Eversphere- 1498 Post Magic Discovered (PMD)

King Rufolus slammed his fist on the table, furious at his trusted advisers for their news from the front line of the war. The enemy again had pushed his forces back another league. Nearly every day the enemy was defeating them in battle and wits. Somehow the Orcs had adopted new formations and tactics. All his advisers could say was to continue their current plan.

Idiots!

At this time the king again wondered what it would look like if he had his advisers killed or sent to the front lines to fight. Maybe he should replace them all. Luckily for his advisers, a messenger arrived with a notice from the mage Ptorsis.

The messenger approached the king and handed him the sealed envelope.

King Rufolus, I have discovered a way to defeat the orcs I believe. however, before I do so I must inform you of the cost this magic will take. It is no small task to summon a hero from another realm. I will await you in the receiving room.

The king read the notice quickly and dismissed all his advisers but Governor Reginald. Reginald was his only friend. They had known each other since the king was a lonely prince trying to court the most beautiful, or sometimes friendly, ladies of the kingdom. They had been thru many battles and even worse stately negotiations with the dwarf and elf nations as a youth. He always knew what to say to Rufolus in hard times.

When the advisers shuffled out of the room King Rufolus excused the interior guards leaving the two friends alone. Reginald asked "Want a glass of wine to clear your mind, your majesty? Dealing with mages is always distressing." King Rufolus laughed at his friend's use of formal titles in private and told him "No thank you, I would prefer a glass of mead with my friend instead. Not my adviser." At that Reginald opened the secret door on the medium size globe of Eversphere and pulled out two large glasses and one jug of mead from the best local mazer.

The mugs were poured full and emptied a few times over as is normal when good friends drink together. There was plenty of time for drinks since Ptorsis followed protocol to the fullest extent possible. That was one trait the king had noticed after the first week of hiring the mage.

The two friends sat and drank while discussing the possibilities of the mage's notice. the king had appreciated the mage's intelligence and abilities and the insight he had given him so far. Hell, the mage's intelligence was 10 times as good as his advisers! Another cup of mead was down, making four in total now for Reginald and Rufolus.

Reginald then asked the king "So... what if we can never get ahead in this war? Maybe we should try to broker peace with our enemy as horrid as they are. We have been back and forth at our border for a good year now Rufolus." The king, slightly intoxicated from the strong mead, wondered for a second why his friend would possibly be asking such a thing. The king wondered who Reginald could even consider a peace deal with the Orcs. The Orcs had recently destroyed Reginald's northern fortress and he had lost something very precious to him.

Of course, thinking after a few mugs of mead for Reginald and Rufolus was a bad idea. History proved that many times over, especially the time Prince Rufolus and Reginald attempted to drink with the neighboring forest Fae. That was a night to remember...kind of.

Ptorsis then shoved the doors open to the King's conference room using an unseen magical force. At the same time, one of the guards standing outside the door seemed to be pulled through the air away from the door farther into the castle. Reginald laughed greatly at this sight as the guards were shocked and astonished, while Ptorsis just kept walking with a large grin hidden under his growing facial hair. Ptorsis was a middle-aged man, at least in appearance. Nearly every time the King saw him he seemed to age at times and get younger at others. He was not sure what to think of it other than Ptorsis must just be using some kind of magic to make his appearance different. He did have many enemies since he started working for the king.

Ptorsis today was wearing his most common robes and slacks possible for a citizen of Trella. The robe was a modest color of green with brown accents tied near his waist with a black strand of cloth that appeared to have some scales on it. His slacks were simple light blue ankle-high boots. strangely this mage never seemed to have a staff with him like all the other mages the King had seen in his life. The king had seen Ptorsis use his hands and arms to produce magic and sometimes without the aid of anything! The king never understood how this worked, nor did he care. As long as the mage produced results and did not cross him.

Reginald approached the mage first hand and forearm extended looking to clasp Ptorsis's wrist in a friendly greeting. However, Ptorsis simply stopped short of Reginald's advance looked down at Reginald's hand, looked back up at his eyes, and said "Hello Adviser Reginald. It is nice to see you again, excuse me though as my business is with King Rufolus."

"Ahh good to see you too Ptorsis." Said, Reginald. At that, the two exchanged an extended stare full of questions and suspicion.

" Your Majesty! I can no longer wait for you to drink with your friend. If I am to summon a new hero I need to begin preparations immediately. This will take considerable time and energy...."

"Well then let's skip the talk and tell me what you can do. Your fee of 100 gold per day is draining and I would prefer to win this war instead of fight it forever." Said the king.

At that Ptorsis was visibly taken aback as he was not used to someone interrupting him. Ptorsis waved a hand at Reginald and he vanished from the room. In the place he was standing was now a dresser!

The king screamed at Ptorsis! "Where did he go?! You will undo this magic immediately!

"Calm down your majesty. I simply transported him with one of my cornerstone markers. This business we are to discuss is private and vital to your kingdom winning this war." Ptorsis said.

At that, the king forced himself to calm down both inside and out. Liquid rage flowing through him made this task very difficult. One day he will rid himself of this mage. Not soon enough though.

Ptorsis then poured himself some mead and began explaining how this would work.

"First I must apologize for barging in, but time is of the essence here. Once you approve I can begin the summoning process.  I will need three additional mages to help and any citizen of yours you choose. You must understand though that this spell has never actually worked but I think I figured out why."

"What? you mean you are not sure if you can even do this?" The King said.

"Well, No. This is all confusing magical theory. As you know though magic is a give and take. A push and pull. So, there is a high chance the mages and citizens helping me will not survive.....I think."

"Fire and Fury Ptorsis. this is a large ask. How much will the mages cost me?"

"Well, your majesty...there is a high chance they will not survive. As I have said already. So maybe nothing in the end."

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"Are you willing to sacrifice some of your kind like that? I thought you mages were keen to only taking lives when necessary?"

"Yes." Said Ptorsis.

The king expected more to follow that word. However, Ptorsis just stared at him and continued to drink.

"You see your majesty; your war has already turned against you. The Orcs are somehow smarter and more organized than ever. I believe I know how this is happening but I will not tell you yet as I may be very wrong. However, if I am right then summoning this hero is your only chance. You can either allow me to do this or I will simply keep collecting your gold and go find other work when the Orcs get too close. The choice is yours." Ptorsis said.

The king knew he had been manipulated into this quick decision.  He knew that this was his kingdom's only hope. He knew that Ptorsis could only be trusted as long as his paycheck was coming in. But something worried him about what the mage said concerning the Orcs.

"Fine.....You may summon this hero. You have whatever you need from my kingdom. I will send your three mages to your tower and a citizen we select. But Ptorsis....don't cross me. Don't keep information about the Orcs from me. I will warn you now.....I will be watching you.

"Yes your majesty, I expect nothing less from one such as you. However, I will warn you. Your castle is not as safe as you think. I have daily sensed evil magic in here. Not enough to harm. But just enough to listen in. Be careful who you speak with." Ptorsis Said.

At that, the mage waved his hands and said some words in a language the king did not know. In a flash, he was gone and Reginald was back in the room.

"That dragon-tailed Mage! Where is he? He sent me to his tower’s basement!" Yelled Reginald

"Welcome back Reginald. That mage is trouble. Keep an eye on him for me. Go to his tower and supervise this.... summoning. Report back to me when you can. Also....he warned me there was evil magic in the castle listening in. Be careful." The king said.

"I will my friend," Reginald said while grasping the king's forearm. At that Reginald turned and left the room. While walking past the guards, servants, and other people of the castle Reginald could not but wonder who was the Orc's spy.

Reginald was also anxious to have this summoned hero on their side. With him, at their side, he would retake his region and free his wife and daughter.

Earth-Present Day

"DING"

Dr. Wallis’s voice came over my communications device just after I finished donning his designed Transdimeniontal Transportation Travel wear, or TTT as he called it. I was in our designated sterile room for donning the TTT. The room had an all-white interior with extremely plain walls and the familiar smell of recycled air. The lights were meant to simulate the natural sunshine, but they did a poor job of it in my opinion. Working this far underground was a necessary thing to simulate, after a month of complete underground work people started to break mentally.

The government's idea of fixing this issue was to install the simulated sunlight and project peaceful images of the world on the walls as you walked by them. It was interesting as the images changed as you walked like you were topside. Unfortunately, they only rotated five different terrains down in the lab. It gets old after a few months, trust me.

"Nova, this is Dr. Wallis. Are you ready? Are the TTT systems online and reading your bio signs?" Dr. Wallis asked.

"Copy doc I have the TTT on and my bio signs are registering fine. Although when you called it appears this better work detector spiked fairly high."

"Funny Nova. You know this will work as we have been sending probes through for months. The TTT and the portal work perfectly.  If they didn't then the board would have never allowed this."

God, I love giving him a hard time. We have been working on the transdimensional portal for years now and have had some amazing results. Unfortunately, we have to send someone through to retrieve our probes and collect the data from them. We did receive one image from a probe of what appeared to be the inside of an old stone building with furniture in it that appeared to be from a different age. The furniture was all wood and cloth-looking with what appeared to be torches on the wall. When we did receive that image the team of scientists and government officials were almost fighting over what it meant and what the next steps were. Of course, in the end, we ended up sending more probes through for a few months.

I exited my quarters and walked confidently into the transdimensional portal room. Here I was met with a few scientists and Dr. Willis. I could see the nervous looks on their faces and everyone seemed to be moving a little faster than usual, the tension in the air was thick. I assumed it was because of what we were about to do. Send a human through the portal for the first time in all.

After the short trip from the preparation room to the portal room, Dr. Willis strapped me into the chair in the center of his portal. All twenty-one rings comprised of titanium, Hastelloy, and liquid mercury were hovering around me like a sphere.

I never got tired of this site. I had come a long way from my time in the military. Ten years of planning and conducting raids to briefing officers, turned into the first human to travel interdimensional. All because Dr. Willis said I met all the requirements for the travel.

As soon as the last strap was secured the chair connected with my suit and transmitted my biodata to the control room. The other scientist and Dr. Willis immediately ran there and started the machine.

Just then the alarms blared and the blast doors shut in the control room and the portal room. The emergency warning lights kicked on and I heard the mass notification system announce there was an emergency in the portal room. Dr. Willis immediately came over to my communication device and with a worried voice said "Nova...I lied to you. The board did not approve this. But this is going to be a breakthrough if you survive the trip. I will figure a way to bring you back."

"What in the fuck are you talking about Dr.! You told me this was approved; I saw the approval in the system!"

"Forged, all of it. We don't have time to argue we are sending you through. Sacrifice, in this case, is needed for discovery."

"Are you willing to send me there knowing they will burst through the door and arrest you at best but most likely shoot you?" I asked.

" Yes." Dr. Willis Said

At that moment the personal communications went silent. The machine rings started turning, spinning all around. Creating a strange electric feel. The rings picked up speed and strange purple energy streamed all over me.

The rings spun faster and faster; more purple energy waived over me. Then everything went black for a second. A Loud thundering pop rang through my whole body.

Then I was there. In the middle of some kind of melee fight in the same stone room, as we saw in the sole image we received. I was disorientated by whatever had just happened to me. I tried to stand up but my legs and arms felt like they weighed a thousand pounds. I collapsed on the ground amid this strange fight between what looked like horned and pale green humanoid figures and humans like me. The last thing I remember is seeing one of those things rushing at me with....is that a club? What in the shit!