((The following is a log of a roleplay between Alec Tuttle (BalancedInteger) and Sivanna Cyredghymn.))



A little learning is a dangerous thing; Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring. -Alexander Pope



Deep in the hinterlands of Rhy'Din, across the plains of Neverbright, just on the edge of the province of Westphalia and nestled in the embrace of a deep forest stood the Northen Ring of the Glendruids. Once, long ago, the Glendruids had built this open-air temple on the convergence of two powerful leylines. From here they would become the powerbrokers in the creation of an empire that stretched from Westphalia all the way to the burning dunes of Char to the east. Even the powerful sorceror-emperors of the time payed head to the words of the Glendruids....and even after that empire crumbled into so much dust blown through the wind of History, the Glendruids continued on in a more passive role. And the journeyman was quite surprised when he came into the clearing and saw the Ring, and noted that there was not a soul to be seen....and it was obvious that no one had been here in quite some time. After a pensive look around, he dismounts his mare, a brown thoroughbred that he had named 'Sacagawea,' and tied her off onto a treebranch. Once again those hazel eyes scanned the area. "I do not understand..." He whispered.

The cleric, for her part, had explored very little beside Krynn. Therefore, while she was unsurprised at the change in landscape, she noted Alec's confusion with wary alertness. Following suit off Fortunate Son and tethering the reins to a nearby branch, Siv wandered up behind Alec, looking around curiously. It appeared to have been a spectacular establishment in its time.

Marble columns, faded with a slight growth of moss over the years of neglect, rose high into the air, situated around a large marble dias raised from the ground. In the middle of the dias was a chair, resplendently adorned with gold and platnium and what appeared at first glance to be every jewel imaginable. Behind the chair, or throne, as it might rightfully be called, was encased a large ornament....shaped like a flame and seemingly scuplted from a single large red gem. Maybe a ruby' Alec wasn't sure, but it seemed important. He reached back, touching Sivanna's hand, entwining his fingers with her own. "Seems a shame to have come all this way for nothing. Let's take a look..."

The alchemist peered astutely at the gem, giving Alec's fingers a wary squeeze. Something about the throne— the fact that the ornaments still remained and had yet to be pillaged or tarnished— made her uneasy. However, the words were stolen from her mouth by one journeyman, and so, summing up her resolve, Siv fell into step beside Alec as they made their way toward the throne.

Alec leads them over to the foot of the stairs that rose up to the dias and stopped, becoming wary himself for a similar reason. His reading of his ancestor's journal left him more informed than perhaps anyone else in the realm. "It was written that only the Glendruids, and their acolytes who had achieved a high enough stature, could enter the Ring. I suppose that explains why all those precious stones are still in place." He paused in silent contemplation for a moment. "But they could also bring in outsiders, when circumstances warranted it, by holding their hands when they crossed the threshold of the dias. I wonder..." He then began to lead them up the steps, slowly, one-by-one, until the reached the threshold, clearly marked by a single groove that ran the circumference of the dias.

Those fingers tensed in a vise-grip as they approached the dias, and in all honesty, Sivanna was half-expecting to be thrown backward or turned to dust by some archaic form of ward. However, seeing as she had yet to sense any particularly offensive forms of magic, she pressed on, very unsure of herself in the company of her lover. "Can we...?" she hesitated, eyeing the gilded throne as they drew nearer.

Alec released her hand and crouched down to more closely inspect the threshold. The groove itself was thin, no more than a couple centimeters wide, and perhaps just as deep. More to the point, it was filled with a some kind of hard, rudy substance. The journeyman reached inside his trenchcoat, to the small of his back, and unsheathed one of his sliverblades. He then used the tip of it to scrape some of that substance from the groove, placing it between his fingers to and holding it up for inspection. To the experienced soldier, it would have appeared to by dried blood.

Indeed, as soon as almond-shaped eyes set upon that rust-colored powder, they narrowed. Steel flitted back to the throne, then back to the groove around it. It seemed like such....primitive magic. "Something you've seen before?" she queried flatly.

"Not like this." He brushed the dried blood from his fingertips and rose back up from that crouch, eyes peering inside the dias at that throne in the middle. "Long story....but what the hell" We have some time, right?"

"By all means," she remarked dryly. It seemed this place was no stranger to time, anyway. As an afterthought, Siv murmured a quiet command beneath her breath to summon her Sight enchantment. In the next moment, her steel irises were ringed in white, and as she listened to Alec, she began passively Looking for evidence of magic threads or residue.

The raw magical potential of the place was nothing short of staggering. Were one to be handed the keys to this magical engine....one could quite possibly become the ruler of the realm. And the threads of all that raw power were connected to the gem that sits behind the throne. Other than that, one could see that a very potent magic protected the dias with a barrier that encompassed the threshold. All the while, Alec spoke. "Back in the days of the old empire, the first sorcerer-emperor was also something of a prophet. Four times a year, during the changing of the seasons, he would prophecize....and those prophecies were duly recorded by a scribe named Alexidad." His own eyes took on that blue glow as he began to use tausight on the temple, seeing much of what Sivanna saw, just in his own way. "But as he became old and sick, laying in his deathbed, he had one last prophecy."

"Which was...?" she pressed on, enchanted eyes flitting about the place intently as she sought making a bipedal round of the place, safely outside the astonishing ward. Not an inch of weakness. Not. One.

"Everyone in the room who heard it thought that it was just the fever-rantings of a dying emperor. But Alexidad, ever loyal to his sovereign, recorded it just like any other." Alec didn't bother walking the perimeter....the benefit of Ramius's journal convinced him that the Glendruids did things pretty much spot on. "He spoke of a wolf in sheeps clothing becoming the glenfir, or high priestess of the Glendruids....the one who sat in that throne right there." Pointing at the throne, though he probably didn't need to. "He also spoke of a great demon who would seek to take her to be his slave....and then he spoke of a dark warrior, who would come from the east, to vanquish the demon only to be devoured by the wolf."

The elfess listened intently, though the military strategist within refused to let her desist her search for a weakness in the line of defense. Those enchanted eyes darted back to him a moment as she paused in her circumferential wanderings, before proceeding onward again. To her credit, Sivanna had never de-merited prophecies. There were far too many accurate sages on Krynn to discount the art in the least.

Early on his path to becoming tau-jin, Alec had pretty much scoffed at the idea of prophecy. He knew better, these days. "And so it was that my ancestor, Ramius, came from the east and, quite by accident, stumbled across a group of Glendruid who were being assailed by a great demon. Ramius and it fought to a draw, and the demon retreated. That was the night that he met a woman named Tira, who was the designated heir to the Flamefire....the energy that runs this entire magical engine you see before you." There was no weakness to be seen anywhere she might look. The barrier was immense and expertly crafted....so well crafted that it was hard to believe that any mortal being could be responsible.

And having inspected the engine thrice-over, the former general reveled in its perfection, admiring it even as a wave of green envy washed over her. She exhaled sharply as she returned to Alec. "And things didn't end well between the two of them?" she surmised dryly.

"You could say that," he answered just as dryly. "The glenfir at the time, an enchantress named Dammane, was orchestrating the whole affair. It was she who summoned the demon, and assembled a team of villians to find Tira and kill her should the demon fail....just as was prophecized. Meanwhile, Ramius and the demon had many battles, oftentimes with his own demon companion, Gremlin, at his side. Ramius and Tira grew closer, and even married....but then came the night that changed everything..." Alec's eyes returned to their normal color, letting his tausight give way to the more subtle tausense that was always at work. "Tira ran off to the Ring, supposedly to force a final confrontation between herself and Dammane. When Ramius, Gremlin, and the other three protectors found her there....the demon and the villians were there waiting. All the makings of a final battle were in place."

It was then that Sivanna finally ceased her restless fidgeting and riveted her entire attention on the journeyman. "You said supposedly. Do you mean Tira was Dammane's pawn as well?"

"As it would turn out, it was the other way around. Remember....the demon was chasing the wolf in sheep's clothing. Chasing Tira. Unfortunately, Tira only told Ramius part of the prophecy....the part about the dark warrior." Alec would crouch back down, giving that dried blood in the groove another cursory inspection. "So there was this great battle. Ramius slayed the demon, the rest of the Five vanquished Dammane's henchmen. Some died in the process, but in the end, good guys carried the day." He reached out and touched the dried blood with his fingertips, almost reverently. "All that was left was to divest Dammane of the Flamefire and invest it into Tira. So as was prescribed by the ritual, Tira took her dark warrior by the hand and led him into the Ring....stopping right here, inside the threshold." He paused long enough to stand back up again, his haze resting on that large red gem once more. "The ritual began, and Ramius shared the burning pain of the investiture with Tira....or so he thought. Somewhere in the process, Tira took a large blade out of her tunic....and plunged it right into his heart."

She subtly shook her head, eyelids heavy beneath a furrowed brow as she watched the scene on the dais unravel in her mind's eye. Raimus had wed her....probably loved her. And still, no matter what realm living, entities found themselves inherently self-sacrificing. The lovesick, the betrayed, and the jealous all smelled alike, anyway.

"I imagine it was quite a shock to my ancestor when the pain stopped, he looked down, then looked to see Tira on the other side of that blade. I wonder....did it take her so long because she really did love him' Or was that just the way of things?" He shook his head and folded his hands behind his back. "Anyway, here he fell....the Ring drawing his life's blood into this groove here." Pointing all along it. "Sealing in the new glenfir, and releasing Dammane. You see, the glenfir was unable to leave the Ring. She wouldn't age a day, would never hunger or thirst....never tire, never dream....until the night came when the moons were aligned just so, and she would have to give that power to another, only to leave the Ring and crumble to dust like the rest of us." He shrugged. "But Dammane wasn't done yet. She wasn't at all ready to become powerless. As Ramius lay dying, Dammane produced a terrible artifact....one that had come from the Void itself. It transformed her into a special kind of demon, one the Ippons call a ziq-tao....and as Tira was crippled by the burning of the real investiture, Dammane meant to destroy the Ring."

The cleric could only listen at this point; mimicked Alec's stance as she penetrated him with her enchanted gaze. The fact remained that the Ring was still in place. She could only assume some change of fate had ensued, or tragedy for the lot of them.

She could assume correctly....it almost made this long story a pointless exercise, only Alec was concocting an idea. "With Ramius down and near death, Gremlin stepped up and fought Dammane. And he fought well, but Dammane was simply too strong in her current state. When it seemed all but over, a miracle happened. Ramius had been keeping himself from death by drawing in all the tau from around him that he could....but that alone was a losing battle." Head motions again to that groove before them. "Blood is blood....no matter how much tau you can suck in, when you're out of blood, that's all she wrote. But from somewhere, a mysterious figure emerged and cast a healing spell on him....and it had just enough of an effect for him to stagger up, and use his sword to destroy the artifact." The journeyman raised his thumb to his neck and made a slashing motion across it. One could assume that applied to Dammane. "Here is the kicker, and what applies to you and I right now. Ramius was able to enter the Ring at will, because it was his blood that sealed Tira in. Considering Tira's betrayal, it's no wonder that he never did. He only ever came back here once, much later." But that was another story, for another night. "So I wonder....if his blood runs through my veins..."

"Then you theoretically should be permitted entry," she finished with a curious half-smirk. Although, once again, the dark mage within warned Sivanna that meddling in the affairs of ancient magic was unwise. By disrupting the calm of the ward after all these years, would Alec awaken some vengeful spirit' Would the stability of the realm, would the foundation crumble around them' She corrected that thought quickly with a firm headshake. The Glendruids had to be given more credit than that. This defense was completely solid— through and through. But why, then, had the cleric's mouth gone dry"

"There is something in here....something I need. I can feel it." It was the tau calling him, as strongly as it ever had, and he was suddenly very wary, himself. Those callings had a peculiar way of getting his nose wedged into some tight cracks....and more often than not, that was no fun, at all. But the whole point of this sojourn was for him to find some answers, and if those answers were to be found inside that barrier....so be it. Suddenly, without warning, he stepped through the threshold.

She opened her mouth to speak, but found herself instead looking at Alec's back as he proceeded onward. The Sight enchantment reminded her to keep her distance as she watched the journeyman cautiously, clasping her hands together. "Well...?"

Alec gave himself a good once-over before he turned around to look at the cleric. "I think all my bits are in the right place." He reached out his hand toward her. "Time to take the plunge, lirimaer." A wink puncuating the statement.

She rolled her eyes flippantly, and without hesitation, grasped his hand and strode forward. As she made the enter the threshold, she waited....to turn to dust' To erupt into flames" Maybe.

Nope. She makes it through just fine. No flames. Not even a tingle. The journeyman smiled as she stood by his side, his eyes taking in the Ring from this new perspective. "Hmm. Can you imagine spending 500 years of your life inside this thing?"

"Mm. Gives new meaning to solitude," she replied wryly, and was struck with an errant thought: all human wisdom is summed up in two words - wait and hope. What was eternal life worth if spent in and on nothingness" "Patience attains all that it strives for," she murmured, interlocking her fingers with his as she peered around with those inhuman eyes.

"If one were striving for power, this place offers plenty of it." He spent a few quiet moments to look around at the pillars. "You know....there is something familiar about these columns." He gave her hand an affectionate squeeze before he released it, walking over to one of the columns. His hand ran down the smooth, if somewhat mossy surface until he felt something. Rubbing the spot harder, he uncovered a glyph carved into the marble. "I'll be damned..."

"What is it?" she asked promptly. While he seemed drawn to the architectural structures, she couldn't help but be drawn toward the gilded throne itself and the ruby-colored ornament behind it. Even as she posed the question, she squinted long and hard at the artifacts, half-inclined to touch but far too wise to attempt to.

"There is a glyph carved into this column," he called back over his shoulder to her as she examined the jeweled artifacts. "I've used it before, back on Earth. Ramius left instructions on how to create a zone that the ixitil marauders couldn't cross. So I erected a dozen limestone columns around the perimeter of my compound, used this glyph, and sealed each glyph with my blood when the time to use it came." He stepped away from the column and brushed off his hands on his trousers. He then went over to where Sivanna stood, taking a moment to more closely inspect the artifacts. He was paying particular attention to the large red gem behind the throne.

A wry smirk curved her lips. "Knowledge knows no age or boundary, it seems." As he drew nearer, she chanced a closer inspection of the gem relic. "Maer...?" (Seal") she pondered aloud, frowning at the way the magic threads all seemed to converge at this one point. The power in and of itself humbled her.

The gem had his tausense throbbing. Maybe it was all that power converging on it, screwing around with his finely-tuned senses....but he wasn't entirely sure of that. Once more he looked into the tau, examining the Creation energy behind the facade of matter, and shook his head. "If there is one, I cannot see it." The gem was held up by a silver base. The rim of the base that wound around the bottom of the gem, holding it up, seemed to now hold a particular interest to him. "We need a spell. Do you have anything that would reveal hidden writings on something?"

She smiled at him, unnatural eyes sparkling with something impish. "Don't I always?" The leather of her breeches gave a muted squeak as she knelt beside the structure, delicate fingers hovering millimeters from it. Usually, Sivanna would utilize this spell on a human subject, for the enchantment was specifically designed to cleanse a living aura of any impurities or anomalous or forced sorcery. However, the fact that this relic thrived on power seemed to lend it an aura all its own. Taking a shot in the dark, Sivanna murmured a quiet, articulate phrase that culminated in the elvish word Vaelaer, which Alec might recognize as Reveal. Lissome digits made a sweeping motion before the instructed base, careful not to touch deliberately.

A wash of soft, azure light swept over the edifice of the artifact, and in its path a series of glyphs were revealed on the surface of the silver stand....right there along the rim where he thought it would be. Alec leaned in to closely take in the glyphs. His brow furrowed as he spoke. "I don't know....some kind of late Tengari script, I think." Tengari being the precursor to Ipponta, he had a rudimentary understanding of the language....but it was like a 21st century American trying to read Old English. "It was written that the Glendruid adopted the old Tengari language after that civilization was destroyed....but I think it says something like..." He reads it again, to be sure before he says, "To the dark warrior's son, a gift."

She had yet to be at ease since arriving in this place, and the words her companion translated did nothing to relinquish that anxiety. "I wonder..." she murmured, her fingers warm and all-too-willing to touch that center of power. As evidenced by her past, Sivanna had always had a problem with a lust for power. And while she had stowed it away carefully upon leaving Krynn, that dormant, fervent desire still burned hotter and more deeply in the presence of great potential or endowment. The mere fact that Alec's safety might be at risk stayed her hand, which deliberately clenched and sought his arm to remind her she was not alone.

His hand would immediately cover her own, as much to reassure himself as to reassure her. Yes, he had to wonder himself....aloud, at that. "Is this the Flamefire?" His mind was processing all the facts as rapidly as he could. "Surely something so vital wouldn't just simply....I don't know. Fizzle out' Maybe Tira found a way to divest it into this jewel....maybe to have one last pure moment with the man she once married." A pretty picture, but that was pure conjecture. Ramius wrote nothing of what happened that night in his journal, save to say that he had come here to see Tira. "And this....'the son of the dark warrior.' He had only one son, before his exile to Earth, of course." Creation help us if Jerel was meant to possess this, he thought. "And I didn't think that males could invest it, anyway."

"Why do you think you've been brought here?" she asked, studying her companion's face intensely. Clearly there was something here the tau wanted him to see or experience. There was something to be said about this place's history, or of the people that fought where they stood. But of all people, and of all times, why him, and why now"

"I don't know." He shook his head curtly, his hand closing just a bit tighter around her's. "I can't see it, but I feel..." His eyes looked around the Ring while a childhood song played in his head. Ring around the rosy, pocketful of posey, ashes, ashes, we all fall down! "It's like the answer is staring me right in the..." His words trailed off, as he turned his eyes back onto the gem. "The face." Ring around the rosy, indeed. From a certain angle, the gem certainly resembled one. "On Earth, I am a hundred generations removed from Ramius. But here....Ramius was just here a few months ago."

She blinked, brows furrowing as she looked between Alec and the gem itself. "I....I don't understand. What does that mean?"

"I'm hoping that it means that I am the son of the dark warrior..." That said, there came a series of lightning-fast movements that firmly, but rather gently given the speed of it, removed the cleric from any physical contact with him. Sidestepping away from her, he reached out and placed both hands on the jewel. The consequences were immediate and probably spectacular to behold, as Alec was enveloped in an ethereal crimson flame. Crying out in utter pain, he fell to all fours as the flame sent rivers of pain pouring through every nerve. Even his Ippon biofeedback could not damn the flood. But even as the flame consumed him, he did not burn. Nor did his clothes. He clenches his fists, and suddenly his mind was assaulted by streams of consciousness, information coming from the lives of a thousand Glendruids.

Having been caught off-guard by the journeyman's abrupt actions, Sivanna stumbled once, gasping as she was pushed aside. "Alec!" she cried, and made an instinctive reach for him as she heard him wail. But her fingers hovered inches from him as he was engulfed in flames. Whatever magic this was, would introducing her Presence into the stream of consciousness disrupt the spell" Was it a detrimental spell, even" Would her interference maim one or both, or would it help him' In desperation, those inhuman, milky white eyes Searched calculatedly for some answer to these questions, and all the while she thought Please don't harm him. Please don't harm him. Please.

The root purpose of the spell, her sight would see, was Change. It didn't seem to be investing within him, but rather opening up pathways in his mind that had previously been blocked to him. Those threads of power were disappearing, one by one, as each circuit was completed....what it was leading to, only time would tell. "Sivanna..." He managed to say through clenched teeth. While the Flamefire wasn't investing, per se, the throes of investiture were quite present. "Sivanna....listen..." He could feel the changes taking place, and he was beginning to understand. "Listen to me....you have to go. Use your alchemy....take your horse....go back to the city." He forced his eyes to open, to look up at her through the flames around him. "Find Alexidad's book....the book of Alshov's prophecies....one of the libraries has it..."

"And leave you? But I...!" At the moment, her trust in him and her obligation were at war with each other. She took a step back, her hand flying to her pocket where a fresh piece of chalk was. Sivanna would have to leave the Ward if she could even attempt a transmutation circle. Even so, she hesitated, glaring at him in a look wrought with worry.

"Go....please." He even managed a smile, wrought with pain as it was. "I'll be fine....I promise. It was....meant to be." But finding that book wouldn't be easy, and her talent with things arcane was vital. "Remember....it has to be the orginal book."

"Alexidad's book....Alshov's prophecies..." she repeated hastily, making to step backward, over the groove and off the dais. Suddenly, she found speed she never knew she had, and in seconds, was kneeling by Fortunate Son, reins in hand, scribing a transmutation circle on a large, flat stone. As it glowed white, Siv looked long and hard at the journeyman. It didn't need to be said. Muting herself, she made to draw a vertical slash in that circle to send the woman and beast on their way.