got out of the pool and got changed. From there they went over to the legion park to have a late lunch.
He remembered this memory too. It was his 10th birthday. “What is happening right now?”
Again instead of answering, his world shifted once again. This time he was in the Eld. He had forgotten about it. It was during the winter that they had spent at Leif's crossing. Alaric, Meira, Tayla, and himself were sitting around a table sharing a drink. He forgot what they were celebrating, but it looked like they were well on their way to getting drunk. Alaric and Tayla were bickering good naturedly as they often did. Her tail was sneaking around Alaric’s back to try and covertly take his flagon of ale.
When Bjorn laid his eyes on Meira his heart ached. To see her alive like this again was torture. She was looking at Bjorn from across the table with the same eyes he had grown to know over the last several years. Her gaze was full of love and tinged with lust. He had seen that look on her face many many times over the years they were married. Even back then she had been looking at Bjorn the exact same way. How had he ever missed it?”
This time when Bjorn asked his question his voice was husky with barely contained tears. “Why are you doing this to me?”
The scene shifted once again. This time it was roughly 6 months ago. They were sitting on top of their hill together watching both the suns going down, while Alaric played as little children do in the dirt. It was early spring and a storm was starting to move in. A large storm wall was coming in from the north. Yet the colors from the suns set bathed everything in an almost magical light. The storm wall was a beautiful mix of greys and blacks that were recessed back in the storm, and pinks, yellows, and oranges on the fringes.
The blissful moment hung thick in the air. When Meira spoke. “It’s beautiful isn’t it?”
“It is.” Bjorn’s reflection said back.
She snuggled closer into his body and lay her head on his shoulder. “No matter what happens to us in the future. I am happy that we managed to find one another. I love you.” She kissed him on the cheek.
“I love you too.” Bjorn said and he returned a kiss, only this one was on her lips. It was a long passionate kiss.
Bjorn was no longer containing his tears. “Stop it.”
Finally a reply came. “No.” it said simply and the world shifted once again. This time it shifted back to earth. He was sitting in the sitting room of the Great falls hospital. His family were seated in the chairs around him. The room was silent, as if it was holding its breath, waiting to see what was happening. In an instant he understood what was happening, he knew what memory this was. It was the day that his mother died.
A doctor came into the room clothed in the scrubs that they had to wear during surgery. His head was slightly hung and he held his cap in his hands tightly as if he was trying to wring water out of it. “I am sorry to have to tell you this. Today as of 4:52 PM Mary Haleva died from complications during open heart surgery.”
The wailing of sorrow and pain that people can only make when a loved one dies escaped the lips of everyone present. Everyone by Christopher. He sat in the corner of the room confused as to what was happening. It didn't feel right, it didn't feel real.
“Why must I relive this?” Bjorn asked, his voice filled with anguish.
“No, no, no. This isn't right.” The voice said and his world shifted once again.
This time when his world shifted he was standing on top of the hill that he and Medera shared as their home for the months that Bjorn lived with her. There was the unnatural sound of the mauler that filled the glade. The dwarf turned and yelled to Bjorn. “Run!” Before turning around. This time the Bjorn of now reached out for his magic trying to effect the outcome. Trying to save Medera.
He pulled on the mana within his body, and nothing happened. He could feel it circulating through the pathways inside his body, but it refused to leave his body and cast a spell. He stood there impotently as the mauler closed the distance and bisected Medera in front of his vision again. It then ran after Bjorn, skewering her head as it ran. When its prey escaped down the hill it turned back to Medera and began eating her.
“What is this testing?”
“This isn't what we need.” It said and then the scene warped again.
The next time the world shifted it was that fateful night when his family died. It was the mauler as it tore into his friends. Seeing the memories back to back it was blatantly obvious that this mauler was the same one that killed Medera. It was an odd experience to view the memory as a third person bystander. He watched as Alaric got skewered and as Rickie’s upper body pulled itself closer to Tayla before it finally stopped moving.
From where he was watching he saw himself as he cast the desiccate spell and liquid began spilling out of the mauler’s back and it started to rapidly die. As he was channeling his spell he was screaming in rage, fear, and fury all at once. It was odd he hadn’t remembered himself yelling. As Bjorn watched some of the most important people in his life die that same sense of anger he felt in that moment washed over his mind again.
“What are you searching for?” Bjorn asked with heat in his voice.
“Yes. That’s more like it, but it’s not enough.” It replied before the world collapsed upon itself and the world shifted once again.
This time when the world cleared what he was looking at was the worst day of his life. He was surrounded by 13 people that he would never forget. He was pinned to the ground once again and Alaric’s body sat where it had been. The memory began right after Meira died. Bjorn let out his primal scream of anger at watching the spark leave her eyes. At the same time the fury that had been smoldering in the pit of his stomach flared its head once again.
“Yessss.” The voice said in an ecstasy filled tone.
He had to watch again as the last thing that mattered to him was snuffed out of this world. At the time he was so wrapped up in his own sorrow that he hadn’t noticed the rest of the bandits laughing at him, mocking his sorrow. He didn’t know that it was possible for his hatred for those standing before him to grow stronger. Yet as he watched them make fun of Bjorn’s plight it managed to grow.
“Is this what you wanted? To watch me suffer?”
“Yes.” It said in its languid tone. Bjorn got the feeling that it’s ‘yes’ wasn’t actually answering his question. “That is what we need.” It said, The frame froze in the middle of Killian sawing Bjorn’s hand off, his knife halfway through Bjorn’s wrist, blood flying everywhere.
The scene stayed frozen for a minute, then two. Throughout the entire thing Bjorn couldn’t tear his eyes away from the scene before him. The first time he was forced to watch, this time he couldn’t look away. Finally the scene slowly faded away to black, as did the rest of the world. Bjorn was soon standing within a black void.
“Is it enough? I have a job to do.” He didn’t know what type of answer he was expecting to get, but of all of the various different ways the voice could have answered he wasn’t expecting what he got.
“Yes.”
With that final word the void faded around him and Bjorn found himself standing in the middle of the room, his hand still dipped in the liquid in the middle of the bowl. Only his hand had become hydrophobic, as the liquid was actually avoiding his touch. To test it out he moved his hand through the liquid and it never touched his skin. He withdrew his hand and looked over to Adriana.
She stood there with her hand in the liquid just as Bjorn’s had been. She was standing still as stone. Her eyes had changed from her normal sky blue color to a milky white color, the pupil and iris nowhere to be seen. He moved around the bowl and moved to grab ahold of her arm to try and remove her from the liquid. To his surprise a milky white bubble appeared around her body when he got close enough and it was as solid as stone. Just to test he moved all around her attempting to touch her, but the bubble fully encompassed her body. When he moved away the bubble faded away.
Not able to interact with Adriana’s trial Bjorn inspected his inner self. There didn’t seem to be anything special or different with himself, so he decided to check his prompts.
You have passed the Trial of Sakara. Throughout the millennia that the trial has existed many have attempted to pass the Trial’s of Sakara. Of those who have tried, almost all of them have failed. Failure looks different for each person as well as the outcome of failure. More than most have lost their sanity at what they have faced within the trial.
Congratulations you have advanced your skill level in: Inner peace. Reaching skill level 8. Your emotional stability has increased by 8%. Your resistance to mental manipulation has increased by 4%
For passing the Trial of Sakara you have been granted a reward. The trial has viewed your situation and has given you access to the reward that it deems to be the best for your situation. You have been given access to the shrine of the forest. You may now enter the shrine and claim your reward.
Know this, for you to claim the shrine of the forest you must first give up a part of yourself. If you do not do this the outcome will likely be death.
After Bjorn finished reading his prompts he looked over to the only pedestal that could have possibly fit the description of ‘shrine of the forest.’ He wasn’t sure where the feeling was coming from but he got the sense that it would now be safe to touch the pedestal. With Adriana still in her trial and Bjorn not being able to do anything about it he made his way over to the shrine and used W.A.I.L.A. on the stone plinth. To no one’s surprise it didn’t provide anything useful.
With a sigh he knew what he had to do. He pulled Tayla’s knife from behind his back and put the blade up to his stump. Mentally he braced himself and he began to pull. He put pressure against the hilt of the dagger which transferred into the stump of his hand. He wasn’t sure how much he had to give to claim his reward so se settled for several inches of his forearm.
He gritted his teeth as he drew the dagger across his skin cutting deep. The sharp blade severed skin and muscle as it tried to make its way all the way through Bjorn’s arm. It was stopped at the bone. The blade was kind of serrated but not fully. Gritting his teeth he dropped the dagger and reached into his bag. He pulled out a hatchet.
Not to draw this on for too much longer he brought the blade of the hatchet down on his stump. The blade of the ax bit into his flesh and through the bone, easily severing the section he was working on. Blood began to spurt out of the fresh wound.
Without hesitation he thrust the stump into the hole in the top of the plinth. His arm sank up to his elbow and came to a stop. He began to wonder what would happen next when the pain in his arm intensified.
This wasn’t the same kind of pain that he had been feeling. His arm screamed as something burrowed under his skin and into the flesh of his forearm. It was only one at first, then it turned into 3 then 7. Then he lost count as a scream of pain escaped his lips. His legs buckled and he fell to his knees hard.
The pain continued for what felt like hours, throughout the entire time he could feel as whatever had bit into his arm dug it’s way deeper into his body. He was starting to regret his decision to claim this ‘reward’ when the pain began to subside. In a matter of seconds the pain was completely gone, but the feeling of something within his body remained.
Cautiously he removed his arm from the stone. The stump where nothing had been before was now replaced by what looked like his own hand. It was the right size and shape; the only major difference was that his hand looked to be made of wood. It was a dark chestnut color. Running through the wood were veins of green energy and stood out against the dark wood.
Ever since he had lost his hand he had been getting phantom pains and aches as if his hand was still there. Now that seemed to be gone. With a thought he moved his new hand and the wood responded. It rolled around exactly how his hand would have normally moved. There seemed to be no lag or delay in response time.
He wasn’t able to contain his feeling of triumph as he held his arm and new hand above his head and he let out a maniacal laugh. He was whole again.
