Finishing the words on the page, blood-red words with letters of shining, red fire burned behind his eyes and into his brain. The spells he had prepared were in his mind and just waiting to be activated. All they required now was the spell name to be invoked, and he would have to perform any gestures and use components. However, the complex spell words did not have to be repeated again; just the activation word, and in some cases not even that much, just a gesture or component would trigger them.
Just as he finished, the door opened, and Mistress Janey returned. “The time has expired, Grant. I hope you are ready.” It was not a question.
Standing from the table, he nodded and put his spell books into large pockets on his robes. He said a quick prayer, asking for favor in the trials ahead.
With a gesture, Janey opened the stone door opposite the one she came through. “May God bless you, Grant.”
Grant stepped through the yawning portal.
Grant blinked in the bright sunlight. That was odd. Why is there sunlight here? Where is here? he wondered. Then… then he thought of a better question. Why am I surprised at sunlight? He was about to hike into the forest, and forests were outside, almost by definition. He was hiking in the national park outside the city where he went to seminary. He chuckled to think about how his classmates would be shocked to see the red robes, but they wouldn’t see them.
Sure, he might run into them, but they’d see the robes as a red hiking shirt. The Veil did things like that all the time.
“Ho, there, fellow Beyonder!” someone called out to him.
Grant turned to see a group of three people at the bottom of the hill. A man and woman about thirty stood waving at him and another woman sat on the grass with her back to him. The dark-haired man wore a ranger’s outfit, brown leather from head to toe with a band around his bearded head. He carried a long bow in one hand and had a sword strapped to his waist.
“Want to join us?” the older of the two women asked him. She wore a short skirt over green leggings and a white blouse. Grant guessed this brunette woman to be a rogue. She and the ranger both wore wedding rings.
The Ranger shouted up to him, “We could use a mage on the quest. Just some low-level farming, nothing to worry about.”
Grant raised an eyebrow as he slowly came down the hill, twigs snapping under his soft, leather boots. The other woman piqued his curiosity. Was this a trap? All he could tell at this point was that she wore a dark green dress with flowers in her hair and had a bloodhound laying beside her. Grant pegged her as a druid with an animal companion.
When Grant reached the bottom of the hill, she stood and turned towards him. If Grant hadn’t already been standing still, he would have tripped. He knew this woman! Her name was Lisa Paige, and they had dated his senior year of high school. She was one year younger than he.
The thin, young woman was very pretty with her wavy red hair and wore no ring. The dress was of a modest length but cut tight at the waist and bust. A slit came up one side of the skirt her mid-thigh. A golden, cleric’s medallion hung around her neck, but he couldn’t see the symbol of her patron. Grant caught his breath and, without thinking, checked her left hand for a ring. Her left ring finger was bare.
“Lisa?” he asked. “You’ve crossed over?”
“In the flesh!” She spread her arms wide. “I came Beyond about three years ago.”
“Well, I’m certainly glad to see you,” he said, accepting her embrace. “I’ve not been Beyond long.”
His hands could feel the warmth of her body radiating through the fabric of the dress. Memories assailed him as he became glad Karen was not present. Lisa’s cheek pressed against his shoulder just as he remembered from years ago. She hadn’t even changed the scent of her shampoo. Their parting had been mutual, but then, too late, he regretted the break up.
The ranger stepped in. “I hate to interrupt a reunion, but the three of us are here on business, and we need you to join us.”
“Just farming the forest” Grant asked, reluctantly stepping away from Lisa, “and you need an arcane caster?” He asked the question of Hector, but kept his eyes on Lisa.
“Yep,” the young woman said with a cheery smile. “Grant, this is Hector and Sue. Hector, Sue, meet Grant. He’s probably deduced our classes upon sight. Mages are known for high INT!”
“It’s required for the class,” Grant said, smiling back. “Ranger, druid, and rogue.” He indicated each in turn.
“Oh, snap!” Sue exclaimed. “You got two of us. Missed Lisa completely.”
He simply raised an eyebrow at Lisa. He’d have to figure out their alignments, but none struck him as evil. Then again, evil didn’t always dress the part like the Dark One’s mages.The woman in green giggled. “I used to wish that I’d crossed over as a druid, hence the green, but I’m glad to be a cleric of the Matronae with the animal domain.” She pointed to the medallion hanging against her chest. It showed three women sitting side-by-side.
Grant’s back snapped a little straighter, and his smile faded. “That’s most interesting. The matrons were Celtic, right?” Then a thought struck him. “The hound is not your animal companion. It’s Hector’s.”
“That’s right,” Hector said. “My dog is Cafall. I’m level ten. Sue and Lisa are both level nine. What’s your level?”
“Eight,” Grant said. “High enough to join your little party?”
Sue smiled. “You bet!”
The four quickly shared a bit about themselves. All three raised an eyebrow at Grant when he said he was a seminary student on the other side.
Sue the rogue frowned. “We’re kinda stumped at the moment, if you think you can help us out. A rogue we trust gave us this letter about about a goblin hideout in this state park. We can’t read it. Think you can help with the clue?” Mouth twisted in frustration, she held out a piece of parchment.
Grant took the parchment. Surprisingly, the letters were Greek. “I can work on this.” He concentrated on the message, mentally translating the words. He knit his brow. “Do you know who wrote this?”
“Just that it was an old monk,” Hector replied.
“No. At least, not entirely.” He was moving into his element here. “This was originally written by at least two different people.” He held the paper out to his companions. “See? The copyist took great care to preserve the wording of the originals, but he couldn’t hide his own handwriting. This manuscript comes from one, final hand but the source had multiple authors.”
“You can tell that by just looking at it?” Sue asked.
“Yeah.” He started pointing. “Some of the verbs in the top section use the optative mood. That’s common in classical Greek, but rare in later stages. The bottom doesn’t use it at all, but there are places where it would fit. Secondly, the author of the bottom preferred to use only kai for all his conjunctions, which can work. However, the upper writer used kai and de.” He pushed his glasses up on his nose from where they had slid down. “I’m boring you.”
“No, this is fascinating,” Sue said her voice completely flat. “Language history just doesn’t help us at all.”
Chastised, Grant read the letter to them, keeping the paper away from a jumping Cafall. He stopped when he read, “Great treasure behind the great door in the hill.”
Grant looked from the parchment in his hand to the trio in front of him. “This is more than farming. This is part of a quest.”
Hector replied, “That it is, and you just proved you’re smart enough to join in.” He held out his phone with the PCMe app open. A notification read, “Grant Von Wold has joined your party.”
Everyone’s phone beeped. Grant saw his notice read, “You have joined the party of Hector, Sue, and Lisa!”
Back in the scrying room, Karen gripped the arms of her chair while looking down into the water. “Lisa Paige!” The chair and couch were a matched set but with a pattern from the 1970s.
Chrissy was trying not to smile. “Trouble in paradise?”
“N
o. Just an unexpected surprise.” However, she couldn’t keep a hint of jealousy out of her voice.
“Think what we see is real?”
“What?” Karen asked, looking up from the water.
“Remember, he never left the tower. We’re watching an illusion play out in the basement, the enormous basement. Lisa probably isn’t even real. They just found her image when sorting through his memories to personalize the Trials.”
Karen blinked and sat back in the chair. “You’re right. The three chose her because it would test his concentration! They were high school sweethearts.”
“I gathered that. Doesn’t look to me like either of them has forgotten that fact.” She grinned while indicating the water. Grant and Lisa were chatting and laughing.
Karen fumed. Until she knew otherwise, she was going to assume Lisa was real and not an illusion. “What does she have that I don’t?”
Chrissy replied with a laugh, “I’m guessing a plus two Dress of Alluring.” Then, she winced and looked down into the basin.
“You are not helping!” Karen shouted.
Chrissy held her arms up. “Look at my robes! Black velvet! Do these say ‘helpful with others’?”
“No, they don’t say that at all.” Karen threw a cushion, smacking Chrissy in the face.
The black robe caught it before it fell in the scrying basin. “Careful there, Juliet. If the water splashes out, we can’t spy on Romeo and Rosaline.”
Karen bit back a snarl when Chrissy named the girl Romeo had crushed on before meeting Juliet. She groused. “She could have had her pick of any guy. Yet, she chose Grant. Why?”
“Is that supposed to be complimentary for Grant?” Chrissy frowned.
Before Karen could answer, a cart with a platter of snack foods appeared.
“I think Mistress Janey doesn’t want us to fight,” Chrissy said. “We should do as she says.”
Karen hung her head, looking into the basin. “I just want to know why Grant went for her and not me back then?”
“Well, the age difference means she could car date, and you were the best friend of his little sister. That would be kinda like dating his sister when he was that age.”
Perturbed, Karen looked deeply into the basin just as Lisa put a hand lightly on Grant’s arm. Grant didn’t brush it off. “Now he’s flirting with her!”
“He’s not. Grant is always like that when talking to women. He has the same look on his face and tone when talking with me.”
“Oh, really?” Karen asked in ice-cold tones.
“Would I lie to you? I may be Evil, but I’m honest.” The black robe stared into the basin for a moment. “Want some gum? It’s my own recipe.” She held out a package, taking a stick for herself.
Staring perplexedly at Chrissy, Karen took the proffered gum. “That’s an interesting flavor. Very hot, not that I expected anything else. What is it? Dragon’s Breath?” Her eyes were tearing already.
“Basilisk blood.”
Karen spit the gum into her hand.
“Oh, don’t worry. Artificial flavors.” Chrissy rolled her eyes.
“Hector! Duck!” Grant yelled. Then, “Air Darts!”
The ranger bent low in the clearing as an orc swung a club over his head.
The orc fell as twelve darts of solid air struck him in the face.
Grant saw Hector strike out with a sword at another orc behind him. That orc went down with a split hamstring. Grant cast another spell. “Harden Skin!” He felt his skin strengthen against blows. He counted four more orcs.
Lisa and Sue went into action with Grant.
“Bane!” Lisa shouted, pointing at the orcs who stumbled back. They would have minor trouble every round of the battle. “Cleric’s Weapon!”
A battleaxe of pure force appeared and swung as Lisa directed, scattering the orcs.
Sue used her rogue skills to dodge and get an orc close to Hector. Her husband stabbed it in the arm.
After the initial rounds, the battle turned in the orcs favor. Grant settled into his role of offensive magic but felt himself tiring. He had damaged the orcs but not enough to kill any. I should have bought endurance at my last level up! he thought, perturbed at himself. He marveled at Lisa’s concentration as she cast prayer after prayer at their enemies.
Taking a deep breath, Grant mentally readied another spell. He needed something big to help Sue. An orc had her backed up to an oak tree.
A mage always wanted to save the big spells for when they were most needed. This was the time for Enhanced Lightning. If he took his time, it would do more damage to the orc. Did he have the time? He had to risk it.
Grant pulled the magical energies close and shaped them in his mind. He decided to take a full round of action. That would make the spell deal up to 64 points of damage to the orc. The time had come. He opened his mouth to speak the activation words.
“Enhanced Light--”
Grant fell sideways as an orc he hadn’t seen punched him in the jaw. The mage wanted to swear. That was his most powerful spell and being interrupted like that made him lose it from memory. A faint sizzle in the air meant the spell was gone.
Growling, the orc stood over him, club drawn back and readied.
Heart pounding, Grant reached into his component pouch and felt a piece of dry bone from a mummy. He could use that! “Scare!” he shouted, feeling the bone crumble into dust. He hated using necromancy. He always felt dirty afterwards.
The orc dropped his club and fell back, eyes wide with fright.
Then, the orc fell with two arrows in his back. Hector had come to the rescue! “I have orc as a Favored Enemy. We’ll call it even,” the ranger said with a smile.
“Sue!” Grant shouted, pointing.
Hector nodded. “Lisa took care of that orc when she saw what you were trying to do.” He helped Grant rise to his feet.
The four humans and Cafall soon ran off the last orc.
Lisa started with Sue and laid hands on her. “Gift of Healing.” Then she did the same to Hector.
“Gift of Healing,” Lisa said, laying hands gently on his face.
He felt the healing power go through him, radiating out from her warm hands. He placed one hand on top of hers. From time-to-time during his college life, he had wondered what the two of them would have been like if the relationship continued.
She did not pull away.
“You also have the Chaos domain,” Grant said to Lisa. Summoning the Battleaxe had been a giveaway as to her alignment. Except for those who were True Neutral, every cleric he knew had taken a domain in accordance with their alignment.
She nodded. “The Matronae are Chaotic Neutral.”
Grant kept himself from raising an eyebrow. Since a cleric had to be within one step of their patron, she could be any chaotic. He also wondered about Hector and Sue. Rouges could not be Lawful, but rangers could be any alignment. However, Hector didn’t act Lawful. Was everyone in the party Neutral of some kind?
The cleric healed Hector and Sue so they could continue their journey.
“Tell me, Grant,” Lisa said as they traveled on, “You seem to know a lot about the clerics. Feeling the urge to go into religion here?”
“Not really,” he said. “I thought it useful to read up on the other classes I’d go questing with. Religion isn’t really my thing. Theology is what I love.” He knew his eyes were twinkling with excitement to get into his favorite topic.
“What’s the difference?” Hector asked, looking ahead for anything out of the ordinary.
“Religion starts with man and what he does in trying to reach up to the divine. Theology starts with God and how He reaches down to mankind.”
Sue snorted. “That’s either the most profound statement in the history of philosophy or the biggest load of malarkey on earth.”
“It’s the first,” Lisa said. She winked at Grant as she continued, “However, I’d make ‘god’ plural.”
Grant raised an eyebrow at the unexpected barb. “W
ould you now? You used to be Christian. I understand Christians can be clerics of certain patrons but not others. Where do the Matronae fit?”
She pushed hair out of her face and frowned. “I’m not a practicing Christian, anymore. I have too many issues with it’s I’m-the-only-god God.”
Grant paused for a moment as he moved brush off the path with a lifting spell. “Such as?”
“There’s a huge chicken and egg problem with Christianity. If God wills an action, it must be good?” She waited for him to agree. “Yet, is it good because God wills it, or does he will it because it is good?”
Grant blinked for a moment. He had heard this dilemma before but couldn’t solve it himself. “So, is goodness arbitrary and God could simply declare it differently tomorrow or is it necessary and eternal, thus existing without the need of God.”
Hector and Cafall looked back at the two of them. “Can we move along? We’ve still got a ways to go before we stop for the night.”
Lisa looked up at Grant with her eyes sparkling. “Exactly! Think on it.” She kissed her medallion and went on ahead. “Hey,” she called back. “If you can solve it, take your next two levels in cleric. Then you can go mystic theurge.”
Grant followed along, thinking deeply and wishing Lisa and her swinging hips were not walking five feet in front of him. In the years they’d been apart, she’d perfected her sashay. He prayed, lifting his eyes to heaven, as they walked.
The rest of the day went uneventfully. Grant and Lisa cast spells as needed until the sky mixed red and orange together as the sun set.
“It’s getting later,” Hector said. “We’ll have to continue in the morning.”
“Good idea. Lisa and I will need to refresh our slots before we finish. Um...” He looked around at the companions. No one had anything more than a backpack. “Who brought the camping equipment?” Grant asked. Motels and inns were allowed when questing, but the party was deep in the forest.
“No need,” Sue answered. “We know a hunter’s cabin just ahead on the trail.”
Fantastic Schools: Volume One (Fantastic Schools Anthologies Book 1) Page 17
