Part 1
Not that the wagon we took was particularly fast, but got to the capital sooner than I thought we would. It only took what I guesstimated to be around 3 hours for us to get there. The forest parted a little while before we got to any buildings, being replaced by fields of crops. The heavy realization that a world at the technological level of the middle ages finally set in. I was bored. Luckily, this was offset for the time by the picturesque view in every direction you looked.
Rolling fields of an unknown golden grain to one side, with a clear blue sky making everything feel just happy. To the other side, what looked like beans were being harvested by farmhands. Trees were visible in any direction but were very distant. The farmhouses were indicated by small collections of trees every here and there. 'This is probably what the great plains are like,' I thought to myself with a twinge of melancholy.
In the direction ahead of us was a large town. 'That's it? Already!' I was surprised. We were a lot closer than I thought we would be. It does explain a few things about the village, though.
The road transitioned into bricks, and the houses looked like the kind you would see in the renaissance era of Europe. Think old swiss or german houses. It was busy with foot traffic, and people seemed to be setting up for an event. I saw some people cleaning, some setting up stalls, and some negotiating on almost every road I looked down.
But where we ended up put me the most in awe. It was a massive, incredibly long wall. The rich part of medieval towns are the best, I quickly decided. There was a little opening in the wall where wagons and carriages could go through, as well as a place for just people to walk through. The whole thing had me feeling like a 5(or 25) year old kid going to Disneyland for the first time.
Eventually, we got to it. Completely enthralled by the architecture, the call of the guard stationed there scared me more than it should have.
"Hey," he called out. Now, it may not seem like it, but I'm not actually the best at conversation. I can keep one going just fine, but the early phases of one was a whole different story, double-time if I don't know the person. That combined with remembering my first human encounter made a cold sweat run down my back. 'We didn't do anything wrong, did we? I don't think I did, did I? Or wait, is it the fact that I'm a Traveler? Is that considered bad by the people of this world? Oh god oh god oh god, act casual me!' I crossed my arms and tried to look as uninterested as possible.
"Got your papers?" he asked casually.
I let out a long sigh after the driver showed him the seal on the letter and we started moving again. The buildings on this side of the wall were built of mostly bricks, with a lot more glass than you'd think possible for this time period. That got me thinking about the use of magic for quality of life improvements. I suppose that having a temperature-controlled fire at will would be handy for quite a few things. Do they also use earth magic for the sand then, or do they still gather it by hand? If this is a coastal town, perhaps, but I don't know for sure yet. I was so caught up in my thoughts that it took me a moment to notice we stopped.
"Best if you go in instead of us." Said the guide who's name I forgot to ask.
"Hm? Oh, yeah, probably." I responded, jolting back to attention. I climbed out and took the letter he was holding out.
"You go on ahead, we'll stay back here." said a blond boy that looked around my age. He seemed a little taller than me, had a strong jaw, short hair, and round eyes.
"You sure? Feels kinda weird going into a new school by myself."
"Sorry, it just doesn't feel right." said his twin sister. She looked similar, except she was more feminine and had long hair.
"Oh, so it's like a class thing then, you being from the country and all?" I asked back. She shrugged apologetically.
"Don't worry about it then. I got it." I turned around and walked up to the building. If I assumed that the cardinal directions were the same in relation to the sun, then this door was facing north. The sun was closer to setting, so the shadows were slightly skewed to the left of me. Times like this are when I wish I had a camera.
We stopped just in front of the stairs so it wasn't a far walk. The stairs were nothing special, they just looked like concrete. 'Jeez, magic really does accelerate certain fields.' The plainness of the steps pushed attention to the intricate stonework on the door frame. It looks like stone vines were growing on a similarly colored column of stone. They ran up two stories, all the way to the roof. The building was also fairly wide both ways. It was easy to guess how the classrooms were spaced because there were more columns at regular intervals, with windows also visible between those, but I couldn't see through them at the angle I was at. The doors themselves were made of glass, and little runes were visible at the bottom of each side. There weren't any handles, but there were rectangles of a generic-looking metal, also trimmed in runes.
Figuring it was a push door, I went to do just that. To my surprise, however, it wouldn't budge. After a moment of lightly pushing, I noticed that the runes on the metal started glowing two different colors. Some were a hard purple, but some were red, starting to get white-hot. Feeling the temperature rapidly change, I pulled my hand back, only for it to shoot sideways. At the speed it went, I expected it to shatter on impact. Luckily it just hit the wall and shook like plastic would. Upon closer inspection, I saw that it had slightly embedded itself in the wall, and the runes were still purple. It freaked me out a little, so I looked back at the envoy. Luckily, they weren't looking. I took this opportunity to rush inside. At the second set of doors in the vestibule, I just tapped the metal section. This time, it reacted like you expect an automatic door would, sliding at about the pace of Walmart doors.
In front of me was a long hallway with two large spiral staircases leading up on either side of it. To the left and right were also hallways leading down as far as the one in front of me. There was nothing lining the halls, but they still gave off an academic vibe. The floors were made from planks of a dark wood, and the interior walls were a lighter shade of concrete. Taking all of this in, I realized something. I have no clue where the headmaster or his room is. Pondering on whether I should go back out to ask, I almost missed someone coming through the door. Not wanting to miss the chance, I tapped his shoulder.
"Hey, do you know where the principal, er, headmasters room is?" I asked the redheaded student politely.
"Eugh, I-I-I I'm sorry!" His reaction suggested it wasn't so polite. He fearfully stammered as his knees started shaking. His freckled face was clearly coated in terror, glasses about to fall off, and he honestly looked like he was going to throw up.
"A-are you ok?" I asked as I went to help support him.
He fell backward, dropping the book he was holding, and quickly spat out "H-he's up the stairs!" and ran down the hallway behind him.
'I know my face is a bit scary, but jeez,' I thought, dejected, as I picked up his book for him.
I trudged up the gorgeous stairs, trying to get my spirits high again. The top of the stairs looped around to face north again, as well as connecting to the stairs on the other side, and right in front of me was a room that looked like an office. 'A good place to start,' I thought, still feeling a bit down from that encounter. I opened the door and saw a woman sitting behind a desk to my left. She was focused on paperwork, so she didn't notice me at first.
"Excuse me, ma'am, I'm looking for the headmaster? And a student dropped these." I asked and stated politely.
She looked up and gave me a good business smile. "Thank you for returning them, and may I see your student card?"
"Oh, um, I don't actually go here. I'm with an envoy from… a village about an hour out to inform the headmaster of some big news." 'Nice, exactly as I rehearsed,' I thought to myself after I said it. 'Well, aside from the whole village's name thing.'
"And what might this news be?"
"I'm not actually sure of what I'm allowed to say, so I'll just show you this." I picked up the letter and showed her the seal. She showed a subdued surprise when she saw it.
"Give me a moment to inform the headmaster, and you can come in." She said slightly rushed as she stood up, bowed, and power walked to the door at the north side of the room. After a moment, she came back and held the door open for me. "Right this way sir."
"Thank you," I said, but at the same time thought 'Not this mess again, please stop talking.' But, regardless of my thoughts, I entered the room. A man looking like he was approaching his forties was sitting behind a dark oak or spruce desk that matched the room. He had some light stubble, a long-ish thin face, and looked tired. He wasn't dirty, however, but rather well-kempt, and was on the thinner side. His dark hair also had good synergy with the uniform was waring.
"Welcome to my academy, young man. I hear you bring news for me?"
"That's right," I said before handing him the letter.
When he saw the seal, he got a curious look on his face. "Haven't heard from that old fool in a while," he mumbled as he took out a small knife to open it. As he read it's contents, his eyes started to widen.
"What's wrong? Read the part about there being two of us?" I asked in response, and somewhat proudly.
"Well, a little, yeah. It just goes against our common sense." He looked genuinely confused. "What purpose could that god have for bringing two of you?" He said that last part mostly to himself, but it still caught my attention.
"So there's a god of inter-universal kidnapping then? Theologists from back home would go nuts over learning something like that." my mind started to drift to the topic of theology and religions on its own.
"He's actually a god of space-time, but essentially, yes." he corrected, still in thought. After a few moments of silence neither of us noticed, he got back on topic. "Well, anyway, here's what we'll be doing. We're going to get you settled in here, and I'm going to send some escorts back to get your friend." He stood up and walked around the desk a few steps away from me. "We can measure your magical power now if you would like, or we can lead straight to the dormitory."
"Magic now please." I almost yelled out before he finished talking.
He looked surprised for a second, but then chuckled as he said "Heheh heh, glad to see that interest in magic is shared among most of you guys."
I was too excited to be embarrassed. "Well, we don't have it back where I'm from, so it makes sense to me."
"I suppose, yes. Though I can't say I feel the same way for the same reason, I do empathize with that curiosity. You just need to shake my hand, then." He stuck out his hand.
"Underwhelming, but ok." I put my hand to his and closed my grasp.
As soon as our hands met, beads of sweat started to run down his face. I also felt a chill run up my arm, but it wasn't nearly as bad as the time I shook hands with Abe, so I just took it.
After a moment, he let my hand go and heaved like he just ran a marathon.
"You really are a traveler, no mistaking it." He said after a moment longer.
"I didn't know that handshakes were such an exhausting venture for people here. Back home, it was just a polite greeting." I responded to what he said, slightly confused.
"Har har, very funny. But that's not what it was." He sat on a couch in the corner of the room I had just now noticed and gestured for me to sit in a chair on the other side of the coffee table in front of it. "Let me explain how we rank our magic levels for the context of your own. At the very bottom of the scale are those with no usable magic, just enough to power the soul. Most people are there, but some lucky commoners do get some extra magic, for whatever reason. Their power can range from very low to very high, but they for the most part are pretty weak, so we rank them just above the magic-less. Up from the rare magical commoner is where the nobility starts. First Is Baron, the weakest of the nobles, then viscount, and earl, etcetera etcetera all the way up to the level of king. They're the most magically gifted that humans can get, or so is commonly thought. There are some higher levels, but you don't need to worry about those."
I nodded along, paying very close attention to every word. "And where are we respectively on this scale?" I asked with great intrigue.
"I, myself, am lower than a prince usually is, at the level of a Marquess. That makes it hard to determine you totally accurately, but I'd say you're at least a Duke in terms of raw magical energy."
"Heheheh, as expected of myself," I said in a fake deep voice, covering half of my face with one hand. "But also," I said sitting back down "why are you the head of a magic school if you're a prince? Shouldn't you be doing diplomat stuff for the crown?"
He shrugged. "That's just how it works here. There can only be one king, so the rest of his kids gotta do something."
I was just about to ask him a question about how the king is chosen, but his secretary suddenly burst through the now open door.
"Steff, what's wrong?" He asked, standing up quickly
"There's been an attack on your uncle's village! Ted says a great storm was summoned!"
"Dear lords, I'm leaving now. Steff, make sure the students are safe." He firmly stated and quickly walked out of the room.
"What's going on?" I asked, a little freaked out.
"The village you just came from was attacked. We're leaving now," he said to me firmly, but kindly.
As the news set in, I felt my stomach drop. Is Abe okay? Who's attacking the village? Is it possible that it's just a freak weather event? Oh god, I hope that's what it is.
"We should get going," he said, cutting through my thoughts. The Break in my concentration made me calm down and notice the sensation pulling at the back of my brain. I shook my head to get rid of it.
"Yeah, good idea." We both ran out to the rest of the envoy. Ted was there, and his left arm looked dead and dried out. The immediate comparison that came to me was that it looked like the arm of a draugr from Sk*rim.
"Jesus, Ted, what did that!?" said the headmaster, surprised.
"It was h-him, teach. Th-the one from the demon's forest." Ted struggled to tell him.
"..." He took a moment to think. "We must get going then." He snapped his fingers, and everyone was instantly back in the wagon. It took a moment to regain my bearing. Looking around, I took note of the people around me. Ted was to my left, and his arm was living again, albeit with much less muscle. The two blond ones were across from me, and the guide was to their right. The headmaster was in the coaches' seat, now driving. I felt a pulling sensation in the front of my skull, and the other people in the wagon slowed down. The headmaster had a bead of sweat dripping down his face. His expression was one of pure concentration, so I decided to stay quiet. The trip back felt much longer than the trip there.
Upon arrival, the rest of the envoy returned to normal speed. Without paying any mind to the other people, I jumped out of the back. The whole area felt wrong. It wasn't in a way I can explain, it just was. I wanted to ask why we had stopped in a field, but something told me it wasn't just some random spot.
Everything in the vicinity looked like it was being pulled towards one spot. Some trees had fallen, and others were bent towards it. The dirt was clearly falling into the point, and I got an ominous feeling about it. In a word, it was violent.
"What the hell happened here?" the Headmaster asked no one in particular. He reached his hands out and started to focus all of his attention on the one spot. In a moment, I felt another pulling in the front of my skull. That's when the scene started to roll backward in time. The dirt rolled back up from it, the trees jumped back up to life, and strangest of all, planks came out of nowhere to build small houses.
The same houses I had seen just earlier that day.
The houses farthest from the epicenter formed first, moving inwards towards it. Despite not having been here long, they felt familiar to me. That's how I could tell. The unease grew, and my heart felt like it was being pulled on. When I started breathing harder in an attempt to calm down, It took a turn for the worst.
Blood.
Everywhere.
Covering the houses, over the ground, hell, even in mid-air somehow.
"Oh no." said the headmaster. I turned around to look at what was wrong. Wrong choice.
The dust coating the ground formed into what resembled human bodies. It felt like all of my organs were trying to escape away from the grotesque scene forming before me. I could tell that the headmaster was trying to get the spell to stop, but it wouldn't. My insides churned even more at what I saw next. The decayed bodies started to get rejuvenated. Every one of their faces was contorted in fear, pain, and sadness. Their screams echoing in reverse. The damage being undone didn't make it any better, but I couldn't make myself look away.
Despite large pieces of wood and debris flying backward through the men, women, and children I had seen being so lively before, bringing organs and blood back with it, I couldn't look away. What am I looking at?
Despite the kids and small animals flying helplessly around me, I couldn't look away. Why am I looking at it?
Despite the pain of what felt like every organ failing at once, trying to get me to fall, I couldn't look away. Why?
My legs had carried me back to the epicenter without me noticing, and I finally realized what I was looking at.
It was Abe, crying. Before he looked strong. Reliable. Now he looked like a lonely child, crying for someone, anyone, to come and help him.
'I'm sorry,' was all I could think before the headmaster forcefully pulled my head into his chest. My insides calmed down a major amount. The awful noises stopped, and all of the other horrors disappeared.
"Listen to me. Listen to my voice. Breathe. Slowly, breathe." he said softly to me. I slowly moved my arms to his back, almost as if I were checking that he was real. It only took seconds for me to realize he was, and when I did, I held him like my life depended on it. My face felt warm and wet. 'I'm crying? Why?'
"I'm sorry." I pleaded to someone. I don't know who, but it's all that enveloped my mind.
Part 2
Enter Quinn Wilark
The trip back to the capital was all too quiet. The screams won't leave my ears, and tears wouldn't stop flowing. My brother, Balder, tried to comfort me, but I knew he was torn up too. Edric, the guide, Ed for short, was in a ball on the floor, and the man at the front of the wagon was intentionally staying cold. But the foreigner just looked dead, like he had seen hell and came back knowing where he was headed.
Unable to really process any more emotions, I fell asleep on the still on the wagon.
I woke up just after the sun had set, and we were at another new place. Everyone was sitting on the benches now, but no one had any energy. The guy up front got off to help us out. As he opened the back, I saw that his face was sympathetic and sad at the same time. He didn't have to say anything for us all to get out. No words were needed. Once we were all out, he stepped out in front of us and started explaining what was going to happen.
"I've got some rooms ready for you all. You sleep there tonight, and tomorrow we'll have your academic rooms ready. I'll take you to your rooms now." He started walking into the building at a pace that was easy to keep up with but wasn't too slow.
I looked for the others' reactions. Balder was worried and tired looking, as was Edric. But the foreigner, he showed nothing. His face was neither sad, nor tired, but just still. Despite this, however, I had an unexplainable feeling that he was hiding how he felt. I could be wrong, but I"m too tired to completely understand him.
The guy silently brought us to a building twice the size of anything from the village. Inside was a communal living space, with a hallway off to the side. He further led us into the hallway, and then into our own personal rooms. I went straight to bed.
The next morning was slow. I sat up in bed right after I woke up. For a second, I thought that I would wake up at home, with my family around me. For a second, I thought that it had all been a cruel dream, and nothing more. It was a quick second.
Slowly rising from my bed, I truly took in my room for the first time. It was about the same size as my old room. That is to say, small. The bed was in the back right corner and a closet adjacent from it to the left. A window was at mid-height on the wall between them. The walls themselves were a pale blue-ish grey, and really boring. There was a dark grey carpet, and the ceiling was a little lighter than the walls.
It feels wrong, somehow, I thought to myself. I walked out of the also quite boring door into the hallway. To the left of my room was more hallway, and to the right was what looked like a communal room, with a kitchen and some couches. I walked over to the kitchen to see what I could eat. I didn't really feel that hungry, but It was breakfast time, and I still needed to eat. I grabbed the first thing I found(jerky) and went to eat it on the couch.
After a few moments of silence, Ed came out first. He didn't say anything, just giving me a slow, knowing nod before walking to the window. He stayed silent for a while.
Balder was next to enter. He came to sit next to me as soon as he saw me.
"Hey," he said caringly. "Tough day, huh."
I lightly chuckled at that. "Yeah. It'll be a while, won't it." I responded with a resigned sadness in my voice.
"Guess so." He said calmly.
None of us said anything for the next short while. Nothing needed to be said. The birds started to hum outside, and I nearly fell back to sleep. I wondered where Ted was, but I knew he could handle himself, so I didn't worry.
The thing to finally break the silence was the man who brought us here walking through the front door.
"Hello." he greeted us. He looked at each of us as if counting. "Where's the last one?"
"I don't know where Ted is, and I kinda thought you would," I told him.
"He's actually safe at my house, so no need to worry there. I was actually wondering about the new kid." he corrected lightly.
"Oh." I was kind of embarrassed. "Still sleeping probably," I told him.
He had a sympathetic look on his face. "Thank you. One moment, then," he told us then walked off down the hall.
Soon, he came back with the foreigner. His curly yet also somehow spiky black hair was messy, and his mean-looking eyes now just looked tired. The clothes that still seemed alien were now wrinkly, and his thin coat wasn't on all the way, falling off his right shoulder.
"Sorry," he said in an apologetic and pained tone. My brother gave him a death glare. When their eyes met, the foreigner said nothing about it and immediately looked away. "I'm sorry," he said again, even sadder this time.
"Sure." Balder spat out in a hateful tone, not changing his face at all.
I looked for Ed's reaction and found a distrustful gaze directed right at the foreigner.
Not knowing how to react, I simply gave him an understanding smile. He didn't seem to notice.
"It's alright, kids. He didn't know what he was doing, and it isn't his fault what happened."
"That so, huh? For some reason, I doubt that." Balder said glaring daggers at the foreigner.
"There's no way he could have controlled his output of magic so soon after traveling. If it's anyone's fault, it's mine for letting him hijack the spell." That one seemed to catch Balder off guard. After a moment, he regained his composure and went back to being angry.
"Whatever," he said. "As far as I care, it's both of your faults." At that, he crossed his arms and looked away from who he was previously talking to. The man who brought us here looked more apologetic than anything.
"It wasn't something you should have seen. I should have known something had happened, but I continued anyway. For that I am truly sorry." he lowered his head to us when he was done talking.
"I- I didn't- I'm so sorry." the foreigner barely choked out before he nearly fell over from bowing so deep.
A few moments passed before I said "It's fine," to break the tension. "They're in a better place now."
He brought his body up from where it was, and his face was a complicated one, one of shock, confusion, disbelief, and gratefulness, all rolled up into one. After a moment some realization seemed to come to him, and a sad relief adorned his face. "Oh yeah," he said "Gods and magic and such. Guess that's a lot less lonely over here, huh." He turned his sullen smile towards me. "Sorry for prolonging the time until the next family reunion, then."
I lightly chuckled at the joke, despite my brother's dark look.
The man's face lost some tension and he looked somewhat relieved. "Now then, we have to arrange more permanent living. You Wilark kids have some potential, so you can enroll here if you want. As for you, I'm sorry, but you won't be able to attend." he looked at Ed at that last part.
Ed looked a little surprised at that. "What? Why can't I?" He asked as he walked from the window to directly behind the couch.
"Wait wait wait, where is here exactly, how do you know who we are, and who are you?" Balder asked before the man could answer Ed.
"Right, I got ahead of myself. I am the headmaster of the local magic academy, and I taught your parents some years ago. And as for why you can't, you need magic to go to a magic school." he looked apologetic as he and the foreigner sat down in comfy looking chairs, which didn't lend to the reactions we villagers had.
" " "HUH!" " " we all shouted in unison, minus the foreigner.
"Why is someone like YOU, a powerful mage, caring about what happens to some random children?!" Balder half-shouted, and full shouted at some points, at the Headmaster.
"No need to paint me as so cold, you know. Of course I'd care about what happened to some kids."
"I suppose that makes sense," I said, rationalizing his answer.
"But why did we travel in the first place then? The old man just sent us along with 'him' and didn't tell us why." Balder pointed at the foreigner when he said 'him'.
"Well, can I trust you to keep it a secret?" the Headmaster asked quizzaciously.
"Of course, our lips are sealed," I interjected before balder could ruin my curiosity.
"Well, put frankly, I believe he's a conduit. Hero adjacent, basically."
" " " . . ." " " We were too stunned to say anything this time, including the foreigner.
"Top secret, remember?" he snapped and pointed at all of us at once. It was kind of a loud snap, and it kind of hurt my ears. Not like a pounding or intense pain, but I could definitely feel it. Ed didn't seem to notice, though, and the foreigner looked a little confused instead of shocked, oddly enough. 'Probably doesn't matter' I thought to myself.
"Yeah yeah, we got it. So what do you think, Qi?" Balder turned his attention to me.
I looked from him to the foreigner. 'He doesn't have a choice, does he?' I thought. "I think we should enroll," I answered. 'Learning more about mom and dad's past also has my interest, though'. I continued saying to myself. 'And magic, that's gonna be fun.'
"Then I'm with her. What about Ed?" Balder both said and asked bluntly.
"I can let him live on campus. You may bring him books and such, but he can't enroll, and the staff will probably want him to get a job at the very least."
"Sure," Ed responded. "Could be fun, so why not."
"It's not like it's your only option right now." Balder probably meant to say under his breath.
"I'll find some mistletoe if you say another morbid joke like that," Ed replied sharply.
"Wait, what was your name again?" the foreigner asked with some sudden weird interest.
"None of your business." Balder spat back.
"His name is Balder." I corrected.
"Where the hell did you get Norse myths from? I really didn't think that was something that would make any sense over here." He said with an enthusiasm he didn't have just minutes ago.
"No, I'm surprised you know about an old story from this country." Ed retorted.
"I'm not exactly from any country you're probably familiar with. And it's just an ancient myth from a dead religion back home. Goddess named Frigg being an overprotective mother and so on."
"Where are you from exactly? Because that's basically how the story goes." Ed asked suspiciously.
"The United States of America. It's south of Canada, north of Mexico, and spans from coast to coast." the foreigner told him honestly.
"No clue where that is, sorry. If you ever get back though, thank your parents for me."
The spark of interest left his eyes when he heard that, and he halfway reverted to the way he was when he walked out here. "Yeah, I'll do what I can." He further sank back into the chair with each word.
Both me and Ed looked concerned, Balder looked confused, and the Headmaster showed a sad understanding on his face.
"Anyways, we should get going. The day is still young and we have some work to do." The headmaster interjected before any questions could be asked. We all got up after him and grabbed our stuff when he told us to, minus Ed. We then followed him out the door.
I fell back behind the Headmaster and Balder without them noticing, and went next to the foreigner.
"Hey," I said looking at him.
"Hey," he said back, looking the exact opposite way of me.
"Sorry, but I didn't hear your name earlier."
"Probably because I didn't say it," he said with a sigh. He finally looked up to me and said "Names Charlie. You?"
"Quinn. My brother calls me Qi, though." I told him with a smile.
"That's a nice name. I know of another blond girl named Quinn, but I imagine the similarities end there." the corners of his mouth bent slightly upward at that.
"I don't think I've met another Quinn, but knowing we share a name means that she must be at least a little cool."
"You definitely haven't met this one, but yeah. Most would say she's pretty cool. The movie underperformed, but general audiences liked her."
"I'm not sure what a 'movie' is, but it sounds interesting."
"Well, let me tell you about it then."
It was a short walk in the first place, but it felt even shorter than it probably was.