Lead adviser for King Darius, the most powerful wizard in the kingdom, leader of the Knights of Armund, and High Warlock, Carten Allwright, was having an amazing month. After his knights had returned a couple weeks prior, with the core of a spatial dragon, Carten knew things were looking up. Carten had been the personal wizard for King Darius since the time they were teenagers, fighting in the wilds and dungeons together. Together they had grown in strength, contributed to helping the older prince find an unlucky demise, and helped to place Darius on the throne of Gildenshores. When Darius had found the Orb of Intercise and Space missing from the treasury, Carten had been the one asked to search for it. It took five years for Carten to realize that the Orb was no longer in Eldria, and another eighteen years to gain the materials necessary in order to send a group of knights to the land of Earth. The dragon core had been the final piece to create a portal to the other world. Spatial dragons were few and far between, seen maybe a couple times a century, with most people who sighted the dragons dying soon after. Finding the spatial dragon who had contributed the core had been a stroke of luck, and it took the best Knights of the order to be able to fell the beast.
After sending the squad of knights into the portal, it would be just a matter of time before they returned with the orb, and the chance for the kingdom of Gildenshores to overcome the enemies knocking at their doors. Carten breezed down the hallway of the North Wing of the palace, eager for the breakfast that awaited him. Perhaps this morning he would have bacon and eggs, with one of those fruit pastries. Yes, that is exactly what he would have. Carten nodded to himself.
As Carten was licking the last of the sticky fruit filling off his fingers, he heard commotion at the Dining Hall entrance. Turning towards the entrance, he saw the guards pull open the double doors, letting three figures walk through. Carten recognized the men as three of his knights, all of whom had been on the expedition to Earth. He jumped out of his chair, excited for the news of victory, the men surely brought him. He frowned slightly at the absence of the fourth knight, but no matter.
“My dear knights! Have you found the Orb?” He addressed the three men. Upon further inspection, Carten noticed the beleaguered expressions on the faces of the three knights. His face fell, realizing the news was not the victory he expected. His voice became hard, “WHAT happened? Explain!”
The leader of the group, Knight Harrison Rell, spoke up first, “The news we bear is not one of fortune. We were not able to obtain the orb.” He stroked his full brown beard, looking tired.
The red haired Knight Verron Kern spoke next, “The tracking artifact led us in an obvious direction, which we followed. The location we came to was not the object, though. The artifact led us to a girl.”
“A what? A girl?” Carten pressed.
The black haired Knight Ulrich Benton explained further, “The artifact seemed to point to the girl either in possession of the orb, or that she held the powers of the orb. We needed to determine what that truth was, and observed her for a couple days. After combing through her residence and any other place she visited, we determined that it was the girl herself that held the powers of the orb.”
Knight Rell continued, “We felt that the next course of action would be to bring the girl to you, in order to determine either the actual location of the orb, or get the powers from her.”
“Where is she then? Why didn’t you bring her?” Carton became more confused and angry by the moment.
“We don’t know, Warlock Carton,” Kight Benton said, “Last night we went to her place of residence to take her, but she was gone.”
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Kight Kern said, “We noticed there were traces of magic in the area near her home and took out the tracking artifact. There it could sense traces of the orb's power, and it seems that the orb, the girl, or both teleported away.”
Carton paused, and contemplated the information he was hearing. For the girl to have teleported, she would need to have been a citizen of Eldria. Those of Earth did not have the power or access to the system. Those of Eldria had visited Earth in the past, which led to stories created on earth about fairies, elves, dwarves, demons, and angels. The citizens of Eldria were not all human, but of many races. For an Earth girl to be able to teleport in the barren magic of Earth, she either needed access to an artifact, or be connected to the system of Eldria. Carten needed to determine which. If the girl had teleported with the orb, that was one thing, but if she had teleported with her own Eldrian inherited power, that was another problem entirely. Getting to Earth in the past millenia had been almost impossible, which is why it took so many years to get the Knights to Earth.
“Where is Knight Wren? He should be with you.” Carten needed more answers.
The three knights glanced at one another, and Kight Rell sighed, “We don’t know. We believe he confronted the girl alone, and then traveled back to Eldria after the girl disappeared.” He made a face, showing his discomfort. “We believe Knight Wren is a traitor to the Order.”
Everyone in the dining hall felt what happened next. The servants waiting for orders, the guards standing guard, and the knights standing before the angry Worlock. Carten shuddered with anger, his Journeyman rank presence pressing on everyone in the room. A servant fell, her Novice rank not able to bear the weight of Carten’s anger.
“Find them both! Or I will make an example to the order members of what happens to knights who fail me twice.”
Carton was, indeed, not having a very good month.
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As she came to, all Aurelia could think about was how sick she felt. Her muscles ached, her head pounded, and her stomach roiled. As she felt bile come up her esophagus, she rolled over on the grass, and threw up everything from her stomach. A groan escaped her as she spit into the grass, and fell to her back, away from the pile of sick. While she had passed out right before entering the portal, she remembered being aware as she traveled through a blue tunnel, flying through space. The memory was hazy, but she knew it had not been a pleasant trip.
Her eyes opened to gaze above at the purple-blue sky. A sun sat above, looking more white than yellow. Aurelia felt the dread rise up in her as she remembered. Blondie showing up outside her apartment, the explanation about a weapon and a world named Eldria, then the message in her head and the bright blue portal.
At that last thought, a new blue box appeared in her vision. Knowing she needed more answers, she read what it had to say.
Teleportation Complete:
System initialization completed:
System’s beginner tutorial ready for induction
Begin?
So from what she read, Aurelia gathered that the system had caused this teleportation from Earth, and now wanted to give her some sort of tutorial. From the times she had spent on video games, Aurelia knew tutorials were really important to being able to understand the game. So, if this system and Eldria worked in a similar manner, she would probably need to participate in this tutorial. Aurelia needed to get home, her roommate and her family were probably worried about her…
Irene! Her family! How was she only remembering them now? Her throat began to hurt as she held back tears. Now wasn’t the time to get emotional, she needed answers.
Not knowing how to work the blue boxes, or perhaps system prompts if this was like a video game, Aurelia tentatively said, “Begin?” A new blue box replaced the old, and Aurelia began her new tutorial.