A/N: This is a bit of a nostalgia trip for me. When I was a tot, I was in love with the Exile games, especially Exile III. I made up stories about the world and the characters, which must've been some of the first fanfic I ever wrote. Not long ago, I rediscovered the series through the Avernum games. I started a new game of Avernum 3, and it reminded me of all those old stories and headcanons, so I ended up scribbling down various bits and pieces. This won't be a full novelisation of the game, more of a selection of various episodes that I'll be writing as the mood takes me. It's more of a writing exercise than anything. Still, if you're reading this, I hope you enjoy these odd fragments.

General disclaimer: the Exile/Avernum games belong to Jeff Vogel and Spiderweb Software.


Marching Orders

The rune shimmered in midair, the intricate lines gleaming with subtle fire, like torchlight along a skein of spider-silk. It hung there, gleaming, ghostly, then it glowed brighter, brighter still - and burst, those fragile spider-skeins of light dying into nothingness.

A collective groan went up from the mages gathered in the laboratory.

"Experiment twenty-six," said Adrianna with a sigh, dipping her stylus into the inkstand and moving it over the parchment lying on the desk before her.

Deverell sent a dark look at the thin air where the rune had so briefly taken shape, and muttered, "Experiment twenty-six: bloody nothing."

"That's not strictly true," said Adrianna. "It definitely hurt my eyes more than last time when it flared out."

It wasn't much of a joke, but it got a laugh, at least, and Deverell snorted. "Well, it's good for something, then. The army mages can use it to blind oncoming enemies."

They exchanged a strained smile, and Adrianna gestured to the little group of second-year apprentices who lined the wall by the door. "Sorry, everyone. Nothing more to see today. You might as well head back to your dorms. But we might have something more to show you tomorrow."

Mumchance, they filed out. As soon as the door had closed behind them, the four mages of the research team relaxed from the tense, expectant postures they'd frozen in during the enchantment, and flopped into vacant chairs, exhausted by the exertion and the disappointment.

"There's obviously something we're still missing," said Morgant, "some subtlety in the design."

"Rubbish," scoffed Deverell. "Our interpretation of the design is fine. It's maintaining it that's the problem."

"Maybe it requires an incantation?" suggested Ramona.

"Whoever heard of a rune needing an incantation?" said Morgant. "No, I think we've missed something in the design."

"Maybe we should try using a crystal?" suggested Deverell.

Adrianna shook her head. "We tried that, remember? Back at the start."

"Oh. Yeah."

They were all silent for a minute, remembering that particular incident. It had been weeks before their eyebrows had grown back in, and for the smell of charred meat to clear from the laboratory.

She glanced back to where the rune had been, and felt a gnawing sense of frustration. Over three years of research, and today's non-event was the high point of their work so far. She agreed with Deverell that the design itself was fine: their research in reconstructing the form had been so thorough, and it was a human rune, not an unfamiliar glyph used by the vahnatai or slithzerikai mages, whose subtleties might pass them by. She was sure they had the form down. But there was obviously something vital missing, and she had the infuriating sense that it was right under her nose, if only she could see it…

"Back to the books, then," sighed Ramona. "Perhaps if we tried a comparison with those nephil symbols I was talking about…"

"I wonder if Kelner knows anything," mused Morgant. "We should ask him."

"I don't think that's a good idea," said Adrianna, twirling the stylus absently between her fingers. "He's been rather... distracted the last few times I've spoken to him."

"It's Linda," said Deverell. "Solberg's exactly the same. He hardly comes out of his chamber now."

"Can hardly blame the poor man," said Ramona. "I know I've had a few nightmares since she came back."

They all gave a nervous laugh, hurriedly stifled, as if they half-expected Linda to be scrying on them as they spoke. Which, in a place like the Tower of Magi, was never out of the question. When a knock came at the door, they all four of them jumped.

"C-come in?" called Deverell uncertainly, as if he half-expected Grah-Hoth and all his demon hordes to come bursting through the door.

When the door opened, however, it was only a spotty, nervous young apprentice. "Sorry to interrupt," she said in a small voice. "Is there an Adrianna here?"

She got to her feet. "I'm Adrianna."

"You have a visitor in Classroom Eleven."

"A visitor?" Adrianna's eyebrows shot up. "Who is it?"

"I don't know, sorry!" squeaked the apprentice, wildly apologetic. "He was talking to Mahdavi and Kelner earlier."

Which shed no light on anything. Nothing else for it. Adrianna straightened her robe. "All right. I'll come. Thanks…er…?"

"Ginny, ma'am."

"Thank you, Ginny."

The girl couldn't get out of there quick enough. Adrianna sympathised: she remembered when - not so very long ago, really - she'd been an apprentice herself, and had regarded all full-fledged mages as vaguely terrifying figures who might turn her into a rock-lizard if she dared waste their precious time.

"Who is it, Adrianna?" Ramona asked.

"I've no idea. I'll let you know when I've seen him. Where will I find you?"

"Library?" suggested Deverell.

"Either there or the refectory," said Morgant.

She smiled. "All right. See you later, then."

The classrooms were just down from the laboratories, but most lectures were over for the day, so the corridor was quiet and echoing as Adrianna reached Classroom Eleven. She'd spent maybe half her life in the Tower of Magi, but even so, she still felt that there were plenty of its secrets that she didn't know even now, and she could never be wholly certain what she might find around each shadowy corner. But she reached the classroom without incident and knocked at the door. A masculine voice called, "C'min."

The classroom was empty, with a stale trace of magic lingering in the air after the day's lectures. The only occupant was a man lounging bonelessly in a chair in the middle row, looking for all the world like a bored apprentice in a spectacularly dull lecture. At the sound of the door, however, he snapped to attention, and turned in his seat to welcome her with a wide grin.

"Aha, you must be Adrianna! In you come, grab a pew! You've got the pick of them today."

Adrianna shuffled along to take the seat on his left-hand side. At close quarters, she could see that her visitor was a man of middling age, his sandy shoulder-length hair somewhat dulled and unkempt, though his short beard was neatly trimmed. He was tall, and muscular with it, and the well-worn leather jerkin and wicked scar across one cheek testified that he'd obviously seen fighting in his time. But his cheerful, almost aggressively casual manner didn't fit a regular soldier, certainly not like the rigid deportment of the Tower guards. Despite his lackadaisical appearance, however, he seemed deceptively alert. That piqued her interest. This was not a man to mess with.

"So here you are at last," he said grandly. "I guess introductions are in order. We've worked out you're Adrianna. My name's Aldous."

She shook his hand. "Nice to meet you, Aldous." Then, as the name registered with her, "Wait! You're not-"

"Sure am. But we're not interested in me just now. We're interested in you."

Adrianna could only sit and wonder. Aldous was a name known throughout all Avernum: he was one of the Empire War Heroes, that band of adventurers who had served Avernum so bravely during the war. Their achievements were legendary. They had recovered the sacred Crystal Souls of the vahnatai, forging the first link of alliance between Avernum and that ancient, mysterious race. They had destroyed the Imperial Army's troop teleporter, crushing the Empire's military ambitions and saving Avernum from being overrun. And they had slain the dread wizard Garzahd, the dark force behind the Imperial throne and foe to all Avernites, securing Avernum's victory. What, in the name of all the gods, could one of them possibly want to speak to her about?

"I've been asking around," said Aldous, apparently oblivious to her amazement. "I'm looking for a mage, you see, Adrianna. How old are you?"

The question - so mundane from such a famous person - surprised her so much she answered without thinking. "Twenty-one, sir."

"You can forget about the 'sir's," said Aldous cheerfully, pulling a ragged scrap of parchment out from his jacket, and making a quick scribble on it with a stylus from behind his ear. "Twenty-one. And you're a researcher here full-time?"

"Yes," she said, only just remembering to omit the "sir". "I lead a team with three colleagues of mine. We've been researching elder runes for three years now."

"How's that going?"

She thought of their disappointment in the laboratory, and admitted, "Could be better." They had uncovered so much, but even with the vast resources of the Tower, there was so much that was lost, or unobtainable to the mages of Avernum. So much in danger of being forgotten altogether. "We've come far, but not far enough."

He nodded gravely. "All a bit over my head, to be honest. Magery is more Marcipor's line."

Marcipor. Another Empire War Hero. Adrianna almost laughed at the sheer strangeness of this living legend speaking so casually about another living legend, as casually as she might mention Ramona or Deverell to a new acquaintance.

"Still," he said, scribbling something else on his parchment, "I bet you must know a lot of old lore. Always a nice asset, that."

Adrianna raised an eyebrow. "Do you say that to all the girls, Aldous?"

He laughed, rocking back in his chair. "Ah, gods, I like you already! I'm half-tempted to okay you right off!"

"Okay me for what, sir?"

He flashed her another grin. "I've been talking to some of the head honchos here - Kelner, Mahdavi, and that lot. They say you're one of the best and brightest young mages they have."

The thought that anyone as important as Mahdavi had even noted her existence, let alone described her as one of their best and brightest, made Adrianna blush furiously.

"I'm just a researcher..." she mumbled, feeling suddenly awkward. She'd spent half her life in the Tower. When Aldous and his companions were bringing down Garzahd and saving the nation, she had been crying from homesickness and grinding up graymould for the alchemists.

"A researcher heading an investigation into a deep, arcane magic, and described by your superiors as a mage of outstanding ability. Am I right? Honestly, now. I got no use for false modesty here." He was still smiling, but that indefinable sense of intensity about him had deepened. He was in deadly earnest. The best thing she could do was be equally candid.

So she nodded. "Yes. As an apprentice, I ranked consistently within the top percentile of my class."

"And you've seen a bit of action in your time," Aldous went on. "Melted a few cave slimes, sent a few zombies to their eternal rest."

"I travel fairly often in the caves, so I have some experience of using offensive magic in the field, yes. My mother lives up in Formello, so I make the journey to visit her whenever I can get leave."

"Aaah, that's nice." He was teasing, but he seemed interested. "Your mum a mage, too?"

"No, she's on the mayor's staff."

"Ah. Good, upstanding, public-spirited stock, eh? That's what I like to hear. Would I be right in thinking then, Adrianna, that as well as being a mage adept and fairly experienced in smiting the nasties of the southern caves, you're a loyal subject of Avernum and our good King Micah?"

"Of course. I was born here, in Almaria."

His eyebrows went up at that. "Is that so?"

Avernum-borns were often treated with a degree of veiled pity by those born on the surface. Poor children who had never seen the sun. But she didn't sense this from Aldous. If anything, he seemed oddly pleased.

"Well then, Adrianna, I'll square with you. Would you like to do something for Avernum, for your people?"

"If my research can be of any use to Avernum, then-"

"Your research might well be of some use, but right now it's your abilities I'm interested in. We need a mage or two, and you're the most skilled I can get."

"'We?'"

"Unspecified Services."

Adrianna stared at him, dumbfounded. Her, join Unspecified Services? What was Aldous thinking? Unspecified Services was Avernum's more secret branch of operatives: spies, swords-for-hire, adventurers, lone wolf mages. She was a magical researcher, a glorified librarian. She could hardly think of an unlikelier candidate to join their ranks.

"Are you sure?" was all she could think to say.

"Dead sure," replied Aldous, and although his smile was still brightly in place, there was no trace of flippancy about him now. "Unspecified Services has asked me to do a bit of recruiting, I wanted a mage, and you're the best candidate the Tower offered me. So, I'll put it to you more formal-like, Adrianna: would you be willing to join Unspecified Services, and take up a position at Fort Emergence?"

"Fort Emergence!"

The plot thickened! Fort Emergence was one of the premier fortifications in Upper Avernum, the system of caves and tunnels that had been just recently colonised in the years following the war. Unlike Avernum, believed to be hundreds of miles below the surface of the earth, Upper Avernum was reckoned to be just beneath. The only known route to these upper caves was through a magical portal built here at the Tower, overseen by Mahdavi and Vidrain, and in the months since it had been built, the Tower had been inundated with travellers: the soldiers, labourers, couriers, mages, traders, and settlers who had been given clearance to travel, and the hundreds of other hopefuls who had come to the Tower in the hope of earning, begging, or conning their way up. The excitement had raced through Avernum like a marsh-fever, as all Avernites turned their faces up to the cave roofs above them, dreaming of the sun.

The sun. Adrianna had never seen it, but all her life she had heard about it from those who had. It was impossible to escape. Her people dreamed of it, talked of it, sang of it. To Adrianna and others like her, born in the caves, it was like a fairytale, some mythical thing. Even as a grown woman, she still found it almost impossible to fathom: the sun, a ball of flame that cast pure light and warmth; the sky, an infinity of pure space, stretching away forever. For the children of the caves, whose world was contained by the roofs of the caverns and lighted by luminescent mosses, the surface world was almost impossible to believe in. Yet it was a dream, a longing, that they had all inherited from their parents. And with the discovery of Upper Avernum, it seemed that the dream might finally be within their reach at last.

She realised that Aldous was grinning at her, and in the same moment realised that she must have been silent for some time. She met his gaze, her head whirling.

"I know," he said, "we're all feeling a bit like that just now. Now, what d'you say?"

She brought her head back down into the caves, and forced herself to think practically. There were mages up in Emergence already, she knew that. They had been researching the mysteries - magical and natural - of the surface world, using what lore and limited resources they had available to them. She could understand why their expertise would be needed up there. But her? An agent for Unspecified Services? Could she even abandon her friends and their work just like that?

"I don't understand," she said at last. "What can I offer Unspecified? What is this assignment?"

Aldous shifted, uneasy for the first time since she had entered the room. "Truth is, I'm not really at liberty to say, not yet. There's a lot that's going on up in Emergence that the populace at large knows about, and some things we're still managing to keep secret - for now. When you take up the post, all will be revealed, I can promise you that. But let me tell you this: I wouldn't still be talking to you if I didn't think you were the one for the job." He laughed. "And I helped save the Crystal Souls, so believe me, I know a thing or two about what makes an adventurer."

Adrianna smiled. "I guess that's true."

"So believe me, then, when I say this: if you accept this assignment, it'll be hard, maybe even dangerous, but it's for the good of all of us. Unspecified needs a mage with your talents, Adrianna. Avernum needs you. Will you help us?"

What could she possibly say to that? She still felt woefully unqualified to be an adventurer, yet here was Aldous telling her he believed she could do something to help her people. The thought made her head swim. Avernum was on the verge of making history, and there was a kind of terror in that. Part of her wanted to run and hide, before she lost herself in the momentous changes looming on the horizon. But the rest of her, the stronger part of her, knew that if she did run from this chance, she would never forgive herself.

In the end, there was no other answer she could give: "Of course I will."

"Of course you will!" Aldous cheered, punching the air. Impulsively, he seized her hand and shook it hard. "I knew I had a good feeling about you, Adrianna! Gods above and below, you've just made me the happiest man in Avernum! No time to hang about, let's get this in writing!"

With that said, he pulled out a fresh sheet of parchment and began scribbling furiously, until Adrianna thought his stylus might burn straight through the thin lichen-paper. When he was done, he dashed a handful of sand at it, shook it out, and thrust it straight into her hands. In ink still gleaming wet, Adrianna read that she was hereby required and directed to report to Fort Emergence in Upper Avernum with the utmost dispatch, and there to report to someone called Anaximander to receive her instructions. Still no mention of what her assignment actually was. Either it was so important as to be utterly classified, or Unspecified Services had a way of making everything more dramatic than it really needed to be. Utmost dispatch sounded urgent, however.

"Any questions?" asked Aldous, when she'd barely finished reading. He seemed hardly able to sit still in his chair, his leg twitching as if, now that he'd secured her acceptance, he was dying to leap up and put in motion... whatever it was he was putting in motion.

So many, she thought, but decided on one: "When do I leave?"

"When do you leave? As soon as you're packed, my girl! There's not a moment to lose! But I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll give you two days' grace, how does that sound? That should give you time to get your things together and tie off any loose ends. And in the meantime, I can have a little chat with Mahdavi to get your clearance for the portal, and a place on the next caravan for Fort Emergence."

With the summons in her hand, the Fort Emergence appointment was no longer some madcap notion, but a real, tangible thing that was actually happening. She was really going to do it. She was going to join Unspecified Services, and go up to Upper Avernum.

She thought of Deverell, and Ramona, and Morgant, and the research - three years' worth of it - that she would be leaving behind. She thought of all her friends here at the Tower. She thought of her mother, over a hundred miles away in Formello.

"Aldous… will this assignment take very long?"

"If all goes well, yeah, you should be away for a good long time."

"I'll have to write to my mother, then. And my friends - I'll need to sort things out with them. I can't just drop everything and take off without a word."

"Sure, sure. I'll handle Mahdavi, and you can take care of everything else." He gave her a searching look. "You're not having second thoughts, are you?"

"No…" It was hard to shake off the feeling that she was turning her back on her friends. But she knew she couldn't possibly turn this opportunity down. She took a breath, gathered her resolve, and smiled at him. "No, I'm not."

"Well, that settles it!" He was already tucking his papers back into his jacket and springing to his feet, as though he couldn't wait to be off. Adrianna took her cue from him and rose as well, smoothing down her robe.

"You're a life-saver, Adrianna," he said warmly. "I can rest easy now, knowing I've got you on board."

Adrianna laughed. "I just wish I knew what this was all about."

"You will soon, you will soon. And when you do, you'll curse me for not sending you up sooner!"