Sun, sea... and french keyboards

[skull_bearer]

Well, I'm back. It was fun in France and I filled out almost forty pages full of a variety of different ficlets and snippets for Ivory and Ebony. I don't know how many I'll actually use, but I had fun writing them. I do however have a very nice post-Chaos War fic lined up which I'm going to have a lot of fun in hammering out the details and writing.

It was hot in France, the main reason I wrote so much, I was too hot to do anything else. Got a nice suntan from lying out in the sun and a few scratches from swimming out to a rocky jetty. Not much sleep though, my room was an oven and I absolutly hate when that happens. I can never sleep.

At least we could jump into the sea to cool off, although the fine sand on the beach got everywhere, it's a miracle my discman's still working.

Grandmother now rather dotty, but hey, she's 83 so you have to make allowences. She's very open-minded for her age, didn't even blink when she found out what I was actually writing in my little notebook, she just went off on a long story about how nice gay people were, which could have been worse.

We spent the last night at my aunt's house, my cousin Helen's turned into a teenybopper (such a pity, she was showing such anti-social tendancies last time I saw her) and my other cousin Benoix was out unilt three AM, I never saw him but my dad did. He was going to get a drink and saw my cousin coming up the stairs. My cousin apparently said "Guess what? I won an electric saw!" to which my father replies "Great..." (he was half asleep).

The best part was that they had internet connection, but there was one downside... (dum dumdum dum DUM) French keyboards. They are nothing like English ones. It took me half an hour to find @. I had to wait until I got home to e-mail Chetwynd. I was disappointed because it looked like my beta reader still hadn't finished, but when I got home today I found that she had, so it's all cool.

The airport we left from today was hilarious, I've never seen such a small commercial airport. Dad has, but he's been to South America so that doesn't count. It was so small, when we were waiting for our luggage when we arrived we could see the men unloading it and throwing on the conveyor belt outside! As our bags took ages it was tempting to go out there, riffle through the bags and find ours, but we didn't. Today, we waiting for the airplane (the only airplane) in a room with was waiting room, baggage check, passport control, gift shop and restaurant! Wild.

So, here I am; jetlagged, bunny-bitten and slash crazed (what's different?), but still here.

 

Skull Bearer.

Broken Tablet

Water was running; children were running
We found you hiding, we found you lying
Water was running; children were running
We found you hiding, we found you lying
your city lies in dust
-Siouxsie and the Banshees, Cities in Dust.

Raistlin blinked, the glass-smooth walls of the chamber amplified the light from his Staff until the brightness was dazzling, especially after so long in a gloomy tunnel.

Dalamar's eyes adapted first and the Dark elf cursed loudly when he saw what was in the room.

Raistlin rubbed his eyes and looked around, at first he thought his cursed eyes were playing tricks on him, but no.

The room was empty.

Raistlin wondered if they could have taken a wrong turning, then laughed at the thought. There had been no other passageways, no other doors. Clearly, they hadn't been the first to find this passageway. What fools they had been to think that this place would have remained untouched for so long!

"Well, I suppose that answers the question as to why the wards were all broken," he said, glancing once again around the room.

Dalamar sighed, then paused, staring at one of the walls. Raistlin followed his gaze and frowned, puzzled. Nothing looked out of place to him.

Beckoning the younger mage to follow, the Dark elf made his way towards the expanse of wall that had attracted his attention.

Raistlin had gone only a few feet before he saw what his lover had noticed, there was an odd play of shadows on the back wall of the room. He picked up his pace and drew closer to examine whatever it was; perhaps something would come out of this exploration after all.

The play of shadows was caused by the light from the Staff of Magius glancing off the cracked edges of a stone tablet. The tablet was precariously set into the wall with rotting mortar, and looked liable to fall at any moment.

Dalamar examined it, then stepped back, "You should get it out, your hands are defter than mine."

Deft his hands might have been, but the tablet was badly damaged and while it was still hanging together, Raistlin feared that the slightest touch would cause it to crumble to dust.

Luckily the stone was stronger than it looked, and before long the mage had managed to pry it from the wall and lie it down on the floor. Kneeling down, Raistlin held the Staff's crystal close to the cracked surface and murmured a spell that would allow him to read the strange writing. Beside him he heard Dalamar do the same.

The tablet was so damaged that it was almost illegible, most of the top half had been worn smooth over untold centuries and the words on it could barely be seen, much less read.
The middle was still legible, but cracked so badly that entire words and sentences were missing. It was impossible to decipher what it said, but the word 'destruction' was repeated several times.

The bottom was the best preserved, across its surface was a short sentence, presumable continued from a more damaged area above it, and a paragraph in the language of magic, clearly some kind of spell.

Raistlin read the sentence first; it was in an ancient script, but the spell allowed him to read it.

'-sealed away, mercy of thy gods keep thou here forever.'

Well, whatever 'thou' had been, it or they was long gone now, he thought, turning his attention to the incantation.

Most spell had some kind of description explaining what it did, but by the looks of it, the description had been written in a more damaged upper part of the stone and was long gone. Only the incantation remained, Raistlin read the spoken trigger, hoping to recognize the spell, but the words- 'Mas daya, ente mati'- were unknown. The motions that had to be made were equally unrecognisable, and no material components were needed.

It was a simple spell, that much he knew, perhaps elementary level or a little higher judging by it's length. It also sounded like a battle spell, but that was the limit of what Raistlin knew. One look at Dalamar told him that the Dark elf knew little more.

"I know one thing," The elf said, tapping the third line down, "This spell has variable range, either as a single bolt or as a cone-shaped blast. That's quite rare, especially for a spell as simple as this."

Raistlin nodded thoughtfully, that was odd, but no less odd than everything else they had seen in this place.

"I suggest we go back to Wayreth, then I can go in and research this spell. Since between us we are unable to recognize the spell, there should be some account of it in the library," he suggested.

"Unless this spell has been lost," The Dark elf looked at him, "It is possible that the spell has been forgotten. The Conclave would be pleased to have it recovered."

Raistlin smiled slightly, "I have heard of many powerful spells lost to time, but never one of elementary level! I don't think the Conclave would accept a spell that's purpose is unknown. We will need to research it," he repeated.

"You will, you mean, I can't enter the Tower yet." Dalamar stood and brushed down his robes. "There's nothing left down here, we should head back up."

Raistlin picked up the tablet, it was surprisingly light. He too got to his feet and the two mages left the chamber to the dust and darkness.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was growing dark when they reached the mouth of the cave, the sun had set and the first stars were beginning to appear.

There was no need to speak, Dalamar rekindled the fire and Raistlin took his turn at unpacking the trail rations they had brought with them. The night was promising to be a cold one and this was as good a place as any to spend it in.

Most of the evening was spent in companionable silence, seated around the fire. Once having eaten, Raistlin took the time to examine the tablet again. Almost without thinking, he let the words of magic run over and over in his head, until they were burnt into his mind.

He sat there, clutching the crumbling tablet in a white-knuckled grip, until Dalamar leant over and pried his fingers off the worn stone. The human mage blinked, glancing over at the Dark elf.

Dalamar smiled, "That stone is damaged enough already without you adding to it."

Raistlin rubbed his eyes, he must be more tired than he had thought. He watched Dalamar put the tablet away in his pack before shaking himself and digging out his spellbook and starting the process of memorizing spells for the next day.

 

Skull Bearer.