by Clark Bolton
The monk looked curious to hear more.
“Ah, he seeks more of the Tesslodken Sta’s, and thinks he may have found one.”
The monk raised his hands with fingers extended. “Truly most magnificent.”
The three watched a tear form in the man’s eye as Castor commented. “Oh he will get along fine with Berdtom.”
They left the monk to settle in, informing him to ask the cook or anyone else if he needed something. The man was already poking at scrolls with a tender touch as they left.
Chapter 20
Autbek watched from the tower as a farmer’s cart pulled into the courtyard which he found very unusual as it was nearly dark. Watching closely as two people climbed down from the cart he got the impression that one of them he knew though he didn’t recall meeting any farmers since coming to Astrum. The two had a brief conversation with each other and several of the guards before the younger of the two climbed back on the cart and promptly road away toward the city.
When a guard pointed to the tower the older farmer looked up and seeing Autbek in the window, waved after removing his hat. Realizing now that it was Eifled, Autbek motioned for him to come in and then hurried down to meet him. Eifled looked weary but his eyes shown as brightly as ever as he entered the mage-tower for the first time.
“A tower you have, O’t, very fitting for a mage!” Eifled exclaimed as he rested against the door.
“Glad to see you, Eifled, been very anxious to speak with you.” Autbek said as he helped the older man to the library door which he then opened.
With a glance inside Eifled was quick to say, “I see the Un Sha arrived before me!”
“Yes, this is Un Papp! Do you know him?” Autbek asked as the two of them sat on some benches.
“No, I have not had the pleasure I think.” Eifled said as he bowed to Un Papp who bowed low in return.
“You do me honor, master Eifled.” Un Papp proclaimed as he continued to bow.
“And you to us.” Eifled replied as he turned to Autbek with a smile. “I think your library, O’t, will be in good hands and rightly organized for me to utilize.”
“I do hope so, Eifled.” Autbek replied as he tried to control his desire to change the subject but lost. “I have something to get from you I think.” He said as he glanced at Un Papp while trying to decide if it should be discussed in front of him.
Eifled seemed to catch on right away. “Best not hide things from your librarian, O’t, least you find your works rearranged.”
“Well … then I’m looking for something that Neustus believes you might have.”
“Does he now? We have only met a few times in the dark and never discussed a thing.” Eifled said unabashedly.
Autbek furrowed his brow and was going to ask when that might have been but decided to let it drop for now. Berdtom gave Eifled a great deal of leeway with most things and so he as well had picked up the habit. “Yes, it’s an Ausic oath I’m looking for. A scroll I assume though why he thinks you have one I can’t say.”
Eifled stared at him for a few moments and then proceeded to begin emptying the large shoulder-bag he had been carrying. “Seems someone is ahead of me despite my best speed.” In addition to rolls of blank parchment and various writing materials the bag also contained a large collection of scrolls. These Eifled laid out methodically as Un Papp watched with great interest.
Autbek was hesitant to ask if one of them might be what he was looking for as the possibility seemed beyond remote and so would make him sound foolish. “You have traveled a ways it looks like.”
“For you I have, O’t.” Eifled announced. “Since I got word that you were out looking for Ausic treasures I thought perhaps it was time to instruct you and your companions on just what it was you were looking for.” Eifled then paused. “I’ve heard you have found something?”
Autbek nodded and then with another glance at Un Papp he reached into his tunic to show them what was hanging on the thin silver chain round his neck. “This … I’m told by Neustus is an Ausic ring.”
“By the gods, Autbek!” Eifled exclaimed as he took hold of the ring. “It just might be.” Eifled then motioned Un Papp to have a look at it also.
“How can we be sure?” Autbek asked the two of them who now practically had their heads touching as they leaned into toward his chest.
“You say Neustus has a similar one?” Eifled asked as he continued to study the ring.
Autbek couldn’t recall mentioning it to Eifled as he replied, “Yes, very much like it.”
“Then I should think real…though I know of no test that we can perform to verify its authenticity.” After another a minute of study he asked, “What do you know of the Ausic?”
Autbek furrowed his brow again and said quickly, “Nothing! I had not heard the word before I read it in that Comusa scroll you gave us.”
“Ha-ha, careful, O’t, you will get Un Papp here excited if he thinks I possess such things.” Eifled then unrolled one of the scrolls he had brought and handed it to Autbek. “You’ll find this is what you are seeking from me. The rarity of it should be respected and I would think that Un Papp here would be delighted to make a few copies of it.”
Autbek spent a minute examining the scroll before asking, “This is the Ausic oath?”
“It is but before you go memorizing it do please tell me how Neustus knew I had gone to retrieve it.”
Autbek shook his head. “I can only think he saw you at some point…” He said as he glanced up toward the ceiling. “…and like with others saw relevance in you.”
“Well said … and vague.” Eifled replied with a frown. “Now gather your apprentices and others whose confidence you trust and I shall run through the contents of these other scrolls. Then perhaps light will be shed on why an age that has no Ausic mages now suddenly appears to have two of them.”
For some reason Autbek found it odd that Murac was so interested in hearing what Eifled had to say about the Ausic, thinking perhaps the man simply liked a good tale which was certainly Eifled’s specialty. Murac along with Haspeth, Castor, and Berdtom were all now seated in the cramped library waiting for Eifled to start his lecture. Autbek found no other way to look at it as Eifled had indicated it was likely to be a long one-sided conversation.
“Thought you were gone, sir?” Haspeth asked of Berdtom.
“No, very soon though but first I want to hear all of what Eifled has found.”
“Now where shall I begin?” Eifled asked expectantly after everyone looked reasonably comfortable and attentive.
“At the beginning.” Castor suggested as he glanced at Haspeth. “Some of us get lost otherwise.”
“Yea, well who bloody starts a tale in the middle?” Haspeth countered.
“Then let it be so.” Eifled said as he paused to stare at the scrolls laid out on the table. “Do first remember that this age is not the only one this world has seen, nor the last I expect. Only for a very few, which I hope soon will include all of you, is the truth of the beginning known or at least guessed at.”
When those we call the Unid, or the first, awoke at the beginning of creation they found themselves few in number. We today call them gods, and there were around twelve of them, though it is said that these twelve did not and still don’t think of themselves as gods in the way the people of this age think of gods. As you would expect the elves who came later and those peoples who think themselves as holders of the original truths conceived of these Unid to be composed equally of men and women.
This only starts the tale as it was those that came next that you will be most interested in I think. The Secundai, meaning the second ones, they were called, and they eventually became vast in number as unlike the Unid they delighted in producing offspring. Either having a greater love of exploration than the Unid or perhaps simply because there was so many more of them, the Secundai eventually reached all four-corners of the world and brought back with them to the feet of the Unid all manner of wonders that they had fo
und.
Now as this first age progresses it became apparent to at least one of the Unid that the children of the Secundai were not all equal in strength or vitality, though by our standards they are still immortal and at the very least demi-gods. The Unid who eventually reveals this to all was named Echt, and it was he who introduced this knowledge in the form of strife, and for it and other crimes he was eventually cast out of this world by his fellow Unids. Though the Secundai never thought of themselves as being equal to the Unid they did, until Echt poisoned the peace, think of themselves as equal un to each other.
The Secundai may have remained as they were but for the actions of one of the more notable ones among them, his name was Ustclostefey. He was one of the first Secundai to awaken when the song of Creation was still strong in the ears of the Unid and so had neither a father nor a mother, which set him and a few others apart from the majority of Secundai, most of whom now were born of other Secundai. Ustclostefey tasked himself, or perhaps others asked it of him, to bring those Secundai that were the wicked followers of Echt to an accounting.
Zoljct was recognized as the most sinful of the Secundai who had served Echt, who by this time had been cast out of the world. The Secundai thought to enact justice upon Zoljct and other Secundai like him rather than to appeal to the Unid to do it, or perhaps the Unid simply refused, we really can only guess. In any case the Secundai came to believe that the Unid were not the vessel by which these Secundai would be punished as they had witnessed the mercy the Unid were capable of and thought Zoljct in particular unworthy of it.
The crimes Zoljct was guilty of often involved some of the other peoples that had awakened toward the end of the first age. The fairy-folk were the first, and some would group the elves among their number, but however you group the elves they and the fairy-folk were cruelly exploited by Echt and his followers, as they were among the first to seek out such peoples. Other peoples awoke at this time and some would include the dwarves here, but no matter the point is that these first peoples suffered death and perhaps worse at the hands of Zoljct and his like.
Ustclostefey at first set out to bind Zoljct for all time and then realizing this would ultimately fail he thought to dismember Zoljct and scatter his parts to the four-corners of the world but came to see the folly of that also as surely a distant age would come whereby Zoljct would be made whole again. Addressing the other Secundai, Ustclostefey convinced all that there was no way to fulfill their desires for a punishment that would equal Echt’s, and so he set himself apart to ponder his failure.
Eventually through either at his own accord or by the pleas of the other Secundai, Ustclostefey attempted again to find a fitting punishment that would endure for all time. Seeing that neither he nor all the Secundai combined could cast one such as Zoljct outside the world he wondered if perhaps Zoljct could be made mortal such as most of his victims had been. And so the first un-making was performed.
It turns out that the Creation of life is much the same as any other endeavor in that it is easier to destroy then to create. Ustclostefey confirmed this and so using all his skills and whatever power remained from the Creation he blackened the skies and caused the earth to tremble, and some say the very air to boil with the result being the total destruction of Zoljct.
No one doubted the truth of it, or at least came to accept it as fact once the Unid acknowledged it; Ustclostefey had in fact un-made an immortal being. Something this astounding of course seemed to elevate Ustclostefey in the eyes of all but perhaps the Unid. He was seen as a true god, one who could enact the ultimate retribution upon another immortal. It at first horrified the Secundai as they realized the un-making ritual could be performed by Ustclostefey against anyone of them.
At first silent about the ramifications of what he had done, Ustclostefey then announced that he thought himself not the only one who could accomplish this feat. In fact he believed any of the Secundai could be taught to do it. However, he was wrong, and this brings us very close to the Ausic.
Ustclostefey does manage to teach others the un-making ritual, and this leads to the manifestation of one of the other great misfortunes unleashed by Echt. This would be vanity; a pride undeserved or at least unwise to flaunt in the face of others. For now we have the separation of the Secundai into two distinct groups, those who can un-make who continue to call themselves Secundai, and those who cannot. These become the Tertai, the thirds or the others, as they were know.
The Tertai were in such awe of the un-making ritual that they imposed upon themselves an oath whereby they bowed to the true Secundai, and so was born the Covenant of Ustclostefey. It was an oath that at first Ustclostefey blessed and some would even say he wrote it, but when other secrets or quirks of the Creation became known to him he sought to end its use. By this time it was too late, and sadly even the Unid saw no way to reverse it.
Before he had a change of heart Ustclostefey had created a great ebony monolith upon which were inscribed the names of all those who could un-make. He had but to gaze into the eyes of a prospective Secundai to know if the ritual was within them or not, and if it was he personally added their name to the black stone. This covenant with the Tertai that was now embodied in this monolith was set first at the feet of the Unid, but when the truths that I’m about to reveal to you were discovered it was removed by Ustclostefey himself and rumored to have been destroyed by him.
Those first peoples I mentioned before, the fairy-folk, it turns out that vanity had already taken hold among them. At first they were a free-loving folk and were not as nearly diverse as they are today in terms of form. They were more elven like it is believed, though much smaller and of course some had wings as they do today. But what vanity had brought to them was a queen, and her name was Isslain. She called herself the queen of the fairies and she had enough boastful pride in her to want at the very least to look upon the Covenant and perhaps even be added to it.
Neither the Secundai nor the Tertai cared to conceal the Covenant from any who would gaze upon it and so they stood aside when Isslain arrived with her horde of followers in tow. After days of reading and marveling at the monolith, Queen Isslain came to ask how her name might be added to the Covenant. She was sharply rebuked by the Tertai for making such a request and so a battle of sorts ensued. Being near the foot of the lands were the Unid resided the Secundai quickly intervened but not before several of Queen Isslain’s fairies were allegedly slain.
The vanity of Queen Isslain would not allow her to simply withdraw from being near the Covenant after the death of some of her subjects so she demanded to speak with Ustclostefey and to be tested so that she could be counted among the ranks of the Secundai. Not wishing to suffer the wrath of the Unid, should more blood be spilt, the Secundai who were present consented and so Ustclostefey was asked to come and test Isslain.
No one, perhaps not even Isslain, thought that there was a chance one of the first peoples could perform the un-making ritual, but Ustclostefey gazed into her eyes and then declared that the feat was within her. Without a second thought Ustclostefey began to inscribe Isslain’s name upon the monolith as all the Secundai and Tertai present watched in shock. Queen Isslain then boldly declared herself a newly discovered Secundai which nearly resulted in a second battle.
However, the fight was averted when Ustclostefey’s great voice echoed from the monolith, saying “Isslain is not of the Secundai nor of the Tertai but her name will be rightfully inscribed by me upon the Covenant. Do not doubt me when I say she can un-make!”
And now despite the misgivings of the other Secundai we have our first declared Dzizereid, which is the original form of the name given to them or as close as I and other scholars are able to determine it to be. Here in this age, the term that would be used by men, to name one such as Isslain, would be Wizard. Simply put Wizard means one born with the gift to un-make, though most use it now to refer to the most powerful of mages. Which you’ll be happy to learn brings us finally to the Ausic.
At the
start of the second age the world was populated only by the first peoples, the faeries, elves, and a few minor other folk such as the dwarves, all of whom generally wondered the wilderness alongside the Secundai and the Tertai who still were willing to be in their presence. Then as others of the first peoples came to be added to the Covenant, which included a prince or two of the elves and perhaps some other fairies, there came the appearance of men and they also had Wizards among their number.
I have always suspected that mankind was more prone to produce a Wizard then any of the other races, but how one can demonstrate such a belief is beyond me. When these Wizards of men started to show themselves they brought with them the first orderly approach to magecraft that had been seen among all the races. Until that point only the elves formerly taught much and all others simply passed their knowledge on to their closet kin or not at all.
Impressed enough with these men Ustclostefey was, that he assisted them in calling from the heavens the great Ausic stone as it was called. I personally think that it was at least the size of a house and perhaps the size of a mountain, but no matter it was the last gift of the Creation or so some believe. It’s gold and silver striped veins yielded the mineral for the rings these Wizards made and for other mysterious artifacts that are the stuff of legends.
As you can guess these Wizards got their name from the Ausic mineral and though in time they included non-Wizards in their ranks they have been forever venerated as the mages who walked with and were taught by the Secundai. Forever that is until they were forgotten at the start of this age.
Now why the Ausic have returned, at least now two of them, and why at the same time they have fallen into my lap as has this fabulous library we sit in, I can’t say as of yet. No doubt it will take me a number of years of contemplation to arrive at the answers.
