John looked at the chair, held out his right hand toward it and in his mind he pictured the chair moving from where it was to the wall beside him. But nothing happened.

“You’re not concentrating hard enough,” said Delsani.

John concentrated harder, and this time with more than just the picture in his mind. Seopten, he thought, which is the word for chair or seat in the Wizard language. The chair vanished from the table it once inhabited and reappeared in front of the wall as he had commanded.

They could hear raised voices coming from within the chamber beyond; it was two of the leaders of the other races. “The chair disappeared,” said one.

“Yes, it was there, but now it’s gone,” said another.

They both sounded very agitated.

Suddenly John felt a burning pain on his right wrist. When he inspected it, he saw two red marks. The mark on the right looked like a four-point star, which most likely came from the Elvin side of him. The second mark was diagonally down to the left and looked like a half moon.

“What’s wrong?” asked Helen.

“My wrist,” replied John.

“A four point star and a half moon,” said Delsani.

“Yes,” said John, ‘I’ve got a feeling there’s something else you forgot to tell me old friend.”

“This I did not forget,” said Delsani. “For Wizard-Elves bear those two signs. Other than the eyes and ears, that is probably the only way of telling Wizard-Elves from ordinary Wizards, as you’ve probably heard me say before.”

“Yeah, I think you did say something about it. But why didn’t you tell me more?” asked John.

“At the time I thought it best to tell you later, which I shall do now. Thoucil and Dragdani asked the Wizard Council to keep it secret. I don’t know why, but they both wore a leather armband to cover their right wrists,” said the old Wizard.

There was a short silence.

“We should go now, John; the council is waiting,” said Delsani.

“I can get someone to show you to our room if you don’t want to wait,” John said to his wife.

“No, I’m fine,” replied Helen quickly.

“This could be a long wait Helen,” said the Wizard-Elf.

“Or it could be a short wait,” said the woman.

“It’s not too late to change your mind,” said John.

“Yes, it is,” said Helen. “You’d better go.”

John leaned forward and kissed his beautiful wife. Then he turned on his heel and he and Delsani walked into the Council Chamber. As soon as they were past the doors, they quickly and abruptly slammed shut.

----------------------------------------

It was at least two hours before the Council and their guests finished their meeting.

By this time Helen had fallen asleep. John gently woke her. “It’s time for lunch,” he said.

“What time is it?” she asked sleepily.

“Ten past one,” said John. “We better hurry; they’re all waiting.”

“I must’ve fallen asleep,” said Helen.

“Yeah, you did, and you were snoring.”

Helen turned scarlet with this information.

“It wasn’t my fault. The chair was far too comfortable. It made me doze off,” said Helen, not at all amused, “Where are we having lunch?” she asked, trying to change the subject. She succeeded.

“They eat lunch in the Council Chamber, of course.”

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

“Wait a minute,” said Helen. “I thought you said that I’m not allowed in there because I’m not invited?”

“That was only because there was a meeting being held,” said John. “Now the Grand Wizard has invited us to lunch.”

“Well, excuse me,” said Helen in a mock voice as she stuck her nose in the air. John gave out a small laugh. Then he and his wife walked arm in arm through the doors and into the room. Within, the ceiling was quite high. There were six tables but only four were occupied. The tables were long and curved. All together they made a circle and were each spaced a meter apart.

The two tables in front of the doors were empty. The other four were all half full, with each holding eight people.

To the right of John and Helen were the Wizards, and among them was the ambassador of the Council of Witchcraft, the Warlock Lenfad. The Council of Witchcraft sent him so he could report everything that was discussed in the meeting and allow a decision to be made by the Supreme Witch in concern to the subject of that very meeting. The reason that the Warlock was seated among the Wizards was because Witches and Wizards are of the same race; the only difference is that some of their beliefs differ in certain areas of magic.

John and Helen walked over to the Wizard table to sit between Delsani and the Grand Wizard, Jaucal. To the right of the Wizards were the Elves; next to them were the Dwarves, and then the Men of the Morden.

Behind the Men appeared another door, which was not as big as the others they had just entered. Then the smaller door opened and some Wizards came out of the next room, which appeared to be a kitchen. They were carrying platters of food. The men were served food first, since they were the closest; the Dwarves were served second, then the Elves, and then the Wizard.

Halfway through his meal, Delsani got up from his chair went to the Grand Wizard Jaucal and proceeded to whisper in his ear. Jaucal looked up at him and then over at John. It seemed that whatever Delsani said had caught his complete attention. Jaucal then whispered back to Delsani, who nodded. The Grand Wizard called to one of the Wizards serving the wine. He talked with him and the Wizard put the pitcher of wine he held down in front of Jaucal and quickly walked out of the room.

After lunch, the guests were taken four floors up to a narrow corridor. The walls were blue (as was most of that tower), and there were pictures, some small, some large, and mostly of people, but there were pictures of many other things associated with both Dorminya and the Normal world. As they walked, they also saw doors that were only a meter apart. They were the doors of the guestrooms.

The guests were shown to the doors of the rooms they had been assigned to, and then shown the rooms themselves. John and Helen were taken to John’s old room, which had been specially cleansed for their arrival. Helen saw little letters in the Wizard language on their room door. “What does it say John?” she asked.

“It’s my name,” replied John. “My real name.” He put his hand in his pocket and pulled a small brass key. There was no keyhole to be seen; John put his hand on the letters on the door. Light covered the letters and travelled down the door. When it stopped, the light dispersed and a keyhole appeared. John put the key in the lock and turned it. There was a click, and the whole door, like the name, was covered in light and then vanished.

Helen could see lights and distorted colors in the room ahead.

John walked straight into the room without hesitation. “Come on in, Helen,” he said. Helen thought his voice sounded muffled. She slowly started toward the doorway as if unsure of what might happen, for too many strange things had happened and were still happening, all too quickly for her liking.

When she walked through the doorway, the blurry light began to come into focus and things were beginning to take shape. She saw that the room she was in was very large. “How can the room be so big? Wait let me guess it’s all an illusion,” she said trying to sound unimpressed by the place.

“No,” said John, “The room’s real. The corridor’s the illusion.”

“I’ll never get used to this” said Helen.

“Probably not,” said John with a smile. He thought the situation was great; he knew all of the tricks and secrets of the tower and the rest of the Wizard and Witch world.

“Why are there so many illusions?” asked Helen.

“Well, you see Wizards hate the thought of living Normal lives, or even to think that they might have Normal lives,” said John, “so they create up illusions to make their lives as abnormal as they like.”

I guess that makes sense, thought Helen.

John was standing at the left side of the bed, which was twice the size of their King-sized bed back home. At the head of the bed, at either side, were two long windows that looked out in the direction of Cayer-Huld. John stood peering out of the one on his side and he found himself wondering if the city he had loved and missed for so long had changed.

While the Wizard-Elf continued to stare blankly out across the land, Helen was taking a look around. The walls of the room were a light red color, and on them were V-shaped torches that were evenly spaced throughout the room, with blue flames dancing on the both stems of the V’s. The floor was made of stone and looked like ash, and there were two fireplaces, one to the left of the door, and the other at the opposite end of the room. And in them the fires were full and high with Normal yellow, red, and orange flames, which surprised Helen greatly. She half expected the flames to be blue, or purple, or some other colour, maybe even multicoloured.

Helen realized that though there were two fireplaces, the room was not hot. In fact the temperature of the room was nice. Helen wandered about it. “Shouldn’t it be warmer in here? I mean, with two raging fires.”

“Well, yeah, it should be warmer with two Normal raging fires, but those fires aren’t Normal. They don’t give off any heat,” replied John. “It’s the floor that does that.”

“The floor? But I can’t feel any heat off of the floor,” said his wife as she looked down at her track shoes.

“It’s not roasting hot. There’s just a little bit of heat. If you take off your shoes, you should be able to feel it.”

“Are you sure that the ground won’t swallow me whole, or teleport me to an alternate dimension?” asked Helen jokily.

John laughed. “No,” he said, “Just a little heat that’s all. Trust me.”

“If only I could,” said Helen.

John had a sly grin on his face.