Darkness and Enlightenment

Ruin sat cross-legged on the floor, holding the medallion up in front of him. The thing was fascinating.

He still wasn't certain of its purpose. It seemed tutelary, and surely his mother would have warned him if it was dangerous. But its ultimate purpose? He had no idea.

Each time he touched it, it showed him some new environment and helped him explore it. He could trace the connections between the cacti in the desert, reach through the sand to touch the small lives that huddled beneath, waiting for the time when the rainstorms finally came. He could follow the path of the lizards across the surface of the sands, or touch the cold, patient minds of the snakes that waited to ambush them.

He'd always meant to travel, but not like this. The visions that the amulet conferred made him want to visit these places, test his understanding. Traveling to new cities and now a tiny borough within Duendewood really didn't measure up. He wished he could have met with the Dwarves; that, at least, would have been a new and strange environment. Still, for all that the visions left him frustrated and wanting more, they were a good way to pass the time while the human cleric slept in the next room.

I'll need to know more of the world and its layout, Ruin decided, as he lowered the amulet again. It pained him to admit that his father might have been right on that point, but if he was going to depend entirely on educating himself then he would need to be able to admit when he'd been wrong. And knowledge of the larger world could hardly be a bad thing to have...