Eritance - Chapter 33

Convincing Simon wasn’t too difficult. All it really took was to explain the situation to him. He felt a big connection to Hallen village. That was the village wear he born and raised by his family. He had gotten the nice job of being a guard. This came with many benefits, and it paid much better than that of being a field worker.

He was more than willing to join the cause to get back at those who had destroyed his friends and family. All that was left to do was wait. We went through our normal activities and never spoke to Hans about the events of the night before again.

After going through our normal routine for two days, a knock could be heard on our door after work. We opened our door and there was Hans and Ciara. “Follow me” Hans said. “Oh- and grab your things”.

We gathered our basic supplies, clothing, armors, weapons, packs, and followed Hans out of the room and into the hall. We walked down a special passage way that had a secret entrance. This must have been the way Hans left the inn last time. Sure enough, we came out the very same exit.

We quickly walked into the forest and made our way to the same meeting spot that Hans, Valera, and Apollos had met in before. This time there was only one person waiting for us. It was Valera. “Where is Apollos?” I asked curiously. “Apollos is very busy, he can’t always spare time for such small matters” she retorted.

“Follow me, tomorrow you will start your new lives as members of the cause” she said. After saying that she turned around and walked in another direction into the forest. We quickly followed Valera. She moved silently and quickly through the forest. It was difficult for us to keep up with her. Even with my advanced speed. Valera was slowing and steadily pulling ahead of us over the course of the next few hours we almost lost sight of her.

Suddenly, Valera stopped. We thought she was waiting for us, but instead it seemed that we had arrived at our destination. There was another large tree in the clearing where she had stopped. “We’re here” she said.

“What do you mean? This isn’t where we met the first time” I said confused. “Well, it wouldn’t make a very good base if it only had one entrance now would it?” she said. Valera then proceeded to begin chanting softly.

A faint glow appeared on the tree as she was chanting. As she continued chanting the glow brightened and changed into the shape of a door. After she was done with the chat the glow went away leaving behind a door.

“We have a huge base with tunnels leading all over the place. Some parts of the base are no longer in use today. However, thanks to our Earth magicians we are able to constantly create a network of tunnels, should the need arise. We then find different places to disguise as entrances and exits. It has saved us more than once from total destruction” she concluded.

With that she disappeared into the tree and the rest of us quickly stepped through as well. Once we had entered the tree the door vanished behind us and we were again in darkness. However, no sooner than the darkness had set, faint torches began to light up. These torches lined the walls and showed us the way.

We went down some stairs inside the tree tunnel and entered a stone tunnel. This tunnel was narrow and long. After following the tunnel for several kilometers, we finally entered into a large hall filled with people. Inside this grand hall there were many different paths that splintered off into different directions.

There were three distinct exits in this grand hall that caught my eye. These exits all had giant arches with strange symbols on them. One was a giant blue arch with a sword going through a bow. Another was purple and a dazzling ray of stars as its symbol and the last was gold without a symbol.

I was quite curious as to what lay down the paths of those three exits. However, before I could ask Valera motioned for us to follow her down one of the other paths. Apparently, this path lead to a rooming area. It served as a temporary zone for new members she explained to us.

“You will stay here for tonight. Tomorrow you will be able to test your aptitudes and will then be assigned to your basic training camp” she said. “What? Basic training?” the three of us asked in unison.

“That’s right. All new recruits must go through basic training in a specialized field. If not for these camps, how would we know where to assign you or how best to use you?”. With that she turned around and left us in the room.

Not long after she left an older woman came buy with a basket of bread and a pitcher of water. “I thought you all might be hungry. Please, have some bread, it is best to be tested at full strength” she kindly said.

We were all happy to accept her hospitality, we weren’t sure what the future held for us, but at least in this moment, we were all still together. That was quickly becoming a feeling that I cherished more and more with each passing day.

As time passed, we finished the bread and water she had brought for us. Feeling somewhat tired, we all decided to go to sleep on the nearby cots, hoping that whatever the test would be wouldn’t prove to be too difficult for us to handle.

Sometime later a stern voice could be heard. The voice said, “Get up. It is time for your placement test”. Opening my eyes, I saw a medium sized man of around 28 years of age. He was sharply dressed in a uniform with different symbols on it. He seemed to be someone with clout here.