Zero No Tsukaima
Unlimited Realities Book 2
The Path of Brimir
Prologue
Western Pacific Ocean approximately 300 km Northeast of Palau.
3 June 1723
Clomp! Clomp! Clomp!
The boots of Captain James Merryweather sounded against the wooden planks of the Devil's Due's quarterdeck as he nervously paced back and forth. He looked on as his navigator checked the position of the sun through his astrolabe.
"We're almost there Captain." He said plainly.
Yes, thought Captain Merryweather. But where exactly is there?
He eyed his strange guest down on the main deck, the guest he'd picked up in Constantinople. He was rather strange. The man had approached Merryweather at port and asked to charter his vessel. He offered a large chest of precious stones and gold trinkets as payment for the voyage. It was a treasure worthy of a King's ransom.
His passenger cut a rather odd figure indeed. He had blonde hair that hung low over his back, a tall, thin figure and a face that was exceedingly handsome. The Captain would almost call his features divine, even feminine like.
On top of his head was a turban, a traditional covering made from winding sheets of cloth. Merryweather and his crew merely figured that it was traditional garb from his homeland. When asked about his country of origin, the stranger only replied that he was from an "eastern desert land", and that his customs forbid him from removing his turban in public.
Merryweather continued to watch from above as his guest casually flipped the pages of a book. He'd asked him about it once, and the man smiled at him and called it a "sacred text" from his homeland.
Well, thought the Captain, one thing is for certain, he is a man of considerable means.
Captain Merryweather finished this thought as a very well dressed woman wearing a dress of purple silk came over and began to stroke the back of his passenger's neck.
Her black hair and olive skin provided an ideal contrast for the sparkling jewel encrusted necklace that she wore around her neck, not to mention the many bracelets and rings that adorned her arms and fingers.
Paying customer or not, the Captain had a great deal many reservations about him bringing his wife on board. His crew was a superstitious lot and having a woman aboard a ship at sea was widely regarded as bad luck.
And beyond that this woman was…..distracting to the crew. She exuded a perfect mixture of exotic refinement and feminine elegance that was positively intoxicating. Particularly for a man who would spend many months at sea with nary a lady in sight.
Whap!
"Hey! You rotten little brat!"
Captain Merryweather turned his head to see what the commotion was all about.
He sighed loudly at the sight.
And of course the little whelp they brought on board isn't helping matters either.
As the child began waving a small piece of plank at the crew while playing swordsman, Merryweather descended the steps down onto the main deck of the Devil's Due to try to calm the situation.
Aalim carefully turned the page of his book while his wife whispered in his ear.
"Aalim," she cooed softly. "Your son is making mischief again."
"I wonder Mila," Aalim began, "when he sleeps he's your heavenly angel, but when he is awake, he is my son."
Husband and wife watched as their child led the crew of the Devil's Due on a merry chase around the deck, his small, nimble frame proving to be more than a challenge for the surly seamen trying to corral the youngster.
They were not having any success.
"See here now sir!" Captain Merryweather said as he stepped onto the main deck.
"Your gold buys you passage on my ship, but I will not have your whelp causing disorder among the crew!"
Aalim turned, faced the Captain and bowed.
"A thousand apologies Captain."
Aalim turned and called out to his son.
"Elim!"
The boy froze in his tracks and looked to his father.
"Come here."
The boy continued to stand, looking slack jawed and wearing a confused "what did I do?" look on his face.
"Now." Aalim said, this time much more firmly.
Elim dropped his stick and walked glumly over to his father.
Aalim pulled up a wooden crate and ordered his son to sit.
As the boy sat, Aalim brought up a second crate and sat next to him.
"Did I ever tell you the history of your name?"
Elim silently shook his head.
Aalim opened his book up showed the page to his son.
"You were named after one of the ancient prophets from my homeland, Elim and Malka."
Elim wrinkled his forehead and asked, "Who were they?"
Aalim's finger followed the text of the book's page as he narrated the tale to his son.
"Elim, the wise old man who came from the stars and settled on our world, and his wife, Malka, a woman whose beauty could melt even the hardest of hearts and command the attention of a nation."
"Where there was one, there was the other. Elim and Malka were wholly devoted to one another. The legend says that they were married in a temple that floated among the stars and that their union was consecrated by none other than God himself, and the four elder spirits, Ignis, Auqua, Ventus, and Terra, bore witness to the event, and commanded that the four elements would guide and protect them wherever they went."
"Together, Elim and Malka laid down what are now known as the Celestial Scrolls, a series of prophecies about the end of our world and all of existence."
Elim cringed at this, and his face betrayed a worried expression.
"A-are we going to die father?"
Aalim smiled as he reassured his son.
"No Elim, all of this is just a legend, and even if it was to happen, it is not meant to for a long time."
"We are safe, and besides, the scrolls give us hope for the future."
"Telling him stories again?" Mila asked as she leaned over and draped her arms around her husband's neck.
"Just telling him about his namesake."
"I'm a poppet!" Elim yelled happily.
Suddenly the Captain again approached Aalim.
"We're here."
Aalim merely nodded and once the Captain turned his back to return to the quarterdeck, he leaned in close to whisper in his wife's ear.
"Take Elim to the launch and wait for me there."
"What? Why? What are you doing Aalim?"
"Do not argue with me woman! Just trust me and do as I ask."
Mila nodded in understanding.
"Come Elim," she said, taking her little boy by the hand.
Aalim watched his wife and son start toward the small launch on the side of the ship and then he went up to the quarterdeck to speak with Captain Merryweather.
Aalim carried a chest with him. It was a small chest; its dimensions were three feet by two feet by two feet.
"Captain, I'm afraid that we must now take our leave of you. Thank you very much for the voyage, but my wife and I can manage from here."
The Captain looked around at the empty horizon.
"You mean to cast off in a launch out here in the middle of the open sea?"
"I assure you Captain that my compatriots will be along to collect us momentarily."
Aalim set the chest down onto the deck in front of Captain Merryweather.
"In appreciation for your assistance in getting myself and my family to our destination, I offer you a further reward of this chest of gold and jewels."
The Captain watched as Aalim opened the chest and presented him with a treasure of sparkling gold medallions, doubloons, and trinkets encrusted with all manner of precious stones: diamonds, sapphires, rubies, and emeralds.
While the Captain was dazzled by the shimmering wealth held within the chest, Aalim removed a spherical object wrapped in cloth from inside of it.
The Captain considered the chest, and then the object that his passenger had removed.
"What is that round object, which you would be willing to spend so much gold and treasure to bring out into the middle of nowhere?"
"It is of no concern to you, you have fulfilled your obligation to me and my family, and I am grateful, now take your reward and let us be on our way."
Aalim looked around, while he and the Captain had been speaking, a great many of the crew had gathered around him. He was surrounded.
Captain Merryweather smiled maliciously, and leveled a flintlock pistol at Aalim's head.
"I think not sir, you see by my reckoning if one would be so willing to part with such riches for the sake of something else, than logic would follow that that something would be many times more valuable. Isn't that right gentlemen?"
Suddenly all manner of cutlasses, pistols, and hatchets were pointed at Aalim's throat.
The Captain held out his free hand while continuing to threaten his passenger with the pistol.
"I'll be taking that piece of treasure sir."
Aalim merely stood, he was not resisting, but he wasn't giving in either. He seemed to be mulling his options.
Captain Merryweather decided to provide his guest with some incentive.
Before Aalim could object, two men grabbed his wife and son out of the launch. A crewman held a pistol to his wife's head, while another threatened to slit his young son's throat.
Aalim slowly handed the item over to Merryweather.
"You have no idea what you are doing. This thing is not some trinket for you to sell. Its value is beyond anything your world possesses."
"Then it should fetch a nice price when we reach Singapore."
The Captain gestured toward the launch with his pistol.
"You want to be let off out here in the middle of nowhere? Fine, go, but you are leaving this with us."
With that, the Captain removed the cloth wrappings and took in the object.
It was a large sphere, about the size of a standard cannon shot, but it gave off a brilliant golden radiance. Its surface roiled and pulsed with an energy that surrounded a hot white core that illuminated the golden sphere.
It almost looks like a miniature sun. He thought.
The Captain stared deep into the sphere's glowing core; his eyes were transfixed and unable to move, his gaze becoming unbreakable. Suddenly he began to shake and convulse subtly, his face contorted in pain, and an anguished moan escaped his mouth as a thin trickle of blood snaked its way out his nose.
The pain in his head intensified. The Captain wanted to look away but found that he could not tear his gaze away from the object, which seemed to stare right back in him, piercing his soul.
Aalim reached over and took the object away from the Captain, and quickly replaced the wrappings.
The Captain continued to stand there, his eyes dull and empty, almost as if his essence had been sucked right out of him, leaving only a hollow, uninhabited shell behind.
The Bos'n seized Aalim by the throat.
"What have you done to the Captain?" He demanded.
Aalim simply stared back in horrified astonishment.
The Bos'n placed the barrel of his flintlock at Aalim's temple.
"Answer me!"
"BOS'N!"
It was one of the crew, his finger pointing at the sky.
The Bos'n and the rest of the crew followed the sailor's finger and quickly saw what had gotten the man in such state.
The sun was being eaten, replaced by an obsidian disk that was slowly but surely erasing the bright, glowing sun from the sky, and bringing night to what supposed to midday.
A solar eclipse.
The Bos'n dropped Aalim and joined the rest of the horrified crew of the Devil's Due in staring at the celestial phenomenon.
"Bos'n", one sailor whimpered. "It's an omen, a sign of evil this is." He turned and grasped the Bos'n by his collar.
"It's a sign of our doom!"
The Bos'n turned back to Aalim, and pointed at the round artifact resting snugly in his elbow.
"It's that thing he brought with him! It's what's eating the sun!"
"Kill him!"
"Kill them all!"
The crew had lost all sense of rationality. In their frightened state they believed that their strange passenger was the cause for the bizarre happening that was swallowing the daylight.
Aalim looked at the Bos'n pointing the gun at him and smiled.
"You should have let us go and left when you had the chance, because you're right about one thing, you're all doomed."
The Bos'n looked at Aalim, his face became twisted with rage. He opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by a loud whistle.
The whistle quickly grew louder and closer.
"CANNONBALL!"
The main deck on the port side exploded hurling wood splinters, men, as well as pieces of men in all directions.
"Captain! We're under attack!" The Bos'n screamed.
Captain Merryweather just stood there, his eyes still bearing a vacant expression.
"Captain!"
Again the Captain didn't move, didn't even blink.
Another whistle, another explosion, the main mast snapped at the base fell astern, its rigging and sails plunging toward the quarter deck where the Captain, the Bos'n and Aalim still stood.
"Look out!"
Aalim and the Bos'n ran, each taking an opposite staircase down to the main deck. The Captain looked up, his vacant eyes just glimpsing the falling mast before he vanished under the massive weight of wood and sails.
The Bos'n took charge of the crew.
"MAN THE CANNONS! PREPARE TO RETURN FIRE!"
As the crew of the Devil's Due opened the cannon ports and began to load, the Bos'n and the gunners quickly realized that they had another problem.
Where was the target?
The Bos'n scanned the now darkened horizon, frantically searching for something to shoot at.
Nothing
"There"
Again a crewman pointed skyward. The gunners and the Bos'n looked up at the sun, now a black circle surrounded by a ring of golden haze.
They saw the impossible.
A ship, a giant, gleaming metal ship, with large cannons protruding out all around its bulbous bow, seemed to come directly out of the eclipse, floating on nothing more than thin air, and was now bearing straight at the Devil's Due.
"Come on!"
Aalim grabbed his wife and son and carried them over to the launch.
"Aalim!" Mila screamed at her husband. "What is that strange ship up there? What is happening?"
"I promise I will explain everything to you later, but please we must go now!"
Just then another whistle sounded as cannon shot split the air. The Devil's Due rocked as it penetrated the lower decks, water now rushed into the stricken vessel in a torrent.
Aalim handed Mila the bundle containing the golden orb.
"Take this and keep it safe, but do NOT take the wrappings off," Aalim warned. "Do you understand?"
Mila nodded weakly, and took the object, her son was next to her clutching her right arm, wailing like the frightened child he was.
Aalim prepared to get in the launch.
The portside of the Devils Due exploded again. The launch snapped off of its moorings and plunged into the water. Aalim was thrown backwards; he came to rest next to the splintered stump that was once the main mast.
The Devil's Due continued to rock as cannon fire struck the vessel over and over.
But Aalim did not hear it.
"Aalim."
Aalim heard someone calling his name from the darkness.
"Aalim."
Aalim slowly opened his eyes. The sky was still darkened, the sun was still blotted out, a tall figure stood over him.
"Aalim my old friend are you alright?"
Aalim blinked his eyes, and slowly, the figure came into focus. Aalim smiled broadly as he beheld a face he'd not seen in a long time.
"Zahid!"
Aalim looked around as he was hauled to his feet. They were still aboard the Devil's Due, or at least what was left of it. The ship's deck was mass of destroyed planks and fallen masts. Blood and pieces of dead sailors were strewn everywhere. Smoke poured from the holes torn into the ship's sides, a clear sign of a fire down below.
Zahid looked his friend up and down.
"You've gone native."
"Six years is a long time Zahid. I had to adapt to survive here."
The two friends embraced.
"Mila."
"Who?"
"My wife and son, they are in a small boat just off the ship-"
"They are already aboard, our vessel. Quickly Aalim, we must leave before the portal-"
Zahid stopped mid-sentence, movement in his peripheral vision stole his attention.
Standing amidst the ruins of a once proud ship, the Bos'n stood pointing a cutlass at the two friends.
"I don't know what kind of demons you are, but I am sending you and your demon ship back to HELL!"
Zahid calmly stared at the enraged crewman.
"Spirits of life giving water, grant him a peaceful sleep."
The Bos'n charged at the pair.
"Yeeeeeaaaaahhhhh!"
Blam!
Before he could reach them, a large round hole exploded out of the man's forehead.
The Bos'n fell face first to the deck, his cutlass slid the rest of the way over, coming to rest at their feet.
Aalim stood next to Zahid, a smoking flintlock clutched firmly in his hand.
"That doesn't work here."
Aalim tore the turban off of his head revealing a head full of blonde hair and a set of large pointed ears.
"The Firstborn Spirits of this world do not answer to us."
Aalim clapped his shocked friend on the shoulder.
"Come, the portal will be closing soon, and my wife has something that I must show you."
Aalim stood on the deck of the elven vessel trying to explain everything to his wife. Unfortunately she wasn't in what one would describe as a talking mood. She'd been floated out in the middle of the open ocean on board what turned out to be a pirate vessel, she'd been threatened, her son had been threatened, and she'd been shot at by a strange ship that flew out of an eclipse.
She was already well aware that her husband was different. This was to be expected given the level intimacy that goes along with marriage, but even so, being surrounded by people who looked just like him, and coupled with being aboard the same flying ship that almost killed her was a bit much to take in.
So one might understand her reluctance to engage in meaningful conversation at the moment.
Even so, when Aalim asked for the object that she'd been entrusted with, she handed it over. Truth be told, she was just grateful that her husband and son were safe.
"Is that it?" Asked Zahid.
"Yes."
And with that, Aalim tore off the wrappings and held the glowing golden orb up for all to see.
"Behold my elven bothers! The Sun Tear. Just as the prophets predicted!"
"So it's true." Zahid exalted. "The writings of Elim and Malka were right."
"Yes Zahid. And with this in our possession, those fools on the Elven Council will have no choice but to listen to reason!"
Zahid looked away, a pained look adorning his otherwise handsome features.
Aalim looked puzzled at his friend's expression.
"Why are so troubled? Everything we've worked for has been achieved."
Suddenly, a door leading inside the ship opened. Row after row of sword carrying elves marched out and approached Aalim. They were wearing the uniform of the Elven Council guards.
Zahid slowly separated himself from Aalim.
"Zahid?"
"I'm sorry Aalim, but it is as you said, six years is a long time."
Aalim stared at his friend in utter disbelief. He'd been completely unable to imagine the possibility of betrayal, or perhaps he just didn't want to.
Now, because of his foolishness, he'd put his own wife and child in danger.
Zahid looked upon his friend with a grim visage.
"Sieze him!"
"Yes Magistrate." A soldier answered.
"Magistate?"
"Yes Aalim, the Elven Council has seen fit to promote me, provided I perform certain services."
Zahid gave a matter of fact expression to Aalim.
"My first task was to bring a traitor to justice."
Aalim was placed in shackles.
"NO!" His wife screamed and ran over to her husband. "What are you doing? He has done nothing wro-"
"Mila!"
Aalim watched in horror as Zahid pulled his sword out of Mila's abdomen.
Her lifeless eyes rolled back into her head as she slumped to the deck.
Aalim charged at his former friend.
"I'll kill you!"
A dozen swords pointed at Aalim's throat.
Zahid picked up Aalim's crying son.
"You may want to consider your child's future. His half barbarian heritage need not reach the ears of the Council."
"Zahid!" Aalim pleaded. "You studied the writings with me, you saw the artifact, everything that has been foretold is happening!"
"Heresy!"
"It's not heresy it is truth! Elim and Malka have been right about everything! If we do not return to our world with the Sun Tear then all of us, elves, and barbarians, are doomed!"
"The council has strictly forbidden anyone from reading the writings of those heretics, and this." Zahid said referring to the artifact in his outstretched hand "is nothing more than proof that things buried by the Devil Brimir need to stay buried!"
And with that Zahid threw the glowing sphere over the side of the ship.
"YOU FOOL!" Aalim raged, "YOU'VE JUST KILLED US ALL!"
Fighting the guard's restraints, Aalim brought himself nose to nose with Zahid.
"You have just sealed the fate of the Elven Race."
"No, I've just saved them from the actions of a traitor."
Zahid produced a scroll from his the folds of his cloak.
"Aalim, by order of the Elven Council you have been condemned for the following crimes: engaging in seditious acts contrary to the wishes and laws set forth by the Council, commiting high treason by defying the orders of the Council by using the Devil's Portal to travel to this barbarian world, and lastly…"
Zahid then looked over to the lifeless body of Aalim's wife.
"….consorting with barbarians."
Aalim shook with rage. He wanted nothing more than to avenge his fallen wife by killing this betrayer here and now.
"However," Zahid continued. "The Council has decided to grant you mercy; therefore the sentence of death has been commuted."
The crowd of soldiers behind Zahid parted and another elven soldier carried a bottle with a translucent pink fluid inside it.
"In lieu of death, it has been ordered by the Council that you suffer The Potion of Lost Heart and live the rest of your days in isolation, never again to walk equally among your elven brethren."
The soldiers forced Aalim to his knees. One held his nose while another forced open his mouth.
Zahid uncorked the bottle and held it over Aalim's now open mouth.
"Do not be troubled Aalim." Zahid said with a malevolent smirk. "I promise to give your half barbarian son a true elven upbringing. It's more than you could have offered him."
Zahid began to pour the bottle's contents down Aalim's throat.
The Elven vessel vanished into the eclipse.
The burning hulk of the Devil's Due exploded in massive fireball of burning wood and smoke.
And a large glowing sphere settled at the bottom of the deep pacific, and almost immediately, the burying sediments began to slowly rise, where they would eventually entomb the object from sight for all eternity.
