Chapter 9: Abracadabra!

I stepped into the portal was flung into the void. Glowing blue magic flitted everywhere. In a panic, I waved my arms and legs as a reaction to the weightless feel. Suddenly, I stopped falling. By the time I caught my breath, I started falling once again, only sideways. Seconds later, I was spinning out of a separate portal. I landed on my back with a loud thud on a mahogany floor. I ignored the pain I endured due to the rough landing and pushed myself off the floor to survey the surroundings, only to get smashed back onto the hard floor again by Imbeseel’s overweight body. He messed up my moustache! I yelled out some colourful language as I pushed Imbeseel off and picked myself up once again.

I quickly looked around for my other teammates. Urf appeared to have arrived first as he was already walking around surveying the details of this destination. Grubby’s unconscious body landed a few seconds later followed by Stump.

My teammates and I had apparently arrived in a large brightly lit room. It smelt of candles and incense. The floor was decorated with turquoise and deep blue mosaics, forming wave patterns on the wood. We were sheltered by a stone dome reinforced by metal structures that looked like branches, only more flexible and ropey, entwining and looping into each other to create a vine-like appearance. In the center of the room was a throne covered in vine-like design similar to the dome, only that it was made of gold. The figure sat atop the throne was a wizened old man dressed in grey robes decorated with jade-green patterns. He had a long grey beard hanging from his chin and pointed elf ears. On his right hand, he held a wooden staff. His left hand was fidgeting with a leather satchel that hung across his chest from his right shoulder.

“Ah, welcome.” The figure said, sweeping his hand dramatically.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“I will tell you soon, but your teammate is in no state to hear what I have to say. You are a team. It is only fair that he gets the information as well,” the figure responded as he took a vial out of his satchel. “Give this to him. It will counteract his concussion and internal bleeding, speed up the healing of his ribs and act as a painkiller.”

“How on earth did you know his medical state?” Urf asked.

The figure simply smiled.

Urf took the vial and examined the purple liquid. He took off the cork lid and sniffed its content.

“What is this? I have never encountered such a potion. What does it do? Are there any side-effects?” Urf questioned.

“You either trust me or you trust me. You are in Qwantle. I am in charge here. If I want to harm you, I can do it directly without any distortion. I don’t need to waste a vial of our precious dragon tears that has been fermented for one hundred and twenty years to heal your friend. I thought you are the intelligent one!“ the Ruler of Qwantle boomed.

Urf nodded, walked over to Grubby and carefully poured the contents of the vial into his mouth. Immediately, Grubby opened his eyes and sat up without help. He looked wearied but otherwise in a healthy state. Blood had even started to return to his previously pale cheeks. Urf beamed and smiled apologetically at the figure on the throne.

“Now to answer your question, I am Qeer. The direct descendant of Qwan, the founder of Qwantle and the discoverer of magic,” Grand Sorcerer Qeer divulged. “Having learnt of the ADMI’s quest to terminate the evil villain who kept pushing the Ravenwall and destroyed nations, I am inclined to meet the brave young men with overwhelming courage to take on the task. I know you will need to come to Qwantle to decipher the coordinates of Alyximeme’s fortress. So I have summoned you here in an attempt to give you a hand.”

“Can you cut the chase and tell us where the heck is Nostramous 160.53, Qanstlem 67.2?” Grubby rudely asked.

Urf and I gritted our teeth and cursed Grubby’s poor negotiation skills, expecting that Qeer to throw us out after experiencing Qeer’s bad temper a few minutes ago. Unexpectedly, Qeer acted in good nature this time and smiled. “Of course, of course. I would be delighted to give you that information. Alyximeme’s fortress is…seven hundred and sixty-three kilometres northeast of here.” Queer pointed his staff to a blank wall on the far end of the room and a map appeared. There was a circle at the bottom on of map marked ‘YOU ARE HERE” and a large glowing X at the top of the map”

“That’s brilliant! Thanks so much! Alright, let's get going.” I thanked Qeer and started heading towards the large double wooden doors with golden doorframe. I assumed that was the way out.

“Hold your horses, soldier, not so fast. Why are you walking towards the library anyway?” Qeer interrupted.

“What?” I yelped.

"Hang on, talking about horses, where are our horses?” Urf wondered aloud.

“Never mind that for now. You’re coming with me first!” Qeer said. He stood up and placed his staff on the throne. Then he swirled his hands as green sparks appeared and flung the magic to the wall where the map was, creating a green portal.

“I have never seen green magic before!” Urf exclaimed as he examined the portal.

Qeer did not answer. Instead, he flicked his finger sending green wisps of magic at us. When they hit us, they knocked us backwards and into the portal. I screamed in protest as I spiraled down magical void. We shot out of the portal on the other side. Grubby keeled over and puked over Imbeseel.

I looked around. We were in a stone corridor illuminated by glowing orbs that levitated near the ceiling. On the left side of the corridor were a series of wooden doors and on the left were some brass bowls holding water. Seconds later, Qeer appeared behind us. Unlike us, he gracefully slipped through the portal and walked towards us.

“What was that for? You can’t send us here and there without our consent!” Grubby protested while wiping bits of vomit from his lips with his sleeves.

Ignoring Grubby, Qeer walked forwards, motioning us to follow. “There are several types of magic: Elemental magic, Rhunic magic and Auric magic. Magic comes from channeling your Aura, your Chi or whatever you like to call it into physical energy. Doing so requires willpower and stamina because using up your Aura will drain you. In these doors, students spar using Daryyl duels.”

“Elemental magic is the least tiring as you only need the barest spark of Aura, for example, to light up a fire. Elemental magic gives the magician the ability to alter elements like metal, wood, water, fire and earth. Some magician may find that controlling sub-elements such as water, ice and lighting more effective or not as draining.” Qeer snapped his fingers and wisps of magic flew from his fingers into five different bowls. “Look through these bowls and you can spectate the Daryyl duels. This process is called scrying.”

Intrigued, I peered through the liquid to find a high definition video of two mages dressed in robes sparring. One mage rapidly threw fireballs out of his hands while the other frantically blocked them with orbs of water. The attacking mage gave up the steady blasts of fire and pushed his hands forward as if miming opening a door. I watched in amazement as the air rippled around his hands and swiftly moved forwards, knocking the other mage back several feet.

I withdrew my eyes from the bowl and saw that Qeer had already advanced down the corridor without waiting for me. I jogged to catch up.

“Rhunic magic is slightly more complex. In order to use it, mages must carve a symbol on a solid surface, this symbol is called a sigil. The mage then must use a considerable amount of Aura to activate the sigil. Different sigils have different abilities. Sometimes, a mage can carve a sigil on a pebble and leave it in a satchel until it is of use.”

To demonstrate, Qeer took out a rock with an ominous symbol engraved onto it from his satchel and placed his index finger over the symbol. Green sparks jumped into the sigil and it lit up. Then he threw rock into the air and erected a force field around it. Kaboom! The explosion blinded and deafened me. Even with the shield surrounding it, I was knocked to the ground by the blast. When I regained my sight, I saw that the surrounding area where the exploded sigil had disintegrated. A hole shaped like a perfect circle about three meters in diameter was created on the ground. We all stared in amazement before we walked around the gaping hole and further into the corridor.

“Auric magic is the purest magic of them all. Auric magic is created when a mage creates constructs of raw Auric energy. Examples of Auric magic include portals, shields, and energy beams.”

Qeer snapped his fingers once again and green energy zipped into the scrying bowls. We stared down the bowls. I saw two mages battling one another. The elemental’s fight certainly was entertaining but this was truly spectacular. The mages leaped at each other, swinging batons of energy, firing beams of Aura at one another, bashing with construct shields, and throwing spheres of pure magic. They leaped around as their robes majestically billowed around them and a stunning light show exploded around them. Sadly, it ended as quickly as it started when one mage was shot through the gut by a stray beam. If they made a circus consisting of mages, I thought, they would be making a big buck!

“Hey hurry up!” Grubby shouted.

I had to run to catch up again. I spent too long watching the two mages spar that l did not see Qeer and my teammates leaving. I could spend the whole day watching the sparing.

“Alyximeme’s castle is located on the other side of the Ravenwall. In order to cross to the Dark Side, you must be accompanied by a mage to ensure safe passage,” Qeer explained. “I will assign two mages to escort and assist you in your quest.”

Qeer clapped his hands twice. Immediately afterwards, a robed mage stepped out of a recently conjured portal and closed the portal. He removed his hood to reveal a young bespectacled boy about ten to twelve.

“Wuddup mah dudes,” he slurred, stumbling as if drunk, “tis I…the great L.eot!”

“Oops, wrong guy,” Qeer said, cringing. Qeer quickly opened a portal behind him and flicked his fingers. Green magic knocked him into the portal. He clapped his hands once again. Another portal opened and another mage stepped out. His hood was already down. He had wild ginger hair and sideburns. The sides of his eyes were slightly wrinkled and he had, of course, pointy elf ears.

“G’day mate,” he said in an Australian accent, “whaddya want me for?”

“Escort them to Alyximeme’s castle,” Qeer replied.

“Heck yeah! Finally, somethin’ to do!” He began doing a strange dance sequence of wiggling his butt and flapping his arms. I believed the correct name of the dance is called ‘The Chicken Dance’.

“This is Oliver Duncan, a specialist of water elementalism. Although rather unstable and overenthusiastic, he is quite reliable when it comes to combat.” Qeer said.

Qeer clapped his hands the third time. This time, a red-glowing portal appeared. The newly emerged mage appeared to be a teenage girl whom could be classified as a ‘goth’. She had pale skin and long, jet black hair. She wore ebony eyeliner, lipstick, mascara, and eye shadow.

Grubby was not very impressed. “Hey Qeer, I don’t think this quest is suitable for a girl.”

She growled. Faster than my eye could track, she summoned an Aura baton and spun it around towards Grubby. The baton stopped just in front of Grubby’s throat. Grubby barely had enough time to awkwardly block it with his axe.

“Watch your tongue, dimwit!” She said through gritted teeth

“I stand corrected,” Grubby said as I snickered.

“This is Winter Dawn. She has an unusual Aura. As you could see, her magic glows red. She can be useful to your quest as her attacks are unpredictable.” Qeer said. “Now you are all set. I can teleport you as far as seven hundred kilometres towards the Ravenwall. Your horses will be waiting for you there. The rest of the journey you must navigate yourself. It may alert Alyximeme too soon if I were to use magic to transport you too close to his fortress.”

Before we had time to give our opinions, Qeer closed his eyes, straining. Seconds later, a portal opened. He waved his hand goodbye. “Farewell and godspeed.” Again, we were flung into the abyss…