Jansten
To the best of my knowledge and recollection, this is how it happened. I had been in my study, poring over my notes in an attempt to find a pattern that would then allow me to devise a formula that would then allow...nevermind that for now.I was in my study, as I said when I became aware that Granma required our attention in the courtyard. There are several courtyards in the complex, but I knew which one she meant. I’m still not sure why it was necessary. Anything we need to be informed of is communicated to us through our resonite pendants. Maybe she knew what was coming, and wanted to see our faces. Say goodbye. We learned, as we were gathered, that a group of adventurers would be coming to us. Unlike the rest of us who have been drawn to the academy because of our talent for magic and desire for knowledge, these people would be selected for their skills in combat, orienteering, bounty hunting and survival. Granma had a task that required more physical prowess than any of us sheltered scholars could offer. Even the students of biomancy, capable of augmenting their strength, have been untested in the outside world.
I could see her, our Granma, standing on a pebble that seemed as large as a boulder, speaking and gesticulating as the words came directly to our minds as clearly as if we were facing her. Some of the mages had climbed the daisy stalks to get a better view, sitting on the leaves. I should probably explain in case this testimony ever leaves the academy. The courtyard we were gathered in was, in fact, Granma’s personal garden. Bluebell, a garden fairy who has joined our academy, enchanted the garden so that anyone or anything that doesn’t belong here shrinks to match Bluebell’s own proportions.
Granma concluded by reiterating that we should be welcoming and courteous to our guests, and asked that some of us, myself included, remain in the courtyard. The adventurers would be getting a tour that would finish here. Several others filed out of the courtyard, presumably following their own sets of instructions. Granma herself left shortly afterwards. Again, if you are not a member of our academy, I should explain that the hallways and rooms of our academy are connected to one another by enchanted doorways. Most of them have a fixed purpose, connecting two locations that are geographically (and in some cases historically) great distances from one another. The connection allows travelling from one to another as simple as crossing a threshold. There are other doors that can be opened that lead to multiple destinations. I have no skill in this magic myself, but thanks to the knowledge shared with all of us via the resonite crystals, all any of us need do is to hold our intended destination as we open the door. One of these doors is the one that leads to and from Granma’s house. Another is the door that leads from her garden. The two groups that left the garden, and Granma too, probably all went to different destinations. It’s a form of sympathetic magic that I could never get the hang of. The concept of being able to use a door to represent and symbolise any door in the world I can handle, but being able to use that door as if it were a specific door elsewhere gives me a headache.
Anyway, I digress. It’s a particularly frustrating habit of mine, especially when I’m reviewing my research notes and have to sort through pages and pages worth of tangents and random thoughts. Anyway, waiting for the adventurers to arrive seemed to take forever. Many of us took to sparring and practising our various crafts to keep busy. Eventually the adventurers joined us and we all stopped to watch as they demonstrated their own abilities. At least it appeared to be a demonstration at first. The illusion of a long extinct black dragon was particularly impressive. We begin to realise it wasn’t a demonstration when the fireball was spotted overhead. The fiery rock soon seemed to fill the sky. Bluebell’s spell had kept it from smashing us all, since the section that came into the garden had shrunk. We were still trapped however. The wall with the door in it, the wall of Granma’s house, and the wooden pickets that marked the boundaries of the garden, were no more. Instead there was just solid rock. I stood there for a long moment, shocked and horrified. Had Granma been in her house when the gigantic rock had crushed it flat. We didn’t have time to dwell on that. It was hot, and it was dark but for the still glowing red surface of the rock above us. We all seemed to be expecting the adventurers to come up with a plan. The one that had summoned the the dragon appeared to be missing, and the others didn’t seem to be coming up with anything. A hunchbacked elf called Gabe surprised us all by removing his robe to reveal that he actually had a pair of large white wings folded on his back. He leapt into the air, presumably to attempt to lift the rock off us. Several other mages with the ability to fly, included Bluebell, followed his lead.
I’m still not sure whether what happened next was triggered by Gabe, Bluebell and the others, or if had been a part of the attacker’s plan all along. The rock began to split and, crumble at the seams. Many of us cast protective wards or cast magic armor to protect us, while those that preferred a more aggressive approach concentrated their destructive magic on the cracks, causing the mass to disintegrate faster.
We soon learned, as we left Grandma’s garden and returned to our normal size, that the forest had been set ablaze by the burning fireball as it fell. The stone dust snuffed out most of the flames in the immediate vicinity. Chunks of rock lay all around us. Ancient trees crushed and splintered in the dirt. Granma’s house flattened and destroyed. The extent of the devastation caused by the attack was shocking. Granma was gone. At that time we knew nothing of the tremors and fires that had sundered the City of Gate, or that the cloud of smoke, ash and dust blocked a truly awesome and terrifying sight. The dragons had returned.