“You remind Yinnilith of someone he once knew, a great friend of his that he lost long ago. Do not bear him ill will for teasing you about it. He is old, and old men—and Elves—enjoy playing games with the young and the confident. Though he laughs at you, he laughs hardest with you.” He gave me a wry smile and a wink.
I giggled. Another question sprang into my mind, a much more important question. “How can we stop Terrence?”
The smile slowly evaporated from the old man’s face. His brow furrowed, and his mouth puckered. “Terrence is a foe not to be underestimated. He is well learned in the art of deception. In this he always had great skill, but when Chaos found him it enhanced the gift. He had to be a skilled liar to have evaded the Watcher’s perception for so long. But it goes further. So skilled was Terrence at masking his intentions that even Aurora and Meridia and their sister Nocturna could not see his will. I doubt Destiny herself could have seen how he would twist the thread within the fabric of his life.”
I took in all of his words, but my mind caught on one. “Sister? There’s another one? Is she…” I paused for a moment. “Is she more like Aurora, or more like Meridia?” I asked carefully.
The old man snorted. “You will not find her so abrasive as Meridia, I assure you.”
My eyes went wide. “Are we going to meet her, then?”
“Oh, I cannot see how you will avoid it,” said the old man, sighing heavily. “But that is a long ways off. And yet not so long. It is hard to tell after all this time. But you asked me of Terrence. If you wish to defeat him, you and the other Realm Keepers, you must greatly expand your knowledge of magic. Think of things no one has ever thought of. Go beyond where you are comfortable, and find the realm of your magic that have scarcely been touched. By working together, you can defeat him. You can be the most powerful wizards to ever walk the lands of Midrealm. Seek ever to expand your knowledge, and eventually it will encompass a way to defeat the Great Traitor.”
I sighed. I didn’t see how that was super helpful, since that’s just what Greystone was always saying: study harder, learn our magic better. But I didn’t want to be rude. And I had another question, one I’d wondered almost since I first came to Midrealm.
“How did Chaos come to Midrealm?”
“Ah…” said the old man. He sucked in a long, long breath, and then slowly exhaled it. “Now there is a tale. Chaos is evil, but evil is not Chaos. Before Chaos there were still wars, still horrid acts among the races of Midrealm. Chaos did not bring these things to us, though it embraces them wholeheartedly. It was born in the black pits of Hell a world away, spawned from a sorcerer whose name has long been forgotten. He was hungry for power, and he sought a weapon that would conquer all the world in his name. But when he had given birth to the great beast, he could not control it. The story of Chaos conquering a world like Midrealm is not new. Many, many worlds has it left broken and wasted in its wake since first it was spawned in another universe long ago. You know that there are many Earths, yes? Like our world, and yet not?”
“Like different dimensions,” I said, nodding. “Yes, we were told that.”
The old man nodded. “To the great misfortune of all of us, Chaos was born upon a world that had already learned to bridge the gap between these dimensions, allowing it to spread. It has consumed many of them, and ever it expands further and further. Right now, even as it seeks to enslave Midrealm, it is roaring across the landscapes of a dozen other worlds just like it.”
I thought about that and grew terribly sad. A dozen other worlds, with a dozen other populations that might be just like ours, and armies of Shadows killing them all.
“But nowhere has Chaos met such resistance as it did in Midrealm,” said the old man proudly. “Nowhere has held out for so long. Nowhere were there wizards and men and armies who could withstand it for millennia, as we have. When the great barrier was erected, it gave us the tool we needed to hold back the darkness, and we have held it back ever since. “
I shuddered even though, in the dream state, I couldn’t feel the cold. But I could still feel fear. “Why us?” I said. “What did we have that the other worlds didn’t?”
“You should worry not about what we had, but what we have now,” said the old man. Then, abruptly, he stood and brushed off his robes. “But that is a tale for another time. You have been gone too long from True Earth, and you must be getting back.”
“But there are so many more questions,” I said.
“Yes, and there is much more time,” replied the old man. He stooped and helped me get to my feet. “We will see each other again very soon.”
“Wait, one more thing,” I said. “I still don’t know who you are—or were. What’s your name?”
The old man broke into the broadest smile I’d ever seen on his old face. “Oh, sweet girl,” he said quietly. “How could you not have known? My name is Malus.”
He vanished into the air, and the dream state faded around me.
GET MORE
THUS CONCLUDES WYRMSPIRE, THE SECOND book in the Realm Keepers series.
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OTHER BOOKS BY THE AUTHORS
OTHER BOOKS BY THE AUTHORS
By Garrett Robinson & Z. C. Bolger:
THE REALM KEEPERS SERIES
Midrealm
EPIC FAIRY TALES
The Ninjabread Man
By Z. C. Bolger:
Danny Calloway and the Puzzle House
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Garrett Robinson lives and works in the Los Angeles area. He has accumulated numerous credits in independent film and continues to make films along with his friends in the filmmaking collective We Make Movies.
As with all people in the film industry, Garrett is constantly looking for an edge to help him turn his passion into a full-time career. To that end, he has embarked upon a new business model. Garrett is turning all of his script ideas, short form or long form, into novels and novellas and self-publishing them. By garnering attention for the stories he has created, he hopes to gain the opportunity to turn those stories into films. Many of his works are for adult audiences only, but he has published popular books for younger readers, including The Ninjabread Man, also co-authored with Z.C. Bolger.
Garrett lives in Los Angeles with his wife Meghan, his children Dawn and Luke, and his dog Chewbacca.
To find out every time Garrett puts out a new book, visit:
garrettbrobinson.com/be-a-rebel
Garrett can be found on:
BLOG: garrettbrobinson.com
EMAIL: garrettbrobinson.com/be-a-rebel
TWITTER: twitter.com/gbr0binson
FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/garrettbrobinson
Z.C. Bolger is a multi-genre writer living and working in Miami Florida.
He was born and raised in California, and attended Delphi Academy of Los Angeles for the majority of his schooling years. Delphi was able to supply many creative outlets for Z to take advantage of, from acting in school p
roductions to helping build the annual haunted house, Z was able to truly create and expand on his artistic visions while getting a great education.
At the age of thirteen, Z wrote his first feature length film script. He ended up working for some time in the film industry once his school days were behind him.
He later became a teacher, running his own school alongside his fiancée, while continuing to write film scripts as a hobby. One particular script he started, Danny Calloway and the Puzzle House, led him to write his first novel.
Sign up for Z’s mailing list at:
Z.C.Bolger’s Mailing List
Z.C. can be found on:
WEBSITE: zcbolger.com
EMAIL: www.zcbolger.com/contact/
TWITTER: twitter.com/zcbolger
FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/ZCBolger
Wyrmspire (Realm Keepers Book 2) Page 76