The Tale of Four

The Tale of Four

Chapter Five

Brenda kindly led me to the dining area where Vincent, Markus and Willihem were waiting. As we approached Vincent got up from the table to greet me. "How was your rest?" He asked.

"It was fine. Thank you Lord Vincent." I said with a slight bow.

"Lord? Why are you adding that?"

"Brenda told me that you were the King here. I thought it would be rude to just use your name without any honorifics. Was I wrong?" I asked.

"No you weren't wrong. Normally people would have to use them around me if I haven't said otherwise. Markus and Willihem have earned my trust so I allow them to drop the honorifics if others are not around." Vincent explained. "You are my guest and I didn't intend to tell you I was the king, so having you add 'Lord' was unexpected. You do not have to use such an honorific with me."

"I see." I replied. "To be honest though I am not used to adding things like 'Lord' to a persons name. Where I live we do have a leader, but when we talk about him people rarely add his title."

"I understand." Vincent then gestured to the table. "The meal is ready to be served, why don't we sit down."

I nodded and followed him to the table. Vincent sat at the head of the table while I was seated second seat down on his left. I was sitting by Willihem, who across from him, sat Markus. I had eaten with Markus and Vincent before on the way here, but today seemed different. Back then I didn't know either of their titles and the meal wasn't as formal as now. The food was served by several servants that I had not yet seen and once again I didn't know what I was eating. I could have asked, but at this point I was going with the flow of things. The silence hung in the air while we were eating. I had the feeling that Markus and Willihem were not very good friends because they kept shooting each other glares from across the table.

To break the awkward silence I asked, "So Markus you are a Colonel?" He seemed surprised that I had spoken to him and replied with a yes. "Is it ok for me to call you by your name without a title?"

"If Vincent, the King, says not to address him with a title, then it would presumptuous of me to demand that from you."

It was hardly a rousing endearment towards me but I would take it. "Willihem do you have a title as well?" I asked. I was trying to find some safe ground to tread on.

"Unfortunately I do not, at least not here." He replied. "In the magical domain I am an upper class of warlock, but nobody outside of the magical realm cares about that."

"Yes it is all rather boring. Sitting in an old stuffy room studying magic scripts is nothing compared to training your body and mind with physical activity." Markus interjected.

"I wasn't talking to you, you war time freak." Willihem shot back.

So much for the safe ground. "I'm sure that both arts are demanding in their own ways." I said trying to keep the peace. "I know I am not really great at studying but I appreciate those that are. It isn't easy to remember facts about different things in a sticky situation. And physical training for those in sports is very arduous as well."

"Emma, don't even try to appease them. I have been trying for years to make them see past their differences, to no avail mind you. They are determined to hate each other." Vincent interjected.

"Oh. Well that's too bad. I think they would make good friends."

"We would not!" Both yelled at the same time. I just smiled and continued to eat my meal. There were three courses to the meal and after the third I was completely stuffed. Everything that I had eaten had been delicious and I didn't think I would need to eat for another ten years. After my plate was taken I turned to Vincent and thanked him for the meal.

"It's nothing to thank me for. I brought you here so I should make sure my guest is fed properly." He replied.

"At least someone has manners around here." Commented Markus, while looking at Willihem, who was slouched in his chair.

"What do you mean by that?" He said in an agitated voice.

"That's enough you two. You are making a very poor impression of yourselves." Vincent scolded. Both men then looked away in embarrassment. "Emma if you would follow me to my study we will hold our discussion there." Getting up from the table he led me out of the dining hall and through several corridors before stopping at one door in particular. He wasted no time in opening it and entering. I followed in behind him with Markus and Willihem bringing up the rear. "I hope you don't mind that those two will be listening in. I am sure they will be on their best behavior." He said shooting them a stern glance. "Please take a seat."

I sat down in the chair directly in front of the only desk that was in the room. The room itself was rather small and disorderly. Not so much that you couldn't work in it, but enough to know that it was used on a daily basis. The walls of the room were lined with bookcases stacked with books and scrolls and an assortment of other things necessary for working. The desk took up much of the floor space leaving only enough room for three extra chairs. The chair I was sitting on was comfortable enough and I was sure I would be sitting here for a while.

"To get started I just wanted to confirm something. Willihem said earlier, before he performed his magic on you, that you are from a different world. Not saying that he is lying, but will you confirm that?" He asked.

"The only thing I can say is that the things that I have seen these last few days, coupled with the last thing I remember from my home town, leads me to believe that I am indeed in a completely different world than the one I am used too." I replied.

"Can you define what you mean?"

"When I first met you and Markus there was a battle going on, correct?"

"Yes you are."

"There were giant creatures flying in the sky with two legs and very sharp teeth. In my world we have a name for them, wyverns. Is that what you call them here?" I asked. Vincent nodded his head. "We may have a name for them, but they are nothing but fictional creatures in my world. Just something someone dreamed up one day. There were other creatures at the battle as well that I have only seen in books and pictures. Never have any of those things existed in the flesh."

"I see. Then I can only assume that Willihem is correct, which leads me to my next question. How did you get here?"

"Well to tell you that I will have to tell you about my friends as well." I replied.

"Very well, continue and tell me everything you can remember."

"Okay. It all started a little over three months ago when my one friend was getting into some trouble. He had always been rowdy and loved to get into fights with the other boys in our neighborhood. At one point he got involved with some really shady adults and started to do illegal things with them. I don't know the details of what he did, but one day he came to me saying that they were looking for him and if they found him he would be dead. I of course told him that he was an idiot, but I gave him some money so he could hide for a little while. During that time the people who were looking for him eventually found him and he had to make a run for it. That was the last time that I heard from him."

"So you never saw him again?" Markus asked.

"That's right. Now my friend and I have two other friends who were very worried about him. When he hadn't shown up for a week we decided to put in a missing persons report to the authorities. We knew he wouldn't like it but we really didn't have a choice. Now at that time I had some family problems of my own so I had to leave town for a few weeks. During that time my two other friends were going to look around to see if they could find any information to the whereabouts of my first friend. I left it in their hands and departed for my family home. My business with my family lasted longer than I thought, and by the time I came back over a month had passed. Halfway through that time I stopped hearing from my friends. When I returned home I tried to get into contact with them, but to no avail. Their individual families had both reported them missing three days earlier."

"So now all your friends are missing and you just missed the last two." Willihem interrupted.

"Yes."

"That must have been awful."

"Well I wasn't very pleased. I had thought that the men who were looking for my first friend had done something to him, but I know that he wouldn't have said anything about the three of us to them. It didn't make sense for the men to come after us as well. So with that in mind I started a search of my own. It took about five weeks for me to gather the information that my friends had gotten. All the clues lead to a building that was under construction and that was where all three of my friends were last seen. I had limited time to search for the building because of my job. When I had finally gotten time to go there it was about two weeks ago."

"That's when we met." Vincent spoke up for Willihem’s sake.

"That's right. When I got to the building I searched each floor for any signs that my friends had been there. I had looked at all but one floor and was about to give up. If I didn't find anything I didn't know where else to go. So I entered the last floor, which was the top floor, and started looking. I walked to the center of the room and looked down at the floor. Very faintly through the dust I could make out strange markings. It appeared to be some type of circle, and in the center of that circle was this." I said taking out a scrap of material. The material was green in color and had an emblem on it. "That symbol is what our school uses to identify itself." I explained. "This belongs to one of my friends. Which one it belongs too, I don't know."

"What happened after you entered the circle?" Willihem asked. "What you just described sounds like some sort of magic circle."

"Yeah, I'm sure it was exactly that." I replied. "When I entered the circle nothing happened at first. I had enough time to pick this up before anything started. I was about to leave the circle when the markings started to glow a blue like color. I didn't know what to do so I stayed still. I got the feeling that the circle was just barely working. From the pause before activating and the sensation I got while inside, it just seemed that way. I can't really describe what it looked like while I was in it because the light got so bright that I had to close my eyes. I only opened them after I felt myself come to a halt and what I saw was rocky terrain. Shortly after I became really dizzy and fell unconscious. They next time I woke up I was being carried by that Jail Keeper in a dungeon." I finished.

“About the incident in the dungeon, could you please tell me in your own words what happened?” Markus asked.

“Do I have too? I am really just trying to forget that whole thing.”

“Markus my version of the event should be adequate enough for your report. I am sure that Emma doesn’t feel comfortable reliving the events.” Vincent said.

“As you wish Vincent.”

“I think that we are done talking about how you got here Emma, so Willihem and Markus, you can return to what you were doing. Unless Emma wishes to ask you any questions.”

“Yes I do, for Willihem. Do you know if you could make a magic portal to send me back to my world?” I asked.

“Well that is difficult to answer.” He started. “We do have things like what you described in your story, but I have never heard of one that could pull people from other worlds. With that in mind I will check thoroughly to see what I can find. The next problem we run into is that I have no idea who would prepare such a portal. The portals we use, send people from one place to another, mostly between magic guilds. It takes a lot of magic power to perform such a feat; more than one wizard is needed. Not to mention the fact that we have no idea where you are really from and a specific destination has to be known by the conjurers.” He finished.

“I see.” I replied dejected.

“Now that is not to say that it is impossible. I hope you don’t mistake my saying those things as a sign that I won’t try my best to find out.”

“No I didn’t think that at all. Thank you for being completely honest with me. I think that it would have been worse if you told me that you could send me home and later down the line we find out that it really is impossible.” I was truly grateful that Willihem had been honest with me. It didn’t necessarily make me feel better, but it showed that he was taking this seriously.

After Willihem and Markus had left the room I turned my attention back to Vincent. I don’t know what it was, but being in the same room with him made me a little nervous. Perhaps it was because he was the King.

“I am sorry that was not the answer that you were hoping for.” He apologized.

“That’s fine; it would have set my mind at ease if he had told me otherwise. Knowing that I could be sent home at any time without trouble would have been nice, but I knew from the start that it was unrealistic.”