“Oh.”
“Friends no like. I punish Nano. I put itchy bugs in
Nano bed. He punish back. He make king food yucky. I punish back. I steal you.
I no give you back until he sorry.”
“Um… I don’t belong to Nano. I sort of belong to Kiro
Yatunus.”
“Kiro? He nice. He no mind I punish Nano. No afraid.
I feed you and give you drink.” He then turned and walked through another door.
Great, now I’m a puppy.
I followed him to the door to find a narrow set of
stairs. Since he had the torch and I didn’t know the way, I couldn’t exactly
turn back. This time it looked like we were in a very old kitchen with a large,
round, metal fire oven in the middle of the room. Against the wall was a large
wooden tub and a wooden table.
After handing me the torch, Nila started climbing the
cold oven and when he was at the top, he pushed up a section of the wooden
ceiling, which let in light. Another trap door. He pulled himself through.
“Stay!” he whispered sharply.
After about five minutes I heard a loud crash, a
shriek, and running. Nila fell through the trapdoor, and it slammed shut behind
him. I had just enough time to get under him to break his fall… which resulted
in him crashing into me very, very hard. This surprised me, because I had tried
to use my powers to control the wind to keep me up.
Nothing happened. When I should have been worried
about my crushed body, I was too busy trying to do any spell I knew. My energy swirled
in me restlessly and agitated, but it wouldn’t obey me. Now I was panicking.
“My powers aren’t working!”
“I void,” he said, climbing off me.
The instant he stopped touching me, the torch
exploded in fire, the oven trembled, and the wind picked up. Unfortunately, the
wind picked up the fire on its way into an indoor tornado. Burning wind circled
us, getting more and more chaotic.
“Stop!”
“I’m not doing anything!” I yelled back. It was
getting really, really hot and I was having trouble breathing. The fire was
closing in.
“Stop!” Nila yelled again. He grabbed my arm and
everything immediately went out. The fire and the wind just stopped.
“I guess I was doing it. Sorry. I didn’t mean to.”
“You too strong. No emotion control. No panic in
magic. You panic, magic panic. Energy is like pet. It protect you, it attack
fear.”
He grabbed the torch, which had somehow remained lit
when the fire tornado went out. Then he grabbed the large sack he had gotten
from whatever room was outside the trap door. He pulled out a big purple fruit
and threw it at me.
“Eat,” he said.
“The skin, too?”
“Yes. Eat all. Seed food, too,” he said.
Taking him for his word, I bit in to the fruit. It
tasted like a nectarine, with a texture more like an apple. He pulled out a
small jar of what looked like beef jerky and started eating. He gave me a piece
to try, and while it had a slight beef jerky flavor, it was too mild to really
like. Next he pulled out none other than a thin bar of chocolate. He broke it
in half and gave me the smaller half.
We sat there for probably half an hour enjoying all
kinds of interesting food. I wasn’t allergic to any, thankfully. Then I another
room filled with books and with a giant map on the wall. He proceeded to tell
me in his broken English all about the history of his people when they lived
above ground. Honestly it sounded like Earth’s history, except instead of
building AI technology, cars, and skyscrapers, they fought until their world
died and they had to move underground.
“I think we should get back now. Nano’s probably done
talking to your brother.”
“Yes, Adre will be hunting me.”
“You know Adre… isn’t a nice person, right?”
He looked at me, startled. “Of course. Adre try kill
me six times. I no stupid. You and Nano here to warn me?”
“Yes. A girl heard the guards talk about an
assassination on you. Well, they didn’t say you in particular, but Nano thinks
it’s you. We came to warn you that the guards are working against you. Not the
goblins, the other guards.”
“Is no shock. Adre think I no know he kill me father…
my father.”
“That sucks. What are you going to do about it?”
“Nano help me, take Adre power away. Nano wait for
proof. I help find proof. I stop assassin, if Adre hire assassin, I proof. Nano
make god drain Adre. Adre live in prison. People happy always.”
“You have a very good vocabulary for someone who
barely speaks English.”
“I have bad grammar. Never have good grammar new
language. Word learn easy. We go now,” he said. He stood and led me back to the
first room.
“How do we get out?”
He picked up a rope. “You fly, hold rope, I climb. No
touch me. Put fire out.”
“Umm… How?” I asked. He frowned like I said something
that made no sense. “I never learned how to put a fire out.” I knew how to stop
putting energy into a fire, but the torch was self-sustaining.
“Is you fire. You make big, you make small, you make
cold. No learn.”
So I thought about it. After focusing my mind and
gathering my energy, I let my energy flow into the flames. Nila grabbed my arm
and immediately cut off my energy. “Energy in fire. Need no more. More energy
make big.” He let my arm go.
This time I reached out with my mind. It took a few
minutes before I could feel the heat. Soon I could feel that it was actually
very hot, very fast energy. I imagined it contained in a bubble. The smaller
the bubble, the faster the energy, the hotter the burn. So I made the bubble
larger. I made it cold and more like a jelly bubble than a soap bubble. As the
energy particles would burst through the bubble, the bubble would reseal, but
the energy would be greatly slowed. Soon there was very little energy left in
the bubble and I let it collapse. I opened my eyes to find myself in complete
darkness.
“Now you fly.”
I felt him hand me the rope and take the dead torch.
Not knowing how to actually fly, I did what I had with the rock in the forest;
I levitated the rope and held on. The fortunate side about there being no light
was that I couldn’t tell how far up I was, so I wasn’t afraid of falling. I
felt my hands hit the ceiling and let off on the energy just enough to keep the
rope level. I pushed and pulled myself along the ceiling until I felt a spot
that gave a little. Then I pushed more energy into the rope and opened the trap
door, landing safely on my feet.
I dropped one end of the rope down until I felt him
tug. I tied the end around the desk leg and held on just in case. It took him
less than a minute to climb up. I started to untie the rope before I felt him
stare a hole through my back.
“You put fire out. What are you?”
“What do you mean? You said any wizard could put out
their own fire.”
“I lie. Is no you fire. You very powerful. More
powerful than Guardian. You break physics. Wizard put cold energy in fire, make
oxygen gone, make wind blow out fire. No wizard control fire.”
“But fire is just really hot energy.”
“No. Fire is physical energy, no nominal energy.
Wizard and Guardian control nominal energy, you control physical energy. You
more powerful than Guardian.”
“Dylan? Where are you?”
Hearing Nano’s voice
in my head shouldn’t have been a shock, but at this point I was already shaken
up. I stumbled backwards and fell through the trap door.
After I climbed back up the rope, Nila and I returned
to Nano and Adre, who were having a very physical argument. Nila grabbed my
arm, pulled me back out, shut the door, and then loudly slammed both doors back
open. This time Nano and Adre heard us enter and stopped fighting.
“Right on time. Dylan and I should be leaving now,”
Nano said brightly.
“What? But I thought we were going to…”
“Well, you have helped more than you know, but now
it’s time to return you to your master. The faster I get you back in Divina’s
arms, the faster I can take care of family matters.”
“Divina’s arms? Great, let’s go then.”
“You visit again,” Nila said. It wasn’t a request so
much as a demand.
“Are you kidding? I’m going to ask Edward if I can
visit every weekend.”
“Focus your mind on Duran’s symbol,” Nano said.
I suppose it should have been difficult to remember
what it looked like, but when he mentioned the symbol, it sprang easily to
mind. After all the practice, clearing my mind was easy. I closed my eyes and
focused only on the symbol.
Like the first time I went to Duran, it started with
a weightless, windless, suffocating, falling feeling.
Kiro
Earth was such a dainty place. The air was thin, the
gravity light, and my powers fell short. Instead, there was pollution and
clutter. Ronez had told me that many places on Earth were beautiful and
untouched, or fascinating with cultural and religion influence. Apparently this
land that Ronez and Dylan lived on was one stripped of cultural influence as
well as many natural resources. Even Ronez would complain to me how this land
was filled with bigots and people driven by hate and greed, and I wondered why
he would live here if it was so bad.
More confusing, however, was that I found myself in
what looked to be an old wooden house. There were stairs in front of me and an
empty room behind me. The house was obviously abandoned and was fairly dark and
cold.
“Well, now. I did not think this would actually work.
I am rather disappointed.”
Standing atop the stairs was a little girl, emitting
a power far beyond her age. Her power was great enough to drive any child out
of their mind, but this child was less than human, and I suspected, less than
sane.
Her hair and eyes were red like blood. She wore white
robes that were only a few shades paler than her skin. This was once a little
girl, but now it was something entirely unnatural. More of an evil entity than
a living person, but I wondered if there was anything left of a soul in that
body. “Want to play cards?” I asked, pulling out my deck.
She sneered. “I am going to kill you and you want to
stop and play cards?”
“There’s always time for a game. Besides, we couldn’t
play a game after you killed me. Do you know any games?”
“Snapdragon.”
“Oops,” Nano said.
With that one word of doom I thought as my blood ran
cold,
don’t open your eyes.
So I opened my eyes. The only reason I
didn’t scream, was because I forgot to. In all fairness, it was probably for
the best.
Standing in front of me, maybe three feet or so, was
the biggest damn cat I ever saw, standing just about as tall as me. The cat had
a sleek black coat that set off the shiny white saber fangs sticking out of his
mouth. Glowing green eyes regarded me with intelligence, curiosity, surprise,
and most definitely delight. Someone didn’t get their baby horse for dinner.
Then his great black wings reared up and an unearthly screech erupted.
“My bad.”
Then the cat was gone. I felt pressure all around me
and my eyes were forced closed. When the pressure released, I decided not to
open my eyes. If something wanted to eat me, I damn sure didn’t want to watch
it do so.
“You can open your eyes now.”
“No.” I felt tiny claws attach to my thighs and
scamper up until they reached my shoulders. I opened my eyes as Shinobu wrapped
around my neck and rubbed her cheek against mine. “Hi there, sweetheart. Were
you a good girl while I was gone?” We were back by the lake, exactly where we were
before we left.
She let out a loud purr in answer.
“Let’s try to find Divina or Edward now,” Nano said,
and walked off.
“Which, for some reason, reminds me, Nila said
something about you two punishing each other?”
“I gave Nila his name. When my wife’s sister asked me
what I would name her son, I was in a grouchy mood. I said Nila, which means
nephew. Nila was sometimes teased about it, so he decided to put poisonous
insects in my bed. I rearranged his menu with the kitchen so that he wouldn’t
get anything he likes and would instead be given stuff he hated.”
“He said he was punishing you back by kidnapping me.”
“I told you to watch over him, so that doesn’t count.
And before you worry about it, I know he took you through his secret passage to
steal food out of the kitchen.”
“So Nila isn’t actually related to you? He’s your
wife’s sister’s son?”
“Well, I’m not married anymore, but no, we’re not
biologically related. After his father’s death, his mother became unstable and
I took care of him.”
“He said his father was murdered.”
“They are brothers by their father’s blood, but Adre
is a bastard and refused to acknowledge he was the king’s son until Nila took
the throne. We both suspect Adre murdered him, because he left Adre’s mother to
marry Nila’s mother. When Nila was discovered to be a void, Adre fought his way
to Nila’s side. He wants to kill Nila and take over the throne.”
“And you’re leaving Nila with him because?”
“Nila can take care of himself. Any magical attack
directly on him will not work. Any magical attack indirectly on him will be
countered by the goblins. They are very powerful, and they will defend their
king because they love their easy jobs.”
“Is Adre a wizard?”
“Yes. He, unfortunately, is related to me. He is my
great, great, great grandson.”
“But not every single wizard on a world is a
descendant of the world’s Guardian?”
“No. Every few hundred years, the Guardians are
encouraged to go to other worlds and… mate. That’s one of the reason we all
have the same body type.”
“So not all humans are human?”
“Ronez wasn’t human. We really consider the person is
whatever the world they born on. I could consider about half of the wizards on
a world descendants of that world’s Guardian. That includes those who are
descendants of more than one Guardian. Now we need to find Edward and Divina.
Sit down,” he said, nodding to a bench.
“Huh?”
“Sit down.” We both sat. “Now, kind of let your mind
wander, but revolve your thoughts around your book.”
So I daydreamed.
About twenty minutes later, my mind was on my book. I
was always a paranoid person, but there was something stronger about my worry
for my book. It was like being in a dark mansion or mist full of monsters,
except that it was my book that was in the dark mansion or mist, which was even
worse. I could feel my book like a comforting warmth. And then I realized that
I not only could feel it; I could feel where it was.
* * *
This was a sensory overload. Most of the stalls sold
things I couldn’t even imagine. There were fish and tentacles, whole sea
creatures, big and small, harmless-looking and downright scary. Whole fish,
sliced fished, chopped and diced fish, big, small, tiny, bags of tiny dried
fish, live fish, dried fish, cooked fish, fish in buckets, fish in spices, fish
eyes, fish bones, skinned fish, fish skin… my god, I had never seen so many
versions, preparations, and presentations of fish! There were fish everywhere,
and not only fish, but tentacles, claws, and feet. There were sea creatures on
sticks and in bags, cooked and raw, spiced and plain. There were stands of
spices of all different textures, colors, and smells, of sweets with bright
colors, and booths that only sold drinks. Vegetables, fruits, berries, nuts,
spices, and meats, fully prepared meals in clear boxes… the variety was astounding.
It looked like everything was caught, made, or grown by the booth owners, like
a giant farmer’s and fisher’s market. The smells of fresh, dead meat, raw and
cooked meat, and spices threatened to start choking me. Whether any of it
smelled good or not, I couldn’t tell because the combined scent was repulsive.
Store owners thrust samples of stuff at me and Nano
as we passed. Then Nano and I turned onto a completely deserted road. There
were no booths or people, just sides of buildings and backdoors.
“We can talk now; I will shield us from any few
listening ears. So, how are you enjoying Duran?” Nano asked me.
“I love it. I never got to travel on Earth, due to
money and school. It hasn’t sunk into me yet that I threw away all the money
and time I put into the university, but I’m not regretting it. It seems like
I’m still discovering something at every corner on this world. I keep expecting
to see a car go by or see a church or Starbucks. I like the philosophy of the
people, and how close they are to nature. I don’t like the outhouse, though.”
“Those are the norm on Shomodii, but not here.” After
a few minutes of walking, he slowed down. “I wish I could take you to Malta.”
“Is it far away?”
“Well, yes, the planet Malta is very far away.
Unfortunately, you would need to sign Emrys’s book to go there and that is not
an option right now. This is the golden week, where the sun is closest and the
three moons are perfectly aligned. Malta is a little like Shomodii before the
Reformation. The people worship the elements and their god has not bothered
them in a very long time. Most of the people have the ability to control land,
air, water, or fire. There are a few that can see through time, into the future
or past. Some have magic for healing. People live in tribes according to the
kind of magic they use. The priests are the teachers, and they live in temples
all over the world. Every child of a tribe must be schooled in a temple until
they are properly trained. This is because too many parents were stopping their
children from reaching their potential out of fear or jealousy. They have an
unusual amount of empaths, which are people who can feel the emotions and
feelings of those around them, so these people are trained as children to be
gentle pacifists and to love openly. They are peace keepers.”
“Wouldn’t being around the pain of others make them
hateful over time?”
“No, because along with that horrible curse, they
have the power to heal physical and emotional pain with just a touch. The
person being healed has to relive their pain, but the empath goes through it
with them, and when it is over, the person is much better. Healing is a
dangerous skill to have.”
“So the worlds don’t all have plain old wizards?”
“Most do, but Madus, the god of Malta, does not like
following the template. He set it up so his people would leave him alone. There
are people to control the weather, so no one can beg him for rain or a good
harvest, there are people to heal the sick, or heal the heart. They understand
about the twelve gods, the guardians, and the Land of the Dead, so they cannot
ask him why. One thing he did give them was the golden week. All chaos is gone,
all powers are multiplied to the point where there is no sickness. No one
leaves.”
“What do they feel about people from other worlds?” I
asked.
“About the same as Dios. Most worlds couldn’t care
less about people of other worlds. There are not usually tourists, so they are
not targeted.”
“Then why does Duran have a problem with it?”
“Duran is a self-reliant world. They could build
spaceships and be friendly neighbors, but Erono had instilled a suspicion in
them. They are fairly fearful of what you would call spirits. Not just dead
beings, but supernatural ones. To them, nature has a spirit. They also know
about the gods and Guardians, but not the books. As far as they know, the only
people who can travel between worlds are the Guardians.”
“Why not tell them the truth.”
“Because no one knows who the Guardian of Duran is,
and Kiro does not want them to. If they found out that others can come to
Duran, they would figure out a way to track them back to Kiro… Edward. They
would come to him relentlessly to complain and beg. ‘Guardian, please make it
rain.’ ‘Guardian, please heal my daughter.’ ‘Guardian, please make the bullies
at my son’s school bleed from their eyes.’ ‘Guardian, here is fifteen percent
of the profit from my crops. Please give most of it to Erono to thank him for
my harvest.’ ‘Guardian, should I sell my house and move in with my sister?’
‘Guardian, please take me to a world where all the people are as smart as me.’
‘Guardian, can I bear your children?’”
“Please stop! I get it! I don’t want to be a Guardian
anymore!” I yelled. He laughed at my outburst. “Why do your people know you are
the Guardian?”
“I travel around all the time, so they cannot ambush
me. Also, they have a king to annoy. And third, I say no in the most offensive,
degrading way I can, so everyone has already heard how prickly and selfish I
am.”
“I’m sure you make a great jerk.”
“A lot of it is about religion, though. Most sago
would put their hands up and back away when confronted with any sort of
supernatural. The majority of people here want nothing to do with the gods or
books. Ask Edward to explain the dejava to you. It’s hilarious.”
“Are there aquariums here?”
“Yep, and zoos, too.”
“Can we go to one?” I asked, excited at the prospect,
but also trying really hard not to sound like a kid.
“You’ll have get Edward to take you. As much as I
enjoy them, I don’t know were any are in Anoshii, and I know Edward is worried
sick about you.”
“I don’t think that he will; I’m kind of a danger
magnet. I’m hoping that with magic, that’ll go away.”
“It should. I wouldn’t expect you to have anymore---”
I didn’t hear the rest of what he said, because I
tripped over something at that moment and fell to the hard ground. It wasn’t
until I tried moving that what had tripped me started to move. I had just
enough time to roll onto my back to see the huge, black snake recoil to take a
strike at my face. As it opened its mouth wider than my head and hissed, I
could see sparks behind its fangs. Venom and electrical shock… great.
There was no slow motion, or my life flashing before
my eyes, or even spells I could do to stop the snake. The only thing that
passed through my mind was that it would be neat if the aquariums had a gift
shop that also sold fish-like pets.
I heard the shriek as the snake reared back in pain.
Shinobu struck like a mongoose, her claws buried deep into its head as she
tried to bite out its eyes. The snake managed to shake her off just in time to
be blasted with red lighting from Nano. Finding us to be too much work for a
small meal, the snake slithered off at a scary-fast rate. Now it was Nano who
stood over me. He held out his hand and I took it.
“Thank you,” I said as he helped me up. Both my knees
were scraped, but it was far better than being eaten whole by a snake.
“You’re too accustomed to danger. More than that,
you’re too accustomed to taking it. Were you abused as a child?”
“Not really. I guess I had some aggressive characters
in my life.”
A lot of aggressive characters.
I picked up Shinobu, whose
fur was standing on end. She was not happy, but she settled down and wrapped
her tail around my neck when I started petting her.
“And did they teach you to fight?”
“I only fight when I have to. I really don’t like
fighting.”
“That snake was going to kill you. You didn’t think
to do something about it?”
“I really didn’t think about it. I thought about the
aquarium and---”
“That’s what I’m talking about! You need to fight
your fate. You are so used to danger that you tell yourself it’s inevitable and
let go.”
“Not normally. I’m a good runner.”
“You’re not a good Guardian. React with your magic or
your sword. Never let go.” With that, he turned and walked away.
Not a good Guardian…
I am failing Edward,
Ronez, Tiamat… everyone on Earth. Maybe I should have let Edward take the book
and train someone else.
“What are you doing back on the ground?” Nano asked.
When I realized I had slumped to the ground, I stood,
glaring at him. I went from slumping and self-deprecating to angry before I
knew what I was doing.
“One week! I haven’t even known about magic for an
entire week! I pick up some book on my lawn one day. Three weeks later some guy
shows up, telling me everyone who came near me is going to die if I don’t go
with him, oh, and also that I’m a damn wizard. I end up fighting spiky cats
from Hell and get hit by lightning. I died! I say goodbye to the girl I thought
I loved over the phone and the next thing I know, I’m waking up in a world full
of dangerous creatures and, guess what, there’s a god who wants to kill me and
destroy the world I’m suddenly responsible for! I get chased by toxic, giant
wolves, and raptors, and end up with some super rare infection from a plant that
almost sliced my foot off and poisoned me. I get lesson after lesson in magic
while trying to learn a new language and adapt to the ridiculous gravity. And
then I get lost in this new world, picked up by another Guardian, told that I’m
not just a wizard but a super-Guardian, and brought to a new world with water
goblins and giant spiders! Forgive me for not reacting correctly when a giant
snake tries to eat my face!”