Chapter 13: The Ringwitch and the Fate Ring |
The late Sparrow Hamilton, a detective, had taken on a rather challenging case about six months ago. Baron Huntington of Tobesk City had hired him to locate a missing maid who had served his family for years but recently resigned of her own accord. When the baron sent his butler with gifts to invite her back, they discovered she had vanished. Although the baron had some social clout, he wasn't a family member of the maid and seemed distrustful of the police. As a result, he enlisted multiple detectives to investigate.
Sparrow Hamilton was no famed sleuth; his usual cases revolved around mundane matters like uncovering extramarital affairs. This nobleman’s commission came through the recommendation of an old client, which made Sparrow value the case highly. Even a baron was a significant figure, far beyond the reach of ordinary citizens. Diligently, Sparrow spent a month in spring investigating and eventually traced the mystery to an abandoned sanatorium by the Ossel River. He believed this site held the key to the disappearances.
“This sanatorium was abandoned about thirty years ago,” local resident Bill Schneider explained, pointing towards the gradually visible structures in the distance. “Back then, I was just a kid, but I remember hearing my family mention it.”
Though mist still veiled the outskirts of the city, the main building and its clock tower, adorned with spires and cross-shaped decorations, were becoming discernible. Schneider continued, “The royal family had ordered the Tobesk City Hall to carry out new urban planning to accommodate the booming population and the rise of the steam industry. Back then, the policy was to move facilities like hospitals into the city and factories out to its edges. This place was once an aristocratic sanatorium, a retreat for people we can only dream of meeting. When the sanatorium was relocated to a nearby city—a mere half-hour train ride away—it became more convenient, leaving this one abandoned. Even vagrants avoid this desolate place; no one would know if you died here.”
Surrounded by vast farmland and wastelands, the nearest rural village was an hour’s walk away. The only notable nearby locations were a manor and a horse ranch owned by an earl. During the racing season, people would turn the road on which Schneider and Shad walked into a makeshift racetrack. For now, it remained eerily deserted.
Despite the rapid industrial growth of the era, signs of the Steam Era were visible only in major cities. Once you left the urban environment, it felt like stepping back in time. Shad understood this sentiment as they approached the abandoned sanatorium. Schneider refrained from mentioning its name, deeming it unimportant.
The exterior walls were stripped bare, the windows and doors long gone. The surrounding courtyard, enclosed by surprisingly intact fences, was overgrown, blending seamlessly with the surrounding wasteland. High towers loomed amidst the desolation, and only the decorative gate faintly hinted at the site’s former grandeur.
“Stay behind me as we go,” Schneider instructed, kicking open the rusted double gates. The doors crashed to the ground, startling birds from the nearby woods. Even here on the city’s outskirts, the mist lingered. With the overcast sky threatening rain, Shad regretted not bringing an umbrella.
They stepped into the courtyard, their boots crunching over wild grass. Schneider spoke as they approached the main building, “What we call Ring Warlocks are individuals who possess the Ring of Fate.”
“Yes. Time, ages, destiny, eras, civilizations, and worlds forge the rings we bear. Pay attention now—I will show you the full Ring of Fate, not just a fragment. Watch closely.”
Schneider extended his arms slightly, palms upward, as if lifting something, holding his hands level with his shoulders. Suddenly, everything behind him blurred as if shrouded in white mist, though Schneider himself remained unchanged, his face bearing a faint smile.
Shad heard the whistle of a train echoing through the deserted courtyard. “What?” He spun around, searching the waist-high grass. His skin began to feel warm. Turning back, he saw that the mist behind Schneider wasn’t mist but scalding steam. It carried an oppressive heat and a strange, unnerving presence, distorting space and distance. Emerging from this steam was a colossal shadow.
The whistle intensified, the steam hissed, and the shadow grew closer. The immense pressure from its rapid approach caused Schneider’s coat and the surrounding grass to flutter violently. Shad’s own coat flapped as he squinted against the force of the wind, a deep sense of foreboding welling within him.
“What on earth is in that steam?” he murmured. The shadow grew clearer—a massive iron hammer, gleaming silver-gray, as tall as the sanatorium itself, crashed down with immense force onto Schneider.
The impact reverberated, leaving Shad’s ears ringing and his vision swimming. He clutched his chest as nausea threatened to overwhelm him. The ground shook, wind roared, and lightning flashed, as though the hammer had reshaped reality—or struck at Shad’s very soul.
Yet Schneider stood unmoving. Instead, the hammer’s blow revealed a giant brass ring spinning behind him. The steaming mist dissipated, unveiling a pentagonal brass ring adorned with glowing runes and surrounded by a mysterious light. The runes floated and shimmered, radiating power.
“This is the Ring of Fate. A Ring Warlock reveals it fully only in combat. Otherwise, one might not summon it at all, or just a portion suffices. Do you have any questions?” Schneider asked, standing amidst the wild grass with the ring still radiating heat behind him.
“Why steam? Why brass?” Shad asked, his voice betraying his eagerness.
The middle-aged doctor chuckled. “Young man, power cannot separate from its era. The world influences us as we shape it. The Ring reflects oneself and the age one lives in. This is the age of steam and machinery, so the Ring emerges from steam, forged by a hammer into brass. If it were the Age of Rainbows, the Ring might be multicolored. In a deep-sea era, it would be water. Do you understand?”
Shad nodded. His heart pounded from the spectacle, and he barely blinked, wanting to etch the image into his memory. But Schneider dismissed the ring with a wave, leaving Shad with a lingering warmth and a few runes imprinted in his mind—Joy, Hound, and Speck among them.
The strain of memorizing these powerful runes left Shad with a splitting headache, forcing him to stop. “In this world, knowledge truly is power,” he thought. It began to make sense why the extraordinary organization Schneider invited him to join was an academy.
As they moved toward the building, Schneider explained further. “The cross-section of my Ring is a pentagon, signifying my status as a Five-Ring Warlock and a fifth-year correspondence student at the academy. The progression is geometric: a one-ring’s cross-section is circular, with a single face for runes. A two-ring is still flat but engraved on both sides. Three-ring forms a triangle, four-ring a square, and so forth. The higher the ring count, the closer it approaches a perfect circle.”
Upon entering the building, they found its interior stripped of furniture, the floors coated in dust. Their footsteps stirred small clouds as they headed up a rickety staircase to the second floor. Shad worried about the safety of the structure.
“Runes are the essence of the Ring Warlock system. Engraving runes onto the Ring accumulates spiritual power and connects us to the Four Mystical Elements—Miracles, Blasphemy, Enlightenment, and Whispers—allowing us to advance.”
“What do you mean by spiritual power and elements?” Shad asked eagerly, sensing he was about to uncover profound truths.
Schneider elaborated as they climbed, “In past eras, spiritual power had many names—mana, ether, psyche, but now it’s simply called ‘spirit.’ It encompasses information, elements, energy—everything you perceive in this world. For a Ring Warlock, it’s the force by which the mind shapes reality. Accumulating spirit requires engaging with the elements, and the safest way to do so is by studying ancient lore—stories, myths, and epics.”
Shad likened spirit to a "mana bar" in his thoughts.
“But amassing spirit isn’t enough. The elements are key. Engraving runes tied to the elements onto your Ring elevates your spiritual limit, refines the soul, and strengthens the body. The elements can be encountered in many forms…”
Shad recalled the woman’s voice in his mind, noting his exposure to Whispers, Enlightenment, and Miracles through Sparrow’s death, his perspective on the world, and his contemplation of divinity.
“However, merely experiencing elements isn’t sufficient. You must engrave them onto your Ring to prove fusion with them. Every advancement requires a unique combination of runes from the elements. I’ll explain more once you join the academy. For now, let me introduce the differences among the four elements.”
Schneider suddenly stopped, his smile returning as he looked ahead. “I believe the person we’re looking for is right here.”
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