Gvera Cross

The Gate

The sun slowly rose above the forest. Birds chirped awoken from their slumber and rose to the sky beginning a new day. Gvera slowly opened her eyes, she was still leaning against the old pine tree, sitting on a thick branch. Solean was still asleep, stretched across two branches with his head on one and his feet on the other. She laughed seeing this, the boy suddenly jumped from his sleep, nearly falling down.

" Good morning" she waived

" Good morning" he laughed.

They made their way down the ground tings seemed peaceful. The camp fire was out, it went out some time in the night. There were tracks of the creature but no signs of the one who left them. Birds chirped and tree leaves rustled in the wind like they always did.

"So what do you assume somebody plans to do with a monster like that?" the magician asked looking at the footprints.

"I don't know, but it's not something good" the witch replied.

" I don't know much about necromancers or what they do, but I remember what I was told when I was a little boy." The magician said" ten years ago in Kalmer there was a village, everybody there died one night. They were found dead with spider shaped marks on their faces. Everybody said a necromancer did it but no knows for sure. "

Gvera shivered :

"Scary, what if they try to do something like that here. We should probably tell someone about what we saw. We should warn people." She suggested.

" I guess we could try." Solean agreed.

"But first we need to know more" she said" it isn't enough to say that we saw a necromorph, I thinks that it was called, in the woods. We need proof that something is going on." T

hey both stood there thinking for a moment

" I know" the witch finally said " We should try finding the gate"

" What gate?"The boy looked confused for a moment.

"The gate between life and death"

" I thought you said only necromancers can open it?"

" Yes, but the gate itself is physical, it's a structure, if a necromancer summoned something he had to use that gate, so it is possible they left some clues there."

" We could try following the footprints of that creature, it might lead us to the gate, or to its master." He agreed thou the thought made him shudder.

They walked listening to the sounds of forest, Gvera rolled up her sleeve to see any change In the crystal but remained its usual color. They passed some wild apple trees, their branches hanging low with fruit. Stopping to pick themselves a late breakfast they carried on, following the tracks that were burnt in the forest floor. Slowly they went deeper into the forest and Solean began to wonder

"What if we get attacked by that thing?"

Gvera shook her head :

" We are safe since it's day now. The book said the lesser ones could be destroyed by sun light. "

" Is the sun the only thing that can kill those things?"

"Flowing water, like a river or a water fall, and fire."

" I see, we don't have many options then, I guess we will have to hide in a tree again" the boy sighed.

As the forest got thicker, it got darker, the trees were taller and their branches blocked much of the light. It became difficult to see footprints in this dark. The birds that chirped all the time had suddenly vanished. "

I think we are close" Gvera said.

"How do you know?" the boy looked around nervously.

"Listen" she said. " No birds, no animals, it's dead silent. Something must have scared them all away. We must be really close."

A circle of stones stands on a hill. Silent and ancient guardians of the hidden. As they approach Gvera feels a shiver run down her spine. The air is heavy and it's hard to breath.

"You look pale?" the boy looks at her concerned

" Can't you feel it? This place, it's energy it's so heavy. It must be because of the gate. It might still be open."

He looks at the stones and the approaching steps, he sees blood on the small stone steps. It makes him feel a little sick. He looks away, the ground is full of burned footprints.

"I think you were right, there tracks of that thing everywhere, it must have been summoned from here."

"There could be more than one" Gvera said." Whoever did this must be very powerful, to break the protection spell around the gate."

"Protection?" the magician asked.

" I read that the gates are protected with several powerful spells, " she pointed "each of the stones has a different spell put on it".

Now they were close enough to see the runes carved into the stones."

When a spell is active the runes glow." T

he boy noticed that none of the runes were gloving .

" The protection barrier was broken and the gate was opened."

As they began climbing the stone steps Solean felt cold, something was pulling him towards the ground, he felt heavy. Gvera looked even more pale than before.

"The closer we get the worse it will feel" she warned.

With each step they climbed it became worse. The magician felt nauseous and his head started spinning. Gvera knelt down on all fours and gestured to do the same. The pressure that felt like it was going to crush him decreased.

"What's going on here? You said the protection was disabled?"

" It is, but somebody must have put a different spell on this place. Most likely to keep anyone from closing the gate. if i knew what they used as an anchor I could try and disable it. It must be close by. Maybe, you could play something?"

" You want me to play, now?".

Gvera nodded:

" Something to distract us from the physical senses, then I could focus on locating the spells anchor. "

The boy nodded, he took the flute from it's holster and began playing. Gvera closed her eyes, focusing on the melody, it sounded gentle yet sad. Solean had a hard time focusing, the strange spell was making him dizzy and his felt like exploding. Taking a deep breath he tried again this time with more sound of a horn blowing and winds howling, sea waves crashing against the rocky shores. Gvera could see those things in her mind, the flute no longer sounded like a flute. The music of the frozen north flooded her senses. The girl opened her eyes and stood up. She climbed to the top, listening to Solean playing she felt better. Looking around she saw a pyramid carved out of stone at the center of the circle. Her eyes darted around looking for anything glowing with enchantments. There was blood on the ground, lots of it. She followed the trail. Behind the pyramid, in puddle of her own blood lay a woman in a white dress. Her once blond hair was bloody, her throat was cut. The sight was sickening. Gvera held back the urge to gag, if her guess was right she had found what she had been looking for. She walked closer to the woman and began drawing fire runes in the air. Before the body burst into flames she noticed a mark on the woman's shoulder, the symbol of the order: a circle with a pentagram and an eye in the middle.

Solean stopped playing, he felt a lot better, the spell was no longer effecting him.

"Gvera did it" he thought to himself.

The magician made his way to the top, he saw his companion standing there .

"Are you alright? You destroyed the anchor, right?"

" It was all a little more complicated than I thought. " she said.

"What happened?"

"The one who did this, used a human as a sacrifice."

" A sacrifice?"

Now he noticed all the blood in the ground.

" As I thought the gate is still open, the sacrifice was used to amplify their power and to lure creatures from the other side, the more creatures come the wider the gate opens, the wider the gate opens the more creatures can enter our world. " She explained."

But you destroyed the body." "

It won't close the gate, only a necromancer knows how to do that. "

" So, you mean a creature can appear here at any time?!" the boy panicked

"It's day now, we should be safe. One more thing, the woman that was murdered had the mark of the Order on her, most likely the witch of the Order in charge of the gate. "

He looked at he confused

" The Order?"

" I don't know much about it. Just an old legend my dad told me: once long ago at a time of darkness and war five wizards formed an alliance to save their people, they created the law that we must follow and started the first clans, then their students took over as peace keepers, then their students and so on, until this day."

" I see. Then this necromancer is the Orders problem." The magician said.

" Yes, but what if they don't know about what is going on?! If we could find a way to get in touch with them and warn them. .."

"We could ask around the villages nearby, but first we need to get out of this forest." He suggested.

Leaving the gate behind they headed south. With night approaching and untold dangers lurking in the dark they rushed to find a way out of the woods. Only stopping to stock up on water in a nearby stream. While filling up her water bag the witch noticed something in the water, it was a white sea shell bracelet. Gvera remembered the dead woman in the circle had one just like it on her wrist.

" I think they came this way" she showed her finding to Solean. "Maybe she lived nearby, being the gate keeper and all."

They continued going in the same direction as before. The sun had already began its descend into the shadows of the forest. The exhaustion of the days adventure began to catch up to the duo. They began to lose hope of finding a way out before sunset. Solean suggested looking for a suitable tree for the night. The forest had gotten much thinner and the ground wasn't a smooth as before. Now they were struggling to climb a rather large hill.

Finally reaching the top they stopped to catch their breath. In the light of the setting sun, through the trees they saw what looked like roofs.

"A village!" Solean shouted happily " it isn't very far, I thing we could get there before nightfall."

Gvera nodded. So the two ran down the hill trying to beat the approaching darkness.