Runes of Magic US / AU

Hello everyone, thanks for coming. I know not many frequent this humble little section of the forums, but every now and then I make centralized stories based largely on game content, my last of which was "Sworn to the Wind", which if you have a lot of spare time, might still be worth looking up. Anyway, seeing as I no longer play on the character that story was centered around, I'm moving on to my latest.
I appreciate you coming, and reading. Please, if you have any comments, please send me a PM; do not comment on this thread if it can be avoided. I would very much appreciate it moving seamlessly.

It seemed too easy. For the past four months, the tales of Serendale Ni’Rhiya were merely collecting information on her departed sister’s death site, and simple – if typically destructive – errands to continue honing her skills in arcana while building a reputation among the people of the Obsidian Stronghold.
And she had been looking this whole time for what had been under her nose, she mused to herself as she emerged from the half-submerged tunnel into Kalin Shrine, which according to the words of Seraph, the raider that had reportedly been before, the burial place of her sister Keidha, and more importantly to her objective, the home of Regin, her killer. So it was that with her thoughts bent on avenging her fallen sister that Serendale’s first impression of the moldy stench and frog-infested shrine was the same as the first words she spoke within.
“This place needs to burn…”
Still as she rounded the bend, she had to remind herself to keep calm as a small wave of frogs came into view, jumping about almost as if on a patrol. Considering her own traumatizing history with frogs in the past – and more precisely, the poisons that had nearly laid waste to her meager restorative magic when her oldest sister Sahraea had stumbled into a nest and could barely survive with the two of them – she decided even these little beasts would not last. A quick conjuration of an indoor storm cloud brought the first of many bestial lives to a close.
As Serendale continued through the tunnel, the archway ahead led into a wider, narrow entrance hall still submerged and positively crawling with frogs. Although her continually-raging clouds of thunder put a swift end to these, it came to light shortly therein that these frogs did in fact live up to Taborean legend. Through a single nick of one’s tongue slipping past her warded shin-guards, almost immediately the sting shot through into her bloodstream, but fortunately did little to distract her.
With the narrow pool cleared of the beasts, Serendale pushed forward, climbing a small staircase – if indeed small could be determined by being the same height of a climb as she – and came to a brief halt as she saw the two stone golems perched at its top and the hovering witch-maids across the way. The golems she suspected would be easy enough to dispatch, despite their grand shields and heavy maces. After all, neither of those can do much in the face of some fire.
Within the span of the next few seconds, Serendale had taken a springing step forward and the moment her foot landed between the two golems and they turned to crush her, the young woman reached her hand down to the floor beneath her and summoned out a sustained funnel of fire through it about herself, returning up around her as a bursting pillar consuming the two golems almost instantly. However in her blind rush she had momentarily forgotten the witches, one of which had approached and had begun casting some form of water magic. Quickly enough, Serendale countered with her own and set herself ablaze, the radial burn expanding as she plowed right through the maiden, sending her to the floor in cinders. Two such maids remained on her right, both of which were similarly incinerated – the first with a colossal fireball and the second just the same as the initial one that had come upon her.
At the end of the entrance hall stood another stairway, this one much higher than Serendale stood – a quick estimate in her mind guessed at about twenty feet tall, but in reality liable to be slightly higher. From its base the sorceress could make out two more golems, but as she approached, she noticed another witch maiden behind them and her initial plan to burn the golems to the ground shifted now to include the maiden behind them. A deft tilt of her shoulder as she slipped between the shield of one golem and the mace of the other allowed her to do just that, and as one all three fell to the floor in a blackened heap.
Still to her right two more golems stood perfectly still. This gave the young woman pause; these two had just seen three of their comrades fall before their very eyes and still made no motion to destroy their aggressor. Of course Serendale would not have preferred to face the wrath of any mace with a head as wide as her shoulders, but she found it strange nonetheless. It was a mystery, but one she might have to solve later, she decided. Another vortex of thunder and haze sent the two staring golems stumbling to the ground, devoid of any sign of standing again. And still another maiden approached, once again put down by a massive ball of fire.
It was too easy… Keidha couldn’t possibly be put down by the likes of this!
Around the bend, following the wall to her left, Serendale came upon yet another pair of golems and a patrol of maidens behind them. Deciding against risking drawing unwanted attention for these around-the-corner debuts, she sent a quick fireball to the one nearest the wall and moved to take its place, only summoning another thunderstorm after she had verified nothing more significant stood in hiding around the corner. Even the maiden’s summoned barrier did little to stop Serendale’s onslaught.
It became a relative routine. The maids patrolled in soloistic groups; only one to each collective, so they could be put down with a simple fireball, but the golems always stood on either side of a passage, so close that her wide-reaching storms could put them down without any trouble at all. So it was; another maid, another fireball leading straight into the vortex of the golems behind it.
Of course, this did little to prevent her from taking down both maid and golems once she spotted the next group just along the balcony. Still as she pressed on, she came to another staircase about as high as the last, with nothing visible atop it. As she hit the top of the stairs, she took the left hook and continued fully again half the height of the staircase, once again storming on the golems guarding its top and sending a fireball rocketing at the maiden behind them.
“It’s too predictable…” Serendale muttered, even as she struck down the next pair of golems and maiden standing in the room. “It doesn’t make any sense.”
The next room only housed one patrol crew, which came close enough together that she simply struck them all down with another storm, but not before the maiden sent a ball of dark magic hurtling at Serendale, striking her shoulder with all the force of an amateur wielding a hammer. Not even worth mending…
As she came out onto the following balcony, another patrol came crashing down by way of a thunderstorm, and Serendale pressed on through the following tunnel, not even slowing as she sent a paired fireball and wave of water magic dropping the maiden in her path. As she came through, a fireball shot down the golem standing guard atop the staircase, which for once the woman was happy to be able to descend… although the clear view of the patrol at its foot gave her much easier ground to storm the crew and proceed along the next hallway.
For once, she noticed the golem moving along a patrol route. However much of an improvement that was, it did nothing to dispel the discouraging reality that it had in fact turned away from her on its return run. A fireball to the back and it fell crashing to the floor. More descending stairs, more patrols, wandering maids and a few more golems at its base. Not even the maiden wandering out of the way was spared; Serendale vowed to do a thorough job of this.
Still moving along the winding halls, two more patrols came thundering down before a small staircase led down into the next room where the sorceress came to a grinding halt. Standing between her and her way forward stood what at a distance appeared simply another golem, but as she came into the room realized her perspective viewpoint had failed her completely.
This colossus stood fully two and a half times taller than the stone golems she had felled, its mace was not only as wide for its head as Serendale was tall, but beyond that was cruelly spiked and its metallic armor and giant shield suggested it had the strength and endurance to wield it more efficiently than the dozens of slain golems laid to waste behind her.
Deciding it better to approach with mild caution, Serendale invoked a lasting magic enhancement charm on herself in quick preparation, keeping several others in mind should the need arise. Thus readied, she began conjuring a familiar sphere of flame, which at its impact seemed to knock even the hulking mass of the golem back a little. Even still, it was far from finished, its spiked mace arcing around and striking the ground hard enough to send a wave of force rocketing the sorceress’ way, striking her with enough force to send her entire body trembling, though with pure focus she continued to launch her next searing blaze, only just before the giant had come upon her.
Without time to think, she called on her elder sister’s lessons, first inciting a woven regenerative spell on herself and then a more powerful heal that gave her some chance of remaining standing. Although the massive golem still stood towering over her with her well within reach, she still remained relatively unfazed, conjuring another massive fireball and hurling it at its face before the giant mace collided with the young woman’s chest, dropping her right to her back and breaking her next spell.
The moment she regained her feet, she was again drawing curative magic to herself, struggling just to breathe for a second. Another flaming sphere and a narrow miss of the giant to her head – although the impact of the mace’s shaft was not incredibly pleasant either – and the colossus fell to its knees, then down entirely, its mace and shield falling so near to the sorceress that she cringed at the thought that she had avoided being flattened by sheer fortune. Despite her success however, she decided perhaps it was not as simple as she had initially suspected. Going forward, she would have to plan more if she had any hopes not to join her sister in death here.
She paused for several minutes, pondering the reality of her situation. Clearly, the defenses arranged within the shrine held only basic capabilities, particularly for perception. Many of the lesser patrols came down without even noticing her positioned only a dozen feet ahead, and even this giant had not noticed her until she had struck him in the head with a blast of magic.
That’s when it struck her; these were not intelligent beings. They had been empowered to patrol by magic, most likely runic magic. Keidha didn’t fall to the likes of simple runic guardians; she knew enough about their antics to mimic them perfectly – and often as Serendale recalled, did just that in sparring sessions with her and Sahraea in their youth.
Serendale stood silent, her gaze lost in a thousand-yard stare at this fallen giant, engrossed in her memory before the ache in her shoulder reminded her she was still not in good condition, nor was her goal fulfilled. This was only the first obstacle to overcome.

Serendale continued down the winding staircase behind the fallen giant, finally willing herself to proceed through the shrine and into an array of patrolmen and golems – thankfully, the smaller sorts that only stood a little higher than herself. The first few she dispatched predictably with her storm clouds, though one particularly evasive patrolman had come close to a strike with a two-pronged hooked knife that in no way did the sorceress want tearing through her. Luckily, a diving roll backwards and a quick fireball finished him off before he could close in on her.
Another downward set of stairs later, Serendale burned down another few patrolmen and crossed into a room sporting fully a dozen more. After clearing her way into the room, the sorceress paused, once again thanking everything she could think of that these were not intelligent guardians, and certainly not as potent as the colossus. Regardless, even the lot of them were unable to stand up to the might of Serendale’s storms.
Still she continued, falling back on her almost playful antics, having cleared the burning hatred out of her mind with the focus on the rune giant. Storm after storm she conjured, pushing through the hall and another dozen patrolmen before rounding up another flight of stairs, ascending to her surprise into another group of frogs.
“Now how do these get in so deep out of water?” She wondered aloud, surprised for a second at the sound of her voice as she had gone silent for so long. Either way, it was odd… but not odd enough to prevent her from storming these down as well and proceeding down the stairs beyond.
She had almost been through the next room and its already-deceased patrol – which again she found odd at first – before she noticed the water source to her left, as well as the full-size dragon turtle within it. “Oh…” she breathed, “that’s how.”
Still, this was nothing to sneeze at. There were a number of risks that Serendale was willing to take, but having a dragon turtle at her back was not one of them. This beast would have to go. Once again preparing her infusion of magic as well as an overloaded empowerment spell, she launched another searing sphere of flame at the creature’s head yet again. Immediately a stream of water came back to meet her, presumably the dragon’s breath considering it spewed from its mouth, pressing painfully hard at her but failing to break her concentration.
For a turtle, the beast moved remarkably quickly, closing on Serendale even before her next spell had gone off, snapping a bite at her arm so nearly catching her out of focus that when it finished, she had to draw her right arm back just to pry it free from its piercing grip even as it reared back from the blast. Even still the beast bit again, but Serendale nimbly edged to the side, skirting by as another ball of flame exploded into the turtle’s shell, but the follow-up of its bite came a little less expected, slamming the tip of its head right into her chest, whereupon she stumbled back with a cough, one last ball of flame dropping the creature.
Still, despite the lingering pains and the sharp throbs of blood pouring from her arm, the sorceress stepped back and rubbed under her collar bone for a few seconds, massaging away the strain of impact. “Geez… haven’t you ever heard not to hit a lady?” She muttered at the slain turtle, “Especially there?”
She may have been wounded, but with a reputation like hers, she was not nearly ready to give up her playful charm. A couple healing spells later, she was on her way up the next flight of stairs and taking more frogs by surprise, one cloud at a time.
She had nearly made to cross a preceding bridge when she slowed to a halt, realizing the majority of the bridge in question had broken away. Still, as she turned to find another route only the wall greeted her. Slowly approaching the bridge again she decided to try the way of faith and make a bound for it, considering the large pool below even if she should be unable to cross. After all, in her experience there was usually something to help bridge the gap.
To her immediate dismay, no such assistance was in view; four seconds of falling right into the pool below left her certainly sore, but it was only then where she noticed the staircase submerged in the pool leading up to dry flooring again, which she promptly pursued. Another regeneration spell went on its way by the time Serendale paused at the sight of several already-dead frogs littering the path ahead. Still she continued, up another small flight of stairs up to another bridge.
Halfway across though, Serendale lost her footing by way of a ground-shaking roar and quick landing of… “Oh. Dragon.” She muttered.
She didn’t even have time to prepare; the towering beast had already noticed her, and by the time she so much as regained her standing she had felt the sting of hundreds – if not thousands – of eruptions all along her bloodstream, nearly blinding her with the pain. It didn’t matter to her that a giant claw had raked from shoulder to shoulder. It didn’t matter that this putrid dragon stood three times as tall as she did. What mattered to her at that moment was that her blood was exploding!
No, not exploding, she realized. Hatching into more of those devilish frogs. The dragon had laid leeching eggs all over her, and they drew from her bloodstream to hatch? “That’s it,” She growled, bringing up a pillar of flame about herself and incinerating all the hatchlings at once, “burn.”
Still, the dragon coughed up another slime of eggs onto Serendale, but she steeled her will on it, ignoring the pain, ignoring her sudden lack of vision from the searing trauma. One, two, three balls of fire and finally she heard the crash of the dragon falling at her feet. With only that moment to rest she pulled back and began healing herself again, sending off another wave of flame as the eggs hatched and finally nothing more assailed her.
She had to rest, at least for a moment. Leaning back against a nearby pillar, she watched the dragon’s corpse with a loathing in her eyes that she had only seen in Keidha’s before, and even then only in the line of duty. For a girl who normally looked like she was on a mission and always full of focus, Keidha had certainly known how to glare hatred at someone.
Again, the memory of her sister troubled the sorceress, and as she glanced back around the pillar and up to the bridge left behind, she realized all too quickly that she had just left her own chances of escape behind; there was no way back up and out that didn’t mean plowing through the rest of the shrine, and even then this was supposed to be a tomb, not a tunnel. Maybe this would be her burial place, too…
Serendale shook her head; this was no time to think on such a thing. Turning her eyes ahead, she ran on, finally catching a breath from the constant storming of guards a dozen at a time. Only a handful of maidens stood through the hallway, and several more beyond that but none of them survived long enough of a notice to even return fire on Serendale.
As she neared another bridge, she came to a stop again. Pacing about on a wider portion of the bridge was what at best looked to be some cross of a minotaur and a capra – certainly nothing pleasant to the eye and for a proportional humanoid, still fully twice her height. It seemed to have a reverant look to it as it stared on at a colossal goddess’ statue. Perhaps a follower, but Serendale suspected a threat all the same, particularly considering its stature and brawn.
Deciding once again better safe than sorry, Serendale took a few seconds to prepare herself for a fight again before charging in with a fireball nearly as large as she was. Sure enough, the creature returned with more aggression than the sorceress had predicted, crippling the young mage in mere seconds but still not looking much better itself.
Even still, Serendale knew curative magic, and by the time the beast had closed on her, she was already raring to go again. A single punch sent shudders running through her bones, revealing just how powerful this creature was. Still, another jet of flame put an end to another threat. The beast fell onto its back, horns cracking against the impact and causing the sorceress to wince, not particularly wanting to imagine how painful that would have been to a living specimen. Either way, she couldn’t stop now.
Down another flight of stairs, Serendale came to another room crawling with maids and patrolmen. By now she had realized the way Keidha had so easily mastered their patterns, and sent the whole courtyard of thirty to their graves without a single incident. Another flight of stairs and she paused. To her right stood a sealed door.
To her left, she initially thought was only another maid, until it drew closer. A brief tingle ran up her arms, a notable essence of magic catching her senses and alerting her to the power of this maid in particular, which she opted into calling the ‘high maid’.
Still, it drew too close; Serendale had no time to prepare, nor even to finish her burst of flame before with a single snap, she lost not only her focus, but also knew nothing past the sheer horror that flooded her head. She wanted to leave, and sure enough she tried to do just that. This bout of panic lasted only seconds though, and by the time Serendale recovered, she was still relatively unharmed. Frightened over nothing.
It took a moment of footwork to catch her balance again, but Serendale threw herself into spellcasting yet again, tearing down the barrier the high maid had brought up in a single burst, but in that time the young woman had been put under an arrangement of curses each withering away at her life.
“My dear, let me kiss you!” The high maid called to her.
“Yeah, no.” Serendale sighed, even as the high maid approached again. She took a dive to the side, closing her hand on her side just long enough to set another regenerative spell going before rolling through her landing to cast another heal before returning another ball of flame at the witch, dropping her sprawled to the floor, no longer counted among the living.
Serendale pressed her thumb and forefinger against her forehead, thinking for a moment on what she had just witnessed. While at first she chuckled at the reality that maybe under better circumstances, it would not have been so traumatic nor as painful, the thought of coming across someone trying to kiss her while trying to kill her was not a pleasant one. Still, she had heard rumors of some creatures killing by such a gesture, which again she had no intention of exposing herself to. Always better safe than not.
Moving on forward, Serendale tried the door, but as she pressed her hand against it, her mind fogged almost instantly, a sickeningly sweet smell tearing at her nose as her sight quickly darkened, and the strength in her legs gave out…

“Keidha!” Sahraea’s voice sounded in Serendale’s mind, the darkness beginning to clear from her vision though she found herself in another room of the shrine, one that she did not recognize. “Don’t you dare die on me!”
Serendale made as if to speak, but found she had lost her voice. Looking down, she realized she had no self either, as if she were literally not there outside eyes and ears. Ahead, knelt over the body of the middle sister of the three, Sahraea poured as much magic as she could into her sister, tears melding in with the magic but proving to be no avail, and after several seconds, she turned her eyes to a hovering sorcerer nearer to the back of the room.
“You killed her!” Sahraea screamed, “Damn it, she was my sister!”
“She was my guest,” the sorcerer answered back, “I merely entertained her. Perhaps I shall entertain you next, little girl?”
It had to be Regin, Serendale realized. That, and she was dreaming… which she found to be a good thing for only one reason; she was not already dead. Whatever trap she had sprung was not lethal, or at least not immediately so. Still Serendale saw Regin approach Sahraea, but her sister proved the wiser of the two, setting off a spell to transport her safely away, leaving the sorcerer with a disappointed but amused look on his face.
Only seconds later, the sorceress’s vision shifted to that of a stone floor and her senses returned to a reality of the cold surface beneath her on which she had fallen. As she pulled herself to her feet she noticed another corpse beside her… “Seraph.” She mused. “You followed me all this way, didn’t you? Used me, huh?”
He didn’t answer. After several seconds, including those spent in silent prayer that his passing be a peaceful one, Serendale paid him no more heed, and once again resumed her assault. Another long staircase, another winding hallway littered with patrolman corpses… someone had been here and done all this already, or perhaps merely had been throrough enough to prevent reanimation.
It didn’t matter. At the end of the hallway was the same room from Serendale’s dream, and standing between three staircases was none other than Regin, the sorcerer who had killed one sister and forced the other to abandon her. As Serendale approached, Regin took up a gleeful welcome, which she promptly ignored and continued walking forward, fires burning in her eyes.
Even still, Serendale did not get to make her surprise. Before she could even react, a bolt of lightning struck down on her, forcing her back a step but flames rising in both hands as she prepared to fight back. Her ball of fire was only the first of several, but a blinding streak of fire crashed down on her as well before her second came.
As if Regin’s magic wasn’t enough, the four swords hovering behind him proved not to be mere decoration for the red-robed sorcerer. All four moved to stab through the woman, but she promptly dove through the fray and set loose another fireball without delay and had another in conjuration before her spell was lost, as was her target.
“I’m sorry.” Regin’s voice boomed. “I have to prepare for an opera. Please forgive my absence. When I’m not here, these two will look after our guest. Please make yourself at home.”
“Oh, shut up…” Serendale groaned, though with a moment to prepare she set curative magic at work again and looked around. Both the golem colossus and the high maid approached from either side. Outflanked and outmaneuvered, Serendale elected the only way she could to make any form of move; backward.
The shockwave of the giant and curses of the maid came at work early, forcing the young woman to fall back again and heal herself before the two caught up again, their continual assault being met with a raging burst of fire from Serendale when she could. There was no time to think of tactics; she knew it would drain her energies by a large sum, but she could not take this a fireball at a time…
A massive spiral of flames burst up at her summons, peeling away at the golem and the maid, but even as they fell Serendale took a long blow from the golem’s mace, hurling her against the right wall and dropping her to her knees. Struggling not only to get up but also to breathe, she set to work healing herself despite her power running low on her, blood and sweat still mixing painfully along her face.
Still, she was met with the smallest relief; Regin appeared once again at the center of the room, looking from the golem to the maid with a sigh.
“Don’t even.” Serendale mused. “You haven’t missed much.”
She was already in the throes of another fireball, and Regin shrugged, approaching with his whole body ablaze, catching Serendale in the surrounding flames and sending enough agony through her frame that she had to heal herself between every fireball. One, two, three, four…
“It appears that we will have to use our best for this one,” Regin announced, though he was clearly trembling in the throes of another spell.
“Or you could die.” Serendale grumbled, as another wave of fire met the sorcerer’s face, dropping him back to the floor and crumpled to a heap with a scream. After this the young lady dropped to her knees, panting, still wounded but so tired from the strain of her magic that she could no longer hope even to heal herself for now, but mortal danger aside, she had succeeded.
She’d still done her sister justice, and had earned her peace. After a few minutes, she picked herself up again and looked back to her only prospective way out. The gate was barred, sealed off from the intruder.
Still, the sorceress had one more trick up her sleeve, once again thanks to the teachings of her elder sister Sahraea. One she could perform safely now, without risking her life for it. To the side of the room, piled atop numerous other bodies of others who Serendale suspected had reached Regin’s hall and failed to destroy him, she recognized her sister Keidha, and ran over to pull her away from the others, unable to precisely figure out how she had been so well-preserved over twenty years, but that wasn’t for her to decide. With the body slung over her shoulder, she once again went into casting as an impossible gust of wind swept through the room.
At its completion, Serendale was gone, returned home to her still-living sister Sahraea, with the body of the bravest woman she knew across her shoulders.
“Sahraea…” she panted, “I’m home…”

"Sahraea?" Serendale blinked. Her sister was not home.
After a brief moment to check the living room of the house, Serendale set Keidha's body down at the door and crept in further. She should be here, she thought insistently. She told me she would wait for me... for the funeral!
"Sahraea!" Serendale shouted, hoping perhaps her sister had merely fallen asleep. By the time she came to her bedroom door, she found only a note posted on the frame.
'Urgent matters. I know we only just arrived on Candara, but Keidha wouldn't want us to delay something life-threatening to potentially hundreds of millions of lives for her funeral. Even cut down to us two, the Sisterhood still stands. I've traveled to Dalanis, off the southern coast of Zandorya. You should be able to find me there, and I will be safe - I promise. Do what you need to. I'll meet you there at the local inn. Stay safe, Serendale. I've lost Keidha; I don't want to lose you too.'
Serendale sighed, and took the note from the doorframe, crushing it in her hand - and accidentally setting it aflame without any intent. "Don't you dare die, Sahraea." She breathed.

While it took several days to prepare and several more in transit from Candara to Zandorya, Serendale arrived in Dalanis by airship and immediately set about asking where she might find the inn. Only two hours later, news had reached her.
"She what?" Serendale echoed to the patron having informed her.
"You're asking about Sahraea Ni'Rhiya, yes?"
"Yeah..." Serendale nodded. "But she's not stupid enough to go chasing after people who meddle with dragons and survive."
"If you're lucky, you can still catch her." The patron offered.
"Dragons!" Serendale repeated herself.
"It's still in progress. Nothing is complete."
Serendale paused. Perhaps Sahraea would have engaged in a hunt on a work in progress. "Go on..."
"In the outer districts, through the sewers you will find the old dungeon. These days it's more of a mausoleum but someone as... capable as yourself might be able to make her way through and find her."
"Show me." Serendale said plainly.
"I can't-"
"Show me." Serendale insisted, setting down a bag of gold. "And consider that a downpayment if I find her."
"A-alright..." The man nodded, making his way out.

"I will not lose another sister to this mess..."