CHAPTER 14

We walked to the center where the tables were arranged, and a young scholar intercepted us and guided us towards an alcove that was inset upon the stage in the middle. It appeared to be a private booth, with a small surrounding wall. Above waist height it was open so you could sit within and still look out to the surrounding area.

Similar booths were interspersed and while I could see elves conversing and gesticulating animatedly, I could hear nothing. Within the booth, Horatio explained; Were sound dampening spells that made it possible to have private meetings while still being able to access any relevant material required from the library. Quite a neat trick, I thought, stepping into the booth.

With a gesture the female scholar “sealed” us into our thought bubble space and moved off. The table within the booth had a pot of steaming tea and two cups ready to receive it. I was parched and gladly accepted my cup. Horatio pouring for both of us. The scent was a heady mixture of citrus, mint and possibly chamomile and I gulped down the scalding brew with relish, it just needed a few spoons of sugar, but then what did I know? The familiar euphoria pervaded my being as I felt my aches and worries subside from the drink. It left me refreshed, however and not doped up as my usual feeding and drinking times did.

“Right,“ said Horatio, “I’m sure you have gathered by now you are not the first Prodigy class that has come through, but I must point out there have only been two before you and none had nor will receive the training you will get. Other classes are standard fare and do well enough grouped together strategically, but if we are to make significant strides, then we need to train more Prodigies. Your versatility and adaptability are really important.” He motioned with his hand to cut off my next question.

“The enemy I have been inferring are known as the Reapers by my people. It is a name that describes exactly what they do. They scourge galaxy after galaxy, devouring and reaping all resources within. Their expansionist policy has stages. Right now they are in a consolidation phase, but their hunger and thirst for knowledge and life is second only to our own. However, instead of synergizing with new sapient species, seeding them with the ability to become self-sufficient, they destroy everything they come into contact with. A universe is a massive place, with more than enough space and resources for every species to coexist, unless you are a Reaper.”

“Reapers need to reap from others what they themselves cannot grow. In fact they have long lost the ability to grow without drinking in the life force of another. It is an ambrosia of power for them. Consider them as you would consider mythical undead creatures. Zombies, Ghouls and Vampires. Spirit-wraiths, Liches and so forth. Many of your kind have attributed such names to the various classes of creatures you will face. One thing they all have in common is a thirst for devouring life, and a driving desire to absorb your own life force into their collective. But before they do that, through an array of physical and mental tortures they will rip out every aspect of knowledge you have acquired to further their own goals and similarly use it against your kind. They extinguished our home world in your plane of existence many eons ago and now they travel absorbing galaxy after galaxy. Extinguishing life and searching out new avenues to feed their… hunger.”

“We as a people, and several other races from our home world were lost wanderers until we found out how to travel between planes and created this world you now stand in. Sadly, a simulacrum of our original home, not exactly our world but close enough that we derive comfort from it. The Elves that grow up here today don’t know the difference though, and that is important for their sense of self. We have been here just over 2000 of your earth years.”

Horatio took a breather and gained a faraway look in his eyes. I sat back too, looking at Horatio as he told me this news. It was a touchy subject and heartfelt as he told it to me. His voice catching several times in the telling. I leaned forward again and reached to give his shoulder a squeeze of comfort.

He smiled at the familiarity and nodded again as if confirming what his own mind told him, “You see Petros, you care about what happens to people. You care what happens to creatures and you care enough to do something about it. I have seen it in the results of your tests so far. I see it now in your actions to comfort me. It is the way of the true warrior to show strength when needed and to show compassion and kindness whenever else possible.”

“I can’t begin to process everything you have told me, and I have many questions but when your father, the King was speaking he spoke as if we were running out of time. He seemed like a man bereft and adrift. I have seen many men of power and your father carries it not as a responsibility but as a burden. Forgive my frankness, but just what does he expect from me and what have I gotten myself involved in.” I replied, laying my cards upon the table.

“I forget how perceptive humans can be. You have had your “ways” opened so you will be additionally perceptive. You see, the Reapers have my sister.” His voice catching in his throat again. “Princess Adrianna. We believe the information that led to my sister’s capture was from the last Prodigy whom she trained.”

“So you see why he is skeptical about your involvement, but believe me, you have sprouted a seed of hope in his heart and in mine and we will endeavor to do as much as we can to enable you to gain power, harness your skills and abilities and use them to help us recover my sister.”

“Your sister? Wow, just wow! That is information overload Horatio, seriously TMI. Too Much Information. I hardly know you. How can you lay that at my feet? And what do the Absinthe have to do with all this?”

“Ah, forgive me, Petros, if our need weren’t so dire, you would have been introduced to the information I have given you over weeks, if not months. I would have had time to become your friend. As it is, I would hope that still happens, but we have neither the time, nor luxury of pruning the plant. I would teach you magic. Earth, Air, and Water magic are my specialties, although I have only had about 200 years to study them. A true master such as my father would be a better tutor, but in his current state of mind, the situation is best served with my help.”

“The Absinthe?” I prompted, while absently storing away how long it took to study magic, not to mention that Horatio was claiming to be over 200 years old and yet looked mid-thirties. No wonder they wanted me starting right away.

“Ah, yes, the Absinthe. I am not sure their story is mine to tell, but I will tell you they have also lost their homeworld to the Reapers. That they are also pro-life and do their best to help sapiens rise to their full potential. We call the Absinthe "The Ancients" because they are the oldest sapient life form we know of. What they have forgotten, our race has still to learn. They are the ones who gave us the technology to delve between planes of existence. I believe they are the ones to have seeded your world with our histories and legends. They also seem to influence the rate of technological advancement upon your world so it will better prepare you for when the Reapers come. I am uncertain but I suspect that some of our races were transported to your world during the great fracture.”

He looked up to forestall my obvious next question. “It is a period of upheaval and persecution we faced before coming together and building our new homeland. It may be that humanity has Elf ancestors and accounts for your magical affinities. However, I digress. What I want to say about the Ancients, or Absinthe as you call them is that they are old and divergent in their ways. Many of them believe they should be watchers and guides to the universe, that it is their sole responsibility. This belief has two sides, though, and one side wants a hands-off approach. Essentially, they are prepared to accept if the Reapers continue to wipe biological life from the universe.”

“They believe that the Reaper, are a form of life and it is their right to prevail. The faction who help us and are responsible for your abduction are from the other branch of the tree. They believe the Reapers are an aberration and should not be allowed to prosper. Fortunately for us and for you, they believe it so strongly that they are prepared to facilitate doing more than just sit by and let the Reapers wreak havoc.”

“Cry Havoc!, and let slip the dogs of war.” I quoted Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar while sighing through the process. It was so much bigger than me. It all was so much bigger than I could ever have thought possible. A few weeks ago I was a retired Colonel getting comfortable with the with the idea that my days of action were behind me and now I was facing world destruction by creatures that were found only in nightmares and “B” grade movies. Until now.

What the hell! I thought coming to a decision, and aloud said “Nike!”

Horatio was lost in his thoughts and looked up quizzically.

“Nike!” I said again, this time more forcefully, then noticing Horatio’s vacant look, I explained slightly embarrassed. “A Goddess’s name with an associated slogan ‘Just do it!’.” I then confirmed, “I’m in Horatio. What do I have to do?” And perhaps for the very first time since my abduction, I released all thoughts of going back to Earth and my old life. I released my anger at having been abducted. I let it all go and embraced the cause fully. Heaven help our foes because I had a mission. I am a man of action.

The next few hours passed in a blur. Horatio explained to me that I could study anything I wanted to study, but that he recommended me to learn more Earth Magic and how to bring it forth at will. He spent some time on meditation techniques, and how to bring laser-sharp focus into my will and that my will would “surge” with power when combined with the correct focus. He said once I had mastered that, then the rest would be relatively straightforward. I asked him about spells and spell books because I just had to know, I was in a magical world after all.

“All in good time” was all that he said on that issue and we moved through the breathing, the relaxing and even at one point a trance state. Once he was satisfied with my ability to put my mind “into the fade” to access and open my “ways” then we took a break and refreshments were brought.

“It is critical that you are able to keep a calm mind while under duress. The speed enhancements and magical surge you used instinctively when rescuing the Elk, and when we were sparring, are internal magic that doesn’t require this level of concentration and focused will. The ease with which you use such magic implies that you have a natural aptitude on how to apply them. When you tried to warm yourself up by heating your blood, you may inadvertently have opened your internal channels accidentally. It is a risky way to do things and according to Grant, you almost killed yourself. In the future, allow the instinctive magic to manifest naturally. I am reluctant to open more way channels within you at the moment. Additional way channels should open up as you increase in skill and ability and your inner mind, what humans call the subconscious mind will compensate accordingly.”

“What you are saying is that I shouldn’t draw high levels of power in my internal magic, but instead use finesse?”

“Exactly! Like the power surge you palmed into me. It was a minor form of the electrical bolt spell, which built up over time, giving it a much greater effect. If you had tried to do the surge immediately without letting the power build, it would have ripped open more of your internal way channels and possibly ruptured you within. The magical pathways inside you are new and unused to power flow. Just one wrong move and you could immolate yourself in a pyre of magical overflow.”

“By waiting until I feel instinctively that the time is right, that is the correct action?”

“Wonderful! You see how intuitively you understand. Perhaps now it is time to try some spells.”

“Great, I have been champing at the bit to get at least one spell done and dusted.”

“Champing? Are you hungry?”

“No, no, forgive me, I used an idiom. It’s an expression meaning I have been waiting a little impatiently.”

“Aha, yes, idioms are a delight within cultural boundaries. We have a few of our own. For example ‘The acorn comes before the tree, and yet the acorn comes from the tree’.” He smiled at me knowingly as I pondered what he had just said. Was he alluding to the chicken or the egg idiom? I wasn’t sure.

The scholar who had been administering to our culinary needs arrived with a huge pile of books in her arms. Struggling into the booth, she placed them ever so carefully on the table. She curtsied and hurried away as I eyed the books hungrily.

The problem with power is its addictiveness. I remember feeling this way the first time I had learned to shoot in the military. The heady excitement as the Platoon Sergeant had drilled us on safe use practices with weapons. Then the Corporals had issued just five live bullets each for our rifles. Just five. Five shots downrange and those five bullets were for me the start of a long and illustrious career in the armed forces.

Would these books be my five bullets?