Chapter 44

Akeelay

And so, we come back to me. I never wanted this. I didn’t set out on a quest in order to get all of you killed. But that was how it ended up, and this is probably going to be fatal for most of you.

I’m sorry,

Akeelay Pather

Chapter 43

Kaolin

Chapter 43

We can, in fact, blame you for trying, Lymlock. So don’t even think about it.

But anyway, the sorcerers are coming to your world. Of course, it’s not like they’ll be able to use that much magyk there. Your world doesn’t have magyk in the air, so it’s impossible to refill their “battery” on your world.

But we’ve never sent such a large group before. We have sent some sorcerers over there, by themselves, or in a small group. The most is about 3 or 4 at a time.

And, having the unfortunate experience of meeting and knowing Lymlock, I know that he’ll wait and save his magyk for the “proper” opportunities.

I really am sorry about this, people of Earth. It’s not your fault that this happened. We’re in a completely different galaxy than you, with a completely different star system, on a completely different world.

Had we not written to you, you would have had no idea about what was about to happen to your world, or where the mysterious strangers that seemed to have magyk came from.

My advice? Run. Run and hide, and good luck. But it’ll be hard, because you’ve never faced this level of annihilation before.

My condolences,

Kaolin Claystone

Maybelle

I really am sorry about this too. I don’t know why the king and queen won’t listen to reason. We ought to just send them to a different planet, where the people actually deserve it a little more. Just because you’re the closest, that doesn’t mean you should pay for it.

Oh, yeah, by the way, there are a LOT of other planets with life out there. If you survive the coming months, have fun looking for them.

Like Kaolin mentioned, there have been other sorcerers sent to your planet. Sorcerers have led many of your countries, especially communist ones. There was one a few decades back that caused a lot of strife. I believe his name was Hitler, and he had the gift of persuasion.

But that’s beside the point. I truly believe that once the sorcerers get to your Earth, then they will do their best to destroy the world. And that’s the best that they’ll do. If you’re unlucky, they’ll still look to Lymlock for guidance, and he’ll get them to help him rule the world. That would be your worst-case scenario, trust me.

I hope that whoever finds this letter will share it with the world. Everybody ought to be warned of the coming disaster, and if not…well, like I said, you’re doomed. There aren’t many more ways to say it.

I will keep trying to convince the king and queen not to send them there after all. But I believe they will, and the four of us have gotten permission to write you this letter.

After all, if the world ends, it’s not like there’ll be any need for secrecy anymore. Other worlds have been destroyed by us, but never like this.

In other news, most of the kingdom is back to normal. There have been funerals held for the ones who died, human and wizard, and Rhellens is back to normal – as normal as it ever gets when you’re surrounded by magyk.

Dossik and I are now a couple. Kaolin’s prediction from a while ago was true, and we did have a ‘thing,’ as I think he put it.

He’s so cute.

But anyway, a team was dispatched a while ago to take care of the sorcerers in the place where we were held by Lymlock. They succeeded, and they’ll be sent to Earth as well.

Things really aren’t looking good for you, are they?

Well, again, I’m really sorry about this.

Good luck,

Maybelle Collins

Lymlock

This is going to be fun. I’m going to save my magyk for the perfect occasion, and I’m going to get revenge for what Akeelay, Maybelle, and that traitor did to me. I’m taking it out on all of you.

I’ll see you soon,

Malin Lymlock

Chapter 42 (Part 3)

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Lymlock

You can’t blame me for trying, can you? I had to try something. It’s not my fault that annoying girl got out before I could kill her. I could see it in the traitor’s eyes, he was going to let me go. He cares too much about that girl to not do it.

So, I guess now I have to finish explaining what’s going to happen to the sorcerers and I.

We’re being banished, but the king and queen, after a long while of pondering, have decided that they don’t want to give other kingdoms the burden of watching out for us.

So, instead of sending us out of the kingdom, they’re sending us off the planet.

That’s right.

We’re coming there. To Earth.

This is going to be fun.

Chapter 42 (Part 2)

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Akeelay

Hey guys, sorry about that short break, although I guess you didn’t notice it, because you’re reading, not here with us. Funny.

Well, anyway, Kaolin was writing, and Lymlock, like he’s been for most of the day when he wasn’t writing, was off sitting in the corner, angry at himself and us. Especially us.

I was sitting right behind Kaolin, watching him write, when suddenly somebody grabs me around the neck and yanks me upright.

Of course, it was Lymlock. I couldn’t say anything, because he was nearly strangling me.

Gasping for air, I heard him hiss, “Let me go, traitor. Or I’ll kill her.”

Kaolin spun around, jumping to his feet. He looked at me uncertainly, then at Lymlock.

“Don’t try a spell, unless it’s to unlock the door,” Lymlock warned him.

He stood there, unsure of what to do. I understood why, of course, but I was going to die.

I grabbed for my knife at my belt. Even though this had nothing to do with a spell, it was still a knife, and it would still help me escape.

I found an empty belt, no sheath, no knife, and I cursed my earlier self for leaving it in my room. I had no weapon.

Lymlock increased the pressure around my throat.

“Do it!” he demanded, but I barely heard him at that point.

Suddenly, out of options, I jerked my head forward as hard as I could, then yanked myself out of his grasp.

He glared at me resentfully. I shrugged in response, acting like it was no big deal.

“If you try anything like that again, Malin,” Kaolin said coldly, emphasizing the first name he knew Lymlock hated, “I will kill you. I don’t care what the king and queen say.”

“And then you’ll be ‘banished’ too.”

“He can claim self-defense,” I said calmly. “And trust me, you won’t be missed. At all.”

“Fine,” he growled, still glaring at me.

Right now Kaolin is watching him, but I should probably let him write now. Or Lymlock.

Chapter 42 (Part 1)

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Kaolin

Chapter 42

First, you have to understand about the relationship between our worlds. It’s very one-sided, but very thorough.

If we’ve done our job right, this is the first time you’ve ever heard about the world of Mithden. This is perfectly fine by us. We don’t want your world to know about us. The reasons for that are many and varied, and they’re mostly political stuff.

But the point is, we know everything about your world. We know about your advancements in science, we know about your languages, we know about your people. We’ve referenced your measurements  (hours, minutes, feet) throughout this letter, and that’s because those are what you know, and you’ll understand it.

We’ve sent things over to your world. Batteries. Light bulbs. Caerthin, even, although you know it by a different name, which it probably wouldn’t be good to tell you about. People, too. The very first humans on your world came from Mithden.

You do, however, have things that we don’t. Plastic, and certain metals that prevent us from ever having things like guns and cars and computers, and maybe it’s better that way. I certainly don’t miss them.

We have to get rid of the sorcerers, though. That’s the main point. We don’t want to kill them, because we’re wizards.

(Actually, a lot of us, including me, would much rather kill the sorcerers than what we’re going to do, but it wasn’t our decision.)

Hold on!

Sorry about that. The...weirdest thing just happened. Or not, if you know Lymlock.

The three of us who’ve been writing this letter, me, Akeelay, and Lymlock, are all in a caerthin-lined room, the door locked from the outside. This way Lymlock can’t escape, but if he tries anything, I have magyk to stop him. So I was writing, and, well, maybe Akeelay should write this.

Chapter 41

Chapter 41

Of course, it didn’t end there. There were a lot of loose ends that had to be tied up. Maybelle and the rest’s fight with the other sorcerers had gone well, luckily, even though most of the wizards didn’t have much magyk.

But eventually, all of the sorcerers were knocked out, and only a few wizards killed. Shield spells really do help.

Maybelle was shocked, just like we were, to see that Dossik had been switched over. She unfroze him and tossed him an apple, which he ate greedily, and a few more. He became good again.

Lymlock and the other sorcerers we locked up in the caerthin cells.

Benjamin found that very appropriate, and took every opportunity imaginable to go down there and laugh at them, claiming it was “only fair.”

None of the other wizards objected in the slightest, and many joined him.

But now we’re getting to the reason we wrote to you. Like the title claims, you’re all about to die.

Chapter 40

Akeelay

Chapter 40

Of course, everything had to happen right at that moment. I was still frozen in shock. Why was Dossik there? Then I remembered what he had told us just  before we left with Neyolc. He had said he would try to meet us back at the castle, and all three of us had completely forgotten about that.

I couldn’t believe that Lymlock had found him, realized that he was the same centaur we had been traveling with, and turned him. But he had, and now I had to turn around and face him, because he had just burst into the room.

“And now, you die!” he shouted, always the dramatic one.

“Not yet,” Kaolin growled, and shouted the spell for the signal we had arranged. “Tiffirma!”

We all waited. Even Lymlock paused for a second, expecting something to happen. But nothing did. Neyolc didn’t burst into the room like we had planned, and everything was exactly the same.

“That was effective,” Lymlock sneered. “Any other brilliant ideas?”

At that point we were all desperate. We had no idea where the king and queen were, and we had no way of finding out quickly. And Lymlock was blocking the only exit.

“Sensih!” one of the wizards shouted, aiming the spell at Lymlock.

But before it reached him, he threw up a hand and shouted, “Tarka!” The shield spell was effective, and nothing happened.

I pulled out my knife, not knowing what good it would do. But at the moment I did so, words burst into my head, and I spoke them without thinking about it.

“Ego spiritu liberabit vos!”

There was no effect for a beat of silence, everyone looking at me in confusion.

Then, colors exploded in the room. Running over the walls, racing through the air, rainbows of color shot out like fireworks going off. One big massive flash, and everyone passed out except for me, even Dossik, breaking his spell.

“That was effective,” I murmured to myself. I realized what had happened in that moment.

The knife had been possessed by a spirit. Spirits are magykal creatures that possess inanimate objects. They choose an owner, a certain person that, for whatever reasons they want, will somehow come to own that object, which reflects spells. That was why Maybelle and Kaolin had said that there was magyk on it, but not an actual spell. Eventually, if they need to, the owner can speak four key words to release the spirit to help them.

It didn’t really help me much, though. Obviously, Lymlock was out of the equation, but so were Kaolin and all the wizards that could help me. And now, I had a useless knife and a completely differently colored throne room, and no idea of how to find the king and queen.

I didn’t know where the other wizards and sorcerers were, or who was winning. I had no special talents, really, that had gotten me this far. It was all the spirit and Maybelle and Kaolin with the talents.

All I had was the dedication not to quit. And I guess technically I had started the quest, and I should finish it.

I had no idea what to do at that point. I looked around the throne room. Most of the colors in the room had switched, so there was little I really recognized.

A rectangle stood out to me. I hadn’t noticed a differently colored rectangle ever before. It was on what used to be a blank white wall, but was now fuchsia, and the rectangle was bright green. I walked over to it and realized that it was a door.

A door I had never noticed before. What better place to hide the king and queen if you wanted them out of the way?

I slowly walked over to the door and opened it, holding and twisting the ridiculously colored doorknob.

A small room, containing a bed and a few tables, stood behind the door. On the bed lay the king and queen. I rushed over to the bed and pulled out the now-dirty blue feather.

Realizing that I didn’t know what to do with it, I passed the feather an inch over their bodies.

First the king, then the queen opened their eyes.

Our quest was over.