Tales of Mancia, Book One: Beyond the Frozen Grove Options

[redsrock]

Tales of Mancia

Book One: "Beyond the Frozen Grove"


CHAPTER ONE

"I thought you said you didn't believe in magic, Verick? What happened to all that talk about magic being a myth and nothing else? Now all of a sudden you've changed your mind?"

"I know what I said, Arvus, just shut up for a second, alright? Damn, you can be annoying sometimes!"

Verick and Arvus Junson were freelance adventures as well as brothers, working for no one in particular. They simply hunted for treasure and sold it to their favorite merchants in the many large towns the country of Haven had to offer. Haven, ruled by King Leonard Fervine, is the "power region" in the world of Mancia, sort of the capital of the world in a way. Haven hosts Mancia's largest largest army, largest population, and richest country as well.

The two had been searching through a small cave when Verick had mistakingly kicked a tiny stone box hidden within the many rocks on the cold hard floor. Upon opening the box he found one green heavy stone. The gem itself seemed to glow with importance, though neither of the men recognized it; that is until the more intelligent of the two, that being Arvus, had whipped out his massive book of gems and stones. The two searched for what seemed like hours until on exactly the five hundredth page they came across what looked dead-up like the stone Verick had discovered by sheer luck.

The book claimed the stone (which had no "official" name) to have magical powers that held the key to a whole other dimension. Obviously no one had yet to discover such a stone, and the authors of the book heavily suggested that the story of the stone of was a hoax and nothing more. Now it appeared as if all of that was about to change.

"I mean...just look at it, Arvus," Verick said with a tone of extreme awe and waving his exited and shaking hands through his medium length set of black hair, and then across thinly-trimmed beard. The two brothers were the same age of twenty-nine, though they were not twins. Throughout their many adventures they had come across plenty of mystifying artifacts, but nothing could match the stone Verick had discovered.

"Okay, fine. We found a rock that looks quite similar to what the book describes," Arvus said with his arms folded and rolling eyes. The book of stones had been put back into his large leather pack. "But that doesn't mean the story is real, or if this stone really is what the book says it is. If anything I think it is a simple coincidence."

Verick threw his hands up in the air in frustration and then yelled, "Wow, how ironic this is! You've always been the one reading books about magic and all that crap, and now that we're face to face with something that could really actually have magical properties you want to dismiss it!"

"I read the material because it is interesting and entertaining, Verick," Arvus replied, his tone rising defensively. "That does not mean I think it is all real. True, I think there is some kind of basic magic out there in the world, but do I think a mere stone holds the key to a whole new dimension? Certainly not! Think about for a second, Verick, and then maybe you'll see how ridiculous all of this is. The 'gem' you speak of is probably nothing more than a simple rocked painted green, and planted here to make a fool of someone like you."

Verick was really getting angry now and at that moment he wanted nothing more than to strike his brother in his hairless chin with his fist. It certainly wouldn't have been the first time the two had fought. But when Verick eyed a tiny pond of water in the far corner of the cave he ran straight to it, motioning for Arvus to follow and forgetting about pounding his face in for a moment.

"Alright, Arvus, we'll have it your way." Verick then pulled a dirty piece of cloth from his pocket and raised it in the air for Arvus to see. "I will dip the stone into this puddle of water and scrub with the cloth. If the paint comes off and it really is only a stone, I will wash your boots with my tongue."

Arvus began laughing histarically, his long blonde hair moving irratically, but when he saw that his brother was actually telling the truth he tried his best to calm down, even if it was fairly difficult to do so. "But if I am right about this stone, and it does have magical powers, then you are going to tear that particular page out of your book and eat it right in front of me."

Arvus was no longer laughing, and was now looking rather offended but at the same time extremely confused. What in the world is he thinking? Does he really actually believe that rock holds the power to another world? He must be out of his mind... "Fine, I agree, Verick. However, I think you are making a big mistake," he replied towards Verick, again starting to laugh a bit from the silliness of the situation.

"We'll see," Verick whispered, just before sinking the stone entirely into the puddle of water. He began scrubbing it vigorously with the cloth, back and forth, back and forth. This went on for some five minutes until at last he brought the stone back up. What he said at first made him cringe, and Arvus laugh with amused joy.

"Look, you idiot, I told you it was paint! You sure hope you like the taste of-"

But then it was Verick who was jumping with joy and happiness, for he saw something that Arvus couldn't because of the fact that he was standing about ten feet away. It was true that the green-ness of the rock was something like paint and beyond the paint was regular stone, but carved into the stone was lines spelling out numerous words and phrases of a language Verick could not understand.

"Come here, look at this! There's some kind of scripture carved into the stone!"

Arvus quickly arrived at his brother's side and the two of them studied the stone closely, trying to figure out what kind of language it could be. Of course with Arvus being the intelligent one, Verick asked him if he recognized the carvings.

"No, none of this looks familiar to me at all," was his immediate response. "For a second it almost looks of the Tijion...or maybe even the Pantor...but no, that's not it. I..I don't have a clue what it says," he said perplexed and scratching his head in confusion.

With the stone in hand, Verick pumped his right fist high into the air and began to mock Arvus for not believing him. But Arvus quickly silence his brother with a raise of his hand and said, "But that doesn't mean the stone is magical, Verick. The book said nothing about a scripture of any kind."

"Did it speak of how to open the dimension?" Verick asked eagerly.

Arvus just rolled his eyes. "No, Verick, it said it was a hoax.....remember?"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. I think the book is wrong and I am right!"

"No, you are wrong, Verick," Arvus said, starting to get agitated once more. "Either way, at least we've found something of value. Let's go ahead and head back to Crestwood so we can ask the jeweler how much he thinks it's worth."

"ARE YOU NUTS?" Verick yelled at the top of his lungs, scaring the daylights out of Arvus. "We are NOT selling this thing, you idiot! This is our key to another world, brother! Can't you see? We will be famous!"

Arvus was now beyond agitation and instead almost to the point where he could no longer take his brother's ignorant immaturity. "Give me that!" He said to Verick while snatching the stone away and picking up its stone container from the floor, and placing the stone in the box. "We will-"

Suddenly his two hands began to shake violently and both he and Verick immediately noticed that the box was glowing with a bright green haze, almost of a bubble of sorts. Arvus dropped the box to the ground in fear, and the top broke off. Inside the stone was in the middle of the container, and it too was glowing a green haze. But now four rods from all four sides of the square container had somehow been stabbed into the stone, holding it in place.

"What in the name of-"

Before any of them could do anything the bright light first engulfed them, and then the entire room of the cave they were standing in. For a moment they were blinded by the light, until finally the brightness began to calm down. But something strange was happening. Arvus suddenly found himself suspended in mid air above the box, along with his brother right beside him. The strangest part was that when he looked down he could see his own body still standing next to the box with his hands shielding his eyes. His body looked like a frozen statue, and then he noticed that Verick's own body was doing the exact same thing. The 'suspended' Arvus looked at the 'suspended' Verick and the two of them were simply at a loss for words. The glowing of the stone again picked up and then the two found themselves swirling in a fast circle in the air, with green bubble also circling around them. The spun faster and faster, lower and lower, until the two of them were just inches away from smacking into one another mid-air.

But right before they could make contact everything went black, and neither of them felt anything but a rush of cold air.

[redsrock]

CHAPTER EIGHT


The walk resumed for only about ten more minutes, in which neither Brina nor Verick said much of anything, although Brina did apologize for the wound Verick had suffered earlier. Of course Verick, already in love with the woman in less than a day, wasn't about to get angry with her over anything.

"No worry, I'm okay now. I'm just curious as to how you did that back there."

"Well, actually, if my mother would have seen that she probably would've been mad. You see...I'm not really supposed to show anyone those powers. No one besides her and a few select others know that I have magical abilities, and not many other than my mother and I have them. It's a secret art that only a select few know."

"And why is that, because it's sacred or something?"

"No, it has nothing to do with that. My mother just doesn't want anyone she doesn't want to learning the power. She believes it would cause a rebellion because people would no longer respect her. I'm not sure about that part, but it probably is best that not everyone knows the secret of the divine power."

"So...how does one learn to use the power? And whom does your mother allow to learn it?"

She laughed and her shining black hair fluttered in the wind. "You don't really learn it. It has to do with old stones, found in a large cave to the east called "Warrior's Paradise". The stones aren't very big, perhaps as big as your fist, or maybe a tad bit smaller. Anyways, the stones are magical thanks to a spell put on them by Zer himself long ago. You see, during the Old War with the Zervigei, Zer needed something to refresh him and his men after battle. He enchanted the stones in this cave with a mixture of different spells. The effect was more than he anticipated, and before he knew it, whoever possessed the stone could heal almost any wound, unless of course the person was already dead. There has been speculation between my mother and some of her closest agents that the stone can indeed revive the dead, but nothing has been proven yet.
"As for who possesses these stones, well, not many I'd say. Only myself, my mother, Vaalvier, and a few other top-rank agents of the Silver Arms, my mother's inner-circle of elite agents, commanded by Vaalvier himself."

"So, these rocks, you mean anyone can use them if they have them in their possession?"

"I know where you're going with this," she said with a playful wink, something Verick adored, "but the answer to that question is simply...I do not know. We've never had foreigners in this land of course, so it is possible, but not likely. I am sure the stone somewhat dictate the user's biological makeup to an extent, thus why we Ibisarions can harness the power. We know for a fact that Zer enchanted a part himself into the stones so that all of his kind could use them. The Zervigei could not, obviously because they are not of Zer's kin."

"Well, I mean I wasn't really directly referring to myself, but it does sound interesting. I must ask, though, do the stones have any similarity to the Stone of Mancia that brought me and my brother here, and also, how many of them are leff?"

"I thought you'd ask that," She laughed. "No, unfortunately it does not. It would have been a nice story though. As for the amount of stones left, there's really no telling. There've been several mishaps in the east that I can think of, small groundquakes here and there. The cave has shifted shape many times now, and if there are any of the stones left, they are more than likely well hidden.

Silence for a few minutes, and then Verick asker her something he didn't exactly want to, although it was bugging him outrageously. "Will I ever meet your father?"

She stopped walking and looked at the ground, shifting her feet. "Well, it's a long story really. Let's just say he's not a subject that is brought up anymore, especially in front of my mother."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be all nosey or anything."

Then Brina, seeing how Verick looked so apologetic, decided to give him an answer. "It's fine, I don't really blame you for being curious. You know what, I'll go ahead and tell you."

"You don't have to..."

"No, no, no. No sense in keeping everything bundled inside all the time. Before I was born my father was a nice and comforting man, or so says my mother. According to her, just days before my birth, my father had a run-in with some friendly Zervigei from the north."

"Zervigei? I thought they were your enemy..."

"Yes, they are our enemies. However, during the Old War a small group of the Zervigei abandoned their ranks and fled to the southeast, opposite of their former land and passed our city. Because of this Zer spared them their lives and allowed them to set up town in the far southeast. Well, my father ad been walking in the streets one day when one of the Zervigei's Calpo had just narrowly missed from hitting him. My father had yelled something at them and the Zervigei stopped where they were going and approached him. A fight insinuated in no time and my father was killed. Needless to say my mother was outraged and immediatly sent an army of troops to the southeast and crushed what little resistance there was."

"Wow, that's awful, Brina, I mean your majesty," he corrected quickly.

She laughed harder than ever before and said, "Please, call me Brina, Verick."

The two looked at each other for a minute before continuing down the path. But it wasn't but a few minutes before they reached the end of the path, and the exit out of the garden.

"That was fun, Verick, I had a good time. Shall we do it again sometime?"

"Yes, and soon, please. I had a lot of fun as well."

The entrance to the castle bursted open and out came Arvus, looking sulky. "I think I better go, Verick," Brina announced. "I'm sure I'll see you soon." And then she took off down the road.

"What's that all about?" Arvus asked Verick once Brina was out of earshot.

"Nothing, we were just taking a walk through the garden, and she let me ask a bunch of questions about the Ibisarions and other things. How did your meeting with the Ibis go?" he asked quickly, trying to avoid the subject of Brina and his love for her. It wasn't something he planned on telling anyone soon, not even the woman herself.

"Not too bad, I got a lot of things off my chest and I feel better than before, that's for sure. Anyways, I wanted to apologize for getting angry earlier. I know that isn't like me, it's just I'm still getting used all this is all."

"Not a problem, brother," Verick said while clasping his right hand on Arvus's left shoulder. "I do care about you, no matter what you may think sometimes."

"I know that, but I'm still not too keen about all this, especially after what the Ibis said to me. She wants us to take on some kind of ghost, Verick. Doesn't that frighten you?"

"To an extent, yes, but not a lot. Like I told you before, I am excited by this. And despite what you think about life back in Haven, I didn't enjoy it a bit. We were barely even making enough money to stay alive."

"So what? We had fun didn't we?"

"Are you trying to tell me that you actually liked living from table scraps most of the time? Because that's what we did, you remember? We would sometimes eat someone's leftovers at the local tavern, sometimes days in a row. Do you really miss that?"

"I miss the good times of adventuring, Verick. Sure, eating leftovers from someone else's plate wasn't the most pleasant thing to endure, but it's not like we were the only ones. Most of the freelance adventurers in Haven did that, to save money."

Verick shook his head violently, not believing his brother. "I don't believe it, I really don't believe you. Think about this for a second. Describe the other adventurers in Haven, will you?" A pause, in which Arvus said not a word. "Exactly, you don't want to because it would prove my point. The other adventurers were dirty, rarely bathed, and were on the brink of beggary. Is that the classification you want?"

"But that's not how we were looked upon. We we looked at as young men trying to make a living adventuring. If we would have kept on-"

"We would have fallen the same lowly path as the others," Verick said, finishing Arvus's sentence for him. "The time was right for this to happen, or at least to me it was."

Silence again, this time for a few minutes. Arvus then sighed heavily. "Alright, Verick, I know how you feel and you know my feelings on this issue. Either way it doesn't matter, because as the Ibis has told us, we are stuck here forever. Now, I am not going to sulk around and feel sorry for myself. I'll go on with their plans simply because I have no other choice. But there's another reason I will tolerate what they want from us, and that is to protect you. I know you're all for this adventure and I don't want you going in alone. You sure do piss me off sometimes, but I guess that's what brothers are for, eh?"

He patted Verick on the head playfully, Verick jokingly shoved him aside. "Yes, I suppose so. Now, is the Ibis waiting for us or what? I am ready to get this adventure underway," He said, rubbing his hands together in excitement.

"Yes, actually she is. She wishes to speak to us and then she wants us to embark on some kind of trial tomorrow morning. Anyway, let's just go."

The two brothers then turned around and walked back into the castle to meet their first mission.