by Ryan Sova
Garry landed on the road and then started walking towards Detective Grant’s house. Finding Detective Grant’s house from the ground was not a very hard task as he had already been here several times before as a guest. Over the years, there had been many events that Garry had been invited to at Detective Grant’s house, such as parties and other get togethers. Garry also knew Detective Grant’s wife, Anna, and their three-year-old daughter, Jesse, very well and looked forward to meeting with them again.
Garry arrived at Detective Grant’s front door. He then started chanting. His intent was to use his powers of telekinesis to manipulate the locking mechanism on the door. This task took Garry several attempts, but finally, he managed to turn the lock and heard the deadbolt slide to an unlocked position. Garry then entered the house.
Garry quietly made his way through the house to Detective Grant’s bedroom. Upon entering the bedroom, Garry observed both Detective Grant and his wife Anna in bed sleeping. Garry quietly closed the bedroom door, then flipped the light switch on and spoke to Detective Grant in a jovial voice, “Hi there Detective Grant. You remember me?”
Detective Grant immediately sat up in his bed, “Garry, how the hell did you get in here!”
Garry didn’t waste any time. He knew that this reunion was not going to be a pleasant one. He immediately started chanting.
Detective Grant rose from his bed and then paused. He had never heard Garry speak in a foreign language before and he also could not figure out where that strange, eerie echo was coming from. His wife Anna stayed in her bed. She was wide awake by now but chose to let her husband confront their unexpected intruder.
Suddenly, an unseen force grabbed hold of both Detective Grant and his wife Anna. Their bodies were lifted up like paperweights until they were both firmly attached to the ceiling of their bedroom. The couple stared down at Garry, A dumbfounded expression on both of their faces.
Garry took a few steps towards the couple and then stood on the bed so that he could get a closer look. He then addressed Detective Grant again, “Do you remember back to the last time that we spoke on the phone? I told you about some strange things that I had been seeing in my dreams, like a strange mythical land from the distant past, sorcerers, and even zombies. You remember, don’t you? Do you remember what you told me? You told me that sorcerers and zombies don’t exist, not now, not ever. Well since our last meeting, my dreams about sorcerers and zombies haven’t stopped. In fact, these sorcerers have been teaching me some magic tricks lately. Like this one, you like it? Oh, but I can see that you are not convinced yet so let me show you another one!”
Without hesitation, Garry started chanting again. This chant lasted for just over a minute. Moments before Garry’s chant ended, Detective Grant worked up the nerve to speak to him, “G - Garry, I…”
But it was too late, Garry had just completed his spell. This was the same exact spell that Garry had used on himself earlier to escape from his prison bindings. Garry cast this spell on Detective Grant’s hands, wrists, and arms. He then reached up, grabbed Detective Grant by both of his wrists and pulled. Detective Grant’s arms and wrists stretched like a piece of elastic. Garry then tied Detective Grant's arms together into a bow.
Detective Grant’s jaw dropped. In the seconds following having his arms tied together into a bow, he wiggled his arms and fingers a bit, just to see if all of this was real. Not one word was uttered from Detective Grant’s lips, though, during these few moments of horror and disbelief. His wife Anna, on the other hand, was another matter completely. In the seconds following this horrific scene, she started repeating the following phrase, “Oh my God! OH MY GOD!!!! OH MY…”
Garry interrupted her, “Anna. ANNA!!! While I can tell you that I am not here to harm either of you, if you don’t shut up now I’m going to have to seal your lips together. Okay?”
Anna immediately stopped talking, a look of pure horror was written on her face. Just then, the bedroom door opened. Garry turned his head and saw a little three-year-old girl standing in the doorway. The girl had brown hair with brown eyes. She wore Mickey-Mouse pajamas and was staring down at the floor with a sleepy expression on her face.
“Mommy, you’re being really loud,” The girl said while still rubbing her eyes.
Then the girl looked up. Her eyes slowly followed the bed to Garry and then finally landed on her parents.
The girl stared blankly for a moment, then spoke, “Mommy, why are you on the ceiling?”
Anna responded, “Jesse, go to your room. Mommy will be there in a minute, okay sweetie?”
Jesse responded, “Yes mommy.”
Jesse then turned and started leaving the room. Just short of exiting though, she turned her head and started gazing at her parents again.
Anna called out to her, “JESSE!”
Jesse immediately turned her head and exited the room.
As soon as Jesse left the room, Detective Grant spoke to Garry, “Garry, you’ve convinced me now! I’m sorry that I ever doubted you. Whatever you came here to say, I believe you!”
Detective Grant then turned his head to his wife, “We both believe you.”
Emotions stirred up inside of Garry and tears started welling up in his eyes, “Are you sure? You don’t need another demonstration? You actually believe me now?”
Garry wiped the tears from his face just as Detective Grant continued, “Garry, I was wrong and I’m sorry.”
Garry then went to work at untying Detective Grant’s arms. Tears were still streaming down his face as he worked. Once Detective Grant’s arms were untied, he then cast a spell on his arms, wrists, and hands returning them back to normal. By the time that Garry had finished with this, he had regained control over his emotions again, although his eyes were still red from all the crying.
Garry then took a step off the bed and back onto the floor of the room. His next task was to lower the couple back down to their bed. Garry could have simply done this by just releasing his concentration on the spell that had been used to raise them. This, however, would have caused them to both drop violently back to their bed. Garry didn’t want to do this as he figured that Detective Grant and his wife had already been traumatized enough for one night. Instead, Garry cast another telekinesis spell and gently lowered the couple back to their bed.
Once the couple were back in their bed, Garry spoke to Detective Grant again, “Detective Grant, I need you to listen to me. What I am about to tell you is very important.”
Detective Grant sat up in his bed and listened intently to Garry as he spoke. A short while after Garry began speaking, Anna interrupted him, “Garry, I’m sorry but I need to go check on my daughter now.”
Garry then kindly excused her to leave. Before leaving, Anna put her hand on Garry’s shoulder and said, “We are here for you Garry. Whatever you need, we are here for you.”
Garry then continued speaking to Detective Grant. Garry relayed everything to him, everything from Nephal’s world as well as everything that Garry had learned in the modern world. Detective Grant listened on intently. Garry had the distinct feeling as he was speaking that even if he were to tell Detective Grant that the sky was red rather than blue, Detective Grant would have believed him without a second thought.
After Garry was finally done explaining everything he knew to Detective Grant, Detective Grant continued to sit in his bed absorbing everything that he had just learned. After a few moments, Detective Grant spoke, “I’m here for you Garry and I will do everything in my power to help you from here on out. But tell me, how do we stop them, I mean the undead?”
Garry thought about this for a moment and then answered, “I don’t know.”
CHAPTER 19
Nephal rolled over in bed and gently kissed his wife Debra on the cheek. He was just now starting to get used to the idea of coming home every night after his magical studies were over. It had been two weeks since Nephal had learned how to teleport himself in both body and spirit. Just after learning this power, Ne
phal wasted no time in asking Heragald if he would be allowed to teleport home every night to go and be with his wife. She granted this request without a second thought.
Before this request had been made, though, Nephal had already been visiting with his wife and son for quite some time. His visits until just recently, however, were limited to a ghost form. To be able to hold Debra in his arms again was something that Nephal had been longing for ever since he had first left home two years ago.
Nephal had now been studying magic with Heragald as his teacher for the past six months. In this amount of time, he had attained the rank of an Adept and then just recently, he was promoted again to the rank of Master.
Eliak had progressed a great deal with his studies as well. In a recent conversation that Nephal had with Atonick, he informed Nephal that Eliak was almost ready to take his test and advance to the rank of Acolyte. Nephal had also spoken with Eliak. His friend seemed to be in much better spirits now that he was actually having success with his spells. In their conversations, Eliak had made a request of Nephal. He wanted Nephal to check in on his mother and youngest brother every once in a while, now that he could actually teleport home. Nephal had done so on occasion, however, most of his time away from his studies he chose to spend with family.
While lying in bed, Nephal quickly fell asleep. He was awoken by the sound of a loud chime in his room going off. Debra moaned and rolled over in bed. Nephal quickly rose from bed to silence the alarm (magical alarms instantly silence themselves when the person who is supposed to get up rises from their bed). Once Nephal was up, he started dressing himself in a new set of robes. Nephal gazed at his robes before putting them on. He now had a full set of magical symbols embroidered into his robes, just like Atonick. However, the symbols which were now embroidered into his robes were red in color. It was hard for Nephal to believe that he was actually a higher ranking sorcerer now than Atonick was. His rise through the ranks had occurred at a stunningly fast rate of speed. Nephal could still remember the day that he was first introduced to the plain student robes that he was given to wear on the first day of his magic study. These robes had changed rapidly as his ranks increased.
***Sorcerer ranking system explained***
Student - Plain robes
Apprentice - One white symbol embroidered on the chest
Acolyte - A full set of magical symbols, all white (two-hundred and eighty-six total)
Adept - A full set of magical symbols, all golden
Master - A full set of magical symbols, all red
Arch-Master - A full set of magical symbols, all red and glowing
Once Nephal was dressed in his robes, he walked over to Debra, leaned over and whispered to her that he was leaving. She moaned, rolled over and wrapped her arms around Nephal, then kissed him gently on the lips. She then spoke to him in a soft voice saying, “Be safe my love.”
Nephal chanted for a few minutes, then disappeared from the room. As Nephal was being pulled through the sea of colors, he thought back to the first trip that he had ever taken by way of teleportation. Nephal could still clearly remember how nervous he felt before this journey had started and then how utterly terrified he became afterward. It was a stark contrast to the way that he now felt. Nowadays, Nephal felt perfectly comfortable using the roads of magic. After all the times that he had traveled back and forth between Bragsdale and the Homestead Village, it now felt almost natural to Nephal when he would travel using the roads of magic.
While he was being pulled through the sea of colors, Nephal heard a voice in the language of magic. This had also reminded Nephal of his first teleportation journey. The first time that he had ever heard this voice was immediately followed by a response from King Noah which was also in the language of magic. After this, Nephal had been pulled towards a glowing wall that circled around a certain area in the sea of colors which he was then subsequently pulled through as he was taken to his final destination in Bragsdale. At the time of this initial journey, Nephal had no understanding of what any of this meant.
This was not the case anymore though. Nephal now knew exactly what was happening. The voice was a part of the enchantment that King Noah had laid to protect Bragsdale from unwanted intruders. It was a code word enchantment. Once a sorcerer heard this code word, he or she would then have to immediately respond with the correct answer. If the sorcerer didn’t respond or responded with the wrong word, his or her body would then be splattered on the magical glowing wall that circled around Bragsdale and would then appear just outside of the city gates as a mangled corpse. If the sorcerer got the code word right, though, he or she could then safely pass through the glowing wall and arrive at his or her desired destination. All sorcerers in the Kingdom of Noah were taught what the code word was and its correct response so that they could safely teleport in and out of Bragsdale. For sorcerers who were not a part of King Noah’s Counsel of the Magi, though, this enchantment made teleportation into or out of Bragsdale impossible.
Nephal appeared just outside of the dining area of the palace and immediately walked into the room to go and get his morning breakfast. Heragald had been waiting for him there. She immediately spoke to Nephal the moment that he arrived, “Good, you’re here! King Noah is waiting for us in his office.”
Heragald then quickly lead Nephal through several corridors and up several flights of stairs until they had finally arrived at King Noah’s office. Once they arrived, Heragald proceeded to knock on the closed door for King Noah’s office. Nephal heard a voice from inside the room say, “Come on in.”
Heragald opened the door and Nephal followed her into the room. King Noah was seated behind a large wooden desk that was facing the door. Talmadge was standing next to him and also facing the door. Inside the room, to the left and right of King Noah’s desk, were two large bookshelves that went from the floor to the ceiling of the room. These bookshelves were stacked with various types of books. Upon closer inspection, Nephal recognized what these books were. They were spell books and, as such, contained a vast treasure of knowledge about the art of magic. The room itself was rather small in size and, as such, contained only King Noah’s desk and bookshelves. There were not even chairs for any guests to be seated in this room.
Heragald closed the door as soon as Nephal had entered behind her. Both Heragald and Nephal then approached King Noah and stopped just short of his desk. King Noah then rose from his seat and addressed everyone in the room, “All of you, something has just happened at the Borderlands. I want the three of you to accompany me as we go to investigate. We will leave here at once.”
King Noah then gave the group a set of coordinates. Coordinates are used by sorcerers to map out precise locations so that they could then teleport together as a group without confusion. The four sorcerers then started chanting and, after a few moments, they had all teleported to the Borderlands.
In spite of the fact that the Borderlands had always been relatively close to Nephal’s hometown, this was the first time that he had actually been here. The layout of the land was very similar to that of the Homestead Village. The land was made up of mostly grassy plains with very few hills or trees that could be seen for miles on end. There were dense forests that could be seen near the mountain ranges on both sides of the wall, but these mountains were several miles away in each direction and barely visible aside from their distant outlines. In front of Nephal and his companions was the wall. It towered above the people on the ground and reached a height of eighty feet. The wall was constructed primarily of stone that had been hauled here from the mountains. Several wooden lookout towers had also been built into the wall and reached a height of three hundred feet. These towers were spaced apart by about a mile between towers. At the center of the wall was a giant wooden gate that looked like it had also been reinforced with steel bindings.
When one would look upon the wall, they would see this massive giant stone wall that stretched forth for miles on end connecting two very distant mountain ranges on either
side. Leading up to this wall was a long and winding road. This road could be observed for as far as the eye could see traveling further and further into the grassy plains beyond. The road lead from the distant plains to the closed and barred gates on the wall. Beyond this gate, one would be traveling on the border between the Vestillian and the Yessitic Empires, hence the name that it had received many years ago, The Borderlands. Near the wall, there were several abandoned villages that had all been evacuated years ago due to the king’s decree. These villages now housed the many soldiers who patrolled the wall both day and night.
When Nephal and his companions arrived, they were immediately greeted by a sorcerer who had been waiting for them. This sorcerer had gray hair, wore a set of glasses on his face and had green eyes. He had golden runes on his robes which identified him as an Adept in the sorcerer ranks. Based on how old this sorcerer looked, one might have thought that he should have been an Arch-Master by now. Nephal was slightly intrigued by this but said nothing so as to not be disrespectful to the man.
“My lords, there is something that you need to see. Outside of our gates, a crowd of people are lining up in numbers that are simply beyond reckoning,” the sorcerer said, a look of grave concern on his face.
Heragald responded, “How long have they been here and are they living or dead?”
The sorcerer answered, “They started showing up yesterday in the late afternoon hours. They came in massive numbers and they have been continuing to pour in all throughout the night. From the gates, we have heard their cries and screamed pleas. They speak of an undead plague that is sweeping through the land killing everyone and everything that crosses its path. They say that they are being hunted by the dead and that if we don’t let them in, the dead will find them and slaughter them all. Now, as for whether they are living or not, I have not mingled amongst them, so I cannot know for sure. But I have not felt the terror of the dead in them, so my guess would be that they are alive, all of them.”
