It's Thursday wonderful afternoon(at least in my timezone), and, as I promised, here is new chapter of Keepers of the Magic. Read and enjoy!
Chapter: History Lesson
"Greetings." His voice was gentler than she expects.
"I have one question." Luz said, "Um, well, actually, not just one, I have all of them. I have all the questions."
"Okay, well then, let's just start with some basics." The man extended his hand. "In the first place, I'm a shaman. My name is Master Dion Craftsbolt. The former head of the Stealthed Wyvern Clan, and a member of the Council of Four."
"And I'm still Luz." she said, shaking his hand. "Luz Noceda."
"I know who you are."
Luz tilted her head like a confused puppy, "You do?"
"Yes."
"And you tell me why I'm here?"
"I'll happily answer all your questions, young miss. But first let me tell you a little story."
"I like stories." Luz instinctively said.
"Good." Dion waved a hand in a vague gesture. "Please have a seat."
Luz's nerves had given way to curiosity as she slowly sunk down into the offered chair. Dion himself sat on the other side of the desk.
"What I am going to tell you, Luz, it's an old story which really happened. In the Magic Realm, absolutely everyone has heard this story. However, in your world, this part of history was lost in the mists of time."
As he said this, he poured a cup of tea for Luz and then folded his hands on the desk.
"As you've probably already know the Boiling Isles is no ordinary archipelago. Situated in the Boiling Sea, it is literally made from the decaying remains of a fallen Titan. We live on this Titan. Right now, it's the most normal and common thing. But once in Magic Realm things looked quite different."
With those words, Dion poured himself a tea before started talking about the Titan.
"The Titan's precise origin and their history are unknown. An ancient race of megafauna once populated the Boiling Sea. They were the rulers of the world in the primal age of this dimension. There's almost nothing in the historical records about that age. The only thing we know is that the mysterious force appeared out of nowhere and started a long chain of events leading to Titans' apparent demise. They all fell and the force vanished without a trace. Upon its apparent demise, the Titan's skeleton became the only complete specimen to definitively exist. "
The shaman then took sip from his tea cup.
"But, as is well known, 'Death is only the beginning of something new'. The Boiling Isles, born from the flesh and bones of a fallen Titan. Titan gave us a home, and over time also our magic. Four main types of magic users were born here...and soon they discovered this isn't only place where the magic happens."
Dion exchanged a look with Luz who was squirming in her chair. Her eyes are screaming, "Please tell me because I'm dying to know more."
"It's not yet clear why, but at some point in time in the past, our world had formed a bond with the Earth or like we prefer to call it the Human Realm. The people of my world were very surprised to find out that the human world was filled with other kind of magic. That magic was pure and primary. Almost as old as the stars themselves. Traveled among a power network called the Ley lines. The human sorcerers and enchantress drew their power from that lines to cast their spells."
Seeing Luz's blank stare, Dion sighed. But, to be honest, he was expecting Luz to a kind of mental shutdown.
Supping tea for a few seconds he watch Luz stared into the distance and had been for almost a minute.
Sure. She've seen lot of crazy stuff, discovered that there is a world of mythical creatures, she took part in hunt for an shadow-lizard-zombie-dog-monster, and became friend with two teen witches. But this is a whole new level. Magic is real in her world after all.
She sat there, unmoving, unblinking before finally, slowly, saying, "My world has magic."
"Had." Dion corrected.
"Had?" Luz showed signs of confusion about he used a past tense.
"It will all become clear at the next part of story," Dion answered before returning to the plot of the story.
"There were differences; our magic, culture and language, were like night and day. But when our worlds met, it was like fate brought their inhabitants together. Magic users from both realms coexisted peacefully for centuries, learning from each other, helping one another, discover new secrets of magic. Together. And our worlds seemed to be one."
Luz open her mouth for a moment trying to ask something. But she just decide to hold all the questions until the end of story.
"Magic brought them together. For years, they explored those power freely. Until, a single man appeared and declared the current way of magic use was wrong and that his way, the way of order was right. He became known as Emperor Belos. His teachings took hold, his strength grew, and convinced many leading magic users that by following him they will fulfill the will of Titan. He promised he'd lead us into a new era of magic."
Dion pauses for a second, his face betraying a range of rather negative emotions.
"Yet, it was a lie, a deceitful fantasy. The voices he heard weren't Titan will. Whatever it was... Well, it was evil, diabolical. Belos deceived by them, build an interdimensional magical gateway to the Forge of Zvezda. A place outside multiverse, hidden to everyone."
Luz didn't have to ask why. The way Dion talk about this made it clear to her that the Forge of Zvezda is a prison. Or rather a much more dangerous version of Pandora's box.
"Opening the portal to get to this place, for less than one minute, costing the lives of thousands of people from both realms. A lot of innocent people died 'cause Belos needed power source to his portal. And he don't ever asked people if they want help him or not."
Luz got this weird, sick feeling in her stomach. Belos was no doubt the villian in this story.
"Of course, there was consequences to such actions. The supporters of Belos have been corrupted by Void energy that was leaked from his magic gateway. Also Titan's magic and Ley lines has been contaminated by this toxic energy from the Forge of Zvezda. Though Belos never cared about this: For him, the fulfillment of the Titan's will, was worth paying any price for. And "Titan" ordered him to do this all again"
Dion did not hide his contempt for Belos. His words were dripping with it.
"People from the world of humans and world of magic understood that they had to stop him, and the war started. It's been a long, bloody and a terrible war. It seemed like nothing could ever stop Belos. Until... enchantress Morgan Le Fay, sorcerer Merlin and witch Philomena devised a very dangerous plan to lure Belos to the Human Realm where his power was weaker."
Luz didn't know what compelled her to took a first brief sip of her tea, right now, but her heart slowed down a bit as she focused more on the taste in the back of her throat. It had a strange warmness to it that felt soothing as it went down her throat, brought in with the fresh scent that wafted up to her nose as she could smell her own breath a little.
A man's voice jolted her awake from these trance feelings.
"It was the site of the last battle of the fight between Belos army and army of unified worlds. During this battle, Philomena performed a spell on herself, apparently as a last-ditch attempt to destroy the attackers, in which she converted every atom in her body into pure energy, though the specific method by which she did this is a subject of controversy. The spell killed Belos and resulted in magical blast of this energy the magic of Boiling Isles and ley lines has been cleared of Void energy."
For a minute there, the shaman seemed off.
"However, this spell did something which was far less expected. Philomena's magic blast merged with both realms which gave rise to the magical Veil between the world of humans and world of magic. The barrier, which separated the realms and prevented travel between the Magic Realm and world of humans."
Dion took a deep breath, mentally preparing himself for tell her rest of this story.
"War was over. But the victory was bittersweet. Philomena and Merlin had fallen that day. Morgan was trapped in the Boiling Isles, deprived of her power. And the world of humans and world of magic have been irreparably separated."
His expression lost it's storyteller air and smoothed into a much more serious one.
"After that war... humans have lost all confidence in magic and stopped using it. A lot of people blamed magic users for the great war. They were filled with fear and anxiety. And it was out of fear that make some people began to exterminate magic users and mythical creatures in human world. Over the years, the magic in Human Realm was drained off. Magic continued to fade as cities were constructed. Over the ley lines and technology began to advance and finaly the Ley lines disappeared. After that all the sorcerers and enchantress died out. The very little magic that left hidden into artifacts. Yet no one from human world knew about their hidden magic power. It seemed like our two realms will not be any connection with each other, ever again."
Dion's tone is more gentle, now, as he meet Luz's eyes.
"But fate had other plans. After several decades, the Veil began to change. And mystery cracks appeared in this powerful barrier that cuts off realms just at the border of two worlds. Then magic started leaking from one world into another. With time, more cracks began to appear. Magic from the Boiling Isles activated the power of artifacts. Causing any number of unpleasant incidents in both realms. Morgan Le Fay was in a twilight of her life when she understood that both worlds needs someone to guarding this magic border between them. She gathered a group of all magic users, and founded the Order of the Wgehlshegi. What translates into "Protectors" or in older version "Keepers"."
Luz have this feeling that she've heard it somewhere before. But she doesn't know where she heard this name or who told her this name. This is like when the radio plays some forgotten song, and you're trying to remember the name of that song.
"So from that day on, Keepers of the magic are doing everything they can to protect magic, maintain a balance, and keep all of this a secret from humans. For the sake of both realms." said Dion as he put his tea cup down on the desk. "As one of the Council of Four; the leaders of the Order, I'm taking this job very seriously."
Dion finished with a flash of what she would call friendly in his eyes… others would start carefully removing any sharp objects and edging closer to the door.
"You understand now why are you here, Luz Noceda?
Notes: DUN DUN DUUUN. What's going to happen next?
I'm not sure about this chapter, I has few different version of it, and choose this one. I hope you like it. See you in the next chapter.
