by Chay, Daniel
“We must hurry because the Elves may believe the Drow Boy and won’t be far behind us.” said Kanefar.
Mindy having no other choice but to lead them to the Dryad does so reluctantly.
Ramos constantly picks at Mindy along the way because of the stench on her from the sewers. Although everyone knows it’s because of her Drow Elf origins and the fact that he is a high elf.
They finally arrive at the Dryad and Cleopatra being her usual impatient self asks why the spirit of the Dryad doesn’t appear to her.
“I have no idea why this Woman’s Spirit doesn’t appear to me.”, said Cleopatra looking straight at Mindy as she speaks.
“I don’t know either.” Said Mindy to Cleopatra, thinking she is speaking to her.
Suddenly the Dryad appears and parts of the tree forms the shape of a Woman.
“Hello, Mindy.”
“I would like to explain to you the things on your mind.”
“Speak to me Dryad, not her.”
The Dryad cannot see or hear Cleopatra at all and doesn’t respond to what she says. It’s as though she is not even there.
“Firstly, I can hear and sense that you are not alone and the company you keep it makes you uneasy.” Says Imagine the Dryad.
“I cannot see them which makes me think they are not from here and are not supposed to be on this world at all.” Says Imagine.
“Perhaps just the fact that I say this to you and your companions will sway things in your favour.” Says Imagine.
“You better not tell them to attack us” said Cleopatra to Mindy.
“I won’t tell them to attack you” said Mindy.
“I cannot attack them directly Mindy because I can’t see or hear them, but you can tell me where they are and I will attack.” Said Imagine.
“Quickly don’t let her speak now” said Cleopatra.
A priest holds his hand over Mindy’s mouth and she can’t speak for a time, but the Priest and Cleopatra realise they will eventually have to let her speak to move forward.
“Ask her about the Colour Wheel on the Door in the Crypts” said Cleopatra to Mindy.
“Do you know how to access the Door in the Crypts that changes colour” said Mindy to Imagine.
“Yes. I do” said Imagine.
The Dryad quickly drops a branch into Mindy’s hand and says…
“Only you can hold my branch child or it will wither and die.” Said Imagine.
“The branch will turn the door brown and you must turn the branch every time it turns brown to unlock the passage.”
“Ask why the Door didn’t open with our Dryad branch?”
“Why didn’t the branch from the Human Dryad work in the door?”
“The Magic on the door is from my Creators hand and you must use my branch to access this particular passage.”
“Let’s go then to the door in the crypts now that we have the branch of the Dryad.” said Cleopatra to Kanefar.
Cleopatra’s party make their way back to the Crypts spending days to find their way back to the door deep in the Mountain.
I will now take you back to Fae in the future and Ellen who awaits Fae’s return from collecting the day’s ingredients for her powerful concoctions.
Fae returns to the Tower and puts the ingredients down on the table in front of Ellen who just smiles and continues with what she was doing.
Fae and Ellen are startled by an alarm and because Fae has no idea what it's for she waits until Ellen says something.
The crystal in the middle of the tower has images flashing through showing the humans caravan.
"Someone is coming through the main portals between Earth and the Elementals World called Imparla. I must alert the others to their presence there." said Ellen to Fae .
"Can't we just not tell them?" said Fae .
"No, the penalty for that is death."
"It has been over two thousand years since a human has entered those portals and we must travel to Shaan to alert the city to the fact that Humans are now wandering around Imparla.
"Will they turn around and kill them for being on our World and Imparla?"
"Only if they are complete Neanderthals like they were two thousand years ago when Cleopatra came through the portals, although she was the best that Earth had to offer back then, But they still made enemies of her."
Ellen opens a portal to the capital city Shaan and enters it and before she leaves tells Fae meet them half way at Imparla.
"Before you go can you please tell me the name of that machines we always get in trouble for peeking through the window at?" said Fae.
"It's called the interim and there's a magical door into it deep in the mountain."
Fae decides to read through Leigh’s notes from when she was contacting Mitchell through her crystal ball before going out to meet Kris at Imparla.
Fae skims through the notes and finds one part where Leigh makes Mitchell think she needs to speak to him and he needs to think back, and she deceptively said;
"I must speak to him”
Then he asked what she means by think back and she says.
“You have never thought properly and to think back in your head."
Mitchell does not know whether she means to think back by pushing back in his head or think back to a time in the past.
Mitchell has problems for a few days, having hot flushes and lots of showers due to hearing so many voices but he goes on thinking that the Witch is only trying to help him think properly, he is also completely taken by what Leigh said and confused by it at the same time.
Fae thinks about what the Witch Leigh has told Mitchell and decides that nobody needs to be shown how to think.
Speaking of maps Ellen has one of the biggest glass sculptures of Imparla in one of the rooms of her Tower in the middle that is big enough to walk on but only on the paths.
Imparla only has paths with an arch every now and then which is where the portals appear when opened as the story goes is that the entire planet is bound to the glass sculpture. Everything on the planet is binded by the elementals to the planet. They say that the things on the planet are only created when the elementals are happy which isn't very often and those things are made of the Elements, Fire, Earth, Air, and Wind.
The Elementals Created things just by standing near something and it appears like sand falling through the air, this could be anything from which element the Elemental is made of, for example an air elemental might make a bowl of water to drink from, and a fire elemental might make a torch to light the way with.
Fae uses Ellen's powerful portal spell to appear where the Elementals and Kris's party are and because it's a lush forest area Fae can easily catch up with them due to them not knowing this World and because they have no maps and only Fae has a map in her mind having gazed on the glass sculpture so many times before.
Elven Magic
REACHING IMPARLA
People being people don’t always think very well about what they are doing and Kris’s Party all walked on the path and through the arches which are all bound to the Glass Sculpture in Ellen’s Tower they all light up with magical energies when people walked through them and on them, not with an exact detail of the person but with enough light and shape to see someone is walking past.
If the party knew what was happening in the Tower they wouldn’t have walked so clumsily on the path and through the arches, but alas they didn’t know.
Fae finally catches up with Kris’s Party who were still walking along the brick footpath, luckily they hadn’t run into any elementals before Fae found them because the elementals usually congregate together in the forest areas and didn’t tend to gather on the path at all.
“You must all get off the brick path before the Witch Ellen see’s you when she returned to her Tower from the capital with the imperial city guards.”
I looked puzzled to see a real elf in the flesh.
“Where is Ellen the Witch?” I said to Fae.
“She is in her M
agical Tower in Elven Lands near the capital city named Shaan.” said Fae.
“What’s your name?” I said.
“My name is Fae.”
Fae decided that there was no longer any point concealing her identity.
“How can we get to Ellen the Witch’s Tower? And where is the Elven City named Shaan?” I said.
“I only know how to get here, we will need to seek out the Elementals of this World named Imparla in order to find our way back to the Witch’s Tower, secondly we must find a portal to Elven Lands somewhere in the forests of Imparla.” said Fae.
Fae leads the Party deep into the forest to seek out the Elementals.
Fae secretly knew they were up against it due to Ellen and the Imperial Guards returning to her Tower and if they so much as step on the path or under the arches they will be aware of exactly where they are from the glass sculpture and the Guards would make Ellen create a portal and we would have been surrounded.
I could smell the freshness of the forest and knew we were far from Egypt now and even though I knew we were there because Kris studied the spell book in great depth, I still wondered if I was in a dream and not really there on Imparla.
I remembered back to when my wife Kris told me of finding Fae on the court house steps as a baby wrapped in an embroidered cloth.
“Wait a minute; you said your name is Fae?”
“Yes, I am an elf and yes you are my child Kris.”
“I have so many questions,” said Kris.
“Like, how can I read elvish when I didn’t learn it?” said Kris to Fae.
“You are only half elf and even though I indeed had to learn elvish for some reason your mind works differently and translated automatically, this has been studied for countless hours by the Elven Elders, and still it remains the mystery of not knowing how the brain works, completely.” Said Fae.
“Who is my father?”
“You don’t really have a father, this is the reason Elves and Humans couldn’t exist in harmony, unfortunately elves and humans didn’t really have to do anything much to reproduce except think about it.”
“What about me, do I have that genetic trait as well?”
“No, your half human half elf, you reproduce the same way a human does.” Said Fae.
“What will they do If the guards find us here?” said Kris
“There is no telling what they will do, there hasn’t been a human on Imparla for over 2,000 years; you will be tried fairly according to the Imperial Courts I suspect.”
“What did they do 2,000 years ago when there were humans here?” said Kris.
“I think they went back into the crypts and were never seen again, there are rumours of what happened but that is just hearsay.” Said Fae.
“I do know that no elf would go into the crypts further then the traps because let’s just say immortality and traps don’t go hand in hand.” Said Fae.
As soon as Fae said this Tobias’s eyes light up at the prospect of finding any treasure, I know this could prove useful because everyone else are reserved about even being in a strange place, whereas Tobias seems as though his on another planet which he indeed is.
“Do you know any of these alleged rumours?” said Kris.
“No, but some of the Elders may, although I hope we don’t run into them any time soon.” Said Fae.
“Well I would have liked to see these so called portals, so you can count me in. I still don’t see why you couldn’t have come out of a portal in front of me though, I feel completely hard done by now, Elf.” Said Tobias.
The evidence of Tobias’s life and past is obvious and clear because of his scarred face and Kris knew he was there to find anything of great value and I could tell she was uneasy whenever he spoke, although he didn’t seem to notice so I didn’t say anything about it.
The group all come to a field in the forest with a strangely carved rock in the centre, it’s just on dark now and the carvings on the outer rim of the rock start to glow in the dark and provide a little light but not enough to not need any light of a fire, Fae unlike the others knows that when the elementals arrive there which they always seem to because they must be attracted to the glow of the ancient totem.
Some time passes…
Suddenly three of Elementals appear and hover over the glowing totem and being fire elementals they fill the area with radiant heat and light up the whole field to the tree line of the forest.
The fire elementals didn’t seem too interested in us and went about their business, the one major difference I noticed between forests of Imparla and Earth was that there were no fuels on the ground because the trees didn’t seem to shed any leaves.
“Even though there are no people here except the elementals on occasion there will be a trader from the capital city Shaan, because they know where the portals are and some even know the route to Earth’s portal which you came through to get this far.” Said Fae to Kris.
“Speaking of the portals don’t we need to ask those elementals where the portal is?” said Tobias curiously.
“Yes, elemental do you know where I can find the portal to Shaan?”
“The portal doesn’t lead to the city Shaan but it does lead to a nearby town called Riverview.” Said the first fire Elemental named Aaron to Fae.
“It’s in a clearing like this one with two totems instead of one. The portal is in the middle of them and you should find seven clearings like this one before you reach the portal on the eighth totem.” Said the second fire elemental named Mike to Fae.
“I doubt you will get there quickly, and you will need money if you come across any trolls on the bridges.” Said the third Elemental named Simon to Fae.
“I know you could sell some things to the traders if there’s any coming through, here’s what we have a few coins, they might help.” Said Mike.
Fae had something of value but she didn’t want to mention it to the elementals although they would have only wanted to hold it for a while but Fae was more worried about Tobias with the gleam in his eye for treasure.
Fae knew that the Emeralds she had were very valuable and a trader would do anything to get them.
Fae puts the coins all in separate pockets so she doesn’t have to give them all to the first troll that tries to attack.
“There’s a few hobo’s here that came through the portals years ago that managed to find the portals near Shaan but we don’t think there’s anyone from earth except for your party, but we may be mistaken because it’s a big place and there’s not that many of us.” Said Aaron.
“You know if you find the air elemental named Lynn you will be in luck because she seems to be able to make some things she touches more than they are currently, sometimes, hopefully.” Said Simon.
Kris and I know that we won't need a camp fire for as long as the fire elementals are at the totem clearing. The elementals sit and talk together, Fae and I understand them partly from reading the spell book but not completely because Fae can only read the spell book fluently but can't understand what is said completely.
It's a cold night and Fae even feels the cold without the warmth of the bed's at the Tower. The party and I are used to rough nights of other archaeological digs but Kris isn't because this was her first journey.
Although Kris doesn't know how lucky she is to actually find something on her first trip, some of the others have waited their whole lives for that moment.
Suddenly one of Kris’s party walked across the brick path without thinking about it, now the question is whether anyone is in the Tower with Ellen, we all waited anxiously to see if anyone came through the portal. Nobody does come through and we all continued on our way. Possibly Ellen is still at the capital city Shaan and hasn’t returned to the Tower at this stage.
We all continued near the path in that direction and finally reached a large clearing right up to a bridge there was a stream and we walked down toward the stream instead of on the path. Suddenly a troll jumped from a tree and one came out from behind
a log.
Fae quickly used the magic she had prepared back at the Tower and fired a fireball at the troll which fell to the ground dead and lifeless she then faced the next troll using a short ranged spell setting the troll on fire but also weakening herself in the process so much so that she couldn't even hold herself up on her own and had to be carried.
I quickly volunteered to carry Fae being very careful not to break her already weak but now even weaker body, we all wondered if the remaining bridges had trolls to greet us because we knew Fae would not be able to do that at every one from there on in.
Everyone in the party just sat and stared at Fae and what she had done.
Kris looked bewildered that magic like that even existed, she wasn't jealous of me carrying Fae but more in a world of her own.
I wasn't that surprised after all I have seen and heard, everything, so why not believe in magic now.
After some time walking next to the path but not on it we came to another clearing almost identical to the previous clearing. We made it a point to camp at each totem because they were placed almost evenly apart and it was nightfall again by the time we reached this totem.
We all sat patiently to see if any elementals would turn up. There was only one this time an air elemental, this one was very curious.
"Hello elemental what is your name?" said Fae painfully.
"My name is Lynn, what is your name?"
"I am Fae, and I come from Riverview near Shaan." said Fae.
"Why are you so weak? You look like it's your last breath." said Lynn.
"We ran into two trolls on the way and they attacked immediately, I knew that if I didn't attack at least a few of us would of perished." said Fae.
"We spoke to Simon at the previous totem clearing, he told us that you can translate things into sometimes more valuable things, is that true?" said Fae.
"Well yes, sometimes being the operative word. I will do that for you but I take no responsibility if it's a disappointment." said Lynn.
Fae decided not to risk her big green emerald because it would be the most valuable item and probably more valuable than what Lynn would have turned it into.