"what do you mean we cant go back!" I stomped toward her with fists clenched. this caused Alice to take an unconscious step back.
I was about to get in her face and demand a better explanation when John stepped between us, frowning and shaking his head.
This got to me as John rarely had that look, and it helped me calm down and realize that I was simply blaming the messenger.
Suppressing the anger and taking a deep breath I continued more calmly. "You mentioned a certain barrier between the two worlds and rules regulating travel between them. Why don't we ask the people who set it up, do you know where we can find them and ask to send us back?"
This question caught her off guard before she started laughing, as if I had asked a dumb question like if the sky is blue.
I looked to John to see if he got any of this, however, he looked just as confused as I was at the moment. It wasn't until she noticed that John and me were not laughing that she calmed down. she then looked astonished at both of us.
"Did you not listen to what I was saying when I said that the 'gods' placed it?" she looked to both of us. "mortals like us have no right to ask the gods for anything as they have already given us so much, and besides they all have to unanimously agree, and due to the current times that is going to be tricky."
I could only role my eyes "Ok so where are there priests we can ask, what do we have to pay them to send us across? sorry let them talk to their 'gods' before, then donate to their church."
Alice took offence to his tone when speaking of her deities and was about to draw her sword when John now had to protect me from her.
That seemed to work as she calmed down almost instantly. seeing her calm, John explained "apologies for my friend Alex as on earth, the humans have gone through a few religions," I snorted at that "-and even we don't know if the gods or God is real or not, so please forgive my friends skepticism and if he at all insulted you or your ways."
She could only sigh "I know and I should not have over reacted, however, your friend should know that here there is most definite proof as sometimes the gods visit the mortal world, and there are many artifacts of theirs around Astalan."
John asked "Ok so the gods you mention exist, however, you mentioned before that the kingdom was at war with the demon king, I don't see what the demons have to do with the gods?"
She shook her head "it has everything to do with the gods as, the god of darkness Oris, tried to stage a coo against his brother Alder the lord of light. The demons are followers of Oris, and want to rid the world of the rest of the races for their master."
Seeing us drawing a blank on any of the names she explained further. "Here in Astalan we have eight main deities based off of the elements used in magic like air, water, earth, fire, light, darkness, death, and finally life. Four gods, and four goddesses, then there are those deities below them that gained or earned divine status we call minor gods." Both me and John looked down in thought to think about this,
"Wait you mentioned and even showed some, but does magic really exist here?" John looked up at that and Alice nodded.
"I was getting to that, you see in Astalan we have something we like to call mana, I mentioned how you were drawn to me because of it." hearing this caused John to nod. "It's in everything from living to nonliving, it is creation itself. Everyone and I mean everyone from human, elf, dwarf, and animal has a soul, and each soul creates mana."
"So does that mean that everyone can use this mana?" I ask
She shakes her head "Sometimes if a soul is strong enough it can form a mana core in the body which allows the person to wield mana. This person is what we call a mage" she takes a second to think of a way to better explain it "think of the soul as a power source that generates mana, but with nowhere to go it harmlessly leaves the body with the owner of the soul none the wiser, we call this aura. But a core can catch and store the mana for later use. With the mana that person can create fire, move the earth, and even heal the most grievous of injury."
She stopped talking and looked at us both, though mostly John, like a teacher waiting for questions.
I cleared my throat "So does that mean that someone with a core, meaning a mage could do anything?" She looked at me in surprise like she forgot I existed, although I wouldn't be surprised if she did.
"Well not exactly, see no one can command all eight elements because each soul can only generate a few types of mana, you can't conjure fire if your soul generates water mana after all. Also the types of mana a soul creates varies person to person from one type element to six which is the most a soul can generate and that hasn't happened in ten thousand years."
She finished that last statement with a flourish of her hand, although the way she was looking at John as she said it gave away the fact that he most likely can control six. John finally spoke up "So do we have what you call mana cores?" she gave him a knowing smile.
"You were born here and created a core when you first took breath, the reason you don't have magic right now is because you were on a planet with no known mana. Now that you are here you should be showing signs. For your friend here, the answer is most likely no. Although cores form between the ages of ten to twenty so he might get lucky. we do have ways to test people if they have the talent but we can only do that in the city."
It was at this time that she noticed the setting sun that she stopped.
"Now come on we have wasted enough time with questions and we are needed in the capital city. You will get the answer you seek and maybe even a way back home, however, right now we have to hurry as the monsters are most active at night."
Finally, I thought to myself, we can finally get going...wait what was that about monsters?