Xavier woke up in the “Ashen Inn”, a relatively subtle place compared to the rest of the town. It was Autumn and the trees around the Charon were beautiful this time of year. Charon was located just East of the Ashen Volcano but not as far east as Summerhold. The Volcano was dormant and sometimes people would go to the top to see lava even if there wasn’t that much lava. Scientists predicted the volcano wouldn’t erupt for another 50 years at least. Xavier was there to figure out why the ground was shaking around the volcano.
Xavier spent the day talking to people about the volcano’s recent activities. He learned nothing new about the incident. So, he went up the volcano himself. After climbing the Ashen Volcano, he crested the rise to see the giant hole at the center of the volcano. Xavier walked over to it and casted a quick flight spell before descending into the volcano. The temperature rose fast the further Xavier descended and he was sweating by the time he reached the open cavern. “Oooo what do we have here,” he gasped looking around, the floor was covered in magma, but some rises were sticking out.
He flew over to one of the rises, which had a stone obelisk on it, and landed. Looking at the obelisk, Xavier read the engraved text out loud. “‘To all those scared, this is the spine of the protector.’ Huh, what a strange, cryptic text, and it’s not even in some forgotten text,” Xavier flew over to the other 10 obelisks which all said the same thing except one. “‘The head of the serpent stops the lava from pouring into our souls’, That’s even more cryptic.” He was looking around for anything else that could give clues to the rumbling when the rise he was standing on shifted. “Oh!” Xavier said, startled before flying again.
Xavier learned nothing more from the cavern and left because of the oppressive heat. He spent the next few days scanning the records of the ash cities documents but learned nothing. The ground shifted and rumbled every couple hours but no magma spilled out or ash floated out. Besides the cryptic obelisks in the volcano, it was likely a powerful dark wizard trying to scare everyone away for some nefarious deed. The next day after being in Charon for 5 days, he left to give his report of his hypothesis to the Magic Council.
Arriving at the Silent Tower he climbed the stairs before entering and talking to George who was organizing papers behind the desk. “I’m back. The volcano seems to be affected by some dark wizard though I wasn’t able to find out who even after a few more days of searching. I found some strange obelisks inside the volcano, and I’m worried the dark wizard may be using them to channel their magic.”
George looked up before nodding his head. George was mute ever since a dark wizard had injured him when he was younger. That same dark wizard Xavier had captured and was now locked up in the Silent Tower.
Xavier left the tower and began heading home to Riverville. He enjoyed the quiet babbling brook and proximity to the nearby ocean his hometown included. He had a wife named Abby and they were expecting a child soon. As soon as he arrived in Riverville he rushed home. The world was dangerous with bandits and dark wizards running around.
“Honey I’m Home!” Xavier called as he entered.
“Welcome home sweetie! We were worried about you,” Abby said while walking into the entrance hall with a hand on her stomach. “You were gone for so long I was worried something happened.”
“I’m a magic council captain I should’ve been more worried about you,” he said laughing.
The rest of the day was spent like normal. They had rice and steak for dinner as was normal. Even though they made a lot of money they chose to not spend more than needed and instead donated more than 50% of Xavier’s profits to orphanages and charities across the continent.
“Goodnight!” Xavier called heading to bed. I wonder what tomorrow will bring.