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[Alarin]

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Alarin sat idley on his throne, where once people lavished him with gifts there was simply deafening silence. Long he sat, and thought about a myriad of things. His time was coming to an end, and he feared it greatly. Plans unfinished, he would leave. A legacy most uncertain. The visions unrecorded.

So it was, that Rufus Oryan found Alarin. Pondering idley in his throne-chambers. Rufus bowed his head and looked over the Blackened Figure. "Alarin...". His eyes squinted. "Are you well?" He asked calmly. "Yes, well enough, I suppose." The voice eminated from the carapace-like husk. "Have you found that plane... that place which makes you tingle... the blood inside you flows just a bit faster... your hairs stand on the end? Does your spine feel the spark in it? It moves swiftly now." Alarin did not seem to move at all when speaking, and it seemed almost unreal to hear words come from the strange husk. "Yes, I have found Gundeth." Rufus spoke tenatively, wondering if the very words damned him. He wondered idlely, just how dangerous it was to walk on this line.

"We must proceed to the Well of Souls, then. I have a gift to give you, this evening." The disembodied voice spoke, and a silvery light eminated from the husk for a moment as he stood. Small wisps of light, like tiny illuminescent sparks flew from the joints of the carapatic armor. "I pray you are prepared well, Rufus Oryan. This is no small task at hand, indeed, it could be the end of you should you be unprepared in mind and body." Alarin spoke again, ending his speech with a long, careening whistling noise, like a fell wind blowing through a black valley. Alarin seemed to emit a horrifying chuckle. Rufus pulled the warm cloak he brought with him closer around him, in a moment of doubt. Steeling his nerves, he continued walking through the maw of a dark hill, frozen and terrible. The peaks of ice seems to jab out around, like a mouth full of terrible teeth.

"Concentrate, first, on that feeling. That higher plane. Focus on Gundeth. Imagine that tingling, move it to your fingertips." Alarin spoke evenly, watching Rufus intently for any sign of progress. Rufus' fingertips glowed with a bronze glow for a moment, showing his aura's color. Rufus looked at his fingers with a slight bit of awe. "I have not seen this color in the normal scopes of Magery... what is this?" Rufus looked at Alarin with a hint of distrust. "It is your aura, your energy. You have created. It is genesis." Alarin spoke evenly, as if tutoring a prized pupil. He moved up from the wall and moved closer to Rufus. "Imagine now, the energy flows through your hand, encases it in a great bronze glow." As Alarin finished his words, a slight flash emitted from Rufus' hand and the walls of the Well of Souls glowed softly with the brown light. "Imagine now, Rufus Oryan a great apple. One that is golden in colour and weight. Imagine the texture, the intricasies, the bright shine on it. Now imagine it in your hand, and imagine your energies slowly melding into it." Alarin spoke with the same tutorly tone, while a yellow-apple slowly grew in Rufus' hand. Slowly, the yellow began to bronze, and glow brighter. In Rufus' hand lay his first lesson. The golden apple.

"You will feel tired now." Alarin said, shortly before Rufus blacked out.

[Rufus Oryan]

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Rufus sat wide-awake in his bed as the sun looked through his windows…

Events from the night before were far from a blur. He remembered the journey through the frozen lands, and the power emanating from his physical layers. He remembered holding strong and fast to Creation, and being a creator in himself. Harboring the energies that were about him commanded an odd feeling within his body, and it had taken much meditation and searching. Rufus had grown to understand so much in that short time. He learned to harness and control those energies that were about him, the angered spirits and the powers within them, and the possibilities that lay in their bottled energy…

The process exhausted him. Alarin simply snapped his fingers. Twas all it took before Rufus’s last image was the cold floor of the Well of Souls. And when he awakened from his weakened state, he lay upon a bed of flowers in what was much like a shrine. As he opened his eyes, a slave girl stands before him with hot food, and drink. Something to ease his tired body and fill his stomach. Rufus wondered not of the preceding events, for he knew what he had done. He had crafted, with spiritual energy, a golden apple…and it suited Alarin’s taste. He had taken his first step, and wore out his body in learning of creation first hand. Brief conversation with the girl took place, he asked her of her reasons for staying…but he knew she was far too afraid to talk.

The slightly rested Rufus gathered himself. Hoping to get what strength he could to remove himself from the garden, and make his way home. As he raised his gaze upward, he noticed and sensed the presence of Alarin, even in his weakend state. Alarin stood over Rufus, examining him… In moments, he turned silently, and his dark cape billowed behind him as he exited without a word…

Rufus understood Alarin's satisfaction.

Once gathered, he took what strength he could to mount his horse, and ride through the dimensional moongates that would place him before the steps of his home. Still tired, he struggled through the doors, and the various teleporters about his house to make his way to his bedchamber. To hold to his newfound knowledge, and power…it was amazing, overwhelming, and unsettling. For Rufus’s heart would nay have him teeter on that line that was amongst good and evil; he knew his place, and loved his people far too much. And all this he would ponder for the rest of his days…but this time he would sleep…

Rufus sat wide-awake in his bed as the sun looked through his windows…

Thinking of the scent of his wife, and things to come…

“I see so much before me, yet I wander as the student still. Mayhaps that tis my path forever...There is much to be done...."
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"Balance - the harmony between the Principles of Order and Chaos...Harmony, Dedication and Rationality, the three Principles of Balance, are our highest ideals."