“Nin Endymion bel’Danel va’Laevanas.” The sense of pride emanating from Darien’s words as he spoke his name in his native tongue took Diana’s breath away. “I am Endymion, son of Danel, of clan Stoneheart.” He brought his right hand up to his chest in a fist and then bowed to her like a knight before a queen. The act seemed natural for him and not meant as a jest.
“Endymion…” His pride brought her memory to bear. “That’s why you felt so sad the other night when you kissed my hand; you wanted to say your real name but couldn’t.”
“You sensed that, did you?” he said with downcast eyes. “It’s true. It pained me not to be my true self with you, Miss Selene.”
His tender words shook Diana from her dazed thoughts. “I’ve heard that name before, and not just when Terra came home the other night.”
Then she remembered.
“I know—it’s from Greek myth. Endymion was the shepherd that the moon goddess fell in love with. The gods put him into an eternal sleep.”
Darien, or rather, Endymion’s warm smile filled Diana with a sense of pride.
“You are correct; I am named for that Endymion of legend. The myth of the Greeks was greatly influenced by our own accounts of the tragedy of Udana.”
“Who is Udana?” Diana asked, curious about the name. It sounded familiar as well.
“Udana is the Keeper of the Moon.”
“Your people have some of the same myths as the ancient Greeks?”
She felt Darien tense up as his eyes went wide and his mouth twisted in disgust. He’d been horribly offended by her question.
“Endymion and Udana are not myths—they are the sacred parents of my people. Without them, the world as you know it likely wouldn’t exist.”
Darien’s reaction greatly surprised her. She hadn’t expected him to believe in mythological moon goddesses. But then again, elves were mythology too, weren’t they? Her worldview meant absolutely nothing anymore.
“I’m sorry, I meant no offense. I just assumed moon goddesses weren’t real. People nowadays hardly believe in one god, let alone pantheons of them.”
Darien closed his eyes, sighed, and shook his head cynically. “For the last century, you humans have been obsessed with what your eyes can see and what your tests can prove.”
“That’s science,” Diana replied with a shrug.
“No. It’s not,” Darien quickly countered. “Science is the quest for nature’s truths, not a crusade for facts. Lately, humans claim anything once called magic was simply misunderstood science.” He chuckled with condescension. “I’m fairly certain science can’t explain how my people can live for a thousand years while your people barely live a hundred. And I’d wager that if one of your scientists took one step into the Veil, they would likely die of shock.”
“What’s the Veil?” she asked with intense curiosity and learned forward.
“The Veil of Madaera—the Soul of the Great Mother. It is the untamable realm of magic and dreams.”
Diana’s heart stopped for the briefest of moments before it began to race at the sudden epiphany.
“Magic and dreams are connected?”
“To an extent,” Darien replied. “Both require a soul, but human spirits are usually too weak to journey into a proper Veilscape; though for Naphalei, it is a nightly occurrence. Your kind barely touch the Veil when they dream.” His mouth twisted into an amused smirk. “Once in a while, though, a human will find themselves in the midst of the Veil and experience a nightmare the likes of which they will never forget.”
“It’s true,” Diana said softly, more to herself than to Darien.
Somehow, in spite of the unbelievable insanity of the night’s events, it was true—elves, magic, her nightmares—all of it. She’d been wandering within the Veil for years, ignorant of the terrible truth. Each cackling Lurker, each horrifying Terrorfiend, the Dark Masters—they had all been real.
Diana began to shiver uncontrollably.
“Can people find each other inside this Veil place?” she asked, remembering the evil menace of the Dark Master. “Can dreamers interact with one another?”
“It’s possible,” he replied. “Though it isn’t a normal occurrence. Dreaming in the Veil is not quite the same thing as consciously journeying within the Veil through magic.”
“People can enter the Veil when they’re awake?” Diana asked, wide-eyed with surprise, wondering why anyone would want to willfully enter such a place.
“With powerful magic, yes, though I wouldn’t recommend it. Dreaming is different—the Veil reflects the dreamer’s soul. An individual usually remains within their own section of the Veil while they dream. It takes a soul of considerably strong will to make a journey into the dreams of others. Besides the Veilwalkers of legend, only souls that are woven together by the threads of destiny can stumble upon each other—and usually only once in a lifetime.”
Threads of destiny? His words brought back the image of the strange being she had encountered in her dream world the night of the party—though she hadn’t known why at the time, she somehow knew it was Darien. What could it mean; that they were connected by fate?
“The night of Andrew’s party, I dreamed I was in a rocky landscape with an otherworldly red sky and a cracked moon. There was a strange man in the ruins of a white pillared temple, meditating. He was terrifying, yet also beautiful somehow…”
Darien’s eyes grew wide as realization dawned.
“It was you,” they both said in unison.
“You slapped me!” Darien exclaimed in anger, but then quickly became contemplative. “Then you were gone. I didn’t believe it was really you, only the Veil playing with visions.”
Though she was quite taken aback by the sudden revelation, Diana tried to look apologetic. “I’m sorry. I thought I was having a crazy nightmare; I just wanted to wake up.”
Again, she just closed her eyes and shook her head in wonder. The world Diana knew was blowing up around her and reforming into a new existence that she never thought possible.
“I just can’t believe it,” Diana said, finally. “All these years, my crazy nightmares had been real all along.”
Her declaration brought a genuinely puzzled, and deeply troubled, look to Darien’s face. “You experience the Veil on a regular basis?”
“I wouldn’t say a regular basis; it doesn’t happen every night. In fact, until I stepped foot on the Flinders campus it hadn’t happened in four years. When it started, though, it happened almost every night.”
She shivered at the memories.
“Curious.” Darien looked perplexed, studying Diana like a specimen in a jar. It made her feel incredibly uneasy. “Your spirit must have somehow been touched by the Veil when you arrived on campus. It occasionally happens to spiritually sensitive humans when they linger in places where the barrier between realms is thin. The campus is one such place; I suspect that is why Flinders chose it to build his church and school here.”
“How could Flinders know about stuff like that?”
“That, Miss Selene, is a story for some other evening.” After stretching the stiffness from his muscles, Darien offered his arm to Diana. “I should be getting you to your room. You’ve have had a very eventful night and must be exhausted.”
Though her mind was still a tumult of unanswered questions, Diana couldn’t argue with him. She was rather exhausted, mentally and physically. Hopping off the table, she took Darien’s offered arm and they left the secluded basement classroom.
“You never told me how old you are.” Diana said playfully as they reached the stairwell and began the ascent. “Embarrassed?”
“Not at all,” he declared with a roguish smile. “I am currently in my two-hundred and ninety-eighth year.”
“You’re almost three hundred years old?” she asked in amazement. “And here my dad told me I couldn’t date anyone over twenty.”
Darien chucked at her dad’s restriction. “Yes, I’m sure your father will be most pleased
to hear that I am two-hundred and eighty years your senior.”
“That sounds so wrong,” Diana replied, shaking her head.
“If it helps, our aging process is just slower. Physically, I am the same as a twenty-eight year old human.”
“I don’t know,” she said impishly. “Twenty-eight is still too old for my dad. Wait—so you were in puberty for like fifty years?”
Darien just nodded.
“Man, that’s rough.” Diana couldn’t imagine being stuck in those awkward teenage years for decades. There was always a down-side, even to living for a thousand years.
Before they exited the stairwell, Diana stopped and let go of Darien’s arm and he turned to see what was wrong.
“Aren’t you forgetting something?” she asked with a wide grin.
He looked at her with questioning eyes, wondering if he had or not.
“I don’t think so.”
Diana brought her index finger up to her ear and Darien’s eyes beamed with recognition.
“Oh, how foolish of me,” he said, looking rather embarrassed. “I’m not used to being in my true form. I’m fairly certain that this is the first time any of us has let go of our disguise in human lands since we arrived here.”
He quickly took the ring from his pocket and placed it back on his finger. As he did so, the air rippled as it had before and the otherworldly appearance of Endymion Stoneheart became that of Darien Shepherd once again.
“How does that work, exactly?” Diana asked, looking at the ring.
Darien motioned for her to take his hand and investigate. As she did, Diana rubbed the ornately engraved letters as if feeling them would somehow help her understand their meaning.
“It’s called a beguile ring,” Darien explained. “It uses a particular magic called Runecraft. When someone wears the ring it doesn’t actually change their appearance, but rather, masks them in the image they project.”
Curious, Diana reached out to touch Darien’s ear. She ran her index finger along the upper edge until she came to the place where his elven ear should keep extending. Just as he said, she could feel the rest of the ear even though her mind couldn’t register it with sight.
“Amazing…” she exclaimed. “Can all elves use magic?”
“Not like a mage; no,” he replied. “All Naphalei experience the Veil, but not all of us can bend its energies to our will. Non-mages are magical enough to use enchanted items like these, though.”
Diana pondered his words a moment. “It’s sort of like art. Everyone is born with the ability to experience and enjoy various forms of art, be it a painting, a sculpture, or music. There probably isn’t a person alive that doesn’t enjoy some form of art, but not everyone has the ability to paint a masterpiece or write a symphony.”
Darien’s amazed eyes and warm smile made Diana feel like a glittering treasure. She’d impressed him with her analogy.
“Yes, that is a perfect explanation,” he said as he took her hand in his. “But come, we must get you to your room.”
“But I have so many more questions,” she protested.
“In due time, Miss Selene.”
“Okay, just one more for now then. You used magic to stop the car, didn’t you?”
“Yes, I am a stone mage.”
“So, you can control things like rocks and dirt?”
Darien nodded. “I can bend the Veil energies in earthen materials to my will, forming them in various ways. For example, I can make a lead pipe as weak and brittle as clay.”
“Or make a clay object as hard as a lead pipe,” Diana chimed in as realization dawned on her. Darien had used a bit of magic the night he saved Lani from the football thugs. Looking back, the blunt object he had used had seemed way too fragile to knock out a football player.
Darien smiled at her for figuring it out.
“You caught me, Miss Selene. I thought it best not to leave behind any physical evidence that would link me to the attack—just in case I hit the Neanderthal too hard and killed him. It was really just a clump of dirt I pulled from a potted plant before I ran outside. After it was over, it turned back into simple dirt. Whatever evidence that would be left behind would not be able to be analyzed sufficiently.”
“What about the others?” Diana asked. “Are Andrew and Miri mages too?”
“Anderon’s abilities are water-based; Miraena’s are as well, although her skills lie more in the area of atmospheric manipulations.”
“Miri is a weather mage? That’s so cool.” Diana’s imagination filled with visions of Miri flying through the clouds wielding lightning bolts.
“Not exactly,” he replied. “The weather is an extremely difficult realm to master. It takes a group of proficient storm mages, with centuries of training, to influence weather patterns. Miraena is nowhere near that powerful. She can, however, manipulate the moisture in the air around her to make things like mists or fogs. She can also manipulate air currents to a certain extent and use them forcibly as a weapon.”
“So, she’s more of a wind mage,” Diana said.
“I suppose so.”
“Can you master multiple areas of magic?”
“Most of us are born with an affinity for only one element. However, a rare few are born with the capacity to master all elements and aspects of magic; they go on to become Archmages. Each element takes, at the very least, two hundred years to become adept. The journey to become an Archmage is a life-long one that few are able to reach to completion.”
He pulled at her hand. “Now, we must be on our way.”
Diana sensed his growing impatience but ignored it. “One last question.”
His irritation was evident. “Didn’t you say that very thing five questions ago?”
“Terra is a fire mage, isn’t she?” she asked. “That’s the reason Andrew laughed at my ‘fireballs-from-her-eyes’ comment.”
Darien nodded, a bit too gravely, that she was correct and Diana felt beads of perspiration form upon her brow. Terra really could burn her alive if she wanted to—and she seemed to want to quite a bit.
Diana didn’t like talking about this so much anymore.
Darien recognized the concern on her face.
“I wouldn’t fret about it too much, Miss Selene. She may seem threatening but Terraiyah won’t harm you. In fact, she has a stern devotion to abstaining from her powers if it’s not necessary.”
“Well that’s good at least,” Diana replied after a deep breath. “We can go now.”
Darien nodded and then reached for the stairwell door but turned around abruptly.
“For the time being, it would probably be best if you do not mention any of this to the others. I’m not quite certain how they’d react to you knowing our secrets.”
Diana nodded to his request and they walked hand-in-hand out of the library.
Once outside, Diana closed her eyes and let Darien lead her by the hand as she breathed in the cool night air of a world she apparently knew nothing about.
Was any of what happened tonight truly real? With Darien back in his human form, it really did seem like just a dream. Her rational mind and heart for fantasy were at war with each other, struggling to make sense of her present reality.
Opening her eyes, Diana’s heart dropped to see that they were nearing her dorm. She didn’t want the evening to end, not yet. Not only did she have so many unanswered questions, but she wasn’t ready to say goodnight to Darien either. Prior to the world-shattering scenario that had just occurred, she’d been having a wonderful first date with Darien Shepherd as he escorted her through a treasure trove of ancient artifacts. She’d also rather enjoyed dressing up in a fancy gala dress, though her exquisite matching heels were now taking quite the toll on her feet.
Passing a nearby bench, the aches in her feet gave Diana a clever inspiration and she smiled to herself. Perhaps she could extend the evening a bit longer after all.
“I’m going to need to rest my feet a bit,” she declared and then sat down.
“I haven’t worn heels like this in a while.” Diana slipped off her shoes and sat them beside her on the bench. “You can go on home if you like, though. We aren’t too far from the dorms; I can get myself back alright.”
Though impatient, Darien looked defiant to her offer nonetheless. “It’s Saturday night and there is no telling how many drunken fools are lurking about. I said I would see you safely home and that is what I intend to do.”
He sat down beside her and then surveyed the area for signs of trouble. Once he determined the area to be safe he relaxed.
“Take as much time as you need,” he declared.
Diana smiled with intense satisfaction at how easy it was to manipulate Darien’s overprotectiveness. There was no doubt in her mind that it wouldn’t be the last time she did it, either.
Diana sighed happily and looked up into the cloudless night’s sky. The full moon made the evening perfect. It also inspired her to ask a question she knew Darien would be more than happy to answer with enthusiasm.
“You mentioned Endymion and the moon goddess earlier. Can you tell me more about them while rest my feet?” Diana asked, continuing to look at the moon.
“Of course,” Darien replied with a warm smile. He also looked to the moon for a moment before he began. “Their tale is one I have heard since before I can remember. My mother seemed to have a special place in her heart for it.” He looked lost in a memory for a moment. “I suppose that’s why she named me Endymion; it isn’t a completely uncommon name among my people, but I don’t know many others besides myself. Mother used to tell me their story as I drifted to sleep; I can quote most standard versions by heart.”
“Then you may proceed, oh great storyteller,” Diana replied with mock politeness while she adjusted herself into a more comfortable position.
He cleared his throat. “For the sake of brevity, I’m going to gloss over the beginning of time.”
“How kind of you,” Diana replied with a sardonic smirk.
Darien crossed one leg over the other and looked a great deal more relaxed than Diana had ever seen him in the past. There was also a hint of excitement and joy on his face. She could feel that the story he was about to relate was very dear to him. Even though he was back in his human disguise, Diana felt like she was seeing the real Darien for the first time.
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