Kai

The desert winds were picking up quickly. While moments ago they were almost non-existent, the gale force winds now tossed sand in every direction, creating lines in the dunes with every rolling gust. The Northern plains were an inhospitable place with few settlements throughout, but hundreds make the pilgrimage across this waste every yellow year. The light of the red years burnt too brightly and the heat too hot to even consider crossing during the years the red sun illuminated the sky the brightest. That is of course unless you’re a disciple. The gusting sand’s increasing speed rips across my face, quickly leaving it red raw. I pull my scarf up to my eyes but it does little to slow the onslaught. I didn’t quite know what I was looking for yet, this was the fifth day on my cross-wasteland journey and from what I’ve heard from fellow travelers looking to take the pilgrimage that it usually just under that. I have to continually silence the nagging in the back of mind that I’m lost, or I missed it, or maybe I’m just not meant to find Ersu’s temple. My thoughts are interrupted by lightning and crack of thunder to match. The light of day had been blocked out by the sandstorm for so long that I hardly realized the rain and the storm clouds and pretty soon, two natural forces that would usually cancel each other out seemed to be concentrating their efforts on impeding my progress.

Amidst the flying sand and the falling rain, I spot a nearby cave hidden in the rocks. A godsend if ever I’ve seen one. I charge through the storm some hundred feet to the cave and collapse on its cold hard floor. A sandstone ridge covers its mouth and the cave is untouched by the insane weather outside which only seems to be getting worse. After ridding the loose sand from my dirty blonde hair which had been bleached from the desert suns, I laid on the floor breathing heavily. Once I catch my breath I gather myself by retrieving the water from my pack and drinking deeply from it. Whereas most people carry water-skins, my canteen is tin, something I acquired from a Luxan trader in the Iron City. Definitely worth the coin. After I had drunk my fill I took in my surroundings a little more. It was much larger than I had originally thought. The cave is smooth and formed of sandstone. It runs deep down the back and the depths of the cave are not as pitch-black as I had imagined but rather it fades into darkness. 

Although it was not pitch-black it was still not enough to see by so I lit a torch using another Luxan tool I had procured and an orange flame roared into life. It’s light licked along the walls and I began deeper into the cave. Once I had wandered some distance from the roaring winds at the cave entrance, a faint echo of a stream trickled down from the next cavern. 

This must be how the Ersu disciples feel - ‘Adventurer’s luck’ is what they call it, always finding what they need, when they need it. The gods ask their trusted followers to carry out tasks and when a disciple serves Ersu’s agenda, they are always repaid with infallible luck among other things. The god’s always look after their disciples, each in different ways. It’s the main reason people choose to devote themselves to one the nine. The nine are the gods that watch over our land each with their own taboo’s and agendas. Each with their own blessings and curses.

I reach the stream rolling down the centre of an enormous cavern. The water itself glows with a faint white-blue and pulses like a heartbeat. I fill my canteen at the stream and take a drink, suddenly it’s like I feel revitalized at once. It’s incredible, the feeling. Although I ran out of rations this morning and haven’t eaten since, I feel completely full and satisfied. In an instant, the glow of the water flickers out of existence, leaving me again alone in the empty cave with just the shadows dancing on the walls drawn by my torch. 

With the fading of the water’s light, I decide to move on with exploring the cave system. With each explored cavern and corridor I travel down, the system seems to get bigger and more complex. 

“Damn. This place is huge.” I state to myself. It makes me feel a bit better to hear something other than the trickle of the stream which seems to flow all throughout the cave complex. I figured it was a smart idea to follow it. The cave echoes at my voice and as if in response, a glow of faint white-blue pierces the darkness at the mouth of another cavern.

As I get closer I notice a flickering of flame not coming from my own torch, but coming from the next section of the cave. I’m drawn towards the faint white-blue glow and the ominous flickering of the next cavern. The next cavern is gigantic. Seriously gigantic. The roof seems to be none existent and in the centre of it lies an island, bordered on all sides by a shallow moat. The whole chamber was a-glow. The moat radiated with the familiar white-blue glow of the stream I saw earlier and in the centre of the island resided a fire pit with a small fire that - along with the glow of the water - seemed to illuminate the entire chamber floor. 

But that wasn’t the incredible bit. Milling around the island was dozens, hundreds maybe of milky-white figures. Undistinguishable silent and slightly translucent, every one was a person from one of the other temples. This was it; Ersu’s temple. Although it’s more like a sacred ground than a temple. All the god temples are connected and all look the same at the place of oathage: nine stones around a centre fire. The gods watch over the population of Albenos equally, aiding and guiding, in small ways, to those who pray to them. But if you choose a god and wish to become a disciple you must go to that god’s temple and undertake an oath. There are nine temples, one for each god (although some temples are easier to find than others). Lux’s clockwork temple is located in the Iron City. The temple of Ur is found in the Citadel. Amlia has no temple but instead has a holy ground called eden. I’m not so sure of the others but every temple I’ve been to has looked the same in its heart, but they never cease to amaze me. 

Arranged in a circle around the roaring fire-pit and bordering the moat of the island are nine large boulders with glyphs scribed into them. I see some of the other milky-white figures touch their respective boulders then being whisked away in a flash and a haze. I’ve looked upon the other temples but I always knew which god I was going to oath myself to. I am an adventurer at heart and believe in the good and righteous. I want to save those who need saving and fight evil wherever I find it. Disciples of Ersu are expected to fight tyranny and slavery in all its forms. Ersu asks that his followers go wherever people are being oppressed and bring them hope of a better tomorrow. I can do that. I know I can. 

Taking the oath required no words, no blood and no witness. I walk up to the boulder with Ersu’s glyph - a three eyed hawk - carved into it’s surface.

“No turning back now Kai” I tell myself. After taking one last breath as a normal man I place my palm on the centre of the boulder and flash of light whisks me away.

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