Should I Stay or Should I Go

The next day was a full explanation of the trial. It wasn’t really going to take as long as I thought it would since it was a simple set of ritualistic spells of divination and divine fire magic. These would mark us as clean, and we were free to leave, or they would burn our heart out of our chest. Wait! What?!? By the Gods it would be nice to get info like that before you head off on an adventure. I guess that’s what adventuring is about though. Unexpected highs, unexpected lows, and unexpected, tortuously painful death. I guess we should get this started.

Jhazaali says she’s going first and there is no argument from me. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll be really sad if she “fails” the test, but I’m in no rush to get myself killed. She’s taken into the Cave Heart. We can hear some chanting and whatnot and about 20 minutes later we hear Jhazaali scream. I’d heard her give a battle cry, but I’d never heard her give a blood curdling, agonizing scream like that before. Both Khel and I jump to our feet but about a dozen Ghaash’kala warriors point various weapons at us and, again, practical as ever, Khel and I sit back down. Her scream goes for about a minute straight and sounds like it was from a single breath of air, and then it goes silent. The lead korta’sha of the Vaanka comes out and simply says, “She lives.” He then looks expectantly from me to Khel and back to me. I stand and follow the priest into the chamber.

There are three other priests, korta’sha, here and four guardians. One of each from each of the clans. I’m told to remove my clothing and I tentatively do so. I’m then told to sit in a circle of magic symbols and face away from the flame. I do this as well. Then the priests start walking around me and chanting. About ten minutes in I feel a warmth in the center of my back right above where my heart is. This does nothing to ease my tension, but it’s not like I have a choice. Well, I guess I did. I could just stay here and help defend the world from the fiends of the Wastes. Would that be so bad? Is it too late to change my mind about this? That warmth is getting hotter now isn’t it. And that’s when that thought process came to an abrupt end. Searing pain felt like it was burning through my back and into my very core. I’m pretty sure I screamed. Hope it was close to the length Jhazaali’s was. Hope I get to see her again.

I wake up on a damp blanket on a hard, flat stone. I blink a couple times and it looks like I’m still in the cave complex. I twitch a couple fingers and toes. Those seem to work. Cool. I turn my head to see Jhazaali sitting up on a similar stone with a blanket wrapped around her. She gives me a brief smile and then stands up and offers me a hand. I take it and stand up as well. That’s when I realize I’m naked. She doesn’t seem to care (can’t say that I’m not slightly disappointed by that) and she turns me around. Ah so she’s likes the… “You have one too, “she says.

“Uh… yeah. All bipeds have…”

“Not that, you dolt. The tattoo, or whatever it really is,” she says in exasperation.

I briefly do one of those ‘chase your tail’ turns when I realize I won’t be able to see my own back. That’s when she goes to pick up a small mirror so that I can see what she’s talking about. And there on the center of my back is a “tattoo, or whatever it really is.” It actually glows though. It gives off this faint, silvery white light. That’s when I ask her if hers glows too. She promptly turns and drops her blanket for me to see it. It does glow. And it seems to shift ever so slightly as if it was candlelight. I ask if I can touch it and she allows me to do so. I find that is slightly raised like scarification might do but is incredibly intricate and reminds me slightly of the draconic I saw around the pictures in the cave except it’s a bunch of those letters and symbols overlapping. It gives off no heat and the skin around it looks perfectly fine. That’s when I finally notice I’m probably touching her too long and I grab up her blanket to cover her again. I also take note of my own situation and wrap my blanket around myself.

I look around and realize that Khel is not here. Jhazaali tells me that halfway through the ceremony he decided that he was being called to stay here. He would create great weapons and armor for the guardians to better battle the hordes. His muut was to the world as much as to the Dhakaani, and his skills would best serve this world here. Makes sense, I guess.

Shortly after this conversation a healer comes in to tell us that we will be leaving in the morning and we had about twelve hours until that time. We were shown back to our room where Khel and all of his stuff were already gone. We tried to get some more rest and then decided to just get up and get some food and wait it out. Jhazaali, as usual, had stories to tell and I was, as always, an avid listener, so time passed quickly.

It was another two-week walk out of the labyrinth with similar hazards that had become all too expected. In that time Jhazaali and I became closer in every way. As a young guy, I’m thankful because I found her to be a very attractive person, but oddly, it was more than that. It helped bring a little bit of hope in a place that was almost entirely devoid of it. The passions of the people that live in the Demon Wastes aren’t just out of some animalistic tendency, they are absolutely necessary for survival here. Without their intensity of belief, their love of friends and family, and their burning passion for life, I fully believe all would be corrupted. I am thankful for their sacrifices and I hope that my book about them was able to capture their importance to our world.