A full moon shone down upon the Land's Between, its pale light a guiding wisdom to travelers near and far, a perfect night for spellmaking at the royal moongazing grounds. But here on the beach with how the torchlight from Kingsrealm Village muddied the air, Ranni would have to make do with simple stargazing. Far above they shone like tiny gemstones against the black void. She could feel the peace of their wisdom spread across the night.
But tonight no light in the sky could match the earthly flashes pouring from the windows of the academy across Lake Liurnia. Ranni watched the spectral glow flashing a vibrant purple and red accompanied every so often by inhuman shrieks she could hear even from across the water. She shivered against the chill air and pulled her cloak closer. What was it that compelled mortals to act in such depraved ways towards each other?
Ranni could scarcely believe that the wisemen of Raya Lucaria that mother had so carefully shepherded, that she had saved from the Golden Order's tyranny, would act like devils when given the slightest freedom. That they who wore the stone masks would abandon their pure search of knowledge and give in to temptation. The moon was a safer path, the scholars of the Lazuli Conspectus could tell, why could not all the others?
For a time she watched the lights flash across the night sky. She imagined they were visible all the way at distant Stormveil. Then she spotted him on the water, a lone man paddling a small dinghy towards the shore. He wore an eccentric set of armor, blue and white and red, but his jester's garb hid a breastplate and more beneath. The boat ground against the sand, "M'lady, it is an lord brother, Praetor Rykard, requests your presence at the academy." spoke Jerren, witchhunter for the Carian Royal Family.
"As was written in the stars. Take me to him."
Ranni stepped into the dinghy, hers was the supernatural grace of the demigods and the boat hardly rocked beneath her, nor did any droplet of water splash onto her. Jerren pushed the dinghy back into the lake with four strong steps and hopped on. He was a silent guide during their trip.
That was not something Ranni minded. Centuries she had been alive and all manner of mortal servants would prattle on and on about such trivial matters. It was the occult mysteries of the moon that Ranni sought after. Those hidden secrets behind the Golden Order such as the true fate behind the stars that her mother had known before the Erdtree or the dark side of the moon the ancient snow witch had once warned her of. She pondered the fate of the humans at Raya Lucaria. Grandmaster Azur had lived just as long as her mother, yet he never gave up the search for the Primeval Current that the ancient sage had seen long ago. What secrets did he seek tonight?
It was she who broke the silence, "have you seen what's happened within the academy?"
"Nothing m'lady, I was sent by General Radahn on request from your brother."
"To find me?"
"We need an expert on the matter, your sisters were never the sorceress's you are." Jerren fell quiet, "and the Queen is still indisposed."
Queen Rennala the Full Moon Witch, Ranni's mother. She had once been the fierce warrior mage that had fought the legions of the Golden Order to a stand-still. Today she was a shell of her former self, a sobbing mess left to wander the halls of Raya Lucaria, all staying out of her way lest they risk her occasional wrath. Would Ranni be called the Carian Queen one day, or would she too wander empty halls for a lifetime of sadness?
The docks at Raya Lucaria used the magic waterwheel to ascend to the academy proper. From there you could take the beautiful curved stairway all the way up to the grand library and debate parlor. Ranni's favorite spot at the academy was the belfry tower from which you could see all the way to the divine tower.
Tonight they went to the debate parlor. By now there were no shrieks or lights. There was only silence. Yet Ranni saw none of the usual sorcerers found outside at night, instead soldiers and witchhunters prowled the austere halls of Raya Lucaria. Two soldiers from Gelmir stood outside double doors leading off of the courtyard. One of them waved the demigoddess and her bodyguard over.
"Hail the Golden Order, m'lady. Praetor Rykard is just inside, he said for you to see him immediately." the man paused before adding, "and m'lady, you might want to brace yourself if it please you." Ranni ignored the stammering man, her feet walked a path she felt she already knew, inside was just another horror the eternal queen had unleashed while on her immortal quest.
Inside she cast starlight for no candles lit the halls in this wing. She traced her way down more stairs and then through a moving bookshelf into her mother's secret study, Jerren keeping pace and keeping quiet. When Ranni had first visited as a child she had laughed at the painting mother kept of herself in that room calling it arrogance. Blaidd, she recalled, had laughed with her although he did not understand. More Gelmir soldiers waited, a knight was among them.
He stood proudly but looked uncertain, behind him stood one of the finger maidens so common in these lands. "You there, take me to Rykard."
He nodded, eager to do something, "the traitorous Grandmaster Azur is already in our grasp but mad Lusat escaped. We'll track him down though, there's nowhere in the Land's Between outside the order's grip."
Prattling about things already known. Maybe they did it to distract themselves.
Beyond the study it seemed was a secret the two grandmasters got over on her mother. Their own private chambers for human research into the Primeval Current. Bookshelves lined every wall with all the heretical tomes that the Golden Order had ever banned since the academy joined with Leyndell. Caches of glintstone littered the corners in crates and boxes, scattered around the room were tables laden with even more sorcerous equipment piled on top, but strewn about the floor were broken cages. Looking up were even more cages hanging from the ceiling, and chairs too, chairs holding emaciated sorcerers, hopefully long dead. Ranni was examining the largest mass of overgrown glintstone against the far wall when she heard the slither of metal on stone. Behind her stood Rykard veiled in shadows so only his eyes shone with pinpricks of light. He stepped into her starlight's glow, his heavy cloak hiding lithe movements used to silence and agility, behind him was a man wearing a feathered mantle and sitting perfectly still, Grandmaster Azur.
"Sister," rasped Rykard, "it is grave tidings that bring us together. Our queen mother's academy has fallen to ruin without her guidance."
"Lusat has escaped you?"
"Run off into the night with a cadre of Sellian sorcerers. My inquisitors will root him out in time, if the fool doesn't destroy himself that is. Azur here has spoken nary a word since we found him. Seems his Primeval Current was not all he wanted it to be."
"It never is with the gods. What spell has he cast?"
"That is the difficult part, sorcery was always the way of you and our sisters, I was hoping you could tell me." Rykard led her from the room, "I'll show you what he's done."
Behind them Jerren picked up the dazed grandmaster and followed. They wound a new path through the academy until they had climbed across a narrow bridge into a tall spire. Grimly Rykard pushed open the heavy door and went in.
Inside was something Ranni did not think she could forget, a great moaning mass of sludge within which were immersed countless stone masks, the remnants of sorcerers that were not permitted the mercy of death. The sludge seemed to crystallize in places with glintstone.
Soul-tuning was not an art well known to Ranni but as an empyrean she had some amount of knowledge in these matters. When she reached out to touch the mass of souls all she could feel was a deep graven wailing emanating from the mound. She shuddered to think what a fate that could be.
One of the stone faces shifted and stirred. It grated against its partners which cried and groaned but it continued to turn until it faced Ranni. She could feel that it could sense her presence now. Rykard pushed her back, his shield held high, "cursed it may be, but it can still cast the sorcerer's little spells. Be careful, dear sister."
She put a hand on his arm to steady herself, "peace, brother, I believe this one wants to talk."
Ranni crooned to the cursed thing, so undeserving of its fate. It was pitiful as many in the mound were. As Ranni came to know them she would begin to recognize many of them from her time visiting Raya Lucaria, one and all, they were poor sorcerers. Then the stone face that watched her so intently spoke.
"Princess… princess… please, the moon is so distant." its voice grated like stone on stone but whispered all the same, "I am so very afraid."
The mound wailed and Ranni recognized that inhuman scream she had heard from across the lake. Glintstone sorcery crashed through the room shattering stone and bookshelf alike. Rykard pushed Azur roughly out of the room, it seemed Jerren was already gone, Ranni looked back for another glimpse at the mass of stone heads, she heard a grunt from behind her.
Rykard stood grimacing, a splotch of magic bubbled on his armor before dissipating. He caught two more strikes on his shield, then blocked a third coming for Ranni herself.
"Out!" he barked.
Rykard covered their escape and slammed the heavy door behind them. The mass howled again, its graven cry multiplied tenfold to Ranni who had attuned herself to the horrid thing.
She turned to Azur with disgust, "this is what you've spent your life studying for?"
He stared back at her with eyes as black as the void.
"We have no time for tricks, grandmaster. I've known you since I was a child, do not disgrace yourself further."
He was not staring at her, Ranni realized, but past her. Far past her. Looking back revealed only the night sky and the lake beneath the balcony. "If you will not speak with your tongue, then perhaps…" Ranni muttered as she reached out to once again attempt soul-tuning.
Azur's soul was as hard as a glintstone crystal and it jerked back from her touch. Yet all that was needed was prompting from his farsighted gaze.
The grandmaster blinked and his head sagged, "not enough glintstone, we need something livelier, not the casing of the essence but the essence itself," Rykard snapped his fingers under the old man's nose which snapped him awake, "Sellen fetch me my staff! I still need to cleave the heavens!"
His eyes focused for the first time at his surroundings. The old man blinked wearily at the two demigods who stared so intently at him.
"You will have this one lucid chance, old man, tell us what you have done." Rykard rasped, under the moonlit shadows of the bridge Ranni could not help but be reminded of her brother's grim reputation as the Golden Order's grand inquisitor.
"No, no, it is not what I have done that matters," the man's eyes slipped so easily off of her brother to stare once more at the sky, "it is what I am doing."
In one smooth motion Rykard lifted Azur off his feet and pressed him against the bridge wall, his head clad in that crystalline hood smacked against the wall but the grandmaster did not cry out. The only sound was of his thin body smacking the stone. Only when her brother lifted the poor man even higher into the shadow of the bridge's arched ceiling did he cry out and writhe.
"Cooperate with us and you will be able to continue your vision," Ranni said quickly, "Rykard, lower him into window view, I would speak more with him."
Viewing the stars placated the old man but took away none of the biting tongue he had once been known for, he said "this academy was founded before either of you were even born, you presume much coming here tonight."
Rykard said nothing but inched the grandmaster toward the ceiling's shadow, her brother was an expert at taking secrets, much to his own chagrin. Azur spoke again, "we seek what we have always sought, the Primeval Current, what matter were the lives of a few lesser students along the way? Better they aid with grand discovery rather than eke out a miserable life in the mines. Glintstone has never been enough, but here and now I have seen past the limits of my peers, even now I see! Even now!"
"You sacrificed them?" Ranni asked although she knew the answer.
"It's all been done before, worse than anything I could ever dream! If you knew half of what our queen has done to the world-"
"I believe we know more than half." Ranni cut him off, "you may be among the wise but you are still human. Do not forget it."
"And you forget your other half, demigod!" Azur spat that last word, demigod. He called her demigod but in truth Ranni was an empyrean, her form rebirthed by the Two-Fingers ancient magic. A god she could be with time was what the Two-Fingers told her, would she be worthy of it? Was Marika any better?
"You told me he surrendered with no bloodshed?" Ranni asked her brother.
"Yes and it was his conspectus that opened the academy doors. Most of the other cadres hid away in their quarters for the proceedings, we've seized the guilty ones though, and some others. Lusat's entire school must've fled in the night, the witchhunters will have a field day."
Such bloodshed, sometimes Ranni pondered if it would be better if mortals were allowed to go about as they please, to make mistakes as they pleased. But if she were to remove the hunters, would they not then hunt themselves?
"Grandmaster Azur, you have been arrested in the name of Elden Lord Radagon to uphold the tenets of the Golden Order, for going in peace I shall award your sentence leniency," Ranni's words felt grander than her quiet voice, "I accuse you of crimes against the academy, for spellcraft against your fellow sorcerer, for disturbing the peace of the Golden Order, and for being the first graven sorcerer. Your School of Graven Mages shall henceforth be no more, all who studied under you will submit to arrest and similar judgment, all who flee shall fall under the domain of our witchhunters. How do you plead?"
"I've heard the stories about Volcano Manor and your dear brother here. I want guarantees that my students will not be harmed."
"They will be tried and sentenced as you are now, my leniency is a matter of their own obedience. Now how do you plead?"
"And what about your brother's leniency, m'lady?" the old man's manner of speaking titles was more akin to insults.
"My mercy is at the Golden Order's whim as it has ever been." Rykard hissed.
"That is what I was afraid of."
"Enough games! We do not come here to haggle, old man. I shall sentence you here and now if you continue this, charade." Ranni snapped.
"There's only one way to plead, you caught me," Azur sounded his age now, "I took the lesser students of the academy and with their souls I tried to cleave through to the Primeval Current. Even now I can feel that power expanding within my mind, I'm unsteady with it, the stars are the one constant, I can see them so much clearer now. We never saw the stars the same after the Erdtree. If only you could know your mother's sky, girl."
She looked to her brother now, for advice, he did not look at her, "I am the enforcer of the Greater Will, my conviction is not in declaring its righteousness." he said it quietly.
"Very well. I strip your title of grandmaster, Azur, you shall live out your days within the Hermit Village under the inspection of Praetor Rykard. Never again shall you leave the Gelmir border. Never again shall you own any possession, currency, or lands. And never again shall you see Raya Lucaria nor shall you read from any spellscroll."
Jerren stepped forward and took the former grandmaster's arm. Azur tried to look serene and gaze into the night sky as he had but Ranni could see him tremble in fear. "I'll be taking this one back to the docks with me then, m'lord and lady. But I expect to be out in the fields tonight, I have not forgotten my debt to your family."
Mother had called a witchhunter with a cause a valuable asset and Ranni could see why. Long ago he had incurred some oath of fealty to Rennala on her adventures and she had called him back to serve the royal family in their secret war against the sorcerers. Until he had hunted one hundred and one rogue sorcerers, he was a loyal fighting man of the Carian Royal Family.
The pair walked away down the bridge, Jerren holding the former grandmaster's bonds tightly and asking after some witch called Sellen.
Rykard looked gaunt in the halflight, his eyes flickered between herself and Azur, "do you think I let him off too easily?" Ranni asked.
"No, strength must be enforced, it is the way of things. If Azur and his followers were to be pardoned the academy would only grow bolder. And it is the domain of kindness that the Golden Order was founded on, if only they could remember the Erdtree's gentle rays."
"Even you are not old enough to remember that history, brother." Ranni laughed.
"Older than you are at least. And old enough to remember the way the light felt differently." Rykard shifted his eyes away from the Erdtree's dormant luster, "Lusat must be in Sellia already, the sorcerers know of secret paths through the underground waterways. We'll need Radahn's army if we're to enforce order so far from the capital."
"You've thought through much already."
"Lots of time to strategize while awaiting your arrival. I've been out in that country often enough, we can be at the smouldering church at the border of Caelid in two days if we set out now. Prince Godwyn at Stormveil is a fair lord, he will shelter us no matter the hour."
"Lead the way then."
Ranni had not ridden since Blaidd had left on a quest for the Two-Fingers. It was not often an empyrean went without their loyal shadow but such things did happen. Queen Marika had not seen Gurranq at the Beast Sanctum in many centuries after all. But Ranni missed Blaidd, his honest foolishness, his blunt way of speaking, his witticisms. Her brother and her walked to the front gate of Raya Lucaria in silence. More of his soldiers camped here, cutting off both directions down either greatbridge. She recognized Rykard's great black destrier stabled away from the other horses, most passerby gave the angry beast a wide berth, there was more activity in the camp than Ranni thought needed for an arrest, even one such as tonight's.
"What's going on here, Rykard?"
"Inquisition, the wheel turns and heresy must be rooted out once more. Frenzied fools in the northwest, rotted albinaurics in the south, and these fool sorcerers always raising more of a ruckus. I'm seizing all the accused's belongings in support of the Gelmir army."
Ranni appraised a crate of jewels and amber and glintstone being carried alongside many more treasures of the academy, "is the war effort so suddenly in need of riches, the attacking army must be fierce indeed, dear brother. And what is this about seizing all from the accused, what of when they are found innocent?"
"There is always a war coming. This is no time for innocence, little sister. Look around you and see the cracks in the order, even I can not keep the blindfold over the people's eyes for long. Innocent or not, more than the accused will suffer, and they will suffer tenfold if I do not have the strength to save them."
"You are just one man," Ranni said.
"One demigod, one lord." "When the time comes I will be with you, brother and I and all the Carian Family will support you. Do not worry about that."
"No, I worry if it will be enough."
He mounted his great horse with ease. Ranni took her spectral steed whistle and blew upon it to summon her own mount. Torrent galloped into being beside her, a loyal friend, she patted his shaggy mane and fed him a rowa berry hidden within her sleeve.
Rykard paced his destrier back and forth impatiently, "come! We have hard riding ahead of us."
Their way down the greatbridge was well lit by the moon's guiding light.