The Summoned
The Tomb Plane: Chamber of the Dark One
Time stopped.
A burst of light hung, suspended in the air, in front of Asa. The
guards in the room had just begun to realize that something was very, very
wrong. Those who had been looking in Asa's direction were reaching for their
weapons. Those who hadn't were only beginning to turn around. Shaaron stared,
her body just starting its forward motion, trying to reach the
young summoner. She would be too late.
Asa couldn't move - yet somehow he was aware of all of this. His
mind lingered on this moment... when time resumed, Thalla would appear before
him, and do whatever it was she had brought him here for. Everyone here was
doomed, and there wasn't a thing he could do about it.
But there is.
There were a few moments - at least to Asa - that passed before he
dared question that thought. There was something he could do. But what if
he was being tricked, like before?
There was no response to this accusation, merely silence. Asa's
eyes looked toward the end of the room, to the ornate black box situated there.
The box which housed the single most destructive entity still living in the
planes. Nathekiorion - he had tricked Asa into bringing Thalla here... or had
Thalla tricked him into bringing herself here? Or was he simply going mad, and
summoned her out of his own dementia? With a mixture of bitterness and
desperation, he asked himself - What was it that he could do? How could he
stop this?
His eyes focused, nearer, upon the Gatekeeping Rod that he held at
eye level. It was the answer.
Time began to flow again - slowly. He saw Shaaron's body begin to
catapult into motion, the guards begin to draw their arms, and the shimmering
rift in space begin to expand. A loud noise, like a heavy wind, emanated from
the place where Thalla would materialize. Asa concentrated on the Gatekeeping
Rod, seeking the power that he knew it held. It was there - the quiet, tamed
portion of that forbidden magic, the Higher Path.
We have waited long, Asa, and we are ready.
He let the thought pass, much too busy to think about it. He had
only a split second to bring the power forth, to undo the summons before it was
complete.
A wave of power shot from the Gatekeeping Rod, knocking Asa
backwards. Unlike Shaaron and the guards, he managed to keep his footing.
With a sudden crashing noise, the rift that would have brought Thalla to him
was gone. It was over.
A little numb, Asa walked over to Shaaron, helping her up.
"What the hell was that?" Shaaron demanded, looking both astonished
and infuriated at once.
"I.. I almost made a horrible mistake." Asa said, looking from
Shaaron to the onyx-black box at the far end of the room. "Can we leave?"
Shaaron nodded wordlessly.
The Tomb Plane: Protector's Encampment
Asa sat quietly in Shaaron's tent while the loremaster rifled
through some books. "Shaaron, I'm sorry...." he repeated, for at least the
tenth time.
"You can stop apologizing, Asa. It's not your fault, you know. If
I'm right about this, that is...." the woman trailed off, mumbling as she moved
a stack of dusty tomes out of her way so she could more easily access another
stack of dusty tomes. "Ah-hah!" she proclaimed, producing a relatively thick
volume. Turning to Asa, she flipped through the pages until she found the one
she was looking for. "Her, right?"
Asa stared as Shaaron set down the book, turning it so he could
read it. The words were in a script that he didn't recognize at all - but the
illustration was as clear as day.
It was Thalla.
Shaaron didn't need Asa to say a thing - his face told her volumes.
"This is a drawing of Banishment. Alternately known as "Katrineshion",
"Thalla", and "Nathekiorion's Guide". You were summoning her, right?"
Asa nodded. "Yes. I don't even know why, it just came over
me....
"Likely, it was the influence of our trapped friend up there.
Nathekiorion has been more and more able to project himself outside of the trap
as time has passed. For some reason, he seems to be interested in Banishment
here." The young loremaster sighed. "There's so much I don't know about this.
Like how you were able to stop that summons halfway through, for instance."
Asa looked up at her. "It was the Gatekeeping Rod. It can do a
lot of things, I've discovered. Teleportation, warding off other summons...
It even makes regular summons more powerful. But I don't like using it like
that... something's wrong with the way it's made."
"It's an artifact of Telan, of course there's something wrong with
it. I'm amazed that things like that still exist. Still, only once have I
heard an account of someone using its power to the extent you just did. A few
hundred years ago, a summoner arrived from another plane. Quite like yourself,
in fact. He didn't have one of the Gatekeeping rods, but he did have a similar
artifact - a staff, I believed, which had been imbued with power much as your
rod did. He also had brought with him a book, which he would let nobody else
touch. The man was powerful, and more than willing to help us. Unlike most
the people here, he seemed to have come to this plane fleeing from
something else... so he was more than happy to keep a watch on the entrance
to our plane, and make sure that nothing unwanted survived the trip.
"As time passed, he spent less time guarding the nexus and more time
studying that book of his. It was also clear that he was becoming more and
more adept at wielding that staff. At the time, a demon fighter had the sword,
and so demons were nearly flooding into our world. He would strike once with
his staff, and the victim would turn to dust. He could tap the floor with its
end, and the stone itself would cease being solid, instead trapping the
intruders.
"One day, when he was studying the book - rereading it for perhaps
the hundredth time, something came through our nexus. There are very few
records about this - only that something came through, and the guards did not
even think to stop it or interfere. The newcomer walked directly to where the
other man was staying, and entered the tent.
"Neither ever came out again.
"When our people finally gathered the courage to find out what had
happened, they discovered both the newcomer and his quarry had vanished. The
book, however, was still there. Our loremasters at the time - those that were
brave enough, that is - took only one look at the book. Enough of a look to
order it sealed away, under nearly as heavy a guard as the one upstairs.",
Shaaron smiled, again relishing the re-telling of a good story.
"They did this once they found out what the book was. It seemed to be a set
of instructions for using a wide variety of artifacts - ranging from the man's
staff, vanished along with him, to the Gatekeeping Rod you now have in your
possession. And it was an extremely accurate guide, a fact we knew for certain
once we had ascertained who had written it."
The youthful loremaster leaned closer to Asa, so as to emphasize
what she was about to say. "The author of that book was none other than Telan
Himself. Our new guest had been reading books of forbidden magic!"
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