Jaux Ballad has always wanted to enter the realm of magic, but could not do so by regular means. In his desperation to become a magician he finds himself with more power, and more trouble, than he could ever have imagined.

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The collection of artifacts in front of the stone shacks grew larger than the other groups. Being able to open up difficult locks gave Rales a high priority in regards to relic claiming. Suhara's curse magic also opened up a few tricky doors.

There were too many artifacts to store back in the Lyceum research room, but Rales actually intended to sell most of what was collected. His passion was royal antiques. The belongings of a guild didn't excite him. Money earned from selling the swords and other relics would fund future research trips, which may lead to artifacts more to Rales's interest.

Suhara denied Rales's offer to evenly split the money that will be earned. She was excited to be able to earn some cash, but selling only what she found would provide more than enough money. A few of the relics were kept to give to her roommates. The remainders were worth several bags of gold. She considered selling the Dragon Tongue for a huge load of cash, but she felt a bit sentimental. It was the first artifact she got to claim here.

The Dragon Tongue looked nice and had a powerful ability, but it was a weapon more suited for a paladin or cleric. Suhara was just a magician. The black longsword was so heavy that it required both her hands to lift. She needed a free hand, or else she wouldn't be able to cast most her spells.

Desyi couldn't use the Dragon Tongue, she didn't have any strength boosters. It might be useful for Frey, though.

Suhara had a pair of daggers, a sword, and a hilt set aside for her roommates.

The pair of daggers were for Tricks. They belonged to an assassin swordsman, and had three effective enchantments. Each dagger could turn invisible, fly straight through the air for ten meters, and return to the owner's hands.

The sword was for Desyi. It allowed the user to fly in whatever direction it is pointed towards. The blade also had an enchantment to keep it from melting in excessive temperatures, so it could be heated up by Desyi's temperature magic without breaking.

Suhara found that the hilt used dimension magic to store multiple blades within itself. She planned to give it to Frey. The hilt was a versatile weapon that was easy to store. It could be shifted to a sharp dagger, a heavy longsword, a pointy rapier, or a saw.

The time magician from Javex arrived on the penultimate day of the research trip. Most of the castle had been cleared out. All the researchers gathered down in the secret room, while the time magician worked on breaking the time dissonance within the pocket dimension.

Suhara used her Winter Sight to view the magical process. The time wizard summoned an array of strange pink instruments. Similar instruments were extracted from inside the portal. The pink items resembled string and percussion instruments, but with odd geometric shapes and random rotating parts. He fiddled with the objects, and constantly moved the different items through the air. It looked like he was trying to perform as an entire orchestra. At one point, a green hand with pink fingertips was formed, and assisted the time wizard.

When Suhara described what she was seeing, Rales explained how time magic involved manipulating a fourth dimension of wavelengths and particles. Suhara didn't get it. Joula didn't either. Most of the younger magicians did not understand time magic.

The time magician finished in under an hour. Once the time dissonance was cleared, the swirling colors of the portal also faded. A garden full of vegetables was revealed through the portal.

Rales entered first, and Suhara trusted him enough to immediately follow.

The pocket dimension was bright. A massive light that occupied half of the sky hung directly above. The sky itself was green instead of blue, and all the plants had red leaves.

The food was plentiful and growing all over the place: grapes and melons crawled along the floor, tomato and bean plants were springing out in a square field, oranges and avocados hung in the trees.

A small stream of water ran by every plant.

Rales looked around and armed himself with his staff. "Everyone be on the lookout, this dimension was designed to support life, someone must be here."

Celner stepped through the portal and held up his wand. "Dear gods, a member of the Eclipsed Edge, perhaps?"

The rest of the researchers started to hop through the portal.

"They might be friendly. It wasn't an evil guild, from what we could tell." said one of the Javex researchers.

"Even so," said Kellin, "we have been taking from their castle under the assumption that they were gone. It is possible to consider us as thieves."

Joula pointed at a faraway lake. "I think I see someone's magic over there!"

Suhara looked over at where Joula indicated. "I see it too!"

Rales and Celner approached the lake first, then waved for everyone else to follow.

A flat plateau of gray stone was propped up in the center of the lake. There was a woman with dark brown hair meditating on the stone. Her eyes were closed and her body was still. Celner tried calling out to her, but she didn't return any response.

"Keep your distance, everyone," said Rales. "If we crowd her, we could be seen as a threat."

"She's not armed, I don't think she's dangerous." One of the Ginrook researchers walked up and stepped into the lake.

As soon as the lake water was touched, the mysterious woman's eyes flew open. Her eyes were golden. She uncrossed her legs and leaped up into the bright sky. A pair of swords shot out from the stone and flew up with the woman.

Rales tried to gaze up at the sky, but couldn't look at the shining light. "Shit! Get back!"

The woman landed in the center of the crowd of researchers. A powerful shockwave burst out from her, and knocked everyone off their feet.

"Wait! We mean you no harm!" said Celner.

The mysterious woman crossed her swords like scissors, trapping Kellin's neck against the floor.

"Nel yune, sa vallis en!" said the woman.

"She doesn't speak our tongue!" said a Ginrook researcher.

"No shit! Shut the fuck up!" said a Javex researcher.

Kellin narrowed her eyes and concentrated, then she nervously muttered a reply, "Ke.. Keln yune, sa ulros."

The mysterious woman remained silent for another moment, then lifted her swords away from Kellin's neck. She sheathed her swords and into her belt, then brushed her palm against a blue stone bracelet.

A transparent blue man, a specter, appeared out of thin air. The woman gestured towards all the researchers and spoke to the apparition.

"Greetings," said the specter. "Do you all understand me?"

Everyone stood back up. A few of the researchers nodded slowly.

The specter smiled. "Excellent. My name is Oreno Cella. I hail from Nilivion, and I am currently in the form of an artificial specter constructed from mind and power magics. My friend here is called Cilna. We are the last of the Eclipsed Brand Guild."

"Knew it wasn't edge." whispered a researcher.

"I still think edge sounds better." whispered another.

Celner smiled and stepped forward. "Ah, I can't believe it, hello Oreno! My name is Celner Whitelark. I am leading a team of researchers in examining your guild castle! We are all archeologist, or students with an interest in the ancient. We are sorry to intrude."

Oreno floated up to Cilna and started to discuss with her.

Cilna sighed with relief and started to relax herself. She clapped her hands together and bowed to everyone. A small grin grew on her face.

"We are happy to hear of this," said Oreno. "Cilna is our guild leader, and she is the only one of our group who still lives. The rest of us perished at the hands of evil. She sealed herself here to keep a dangerous relic out of reach."

"I figured as much," said Rales. "We uncovered your archives, and the name Cilna never popped up. The only person in the archives who wasn't named was the leader, the Mistress of Blades."

"May we ask what that relic is?" said Kellin.

Oreno and Cilna exchanged a few more words. Cilna nodded.

"Yes, you may," said Oreno. "Our leader guards the Amber Heart, core of the Lich."

All the researchers who knew who the Lich was gasped. They started to summarize the old legends to everyone who didn't know.

Rales explained it to Suhara and Joula. "The Lich was the High Priest of Holoko. He only existed for about two years, but was able to take over a majority of four different territories. It is said that a great army of undead was completely at his command, and that his undead soldiers had sentient minds. He was the most powerful necromancer in all of history."

"I am sorry, I must go," said Oreno. "Cilna is running out of magic to power my bracelet."

"That's okay," said Celner. "I'll go retrieve my dictionaries. I should be able to enchant an empty journal to translate your leader's speech."

Oreno smiled. "Good, then I need not tax my leader's magic any longer."

The specter evaporated away.

Cilna left her pocket dimension and explored the outside world she left behind. She frowned a bit when she saw all the artifacts on display outside, but didn't make a fuss.

The royal paladins on guard outside were surprised by the unfamiliar woman. Cilna and the paladins all took aggressive stances against each other, and a lot of yelling was required to calm the situation down.

After all the commotion, most of the researched assisted Celner with forging a journal that translated Cilna's language.

During all the excitement, Joula stayed in the pocket dimension. She snuck into the lake and turned invisible so that no one would notice her. When everyone was gone, she swam over to the small stone plateau. She had spotted a magical glow coming from inside. Curiosity overwhelmed her mind. She pushed against the top of the flat stone until it slid away.

There was a bundle of leather hidden inside. Runes and magical patterns were drawn all over the leather. Joula gaped with amazement. She took the tip of one of the coverings, and cautiously peeled it away. Underneath the wrapping was a yellow light, most likely from the Amber Heart.

Joula just wanted to see it for herself. Legendary beings like the Lich fascinated her more than any other type of history. The desire to steal the heart wrestled with her conscience. She ended up deciding against it. Although it would mean a lot to obtain an artifact of living legends, the magic leather coverings suggested that it would be too dangerous. Sneaking a peek like she did was already foolish and rash.

Joula covered the relic again with the leather. Then, she left the pocket dimension and rejoined her group.

Later in the day, the magical notebooks were fully developed. Cilna had one that translated common speech into her language, and wrote it into the pages. The researchers gathered around a notebook that did the same thing in reverse, so that everyone could understand what Cilna said.

It was a bit crowded, but everyone was too impatient to wait another five hours for a third translation book to be forged. The magic item took a long time to make because of the complexity of speech. The amount of ink that needed to be stored inside the book also took a significant figure of time.

Cilna started to talk about her guild and its members. She didn't say anything about where she came from or how she got the Amber Heart. First hand accounts of the past were valuable, so many researchers scribbled furiously into their own notebooks. The translation book kept a log anyway, but there wasn't a lot of time left to copy from the book. The research trip was going to end on the next day.

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In a dark forest on the other side of the continent, an elder wizard's eyebrows arched up as he saw his dustiest crystal orb glow for a few seconds. He limped out of his cave and to the camp of necromancers outside.

"The Amber Heart, it shows itself."