by R N Skye
“That was you? But you don’t look anything like the guy who was with the king.”
“We can discuss that later. When Roger gets back with your sandwich sit back and relax enjoy your meal, Roger has a way with simple food. Give him a minute and he makes the simple food great. Give him and hour and he can make a master piece for any palette. I’ve been coming here for years and I’ve never been disappointed.”
When Roger returned with the food Shane thanked him and handed back the now warm damp towel and said that it had done the trick; promising after the Luion proprietor’s admonition to apply another cool compress later if the swelling continued.
Ari stood and dropped a twenty crown note on the table. “That’s for your meal and my tab, make sure that Roger gets it. My hotel is next door; first floor room one twenty. See if you can sneak out of here if you can, I wouldn’t put it passed some of these Lions fans wanting to exact a little revenge on the bets they lost today,” he said with a chuckle.
As Ari had suggested the food was delicious and the wine perfect. Shane consumed the nutriment in record time in spite of his sore jaw.
After eating and finishing his wine Shane shouldered his pack and sought Roger at the bar. He handed the twenty to the man explaining what it was for but he only took it under protest because it was partly for Ari’s meal as well and because of Ari’s current appearance he hadn’t recognized him as Stafford.
Trying to think of a way to leave unnoticed Shane went to the Toilet and closed the door. After making sure that he was the only one in the room he decided to try the hide glyphs on himself.
Shane visualized the simple glyphs using mastery and targeted his body. Everything went black. He quickly released the glyphs. After reviewing in his mind the hide enchantment he read the footnotes and saw his mistake. The enchantment was a simple light bending and as a result all light coming to his eyes would be bent away allowing no light to enter. After playing around a few times he decided to enchant his body with the hide glyphs but to unhide his pupils with the unhide glyphs. This worked for a moment but maintaining both sets of glyphs without a substrate was more than he could manage and both enchantments faded after just a few moments. Digging out his scribe he hurriedly wrote the glyphs on his shirt sleeve and tried again. This time the enchantment held. As he stared in the mirror above the vanity he was amazed at seeing himself holding his pack and scribe that appeared to be floating in the air. If he looked closely he could just barely see two floating black dots that were his visible pupils. He would have to consult the instructor later to see if there was a way to filter light one way, that way he should be able to hide the black dots of his eyes. Meanwhile this would have to do the trick; most of the crowd that he had to get by was extremely intoxicated by now and once he was outside it would be dark and no one should be able to spot the dots. As he was about to leave he realized his pack was still visible. He quickly scribed the hide glyphs on one of the straps stuffed the scribe inside and activated it into invisibility as well.
Invisible except for the dots of his eyes, Shane made his way past the few patrons of the Ox that were milling about. With more than a few feelings of guilt he shoved a man just bringing his mug to his mouth for a drink causing him to spill. The event was soon a brawl as he blamed the man next to him for the rude shove. Under the cover of the new distraction Shane opened the entry door of the Tavern and quietly slipped out; the hauntingly seeming unassisted opening and closing of the door went unnoticed.
Shane hurried to the hotel and entered unseen due to the fact that the clerk sitting behind the check-in counter was enjoying the slowness of the late evening and reading the paper. After looking around Shane saw the hallway that would lead to Ari’s room. Once he was outside of the room he deactivated the magic and knocked on the door.
Inside the room Ari was watching a screen with surprise. He had just a moment ago looked at the image just outside his door and had not seen anyone there, but in less than a blink there was Shane knocking on the door. Ari didn’t hurry to the door, instead he replayed the last thirty seconds of events in front of his door recorded by his visual pickups. What he saw was short of amazing. One moment the young man wasn’t there, the next he was. Just as suddenly his pack appeared on his shoulder.
He had done it. The boy had actually done it. The Activator problems were solved and the kid might have actually figured out how glyphs worked. “Ava,” he said out loud, “If you don’t hang on to this guy I’m going to kick your butt.”
Ari turned off the screen and went and opened the door.
VIII
Ava was no longer in the greying mess tent. Her surroundings had completely changed. She had felt nothing except perhaps a slight tingle that one feels in the stomach; not unlike when sitting on a chair that leans back too far and you almost fall but catch your-self at the last moment. The shock of the change was indescribable.
Her mind was a whirl. When someone indicates you are in danger and can you please come with them the last thing you picture in your mind is finding yourself instantly on an unfamiliar hilltop.
The hill was sparsely covered in the yellow grass of autumn with a few clumps of sage. From where she stood she could see down into a pleasant open-ended valley divided by a large meandering stream that emerged from a distant mountain range to the south and disappeared into the ever widening valley to the north. She was fairly certain of her directions as she could see the sun setting over what appeared to be distant dry hills or dunes. Turning around she saw that the hill that she was on was more of a bench at the foot of another large mountain that seemed to reflect the hues of browns, golds, and oranges from the sunset. Not far off was a tall elongated square building with multiple large windows and a large platform that ran the length of the building; it seemed to Ava to be more of a loading dock except for the fact that it was next to a building that looked like more of an office building except there were several benches along the front.
The man that had asked her to come with him was nowhere to be seen but standing nearby as if waiting for her to adjust was a plainly dressed but remarkably beautiful middle aged woman.
The woman was slightly taller than Ava, athletic but unmistakably feminine. She wore light blue trousers and a white blouse with a robin egg green vest that complimented her lithe figure. Her softly curled hair was tied back with a green band that stood out her against her auburn hair and matched the vest. Ava decided to approach the woman. She quickly walked the short distance in hopes of discovering where she was and how she had gotten there.
“Hello,” Ava greeted hesitantly, “did you see a man here a moment ago, kind of tall, kind of serious looking; he may have had a small golden metal device in his hand?”
The woman smiled a wide friendly smile, “You must be Ava.”
“Yes,” Ava Desmond, “have we met?” Ava held out her hand in greeting.
Instead of a hand shake the woman embraced Ava with an emotional hug and a kiss on each cheek. “I’m Laura. Oh!” She gasped with moist eyes placing an emotional hand over her mouth. You are so beautiful. Shane told me all about you in his letters. I can’t believe I get to finally meet you.”
Ava was dumbfounded. Who was this woman; how does she know Shane? Before she could formulate her rapidly growing list of questions the woman took her hand and began tugging her in the direction of the building.
“Let’s go up to the station and have a cup of tea while we wait for the overland; it’s due within the hour. We will have ample time to catch up.” Noting Ava’s confused look, the woman added, “I know what is going through your mind. I had the same experience a few weeks ago myself. I’m afraid Shane is a lot like his father; you are going to need to be a very patient woman.”
“Shane doesn’t have a father,” thought Ava. The questions were really starting to pile up.
The building seemed almost new. There were large printed lists of schedules posted on the walls opposite the entry with destinations and names of locations t
hat Ava had never heard of. Other than the walls with the schedules the remaining walls were mostly windows or large glass doors. “This must have cost a fortune to build,” thought Ava.
Ava found herself ushered to a comfortable faux wicker chair made of an unknown light weight metal next to a quaint round table near a large window that had a clear view of the platform out in front of the building.
“Where is this place” Ava asked as the woman returned from a large glyph covered multi-colored cabinet with two steaming cups of what smelled like peppermint tea.
“From what Soaris has told me this is an overland station that was built by the Elios over two thousand years ago,” answered Laura as she took a seat opposite from Ava.
“What is an overland?”
“An overland is like nothing you can imagine it is a transport; long and thin and travels at amazing speed. You’ll see it shortly.
“I know you must have quite a few questions,” continued Laura. “Let me see if I can answer a few questions for you. Where to start where to start…”
“I’m going to have to leave a lot out because it would just take too long but I’ll go back to where I recently came into the story. About twenty three years ago a young seamstress met a very handsome man who for lack of a better term I’ll call an archeologist, who worked for a highly advanced group of scholars. The archeologist and the seamstress fell madly in love. They were soon married and settled in a boarder city near where many of the newest archeological digs were taking place at the time. They soon had a son and life looked great.
The young archeologist had to travel quite frequently for his work due to his role in the preservation of one of the greatest artifacts created by the Elios. One thing led to another and before long the young man was soon asked if he would accept the sole guardianship of all Elios Artifacts. In an effort to preserve the knowledge of the artifacts of the Elios he created a group that he hoped would one day be able to relearn the ways of the glyph magic of old - In fact several members of your family are members of that organization. In addition to restoring the knowledge of the glyph magic of the Elios the main purpose of this archeologist was to protect an ancient artifact known as the Arc.
One day the young man came to his wife and told her that as the guardian of the Arc that he had been tasked to prepare for an event that was to happen in the near future. That he had been instructed by the Elder leaders that employed him, to prepare the way for someone who would bring back the way magic was prior to the fall of the Old Luion.
That man was and still is Soaris; He is my husband and I was the seamstress. The child, our son, grew up to be Shane. Who as you know went off to college to play sports and get an education and happened to meet you.” Laura paused and took a sip of her tea while it was still hot.
“As for what has led to this day.” Laura continued. “Due to the ever mounting political dangers that could possibly lead to the harming of his family, Shane’s father went away with the promise that he would return one day as soon as possible. After a couple of years and he did not return and the only news I had were rumors of a notorious smuggler named Soaris, I eventually, in an effort to spare Shane the dangers of having a father for an outlaw, told him that his father had passed away when he was a toddler.
About a month or so ago I was closing up my store and several soldiers barged in and began going through my shop and equipment looking for what they claimed to be unlicensed artifacts. As a seamstress with no magetech understanding at all, and not knowing one artifact from another I just stood back in horror as they tore apart the place and confiscated my sewing machines with the statement that they were not licensed. I was then taken into custody and put in jail charged with possession of illegal artifacts. The sad part is that my shop was one of many; the whole city was being made an example of by someone from the crown. Rumor is that Allion the Third had ordered the raids personally.
I was terrified of course, I had no way of contacting Shane and I was almost ill with worry
While in jail awaiting a magistrate I awoke one night to see the vaguely familiar face of a man kneeling beside my cot. As you can guess it was my Soaris. He held me and told me it everything would be alright. Naturally I slapped him and yelled at him for leaving me alone for nearly twenty years. Then without any warning while I was hugging and kissing him the next thing I realized I was standing right in the same spot where you popped up this afternoon. He explained to me that things were changing and that we no longer needed to be away from one another; that from now on I would be safer with him than apart.
He took us to this location because this is the only location that the artifact he used on us will transport to. He would need to explain the detail; something to do with transporting someone other than himself. Not to worry though the overland here still functions three times a day and will take us to the village of Yllyan; unfortunately here and Yllyan are the only place it goes at the moment but when magic once again prevails on Luion and the world relearns how glyph magic works some day we will restore it to other locations. Meanwhile Yllyan is where I’m living now. I’ll take you there as soon as the overland arrives.
To continue,” Laura took another sip of her tea. ”After Soaris took me to Yllyan I met many displaced people like myself; most of them fleeing from the crown of Infin for trumped up artifact charges. It was here that I found out about the revolution and the organizations that Soaris had in place for the restoration of glyph knowledge and magic. Your Father is one of the chief among them. Your Uncle Ari and Aunt Leslie also I believe.”
Ava was beginning to read between the lines. “So,” she began, “Shane knows absolutely nothing about this?”
“Not a thing and I’m worried sick. He’s such an academic and idealist I am afraid that the crown or IDAD will try to recruit him because of how skilled he has become; perhaps even unwillingly as the crown has found the lost city of Hylye-Amahn and the king is poised to exploit or even destroy the history there.”
“Is this Hylye-Amahn an island?”
“I believe so. Although according to the little information that Soaris has provided, it used to be part of the Jehhet peninsula back before the fall. Soaris is worried that if the crown uncovers certain information contained there it may lead the crown archeologists to the Arc and that is what he has been protecting for the last twenty plus years. Soaris has gone back there to dissuade those there from further exploration. Hopefully, using tools that the Elders have provided him he will succeed. If he is not successful he will sink the island rather than let the crown have access to it. When your father heard of his plans to isolate or destroy the island he mentioned that you were on an expedition there and was worried for you. That is why he brought you here and asked me to meet and look after you until you could be reunited with your family. Of course I was thrilled”
“I have a couple of questions. No I have about a million questions,” Ava added. “Where exactly is here and how are we going to get a hold of Shane and get him away from Jehhet. He graduates this week, and I happen to know that IDAD has made him an offer.”
“I don’t know what this place is called, I just think of it as Hill station. You may have noticed west of us that there is a pretty big desert. Soaris says that there used to be a large city there once and the station is the only thing left.” Without pausing for a breath the older women answered her second question.” Don’t worry just yet, dear, your uncle Ari has been asked to take care of Shane; Soaris says that next to him there isn’t a more capable person in the world for the job.”
As Laura continued to barrage Ava with information she suddenly began to feel detached as if she were watching a play. Three years ago she had become a new student with the goal of becoming a magetech expert - in the hopes that she could help the family business and open up the magetech industry in Luion; as well as increase magetech trade with the neighboring country of Infin. As a resident of Old Luion she had felt safe from the reach of the crown; having the hope that she co
uld always escape across the border if things got bad. Now it seemed that a revolution in the neighboring country of Infin was brewing and her family was in the thick of it. More importantly her boyfriend’s family was at the head of it and he didn’t even know.
The more Laura spoke the more Ava liked her. She could see where Shane got a lot of his personality and mannerisms particularly his ability to talk to anyone about anything. The topic soon tangented away from artifacts and drifted into the topic of the refugees that were gathering at Yllyan and soon was off again in another direction, this time the direction of how Ava and Shane had met.
Shane was Ava’s favorite topic as she was soon as animated as Laura was about the details of their first meeting. One topic led to another and soon Ava was telling Laura about Shane’s discovery of the instructor glyphs and that Shane hadn’t completed it before she had left on her expedition but that he was very close and may have already finished it. She also mentioned that Shane was on the verge of several breakthroughs and theories that would allow them to understand even more about glyphs and recreating and creating original artifacts.
Soon their conversation was interrupted by a loud chime. Laura stood and headed for the door.
“Come along, the overland will be pulling in in a moment. We don’t want to miss it. This is the last one today.”
Ava left her cup as she had seen Laura do and followed her outside.
The sun was just barely showing over the horizon as it was slowly sinking into the night but the platform was well lit from glowing panels that occupied the ceiling covering the platform, suddenly a long golden singular rail appeared on the ground just off the platform running both directions, disappearing into the distance. With a rush of air a large white string of nearly a dozen rectangular coaches silently floating atop the golden rail glided quickly to a halt beside them. A pair of doors on each section of the long conveyance opened simultaneously facing the platform. As the doors opened Ava saw that the floor of the overland was the exact height of the platform; without hesitation Laura walked through the closest set of doors; Ava quickly followed.
