That room exited directly on to a stonespiral staircase. We followed the old man up the stairs to a heavy,wooden door. The door opened by itself with a loud creak as weapproached. The room on the other side resembled a militarybarracks, with a line of four beds down each wall. In the centerwas a large table covered with food and drink. Once we were all inthe room, the man said, “I will return shortly. I must see to yoursafety.” With that, he closed the door and left.
I laid Kellyn down on one of the beds andasked, “Can we do anything for her?”
“No, sir. She just needs to sleep a whileand she should recover completely,” said Major Jerran.
I took some food and pulled up a chair nextto her bed. “Eat up and rest while we can,” I ordered.“Anyone have any idea where we are?”
“Sir, this room is sealed. None of us cansee beyond it. I assume this would also keep anyone from seeing in,so I dare not try to break the seal,” answered Luke.
“Very well. We wait then for ourmysterious host to return,” I said.
We all ate and drank while we waited butthere was not much conversation. No one seemed to like the factthat we had stepped out of one mystery into an even bigger one. Ikept reliving that vision of Kellyn fighting the dark specter. Whatcould it all mean?
“Sir, he is here,” Darnath said justbefore the door opened.
The old man entered the room, and pulled up achair next to the table. After taking a drink he turned to us andsaid, “I know you have many questions for me. Let me see if I cananswer the obvious ones first. My name is Mantis, and you are in mytower. I have been watching the developments of your battles forsome time now, and when you opened the gate I intervened andredirected you here. You would probably like to know where my toweris. Well, that is complicated since it is not known for its abilityto stay in one place. Relative to your understanding, it is best tothink of it as lying on a planet in a different, but similaruniverse.” He stopped, looked at Andreya and said, “I mustcompliment you on your illusion. Masterfully done. I have not seenyour equal in all my travels. Had I not personally redirected yourjourney to my gate, I would have never known you came through.”
Andreya blushed a little and said, “Thankyou, sir.”
“Mantis, you said you were watching thecolony and brought us here. Why?” I asked.
“Well, that is a very long story, but youneed to hear it so I will do my best to be brief.” He paused andrefilled his glass from the jug of mead that was on the table. “Itstarts in a time so far back that no one really knows how long agoit was. At that time the known universe was limited to just oneplanet, and all men could do was guess at the meaning of the lightsin the sky. There were two powerful kingdoms on that planet, one inthe east and one in the west. These two kingdoms hated each other,and were in a constant state of war. They were well matched, andlocked in a stalemate for decades when the Kingdom of the Eastfound the Tome of Power. The Tome of Power was a book thatcontained information on how to tap a power that no one had knowneven existed. It was a kind of energy that flowed through andaround everything. Using the information in the book, it wasdiscovered that some people were gifted with the ability to tap andchannel this power. This gave the Kingdom of the East a powerfulweapon to use against their hated enemy. Seven men were trained inwhat became known as the art of Sorcery. Those seven men wieldedgreat power, the like of which had never been seen before, and theycould conjure up foul beasts from the underworld to do battle forthem. They could even animate the dead to continue to fight. It wasnot long before the Kingdom of the West was completely overthrown.The sorcerers then turned on their own king and seized the thronefor themselves. That ushered in an era of darkness where the entireknown world was forced into slavery. No one could resist theirpower.
“Then one day a young man appeared on thescene. History does not record much about him, but we know that hehad great power of his own. His power surpassed even the combinedpower of the seven sorcerers, effortlessly turning back theirbeasts and spells. The sorcerers never came out to fight him,preferring to send their slaves to do it, but none of them couldhurt him. He took on twelve apprentices to whom he taught his art.Once he felt they were sufficiently trained, he left. History doesnot record where he went, but we do know that the twelve moved toattack the sorcerers with great speed. Five of them were killed inthe battles that followed, but they soon forced the sorcerers intohiding. It was then they took to calling themselves wizards.
“With the sorcerers gone, the seven remainingwizards freed the lands from the dark curses of the sorcerers andissued in an era of peace. The wizards began to train others intheir arts so that there would always be someone around to defendthe lands against the sorcerers should they return. The long andunbroken peace lulled the wizards into a false sense of safety, andthey became lax in their vigil. Secretly the sorcerers returned,and following the example of the wizards began training others intheir arts. Then one day they struck. Instead of just sevensorcerers there were hundreds, and they brought all kinds of foulcreatures with them. The wizards rallied to defend the land butwere forced to retreat from the northern continent.
“That brings us to where we sit today. TheSecond Great War between the wizards and the sorcerers is stuck ata perpetual stalemate. Both sides are scrambling to find someadvantage over the other, and it seems we are doomed to relive thehistory all over again.”
“Okay, let me take a guess. The ones we callthe Magi, you call sorcerers?” I asked.
“The title ‘Magi’ has been taken to refer toanyone who can tap the energy, so both wizards and sorcerers areconsidered to be Magi.”
“So it seems your war has spilled over intoour Empire. Why?” I asked.
“Remember how this all started, how theKingdom of the East and the Kingdom of the West were locked in astalemate until the Tome of Power was found? The sorcerers aretrying to repeat that feat now to break this stalemate. We do notknow what they are looking for, or why they think they can find itin your Empire, but they are searching for something they thinkwill give them the edge again. Of course that means we are doingeverything we can to discover what they are looking for and claimit before they do. The obvious question to ask next is why wewatched your fight with them and did not help. After all, the enemyof an enemy is a friend.” He paused to take out a small box from ahidden pocket in his robe. “Well, the answer is simple; to do sowould devastate your lands. Let me show you something.” He traced asquare in the air that somehow turned into a window. The view outthe window was not something you would ever want to see. It was awar-torn land that looked like it could never again support life.The window faded and he said, “If we come and meet them in battlethere, all your worlds could look like that.” He let that commenthang in the air.
I knew the power of the sorcerers, and if thewizards were equally powerful, then Mantis’ fear could very well berealized. “So the alternative is to sit back and hope you find thisnew weapon before they do?” I asked.
“Not a good plan, I know, but until recentlyit was the best plan we had.” He stopped and sighed. I could tellhe was about to ask us to do something distasteful to him. “Thereis a better plan, but it will require all of you, and could verywell be the death of you.”
“Mantis, we are Imperial soldiers. Death willnot deter us from defending the Empire. It is obvious your enemyhas made us an enemy, making us your friend for now. What is yourplan?” I asked.
“In this box are seven rings. These are notordinary rings, as you might guess. If you take them from the boxand put them on, you will be signifying your acceptance of myproposal.” He pushed the box towards me, paused and looked us over.“Until recently, we knew nothing of your Empire or of any of theother nations existing in your universe. About fifty years ago wediscovered that the sorcerers had begun to take an interest in you,so we investigated. At that time we saw no evidence that there wereany Magi in your realm, so we were baffled by the sorcerers’interest. We assumed they must be looking for reinforcements. Soonafter, we discovered why they were searching your realm so heavily,and this worried us, so we began to study you closely. It was thenthat we learned of the Black Adders, and realized that any move thesorcerers made in your realm would start with them. So we planted aspy on the colony to monitor the situation for us. When thesorcerers made their move and took over the colony, our spy waskilled with the rest. We thought the Black Adders had been wipedout. This was very troubling, as there was no one left in yourrealm capable of defending it. So we began searching for a planthat could save your realm without jeopardizing our owndefenses.