Life Beyond the Temple

by Nikolai Joslin

  We stopped at one of the first little buildings we passed. I wasn’t sure how she knew to stop there, but when we walked in, I knew it was a restaurant. We didn’t have any in the Temple; we just had the large mess hall that comfortably fit all residents. I had read about them, though. They sold food. I’d learned a lot about the human world. I wanted to be prepared, but there were some things I couldn’t be prepared for.

  “I don’t have any money,” I whispered as she pulled out a chair for me.

  “Don’t worry about it, I have some. My parents send me some every month, even though I live in the Temple with you guys.” She smiled and sat across from me.

  I still couldn’t quite grasp the concept of money. In the Temple money didn’t exist. If you needed food, you went to the mess and they gave you some. Everything you could need would be provided for you: food, clothes, extra blankets, whatever. I understood trade; I’d done it enough times: I’ll perform this spell if you get me this; I’ll tutor you if you give me your candy bar, all sorts of things. Giving paper value and trading it for things didn’t make much sense to me. It was just paper, it didn’t actually have value.

  I got some water and two sandwiches and a bag of chips, which I devoured quickly. Mages needed to eat more than the average human because of the higher amount of Life Force coursing through them. Regan, being human, got a smaller meal. I felt a bit better, but I don’t think I was on top of my game quite yet. I probably needed rest or something, but that would have to wait until we found somewhere to sleep.

  Regan must have picked up on what I needed. She left one of those pieces of paper on the table and stood up. “Let’s go find a hotel to stay in. You look exhausted. My captain told me how the dream weakens mages for a time. You just need some rest.”

  I stood up and started walking on my own. I had a few shaky steps and a couple moments where I wanted to just fall down where I was standing, but I didn’t ask for Regan’s help. She stood close, though, keeping an eye on me so she could stop me from crashing to the ground.

  We walked around the streets for a while, Regan occasionally going into larger buildings without me and coming out looking either angry or disappointed. I figured it had something to do with me being a mage.

  Finally she stormed out of one of those buildings looking quite determined, grabbed my wrist, and dragged me down to a slightly more rundown building and went up to the man behind the cash register. There was an exchange of money and a key, and then Regan came over to me again. “We’re on the second floor; do you want help?”

  I probably needed it; I’d barely made it here without falling down. I nodded, and she helped me out of my chair. Though I probably could have done it on my own, I didn’t complain. She felt strong, sturdy in a way, like I could trust myself in her hands.

  The hotel was only three floors high, so there wasn’t an elevator. I leaned against Regan the entire way up, and she didn’t seem to mind at all. She took me up the stairs slowly, letting me put almost all my weight on her. I swore that if I put any more on her, she’d be carrying me.

  She unlocked the door once we got there and pushed it open. There were two small beds, like the ones they had at the Temple. I wasted no time just falling into one, and I heard Regan chuckle quietly before I blacked out again.

  I HAD a dreamless sleep, and when I woke up, I was confused. I couldn’t remember where I was until I sat up and saw Regan sitting at the desk by the window. She was bent over it with a pen in her hand, writing a letter to someone.

  She must have heard me moving around because she asked how I felt.

  “Much better. What time is it?”

  “Nine.” She glanced over her shoulder and smiled. She opened the curtains, and I saw how dark it was outside. I remembered having lunch before I fell asleep, and it was an early lunch. More like brunch than anything else. “You slept awhile.”

  “Yeah,” I said after a moment. “Who are you writing to?”

  “My parents.” She sighed heavily, and I wondered if she had a good relationship with her family.

  “Do you only write to them? Or do you have other friends here too?”

  “A couple friends. Most of them don’t talk to me anymore, not since I became a knight. I do have one. Her name is Meghan. We were good friends as kids, and every now and then we’ll write to each other. I write to my brother mostly. They’re the only family who will talk to me, and that’s only if I catch them in a good mood.” There was a hint of pain in her voice. Having anything to do with mages made you an outcast, and she had suffered for it.

  “I’m sorry,” I whispered, but she didn’t acknowledge that she had even heard me.

  “So,” she said, getting up and sitting on the other bed across from me, “what exactly do we have to do?”

  “Save the world,” I mumbled, realizing how dumb I sounded.

  “Sure,” she scoffed.

  “An Old One came to me and said there was an evil that would destroy the world as we know it and that I need to stop it. A necromancer, he said.”

  “I thought they died out, and the Temples don’t teach dark magic.” Necromancers had been a race of sorts a few thousand years ago. Like mages are a type of human, necromancers had been a type of mage. They were less human than mages were, almost more like dark elves. A lot of mages who studied them think they got influence from the dark elves. They specialized in the dark magics. Raising the dead was what they were most known for, but they were more than that. They worked magic to kill and instill fear in people. Magic has been used for war, and if it came to it, magic would be used for war again, but the necromancers used magic for malicious causes, war or no war. They used it to create child monstrosities and control another’s will. But, like Regan thought, they had died out, or more accurately put, been wiped out by the humans. Nobody really minded, though. They were one thing the world could do without.

  “Doesn’t mean they can’t learn it.”

  “That would mean they would have had to alter their Life Force to become more powerful.”

  I nodded. “There are plenty of theories as to how to do that. They may have simply found the right one.” Plenty of theories. Most of them deserved to be forgotten. It was a dangerous road, one that no true mage should ever take.

  She nodded. I don’t know if she believed me, but I knew she’d follow me no matter what. That was her job, to protect me at the cost of her own life and aid me in any way possible.

  My stomach growled, and my face flushed. She smiled. “Let’s get some dinner.”

  She led me out of the hotel room, and I took the stairs on my own, under Regan’s watchful eye. We were crossing the street, me following Regan because she seemed to know where to go, when I saw someone amazing.

  “Regan, dinner can wait,” I said, watching the figure walk down the sidewalk opposite from us. The people gave him a wide berth, but he didn’t even seem to notice. He had white hair and even from here I could see his dark purple-black skin.

  I waited until he was almost at the corner before I ran across the street, Regan running after me shouting things I couldn’t hear. Once I was almost caught up, I slowed to a walk, keeping my distance behind him. I didn’t know what I wanted to say. I wasn’t sure how I was going to approach him. I wasn’t sure of anything other than I wanted to talk to him.

  Regan was next to me, watching him with wary eyes. “This isn’t a good idea, Casey. Let’s just go have dinner,” she whispered so that even I could barely hear.

  “Aren’t you curious?” I asked quietly, wondering where he was going.

  “No. He could be dangerous. We don’t know anything about him.”

  “Maybe he can help us.” I could practically feel his Life Force pulsing through me. He was powerful. I never thought that I’d ever feel this much power. It was intense. I wondered how normal humans weren’t affected by this. It was almost suffocating to feel so much uncensored power. Magic coursed through him; it almost made me crave more than I had. Almost.


  “I doubt it. I don’t think he’d help anyone.”

  “Let’s just talk to him. It can’t hurt to talk.”

  “You don’t know that. I don’t trust him.”

  He took a turn around the corner, and I hurried after him, Regan following me closely. I think she was fingering her gun when we turned around the corner, and that was a good thing, because when we turned the corner, I froze.

  The man held a gun, and aimed it between my eyes. His bright violet eyes were narrowed, and I saw a faint glowing blue line running over his Adam’s apple and under his chin. He had two silver earrings on the top of his pointed ears that glinted under the lamp’s light.

  “What the hell are you following me for?” the dark elf growled.

  I think the only thing that stopped him from shooting me right there was Regan’s gun pointed right back at him.

  Chapter 3

  “PUT YOUR gun down.” Regan’s voice was firm, and if I had been where the dark elf was, I would have been terrified.

  She stepped in front of me, moving slowly, but then I remembered why I had been chasing after him in the first place and poked my head around her. He was now aiming at Regan, but he was watching me. “What do you want?” he growled.

  I slipped out from behind Regan, and she grabbed me by my jacket and started to protest. I unzipped my jacket and let it fall to the ground. I walked up to him and stood up on my tiptoes to look into his eyes. He was a few inches taller than Regan, so I could only meet his eyes when he looked down at me. He looked shocked, his gun still pointed at Regan, but I don’t think he was really focused on that. He looked wary of me.

  I stopped standing on my toes, and he looked farther down at me, but I didn’t want to focus at his face anymore. He, like most dark elves, had angular features and purple eyes, but there was something else I was more interested in. I grabbed his chin and pushed it back to see that glowing blue line.

  I felt a pulse of adrenaline, and I couldn’t stop myself from unzipping his jacket and pushing it to the ground, but he had a long-sleeved shirt on underneath. “What the fuck are you doing, Casey?” Regan seemed as shocked as the dark elf did.

  “Can you take off your shirt?” I asked, a big smile covering my face as I looked up at him.

  He blinked in surprise, but he knew what I wanted to see. “What do you want?” He narrowed his eyes again, becoming suspicious.

  “I’m a mage. I’ve studied dark elves, seen pictures and everything, but I’ve never met one. I’ve got to see it in person. Please,” I begged.

  He frowned but did as I asked and lifted his shirt up over his head. I let out an audible gasp, but he just scowled at me.

  “Get this over with. I have places to be, mage,” he snapped, but I barely noticed.

  His chest and arms were covered in raised scars that were a lighter purple than the rest of him. I ran my hand over his arm, wishing I knew the runes of the dark elves so I could know what he knew. My eyes found what I had been looking for in the first place. That electric blue line starting under his chin ran down the center of his chest and dipped below his jeans where it would split into two lines, one going down each leg. It ran across his collarbone and down his arms to the palm of his hand and into each finger and there was a circle over where his heart was.

  I ran around behind him and looked at the glowing line that ran down the backs of his arms, hands, and fingers, down his spine, and into his pants once again. I pushed his shoulders down a little so he would lower himself for me to see it travel up the back of his neck and disappear into his hair. I parted his hair to see it end at the center of the top of his head. That’s when he pushed my hands away and turned to look at me, his jaw clenched in what was probably irritation. “Are you finished?”

  “Just a minute. I’ve never seen so many runes before. You are marvelous. Who taught you all of these spells? You must have had a brilliant teacher and an amazing affluence in magic.” I studied the runes that had engraved themselves on his chest and arms.

  “Magic isn’t a choice where I come from. And it isn’t worth learning. It’s painful, torturous even, to learn.” He pushed my hands away and reached to grab his shirt.

  Regan spoke again, her gun still in her hand despite the fact that his was tucked into the back of his jeans. “What is all this?”

  She probably didn’t know much about dark elves. Most mages didn’t either, but I found them fascinating. I stopped him from pulling his shirt back on and placed a finger on the blue line that made its way down the center of his chest. He was watching me with a mixture of anger and curiosity. He probably wondered just how much I knew about dark elves, which added a bit of pressure. What if I got it wrong? Would that be an insult?

  I forced the thought from my head and started my explanation. “This here is his Life Force. Dark elves found a way to amplify it, but since it’s an artificial enhancement to their original Life Force, it causes the main pathways to glow because of the amount of it flowing through there. A lot of scholars think this is one reason why their skin is this purple-black color. So, really, every living creature has this inside them—pathways that Life Force travels through, but because it’s not natural, theirs glows. It used to be stronger, when they first did it. The stories say that every pathway glowed almost white, making them look like stars on earth.” I smiled at the thought. “But because of the time that has passed, the power has dwindled, and now it looks like this. A few million years without finding out how to stop the decay, and they’ll be just like regular elves with shorter life spans.”

  “I thought they lived a few hundred years.” Regan looked interested but was watching the dark elf closely to see if he’d make a move.

  “Two to three, but elves live to about eight hundred. The excessive Life Force takes its toll, and they age quicker. These,” I said, pointing to one of the many symbols covering his upper body, “are runes. Only the dark elves know their meanings, and I hear they keep it a secret from everyone else. The mages only know a few of them, simple ones like fire, water, earth, and a few others. Every time they learn a spell and can use it effectively, their Life Force burns the rune into their skin. Magic isn’t a normal thing in dark elves, or regular elves for that matter, but the dark elves can learn it. It takes a long time, and it’s very hard, but they can learn it and use it. From what I hear, some of them are very good at it.” I glanced back at him again. “I assume he is. I don’t know why he pulled a gun; he could have killed us in a moment with most of these, I bet.” Regan looked like she doubted that he could do magic. It was a little known fact about the dark elves since nobody had bothered to learn about them and most dark elves struggled to learn simple spells. He must have had a strong Life Force. “Show her,” I said, looking up at him.

  He rolled his eyes but held up a hand, and a moment later Regan’s face was illuminated by a small fireball. “Happy? Are you done now?”

  “Don’t put it out,” I said as I started circling his body. I didn’t see the glowing rune, and that just caused me to smile. I pulled him down again and pulled his right ear forward and saw it: a small, glowing, blue rune that meant fire.

  “Your natural element is fire.” I let him back up. “Mine too.” I showed him the ring that the Temple had given me with the ruby in the center.

  “What’s that?” he asked, taking my hand and looking at it curiously. He lost that suspicious and wary look that Regan still sported. I tried not to grin at the idea that he was just as curious as I was.

  “A ring. The Temple gave it to me when I discovered my natural element. It’s silver because mages seek knowledge, not gold, and the ruby is for fire. Sapphire is water, emerald is earth, and topaz is air. Those are the main ones; there are a few less common ones for the less common natural elements.”

  “Does it do anything?” he asked, a smile briefly flashing across his face before he covered it up and pretended not to be so interested.

  I shook my head and said, “It’s not supposed to, but I did
an enchantment on a friend’s so it helps direct his magic. It makes it easier to cast a spell. This is Regan, my knight in Kevlar.” I smiled jokingly at her, and she just scowled. “She’s here to protect me while I go on my Proving Journey.”

  “My name is Ston.” Traditional dark-elf name, old. There had been a king in the old legends of dark elves named Ston. I bet the name was common underground. He released my hand and Regan pulled me back over to her. She wrapped an arm around my waist again, this time not to hold me up, but to hold me back.

  “Well, maybe we’ll see you around sometime, but we have to go eat,” Regan said.

  Ston nodded and pulled his shirt back on. “Maybe. It is a small town.”

  “We’re not staying long,” she said.

  “Well, maybe we shall meet again somewhere else. Good-bye.” He bowed his head, and I bowed mine back. It was a formal farewell in the dark-elf culture, not friendly, but at least it showed that he didn’t hate us. I couldn’t afford to make another formidable enemy because of my curiosity. Regan dragged me out of the small alley we had been in and down across the street. She finally let go of my waist and glared ahead. I felt guilty, but I was glad I’d done it. I got to meet a dark elf, and it was exciting. This whole experience was exciting. I hadn’t been able to fully enjoy it earlier due to my weakened state, but now I was caught up in the lights and how people walked and talked and how different everything was.

  Regan stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and stood in front of me. She looked positively livid. “What the hell were you thinking? You could have gotten yourself killed.”

  “I wanted to meet him…,” I mumbled, knowing it wouldn’t be enough for her.

  “He almost shot you!” She shook me by my shoulders.

  “I’m okay, Regan.” I was looking at my feet, too ashamed to look up at her.

  “Why did you do it? You put yourself in danger. I was worried about you!”

  “I’ve lived in the Temple since I was three… all I’ve had that told me about the rest of the world was books. I finally get to leave, and instead of being able to be amazed and learn firsthand, I have to save the goddamned world. I don’t know anything about this world. I’ve been stuck in a box for my entire life. You wouldn’t understand,” I muttered.