The Trapped Mind Project (Emerilia Book 1)

by Michael Chatfield

  Dave touched the limbs, in awe of the city. Deia continued to guide him onward, up to the third story of trees.

  She just hoped his curiosity would last long enough. She stopped and looked out over the city. Greens and browns were everywhere, with splashes of colors showing different gardens that crossed the city.

  “I snuck out here when I was a little girl to see the city,” Deia said, as Dave pulled her close with his arm.

  “It’s incredible,” Dave said.

  Deia smiled at his obvious joy as he tried to take in all of the sights.

  “So you must be Dave.”

  Deia turned. Her father wore mages robes but with a red armband instead of the green one he had hidden behind. “Dad!” Deia hugged the other man.

  Dave turned, a smiling mask in place as he shook her father’s hand. He looked to be in his mid-thirties, with dark-brown hair and handsome features.

  Oson’Mal’s eyes thinned as he looked Dave over like some sort of specimen. “Shall we go down to the Dwarven quarter to get some food?”

  “This year, I’ll be cooking for us!” Deia smiled.

  Mal looked to Deia with curiosity.

  Dave released his hand stiffly. It was clear that he was intimidated by Mal.

  Deia grabbed Dave’s arm. “Dave has been teaching me.”

  “Ahh, I thought he was a metal banger?” Mal said, trying to get a rise from Dave.

  “If you mean smith, yes, I am one,” Dave said.

  Mal raised an eyebrow, in silent judgment.

  “Open mind, Father, and stop being an ass. You’re starting to sound like a high Elf,” Deia rebuked her dad, pulling Dave toward a door in the tree.

  Oson’Mal followed his daughter and her boyfriend with a frown.

  ***

  No, this isn’t supposed to be happening! Oson’Mal couldn’t stop himself from laughing at Dave’s joke.

  As the night had gone on, he’d warmed to his daughter’s lover. There was only Mal and Deia; the rest of their family had been killed off at Asha-moor.

  Still, they did fine: Deia worked up a storm in the kitchen with Mal now used to taking her orders and Dave also doing rather well with his jobs.

  I might have started taking a shine to him when he produced that Dwarven whiskey. Mal sipped some of the golden concoction as Deia reminisced about some of Dave’s training mishaps.

  Dinner had been a success, shown by the scattered plates on the table.

  “So what is your plan for the future?” Mal asked in the lull in the stories.

  “Well, Dave wants to train as much as he can with smithing, though I’m teaching him how to fight. I’ve started talking to the rangers to ask if I can complete my service with them,” Deia said.

  “You’re going to leave the rangers?” Mal asked, surprised. She had worked with them for so long that he had seen the signs of her becoming a ranger commander in the near future.

  “There’s a lot to see out in the world and I want to get a taste of it,” Deia said with a sad voice, not holding Mal’s eyes.

  “Well, there’s no need to be nervous about what I’m going to say. I was out gallivanting around at a much younger age.” Mal smiled, happy that his daughter might follow in his steps as a traveler, but also scared because of all the dangers he knew lurked out in the world.

  Those doubts moved to the back of his mind as Deia practically beamed with happiness and relief.

  “What do you intend to do in the village?” Dave asked.

  “Well, someone needs to make sure that the new up-and-coming Fire mages don’t burn the forest down.” Mal gave Deia a reproving stare but couldn’t stop himself from grinning.

  “I only burned a little bit of it.” She rolled her eyes.

  “If you mean nearly two acres is a ‘little bit.’” Mal laughed.

  “Well, they turned it into farmland anyway. I was just—speeding up the process.”

  Mal laughed and shook his head.

  “Oh, so Deia does mess up, huh? I’d like to hear those stories about her errant youth.” Dave leaned forward as Deia glared at her father.

  “Well, do you happen to have some more of that fine whiskey?”

  “Of course.” Dave smiled.

  “I’m going to clean the dishes,” she said, trying to get away as fast as possible.

  Dave filled up Mal’s glass.

  He took a sip, getting comfortable. “So when she was eight, she decided that she was going to be a ranger. So she started running around all over the place to try to get her acrobatics out. Then she started trying to run on people’s houses. Well, there was one house that had a weak roof that a new couple had just moved into. Deia went charging all over the city, only to break their roof while they were in the middle of trying to conceive a child,” Mal said, seeing Deia depart quickly as her ears turned red.

  ***

  At first, Mal had wanted to judge the man as harshly as possible. He’d sipped on some fine wine, watching Dave and Deia work in the kitchen.

  After a few stories of her errant youth, Dave had moved to help her out with Mal’s promise to tell him more. Deia seemed to be doing everything in her power to get more Dwarven whiskey into him to make him forget the request.

  Mal smiled, remembering how he and Ignil had smiled at each other, working together. His smile turned sad at the distance between him and the woman he loved.

  Just had to fall in love with the Lady of Fire. Mal shook his head and sipped the whiskey, watching the duo in the kitchen. Deia was an independent woman and she liked to figure out things on her own. Dave respected that and had let her get to work, being a helper as needed. He saw the look in their eyes as they smiled at each other or even as they talked about what they had to do next.

  There was trust and understanding there. And the food that they’d made! Oson’Mal was looking forward to having some leftovers tomorrow.

  Dave was smart; he might not be a Fire mage but he grasped the basics and understood it to some degree.

  Memories filled his mind, the whiskey and warmth of the house making it easier to drift away.

  “Dad?” Deia asked.

  “Oh sorry, I was somewhere else. What did you say?” Mal asked.

  “I said that I became a Player.”

  “What?’ Mal leaned forward in shock.

  “Well, Dave and I want to go and see a bit more of the world and having a Player and a Person of Emerilia would raise questions. So I became a Player,” Deia said simply.

  “How?” Mal asked, stunned.

  “Well, we can’t really say anything on that.” Deia winced.

  Mal wanted to demand an answer, but held back. A few centuries of maturity knew that this was her decision to make, as much as he didn’t like it.

  “So are you able to access the repository of information that the Players call the forums?” Mal asked instead.

  “Yes. There is so much information and you can access it from anywhere, at any time! It’s amazing!” Deia went into talking about all the wonders that she had found now that she had become a Player.

  It was all Mal could do to watch his daughter as she had stopped being the student and now became his teacher.

  Dave smiled with clear pride and affection as Mal was reminded of a time when he didn’t have to worry about the eyes of others and there was just him and Ignil wandering the forests, cities, and countries of Emerilia.

  Dave was a born Player but he had come to Emerilia and stayed there ever since. He might be an oddity but it was clear from the way he and Deia looked at each other that they were already on their way to making a heart-bond.

  “So you can now actually use their Altars of Rebirth? I’ve always been interested in them. Even the great library in the Mages College of Opheir do not have much information on them,”

  “You’ve been to the great library?” Dave sat forward.

  “Of course. I was sent as a learned mage from the Elves after the mess of Asha-moor. I was given access and then asked
to give them texts on the battle,” Oson’Mal said.

  “How do you gain access?” Dave asked.

  “Interested in the library?” Oson’Mal asked, seeing the hungry look in Dave’s eyes.

  “Thousands of years of knowledge just waiting to be read? Everything from history to crafting, fighting? There is no repository like it in the world,” Dave said back.

  “He might love books a little.” Deia laughed.

  “I can see that.” Oson’Mal laughed as well. “So what do you do?” Mal asked.

  “Right now I am working with smithing, magical runes, and soul gems,” Dave said.

  “Trying to go after your Dwarven path?” Mal asked.

  “No, it’s just that my magical abilities are a little different,” Dave said.

  “Well, I’ve been known to dabble with magic in my time. May I see?” Mal asked.

  Dave thought for a second before Mal was given an odd Affinity level table.

  Affinity Levels

  Dark

  61

  Light

  49

  Air

  39

  Water

  37

  Earth

  53

  Fire

  47

  He compared it to his own.

  Affinity Levels

  Dark

  31

  Light

  40

  Air

  82

  Water

  2

  Earth

  63

  Fire

  142

  Dave still had awhile to go until he reached Mal’s stage of spells but his stats were balanced. They were all around the same level, meaning that there shouldn’t be any easier than any others. It looked as though he had been using different items more or less but still the baseline must’ve been similar to start with.

  “What Affinity do you specialize in?” Mal asked.

  He looked up after there was no answer forthcoming. Dave looked as if he’d zoned out. Just as Mal was about to click his fingers in front of the man to bring him back to reality, his eyes locked on Mal.

  “None,” Dave said.

  “How is that possible? You can’t possibly train in all of them. What was your highest level when you started?” Mal asked.

  “All of them started at the same level,” Dave said.

  “What type of magic do you use the most?”

  Dave looked to Deia; she gave a nod. A pulse of Mana rippled through the home. Only once it had passed through it all did Dave continue.

  “Conjuring.”

  “So, Summoning?” Mal asked.

  “No, Conjuring. If I can think of something, then I can create it from Mana.” Dave held out his hand. Shadows seemed to pool in his hand, forming into a great longsword. Dave offered it to Mal, who took it.

  It was indeed a weapon, not just a simple illusion. Mal checked the runes and found it to be powered. It was no simple longsword.

  Mal might have been stuck in Kufo’tel for a while but he had spent plenty of time with various artifacts. He analyzed the blade.

  Longsword of Flames

  A sword created in the heart of Densaou Ring of Fire. It is said that all armor is useless against the heat of the blade.

  Quality: B

  Damage: 235 Slash, 75 Fire Damage

  +200% against armor

  Durability 57/57

  The blade turned into shadows again, disappearing from the world.

  “I learned how to smith and work with the basic materials in order to better understand what I am creating while conjuring. That blade nearly took all of my Mana reserves. Its quality was low as well as its damage buffs, but it was a near perfect copy, down to the way that the metal was formed,” Dave said.

  “So you are a Conjurer. I have never heard of one before,” Mal admitted.

  “Me either.” Dave smiled.

  “Which is why he spends so much time doing experiments, or training, or reading books—because he’s trying to figure out what the hell he can do with it,” Deia complained.

  “Hey, I’m not the only one training. You’ve been over with the Stone Raiders working on your skills. They’ve come to me asking for ways to get you to join their guild,” Dave said.

  “They’re not a bad group.” Deia shrugged.

  “So you have a type of magic that doesn’t need to have an invocation and it can make anything that you can think of?” Mal said, just blown away by what he was hearing.

  “Pretty much, though the more I know about the item I’m making, the better. Which is why I work on every type of crafting I can get my hands on,” Dave said.

  “Huh,” Mal said, impressed by the man.

  ***

  Dave sat outside the house and looked over the city. Not all of the houses were made from trees; a number had been made from glass that the Elves loved to color and create different pictures with.

  “May I join you?” Mal pointed at the seat.

  “Please. It is your tree, after all.” Dave smiled.

  Mal grinned with him and settled into the chair, looking over his city and home.

  Dave thought of Earth; it had been dull, missing the spark of Emerilia. People were bored and monotone. He couldn’t help but think of that world in grays and blacks.

  Since coming to Emerilia, he hadn’t worn a suit once.

  He’d been constantly learning and even making friends. On Earth, he would be mentally categorizing what they wanted from him. Here it mattered little what Dave could give them and more how they supported one another.

  Sure, there were going to be those who would want something from him, though they were no longer stuck around his neck and trying to choke him out with their greed.

  He’d truly been given a new life. He snorted and shook his head.

  “Something on your mind?” Mal asked.

  “Just thinking about Earth,” Dave said.

  “The simulation that you came from?” Mal asked.

  “Yeah.” Dave rubbed his beard.

  “What about it?” Mal asked.

  “I might have found myself in a world that—let’s be straight—is complicated as a mother fucker. There’s magic flying everywhere, people with friggin’ daggers as normal attire. Though I guess an open carry policy is actually worse…” Dave tapped his chin. “Ehh, I like my guns, never mind that. But toilets outside, lack of flowing water—urggh, nasty! Oh and there’s a Pantheon of actual gods who will do everything and anything in their power to try to get more of it. They’re even worse than the Greek gods! Or were they Roman?” Dave waved the point away and shook his head.

  “Point is, with all of this terrible situation,” Dave took a deep breath, a smile forming on his face, “I’ve never been so happy or felt this alive in years.”

  Oson’Mal looked at Dave. His talk of Magical Circuits, his devotion to learning, the way that he clearly cared for his daughter: he was a rare kind of man. Motivated by his passions, he carried out their execution with terrifying accuracy.

  “It sounds like Earth was much safer,” Oson’Mal said.

  “It was, but it was a lie. Nothing to do about that. This is my reality, as fortunate or unfortunate as that may be. I might have been born and raised to fight on Emerilia; if that’s so, then they did well. Though I’m not just going to fight for them. There’s a whole world out there to discover!” Dave looked to Oson’Mal, a massive smile on his face as his eyes lit up with the reflecting lights of the colored glass.

  “All kinds of civilizations, different people, different ideas, different societies. For a space guy like me—hell, it’s just like I skipped the trip.” Dave laughed.

  For a while, they sat there in their own thoughts: Dave thinking of the adventures to come, Oson’Mal thinking on those he had already taken.

  A weathered smile spread across Oson’Mal’s face. “Welcome to Emerilia, Dave Grahslagg.”

  Dave laughed. It was a deep laugh that shook Dave’s bulk. “Well, thank
you, Oson’Mal. I think your planet’s going to be rather interesting.”

  If you only knew the half of it! Oson’Mal thought. A flame appeared in his hand before he waved it back out of existence.

  ***

  Deia was not looking forward to reaching Cliff-Hill. She loved their home and their friends, but she also knew that once they were there, all that was left was a few furious weeks of training before Boran-al’s Citadel would start to rise.

  Dave got into their shared furs.

  “You’re cold!” she said, trying to push him out.

  “And you’re warm—come here!” he said, using her ultimate weakness, tickling her and pulling her close with his freezing hands.

  “You’re supposed to be warm!” She wrapped herself over him as she pulled another fur onto the pile. It was handy having a bag of holding that you could stuff copious furs into.

  “Well, nature called and you said I couldn’t take any of the furs! It is still winter, you know!” Dave complained.

  Deia kissed him on the nose. It was so cute when he got frustrated and his hands were getting warmer. She tucked into the crook of his arm, laying her head on his chest.

  Her father might not have said it but it seemed that he approved of Dave. By the end of it, she wasn’t sure whether her father was agreeing to see them in Cliff-Hill to see her or her boyfriend. She smiled and pulled the furs tighter.

  “What’s so funny?” Dave yawned, his rough hands finding her back.

  “Nothing, dear.” She tilted her chin up.

  He moved his head down to kiss her. She’d trained him well. With that, she settled down and was soon asleep.

  ***

  Dave’s eyes snapped open. He’d used Touch of the Land so many times that he now used it even in his sleep. It was more passive than active, only needing to be active when he was looking at something specific.