Vyntaria, 10th of Valtor, 515 ER
In the shadowed council halls of Xerxes Eye IV, nestled deep within the inner workings of the human Kingdom of GOAZER, a clerk named Dobbie stirred from his post in the council cove. From his stone-walled alcove stacked with scrolls and carved ink jars, he relayed an urgent message to his colleague: "Yasmine, you're needed at the Xerxes Earies—at once!"
(The Xerxes Earies was no ordinary roost. It was a revered enclosure — a council cove where giant eagles, bred for long-range message delivery, were kept, trained, and entrusted with the secrets of the realm.)
Dobbie had received the summons through a curious contraption—an arcane transmitter known as a remat. This palm-sized device, etched with runes and powered by unseen forces, pulsed with a small, glowing firefly sigil, a sign that a transmission awaited. When Dobbie pressed his palm to the symbol, the remat chirped and clicked in a secret code only trained clerks could understand. With a practiced hand, he responded—tapping the sigil once more to forward the encoded message to Yasmine's remat, hidden within her own alcove.
In Yasmine's chamber, the matching firefly symbol, glowing in soft emberfire hue, flared gently. She reached for her remat, the enchantments humming faintly as the transmission whispered into her ear.
Dobbie's voice came through, low but firm: "Yasmine, you're needed at the Xerxes Earies."
She scowled, her brow creasing in irritation as she gripped the device. "Dobbie, again? You always pass your errands to me. I have work too, you know. What's wrong with your head today?"
"Please, Yasmine," Dobbie replied sheepishly. "Just this once. I'll treat you to Mama Jiji's stew later. You were assigned this task first, remember?"
Reluctantly, she sighed and placed the remat back in its cradle. Dusting herself off, Yasmine exited her chamber and approached the thick oaken door that led to the eagle enclosure. She rapped thrice, and a slot in the door slid open.
"Token, please," came a voice.
Yasmine handed over a black token, embossed with her portrait on the front and red script reading Xerxes Clerk on the back. The worker behind the door scrutinized it, then passed it to her companion, who confirmed its validity. A moment later, a voice spoke from behind the door.
Daisy, a fellow clerk, asked dryly, "Alright, what is it?"
"It's Yasmine. I've got an order for an eagle—code 145678i."
Daisy raised an eyebrow. "That code just came in. Wait while I verify it."
She tucked the token into her pouch and stepped toward an aumbry—a rune-locked cabinet. With a twist of a small brass key, she opened it and sorted through scrolls until her eyes landed on one marked with the Topple military sigil. After a glance at the document, she locked the cabinet and made her way to a wall-mounted remat. This one glowed not emberfire, but MysticBloom—a different color of arcane resonance.
(Each firefly sigil, depending on its color, resonated with matching remats across the realm. When touched, the user's essence attuned to the device, allowing a spiritual tether to form. The connection let one sense others nearby using the same arcane channel. And when the signal matched, a soft glow would emerge from the remat of the person meant to receive the message. For now, This is just a glimpse of the remat especially to satisfy your curiosity about it. Don't worry, the full secrets of this ancient arcane-transmitter will be revealed in the chapters that follow).
Daisy ran her fingers across the sigil. At that very moment, deep within the Avian Sanctum, another remat pulsed with life.
There, within grand halls of timber and stone, where majestic eagles perched upon gilded racks and cooed softly between missions, the signal was seen. Two handlers moved about—one stocky, the other lean—wearing simple tunics beneath white surcoats, with red aprons and gloves of worn leather. They readied birds, feeding them, checking their talons, and adjusting message scrolls fastened to their legs.
In the corner, two armored warriors—Codex 36 and Codex 38—sat at a table littered with playing cards and empty flagons, chuckling over a rowdy game of chance.
The lean handler noticed the remat's signal and quickly removed a scroll tied to an eagle's leg. Moving to the arcane device, he touched the firefly sigil, ending its glow, and brought the remat to his ear.
Daisy's voice came through: "Rufus, did any eagle bearing code 556765iz deliver a message?"
"Aye," Rufus replied with a tired groan. "About two hours past. Use code 333viz to retrieve the message."
Daisy smiled. "Thanks, Rufus. Hang in there—your shift's nearly done." Their words bore warmth, the kind shared between those who cared for one another beyond duty.
She turned back toward the oak door. "Yasmine, the message code is 333viz. Your tag will be returned shortly!"
Her fellow clerk, done picking at her nails, retrieved the token and passed it through the slot to Yasmine, who accepted it and turned toward a looming mystic conveyor—an enchanted elevator of ancient wood and stone, powered by the energies of Xerxes itself.
She pressed her token into a slot near the base, and the iron portcullis, marked with the crest of XERXES, lifted with a grinding creak. As she stepped inside, a disembodied female voice spoke:
"Liftwarden: Which level do you seek?"
"Level VI," Yasmine muttered with an eye-roll.
The conveyor lurched, then rose smoothly. Upon arrival, the voice chimed again:
"You have chosen wisely. Thank you for riding the Mystic Conveyor."
Yasmine emerged, entering a long hallway that led to a heavy door with iron fittings. She pushed it open and entered the council cove, where the clerks and scribes of Xerxes toiled over scrolls and schedules.
She spotted her target at once.
At his lectern sat Zacky, slurping a thick stew of yams and beans from a wooden trencher, a metal flagon of ale nearby. (I must confess— I used a familiar favorite from my hometown as a stand-in.)
Yasmine knocked on the lectern.
Zacky glanced up, annoyed at being interrupted from both meal and flirtation with the woman beside him. "What now, Yasmine?" he asked, eyes drifting toward her with a look that made her bristle.
"Code from the Earies. I was told to bring it to you," she said flatly.
Zacky's smile vanished. He took the code without further comment, while his companion shot Yasmine a glare brimming with jealousy.
Without another word, Yasmine turned, hips swaying as she headed back to the Mystic Conveyor. Zacky watched her go, then shook his head and returned to the matter at hand.
He unrolled the message and read. His eyes narrowed.
The parchment was quickly stashed into a small, rune-lined cellar beneath his lectern. The mechanism responded with a soft chime, prompting him to open a second, larger compartment. Inside, a fresh parchment waited.
As he read it, his expression darkened.
With urgency, Zacky grabbed his remat and pressed the firefly sigil.
"Brown, I've just received a troubling message. I assume you've been sent the same. Whatever you do, take it seriously—it concerns matters far beyond the usual."
In another chamber, Brown, a fellow councilor, heard the transmission. He took a similar parchment, scribbled a copy of the message, then sealed it with the Xerxes insignia.
Rolling the scroll tightly, he summoned Codex 50.
"Deliver this to the Earies immediately. Inform them it is of great import—it must be handled with urgency and care."
Codex 50 bowed, collected the scroll, and departed Brown's sanctum swiftly with a nod.
Passing Codex 51, he received a nod of acknowledgment. Codex 51 shifted his stance, moving from the right flank to the central ward, where he stood firm at the vestibule's midpoint leading to browns sanctum.