Oh, gods...

There is no one nearby...

We should take care of him.

...

Well, we should begin with something. What should we call him?

Seth, like the one of the legend.

...

Hello? What's your name, boy?

...

I think he's amnesic, Lucille.

...

You will love school, Seth. It's full of knowledge!

She's lying. May Saradomin have piety on you!

Don't scare him, Waylan! He's still young.

...

Wizard Betel appointed another meeting with me... Seth has done it again. Betel wants us to switch schools... again... I can't afford this, Waylan. We can't take care of him any longer.

...

Thou are old enough, youngster. You have got enough runes to defend yourself at night. Good luck, lad.

...

It's him. I can't believe he's walking alone, but if it isn't a trap, it will make the job much easier.

Remember, alive.

I know well what she said, Mareek. Stop being so annoying.

...

Greetings! I see you are a new arrival to this land. My job is to welcome all new visitors. So welcome!

...

You have potential as a wizard. If you wish, you can become a student in our Tower. You will need to pass an entry exam, but I can help you practice.

...

You can sit next to me. My name is Connor, what is yours?

It was the beginning of summer, and that meant that the last grade students of the splendorous Wizards' Tower had to go on a mission, given by the wise Head Wizard Sedridor himself, to put in practice what they had learned during their staying in the Tower, and hopefully do some research relevant to the evolution of magic.

This year, the high wizards were very optimistic about the results, as the runecrafting altars had been rediscovered recently (which enabled the mages to give their apprentices a greater quantity of runes for their missions), and the mysterious peninsula named Daemonheim, by the Fremennik, began to become investigated by the brave Fremennik and other mighty warriors. It could be an important advance to magic, as a warrior named Thok affirmed that there was a lot of "portal stuff" and "puny hooded magical things" during his trip to the bottom of the peninsula. However, there was a lot of discrepancy to his words, so the wizards decided to send a team.

The mission required teamwork and, as expected, the inseparable Connor and Seth were chosen as couple. They were the last ones who needed to be assigned a quest, and they had been waiting for an hour already.

—The others left long ago —complained Seth—, and at this rate Geena and Robo are going to have better results than us. Plus they volunteered for the Daemonheim mission, so it must be an easy quest.

—Calm down —said Connor—. They only left a couple of hours ago, and we have all the summer to research. Also, I believe Daemonheim is more dangerous than the mission we're going to be assigned.

—C'mon. In the stories the last person is always the one who gets the worst. We will probably have to travel to the devastated Wilderness, or to the hot Kharidian Desert, or to...

The door opened and Seth shut his mouth. Sedridor appeared and looked at them.

—Ah, Connor Dickey and Seth Taylor —said Sedridor—. Your turn.

The students entered Sedridor's study, waited till Sedridor sit, and then took a seat.

—Well, as you know, Count Victor Draynor Drakan was recently slain by the brave Damien Claud of Varrock —the students nodded—. We thought that the fog covering Draynor was actually his doing, but the fog has been there a few weeks already. The fog came from the south some months ago, which made a lot of ships wreck. It makes the citizens of Draynor's lives harder, and apart from clearing it, we should find the source of the power that causes it. It might not sound exciting, but any trivial matter should be reported to the Magic Guild of Yanille. Any questions?

Seth was looking at the floor, with not much effort to hide his deception.

—We will try our best, Wizard Sedridor —answered Connor—. We can leave now if you wish.

—Very well. Farewell, young wizards.

—Five years studying at the Tower and my greatest mission is to clear a fog. Exciting! —skewered Seth, as they were crossing the bridge which leaded outside the Wizards' Tower island.

—Calm down, if we complete this quickly, he might give us another mission —said Connor.

—Mhmhm... —mumbled Seth.

—I think we should sleep now —suggested Connor—. Tomorrow we'll wake up early to fish some anchovies, because we barely have money for food, for some reason...

—It's not my fault! I needed that Adamantite Damsel poster! —defended Seth— You like Zabeth Corvid too.

—Whatever. Let's rent the cheapest room and to sleep.

The sky was grey and the horizon was covered by the mysterious fog. Connor and Seth had woken up early to gather food, and they were heading to the nearby coast.

—I'm not sleeping in Draynor again. The fog doesn't stop them from buying better mattresses! —complained Seth.

—Come on. You act like a baby. You probably don't remember how to fish with a net, am I right? —teased Connor.

—Of course I do! I'm the best fisherman of my class!

—That explains why I always win the Annual Lumbridge Fishing Competition.

—I let you win. I have too many trophies of... awesomeness...

—Okay... let's begin.

Connor took a pair of small nets from their toolkit and handed one to Seth. They began trying to trap some innocent fish in their net when Connor spotted something shiny within the sand, under the water.

—Seth, look! —shouted Connor has he pointed to something shiny on the water.

—Silver! —shouted Seth, as he was undressing his robe top and bottom— We'll be able to buy food!

—Wait, it's not...!

Seth jumped in the water, swimmed a short distance, unburied the shiny piece and brought it to the coast.

—Brrr... —His teeth were chattering— The water is too cold in the morning. Here, take the piece, I'm going to search for a towel in the house.

Seth took his robes and ran to the house. He hadn't noticed that the piece wasn't silvery, but in fact, it was made of crystal. Connor watched at the piece. It had an uncomplete pattern, like if it had been broken from a bigger crystal. It had the tip of what seemed part of the cross of Saradomin, and the tip was next to part of an uncomplete circle. It seemed shinier now that it was in his hand, but it could have just been the refraction of the water. The crystal began to get warmer and with astonishing force it pointed north-east. Seth appeared with his blue robes on, and his red hair still wet.

—Let's go to Port Sarim. We can sell the silver piece to Grum, then buy some food at the market —said Seth, eager to eat—. I've thought that we could investigate Draynor Manor later, to see if there is some residual energy. If there isn't, we could ask the castaways that survived from the wrecks to know if there was something weird within the fog, or we can...

—Seth —interrupted Connor, showing him the piece.

—Are you kidding me?! —shouted Seth— Well, you fish, I'm going to take a break...

—Seth, it's some kind of talisman. It's pointing north—east, and it became very warm when I touched it. I believe we should take it to Sedridor immediately.

—Fine. At least the food is better there.

—Wizard Sedridor. —Yes, Edvin?

Wizard Edvin had come to the Tower to report news from Geena and Robo's mission. Apparently, they had managed to go very deep, and, just as Thok described (but with more educated words), the power was felt stronger, and there were many more portals.

—It looks like the notorious Seth and the wise Connor approach to the Tower. Have they surrendered from their mission already?

Sedridor looked through the window.

—That, or they already managed to complete it —Sedridor had faith in most of his students—. If you excuse me, Edvin, we can continue the conversation later.

—Very well.

Sedridor went upstairs, to the attic, and from the telescope he stared at Draynor.

The fog had been cleared.

—Come in!

Connor entered the room.

—Where is Seth? —asked Sedridor, puzzled.

—Excuse my companion's impertinence, but we were lacking money and he became hungry; he's in the kitchen... —said Connor, lowering his head.

—Ah, typical! —Sedridor laughed— Well, it's amazing how fast you completed your quest. I watched Draynor from the telescope. Before assigning you another mission , if you wish, of course, I'd like to know which was the source of the fog, if you found any clues on its mechanic or the reason it happened...

—Sorry to interrupt you, Wizard Sedridor, but it was not us who cleared the fog. We came here urgently to deliver you a strange crystal which we found on the coast of Draynor —Connor opened his eyes wide—. Does that mean that the crystal was the causative?

—It seems so —Sedrior looked idle, as if he was thinking.

Seth came inside the office, without knocking on the door.

—Excuse me, Wizard Sedridor, but Wizard Traiborn began shouting at me about something related with a thingummywut...

—Yes, of course. I understand; it gets worse in the afternoon —Sedrior winked at Connor.

—Seth, the crystal is the reason of the fog. However, why hasn't the Tower been covered with fog? —said Connor, looking through the window— Does it take effect in hours or something?

—I have been thinking —said Sedridor—, and I am almost certain that the fog was cleared due to the contact with your body, but the reason is unknown to me. I say this because the fog would have not only been cleared, but it would have moved, slowly or fast, to the Tower, but it hasn't been spotted as far as the telescope can see.

—Oh! —said Connor, surprised. After calming down, he remembered to show Sedridor the crystal— Well, here it is, does it sound familiar? Also, it seems to point north-east when touched, it also glows as time passes. That may explain why no one had spotted the crystal before, but it doesn't explain why it shines before us.

Sedridor took the crystal with caution.

—It seems like part of the cross of Saradomin, but I am sure it is not, look —Sedrior pointed at a border of the shard—: it has a line, which can't be seen clearly due to the breakage, but if we could put together the other shard... or shards, we would be able to see a perfect line. And looking at the position of the tip, I would say half of the complete crystal is half of an X, and the other part is unknown to me. So we have the shard of a crystal symbol, which causes huge fog, and the shard points to where the other part of the crystal is, plus it reacts to your body, Connor. It looks like I don't have to give you a second mission, for you haven't completed your inital one.

Connor was thinking, and Seth looked amazed at the crystal, thinking which secrets and adventures awaited them.

—Magic acts in strange ways —said Sedridor—. How can an insignificant object such as broken glass change the elements of nature at will? But back to the topic, searching for the location where the shard points may waste weeks of questing. It could just be pointing to the nearby wheat field, or the unexplored lands north-east of us. There fastest thing I can think of at the moment is the power of the mystical seers of the village near Camelot. They managed to find the source of the strange power of Daemonheim, and since we have the shard of the greater source, they might give us a more specific location of where it is.

—Wizard Sedridor —said Seth —, even though the Seers may be quicker at finding the shard than us, travelling there will take weeks, as in my five years here I haven't seen anyone able to teleport to such a long distance, or anywhere nearby.

—Ah, do not worry about that —said Sedridor, happy—. A few months ago, Wizard Cromperty of Ardougne, who is a good friend of Merlin of Camelot, requested some peculiar magical beads from Wizard Mizgog, and Cromperty, in exchange, gave Mizgog a scroll with the spell to teleport to Camelot, which were given by Merlin himself. As Mizgog had no interest in travelling to Camelot (because he finds "beadromancy" more interesting), he gifted the spell to me —Sedridor opened a drawer of his desk and took a tattered scroll from it, along with some law runes, a lot of air runes and a couple of runes which neither Connor nor Seth managed to see—. Get yourself ready and call me when you are ready to leave. Ah, so much talking and mystery has opened my appetite. Let's eat something.

—Ah —said Seth—. It's too late, I believe I should go to sleep and we'll leave tomorrow early. Bon appetit!

—Goodbye, Seth —said Sedridor. As Seth left, he looked to Connor—. I need to have a word with you.

—Well —said Sedridor, the morning after—, do you have everything you need?

—Yes —said Seth. Connor remained silent.

—Very well.

Sedridor put the runes on his hand, which he already had ready, and closed his fist. As the runes were melting on his hand, he pointed with both of his hands to the youngsters.

—Veniens Disthine Calmentor!

A purple light wrapped the students and they quickly disappeared. Sedridor sighed.

—Seth, where are you? —shouted Connor, worried.

—Blaaaargh...!

Connor found Seth trapped in the branches of a tree. A magpie was attacking Seth. Connor laughed. He seemed happier than when Seth woke up. —It thinks you're trying to steal its jewellery.

Seth casted a wind bolt on the magpie, which fled away. His cheeks were rosy.

—You could have helped me, cocoon! —shouted Seth.

—Yes, I could have. I can see books of my feats: "The great Connor saved a poor wizard —whose name has been forgotten— from a harmless magpie".

Seth deviated his sight, annoyed.

—Let's go... —said Seth.