Calvin was about to head to bed after a rather exhausting and late running arcane class in which one student managed to get stuck in the wood of his desk, quite literally while trying to bounce forward in space and time. Calvin had planned to get an early night maybe wax his beard but as he turned the bend into the teachers’ dorm he was met by an overwhelming headache he recognized as a physic connection.
“Calvin, can you hear me.” The Arch Mage whispered directly into Calvin’s head. It was an odd sensation like having someone nagging into your ear from the inside but one that was accompanied by the biggest headache you can imagine.
“ Yes.” Calvin replied to the empty corridor. He hated when the Arch Mage used physic communication. It always gave him a nose bleed. It baffled Calvin why the Arch Mage couldn’t walk down one flight of stairs and come speak to him like a normal person. The Arch Mage expected them to climb thirty nine flights at times to go to him but hell would freeze over before he dragged his wrinkled backside down one set of twisting stairs.
“ Can you come to my room? I’ve seen someone coming in the crystal and I want to discuss what we’re going to do about it with you.” The headache faded and Calvin whipped the blood from his nose onto the long brown sleeves of his robe. If there was one thing Calvin hated more than the short bursts of telecommunication with the Arch Mage it was when he had to actually talk to him for any length of time. The man had spent far too much time looking into the future and had lost the grip on what was really going on.
“ Why in the Makers name me?” Calvin muttered under his breath and put the key to his room back in his plain brown robe pocket before heading up to the Arch Mages floor. The Arch Mages floor was made up of two rooms. The Arch Mages living quarters, which itself was larger than three or four dorms on the floor below and his personal library. Inside the Arch Mages library Calvin sat surrounded by elegance. Statues of the Arch Mages of the past watched over him from alcoves all around the edge of the room. Stone and lifeless faces of heroes from the Dragon Blight watched the proceedings with an air of dissatisfaction and a heavy weight of boredom. The grey of the stone walls and statues was a contrast to the bright red and long golden rug that covered the stone tiles making up the floor. Several imitation gold candelabra hung from the roof with the same swirly cherry blossom effect as that of the rug. Directly opposite from the entrance ran a long table cluttered with books and magical paraphernalia, skulls, bowls and strangely glowing glass flasks. Running next to the table out stretched like legs from a wooden millipede were the Arch Mages bookcases. The books inside held some of the most powerful spells in all of Neeska and long lost history from before the Dragon ages. Almost all literature in Neeska from before the time of the Dragons had been long lost but those that did remain were either hidden in buried tombs or here inside the tower. After a few minutes of silence only broken by the odd echo of shuffling feet from one of the many alleyways between the books, Calvin grew bored of waiting.
“ Arch Mage.” Calvin shouted as he leant against a bookshelf. He had learnt not to bother hunting for the Arch Mage. The library was not massive but once you proceeded into the corridor of books that ran like fingers from the centre of the room it turned into a maze. It was so sporadic that some of the students had taken to the belief that there was a tribe of small pixies living within the library that hadn’t seen a human in over a generation. How true that was Calvin didn’t know but he did know the last time he tried to find the Arch Mage it took him and hour and a half to find his way back to the foul smelling concoctions on the table in the middle and he was sure his shoes had gotten woodworm. No Calvin knew it was far easier to call out to the Arch Mage and let him come to you.
“ It took you long enough to get up here.” The Arch Mage said as he popped out from behind a bookshelf like a bearded old mole carrying a huge tome that had seen better days. The book strangely enough matched the cream moth eaten robe the Arch Mage wore.
“I came .” Calvin started but didn’t get to finish the sentence. He’d planned to add as soon as he could but patience was not one of the Arch Mages characteristics. Senility, an odd cabbage odor, and a hunch you could use to draw a perfect semi-circle yes, but not patience.
“ Yes yes Calvin no time to talk so just listen.” The Arch Mage said waggling his bushy eyebrows like two grey weasels dancing. “Some wet behind the ear knight or some such is prancing in from Neeskmouth as we speak. He’ll be here within a day or so, maybe three if he stops at Briers Hill and we have to act.” The Arch Mage dropped the heavy book onto the table with a thud sending a cloud of dust into the air.
“ Act on what exactly?” Calvin asked as he walked closer to the Arch Mage hoping that the book would shed some light on affairs. He knew from his experience with the Arch Mage that he often presumed the person he was speaking to had as strong power of future reading as the Arch Mage himself had. This often led to rather muddled and brief conversations that left younger and less experienced Mages completely clueless to what they had actually been asked to do and in some instances being punished for conversations that they had not yet even had.
“The second Blight my boy, keep up will you. We’ll need a warrior mage we will. You will be him and you’ll help this little noble squid wrangler from Neeskmouth survive the apocalyptic ruins of the Scorched Lands.” The Arch Mage said shooting Calvin a disappointed look.
“ Wait, second blight as in Dragons?” Calvin asked understandably letting a little nervous toot out of his magic britches. It was possible that the Arch Mage had been staring into the crystals too long again and this was something that had already happened or would not happen for another thousand years. Either that or he had spent too long playing with herbs in the many jars scattered around the room and he had just had a bad dream, but when it came to Dragons. It was never wise to be complacent.
“ Yes, do you mages not keep an eye on the crystal balls anymore? Oh wait no of course not. They were destroyed weren’t they, I forget sometimes. Why did we do that again?” The Arch Mage said. All the crystal balls that could see into the future had been destroyed by the Arch Mage years before and it was a supposedly a secret that he still had one but almost every student knew that they had not all been destroyed. It was the only sensible reason for the Arch Mage being the way he was and if he didn’t have one then he was just completely insane and they were all following the teachings of a mad man. So they knew he had to have a crystal ball somewhere because no self respecting person would be lead by a mad man, they hoped.
“Anyway don’t worry about the crystals’ now Calvin. The past is more interesting then the future anyway. Look here.” The Arch Mage said opening the book with a flick of his wrist to the exact page somewhere to the middle of the dusty tome. “ Warrior mages my lad, oh they would have been something to behold in the last war with the Dragons. Do you know they say some of them could even divine their elemental skills to the point they could actually boil the water in a human body. We’re made up of mostly water so that’s a lot of steam to shrivel the armor isn’t it.” The Arch Mage made a rather explosive hand gesture followed by an excited chirp. For an old man he seemed full of life and easily excitable, probably something to do with the fact he was never truly in one time frame.
“ I’m not sure I like where this is going Arch Mage. You realize after the Great War ended the warrior mages were disbanded. Not one of them survived without a demon from the spirit realm corrupting them. It was too dangerous, for everyone. There is a reason magic like that is banned.” Calvin said remembering back to the stories of mages returning from the war and going insane murdering their loved ones, neighbors’ and quite often themselves. Most demons liked to return to the shadow realm shortly after they arrived in the mortal realm as they found its physics quite dull but the odd one enjoyed the whole mortal experience and took it to new gruesome levels.
“Yes yes, but if it is just one, you. I mean you’re getting on a bit now, then we know who to watch out for and it’s better t
han letting some big scaly lizard burn the rest of Neeska. It seems simple enough to do. I cast this spell at you and you wake up in the spirit realm to find a spirit to make a pact with.” With that said the Arch
Mage flicked his stubby hands and a bright white light hit Calvin like the sledge hammer of a mountain troll. When Calvin opened his eyes the world around him had a shifty white glow and he lay in the middle of a beautiful forest clearing. To his left huge mountains climbed towards the sky and water cascaded off of them in ever shifting colors that seemed to change at will. Behind him lay a desert filled with walking cacti, and to his right snow and blizzards. The three very different landscapes met at the forest clearing and at the heart of it was an old stone pedestal that was right by Calvin’s feet. At its top was a thick book that was writing itself. The quill floated above it magically scribbling quickly. As much as Calvin had wanted to pull himself up to read what was being written his attention was swept elsewhere as bright wisps of light similar to those Calvin had heard blessed the Elves darted around from area to area. As they zoomed past his ears they seemed to carry the sounds of people from the mortal world, either moaning of a hard winter if the wisp darted from the frozen wastes or spring time passion and love lust if the wisp had just finished a swim in the amazing waterfalls that seemed to fall from forever in the heights of the mountains. Because of his study and strong connection to it Calvin knew that he had landed in the shadow realm. This was the place of dreams, where people went when they slept. Calvin tried to focus directly on one of the wisps and without moving his feet Calvin felt the sensation of motion, of the world moving around him. He was suddenly travelling hundreds of miles in the blink of the eye. The spirit world disappeared by him as he whipped through the air. When it stopped Calvin found himself sat deep in a forest, he was still dizzy from the speed of passing continents and the odd hollow feeling that everything had. Calvin didn’t think he would ever find anything more nauseating than the telepathic communication with the Arch Mage but he now knew he was wrong, this was worse. There were more wisps in the forest and Calvin was sure he could see reflections inside of them of the settlement just northeast of Neeskmouth. The world seemed to shake again and this time his feet left the floor and he shot upwards into the great white glow above. There in the clouds he saw thousands of people all running around with what could be considered normal lives. They paid him no attention and Calvin knew it was the dead he could see. The world had been damaged long ago and many lives that should have returned to the world didn’t. They should have faded into the lifestream a power that made all knew life in the world. As one thing died it came back as something else. Think of mixing fruit in a blender and pouring it out into a tree. The flow had once been stopped by a demon who had tried to enter the world and it looked like those that had died during that time had congregated here and for a moment Calvin wondered if they had just continued their lives in this place but before he could call out the ask the shift came again and he was falling. Calvin splashed into the sea travelling a million depths down into darkness. He knew if this was the mortal realm he would be choking to death but here he could breathe fine. Calvin had a strange feeling that he was being pulled towards something. Whatever spells the Arch Mage had cast was sending Calvin somewhere specific within the shadow realm. Calvin was alone apart from a single golden fish that swam towards him. It seemed to smile as it grew closer and the world shifted once more. Fire and brimstone replaced the beauty of the ocean floor as Calvin was summoned into the demons presence. The same white glow filled the valley that Calvin now found himself accustomed to but the wisps were nowhere to be seen. There was no way to leave the demons small kingdom of dreams unless it gave you right to leave.
“ Well well, a human here and a live one to. It must be a century or more since one of you came poking around in our domain. You’re not dreaming so what brings you here?” The voice called out in a hundred voices. Male and female, old and young and tones no mortal ear would be able to hear. The voice belonged to what looked like a young women who sat cradling the decomposing body of the fish. Her skin seemed to shimmer and looked too perfect. She had not even the slightest flaw to her figure and many a man might have fallen for her even with the outlandish voice but Calvin could sense the magic dripping from the beast that hid itself behind the illusion. Demons spent eternity sailing on the life stream that flowed through the shadow realm. They knew how to control it and its powers and could use it to craft any realm they wanted and shift it around themselves to make them whatever they wanted to be. If they wanted to be old they could. If they wanted to have wings or be as small as an ant it was only a matter of crafting the energy. They could build great rolling plains or like this demon, molten filled volcanoes.
Dragons Blight (Valadfar Book 1) Page 5