Gvera Cross by Blackheart Ravensoul (uplifting books for women TXT) 📖

The Scroll

 

When she woke up, Gvera was alone. The room was full of warm morning light and silence filled the small house. She got out of bed and went downstairs to check, there were no signs of Solean. Did he leave her and go off by himself? She couldn't really blame him for not wanting to get involved with death creatures. But inside she felt a little hurt, Gvera didn't want to go on this quest alone either. Whatever they got themselves into was clearly dangerous, but she couldn't just sit there and way. It was time to get going, before it got dark again. It was September, days were still sunny and warm but dark days of Autumn were just around the Gvera looked around the kitchen for some food to take with her on her journey, the door to the house opened. Startle by the sound she spun around. Solean stood in the door way eyeing her with a strange expression.

" So, you're finally up. What's the matter you look like you've seen a ghost"

"You scared me, that's all" she lied, in truth she never thought she would see him again.

"Where were you?" she asked.

"You were asleep so went to look around town. It doesn't seem like there were any more monsters around."

"But we should check the gate just in case" the witch said" the necromancer could have summoned something else."

"What makes you think that?" the boy asked

" The crystal went red but just for a moment."

"When was that?"

"Um.. at night.. sometime after you fell asleep."

Solean was thinking for a moment

" You check the gate, I will look around here; we should leave before nightfall. I saw a road leading out of the town, there could be other towns along the road, we might find someone there who will know what to do."

Gvera agreed, they still had some time before dusk, enough to get ready for the found her way back to the gate, somehow. The girl felt a little happier since her new comrade didn't abandon her like she first thought. Slowly she examined the pyramid, everything seemed fine, but then she noticed something, something that wasn't there yesterday- a strange purple gap in the side of stone triangle. It was slightly glowing; the purple glow was shifting, cold coming from it.

"Could this be the gate?"

The gap did not resemble an actual gate but she had a strong inside feeling that it was it. Yesterday she couldn't see it, but now she somehow could.

" I wonder if I do this…?"

she put her hands together and the white, spider web like, lines connected her fingertips . The she touched the gap and watched with awe when the threads attached to edges of the black – purple gap and knitted together sealing it shut. She had closed the gate, without even realizing what she was doing. A gate that was visible and could be used by necromancers. The truth dawned on her: the gates, the creatures , the web like energy threads , the spider symbol- she was a necromantreses and her mother was one too. Fear overwhelmed her for a moment; what would Solean think if he knew? Necromancers were feared and hated, believed to be the most evil of all dark magics. Right now, somewhere in Middland there was necromancer on the loose and her powers were the only thing effective against death creatures.

When the witch returned to the town, Solean had already finished packing. He found a bag pack and packed it with food supplies.

"What took you so long?" he asked.

" I got a little lost" she answered, not wanting to tell him the reason.

" Are you ready to go?"

" Sure" she noticed he had a sword now.

" Where did you get that?"

" I found it" the boy replied

" maybe you happen to find a map as well?" the boy only shook his head" I did find some money, not much, but we will need it when we get out of the woods."

" Let's go, before it gets dark" Gvera encouraged him.

They followed the road out of the abandoned town, it seemed to lead deeper in the woods, but it was wide enough road for two wagons to go side by side, so the duo didn't worry too much. All roads lead to somewhere, and a road this wide was sure to lead to a town. It was quiet, birds could be heard on occasions but most of them had already left south for the winter. It was the third week of September; the winds blew gently over the forest, catching the golden and orange leaves, carrying them away to unseen places. For hours and hours the road went on straight with occasional bends and turns. Then , when the sun had already began to set but was still bright, they reached a fork in the road. one path went left, the other right. They chose the right one, following it into what soon turned out to be a dead end. There was a small wooden house and a little garden around it, the road ended there. When they were about to turn around and leave, the crystal began to glow. Gvera noticed all the windows of the house were covered from the inside with thick materials.

"Come on lets go" Solean encouraged her to leave.

"No" she shook her head unable to explain why she felt the urge to fight it.

"You want to fight that thing?" the magician wasn't thrilled by the idea.

" It might attack another village" was all she said.

Gvera ran towards the door and opened it. Quickly she pulled off the materials covering the windows and let the sunlight in. She heard moaning and turned around. It wasn't a necromorph, but a black skeleton and it was melting in the sunlight, soon there was nothing but a pile of blackened bones and ash on the floor. Solean came inside to find her alone

" That was fast" he looked at the bones.

" It was only a skeleton, very weak from the looks of it, the sun killed it."

" I see. So this place is safe?"

"Looks like it" she said looking at the crystal, that looked normal.

"It will be dark soon, so let's stay here" the boy suggested.

Gvera didn't split up to search the rooms of the house. There were no signs of death creatures being there, but it was better to be safe than sorry. Gvera sat down on the bed, feeling a little tired from the long walk, when she heard Solean call form the next room

" I think you need to see this".

She rushed right over, half expecting it to be a corpse, but she saw the boy holding a scroll.

"What is it?" "

I can't say for sure. " the magician said" I think it could be a letter but I can only read a small part of it."

"Look, it has the symbol of the Order." She pointed to the top of the parchment .

" The order again?" It's weird" he looked at the letter again" there five kinds of different symbols used, almost like this later is written in five different languages. "

"You said you can read some of it" she reminded

" Some of it is libros, the secret language of my people. "

" I see some wizards runes in there too." Gvera said looking at the letter"

I don't know what the others are."

" Let's read what we can." The girl suggested.

Once finished with translations, the latter read:

" The time is near * beyond the frozen sea *will be reborn. *once the five : the spider, the rat, the ferret, the serpent and * .A union had formed so that* remained locked for ages. * at the dawn of the final day of the year * The King will rise from the ashes* the world will drown in flame. * the one from beyond the veil of death comes * . The ones scattered must gather * the order reborn* answer the call."

They sat in silence for a moment, contemplating what they read.

" What do you think it means?" Solean looked at his comrade.

" I think it is encrypted in a way that only those who know could read it."

" What do you think is " the one from beyond the veil of death" " he asked.

" Maybe a death creature. They come from death."

" A death creature king?" Solean looked at the letter " King is mentioned too "

Gvera shuddered thinking about it

" But if the Five means the Order, than that would mean, the spider, the rat, the ferret and the serpent are the members of the order." Gvera said

" True, but serpents are used as symbols by magicians, and you said animals like ferrets are used by wizards, so the spider, the rat and the one we don't know could be magics. "

" An Order made of all five existing magics?" Gvera looked at him.

" That would make sense, since it was written in five different languages" she agreed.

" So the order must gather somewhere because the kings of death creatures will break free at the end of the year?" Solean summed up the letter.

" Do you think it means the end of this year?" he asked looking at her seriously.

" I can't say, but with the things going on with the necromancer on the loose, anything can happen."

Splitting Up

 

They ate supper, both lost in their thoughts. Solean thought about the scroll and what it meant. Magicians had similar stories about heroes banding together to create the laws of their magic, but all the heroes were magicians, not wizards and certainly didn't hail from several different magics. And there was something bothering him.

" I think one of them is a necromancer. " he said.

" What?" Gvera was pulled from her thoughts

" One of the order"

" What makes you think that, necromancers are evil"

"You said only necromancer can open the door to death and summon creatures from there, so wouldn't they need a death master to put a death creature king back into death?"

"Well I guess so" she agreed" But it would also mean, that only a necromancer could free him , right?" the realization struck her

" You think the necromancer that summoned the creature in the woods is trying to free the king?

Gvera was starting to think that herself.

" He killed someone from the Order, and then there was a creature in the house , what was it doing here? Did come to steal the letter, or kill the person who lived here?" the boy kept thinking out loud

"I can check that" she offered

" How?" " With my guardian sprite, it can answer basic questions and located things and people."

Gvera summoned the little orb of light

"Where is the owner of this house?" she asked. The orb turned red.

" What does it mean?" Solean asked

" It means the person is dead." She said" green would mean they are alive, and it would show us the location, if it wasn't too far away."

" I see, pretty handy" .

"So, the person who lived here