Divergent Paths
Divergent Paths
A Story From the World of Host WCG
by Adam Ray
Endless clouds choked away the summer's bright blue as the column of green light carved the sky in two. Plants crunched like dry paper beneath her feet. Farmers, her neighbors, people of all kinds should be running wild here in Marrowben, but as the abandoned hill crested ahead of her, the earth groaned as it sunk underfoot.
Yandae knelt on the edge of this crater the dark wizard made. The great tower of green light started from its center, as the clouds spun around the top, black and roiling in a storm. Yandae fumbled with her pauldrons and drew her sword. She descended; her armor rattled, and the head of the small axe pinged against her back. Little rocks cascaded along the edge of the pit as she slid her way down, with one hand beneath her.
The figure leaned on her staff. Yandae watched the figure in the distance. A plume of white hair flew like a flag. Crunching earth let the mage know she was no longer alone. Her hand tightened on the gnarled, black wood staff. Graxis turned to look at Yandae's approach. She scowled at the sword, which glinted her magic's green light back at her, and the white of the royal knight's garbs shone among the blackened earth.
'Come to see what I did, sister?' Graxis said.
'Come see what I did, sister!' the young girl whispered through the bushes in the garden. 'I'm coming, I promise,' said Yandae. Her shirt, once white, was stained with the mud of their family garden and was now smeared with green as she crawled her way through the twigs to the very back of their home. The grass and a lonely tree made up a secret clearing.
Yandae looked up in wonderment at the dozens of sticks and leaves, holding themselves up high with no strings or platforms. They twirled in the air, carried by nothing. Yandae craned her neck up to see them dance above. 'I'm making them fly, Yandae!' 'It's just like magic, Graxis,' she said, eyes fixed above as the pieces of the forest danced.
"Old lady Marianna says the magic makes me special; they're gonna put me in a special school where I can do magic all day long." Yandae whipped around to look at her sister. Her eyes were wide, and the world went hazy with tears.
"Are you gonna leave me? Gonna go far away?" The leaves and sticks fell to the ground around the sisters.
"They'd never split us up, silly! Old Lady Marianna is gonna show me; she only lives down on the hill." Graxis wandered to her sister on bare feet, lifted Yandae's muddy sleeves to her face to wipe the tears away. "We're sisters. Together forever."
Crackling spears of green magical light fell to the ground around the armored sister, standing alone. Yandae craned her neck up to one bolt of magic, aimed perfectly for her face. She raised her sword and heard an almighty RIIING, as it split across her sword.
'You know it's not too late, sister,' said Graxis. She turned the staff overhead, and more sparks of green energy filled the air. The spears of glowing magic whistled through dry air. Yandae leaned hard on her left foot to let one sail past her side. She dropped to both knees as a second flew overhead. She brought her sword to her chest and rolled forward, letting the last splinter behind her.
'Too late for what?' Yandae shouted, taking her sword in both hands, closing the distance between them. 'A reason to follow your crusade of darkness?'
'The Crown Guard have got into your head, sister,' said Graxis, 'I only seek further knowledge and peace, and show respect to someone who actually raised me.' Her left hand swirled as the green glow filled the gaps between her fingers. A skeletal hand burst from the soil and gripped Yandae's foot. She flinched as the rest of the arm of the zombie entity rose from the dry earth.
Graxis clutched the square of paper in both hands as she ran up the grassy path to her home. Her hopes were in this letter, her chance to further knowledge and finally find peace in her magic. The door flew open as she strode her way into the house, as she froze at the sight of her family gathered around the table, with a gleaming silver sword across the wood.
'Come in, Graxis,' said her mother, 'your sister was accepted to become a cadet in the Crown Guard. My daughter, defending King Berthold. Put on a fire for dinner. Do it with one of your tricks.'
Her fist closed around the acceptance letter. The Academia in Margisek said yes. She was going to be a wizard, and her family didn't care. Graxis flicked her wrist. Vibrant green flames flew from her fingers, and the fireplace roared into life.
'That's nice, thank you dear,' said her mother, head in her hands, staring at Yandae. Graxis stomped the halls and slammed her door. She tossed her dream letter on the bed and rested her forehead on the window. Cool, murky glass showed the tree that she first did her magic, and the small hut on the hill where Mariana lives. That old woman's ravings filled her dreams, but she hung off those words.
'You can leave this world at any time,' she would say, 'even a stranger can end your story. Why live for another, when you can learn to weave fate for yourself?' I won't live for them. She pulled her haversack from under the bed and stuffed it with clothes and books.
The sun vanished behind the hills as Graxis padded her way out of the house. The door sighed as it shut. She held the acceptance letter close to her chest as she strode down the path and out to the future.
'Midnight stroll, sister?' Yandae asked, sitting on the front wall of the house.
'You could say that.'
'One that requires a full backpack?'
Graxis turned on her heels. The gravel ground underfoot. She stretched her arm and let the paper effortlessly float to her sister's open hand. Yandae read the letter; she breathed in and smiled for her sister.
'You made it into the school! That's amazing!'
'Mother doesn't care though,' said Graxis, the green crackled around her fingers as the letter floated back to her hand. 'It's all about your accomplishments. Defending the king with a sword is easier to understand than whatever the hell I do.'
'Don't say that, Graxis,' said Yandae, stepping up to her sister, 'she is proud of you, she just doesn't know how to show it.'
'I don't need her to show it. Or you. Or anyone. I just need to do it. I'm leaving Marrowben. I have to go and study.'
'I thought you said you wouldn't leave me,' Yandae said as her sister turned away. 'I'm happy for you. Don't think differently. Don't leave just because you think it's easier.'
'I'm not leaving you, sister,' said Graxis, looking back over her shoulder. 'I'm going where I need to be. We both have places we need to be right now. Maybe it's far, but we're still sisters. Together forever.'
The head of the zombified entity tumbled over its shoulders as the bones pattered down to the dust. Yandae gave one a firm kick to the sternum as she spun the sword behind her, dropping a defeated enemy in front and behind her.
'Sister, we can't do this forever,' Yandae shouted across the dust. 'Come back home, King Berthold will be fair...'
Graxis slapped her staff to the ground. A great pop echoed about the chasm as a flash of blue light shone across her senses as she stumbled, dropping her sword to the stones.
A great hand made of earth and rock rose and gripped the warrior. Graxis strode slowly forward, her left hand a swirl of yellow light, keeping her grasp in place.
She stared at her sister in her earthen grasp, scattered stones making up her fingers and smearing her shining armor with scuffs of dirt.
'King Berthold is an old, crippled fool, and it broke my heart that you've chosen him over your family.'
Graxis blew the last dusty dirt scuffs from the tome, firm in her grip. The scattered rectangle tables filled the hall of the Academia's Library. The endless chorus of a dozen pens and quills scratching away at research notes surrounded her as she sauntered to an empty chair.
The tower of books crashed to the table. Every head whipped up to her and sneered. Graxis smiled at the strangers as she sunk into the chair. Her immaculate papers lay under her as she opened the wide tome bound in green leather on her lap. She flicked her fingers, and her pen began to dance on the pages as she read.
The vellum pages were once plain, but the first two-thirds of her notebook are now scrawled with endless diagrams and the intricate sigils of magical study. She sighed, and the pen's dance stopped in its tracks.
The door to the hall squeaked open, then closed again. A figure with shaggy hair and blue robes rested in the seat across from her. Graxis let her eyes drift up at him, then back down again. She knew her friend – the loudmouth from her Energy Studies class – was looking up expectantly at her. The book in her lap closed by itself as she reached for another on the stack.
'So bored,' said Korthos. His voice filled the silent study hall.
'This is a silent study, Kay,' Graxis whispered.
'Awe, are the nerds feeling bad that I'm distracting them?' Korthos' tone got louder as his head turned to the others in the hall.
'Be quiet down there!' a librarian called from the top of a ladder.
Graxis' pen began to dance on the paper again as the silent scratching of a dozen pens filled her senses.
'Is that transmutation stuff?' Korthos asked, his tone silent and hissing.
'Yes,' Graxis whispered, 'the alchemy exam is next week.'
'I can get you the questions for ten gold.' Her pen stopped, and she whipped her head up to meet his gaze. 'I could get you expelled for that,' she said. 'You won't; you find me too cute.' 'True, but I'm still not cheating on this exam.' 'Pfft, loser.' Graxis looked up at him with a smirk far deeper than the one of the strangers reacting to their noise.
Yandae threw her head to the sky and groaned as the hand axe fell to the grassy ground. Again. Her grip was fine, she leaned and stepped, she released when her arms were straight. Why wasn't the axe sticking to the target? She stared at the shiny red and white paint on the wooden board, littered with cuts and scuff marks.
'It's really not working,' Yandae said, 'can't you give me a tip?'
Yandae stared down at the three-foot-tall figure that had taught her everything. Goblins are pests across most of the kingdom, but Battlemaster Skarthich was violent and tactical, fast and hard-hitting.
'It's spinning out too much,' he squawked. 'Your stride's gotta be the right distance from the target. Right now we're about 10 feet from it, so try starting from neutral then stepping as far as you can forward. That'll help it spin more.'
Yandae nodded as she wandered out to the target and took the axe again. She stood beside her teacher and took the axe in both hands. Footsteps rustled in the grass just behind the pair. She held it before her, arms straight, then brought it right above her head, bending her arms a little. Deep breath. She stepped and swung her upper body at her target. The axe spun through the air, and as the head rose up, it drove into the wood with a snapping crunch.
'Very nice!' said the figure behind them. The two spun to their commanding officer, the human with heavy-set scars etched into his head.
'General, how can we help?' Skarthich asked.
'I have a letter from home for the recruit here. My deepest sympathies, Yandae. I've granted you one week's leave given the circumstances.' Yandae's expression fell. She reached for the paper as it crumpled in her hands. Her body crumpled with it as she dropped to the ground, holding her hand to her mouth.
The day wound on with Graxis ignoring Korthos. Her notebooks filled with the notes she needed to know about changing one thing to another.
'You're not seriously going to put the books away yourself?' Korthos asked, staring at the heavy tomes she held in her arms.
'I am. You don't have to wait for me,' Graxis said, slipping a tome back into its gap in the transmutation section.
'It's literally the librarians' jobs; they're basically sad mole people with no other joy.' The librarian at the end of the shelf reeled her head back at his words while he tried to smile without showing teeth.
'Again, you don't have to wait with the mole people,' said Graxis.
'Well, if you hurry up, I might be able to show you something,' said Korthos. He reached into his sleeve and showed off the black iron key. Graxis stared at it, knowing full well where it goes.
'Excuse me, First Year Graxis,' a deep voice said behind her. Jimmon, the bald, overweight coordinator of first-year studies, handed her a square of paper. 'You have a letter from home.' Graxis lifted the paper to her eyes and sighed at the words. She rested both hands on the bookshelf.
'Is everything okay?' Korthos placed a hand on her shoulder. Graxis shrugged it off and snatched the key from his hand. She stomped across the library, letting the tower of books in her arms tumble to the floor. Korthos shuffled behind her as the two moved across the library, past the stacks and towering shelves to the gated section at the back wall.
Graxis stuffed the key into the lock, and the Restricted Section screeched open. She scanned the shelves as Korthos stood, shifting on his feet at the gateway.
'I was joking, Graxis, we really can't be in here.'
Graxis took a thick, black leather book and opened it to the first page. Her finger ran down the contents, and she nodded.
'Tell the teachers I'm going home. I'm getting my family back.' She stomped past Korthos. He squinted down the shelves to where she was looking: necromancy.
Yandae pulled back the reins on her horse as she looked down at Marrowben. Her once sleepy home village was gone. The houses had been pulled into ashy grey earth, and the valley of green hills had been turned to dust. The column of green light was the only landmark on her path.
She rode for a short while before the earth arced up to meet her. Yandae trudged into the pit and drew her sword. The figure of her sister looked alien, unknowable in this ashy pit.
'Come to see what I did, sister?' Graxis said.
'What you did? You destroyed our home.'
'Your home, sister. Mine was in the pages of ancient tomes of magic. My home is within me, and I don't need other people to help me feel the strength I need.'
'Need to do what?' Yandae asked, stepping forward, 'our parents are dead. Necromancy is a crime. You can't bring them back.'
'Parents?' Graxis cocked her head. 'I'm trying to bring back old lady Marianna. My magic is nothing without her.'
'Marianna died?'
'On the same day as our parents. The same case of pox that choked this village we escaped. I read it in a letter before I left.'
Yandae clutched the letter she had, detailing their parents' death, and she stared at the woman across the pit.
'I'm going to bring back the only person who was really there for me. Either you help me, or you leave me.'
'I can't,' said Yandae, 'we're together forever, remember?'
Graxis lifted her hand, and a shower of green magical spears began to shower the knight. She watched Yandae dodge and deflect the magic. Her frustration bubbled with the earth at her feet as the hands of Marrowben's dead reached up to assail her. Graxis watched the knight cleave through the zombies. She reached, and an arm made of earth and stone reached up and took Yandae. She scooted her close, cursing the name of the false king.
'I'm disappointed in you, Yandae. Love of a mentor brought us here. Mine gave me mastery over the land, yours told you how to put on shiny garbs. We're not the same.'
'No,' Yandae said, writhing in the earthen grasp, 'we're not. And now my heart is broken.'
All of Yandae's strength pushed out, and the stones making the hand burst away. Graxis stumbled back, her staff clattered to the dust. She scrambled to her feet and began to run as the green column of light narrowed. Yandae reached for the only weapon on her person.
The axe spun through the air, and as the head rose up, it drove into the wizard with a snapping crunch. Graxis lurched in her spot before tumbling still on the ground. The column of green light faded, and the first gaps in the clouds began to bleed blue.