Then came the unending darkness.

Every dawn, the sun would rise. And so would her triune guardians,
locked into orbit with the sun by the ritual Tavarius and Isillinde had
subverted. Through the heavens the solar orb would rise, no light ever
reaching the earth except the single focused beam cascading from the
centre of the planets down upon Mount Nicator, where Tavarius drank in
the radiant energy while protected by the powerful ward around him.
Every dusk, the sun would set, but the night would be no darker than the
day, and the days were dark indeed.

Despite Isillinde's insistence of Tavarius's altruistic motivations,
many sought to end this state of affairs. Landon Stormcrow tried to use
his mirrored shield to direct the beam of sunlight away from Tavarius
and back towards the sun, but the shield shattered into countless
pieces. A Jester known as Kuntar Semshan began seeking to have a giant
mirror made, large enough to withstand the sunbeam's strength.

Kuntar was at the workshop of Holly, the glassblower in New Thera with
his friend, Kinilan Demaxx, when the wizard Hycanthus strode in seeking
Holly's services.

"I need two big, thick glass panes, yea wide, yea tall," said the wizard
to the glassblower, gesturing with his arms spread wide. "They need to
be completely free of blemish in every way, completely smooth."

"Can I ask what they are for?" Holly asked, interested.

"Looks like you're not getting that mirror now," Kinilan whispered to
Kuntar.

"Looks like it," Kuntar replied despondently.

"Mirror?" Hycanthus turned to stare at Kinilan suspiciously. "What do
you know about a mirror?"

"Nothing!" Kinilan protested. "Kuntar wants the mirror. The last mirror
I dealt with spat out clones of me and tried to cut my head off."

Kuntar explained to Hycanthus his theory that a large enough mirror
could be used to stop the eclipse. Hycanthus snorted and shook his head,
saying, "That much power, you will never redirect with a mirror. It
would destroy any mirror you put in its way, you fool!"

"Think, lad, think! You cannot hope to counter it straight on,"
Hycanthus continued. "You must work AROUND it."

The aged wizard revealed then his plan of having two mirrors created,
not to redirect the sunlight, but to use in the creation of a magical
portal that would lead inside the ward of power around Tavarius, so that
they could deal with him there.

Holly agreed to take on the challenge, but she did not have enough sand
on hand to melt down for so much glass. "I've found the beaches of
Ulangi produce the best sand around," Holly noted.

"Ulangi," Hycanthus pondered. "Can't say I've ever been there in my
travels."

"Kuntar and I could be there in back with the sand in no time," Kinilan
offered helpfully.

"Really?" Hycanthus said, rather eagerly. Kinilan nodded.

"Well then," said the wizard. "I suppose I could rest my weary feet
here. I mean, I'd just slow you down, being old and all." He shoved some
equipment off a workbench and plopped himself down, putting his feet up
and pulling a pipe from his robes. "It's a long way here from the
Vashnars!" he said, puffing contentedly.

Kuntar and Kinilan headed to Shallam for supplies, then were soon
feeling the salt wind in their faces upon the Shastaan ferry to Ulangi,
propelled by the muscular ferryman Gareth. Once upon the sandy beaches
of Ulangi, they dug up a great deal of the pure white sand, heavy in
silica, and returned with their haul to New Thera. Holly thanked them
for their help, but warned that it would take some time to produce glass
panes of the size and perfection Hycanthus required.

"It is EXTREMELY important that there is not a single mar in the glass,"
Hycanthus warned. "It is a matter of life and death! Take however long
you need."

A few days later, Entaro Windsong was wandering the tundra to the far
north, when in the village of Aran'riod he came across a bizarre sight:
a faintly glowing door standing by itself in the middle of nowhere,
detached from any wall or building. Opening the door, he found a bright
light shining from within the doorway, keeping him from seeing what was
within.

Taking a deep breath, he walked through the doorway... and found himself
in a strange octagonal room surrounded by doors! Each of the eight
walls, plus even the ceiling and the floor of the room, had a door in
the centre. Each door was exactly the same in appearance: of solid pine
and without distinctive marks. Occasionally, though, one of the doors
would lift itself off of the wall and exchange places with another door.

Meanwhile, the glowing door had been discovered by more people. More and
more walked through as Entaro had, ending up in the same strange
octagonal room, and they found that whatever door they chose would lead
them to some part of the world, even to other known planes, seemingly at
random! The same door would not lead to the same place twice.

As they were trying to puzzle out the meaning of this odd phenomenon,
Hycanthus was found upon Mount Nicator, near Tavarius within his ward of
power. Cursing, the wizard explained that the glassblower in New Thera
had completed his commissioned glass panes, and he had had them silvered
into mirrors and brought them here.

Hycanthus had positioned the mirrors to face each other so that each
reflected the other endlessly, then cast a spell to join the two mirrors
to create a portal straight inside the ward itself. At the crux of the
spell, however, a single snowflake had drifted between the two mirrors,
causing an endless reflection of the snowflake that disrupted the magics
involved.

Told about the appearance of the glowing door, he admitted that it was
likely the result of his failed spell: a door that, rather than leading
into the single place he intended, led everywhere, but without
premeditation.

"Could one of the doors lead into the ward after all?" he was asked.

Hycanthus sighed. "It's possible there is one," he said, "but the
chances are so slim, I highly doubt you'd ever find it."

Penned by my hand on the 8th of Ero, in the year 428 AF.