Short Stories (Attempt): Xerath - A Different Light
The desert winds shifted the sands of Shurima all across the capital city. A rare event but not something its people weren't used to... Houses and temples served as refuge for the unfortunate cought in the streets and all it was left to do was patiently waiting for the wind rage to soothe.
In the Temple of the Sun though only one soul was inhabiting the place, the scholar closed himself in deep study where scrolls and tablets filled the plane of the table he sat to. Xerath lifted his eyes to the only window placed on the roof from which the sunlight penetrated illuminating this and other rooms with the help of a mirrorplay. Around him, walls were covered in reliefs and paintings of great events and myths. It looked like they wanted to remeber him his condition: pictures of honored emperors buried with their own slaves so that they could serve their lord even in death, the glorious Ascendants of the legends praised and feared as gods... an image of power, righteousness and wisdom.
Not a breath could tell what was in the man's mind, he first learnt to conceal hish thoughts before anything else, and the mask he wore as the Magus of the Emperor gave a small glimpse of his look.
"He wants to be part of them... To legitimate his dominion on his people he wants to become a God"
It has been centuries since the last known ritual and in order to be kept as a sign from a divine intervention the details weren't to be recorded anyway. It was not a hard task for him anyway, his knowledge of the magic of Shurima and other forms of it was encyclopedic and he was versed in all of them.
Yet, this was not what he was looking for. While certainly magnificent, the result of the ritual didn't bring the wielder to the core of real power.
The winds had calmed since a long time when he again looked up as he expected to find the answer in the very figure of the sun... but the sight he had was quite different. A starry night enveloped the desert of Shurima after the storm and as clear as water a simple formation of stars was shining right above that window... each of the three stars seemed to be at the same distance from the other 2. What seemed as an unusual fact striked him with an epiphany...
The sun was just one of the lights of the sky, just one among the stars and the misteries of the universe above him and all... what the solar disc was occulting during the day hours was a sea deeper than anything else known. A feverish reserch started that night, lasting many others... hours of study and theorycrafting which tired the Magus but left him with one conviction...
A new light bloomed in his eyes under his mask...
"This shall be my last and greatest Masterpiece"