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Snowflakes fluttered in the gently blowing breeze, no doubt picked up off the ground of this place and caught in a suspended animation as Seakara just drank in her surroundings. This place was… odd, even for Gielinor’s standards, but the promise it held was enormous!
It had all started when the Duke of the local town she’d been in… Lumbridge, if she’d recalled correctly, asked her for a favor. He’d found a funny little talisman while out on his evening constitutional, and wanted some bloke over at the Wizard’s Tower to have a gander at it. Apparently, he’d tried sending other adventurers before, but they just didn’t seem interested, only wanting to get “gainz” or money, not at all interested in a quest.
But that was all Seakara needed! A quest, an adventure, one she could do without her godly powers on her personal quest to be a better person!? Sign her right up! Not to mention, the Duke assured her there’d be some sort of reward, and you know, things just hadn’t been the same since she left her horde behind in her own dimension. This was going to be just a lovely start!
She gladly took the totem in hand, and had to stop herself from just taking off in flight as soon as she got outside of the castle.
“No powers, Seakara. Gotta remember that.” She reprimanded herself, though she giddily started racing through the back forests of Lumbridge towards her destination. She stopped only briefly to gawk at the massive tower with the pretty blue light spiraling in the center, before jumping right into it and ascending to the top floor.
She caused quite a commotion upon trying to step out of the beam, flipping over and ending up knocking over one of the many piles of magically enchanted books, though she was quite apologetic about the whole situation. The wizards, for the most part, seemed used to outsiders causing this kind of ruckus, and paid her little mind.
Searching for the most important looking office, she quickly wandered in and tapped excitedly on the desk in front of her with the talisman.
“Hey, are you uhm… this Sedridor guy the Duke wanted me to come find?” she asked innocently, bouncing on the balls of her feet as the fellow in front sporting possibly the pointiest hat she’d ever seen looked up, his eyes glazed.
“Why, yes that would be… Where in Saradomin’s name did you get that talisman, child?” he asked with a gasp,
“The Duke man gave it to me to bring to you!” she responded cheerily, quickly pushing it into his hand, a radiant smile erupting on her face as she felt she had completed the quest.
“Why, this just might be the last piece of the puzzle we’ve been searching for!” he cried out happily, quickly turning the talisman over and over in his hand, rubbing and picking at it. In a mad flurry of activity, he began rifling through a great many drawers and cabinets, quickly compiling everything into a rather nicely wrapped box, before setting it on his desk once more.
“Miss…?”
“Seakara!”
“Miss Seakara, I hate to trouble you any further, but the talisman you’ve just brought me requires a bit more studying, and I need some input from another scholar on the subject! Would you be so kind as to take it this to Aubury in Varrock?” he asked, drumming his fingers on top of the brightly colored box.
She seemed to falter a bit, quite clearly thinking her involvement by this point was over, so Sedridor quickly continued:
“If you do this for me, I can let you in on perhaps one of the greatest secrets Gielinor has ever known! Secrets that centuries ago lead to the destruction of this very tower, in order to keep them secret!”
Ever the optimist, Seakara nodded affirmatively and energetically, especially at the promise of an even greater secret reward.
“Sure! Just… where… is… Vah-rock?” she asked, cocking her head to the side, exposing her canines in a friendly smile.
Sedridor was flabbergasted.
“You… don’t know where Varrock is?! Miss, excuse me, but how long have you been here!?”
She quickly counted out on her fingers.
“Hrm…. Five days? Give or take?”
“Where are you from?”
She snorted a bit at this.
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
He seemed inclined to press more, but waved the thoughts away with his hand.
Quickly withdrawing a small handful of runes, he tossed them at Seakara who caught them easily.
“Take these and the package and get to Varrock posthaste? After you teleport, his shop is in the south east of the city.”
Seakara examined the small pebbles that she’d snatched out of the air, and furrowed her brow. Three pebbles with a… painting of air on them? One with fire, and one with… some sort of primitive scale?
“Wh…at are these for?”
“Teleportation magic.” He answered matter-of-factly. “Another specialization of my research, actually!”
“Wait, you guys need pebbles to use mag…. YOU CAN TELEPORT!?” she exclaimed, her eyes widening in shock. In her wildest dreams, she never thought she’d find magic like that here! In her home dimension, that would kill most mortals, over vast distances, but this guy here… made it sound so simple?
“Just grab the package and throw the runes at your feet, and you’ll be there instantly!”
She didn’t need to be told twice. Quickly grabbing the package up and tucking it securely under her arm, she hurled the runes at the ground with as much power as she could muster.
Instantly, she found herself trying to save her balance and not fall into a fountain that had suddenly appeared.
“Holy!” she thought to herself. This was wild!
Finally regaining her composure, she quickly oriented herself and raced towards the destination she’d been given earlier, nearly colliding with the poor owner’s front door as she scrambled to open it.
“HI ARE YOU AUBURY!?” she half shouted, out of breath from the run over. Geez, this stamina stuff was something she’d really have to work on, she wasn’t used to not being able to fly everywhere!
A man who had previously been sitting at a desk with a monocle over his eye nearly jumped out of his skin as this seemingly crazed adventurer burst through his front door.
“Yes, but the sign says we’re closed for lunch!” he snapped, shaking his head.
“Adventurers these days! Ever since they put in that Grand Exchange whoozy-whatsit, they have no patience!” he grumbled to nobody in particular, trying to examine the condition of his door now.
Noting the Seakara was still standing there, and bouncing with boundless energy, he looked over at her once more.
“Is there something I can help you with?” he sighs, rubbing the back of his neck. The customer was always right, he supposed.
Seakara happily pushed the package into his arms, before fiddling with her hands as she explained.
“Sedri-…Sedor… The man with the very pointy hat at the tower sent this for you! It’s got his research in it or something, he needed your advice!”
Aubury looked stunned for the second time.
“Adventurer, why didn’t you say so?” he cried out, quickly tearing open the packaging, some of which Seakara put into her pocket for later. It was shiny!
“This… this is incredible! Please, give me a moment!” he said, as he withdrew thick tomes, bound with magical twine that twinkled dimly in his shop.
“My gods, has he finally cracked it?”
He turned back to Seakara.
“My gratitude for you bringing this to me, Miss. I am sorry for snapping at you before. But this is perhaps the biggest discovery of the age, and you’ve been instrumental in getting it all brought together!”
Seakara beamed with pride.
“Now, I cannot offer you as great a reward as Sedridor, but I can let you into a secret for your troubles travelling here, and to make up for my snapping at you?” he offered. “If you find anything interesting, bring it back for me to take a look at as well?”
“Sure!”
“Alright, brace yourself, and when you’re ready to leave, look for small portals of pooled power, it should bring you right back to me…”
“SENVENTIOR DISTHINE MOLENKO!” he shouted, and for the second time that day Seakara felt a teleport pass over her, and it kind of tickled!
That was how Seakara ended up finding herself in the current plane, which was absolutely thrumming with latent magical energy! She could feel it everywhere, and it was making her more than a little giddy.
Walking around a bit, she managed to wrest a pickaxe out of a small deposit of something, and carried it at her hip while she walked. Eventually, stopping for a rest, her fingers came into contact with a giant spire of what seemed to be stone, but actually felt like it had the same consistency as cake!
Maybe it was food? She certainly was hungry after all the excitement of the day…
Trying to grab at it with her fingers yielded no results, but a mighty swing with her pickaxe seemed to do the trick, as a handful of those perfectly round pebbles Sedridor had given her early popped out of the column! These ones were different though, they didn’t have those images painted on them!
She took a few more good whacks at the column just to be safe, and quickly gathered them up in her hands. They were kind of shaped like cookies, and they felt like cake… well, she was hoping they tasted good, too!
One bite was all it took to confirm that was NOT the case. It felt like someone had sprinkled dust directly in her mouth, and it was just… so gross.
She rapidly spat out what had been in her mouth, and pouted. This was a terrible reward! She hoped Sedridor had a better one for when she returned to him!
Keeping a handful of the pebbles in her hand, she quickly located a portal, and found herself standing right back in the shop she had so nearly destroyed earlier.
“Ah! Miss, welcome back! How was it, what did you see? Did you find anything?” Aubury asked her rapid-fire, even as Seakara brushed off some of the snow that had accumulated on her.
“All I found was these weird pebbles, they don’t even taste good.” She replied, pressing the handful she had into Aubury’s palm.
“You… tried to eat rune essence?” he asked, confused once more. Seakara simply nodded her head.
“I’m going to head back to Sedridor now with your advice, maybe I’ll see you again!” she exclaimed, before racing out of the store and into adventure unknown.
“What a strange girl…” Aubury thought, as he finally cast his gaze down to the pile of essence Seakara had given him.
His eyes widened in shock. This essence should’ve been blank!
But there, clear as day, they weren’t! They’d been converted into Soul runes, one of the most coveted and rare runes available! By his count, there had to be at least forty of them there! If he’d take a moment to think, he’d find it extremely puzzling, almost impossible, how had she managed to do that? But it didn’t matter to him in the moment.
He couldn’t help but jump for joy, clicking his heels together. He was going to be rich!