Terra Magicae: Chapter 2

Read Part 1 HERE

The writing continues! As does the story I started last week.

Is this exciting or what?

No… don’t answer that!

The Characters (so far)

Aržak – A Parthian (modern day Iran) Scholar
Sigeberht – A warrior of the Anglii (modern day Denmark)
Meleke – A merchant from (modern day Guinea/Mali) beyond the deserts south of Mauretania

Chapter 2

The Romans organized the slave camp into a similar structure as their army. There were teams of ten slaves who shared a tent, and these reported up into progressively larger units. Unlike the military, these groups were mixed gender. This would seem counter-intuitive, until you considered how much risk and effort it took to bring slaves to this far off land. It was likely Romans considered it safer and cheaper to just make new slaves here.

Each team of ten had a sort-of captain. The captain of Aržak’s team was Sigeberht, a robust warrior from the land of Angli, in the far distant north beyond Germania. Aržak made an ally of Sigeberht immediately, knowing he’d need someone strong to keep him safe. In exchange for safety, Aržak could provide Sigeberht reports on the goings on at the camp, as well as makeshift maps and timetables of the guards. Sigeberht had no more idea where they were than anyone else, but he knew the place he wanted to be didn’t involve a pickaxe or Roman walls around him.

Among the female half of Aržak’s team was Meleke, a merchant from a land far to the south, beyond the deserts of Mauretania. A place rumored to be populated only by wild beast men in the exploits of Hanno the Navigator, but here was the living proof of the sophisticated people of those lands. Having little common linguistic ground, it took many months before Meleke and Aržak could communicate with one another, but as the weeks passed, her Latin improved, as did his understanding of her language.

She was alone among her people at the camp. Aržak would learn, once they could communicate, that she was part of a trading expedition bringing the rare crystals up along the coast to the lands of the Gaetuli, only to find the Romans already engaged in scourging that land. She and her group were captured. They were tortured into revealing the location of where they found the crystals, with only Meleke surviving. She suspected she wouldn’t be alone for long. It was only a matter of time before the Romans found her people and took them, like they took everyone else.

Aržak might say it was pity that drew him to Meleke initially. Isolated, and unable to make herself understood, he wanted to help her. But that wasn’t it. There was a power in her he couldn’t explain. She exuded confidence, despite the dire situation. He responded to that, even before they could share words.

Through their mutual connection, Aržak, Siegberht, and Meleke formed a tight kinship, which only grew once Meleke and Siegberht could trade verbal spars with one another, often via friendly arguments over whose gods were more powerful. Aržak wouldn’t dare weigh in on that topic, because he suspected the truth was that the Roman gods were the most powerful, otherwise they wouldn’t be enslaved to them.

This is not to imply the other seven members of Aržak’s team were unremarkable, but given their imminent exit from Aržak’s story, their life’s deeds will be lost to history.


It began with whispers. At first Aržak thought someone was talking to him, but it would happen when no one was around. It would happen even when the air was filled with the cacophony of hammers and picks smashing on stone. It was a language he didn’t know and was instinctively fearful to repeat. In his down time, he would wander to the other tents ti discover if he could hear someone speaking the language, but nothing even came close.

In the dead of night, unable to get the whispers from his mind, he repeated the words. In an instant his mind was transplanted to another place and time. He was in the mine. It was daylight. Siegberht was among a team holding the ropes to lift a support beam for a water wheel. The rope snapped, and the beam came down, crushing him. With a start Aržak snapped back to reality, unsure of what to make of the vision.

In the morning word came that Siegberht’s team would be assisting to erect the support for a new water wheel. As the day progressed Aržak’s dread grew. At last the moment came, identical to his vision. Right as the rope snaped, he pushed Siegberht out of the way, but carelessly put himself in danger.

The beam fell on Aržak, crushing his lower half. To all who witnessed it, the wound was fatal. Having fallen unconscious, most assumed he was already dead. Siegberht acted quickly, with god-like strength, he lifted the beam over his head and hurled away. If it hadn’t been for his concern for Aržak, he might have marveled at the feat, but instead he fell to Aržak’s side. Meleke was soon there as well.

“Call the surgeon!” Siegberht barked out in his broken Latin.

“His injuries are too great.” Meleke said. “Only the ancestors can help him now.”

“Then ask them!” Siegberht demanded.

Meleke placed her hands over Aržak’s crushed abdomen and began chanting. What followed was an unearthly sound of bones snapping back into position. To Maleke’s amazement, and the astonishment of everyone in observance, Aržak’s eyes opened and he sat up.

“How is it possible?” Siegberht asked. “That beam should have killed him.”

Maleke stared at her hands, unsure of what had happened. Finally, she turned to Siegberht. “You threw it like it was a bag of feathers. Perhaps it was not so heavy?”

“It was heavy.” Aržak said with a cough. “I saw a vision where it killed Siegberht. That’s how I knew it was coming.”

“Then how did I throw it with such ease?” Siegberht pondered. “A moment earlier it took ten of us to hold it with ropes, but just then I could have snapped it with one hand.”

It was then that they noticed a crowd had gathered, and a commotion in the distance indicated a group of guards were approaching. Siegberht and Meleke helped Aržak to his feet.

“We ask the ancestors why they helped us later.” Meleke said. “Now, we tell the Romans that nothing serious happened. If they think we have their power, we’ll end up on crosses.”

The three nodded in agreement.

This is still edging pretty close to the original D&D game, but I’ve pared the characters down to just three. It’s unfortunate, because they were all fun to have in a game, but what makes great dice rolling, doesn’t necessarily lend itself to streamlined story telling. I don’t want to run into that problem where I have three characters who more or less fulfill the same role (strong-willed muscle) and having to find excuses for them to do something. In my mind all of the original characters are represented, it’s just that they are amalgamated into the three remaining for this story.

Thanks for taking the time to read!

EDIT (2024-10-02): Circled back to add links to previous chapters to all these older entries.