The hallways of Sapientia Coetus flashed with reflective luminescence from the marble walls as the gaunt, scholarly man with his slightly stooped posture and long stride made his way through the gaggles of chatting students. His expression was abstracted, barely paying attention to where he walked and he seemed to be muttering to himself.
Turning a corner, there was a shocked squawk as he nearly stumbled over a youth walking in the other direction with equal purpose. There was a momentary flurry as each of them tried to extricate their limbs and apologize profusely, an expression of half-annoyed discomfort on the lean features of the older man.
The dance was completed and the stork-like man continued on through the diamond-lit corridors. The jagged shard of a tower reached for the sky and contained all of the knowledge and research into the complexities of the world of Araevis. The professor regained his purposeful stride and made his way to a tall doorway leading into a laboratory.
At a bench, a student sat poring over a test tube full of dark, bubbling liquid. The angular, uncomfortably skinny man leaned over the young woman's shoulder and flashed a quick smile.
"The work is looking good. I'm glad to see you grasped the process."
A pair of lustrous, dark eyes regarded the man with a calm, slightly amused air.
"Professor, I couldn't fail to grasp the process, not after you've drilled it into us over and over again."
Shrugging, the professor gave her a wry smile.
"Well, you know that method is everything. We must be consistent if we are to learn anything. I am aware that it's not your favorite part of what we do, but if you really want to make the breakthroughs which I know you're capable of, it's what you must do."
His younger compatriot nodded in understanding and returned to her work.
Now the white-haired, wiry old man made his way toward a glassed-in office dominated by a colossal stone block sitting on a metal table. The stone was inscribed with strange symbols and mathematical calculations. Climbing up onto a stool, he peered over the filigreed surface, keen eyes tracing the details of the dark, almost metallic rock. Only some of the symbols were decipherable, but the message they delivered made him shiver.
This laboratory was dedicated to the artifacts which had been brought out of Valmoor for the last five or so years. The ancient and terrifying city held many secrets to the history of the world in which they lived, but the price was high for obtaining those secrets. A good proportion of the researchers who had gone to the city came back profoundly disturbed and a few were downright insane. Whatever had happened in that awful place, it spoke of forces and potential dangers which had to be fully studied if they were to be combated.
He returned his attention to the massive stone at which he sat, tracing over it with his magnifying glass and reading aloud the words written on it. Its message was one of hunger and profound threat, calling out to powers who had long inhabited the world outside the scope of the knowledge of the other races. The words spoke of a tide of hunger rising to devour everything, to enslave and dominate all of the other races of the planet. Even reading them made the professor glance nervously about, as if seeing the beings about which the stone spoke.
After reading the diary of one particular researcher, his mind had been taken up with the horrors the man had described. If accounts like his and others were to be believed, a race of eldritch beings inhabited the ruins of the ancient city, beings who had come from outside the planet but were now a part of it. They had remained hidden for centuries, but now they were being awakened for some incomprehensible and terrible purpose.
Reading the stone now, he sought to divine what that purpose might be. Even repeating the words in his head was making his skin crawl, given the content of what these twisted passages conveyed. Each one of them was like a knife in his gut, speaking of how this unbelievably malevolent force would control and manipulate every being on the planet if given the chance. It seemed that they had already begun their work many centuries before, perhaps partially explaining the corruption of the ancient city from which this stone came.
One passage in particular called out to him as it spoke of how these creatures could influence individuals with their psychic power, able to enter their minds and exert their will to carry out their evil purpose. It was becoming clear that the danger being posed was far greater than anything they had expected. Right now, it was likely that these beings had continued to move through the world. Rumors had swirled for some time about the fact that one of the more powerful industrial entities in Terminus had made a terrible bargain with these creatures.
A knock at the door made the professor raise his head, quizzical eyebrows rising to add to the wrinkles on his face. His elfin young student stood framed in the light, with an inscrutable expression on her face.
The elder asked, "What is it? What can I help you with?"
Tentatively, the young woman took a step into the room. She pointed to the stone and said, "There's some energy coming off that stone. I can feel it."
The gaunt professor gave her a long look but nodded.
"Can you tell me more about what you're feeling from the stone?"
A frown creased her forehead and she sighed.
"I can feel that something senses us through this stone. It knows we're looking into it."
Growing silent for a moment, the elderly academic gave the stone a long look.
"I shall take your word for it. After all, we all have different senses and perceptions. I believe that the time has come for an old friend of mine to have a look at this. Craxtus is both a brilliant engineer and a marvelous scientist. I know he has a special interest in what made this and what they might want."
His younger assistant smiled.
"I've heard of him and I hope I'll get to meet him. Is he as eccentric as they say?"
The older man laughed.
"Oh, he's more eccentric than you've heard them say."
Turning a corner, there was a shocked squawk as he nearly stumbled over a youth walking in the other direction with equal purpose. There was a momentary flurry as each of them tried to extricate their limbs and apologize profusely, an expression of half-annoyed discomfort on the lean features of the older man.
The dance was completed and the stork-like man continued on through the diamond-lit corridors. The jagged shard of a tower reached for the sky and contained all of the knowledge and research into the complexities of the world of Araevis. The professor regained his purposeful stride and made his way to a tall doorway leading into a laboratory.
At a bench, a student sat poring over a test tube full of dark, bubbling liquid. The angular, uncomfortably skinny man leaned over the young woman's shoulder and flashed a quick smile.
"The work is looking good. I'm glad to see you grasped the process."
A pair of lustrous, dark eyes regarded the man with a calm, slightly amused air.
"Professor, I couldn't fail to grasp the process, not after you've drilled it into us over and over again."
Shrugging, the professor gave her a wry smile.
"Well, you know that method is everything. We must be consistent if we are to learn anything. I am aware that it's not your favorite part of what we do, but if you really want to make the breakthroughs which I know you're capable of, it's what you must do."
His younger compatriot nodded in understanding and returned to her work.
Now the white-haired, wiry old man made his way toward a glassed-in office dominated by a colossal stone block sitting on a metal table. The stone was inscribed with strange symbols and mathematical calculations. Climbing up onto a stool, he peered over the filigreed surface, keen eyes tracing the details of the dark, almost metallic rock. Only some of the symbols were decipherable, but the message they delivered made him shiver.
This laboratory was dedicated to the artifacts which had been brought out of Valmoor for the last five or so years. The ancient and terrifying city held many secrets to the history of the world in which they lived, but the price was high for obtaining those secrets. A good proportion of the researchers who had gone to the city came back profoundly disturbed and a few were downright insane. Whatever had happened in that awful place, it spoke of forces and potential dangers which had to be fully studied if they were to be combated.
He returned his attention to the massive stone at which he sat, tracing over it with his magnifying glass and reading aloud the words written on it. Its message was one of hunger and profound threat, calling out to powers who had long inhabited the world outside the scope of the knowledge of the other races. The words spoke of a tide of hunger rising to devour everything, to enslave and dominate all of the other races of the planet. Even reading them made the professor glance nervously about, as if seeing the beings about which the stone spoke.
After reading the diary of one particular researcher, his mind had been taken up with the horrors the man had described. If accounts like his and others were to be believed, a race of eldritch beings inhabited the ruins of the ancient city, beings who had come from outside the planet but were now a part of it. They had remained hidden for centuries, but now they were being awakened for some incomprehensible and terrible purpose.
Reading the stone now, he sought to divine what that purpose might be. Even repeating the words in his head was making his skin crawl, given the content of what these twisted passages conveyed. Each one of them was like a knife in his gut, speaking of how this unbelievably malevolent force would control and manipulate every being on the planet if given the chance. It seemed that they had already begun their work many centuries before, perhaps partially explaining the corruption of the ancient city from which this stone came.
One passage in particular called out to him as it spoke of how these creatures could influence individuals with their psychic power, able to enter their minds and exert their will to carry out their evil purpose. It was becoming clear that the danger being posed was far greater than anything they had expected. Right now, it was likely that these beings had continued to move through the world. Rumors had swirled for some time about the fact that one of the more powerful industrial entities in Terminus had made a terrible bargain with these creatures.
A knock at the door made the professor raise his head, quizzical eyebrows rising to add to the wrinkles on his face. His elfin young student stood framed in the light, with an inscrutable expression on her face.
The elder asked, "What is it? What can I help you with?"
Tentatively, the young woman took a step into the room. She pointed to the stone and said, "There's some energy coming off that stone. I can feel it."
The gaunt professor gave her a long look but nodded.
"Can you tell me more about what you're feeling from the stone?"
A frown creased her forehead and she sighed.
"I can feel that something senses us through this stone. It knows we're looking into it."
Growing silent for a moment, the elderly academic gave the stone a long look.
"I shall take your word for it. After all, we all have different senses and perceptions. I believe that the time has come for an old friend of mine to have a look at this. Craxtus is both a brilliant engineer and a marvelous scientist. I know he has a special interest in what made this and what they might want."
His younger assistant smiled.
"I've heard of him and I hope I'll get to meet him. Is he as eccentric as they say?"
The older man laughed.
"Oh, he's more eccentric than you've heard them say."