A Conspiracy of Shades

He lit a candle and walked to what seemed to be the back of his cavern. Darius uttered an incantation that he alone knew, and the sound of a creaking door rang through the cave. He then stepped into the wall, and found himself in a large but dimly lit room full of objects that gave off an eldritch and forbidden aura. This was his back room, the side of him that he did not want the simple villagers of Tarnford to see.

The shadows deepened as he carefully squeezed through the large disorganized pile of objects in the back room. He was not a very organized person, a genius rather than a strategist. That was more Castellan's area. Although the object he sought was buried within a jumbled pile, Darius could feel its aura and knew exactly where it was. He reached in and held it up. It was a pale green crystal carved with runes forgotten to most people and even most mages centuries upon centuries ago. He picked it up and recited a spell.

Two pale lights flickered on in the room. As they grew stronger, they shaped into the forms of two men. One seemed young and handsome, although Darius knew he was centuries old. This was the man known to Allarians as Crucius the Fell and to the people of Hespan as the Archmage Crucibal, but was known in his homeland of Vjorica as Castellan the Heretic. The other could not be more different. He was a pale hairless wraith of a man, his sunken eyes completely black, his mouth sewn shut. Baron Zeitgeist of Axtun wielded the same temporal magicks as Castellan, but while one had been able to use it to remain forever young, the other had been changed by it and become more and less then a man. Such were the ways of magic. It could heal and wound with the same hand.

"How goes the matter of Frederigo and Irena?" asked Castellan in his seemingly pleasant voice.

"They have been dealt with, my Lord. When Frederigo came to me, I gave him a false translation of the scroll. [20799] He was told to free the lady, but cutting the chains called down the Wyrm's wrath. He was blasted out of time by the energies of the Timespark. What of Doctor Vincent?"

"I have seen him, and he is no threat to us. He knows of our plans, but has become a mere gibbering madman and cannot affect them. Have you the scroll?"

"I do have it, Highlord Castellan, but even I cannot translate it! The geis that has been laid on it is no mere deflection spell! This scroll seems to have been formed out of nothing by the Lord Himself, and brought to Frederigo by one of His angels!"

"This is a setback, but not a major one. I hoped that the contents of the scroll would give us a clue to who the Fourth was. But it matters little. The geis is doubtless constructed so that it will lead the bearer of the scroll to the Fourth. You will set out and find the Fourth, and deliver him or her to me. Then the last obstacle to our plan shall finally have been eliminated. Zeitgeist, you shall deal with Frederigo and Irena in the past."

"Yes, Highlord," said Zeitgeist. He spoke on levels far deeper than voice, and Darius always shuddered when he heard him speak. With that, the two lights faded out and Darius found himself once more alone. He began to plan an excuse to tell the people of Tarnford as to why he would set out, and searched for the scroll.

1. The scroll was exactly where he had left it.
2. But the scroll had vanished!
3. Long ago, in a narrow, refuse-choked alley in the ghettos of Caemlyn

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