Julie had never seen a sheet before. Only chips. She knew that money was minted into perforated sheets of one hundred chips, and that the chips could be broken off into one gram pieces. No one in Chalkstone used money very much, gold was very uncommon, and she had never seen platinum before. Eighteen and three-quarters of a full sheet of platinum were in her hand. It wasn’t very heavy, but it was probably worth more than the entire town she had grown up in.

“Well, hon’, that’s you’re share.” Ms Ravenhair said, breaking off a quarter of the last sheet and placing it into Julie’s pile. “You don’t have to come with us, you know. You can buy passage home with that. Hell, lotta people’d just retire on that.”

Julie was still staring at the money in her hands. It seemed unreal, they were standing in the courtyard of the Feld keep. All around them, people were looking everywhere but at the group. Barron had not accompanied them outside, and Tertius was standing off to the side looking forlorn.

“I want to go. You said I was part of the team.” Julie had felt hurt that Ms Ravenhair had suggested more than once that she go home.

Ms Ravenhair surprised her, leaning forward and kissing Julie on the forehead. “You are part of the team. If you wanna come we’re not going to stop you, I just want you to understand how dangerous this is.”

Sevil was silently mouthing words, reading a glittering golden scroll of parchment. He had been doing this for the last quarter hour. He had said that one syllable off, and they could all die in the attempt. He said this very casually, but his eyes were grave. When pressed, Toby and Ms Ravenhair had said they’d traveled by teleportation only once before.

“Worst trip of my life.” Was all Toby had said on the matter. His face was covered in sweat, and Julie was trying to feel the fear they were all feeling.

Julie had pressed for more information, and now she repeated what she had learned, trying to reassure herself, “Sevil said there’s a failsafe though, he said there’s wizards at the school who make it safer, right?”

The pale man looked up from his reading, and hissed, “There’s also supposed to be mages manning the switchboard. That’s why we're going. I can not guarantee safety.”

Julie looked at the stack of platinum sheets again, and thought about Chalkstone. The muddy soil, and the yellow fields of wheat. The mill to the south where her family would sell their harvest only to buy it back as flour from the miller. She could buy her own mill, and live the rest of my life in the mud, married to some rough handed farmer! “I’m going!” She said at once, and began to put the money into her pouch. It wouldn’t fit without snapping the sheets, but she really didn’t want to break them.

Ms Ravenhair saw what she was doing and with a smile, she produced a much larger money pouch. This one shimmered slightly. “Here, this one’s better, it’s enchanted against theft and it’ll hold that without breaking ‘em.”

Julie thanked her, and put the money away in the shimmering pouch which she then tucked safely into the bottom of her backpack. Sevil announced that he was as confident as he was going to become. Tertius walked over to Julie, still looking comical with his hat of grass. He swept it off his head, and bowed low, revealing a tiny bald patch on the back of his head. “M’lady, I’d thank you for services rendered with a kiss, should you permit it.”

Julie smiled. When he rose, she stood up on tiptoes to peck him quickly on the cheek, pulling her face back as quick as a snake. He seemed a bit disappointed, but favored her with another bow.

“Clear the area,” Sevil commanded, “Toby, Delila, Julie,” he said, favoring each of them with a nod, “grab hold of me firmly, and do not let go, no matter what happens. If this is it for us, I thank you all, it’s been quite a journey.”

Ms Ravenhair grinned, “Don’t talk like that Sevil, you’ve done this before, it’ll be fine.” She grabbed hold of his arm, and Sevil looked grave. Toby grabbed hold of his other arm, and Julie grabbed the same arm that Ms Ravenhair had, with both hands.

Julie gripped him ferociously, expecting him to complain, but he did not. He raised the scroll, and began reading out loud. Time stretched on as he enunciated each of the strange words with a slow and careful rhythm. Finally his voice stopped, and Julie felt a coldness unlike anything she had ever felt before. It was the absence of heat, the absence of everything, the darkness was complete, and she could not tell if her eyes were open or closed. Is this what death is like?

A strange room, with stone walls etched with uncountable symbols swam into focus, and Julie felt a moment of relief. Then the image was ripped away. Suddenly all she was aware of was pain, and the feeling of Sevil’s arm. Every bit of strength she had went into digging her fingers into his flesh through the cloth of his robe. A force repelled her, and tried to rip her away, but she clung to Sevil’s thin arm, feeling his muscles tear beneath her fingers. The strange room was gone, and there was only blackness again.

Then her legs were soaking wet. She could feel the sun beating down on her face, and smell the earthy musk of a swamp. Cautiously, she opened her eyes. Sevil’s voice startled her, “Julie, you can let go now.”

Julie released her grip, and took an appraising look. All four were there, looking bedraggled. They were up to their knees in water. There was not a single building in sight. Strange trees with vines hanging down dipping in the water surrounded them, and the sun filtered through their branches.

Ms Ravenhair said, “Everyone in one piece?”

Toby grunted his assent, reaching for his axe as he did so. Sevil was rubbing his arm where Julie had been clinging, “I think I’ll have a nasty set of bruises, but yes, nothing seems to be missing.”

Ms Ravenhair grinned, and said, “What happened? Thought we were going to the school?”

Sevil reach for his pipe, and said, “It seems the school has been warded, the tele-reception center must be closed.”

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Julie looked around, and asked “So, where are we?”

Ms Ravenhair looked seriously at Sevil before anyone answered and said, “Better question is, how are we not dead?”

Sevil lit his pipe with a sulphur match, and Julie noticed now how fatigued he looked, “I adjusted the spell when I noticed the ward,” he turned to Julie and added, “we’re somewhere outside of Two Lanes.”

Ms Ravenhair let out a long whistle and then laughed and said, “And to think they denied you your doctorate!”

Sevil graced her with a rare smile, and said, “Politics.”

Julie looked around, feeling the uncomfortable moisture creeping up her legs. She was wearing her armor again, having changed as quickly as she could before they gathered in the courtyard. The chest piece was damaged though. Ms Ravenhair had said that Toby could probably repair it when ‘we get somewhere that isn’t a shithole.’ She felt oddly exposed in the muddy grey green mail with her chest covered in only black silk. “So which way do we go?” She asked, hoping to get to Two Lanes as quickly as possible.

Ms Ravenhair produced what looked like a compass, and said “Which way to Two Lanes?” Julie took a few muddy steps closer to get a better look, and noticed that there were no symbols at all beneath the spinning needle. After a moment the red tip stopped, and Ms Ravenhair began walking in the direction it was pointing.

“Impressive,” Julie said.

Sevil sniffed and said, “I could have told you which way it was.”

Ravenhair looked over at him, and said, “Yes, but I’m sure you’re tired from saving all of our lives.” She smiled, and Sevil smiled back at her. The troop marched on through the mud exchanging good natured quips as they went. Julie felt more at home than she ever had with all her brothers or her parents.

After about a half hour of walking through water, they came upon a strange road. It immediately put Julie in the mind of Willet. There were raised wood planks supported by pillars drove into the wet ground, and gravel filled the gaps between the planks. Sevil said, “Ahh, this will lead us right to the Second Lane, excellent. We’ll make much better time now. I knew I didn't miss the mark by that much.”

Toby said, “Oh come off it, it was a close call, you can’t have had that much choice where we landed!”

Sevil shrugged one shoulder, and Julie smiled, things were looking up again. She was going to get to see the fabled University! They were walking quite casually when they came upon another group of travellers heading the opposite direction. It was Ms Ravenhair who called out to them, “Hail!”

The other group had a strange determined look about them. So far up the road, Julie couldn’t make out very much. Two young men, a woman, and what looked like a child and a dog. Maybe a family. As they got closer though, Julie realized that it was probably not a family. As the features of the other group’s faces came into focus, the trio stopped, and Julie stopped with them, feeling tension radiating off of them. The other group was marching towards them, and Julie wrapped her hand around the hilt of her sword.

She was taken aback by the appearance of the woman leading the group. She was straight backed, and walked with a military air. Her head was shaved down to smooth skin as black as night. Her eyes were also black. Black on black with no whites. She wore a khaki jacket and matching trousers, and on her back was a heavy looking leather pack. Julie saw no weapons on her, and was pleased with herself for looking.

The next member of the group was the creature she had at first mistaken for a dog. It was a great green lizard, with leathery wings furled close to its back. It was ambling along, never leaving the side of the child Julie now realized was a little girl. She was a strangely dressed little girl, with mended travel clothes and bright red hair that stuck out from underneath a shimmering silver hood that draped down to the middle of her chest. She was also walking with her back ramrod straight, and Julie noticed she had an amulet of some sort around her neck, and rings on both her hands. The same jewelry combination that Ms Ravenhair wore at all times. She too had a heavy looking pack on her back.

Standing next to her was slouch shouldered youth. His black hair hung around his face sallow face in greasy rivulets. He was wearing hardworn trousers that looked too short for him, showing his ankles and a long sleeved brown shirt that looked much too big for him. He seemed to be carrying nothing at all, and walked with a deep slouch, staring at the ground in front of him.

Finally, there was a young man who looked to be perhaps a few years Julie’s senior. He was wearing dark grey robes. A wizard? His hair was orange, and his skin was obviously fair, but seemed as if he had been in the sun far too much lately, for an amalgamation of freckles on his face seemed to be conspiring to form a tan. He had a pack on his back too, though his seemed much lighter and smaller than the woman’s.

The dark woman walked right up to the group, and said, “Sevil? What are you doing here?”

The young man with the orange hair hurried to stand next to the woman, he gasped, “Sevil? You don’t mean Sevil Anasazi?” He was staring at Sevil, and his eyes seemed to widen taking in the scar on Sevil’s face. “He’s a wanted criminal!”

Ms Ravenhair snorted, “He may be a criminal, but I don’t know who wants him.”

Sevil cast her a dirty look, and then he returned the dark woman’s gaze, “Doctor Mendes, I was on my way to investigate the University. No one has been answering at the switchboard. I attempted to teleport in.”

Dr. Mendes winced at the words, “That must have been painful, I’m glad you managed to survive. The University is on lockdown.”

“What!” Sevil and Ms Ravenhair exclaimed in unison.

The woman called Dr. Mendes began explaining everything. Several times the girl, whose name turned out to be Emile, interrupted or ammended what was being said. By the end of the long story, all four of them had managed to contribute something, even Demetrius who was hard pressed for details about the escape by Ms Ravenhair who seemed very interested in the device that was used in the courtroom. “Must’ve been Dwarven.” She finally said, allowing the group to finish telling the story.

It took some time for the entire thing to be explained to Sevil’s satisfaction, and when he heard Dr. Mendes say that the girl had been ‘leaning’ on the staff at the school, he tensed up as if he was expecting to be struck. “Like the good king?” He had said, and the doctor had said it seemed to be the same.

“Worse still, or better I suppose,” Dr. Mendes continued looking at the small girl who was idly rubbing the head of the dragon, “it seems she has an innate understanding of The Language. The two powers together led me to conclude that the only logical course of action was to keep her in my sight. And so, now we head west, because that is where I believe the attack on Uriel originated.”

Everyone paused to consider this, and Julie finally asked, “Well, that explains why you brought the girl, and I get that he,” she gestured to the young man called Wendel, “is your apprentice, but why did you bring the serving boy.” She looked at the dark youth who was standing slightly away from the group looking at his shoes, “No offense.”

“Oh, none taken,” he answered looking up and meeting her eye for a brief moment, he had very dark eyes Julie noticed, “I would have much preferred not to come,” he looked down again and added, “although with the way things are at the University, I don’t know if I’d rather be there.”

Dr. Mendes appraised Julie with her strange black on black gaze and said, “The answer to that is twofold. The first reason is that Emile wanted him to come, and as I’m sure you’ve gleaned, that would have been reason enough in itself. The second reason shall, for now, be kept between Demetrius and myself.”