IV. Prejudice

Sermillion left only minutes before Arisen came out of the room. He turned the corner and went back to his own chambers. He had until sunset to come up with a plan. Slowly it formed inside his head, but he would need someone to follow them, to make sure they were far away and Sermillion knew just who to use.

Night fell and Agnaliz waited for Arisen to show up. It felt like hours before he finally came. He was cloaked like a monk, though his hood was down so she would recognise him.
"I've got one for you too." He said taking a tight package out of his sleeve.
"How considerate." Agnaliz said smiling.
"I told you you were almost free to go." Arisen said.
The two set out. "I know there are some hidden traps. There must be, but so far I can't make them out. Can you?" Arisen asked.
Agnaliz stood still and concentrated. Her mind's eye wandered and looked upon the place the way it was and had been before. "I see a trap." She said.
"Where?"
"Right here." Agnaliz said placing her hand on the wall.
Arisen watched the wall. "There is no charm here." He said.
"But I saw it."
"Someone must have turned the defences of." He said.
"Why?"
"Maybe they forgot about them… or the power ran out."
"And maybe they just want us to go as far away as possible."
"As long as we get out of here it's ok with me.
Outside the two took the road down to the valley. It was near morning when they arrived, careful as they had had to be to get down in the dark of night. 
Agnaliz sighed as she saw the sun rise above the valley. She was a free woman again. She turned to Arisen and asked: "Where do I go from here?"
"Home. Just try it." Arisen smiled as Agnaliz slowly faded, reappeared and then disappeared completely. How odd for her to have had that power for all her life and never have stumbled upon it. Arisen didn't know what to think about it. Meaning he had a rather distinct feeling that he had been used. 
Arisen shook his head and smiled. "Beware your elders." He grinned and turned on the road out of town, already calculating the next converging of a full moon and a way between the worlds.

Chapter 5a: Follow Agnaliz to Calpin

In the monastery, dawn still far away; Sermillion and Tressen were searching the fireplace in Agnaliz's former room. Sermillion was searching the inside for secret compartments while Tressen searched the outside for hidden latches and levers. Their search was fruitless. There was nothing to be found in the fireplace.
"That lying wench." Sermillion muttered and took a step back.
Obviously the fireplace wasn't the right place to look. Sermillion thought. He paced around in his long cape, the black cloth turning and twisting as his arms made instinctive gestures of power. Suddenly Tressen called out in triumph and the back wall of the fireplace tilted back.
"It opened!" Tressen said awed.
"How?"
"I don't know…" Tressen said looking rather puzzled.
When Sermillion passed by him and reached out into the opening, Tressen looked at his back with more than a little interest. Tressen knew for a fact that he hadn't done a thing to the room when the wall flipped back. However, Sermillion had been waving and gesturing.
Sermillion came back out, clutching his hand tightly around a small jewel, a delicate silver chain hanging down from his hand. The jewel seemed to glow green and black, twisting the darkness into stranger shadows.
Sermillion opened his hand, the relic laying on his palm and the green light filled the room, lighting it without light. For a moment they both went quiet.
"I'm sure I heard them say it had no power..." Sermillion said.
"It's glowing." Tressen remarked dryly, letting slip his carefully created facade for a second. Whatever they had said yesterday it hadn't been true. Tressen's mind worked and finally found only one possibility.
"Give it to me." he said with all the authority he could place in his voice.
To his own surprise Sermillion gave him the amulet. He must have been too dazzled to disobey even the lowest of servants. The instant Sermillion let go of the amulet the light faded and died. Tressen felt a soft tingling on his skin, but couldn't make the light come out again.
"Maybe you are the only one who can use it." he said.
"But.... how?"
"Your father brought it here. Maybe it recognises him in you." Tressen said.
Maybe this was an opportunity. If he could make Sermillion do what he wanted, carefully influencing him, Tressen could get out of here. Tressen wanted to get away more than anything else in the entire world.

The next morning the monastery awoke without defences. Tressen was always the first monk to go to the canteen. It was only the start of his workday, but with any luck it would be the last day of his oppression. 
Tressen had planned it all carefully, staying up almost the entire night. He would make the discovery of the failed defences. He would be the one to report it to Plevinon and Aridwen. He would be the one in control, acting better than he had ever done.
"Master! Master!" Tressen yelled at the top of his lungs to make sure everyone would hear him. "Intruders!"
Here and there monks were already looking out their doors, with their hair still a mess and their eyes still half shut. In the olden days they rose at dawn, but that custom had long since been abandoned. Now only Tressen got up at dawn, how he hated them for it and all the other things that made him less.
Tressen reached Aridwen's room and barged in without even a knock. He was through with obeying rules. Tressen nearly grinned when he saw the high mage sitting in his bed, dazzled and looking ever so small in a long white nightgown and with his floppy sleeping hat.
"What?" Aridwen asked.
Tressen quickly checked the hallways. Plevinon was nowhere to be seen. Tressen instantly turned back to the magister and started talking.
"Aridwen. It is me, Rialon. Do you remember?" 
"Of course I remember you my high mage." Aridwen said shrinking back in servitude as the clock in his head turned back nearly 80 years. Aridwen had been a new novice and Rialon the age old high mage at one point in time.
"Aridwen, a wrong has happened."
"Let me make it right..." Aridwen begged.
"You may, for I know this matter concerns you. The thief was none other than your friend Serxes."
Tressen hoped the high mage wouldn't realise Serxes had only been 3 at the time. Often his clock filled up the gaps with knowledge and people from later dates if he was confronted with his growing dementia.
"Serxes?! Never!" Aridwen cried in agony.
"We caught him red-handed. Bring him back or we'll be forced to kill him."
"No master..." Aridwen whispered.
"And you as well. I know you handed him the amulet."
"I.. I.. I didn't, master." Aridwen said, huddling close under the covers for protection.
"You showed Serxes the way last night. Told him where to stay."
"I... I did. Let me right my wrong master." Aridwen begged.
"I allow it."
Tressen scrambled to the door and ran through. He shifted back to the other play of deceit. When he ran around the corner he was already calling out: "Intruders!"
Plevinon bumped into him, sending Tressen crashing to the floor. Tressen let out a pained yelp and then quickly got up. He bowed to Plevinon and then took a step back. The blow he had been expecting came fast and painful. A red stain lighted on Tressen's cheek and in his mind Tressen swore to repay it tenfold when he was free.
"What is it?" Plevinon asked.
"Intruders sir." 
"Where?"
"I found the defences unlocked this morning."
Plevinon gave him a thoughtful stare and then dismissed whatever thought he might have had with a short nod of his head. He passed by Tressen and went into Aridwen's room. Tressen could hear the pleasant voice of Plevinon beyond the door. He crept back to the room and listened.
"It's all my fault... my fault." Aridwen was saying.
"What magister?" Plevinon asked.
"I gave it to him... oh Serxes." Aridwen answered.
Plevinon, now getting a rather inadequate rendering of the events of the last day and night took a conclusion that was rash and noble at the same time. Apparently, he thought, Aridwen had given something to Serxes that was now stolen. Serxes was years dead, before Plevinon's time, but there had been a new visitor yesterday. A stranger he had only seen in the hallways.
"It is my fault, sir." Plevinon answered.
"How can it be your fault?" Aridwen asked.
"Let me get the item back. What is it?"
"The amulet..." Aridwen sighed, his eyes growing big as he thought about the sacrilege of it now being away from the order.
"I will find it master."
Plevinon hated to leave the old magister behind. But there was no-one else he trusted enough to get the amulet back again. No-one powerful enough. He had to go. But he would not leave the order unattended. Sermillion was getting far to cocky.
Plevinon followed a path through the maze and soon found a monk. An old monk, nearly the same age as the magister, but quick of wit and strong of will. A scribe with a set of values that couldn't be broken.
"Isidor." Plevinon called softly at the door.
There was nothing wrong with the old man's hearing either for he opened the door at once.
"Plevinon... What is this I hear about a theft?"
"Can I trust you?" Plevinon asked to be sure.
Isidor took a book and swung it toward Plevinon. Plevinon ducked and, as he got up again, felt blood rushing to his cheeks.
"As if I'd ever harm a book." the emphasis on book sounded so magic and important that Plevinon didn't dare reply again. At least he knew the old man was sincere.
"What was stolen and by whom?"
"An amulet, by Serxes, Aridwen claims... I think it was that stranger that arrived two days past. I don't know who else Aridwen thinks might be Serxes."
"You are right... but you didn't come here to tell me that."
"No. I've come to ask you to guard the monastery while I'm away to retrieve the item."
"Is that wise?"
"Would you like to track this Arisen down?"
The old scribe laughed loud and wiped a tear from his eye at the thought. "No. I imagine I wouldn't succeed."
"Then I must go."
"I will keep things in order for you here."
Plevinon thanked Isidor and left in a hurry after getting a few descriptions from monks who had seen Arisen in his brief stay. Sermillion's and Tressen's were among them, adding to the confusion as they had let in a few errors.

Chapter 5b: What happens to Sermillion and Tressen in the Monastery?
Chapter 5c: Follow Arisen and Plevinon who chases him.

Lantessama Isle