The Tale of Four

The Tale of Four

Chapter Eleven

After breakfast the next day I went straight down to the Southern barracks where Captain Eric and Martin were waiting for me. For the whole day I trained with them and during that time I came to realize how weak humans were compared to the Lost Ones. I can now see why the other nations called them Demons. Not only were they much stronger physically than a human, but they also had weird powers, just like Vincent had said. These two things together made them frightening enemies to have. Luckily I was not an enemy and had nothing to worry about, relatively of course. Training with them still held risks, like how they don’t know when to hold back against a human who had never encountered one of their kind before. Of course they didn’t know that I had never really seen them fight. Let’s just say by the end of the day I was bruised and battered and on the verge of regretting my decision to have them help me get stronger. But I couldn’t think like that. Indeed they were stronger than me, and that is a good thing. I didn’t want a weak person training me and by the end of all of this I was going to come out a better, stronger person.

For the next two months I continued to go down to the barracks to train, and each day I returned just as tired and worn out as the first. Willihem still hadn’t come back from wherever he had gone and Colonel Markus hadn’t returned either. Brenda kept me company whenever I wasn’t allowed to go to the barracks, which were few and far between. The days that I wasn’t allowed to go were when they had training themselves. Apparently I would just get in the way if I was there but I had a feeling that they thought I would become afraid of them if I saw to what extent the strength of their powers were. I didn’t even want to think of what would happen if I got hit with one of their special powers. So I stayed away. Because Willihem hadn’t come back I still knew nothing about magic and I was also hoping that he would teach me to read their language, so I haven’t gotten anywhere with that either. Both Brenda and Vincent tried to teach me a little, but I wasn’t able to comprehend what they were teaching me. I barely got to talk to Vincent now. Once the whole nation knew of his return he got busier. Every once in a while I would see a human messenger come to give Vincent a letter and when he read it he would get a look of anger and distress on his face. I still haven’t seen any Elves or Behemoths yet and that was a little disappointing. I have gotten over the shock of mythical creatures being real and actually want to see them now. Well maybe not the Behemoths, but the Elves would be a thing to see.

So in this way another week passed before something credible happened. Willihem finally returned from wherever he had gone and he brought disappointing news. I was away at the barracks that day when he returned so I didn’t get to see him until dinner time. I was called into Vincent’s study once more, for the first time in days, and told to sit down. I knew from the beginning that this wasn’t going to be a good talk. Both the faces of Vincent and Willihem were stressed.

“You don’t have good news, do you?” I asked disheartened.

It took a second before Willihem said anything. “I went back to the Magic Council to see what I could find on inter world travel. All I found in my research was the normal Travel Circles that we use on a constant basis. I then tried asking some of the older wizards and warlocks, but they didn’t seem to have a clue either. Unfortunately I had to tell them why I was asking about it. They wouldn’t give me any information until I did. All I said was that a female Human came from another world through what appeared to be one of our Travel Circles. I didn’t say anything about your friends maybe finding the same Circle.” He reassured me. “They didn’t have any information at the time, but I believe I have caught their interest with this matter, and that they will be looking into it. They did tell me however that a great deal of dark magic was being used around the time of your appearance. This leads me to believe that someone was, and still is, tampering with things that they shouldn’t.”

“It took you more than two months to figure that out?” A voice said sarcastically from the doorway. It was Colonel Markus, back from wherever he had been. “I thought wizards and the like are supposed to be wise and knowledgeable.” He continued.

“You just get back and already you are hounding me. Don’t you have anything better to do?” he retorted angrily.

“What can I say, it’s my stress reliever.” He said turning to look at Vincent. “I have some distressing news.”

“Well that’s always a good way to start a conversation.” I stated to myself. Apparently they heard me and looked in my direction. “Hi Markus.” I said giving him a little wave. “Welcome back.”

“Well you look a lot better than before.” Was his curt reply.

“What do you mean by that?” I asked curious.

“When you first came here you looked like you were about to keel over from shock.”

“He is right Emma,” Vincent interjected. “You seemed very stressed when you first got here, and rightfully so. In these last two months you seem to have gotten used to living here.”

“I suppose it’s because I have a goal to work towards. Not knowing anything and not being able to do anything really put me in a bad situation. Having a goal keeps me occupied.”

“And what is your goal?” Markus asked.

“I believe my friends are here in Altear, so I want to go looking for them. I got lucky running into Vincent and you guys, but that doesn’t mean my friends were as lucky. I want to find them quickly and make sure they are alright.”

“If that is the case I suggest that you give up on your goal.” He replied. Markus didn’t seem to mean it in an insulting way, but I was still a little peeved.

“What do you mean give up! I will find my friends!”

“I’m not saying this to be smart, but there are things going on elsewhere that makes travel dangerous. If your friends are in Altear, but not in Bastion then we cannot help them.”

“I do not need your approval to do what I want.” I said standing up. “No matter the danger I will look for my friends, with or without your help.”

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Emma stormed out of the office before anyone of them could say anything more. “Did you really have to say it like that?” Willihem angrily confronted Markus. “I just got done telling her that I found out nothing about sending her back home. She didn’t need to hear that from you too.”

“But you agree that her going out isn’t a good idea.” Markus replied.

“Of course I agree. I too heard some things while I was at the Magic Council that I didn’t like. I was going to tell Vincent about it after the conversation with Emma was over.”

“Well perhaps you can tell me now.” Vincent implored. “I am not too pleased with the way you gave her that order either Markus. But maybe giving me the information that you have will make me understand why you said it in such a way.”

“I went around to the different nations like you had asked and checked out the situation in each. I went to Lorelei first and found that the amount of monster there had increased dramatically. You know that the woods are dark and a great place for the monsters to hide, but the sheer amount of them is weird. The Elves are on guard, they seemed to have noticed a strange shift in the balance. Vaxtion was next on my journey and nothing really out of the ordinary has happened, at least not on the surface. There seems to have been an increase in crimes in the Human cities which I’m sure Lady Erin is well aware of. The crimes range from arson, domestic violence, destruction of property, and murder. There seems to be no linking evidence to any of these crimes, and no one has been caught. It doesn’t appear to be the work of monsters or Behemoths.” He paused for a second. “Speaking of Behemoths, I too went to the South to try and find out what Saville was up too. I entered further then I would have liked, but I made it out in one piece. In The Hollow I saw that the Behemoths have grown greatly in number, more so than in the past. I believe this to be because the natural evil of that place is fueling their growth more than we had imagined. It was a mistake to push the Behemoths to the South. Well not that it was our decision to begin with.” He added that last part with a bit of rage.

“Was there anything else that you found out from Saville?” Vincent asked ignoring Markus’s anger.

“It seems Saville is trying to bring back a dead person.” Markus let that statement sink in before continuing. “I snuck into the stronghold where Saville was staying and listened in on one of his conversations. I couldn’t hear the name of the person that they wanted to bring back, but I did see that he had many Necromancers and other dark wizards there.”

“There could be many people he would want to bring back, I however don’t know if he has the ability to control any one of them.” Vincent then turned to Willihem. “You had something you needed to tell me as well.”

“Yes, I do. I said earlier that the Magic Council felt a great deal of Dark Magic around the time that Emma was brought here right.” They others nodded and so Willihem continued. “I wasn’t completely honest when I said that I found nothing concerning Emma’s arrival here. The Council told me that there was a huge amount of dark magic used a little less than three months ago, which is when Emma arrived. However if you think back to when Emma was telling us her story she said that several months had passed before her first friend found the circle and when she had arrived.”

“I don’t see your point.” Markus stated.

“He is saying that the Council had only felt that one massive use of dark magic, not three. So that can either mean two things.” Vincent paused. “It means that either her friends were never brought her in the first place, or that they were all brought her together.”

“But that second one would be impossible.” Markus interrupted. “There is no way they could be brought here together if Emma’s story is right.”

“There is one way.” Willihem said. “If there is a time difference between our world and hers, it is possible.”

“I still don’t understand.”

“I mean that a matter of minutes in this world could possible mean a matter of months in hers. If we think about it like this the facts line up. It would explain why the Council only felt one massive use of dark energy and how there could be months in between Emma and her friends disappearing from their world.”

“And that leads to another problem.” Vincent added.

“What now!” Markus said exhausted.

“If we do find a way to send Emma and her friends back to their world, would it be wise to do so.” Willihem explained. “She has been here for a couple of months now, if what we think is true than a great amount of time must have passed in her world. She might not have any family to go back to.”

“Couldn’t you just send her back to the time that she left?” Markus asked.

“I could if I knew anything about inter world travel. As far as I’m concerned all of this should be impossible.” Willihem said irritated. “I looked everywhere for information about it and found nothing!”

“What we need to do next is tell Emma what we have learned.” Vincent said calmly.

“What!” Both Markus and Willihem replied.

“Think about it, if we don’t tell her now about what we learned what would happen. If we found a way to send her back home, but couldn’t control the ‘when’, and she went back to a place that has no memory of her or her friends how would she feel. It would be like coming here all over again. I want to be as upfront as possible about this whole situation.” Vincent replied. “After hearing this she might not even want to go back.”

“You know what’s best I guess.” Markus remarked. “But are you sure that last part just isn’t your wishful thinking.” Markus got a glare from Vincent at this last statement.

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How could that pompous ass-hole say something like that! Looking for my friends is the only thing I have going for me right now. What will I do if I can’t find them? Am I supposed to just stay here and wallow in grief? I can’t stay a guest of Vincent’s forever without me going insane. I need something to occupy my time. What am I working for if I can’t go find my friends? I stormed into my room and crashed into my bed. I took my pillow and screamed my frustrations into it. I was leaving this place one way or another in due time. I didn’t even know why I was so angry. I was never going to take Markus’s opinion into account anyway. Thinking like this I was able to calm my frantic mind. I was going to do what I had originally planned and learn as much as I could as fast as I could. Then after I was adequately prepared I would set off to find my friends. With my mind calm I was able to fall asleep rather quickly.

“Wha..What?” I asked Willihem that next morning. He has just told me about the time difference between this world and my world. “You mean that even if I could go back years may have passed since I left?”

“Yes, but this is all just speculation!” Willihem started, but I held my hand up for him to stop talking.

“I need a few minutes.” I said and turned and walked away. I headed out of the palace and past the palace gates. To the East of the palace is a hill that I like to sit on. It gives me a good view of the palace and surrounding area, I often come here to relax and gaze at the sky. Today I wasn’t sky gazing but resting my head on my knees. Last night I thought I had hit rock bottom, guess I was wrong. If I did manage to find my friends and Willihem did manage to send us home, what kind of ‘home’ would be waiting for us? Now that I got to thinking about it would the others even want to go home? What if, just like me, they had been accepted into whatever place they had ended up at? Would looking for them ruin whatever life they are now leading? They didn’t know I was here at all, that much I was certain of. Did they even want to see me? I did kind of ditch them when I had my family troubles.

“Can I sit here?” A voice asked from above me. I looked up to see Vincent waiting for my reply.

“It’s your land.” I stated in a monotone voice. Never has a statement been truer. Without getting angry Vincent just sat down beside me. We sat in silence for a few minutes before I spoke. “What is it?”

“I won’t ask if you are alright, because I can clearly see that you are not, but I have a proposition for you to consider.” He informed me. I said nothing and waited for him to continue. “I don’t know if you can be sent back home or not, nor do I know, if you can, when you will be sent back. I can however make your life here as comfortable as possible. In my short time of knowing you I have found that you do not like to just be handed things that you did not earn. So for you to stay here, and not be upset about not giving anything back, I would like to employ you.” He paused letting this new information sink in. “Now I will not be making you a servant in my palace, but a personal aide to me. You would be like Willihem, going where I need you to go and gathering information for me.”

“I don’t think Markus or others would like that very much.” I responded.

“Well it did take a little persuading to get Markus on board, but eventually he agreed. We had discussed this last night after Willihem told us of the situation. As for anybody else I really don’t care what they think. I have been talking to Captain Eric and the others from the barracks; they seem to think that you could hold your own out in the wilds with a little more training. To get any praise out of those men is something to be proud of. You of course wouldn’t start right away, Willihem would have to teach you to read and also teach you about magic. All of these things you wanted to do anyway. Once you have learned as much as you can I will send you places and while you are gathering information for me you can look for your friends.”

“That is rather generous.” I replied. “I don’t really think that I deserve to be put in such a position. But it would help me with my goal.”

“You would repay me greatly if you took the position that I am offering. You don’t have to give me an answer right away, but do think on it.” Vincent finished, getting up from the ground. “I will be awaiting a positive reply.”