Young Writers Society

Raelyn turned her head as she saw the tavern maid approach from the corner of her eye. The girl had the touch of magic about her and Raelyn's eyes flew briefly to the mystery Runekeeper's seat. He was gone.

"I have a message for you," The girl spoke and held out a piece of paper.

Raelyn cocked her head, intrigued, and took the paper. "Thank you."

The girl nodded and walked away. Raelyn turned back to the table and unfolded the message.

"What does it say?" Terytha leaned forward.

"There's a room number. It seems our friend has thought of a place we can meet in private. I assume he's gone there to wait for us. Let's wait for a moment before following. These townspeople are getting jumpy enough as it is."

Terytha nodded and they let their conversation slide to more casual topics for a little while. Once the general attention had turned away from the strangers, the two ladies rose and left to find the correct room.

It didn't take James very long to finish up the unpleasant task of tidying up vomit. His mind was occupied by thoughts of the rune keepers he'd just seen pass through the lobby. After finally freeing himself from the chore, he stayed out of Thespa's sight as to avoid being assigned another for the time being. He weaved his way in and out of the halls and made his way to the mysterious cloaked figure's room just in time to spot the other two women approaching the door. As he made eye contact with them, he could immediately sense the apprehension in their eyes and body language. He gave them a small smile, and, looking quickly around the hall to make sure it was clear, turned to them and pulled a small, worn, piece of paper out of his pocket.

He unfolded it and drew closer to reveal a small rune written on the page - one for "peace," and one for "unity." He quickly crumpled and stashed the paper in his pocket once he saw for sure they'd seen it for a few seconds.

"May I join you?" He asked simply, his eyes serious, but sincere.

Terytha nodded at him. "What's your name?"

"James," he replied.

Raelyn pointed to the designated room. "We meet there. Let's not linger too long."

The three of them walked toward the room. Terytha glanced at the other two Runekeepers. She never dreamed that she'd be able to meet another one in her life--perhaps even three more! Where was Gabriel? She looked around but didn't see him, and then decided to go to the room anyway.

The floors creaked with each step and the ceiling above was dark and light in some places. Even though it wasn't too dark yet, candles flickered in sconces on the walls. In her mind, she imagined the fire rune, remembering how weak her flame used to be.

They soon stopped at the door and Terytha knocked on it.

Gabriel just finished drawing the last protection runes (the runes for Silence, Confusion and Shadow being three of those he used) when there was a knock on the door. Immediately he drew a slim dagger concealed in his cloak and drew the runes for Precision and Blood on the hilt, and tiptoed to the door.

After a few minutes, there was another knock followed by a slight scratching noise of a sharp point on wood. When the scratching stopped, a rune appeared on Gabriel's side of the door, which made him relax and open the door slowly.

"I'm so glad yo..." Gabriel stopped when he saw the third figure behind the two ladies. He rushed forward and held the knife against the new comer's throat. "Who are you?"

It was moments like this that James wished his reflexes weren't so deeply ingrained into his nature. It wasn't his desire for his first impression to be a hostile one, but when surprised with hostility, his reaction was defense.

In only a few seconds James grabbed the man's wrist and hand, which was holding the knife, and pulled it to the side and down, away from him. He was about to punch him and pull him to the ground, but, after finally realizing the situation in a few seconds delay, missed the rune keeper's face and instead pushed him away.

"A friend." James replied, backing away cautiously. "A sorry one."

"I saw your invitation, downstairs." He spoke vaguely, and cryptically, being aware that the door was still open to the hall. Despite feeling incredibly flustered, he showed no outward indicators that he was.

"You can call me James." He said with a small bow of the head. "Please don't stab me."

Raelyn's relaxed. With everything happening so suddenly, it'd taken all of her willpower not to launch into battle-mode. As it was, her hand had grabbed the hilt of her sword hidden beneath her cloak and she'd nearly began chanting a set of fighting runes. The rune of agility was already glowing on her arm in response to her thoughts. It was barely perceptible, but a few pinpricks of light pierced through the sleeve cloth. This just went to show how tense she was. But no, this was not the place for fighting. These were potential allies. They needed to be united for whatever was coming.

Raelyn released her grip on the sword and the rune faded on her arm. "He's telling the truth." Her eyes flickered toward the open door. "We should hurry. Something tells me we don't have much time."

Gabriel looked from one face to another, trying to see whether they were fooling him and leading him into trap. They stood frozen like that for several seconds, before he withdrew his dagger and sheathed it under his cloak.

"Be aware that if this is a ruse, I will see through it very quickly," he said, looking at each in turn. "But I agree. Let's enter my room. There's a bottle of Chillwine and a few glasses in the sack beside the bed, if you're all feeling thirsty. I realise we never got a chance to drink or eat something downstairs."

"Very well." Terytha glided into the room almost simultaneously with the others.

The chamber was rather unfurnished, with a narrow bed in the corner. A sack perched on a stool nearby, and wooden boxes lined the left wall. Terytha pulled them out to form chairs for everybody, while Gabriel poured Chillwine for everybody. They all sat with glasses of wine, waiting for each other to speak.

Finally Terytha said, "Why do you think there're four runekeepers at once? It's too much of a coincidence that I don't believe that's so."

James looked down thoughtfully at the drink poured for him, wishing he'd denied it before it was given to him. He didn't drink. But as he expected they very quickly delved into the meat of the purpose behind their meeting, because for whatever reason that fate brought them together, it was likely that they didn't have much time to discuss. He, of the four of them, would likely be the first person missed. He anicipated some of his coworkers to come looking for him at some point. He told one of them he was stepping outside for some fresh air for a break after cleaning up the vomit mess, understandably so, but if he was gone too long they may go out to look for him and find he wasn't actually out there.

James leaned forward in his chair, resting his elbows on his knees and held the wine glass loosely with one hand. "I don't pretend to understand fate, or destiny, or whatever higher ethereal concept we could possibly ascribe our all being here to. I'm simply glad to find like-minded people." The last rune keeper he'd met had very quickly been caught and killed however, so while he was glad, he was also cautious.

Raelyn politely declined the drink, having already eaten below, and nodded in response to James' comment. "As am I. Though I still find myself curious. What brought us here now and why? I travel infrequently, but even at home it was rare to meet a new Rune Keeper. I was traveling originally in this direction to see an old friend, but learned not long ago that they'd fallen ill and wouldn't be able to meet me. I continued my journeying because of a reluctance to turn back so early in my travels... and some intriguing rumors that caught my attention." She glanced at each person in turn as she spoke, looking for some reaction to tell her whether they'd too heard the rumors. She wasn't sure as of yet, whether to put any store in the stories, but she nearly wanted them to be true. She was a trained Rune Warrior, but there had been little call for her profession in recent years.

"I hear a lot of talk from people passing through this inn. I've been working here for a little over a year, so it really depends on what rumor you're talking about," he said with a shrug. He wasn't lying, but he did think he knew exactly what the woman was talking about. She was referring to the rumors of the northern mountain - vague mumblings of something going on. Something magical. Why he didn't say that out loud at first was an annoying force of habit. Being a rune keeper, among other things, he'd grown accustomed to using guarded language, and talking around things. Especially with strangers (of which, he realized that of all of those present, he knew none of their names, but they knew his, which bothered him).

But this wasn't exactly a good time to talk around the point. He should be direct, as she said, they didn't have much time, so he spoke up again quickly, leaving little pause.

"I presume you're referring to the mountain. I haven't heard much, only enough to pique interest."

Terytha sighed. "The rumors are spreading. My home is in the south and, still, they reached me. Though I keep wondering if the rumors are merely a ruse to gather the Runekeepers and arrest them in one sweep."

A chill filled the air and Terytha wished she had never mentioned her fears. She continued, "But I know that this is just my fancies and that is highly unlikely. I believe that there must be some element of truth in the rumor, however. No matter how embellished, there always lies a fact in there."

Sipping her wine, she waited for the others' responses.

Raelyn felt herself freeze as Terytha mentioned the possibility of a trap. She swallowed and her hands automatically tugged her sleeves to be sure they covered all the runes on her arms. "You bring up a valid point, which we should be aware of. Still, the rumors about the mountain are concerning and I'm prepared to take the risk in the face of possibly worse danger. Shadowy mists that do not disperse, red flashes in the night, a chill in the air whether the sun is shining or not. These could all be dismissed easily enough, but they remind me a little too much of stories about another supposedly dead ancient power."

She shivered as she recalled the tales her grandmother used to tell her of the Necromancers: regular humans who sought power in the days when Rune Keepers traveled more openly and were among the elite. Necromancy was an easy enough way to become powerful quickly, but was rarely worth the cost. Those who chose to accept the risk received power granted by spirits of the Otherworld. These spirits were then bound to the user and manifested as pure black animal companions when summoned. The Otherworld spirits had no power of their own in the mortal world and so drew it from the land around them. In places where there were many Necromancers, crops failed, streams died and famines raged unstoppable. The most powerful Necromancers could pull magical energy from Rune Keepers, leaving them defenseless, though it took a long time for Necromancers to advance to that level of skill. Many wars had been fought to extinguish that art, and it was one of the reasons people now were so distrustful of any kind of magic. Unfortunately the wars were so long ago that much had been forgotten and few were sure what was true and what was legend anymore.