[center][img]https://txt-dynamic.static.1001fonts.net/txt/b3RmLjU0LmY0ZDQyNS5TVzVoZFdkMWNtRjBhVzl1LjA,/gondess-demo.regular.png[/img][/center][hr]

The walls of the cave shimmered and shone with an unknown fluid--likely bioluminescent--and the strange circular chamber hewn from the bedrock seemed oddly out of place, as if some purpose for its construction lay veiled beneath the plainness of its patterns and its carvings. Barely-spoken words floated amidst the dank, dense air of the place and held themselves aloft for a few seconds before their echoes stopped forever and the shuffling of feet punctuated the atmosphere with a strange rhythm unlike anything the land had ever heard before. Suddenly the sounds stopped, and there was a distinct clanging noise as crude metal met something more than the expected diatomaceous earth.

“The world below! It opens to us!”

The hollow caves carried that echo with them for a few moments more before frantic scrabbling and clawing permeated the thick air, and after only moments an argent effulgence overtook the bioluminescent blue like the dawning of a new sun, overtaking the vision of all present with a coruscating glare. Then, again, it was over--and the treasure hunters had discovered what they had come for: crystals, of the purest silver--highly prized amongst devotees of the God of Truth, and even more so to followers of the arcane arts. The silver crystals, mirror-bright, were capable of holding volumes of mana far beyond what their small stature suggested, and they were inherently blessed to assist in the use of scrying magic. It could set them up for life in Aislyrh if they managed to get a good haul--and even if it was just these few clusters, they would be able to live comfortably for a good many years.

Khara spoke up first, her eyes scanning the crystals with a scrutiny rarely seen in human eyes, before clawing away at the rest of the dirt and extricating a tiny chunk of the solid mass to bring up to the light emanating from the walls. She could see her reflection [i]perfectly[/i] in the small crystals from what seemed to be a thousand thousand angles, and the first thought that came to her mind was that she looked [b]filthy[/b]. [color=silver][i]Filthy… soon to be filthy-rich, I think.[/i][/color]

Dhokar, an Alminaki, spoke up next--snatching the crystals away from his associate and peering into them with his preternaturally big and wide eyes. It was almost impossible to actually determine the quality of the crystals without getting lost in their reflective facets, but he’d managed to develop something of an eye for it after years and years in the business. He’d be thirty-two this year--and if he was lucky, he’d never have to work another day in his life. He tried to smile at the thought, but the sheer concentration it took to not get lost stopped the beginnings of that thought before they could fully form.

Vhirai continued his digging, the shoddy copper spade and his unsteady, shaking hands coming together to punctuate the room with a constant pitter-patter of metal meeting crystal and bouncing off harmlessly as the soft earth around them gave way. It took a few moments of probing, but he was sure that he could isolate this particular cluster and dig it out if he had some help--he thought about asking Khara to grab some of the dirt and haul it off the side while he made sure the mass could be extricated without damaging it. He slightly turned his head to peek over at her as he considered actually vocalising that thought, and internally sighed as he saw her and Dhokar squabbling over the tiny cluster of loose crystals they’d found.

[color=silver]“Let me look, you prick! You’re just fucking staring at it!”[/color]

[color=orange]“Fuck off, Khara. I’m [i]appraising[/i] it, something you wouldn’t know the first fucking thing about.”[/color]

[color=silver]”If you don’t give me the crystal I’ll pluck your feathers from your face and shove them--”[/color]

A cacophonous shrieking, shattering sound interrupted the two, and they hastily turned around to see Vhirai looking straight down at a clearly sundered chunk of crystals, bits of the structure still falling apart and crumbling off of one another. Khara looked at the pile of crystals, dumbfounded for the moment, while Dhokar fought the urge to scream and rage at Vhirai, choking it down after a second before looking very intently at the crystals. Khara didn’t quite scream, restraining herself for the time being, but she very calmly walked up to Vhirai, balled up her right fist, and slammed it into the back of his skull.

He whimpered at the shock and the sudden stabbing pain coursing through his head, before turning around like the crack of a whip and bringing the crude tool in his hands to bear against her, the flat side of it impacting her cheek and sending her barrelling towards the wall of the cave. She hit it with a muted thump, scowling at Vhirai the whole time, but shrugged it off and took a moment to reorient herself.

[color=orange]“You deserved that.”[/color]

[color=silver]”... yep. Sorry, Vhirai. What the fuck was that?”[/color]

[color=purple]”There was a fracture from below, I think. It was too big a sound to just be that cluster… right?”[/color]

[color=orange]”Yeah, yeah… let’s clear it up. Khara, you bag the shards. Vhirai, keep digging--there’s gotta be something more below.”[/color]

Though she still scowled, Khara acquiesced with the order and pulled a hempen sack from her back. She picked the shards up gingerly, inspected a few as she went to make sure there were no more obvious stresses and potential breaks, and went about her work a little more groggily than she ordinarily would.

Vhirai dug around the loose earth and the crystal fragments a little more, scraping away at the base steadily, before hearing another [i]tink[/i] of copper meeting crystal beneath the soil. After a moment of further probing, the same cacophonous shrieking as before filled the cavern--clearly not caused by Vhirai--as the earth beneath them began to rumble and shift. The three partners staggered back, Khara and Vhirai ending up on one side and Dhokar on the other. The ground gave way beneath them, a rough circle of earth simply falling down into darkness below, and the rest of the soft earth dispersed itself into cloying clouds of dust, causing the three to attempt to shield their mouths and noses as they coughed furiously, backing up further to escape the dust.

After a few moments the dust settled, and the trio peered down towards the newly found hole in the cave. They were greeted with the sight of what looked to be an entire cavern--stretching out further that they could see from their poor vantage point--full of the silvery, reflective crystals like a solid sheet that lined the walls and the floor. There wasn’t an obvious way down, exactly, but it seemed that the crystals that had sprouted up beneath the caves that they’d excavated had grown from a branch of some greater structure in the distance. Mostly recovered from her earlier ordeal, Khara decided to scale the path she could just about make out, standing up and grabbing a rope from the sack on her back. She gave it a quick tug to make sure it was still steadfast, before tossing it to Dhokar. He planted his feet as much as possible given the state of the earth, held on to it firmly, and nodded.

Khara took a ginger step down, scaling down the large shard of crystal jutting out of the ground, before dropping down onto what looked to be a conjoining branch of crystal. She gave the rope two tugs--[i]I’m fine, I’m going to carry on[/i]--and Dhokar felt the rope go slack. He shrugged to himself, thinking little of it but what an enormous find this was, and sat down to observe the crystal fragments again. Vhirai took the time to peer down into the cave below, unable to see much on account of the darkness, and took a small wooden torch from his pack. He’d never had much of an aptitude for mana and magic--that was why he’d ended up with these two--but he could cast a simple fire spell or two. Just sparks, mostly, but it was enough to light a torch if he [i]really[/i] focused. It took a solid minute or two of effort, but soon enough the little bundle of wood was comfortably alight--sputtering, on account of the humidity--but alight.

He tossed it down the hole, and as soon as the light hit the reflective crystals a column of reddish-white light erupted from the hole in the ground, the entire cavern below them suddenly aglow with intense luminance. The harsh burst of light soon faded to something more manageable, and as it faded Vhirai was sure he could hear Khara swearing at him like a sailor, making sure he knew that he was very colourfully being compared to the genitalia of several animals. He chuckled a little under his breath, waiting a few seconds, and then peered down into the hole once more. The light still reflected through the mirrored surfaces, and he could see the entire room, but as he scanned her noticed that he distinctly couldn’t see Khara even though he’d just heard her moments ago. 

[color=purple]”... Khara?”[/color] he shouted down, hearing the echo immediately, and suddenly at the base of the crystal spire in the centre of the room he saw movement. Khara quickly emerged and shouted back:

[color=silver]”Yeah! There’s a natural stairwell in the middle of the crystal--it’s, like… this was designed to be walked in?”[/color]

She looked around, still in somewhat of a disoriented stupor, taking in the sights and the fact that she was now reflected hundreds of times throughout the massive cavern. She stared at her reflected image on one of the walls, mouth agape, as she wondered two things: Firstly, how much was this place [i]worth?[/i]; Secondly, who on earth could have made such a place?

[color=silver]”I… don’t think we should be here. We should take what we have and just go, Vhirai--tell Dhokar to get the rope ready.”[/color]

Though her voice carried well throughout the cavern, there didn’t come a reply. She looked back up towards the great crystal spire and its branches, back up towards the hole, and saw only blackness through it. That was odd--it hadn’t been like that a few moments ago. Perhaps it was a trick of the light? Who knew what these crystals could do with light in such immense quantities? She turned the words over in her head for a moment, trying to still the gnawing anxiety and dread building up in her breast, but it quickly overwhelmed her and she darted towards the entrance of the spire that she’d come down originally. She got about halfway before she caught sight of another reflection on the walls of the cavern and stopped in her tracks, looking at the strange figure within the crystals.

It looked almost exactly like her, if she’d been covered in some… kind of molten silver, she supposed, the form rippling and coalescing further as it turned to look at her. With a voice like the same cacophonous shriek the crystals had made earlier, but somehow softer, the reflection seemed to speak directly to her:

[color=#DFB624][i]You tread upon the sanctum of the Two-as-One. You seek to despoil it for your own betterment, for your petty and baseless desires. Khara at-Tawil, whose Truth is that of subservience to the self and none other, this holy place shall be your tomb.[/i][/color]

The strange reflective figure seemed to grab her mirror-self, bringing suddenly visible razor-sharp claws of glass to her reflection’s throat. She paid it no mind, intent only on running, but found herself bound as her reflection was bound--unable to move or struggle, surrounded and grasped by some force she could neither understand nor perceive.

It brought its claws across her neck and she dropped to the floor, clutching a wound that she could not see, before her blood pooled out onto the crystalline floor. 

[hr]

[color=purple]”She said it was designed to be walked in, Dhokar! Maybe it’s something of the gods--perhaps the Sleeping One!”[/color]

[color=orange]”You [i]want[/i] to visit a place sacred to the Sleeping One? To a place where those [i]beasts[/i] exist? You’re fucking mad, Vhirai--but we’ve got to make sure she’s okay, I suppose, if nothing else.”[/color]

[hr]
It hadn’t taken very long for the two of them to actually get down to the crystal cavern below. Dhokar had hammered a shaft of copper into the wall of the cave and tied the rope pretty securely--it had held their individual weights as they’d climbed down, at least--and they were exploring the same crystal spire that Khara had described. She hadn’t really managed to encapsulate just how [i]eerie[/i] it was to be looking at a hundred reflections of yourself in the walls around you and on the floor and on the ceiling--Vhirai’s breaths came faster and faster, the panic starting to get to him as he looked around. He couldn’t be sure, but the light in the room looked… different. The fire had been mostly oranges, but there was a distinctly golden hue to the light in the room now, and he wasn’t even sure if it [i]was[/i] the torch. The torch had surely gone out by now, right?

They reached the floor in a fairly short amount of time, and Zhirai fell to his knees in shock as he saw it: Khara’s body, throat slit, blood pooling on the crystalline floor and starting to seep through the cracks.

[color=#DFB624][i]Vhirai at-Tawil, whose Truth is a lie cloaked in gossamer delusion. Her selfishness became yours, her bitterness rests within your soul. This place shall be your tomb, that you might join your sister.[/i][/color]

He, too, tried to run--only to found himself bound in the grip of those glassine claws, and only to feel his lifeblood running down his gory throat as the last dregs of life slipped away and joined his sister’s in the reflective embrace of eternity.

[color=#DFB624][i]Dhokar al-Khadim…[/i][/color]

Dhokar turned to the reflection on the wall, eyes misty from barely suppressed tears, and awaited his fate. If this is what loyalty to his friends got him--well, maybe the gods [i]were[/i] as cruel as they’d been told after all.

[color=#DFB624][i]There is Truth within you beyond the self. You loved them because they gave you what you did not have, but did not forgive their indolent self-delusions. They saw the world as a thing to be exploited for their personal gain--but you have always harboured curiosity within your soul and a consideration outside the self. Your trespass may be forgiven--dedicate your life to seeking Truth, and you may yet leave this hallowed place.[/i][/color]

Dhokar took a moment to look at the thing speaking to him, tears flowing down his face, as he considered its words. It was true that Khara and Zhirai had always been self-centred or willfully ignorant, but he’d forgiven them their ignorance because it was so difficult to know better. All they had were stories and prayers, and it wasn’t like any of the gods they’d prayed to had ever actually listened. Dhokar wasn’t even sure that they existed--they’d never shown any evidence of their presence in his life or the lives of anyone he knew. Blind faith wasn’t something that got you where you wanted to go. It wasn’t something that let you live out a life that would actually mean something after you had died.

[color=orange]”... seeking truth? What even [i]is[/i] truth? What does it mean?”[/color]

[color=#DFB624][i]Truth is the limits of what you perceive and the context through which you view your world. Truth is what your world must become; Truth is the shaping of what is into what may be. Truth is what you have always sought--answers--and more. It is your salvation and your purpose.[/i][/color]

Dhokar fell to his knees, openly weeping, as the reflective [i]thing[/i] spoke to him. Given a choice between dying like his friends and continuing in the name of a god he’d never thought really existed… Life was the obvious choice. He would remember them always, and through him they would survive--but the world still needed help. It still needed alignment. It, he came to realise, needed Truth.

[color=orange]”I accept. I will seek out Truth, as you say, and make this world better.”[/color]

No more words were necessary. The mirror-thing pressed a glassy claw to Dhokar’s reflection, against his forehead, and there was a burst of intense golden light. By the time it had faded, Dhokar was on the surface and the name in his head no longer felt right. He tried to speak his name--Dhokar--but the words would not leave his mouth and the thoughts slipped through his mind like sand through his fingers. He now had a new name--Naomh Chruinne.

A new name, a new purpose, and a world to set to rights. The first Seeker of Truth was born.

[hider=Summary]A trio of opportunistic adventurers descend deep into the earth beneath Khesyr to retrieve Mirror-Crystals, a supposedly rare and powerful material prized by magi and the faithful of Fìrinn alike. They find a fantastic haul--enough to set them up for many years--but then discover an entire crystal cavern beneath themselves, absolutely filled with the material. Khara, one of the adventurers, is overtaken by greed and descends below to scope out their find, unknowingly trespassing upon a site sacred to Fìrinn and guarded by Faileasiar, the Behindling. It punishes the unlucky adventurer for her greed and selfishness, before her companions seek her below. It kills another for its closed-mindedness, but is impressed by the third, an Alminaki named Dhokar. Though skeptical of the Gods, Dhokar is an inquisitive and intelligent individual who follows their Truth to the best of their ability and has the capacity to think beyond the self. Faileasiar offers them a choice: die, like the others, or become a Seeker of Truth to act as Fìrinn’s agent and make the world a better place.[/hider]

[hider=Might Expenditure]

Starting Points: 3MP/4DP

Consecrate a Holy Order: -3DP, two free titles from Perception

Dreambound I - All Seekers are granted access to Dreamwalking abilities. 

Enhanced Memory I - Seekers gain Eidetic Memory for the duration of their Oaths, but lose access to all of those memories upon relinquishing their power. 

Scrying I - Seekers of Truth gain access to Fìrinn’s suite of magic: Scrying (the location of people or objects across vast distances using the Collective Unconscious); Truesight (Seeing things as they truly are, without illusions or preconceptions). 

Weavebound I - Seekers of Truth are living anchors of the Collective Unconscious, allowing Fìrinn to access their perception without delay, and naturally strengthen the Collective Unconscious around themselves. 

Scáthán I - Seekers of Truth are able to create and manipulate silvery crystals, similar to the Tairseach, that act as perfect mirrors. Being crystalline, they are fragile and easily broken. 

[1 of 5 points towards Memory portfolio]

Ending Points: 3MP/1DP

[/hider]