Instead, Gallian turned his attention to the task at hand and he rushed over to the middle of the room to investigate the relics thoroughly. He decided to start with the idols of the gods, for they were extremely powerful when used correctly, and could do wondrous works of good or evil, depending on the wielder. He went around to all the compartments and touched each several times. As he did so, the Sage Mind confirmed whether each was real or illusion, just like it had promised. Much to his dismay, approximately half of the idols were gone, including Jheriem, the Savior, and Zhaknon, God of Strength – two of the most powerful ones.
Gallian was slightly perplexed as to why the Wyvern-Masters would want only half the idols, and why they would leave ones of such power as Laura, the Betrayer behind. It was rumored that idol had the power to unravel any spell, even the one that kept the Dark One, Fhyrr, locked away.
Still, for all he knew, they just hadn’t had time to finish the task of moving them all. He gathered up the statues that remained and moved on.
Next, he inspected the circle of stones. The Wyvern-Masters would need their power to use the statues they had stolen, so it was a logical next step. He was certain the Wyvern-Masters would have stolen the stones, so he tested each vigorously, but none of them were missing. Again, Gallian was forced to wonder about the Wyvern-Masters’ motives, and again he was left clueless.
Continuing with his search, Sage Gallian ran over to the Blessed Armor and the two blades – the Scimitar of Jheriem and the Sword of Quaking lay. He checked out all three items, although not as vigorously as he had the previous artifacts, for they would hold little value to the Wyvern-Masters.
The Blessed Armor protected the righteous from all harm, but it granted no extra benefits to the wicked. The Scimitar of Jheriem was a powerful magic-channeling weapon in the hands of the savior, but for all others it was little more than an ordinary blade. And he had never actually seen the Sword of Quaking do anything besides sit there and shine.
Allegedly, the Sword of Quaking could kill anything, even a god, and dispel any magic, but only one rightful wielder existed, and that person hadn’t even been born yet. At any rate, all of these items were fully intact, as he had expected. This time, at least, he wasn’t surprised.
He searched out the three Swords of Valor last, since they were practically – if not totally – useless without knowledge of the activation spell. He touched them all several times, much like he had with all the other artifacts, and found them to be intact. This puzzled the poor Sage once again.
“I don’t understand,” he said aloud. “Why didn’t they unload the Swords of Valor? I mean, without the keyword, they can’t use them, but I have the keyword, and I can. I would have thought they would at least try to stop me from doing so. I wonder what the deal is. What am I missing?”
He counted himself lucky. He had interrupted the Wyvern-Masters’ plans, after all. Surely, they would have gone after more relics given the chance. He went about gathering up the remaining artifacts and trying to decide what to do with them.
Just a thought, but maybe you should hide them all, the Sage Mind told him.
“Yeah I figured out that much!” Gallian fired back verbally. He was getting more and more annoyed at the Sage Mind, but he didn’t know how to send it away. So little was known about even contacting the entity to begin with that no one had ever talked about sending it away.
Forgetting something?
Gallian sat there, puzzled for a moment. He had checked out everything, hadn’t he? Suddenly he wasn’t so sure. It was then that another thought hit him, this one harder than the others. He had forgotten about three of the artifacts, three of the most important ones. Frantically, he ran to the pillar in the far left-hand corner of the room to check on them. When he was within viewing range, he despaired. All three of the artifacts had disappeared, without even a trace of an illusion left to disguise them. The Wyvern-Masters had obviously been hasty in taking these ones.
How could I have overlooked items of such power?! They’re gone, they’re all gone! The Calibrii, the Dragonskin Scroll, and even Deth’s Dagger! How could I have been so stupid to have forgotten about them?
Gallian smacked himself in the forehead.
The Dragonskin Scroll was of particular importance. It was, as it sounded, a spell scroll fashioned out of the hide of the Great Dragon of Kallor. By itself, it had little value, but any spell written upon it would be amplified a thousand-fold by the powers of the dragon, and it would never fade so long as the Great Dragon lived.
Of perhaps even greater importance, if the scroll were defiled in any way, it could have disastrous consequences, up to and including threatening the life of the Great Dragon himself.
Gallian had to get to the Great Dragon, and quickly. He said a silent prayer to the Jheriem to beg forgiveness for calling upon Tytin magicks again, but the need was too great to ignore. Then he mustered up what energy he could and cast another Tytin spell to teleport himself to the Great Dragon’s side on the top of Mount Malabohr.
* * * * * * * * * *
He emerged a short while later on the top of the mountain to find the Great Dragon laying on the ground, breathing heavily. He looked at the magnificent beast in awe. It was the first time he’d ever actually come across it.
The dragon’s
