The Elicon

by Rob Roth

  “The Elicon stones are like Eld Himself, in that He created them from the essence of His being. Once they endure the heat of fire, they become incorruptible, powerful. He gave them to a very few in the Pristine Lands whom He believed to be most worthy, according to his own designs. Malic was originally one of these Eldian, a Guardian of an Elicon.

  When Malic fell, he took his Elicon with him, as did others. As their hearts were corrupted, the Elicon stones also became corrupted, because they are bound to their spirits. The stones of the Eldian who rebelled turned to dust, for the most part, although even in their corrupted state, the dust remained extremely potent and dangerous. Malic was so powerful that his own Elicon did not turn to dust but turned into what became known as the Malicon stone, the source of his great power.

  With their corrupted knowledge and the corrupted dust, they must have devised some way to breach the Dream Realm, putting your lands at risk. So Eld decided to send an Elicon to the Dream Realm. Because the Dream Realm is not pristine, but it has the beginning seeds of corruption, the pristine Elicon could only enter your realm inside a corrupted conveyance similar in form to the Elicon but not completely pristine. It eventually succumbed to the corruption present in your lands and turned into dust after a while. Malic learned of this and is able to make powerful use of even the corrupted substance, which is of like nature to his corrupted Elicon. Using the Dream Realm breach, he looks for the conveyance or even an Elicon itself, to destroy it or corrupt it, although Eld is careful to protect each Elicon with a Guardian.”

  “But if I hadn’t been there at just the right time to retrieve the blue stone, I mean the Elicon, who knows what would have happened? The Maliconi could have got their hands on it,” Jace said.

  Elysia smiled at him. “Eld knows what He is doing. It wasn’t by chance that you were right there when you were. He does not leave things to chance. You were the chosen Guardian. You were found worthy.”

  It sure looked like chance to me, Jace thought to himself.

  “But, just suppose I’m not worthy…” Jace said, knowing he was anything but perfect. He and Dooley had done some things in school and afterwards, and... well, he could think of a dozen times he had been anything but virtuous.

  Elysia looked wistful as she said to Jace, “There were other times in the past when an Elicon was sent to the Dream Realm, when no one worthy was close enough to be chosen by Eld. Those Elicon stones succumbed to corruption, leaving only more of the blue dust.”

  Suddenly some pieces started to fall into place for Jace.

  “Just how long has this battle with Malic been going on?”

  Elysia gave a sad smile. “A very long time according to your reckoning,” she said. Then she brightened. "But now a Guardian for the Dream Realm Elicon has at last been found! And here you are.”

  Jace wasn't buying this at all. “Look, I appreciate you saying this, but I am just an ordinary guy. There isn't anything special or extraordinary about me. I haven't done anything in my life that would make me particularly worthy of being a guardian of one of these Elicon stones, if they are as important as you say.”

  Elysia smiled again. “It's not about what you've done, Jace. It's about Him choosing you. That's what makes you worthy. Eld examined your heart and found not just what you are, but what you can be. I know this, because He told me in a vision that His choice had been made. You see, I'm also a Professor — one who has the Insight and hears the voice of Eld, then professes His words to the others.”

  Well, that clears up another point of confusion, Jace thought to himself, as he remembered what the serving girl had said to him about being a Professor. And no use arguing with this exceptional woman. For now, its best if I just go along with her thinking I'm the chosen Guardian. I fear she’ll see soon enough on her own that I'm not the outstanding kind of person her Eld would choose — I know for sure it was just luck that Dooley and I were in Arizona and I happened to find the stone, not fate. I booked the trip myself, made the plans, searched out the impact site, and chose to go down and dig it out.

  Jace had to smile at her simplistic faith in Eld, misguided though it was.

  Elysia was very pleased to see Jace smile in apparent understanding.

  “I'm afraid that I must leave soon. Certain preparations must be made. I will have Alea come back with some clothes for you, show you where to bathe, and take you to the dining hall for some food. I will join you when I am able,” she said as she stood up.

  “Please, just a couple more questions. What happened to the thermal clothes I was wearing when I came through that portal from my world? And how did we get to your tower after the battle? I can't remember. Things seem a little hazy.”

  “Your clothes could not travel here, as there is a touch of corruption in your world. Eld replaced them with pristine garments as you transitioned. You, on the other hand, were able to come because as yet your heart is not corrupted. You are still in the balance. And as for how we got here, we flew here, of course. How else could we?” Elysia answered with a quizzical look, as she thought it should have been obvious to Jace.

  “And now I’m afraid I really must attend to duties,” she said as she turned and quickly left the room. As she left, Jace though how very fortunate he was that things turned out the way they had, in spite of his injury. It was worth it to finally reach the Pristine Lands and meet this amazing person.

  A few minutes later, Alea came back into the room, and then led Jace to where the large bathing room was located, furnished with towels and a fresh change of clothes. She was a little put out that Jace did not wish her help in bathing.

  “But Professor, I am supposed to render assistance to you. Your wound requires cleaning and you need a fresh bandage.”

  Jace assured her that her offer was greatly appreciated, but he was more used to stripping naked and bathing on his own. She thought that odd for one of his rank, but reluctantly agreed to rebind the wound after his bath.

  Once Jace and his wound were both dressed, Alea led him down a spiral staircase to the dining hall. The food prepared for him was unlike anything familiar in his world — fresh fruits of unknown varieties, along with unrecognized vegetables, nuts, cheeses, sweets, and categories of foods for which he had no reference. But it was all incredibly delicious, or else it seemed so with him being famished.

  Afterwards, he asked Alea if he could wander through the palace on his own. She assured him Elysia had left instructions that Jace was free to go wherever he wished, so he went off alone, travelling up and down the staircases, across various hallways, and into numerous rooms located on all levels of the palace. Multiple towers made up the palace, and Jace began to realize just how massive this beautiful structure was. Many people were also in attendance at the palace, all performing various tasks. He spent most of the day wandering about to orient himself and learning how to navigate from one level to the other.

  Eventually, Jace found his way to the top of the large main tower with windows, where Elysia’s sitting room was located and where Jace had first ‘seen’ her. It was exactly as it had appeared in his vision. Jace sat down in the same chair where he had first viewed Elysia sitting, thinking how very comfortable it felt. The floor, he noted, was marble with a beautiful inlaid floral pattern.

  Just then he heard a noise at the window and looked up. Startled, he jumped, tipping the chair over and landing on his back on the ground.

  Elysia laughed a little as she landed on the ground, and her white wings at once dematerialized as she stood on the floor in front of him.

  “I’m sorry, Jace. I didn’t mean to startle you. I should probably have sung my arrival before I flew in.”

  “You flew in! How did you do that! You had wings!”

  “Well yes, of course. The Eldane prefer to travel this way whenever we go longer distances. Do you not fly when you travel long distances in the Dream Realm?”

  “Not without an airplane!” Jace said emphatically.

  “Ah, well it seems w
e both have a lot to learn about the other Realms,” Elysia said, wondering what an ‘air plain’ could possibly be.

  Later that evening, Jace had the pleasure of dining with Elysia in the main Dining Hall. He quite enjoyed her company, and she provided more details on the geography and history of the Pristine Lands. Jace was amazed to learn there were just as many varied lands to the east of Castle Lake Realm as there were to the west, where one eventually reached The Periphery and the barrier. After dinner Elysia served some drink called marris, which was somewhat sweet and had a mild, intoxicating effect on Jace. After that, he just couldn’t seem to keep his eyes off Elysia, thinking how incredibly stunning she looked in her dark short evening dress.

  To his embarrassment, he realized he had just spoken that very thought out loud, not at all intending to. Looking contrite, he apologized.

  “Please forgive me, Elysia. The marris has apparently had quite an effect on me, and I never meant to speak aloud those words.”

  Elysia smiled and said, “It’s fine Jace. The marris affects people in different ways, and I take no offense at such a fine compliment freely given.”

  In fact, Elysia was quite pleased at what Jace had spoken, she thought to herself.

  “But perhaps it is best to call it an evening. You are still recovering from quite a nasty wound, and I would feel most guilty if by prolonging the entertainment and enjoyment of your company I suffered you harm. I fear Alea would be most displeased with me,” she said teasingly.

  “Well we wouldn’t want that,” Jace said with a smile. “In that case, I will take my leave. I hope tomorrow we can spend some more time together. I believe it is about time I talk to you about the lands I came from and discuss with you how and when I should return.”

  “That sounds like a very good idea. It has been on my mind as well. Alea, please escort Jace to his quarters and see that the bed is turned down and help him with whatever he needs to properly prepare for retiring.

  “Except a bath,” she added with a little smile.

  Jace looked around and saw he was back in Arizona at the edge of the canyon where he had first found the Elicon. Standing next to him were Dooley, Allison, Captain Severs, Davis, and Elysia. But they were looking up in the sky, not down in the canyon. Suddenly, silvery spaceships started popping into existence overhead. A whole fleet of them.

  Elysia said to Jace, “I don’t know how they could come in such numbers. They shouldn’t have the power to do that. Or the means! Now everything is at risk!”

  Davis said “The link that binds the two together…”

  Captain Severs said, “The hand of man reaches out…”

  Dooley said, “To firmly grasp the one seeking...”

  Allison said, “And to recover the lost.”

  Jace said, “This is the end of the dream.”

  Jace woke up in a cold sweat. The dream had terrified him, but he didn’t know what it meant. Or if it was a dream, or if it was a vision. Whatever it was, he knew for certain he needed to tell Elysia about the dream tomorrow. Something wasn’t right back home. Of that he was sure.

  “And that was the whole dream?” Elysia asked at breakfast the next morning.

  “Word for word, as best I can recall.”

  “You've had a vision from Eld,” Elysia stated definitively.

  “Well the first part seemed clear enough, I’d say. But it sure would have been nice if Eld had made the meaning of the verses a little clearer.”

  “That’s not the way of Eld. Sometimes things are left hidden because you aren’t yet prepared to receive it. But I do know this — the last part sounded like a prophecy. Only it was incorrect. It is the hand of Eld that reaches out to save the lost, not Man. That sounds very wrong to me,” Elysia said.

  Jace couldn’t agree more. Something was very wrong. Of that he was quite sure. He loved the Pristine Lands and having just arrived he couldn’t bear the thought of leaving them now. Or Elysia. But his friends were in danger. No, his whole world was in danger. He had no choice. He needed to go back.

  TEN

  FOUR YEARS AGO

  Colonel Heissman was happy to be stationed in Germany, even though it was meant to be a disciplinary action to take him out of the power structures in Washington D.C. In his ambitious drive for more control and autonomy, he had stepped on quite a few toes, and they hoped this assignment would quiesce his determination.

  However, they really had given him what he most wanted — freedom to pursue his own destiny. As one of the senior military leaders at the U.S. Army Garrison at Ansbach, he could pretty much do whatever he wanted to do, without other officers questioning his actions.

  Heissman was proud of his ancestry, and spoke fluent German thanks to his grandmother, who honored and remembered the old ways, unlike his parents who chose to forget. He enjoyed going into the nearby towns, wandering ancient brick streets and center plazas, and admiring their old-world buildings with red tiled, steep pointed roof lines, and tall church spires. He was especially fond of the medieval looking walled town of Rothenberg ob der Tauber, perhaps the best-preserved historic town in Germany, which was only thirty minutes away. Even though it was a bit of a tourist trap in his mind, he couldn’t help but admire its beauty and charm.

  Perhaps even more, he admired the ambition and drive for power that, decades ago, was somehow able to unite and mobilize these German people in such a way that their country moved from being broken and defeated, to the most powerful nation on earth in less than a single generation. During that time, they developed the most powerful and awesome weapons the world had ever seen. This is what he envisioned himself doing — developing powerful new weapons of war that would strike fear in the enemy.

  However, his leaders in Washington were not quite on board with his vision. Well, his time would come. For now, he would draw inspiration from his posting in Germany, and look for opportunity whenever and wherever it may present itself. For like the former German Chancellor, he also considered himself a man of destiny and knew it would only be a matter of time.

  “Are you serious, Dooley? With all your military training and numerous missions, you’ve never been to Germany?" asked Jace as he was driving toward their guesthouse in Nördlingen, a typical old style little German town. Although this one was a bit different, he thought to himself, in that it had a surrounding wall that was almost perfectly circular, enclosing the houses, shops, and of course the tall central ancient church.

  “Hey, Professor, almost all of my activity was over in the Middle-East, where there were actually people who were trying to kill us and destroy our country. I never got those cushy assignments where I could walk around in lederhosen, drink beer and chat with our allies about how great the world is,” Dooley said smiling.

  “Seriously though, thanks for inviting me along on this trip of yours. I’m sorry Kaylin couldn’t come this time, but glad you thought of your old buddy. Anyway, I’ve never really gotten to see you in action, and I had a couple weeks of vacation I had to use or lose.”

  “Well, I can’t promise my lecture on the Nördlinger Ries impact crater won’t absolutely bore you to death, but this part of Germany has some really interesting sights to see. About an hour from here is Rothenberg ob der Tauber. I have a feeling you would love that medieval walled city. You can still climb up on the wall and walk around the fortifications. I’m sure a military guy like you would enjoy that. Oh, and the beer is great too,” Jace added with a smile. “A perfect combination for you, I’d imagine.”

  “Hey, I’m not just a beer and battles kind of guy, I’ll have you know. I have actually done a little reading up on your field of ‘planetary geology’. It might surprise you to know I’ve developed an interest in that sort of thing.”

  “Oh really?” Jace said with a look that showed he couldn’t quite buy that.

  “I’m serious! I could see us travelling around as a team one day, you and me, investigating things and making good money. You would do all the professoring stuff of co
urse, and I would be your… I don’t know… bodyguard or second-in-command or something.”

  “Second-in-command... with just the two of us?” Jace laughed. “Anyway, I think Kaylin might have something to say about your plans. She likes living in Golden just fine, having her nice, dependable professor husband staying home teaching at the University. And she’s my number one, so I’m the second-in-command and that would make you third-in-command. But to be honest, this mostly stay-at-home professor does enjoy travelling the world a little, I must admit. I’m glad I got invited by LMU Munich to be their guest lecturer for this tour. You might be interested to know this tour is right up my… our… alley — the town of Nördlingen, where we are staying, is actually inside the Nördlinger Ries impact crater. And it's also a very scenic little town. As soon as we unpack, let's walk around and see if we can’t find a nice little tavern and sample some local beers."

  "And this is St. George's Church,” Jace announced to the walking tour. “Like most of the structures in Nördlingen, the stone used in its construction is actually suevite, a rock consisting partly of melted material typically forming a breccia containing glass and crystal or lithic fragments. Here, take a close look and you can see the shiny little grains and fragments in the stone. Suevite is formed during an impact event like the one creating the impact crater that Nördlingen sits in. Suevite forms part of a group of rock types and structures that are known as impactites.

  “Now, as we climb the staircase of the church’s gothic tower, you can see that the stone steps appear to glimmer where the sun strikes the worn surfaces. The entire tower is made out of suevite stone, and amazingly, enclosed in it are small diamonds. This area was rich in graphite when the meteorite struck here fifteen million years ago, creating the diamonds that are now imbedded in the local suevite stone. It was estimated by several geologists that the town walls and buildings contained approximately 72,000 tons of diamonds. Although suevite can be found in other parts of the world from similar impacts, nowhere is the gemstone concentration as high as it is in Nördlingen."