CHAPTER 5

Ceidon Lore woke with a start. A flood of sensations rushed through his body, culminating in a stinging migraine. The scholar grabbed his head and his hand immediately fell on a massive knot. Slowly, everything came back to him. The trip was uneventful until, as Ceidon expected, the travelers found a new land. This land was unique. Aurora’s danced through the skies, constantly being interrupted by lightning, and the air buzzed with some type of unknown energy. Then, just as Ceidon began to make heads or tails of their situation, that bitch Saieda had knocked him out. If she was trying to kill him, she failed. Ceidon was very much alive in what seemed to be a basic mud brick home.

The scholar sat up and tried to look around, but his vision was blurry. He slowly felt around his pocket and was relieved to find the Shards of Dreniak were still in his possession. With a grunt, Ceidon moved the stones to his forehead and focused on their rejuvenating effect. Unbeknownst to Ceidon, the air around him began to crackle and one of the aurora seeped through an open window. “No!” a voice cried out. Before Ceidon could react, a silver coated cat leapt at the scholar and knocked the shards from his hands. When the shards landed, lightning erupted from the aurora and struck them. The ordeal started a small blue fire that extinguished as fast as it started.

“Do not use magic here!” The cat, clearly a woman from her tone, hissed while pressing a cold handkerchief along his forehead.

Ceidon was flabbergasted. “You speak the common tongue?” he asked, pushing the handkerchief away.

“No,” the catwoman responded. Ceidon lifted an eyebrow, perplexed, so she continued, “Well not exactly. You clearly can perceive the tap. Its magic allows us to communicate.”

“But,” Ceidon hesitated, “the tap was…”

“…destroyed,” the cat woman finished. “Yes, I’m well aware. I am A’lia, you’re savior. You must leave now, before the Tribe discovers you’re here.

“The Tribe?” Ceidon repeated.

“Yes, the ruling house of our land. If they find you, they will torture you and kill you.”

“Why?” Ceidon asked.

“For information about the northern world.” With this, A’lia hurried to a closet, pulling out Ceidon’s cloak and his weapons. “The tap has resonated to me. Our mission to the place you call the Jagged Mountains has failed. Our friends are dead. Now, you are the last hope for your people. You must warn them of the invasion.”

“Invasion?” Ceidon repeated. Even without a migraine, this was an incredible amount of information to take in over a short time.

“Yes” A’lia hissed. “Our land is no longer hospitable and the Tribe blames the northern world for our plight. Accordingly, they plan an invasion of your Corone. Preparations were made and the full armada sails at first light.”

“But you…why help me?”
“I am a member of the resistance. I...we believe this,” A’lia motioned to the sky, “is a product of our own making, caused by years of irresponsible experimentation on the tap. Life cannot survive under this constant barrage of magical energy. What is left clings by a thread. We heard rumor of an artifact created in the first era by the Goddess Am’eleh that could balance the effect of the tap. A form of anti-magic, if you will. We hoped that it we could find the artifact, we could use it to bring life back to our land without needing to invade yours. However, our expedition failed. Now, you must warn your people.”

“But if I warn my people, yours will die…” Ceidon stated.

“Yes.”

“Then why not stop the invasion?”

A’lia sighed, “That time has passed. As I said, our plight is of our own making. If fate demands these are our last days, so be it. I…we will not allow our sins to mean the destruction of your people as well.” A’lia strapped Ceidon’s cloak across his chest and handed him his weapons. “You must go, now. As I saved you, you must now save your people.”

“No!” Ceidon replied forcefully, starting A’lia. “The tap, the auroras, the artifact. None of this makes any sense. I feel like I’ve stepped back to the first era.”

“The longer your stay, the more you endanger your own people, but I will provide the answers you seek.” A’lia cleared her throat. “You have been taught that the source of magic in this world, the tap, is a single well that was destroyed in your first era, but this is inaccurate. The tap is everywhere, and there are wells throughout the world. When yours was destroyed, magic in the northern lands was weakened, but here, it became stronger and more concentrated. This is why the Tribe blames the north for the sky. However, magic always seeks balance. Overtime, we disrupted this balance by drawing more and more magic to this land in an attempt to control it. Magic begets magic, and as you could tell from your stones, even the air here reacts to it.”

Things were beginning to fall into place, but Ceidon allowed A’lia to continue.

“When magic began to kill flora and fauna, we knew our time here was at an end. There was a great civil war in our country between the Tribe and the resistance over the fate of our country, of our legacy, but as you probably guessed by now, we lost. The rest is essentially as I told you before. We sought the artifact, but failed to recover it. Now there is nothing to stop the Tribe from carrying out their invasion. I’m sorry Ceidon.”

“Wait, how do you know my name?”

“The tap whispers your name like a curse, Ceidon Lore, and a curse against magic is our redemption.”

“The artifact,” Ceidon asked tangentially, trying to avoid thinking of the burden that was just placed on his young shoulders, “Do you know of a Senator Fordstein?”

“I do not know that name,” A’lia replied.

“Then I should go.” Ceidon said, taking his weapons. He walked over and grabbed his now dormant Shards of Dreniak from the floor.

“A ship, one of the fastest interceptors, has been prepared for you in the docks. The remainder of the resistance will accompany you as proof of your claims.”

“Will you be coming?”

“No,” A’lia replied. “My fate is tied to these lands.”

Ceidon nodded. “Thank you for saving my life,” he said, as he exited the home. Outside, the sky crackled. In his haste, he realized he never asked A’lia how to get to the docks. However, he was pleased to find that A’lia, in fact, lived on the docks. The ship was directly ahead of him.

As Ceidon approached, the captain introduced himself, and the two made pleasantries, but just when they were about to board, bells rang out from the east. The main harbor was under attack. Ceidon grabbed a pair of binoculars from the captain and raced to the front of the interceptor. He peered through the lenses, and his jawed dropped. Corone’s navy was attacking. At the head of the party was a frigate carrying a new flag. The red of Akashima’s eagle was surrounded by Fordstein’s black snake. A new baron had been named.

“Fucking Saieda,” Ceidon yelled before rushing back to the crew.