Meridias

by Ryan Hodgson

  The knight showed them to a nearby dispenser and hit a button. APL devices for everyone in the group appeared in a brief flash of light and the knight let the group help themselves. Elunduil got his last and noticed that there were no straps. He looked around and noticed that the others seemed to have run into the same dilemma. He thought back to Damon’s glasses and put the APL device on his right wrist. He hit the one physical button on the device and metal straps shot out from under the device and wrapped around his wrist. Tim, who was standing nearby, followed Elunduil’s example. “Ah!” he said. “I should’ve guessed.” Everyone else quickly followed suit and soon the entire group was armed with an APL device.

  “I take it you can show your friends around,” the knight said to Elunduil. He responded with a nod and the knight walked off to some other duty. The girl with the blonde hair and her two friends broke off from their group and went out the door. “Glad you could make it,” Elunduil said to Alicia. She smiled warmly and said, “Yeah I figured you guys would be here when I saw the mail today. I honestly didn’t think we’d see each other until next school year.” Elunduil nodded in agreement.

  “Anyway,” Tim said cutting in. “We’ll have plenty of time to talk at Ellicia. We’ll give you a quick rundown of the buildings here and then catch a ride to the elves.” As the group made their way to the door Sean gave Elunduil a nudge and said, “She’s sure happy to see you.” Elunduil could feel himself blushing. Sean wasn’t wrong. She did seem to be in a good mood. He risked a glance over to Alicia as she talked with Stephanie. He felt that today he wouldn’t get a chance to talk to her but at least there would be plenty of chances over the summer.

  Once outside Tanis quickly explained where everything was, then they hurried to the transport building. When they got inside they found that the other people that they had toured with were also waiting for a transport. Tanis took the lead and walked up to the desk. “Hey we want to go to Ellicia,” he said to the man behind the desk.

  “Certainly. A few of you will have to share a Heracles with these other young guests. The transport only takes six at a time so I’ll leave the details to you.” Tanis nodded and stepped away from the desk towards the other teens. “Alright I’m going to go with you guys. Who else wants to come with me!” he said excitedly. Elunduil and Sean volunteered to fill the empty seats leaving Tim with Alicia and Stephanie. A few moments later and the man behind the desk got their attention and then led them outside to the waiting transports. “Hey bro these look like giant beetles!” said the shorter of the two brown haired teens.

  “And they’re hovering! Man I’d like to fly one of those around!” The brother rolled his eyes. “They hover, Daniel, I doubt that they can fly. They aren’t exactly the most aerodynamic vehicle.” Daniel, the shorter teen, frowned.

  “Yeah I guess you’re right Dave. Too bad cause that would be wicked!” Dave laughed at his brother’s excitement. The girl remained silent but Elunduil noticed a slight smirk on her face.

  When they got onto the transport Tanis took one of the two seats by the door. Dave took the one opposite of him. Elunduil and the girl took the two middle seats and Sean and Daniel took the last two seats in the front by the cockpit. The driver made sure everyone was safely secured in their seats before entering the cockpit and starting the engine. Tanis decided to strike up a conversation with the other group. “So, what do you guys think so far?” he asked. Daniel spoke up. “It’s amazing! Everything seems so real that I wouldn’t have been able to tell it was just a game if that guy hadn’t told us!” Sean and Dave both nodded their heads in agreement. The girl remained silent. While Sean and the others discussed the realism of Meridias and exchanged names, Elunduil took a look at his APL Device and tapped the button on the screen that said, “Statistics.” The screen displayed a scanning message and a sensor shot out a blue light that began to scan him from head to toe. He heard Daniel and Sean exclaim in surprise.

  When the device finished scanning the screen displayed a blank radar chart with the names of each stat at the corners. After a few moments an error message appeared on the screen that said, “Insufficient Data: Expanding Parameters.” Elunduil frowned but a moment later the program appeared to rectify its mistake and displayed his stats. According to the device he was currently level 8 and his highest stat was in magic, which was displaying in tier II of the chart. The rest of his stats fell into tier one with agility being the next highest followed by stamina, dexterity, vitality, and strength as the lowest stat. “What?! How are you level 8? What the heck am I?” Tanis hit his device and it went through the scanning process. The others in the cab followed suit. “Level 2. Guess that’s better than nothing,” Tanis said with a downcast tone. Sean turned out to also be level 2. Daniel and Dave were both level one. “Whoa Maria’s level 3!” Daniel said excitedly. Dave leaned over to take a look. Tanis then said, “Great so she’s higher than me and Elunduil’s the highest. I guess that makes sense...” Tanis was careful to not mention their previous adventure in Meridias.

  Maria appeared perplexed. “I don’t understand shouldn’t we all start at level 1, and how is he level 8?” She pointed to Elunduil with an annoyed expression on her face.

  “Dunno but it’s probably taking into account all of our current attributes rather than assigning starting stats. That’s actually pretty neat if that’s the case,” Elunduil said. Maria appeared unsatisfied with his answer but said nothing more. Her friends on the other hand nodded in agreement. “Yeah that would make sense. Daniel and I pretty much don’t get any exercise. Especially since school is out. Sean looks like he gets out more so him being level 2 makes sense. I don’t know about Tanis but maybe it’s because he’s a smart guy.” Dave shrugged in acceptance. It was the only reasonable explanation he could come up with.

  The Heracles transport came to a stop and the driver announced that they’d arrived at Ellicia. As soon as the door in the rear opened Daniel all but tore off his seat belt and rushed outside. After looking around for a moment he called out to his friends. “Whoa! Look Dave, Maria there are elves here. They look just the way they’re described in stories!” Dave chuckled and went to stand by his brother’s side. Maria followed after them and as she was leaving she glared back at Elunduil. When they were out of earshot Sean whistled. “Man, you haven’t even done anything to her and she’s already out to get you Elunduil,” he said. Elunduil grunted in agreement and they got out of the transport. He noticed that the others were piling out of the second transport nearby. Alicia all but bounced on her feet to them. “Looks like we’re at the town hall,” she said when she got close. Elunduil and the others looked up at the large metal building that was the town hall. It hadn’t changed at all since his last visit.

  “Did anyone else get an error message when the APL Device scanned them?” Elunduil asked when Tim and Stephanie joined them. The others shook their heads. “What kind of error message?” Tim asked. Elunduil shook his head.

  “I dunno it said, ‘Insufficient Data: Expanding Parameters’ but then it worked fine after that.” Tim made an interested sound and then looked off into the distance. Elunduil followed his gaze and noticed that an elf with chestnut hair was watching them. It was Cerra, an elf whom he had saved a couple of times. He saw her smile and wave and Elunduil found himself grinning. He waved back and looked over to the other group whom had been approached by an elf wearing ornate armor with short blonde hair.

  Elunduil didn’t recognize him at first but when he heard the elf’s voice he realized that it was Galimere. Galimere was Angurvadel’s right hand man but other than that Elunduil knew nothing about him. “Hello, welcome to Ellicia!” said an enchanting voice. Elunduil looked back and saw that Cerra had approached them in the few moments he had looked away. “Geez where the heck did you come from?!” Sean exclaimed. Cerra’s laughter was musical. “I was watching from over there. If you’ll entertain my curiosity I’d like to show you around, “Cerra said. Everyone nodded in agreement and Cerra happily clapp
ed her hands together. “Excellent! Follow me!”

  Elunduil and his friends followed Cerra away from the town hall and into Ellicia. He noticed as they walked that there appeared to be trees and shrubbery growing around the town now. “Hey don’t elves normally live more in the forest?” Sean asked. Cerra looked back at Sean and smiled. “Well normally yes but we were forced to get rid of all the trees in Ellicia because the Knights of Ragnarok were too adept at using the forest against our people. We’ve been working hard to reintegrate the forest back into the town.” Sean nodded in understanding and the matter was dropped. As they walked Elunduil noted that the door that was shaped like a roaring dragon’s head was still where he remembered it and for a moment he wondered if he’d met the elf that lived there.

  A few moments later they arrived at Mr. Elden and Cerra’s home. Cerra opened the front door and let everyone inside. “Wait here a moment,” she said and rushed up the left staircase to the second floor and disappeared from sight. “This place is fancy,” Sean commented. Cerra reappeared moments later carrying a blue bundle in her arms. Elunduil immediately recognized it as the robe the elves had made for him. “Here,” Cerra said as she handed the robes to Elunduil. “These robes were made for The Firewall Flower after he saved us. You look similar to him so I hope that these robes will serve you as well as they did him.” She winked. Elunduil let out a soft chuckled and unfurled the robe.

  He admired the details for several moments and flipped it over. The green and gold four-petal flower on the back was exactly as he’d remembered. “Thanks,” he said to Cerra. He was just glad she was being discreet about knowing him and the others already. “No need to thank me. They were just sitting unused anyway.” She tossed a hand into the air. “Now then we should return to the town hall. Our elder, Angurvadel, is going to be instructing you other worlders about the basics of magic.” Elunduil heard Sean, Alicia, Stephanie and Tanis murmur in excitement. Elunduil scanned the robe and stored it into his APL device but decided not to don it yet.

  Cerra led them back to the town hall and took them inside. She showed them to a large room that Elunduil recognized as the place where Tanis and he had trained with Angurvadel. He looked around and saw Maria’s group as well as several other people that he didn’t recognize sitting on the ground and listening intently to an elf with an elaborate green robe and commanding presence. It was the elder, Angurvadel. He paused when spotted Elunduil and the others. “Ah, good I was wondering where the rest of you had gone off to. I assume you were showing them the town Cerra?” Cerra nodded and the elder smiled.

  “Please, have a seat. I was just telling everyone some of our history,” he said. Elunduil and the others sat down with the rest of the people. “Now then I was telling you a bit about the role magic has played in our past. Thousands of years ago the elves once knew the way to pierce the barrier between your world and ours. We traveled to your world through a portal and intermingled with your people for a time. This was some 2000 years ago during the time of what your people now call The Macedonian Wars. Some of our people became involved in these wars and helped the Romans subjugate Greece. Unfortunately we were involved with the destruction of the city known as Carthage. Many of our kind had been lost by this point so we decided to severe our link with your world in hopes that mankind would grow past wars and violence. Alas your race still has much growing to do, but I hope that we will be able to help guide you young people.” Angurvadel paused for a moment to let his words sink in.

  “Wait, so the elves came to our world? Did you use magic?” Tanis asked. Several others murmured with curiosity. Angurvadel smiled. “I see we have inquisitive and open minds here. Yes, we did use magic in your world. Magic was prevalent in your world before we came to it. We were a bit surprised to learn that magic had disappeared from your world in recent times. It would appear that all the magic in the air and the earth was used up over 1500 years ago. Though since portals started to open of their own accord a bit of the magical energy from Meridias is going to your world, so it may be possible to use magic there however it would be extremely difficult.” Angurvadel folded his hands. “Now you may not be aware but many of the elves here in Ellicia do not practice magic though we all have the gift. We were actually once a part of another group of elves that dwell far into the forest in a town called Tellia Armon. There were those of us who wanted to break away from tradition and explore different ways of living without magic. This created a schism between our people and so our ancestors left and created a new home here where we could be free from discrimination. Our relationship with Tellia Armon has improved and we communicate regularly.”

  Angurvadel took a few steps to the left then turned to the group. “Today I will share with you all the basics of magic and we shall see how many of you actually have the potential to use magic.” Excited whispers rose from the crowd. “Using magic is much like using a switch to turn on an engine. You must first have enough magical energy to act as the spark in order to activate the magic conduit that flows throughout your body. This conduit is what processes and gives shape to the spells that a mage may cast. For many elves these rudimentary basics have been forgotten but I hope to rectify that today.” Angurvadel gazed sternly in Cerra’s direction. Elunduil saw her fidget uncomfortably. “Of course any potential magic user has a dormant Mage Core that must first be awakened in order for them to begin learning magic. Alas this is an important part of the basics but first I would ask of you young people for a volunteer.” Hands shot up into the air around Elunduil except his, Tim’s, and Cerra’s hand. He already knew he was capable of using magic so volunteering would be pointless.

  Angurvadel looked over the crowd for a moment and paused when he reached Elunduil and said, “You there young man. Come up here.” Elunduil nervously stood up and walked to where Angurvadel was standing. “Please, stand several feet back from me and prepare yourself.” Elunduil did as he was told and waited patiently. “Now this is a part of the awakening process. A small dose of concentrated magical energy is all it takes to awaken the dormant core. Now watch carefully.” Elunduil sensed a change in the elder. He could feel the magical energy coursing throughout the elf’s body. There was a brief build-up of energy and then Angurvadel raised a palm and a stream of magical energy surged out of it and towards Elunduil. As the energy washed over him, Elunduil could feel his own power reacting to the stimuli. It was spiraling out from, no, towards an infinitely small point inside of him that led too... somewhere. He frowned. He felt as if he’d had this thought before. He swore he saw Angurvadel frown.

  “Please, child use the first spell that comes to mind,” he said. Elunduil hesitated for a moment. He didn’t want to hurt the elder and he didn’t want to reveal the full scope of his abilities to the people who were new to Meridias. He decided to try something new. He reached out towards his energy then created a small rock and shot it at Angurvadel. The elf deflected the rock with a simple flick of his hand. “Good!” he said though he still appeared to be frowning. “Let us try one more thing. See if you can block this magic.” A small flame appeared in the elder’s hand and he fired it at Elunduil who, out of instinct, shot up his left hand. The flame harmlessly licked over the front of a green barrier that he’d conjured around him. He heard gasps and whispers rise up from the crowd and quickly let the barrier dissipate. He felt a small wave of fatigue. “Ah, it seems you have a fair bit a talent. I would like to speak with you in private after we’re done here,” Angurvadel said. Elunduil nodded in response and quickly took his seat while trying to avoid the other people’s gazes. He could tell that something about what he did had confused the elder and wondered what it was that he wanted to say to him.

  Angurvadel raised a hand to quiet the crowd. “Now then I want to warn you that not everyone will be able to use magic so well on their first try or even at all. Please gather around me and I will douse you all with magical energy.” This time Angurvadel released a wave of energy that passed through everyone in front of him. El
unduil felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise as he sensed several mage core’s waking up inside of the people around him. Gasps and exclamations of surprise quickly followed and he noticed that the rude girl, Maria, was one of the ones who’d had their core awakened. Great. Now he’d have to deal with her attitude.

  “Good! Now those of you that felt a change step forward, and those of you that can use magic gather here as well,” Angurvadel called above the din. Elunduil stood up and saw Tim and Cerra standing in his peripheral vision. Elunduil noticed that he could sense Alicia’s energy as she joined them by the elder. Half a dozen others joined them. He turned around and saw Tanis, Sean, and Stephanie standing with the rest of the people who didn’t have the potential to use magic which also included Maria’s friends Dave and Daniel. He frowned in confusion. He’d been sure that Tanis could’ve used magic since he’d been able to use his sword, Retribution, to fire bolts of light previously. Perhaps being able to use magic wasn’t a requirement when using an enchanted sword? He noticed that Galimere and a real old looking elf, Cooper, standing nearby. Cooper was a healer in Ellicia but his age made it difficult for him to heal all but minor wounds. He hadn’t been able to completely heal Cerra when her bones had been broken when the knights of Ragnarok had attacked the town when Elunduil had first come to this world.

  Angurvadel got everyone’s attention simply by clearing his throat. “Now those of you that can’t use magic are free to stay and spectate however you may choose to train in sword art with Galimere, or you can explore Ellicia or return to Ragnarok. It is up to you but there are many other things to do in our world if you choose to seek them out. Anyone interested in learning healing magic will want to go with Cooper.” Alicia turned to Elunduil and said, “I’m going to go learn healing magic.” Elunduil nodded and Alicia grinned and walked over to Cooper. “Ah! A lovely young lady interested in learning from an old coot like me? You’ve made my day!” He heard Cooper say. Alicia laughed. When no one else appeared to want to join them Cooper and Alicia walked out with Stephanie in tow. Sean, Tanis, and the other non-mages followed Galimere out.