Max didn’t know if he was awake or in a deep sleep when Janet appeared to him in the darkness. Shimmering and soft white light was bordered by a darkness so deeply black that is was almost impossible, and she floated like a cloud. Max felt wide awake as soon as he spoke to her.
“Do you know what time it is?” Max said.
“Time does not pass here,” Janet told him. “It is the same time as when the experiment activated. How close are you to finding the portal?”
“I don’t know. Elderon is going to ask the Mage Council about it.”
“Who? Mages? Where are you?”
Max wondered this himself. It was all so strange. “I am in a world called Eveirea. It is strange here, strange creatures. The sun is different, the stars are different, and I haven’t even seen the moon.”
“There is no moon tonight,” Janet said. “That’s probably why you chose tonight to break into my laboratory. It was good and dark to hide your criminal activity.”
Max felt something he’d not felt for a long time. He recognized it eventually. It was guilt. “Umm, sorry about that. My boss told me to do it.”
“Then you need to get a new boss,” Janet said decisively. Her hair flamed a brighter red and then cooled.
“You’re right,” Max said. “I was going to make it my last job.”
“Job?” Janet said, her hair flaming again. “It is not a job, it is criminality. You are a thief.”
“No, I’m not,” Max said. “I’m a Mage. A Level One Mage.”
“Just hurry and find the end of the portal. I need to get out of here.” She stared around herself and then back to Max. Then her assuredness left her for a moment, and she appeared lost and afraid. “I need to get out.”
“I’ll free you. You can count on me.” Max spoke with certainty and confidence.
“If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t be trapped here,” Janet said.
There was that feeling again. Guilt. And maybe a sprinkling of shame. His boss and the whole organization had always made his crimes seem so normal, so acceptable. Guilt had been buried long ago. But now, it was coming to the surface. Max did not like it one bit. He either had to bury it again or make a solemn promise never to do anything to make him feel this way again.
“I will make amends,” Max said. “I want to help you, Janet. And I should say thank you for saving me from that Bandit.”
“You didn’t look like you wanted to be saved,” Janet said wryly.
Max nodded. “Thank you for looking out for me. I know the portal has to be somewhere in this world, and I’ll find it, and I will save you!”
Janet started to drift away, getting further from him, shrinking until she was a tiny white dot in the distant, deep black.
“Max, wake up.”
Max opened his eyes to a blue-gray morning. The sun was low in the sky and pouring its rays over a frosty air. The day promised to be clear and bright. Max shivered under his thin blanket and became aware of the wrinkled face of Elderon, the old Mage wrapped in his heavy robes.
Max felt behind him. Anita was gone.
“Where’s Anita?” Max said.
“She has gone to scout the way ahead. She left at dawn. A Druid is in tune with nature and can use local creatures to help map the way for us.”
Max curled up under the blanket and felt for the warm spot Anita’s body would have left. All he found was a light dig in the ribs from Elderon’s boot.
“Come, Max. Get up.” Elderon pulled Max out from under his blanket.
Max stood up. A small fire was already burning, dry sticks crackling and gray smoke mixing with the white misty air. He wrapped his blanket over his shoulders, sat next to the fire and warmed himself up.
“You were talking in your sleep all night,” Elderon said.
“A dream,” Max said.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“A good one?” Elderon asked, and his expression fixed on Max was more than simple curiosity, as if Max’s answer would hold deep importance for the quest.
“I think so. I dreamed of . . .” he hesitated, “a friend.”
“That is a good dream indeed,” Elderon said. The old Mage smiled and kneeled before the small fire.
A blackened metal pot, tall with a thin handle and long spout, was sitting in the embers of the fire. Elderon felt the handle. The way he pulled his hand away told Max the pot was too hot to hold. Elderon waggled his finger near the pot and levitated it up and out of the embers, then took a small wooden cup that was more like a small bowl with smooth sides and no handle. He tipped the pot over slightly, and out of the spout poured a thick black liquid. He handed the steaming cup over to Max as the pot settled back into the embers.
“Here. Drink this.” Elderon handed the cup over.
“Is it a magic potion?” Max said.
Elderon smiled. “Oh yes, but not like you think. It is black root brew. Perfect kick to get you going in the morning.”
Max took the cup and sipped the piping hot brew. It tasted like very strong coffee flavored with a hint of chocolate and a touch of mint.
Elderon laughed. “Now I know you chose your class well. There is not a Mage in all of Eveirea, from the far west of Ragewind to the eastern edge of the eastern continent in the Tharin Empire, who doesn’t insist on a splash of black root brew in the morning.”
Max drained the cup and held it out to Elderon, who filled it up again.
“Come,” Elderon said, holding his hand out. “I prepared a Know Item spell last night. Let me see that collar you took from the Death Wolf.”
Max handed the collar to the Wizard.
>
>
> Elderon casts Know Item.
>
>
Max watched the sparkling glow emanating from the magical item vanish. Elderon looked at it in his hands and nodded while growling low.
“Just as I suspected,” Elderon said. “It’s a Collar of Control, an item imbued with magical power that enables the owner to influence control over the wearer. Whoever put this on the Death Wolf meant to control it.”
“But it got away from whoever was controlling it?” Max suggested.
“Or it was sent,” Elderon said. He handed the item back to Max. “You are the owner now. You defeated the creature that was wearing it, and so now, you can control whoever wears it. You can use that power for good or ill. The power of control will remain with you unless the item is taken from you or you sell it.”
Max took the collar back. It now appeared to be much reduced in size. Previously, it had been like a huge belt of a champion boxer, but now it was about the size of a small dog collar. He hoped if he ever used it, he would use it for good, and he dropped the collar of control into his satchel.
Max peered into the small fire and the flickering flames coalesced into a window showing his items.
>
>
> Inventory:
>
> • Light clothes
>
> • Light boots
>
> • Good boots
>
> • Satchel
>
> • Mage Book
>
> • Shortsword
>
> • Golden Roc catapult
>
> • Rough blanket
>
> • Wooden dagger
>
> • Hood of Sneaking
>
> • Polished staff
>
> • Superior bullets
>
> • Fine rope
>
> • Collar of Control
>
> • 142 gold
>
>
He had gathered quite a lot of loot since arriving, and the satchel was holding quite a few items now. It wouldn’t be long before it was full. Considering he’d woken up completely naked and empty-handed only a few days ago, he was now reasonably well equipped. A sudden sound of footsteps nearby drew his attention, and the view of his inventory returned to the flickering flames of the fire.
Elderon was on his feet in an instant. He held his hand out and summoned his staff, which flew to his grip. Max tossed off the blanket and made sure his sword and catapult were on his belt and ready to bring to action. He grabbed his staff and stepped up next to Elderon.
Through a nearby thicket came Anita. She was running, the strips of her fighting skirt flapping around wildly as she went. She saw Elderon as she leaped over a low bush. She stopped before him and calmed her breathing for a moment, leaning heavily on her staff.
“Something is coming,” she said. She pointed with her staff the way she had come.
“What is it?” Max asked.
Anita shook her head at Max and then Elderon. “I don’t know. It is a dark force. A Dark Whirlwind.”
“How far?” Elderon said.
“A league and a half, but it is moving fast. I saw it from high above. I had summoned a local songbird. I was surveying the land through its eyes. I saw the Dark Whirlwind sweeping over the land. It is heading straight for our little camp.”
A wind blew cold, sweeping across the meadowlands between the thickets. Elderon poured the black root brew over the small fire and slipped the tall metal pot into his hip pouch. Max was astonished to see the large pot slip into the small pouch on Elderon’s hip that was surely too small to hold it. He was snapped out of his wonder by Elderon’s firm voice.
“Pack up. We are leaving,” Elderon said.
Within a moment, Max had his satchel over his shoulder. Anita was ready. Elderon scanned the camp one last time as he began to walk away.
“Anita, can you summon creatures to the camp to cover our tracks?”
Anita nodded. She made the gestures for her Summon Small Wilderness Creature and whistled a melodious tune. Emerging from burrows and nearby thickets came small furry wilderness creatures, and they all looked like badgers, squirrels, or short-eared rabbits. Then came a fat green snake, slithering and swerving over the embers of the fire. Max felt his skin crawl when he saw a mass of large hairy insects scuttling out of hidden places. The creatures scurried over the campsite and soon covered the tracks Max and his party had made before they all disappeared back into the burrows and branches.
“We move fast and keep one step ahead of it,” Elderon said as he continued to walk away.
At that moment, Max felt a tugging sensation deep in his gut as if his stomach was being pulled by a force of gravity or a strong ocean current. He knew instinctively what was causing the feeling. Then a thicket a few yards away began to twist and turn as if perturbed by a mighty wind.
“Too late,” Max said. “It’s here.”