Legends of Tarthirious: The Complete Collection

by Zachariah Dracoulis

  Kylia: Chapter 8

  When I woke up Gerald was gone and a note that said he’d gone to work and wanted to let me sleep was on his pillow. I frowned at the fact that I’d lost out on seeing him that morning, but figured it was probably for the best, I did feel a Hell of a lot better than I did the day before.

  It was 10:32 when I finally got myself out of bed, and 10:50 before I’d managed to make my morning toast and coffee. That time of day was always sort of vacuous in regards to time, I’d blink and it’d be eleven and I’d have gotten nothing done.

  After breakfast I decided to make the most of my kinda sorta home arrest and turned on the television. Pretty quickly I found a channel that was playing a rather interesting action film, people running in the streets, throwing bricks, and attacking MPs.

  That’s when I realised it wasn’t a film.

  I watched on in curious horror as the news presenter commentated on the images being displayed. What made it worse was they were intercutting it with footage of my speech. Though at least they weren’t demonising me, it was the Commander they were after, made obvious by the fact that they showed the footage of him firing his gun in the air several times from different angles.

  That was the other thing that they kept mentioning even though I’d never said it, they were spinning the story so that it looked as if the reason I was arrested was that I was doing too well and the MPs didn’t like that and that it was the only way they could control us.

  Thing is, they were completely ignoring the fact that the MP’s weren’t citizens either and they had nothing to gain by preventing me from succeeding.

  A few more minutes passed by like that, me wincing as a piece of debris went flying through a window, then feeling like I was to blame, until I finally got sick of the news and turned it off, deciding that I needed to take a good, long shower.

  After I was dressed and ready for the day I remembered, for the third time, that I couldn’t go out. Normally I wouldn’t have even wanted to, but the fact that I’d been told I had to stay inside was making me flustered.

  What can I say? I’m a rebel at heart. But you know what else I am?

  Really boring.

  I couldn’t stand it, I was completely incapable of being on my own.

  Have you ever found that? The second your alone at home without anything to do, no housekeeping, no work, nothing, you realise that, without those things, you’re an all-around boring human being?

  Me neither.

  Anyway, I got tired of being bored and decided the most productive thing to do was to boot up Tarthirious again. I wasn’t particularly looking forward to going solo, having gotten so used to having Gerald around had made the idea of going in feel kind of bland, but I thought that if I wasn’t working I may as well get back into it.

  I found an energy drink I’d stashed in the back of my fridge and drained the can in a few seconds before stomping toward the Rig Room, not because I was angry or frustrated, but because my body seemingly wanted to force as much of the caffeine into my feet as possible.

  My hand locked onto my mouse, my fingers hovered twitchily over my keyboard, and I jumped in.

  Bishop: Chapter 4

  Bishop drove the butt of his would-be killer’s sniper into the corpse’s face one last time, the pain from the bullet wound in his leg fuelling his rage.

  He’d done it.

  He’d finally killed off the last of the hit squad, and not a second too early in Bishop’s opinion. He let the rifle clatter to the ground and looked over the city of London, the waterside warehouse he’d lured the last two members of the hit squad to giving him a good view of the London Eye.

  Bishop’s thoughts on that final battle of his were that it had been, though incredibly painful, absolutely thrilling. Something for his life story, should he ever get the time to write it, and something he’d tell his children if he didn’t bleed out and actually managed to have sex at some point ever again.

  With no care about the general rule of respect for the dead, Bishop fell unceremoniously to his behind onto the dead man’s body before shuffling his trousers off and getting a look at the very recent wound.

  He’d been lucky, another through-and-through that had gone through the bottom of his right thigh, leaving a two millimetre thick piece of burned and bloodied skin dangling from his leg.

  The survivor closed his eyes, grabbed the skin, prayed for it not to hurt, and pulled it off.

  From that day on, that was what he would measure against in terms of a pain scale.

  After moaning for a few seconds, he tore a piece of the dead man’s pants off and created a bandage to prevent discomfort from bloodied clothes, the damage being barely worth the attention of a doctor.

  When he was confident the bandage wasn’t going to slip off, he pulled his trousers back on and stood, testing the amount of weight he could put on his leg, the answer being not a whole lot, and nodded.

  “Almost there… Almost there…”

  Armelia: Chapter 14

  You have unspent Skill Points, open the Skills Menu to upgrade your Attributes!

  HP upgraded!

  HP: 3000/3000.

  Attributes upgraded!

  38 Strength

  37 Dexterity

  38 Intelligence

  38 Wisdom

  A brief wave of confusion washed over me when I looked over from my skills menu and didn’t see Gerry waiting there with me. It was the equivalent of blinking and having a horse disappear, not that Gerry was a horse.

  See? I still get confused about it.

  Anyway, I got past the weirdness of being alone and started toward the college, I was about to become a member and I was excited.

  That was a lie. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t lie to you.

  To tell the truth I was kind of indifferent about the whole thing, however excitement seemed to be the appropriate reaction, so that’s the one I decided to show.

  I got into the college and blew a raspberry when I saw that Vilor was nowhere to be found. Clearly he was off doing something equally as important, like sleeping, so I decided to head back to my room.

  That’s when real excitement, well, giddiness, started to pervade my apathetic attitude. As I approached the door to my room I saw something happen, a blue marking carving its way into the door into the shape of an angry wolf attacking two mages.

  I looked at it a while, admiring the attention to detail that had been put into it before entering my room and going to sleep.

  The morning came with the sound of a bird chirping outside my door. I climbed out of the bed and started toward the door expecting to see a lush forest once I opened it, but once my hand shifted the lock the chirping stopped and the door opened to the same old boring space that’d always been there.

  Except it wasn’t empty, no, Vilor was standing there, nose-to-nose with me with a smile on his face, “Good morrow druid, I trust you rested well.”

  “Yes, always do after a fight. How can I help you?” I asked politely.

  “Well it’s come to my attention that your skills have improved, and I must say that I’m impressed.” he was saying that a lot lately, but I skipped over my joke and let him continue on, “I was wondering if you’d still be interested in joining our college?”

  “Yes, it would be an honour.” I said through my teeth.

  “Fantastic! I’ll come by again in a few hours to assign you with your fellow students. Until then, the college is at your disposal. Good day.” he said with a bow before walking off in his weird sort of way.

  Mission Completed: Join the Girit Mage’s College.

  +500 XP.

  Progress: 1720/3000.

  Joined Guild: Mage’s College.

  Guild Rank: Apprentice.

  “Finally…” I muttered as I looked at my new rank.

  It was a superfluous title really, something that no one of any import would pay attention to in passing, certainly not anyone at the MoDA, but it was the first step in my journey to becom
e a master mage, which wasn’t half bad.

  I stood in my doorway a while, contemplating what to do next without the help of someone to bounce my ideas off of. I’d gotten a little tired of combat, so anything where I hunted or exterminated was out, and I didn’t want to have to travel too far from the college, the idea of getting lost on a tangent of my present tangent was absolutely exhausting.

  With most of the quests in town removed I decided I’d try my luck with the college’s library, after all, I was there so I could learn ancient languages.

  It took no small amount of wandering, but I eventually found a doorway that led out the back of the building and into a beautiful courtyard. An awe-inspiring tree growing out of what seemed to be a well with a magical green glow at the bottom made the centrepiece for the well-kept garden that surrounded the courtyard’s cobblestone path.

  I looked beyond the tree, which was no easy task, and saw another building that had a dozen people walking in and out of it with armfuls of books.

  “Guess that’s the place.” I said to myself in an attempt to prevent my voice box from withering away as I walked toward it.

  Once inside I ended up looking around like a child in a gun store. The library was built like a poorly made circular maze, what with the straight line to the middle and all, but that didn’t make it any less awesome.

  Fifteen foot high bookshelves made the walls, with ladders propped up at the end of each section, and each one was labelled in ways that actually made sense.

  Everything that had to do with fire magic was in one place, and water in the one opposite, and the further up the shelves you went, the higher level spells you could learn.

  With a great deal of restraint, I walked toward the centre and found a broodish man in dark green robes reading a hefty looking tome, “Everything you want to find is over there,” he said as his name, Master Librarian Joliv Fren, appeared beside his head, “I don’t have time to answer everyone’s questions all day.”

  I went to snap something about being less of a self-indulgent twit, but cooler heads prevailed, “You seem upset, is everything alright?”

  “No,” he said bitterly, slamming his book in the process, “I’ve got people trying to talk to me every damned minute and every damned day, and when they’re not trying to talk to me they’re stealing from me.”

  And that was it, the little titbit of information that would allow me to pursue the conversation meaningfully, “Stealing from you? What was stolen?”

  Joliv rolled his eyes and groaned, “Not that you can do anything about it, but a book, obviously, a very important book that only the Master Magicians should have access to. Rather dangerous one too, if it lands in the wrong hands. I tried to tell Vilor about it, but he just said it was my problem and I had to solve it.”

  “I’d be willing to help you find it.” I said kindly to try and cheer him up. It did, but not in the intended way.

  The Master Librarian started laughing raucously, so much so that I thought he was about to fall out of his chair, “It’s not missing, druid, it was stolen. Meaning whoever has it has hidden it. If it were simply misplaced I’d have been looking for it, wouldn’t I? No, if that book is in the hands of half the mage it would require just to take it, then it’s on the other side of Tarthirious. Thanks for the laugh though, really needed that.”

  I was sour, not even going to pretend I was fine with being insulted, but I had a good feeling that the book was somewhere in the college. “Alright, you don’t think I can find it, that’s fine, but can you at least tell me what the name of the book is and when it was stolen?”

  Joliv gave me an unconvinced look then shrugged, “Fine, if you want to waste your own time, who am I to stop you? The book’s name is ‘Relian Tyos’ Guide to Spellcrafting’, and it was stolen last night, around midnight. Again, there’s no way you’re going to be able to find it.”

  I gave the mage a polite nod and started walking away, a sly smile playing on lips, “Watch me.”

  Mission Started: Overdue.

  Objective added: Look for Clues Regarding the Disappearance of Relian Tyos’ Guide to Spellcrafting.

  Armelia: Chapter 15

  Channelling my inner detective, I started my investigation by interviewing a few of the mages around the library. Most had nothing to offer, but then I found one who was a little uneasy, a young orc by the name of Gelth Kior.

  “You’re sure you didn’t see anything?” I asked the visibly trembling boy.

  He shook his head, then nodded, then shook it again before deciding that words were his friend, “Y-yes, I’m sure I didn’t see anything. Am I free to go? I have a… class.”

  “Of course, don’t let me keep you.” I said kindly with a little bow which the orc returned before walking away at a brisk pace.

  Progress made in mission: Overdue.

  Objective completed: Look for Clues Regarding the Disappearance of Relian Tyos’ Guide to Spellcrafting.

  Objective added: Follow Gelth Kior.

  From there I became one with the shadows, clinging to walls and hiding in groups of other mages as I stayed on Gelth’s tail, right up until he entered a room two doors down from mine.

  I went to listen at the door, but was stopped when Vilor stepped in front of me, “Hello druid, I trust you’re enjoying your time at our college?”

  “Yes, yes, it’s brilliant. I’ve actually just got t-”

  “Very good, well, I thought it high time I introduce you to your fellow students.” he said, gesturing to the small cluster of people in mage’s robes hiding in the far corner.

  “Ah, yes, thank you.” I said with a smile before trying to sidestep around Vilor, but he continued on following me with his gaze.

  “The first class starts tonight, you’ll be going with one of our tutors into a nearby swamp that has a great deal of magical energy surrounding it.”

  “Oh yeah? Very interesting, but could I just-”

  “Now, now, I know before I was hesitant to believe you had the ability to be one of us, but I assure you that I am now fully confident that you have what it takes to become a mage.”

  I gave up on the illusion of roleplaying and simply walked away from the conversation, leaving Vilor to stand in awkward silence until I returned. It was inappropriate, and kind of defeated the purpose of getting into character, but sometimes I feel it’s important to immersion for fun.

  That’s just me, anyway, I leaned my head against Gelth’s door and strained to hear what he was saying, eventually finding a space on the door where the wood was thinnest.

  “I don’t know what to do!” I heard Gelth shriek, “There’s someone asking a lot of questions, and I don’t think she believed that I was innocent.”

  “Calm down,” another voice said with a slight echo, “I’m sure you’re just being paranoid. Just continue to attend your classes as if nothing is going on.”

  “I… You’re right, I’m sure everything will be fine…”

  “There we go, nice and calm.” the other voice said, followed by the undeniable sound of a neck breaking.

  I didn’t waste any time in busting through the door, but the only one in there was Gelth, his head having done a full 180 degree rotation.

  Before I could do anything, Vilor pushed passed me and ran over to the body, “What happened!?”

  I looked around for signs of a person hiding in the room, but found nothing, “I’m not sure, but there was definitely another person in here…”

  “Well I don’t see anyone else, do you?” Vilor asked accusatorily.

  I gave him a stern look, “What are you saying?”

  “I think I’m being fairly candid, don’t you? I only see one other person in this room.”

  “I was just out there! With you!”

  Vilor stared into my soul, looking for even the tiniest hint that I was lying, then gave up and scoffed, “I suppose I can’t prove it. But I’ll be keeping my eye on you.”

  “Well that’s just dandy.” I said my
breath as I started looking around the room for clues.

  Progress made in mission: Overdue.

  Objective completed: Follow Gelth Kior.

  Objective added: Search Gelth Kior’s Room for Clues.

  There was clearly someone else in there at some point, and I knew for a fact that they weren’t invisible, mostly because Vilor would’ve spotted them the moment he stepped through the door. That’s when I had an epiphany, the killer was invisible, but not because of a spell.

  Because he wasn’t alive.

  I’d heard mutterings about ghosts living in mage’s colleges in another life, some vengeful, others merely trapped because of mistakes they’d made with magic. The one that killed Gelth didn’t seem to be either though.

  For one thing, he’d killed Gelth once he’d outlived his usefulness and was starting to become more trouble than he was worth, which ruled out the vengeful spirit as they would normally have gone on a vicious rampage that ended with a lot more dead mages.

  And he certainly wasn’t a trapped soul, else he’d have hovered around the room, bound for all eternity, or until someone put them out of their misery.

  I finally found something, a pile of books under Gelth’s blankets, and they all had one thing in common, they were all written by Relian Tyos, however the spellcrafting one was not among the pile.

  Progress made in mission: Overdue.

  Objective completed: Search Gelth Kior’s Room for Clues.

  Objective added: Investigate the Death of Relian Tyos.

  I turned to Vilor, who’d returned to his spot with the students I was to learn with, and smiled, “Good day Vilor,” I said, restarting our dialogue, “you were saying something about my first class?”

  It seemed wise to get that out of the way, not out of disinterest or anything, quite the opposite actually. I wanted to have the quest in my log so that I would remember it, as well as wanting to keep Vilor happy.

  Which talking most certainly did, he sure loved the sound of his own voice.