Annora awoke slowly in the slowly-fading night. Her cheeks were wet, but quickly drying, a sure sign of her tears from the last stranger's aggressive confrontation. She knew she was still in the comfortable tavern in Concha Litus, where the sea breeze battered away the harsh heat of the Aridian desert.
The visitations of these five strangers - for she knew now for sure that her ordeal wasn't over, and that five was significant enough a number in the case of spirits - had left her drained and downtrodden. She hadn't thought of her earliest years as a sellsword since she left the continent, hoping beyond hope that she wouldn't return until she'd accomplished the goal she'd left for.
To find a home. To find a place, any place, that would look at her and see Annora before they saw a half-breed. Eventually, she couldn't tell the difference between curious stares and judging gazes. Strangers were made hostile through her own perception; you couldn't get hurt if you didn't give them a chance.
The same chance she never was given. How hypocritical had she become? Would she have let Keydis in at all were it not for her friend's own stubborn loyalty? Had her distance been her own variety of staunch refusal for closeness?
Keydis was not alone in her foolish shortsightedness, that much was clear now.
Sitting up, Annora debated long and hard as she swiped at her cheeks with a palm. She cared little for the identity of the strangers: spirits or illusions, they knew more of her than any other on the planet. What their purpose was, she couldn't fathom either. Perhaps it was longer-reaching than she could begin to comprehend. Perhaps it was simply to remind her of her bondage, of the oaths sworn.
She could see light, now, outside her window. The first wisps of dawn breaking over the horizon, but something stronger lain across the street. Peering through the room's window, Annora didn't even think to see whether or not Keydis had returned to her bed, assuming she had ever left. Out on the street, down the same alley she'd met the shadow in, a line of oil lamps sat innocently. Leading away until they turned a corner, a trail that the spurii knew was meant for her.
In the early glimpses of light, Annora was keenly aware of the paleness of her skin, the faintest hint of blue raised against it. She knew Vallum was waiting for her, and hopefully, the final stranger.
The tall woman ducked only slightly as she descended the stairs to the tavern's bar, her green traveling cloak drawn tightly about her in the morning chill. She could see now, that at a designated table, four chairs had been lowered. Blinking for a moment, she observed the fifth and final chair atop it, and knew what to do. Her hands darted out from between the folds of the cloak, slender and webbed with a thin membrane between each finger, and gently lowered the final chair.
Seating it nicely about the round table with its fellows, Annora hardly noticed the very slight misting of her breath as she stepped outside. Even in the unusually hot Aridian climate, nights were cold this far north, and dawn was slow to warm. The first lantern was hung from the tavern's porch, and she silently stepped out into the still-deserted streets of Concha Litus.
Brickwork and plank walls bordered either side of her as she followed the trail of lamps, mingled laicar and enlilian architecture pleasing to the eye and sturdy to the elements. Annora found herself drawn into her thoughts as she thoughtlessly marched, the events of the night provoking an inevitable reverie.
Memories long forgotten resurfaced, stretching ever-further back. She thought only briefly about the long stretch of her travels, and the short time before she had resolved herself to pacifism. A conflict she regretted thoroughly, and one that would doubtless confront her again someday. She thought longer about her childhood, and wondered of her father, Cadmus.
Was he still fishing along the shores of the Pelagium? Had he moved on from her mother at long last? Did he still visit her uncle in Cautes Petram? The thought provoked more of her memories of the underwater border-city that separated much of the Empire from the shoreline communities of Aridus.
She had been rejected from priesthood, there. Once upon a time, she had recited scripture and invoked the Vis with pride and reverence; a talent she could only recently bring herself to retake. The words felt hollow, somewhat, but she couldn't deny the lingering hope that she left in each verse. Still, it had been a big dream for a nine-year old. One of a few she would have before she learnt better.
No, before the world tried to convince her it was better. Better not to have a dream, to not worry or fuss about the inevitable disappointment that came with being half-blood and daring to be more than what the world expected of one. Had it succeeded? Annora couldn't answer that herself.
She thought longer about Flumen Petram, her hometown. The "River Rock", counterpart to Cautes and a vital trade route along the coastline of the continent, it was a place of mixed memories. It was not her home, she could not say she desired to return to it… but she felt drawn back there nonetheless. There was business unfinished, promises and oaths to be kept. Annora's left hand tingled just a little bit, and she wrung her hands beneath her cloak.
Had anything changed of Flumen? If so, how much? So many questions swirled and clouded her mind, so many complications and so many variables. It was no wonder she had put it out of mind.
And now the strangers, and their knowledge and questions.
Annora was brought back to the present startlingly as she turned another corner, to a small inlet of a street that ended in a small block. It might've been used one day, but now only pristine brick and wood walls surrounded the small square that she walked into. In the center, on a small raised table that Annora realized might've been used by children for games, sat Vallum.
The broadsword was sitting in the midst of a large enchanting array, glyphs that Annora recognized but could not place sitting in the impressively big circle. Just inside the array, a decagon touched the outer circle; a battery meant for a seriously powerful enchantment.
A large oval surrounded the sword, still in its sheath, and no less than eight glyphs seemed to be scattered about the array.
"You've arrived," A voice spoke behind her, and Annora turned, only to have to blink her eyes half-shut. The final stranger seemed to be some sort of… avatar. A being a light, almost blinding to the eyes. Radiant as they were, she adjusted quickly, and soon was gazing at what appeared to be a being composed entirely of long ribbons of bright light.
"You…" Annora breathed, awed.
The being laughed, in a sort of whimsical manner, and raised a hand - also composed of light - to stop any thoughts swimming in her head. Its voice was cheery, if a bit tinny. "Preconceived notions often cloud the idea of truth. If you have the answer before you ask the question, you forego the truth."
Nodding confusedly, the woman shied away slightly. The last stranger, the observer in the night, had not been a kind encounter. Another disarming laugh came from the avatar, before it stepped past her to the enchanting array, and Vallum. Casting a brief gaze downward at the sword, it sat across from the oval, towards Annora, with legs crossed. It took only a moment for Annora to realize what they were waiting for.
Unclasping her cloak from around her neck and shrugging it off her shoulders, Annora stepped carefully into the array. Now that she could see them up close, she could recognize some of the glyphs. Some were meant to invoke the powers of Bellator, whilst others were used to contain something. The rest were incomprehensible to her, their purposes unknown.
Sitting opposite the avatar, she knew the enchanting process intimately. The method of using a larger, manned array to impart powerful enchantments upon the object were meant to limit who could use it. She hadn't mentioned it to Keydis, but in an emergency situation, Annora herself could use Promoveo. Needless to say, it wasn't a terribly likely event to come to pass, but one never knew.
Without a sound, the array powered to life without the slightest hint of effort from the avatar. Swallowing down any anxiety she felt, Annora prepared for the questions she knew were coming. Ownership of an enchantment was a peculiar subject, requiring that the magic come from the very essence of its intended user. A reminder that although Annora could use Promoveo, she could never take it to the heights that Keydis would.
It took a moment, the first stirrings of visae - raw, magical energy - beginning to rumble through the large array of auritium. The golden powder shifted and roiled, but remained still. The avatar, meanwhile, extended another glowing hand and offered its first question, "You have been lost, and you have been found. The line between the world's demand and your determination have been blurred. The line between cruelty and kindness, right and wrong, must never be so thin again.
"You had direction once, what have you now?"
A pensive silence came over the pair, and as the array's effects began to take over, the sounds of the outside world falling away. Annora knew exactly what was being asked, and her eyes fell over Vallum.
Where was her life taking her, truly? What meaning did she have, wandering the globe as she had? She had seen sights few dared to dream of, met thousands of people. Her life had not been spent in vain, nor was it over. Even if she had yet to find the place she dreamt of… had she not become a person capable of finding that place?
Yes, she had.
Feeling a strange - but welcome - weight settle upon her shoulders, Annora nodded once, and replied, "I have it again. I have had it since the day I outgrew that selfish view of the world, and I have been given what I needed tonight to rekindle it. My path is clear: the duty I once ran from is one I am worthy of… one I must accept."
Featureless as it was, the woman could feel the pride radiating from the avatar. What was this spirit? Was it holy? It almost reminded her of…
Her thoughts were interrupted as it continued speaking. "Your will must be as steel, your soul as fire. You have seen the oasis in the desert, and the island stranded in the ocean. You will see these again, and find them hostile and unkind. These places will strand you, isolate you as you have been for decades."
Annora felt some strength begin to swell in her chest, her words coming without tremble as she spoke from the heart. "I will not travel them alone. Comrades may come and go, friends may greet and part, but I will carry their own wills with me… no matter where I travel, no matter how far it takes me from them. I will know to return to them."
So focused Annora was on the avatar, she hardly noticed the array beginning to take hold of Vallum. The oval lifted of its own accord, lifting Vallum with it until it spun into six tilted rings that orbited the sheathed sword. The glyphs rose vertically, never straying outside the boundaries of the outer circle. The decagon's ten lines exploded upwards and outwards, straight lines that hovered about Annora as they sieved her visae readily.
A bubble was erected swiftly and without thought, its swirling mass the color of seafoam as the array struggled to contain the depth of Annora's latent magic. The avatar's words became firm and strong, challenging her as it directed the glyphs. Within moments, they were pulsing and teeming with the spurii's energy.
"And when it plunges you into the darkest place? Where light dares not escape, and the world cares nothing for the whims or wishes of a half-breed mutt?"
Her face became stone, locked in a visage so stoic that the words may have broken away from her as meaningless water. Her voice rose with the avatar's, a growling tone gaining purchase in her fierce words, "Then I shall be the light that desperate place needs! They may hate me, they may scorn me, but I will seek the heart of that darkness and I will find it wanting!."
The avatar glowed brighter still, and it rose to its indistinguishable feet. Annora was up the moment it was, refusing to back down. She had fought too hard to back down from what she had sworn to now! She would not allow herself to be bullied from it any longer! Not by her past, not by herself, and certainly not by some group of strangers and spirits!
"Then what of that paradise, the home you so desperately seek?" The avatar boomed, its voice deafening in her ears. "What shall you do? When the world finally sees your character before your skin; your strength before your blood, what then? Shall you sit complacent? Shall you bask in your well-earned rest?"
Annora didn't even think before her head shook vehemently, the words a growling snarl from her lips. "Never! To have a home to return to, having a place to be accepted? How many others crave such acceptance? I will not sit idly by whilst others suffer and I celebrate! Such a place is no paradise without fellows who would call it such with me!"
A long moment passed between the two, silence descending like the calm after the crack of thunder. The avatar stood featureless, and Annora stared it down without so much as a hint of flinching. Around them, magic gathered tightly, the array full to brim with the spurii's visae.
Finally, the avatar raised a single golden hand, and the sea-green energy collapsed and coalesced. Reaching inwards and compressing into a single ball of solid color in its hand. The auritium pulveris, glittering gold, hung loosely and sagged in the air as its use was spent. There, with the oval of powder and Vallum sitting between them at breast-height, did the avatar ask its final question.
"What did you name this sword for?"
And Annora knew. She knew that the strangers, or spirits, or whatever they were; they knew. They knew everything she had sworn to this blade, they knew everything the blade stood for - for her enemies and herself - and they knew that this purpose had run itself hollow, a feral shade of itself.
"This is Vallum," Annora started, "it is The Line. For my enemies, who would cross the beliefs I stand for; and the people I would see those beliefs through. For myself, to tell me that the world is not so simple. The line between violence and peace, between the sword and the olive branch. One cannot preach one and hold the other, and so I never shall.
"It is for my friends, whom I would steady and calm. That they would find peace, a line between chaos and order that they must each walk as I have. Without the spirit to find their place in the world, life becomes dull; but the chaotic spirit is without grounding. As I have witnessed, as I have experienced, I will not let them suffer as I did for despair and blind hatred.
"It is for my teachers, and my students. For my father, and also my mother. It is for every promise ever broken over me. Every oath forsworn, every forget-me-not left to gather dust. It is Vallum, and it is what will leave my mark on this world, for better or worse."
Annora's eyes closed, and her hand closed around the sheath of the broadsword. When she opened them, the avatar was no longer there, but she could feel the presence of each stranger lingering just beyond her senses. The array had dropped from its place, the useless golden sand now a mess across the raised table.
Strangely calm, she asked the only question still in her mind, "It will take me to places forgotten, and dangerous, but I know I will not walk this path alone. Tell me… I know where this path begins, but where does it end?"
The answer was whispered on the winds, calling her back out into the streets of Concha Litus; back to the world of mortals and sense, where reality and surreality no longer cohabitated. Keydis was waiting for her, Pico was waiting for her, and oaths sworn decades ago were waiting for her. With these comforting thoughts in mind, Annora left the scattered array, her mind lighter and her encounter with the strangers sitting like a mantle on her shoulders.
"Where all things ended, and also began. You will set foot there and know complete despair, and absolute joy. It will be a place of sacrifice, and of gain. Forth now, and claim what is rightfully yours."
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