“Hey!”

*Thud*

“GGAHHH! You just about gave me a heart attack. Look at that!” Srit said, pointing at the tiny puddle of pee sitting at his feet. “You did that on purpose, didn’t you?”

“Not Really. I DID, however fill your pack with pebbles before we left the last town.”

Srit came to a dead stop in the middle of the road, un-buckled his pack and began to pull out his belongings. Once his items were removed he could see the pebbles that Sariah mentioned, filling his pack nearly half way up. Don’t react, just play it cool. Act like you knew they were there the whole time and you carried them to make her look foolish, yeah, that’ll work. No, no it won’t. Damnit! She got me again!

“So, this town has another piece of your armor? “inquired Srit.

“Nah, it’s just a stop over until we get to the next piece. I can’t feel them as strongly as I should be able to. This piece I just got took quite a while to form to my body and is broken in half. I think that the orbs in that temple were designed to syphon of the energy, I just don’t know what they were doing with the energy they syphoned. I’m hoping to talk to a local mage and see if they have any ideas or history that I can learn. I can also feel a fairly strong and familiar presence here.” Replied Sariah.

Walking this far was hurting Srit’s feet “Well, if all of the magic is dead or dying, what makes you think that there are any mages here? I don’t see anything to indicate that there is anything left of the old world. I can’t even feel my connection to my world right now, only the connection to your disgusting prison.”

In the long history of the world, the Order of Mages was a constant bastion for history and information. Magic was not the actual center piece of the organization, nor the strength of it. During the height of magic, 1 in every 50000 people would be born with the gift, 1 in 100000 would find magic relics and learn the gift and three people had been given the gift by dragons. Magic was rare at best, and due to that, never the major power in the lands. Not feeling like explaining all of this to the imp, Sariah simply replied with “Pancake”, walking away with the tiny imp looking wholly and completely confused.

About three hours later they found exactly what they were looking for; a library run by a member of the Order of Mages. Sariah wanted to make sure that she would be well received before entering the library. Shopping around certainly proved to be a hassle, she never had good taste in clothes since she hated the stuff, and had no idea where to start. Srit was no help, the little rat was wearing nothing more than a loincloth.

Stopping at a clothier and simply asking was the result. Sariah walked out of the tailor’s shop in a green dress down to her feet, thick leather boots and new green gloves for her hands. None of what she was wearing could be called expensive or noble, but she did feel far less out of place. So, she began her trip to the library.

Kavon was an older man, greying black hair and eyes so blue that they hurt to look at defined him. This man certainly did not look the part of the scholars that she once remembered, frail old things. This man gave off the feeling of deep and furious violence being contained by a thin sheet of self-control. “Hello, how may I assist you today traveler?”

“I came here in search of you, you will aid with some questions that I have. The Order of Mages was always a font of knowledge, and I’ve come to exploit that knowledge for my own gain. Should you not agree to do this, I will simply filet you and leave you here to rot” Sariah said, grinning at Kavon and waiting to see what the man was made of.

Surprisingly, Kavon bellowed out a laugh. There was no longer tension in his body or murder in his eyes, he simply seemed overjoyed. “Sit! Sit! I will go get us something to drink. I offer you my hospitality, your Imp too! Filet me! Ha! You certainly make an entrance ma’am!” Kavon jovially stated as he walked into the other room to fetch drinks.

“Well, not all magic is dead.” Srit stated as soon as the door closed.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I’ve been hiding myself and disguising you the entire time we’ve been traveling. Since the first two towns we went to had nothing but humans, and we haven’t seen another race on our travels, I’m not certain what this world will throw at us and hoped to keep us from being discovered until we knew more about the world and what we face. Your new mage friend knew that I was here and bowed to your threat without pause. I believe he knows who you and I are, or at least that you were not making an idle threat” Srit said with a bit of concern to his face.

“That’s sweet of you to do, I didn’t realize it. I suppose that keeping a low profile until I have all my armor pieces is a good idea. We will go by our real names for now, claiming to be named after ourselves. How does that sound?”

“I love it, deception with truth. How delicious! It’s too bad we’re not using code names though. I’d go with something awesome. Roofie the Sexual Tyrant or something. I’ll think on it!” Srit manically cackled at this, mentally creating a list of aliases.

“Sure thing, you lunatic.” Sariah said with great amusement.

Kavon came busting through the door with four glasses and two bottles of clear alcohol. As he sat, he proceeded to place the four glasses around the table and fill them all half way. Once all of the glasses were filled he motioned to Sariah and Srit, “To my first worthwhile guests that I can remember”, pointed at the empty seat with a glass in front of it, “To the guest I hope to one day bond with.”, and then drank a sip of his glass, “And to the host, may my hospitality be of a fine quality and my drink knock you on your ass.”. Finally, he raised the glass, an indicator that hospitality was sealed, and that no violence would come to any guest under his protection.”

“A fine display, may I get your name sir? I did not expect such a formal welcome and you’ve made an ass out of me for not asking earlier.” “Sariah” said.

“No, no, no. My name is Kavon, just a simple librarian. I afford you infinite leeway if you agree to answer a few questions of my own. I will hold nothing back and answer every question you may have in its entirety and true nature. What is your name lady? And yours as well sir?” Kavon said looking between Sariah and Srit.

“I am Sariah, my companion is Srit. Thank you, Kavon, I agree to your terms on the condition that we will not guarantee answers, agreed?

“Agreed!” And without skipping a beat Kavon’s smile stretched from ear to ear, staring at “Srit”.

“Good Srit, you are in our world, does this mean that humans may become bonded again?”

“Well, right now…no, I don’t think so. The Way has been blocked for so long now that I don’t think the worlds will be able to share energy for quite a while. At least not enough to bond without a great amount of help.”

“This is sad news, but, I will continue to hope. What questions do you have for me?” Kavon’s smile was now completely gone.

“Actually, I have many. Settle in Kavon, this will take a while.” Sariah told him.

“It’s no problem! I have nothing here to do except dust these old books, take your time!”

“First and foremost, where is all the magic?! It feels totally dead in this town, and I’ve sensed little more than a trickle at most since I’ve come to this place.” Sariah said with obvious despair to her voice.

“Well, it’s all theoretical, but our scholars believe that magic began to die when we trapped the Destroyer 1500 years ago. They believe that we…for lack of better words, mages ripped or clogged the bridges between realms. None have been able to say for sure if this is the case, but it seems the most logical. The magics that were used, and the methods, were too powerful. There was nobody around to control the actions of those involved in the imprisonment, and they didn’t consider the ramifications of their actions when using that much power and magic in such a foul way.”

“I see, it makes sense, but I can tell you now that the bridges between the realms cannot be ripped, “shut off” is a much more plausible description. By the way, how did you see through my Imps spell work? Do you know who we are?” Sariah inquired with the softest voice she could muster. Don’t want to scare him, yet.

“Ah! It was easy! Mages today are still as sensitive as ever, maybe more so. Everyone is tested for magic senses by being brought before 1000 items. 999 items are mundane and 1 item has a little magic. We are then blind folded and told to retrieve the magic item. We do these tests 5 times to reduce the chance of someone getting lucky. I felt the magic on you and your imp when you walked in the door of my shop. I created amplification tools for scrying long ago. They sit on either side of the doors, connected to glass vials that light up with the color of the magics present. The glass is red and volatile looking, powerful Demon.” Kavon stated, pointing to the glass lamps sporadically spaced around the room. “Half of the vials are still empty, I don’t know why. Those empty vials are supposed to pick up on the other persons magic. I can obviously feel your magic, I just cannot discern the level of your power, nor the type of magics you are attuned to, unlike Mister Srit’s. Granted, I’ve not actually met a Bonded before, so it’s most likely just inexperience.”

“Kavon, what are your aspirations? Were you given magic and bonded, what bond would you seek and magic would you wish for?”

“Ha! This is easy! My aspirations are simple, I would like to experiment with magic, not theorize about it! As far as being bonded, I believe that I would best share a bond with a Gnome or other race prone to tinkering. Magic would be a bit difficult to pick since I’ve never considered it. I guess, yes, I would just like to go with my natural affinity.”

“Which is?”

“Oh! I have no idea, I’ve never actually seen magic wielded before today, much less wielded it on my own. Magical items? Sure, but the item is preloaded, so it’s not OUR magic that we’re using.” Kavon stated with just a hint of longing to his voice.

Sariah used her bond to speak with Srit. I wonder if I can infuse him with magic and help him open The Way to be bonded. I feel as though I can do this, what is your opinion?

Srit replied, I haven’t been paying any attention to you or him this whole time…I’ve been humping his dog and going through his things. He has A LOT of material on you here, also a lot of maps pointing to what he thinks are lost magic items. I think he is a descendant of your Touched line.

Sariah responded, Shit, I totally forgot about them. I am going to either break his existence or wake him up, do you think it would be beneficial to us?

Why the fuck not? If anything, it’ll be funny to see you make him explode. I’ve got some fuckin’ to do now! Srit Out!