Here is the first draft of chapter 1 book 2.
Chapter 1
The End
Fog covers the city street as Mashaun stares out the second story window. It has been only a few days since the others vanished, assuming they returned home, leaving Ericka, Tera and himself to complete the prophecy. He is eager to explore the city of Thesila, but the fog swirls and dances with what seems like choreograph movements. Sometimes at night, the abandon city streets sound like it is full of people, though the people disappeared eons ago. Mashaun paces around the house glancing out at the fog with disdain, muttering to himself. Tired of waiting for its lifts, he dawns his swords and puts the bow Dalistra across his back. Stepping through the illusionary door into a chilly fog-less bubble as faces seem to fade in and then out in the fog. Ericka and Tera watch with interest, looking at each other before grabbing their gear and following him. They walk in a row as they proceed up the street, the mist swirls away creating a clearing around them.
The fog parts around them, thicker in the back and the sides. However, it is thin in front. Within a few of minutes, the gray veil of the fog swallows the house behind them. They stroll along the wet cobblestone road, looking left, right and behind them as if they see or hear whispers in the fog. They fan out never stepping into the mist but remain encircled by it even when separated by several arm lengths. Anytime they try to down a side street the murkiness is thick and close, forcing them to continue in their original direction.
It seems like hours before they arrive at the door to the great hall at the street end. A majestic building carved into the mountain face. Streams of red, blue, and yellow lights shoot in every direction, crisscrossing over the entire front of the building. Up a dozen steps, two gigantic ornately carved arch doors stand, built into the side of the mountain.
At first, Ericka and Tera try to talk Mashaun out of going inside for fear he will also leave them like the others. They pull on his sleeves, and he looks at them with their teary eyes.
“Look, I want to see what else in there, I will not leave you” he gently tells them.
“You promise?” they ask in unison.
“Yes.”
Just as before, they open the doors with ease, without a creak or groan, into the largest and most magnificent room they have ever seen. Several doors are along each wall, and on the back wall are two sets of double doors with ornate carvings of gold, silver, and precious gemstones. About two-thirds from the front door are two large crystal pillars filled with a vacillating light in a rainbow of colors flanking an oval stone dais that sits in the middle of the room. He enters the large room, followed by the two girls, looking outside the door there is a gray wall at the bottom of the steps. For a moment, Mashaun sees human figures floating in the mist, some with a gladness about them. Not thinking much about it, he closes the door, and three looks around remember the others that they had when last they entered the room.
“Are you sorry that you stayed?”Dalistra asks, with an almost concerned voice.
“No. You must have some fond memories of here.” Mashaun replies sensing Dalistra’s sadness.
“Yes, but that was a long time ago, and everyone I know is long dead” She responds sorrowfully.
“Yes, my condolences. “Mashaun replies with a bit of emotion.
Mashaun wondered where the throne room was when Dalistra told him to kneel on the dais. When he does two multiple color beams of light reach the back wall where two royal chairs appear. One chair is larger with a little more ornate with the image of a man and a woman carved into the crystal chairs. Dalistra asks to be put on the queen’s throne, and Mashaun abides. When the bow is placed on the chair, a female specter appears looking confused. She is wearing a well-tailored long dress with a medium cut down the front and long sleeves. Even in her diaphanous state, it was obvious that the dress had gems sewn into the hems. The Phantom looked at her hands and around the room, as other shades moved from the doors and knelt in front of her.
The group watched in dismay as dozens of specters walked around them to the area between the dais and the thrones.
The girls whispered, “who’s that?”
“I think that is Dalistra.” He replied.
The entire scene was surreal as Dalistra glided among the spirits touching each one as she passes. After greeting everyone, she sat in the chair and wave goodbye as each apparition faded away. When the room was clear, Dalistra vanished. Mashaun rushed to pick up the bow, to find that she was still there.
Dalistra tells Mashaun that she freed them, but part of her will go with them unless the prophecy is fulfilled. She was told that the prophecy has six parts.
1: My spirit must be found,
2, 3, 4, repair the three Hli ljew.
“What?” he asks.
“Oh, the moon staves,
5, steal the rainbow staff from the Xhuan.
They didn’t know the last one because the one that cast the curse was burned alive in the town square.
“Well, we manage two out of the five, and we didn’t even know what we were doing, let continue on.”
With Dalistra in hand, Mashaun proceeds for the left archway on the back wall. They know the right one goes to the room of forever sleep, where travelers are returned to their world, at least that is what they were led to believe. The wall under the arch has pictures of wizard carved with four sets of characters and symbols written in the arch around the edge, Dalistra tells him that they are the four main languages of Hauv Pem. When Mashaun touches the wall, a burst of energy knocks him back several feet landing in sitting down position. Shaking his head to clear it, he sits there thinking.
“Ericka, can you read the door?” he asks.
Ericka studies the door telling them that it is an old magic-ward written in four different languages. After spending a good deal of time studying the door, she says “Kuv Daj Khaum Tseev” and walks through, waving her hand for them to follow. When Terra tries to follow, she is sent back with a jolt, landing next to Mashaun. Ericka reaches through the wall and pulls them to the other side.
“These are the sorcerers quarters. Since I have Thesilan blood and they are the only ones that can use magic, thought I would give it a shot, guess it worked…or maybe it was the amulet.” she tells them.
The polished corridor with half-sphere globes the size of softballs lines the center of the arch ceiling. As Mashaun, Terra, and Ericka traverse down the long hall, the yellow disc around Ericka’s neck sparks with the first globe. Then each sphere brightens as they approach until it is directly overhead before dimming until the globe is black behind them. Giving an area of light moving with them as they explore the inner sanctum of the Thesila’s royal palace.
Mashaun feels Dalistra’s sense of loss as they walk down the hall passing many vacant quarters. The rooms still in original state with everything still in its place, as though it was just put away. They walk through an opening into a large room with a dozen human statues twice the height of a man lining the walls including two on the far wall. Between the figures are life-size paintings of this chamber full of people with staves and life in the city, black scorch marks are scattered on the walls and the vaulted ceiling. Irregular veins of pulsating red, yellow, and blue light crisscross a floor covered with mummified bodies and skeletons still clutching their staves.
They look at each other with bewilderment asking what happened. Mashaun can feel Delistra’s anguish as they make their way to the first mural, the one that shows this room in better times. Ericka hesitates, feeling light-headed as the amulet absorbs some of the energy from the yellow crack she steps on, and avoids touching the veins as they step over the bodies to get a better look at the first mural. Behind them they hear a riot, then an explosion, turning around and watch dozens of sorcerers raise staves of every shape. At the far end of the room are the three supreme magus, one wearing a red, a yellow, and a blue robe holding matching staves with a cage on top enclosing a spinning disk, like the Elina now has. Behind them is a hookbill dragon holding a similar staff with red, blue, yellow, purple, orange, and green twisting down the staff like an old barber pole and a white disc spinning in the cage.
“A rainbow staff?! I thought they were only myth” Ericka exclaims.
The others look at her with confusion.
“A rainbow staff can only be used by a person, apparently a creature, that is able to use spells from all the colors. They were considered to be the most powerful and wise of all the magicians.” Ericka tells them. She can tell they are not as impressed at seeing a fabled rainbow staff as she is.
They watch in horror as a fight ensues with balls of energy, fire rocks, and balls of ice thrown across the room. Some of the sorcerers run through the door leaving the melee. To their surprise, a lava bomb flies pass them and shatters against the wall at one of the burned marks, sending hot debris toward them. Before they can react the debris sticks to their clothes and burns. They try to knock it off their clothes only to have their hands pass through the fire, and they feel no heat or pain. They watch in horror as the bodies reenacting their last battle. Balls of lightning, energy, flaming rocks, lava, steam, and ice sail through the air in every direction, some have transparent walls of red, blue, yellow, green and purple in front creating a small fortress, allowing the ones behind to throw offensive spells. It is a three-way battle between the different colors, but one by one the Wizards falls, but some manage to limp out the door.
Ericka watches in horror and reverence, admiring the magic that must be required. Terra stands ready with her bow, unsure of what they are witnessing. Mashaun watches Hookbill disappear down a hall in the back wall along with the other three head wizards, while the battle rages. He glances back at the mural and notices that they are no longer there. Mashaun makes a note of where they vanish and heads in that direction. Ericka and Terra continue to watch in amazement as the battle continues around him, yet he is unaffected magical balls and bolts pass through his as if he was the ghost.
After the four wizards leave, a white light emanates from the wall arcing from statue to statue along the walls, and they come alive. With methodical movements, they sweep the room from each side before blocking the door, grabbing each sorcerer and crushing the life out of them. Mashaun walks among the carnage immune to any part of the battle as magicians and spells of desperation are tossed around him. He feels Dalistra’s sorrow as she watches the fight through his eyes, she didn’t know any of them personally, but she can still name many of the magicians as they fell. Her emotions are so strong that Mashaun can feel his eyes watering up and tears trickling down his cheek. The battle ends when the room looks the same as when they arrived and the statues covered in black spots return to their positions like nothing happened.
The back wall has no arch or carvings or opening, it is the same from corner to corner. Mashaun feels the wall, but it is solid. The two girls join him searching the wall for any glyph or latch.
The three start tossing broken wands, staves, and anything else they find at the wall, only to see it bounce back.
“OK, it is not an illusion like most doorways,” Mashaun exclaims exasperatedly.
Ericka dangles the amulet and starts twirling the chain in her fingers. As it spins faster, a section of the wall fades. The faster the disc spins, the more translucent the wall become until a corridor is seen on the other side. Ericka walks through the opening, but Terra and Mashaun are stopped by a wall, even though they can see the Ericka standing in the hall. Ericka returns to the room and walks into the once hidden passageway with the other two holding on to her.
Again the amulet sparks to the first globe, and the corridor lights up as they move from one sphere to next until it opens up to a five-sided antechamber. Four entrances, each leading to an office with a colored stone desk that corresponds to the staves. There are no bodies, just hundreds of books in bookcases along the walls and scattered around the rooms. A globe in the ceiling emits a bright yellow glow, revealing a couple of books hidden behind an illusion.
Ericka recognizes the writing on the books and discovers that they are history books, journals, and research books of yellow magic. Inside one of the books is two pieces of leather attached one side, similar to a book, but no thicker than a sword and just as stiff. She opens the pages as her curiosity changes to grin then a jubilation.
“A spellbook” she exclaims.
“A book, it looks more like a sheet,” Terra says.
“No, look.” Ericka flips page after page of ancient writings while the others see her flipping the air as though she is thumbing through the pages of a book.
“I don’t see anything, “Terra inquires.
“Perhaps it is visible only in yellow light or by a Yellow mage.” Mashaun offers.
The three look at each other before Ericka puts the book in her pack. They hear a deep voice tell them that to take anything from here means death. Ericka tells the air that she is now the yellow master and this belongs to her. There is a long silence before the voice asks about the staff, and she tells it that they are on a quest to get the staff fix. The voice is shocked to hear that the staff is broken, before Ericka interrupts, telling the voice that she needs to spell book to fix it. After a long silence, the voice agrees to let her take the book, and three leave the palace.
It’s still early morning, there is still a light fog along the building. The three can’t agree on what to do next. The girls want to wander through the city, while Mashaun wants to find a way to get above the city to get a better look. After some discussion, they decide to go their separate directions and meet back at the house by sundown.