The story behind the picture - Kartus - 6

Hello everyone, I hope you're having a nice day!
Got to love some vague references...

I manage to get up through the sand, and find myself back at the place where I got thrown into the illusion. As I look at the ruins, they disappear without a trace. I try the sand to see if I would still fall through, but it seems like the illusion is gone. I suppose now that the Book is no longer there it is not necessary for people to come down there anymore. The ruined city can finally rest.

Wait. The wizard… why aren’t they here? They should be here, why would they leave? I look for traces in the sand, but can’t find anything recent. If it was night maybe I could try to navigate back to the city, but it seems like the suns just rose. I should not try to walk too far, if I walk in the wrong direction it will take much longer to get back. I could try to look for some traces nearby, maybe I can follow them back to the city. I climb a sand dune, trying to get a good view of the surroundings. Sadly, nothing I haven’t seen before. Just an endless sea of sand. Except… I think I see some traces! I try to judge the direction and walk over there. Yes, these are traces. This probably means that people passed by here recently, footsteps don’t last long in the sand. On a closer look, I find that this must’ve been a group of people. I count four or five different traces, sometimes they cross each other. This isn’t what I was looking for, but I decide to follow them anyway. Maybe they’ll know the way back to the city, I’d like to have a good conversation with that wizard.

This is… not what I was expecting. Not at all. I can see who I’ve been following now, and I was correct. Five figures are standing in the sand, not too far ahead of me. But when I get closer I see that they’ve surrounded three people. A mother, and two of her children. Likely travellers, though I’m still too far away to be able to judge. When I’m roughly twenty steps away, the group notices me and I get a chance to have a better look at them. They don’t look like travellers. The five are wearing dark sandy robes, and have covered their faces except for their eyes. As I get even closer I see that they all wear a necklace, with varying pendants. When I get ten steps away from them, their leader raises their hand. A female voice, presumably from the leader, says this: ‘Don’t get closer. Who are you?’
‘Who are you, to be asking such a question?’
‘Do you want to end up like them?’ She says, pointing to the mother and her children in the sand.
‘I have no ambitions, thank you.’
‘What an attitude.’ A brief silence falls, and I realize something shocking. I recognize those three faces…
‘Let them go.’
‘Oh, now why would we do that?’ She stars gathering some kind of Dark magic in between her hands… darklings, of course. It’s obvious now. However, I have something they don’t.
‘Because I say so.’ I imitate them, and start forming a small ball of Dark magic in between my hands.
‘That’s funny. You are no darkling, you don’t even have a necklace!’ They throw their Dark magic at me, in the form of a small sphere. I block it with ease, using an invisible shield. My Dark magic is much stronger than theirs.
‘Ah, I almost forgot. Give me one moment.’ I throw my Dark magic at them now, and they struggle much more to avoid it. I can’t help but smile as I pull out the chord of a necklace from under my shirt, and show the pendant.
‘How…?’

As his life comes to an end, the man reaches out to my hand. ‘Here – he says, as he takes off his necklace, and puts it in my hand – take this. It will help you when you need it. Show this to a darkling and they will tremble in fear and respect.’
‘Is it safe for me to wear?’
‘Yes, you have nothing to fear except the limit of Dark magic, as you know. My time is up now. I’m free-’

The man was right. The darklings step back, and look at me in fear. ‘How do you have that?’
‘You don’t need to know that. Now, if you would allow me.’ I start walking in their direction again, and with each step I take forward they take one back. It’s like they don’t even dare come close to me, just by showing them a simple necklace. A simple necklace with an onyx as its pendant.
‘Leave, and never return here. I won’t wait to use my power next time.’ They do as I say, running off into the desert. I’m surprised at how much of an impact that had, but I’ll take it. Now for the difficult part…
I turn around to the mother and her children. How old would they be? Probably around 100 and 120 moons. Way too young to be travelling, confirming my suspicion. They seem scared of me, the mother stands up and makes sure to keep her children behind her. ‘Have mercy.’
I didn’t think it was possible, but it feels like my heart breaks again. Yet I know I still don’t have a choice, I can’t undo the things I’ve done. ‘How far away is the nearest city, and in which direction?’
‘Th- the nearest city is Moraese, sir. It’s just outside the desert, three days northeast.’
‘Thank you.’

I turn around, and leave. However bad it may feel, I had no choice.

Luckily I have no more encounters with darklings, and I arrive in Moraese three days later, just like I was told. I’m pretty sure this has to be the city we originally left from, and so I should be able to find the wizard again. After walking around for some time and asking many people if they knew if there was a wizard here, and if so where, I finally get the answer I want. ‘Yes, they should be in their house. Third street left and then two rights, The right door in the alley. It should be quite easy to find.’
‘Thank you very much.’
I follow their instructions, and knock on the door. After waiting for a good minute, the door opens. Sure enough, in front of me stands the wizard who trained me and who I put my trust in.
‘Hello, do you recognize me?’
‘You? How?’
‘Oh, so you didn’t even expect me to make it out. To be honest, that doesn’t make things much better.’
‘How did you make it out of the ruined city?’
‘I have to say, it seemed impossible. Apparently this has been a tradition, throw all darklings you can find in those cursed ruins and never hear from them ever again. You thought I would be no different?’
‘I-‘
‘No, don’t even try to talk your way out of this. You said Graham went to Ironforge city, I’ll go look for him and tell him what you did. He’ll probably have more mercy than I would.’

To be continued…