Into The Ruins (40 page)

The Outpost

Eastern Lopal

The heavy rain pounded the rocky hillsides that formed the Outpost.  This was the second day of the continuous downpour.  It wasn’t typical for this kind of weather so close to the Ruins, but eastern Lopal had been subjected to unusual weather the past couple of weeks.  The skies were dark with towering thunderclouds, and there seemed little hope of the weather clearing up for another day or two.

“Never thought we’d want a boat out here,” Jeen said as she walked into Nycoh’s greeting room. 

“I kind of like it,” Nycoh said with a smile.  “It cools everything down and makes it seem so fresh afterwards.”

“Do you know what he wants?” Jeen asked, referring to Daim who had asked they be available for a private discussion.

“He wouldn’t say,” Nycoh admitted with a sigh. 

“He’s not pushing to take charge of the Outpost again, is he?”

“No, I doubt that.  He has finally realized we won’t agree to such a change.  He also has come to accept that he isn’t the wizard he recalls himself to be.  I think the gaps in his memory disturb him the most.  Of course, he is appalled at the reduction in his magical skills.”

Daim had been difficult to integrate into the wizard community.  Within a day of being transferred into Brice’s brain, the Master Wizard had adapted to his new situation and had become more like the demanding and imperious person that Jeen remembered from the short time the ancient wizard had controlled Rigo’s body.  At first Uona had been thrilled by the change in her former lover, but after a day or so of meeting Daim’s demands, she realized that this wasn’t Brice any longer.  She finally was able to force herself to accept he was truly gone, and broken hearted, she had fled the Outpost to be away from the sight of Brice’s form moving around, reminding her it wasn’t him any longer.

The wizard community was initially captivated by the miracle that had transferred Daim’s personality and memories into the inert frame that had once been Brice.  While many mourned the loss of a friend, he had been deemed lost a long time ago, so the greater reaction was curiosity about the long dead wizard.  The Rigo-Daim pairing had been a matter of much interest and speculation, and a number of those at the Outpost had lived through the days when Rigo had made his first appearance at the Outpost.  Many had questions about the distant past, and hoped to learn magical skills that the previous version of Daim had not passed along.  They soon learned that this Daim was not tempered with Rigo’s more social personality, and Daim’s frustration with being constantly bothered by such questions showed itself by his curt dismissal of their interest.

For his own part, Brice-Daim was extremely interested in the Rigo-Daim who had preceded him.  For days he pestered Nycoh with questions about the match up, and what they had managed to accomplish.  Brice-Daim had been appalled to learn that both of his staffs had failed to complete the task he’d set for them.  While he could guess what might have happened with the first staff, he was unable to understand what might have taken place with the second and why Rigo hadn’t been transferred to the Hideaway as planned.  He was also annoyed that neither staff was available for examination.  How they could have carelessly allowed them to be taken into the Ruins by Rigo was a subject he frequently returned to, even though Nycoh had made it clear that was the only way the team had been able to make the discoveries they had.

Daim was partially mollified when Nycoh and Jeen took him deep into the Ruins to allow him to have a closer look at what had been found.  Daim was surprised that the staff he had built for a totally different purpose had succeeded in allowing penetration in the vast desert much farther than anyone had in his own time.  They showed him the vast chasm, where he explained that no one in his time had been known to go farther.

“In my own time it had been more than four hundred years since anyone had made an attempt.  The old records indicated several wizards had been lost at this very place, attempting to cross.  I never ventured anywhere near this far into the Ruins, but it was recognized in my time this was the limit that one could go.  Those who
Bypassed
across, never returned.  Several different parties recorded that some of their party made the attempt, but never came back to report what was on the far side.  Eventually everyone accepted that no one could go farther.”

Daim had also been impressed by their discovery of the Hoplani Farms.  Like the others, he tried to come up with a means of destroying the creation modules, but to no avail.  He was shocked at the Morvane, and wondered why they had not been seen in his own time, nor recorded in any of the literature going back hundreds of years.

Closer to home, he had been disturbed by the state of the barrier towers.  Initially pleased by Nycoh’s recounting the effort that had resulted in bringing the system back to full operation, he could see that the towers were now ragged and patched.

“They will fail before much longer,” Daim said as he stared at the often repaired structure not too far away.

“That is why Rigo was trying to get a second barrier erected before the inevitable happened,” Nycoh explained.

“You said that system is less than a quarter complete,” Daim replied.

“That’s the problem.  We don’t have as many people with the gift as existed in your time, and with the constant breaches in the older barrier, we are kept too busy.”

“You won’t make it in time,” Daim announced after his critical examination.  “All of this because of those blasted Morvane?  The Hoplani are contained by the barrier?”

“Morvane are difficult to kill,” Nycoh explained.  “One of Rigo’s discoveries from his trips into the Ruins appears to be helping.  The
Duneriders
make knives from the bones of the Hoplani.  Those knives penetrate the hides of both Hoplani and Morvane.  We have recently learned how the knives are made, and have created large spears with tips that are made from the bones.  Launched by magic at the Morvane, we have shown we can bring the creatures down more easily than with magic directly.”

“Perhaps it would be possible to hunt them down and eliminate them completely?” Daim suggested.

“Unfortunately, we have seen an increase in the number being produced at the Farms to offset the increased number we kill.  We don’t know how the system works, but there is some sort of feedback mechanism that tries to offset any losses in the total number.”

“Which means the factory has to be shut down,” Daim summarized.

“The killing of the Morvane has provided some gains.  It takes time for more to be produced and make the trek all the way to Lopal.  By sending out hunting teams, we hope to thin the numbers locally, which should cut down on the number of towers that are damaged, leaving more time to work on the second barrier.”

“The path you are suggesting means an unending battle to keep the Morvane number low,” Daim said.  “You cannot win that way.  We tried something similar with the Hoplani.”

“We are aware of that.  That is why so much hope was placed on Rigo’s exploration into the Ruins.  Somewhere out there has to be the answer.”

“No one knows when the Hoplani first appeared.  The beasts have existed for thousands of years.  The Ruins as well, although the oasis you showed me suggests the Ruins are slowly failing.  Whoever created the Hoplani and Morvane are long gone, or they would not tolerate your presence at the Farms.  I am not as certain as you that an answer still exists.  The magic used is far beyond what was known even in my time.”

Nycoh didn’t want to hear the negative predictions of the older wizard, but she had some doubts herself, and with Rigo lost and all means of traveling in the Ruins with him, it wasn’t an issue that mattered.

“Can you make another staff?” Nycoh had asked Daim bluntly one afternoon the previous week after a return from the Hideaway where Daim had examined the sanctuary he’d once built.

“No,” he replied after a moment’s thought.

“No?” Nycoh asked, the defeat apparent in her voice.  This was why they had brought Daim back, at least one of the main reasons.  “Why not?  You’ve done it before.”

“I was far stronger then.  I had access to several magical artifacts that helped with the construction of such devices.”

“Isn’t there a way to recreate the necessary aids?”

“Possibly.  But there is a more important reason.”

“What is that?”

“I’ve forgotten what I did to create the staffs.”

“You’ve forgotten?”

“”It’s one of the areas of my memory that is foggy.  I can’t remember the last few weeks before the end.  I recall starting on the Outpost, but it all fades before the task was finished.  I recall deciding that something to bring me back was needed, but how I went about it is gone.”

“Wouldn’t you have kept records?”

“Of course.  My journal.  But you said that my journals had not been found.”

“Where would you have kept them?”

“In my office at the Citadel.”

“That’s long turned to dust,” Nycoh said.

“You see the problem,” Daim said.

“You moved everything else of importance to the Hideaway,” Nycoh argued.  “Why would you leave something as important as your personal journals at the Citadel. They must be at the Hideaway somewhere.”

Daim agreed with her reasoning, so they returned to have a closer look.

“You’ve never found them?” Daim asked.

“Every volume here has been catalogued.  None are your personal journals.”

Daim sat in the large chair and looked around the chamber.  He was silent for a long time, then slowly he stood and walked over to the rack that had once held the two staffs.  He starred at the rack for a long time, then slowly reached out his hand and grasped the rack, a glow of magic suddenly surrounding the wooden rack.  A faint outline appeared in the wall of the room and Daim pulled outward on the rack, removing a section of wall four hand spans wide and as many tall. He set this on the floor and peered inside.

“You didn’t look very well,” he said, as he reached in and pulled out three thick journals.

“Why wouldn’t Rigo have known about that?” Nycoh asked.

“From what you tell me, the Rigo-Daim had some ability to control what information was passed between them.  Perhaps the matter never came up.  Perhaps he had forgotten about them as I did.  I don’t know, but here they are.”

“Do they contain the information necessary to build the staff?”

“I don’t know,” he’d said.  “I would expect so, but I’ll have to sit and read them.”

Now, almost a week later, Daim wanted to speak with them.  Nycoh hoped it might be about the staff, but she had no more idea than Jeen what Daim intended.

The sound of footsteps, sure and steady caused them both to look up.  Daim, looking like a very fit Brice, stepped into the room, a small smile on his face.  The pale blue eyes twinkled.  The brown beard he was growing had filled in, matching the color of his thick hair.  Youthful and healthy looking, it was sometimes hard to think of this man as a Master Wizard from the distant past, who had been quite old when he had died so many centuries before.

“We just might be able to do it,” he said without waiting for them to speak.  He looked expectantly at the two young women who he’d come to realize were the strongest wizards in the community.  They were also the most insightful.  He had yet to meet this Rigo, but for now these two were the obvious choice to be in charge.

“The staff,” Jeen asked eagerly, meeting the eyes of the Master Wizard, and noting the coarse stick of hardwood the man carried.  It didn’t look anything like the staff that Rigo had carried, except being roughly the same dimension.

Daim nodded.  “I did a good job of recording what I wanted to do.”

Nycoh nodded.   She had expected as much when she’d seen the journals.  She also had realized they would have to rely upon Daim to personally sort through the books as they were written in some kind of personal code that Daim had created to protect his writings.  Even Nycoh, with her experience from years of digging through texts with Ash’urn, hadn’t been able to make any sense out of the scribbling.

“I assume you brought that crude staff for a reason?” Nycoh asked.

Daim glanced at the piece of wood and nodded his head.  “This will form the basis for the staff we will try and create.”

“We?” Jeen asked.

“Oh yes,” Daim replied.  “This is no longer something I can attempt by myself.  I am nowhere near powerful nor skilled enough.  This Brice, whoever he was, was an adequate wizard, but nothing unique and none of you, yourselves included, have the raw ability required.  You told me once before you have learned to Link.  I am hoping the three of us Linked, will be able to do what none of us individually is capable of.”

“Both Jeen and I have the ability,” Nycoh confirmed. 

“Good,” Daim responded.  “Why don’t we give it a try?”

“You mean right now?” Jeen asked surprised. 

“You indicated this was an urgent matter,” Daim said.  “If we are going to know if this will work at all, we need to see what we can do.  If the three of us are insufficient for the task, we will have to decided who else might bring ability and power into the link.”