Earning a name - One shot, or something similar (Warning: some violence)

[Lady Vulpix]

This is a prequel to Quest of Twelve, but please DON'T RUN AWAY. You don't need to have read Quest of Twelve in order to understand it. This may actually make some things about QoT clearer if and when you decide to read it. And if you decide not to read it... it's your choice, of course.

This is very different from what I usually write. Much darker, for starters. But it had to be, in order to explain the things I wanted to. On the other hand, it was interesting to show the QoT world from the perspective of someone whose mindset is so different from my own. But enough ranting. I'll leave you with the story.

Earning a name

Rudolf Endar hated his name. He had more than one reason for this. First of all, it was a merial name and he was 75% elvin, with no easily distinguishable merial features. Elves live long lives and can hold even longer grudges. No one even remembered how the rivalry between elvins and merials had begun, but it was deep-rooted among most of them. They had many differences, but not enough to be considered different species (Rudolf himself was proof of that); just enough to make each other uncomfortable. Another reason was that his last name had been passed on by a merial with whom he shared no blood and, worst of all, one who had caused his mother to suffer, ultimately forcing her to leave the town where she had grown up and end up working as a servant. And last but not least, he knew the name that ought to be his; but it was denied to him.

He didn't know the full details of his mother's conception. Not that he wanted to know the precise details of the act, but he would have liked to know who his grandfather was and how he had met his merial grandmother. But his mother hadn't been told, and he had a feeling his grandmother wouldn't appreciate a visit from him. What he did know was that his grandmother had been forced to marry a friend of the family when her parents found out she was pregnant. Mr. Endar had always found her attractive and gladly accepted the challenge of taming her.

Things couldn't have been good for the new Mrs. Endar, but Rudolf didn't really care. In his view, she'd got what she deserved. What she had done couldn't had been good if she had kept it from her own daughter, and what was worse, she didn't even stand up for her child when she started growing too tall and all eyes were turned against her.

Loreena Endar was thin and pale. She'd always given an impression of extreme fragility. She did, however, have a hidden strength that allowed her to endure the ever-present looks of contempt and the different forms of abuse she received from the town's young merials. Genetics hadn't been kind to her. She did have a pretty face (most elves did) and nice hair, but as far as specific racial traits went she'd got a bad combination: she'd grown up to be as tall as an elvin, but had a comparatively weak presence and no natural aptitude for magic. Things had only got worse with time, her surrogate father treating her even worse than anyone else, and she'd had no choice but to leave the town and look for a job in an elvin city.

She was lucky, in that she didn't have to look very long. A young noble from Oundes had recently moved into a house of his own and was looking for new servants. His name was Alder Haggaus. He was 152 years old when he hired Loreena as a kitchen assistant. He was tall and handsome, with shiny black hair and golden eyes. He didn't pay much attention to her until one day when the main cook got hurt and Loreena had to cook in her place. She'd never prepared a whole meal for a noble before, but she'd been a good cook in her hometown, and she'd been watching her superior since her first day at work. The result was surprisingly good, for both herself and her lord. Haggaus was delighted. He wanted to know more about the girl who could cook a meal like that.

After that, one thing had led to another. Before too long, Loreena had been promoted to main cook and was required to take the meals to the house owner personally. After a while, he could no longer hide his attraction for her. A few weeks more and he lo longer wanted to. And she was drawn in as well. If she had been born to a noble house, he would have proposed to her. As it was... they had to skip a number of steps.

Rudolf's conception had been as much of an accident as his mother's had been, but unlike her he knew what it was like to be cared for. His mother loved him more than anything else, and his father was kind to him, even if he refused to give him his name and never admitted the relationship openly. Officially, he was only the cook's son, and his father was a mystery his mother wouldn't talk about. But he knew the truth. He could tell by the physical resemblance, by the way his father treated him, and by the closeness his parents shared when they thought no one was watching. In public, however, Haggaus ignored him completely or, even worse, told him to go to the kitchen with his mother. He never obeyed. He only left for a few minutes until he felt his father had stopped watching for him, and then returned through any of the numerous secret paths and watched in silence. Especially when magic lessons were being imparted.

Alder Haggaus was a mage. He had a natural affinity to water magic, but he was also good at casting spells from several other domains. Every member of his family was highly proficient in magic, and younger elvins often turned to them to learn both spells and magical theory. Rudolf watched every lesson carefully, listening to every word and paying attention to every gesture, and then, when he was alone, tried them out by himself. He found out that it wasn't as easy as it looked, but he didn't give up. He had to prove himself that he could do it. In the end, his efforts proved fruitful. He complemented his practice with all the magic books from the library he had access to. By the time he stopped considering himself a child, he could cast more spells than all formal students his age and even some a few years older.

As his confidence grew, he became careless, and was eventually found out. His father saw him clean a window with water that had formed out of thin air. He recognized the spell immediately, and asked him how he had learnt it. Rudolf told him the truth.

"You've been teaching yourself all this time... and you've never thought of telling me?," Haggaus was surprised.
"What would you have done? You told me to leave every time you were teaching someone!"
"You could have asked me to teach you. If I hadn't wanted you to learn I wouldn't have allowed you to read the books."
"You didn't think I could learn! You won't even admit that I'm your son! But it's obvious now, isn't it? I'm as good at magic as you are."
"No, you're not. You still have a lot to learn. But that's beside the point. We've been through this before. If the word went out that Alder Haggaus had a son with a half-merial servant, it would stain the name of my whole family. Not just my own. And you and your mother would be forced to leave this house. I don't want that to happen, but it's what the city would demand. Is that what you want?"
"No."
"Then that's it. There's your answer."
"No."
"What do you mean 'no'?"
"I mean it shouldn't be like this. I'm your son and I'm as good as you are. I deserve your name!"
"We don't always get what we deserve. And you're still far from becoming as good as I am. I can teach you magic if you want, but you'll have to promise not to bring this up again."
"I can teach myself."
"Really? What's your element?"
"My element?"
"You know what I mean. Mine is water. Most of my students have found their own. What's yours?"
"I can do some water magic... and also some fire magic. And I can lift things in the air, I'm not sure what domain that is."
"It could be a number of domains. You're saying you don't even know how you're doing it?"
"I know how to do it, it just doesn't feel like an element... not like fire and water do."
"What kind of things can you lift?"
"Small things... for now," he quickly added.
"Can you do that effortlessly? Just like you can walk and talk?"
"No, not that easily. I do need to concentrate."
"Then whatever that is, it's not your element. From what you tell me, you haven't found your element yet. If you have one at all."
"Why wouldn't I have one?"
"Only elvins have them. And elemental creatures, of course."

That had been a nasty remark to make. Rudolf hated being reminded that he wasn't a pure elvin. He did love his mother, but he considered her mixed blood to be the source of all his problems. It got worse as years went by and, while he kept making progress, he didn't get any closer to finding his element. He had to conclude that he actually didn't have one.

Eventually, Rudolf's progress became stalled. He felt that he couldn't learn any more from his father or his books and, while he hadn't tried to claim the name of Haggaus again, he was still determined to earn it. The way he saw it, he had no other choice but to go somewhere else where he could learn different spells and become a more powerful mage than his father was. Oundes was a relatively small city. He reckoned he'd have better chances of finding a tutor in a larger one, especially if it was a city where nobody knew his face and his background. When, after asking around, he found out that some of the best mages in the city had perfected their skills at the Nartis Academy of Magic, he decided to enroll. He was prepared to confront both his parents if he had to, but it wasn't necessary. His father had heard that it was a good school, and his mother trusted his judgement. Both of them wanted him to have a good education and trusted that he could make it.

Alder Haggaus wouldn't have approved if he had known his son was going to sign up under the name of Ruden Haggaus, but what he didn't know wouldn't hurt him. Nartis was far enough from Oundes for him to pay the boy an unexpected visit. Such a trip would have attracted too much attention. Rudolf (or Ruden) knew that a merial name would be nothing but an obstacle at a top-class elvin school. He wanted a name that would give him an edge, and he did belong to the house of Haggaus even if his father wouldn't openly admit it. And he was good. He knew that. There was the problem of the element, but there were some elvins who lived up to 300 years before they found out what their element was, so that didn't have to be much of a problem. And with enough time and effort, he hoped, he'd be able to master at least one domain enough to pretend it was his element.

****************

The years he spent in Nartis marked a turning point in his life. Starting from the admission exam, which he barely passed, he had to face the fact that things were harder than they used to be back home, and that other students were as good at magic as he was - and the advanced students were much better. That gave him a measure of how much he still had to learn, but rather than discouraging him, it only encouraged him to try harder. He was also surprised to find out that the courses didn't only include magic, but also a lot of history. At first he saw that as a waste of time, but when he started learning about all the ways in which magic had affected the world's events, he found a new reverence for it. Especially after he met Professor Albrin.

Everyone in Nartis and surrounding areas had heard of Professor Albrin. There were all kinds of rumors about him. Many said he was the most powerful mage in the whole world, which made Rudolf doubt why, if that was true, he was teaching history and magic instead of ruling the city or, even better, the whole world. But rumors had an answer even for that: they said that he had ruled a city centuries back, but he had grown tired of it and decided to pass on his knowledge to those who were willing and talented enough to learn. They also said he was beyond good and evil, which is often said of many without much of a meaning, but in his case might have applied. He liked students who were smart, talented and eager to learn. He didn't care about what their motives were, nor what use they would give to the knowledge they acquired.

Whether the rumors were true or not, one thing was clear: Albrin was very powerful and knowledgeable, and liked finding those same qualities in others. That gave Rudolf yet another incentive to learn as much as he could, and participate as much as possible in all the classes. He wanted to be the best of his class, and Albrin noticed it. Soon, the professor was giving him private lessons and talking to him about his view of life, power, and everything else.

****************

Rudolf was going through his fourth year at the Academy when Professor Albrin asked him the dreaded question. It started off quite innocently.

"So... you've been here for a while now. You were above average for a beginner when we first met, and you've improved a lot in little time. But there's one thing you still haven't shown me."
"Something I haven't shown you?"
"Yes. What is your element?"
Rudolf froze. He didn't know what to answer.
"Come on. You don't want me to believe that with all your talent and knowledge of magic you still haven't found it."
"I... You're right, Professor. I don't want you to believe that."
"But?"
It was impossible to face that stare and tell a lie.
"But I haven't," he confessed.

Albrin looked him up and down, as if he was seeing him for the first time. Rudolf felt his gaze was penetrating him.
"I see. You're part merial," he concluded.
Rudolf stood in his place, too afraid to say anything.
"You're tall enough to be an elvin, and good enough at magic that few will ever notice," Albrin judged. "You have a strong presence too."
Rudolf let out the breath he didn't know he'd been holding. "So you don't mind?"
"I don't care about what you are."
That sounded slightly offensive, until he added: "I care about what you do."
"What I do..." Rudolf repeated.
"Yes. You're a brilliant student, and that's good enough for me. But don't let it be good enough for you. Always work on improving yourself."
"I will," he promised. "Can I ask you a question now?"
"Of course."
"What's your element?"
"My element..." Albrin's face showed a nostalgic expression for a moment. "It's earth, actually, but it's been a long time since that's last made any difference."
"Why?"
"I guess I could tell you know... A secret for a secret. It's only fair. Come."

The professor led his student to his office. Rudolf had been there a few times. The room was packed with an assortment of both ornaments and magical objects. It was often hard to tell which was which, and Rudolf was under the impression that the professor delighted in making the students guess and seeing how many they got right. He wondered if he was going to show him something that was hidden inside the office, or simply tell him something he wanted no one else to hear. He didn't expect him to start with a question.

"How much do you remember about Linya?"
"Is this a test? I thought you were going to tell me a secret."
"I am, but I need to know where to begin. Please answer the question."
"Linya... it's across the sea to the East... It has a long history of wars..."
"Anything else?"
"Wasn't that the place where most of the weakest races came from?"
"That's right. Most of them fled from Linya during one of the most violent wars recorded in history, around 3,000 years ago, give or take one or two centuries."
"Give or take?"
"The war itself lasted nearly four centuries. The land was devastated, and the records say it was during that war that the aylee were extinguished."
"The aylee?"
"A race of light faeries. Some old stories credit them with all kinds of incredible attributes, like the ability to grant wishes to anyone who saw them, or to fly faster than light itself. If half the things the stories say about them were true, they couldn't have possibly died in the war. But that's what legends do. Everything becomes greater and mightier once it is gone. Whatever their abilities were, it's clear enough that defending themselves wasn't one of them. They probably had at least a partial resistance to light magic, but there must have been vulnerable to most other common attacks."
"That makes sense. But what was special about that war, or about Linya?"
"I'm getting there. Be patient. I have to tell you a bit more about the Linyan history first. That war was the worst of many, according to the records. It became more violent as time went by and it lasted longer than any other in Linya's history. Most books as well as the word on the street agree that it lasted that long because the sides took too long to be set."
"The sides?"
"Yes. This is where it all gets mystical. There's a legend in Linya that says that whenever a war rages over the entire land, two armies have to be assembled, and they must fight each other in the name of everyone and everything. That's how that particular war ended and the model has been imitated ever since, so I reckon the legend must have been created after that final battle."
"How could a single battle between two armies put an end to such a huge war?"
"That's the same thing I wondered. I know the answer now, but it won't make sense until I've told you all the details. As I said, Linya suffered greatly from that war. When it ended, the land was split in 12 regions, each of them ruled with an iron fist by a different tyrant: the victors of the final battle. All sources say that no one was strong enough to oppose them, but none of them were immortal. When the last of them died, a new war began."
"And two armies were assembled again?"
"Exactly. Except it was all much quicker this time. There was a small group that attempted to replace the dead rulers, and another group was summoned by the families of their victims. It was the latter group who won, and they kept the peace in Linya for as long as they lived. They stayed out of politics, letting each community rule itself, but they all knew they could only rule because the winners allowed it. Do you see a pattern?"
"It sounds like the first winners were evil and the next ones were good."
"Evil?! Good?! Have I taught you nothing? They had different preferences, but they all acquired vast amounts of power and used it to turn their land into what they wanted it to be. Those who get so much power always end up doing what they want. And none of them met a strong opposition because no one could oppose them."
"But how could anyone become so powerful?"
"Ah. Now that is the right question. That's what I set myself to find out when I learnt that the twelveth and last member of the latest group Linyan 'peacekeepers' had fallen. I sailed there and found that new fights had been reported."
The student nodded.
"That didn't surprise me, it was to be expected. By then I already knew that all those wars followed the same pattern: first the conflict was restricted to a single location, then after some time random attacks started sprouting over a slowly expanding radius, and finally they exploded into a real war that raged throughout the entire region. But something else did surprise me. As soon as I set foot on Linyan shore I felt a pull. It was soft and slow, but as I followed it, it kept getting stronger. I felt that it was calling out to me. The trouble was, I wasn't the only one."
"So you did fight in a war?"
"Yes, but not in Linya. I followed the pull to its source and found the Orb of Souls buried under the ground in a forest. I hadn't heard or read about it before, so I gathered all past winners had kept it a secret. I only had to fight a few individual seekers in order to bring it home to examine it, but some Linyans followed me and others joined them here."
"Please wait, you're going to fast. What's a seeker? What's the Orb of..."
"Souls."
"Souls."

Albrin turned around and opened a door on his sideboard. He took out a large black sphere which had been resting next to a slightly smaller white sphere. He placed it on his desk.
"This is it," he said.
"This is a test, isn't it? I'm not supposed to believe that a war began because of a black sphere you keep in your sideboard, am I?"
"Believe what you want. I'm telling you, the secret is here. The source not of one war, but of many wars throughout the ages. The last one took place in this land around six hundred years ago... No, closer to seven hundred now. Some may still remember it. The site of the final battle was a forest between the cities of Indas and Cyandes, southwest of here."
"I know where they are. You've told us about that battle, but you never said you'd fought in it."
"I'm telling you now. I had to join forces with eleven like-minded individuals to win the war."
"Eleven? You've got to be kidding me."
"I kid you not," Albrin grinned. "History does have a tendency to repeat itself. All twelve of us found our abilities greatly enhanced after winning the war. Even during the final battle we felt unusually powerful. But so did our enemies. Only once the battle was won we could feel the full effect of the Orb's influence."
"And what did you do?"
"We did what we wanted, of course. Some of my allies set off to conquer cities and the rest of us built a city of our own. A place for the bright and powerful of all races to thrive without being hindered by rules created by inferior minds. We got more immigrants than we expected. We even came up with admission tests. It was fun for a while."
"But...?"
"But ruling a city can be quite a hassle. Everyone expects you to solve their problems, and all the magic in the world can't help you keep everyone content. And there's always someone who just can't get the message and will try to attack you. It's not fun if you can crush them easily. After the first two centuries it was no longer thrilling, or even fulfilling. Ruling had become routine. Most of us got tired and left. One stayed behind and kept the place in check until he eventually died of old age."
"He died of old age? What was he?"
"He was a soemar. Jenan was his name. His last name, I would say, but they use them as their first names."
"A what?"
"An earth creature. They should teach more biology here."
"So not all of your allies were elves."
"None of them were, in fact. We had a soemar, a grumma (earth creature too), two ferwills and a whisterel (all air creatures), a shifter (you must know what that is), a shakast (light creature), a dassel (small vegetal creature), two massennes (non-elemental, small but very strong) and a river nymph who was the last to join and the first to leave."
"No fire?," asked Rudolf, who had been keeping track.
"No fire elementals, but I could use fire magic and so could Jeyri, the dassel. She was plant-based, but she was fairly good with most other elements. And she became even more powerful after the war. I was sad to see her go."
"Where did she go?"
"To Linya. She said she wanted to restore the home of her ancestors."
"Alright. But what happened to your city? Why haven't I heard about it before?"
"It comes later in the course. It didn't last much more than two centuries anyway. After Jenan died too many started fighting for his succession. Those who chose not to get involved in the fight left the city, and those who stayed kept fighting until there was nothing left to fight for. Well, nothing except the main tower and the annex. They were fortified and built to last. But no one was interested in ruling a single tower with a small building attached to it, so in the end the place was abandoned. That's what happens when you have power without control. Having great power has many advantages, but only if you know the right way to use it."
"Is that why you're teaching?"
"Yes, that's one of the reasons. Let's say it's my way of giving the world the shape I want for it."

Rudolf reflected on his teacher's words, trying to make some sense out of them. It was all too much.
"It still sounds so strange..." he finally said.
"I know. Give it some time and it will sink in."
"Why are you telling me this?"
"Because you show great promise. You have the right combination of magical talent, intelligence, curiosity and desire for power. I'm the only one left from the last army of twelve. Should something happen to me, I want someone to know."
"Why would something happen to you?"
"Because no one is invulnerable. I may live for many more centuries, perhaps millennia... but some day something's bound to happen. Or maybe I'll just get bored and want to see what's next. And some day the orb will want a new group of masters."
"How does the orb work? And why do you keep it in your office where everyone can see it?"
"How many times have you seen it?"
"I don't know. More than a few times, I'm sure."
"And how many times has it caught your attention?"
"...Ah. I get the point."
"If I had kept it hidden in a chest protected with a number of physical and magical locks, many would have tried to open it just to see what was inside. Here, next to the shiny white sphere which has the amazing property of glowing in the dark, no one gives it a second glance."
Rudolf couldn't help but smirk.
"As for how it works, I don't really know much more than I have told you. It seeks a group of masters and enhances their powers for as long as they live. It also has a more obscure feature, but I haven't got to the bottom of it yet. It seems to attract certain invisible forces which feel almost alive when you scan them. It may be able to control them, which might explain its name, but that's only speculation. That's another reason why I'm telling you about this. Maybe you can help me find out."
"How can I do that?"
"Look."

Both elves fixed their eyes on the black sphere. Rudolf, who was on the watch for magic, could sense a signal sent to the orb by his teacher. At that moment, a set of symbols appeared on the air around it. Or, rather, seemed to appear. It was strange. He couldn't see them; it was more like he was imagining them. But he knew where they were and what shapes they had. There were three larger ones, which stayed fixed on top of the sphere, and many smaller ones, distributed in two layers all around it and in continuous motion.

"What does it say?," Rudolf queried.
"Up there it says 'Orb of Souls' in old Linyan. That's how I know its name. As for the rest, I'm not quite sure. The signs on the outer layer are old Linyan. The ones below must be something even older. I can't recognize them. I can read most of the outer ones, but since they keep moving disorderedly, they don't form coherent sentences. They're some kind of puzzle, and they react badly to attempts of magical rearrangement."
"How badly?"
"They fire back and try to rearrange the reader."
"Oh."
He didn't really get the picture, but it didn't sound nice.
"So... what symbols do you recognize?"
"This one means 'sun', or 'day'," said Albrin pointed to one of the symbols. "After looking for a while I managed to find the one for 'night', but not the one for 'moon' or any other celestial bodies, so I gather it must mean 'day'. Ah, there it is: 'night'. This is the sound for 'equal' or 'balance', and this one is tricky: it can mean 'mystery' or 'mysterious', but it can also mean 'shadow'. There's also the one for 'hour'. I wish I knew what all these little dots mean, they're not words as far as I know and they keep moving so I can't count them. There must be at least twenty of them. Oh, this one's 'power'. I like its shape."
"Anything else?"
"I can lend you a dictionary if you want."
"Alright, that sounds like a good idea."

****************

Everything went smoothly for the next two years. Rudolf enjoyed being the professor's favorite, and the self-confidence that came with it. It was a feeling he hadn't experienced before and, now that he knew it, he didn't want to lose it. He worked hard to make sure he was better than everyone else. If one of his classmates asked him what his element was, he'd just reply that anyone who couldn't figure it out wasn't worthy of knowing it. He got into a few fights, but he was not only good at magic, but also slightly more agile than most other students (the only positive aspect of his merial heritage, the way he saw it), so he was never seriously injured.

The times after classes were even more exciting to him, as he now had the challenge of trying to decipher the message written on the orb. He learned enough to recognize all the symbols of the upper layer, if not the order in which they should go. He was amused to find out that the little dots were used in ancient Linyan texts as placeholders to refer to something that had already been mentioned (much like the word 'it'). If he concentrated, he could feel the presence of the invisible forced of which Albrin had spoken; they did feel almost alive, but he still couldn't tell what they were, nor why they were there. He hoped the signs would tell him once he could put them in order. And he was especially curious about the lower layer of symbols: they had to have been written earlier, perhaps by the creator or creators of the orb, but he couldn't recognize the language, let along the meaning of the text.

Then, one day, a simple event sent everything spinning in a completely different direction. He had just finished giving a demonstration to a group of new students when one of them stepped forward and glared at him.

"Is anything wrong?," Rudolf asked.
"Do you know who I am?"
"Honestly? No, I don't know."
"Well, I don't know who you are either, but I know who you're not. You claim to be a member of the house of Haggaus, but I come from Oundes and know who the members of that house are. You're not one of them."
That caught Rudolf by surprise, but he recovered from it.
"You clearly don't know all the members of my house."
"You can't keep up the pretense now."
"I'm not pretending, stupid child."
"I'm not a child and I'm not stupid. I'll show you."
"Show me? All you can show me is how stupid and ignorant you are."

It quickly turned into a physical fight. Rudolf didn't want to use magic, as it could be considered unfair for an advanced student to use what he had learnt against a newcomer. That, and he felt Albrin was right about a fight being no fun if you could crush your opponent easily. He wouldn't be able to release his anger if he ended it with a single spell.

The fight attracted the everyone's attention. Some students stood around them to enjoy the show. Others, and most of the teachers, wanted them to stop but didn't want to be caught between them. They didn't know about the new student, but they were almost certain that Haggaus would attack anyone who tried to interfere. Anyone except Professor Albrin. It was him who stood between them and stopped the fight. By then both students had their hands and faces stained with blood and several bruises.

"What's going on?," he demanded.
"He's accusing me of lying," Rudolf said before the other could react. "He says I'm not a member of the Haggaus house."
Albrin looked at the challenger, and then once more at his favorite student, in the same way he'd looked at him when he found out his secret.
"Is it true?," he asked Rudolf.
"I am the son of Alder Haggaus," he replied firmly.
Albrin looked thoughtful for a moment, ignoring the protests of the boy who claimed Alder Haggaus had no sons. He finally nodded, although no one could be certain of what that nod meant.
"In any case, you shouldn't be picking up fights with unexperienced students. Wait until they've learnt enough, and then make it a proper duel."
"He would have kept slandering me if I hadn't stopped him."
"And how well do you think starting a street fight speaks of you? You need to have control. Remember that. And you..." he now turned to the new student, "come with me to my office. We'll finish this talk in private. Show's over, everyone."

Rudolf stood firmly as they left, glaring at everyone, as if daring them to say anything. Once they were all gone, he went to wash himself. By the time he returned, the professor and the new guy hadn't come out of the office yet. He wondered why their talk was taking so long, and began to feel nervous. He sat by the fountain in the garden and waited, to anxious to engage in any of his regular activities. "If he'd just wanted to scold him, they'd be done by now," he thought. "But he can't be giving him a private lesson. That boy hasn't earned it. Or has he? Am I missing something?... No, maybe he's punishing him; making him perform some long and tedious task so that he learns his lesson... Would he do that?"

After a few minutes of this, he felt something which made his heart skip a beat. It was something he'd never felt before, but he had tried to imagine it many times. It echoed in his chest like the beat of a low-pitched drum, but there was no actual sound. It called to him. And he instinctively knew where it came from... where he had to go. But his mind was still racing, trying to make sense out of everything, and it could only come up with one possible reason for this; one that seemed impossible, absurd... and which he didn't want to believe in any case. But could there be any other explanation?

He didn't run. He wanted to, but he forced himself to stay in control. Running would have attracted too much attention. He had to go unnoticed; sneak up like he used to do in his childhood, find out what had happened and leave before anyone knew he was there. "Perhaps it's not what I think," he told himself. "He may be waiting for me, ready to give me a mind-shattering explanation. Or maybe he doesn't know either, and we'll figure it out together, like the symbols. The boy's not even as good at magic as I was when I first came here, and Professor Albrin's the most powerful mage in the whole world." He tried to hold on to that thought. He wanted to believe there was a logical explanation for the strong pull he was feeling. He just couldn't think of one.

There was no one near the office when he knocked on the door, and no reply came. He didn't knock again; his heart was beating too fast now and he needed answers, not formalities. Instead, he used what he knew of connection magic to find out if anyone was still inside, and attempt to figure out what was going on. He encountered the strange forces he'd become familiar with, and found them restless. No one else seemed to be there. His last bit of patience ran out, and he forced the door open, only to stumble awkwardly upon realizing it wasn't locked. And then he saw them.

He quickly close the door behind him, and leaned on it. If his thoughts and the sensations he'd been experiencing hadn't made any sense, what lay now before his eyes seemed even more unreal. The two bodies lay limp on the floor. The boy looked just as battered as he had been after the fight, but the professor looked fine... except for the fact that he was lying motionless with his eyes and mouth open: something Rudolf had never expected to see. Others might have run, but he felt the need to be there, and he needed to know what had happened. He took a closer look at the bodies and noticed the boy's hand was holding a paperknife. As a weapon, it was laughable; but its edge was stained with blood which hadn't quite dried out yet. He examined the professor's body and found a fresh cut on the side of his left hand. It still didn't make any sense. So, the boy might have managed to grab a penknife from the professor's desk and inflict a small cut on his hand, but what could that have achieved? That cut wouldn't kill a mouse, let alone the most powerful mage in the world. And what had happened to the boy? The only possible explanation was that someone -or something- else had attacked them both, but how? Were they really dead? He couldn't get himself to believe it.

He tried to search for them again. He concentrated hard to spot even the slightest hint of their essence. And he was surprised at what he found: there was a glimmer of life inside the sideboard, at the exact same spot the strong pulse was coming from - he checked twice to make sure. He opened the door and took out the Orb of Souls, holding it as if it were the most precious object in the universe. To him, it was. And now he was certain: both the pulse and the presence came from inside it. He tried to focus on the latter. It was definitely not the professor. It seemed scared and confused. He tried to form a mental link with it.

"Who are you?," he asked.
The reply came as a burst of disorganized phrases.
"I'm sorry." "I don't know what happened." "I want to get out." "He chose." "I don't want to die." "It took us both." "He left me alone."
"Are you...?," he tried but couldn't remember the boy's name. "Are you the guy who tried to attack me today?"
"I didn't attack you, I just spoke the truth," the thoughts seemed to pull themselves together.
"What happened to Professor Albrin?," Rudolf demanded.
"He died..."
"HOW?!"
"The voices." "Two ways out." "He chose." "Wouldn't pay the price." "See what's next." "I don't want to die."
"I don't give a damn about what you want," Rudolf growled, frustrated.

He still couldn't understand what had happened. He only knew that, against all logic, the professor was dead. He couldn't get himself to feel the full weight of it just yet. All he felt was emptiness, and a nasty sensation that kept nagging him at the back of his neck. He only paid attention to it when his thoughts became quiet for a second, and then he couldn't understand how he hadn't noticed it before. It felt similar to the boy's essence, but less coherent... more primitive. It didn't seem to have a mind, at least not a whole one, but it could feel; it emanated a feeling of satisfaction... and revenge. Rudolf turned to the boy again. His presence was getting weaker. When he asked if he knew what it was, no reply came. But the two presences, and the others still floating around, were similar enough to extrapolate an answer.

"I know what you are now," he called out to the invisible forces. "You are echoes... shadows of what you used to be. I don't know what my teacher did to you, but he's no longer here. Stop hovering around what's left of him like vultures."

The shadows suddenly became quiet.

"You..." he now addressed the one the feeling of revenge had come from. "Go away. Don't you ever return."

In spite of the firmness of the order, Rudolf was surprised when the presence zoomed out and faded into the distance. He could command these forces! The confusion was finally clearing away and he was now in control... just the way he liked it. He stared at the orb in his hands. The symbols were still there if he looked at it the right way. He'd have to find a way of deciphering what they had to say. Both layers of them. He couldn't stay at school, now he knew that. He'd have to leave before anyone saw him and find a deserted place to stay... He'd take the orb and the Linyan dictionary. Then he'd have to find out what the other language was and find a dictionary for that too... and some magic books so that he could teach himself everything he might need. He'd have to build a whole library. And find help... If the professor had been right, a new war was about to begin. Others would come for the orb, and he'd have to pick the right ones to form his army. No elves, that had been a smart move on his teacher's side; he'd eventually become the last survivor and thus the most powerful individual in the world. And he wouldn't neglect the shadows like the professor had: he'd make them work for him. He might let others else supervise them if he was too busy, but then he'd keep an eye on them. Everything was starting to fall into place. He just had to make sure the war didn't explode until he'd finished reading the signs, and he could use the shadows for that. He didn't think for one moment that anything might go wrong; at worst it could take a few years... but he had all the time in the world.

[The Blue Avenger]

So, hey, that was definitely an interesting read. I'll get the nitpicky stuff out of the way first, then get to the good parts.

First, this really jumped out at me: when someone is talking, it's rather jarring if they have parenthetical statements in their speech. I noticed this when Albrin was talking about the races he had joined up with. If you replace the parentheses with dashes, it looks much more natural and the same effect is achieved.

Second, when you have a conversation that lasts a while, I noticed that you tend to drop identifiers (ie, "Rudolf said"). While it's not necessary in every sentence, when you have long conversations, it's good to tag sentences every once in a while just to keep things from getting confusing.

That's pretty much what stood out as far as things that need criticism. On to the pros:

I dig the characterization. Rudolf started out as just a headstrong kid, but by the end of the story, he had a whole 'corrupt with power' vibe going on. That happened gradually enough that I almost wasn't aware it was happening at all, and that's pretty impressive.

Even though a lot of the story was just people talking, you kept it interesting throughout - again, that's impressive, not to mention hard to do. I know I have problems with that. P:

Something specific: I loved Albrin's method of hiding the sphere - next to the glow-in-the-dark white sphere. That got a chuckle out of me.

But yeah, good show, Gabi. I don't think it was as dark as you made it sound, but that didn't make me enjoy it any less. Cheers!

[Crystalmaster Mike]

Well, though this story isn't dark per se, I think I understand what you meant to say. It references a whole history, centuries-long past wars, thousand gallons of blood shed in days past.

Of course, because it has elves, I wondered whether it ties in with the universe of you-know-who's stories, but that's rather beside the point here. Though, if I recall, in a certain book of his, a 'quest of fourteen' comes to pass, not of twelve. But yeah.

Well, I liked this story. Rudolf - or Ruden - is described nicely, as are his intentions. I didn't even really noticed what the above user mentioned - that he gradually turned rather power-hungry. That's a side effect of the Orb's power, I guess.
There are still more mysteries, like the Orb's origin and function, left unraveled, but that's just why this is a prequel and a teaser for QoT, I guess. I liked it, anyway. Nice way of incorporating "Man's" flaws - discrimination based on race and bloodline - into a world of magic and legends that stands so far from ours.

[Lady Vulpix]

Thanks for replying, both of you! (And anyone else who wants to reply will be greatly welcome).

Ok, so maybe it wasn't very dark in comparison to other fics around, but it was dark in comparison to my other writings, including Quest of Twelve itself. Same world, same conflict, even one character in common, but anything that has Eric and Mariel in it will always have some sparks of innocence and optimism.

Jeff: I'll see if I can fix those details when I have the time. I'm glad you liked the flow of the story, even if I may have overdone it with the dialogues. And I'm also glad you liked the white sphere. I got the idea of writing this story because I was already drawing near the end of QoT and noticed that most of Haggaus's/Rudolf's actions had been happening off-scene and the readers had no way to know who he was nor what his motives were. I wanted to fix that. I also wanted to explain some more details about the Orb of Souls and the reasons behind the war (and I got to explain a few more things while I was at it).

Mike: thanks for reading this without even being prodded to do so! Elves are a part of popular culture/mythology, so they're not anyone's copyright. They feature in the works of many different authors, and also in many RPG systems. This world is my own creation. It has some creatures taken from popular culture, some from reality and some others from my own imagination. As for Rudolf/Ruden... I think it was Professor Albrin who influenced him the most, with the help of some of his past experiences and his own eagerness to become more powerful. I wouldn't consider him evil, as he's not sadistic and wouldn't kill without a reason (although he may disagree with you or me on what counts as a valid reason), but he did end up pulling a lot of strings to have the war go his way and doing some cruel things. Thanks a lot for your last comment.

The thing about the origin of the Orb is that there's no one left who was there when it was created. But if you choose to read Quest of Twelve you'll find out more about what it can do (even if it's first mentioned in chapter 15, you can see some of its effects in the earlier chapters, and until then you can see some more of the dynamics of the elvin and merial societies, and the world in general).

[Crystalmaster Mike]

Yes, now that you've mentioned it, I think I may have noticed some of the Orb's effects without attributing them to the Orb itself. Which leads me to the next item: I've begun reading the, ummmm... successor of this prequel, namely QoT itself! And from the comments made on those first few chapters, I have understood that there is a whole community writing this genre of fiction, even if I myself lean so close to "Mr T.'s" (lol) work on the matter for reference.
I've reached the point where 'the gang' leaves 'the place' to go find and battle 'the evil' [/vague], and it shivers my nivers when I realize that I'm catching up to a fanfic started over 4 years ago.
I enjoy the idealism the protagonists of both these stories have, as well as the general 'ancient' feel to the world and its inhabitants. But what else can you expect from a world inhabited by creatures able to live era-long lives, and holding equally long ideals or grudges?
Long story short: me like, me sold!

[Lady Vulpix]

Really? Me thank greatly!

[mistysakura]

Hmm... I like Quest of Twelve. While this revealed a lot about the Orb and the relations between the elven and merial races, I'm not so sure it worked well as a piece of writing. The main thing that put me off was Rudolf's detailed background at the beginning, even before we see him do anything. Personally, it made me not care enough about him to be interested in his background (although it did get more interesting as it went on). Secondly, I thought Rudolf hating his name and the whole elvin-merial rivalry thing would have been more concrete, and we'd be able to feel the hatred more, if we saw a scene of interaction between elvins and merials (a proper scene with emotion, not background narrative). The way it was written, I understood why Rudolf would hate his name, but I wasn't emotionally involved -- the rivalry didn't feel like it had substance. I liked the scene between Haggaus and Rudolf, for example, because it showed Haggaus was even prejudiced against his own son, but I thought something like that could have been done earlier on in the piece. I liked the history of how the conflicts started, though. You built up the mystery about the orb well, especially in the last scene where it seems the orb has infinite power and is in control of everything. I wonder how this will fit into Quest of Twelve...

[Lady Vulpix]

Interesting thoughts, Ada. I'm not sure I can do much about them, but I'll think about that next time I start a new story.

On an unrelated note, I'm sending you a PM.