Eric asked, “So Sonneri was not the arch-wizard at the time, and there was a King?”
Lorian nodded. “Yes, the king died several years ago, and his wife became queen. Shortly thereafter the wizard retired and has since perished. Sonneri was an apprentice of Aurilon’s and long a confidant of the royal family. His assumption of the role at the queen’s request went unchallenged.”
Ryan turned back to the scroll, trying to keep his voice down so the serving girl wouldn’t overhear.
With the countryside in disarray, people fled to the cities. As if waiting for this very thing, the dragons set upon these fortified population centers en masse. The city of Trisune in Nurinor was razed to the ground in just hours. Across the sea, the Empire of Perthia lost the great port cities of Gharili and Tuunark, and here in Alunia, Vollunia, Hexia, and Ferralon fell in quick succession, inspiring our immediate summoning.
As is usually the case, many great warriors and wizards sought to solve the problem prior to our arrival, to no avail. Upon our briefing, we made our own determination after investigating. Rampaging dragons do not respond to reason and cannot be subdued, and with Nir’lion’s leadership keeping them engaged, this was especially true. We suspected that even with her death, the dragons, now used to their rampage, would continue for an unacceptable time before reverting to their usual “every dragon for itself” attitude. Thus, we determined that something must be done about all of them.
The quest as stated indicated we must not only halt present hostilities, but eliminate the possibility of such actions in the future. This latter item is an aggressive request, so much so that its improbability renders it potentially invalid. Such invalid quest requirements may be safely ignored, meaning the questors can still depart at the conclusion of the quest’s other requirements. However, it is difficult to know this will be the case and it behooves us to make some attempt at resolution, even if the solution does not satisfy the exact parameter as stated.
We therefore decided upon banishment.
Ryan looked up, several questions on his mind.
As if reading his thoughts, Lorian offered, “Some quests are impossible to perform, and the summoning spell knows this, in a sense, and will make the summoning fail. However, some quests have multiple requirements where only part of the quest is impossible. Such requirements can be ignored by the champions. Other times, a requirement cannot be met as stated, but some approximation of it can be accomplished and the questors are obliged to achieve what they can. Sometimes this impossibility results from a poorly phrased requirement where the intention was not stated accurately, and it is up to the Ellorians to determine the true intent.”
Anna remarked, “It reminds me of those genie-in-the-bottle stories where the genie grants the wish but it’s never what you meant.”
Ryan nodded and returned to reading Soliander’s scroll aloud once more.
In my own travels, I had previously come across an uninhabited world suitable for the cause. It is lush with vegetation and wild stock, mountainous enough for dragon lairs, and yet no sentient races exist there, or even non-sentient humanoids. The dragons could live and thrive.
However, this world was not without concern. On it I had discovered a unique ore I named soclarin, an ancient magic word meaning “vessel of power.” In addition to being impervious to the elements, such as fire and ice, it also resists magical energy, and yet magic items created with it are of significantly greater power. It was this ore that allowed me to create the Dragon Gate, a device powerful enough to not only banish the dragons but serve as a lock on the planet Soclarin. Only the most powerful of wizards can fashion items from it, but I am its discoverer and only I know how to do so.
For the banishment to be effective, neither dragons nor anything else should be able to leave Soclarin, since dragons can change shapes and impersonate other beings. However, locking a planet in this way takes tremendous energy. Without the soclarin ore, it would be extremely arduous if not impossible. However, choosing Soclarin as the place to banish them presented a problem for me, as I have used the ore to fashion other items and would no longer be able to access it once the gate was active. For this reason, I traveled there one last time to retrieve a suitable quantity of ore for the foreseeable future.
Two gates were created, one upon Soclarin and another here on Honyn in the ruined castle of Darlonon in the Tarron Mountains of Alunia. The Soclarin gate does not contain a lock for the obvious reason that the dragons have no need of operating it, and the Honyn gate locks both. I formed the Honyn gate in such a way that only my staff – or a similar item made of soclarin ore, of which I believe there to be none not in our possession – could unlock it. Items made from soclarin appear bluish grey or silver if fashioned into a blade, being lighter than expected and virtually indestructible.
The description reminded Ryan of Korrin’s sword, which was bluish silver, unusually light, and had been completely unmarked after the sword fight in their suite. His opponent’s sword had been badly nicked.
Eric leaned forward. “This says only Soliander could open the gate, or someone with a soclarin item, which again means him, unless someone stole something of his.”
“Well, with him being missing,” added Matt, “it’s obviously not him, and since he’s not around to guard his stuff, someone might’ve tried to steal something of his.”
Morven shook his head, a brown lock of hair falling off his shoulder, green eyes moving from one champion to another. “The magical protection around his dwellings is reputed to be truly formidable and includes demons and the like. It would be madness to try.”
Fingering the staff, Matt said, “I guess all we need to close
