by Peter Last
“The good news is that this time we’ll be going down, so it will be less taxing on us magically,” Timothy commented.
“That’s the wrong way to look at it,” Vladimir chided. “Look at this cliff. It’s not as steep as the other and has a lot of character. If we play this right, we should be able to get down without using any magic at all.”
Timothy walked to the edge and looked down again, this time searching for more than the height. He saw that Vladimir was correct in what he had said; the cliff was quite a bit less steep than the other and had plenty of rocks jutting from its surface that could be used as foot- and handholds. He shrugged and figured that there was no sense in waiting around, so he turned around and carefully let himself over the edge. He searched with his feet for a rock, which he found and used as a foothold. Looking to the left, he spotted a rock that was within reach of his hand and grabbed it. He repeated the process with his right hand and found himself completely off the top of the cliff and hanging onto its face for dear life.
“Mix magic with the physical,” Vladimir called from Timothy’s left. Timothy looked in that direction to see that his companion was at least ten feet below him.
“What do you mean?” he called.
In response, Vladimir braced his feet on a rock and jumped to another one five feet to his left and three feet below him. He stepped off of this rock backwards and grabbed onto a handhold a few feet lower. Timothy shook his head in amazement as he watched Vladimir move. How the boy could use so little magic so effectively was beyond him. With a shrug, he decided that he might as well try the same thing, so he let go of his handholds simultaneously and fell. Reaching out with magic, he detected a rock just below him, which he grabbed. His shoulders jarred painfully as he jolted to a stop, and his fingers barely managed to maintain their hold on the rock. Shaking his head, he shoved away the pain and focused on the task at hand. He sensed a rock jutting two feet below him, so he dropped onto it. His feet had barely touched down before he jumped off the rock sideways and grabbed onto another. He let go of the rock and fell down to another one that was three feet below him. This time he used magic to slow himself slightly before he grabbed onto the rock, saving his arms from another jarring. He let go and fell several feet before propelling himself off of the wall and into the branches of a tree that grew nearby. With a deft move, he slid down the trunk to the ground.
“See how easy it is to get things done when you combine physical and magical?” Vladimir commented.
“Yes,” Timothy answered. “I don’t know why I never thought of that myself. I always worked entirely with magic or in the physical sense. When you combine the two, it seems to work much more efficiently.”
“Oh yeah, it’s a lot more efficient,” Vladimir said as he started to weave his way among the trees. “If you physically do what is physically easy and use magic to do what is physically difficult, you can accomplish much more than by working exclusively in either reality.”
"I don't get it," Timothy said. "If you're so good at this sort of thing, why do you hide it?"
"I have my reasons," Vladimir said vaguely.
"That's not an answer," Timothy said. "What reasons?"
"It's a long, boring story," Vladimir said. "You wouldn't want to hear it."
"Well, we've got the time now and it can't be as boring as running through the forest for hours straight," Timothy said. "Here's an idea: you start telling it and when I get bored I'll stop you."
"I don't suppose you're going to let me hear the end of this until I tell you?" Vladimir asked.
"Not unless you tell me why you don't want to tell me," Timothy answered. "Though, that would probably require telling me the story anyway."
"Fine," Vladimir conceded. "Because you're being an unmitigated pain in the butt, I'll tell you. You'll probably think that I'm an idiot for this, but here's the reason. Actually, let me start back a few years so that you understand where I'm coming from.
"My family, no, my whole town has to be the most uneducated place in all of Magessa when it comes to magic. They do not understand how it works or any of its limitations. There have been no magicians born there in all of recorded history and the view of magic wielders is less than superb. Nevertheless, when my talents became known, my father saw their advantage almost immediately.
"As with most families, we had a business that pretty much everyone was employed in. The problem was that my family's business happened to be less than legal. Counterfeiting, swindling, and burglary were how we made our living. As I said before, as soon as my father found out that I could use magic, he saw the advantages that such a skill could have for him. The problem was, he had no idea how magic worked or about any of its limitations. He assumed that because I could use magic, I could do anything.
"My specialty is defensive magic. Physical shields, magical shields, mental shields are what I can do best. I can even directly combat what another magician is doing if I have enough warning. What my father wanted me to do had nothing to do with my skills; rather, he was focused on talents that would allow me to conjure money for him or at least help me burgle houses more efficiently. Given that I was raised by a bunch of thieves, I had few scruples about doing wrong, and was eager to please my father. I tried to do the things that he wanted, but without much luck.
"I had always been the black sheep of the family and saw this as my chance to earn my place. I set about learning magic and getting power in ways that were not good. I was soon bound up in a lot of terrible things but getting better results than I had ever hoped for. While the family business was booming, I was on a serious decline. I never actually let them indwell me, but I was consorting with demons and other dark magicians on a regular basis. Though they were constantly after me to participate with them in their wrong doings, I was content with my own. Eventually, their promises of more power seduced me, and I went with them one night to see what their activities were all about.
"I'll spare you the details, I'm sure you know them if you've heard anything about dark magic, but I'll say that it was horrifying. The worst part though was that I didn't really care. As long as it got me more power, I didn't care what the process was. As providence would have it, this particular ring of wizards had for some time been under the scrutiny of a band of magicians, and this was the night that they made their move. I didn't know what was going on around me; I was way out of my depth. So, I did the only thing that I knew how, I threw up a shield to protect myself and sat in a corner, waiting for the confrontation to end. Eventually it did, the result being that all of the wizards were dead.
"The magicians began to scour the area for any more threats and came upon me in my protective bubble. Somehow they knew that I was not a lost cause and put me in a school for young magicians. There I learned about Elohim, about right and wrong, about magic. Within a few years I had made enough progress that I was released from the school and was relocated at the academy in Belvárd.
"Though the school of magicians had taught me a lot, I am still not as strong as I should be. I keep my magical abilities a secret so that I will not be pressured into the dark arts again, for though I have turned my back on them, they are always lurking there, waiting to draw me back in."
"Well, you were wrong," Timothy said after a few minutes of silence. "That wasn't boring at all."
"Boring is just an excuse," Vladimir said. "I simply don't like talking about my life, especially that part. It's a very sore subject."
"It's something that you'll have to face if you ever want to rise to your full potential," Timothy said. "Always remember that Lemin and I are here to help you."
The two boys started to run again, tearing through the underbrush as quickly as possible. The leading position was very tiring, so the boys switched places often. They crossed two more mountains and followed three more streams along the way. The sun was setting when they finally burst out of the forest and onto a plain. Still they pressed on well after it dipped below the horizon. They ran for seve
ral miles before slowing to a walk and eating a meager dinner.
“Timothy, can I ask you a question?” Vladimir said when he had finished eating. The two cadets were walking at an easy pace through a large field, making for a stand of trees in which they planned to spend the night.
“Sure, Vladimir, ask anything that you like,” Timothy answered.
“What do you think about women fighting? You know, like in a battle,” Vladimir asked.
“What do you mean?” Timothy asked with a quizzical look.
“You know, we have been living at an academy for the past several years where, in essence, we have been taught that women can fight just as well as men,” Vladimir said. “In fact, some of the best warriors in the whole academy are women—Senndra for instance. I never thought about this until I was in a real battle, but do you agree with women fighting?”
“It’s a fact of life,” Timothy answered. “I don’t see that there’s a whole lot I could do to change it even if I didn’t agree with it. Besides that, I just don’t see anything wrong with it. You yourself said that some of the best warriors at the academy are women, so what problem do you have with them fighting?”
“I don’t know,” Vladimir said. “It’s just that when I was fighting in that battle and I saw a female fighting against those dwarves, I got this feeling that it’s not how things should be, you know? Didn't you feel the need to defend those women against the enemy?”
“Actually I think you may be right,” Timothy admitted. “Whenever I saw a woman fighting, I always felt the need to help her, even if it put me in danger. I don’t know what made me do that. After all, it’s not a very logical thing to do.”
“What if that is just the way we were created?” Vladimir said. “I think Elohim instills in men the need to defend women. If you look at it that way, what you did was perfectly logical.”
“Now that you say that, I’m almost certain you are right,” Timothy said. “Maybe Elohim does create men with an instinctive need to defend women, even if it puts them in danger.”
“That is why I have a problem with women fighting,” Vladimir said. “When you have a mixed army, the men would feel the necessity to defend the women, even if it put the greater good of the army in danger. If the army was only composed of men, however, this wouldn’t be a problem. Even very good friends do not feel that strong of a need to protect each other.”
“You may be right,” Timothy said, "but it doesn't matter. There are women in the army and that’s a fact. They have just as much a right to fight for the country as we do. We need to control our own actions; we can't blame others for what we feel or do." That ended the conversation. Neither cadet said another word. When they reached the trees, they lay down on the ground and were asleep in an instant.
******
Senndra sat beside Lemin at the large round table in General Uriah’s office. Seeing as how he was now the second highest ranking officer in the city, Lemin had decided that it would not hurt to take up residence in the headquarters while the general was away. Along with Senndra and Lemin, there were a few soldiers from Gatlon and some other cadets as well. They were gathered together, packing the room so tightly that many of them were standing behind the chairs or against the wall. The meeting was not mandatory, so Senndra was surprised at the relatively large turnout. Lemin stood to his feet and waited for the whispering to die down before he began.
“Thank you all for coming today,” he said. “I’m sure that most of you already know what this meeting is about, but let me tell you so that we are all on the same page. It has come to my attention that knowledge of Elohim is severely lacking in this country, particularly in the army. Nowadays, people do not believe in what they call ‘fairy tales for small children.’ My purpose today is to prove to you that Elohim is not just another fairy tale, but a real being at work in the world in which we live.
“First let me address the question of whether or not there is a God. Look around and see the world in all of its beauty. Watch the sun set and try to tell yourself that there is not a God who made it. Study wildlife in all its intricacies. Each area contains animals that interact with each other in such a way that they had to have been created by someone. For instance, in any given place, there is an abundance of animals, all of them preying on each other and on various plants in just the correct amounts so that all of the species survive. Then consider how each region interacts with those around it. A system so complex could not have evolved; it had to be created. And if all of this is not enough proof for you, consider this…”
Lemin snapped his fingers and a small flame appeared above his hand. With a flick of his wrist, the flames disappeared. The room was as silent as death, and Lemin continued with his display. He didn’t even move his body this time, but a sheet of paper that had been lying on the table slowly began to rise into the air. When it had risen about six inches, the sides of the sheet slowly folded inward until they touched. Finally the paper fell back to the table in exactly the position that it had originally been.
“It’s only magic,” one of the spectators said.
“Only magic?” Lemin questioned. “Since when can the word magic be preceded by the word only? The very existence of magic is strong proof of God. After all, can you explain how the paper just did what it did? There is no one here who can explain what I did and how I did it. Actually, I could try to spew out some pseudo-scientific sounding explanation for magic, but only of how I use it and not of what it actually is or what causes it. So then, if no one here can explain the phenomena, not even the one that controlled it, it follows that there must be another force at work, one that does know what just happened and how it happened. A doubter could explain this as a coincidence and say that I am working with a natural force that I do not completely understand. But if that were true, it would be safe to assume that when I attempted to manipulate magic, it would not always work. Every time except for once when I have set out to perform magic, I have succeeded. The one time that I failed, I was disobeying Elohim and fully expected nothing to happen. In conclusion, there is plenty of evidence of the existence of God, and a doubter is only trying to make excuses.
“Now we need to address the question of what Elohim expects from us. If there is indeed a God, then we have an obligation to Him more than anybody else. As soldiers, you know what it is to have an obligation. You hold your oaths to defend Magessa to be of the utmost importance. Part of the reason for this is that you have received so much from the country, and you wish to give back in return. How much more should we want to give back to Elohim? He has given us the whole world in which to live, not to mention that it is only by His grace that the nation of Magessa remains free from the rule of Molkekk. For this and more, we can never repay Elohim. We could go about His work for our entire lives, as some have done, and still never repay Him what He deserves. Thankfully He does not ask too much of us, only that we obey His commands as well as we possibly can. In fact, the extent to which you obey his commands is not as important as the state of your heart. A person who follows His laws perfectly and yet does not do it for the correct reasons is as guilty as a pagan. By the same token, if you are sincere in your desire to obey Elohim, yet fail to keep His commands perfectly, He will delight in you just as much as a person who is able to follow His law more closely. In other words, our duty to Elohim is to truly desire to obey Him and do our best to follow Him. If we do this, we are fulfilling our duty to Him, and He will enable us to obey His laws.
“The final thing that I would like to speak about is the role of Elohim in the world today. Many people who believe in Elohim believe that He created the world and that He was involved here in the past, but now He has withdrawn from His creation. Simply put, these people are wrong; evidence of Elohim’s involvement in the world is everywhere. One example, which I have previously mentioned, is the existence of magic. If not for Elohim’s work, there would be no magic, period. Another example is the fact that Magessa has been able to successfully stand a
gainst the will of Molkekk for so long. The human, elfin, dwarf, orc, and ogre nations to the north have fallen under His power, whether by their own free will or by force. And yet, though he has armies many times larger than those of Magessa, we have been able to repel him each of the three times that he has attacked in the past. You experienced Elohim's help as we held back the dwarf attack until reinforcements could arrive. There is no other explanation for our strength except for Him. It is only by His power that we have remained free for so long, and it is only by His power that we will continue to remain free.”
The meeting lasted for more than an hour as Lemin answered questions from various people. As he continued to whittle down the objections to his call to return to Elohim, he could see the resistance of the doubters in the room beginning to wane, until finally they were out of excuses. In the end, only a few clung to their doubts and resisted the call while the majority of those gathered promised to obey Elohim.
After the meeting ended, Senndra followed Lemin out of the headquarters and toward the south gate of the city. Senndra had so much on her mind that she did not say a word, and Lemin seemed content to keep his peace. When they reached the gate, they entered the gatehouse and ascended the staircase to the top of the wall. Lemin went off to speak to the newly appointed watchmen of the city, and Senndra found herself alone. A hand touched her shoulder, and she turned to find Rita standing there.
“Let’s go someplace,” she said. “Our shift doesn’t start until sundown, and I’m really bored.”
“I suppose we could go back to our tent,” Senndra said, “though I can’t think of anything to stave off your boredom.”
“Even if it’s just talking to someone, I need to do something,” Rita said. “If I don’t do anything, I have too much time to think, and these days that's a dangerous and depressing prospect.”
