Chapter 2 – Mastery
“Shit!” Jack jumped to his feet and stepped back twice, brown eyes darting between the four new arrivals, then around as if to make sure no one else was present. He cut an athletic figure, his brown hair short enough to not move with his activity. A paper towel in one hand, wet and red, dripped onto the hard floor. “You guys scared the crap out of me.”
Matt blinked to clear his eyes, noticing that they had returned to Anna’s Gaithersburg, Maryland apartment as expected. Everyone was back in the exact spot they’d been in before the summoning. He still sat on the edge of the couch, a laptop before him on the table and still open to the webpage he’d been perusing. Ryan sat on the couch’s other side, one hand in the bag of ChexMix he’d been munching on. Eric was back to spinning around in an office chair, though he was stopping himself. Jack had apparently been kneeling beside the dining room chair that Anna now sat in, the glass of red Zinfandel she had been drinking broken on the floor, the red liquid half cleaned up. All of them now wore the same clothes as they had been before disappearing. They were breathing harder, which made him realize he was doing the same.
Adrenaline drove him to his feet. Ryan and Eric rose, too, the former beginning to pace. And yet Anna stayed down, lifting one foot like a cat that had stepped in something. Matt saw spilled wine soaking one white sock, shards of glass in a pile nearby. The symbolism of it struck him. Had their lives become just as fragile?
“Jesus,” said Eric, dark eyes assessing them one by one. “Glad that worked.”
“Language,” Ryan admonished him absently, blue eyes far away as he ran a hand over his face and through his blond hair. He didn’t look as big without the golden armor, but he still intimidated. Matt let Ryan’s comment about taking the name of the Lord in vain pass. Ryan could have his faith in God if it helped him deal with what they were facing. Besides, maybe everything they’d heard about their entire lives was real after all, including God.
“Everyone okay?” he asked.
Anna sighed and removed the wet sock. “Physically? Yeah. Not sure about the rest of me.”
“Yeah,” agreed Matt. “That was messed up in so many ways, from the guy getting killed in front of us, to that creepy dark elf. This wasn’t anything like the first time. Could you imagine if that had been that way?”
“What happened?” Jack asked, coming to help Anna step away from the broken glass. Before anyone could answer, Ryan stepped up to the kitchen table and grabbed the beer, drinking a little too much. Jack started, “Hey that was—never mind.”
Ryan lowered the bottle and flashed an apologetic glance. “Sorry. I need it more than you.”
“You guys weren’t gone more than five minutes.”
Eric filled him in, concluding by observing, “We never even got the name of the wizard who summoned us.”
“We don’t even know what planet we were on,” added Anna, sitting on the couch.
“It could have been Honyn,” Matt began, “like the first quest, just to another kingdom or continent. But there’s no way to know.”
“Mostly,” began Ryan, “I’m just glad we’re back again, but I feel like we let down whoever needed us. Besides the wizard, I mean. Even though it’s not our job to do this stuff. Or it’s not supposed to be.”
Matt didn’t agree out loud because he knew he didn’t have to. The real Ellorian Champions were missing, except the wizard Soliander, who he was pretending to be, and who had attacked them on Honyn. They never found out why and might never know. It topped their list of unanswered questions, such as where the real champions were, how he and the others became unwilling substitutes, and what they could do to stop the quests. He had thought about this many times and knew no answers were coming anytime soon. Maybe if they told everyone the truth, they would be left alone.
Eric sat, brow furrowed. “It’s been a week since we returned from Honyn, and we’ve been wondering if that was a one-time quest. I think we have our answer.”
Ryan said, “I didn’t want to say it out loud.”
Matt did. “We’ve been permanently substituted for the Ellorian Champions and will continuously be summoned in their place, for quests we don’t want, can’t refuse, and are likely to get killed doing.”
He felt bad for saying it out load, as an awful silence descended on the room. He sensed he was the only one who wasn’t all that upset by the idea. His life was okay. All of theirs were, too, but none had the potential that he did. The elf Lorian had tested his affinity for magic on the last quest and revealed how naturally talented Matt was. He had never felt powerful before. Of course, he’d never been terrified either. Not like that. He’d been bullied and beaten up a few times growing up, just like Eric, but while his friend had become a martial artist who could now kick seemingly anyone’s ass, whether on Earth or not, Matt was no such thing. Thin, wiry, not exactly strong like Ryan, Matt had only intelligence as a natural asset. And it led to him getting beaten up.
He sat and began furiously typing on his laptop.
“What are you writing?” Anna asked, peeking over his shoulder.
“The spells I just looked up, before I forget.”
“Not sure it will do you any good here.”
“You never know, and I hope you’re wrong.”
Ryan said, “I hope you won’t need them.”
“Me, too, but I need to start memorizing spells on these quests and writing them down once here. Honestly, you guys should, too. I wish those spell books would come back with me.”
Eric said, “I’ll wait until it matters, like after magic works on Earth.”
Matt shook his head. “We already know it does because we wouldn’t get summoned without it.”
“True, but it appears to not be quite the same thing. Someone is casting it elsewhere, and the Quest Rings are pulling us or sending us back. Maybe it’s only one-way.”
“That would suck,” Matt blurted out. “I mean, how am I supposed to get better at it if I can’t practice? As we just saw, there may be no chance on a quest.”
Jack had put the wet paper towel in the trash and now asked, “What if you could stop people from telling you what the quest is? Then you could send yourselves home without having to do it. I mean, I realize it makes you look bad, but you’re not the real champions anyway. Why do you have to maintain their reputations? It’s not your problem. In fact, why not just admit you aren’t them?”
Eric sighed. “You have a point, but I’m not sure it would be wise to say we’re imposters. It raises questions we can’t answer. During the Dragon Gate quest, everyone was clearly impressed and gave us a lot of respect, maybe even leeway. I think we might end up in danger if we confess. I mean, these guys have a fearsome reputation that might keep some people from messing with us, if they thought to try.”
“It didn’t stop Cirion,” Anna remarked.
Matt agreed with her. The dashing rogue had led a band of mercenaries to Castle Darlonon to try closing the Dragon Gate before they could do it, causing problems for them. While Eric was right, there would always be people who weren’t intimidated by the Ellorians. He said as much.
“Fair enough,” admitted Eric, “and I agree it might not be our job to maintain their reputation. I just think it’s safer right now. Maybe I’m wrong.”
“Maybe Jack is right,” Ryan suggested. “Let’s think this through. What would happen if we refused the quest by not letting them tell us about it?”
Jack offered, “Run out the clock? How long do they have to tell you? Do they know? Do you?”
“Not really,” Matt admitted. “We didn’t exactly get an instruction manual. I don’t think Lorian said much about this did he?”
Eric pursed his lips. “I thought he said something like an hour. I would imagine it gets awkward keeping us from knowing so most people might tell us immediately. This guy certainly tried. Just wasn’t fast enough. But not knowing this makes it harder to stall after we arrive without seeming weird about it. It’s also
likely that everyone who does a summons knows this and it’s only us that do not. They would likely be in a hurry to bind us to the quest by telling us what it’s for.”
Anna remarked, “That wizard who just died seemed urgent.”
“Not urgent enough,” said Ryan. “Could you imagine if he’d said it? We would have been stuck there with all of those… what were they? I recognized ogres, and the dark elf. I’m not sure we would have gotten out of there.”
Matt smiled without humor. There was no way Ryan was ever forgetting what an ogre looked like after their encounter on Honyn.
“I thought the other things might be goblins,” Eric said, and images suddenly flashed in Matt’s head.
“Yeah, they were goblins,” he asserted.
Jack asked, “How can you be so sure?”
Though Jack hadn’t been there, they had told him about the Honyn quest, but Matt reminded him, “Remember, when Soliander attacked me, he did that mind meld spell on me and I ended up with a bunch of his memories. Most of the time I have no idea what’s in my head from that, but sometimes when we’re talking, images, scenes, and info pop up. Those were goblins. Now that I think about it, there was actually an orc or two in the back, but they never got close enough for me to really see them.”
“A motley group of monsters,” muttered Anna, shuddering.
“Let’s go back to this idea of refusing a quest,” said Jack, sitting at the dining room table and ignoring the mess he had been cleaning. “Maybe you can tell them that something urgent is going on back home and you really need to return.”
Eric said, “They would just summon us again and the excuse would be unlikely to work a second time. Besides, they have their own urgency that brought us there.”
Anna said, “Lorian made it clear that the worlds interact with each other, so if we do this, everyone will hear about it soon and they’ll know we’re lying.”
Matt nodded, more memories surfacing as he pictured the real champions arriving on one world after another, some of them saying they had heard about a quest on another planet. It was common knowledge that some traveling between the worlds happened. “I can confirm this is true. The worlds interact.”
Jack suggested, “Tell them not to say anything.”
Eric shook his head. “Wouldn’t work for long. I mean, we could try it a few times, but I don’t think it’s a long-term solution.”
Matt had to agree. It would make them look bad. Protecting the reputation of the real champions was one thing, but now they were it and would give themselves a reputation. They were benefiting from the real reputation now and would create a new one that would do more harm to themselves than anyone else. The risk wasn’t worth it. Not yet, anyway.
“What is a long-term solution?” Anna asked.
“Getting out of the quest cycle,” said Ryan. “We just don’t know how they did it.” He looked at Matt. “Anything pop into your mind when I said that?”
The techie searched his thoughts and impressions. “No. I don’t know how we were substituted.”
“In the meantime,” began Eric, “I think we need to prepare as much as we can. After we returned to Stonehenge, we only had so much time to quiet everything down here, and we weren’t sure we’d be summoned a second time. Now we know this is ongoing. We have to train for whatever comes up. There isn’t much we can do about magic or healing, but we can all learn swordsmanship, martial arts, how to handle a knife, and just basic self-defense. How to use a bow.”
“And ride a horse,” added Ryan. “I’ve been riding for a decade, and all the stuff I do at the Renaissance Festival acting like a knight made me even better. But you guys only have basic skills. No offense. If we’re fleeing at a gallop or have to jump over even something small like a fallen tree, you’re probably falling off and getting hurt or killed.”
“Maybe I have a spell for that,” Matt joked, and they all laughed, which felt like a welcome relief from the tension. Sometimes it didn’t seem like they had much to laugh about anymore, and if this continued, which was likely, that might just get worse. He wasn’t catching up on things like TV shows he was missing episodes of, not that this was important, but that was the point to him. When were they supposed to have down time and just relax, get some escapism?
“Well,” Anna began, “I’ve always wanted to ride, so I’m game. I’m not sure I can afford it, though.”
Ryan shook his head. “No, look, I’m paying for everything we need, lessons, gear, whatever. We can’t let money get in the way. You know I’ve never used my parent’s money for much, but that’s changing. They don’t check my credit cards anyway. They may never even notice.”
“I agree,” Eric said, always practical. “We don’t have time to care about anyone’s feelings about Ryan picking up the tab, okay? We need each other and we all have to take this stuff seriously.”
Everyone agreed aloud. Like the others, Matt had never asked for anything from Ryan, whose parents were rich, but he’d never turned down something either. He wasn’t going to start now. Eric was right. He usually was.
Ryan said, “I need somewhere to send things we order online, which is probably most of it. Anna?”
Her eyebrows rose in question before falling. “Of course. Send it here. Not a lot of room, but we’ll think of something.”
“A storage unit. I’ll get on that.”
“There’s an archery range at Lake Needwood,” offered Jack. “I pass it all the time. I don’t know if they do lessons, but I can look into stuff like this, especially while you guys are gone.”
“Great. What else might we need?” Matt asked. “Gear doesn’t matter because we can’t take it with us, so it’s only stuff we can use to train ourselves.”
Eric, who worked as martial arts instructor, said, “I can teach everyone hand-to-hand fighting and self-defense. That’s an easy one.”
Matt asked, “Can you teach us at your job?”
“Good question. I think so, but that would require Ryan paying for it when that isn’t necessary. The owner wouldn’t let me teach people who aren’t paying.”
“We’ll think of something,” said Ryan. “I could teach a lot of the horseback riding, but I probably can’t unless I have my own horses and a ring. I do have a horse, just the one, but it’s stabled elsewhere, and I doubt they would let me teach there with going through some sort of approval process that we don’t have time for. Besides, it would be a job, and I would just keep disappearing, getting myself fired, so it doesn’t make any sense. I want each of you to have one-on-one lessons, but if we do lessons every day, it might also raise questions.”
“Every day?” Anna asked.
“The faster the better.”
“Okay, I can’t disagree with that. It’s just a lot.”
Matt agreed. Maybe they were getting carried away. How were they supposed to live their lives and keep jobs? And starting all of that physical training wasn’t something he was going to handle well, but he didn’t want to admit it. He had complained about physical exertion enough times to them that he felt like Eric was smirking at him even though he wasn’t.
He said, “I think we have to pace ourselves. Some of us aren’t exactly in good shape. I guess we need to change that.”
“Physical conditioning,” began Eric with a straight face. “Strength training, at least a little. I can handle some of that. We might need gym memberships or something.”
“Adding to my list,” said Ryan, typing on his phone. “There are some great gyms in the area.”
Anna suggested, “The fitness training classes I took means I can help with conditioning. We might want to start a jogging routine, for example. Get our cardio better. We will never be in control of whether we have horses or something. We might have to do a lot of walking, even running at times.”
Eric observed. “I think we need to be prepared for anything, as much as we can be.”
“You know,” began Ryan, “on the first quest, Eric and Matt knowing sign langu
age seemed pretty useful for communicating when we needed to be quiet. How hard would it be to teach us?”
Matt nodded. He had learned it from his deaf mother and taught a curious Eric years ago. That hadn’t gone smoothly, but they’d had time, unlike now. There was no real crash course in it. They would have to work on it often. “Not hard, but it may take a long time to get good at it, and there’s no spell for it, I don’t think, like when Lorian cast one to teach us all a bunch of languages at once. We should definitely get started for at least the basics.”
Anna admitted, “I’m feeling a little overwhelmed, guys. How will we have the time for all of this?”
Matt liked his career as a software developer, but maybe it needed to wait. He was only a few years into it anyway. “Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Ryan doesn’t need a job. We aren’t so lucky.”
“Do you think you should quit?” Ryan asked. “I can pay bills and other stuff.”
Seeing dubious expressions, Eric shook his head. “I don’t know. I think it’s premature. I mean, someone has now summoned twice us, and we have every reason to believe we will be again, but what if it’s a week? Or a month?”
“My gut tells me it won’t be,” Anna said.
Eric sighed. “I know. But we can’t quit yet. That might cause scrutiny we want to avoid. That said, we could request some time off, as if we’re bothered by some of what happened when we disappeared from Stonehenge. The world knows about that one, but not this one tonight, and they never will. But you know something? None of us would handle more than a few hours of something like horseback riding at first anyway. Our bodies have to get used to it over this first week, especially. It was rough when we were on Honyn. I think we’re fine for now, and we have at least a couple days of making arrangements to do. I think we need to get started and not go overboard too fast.”
The Light Bringer: An Epic Fantasy Adventure Novel (The Dragon Gate Series Book 2) Page 2