[Aspirant! Welcome to the Nightmare Spell. Prepare for your First Trial…]
Bari dreamt of a temple atop a mountain.
It stood like a monolith beneath the heavens—cruel, jagged, and impossibly tall. The moonlight brushed its flanks with spectral light, revealing a road winding like a scar across its slope.
Above, the stars blinked and shimmered.
Below, shadows crawled and writhed.
Suddenly, the stars reversed their course. The moon plunged, and the sun burst into the sky—racing across the horizon in reverse. Snow retreated. Rain un-fell. Flowers curled closed.
Time flowed backward.
Hundreds of years passed in the blink of an eye. A destroyed village at the bottom of the mountain suddenly came to life. People teleported across the streets as if they moved a super speed, but I knew it was just time reversing itself.
Where the mountain path had been buried beneath age and decay, bones now surfaced—picked clean, scattered like seeds. Then they too vanished.
In their place: a caravan.
Chains rattled. A cage wheel creaked. Voices barked in a strange dialect. The figures—blurred, wrong, almost real—moved backward, climbing down the road toward a small shape nestled at the foot of the mountain: a village, glowing faintly with torchlight, beside a grand stair carved into the slope.
Time slowed. Halted.
Then resumed.
[Aspirant! Welcome to the Nightmare Spell. Prepare for your First Trial…]
***
A dull hum pulsed at the base of Bari's skull.
His eyes snapped open.
Everything was swaying. Ceiling planks creaked above him. Cold air licked his skin through a torn cotton tunic. The floor beneath him—hardwood—jostled with motion.
He was lying on the floor of a wagon.
Outside, the wind howled past a canvas flap.
"…Where…?" His voice was hoarse, dry. His body ached like he'd been running for miles.
A low groan came from the other side of the wagon. Someone stirred—another man, older, in layered armour, eyes half-open but still alert.
"Good. You're awake."
Bari blinked. "…Who are you?"
The man raised a brow. "Don't tell me you hit your head that hard. I'm Ser Aven, vanguard of this convoy."
Bari sat up slowly, the ache in his muscles intense but manageable. "Convoy?"
Another voice piped up—a younger one, from near the front. "You alright, Bari? You've been out since dawn."
A woman peeked through the canvas, frowning. "He probably just needed a bit of air. It's been a long ride."
Long ride? Air? What's going on?
He forced his voice to stay calm. "Where are we going?"
Ser Aven gave him a strange look, then nodded toward the front of the caravan.
"To the Temple of the Heart, boy. Atop Mount Theron. You've not forgotten that much, have you?"
Bari's throat tightened. His mind was a storm. Temple? Mountain? Who are these people? Why do they know my name?
The wagon bumped suddenly. Outside, he caught a glimpse of other carts, guards on horseback, and…
A child.
A girl, no older than ten, sat silently in a small palanquin ahead of them. She was wrapped in silks, her eyes distant. Something shimmered faintly around her—an aura he couldn't explain.
"Is she the one?" Bari asked, almost to himself.
"The Heart's Chosen," Aven said simply. "We're her escort. To the top."
Before Bari could question further, the wagon tilted slightly. A gasp came from one of the others.
The forest parted.
There, in the distance, cradled in the shadow of the mountain, was a village.
Torchlight. Stone buildings. The spiral of incense curls into the evening sky.
A long stone stairway led from the back of the village into the mist-draped heights above—toward a dark silhouette at the peak.
The Temple of the Heart.
Bari's heart pounded.
But before anything else, instinct gripped him.
The moment they reached a lull—when no one was watching too closely, when he had the space to breathe—he closed his eyes and focused.
Quickly thinking up his runes, Bari was amazed at what flashed in his mind.
Name: Bari
Rank: Aspirant
Soul Core: Dormant
Aspect: Scent of Wind
Aspect Description: "Strong-willed are the winds, and so are you. You are able to manipulate the winds around you to a minor degree."
Attributes:
[Storm Kin][Strong Willed][Singularity][Traces of Divinity][Enhanced Perception]
Memories: -
Echoes: -
True Name: -
He stared at the floating text for what felt like hours.
"The spell was generous towards me, I fear what I might have to overcome during this nightmare…"