Velyan - 17th Harvestwatch 1383
Wolvsbane, Trifectorate Confederacy
"All those that sing about the secrets of the world are nothing but fools. It is in history that the worlds 'secrets' lay open for all to know should one only ask the right questions."
- The Archivist
The kids sat in their roughly cobbled chairs, little ledgers of paper balanced on their knees, charcoal smudging their fingers. Some scratched doodles instead of notes, others stared out the window at the quiet street beyond.
I coughed, loudly. Lixiv, the eldest and a water aetherlings that shimmered in shifting colors like the sea sprang up at once.
"Everyone listen!" She barked in a way that would make Qapla proud, "Velyan's teaching us today. Ming stop making bombs,"
A puff of smoke curled from the goblin girl's lap. She grinned sheepishly. She was getting better at those.
"Seraph. stop distracting Pip."
The air aetherling froze mid-trick. Pip's giggle faltered when Lixiv plucked him into her lap, leaving the paper bird to sag.
The others straightened, their eyes turning to me and the board. They were good kids. Better behaved than I ever was at their age.
"Thank you, Lixiv." I wiped away the common-tongue characters chalked across the board. "Let's move away from language. Let's talk about history."
A groan escaped Thistle, the little red kobold. He slumped so low his snout nearly touched the desk. "Can we go see Korrik? He's playing in the yard."
"Quiet down, Thistle." Said Ashra, a teenaged fire aetherling, as she flicked her short hair sending sparks flying to the stone floor below.. "First we learn, then we eat, then we play. Them are the rules."
"Play?" croaked a young raven Avarian, head tilting.
I rapped my knuckles against the board. The sharp crack silenced them. They didn't want the next knuckle to be atop their heads. "Listen and learn. Or no food. That's the deal. Isn't that right?"
"Yes Ms. Vee." The kids responded sharply.
"Korrik stayed late yesterday to learn the lesson." I said, pacing to a chair and spinning it around to sit. "He wanted the lesson done so he could wake early and practice swordsmanship with Qapla. Today, you all get the same story."
"We are going to be talking about the Great Expedition." The kids all looked about. "You all have most likely heard bits and pieces around when being put to bed. But I'm going to tell you the whole complete version. You all need to hear it. About what really happened."
I leaned forward. "The Great Expedition."
The children's quiet whispers silenced. Some exchanged confused looks.
"I'm sure you all have heard bedtime stories, gossip at the tavern, or even school lessons about the exciting parts of the journey. But I'll tell you the truth of what happened. All of it."
I let the silence hang before asking. "Fifty years ago, what disease spread across the Confederacy?"
"The Golden Flash." Ashra, a changeling spoke softly. "My whole family got it. Before I was born. But my mom… used to go on about it all the time. Said it killed the whole village."
"Correct. Now-hands up."
Eight little arms shot into the air.
"Quill, Nyx, Seraph, and Ming lower your hands."
The Avarian, fiery-haired girl, the air aetherling and the goblin all lowered their hand.
"Good. Those with hands up? That's how many died. Half of the world."
The remaining arms wilted back to their sides. None spoke.
"The Council decided they had to act. Old archivists and Shamans whispered of a cure. Of the Panacea. An herb buried in the Land of the Living Labyrinth, beyond the Great Tifan Wall."
Gasps circled the room. Many had heard of the Great Expedition, not many had heard of what led to it.
"The Council promised rewards so bountiful you could reach the throne itself if you returned with it. A great selection was held throughout the land and a hundred were selected as essential. They went to the southeast of the Confederacy where the Sunless Forest meets the Land of the Living Labyrinth to find the herb. Two years after their departure, one person returned. One."
"Dragonbreaker!" Some of the kids echoed out. They still weren't catching on to the point.
"Yes." I nodded, as Lixiv hushed them.
"Helena brought back the Panacea. The Council's archmagisters figured out a way to water it down, enough to cleanse the Golden Flash from the world."
"But that's not all. Helena brought treasures with no price: maps that detailed safe routes, and knowledge so valuable that entire cities fought for the information."
"The Council wanted more. They indulged in themselves until there was nothing left of the treasures and knowledge they paid so dearly for. So, they gathered another group. This one much stronger than the last. They gathered the hundred strongest across the continent, even some from my home in Caelanth."
The room leaned in, eager.
"They spent a decade beyond the wall. They found the Sunless Forest stretched farther than we could comprehend, caves filled with crystal beneath the Deathcrest Mountains, deserts like oceans of sand called the Bleaksands, savannahs, frozen wastes, whole coasts no living being have seen before. They reached the middle of the continent, to Skypiercer. The mountain that touches the sky, before turning back."
"Did they find treasure?" Pip blurted.
"Yes. Artifacts made from Balu's children and the remains of Foly's workshops. They were beyond what we could have imagined. Blades that split the sky in twain, shields that no strike could pierce, stones that could revive the dying, metal that bent weather to a mortal's will, and crystals that warned of monster attacks."
The room exploded in chatter. Which one was the strongest? Which one would they use?
I let them babble, hope was best broken at a peak. I whistled sharply, they clapped their hands to their ears and went still.
"Now you all know of Helena the Dragonbreaker, Amos the Swordsman, and Aveline the Saint." I said with a forced grin. "But what about Trevon the Bold, Cherion the Unbreaking, or Thamous the Archer?"
"They returned rich and died happy like rest." Ming exclaimed with a cackle.
I cut her off with a flat stare. "They died. Horribly. Cold and alone and away from home. Them and most of that great expedition."
Silence.
"No great treasures for them. No songs or cities named after them. No one remembers them. Not even you all."
I stared each of them in the eyes.
"During the Panacea Expedition, I said Helena returned. The other ninety-nine lost to the horrors beyond the wall."
"Vely-" Lixiv began.
"Quiet." I snapped. "This is the part no one likes to talk about, and it is precisely why you need to hear."
I straightened up and the kids followed.
"Helena wrote records of what the expeditions faced. Forests that woke up and hunted them like prey. Insects of every size, poisonous and intelligent. Imagine a spider as big as the guild house and cleverer than anyone here. Underneath Deathcrest, burrowers stalked the expedition in the dark to feast upon their flesh. Stone and crystals alike rose to crush drink their blood. The Bleaksands held worms that could swallow the whole of Wolvsbane in a single bite."
The children's faces paled. One boy's charcoal snapped under his grip.
"Of the first hundred, one returned. Of the second hundred, fewer than twenty. Damn near two hundred of the strongest warriors on the continent. Dead."
I leaned closer, voice low. "Outside the wall is the incarnation of death. I saw it no more than two weeks ago. Some of your parents stood against it. Holding the Wall so you would never face the horrors beyond it."
Silence sat in the room as all the kids looked uncomfortable. Good, they need to know this world before it comes for them.
"But I failed. We failed, and the wall fell. Death is now pouring through that gap and towards us." I looked at all the kids, "That's why Korrik practices. And why I teach you."
"Are we going to die?" Nyx quietly asked.
"No." I responded. A little too sharply. I softened my tone. "The city is working on getting boats to sail across the sea. We'll leave long before the monsters reach us."
A lie. There were no ships prepared. No plan B. Just walls that were a shabby imitation of the Great Wall, and old injured myths that lay retired in the guild house.
Lixiv's sea-hair shimmered a inky black as she met my eyes. She said nothing. She didn't have to.
"Your parents were strong." I whispered. "The Confederacy was strong. But we all forgot that Balu's creations are much, much stronger."
I looked down at my shaking hands. I clenched them as I looked back up at the kids, and with a cheery voice said,
"Lesson over. The world is dangerous, and reward always demands a corresponding price. Now, let's go get some breakfast."
The children rose slowly, shushed, and followed me toward the guild house.