“Come again?” King Farron Maxwell couldn’t believe what I had just told him. He looked to Donna for some explanation, but she shrugged. His eyes would glance at Steyza every now and then. I’d brought her along to at least let him see what an elf looked like. “So, there’s a world out there with elves and magic. You wish to bring them here to allow Methelia to develop faster and trade your own alchemical creations in return. Is that the gist of it?”
“Yup. If I don’t get your permission, I won’t bother to ask Tyrr’s government,” I pointed out, perhaps a relief for him.
“Are they in any disputes with other nations of their world? How will we be sure they won’t attack us? Can you tell me that no harm will come to Methelia?” He questioned more, rightly worried about the magnitude of the move I wanted to pull off.
I shook my head, “I can guarantee nothing and I don’t know everything. Yes, there are other nations in their world, but I do not believe they’re at war.” Even after that, he was still unconvinced. “Let’s put it this way. Tyrr, the nation of elves, has less crime of any kind than Aquan. And Tyrr’s bigger than Ulanos. Their people are ridiculously law-abiding.”
His eyes once again averted to Donna. She sighed, “I can confirm this to be true. They have a culture of kindness and peace. Their standards of living are much, much higher than ours.”
He stroked his beard and finally agreed, but jurisdiction would be extremely limited.
With his okay, and Donna’s ‘monitoring’, we set out to Tyrr, arriving at the Rizt school. I breathed the air slowly, “Welcome, my fat friend, to Tyrr, land of the elves!”
“Awesome!” August threw his hands up in half-assed celebration. “So, what now, praying mantis?”
I looked around, trying to remember where the head office was but failing. Steyza had to lead the way. Inside that office was just the person I wanted to see. “Miss Rizt, it’s such a pleasure to see you again.”
Amira, the Rizt family’s black sheep, smiled sweetly, seated in the headmaster’s chair. I wasn’t sure if my eyes were playing tricks on me, but she was reading documents and actually looking like she’d been doing the job of headmaster. “Eric! Oh my, what a pleasant surprise!”
“Forgive my unsanctioned visit,” I apologised whilst she gestured me to have a seat in front the desk. At the corners of the office were other desks with people doing their job and stealing glances every now and then. None of them were her family.
“Unsanctioned? You’re welcomed here anytime!” she exclaimed and moved all her of work aside, as if inviting a full conversation onto her table. She was quite the cunning strategist, and perhaps the scariest person in her entire group of rebels.
“Forgive me once again for the inconvenience, but,” I leaned forward a bit, “is it possible we could talk somewhere private? Your friends from the tower should probably come too.”
“Oh?” she mimicked me and got closer. “Must be something important.” With a long pause, she agreed. “Alright. I’ll try to get them all to attend. In the meantime, why don’t you make yourself at home? In fact, I’d love to have you as guests at my humble abode. What do you say?”
“Sure!” I answered. The look Steyza shot me was obvious. Yes, I knew quite well she was lobbying me. I knew she was building good relations in order to benefit from it later on, but I truly didn’t mind. The benefits would be mutual anyway. Plus, it didn’t hurt having someone in power I could depend on.
We gave August a little tour through the school and nearby city, picking up clothes for us to blend in as well. Of course, they had to be tailored by yours truly in order to fit us midgets. I gave him some details on what happened in Tyrr when I came here, and he now truly understood the story behind Celosia’s birth and Phoenix’s death.
The sun began fading and dusk was upon us. Amira, donning a beautiful midnight blue dress led us out her house and toward a teleportation pad. In a couple minutes, August, Amira, and I was outside the lone eyrie. Steyza didn’t want to be part of it, so she returned to her house.
Amira poured her mana into the door and it unlocked easily. Having tea and chitchatting was Morrhiggan and Tuvos. Tuvos flinched a bit when she saw me. Sure, she was aggressive with me and we started off on the wrong footing. But I no longer harboured any ill will towards her. Cey was tinkering with a small device whilst Genuk sipped on a glass of wine. Their eyes all converged on us as we entered.
“Greetings everyone. I hope fate has smiled upon you for the time we haven’t seen each other. Now, I’ve gathered you here for a very important venture. But before that,” I placed my hands on my hips, “we let me introduce you to a very good friend of mine, August King.” I went on to explain to August that they were from the five most powerful families in Tyrr and their goal was to topple the monopoly that their families held.
“You’ve certainly learnt to talk,” Tuvos commented.
She’s still so…
“Spicy?”
Yeah, exactly. I cleared my throat, “Well, my wife was a negotiator. I was forced to learn it. Did you prefer the frank me?”
Tuvos exhaled with a light titter, “He had his charm. So, then, why did you gather us all here?”
“Before I tell you that, I need to know. Out of the five of you here, which one has achieved their goal?”
They all looked at each other, pondering. “None of us beside Rizt really met the goal,” Genuk admitted. He seemed a bit irritated, but still went on to explain. “For me, Cey, and Tuvos, we have enough weight in our families for them to do basically anything we say, but it’s not like the final decision are in our hands.”
“Hmm, okay, that’s fine.” I turned to Morrhiggan, “What about you?”
He sighed even harder than Genuk, “The most successful surgeries and the lowest rate of failure, yet my family, as well as the public, still place more trust in our more senior staff. The health industry of Tyrr unfortunately has an immovable opinion. I’m afraid it will simply take time for me to achieve what I need to.”
“Oh, my apologies for bringing that up. But, to be frank, I don’t need you at all; at least for the start. The two I really need are Cey and Tuvos. Once it’s successful, maybe we can employ the rest of you in the plan.”
Cey’s curiosity was burning now. He threw an arm over my shoulder, “Well? Well? What’s the plan?”
His inclination to learn reminded me of myself. “Well, forgive my language,” I cleared my throat. “We’re gonna build a big-ass bridge, buddy! A fuckin’ huge bridge! And I want you to spearhead it. You make magical constructs, so I basically need the biggest teleportation construct you’ve ever done. It would be placed at the biggest Tuvos port, and you,” I pointed right at the spicy elf, “would use it to trade goods. I don’t want anyone else in the big families involved, only those in this room. For now, though, that only means Cey and Tuvos.”
Amira Rizt cut in front of me, handing over a glass of wine. The hell did she get this? I wondered, but she asked the million-coin question and my focus shifted. “A bridge to where?”
A beaming smile made her raise an eyebrow at me, “To Methelia, my world. I’ve gotten permission from my king to open up trade with Tyrr. In exchange for helping us develop, especially in the architecture and municipalities departments, I will give Tyrr all the mana potions they can possibly consume.”
Amira’s eyes almost popped out. The others didn’t know why she was so shocked because they never tried any of my mana potions. “Genuk, I don’t mean this in any bad way, but,” she turned to him after Cey demanded an explanation, “his mana potions are ten times better than SMCs.”
“And that wasn’t the highest quality that I gave you that time. Here,” I created some ice and transmuted the highest grade of mana potion I could, “drink these.”
Amira downed hers without a second thought. The others were a bit sceptical, but chose to follow Amira and Cey’s lead.
Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.
“T-this is, incredible!” Genuk was stunned, immersing himself in the feeling. He kept casting simple spells and was captivated by the ridiculous potency at which they outputted. The wand in his hand kept making circles as it drained his mana, but it would all regenerate in less than thirty seconds. “Instead of just one spell, I can cast multiple! How long does it last?!”
“Around three hours. I have a business home that creates the highest grade of potions for an association of mages. Genuk, I don’t mind giving you the recipe for the lower grades. You should be able to replace SMCs with them and they’re easy enough to mass produce. If we get the bridge up and running, you can pop by my house anytime and I’ll take you to learn everything you need to learn.”
“A-at what cost? What do you want in return?”
I thought about it, then looked at all of them. I know how they’ll benefit from the bridge. I know how Methelia will benefit from the bridge. But how am I gonna benefit? I shrugged. “Nothing, really. The pressure is really on Cey to build the bridge and Tuvos to transport the materials. Other than that,” I tapped my lips in thought, “perhaps the Rizt institute and the Order of Mages back home would like to learn from each other. Our health industry is also nowhere as advanced as the one in Tyrr, so Morrhiggan’s wisdom and knowledge would be greatly appreciated.”
“Out of curiosity,” Amira sat on a nearby table, showing off her beautiful and spotless legs, “between the Rizt school and your ‘Order of Mages’, which do you think is better?”
I cackled almost maniacally, “The Rizt school is way better. However, the Order of Mages has stronger people. Maybe even our weakest mage is stronger than your strongest.”
“I-I don’t follow. So, which one is better?”
“The Rizt is. Your understanding of magic goes way deeper and spans much wider than ours. You can literally teach exactly how to cast a spell, but elves are biologically limited when it comes to mana. Not humans. Magic on the whole comes a lot more natural to us than it does for you. Therefore, you have a better system, but we have the better mages.”
She squeezed her glass of wine and there was a silence protruding the atmosphere. “That’s, interesting. Alright, if the five big families all propose this bridge to the government, even they would be inclined to grant us permission to begin.”
That night, we drank to new endeavours.
Literally the next morning, Amira brought a letter from the government that basically gave us permission to build the bridge and trade. It was scarily fast. Did they even really ask or did they just forge this letter? But judging from her childlike excitement and her inability to not bounce up and down, I could tell it was all legitimate. She hugged me, raising me off my feet. I was being drowned by her boobs. It’s a good day to die, I thought.
Around midday, Cey visited me, “So, listen, we got permission and everything, but there’s one issue.”
“That so?” I frowned a bit, walking about the Rizt institute grounds. “What is it?”
“No one’s ever attempted a world-scale teleportation magic construct. I’m pretty sure the usual materials we use won’t make the cut with conductivity. There’s a cave in the far south of Tyrr that has magical ore. It’s the most conductive metal known. If you get a sample to me, I could have experts study it and we can try to replicate it. If that doesn’t work, we’ll have to fall back on the second-best material, which I don’t trust.”
Interesting. Tyrr was a pretty big nation, so I wouldn’t dare use Skyer to get me to the south, especially since we were in the north. Avatar of Wind with my new mana power got me there in a jiffy.
The place was very reminiscent of the silver quarry near to Silverport with the sludge monsters. I’d just wished Cey told me about the raging magical bulls that scared the shit out of me. Their gleaming red eyes shining in the darkness was of no help to my illusion of safety. Thank goodness for Magnet. I continued chipping away at the ores and gathering it up in a leather pouch. I teleported back and presented Cey with the colourful ore, making sure to keep one for myself.
I spent the night learning the ins and outs of the ore, until I could finally add it to my list of transmutable materials. Cey appeared after my summons. “What’s so important that you wanted me to stop the research?”
I created some stone and transmuted it to the magical ore, “We have infinite amounts of this metal now. Let’s start building the test bridge.”
He wasn’t very convinced. The look of disapproval in his eyes said it all. “Is this actual magic ore? Because if you went and got a knock-off, my men’s lives would be at risk.”
I put a finger to my chin and looked up into the sky, pondering the possibility that I may have gone to the wrong place. “So, I went south, right. Right before the place I found them had a bunch of trees with yellow and blue flowers.” I retraced what I’d seen, remembering a small hut. “There was an old cottage nearby as well.” After describing the place as much as I could, he confirmed that I indeed went to the right place.
“But what about the magical beasts? Did you not encounter them?”
“Oh, the oxen things? Yeah. They were way more aggressive than you let on by the way.”
He turned his head away with a sly smile on his face and rubbed his neck, “Didn’t want to demotivate you. Speaking of magical ore, there’s one other material I need.”
My eyebrow went up in suspicion.
“It’s mana,” he admitted. “We lack it severely, as you know. To build our bridge will need copious amounts of mana. Can you supply us with those elixirs?”
My suspicion was razed. “Not a problem.” For the coming weeks, I kept them fed with health and mana potions and the bridge came along nicely. It was more of the biggest teleportation pad ever made than an actual bridge, though.
Alas, after a month of hard work and thousands of hands chipping in to build the magic construct, I beheld its finished form with nothing but admiration for elven architecture. There were four arched pylons jutting out from beneath the teleportation pad at the bottom, forming what looked to be the schematics of a sphere. Two of the pylons had a blurry, but still very recognisable picture formed from mana of the most unique structures in the biggest elven cities. This bluish-silver bridge was named after the elf who oversaw the entire project, working sleepless nights to remove the kinks – Kynhall Bridge
As a test, Cey linked his bridge to a teleportation pad nearby. “Works perfectly,” he said after returning to the Kynhall Bridge. “Now, let’s try the farthest one.” Within a few seconds, he came back, with a pleased nod showing his success. “Take me to your homeland, Eric,” he said confidently.
August returned to his family the minute he got the chance, seeing that there wasn’t much action in Tyrr. Cey and I hung over legs over the ocean on a pier in Silverport. “Human food really is bounds and leaps better than ours!” He almost melted eating that sandwich, indulging in its taste without a care in the world. “This right here,” he looked lovingly at the bread, “is enough reason to build the bridge.”
“Much more where that came from,” I stood up and dusted my pants off once we finished our sandwiches. The blazing sun beat down upon me whilst I listened to Cey tell me where he wanted the bridge to be constructed. I cleared the area of trees, adding pathways and other minor things to make the elves’ work as seamless as possible. Within just a couple weeks, Cey and his men was able to complete the second teleportation pad of the Kynhall Bridge. Knowing exactly what to do cut a lot of time and wasted effort off.
I channelled my mana into the magic construct, using the pylon that would lead to the Tuvos’ port, where the first teleportation pad was built. Using the Urn of Life to funnel mana too little to teleport, I was able to feel its ebb and flow. Mana Perception allowed me to see the pattern of cycling the mana took as well. As much as I could, I replicated that flow in the pylon, and with the help of Cey, we successfully linked it to the one in Jynnak.
Or so we thought. The first test had a clone of mine explode from a sudden burst of mana. The mana he channelled into the Tuvos port pylon was redirect at him and combined with the mana within the magic structure itself.
We might’ve built the structure in amazing the time of two weeks, but learning how to link worlds together and creating our own world-teleporting artefact was a whole other story. I spent hours trying to figure it out. Those hours turned to days, then weeks. I resorted to asking Arcana.
Her fingers tread lightly across the magical metal, “Hmm,” she focused on the Kynhall Bridge, then on me. “Summon a mass of mana,” she told me.
Eh? After wallowing in frustration, I didn’t properly listen and think about what she said. Instead, I stood up from my slouched seat on the ground and began flaring huge amounts of mana.
“No, no,” she shook her head, “materialise it. Bring it forth,” she advised, and demonstrated even. The blue energy began flowing out from her very pores. Her control over it was masterful. It slowly turned white, and placed a question in my head.
“When I look at mana with Mana Perception. Its colour is always blue, but yours went white.”
“Arcane,” she dismissed the mass of mana as she walked forward, “I used my arcane magic as a container, a vessel. Mana, in normal circumstances, cannot exist without being held within conductive material, a living being, or other magics. Otherwise, it will simply dissipate into thin air.” She grabbed my staff leaned against a nearby wall, “Use this. Practise pushing and pulling mana from it until the mana no longer vanishes.” With her advice, she warped back into the spirit void.
Cey palmed his face, “I knew it was your fault, Eric…”
“Shut up!” I lashed out, “Maybe you forgot to put in a screw somewhere,” I threw the blame on him, salty that I had to put in even more work. But eventually I sucked it up.
I needed a bit more of skill in arcane manipulation before I could achieve a skill called Transference, which allowed me to basically give mana to living beings, mana conductors or other magic types. It turned out that, making a jump of that distance and complexity simply required more power, more mana. The Tuvos pylon of the Kynhall Bridge was finally online.
My clones tested it, and it worked. With that, we took a month vacation. I recalled all my clones and dismissed them, summoning new ones, all twenty of them with my new mana power. They constantly tested the portal, going back and forth.
Cey and his men were returned to Tyrr for the time being. And I was finally able to spend some quality time with Aviana and Celosia. Donna, Dawn, Steyza, and Anjali? They were jealous Aviana loved me more than them, I think.
After a month of telling stories to a now more sentient Celosia and waking up in the middle of the night to feed Aviana, the testing phase of the Tuvos-Silverport pylon was completed with no hiccups. We could even teleport big-ass rocks, water, even particular gases – yeah, my clones got creative.
The bridge worked. So why was it, that the first visitors we had, were three monolithic, feral werewolves instilling a ghastly fear with their hollowed and piercing howls?