The Quest Saga Collection: Books 1 - 5

by Dhayaa Anbajagane

  “Am I in trouble?”

  “You’re buried in it.”

  ***

  Taylor had no clue what was happening.

  She didn’t get why Q needed to be taken to Carlos?

  Was it because Carlos was his brother?

  Or worse, did something so horrifying happen that even Carlos needed to be notified?

  She wished she’d paid more attention to the battle. It’d been too painful to watch Q in there while knowing she couldn’t do anything to protect him.

  Juliana revved through the streets and they were back at the Demon Riser in quick time.

  Taylor and Q followed her as she charged into the tower, “I need to meet the commander.”

  The receptionist got up, “Ma’am, he’s very busy right now, you’ll-”

  “NOW.”

  The receptionist blinked a few times. “I’ll see what I can do,” she said in a much quieter voice.

  Juliana kept on walking and headed into the elevator.

  “Do you know what’s going on?” Q whispered to Taylor as they got onto the elevator.

  “Do I look like a person who has a single clue?” The elevator continued to the topmost floor.

  “Don’t freak out when you look out the windows,” she said. “We’re pretty high up.”

  Q nodded. He didn’t exactly have a fear of heights. Rather, he actually liked high places. He was like a mountain goat in that perspective.

  The elevator opened up, and a large, solid door stood on the other side.

  Juliana took a deep breath, “Get ready kids,” she said and barged into the room.

  Inside was a long, black table. A few people were seated at the table, and at the head was Carlos.

  “Commander Carlos, we’ve got something to discuss,” Juliana said.

  “What?” Taylor protested. “You can’t just.”

  “It’s very important, sir,” she said.

  Carlos stood and looked at the group around the table. “We’ll pick up on this later.”

  The other men and women gathered their things and stood.

  In seconds the room was completely empty except for Taylor, Q, Carlos, and Juliana.

  “I’m sorry for interrupting you, commander, but something’s happened.”

  “Yes?”

  “He manipulated fire-”

  “That’s great. On his first day!”

  “-and lightning.”

  Carlos’ eyes widened.

  “Two completely different Elementa,” he sat back down, his hands covering his face. “Oh god. It can’t be happening.”

  Taylor was stunned as well. She finally realized what Juliana had meant when she’d said was in big trouble.

  She knew what the ability to control at least two Elementa meant.

  “Did I do something wrong?” Q asked.

  “You’re not a warrior, Q,” Carlos’ voice went into a whisper, as though it pained him to say the words.

  “You’re a mage.”

  ***

  3-4

  Q stared at Carlos. He blinked. He blinked again.

  I’m a mage, he thought.

  That couldn’t be possible.

  “But how could Q be a mage?” Taylor asked. “Mages need at least three or four of years of training to even start using their second element.”

  Carlos leaned forward, “You’re probably very confused now Q so I’ll try to make this as simple as possible. Sit down.”

  Q took a seat next to Carlos.

  “So,” he started. ”The standard physical warriors have very little life energy so the maximum they can do is up their skill level to try and control maybe one type of element. Like I could control the air around me right? Some other person could control just water and so on. But a mage has a high level of energy, which means with enough training he could probably completely master two or more elements.”

  He looked at Q almost sorrowfully.

  “There is another type of mage, one that isn’t known to all,” he said, “the sorcerer. These beings are born with enough life energy to actually gain the inherent ability to fully master any Elementa. You’ve just controlled two elements without even knowing how. There’s no doubt about it. You’re a sorcerer.”

  Q looked down at his feet. He didn’t know what was going on. He couldn’t be someone that strong. He didn’t even know if he wanted to be someone that strong.

  “I can’t believe this is happening,” Carlos said. “It’s almost as though some supernatural force gave this to us at the most crucial of times.”

  “Crucial times?” Taylor asked. “What’s happening?”

  Carlos lifted his hand and the wall behind him flipped around, revealing a huge screen. “We have something even more serious going on.”

  Q felt everyone look at the screen. He tried to stop thinking about what had just happened and focus more on what was happening in front of him.

  “You probably won’t have any clue what I’m about to say so I’ll start from the very beginning,” he put his hands at the top of his chair, “A few hundred years ago our universe was invaded. The invaders were from other dimensions, from other universes. Within the first few days thousands of their ships reached our side and started wreaking havoc. Within a few months the strongest of planets had fallen to them, and that was when the remaining life made an alliance to fend off the invasion. It took them a few months, and when they finally fought back it resulted in the biggest battle the universe has ever seen. We call it The Great War. These invaders, the Megethos, were pushed back into their inter-dimensional portals and these portals were rendered obsolete.”

  He took a sip of water from a glass on the table, “Over the past few week large regions of space have been destabilizing, slowly turning into black holes - a point in space from which nothing can escape. The problem is, these black holes could create new portals and let species like the Megethos back into our universe.”

  He pressed a button and an image showed up on the screen. A few hundred black dots contrasted against a gray background, “This was the image of the black holes last month.”

  And then he flipped to another image. This one seemed like the previous image, but instead of crisp dots everything seemed fuzzy, like someone had poured water over a painting.

  “The black holes are destabilizing,” he said. “And it doesn’t seem to be happening because of a natural phenomenon. Someone else is causing this to happen. We’ve traced the cause to a small region near the center of the universe, but that’s all we know.”

  “Wait, why are you telling us this?” Taylor asked.

  The door to the room opened. Kai walked in with a brown haired girl right next to him.

  “I initially wanted to send four of you over there,” Carlos hesitated. “But now that Q’s situation has become clearer, it would be most fitting to send him with you as well.”

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Q put his hands in the air. “Me? Mission? Space? WHAT?”

  “I know it’s a little hard to take in Q but-”

  “A little?”

  “Fine, it’s a big deal. But you have to trust me on this. If you were a mage I would not send you on this mission. But you’re clearly a sorcerer. Such a warrior type gets exponentially stronger through battle experience. There’s pretty much nothing we can teach you to improve. You may seem like a novice right now. One battle and you’ll start to feel far more confident. I guarantee it.”

  Q still seemed unconvinced, “Aren’t there any professionals who could do this? I mean we’re just teenagers. You surely have someone better to go to?”

  “Most organizations don’t acknowledge the fact these black holes are destabilizing. The ones that do say it’s just a natural phenomenon and that the portals have probably closed up anyway, so the black holes destabilizing won’t let the Megethos come back in.”

  “Aliea is the only one that does?”

  “I’m the only one who does. The other members of the board don’t see it as a threat
either.”

  “Wait, they don’t agree either?” Kai asked. “You didn’t tell me that part.”

  “Because it doesn’t really matter. I’m the commander. I can veto their decision.”

  Everyone silenced the moment he said ‘Veto’.

  “Are you that sure you’re right?” Juliana asked, her voice sounding a little nervous.

  “I’m sure the black holes are destabilizing. I’m sure the portals are going to be working if that happens. But I’m not absolutely sure the cause of everything is at the center.”

  More silence followed.

  “We’ll do it,” Q said.

  Now everyone looked at him.

  “Dude, you were against this whole thing and now you want to do it?” Kai asked.

  “What’s the alternative?” he asked. “Not do anything and hope for the best?”

  “He has a point,” Juliana said.

  “I guess there’s no other choice,” Kai mumbled.

  “Yeah,” Taylor agreed.

  “Great,” Carlos smiled. “Now let me introduce you to the new girl here. Her name is Elizabeth and she just transferred in today.”

  “WAIT!” Taylor jumped up. “You’re the one who created that sonic blast?”

  “Yeah,” she said, her voice almost like a whisper, her English accent showing even through her quiet voice.

  “Anyway,” Carlos said. “There’s one more-”

  The door thudded open and a girl in a white coat rushed in, “The supplies have all been packed commander,” she said.

  “Excellent,” he said. “Guys, this is Christina. The final member on your team. I’m sure most of you have met her already.”

  “Hello,” she said. “You can all call me Chris.”

  “Now I’ve told you everything you need to know,” Carlos said. “I wish I could have taken you out of this situation, but right now you’re all we’ve got. The five best from Aliea Academy.”

  “Umm…I’m not from here,” Q said.

  “We’ll enroll before you come back,” he smiled.

  “Wait this means we don’t get any backup?” Kai asked.

  Carlos nodded, “This is a secret mission. The records will say you guys went on medical leave. You are not to tell anyone what happened.”

  “Communication lines?”

  “Every day once, at varying times. I’ll let you know exactly when you can communicate with us. Your ship has a large amount of supplies so you won’t need to dock anywhere.”

  “When do we leave?” Q asked.

  “As soon as we’re done,” Carlos sat down.

  “And yeah, we’re done.”

  ***

  “All your supplies and weaponry are aboard the Orion,” Carlos said, “and don’t worry, every piece of tech is first class.”

  “The Orion?”

  “Beauty of a ship,” Kai grinned.

  “Juliana, just go along with them would you?” Carlos asked. “And, Taylor, stay here for a moment,” he said with an even quieter voice.

  Juliana nodded and ushered everyone else out.

  When they were finally out of the room Carlos turned towards Taylor, “You’re going to have to take care of Q.”

  “ARE YOU CRAZY?” she yelled. “Why in the world would you put him on this mission? It’s his third day here!”

  “I hate it as much as you do,” he said. “If I could I’d rather just wipe out his memory and never let him find out about Aliea or S.P.A.C.E or everything else that’s happened.”

  “Instead you put him on a high-class mission.”

  Carlos sighed. “You don’t get it. He’s a sorcerer, and now we’ve kind of ‘awakened’ his potential. It’s like opening a dam. The stored water is going to come raging through. He will become more powerful by the second,” his voice went quiet. “And sometimes his mind may not be able to keep up with it.”

  She stayed silent, “What do I have to do?”

  “Any abnormalities, any unusual behavior, whether it’s in speech or anything else, report it back to me when we communicate.”

  “You know, it wouldn’t hurt for you to try to act closer to him. He’s all confused right now. He needs you”

  “I…” he stuttered. “I can’t. I can’t try to become closer after years of moving away. I can’t do that to him.”

  “Sure, just go ahead and decide what he wants. You clearly seem to know how he thinks,” she rolled her eyes.

  “Just take care of him.”

  “I will,” she turned around. “It’d be nice if his brother tried to act like family once in a while,” she said and walked out of the room.

  Carlos sighed. He knew she was right. But that didn’t mean he was wrong. It seemed unfair to Q to suddenly try to get closer to him after all these years of pushing him away.

  He leaned back on his chair and cleared his thoughts. He’d just sent five kids on what was possibly the most dangerous mission of their lives.

  They can handle it, he thought.

  He figured Taylor had probably realized it by now. The only reason he was able to confidently send them on a mission was because of that one weapon he’d found.

  The sorcerer.

  ***

  Q walked out of the tower and followed Kai to a large open area.

  A huge ship stood there, its sleek black body standing out against the bright floodlights. The front of the ship was like a round-edged cube and the back converged into a sharp point.

  “That’s the Orion. A level-A warship. Probably one of the fastest in its tier.”

  “You made this?” Q asked in disbelief. He remembered the damage those level-Bs had caused earlier, and this one was Level-A!

  “I wish,” he laughed. “Carlos has had this one stored in the hangar for a long time. Never been used. Pure metallic beauty.”

  Q stared in awe, and he was pretty sure everyone else was doing the same.

  “C’mon!” Kai yelled and ran towards the Orion.

  They followed him into the ship.

  The doorway, or the hatch, opened up into what looked to be the main control room.

  The place had a two level structure, the lower level had a single seat and a large holographic view screen in front of it. About two feet higher, the higher level had a few small holographic screens in front of walls and a large circular machine in the middle that projected a large 3D cube.

  “Whoa, a holographic positioning system,” Elizabeth said. “Amazing.”

  “Told you so,” Kai said as he twirled his pilot seat around.

  “You’re too short,” Q said. “We can’t even see you if the chair back is facing us.”

  “I can haunt more people that way,” he turned around and tried to make ghastly noises.

  Such an idiot, Q smiled.

  “Anyway, we’ll be taking off in a few moments, so if you will,” Kai entered something on the screen next to him.

  Four small circular sections of the floor receded downwards and when they came back each one had a chair. Four chairs. One for each of them.

  “Strap yourselves in,” Kai said.

  Everyone took their seats pretty quickly, and secured themselves.

  “Alrighty, folks, this is Air-Kai,” he said. “Hope you have a strong stomach cause I’m gonna floor this thing.”

  He’s kidding right? he thought.

  He felt a small jerk as the Orion lifted itself off the ground.

  “Control, this is the Orion, requesting pathway to proceed for secret mission.”

  “Kai you’re not supposed to-”

  “This is control,” Carlos’ voice came through. “Just because you know I’m the only one here doesn’t mean you can say that Kai.”

  “I apologize, Commander,” he said, with a not-so-sorry look on his face.

  “Section 43-b opening up,” Carlos said. “Good luck everyone. Over and out.”

  A large section of the force field deactivated.

  “Let’s go,” Kai yelled and the Orion surged forward, k
nocking everyone back into their seats.

  He wasn’t kidding, Q thought. And that made him smile. The guy was crazy.

  But they were on a crazy mission, a little bit of crazy wasn’t going to hurt anyone.

  ***

  3-5

  In seconds they were out of Zygrade’s atmosphere and in space.

  “Where are we going now?” Q asked.

  “Carlos asked us to go check out the first black hole anomaly,” Kai said. ”He thinks we can get more information if we analyze it from a closer range.”

  “Fine then.”

  Taylor tried to ease the new girl into the group.

  “Hi,” Taylor turned to Elizabeth. “I’m Taylor, and this is Chris,” who politely nodded her head.

  “Nice to meet you,” Elizabeth said.

  And then came the silence. Something that was not exactly Taylor’s forte.

  “Is he okay?” Elizabeth pointed at Q.

  “Oh yeah, he’s totally fine. He just felt a little sore from the sonic blast, speaking of which. How in the world did you do that?”

  “I had a battle with this boy.”

  “I know that part.”

  “Oh,” she paused. “Well, I think our attacks created a little more energy than we could handle.”

  “Your wave skills must be pretty high.”

  “Yeah, they figured I was going to turn into a mage, but well, I was strong, but not strong enough.”

  “That’s really impressive,” Taylor said.

  “I think it’s way more impressive that you’re a Dark Knight.”

  “WHAT?” Kai turned around, gaping at Taylor.

  “YOU’RE A DARK KNIGHT?” he asked one more time.

  Taylor herself was pretty freaked out. Why did this girl even consider that possibility?

  “You’re probably wondering how I know. Kai told me about the dark aura from your suit. Not many people know that the Dark Knights are the only ones with suits like that.”

  “Many people don’t know the Dark Knights,” Taylor mumbled.

  “Dark Knight?” Q asked. “Like Batman?”

  Everyone broke into laughter, which was pretty useful since Taylor was feeling irritated this Elizabeth girl had spilled her secret.