It was night aboard the Abyssus, far north of Rhy'din city where the waves lapped against the hull and the starlight struck the water like snowflakes in the darkness. Black sails billowed in the breeze over the polished oak of her deck. She was a bloodstain on the sea, the deep red of the armored and soulbound rosewood slipped into shadows like a ghost.

Her captain stood on the bow of the ship, the bowsprit stretching out before him as the jibs and staysail unfurled. There was not another soul aboard the ship, and Diritas sailed the ship with only the strength of his will. A white shirt covered the bandages on his chest and arms, paired with stonewashed belted black jeans and his set of beaten traveling boots. His cutlass, Tsura, swung at his side. Midnight blue eyes set in tan skin under snow white hair took in the dark waters around him.

It wasn't long before his destination was in sight, a seemingly identical patch of ocean in the wide swath of horizon, but Diritas knew what lay beneath the waves. The ruins of his family home. Off the starboard bow rose massive cliffs, deep runnels ran through the rock from years of erosion and landslides. The relentless pounding of the sea like a bear, clawing it's way up the cliff face. But he wasn't interested in the cliffs. What he sought lay below. With a nod to himself, the anchor of the Abyssus dropped into the depths, freeing his concentration from the ship to the task at hand.

Closing his eyes in concentration, Diritas raised his hands and inhaled deeply. From his fingertips sprang blazing blue flame. This was the Sapphire Flame of the Magi. He'd chosen it for many reasons, one of which being that it required no oxygen or physical fuel. It could only be doused magically, and so would work underwater. He flicked his hands outward, and the flames streaked outward, and then dropped beneath the surface to illuminate the water under the ship. The bright blue glow cut through the darkness, rising up and casting an eerie shimmer on the hull. But Diritas wasn't after a hull inspection, he pushed forward, and the lights formed a line downward into the sea. A shaft of light that bubbled as heat turned the seawater to air.

Before six of the lights had lined up, the first buildings of the city of Tola appeared in the pale shimmering light...Ancient stonework, covered with coral and kelp. A reef had formed from his ancestral city. He frowned deeply, it was not the first time he'd seen it' but this was the first time it filled him with such sorrow. Thousands of years of culture, his history, his lineage, his people? Lost.

Shaking his head, Diritas pushed onward. The remaining lights split up under the water, four becoming eight, then sixteen, then thirty two. They light up the city beneath him, startling fish and other creatures that had made the city their home. He wasn't concerned. This was his home as well. As Diritas turned away, he left the lights aglow in the water beneath, and stepped up to the railing of the soulbound ship. The soulwarding would keep the ship safe in his absence, and he didn't worry about the pirates he knew roamed these waters. They knew the Abyssus. And what her captain could do.

The railing opened up as he neared it, and ice rose from the water. He stepped onto the glassy surface and let it fall to the waves. The water was held at bay as he sank downward along the firelit path in a bubble of air. Slowly, the city became clearer. As the buildings rose around him, he marveled a little at the skill of the ancient craftsmen. Every building had been framed with great pillars and beams of slate and granite. The faces of each building had been carved from massive slabs of obsidian inlaid with pearls in constellation patterns. Of course, many of them near the top had been plundered, plucked from their settings by pearl divers. Yet the lower he went the more he saw, it apparently wasn't so easy to dive this deep.

Once he'd reached the sea floor, he covered it in ice to keep himself from sinking in the mud. Then he started walking through the city, doing the same to the new ground as he went. Fish seemed content to get out of his way as they passed by him and he searched for the building he knew was there. It took a while, and he had to stop and rest several times from the exertion he was placing on himself between the bubble and the fire and moving in spite of his injuries. But after a drink of fresh water (he'd conjured it up instead of using seawater) and a few hours of searching, he'd managed to locate the building he was looking for.

Diritas sat down just inside the doors to the temple, letting them swing closed behind him in the ocean currents. His little bubble of air was slowly getting less and less palatable the more he breathed of it. So now was a good time to refresh himself. The blue lights spread around him, boiling the seawater as they passed. He closed his eyes and began to speak softly. "Ā'īcā mī āpalyālā ēkadā adhika māna dētāta kī śillaka tyācyā rāsta n'yāyācā sthitīvara yā pavitra ṭhikāṇī punarsan̄cayita kī vicārū." He intoned the words in the language of Tola, learned painstakingly from texts and scrolls he'd found in his travels. The words he spoke were simple, but in this place" they were powerful. Once more he spoke, this time in Common. "Mother I ask that you restore this holy place to its rightful state of balance that it may give you honor once more." He prayed to his mother, in the temple where her kind were immortalized.

It started slow" then built. The water around him receeded. Moving out through unseen cracks and windows. Within moments, the entire temple was full of fresh air and the water was held back at the windows by Di's simple request. The air was fresh and crisp, and his blue flames blazed golden as they left his control. The balls of light blasted out to torches and lit up the entryway to the Temple. The long rectangular room held statues of each of the four winds. The four winds were each formed out of solid glass inlaid with gems. They each had different colored eyes, the Northwind bore bright sapphire eyes that caught the golden light in a dazzlingly blue hue. The Eastwind and Westwind bore emerald and ruby eyes respectively, and the Southwind was blind, depicted by her eyes of solid diamond that blended in with the glass of the statue. The winds each had their own stories, but Diritas lingered only at the statue of the Northwind, his father, before continuing onward.

The entryway ended in a massive arched door. The second obstacle. Fortified with tolan magecraft, the door would not give way so easily. He had to offer a gift of honor to gain entrance to the temple's main sanctuary. Once, thousands had come to this door and offered what they could. His mother would judge them as deserving or not, and admit or turn them away accordingly. Those she judged deserving would witness the room Diritas now needed to pass through. He waved his hand, and a longsword appeared in his grasp. Kneeling, he laid it on the ground before the door and spoke, this time in Common. "Great Guardian Spirit, I offer this blade. An extension of my soul and self. Take it, that it might bring you honor and be used in your works."

It was a long time that Diritas remained there on his knees waiting for an answer. But one did come. The longsword was engulfed in golden flame, vanishing in the blaze before the doors swung open to admit him. He breathed a sigh of relief. If he'd been denied entry, his trip would have ended right there. Standing, he moved forward into the main sanctuary of the Temple of Great Spirits.

He sat down in the center of the room, closed his eyes, and beseeched his father to show himself to him. If the winds were the nuetral parties, then he'd need one of the spirits of the four winds to mediate for him' and who better than his own father" Di sat there and waited, his pleas echoing through the sanctuary and charged with as much spiritual energy as he could muster. It wasn't his strong suit, magic tended to be easier for him than the spiritual aspect of his being. But it wasn't too long before the breeze in the room picked up.

Behind Diritas stood the Spirit of the Northwind. Normally, the spirit was a terror to behold. A spectre of ice, power, and death. Yet here, in this sanctuary where his figure was dwarfed by the statues on either side of him, the Northwind chose to appear as a human. Long white hair, blazing blue eyes, and fair nearly albino skin clothed in white silk shirt and pants. Diritas turned and shifted to his knees, keeping his face to the floor and waiting to be addressed before speaking.

"It has been a long time since these halls have been walked, and even longer since I have been summoned here. What is it you would ask of me my son?" The Northwind asked, his voice was like the howling wind of the arctic sea, the one thing he could not supress fully.

Diritas looked up at his father and smiled a little. "It has been a long time since these halls have been dry enough to walk. Father, I seek a speaker on my behalf to mediate between the guardians of Jyran and Myros. I seek the means to balance my fragmented soul without killing my brother. I seek redemption. Allow me to face my darkness and lock it away. But I need the counsel of the guardians of both realms concerned." He spoke somewhat formally, but not as the formal ceremony would require, as he'd have to speak Tolan for that to happen.

His father regarded him for a long moment with an unreadable expression before he laughed softly. "You've decided to take up the mantle of the Tolan ways. I do not envy the fate that awaits you my son. But I will speak on your behalf. However" Know that the path you have chosen is a painful one, and what you find at the heart of Lorkha may not be what you expect." And with that, his father vanished.

Diritas smiled to himself a little, it was a good start. He sat down in the middle of the floor, and closed his eyes. Reaching deep into the seafloor, he breathed deep of the power his mother held in the temple. Channeling it through the rock beneath him, As he slowly exhaled, he raised the magma deep in the earth. Bit by bit, he breathed and the seafloor breathed with him. It took some time, but he was determined. By the time the dawn had broken over the horizon, so too had the temple risen above the waves.