Familiar Ground (OPEN)

[Sage]

The portal was going to be an issue the boy decided after he finished examining the vortex that was slowly beginning to wind down. Something had caused it to become unstable, and he was sure that he had done nothing to it on the other side, other than fall gracelessly into it when it opened up below the sand dune he had been stood on.

‘Something on this side then’ he mused for a moment before he realised something was off.

The crowd was still staring at him, some with open awe and others with tempered caution, it was beginning to make his skin squirm. He shyly retreated backwards and almost bumped into the portly man who appeared to be a wizard? He muttered an apology and ducked backwards again but the crowd was still staring at him.

‘Right, they probably do not see many people fall from a portal in the sky’

Sage shivered as a cool wind blew through his hair, the change in climate had been rather sudden and his body was ill prepared for the sudden shift in temperature. He hugged his arms close to him and almost complained when he started to actually feel a power looming over him.

The empire had been a place where magic was rare and he had slowly gotten used to a land where magic felt very faint. But here he could feel the magic in the air, ripe and even more abundant than Elrohir the fabled city of the elves. It made his skin itch and almost felt as oppressive as the desert air he had just came from.

Or it could have been the person who had just approached him.

As the young mage turned to the person in question, he was immediately struck in awe by how perfect the man looked, handsome with sharp features, long flowing silver white hair and unmistakeably male.

There was something ironic about that.

The man held the bearing of a politician or a wealthy merchant if he were to hazard a guess, but he thought better of it when he saw the golden blade held low. Not for an attack, but a warning? That was certainly nice of him.

Vitruvian wasted no time after introducing himself and his companion and began launching a series of rapid-fire questions at the boy, most of which he doubted had a simple answer.

“Wait, I”

Sage stumbled back with his arms held up in surrender unsure of which question to tackle first. He opened his mouth to speak but came up short when he looked between Vitruvian and his companion. He locked eyes with the one called Stare, and found it was all he could do.

She was a …Kenku? He was sure of it despite never meeting one in person before. But … if there was a Kenku here, had the portal just returned him back north to the Empires country side? Because as far as he knew the race had been exclusive to that world.

No… no, that was not important right now, what he needed to do was ascertain where he was, because if he was in the wrong place then he needed to return through the portal and try another while Captain Valliere was keeping overwatch.

He blinked, and rounded his attention back to Vitruvian, the new sense of urgency helped the boy focus past the man’s oppressive presence.

“My name is Sage Ainsworth, and I am from a town called Crossroads on an island nation called Corone” he answered and lowered his arms to his sides, keeping them relaxed despite how tense he felt.

“Is this Althanas? I am trying to get home you see after I…”

“Behold the Messenger, the world beyond the portal sends an angel to greet us into our land of salvation!” Philgast cried out from behind the boy startling him. Sage turned and wondered what the wizard was yelling about when he saw the portly man gesture both to him and the portal.

“What, Messenger?” Sage frowned, not understanding the context.

“Salvation is at hand, the world beyond awaits our arrival”

The boy watched the portly man continue to proclaim that the land beyond the portal would lead them to salvation, a prospect that Sage knew could not possibly be any more wrong “Hey, no wait, you must not.”


“Is it really a better place?”
“He did it”
“Is the angel going to guide us?”
“To salvation!”


His protest did not reach the crowd over the enchanted murmurs that began to spread among them, now all too eager to believe what Philgast had to say, wizard or not, in their eyes the man had promised salvation. And what better proof was there than the angelic looking being that had appeared before them as Philgast had opened the portal with nothing but a stone.

Sage knew he would never be able to sway the growing fever of the crowd, nor could he force the portal closed, not in the unstable state it was in. He considered wasting one of his spells to get their attention, but as good as he had gotten with his magecraft, he still had a limit to how many times he could use each spell.

And he was loathing to use any spell without a good cause, besides, the boy already had another idea in mind.

Sage turned back and favoured Vitruvian with a look of genuine urgency.

“Please you must stop them, the other side of the portal leads to the Vale of Dreams!” he neglected to mention what the Vale exactly was on purpose. unsure on how to even begin to describe the corrupted magic of that desert, or the eternal sandstorm frozen in time due to a meteorite that broke all of reality around it.

“Captain Valliere is keeping overwatch for any sign of Reavers on the other side of the portal. But I fear the magic in this land will draw their attention before long” he explained.

And yet as he spoke someone from the crowd screamed and Sage’s eyes swept towards the open portal where a long-bladed scythe that even death itself would approvingly consider for reaping began to reach through the portal.

It edged its way over to the end of the vortex and began to push it wider, slowly ripping reality asunder like paper, there was no sound to accompany it nothing but the wind howling through the gap between worlds as the desert of the vale of Dreams leaked across dimensions into the town of Harnsey.

Sage paled as the Reaver entered the world previously untouched by its kin. The corrupted magic of the Vale was known to do terrible things to a man after prolonged exposure, and any creature with even a drop of magic was all too susceptible to the changes that the magic wrought upon them. The rapid growth in size was a common mutation as is the grotesque muscle expansion and cancerous growths.

The ground thundered under the staccato of four stiletto tipped legs piercing into the ground as the Reaver took the seven-foot drop effortlessly. Its antennae tasted the air and a dozen asymmetric eyes turned to those it stood before and saw nothing but prey.

The Reaver would have once been an ordinary Preying mantis, but exposure to the Vale had turned it into a 12-foot-tall ravenous hunter, the scythe like appendage alone was easily seven-foot-long and would have cleaved through the entire crowd if they had stayed in one place and not ran for their lives.

The Reaver screeched its displeasure and leaped through the air to the roof of the local inn, multiple eyes along its head and body tracking each potential feast hungrily.

Sage stared as the Reaver seemed spoiled for choice, usually the blasted things homed in on the largest source of mana, which had usually been him as of late.

“That is a Reaver by the way. Umm… do you have any airships armed with Magitech cannons in this world by any chance?” he asked, but somehow doubted it.