Nazof parted the vines once again, three weeks later. In the last three weeks, he had hired an adventuring party, traveled throughout Zhrulaz with them, and then abandoned them in the middle of the Garfroen swamp. The cave was identical to when he left it. Time for work. To entertain himself during the journey, he wrote down every combination for the gate. There were 8,568 possible combinations. Only a few of the combinations would work, Nazof just needed to find out which ones. During the journey, one of the party members told him the story of the Spirit's Road.
Long ago, during Prehistory, the spirits had a great mountain. The mountain was divided into several layers. At the bottom was hell, where the spirits of the dead who were terrible in life, would suffer a terrible fate. Spirits from this layer were evil and would help in giving this fate. In the middle was the world itself, where spirits from the top and bottom of the mountain would influence the world directly or in. Humans also lived in the middle, alongside goblins, Kalmgy, and the other races. They were the spirits of that layer. At the top of the mountain was where the spirits of the virtuous dead lived alongside the holy spirits. At the peak of the mountain was a road to the stars. A road that could take the spirits of the dead to the stars in a flash of white light.
A white light that matched the inside of an activated gate. Nazof had arrived inside the main cave at this point. He put down his backpack and pulled out his notepad. Nazof then started putting in combinations. He had assigned each glyph a number. 5-11-3-9-17. No. 18-12-7-6-5. No. After trying out three hundred combinations over two days, the pebble finally didn't come out the other side of the portal. The wall behind the gate was littered with pebble holes.
He had hit a successful combination. 7-1-2-6-11. The gate didn't have a bright white light in the center, it had a desert on the other side. It looked completely different from Garfryn. He didn't want to die though. Nazof went out of the cave and grabbed two frogs. He then went back into the cave. He circled the code on his notepad before entering a code that didn't work. He threw one of the frogs in. It shrieked a terrible scream. It sounded like the frog was dying in a thousand ways at once. Nazof reset the gate and input the correct code.
He threw the frog through the gate. It didn't shriek. Instead, Nazof could see it on the other side. The frog hopped around on the sand, then returned through the gate. Now Nazof was sure it was safe. He walked through the gate.
He seemed to warp through space and time. A blinding white light took over his vision. He heard a voice whisper in his head, "A Kairuvian?" He recognized the word. "To Vaklat..." The second was a foreign sound, unfamiliar to his ears. "You, are one of three to use my machines. I will grant you a gift. The gift of language. Turn it on and off at your whim."
Nazof felt himself gain a new understanding. It was similar to how he felt every time he learned a new language but on a whole new scale. "Who are you?" Nazof thought.
"I am the progenitor of magic, the creator of the gift. When you manipulate forces in your 'understanding' I empowered you millennia ago. Tell me, Nazof Wime, who are you? How does your understanding of the universe compare to what it really is?" The image of a starry sky appeared before him. "Believe me when I say, don't share your name with these new people."
All of a sudden, he was in that desert. He materialized Where was he? In the distance, there was a large castle. It looked similar to the ones in Salktum. Nazof had several questions floating in his head. Where the hell was he? What the fuck just happened? And who the hell had just spoken to him?
He didn't have much time to think about this before a few people walked up to him. They were much taller than him, with darker skin and light blue eyes. They all wore desert clothes. One of the men walked up to him. They did appear to be human though. "Tsal Va? Tsal Va?" He asked. It sounded foreign as Vaklat. Nazof thought about understanding the language. All of a sudden, he could speak and understand it. They had been asking who he was. Nazof remembered what the voice said to do. "...don't share your name with these new people."
"Taru Salni."
