Chapter 2
It was mid-afternoon on Threenesday and Janol was sitting on a hillock looking at the sides of the world. Zedix to the east was visible over the mountains and through the haze, areas of it were currently shaded. Janol was staring at it, thinking about the violent war which was occurring in the peaceful-looking neighbouring continent that was in some respects so distant but in other ways so close.
He looked at a hill that had a sheer side to which lichens and mosses were clinging. He walked over to it. It seemed almost unnatural. A movement distracted him. He looked down and saw someone looking up at him. The stranger looked away as soon as they made eye contact and carried on walking along the bottom of the gulley in a direction which would take him close to Janol.
Janol was momentarily afraid, there were stories of bandits in the mountains. Was it a mistake coming here? The local constabulary should deal with any troubles but they never travelled into the wilderness. There were fewer police and deputies about now than there used to be. His father said it was due to lack of respect and it wasn’t like this when he was young but Janol knew it was a side-effect of the Zedixian civil war.
As the stranger walked towards him Janol’s fear dissipated. The stranger seemed to be alone. Janol gave him a wave. Friendliness was probably the best course of action.
The stranger nervously waved back, changed his direction and climbed up towards Janol. “Hi,” he said. He had dark wavy hair and piercing blue eyes unlike Janol’s straight blond hair and indistinct grey eyes.
“Hi,” Janol replied nervously. “I was about to have lunch. Want some?” Janol opened up his backpack and took out some bread. Sharing food was a traditional way of making friends.
The stranger reciprocated by opening up his knapsack and offering Janol some dried fruit and meats. “I’m Tusfern,” he said breaking off a piece of Janol’s bread.
“Janol,” Janol replied. There was a nervous silence as there often is when two people meet for the first time and neither knows how to strike up a conversation.
“Are you here for any particular reason?” Janol asked. “I’ve got some days off. A whole week actually and decided to take some time off to travel in the mountains. I enjoy the solitude.”
“A whole week off!” Tusfern replied. “Oh sorry, I hope I wasn’t disturbing you,” he added nervously.
Janol realised that Tusfern might have picked him up wrong. “Nah, solitude away from feuding families,” he clarified. “I just like to get away from the fighting.”
“I see,” Tusfern said. There were a few more moments of awkward silence before Tusfern continued. “Feuding between your family and another or just within it?”
“Just within it. How about you? What are you doing here?”
“I’ve newly qualified as a mage, specialising in landscaping, so I decided to come into the wilds to practise.” Janol was confused, Tusfern could see the puzzled look on his face and continued. “If you’re going to change the structure of the landscape to create hills and valleys, you don’t want to do it anywhere where you may upset anyone or do any real damage. I don’t want to start my career having to pay for another mage to undo any damage I’ve done.”
Janol grinned, he could understand that attitude. “Well don’t mind me. I’m always interested in seeing a bit of magic.”
Tusfern smiled back. “Good, I’d spent a few days travelling into the wilderness to get away from everyone, I find a good spot to practise and the first thing I find is somebody else.”
“So what are you going try and do?” Janol asked. This sounded very interesting.
“Well … I was going to try to raise and lower the ground. It’s one of the hardest landscaping spells and one of the most destructive.” Tusfern looked about. “You always have to ensure that the land belongs to the person requesting the spell. You don’t want to get into trouble.”
“All right, go ahead.” Janol was getting quite excited. “It’s not my land. Actually I don’t think it belongs to anybody.”
Tusfern pulled out his wand and issued a command and slowly over the course of several minutes, the ground in front of them rose up a few metres.
They both looked at each other and grinned, there was nothing like a bit of semi-illicit magic to form a bond between two strangers.
Tusfern continued to practise that afternoon, raising and lowering the land, and once changing the course of a stream. Janol would occasionally make suggestions or shout encouragement.
Towards evening, Tusfern suggested creating a cave to provide shelter.
“How about there?” Janol suggested pointing to the side of the hill that had grabbed his attention earlier.
Tusfern nodded, walked over, waved his wand and muttered a few words. The moss and lichens fell off as the rock buckled inwards. “I thought we could sleep in there tonight,” he suggested. “I’ve tried to make the floor as smooth as possible.”
Janol nodded and picked up his backpack.
“Have you ever thought of taking up magic?” Tusfern asked.
“Oh yes,” Janol replied, “all the time. Who hasn’t? But we could never afford it. We didn’t even have enough money for me to take the aptitude test though I think the main reason is my parents don’t want me to.”
Tusfern nodded in reply. “My parents had to re-mortgage the house for my training and to get me my wand. I hope to start earning money shortly. The only problem is that recently people haven’t had enough money to pay for landscaping.”
“Things are tough,” Janol agreed. He paused for a second. He remembered once being told a story. There had been a dispute between a landscaping mage and a landowner. The landscaper had taken revenge by making the landowner’s ground into rude shapes. As always with these stories, they happened to a friend of a friend of an acquaintance. “Do you ever change the landscape to make more interesting shapes?” he asked.
“Too difficult,” Tusfern replied. “Don’t ever make anything rude, you can get into real trouble doing that.” Tusfern seemed to have heard the same story.
“You could do it here!” Janol suggested.
“Hmmm, well I might in the morning. I’ll think about it,” Tusfern replied with a slight hesitation.
It was going to be dark soon; the sky would change from translucent to opaque, shading the sun. Janol and Tusfern wandered up to the cave, sat at the entrance and watched the darkening landscape. As it got darker and their eyes adjusted to the scenery. The continents, lakes and seas around them became more visible. They were facing west, where the land was relatively flat. The green fields and meadows curved up and away to the horizon of haze and clouds. Then further away the surface of the world became more visible through the clouds. The atmosphere seemed particularly calm. Instead of the normal haze, an ever-changing pattern of light and dark played out on the distant lands, too far away to be any more than an indistinct pattern of blues, greens, white and the occasional bit of yellow.
“I never tire of watching it,” Janol said.
“It is pretty amazing,” Tusfern agreed.
“Do you ever think about the people who must live there?”
“All the time. Ever wanted to go there?”
“I fancy seeing the monsters that are supposed to live in Teenin or seeing who lives in Emchoo,” Janol replied. “Where would you go?” he asked.
“Not to Zedix, anyway. Either Teenin or Emchoo would be interesting to visit,” Tusfern agreed. “It would be nice to visit some of the more distant places that lie further away. I wouldn’t like to live in Teenin though.”
Janol nodded in agreement and stared up at the sky. “How does the sky darken? And why does it do it?” he asked more to himself. “The sun is still there, behind it.”
“I don’t know,” Tusfern replied. “It is weird and then why change it so that different times of the year have different lengths of day and night. But what I would like to know is what is beneath our feet? Other than soil and rock. What’s beyond the rock?”
“Some of the Zedixian religions say it’s a cold empty hell, but I don’t believe them,” Janol replied.
“It’s where people came from originally, so they say” Tusfern replied.
“I don’t know,” Janol replied. “If so, where’s the door?”
“Supposedly far away on a different continent.”
“Yes, but if nobody has seen it, how can we be sure that it’s actually there?”
Tusfern shrugged his shoulders. “Go and see.”
“I would like to do that one day,” Janol said. “Go and see if there is an entrance to the outside or if there really is an outside. But if there was a door, how would you know where it was?”
It started to get darker, so Janol followed Tusfern a bit further into the newly formed cave. Janol examined the floor, it was as Tusfern as promised, smooth. Smooth enough to sleep comfortably on, with only a sleeping mat for protection.
“Tusfern? What would happen if you raised a mountain too high? Could you ever find out what is beneath the Earth?” Janol asked.
“You can’t do that much. Even the most exper… Strange!” Tusfern exclaimed. “I didn’t make the cave this big!”
“Perhaps it opened up into an existing cavern?” Janol suggested. He looked back at Tusfern in the twilight. Tusfern was looking towards the back of the cave.
“Can you make a light?” Janol asked looking into the darkened cavern warily. “I don’t want to fall down any holes.”
Tusfern nodded. “It’s one of the first spells all mages learn.” He said a single word and his wand lit up.
They crept towards the back of the cave. There was a strange musty smell. Carefully and silently they walked deeper and into the cave. Janol found he had to take bigger breaths. The air must be of lower quality.
They turned a corner and the passage opened up into a larger cavern. On a shelf on a wall, Janol saw a body lying. He looked at Tusfern, who just looked back. Janol jumped as a rock’s shadow seemed to move suddenly. He was tempted to run out but he didn’t want to look foolish and his curiosity was getting the better of him.
Together they cautiously approached and leant over the body. The body was of a young woman and she looked as if she had recently died, as she showed no sign of decomposition. Most interestingly though, she had dark skin, nearly black. That was unusual. Janol had heard of dark-skinned people in stories, mostly histories but had never actually met any. They both leant over the body curious as to how she got there, when suddenly her eyes opened.
He looked at a hill that had a sheer side to which lichens and mosses were clinging. He walked over to it. It seemed almost unnatural. A movement distracted him. He looked down and saw someone looking up at him. The stranger looked away as soon as they made eye contact and carried on walking along the bottom of the gulley in a direction which would take him close to Janol.
Janol was momentarily afraid, there were stories of bandits in the mountains. Was it a mistake coming here? The local constabulary should deal with any troubles but they never travelled into the wilderness. There were fewer police and deputies about now than there used to be. His father said it was due to lack of respect and it wasn’t like this when he was young but Janol knew it was a side-effect of the Zedixian civil war.
As the stranger walked towards him Janol’s fear dissipated. The stranger seemed to be alone. Janol gave him a wave. Friendliness was probably the best course of action.
The stranger nervously waved back, changed his direction and climbed up towards Janol. “Hi,” he said. He had dark wavy hair and piercing blue eyes unlike Janol’s straight blond hair and indistinct grey eyes.
“Hi,” Janol replied nervously. “I was about to have lunch. Want some?” Janol opened up his backpack and took out some bread. Sharing food was a traditional way of making friends.
The stranger reciprocated by opening up his knapsack and offering Janol some dried fruit and meats. “I’m Tusfern,” he said breaking off a piece of Janol’s bread.
“Janol,” Janol replied. There was a nervous silence as there often is when two people meet for the first time and neither knows how to strike up a conversation.
“Are you here for any particular reason?” Janol asked. “I’ve got some days off. A whole week actually and decided to take some time off to travel in the mountains. I enjoy the solitude.”
“A whole week off!” Tusfern replied. “Oh sorry, I hope I wasn’t disturbing you,” he added nervously.
Janol realised that Tusfern might have picked him up wrong. “Nah, solitude away from feuding families,” he clarified. “I just like to get away from the fighting.”
“I see,” Tusfern said. There were a few more moments of awkward silence before Tusfern continued. “Feuding between your family and another or just within it?”
“Just within it. How about you? What are you doing here?”
“I’ve newly qualified as a mage, specialising in landscaping, so I decided to come into the wilds to practise.” Janol was confused, Tusfern could see the puzzled look on his face and continued. “If you’re going to change the structure of the landscape to create hills and valleys, you don’t want to do it anywhere where you may upset anyone or do any real damage. I don’t want to start my career having to pay for another mage to undo any damage I’ve done.”
Janol grinned, he could understand that attitude. “Well don’t mind me. I’m always interested in seeing a bit of magic.”
Tusfern smiled back. “Good, I’d spent a few days travelling into the wilderness to get away from everyone, I find a good spot to practise and the first thing I find is somebody else.”
“So what are you going try and do?” Janol asked. This sounded very interesting.
“Well … I was going to try to raise and lower the ground. It’s one of the hardest landscaping spells and one of the most destructive.” Tusfern looked about. “You always have to ensure that the land belongs to the person requesting the spell. You don’t want to get into trouble.”
“All right, go ahead.” Janol was getting quite excited. “It’s not my land. Actually I don’t think it belongs to anybody.”
Tusfern pulled out his wand and issued a command and slowly over the course of several minutes, the ground in front of them rose up a few metres.
They both looked at each other and grinned, there was nothing like a bit of semi-illicit magic to form a bond between two strangers.
Tusfern continued to practise that afternoon, raising and lowering the land, and once changing the course of a stream. Janol would occasionally make suggestions or shout encouragement.
Towards evening, Tusfern suggested creating a cave to provide shelter.
“How about there?” Janol suggested pointing to the side of the hill that had grabbed his attention earlier.
Tusfern nodded, walked over, waved his wand and muttered a few words. The moss and lichens fell off as the rock buckled inwards. “I thought we could sleep in there tonight,” he suggested. “I’ve tried to make the floor as smooth as possible.”
Janol nodded and picked up his backpack.
“Have you ever thought of taking up magic?” Tusfern asked.
“Oh yes,” Janol replied, “all the time. Who hasn’t? But we could never afford it. We didn’t even have enough money for me to take the aptitude test though I think the main reason is my parents don’t want me to.”
Tusfern nodded in reply. “My parents had to re-mortgage the house for my training and to get me my wand. I hope to start earning money shortly. The only problem is that recently people haven’t had enough money to pay for landscaping.”
“Things are tough,” Janol agreed. He paused for a second. He remembered once being told a story. There had been a dispute between a landscaping mage and a landowner. The landscaper had taken revenge by making the landowner’s ground into rude shapes. As always with these stories, they happened to a friend of a friend of an acquaintance. “Do you ever change the landscape to make more interesting shapes?” he asked.
“Too difficult,” Tusfern replied. “Don’t ever make anything rude, you can get into real trouble doing that.” Tusfern seemed to have heard the same story.
“You could do it here!” Janol suggested.
“Hmmm, well I might in the morning. I’ll think about it,” Tusfern replied with a slight hesitation.
It was going to be dark soon; the sky would change from translucent to opaque, shading the sun. Janol and Tusfern wandered up to the cave, sat at the entrance and watched the darkening landscape. As it got darker and their eyes adjusted to the scenery. The continents, lakes and seas around them became more visible. They were facing west, where the land was relatively flat. The green fields and meadows curved up and away to the horizon of haze and clouds. Then further away the surface of the world became more visible through the clouds. The atmosphere seemed particularly calm. Instead of the normal haze, an ever-changing pattern of light and dark played out on the distant lands, too far away to be any more than an indistinct pattern of blues, greens, white and the occasional bit of yellow.
“I never tire of watching it,” Janol said.
“It is pretty amazing,” Tusfern agreed.
“Do you ever think about the people who must live there?”
“All the time. Ever wanted to go there?”
“I fancy seeing the monsters that are supposed to live in Teenin or seeing who lives in Emchoo,” Janol replied. “Where would you go?” he asked.
“Not to Zedix, anyway. Either Teenin or Emchoo would be interesting to visit,” Tusfern agreed. “It would be nice to visit some of the more distant places that lie further away. I wouldn’t like to live in Teenin though.”
Janol nodded in agreement and stared up at the sky. “How does the sky darken? And why does it do it?” he asked more to himself. “The sun is still there, behind it.”
“I don’t know,” Tusfern replied. “It is weird and then why change it so that different times of the year have different lengths of day and night. But what I would like to know is what is beneath our feet? Other than soil and rock. What’s beyond the rock?”
“Some of the Zedixian religions say it’s a cold empty hell, but I don’t believe them,” Janol replied.
“It’s where people came from originally, so they say” Tusfern replied.
“I don’t know,” Janol replied. “If so, where’s the door?”
“Supposedly far away on a different continent.”
“Yes, but if nobody has seen it, how can we be sure that it’s actually there?”
Tusfern shrugged his shoulders. “Go and see.”
“I would like to do that one day,” Janol said. “Go and see if there is an entrance to the outside or if there really is an outside. But if there was a door, how would you know where it was?”
It started to get darker, so Janol followed Tusfern a bit further into the newly formed cave. Janol examined the floor, it was as Tusfern as promised, smooth. Smooth enough to sleep comfortably on, with only a sleeping mat for protection.
“Tusfern? What would happen if you raised a mountain too high? Could you ever find out what is beneath the Earth?” Janol asked.
“You can’t do that much. Even the most exper… Strange!” Tusfern exclaimed. “I didn’t make the cave this big!”
“Perhaps it opened up into an existing cavern?” Janol suggested. He looked back at Tusfern in the twilight. Tusfern was looking towards the back of the cave.
“Can you make a light?” Janol asked looking into the darkened cavern warily. “I don’t want to fall down any holes.”
Tusfern nodded. “It’s one of the first spells all mages learn.” He said a single word and his wand lit up.
They crept towards the back of the cave. There was a strange musty smell. Carefully and silently they walked deeper and into the cave. Janol found he had to take bigger breaths. The air must be of lower quality.
They turned a corner and the passage opened up into a larger cavern. On a shelf on a wall, Janol saw a body lying. He looked at Tusfern, who just looked back. Janol jumped as a rock’s shadow seemed to move suddenly. He was tempted to run out but he didn’t want to look foolish and his curiosity was getting the better of him.
Together they cautiously approached and leant over the body. The body was of a young woman and she looked as if she had recently died, as she showed no sign of decomposition. Most interestingly though, she had dark skin, nearly black. That was unusual. Janol had heard of dark-skinned people in stories, mostly histories but had never actually met any. They both leant over the body curious as to how she got there, when suddenly her eyes opened.
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