All attempts of Mervin to ask questions after that were shunted by the others, even Ilna and Sana seemingly too bothered by Steg’s current status to pay too much attention to him. Therefore, he simply thought over what he had seen so far, and was trying to categorise it in his head. This world was completely new to him, so he was afraid that he was going to have to learn everything from the beginning again, but luckily, there seemed to be some things that were very similar to his old world.
Based on what he had seen so far, this world seemed to adhere to roughly the same principles as his old one. Based on how much the sun had moved since the morning he arrived, he inferred that days were probably on a similar 24h cycle. Furthermore, after what he heard from the explanation on how the drakeling could glide, but not fly, he decided that aerodynamics sounded very similar to his old world as well. Which led him to believe that the universal laws of physics still applied, only they could be bent by the magic that these people were apparently using.
Or actually, more like seriously broken. He still could not wrap his head around how a bird could turn into a knife in a small cloud of black smoke, which was somehow just as normal to these people as someone just pushing air around with magic. The difference between the two for Mervin, was that pushing air around was simply fancy blowing, while turning a bird into a knife broke the laws of mass conservation, the second law of thermodynamics and most of what he knew about nuclear physics, to name just a few of the things.
He realised quickly during his ponderings that, apparently, things just worked in a different system of logic here, and he was absolutely determined to start finding out parts of that logic. Thus, he spent the rest of the trip trying to form connections between the different things he had seen so far, and mostly failing to find any kind of pattern in the things he had seen. He simply did not have enough information.
It was late in the evening, after the sun had already set for the day, and with over 12 hours of zooming through the air behind them, that the faces of his fellow travellers finally started looking up. They were approaching a patch of forest where the trees looked even bigger, and yet closer together than in the rest of the forest, which was of course weird; bigger trees need more space, so they should be further apart. Instead of following this logic, the big trees, of which there were six or seven, stood in a circle close to each other, their branches, which were easily the size of other trees in the forest, having grown and twisting past each other to form a large network of wood and leaves that almost seemed like it was purposely constructed that way.
Mervin was slightly surprised when Ilna grabbed his hand. “Don’t let go of me.” She spoke. “The Elder Grove has protections against intruders. Touching me when you first arrive here will keep you from harm.”
“The Elder Grove?” He questioned.
“A home for my people, long ago.” She replied, but then refused to say more on the subject, no matter how Mervin prodded further.
They floated slowly between two trees, before their disk was set down in the middle of all of them, allowing Mervin to pin the number of the giant trees at 7, in a uniform circle. He was led by the group to the foot of one of the trees, where between two roots, a door that was invisible from the outside was opened from the inside by a floating ball of red light on the inside. Mervin thought of another spell, until the thing spoke, in a very high tingling voice.
“You’re back, thank Naia – what is wrong with Steg?”
“Poisoned and in stasis.” Replied Ilna quickly. “Get him to the healers at once.”
“Semi-stasis.” Lethi corrected. At a look from Ilna, she elaborated, “it’s an important difference for healers. Besides, you can’t get someone in stasis without specialised equipment, which we weren’t carrying, so –”
“So the healers would have probably figured that one out as well, don’t you think?” Mulran broke in sarcastically, causing Lethi to go a little red. He was starting to get darker again after several hours of not using his magic, his silhouette becoming more and more uniformly black again.
“Enough, Mulran.” Ilna sounded like a tired mother admonishing her kinds at this point. “Look, everyone go back to your rooms and get some sleep. I’ll take Mervin to his room.”
The floating ball zipped under Steg’s body, lifted him up, and started carrying him down the staircase that became visible behind the secret door. The others went down as well, until finally Ilna and Mervin went down last, Ilna taking him through several corridors which were all sloped slightly downwards, until they reached a hallway which had several dark tunnels going horizontally further into the ground from there. The beautiful elf led him into one of those tunnels, stopping at a door.
“Inside, you’ll find a bed, some furniture, and a bathroom.” She said. “We had no idea how lifelike your construct would become, so we put in all the basics just to be sure.”
“Okay.” Responded Mervin, not sure what else to say at this point. Ilna looked at him.
“Look… I’m going to remove the magic that is keeping you calm now. You will probably experience some pretty heavy emotions; you went through a lot today, after all.” She paused for a moment, and looked away before continuing. “I’m sorry for everything you went through, honestly.”
“It’s okay,” Mervin responded automatically. “Honestly, I don’t feel too bad about it.”
“Not yet.” She said, touching his arm. At her touch, a strange sort of relief began to spread through his body, which was a weird experience, since he still could not feel anything physical. Apparently, magical sense did not adhere to the same rules as physical senses.
“Your full emotional range will come back in a few minutes.” The elf said softly. After a pause in the conversation, where neither of them knew what to say for a moment, she suddenly said, “you know, I can also feel other people’s emotions if I want to, so if you want, I can come comfort you if I feel that you’re having difficulty with, you know, adapting?”
“No thanks.” Mervin responded. “It’s a kind gesture, but I don’t know you. I don’t really know anyone here.” Somehow, he suddenly felt very alone.
“All right. Well… yell for me if you change your mind.”
“Sure.”
“No really,” she pressed, “I’m just in the other room, so if you yell my name, I’ll hear you.”
“Yeah, okay.”
She looked at him for a moment with a pained expression, before opening his door for him.
“Take care. And good night.”
“Uhuh.”
Mervin was starting to feel slightly dazed, the emotions of the day catching up to him, leaving him completely unsure of what to feel or do here. He heard Ilna mention something about waking up in the morning, which he probably responded to, and then the door closed behind him, because at some point, he had walked into the room.
Looking around, he saw a very bare-bones room prepared for him, with a cot in the corner, a chair and a small table I the middle, and another door in the back of the room. Not really thinking, he walked to the door in the back, opened it, and came face to face with a stranger.
He let out a small yelp in surprise, and the stranger copied his movements perfectly, albeit without any sound, causing Mervin to freeze in surprise. The stranger froze too. Mervin looked at the unbelieving face of the stranger, which was suspended by a way too thin neck to some sort of robotic body that he recognised as the skeletal construct he found himself looking down at every time he turned his gaze to his feet. The realisation clicked that he was looking at a mirror.
As he realised this, he got somewhat closer to the thing, and studied his new face. It was way too smooth, not like human skin, but almost white-ish and with a sort of plastic sheen to it. His eyes were surprisingly life-like, and when he frowned, his forehead copied the movement fluidly. Too fluidly. Muscles usually did not make smooth movements like that. It was too perfect to be natural. Looking further at his face, he found that it was completely symmetrical as well. This, too was unnatural; human faces are not symmetrical. He remembered reading somewhere once that the left side of a face was usually more expressive, but regardless of the details, it felt distinctly unnatural to have a face like that.
And it was not just that. He pretty much had no nose. There was a soft bump in his face where a human’s nose would be, but there were no holes, and it was way too small to resemble a real nose. His lips were also missing, though he did have a mouth, leaving it somewhat creepily as just a thin line carved into his otherwise smooth face. When he opened it, he found that the interior was made black, with white, regular teeth surprisingly similar to those one would find in a real mouth, although they too were too perfect.
His neck was where the ones who made this thing had apparently stopped caring about even remotely resembling something human. Like he previously noted, it was way too thin, like a simple metal pipe connecting it to the rest of his body. His body itself was too thin to be anywhere remotely human, though his chest looked a lot bigger than the rest, at roughly normal human circumference, leaving him to wonder why that was.
His chest piece was connected to hit hip piece via a too short spine, that seemed to start at the bottom of his chest piece instead of going all the way up to his neck, which was a pipe instead of a spine-like contraption anyway. The spine itself was made of round pieces that left for complete rotational freedom of movement, and a lot more bending flexibility than a biological spine would have. The legs themselves were hard metal pipes, going from a too-square hip piece, bending at knees that were protected by some sort of round plates, and ended in feet which were surprisingly human compared to the rest of the leg, with a complete bone structure covered in some sort of fleshy padding that made it all look human-ish, but still decidedly uncanny valley territory. He moved his arms in front of him, seeing in the mirror that they were connected to his chest piece in a manner that was much simpler than a real shoulder, only to culminate via pipes that resembled his legs into hands that looked like a lot of tiny pieces of metal, shaped to move like a hand but looking distinctly robotic. Only the front of the tips of his fingers was made of the same fleshy substance that covered most of his feet, and the place where his knuckles should be was covered in a reinforced strip of metal, which was rounded to remove all sharp edges.
And of course, his entire body was absolutely covered in tiny runes and very thin lines, glowing in mostly various shades of red, with some of them blue. He still wondered what that was all about, though he suspected it might take some time before he could find any answers to that. He also wondered what the purpose was that the creators of this thing had in mind when they built it, though he thought that the answer to that might take even longer to find.
It was thinking these last few thoughts that caused it to start to happen.
‘It’
‘This thing’
That was how Mervin saw himself in the mirror. Not as himself, not even as human, but as some thing. This realisation was what caused all of his magicked-away emotions to come crashing back into him, and he finally understood what Ilna had meant when she said “for now” earlier.
He had died.
He was in a new world.
He would never see his old world again.
Everyone he loved was gone.
He wondered if his parents had organised a funeral for him. He wondered if there were little kids asking inappropriate questions, like he did at his uncle’s funeral. He wondered if his mother would cry for him. Probably not. He decided. I was always a hassle for them. I don’t miss them… why would they miss me?
A weird sound echoed through the room. Mervin looked around, startled, not knowing where it came from. As an afterthought, he thought to check the mirror, and saw that his mouth was open, even though he had not consciously opened it. As he looked at himself, he saw his body twitch a little, and the same strange sound came from his mouth again, cluing him in on the fact that his voice processor was trying to imitate sobbing.
But… why? He thought to himself. I should not be sad… I can learn so many new things here! I-
Another sob, louder this time, interrupted his thoughts again, and he looked dismayed at the mirror. Sadness splashed through him like a wave, causing the sobbing to start up in earnest, and he walked away from the mirror, not wanting to look at himself anymore. He ended up on his bed, crying, noting in a corner of his mind that his eyes were not producing tears.
Why? He thought to himself as sobs racked his body with force. Why me? Why did this happen? I never asked for this… My life may not have been perfect but it was all I had, and now it’s gone. With every thought came more crying, and he wondered if he could have done anything differently. If I wouldn’t have gone to the bank today. If I wouldn’t have built that drone. If I didn’t try to-
The shock of the thought brought him out of his crying for a moment. If I didn’t try to play hero I would still be alive now. He’d been arrogant. He’d been an idiot. His face scrunched up in mental anguish, as he realised that it was his fault that he died that day, his fault that his parents would have to live without him now, his fault that he ended up here. The feeling hurt, hurt unlike anything he had ever experienced, and it led him into a new wave of crying, that lasted deep into the night, where he lay sobbing on the hard pillow, unable to shed a single tear.
He would never find out that, in the room next to him, a beautiful, green-eyed elf was shedding every tear for him.
Slowly but surely, Mervin felt himself waking up from a very deep sleep.
“Unnn…” he groaned, noting that his voice sounded strange, but not thinking too hard on it because he just felt so tired somehow.
He’d had an amazingly realistic dream that night. Or rather, a nightmare. It was about a new world, a scary black monster, and magic… so much magic. He wondered if the heat had finally gotten to him, and lifted up his hand to his forehead to feel if he didn’t have a fever.
His eyes shot open in alarm as he realised that he could not feel his head. Then, he shot up in alarm as he did not recognise the ceiling of his room. Then, he came to face the robotic skeletal body he remembered from his nightmare, and responded accordingly.
“AAAAAAAH!”
He scrambled away from the bed, trying instinctively to get away from that thing. Instead (since it as attached of course), it followed him, eliciting a new scream from his throat.
“AAAAAH!”
In his panic he had gotten close to the door, which flew open as he was sitting on the floor in his panic. Turning around, he was suddenly intimately close with the dark shape that was Mulran, the only thing visible in his silhouette being his rows of white, triangular teeth.
“Can we NOT DO THIS AGAIN!?”
“AAAH!”
Mervin scrambled back away from the door after his highest and loudest scream yet, leading Mulran to grab for his ears and start cursing in that creepy language of his.
“What’s going on? Is there an attack?”
“Who’s screaming?”
“What’s happening?”
The hallway behind Mulran was filled with panicked voices, until one voice of reason cut through the forming cacophony:
“Everyone, stand aside!” Commanded Ilna. “Someone just had a nightmare, there is no attack and no problem!”
This seemed to calm most people down, except for Mulran who interjected “No problem? I’d say that bloody ringing in my ears counts as a problem, you dumb-”
“If you finish that sentence, I’m going to slap you so hard you’ll flip upside down.” Neera’s voice broke off his remark, leaving Mulran grumbling in annoyance.
Mervin, meanwhile, was slowly coming to himself again, realising that it was not a dream but the cold, hard reality he was now living in. His gaze was aimed at the floor, unseeing, trying to come to grips with this new reality as a hand touched his face and gently lifted it up until he came to look upon the unblemished elvish face that belonged to the owner of said hand.
“Are you going to be okay?” She asked him with worry in her voice.
Mervin honestly had no answer to that, so after a few seconds, he turned pointed in the direction of Mulran, who was still standing in the door, now flanked by Neera, and asked, “why is he so terrifying?”
“What?” she responded, looking around. “Oh,” she said in understanding, before turning back to him. “Mulran uses soul magic, and you are a newly arrived soul. You are extremely vulnerable to soul magic because of this, so anyone using it is going to feel like a demon to you.”
Neera threw a pointed look at Mulran at her words.
“What?” He challenged.
She pushed him in the side, hard enough to cause him to stumble, yet he still did not relent.
“What?” He challenged her again, louder this time. In response, she punched him in the shoulder hard enough to send him flying out of the door frame.
“Okay, fine!” came his voice from several metres down the hallway, and Mervin could suddenly feel his fear go down by a lot. When the black creature walked back into view, he was looking the same as when he had just used his magic, without the unnatural blackness that coated him. He still looked scary, but at least he did not feel so nightmarish anymore.
“Will you be okay now?” Ilna probed again, and this time, Mervin felt like he could at least think about it.
“I don’t know,” he hesitated. “I mean, it’s still a lot to take in and all.”
“Yeah, I get that.” Neera butted in. “Therefore, we’re gonna have an introduction round. Get ready to learn about us and about this world, robo-boy.”
He felt a small flash of annoyance at the nickname since he was still feeling conflicted about the whole “I died and woke up in a robot body in a new world”-thing, so he was not sure how to respond to that at first. It was Ilna who saved him from coming up with something.
“I’m sorry about that; Neera can be somewhat insensitive at times.” When Neera made a somewhat offended face at her, she continued in a slightly harsher tone, “I understand that you’re still very conflicted about coming here, but in all honesty, this might be a good thing for you. Instead of focussing what was lost,” she said with a glance a Neera, who’s eyes widened slightly in understanding before she looked away so they could not see her face anymore, “we can help you focus on what you’ve gained in coming here. I’m positive that it’s going to help you feel better once you know a thing or two about the situation we’re in.”
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He frowned at her, and said, perhaps a bit more harshly than she deserved, “How could you possibly know that?”
“Because the spell we used was the modified version of a hero-summoning spell that was used in ancient times when the world as a whole was in peril,” she explained, not at all offended at his disbelief. “It searches for a soul of someone who died, who fits the parameters set by the summoner as much as possible, meaning that out of all souls in the aether, yours was most suited for our goals.”
“So, you guys are the reason I’m even in this world, right? What if you hadn’t summoned me?” He questioned.
“We don’t really know.” Mulran was the one who responded, looking somewhat bored with the whole conversation. “Souls are my magic and area of expertise, but even I have no clue what happens to souls after they move on.”
“Move on? You mean like dying?” Mervin further inquired.
“No, dumbass, I’m talking about the part that comes after dying. When you die, depending on your situation, your soul either moves on immediately, or after a time. That time can be minutes, or it can be centuries or longer. While it’s still here, we can use it in magic, but at some point, it just disappears, and once that happens, it never comes back.”
“So, without your intervention, I would have disappeared?”
“That’s what I just said, dumbass.”
“Could you stop calling me dumbass?”
“Of course I could, dumbass.”
At that last reply, he looked over at the two women who had been following the conversation. Ilna shrugged helplessly, and Neera just said, “He’s always like that. You’ll get used to it.”
Mervin, realising that he was still sitting down, began to get up when another familiar voice joined the conversations in the hallway.
“Is he awake? I heard someone say something about him being awake already, can we start? I wanna learn so many things and I have so many questions, and I wanna tell him all about everything I do so we can start working together, and-”
Lethi’s face came around the corner, both her rant and her big smile faltering as she took in the scene. “Is something wrong here?”
Everyone stared at her blankly, except for Mulran, who just looked bored and responded with “Noo, noo, everything is fine. You know, except for the guy who literally lost everyone he ever knew just now. Sheesh, you of all people should”-
That was all he got out before Neera backhanded him so hard he quite literally flew out of the frame. The door frame, that is. As it was, he was spinning enough that his feet left the picture decidedly last, and less than a second later there was a loud thump from somewhere in the hallway, followed by another few thumps as the black-skinned creature apparently ricocheted a few times before coming to a stop. Mervin was stunned by the display of violence, and carefully asked, “Did you kill him?”
“Nah, he’s fine.” Neera shrugged, while Ilna quickly walked over to Lethi, who had a sad look on her face now. She guided the distraught teen out of the room, an arm around her shoulder, and talked in a soft voice with her, leaving Mervin unable to hear what was being said. This left only him and Neera present, aside from some curious faces he had not seen before looking around the edge of the door frame, now that it was no longer obstructed by the terror that was Mulran. He absently noted that one of the people looking around the corner had distinctly animal-like yellow eyes, which he filed under ‘shit I am not going to deal with right now.’
“Come with me, I’ll take you to our meeting room.” The woman told him, and, not waiting for him to answer, she turned around and started walking away, leaving Mervin few other options than quickly exiting his room and walking after her. As he closed the door behind him, he at the urge to start analysing the people around him, but when he looked in the hallway, he noticed that there were already over a dozen people present and looking at him, with a few more appearing from around a corner as he cast furtive glances at the people around him. Not being able to do a detailed analysis on so many people while speed-walking I order to catch up with the hot-headed woman showing him the way, he instead settled for remembering as much as possible about the basics of the people around him. He saw that most of them looked mostly human, although some of them clearly had eyes, ears, and even fur in some places that denoted them as human-like, but something else. One of the creatures in the hallway, however was basically a lizard standing on its hind legs and wearing clothes. Mervin came to a stop and stared dumbly, until the thing spoke at him in a distinct female voice.
“What? Is there something on my face?”
“Uhhh” Mervin responded, clearly showcasing his unparalleled intelligence.
“Is there a problem?” she asked somewhat sharper, narrowing her eyes and widening her nostrils.
“Your face is the problem, Nava.” Mulran’s voice from the wall below them. When they both looked down, he was still lying on the floor, his face stuck in the wall after his uncontrolled flight from several moments ago. “This dude is from another world, right? He’s probably never seen a lizard-folk before.”
“Oh…” the lizard-folk responded, seemingly mollified by this. “I never even considered there could be worlds where my people don’t exist,” she said, looking over at Mervin, who was once again saved from having to answer by an unforeseen interruption. Neera had walked back over, and now lightly kicked Mulran in the leg.
“Ow.” The wall deadpanned.
“When you’re done with your beauty-nap, come over to the meeting room.” She said with some venom. “You’re needed too.”
“Yeah, yeah,” spoke the wall from below them, “I’ll be there, don’t worry.”
Mervin did not really know what to think of it all, but at least it was distracting him, giving him something to think about while he followed Neera through more tunnels that eventually led to a room that was somewhat of a cross between a class room and how a war room was depicted in B-movies.
There was a big rectangular table in the middle of the room with chair around it, and even a blackboard with some chalk which brought back really unpleasant memories of boredom, but also maps that were hung around the room of various cities and areas, and even one very big map that depicted something the size of a continent from the looks of it. The room was lit by some floating spheres that reminded him of the talking floating sphere he saw yesterday, leaving him to wonder if they were related somehow. Mervin spent his time studying the maps on the walls, until most of the people he had seen yesterday started filing into the room, taking seats and having conversations about unimportant things.
Eventually, apart from the big fighter who was apparently still recovering in the infirmary, everyone was present, so Mervin took a seat as well, and pretty soon, Ilna tapped the table, causing the conversations around the table to cease.
“Right then, everyone,” Ilna opened their gathering, “thank you for coming. Since we really did not find the time to properly welcome Mervin into our midst yesterday, what with being attacked and all, I decided that it would be a good idea to have this gathering, just with the unmarked together, so that – yes, Mervin?” For Mervin had raised his hand at that point.
“Uh, yeah,” he said, all eyes on him. “Unmarked?”
“Oh, yes… we’ll get to that in a moment. As I was saying, I would suggest that we all introduce ourselves, and then tell Mervin what is going on in this world, and why we did a soul summoning yesterday. After all, the sooner we explain everything, the sooner he can help us, and the sooner he can get used to this world.”
“You know, you can just interrupt if you have a question,” Mulran scoffed at Mervin’s hand, which was raised into the air again. “It’s really no problem.”
“It really kinda is though.” Lethi broke in. “Just because you keep doing it-”
“I keep doing it because otherwise you would never shut up.” Mulran talked right over her.
“Enough, Mulran.” Neera said, then turned to face Mervin. “What did you want to say?”
“Yeah, I was wondering if we can do the explanation about the world before the introduction round.” Mervin proposed. “I think it will help me put things into perspective better.”
“Very well,” Ilna blinked, surprised. “In that case, since I’m the oldest, if you all don’t mind, can I just tell him the story?”
“Really?” Grumble Mulran. “I could have slept in if you’re gonna tell him our history first – ow.”
Neera thwonked him on the head to shut him up.
“Thank you Neera. Right then…” her attention drifted to Cim and Lor, who were happily busy setting up a whole bunch of runes on the middle of the table, which was actually quite a funny sight; because they were so small, they were not all that much taller than the sitting people, even while standing on the table. After several moments, Cim sat down, and Lor gave Ilna a thumbs-up.
“Thank you, you two.” She said with a wry smile.
“They’ve been working on this for quite a while, you know.” Lethi, who was sitting next to him, poked him while whispering. “They started making this ever since they learned you were coming here, so you better act impressed even if you don’t like it.”
“Like what?” Mervin whispered with a bewildered face, but the answer to that became apparent at once as the room darkened and images started coming out of the runes. They were images of something that Mervin would describe as futuristic cities, something belonging in a sci-fi world, not one like this where it seemed like technology, outside of magic, was barely at the stage of the middle ages. They had long twisting roads and bridges that seemed to be floating through the city, with vehicles that looked like futuristic cars without wheels floating in all directions including vertically over these pathways past buildings that looked too tall to be true. There was no need to pretend here – Mervin stared at it in amazement.
“Many years ago, when I was but a young girl, a society lived on this continent, that was ruled by both mages and scientists.” Ilna began her story, as the pictures showed someone in a robotic suit standing shoulder to shoulder with someone in an ancient looking robe. “They combined their prowess to amazing achievements,” she described, showing many examples of machines covered in glowing colours. “However, some 300 years ago, it all came to an end.”
The image shifted to a young elvish girl looking over at a bright yellow light that seemed to be coming from beyond the horizon, before everything started shaking so violently that trees were ripped out of the ground and mountains started crumbling.
“I am one of the few survivors of the calamity that befell Dehna, this continent, that day,” she nearly whispered, her eyes having gained a distant look. She refocused after a few seconds, continuing.
“Nobody knows exactly what caused the event, only that it was a consequence of science and magic combining.” Yeah, Mervin could see that happening. If you could turn a bird into a knife willy-nilly (no way he was letting that one go any time soon), you could probably turn stuff into other stuff without any limits. Why not turn a bird into plutonium? Or anti-matter for that matter? He shuddered at the thought of a power like that being available to anyone.
“After the calamity, Dehna nearly died. As it was, the amount of death caused an undead plague to spread nearly everywhere, and the remaining conclaves of living creatures were fighting a desperate struggle for years.” As she was speaking, she seemed somehow… older. Mervin was looking at the images of zombies and ghosts, and her face, with almost matching interest, as he had never seen emotions run this deep in a person before. It was obvious the had lived through all of this herself.
“Help came only when we turned to the gods, who sent down a part of their power in order to help us cleanse the undead blight from the world. So, we, the survivors, formed the Holy Order of Cleansing Light, to reclaim all from the undeath.” She said, to the images of holy paladins and angelic looking golden glowing healers using their rays of light to turn the undead creatures to powder.
“However, when we started winning against the undead scourge, the gods refused to keep making us powerful enough to spread their light over all of the land, so we had to move a small border of holy light along with the undead land, leaving the reclaimed land to the wilderness behind us.” Images showed land turning from blackened dead zones into lush, but impenetrable jungles.
“Because many of us did not want to keep fighting the undead for our entire lives, we left the order to live normal lives in the lands again. However, in the power vacuum, struggles erupted.” Images of fierce battles using both magic and futuristic weapons supported her words. “It was in this chaos, about 150 years ago, that an artifact of the technomagical civilisation was found, that nearly caused a second calamity.” No images here, just darkness.
“It was because of this that several of the warlords in power came together, and 147 years ago, formed what is now the Protectorate.” Images of several intimidating looking creatures shaking hands and paws and the like. “Together, they created an enchantment that would from then on forevermore lay over the area of land that was claimed by the protectorate. All people living in the land would be marked with a rune, that connected to this enchantment, telling the protectorate if they had forbidden knowledge about the technomagical society. Anyone born in the land was automatically marked at birth by the enchantment, and at all times, people on the street could be randomly checked. Being unmarked, or being directly responsible for anyone else’s status as unmarked, had since then been punishable by death. All this, to protect the people from themselves.”
Her face, and the faces of several others around the table were sad at these words, and Looking at the images of raids, people taken away in chains and anguish on the faces of the people being oppressed like this, he thought there were probably many stories there.
“It all seemed to working quite well until about 80 years ago, when there was a demon invasion. The power of only normal magic was not enough to stave them off, and some of the most powerful mages of their time started researching the ancient magics again in order to be able to fight them off. About 50 years ago, we finally drove back the demons using these magics, but the cost was great.” Images of large fields of battle and carnage in the aftermath.
“After this, the protectorate decided to start living up to its name more, and started researching ancient magic some more, gaining more power in order to protect the people. When the people protested, a short but decisive civil war broke out. 48 years ago, the Three Masters dethroned the king, and took control, setting up a military society that discourages independent though, creativity, and most of all, research. Knowledge about the science and its uses is strictly kept for the Three Masters and all who work for them, leaving the rest of the populace in weakness and poverty.” Images showed of three shadowy figures, hovering over a city that looked to be in squalor, with people dressed in rags and empty, sad faces trudging along barely kept streets.
“And that is the current situation.” Ilna concluded her story, as the images winked out and the lights came back on. “The protectorate and their elites keep society under a tight rule and take all the best resources for themselves, discouraging anyone from learning anything. That is why we became the resistance eight years ago; in order to fight back against this oppression, and gain our freedom back.”
After she finished talking, everyone looked at Mervin, who was starting to form an idea in his head for why they wanted him there, but he still asked to be sure.
“So, when you summoned me here… what was your goal exactly?”
Ilna looked over at Sana at this, who was sitting next to her, and after they exchanged looks, Sana was the one who spoke.
“We believe that it is absolutely possible to combine magic and science without blowing up the world, but we have no idea where to start,” she explained. “We needed someone who is used to doing things without magic, with knowledge of either science or technology. We have a lot of the basic knowledge here about a few different magics, but no idea how to make the best use of it. And with the way the world is set up, most people have no idea how to discover new things.” She had a sad face as she concluded, “creating anything new can result in punishment, so people have generally learned not to try.”
As Mervin seemed to think this over, it was Lor, the old dwarf, who piped up next.
“Are we right in thinking ye have experience with this, lad?” His aged voice flowed through the room.
“Yes, somewhat,” Mervin responded absently. The faces in the room flooded with relief (aside from Mulran who still appeared sceptical), and Neera looked both happy and determined as she asked him “great, so when can you start?”
Mervin just looked at her disbelievingly, and Ilna smoothly interrupted by saying “how about we introduce ourselves first, so he has more of an idea of what to work with, now that we have the basic picture in the clear?”
“Hang on,” Mervin stopped her, “I’m not yet completely clear on some things. I can accept most of what you say, but it’s a lot to take in. Demons? Undead? Look, in my world all of those things did not even exist outside of stories, and hearing that they’re all real here is just… I don’t know.” He concluded lamely.
“I can understand how you would feel that way, but this is your world now.” Ilna said, feeling for him. “I’m sorry Mervin. I really am. But this is the truth. You died. This is not a journey you can come back from, it’s more like a reincarnation. You have to leave the past behind and accept that this is your reality now.”
“I get that.” His irritated voice caused a few frowns among the gathered people. “I’m sorry, I get it, okay? But it’s not that easy.”
“Change never is.” Ilna said serenely, annoying Mervin even further until he looked at her and saw… sadness. Not just for him, but a deeper sadness, that caused him to stop whatever he was thinking and saying, and take a mental step back. He looked around, and saw faces looking at him from all directions, all of them telling a tale of emotions. He realised that, compared to him, everyone here had faced struggles, and looking at Mulran’s exceptionally dark face, his words might have been a little insensitive. Great. Now he was feeling slightly guilty on top of everything else.
“Okay.” He decided, after several moments of silence. “I get it. I’m sorry. My old world… well, people don’t really have to struggle there. At least, not like this,” he clarified, “there’s always some struggle of course, but it’s not like, a fight for their lives. Not in my country.”
“Sounds like a dream.” Mulran’s sarcastic voice cut through the mood like a knife. “Unfortunately, neither we nor you have a way to get there, so instead, here we are, struggling, and in my opinion, you can either join the struggle, or get the hell out.” With no one stopping him or shutting him up this time, Mervin felt that, although they would have probably worded it differently, most people in this room probably agreed with that. They had had hard lives compared to his, and even though he was nowhere near ready to let go of his old world in his head, he decided to table those feeling for now and focus on the here and now.
“Okay, I get it.” He said. “Let me think for a moment please.”
A few people nodded, Mulran raised an eyebrow, and Sana looked sceptical. Mervin largely ignored them in favour of thinking over the story he just heard. It sounded like some generic fantasy story plot, making him wonder for a moment how much of the stories he’d heard in his life were maybe true stories from some other worlds. He wondered if he could one day be a story somewhere.
Since there was no way to know for sure, he abandoned that line of thinking, and thought back to Ilna’s words. A few things struck out at him, so he decided to ask about them. Pointing at the maps around the room, he said, “So, can you show me the rough shape and size of the land occupied by the protectorate?”
It was Neera who stood up and walked over to the map that had looked to be the biggest one to Mervin when he entered. “This is Dehna, the continent we’re on.” She gestured to the north-east corner of the map. “This is the area in the thrall of the protectorate.” She pointed to the rest. “And that is the blighted lands. There is a thin strip of about 20 kilometres wide separating the two lands, run by the Order.”
“How big is the continent?”
“Roughly 4000 kilometres from point to point.” Neera gestured across the diagonal of the map. “And 2500 in the other direction,” she indicated the crosswise direction. “The land occupied by the protectorate counts for more than a quarter of this, but less than half.”
“And the order works with the protectorate?”
“No.” It was Lethi who answered. “The order hates the protectorate almost as much as we do, but their powers are god-given by the many gods of the different religions around the world. They disappear once they get too far away from the dead zone, because directly using divine magic in battles between followers of different gods causes both of those gods to lose a part of their power. They cannot fight the protectorate because of that, although they will take in people from the protectorate if they wish to join the order.”
“Do many people do that?” Mervin questioned.
“No.” It was Sana who spoke now. “Joining the order means fighting the undead until you die, usually in the fight,” she explained. “It is a noble existence, but a hard one. Most people don’t want to fight for the rest of their lives, so they stay in the protectorate as their best option.”
“Right, I think I can see that.” He said, then decided on another topic. “Tell he about this mark you spoke about earlier.”
The faces around the room focused on Cim at his question. The tiny man got a bit red at the attention, but opened his mouth anyway. “Ah, the mark is a conglomeration of highly advanced rune usage, connected to the overarching scrying spell that reaches everywhere the protectorate claims as its lands.” He explained. “It registers your intents and knowledge, and if it finds that you know something you shouldn’t, or are trying to learn some new things that belong to the ancient knowledge, it sends out an alarm pulse. The scrying spell picks up this pulse, and alerts the protectorate of the location. They send in a team, and, well…” He trailed off, seemingly lost for words.
“And people die.” Mulran finished harshly for him, causing the tiny man to flinch, but he nodded in confirmation. “Yes.” He said. “People die.”
“But if that’s true,” Mervin pressed, “then how are we going to teach all of you this new information? Won’t it alert the protectorate immediately?”
“Not exactly.” Ilna answered. “Firstly, we are in one of the last remaining sacred places of my people, from the time when we lived here in harmony with the technomages. Since this is technically not land that belongs to the protectorate, their scrying spell won’t trigger for people here.”
“That seems like a serious flaw in their detection system.” Mervin remarked, to which Ilna nodded. “Yes, but all great magics have their limitations.” She said.
“And secondly,” she resumed her earlier answer, “all of the people at this table, as well as some in the rest of the compound, are unmarked.”
Mervin thought this over for a moment. “But you just said the mark automatically gets applied to you at birth, right?” He reasoned out loud. “I mean, you were born before the protectorate was formed, so that one I get, but…”
“It only gets applied if you are born under the scrying spell, in other words, in protectorate lands.” Ilna explained further. “No one here was born under the spell.”
“No one?” Mervin questioned, just a tad sceptical.
“Aye lad, no one.” Lor answered him. “Me, I was born a mighty long time ago fer a dwarf, on the Stone Isles to the north.” He walked over to the map, and pointed at some barely visible dots out in the ocean close to the continent. “The Stone Isles are the home of the stone dwarfs, and nary a soul would claim them to be protectorate. Ma people and them aren’t exactly the best of friends, ye see.”
“And I am a tunnel-gnome, born in the Gnome Tunnels,” Cim piped up from next to him, and Mervin immediately updated his mental tag of the boyish-looking person from ‘small man’ to ‘small gnome’. “Those are under the surface, and count as their own land as well. We’re a tiny folk, be we’re our own.” He stated proudly.
“My parents were both alchemists, so they had pretty good travel privileges,” Lethi joined the exposition train. “They travelled to the Order when I was born, and made sure to give me life just over the official border of the Blighted Lands, leaving me unmarked even though I really should have been.”
“I am from the snow people on Printh, the continent to the west.” Neera added.
“Oh my god, the introduction round, finally!” Mulran gushed, completely unlike him. “I am a drow from the Deep Dark,” he said, fanning his face with his hands as if he was super excited about something, before suddenly dropping the act and looking at the flabbergasted faces around the table, and saying, “which means absolutely nothing to him since he’s not from this world. He stood up and walked to the door. “Seriously, this is a waste of time.” He slammed the door behind him as he left.
In the silence he left behind, Mervin looked at Sana, to see if she wanted to tell a bit about herself too, but she only shook her head with a sad face and mouthed “later”.
“Well, that was not at all how I expected all of this to go, but if there are no further questions, I think we should leave it at this for now.” Ilna suddenly broke the silence, looking questioningly at Mervin.
“Yeah, I think that’s okay.” He said.
“Splendid,” she replied, standing up. “So, will you help us?”
“Not yet.” Mervin replied, causing consternation and frowns all around the room. “I would like to learn a bit more about what is and isn’t possible with the magic we have here before I start anything.”
“Ohhh, good!” Lethi gushed, but Mervin held up a hand. “Additionally, I would like to see a protectorate city.”
His words caused glances of worry among the gathered members. “But why?” questioned Cim, uncharacteristically speaking before anyone else.
“Because he doesn’t trust us yet.” Sana answered before Mervin could reply. She did not look upset, understanding his feelings.
“That’s part of it, yes.” He confirmed.
“What else then?” Cim asked again.
“If we’re going to do this,” he explained, a bit of conviction entering his voice, “I would like to know what exactly it is I’m fighting for, and what it is that I’m fighting against.”