As the moon was dismissed the darkness beset Lilthis. The cold of the night swallowed everything around her, providing her nightshade skin an effective camouflage. The darkness whispered in a hushed and secretive voice, “Set your goals. Then make them truth.”

Her self-pity was shaken a bit from the earnestness of his quiet voice. Lilly’s eyes widened and blood thickened as the young woman let the advice settle in. Then, like the downpour around her the loathing returned in full force, crashing all around her feet. She was still resolute in her desire to understand the arcane, develop what could mimic it, but now was not a time she wished to think of her goals. Now was a time she wished to not be alone. To have a friend. Someone to believe in her.

“I know what I want. I just don’t know if I am capable of it,” she admitted.

Darkness swept across her back and its cold embrace passed all the way up to her neck. Its sick and vile touch filled her pores and issued one final soft word, “Get out of the way of yourself.”

Lilthis understood that darkness was wiser than she may have thought.




Foreign footsteps intruded on the virgin forest floor bed. Raiaera was littered with these ancient forests, trees sprouted to touch the sky many feet taller than most elsewhere in Althanas. One set of feet were particularly sore. Lilthis was not used to traveling on foot for such long periods. As a young girl her family had elaborate carriages filled with cushioned chairs and a bag of freshly picked strawberries. Now she ate stale bread, was covered in sweat, and her feet hurt. On more than one occasion thus far she had considered, only briefly, asking if the group could take a rest. She didn’t though, the determined scholar wanted to prove herself. Even while her feet blistered.

“Aye girlie, you seem to be strugglin to keep up,” the unwarranted advice was offered by a shorter middle aged human. Lilly didn’t normally like humans. They smelled bad. Their teeth tended to be yellowed. They were stupid. This human was overweight and he wore ragged woolen gray robes. With fury in her eyes the proud elf offered a rebuttal, “I’m enjoying the scenery. Is that an issue?”

She could probably work on her people skills.

This human cut a quick grin before offering, “girlie, you’ll find that you get much further by showin a bit o’kindness.” The older gentlemen took out an apple and cut off a slice before out stretching a hand to the young dark elf. Timidly the girl reached out and retrieved the apple slice from the man’s bandaged, dirty hand. “Thank you,” she said, partially grateful and partially annoyed.

The chubby man nodded before turning back around. She munched on the apple slice, it was sour. She preferred sweeter apples. Either way it was still better then the bread. Maybe this whole thing was a waste of time. Maybe exploration and studying the secrets of the universe weren’t part of her life plan.

Too late now. I’m all-in on this crazy plan.

After some time the group arrived at their destination. A large circular parting of the tree line sat before them. In the center of the circle was a hill with an obsidian stone obelisk on top. The obelisk reached around fifty feet towards the heavens, it was covered in ornate jig jags of lettering and unusual symbols. The pillar was topped by an opaque pyramid that seemed to be calling to Lilly, to the rest of The Vestige present.

“Ichtck zho fchtash doun!”

Bellowed Master Seshat, once he completed his incantation the pyramid cap of the pillar sunk into the rest of structure. All of the shapes and carvings turned liquid and seeped themselves into the top of the grassy hill amidst a growing rumble. As the earth shook Lilly’s note taking was interrupted as the hill was rising. An opening of etched stone surrounded by a tangling of chaotic weeds presented itself to the group.

“Let us proceed, stay close, there are many dangers within this temple,” Seshat warned.

The floors and walls of the temple were made with smokey gray stones, each stone had rock and pebble aggregate mixed into the bricks. Every five feet or so there were empty sconces that remained empty, inviting a lingering darkness. Luckily, the luminous stone on Lilly’s gauntlet easily cut through the shadows. After following the initial path forward the group stopped inside of a gigantic rounded room. In the center there was a twinkling brick well but the water was an unnatural deep blue color. The ultra marines of the liquid reflected brightly against the white light of Lilly’s stone.

Seshat rushed towards the well before addressing the members of The Vestige, “do not place your flesh into this well. It may look of water but there are many secrets to this place.”

Lilthis took a seat, propping her legs up to form a table so that she could record everything. On the ceiling above the well were several crystals that appeared to be of the same cobalt coloring as the water. The clever elf also noticed that on the far wall from their entrance there was a varying number of dots with what looked like dials. As the mages continued to hypothesize on how to activate the chamber Lilly began to grow bored. She had already documented the well, the crystals, and she was tired of waiting around.

The mystery of the far wall eventually pulled her.

She moved over and began to jot out a pattern amidst the dotted puzzle. To the alarm of her new cohort she began to flip several dials.

“I told you the Aleran would try to kill us,” one voice shouted. Another piped in with, “we never should’ve let a dark elf accompany us!” Seshat himself even called over uneasy, “my dear... what are you doing... ?”

Lilthis cleared her throat, then began speaking while continuing to flip a few more dials, “it’s a riddle. There’s a pattern here, it wants us to flip the dials associated with a prime number.” Indeed the prime numbered dots were positioned slightly off center from the rest. As she turned dials 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, and finally 17 the water swirled and then rushed up to meet the crystals on the ceiling. Satisfied with herself, the young woman decided she had proven that magic couldn’t solve everything.

As the crystals shattered and revealed a mythical lyre of ancient Raiaeran lore Master Seshat announced that Lilthis would be joining their society as a full member.

Lilly had accomplished something. No one was standing in her way.