“November nine two three Tango Golf to, uh, the giant floating island,” the radio in Orlan’s hands crackled, “I was told to treat you as an uncontrolled airfield, but there would be someone with a radio, do you copy?”
“Yup, I hear you,” Orlan replied, covering his eyes against the sun as he spotted the approaching aircraft. There were two of them, though that wasn’t surprising, one was purely cargo while the other held the technical staff needed to set up the equipment along with more stuff. A good portion of the cargo was supposed to be bulk foods like grain, but most of it was communications equipment including a cell tower that would, in theory, allow the entire island full coverage.
“Great,” the pilot replied after a moment, the two aircraft beginning to circle the island, “I was also told there was a runway on the southern end of the island, but I don’t see anything. Over.”
“The runway is basically a large expanse of stone, but it’s flat and hard with no gravel or anything,”
“That’s great, but it’s hard to land when we can’t see a runway. Over.”
“One moment,” Orlan said, looking over at Nallia, who was already busy tapping at the phone. The signal on top of the island wasn’t great, but being near to Bermuda had ensured they could at least get a passible one. After a minute she held up the phone to display a typical runway.
“I’ll handle the markings, you do the lights?” Orlan asked, to which the blank faced woman simply nodded holding up her hands to begin casting. Orlan mimicked her, a spell circle forming first in the air before him, then a larger one half hidden under the ground where the runway started. It passed over the ground, the stone shifting becoming lighter or darker as needed to mimic the paint of the runway. Several lights, largely unneeded in the day, popped up thanks to Nallia’s light magic.
“How’s that?” Orlan asked over the radio once they were both done.
“Well I’ll be, that wasn’t there a minute ago,” the pilot said after a moment, “looks good, giant floating island, November nine two three Tango Golf entering pattern for landing, over.”
Moments later a second voice, presumably the other cargo jet said something similar as both aircraft began their approach.
“I’m still impressed they can make such large things fly without magic,” Lailra commented as the cargo jets began their approach, “they look more like birds than ships.”
“That is intentional,” Nallia replied, “the wing design creates lift when moved through the air at the right angle, just like a bird’s.”
“Is there anything you haven’t researched on that thing yet?”
“It seems to have access to the majority of knowledge on this side, why wouldn’t I make use of it?” Nallia countered, cocking her head. Before they could continue, however, the whine of the jet engines became to loud to easily carry on a conversation. Another wind barrier kept them safe from any wind kicked up as the first cargo jet landed, pulling off to the side to allow the second to land as well. Orlan and his knights approached the first aircraft as the door swung open, revealing a man who glanced down at the ground, over five feet below him and scowled.
“I don’t think we thought this through,” he commented but, by way of replying Orlan lifted a hand, casting a quick spell to reshape the stone of his island into a stairway, “or… never mind. Can we get another one of those by the cargo door?”
Orlan followed the man to the rear of the aircraft where, upon being shown another door, he created another set of stone stairs. The crew of the first aircraft began unloading while Orlan made his way to the second to assist them as well. The second jet was the one with passengers and one of the first figures to make their way down the stairs was a rotund man in a sweat stained suit shirt.
“Fuck, shoulda known it would be hot,” the man cursed as he walked over to Orlan, “Orlan, is there somewhere we can talk?”
“You’re Theo?”
“Ah, right, we’ve never met face to face, yes, I’m Theodor, congressman, whatever, we need to talk.”
“Once I get everything here going we can head back to the castle,” Orlan nodded.
“Do you have AC there?”
“It’s cooler there,” Orlan replied dryly, about to continue when a loud gasp caught everyone’s attention.
“Orlan?” a woman who was halfway down the stone staircase asked softly, looking at the Protector Lord in shock.
“Em?” Orlan replied, his eyes widening in shock as well. The woman, wearing a technician’s uniform for some phone company nearly ran the rest of the way to the ground and over to Orlan where she paused, looking him over, as if ensuring he was real.
“I thought you were dead, we all thought you were dead,” she said softly.
“Rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated,” Orlan said with a slight grin.
“You…” she stared her expression of shock shifting slightly to one of surprise before she laughed, throwing herself forward and hugging him, “you’re definitely Orlan,” she said, crying and laughing.
“You two know each other?” Theo asked, sounding surprised.
“This is Emily, my little sister,” Orlan replied with a grin.
“Your older sister,” she corrected without breaking the hug.
“Older, but smaller.”
“We all thought you were dead,” she said again, finally pulling back enough to look at him, “when you vanished… we’d no idea what happened.”
“Turns out I got sent to another world, cool huh.”
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
“And you became… what, some magic wielding super hero with a giant flying island?”
“Basically.”
“Wait,” Theo interrupted, “he’s been all over the news for nearly the last two months, how is it you didn’t realize it was him?”
“You think I have time to watch the news?” Emily asked, raising an eyebrow, “I’ve three kids, a job and a house to look after.”
“Three?” Orlan asked.
“I wanted two, but the second was twins,” she explained, before turning back to Theo, “but I heard about some magic knight guy named Orlan, but, honestly, I never imagined it would be my brother!”
“What are you even doing here?” asked Orlan, looking his sister over.
“I work for a phone company, was told we’re going to be putting a cell tower up here,” she answered, gesturing to her uniform, “I live in Florida now, so we’re close, but I thought it was odd they asked for me by name. At least, I did until now.”
“Who asked?”
“The government? Whoever was deciding who to send here.”
“Theo?” Orlan asked after a moment in a flat voice, “is this what I think it is?”
“I-I… I don’t know,” Theo stuttered, scrambling for his own phone, “I wasn’t aware of it in any case, but…”
“Orlan?” Emily asked, starting to look worried.
“You haven’t seen the news, but the US has a bit of a beef with me,” replied Orlan.
“What did you do?”
“I did nothing! I just appeared over a major US city in a magical floating island to fight off a bunch of monsters!”
“You broke into the Pentagon,” Theo added.
“After they kidnapped one of my knights!”
“And made a fool of congress.”
“Like they needed me for that.”
“And beat up a bunch of spec ops guys.”
“Who were trying to invade my island,” Orlan sighed, “they started it!”
“Didn’t you lift a submarine out of the water or something?” Emily asked.
“Only for a moment.”
“But you touched one of the US’s boats.”
“Oh shit,” Orlan swore.
“You’re already dead… again,” Emily said with a slight grin.
“What?” Theo asked, seeming confused.
“Never mind,” Orlan sighed, shaking his head before looking at Theo, “if this is an attempt at intimidation or manipulation…”
“You think the government is willing to use me against you?” Emily gasped, “what about my family?”
“I don’t think the government is directly involved, but…” he paused, glancing at Orlan, “can we talk? Somewhere private?”
“Right,” Orlan nodded, pulling away from his sister’s embrace, “you’ll be here for at least a day setting up the tower, so we can catch up over dinner.”
“I’ll hold you to that,” she nodded, stepping back and saying goodbye before heading over to her confused looking colleagues.
\-\-\-\-\-
“Oh thank god,” Theo sighed as he settled into a plush couch, “walking over a mile, in this heat, you couldn’t have teleported us to the castle or anything?”
“I can only teleport myself short distances,” Orlan answered, “would you like a drink?”
“Got any cold otherworld beer?”
“I’ll see what I can do,” the Protector Lord smirked, speaking to one of the support knights before sitting down across from Theo.
“Do they have magical beer over there? On the other side as you call it?”
“They do, but it would likely kill you, alcohol is a poison and mana only makes it more potent.”
“After that walk I’m tempted.”
“So, what did you want to talk about?” Orlan asked.
“Is it secure here?” Theo asked, looking about the small sitting room.
“Only my knights come here, anything you can tell me you can tell them.”
“Alright… I was contacted by someone a couple weeks ago, belongs to some group called the Sons of Kah-yeen,” Theo said, awkwardly pronouncing the odd name.
“The first mage?” Orlan interrupted.
“What?”
“Kayan, the first mage,” explained Orlan, “it’s a story, or maybe a myth, on the other side. Kayan had a brother named Hevel, back before the world was split in two. Kayan became the first mage and accidentally killed Hevel. As the myth goes, God then punished Kayan by splitting the world between magic and non-magic.”
“That’s… odd,” Theo scowled, pausing as a young woman brought in a couple frosty mugs of beer, smiling his thanks as he took a long sip of the cool drink, “according to the man I spoke with the story is that Hevel was the first mage and Kayan, in jealousy, killed his brother. Apparently, it’s the origin of the story of Cain and Abel. But he said it’s actually true, not just a myth.”
“So, what, they’re some secret all powerful group that’s actually controlling the government or something?” Orlan asked, “these Sons of Kayan I mean.”
“What? No, they are a secret organization but they were supposed to be more of a preservationist society. They’d remember the sin of Kayan when no one else would, or something, I’m still not completely clear on that.”
“But they’re the group working against me through the government?”
“No, they have no real power, like I said, they’re a historical preservation group, a few steps up from a book club,” Theo shook his head, “they’re only real job, beyond remembering the true story of Kayan and Hevel, was to be on watch for magic returning to the world. Over the last, however many hundreds of years, they grew lax in that duty. They knew magic was real, but I guess they figured it would never return.”
“Until the rifts started opening.”
“Until you showed up,” Theo corrected, “they suspected the rifts of being magical in nature, but they weren’t sure. But when you appeared with your great floating island, slinging spells and fire and whatever, they were certain.”
“And?”
“And they actually took the situation seriously, apparently, they have some kind of secret archive or vault full of stuff that was supposed to help them keep watch. And… some items were missing.”
“Like… an eye encased in glass?” Orlan asked slowly.
“Yes, how did you know?” Theo asked, looking up, “they called it the Eye of Providence, yes, like the one on the dollar bill, said it was supposed to reveal the truth of anything or something.”
“When I broke out of that government prison, it was because they attempted to use that on me,” Orlan said, “it’s sealed in my vault… I’m not giving it back.”
“If they want it back they can ask you for it,” Theo said, raising a hand in surrender, “I’m not here to get their shit back, I’m here to deliver a message from them.”
“What message?”
“That they believe there’s another secret group that stole those items and, for some reason, don’t like you.”
“That’s it? That’s the message?” Orlan asked after a second.
“And to warn you of some of the other items that went missing,” Theo took a breath, “there was Gandiva, a bow, the most powerful weapon they had. Apparently arrows it fires can’t be blocked or dodged. Brisingamen, a necklace that can influence minds…. Let’s see… and the Eternal Cup, otherwise known as the Holy Grail… a cup that can supposedly create infinite mana and turn anyone who drinks from it into a powerful mage… if it doesn’t kill them anyways.”
“… fuck,” Orlan swore.
“A bunch of historical records were also stolen, including those that document how to use the items,” Theo continued, “according to the guy I spoke with, all of them are equally powerful in terms of magic.”
“Any idea who the people who stole them are?”
“Not really, they determined the items were stolen a few hundred years ago, by someone who had magic.”
“And they didn’t realize until recently?” Orlan asked, half in shock.
“Like I was told, they really dropped the ball on watching for magic, with the rise of technology they got distracted. Not to mention some of them began wondering if magic was actually real.”
“You’d think that, considering they had access to a literal vault of magical artifacts they’d be sure it was.”
“I don’t know what to tell you,” Theo shrugged helplessly, “even I find it hard to believe at times.”
“Anything else I should know?”
“The Sons of Kayan wanted me to tell you that they believe these unknown mages are responsible for magic returning to this world, this side, but-.”
“I made that connection already,” Orlan said dryly.
“I figured, it’s not a hard conclusion to draw,” Theo nodded, “beyond that they said they’d like to meet you. In secret. I’m a public figure, if not a well known one, who’s known to interact with you so me coming here isn’t too surprising. But they can’t approach you so directly. And doing so without invitation seemed like a bad idea.”
“Is there a point to them remaining that hidden now?”
“They seem to think there is.”
“Fuck… I’ll have to think about it,” Orlan said after a moment.