Chronicles of Galadria I - The Other World

by David Gay-Perret

  However, just as Jeremy turned to ask what was happening, black lines began to appear in swirls and waves. They grew bigger and bigger, and more and more distinct, until finally, letters could be discerned. Finally, the movement stopped, and the text was perfectly legible. Emily gently passed her fingers over the writing and was surprised to be able to feel the indentations created by a pen or a plume while it wrote on paper, though only seconds earlier, the page had been completely blank. Curiosity chased away her surprise, and she began to read.

  “She will be the sustainer,

  And the purifier of his soul

  But will not surpass her limits.”

  Below were a few more lines, but before she could continue, Zorick said, “What the book says is very strange, isn’t it? That being said, though, you can be sure it is the truth, if you can understand something of what it says... Before you read further, I’d like to explain something: when the book gives information about someone, it does it only once. I mean, that once it has been closed again, it will not open again until its prediction comes true. Also, if there are two paragraphs here, that means that what is written represents two distinct events that cannot happen at the same time. But you’ll understand.”

  Emily continued reading:

  “The Cradle of the Beginning is the key.

  A distant past known by all; a legend forgotten.

  The door leading to the destiny of the world awaits.

  Her strength will be his

  Until their enemy reveals himself

  And the end begins.”

  The book skipped a line, then added:

  “She will be one of the six parts of the sword

  That will slay the Servant.”

  Nothing else was written. The four friends carefully reread the three paragraphs several times, but despite that, the meaning of the lines remained mysterious. Seeing them plunged into an abyss of perplexity, Zorick decided to give them some advice.

  “Listen, I don’t think you can simply decode what is written. The book announces one’s destiny, but often the words cannot be understood until after the prediction has come true. Don’t torture your minds; what will come will come.” Before the benevolent smile of the man, the four friends abandoned their thoughts. They were now in a hurry to see what the volume held for the others.

  Gwenn went second. Just like her friend, she took the object in her hands with great care. The moment it changed hands, it closed itself, opening again only once it was placed fully in the arms of Gwenn.

  In it was written:

  “The door leading to the destiny of the world awaits.

  Her role cannot continue beyond, but she will not be forgotten.”

  Below were a few more lines.

  “Once called, she will finally make the choice she waits for,

  And abandon a new past for an ancient future.”

  Finally, at the bottom of the page, it said:

  “She will be one of the six parts of the sword

  That will slay the Servant.”

  The two girls looked at each other at that; they both shared the part about the door and the servant. They were again captured by perplexity, then by curiosity. Then Glaide took the book. To be honest, he was apprehensive about what was to come. He was happy to be there, and he feared an end to his happiness. Would he discover that he’d have to return to Earth? Or would the book instead indicate that he would remain from that moment until the end of his life on Galadria? He was afraid.

  The book opened again.

  “Guided without aim,

  His Destiny born of the will

  Of a man and a god,

  who will bring about

  what some hope for and others fear.”

  In a new paragraph:

  “He will choose wandering

  To find what he seeks

  But he will gain more.”

  Then lower:

  “He will fight the last bastion,

  The confrontation that will decide the future.

  A power without limit

  Whose source is pain

  For what he dreads and rejects

  Will be his strength.”

  Finally, a few more lines were written below:

  “Defeat and victory

  Will fight in his heart.

  Happiness will not present itself:

  He alone can find it.”

  The adolescent paused for a moment without moving. The last phrase seemed clear, disquieting, and attractive all at the same time. As for the rest, however: he understood nothing. He was at once relieved to see neither his death – or something else along those lines – nor his eventual obligatory return to Earth, but at the same time disappointed not to know more. He noticed, however, that there was no mention of the door or the servant, as had been the case for his companions.

  Abandoning his barren thoughts, he gave the book to Jeremy; it was now his turn to know. The book opened one last time, and only a few lines appeared:

  “He will be the sheath

  In which he stores his sword,

  the stone that polishes his soul,

  effacing his pain

  and dissipating his doubts.”

  Then below:

  “He will be one of the six parts of the sword

  That will slay the Servant.”

  Again, that same phrase. Then, Jeremy closed the volume. From now on, it would not open for any of them, nor would it ever reveal again what they had just read. However, that wouldn’t be necessary. The words of the book were forever engraved in the minds of the young people. Zorick advanced with a warm smile, which closed the abyss of doubt that had opened under the feet of the four companions.

  “Very few people have had access to this volume. I’ve even wondered to myself if anyone has ever contemplated its words since Bren...”

  “Bren?” demanded Glaide.

  “The one who was later called ‘Novak’, which means the ‘Ultimate Warrior’ in the language of a barbarian tribe.” At the questioning looks of the young people, Zorick added, “You’ll find information on that race in the books that surround us.”

  Glaide didn’t think that the man would be using barbarians in the sense of primitive foreign races, as the term was often used in his own world. It appeared more reasonable to assume that the man was actually referring to a people of immense and incredibly developed muscles, always ready for a good fight, and possessing an incredible capacity to drink gallons of beer without ever experiencing a hangover!

  “As for Bren,” continued Zorick, “it seems important that you know that it is not he who learned Iretane, but the protector that accompanied him and whose name has been forgotten. You no doubt saw their statues at the entrance to the city. However, Novak was the creator of a number of different styles of combat that are still known today.”

  “That’s right!” exclaimed Glaide. “We were told that only protectors were able to use the technique of Iretane. There was a story about a magg...”

  “That’s what everyone says, but only the masters of the school could tell you exactly what it all means. Whatever the case, I’m going to put this book back, and leave you to your studies. When you wish for something to eat, address yourselves to these guards here.” The guards nodded, as did the adolescents, at which point Zorick put back the precious volume, closed the door, and then withdrew from the library.

  Chapter 19

  OVER the course of the morning, the group made a point of collecting as many volumes as they could over anything and everything. It took them about two hours to pull together a collection of twenty volumes, each thicker and dustier than the other. Faced with a task of such scale, they decided to be courageous... and respond first to their stomachs, which were grumbling. That being said, they didn’t have time for a proper meal around a table; the solution of eating simple sandwiches imposed itself on them on its own. Glaide climbed the stairs leading to the second floor and spoke to the guards there. He asked them, perfe
ctly naturally, for a sandwich. They, with smiles on their faces, asked him to repeat himself, which he did to no avail. Apparently the sandwich was unknown here. So, he began to try to describe what this little delicacy was made of.

  “There are two pieces of bread, and in the middle of them, you insert food. But it’s not a traditional loaf of bread, it’s just sandwich bread, two big slices of soft, flat bread.” With the help of his hands, he tried to show them what the bread should look like. “You can put ham, butter, cheese, mustard, whatever you want inside, they just can’t stick out beyond the slices,” continued the young man.

  “Hmmm, I see,” said one of the two men.

  “And what would you like your ‘danswich’ to have in it?”

  “Uh... ‘Sandwich’. And let’s just start with something simple. Could you order us a slice of ham between slices of buttered bread? It would take two of these each for Jeremy and I, and one for each of the girls.”

  “Very good. I’ll order six ‘wandishes’.”

  Glaide gave up trying to correct them, but couldn’t help but smile. And so, the four teens passed on a bit of Earthly gastronomy that, a few years later, would become indispensable to the people; the sandwich had just made its first appearance on Galadria. After the refreshments, they returned to their work.

  Gwenn took the books about eorens, while Jeremy set himself to finding all of the books about the different schools of sword fighting and the area where they found themselves now. Emily tried to find information on maggs in general, and Glaide chose to do his research on the history of Galadria. Then, they all set to work, flipping through volumes of text, each in their own corner. Soon, they were each so immersed in their reading that they didn’t even notice time passing. The afternoon flew by without any of them getting up or even moving much.

  The evening came and they reluctantly left the library. They took a moment to ask for a map of the city on which their inn was marked, then they headed home, sharing the information they’d all collected. The girls had found little of interest. There had been a few little anecdotes about famous maggs, and a list of sorcerers who had discovered new eorens, but the types of the famous objects weren’t listed.

  Glaide, however, had discovered an incomplete map of Galadria. He’d compared it with the one he carried, and had easily recognized a few places, but his attention was drawn to spaces that had been left blank by the cartographer. The spaces were situated along the borders, as though the individual had hypothesized the existence of other continents, and other lives. Glaide counted on being able to continue to dig up information to that end, and alongside that, he wanted to look for information on the unknown individual who had brought Iretane to them.

  More importantly, Jeremy had discovered a school called Murockai. One of its dojos was based in Shinozuka. The book that contained the information had been a recent one, so they had a good chance of finding the school. The teen had also read a description of the technique. It was said to be dynamic, rapid, and unpredictable, but difficult to master; its definition was rather vague. They decided to head to the address indicated in the book as soon as they could find the time.

  The group spent the night at the inn.

  The following week, the two boys didn’t have much interest in beginning training. The books that they were reading, day after day, fascinated them, and they had no desire to abandon them. Their knowledge of Galadria grew. First, Jeremy discovered more about the numerous styles of combat. Even if few of them had to do with sword fighting, each style was enormously interesting. He noticed that, much as they had been told, Novak often appeared as the creator of different the schools.

  The young man also found documents about the diverse weapons that existed, most notably those of protectors, and learned that each one was unique, specially adapted to the protector that carried it. They weren’t created in a forge, but by the protector himself. He fashioned it to suit him, however he thought best. It was important that he submit to no external influence, so that it would be fully his, and not the sword of anyone else. It was in this way alone that the protector could breathe his own soul into the weapon, and so be able to make use of powers such as the ability to make it disappear and reappear. It was also vital that no one inform him on the different schools of swords, so that he would not be tempted to forge his weapon in order to join a specific school or another.

  Jeremy was very skeptical about this information; it all seemed too vague to him. How could one be certain not to be affected by any external influence? How could one breathe their soul into a weapon? He didn’t spend too much time focused on those questions, however. The information, though interesting, didn’t really apply to the young people. They certainly hadn’t ever had a chance to forge a sword up until then! But, it brought out many questions concerning the Guardian, who had furnished them with their blades. Glaide, however, unfortunately found no additional information about the presence of other continents or other life forms outside of the Known Lands, and not a single volume that he flipped through taught him anything about the man who had created Iretane.

  However, he did learn more about the Destroyer, though he wasn’t exactly looking for information on the subject. Actually, it seemed that it wasn’t Novak that the name applied to, but his friend the protector. Accompanied by his magg, the three had fought side by side in many different places around the Known Lands. The adolescent learned, too, that at that time, the protector had had a katana. He gave it to Novak, who then gave it to a temple, whose location no one knew. All of the books agreed on one point: his weapon was no simple saber. However, the teen could find nothing more than that.

  Emily had the luck to find a volume written by a white magician. It described the things that she did, and the way that people acted towards her – towards her, and her protector. She also mentioned the energy that ran through her and that allowed her to cast spells. This passage interested the two young women the most, as it explained the reasons why they fainted, and why they found it so difficult to heal broken bones. The author described maggs as people holding a privileged relationship with Galadria. Effectually, this relationship gave them the capacity to use the energy of the planet – energy that she called simply “magical energy”. This energy flux was what allowed maggs to cast spells. However, a magg had to train to be able to store up that energy, as using the power in that way was much less fatiguing than pulling it directly from the earth.

  It was also necessary to concentrate the magic towards a precise goal, rather than allowing it to disperse as it was employed. The teens understood then that when the girls did magic and wind began to blow, it represented the escape of energy that hadn’t been channeled properly, and that had actually been wasted. That, then, was why the girls had had problems healing serious injuries.

  As the author advised, the girls decided to practice storing up energy, to avoid fainting from fatigue. Apparently, most maggs built up their reserves in the night, as they slept; however, after several nights, the girls weren’t finding much success that way. All they’d achieved so far were a few sleepless nights, and a few blue barriers – similar to the one that had protected Jeremy from the black orks – surging out from nowhere in particular, that had protected furniture instead of the two boys they’d been intended to protect.

  Gwenn also discovered some information about eorens: many methods existed for producing so called “black magic”, or what could also be called the magic of attack. The first method consisted of using an eoren of the desired element to cast the spell. In that case, it was enough to simply hold the eoren in the palm of the hand. It would then melt so that it could fuse with its carrier, who could then utilize the magic. As soon as it was no longer needed, the object would rematerialize, again in the form of a sphere, though with its size decreased, proportional to the power that had been used. It was written that such an object was never destroyed; as it was used, its diameter would shrink until it became microscopic.

  Learning this, Glaide m
ade the connection with what he had seen in the middle of the garden plots of Shinozuka. If he had been able to press his finger into the eoren, it was certainly because of the distinctive base that he had noticed. Normally, he would have touched a hard surface – the same surface from which sculptors trimmed pieces, as the farmers had mentioned. Importantly, to merge with an eoren, one had to be a magician.

  The second method of using magic was to use the same technique as maggs: using the flux. However, for this, one must have mastered magic to quite a high level, because transforming magical energy in order to gain a desired element – whether that be fire or ice – proved to be extremely arduous. The books that the young woman had read didn’t add anything more to that, but the teens discovered that the other tower in Shinozuka was the Tower of the Mages, and they pledged to go there and pose some questions.

  Thus passed a week rich in discoveries and learning, at the end of which the four friends realized they could not remain always in the library. Between the training of the boys and the questions of the girls, it was imperative that they come up with another system. The new week was marked by signs of change. Monday morning, Glaide and Jeremy went to present themselves at the address where the school of Murockai was supposed to be found, while their companions went to the Tower of the Mages.

  To their great relief, the two boys found that the dojo was indeed located where the book had indicated. It looked much like that of Uziere, back in Rackk: it was made of wood, with a small awning under which the name of the school was written. When they entered the building, however, they were astonished to find the room full of students already in the midst of their training. The thought that this master might be training multiple students had never crossed their minds! Nonetheless, the man who was directing the combatants saw them enter and approached them.