Onarr prepared to follow the rest of the group to jump the ship. He began shifting magnetic energy under his soles and began to follow behind Ingrid, stepping behind her as rivers of lightning poured out from his foot and burnt away the water, buoying him upwards. 

Well, that was what should have happened. Instead, Onarr felt the charge beneath his feet disappear like a drop of water on a hot summer’s day. His boots waggled in the air, trying to grab on for purchase, before he looked around and balked at what he was seeing.

Everything around him was frozen, their expressions transfixed. The oceans around him were still, the lurching waves crested like serpents waiting to strike. Onarr moved his hand around and then, pinched himself to see whether or not he was hallucinating from prolonged underwater asphyxiation. The sharp stab of pain confirmed his hypothesis. Onarr bit his lip, looking nervously around him before a tap on his shoulder interrupted his thought process. 

“ By Shune’s saggy nethers, what -” Onarr couldn’t complete his sentence as the spitting image of his brother appeared before him. He had a violet shawl around his neck and his cow-licked blonde hair was roughly cut but a puckish smile under his green eyes made Onarr’s heart skip a beat. He slowly reached his hand out to graze his brother’s cheek as he spoke breathlessly. 

“ Karl. How are you here?” He looked down at his brother’s feet which were leather-shod with thick castle-forged bracing around the knees.   “ Your legs….you can walk again and is this temporal magic? How- ? 

“ A long and fascinating one but that doesn’t matter.”  Karl firmly grabbed Onarr’s shoulder and silenced his older sibling’s mumblings with a hug. “ How are you, arakun?” 

“ Well - “ Onarr gently removed himself from his brother’s grip, his curiosity overcoming his relief. “ - I don’t understand. Why have you journeyed all the way to the other side of the world?” 

“ I need your help. Well, not me.” Karl looked down with guilt, chewing his inner cheek for a few seconds, before staring at Onarr in the eyes. “ There’s no easy way to say this but our parents need help.” 

Onarr felt as though he had bitten into a lemon. His head leaned back for a moment to consider the revelation before nodding for his brother to continue. 

“ Explain.” 

“ Our mother was arrested on grounds of sedition and heresy by the Stresian Guild and our father too by association. I managed to escape from the family homestead before they….they….” 

Karl stammered and then took a short breath to recompose himself. His pain-stricken face made Onarr guilty. He had to leave his little brother all alone in Joru to deal with it by himself. He should have been there, but he was more alarmed with what Karl had told him. He could count the number of excommunicated and arrested members on his two hands and even then, his mother had openly denounced herself of the Guild. To arrest former members was to set new and worrying precedents. 

“ They set it all on fire. There’s nothing left, Onarr. Nothing.” 

“ That’s a lie. The Guild wouldn’t - “ 

“ Whether it was the Guild or not, one thing is for certain.” Karl’s gaze was now firm as steel, conviction boiling under his eyes. “ Things have changed in Joru ever since you entered Ersand’Enise. I tried to investigate it but to no avail.” 

Karl snapped his fingers and before Onarr could react, a transparent sphere appeared to their right. It reminded Onarr of a beaker with how he could see the ocean bending through it. However, he shifted his head to the right and he could see a flicker of green and then, the yellow tufts of the Joru plains. His brother had somehow managed to opened a space-time portal with the same amount of effort it would take to butter a piece of bread. 

“The portal won’t hold for long, brother.” Karl gritted out, his tone measured. “ You need to make your decision now.” 

Onarr looked at the portal contemplatively and then, towards his brother. 

“ You’re asking me to leave Ersand’Enise. With the news you told me, what is left for us in Joru?”

“ Only what we make of it, arakun.” His brother grunted as a drop of blood slid out of his nose. “ We cannot tarry for much longer. What is your choice?” 

“ You, of course.” Onarr then scratched his chin before taking out a piece of coal. “ But could you break the fabric of reality long enough for me to finish writing this note?” 

[hr] 

As you looked around for Onarr, the Joruban dwarf was mysteriously nowhere to be seen, once there and now gone. Then, you noticed something within your pocket. Taking it out, it appeared to be a message hastily written in charcoal. 

[i]Dear compatriots,

I’m afraid that duty has compelled me to return back to my homelands. Trouble has come onto my doorstep and I must confront what I tried to leave behind in my past. I wish you all fortune in your quest and may you become great mages. 

May happenstance favor us to meet again in good tidings. 

Onarr Yidlob.[/i]