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Chapter 13: Explosions
🕑 Added 2024-09-28 11:50:15 +0000 UTCWookan was a descended of Erebog. Upon learning of these people who’d forsaken the gods, the god of death sought them out in human form to see if they could be recruited to the cause of freeing Faust from his prison. They were not interested, but Erebog lived among them in disguise for some time nonetheless before leaving the Realm with all the other gods.
Wookan lived his life as a warrior of great skill but little renown. Cursed was he to be born with a skill set in a time where it was not required. His people had no neighbors, and saw war as the ultimate waste of resourced. While he had some renown for his skills in life, it wasn’t until after death that he ascended to become a demi-god.
-Excerpt from Wicket’s Guides to the Pantheon.
Kole walked around campus aimlessly with his uncle talking and about everything, big and small that had happened over the last few months. It was strange for Kole, as if some wedge between them had been lifted, but more so like it had never been there at all. He’d always loved his uncle, but they’d never really talked like this.
He reflected as they walked. Part of it was that Kole was not older, but that was likely the least of the changes. The revelation about Kole’s mother, and Kole coming into his abilities removed the two largest topics of conversation they’d defaulted too over the years, leaving them with the opportunity to discuss anything and everything.
They walked late into the night, only realizing the hour when the skies exploded.
A series of whistles preceded a rolling wave of booming explosions, followed by star bursts of light that rained down over the city. Screams came from the rooftops around them.
Kole and Jaryn both dove for cover, Kole trying to cast Shield, but finding he lacked the Will. When the explosions continued, but weren't followed by the crashing of collapsing buildings, both peaked out from where they’d jumped for cover—Kole behind a large decorative boulder and his uncle under a stone bench.
The lights continued to fill the sky, but they noticed now, that they were coming from the roof’s themselves and not being fired upon the city as Kole had first through. Furthermore, he noticed that the screams he’d heard hadn’t been those of people fleeing in terror at their certain doom, but ones of joy and laughter at the spectical.
“Oh!” Jaryn said, excitedly smacking Kole on the back. “Fireworks!”
“Fire whats?” Kole asked, realizing they weren’t a threat, but not sure what they actually were.
“Fireworks” Jaryn repeated. “It's a relatively new thing on the surface. We were briefed on them as they have military applications. They use that blasting powder the gnomes developed and metals. They fire them into the air for celebrations.”
Kole now recalled that Underbrook’s own celebratory illusions had looked just like these fireworks, and now realized the halfling had been emulating them.
“Oh," Kole said, far less enthusiastic “Why not just use magic?”
To emphasize the point, Kole, casting Silent Image, using the last of his slightly recovered Will, conjuring a frozen image of the exploding sky over a miniature of the city, Dahn prominent in the center.
In response, Jaryn created an exact copy of Kole’s illusion right beside it, only his moved. The fireworks flying up from the roofs, exploding, and fading, all accompanied by the sounds of explosions that were weak imitations of the ones above.
“Show off,” Kole muttered.
“Yours is nice too,” Jaryn said, “But I think there's something to be said about the real ones.”
Jaryn gestured at the sky.
“You can feel them, each explosion. It makes your body reverberate.”
Kole realized then that he could. As each exploded, he rippling waves of pressure all around him.
“I suppose,” Kole conceded. “But it seems like a waste. And, the smell...”
The smell of sulfur filled the air now, and was growing worse by the moment.
The two sat down in the grass, and watched the show. The fireworks continued for a few more minutes, before the pace picked up, every roof seemingly firing all they had at once, completely lighting up the campus as if it were day with larger explosions than they’d seen up until then. The rapid fire reached a crescendo as a final volley went up from all the rooftops in a single synchronized launch, and the sky eruptedd into a cloud of brilliant light, as if looking into the sun, followed by complete silence.
The silence lasted for only a moment, as roars of cheers went up from all around the city.
“I guess that means it's new years day,” Jaryn observed. “Which means I really need to get going,”
“What? Why?” Kole asked.
“My ship leaves for Hawk’s Nest in four hours, I need to get to the port if I’m to make my ship back to Illandrios in time.”
“Oh, right,“ Kole said, disappointed.
He’d told his uncle about the magic doors Zale had access to in his retelling, and his uncle had inquired about any routes back to Illandrios. This had actually been something Kole and Zale had discussed, and while Zale was certain there were doors to Illandrios, and even Hawk’s Nest, she hadn’t had access to them even before the recent security upgrades.
"I’ll promise to write this time," Kole said, then corrected himself with a grin. “Well, I promise to try to remember.”
“Maybe it’s better if you don’t” Jaryn said seriously. “Lord Oldhill thinks you dead. Its probably best if we keep it that way.”
“I might have a means of getting around that,” Kole said, getting an idea. “The Willowboom. I’ll direct letters to you through him and I expect he’ll be able to get them to you. I’ll write him and see if he can arrange for a pick upon your end.”
“Good idea,” Jaryn said.
He’d asked a lot of questions about Meech when Kole had recounted his story. The Mirage Knights after all were trained in espionage and that had a lot of overlap with whatever it was that Meech actually did.
They talked for only a little longer, and then embraced each other in a hug before parting for the foreseeable future.
“I’ll try to visit, but I won’t have leave for some time,” Jaryn promised, before vanishing from Kole’s vision.
“Paranoid much?” Kole called into the darkness.
Comments
Govir Drauka
Good enough for me! I’ll eventually reread these when they’re published and things like that’ll stay in my memory :) I take it the letter was before that then?
TK523
The school notified Kole's uncle that kole had been lost in the dungeon for a month and then no one told him that kole returned and like never notified him Oldhill was intercepting his mail
Govir Drauka
Why does Oldhill think Kole is dead again? Didn’t he send a letter to the school demanding the Locket be handed over? Or was that someone else / did something else happen since then that I forgot about?
