The Artifacts Of Elios (Book 1)

by R N Skye

  “I don’t believe you’ve had a chance to visit the fair village of Yllyan; the home of the lab that has kept you so industriously engaged the last few days. Let’s take a walk.”

  Shane led the way down to the ground floor and Shane held the front door and ushered his former professor through. Instead of opening into the usual front building in the capitol of Luion it opened onto a well-lit street.

  “Amazing,” marveled the scholar as he took in the streetlamps, the wide avenues, and to his delight a chiming trolley, that was approaching the corner where they now stood.

  “Let’s climb aboard shall we,” directed Shane as he climbed up the two steps into the trolley.

  Following Shane’s example Professor Wetz was soon seated across from Shane taking in the newness of the experience.

  Several chimes later Shane stood and exited the trolley; the professor in tow and he walked towards a large square building with stone walls where the windows should be. Shane led the way up to the entrance and activated a glyph on the front. A crystal sphere appeared and a voice in an unfamiliar language greeted them. Thanks to Ava telling him of her experiences with the record center he immediately responded with, “Elios Infinity Dialect please, also until further notice all Records Centers will begin greetings on Eliom with that as the default language.”

  “Please place your hand on the sphere for ancestral identification,” intoned the voice.

  Shane did as he was instructed. And the device responded,” Dernier Chanson recognized ancestral recognition not necessary, you may remove your hand, enter when ready. Language default has been modified”

  “I also have a student for you to identify,” spoke Shane beckoning Wetz forward.

  “Place you hand on the sphere for ancestral identification,” instructed the voice

  Dr. Wetz complied, a look of wonder in his expression.

  “Elios descent detected, Luion descent detected. Origination available to Lumen masters only. Classified as descendant of recolonized refugee, Lumen potential positive; student access authorized. You may remove your hand.”

  “Congratulations Professor you’re half way to becoming a student,” Shane said with a scheming grin. “How do you feel about history?” He asked and he walked into the building.

  An hour later after a brief history lesson of the city of Yllyan they returned to the lab and Shane reset the doorway to open into Lu Y Onton. He then took out his instructor and handed it to Wetz. “Does this look familiar?”

  “It’s one of the non-crystal light artifacts isn’t it; except it is on a metal plate rather than a ceramic cube.”

  “Take a look at the glyphs; tell me what you see professor.”

  Wetz looked at the glyphs noting nothing out of the ordinary. “I don’t see anything out of the ordinary, and please call me Leo, all my friends do and if we are going to be working together with you as my teacher I’m afraid I’m going to have to insist. If you don’t I’m going to start calling you Doctor.”

  “Ok Leo, take a look at the scroll work closely tell me what you see.”

  Leo looked even more closely at the scroll work and laughed. ”Unbelievable I can believe something like this has been under our noses the whole time.”

  “Go ahead, turn it on prompted Shane.”

  Leo touched the circle and slid it to the side along the control line and a light appeared on top.

  “Let me tell you about the Elios, Leo. They created glyph magic as a tool for the Luion thousands of years ago; mostly because they had no control over the essence of magic called lumen. The Luion were like you are now; able to copy glyphs design a device, but unable to infuse it with magic. To assist with this the Elios created devices that could infuse the devices mechanically. This allowed the keenly engineering talented Luion to continue a familiar way of life within the confines of the world that they had been located to. When the Luion later began to develop a sense of the lumen with in them they were instructed in the ways of the glyph mage.

  The glyph mage was not just based on ability. It involved giving an oath to live a set of rules called the Laws of Wisdom. Not all who had the ability were willing to make the oath and accept the Laws, and they remained as what the Elios referred to as non-potents.

  Something else you should know about the Elios. They are very forthright people, they always told the truth and were honest in all of their dealings, and assumed that whomever they dealt with would respond in kind. I tell you this because once you accept training it is assumed that you are willing to live the Laws of Wisdom. If you fail to live the laws then you must face the consequences.”

  “What are these laws; can they be read and learned?”

  “Simply put they are to serve one another, meaning: if you can help then you should. That is the reason why they rescued the Luion from a dying world so long ago; not just because the Luion were doomed but because the Elios had the ability. There is much more to the reason but that will come later with your instruction should you chose the Laws. Are you still interested in becoming a student?”

  “Even more so,” Leo beamed enthusiastically.

  Shane laughed, “I figured so but I had to ask. Put you hand in that light and hold it there and tell me what you feel.”

  Leo places his hand within the illumination floating above the instructor, after a few moments, “It tingles. I don’t know what to compare it with but I can definitely feel something.”

  “You can withdraw your hand,” Shane instructed as he deactivated the instructor and it became a bracer on his wrist. “It’s been a long day, go get some sleep and we will talk in the morning and see about getting you a residence here in Yllyan. Thanks for all of your help; you’re going to make a great glyph mage.”

  The next day began before sunup for Shane he needed to see how things went with Dr. Wetz or Leo as he now thought of him, get him started on his instructor, meet with Ava and then head to the border lands to begin erecting a shield. He was first in the Lab that morning but not by much. Leo was a close second followed only a few minutes later by Ava.

  “Hi Leo, sleep well,” smiled Shane knowingly, “any good dreams?”

  Leo laughed out loud, “You knew what was going to happen and you didn’t warn me?”

  “If there’s one thing I have learned of the Elios, it’s that they have a very peculiar sense of humor. Who am I to rob them of their fun,” Shane said then laughed the memory of his own dream still fresh in his memory.

  Leo told him about the dream and that he had visited the Arc and that it had presented him with the task to build his instructor and to replace the top corner glyphs with Indus and Mecan. Shane scanned his instructor glyphs into his scribe leaving the corners blank. Conjuring steel plate like Ari’s he told him what to do and that when he was done that if he wasn’t available Ava would show him how to activate and bond with it when he was done. Shane also reminded him to password protect his stored enchantments on his scribe and to keep notes and until his instructor was complete and bonded to keep it safe and secure.

  Leo and Shane had just finished their conversation when Ava entered Shane’s office. “Hey you,” she smiled affectionately.

  “Hey you,” Shane smiled back. “Let me introduce you to our newest glyph mage in training. Try and give him time today to get his instructor built and If I’m not back later and he’s done with it could you walk him through the process of imbuing it with lumen and then bonding to it, please? He will be able to take a little bit of the load off of you having to stop your research and development every time some imbuing is needed.”

  “Congratulations, Dr. Wetz I knew you would be the first of our group to join the ranks of the modern era of glyph mages,” she shook his hand ardently. “What do you mean if you are not back later? Where are you going?”

  Dr. Wetz sensing that this was a private conversation slipped out closing the door behind him to begin working on his Instructor.

  “I need to start setting up the border shields,” he ex
plained. If I don’t get started on it now I may find myself doing it during a battle and among a lot of stray arrows and whatever else is flying around.”

  Ava walked to him and wrapped her arms around him in a tight embrace. “I just worry. It seems that lately you are working so hard and I’m afraid that you will hurt yourself or someone from the other side will try and do worse.”

  Shane laughed and kissed her. “I’m not that easy to get rid of. There’s this girl that I was lab partners with in college that I’m rather fond of. That in and of its self is enough to keep me on my toes just so I can get a date with her.” Ava hugged him even more tightly. “I really do enjoy your hugs,” Shane said hugging her back.

  After a few more moments they pulled apart, “Promise me that you will be extra careful.” Ava asked imploringly.

  “I will,” he promised. “Now on to business, I went to Valee yesterday and found several Allyant seeds; Uncle Ahhan was able to show me how to neutralize and destroy them so it is safe to travel there if you want and since you have the infrastructure running there people can start inhabiting the city. I would get Soaris or my mother’s approval first.

  Here at the lab I want Leo to start taking the load off of you as far as lumen activations; as motivated as he is I wouldn’t be surprised if he has his instructor done by lunch. I think that Alicia and John are fully qualified with their experience in artifact manufacturing to take over for Leo. I want them to still report to Leo and Leo to you. Also see if any of the Yllyan magetechs want to come to work for us and we can see if they have the work ethic to move on to glyph mages. If you think so take them to the records center and have them identified for Elios and Luion Ancestry and have them get the student history dream on Yllyan – let me know your findings and I’ll let them know about the Laws of Wisdom and see if they are willing to live the oath necessary to become glyph mages. I think Alicia, John, Lance and Desirae are almost ready if they are willing to live the Laws. Also I’ve set the portal on the front doors so that any glyph mage can use it to enter either Lu Y Onton or Yllyan and Leo is clear to visit Yllyan or Valee.

  “Ok I got it. Just promise me that you will please be careful” re-admonished Ava. “Also my parents invited you to dinner Samedi evening around six so please plan on that.”

  Shane boldly kissed Ava then using mastery quickly opened a portal to the western side of the continent, stepped through and was gone.

  The Great Western Continent was made up of two countries; Infin on the South and Luion on the North. The western side was largely unpopulated due to the great western desert that occupied the entire western side of the coast. Unlike most coast lines the western coast was made up from sheer cliffs that were anywhere from fifty to two hundred feet in height. For this reason there were no cities to be found on the west coast.

  It was dark when Shane stepped through his portal on fifty foot cliff overlooking the western ocean Shane estimated that it was probably twelve hours earlier here as it was almost on the other side of the world from Yllyan. Using the same glyphs that he had used to create the navigation tools for the sloop Shane located the spot where the boarder would be if anyone had bothered to live there and marked it. Pulling out his notes he carefully loaded his scribe with the necessary glyphs. He then conjured a pure brass obelisk that was fifty feet deep and fifty feet tall and inscribed it with the glyphs to shield entry into Luion; the shield would run as deep and tall as the obelisk and run one hundred milos both East and West.

  As soon as he activated it he started feeling weak; immediately he halted the enchantment; he was definitely going to need more power for an enchantment this large. After adding some powerful sun glyphs he restarted the enchantment and this time no weakness. As a test he used mastery to great the effect of the energy drain and transfer and tried to walk through the barrier. It not only topped him like a wall but repelled him by bouncing him back twenty feet. He deactivated the mastery and was able to walk through without incident. Feeling satisfied with his test he activated an invisibility cloak on the obelisk as well as reactivated the barrier and updated his scribe and notes then opened a portal two hundred milos east and began the process again. Using the global locator he followed the border two hundred milos at a time. He was on his tenth obelisk when Soaris appeared next to him.

  “Hi,” greeted Shane as he continued inscribing the latest obelisk.

  “Nice night,” Soaris nodded at the starry sky.

  “You need to teach me how you do that,” Shane said as he looked skyward. The Stars were brilliantly spread across the sky. It was a nice night on this side of Eliom; it had been quite a while since Shane had observed the heavens far enough away from the lights of a city to see it this vividly displayed.

  “Teach you how to do what,” replied his father.

  “For one, how you travel from place to place without a portal and secondly how did you locate me”

  “The location is pretty simple. All I needed to do is query the Arc to find your instructor and you were bound to be close by. If you had happened to leave your instructor somewhere else I would have queried your instructor which has a constant knowledge of your whereabouts. As far as the teleporting that’s even easier as I use Lumen Mastery to accomplish it but I have a glyph that can accomplish it for you until you are up to lumen mastery.

  “Sounds like fun.” Shane straightened up from etching the last of the glyphs he then imbued the lumen and activated the cloak and the barrier.

  “I’m sure you didn’t come out her to teach me teleporting and locating, so to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?”

  “It’s your mother and I. Our mission here on Eliom is near completion and she will never admit it but I can see it in her eyes; she misses her life on Elios and neither she nor I can leave until you assume the role of Dernier Chanson, it’s time you and I took a trip to the Arc so that you can begin to truly prepare yourself to return magic and become the Last Song. You have traveled there in spirit but now it is time to do so in body as well.”

  “Elios is that special then?” Shane asked thinking of his mother.

  “It is more than you can imagine. It has two suns and knows no night. It radiates lumen like unto a thousand stars. The magic, countenance, and glory of Elios are so great that only a Lumen Mage can abide there. Children born there would perish if their parents were not skilled enough to protect them until they were able to master their own lumen. Unfortunately many don’t. This is one of the reasons that Eliom was formed; that there could be a lesser world that would allow more of our race to be born and live long enough to master their lumen and provide an abode for those that needed more time than the radiance of Elios would allow.

  Because of Eliom now all of our children will survive and less likely to fall away and choose to be Allyant. This world is almost complete. The Allyant infection was not planned but it is but a moment. I have faith in your destiny as Dernier Chanson that you will cleanse the Allyant influence and repair the World Glyphs. My hopes are renewed that you and your children and your children’s children will eventually rise to abide the glory of Elios and you can behold its greatness with your mother and I as well as your grandparents and aunts and uncles.

  It is time that you learned the Laws of Wisdom from the Arc so that when this war is complete you can assume the role that you were born to fill.

  Shane digested what his father had just said. It sounded so fantastic but it made perfect sense. While it seemed that the Elios had been very magnanimous in their rescue of the Luion there was definitely a higher purpose involved. It even made him appreciate the benevolence of the Elios even more that they would share their powers with a race that had none and risk the world that they had created for the purpose of rescuing their own children.

  Shane sighed torn between his father’s desire to repair the world that he had guarded for so long and his current commitments and growing sense of responsibility towards the residents of Eliom “I have another twenty of these Obelisks to ins
tall; it should only take a couple of more hours, how about finding me then and we will go to the Arc.

  Ari Roger and Shew carefully watched the streets on the outskirts of Cliffs Port. They had placed viewers on all of the main streets entering the city. They had warned the population of the pending invasion. Most of the people had ignored the warnings stating that the crown was at war with Luion and would never attack its own people. The Luion population had fled north taking what they could leaving most of their possessions behind.

  The three spies sat calmly in a familiar dock side hotel observing what they could.

  “So there I was lying in an air vent and Stafford says …I wouldn’t try backing up, I have a guillotine set up to cut you in half… and I spout off with …you wish you do, I taught you that trick. It was the first thing I disarmed… So then I fire the guillotine that he had set up and I lop the head off of this low life rapist and pick pocket that Stafford had made to look almost exactly like me. And Stafford says all serious …I guess he missed the second guillotine… Anyway while king prick and worthless Wendell are standing there I pour a bucket of sows blood and it runs out the duct and on to the floor. A little while later Stafford is clanking around with a hook to get the pick pockets head and while he’s making all that noise I crawl out another way and get my arse out of town.”

  “Sounds like you planned it very well,” commented Roger as he listened to the old spy recount his escapades with the CSS.

  “You mean he planned it well. I broke the plan. He had given me a set of instructions and at the last minute I changed them. I wasn’t even supposed to be at the palace but being paranoid I sneaked in and was crawling through the vents and I see this note hanging on the inside of the screen where I was going to climb out and it tells me where to find the body, the blood, and the guillotine, and to please follow instructions this time.

  I tell you Roger old buddy, this guy is a scary guy to plan against because he never does what you think he will and he always knows more than you do,” grumbled Shew.