“Magick is a funny thing, it likes to disobey the natural order of things. In a word, chaos. Little does it know that it is actually a part of the system in which it so strongly despises.” - Kailen, Archmage of Guriynem

Crude sun rays pierced their way through the verdant tree line. This far out from the main villages the ground remained unfettered by the ever progressing nature of civilisation, each tree in the encompassing forest being allowed to stretch its arms freely. But in all of its orderly freedom, a new variable had come along. A human lay face down in a stream that wound its way into the forest, something that the evergreen hadn’t seen in perhaps centuries.

A sudden wind pushed the green mass back and forth, almost as if it were dancing to a lullaby. The calming swish of ancient branches trickled its way into the man’s ears slowly waking him from an artificial slumber. He fastened his eyes shut and took in a large breath or instead actually a gulp of water, spluttering he awoke rolling onto his back and blinking his eyes open to reveal the majesty of the forest.

He found himself on a bank of gravel that was eerily surrounded by a now deathly quiet shroud of bark and leaves. Finally coming to his senses he stood up and teetered around before getting his footing and coming to a stand still.

“What the fuck did I drink last night?”

Before being able to answer his own question, a feeling from his stomach quickly made its way up to his throat before emptying itself onto the ground before him.

“Well I guess that answers that.”

He rubbed his eyes and then made his way under the shade of a tree, the silence of the forest seemed to beckon him forward in a ‘I have candy’ kind of way. He pushed past the tree and stumbled into the increasingly dark swarm of trees. Each root only a slight variant of the other but in a weird way they were all unique, some had twist and turns while others preferred a more proper approach.

In all its efforts to conceal, the almost pitch black darkness failed to hide a neat gap in the ground.

“Well lucky me I’ve found a death hole, please kind man walk into my death hole so I may give you a once in a lifetime massage.”

“I’d have to be crazy to even consider going in there.”

And yet he did not stop walking towards it, in fact he began to increase his speed to a semi-trot. When he came to the strange opening in the ground he saw a narrow set of steps that lead downward in a spiral.

“Oh yeah, nothing about this just reaks of ‘local man dies after mysteriously disappearing in hole.’”

But still he continued, braving the first step of many and reaching his hand out for support onto what he understood as a stone wall. As he descended the staircase seemed to get brighter, filling with a blue light. Finally the staircase opened out into a room, long and rectangular though arched at the top. The walls were filled with ornate patterns that ran the length of the room and even stretched up to the roof. The man carefully tiptoed through the room being careful to not set off any traps.

‘For how long this place looks like it had been sitting here, its surprisingly clean.’ He thought to himself, and it was not unfounded, the ruin was marvelously clean with no signs of any plants or other foliage growing through the cracks of the stone brick walls leaving a timeless inside that could have been constructed a day ago or a millennia ago.

At the end of the hallway was a door covered in spiral patterns. He placed his hand up to inspect it but before he could it slid open and revealed a gargantuan room past its threshold, inside it contained a singular pedestal but the room itself was magnificently detailed. He quickly marched over to the pedestal and eyed it over, making sure it wasn’t boobytrapped before placing his hands upon it. The pedestal gave a little tug but it was so small that he thought he had imagined it.

The room suddenly lit up in the same blue light as before and a blue essence began seeping through the floor.

“Alright, I’m out. Can’t deal with any of this magick bullshit today.”

He began to turn and leave but the door had shut closed and behind him he heard a voice start to whisper. The man turned around and found a face seemingly made from the blue essence, it appeared as if it were looking at him. No, it was looking past him like he wasn’t even there.

“It appears I was too rash when I became one with this world.”

The face had a deceptively soothing voice, combining soft tones with a commanding authority.

“I thought that because I was here before it would become subordinate.”

“Oh sweet child what have I done?”

“I have left something on this world though before I am fully part of it. A little piece of myself, a creation if you will. In time of great need it will be the one to wake the Infant in my stead.”

“But one of them will need to take up the mantle, it matters not which. While they may not know they are all capable of it, but one of them must remind us all what came before so that it can come again.”

This time the face looked directly at the man.

“It seems that you will have to do. The others in your place failed, they forgot. You may be a dilute of my creation but you could still live up to their power.”

“I don’t understand what you want from me.” The man said, hoping to get an answer to whatever mind-fuckery was going on.

“Neither do I, the Infant was never too specific about its plans.”

“But in his infinite wisdom he foretold his slumber, and I have come to rouse it.”

“Well this is some spooky shit.”

The face chuckled, then looked upward even though there was nothing but dirt.

“Spooky indeed. In this I am beseeched to grant you a name.”

“I’m pretty sure I have a name, its…”

The words failed to come to his lips, as if there was someone keeping them from him.

“Do not worry child. It is common for those who have been chosen to be given a new name, their old name is merely a placeholder it cannot contain the potential power.”

“And so I bestow upon you the name: Kestel.”

Somehow a wind rushed into the building filling it up with life and energy, swirling around Kestel before dying down and leaving the room empty.

“Sadly, the Infant needs protection and I am all that’s able to defend it without my chosen few here. So I must say goodbye.”

The essence that made up the face receded back into the ground and disappeared, the room felt hollow without anything in it. Kestel had so many questions about what was going on.

“Well what the fuck am I supposed to do now?”