[Judgement] The Wakening Warden (Keene Ward)

[Ink]

Atziri’s amiable smile lit upon her dust soiled lips once more. “That, Initiate, was a shield. I knew you would learn it quick.”Warden retrieved the gopher, their dinner. “I chose you because you are alive. Not Nuit can do the job of the Wardens, you showed a potential for problem solving that tends to throw off the younger mages. You attacked my flame at the source not at the display. That makes all the difference Keene.” She motioned back at him to follow.

The cave she had led him to at first appeared man-made. In the dark the walls showed the sculpted curves of a what seemed like a knife and looked no stranger for the wear. When Atziri used a spark in her palm to illuminate the dark hole in the mountain it revealed so much more. The walls were all made of obsidian formed by reimantic arts using the natural lava of the volcanic mountain they stood on and then rapidly cooling it with the same magic’s water.

The main cavern swiftly opened before them. Atziri held her hand down near a pile of wood stack in the center, letting the flame leap before her res released its dogmatic hold. The dark wood burnt and crackled gladly, displaying the room in patches of shadows and highlights. It was like the entry walled in obsidian but the furniture looked livable. There were a handful of chairs with hold worn cushions and a stout oak table in one corner. The other half of the room had a floor covered absolutely in sand. Foot prints marked over the sand hundreds of times, creating a story even in the most advanced tracker couldn’t follow. Apart from the passage through which they entered three more branched out into the foreboding dark.

The guardian of the mountain tossed the gopher onto the table and examined it idly. As able as she was to live off the land, she wasn’t especially skilled at butchering or skinning. While the animal was inspected she answered his other question, which she had ignored earlier. “Everything that is not a Sahovan Nuit or Resident is the enemy Keene. No one but you and I should be on this mountain.” The word ‘on’ was stressed, clearly implying there were somehow other options. “As I said the land will be harsh, and to the wildlife you will look like prey. In a way they are enemies as well, but the worst of our foes will be the sentient. Those who tread this mountain with a purpose have no good purpose at all. For this reason, unless you have my permission do not bring any visitors out here. If I see them I will assume they are trespassers with ill intent.”

Unsurprisingly the table held an obsidian knife, though the craftsmanship could hardly be called such. Atziri slide away at the animals hide eventually pulling it free. The fur would be worthless but the meat ended up more or less intact. Turning back towards Ward, she nodded. “Dinner. Ah and your room is that way.” She indicated the leftmost passage that led deeper into the mountain. “The bed should be adequate and if you need a fire; wood can be scrounged up. As for the other two tunnels, the one of the right is mine. The middle is a dead end.” The final statement brooked no nonsense, and the Warden attempted to cull any curiosity about it right then and there.


She moved back towards the fire, having produced a long slender rudamentary spear. Pushing this through the gutted and skinned carcass she held it out over the flame. “You will need to study your shielding Keene, your elements are the most difficult to use offensively and you will be in danger. I cannot be there to protect you all of the time, I have duties that will leave you here in solitude. If anything should ever happen you must be able to shield the entrance to this cave against at least mundane intruders. When you have practiced your shielding more I will show you the technique for accomplishing this.”
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[Keene Ward]

Praise felt strange to Keene's limited palate, falling upon with with a strange sort of warmth he found almost repulsive. It wasn't as if the praise itself was something detestable, but Keene had been raised to foster a firm belief that there was nothing to be gained from content with success but complacency. He had found the ideology to hold true, and thus had adopted it and built upon it. While he understood Atziri may not have shared his views, it was still a difficult statement to swallow, even with the initial bonus of a name to his newly discovered ability. It had been much different than the feeling of controlling his res, which was a substance he was quite familiar with. Having never spent much time meditating or trying to gain a deeper understanding of his Djed beyond the simplistic explanation of "Djed is all and Djed is nothing.", Keene found the ability to not only manipulate the actual flow of his Djed but to project it outside his body to be a fascinating development. His thoughts were quickly drawn back to the job he had taken upon himself earlier, the promise of lessons in shielding as well as spending money should another merchant ship arrive dancing through his mind.

Atziri continued on to answer his previous questions. Whether he had failed the test at the base of the plateau's rise or not, it seemed he had redeemed himself with his spark of insight into what he was sure was the extensive world of shielding. She had gone to gather the fallen corpse of the gopher she'd slain earlier, her words coming easily as did everything else she seemed to do. Her next words gave him a fair amount to consider. He had been chosen for his mortality, something he found to be rather odd considering the majority of the island was undead. A job that only the living could do held a strange sense of foreboding within the seemingly benign delivery. The concept of problem solving also grabbed his attention. He had struck at the flame's source for no other reason than it was its source. To remove something, destroying or severing that something from its source or point of power was the quickest and most efficient path to success. He had viewed it as an exercise of common sense rather than pure analytic appraisal of some sort of puzzle. However, the fact she had chosen him for that particular quality (as being alive was something he could only continue doing rather than improve upon), Keene gave himself a mental shove to continue refining his investigative and contemplative tools.

At Atziri's beckon, Keene rose up, wobbling slightly on his unsteady legs and gingerly rubbing the back of his head to assess the damage. There was going to be some minor bruising which he was sure was going to make sleeping all the more uncomfortable for the next few nights but nothing life threatening. Hurrying over to his pack, Keene slipped his bare shoulders beneath the straps, gathering up the moist pile of cloth that was his shirt before hurrying to fall into step behind the Warden as she passed into the mouth of the cave. He squinted at the walls, a strange semi-reflective surface with divots and ridges that were reminiscent of a a knife through butter lined the tunnel. At the introduction of Atziri's spark, the darkness receded with a quick retreat, revealing the true nature of the caverns.

The substance was a shiny, dark sort of stone that seemed to have been warped and shaped by the design of some otherworldly craftsman. It was similar to the cuts of stone he'd seen on weapons in the marketplace of Zeltiva, though he had never expressed much interest in such tools, and thus knew little of their names and uses, let alone the qualities of the substances from which they were constructed. As they walked, Keene reached out a hand to skim his finger along the wall. A particularly jagged section sliced through his finger with an unnerving ease, drawing a slow stream of blood that Keene quickly placed in his mouth, not wanting to draw the Warden's attention to something so foolish as the outcome of his own curiosity.

The tunnel quickly expanded both upwards and outwards into a cavern who's darkness rivaled the spark of the flame. The inky blackness was quickly dispelled as Atziri's flame danced down the arc of her res to set the wood pyre in the center of the cavern ablaze. The same dark substance extended up into the topmost reaches of the cavern, and as Keene looked about, it seemed the entire structure was made up of the same rock-like material. There were, however, several chairs and a sturdy looking table that were placed a safe distant from the crackling pile of fire in the center of the rounded chamber, as well as a curious cover of sand that occupied the other half. His eyes lingered upon the worn rise and fall of the area, the area's purpose unknown and curious. There were three distinct holes of darkness that extended out from the larger chamber, one on his left and two on the right. He assumed at least one of them led to whatever sleeping arrangement his master had in mind, though there was the possibility the pit of sand was to be where he was to rest his head. He didn't shun the idea quite as much as he might have, considering even minuscule particles of rocks to be more comfortable than the embodiment of torture that was the Sahovan mattresses of the Quarters.

Atziri began to deal with the gopher, an act that allowed Keene to make the realization that it was to be their food for the night. Taking the liberty of remaining where he stood rather than getting any closer to the increasingly gory act of first skinning then disembowelment, he instead took note of her words. The nuit and the residents were the only beings on the island who belonged, it seemed. Everything else was a potential threat, though he was uncertain just how many individuals would survive long on the island without residing within the citadel. Surivial aside, he supposed it was relatively plausible for an individual (or even a group of them at that) to travel about the island undetected were it not for the Wardens. As Atziri continued, Keene found her overemphasis of the word "on" to be a bit strange. As far as he could tell, there wasn't much else other than the mountain and the surrounding area. The way it was delivered made it seem as if there were something he was missing, but his increasingly tired mind wasn't able to quite grasp it.

Her warnings regarding the animals was repeated. He fond the repetition relevant, as he'd already had a bit of contact with the potential hostility of the creatures of the island. As for her warning regarding visitors, the corners of Keene's lips turned down in a frown. He doubted Risabel would be up for walking even a quarter of the distance they had just covered, and Boswell certainly was not on his top list of "people to take to the deadly cavernous hideout". With the creature skinned, the gutting began, though not before the leftmost passage was revealed to lead to his new quarters. He found the promise of "bed" to be the single most exciting thing he'd heard so far, though the concept of shield was a close second. The other two passages were explained, and again the emphasis was placed on the sheer mundane quality of the final sentence. This time, Keene doubted the third tunnel was truly what she had said it was, but her tone had implied that truth or no, there would be serious repercussion should he be caught investigating. Never one for causing unnecessary trouble, Keene merely nodded understanding.

Shoving the creature upon a crude spear of sorts, Aziri propped it over the fire. She continued to give him a directive, something he found was potentially achievable within the next few days, assuming all went well. He had little idea what all shielding was capable of, but he understood enough to know that it was a practice focused on internalization and manipulation of one's own Djed. She had already recognized the defensive nature of his reimancy, something Mella had been quick to note as well. With the advent of shielding, however, Keene found his prospects of emerging successful from conflict increasing immensely, assuming he would be able to get a better handle upon it than merely pushing his Djed outside of him in a form other than the transmuted res.

The tour and explanations seemingly coming to a close, Keene gave his new master a short bow before turning to head down the tunnel that led to his room, it was a short walk, though long enough that the light of the fire seemed to be swallowed up by the darkness near the ceiling. Everything in the small space was cast in ever moving shadows, but even without proper illumination, Keene was already pleased to see it was larger than the cupboards of the Quarters. Setting his pack down upon the obsidian floor, Keene eased over to the bed, pushing down upon the much more manageable straw mattress with a relieved sigh. The lumps appeared minimal, and even one less than what he'd been fitfully tossing upon prior was a blessing. Taking little more time to investigate the room, Keene returned back to the main cavern, the light and warmth of the fire pressing against the bare skin of his already heated chest, an uncomfortable heat. The gopher had begun to sizzle, its skin crisping as the scent of cooking meat filled the hall. Moving to stand a short distance away from the Warden, he waited with a slight growl to his stomach. It had been awhile since Boswell had brought him a cooked hare, and the idea of meat far outweighed the slight reserves he had had about the gopher's death prior.

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[Ink]

Fate has dictated the conclusion to your journey...

...And now, only Fortune awaits you.

I am Ink, Mistress of Sahova; and it is my pleasure to award you with this bounty of XP and Lore. If you have any questions regarding this Grade, please do not hesitate to send me a PM. Fret not, I tend not to smite...often.

 

Keene

XP

• Observation 5
• Reimancy 3
• Socialization 2
• Shielding 1
• Teaching 1
• Politics 1
• Logic 2
• Detection 1
• Endurance 2
• Land Navigation 1
• Cooking 1

LORES

• Surviving Sahovan Judgment
• Voiding Gone Wrong: When Creatures Escape
• Sever the Stream of Res to Snuff the Flame
• Boswell is Missing
• Sahova: The Wilderness is an Adversary
• Wardens Respond to the Red Flare
• Wardens: Atziri Warden of Mt. Merlus
• Sahova: The Obsidian Cavern
• Obsidian Cavern: The Third Tunnel to Nowhere

MISCELLANEOUS

• Loot: 1 Initiate's Vambrace

With Regards,
Ink