I woke up to the delightful smell of bacon and eggs. And coffee. Juan was cooking on the side of the fire. I sat up, looking around for Arilyn. She and the troupe were gone. So much so that there was no sign that they had even been there. Several feet away, Harper sat up, stretching, her hair tangled in her horns. She looked at the fire, then at the lack of other people.

  “Ah, Juan?” she asked. “Where are our new friends?”

  “They are gone. Our packs were filled with food and drink, yet there was no sign that anyone other than us was here. There were some eggs on top, so I figured I’d cook them first.” Juan sipped the coffee in his cup. “And there was coffee. I haven’t had coffee in months.”

  I got up and joined them both at the fire. Juan plated up the food, handing out portions of breakfast. I let mine cool and asked, “Is this kind of thing normal?”

  “Not really, New Guy,” replied Harper. “People tend not to disappear unless there are old magics about or…”

  “Finn, I saw you talking to the leader of that troop last night before you turned in. What did you talk about?” Juan asked.

  I looked between the two of them, suddenly feeling uneasy. “I… Missana told me a story about mages… and how dangerous they get.”

  Juan’s eyes widened. “Missana? The Storyteller?” he put his plate down, his hand shaking. “That explains…” he trailed off. Harper had placed her fork down and was just looking at me.

  “Yes… Missana the storyteller. What’s wrong with you guys?” I asked.

  Juan shook his head. “Missana the Storyteller is a god, boy. I’ve heard of people meeting her on the road, but the gods usually leave our kind alone. They pretty much just stay away from people. Did she give you anything? There weren’t any deals or powers offered, were there?”

  My jaw dropped. I replayed the night in my mind. I had been in the presence of a god? The more I thought about it, the more sense it made. I had been acting… unconcerned about a lot. The entire thing had been, well, strange. Arilyn. Oh god. I was never so comfortable, that touchy-feely, with a girl on the first time meeting her. And everything she asked me I had just rushed to tell her. She could have asked me anything, and I would have told her or tried to find out. But when she kissed me… that was… different. Like it was genuine, more real, then how it felt to be asked and to answer her questions. Why did that stick out in my memory?

  Then I thought about Missana, and how I hadn’t hesitated to answer all of Missana’s questions. And that story… was that going to happen to me? I really didn’t want power like that. Just needed to get home. “For the story, I agreed to owe her a favor. Is what she said true? Am I going to become a monster?”

  Juan was quiet for a moment, nodding. He stared into his coffee, like the words he needed hid in its depths. “A favor. You owe a god a favor,” he said. The worry in his voice was momentary as he changed the subject with a smile and a lift of his cup. “Did you know coffee was not native to this world? The story is that it just showed up. First one bush, then another. One of our predecessors recognized it and began cultivating the bushes. Started the entire industry. Now there are several coffee farms and several blends.” He sipped slowly. “Of all the things we’ve done to this world, this is the one thing most people think of as a good thing.”

  “It’s hard to tell sometimes if a choice is going to have good outcomes, or bad. I think there are many who will fear you because you are a mage, no matter what you do. As we have spent some time together, I have come to see you as not wanting power for power’s sake. Which I hope will make a difference. I don’t know if it will. The only mage I knew died before she really showed any signs of power hunger.”

  Harper interjected, “The point is, New Guy, we don’t know what causes mages to go all mental. From every story I’ve heard about them, mages go mad with power, killing and taking this world into a dark age. Unless they die first.” The pained look on her face drove home how bad this was.

  Juan sighed. “I’m sorry, Finn. I really wanted to keep this out of your mind for a while until I knew for sure what was going to happen. Did Missana give you any clues? Things to watch for? Can you tell us what you remember?”

  I told them what I could remember of the story. I think it was all of it, as it was burned into my mind like a traumatic event. At the end, I remembered what the god had added. “She said that she didn’t know if a serpent or demon approached the mages, or if it was because of the magic. It sounds kind of biblical to me, but I just don’t understand it.”

  “A serpent, huh?” Juan puzzled, “Could be some sort of deception or outside influence. Could she have meant the old magics? Or the magic specific to the mage class?” He sat there pondering it while I finished eating my now cold breakfast. He still was sitting by the fire after I had cleaned my plate in a nearby stream and brought it back to him.

  “We’re going to need some help on this one. Hey Harper, is Eric still at the Royal Library of Kathelon?” Juan said, raising his voice.

  Harper was just finishing up getting the horses ready. “He was the last time I went through,” replied Harper. “But I’d rather not be around him if I can avoid it. He makes me feel gross. That eye of his is always watching me.” Harper shuddered.

  Juan looked up, “Harper, I’ve told you. Ever since he lost his glasses, his lazy eye doesn’t get the correction it needs. He can’t help it. Trust me, if his wife ever caught him looking at another woman, she’d knock his other eye out of whack. And with as much as his mind is in books and research when she’s not right there, I doubt he notices most people unless he’s actually talking with them.”

  “It’s just creepy. I swear it moves independently of the other.” Harper shuddered again. She finished checking the straps and started a once over of the camp. “Tonight you’re going to help me with the horses, New Guy. You need to learn how to take care of your own horse.”

  “Okay, I don’t know too much about horses. But GB and me are getting tight.” I said.

  “GB? Oh, short for Gonna Bite It, right? Awesome,” Harper replied.

  *****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

  The kingdom of Kathelon was on our way and only a few hours ahead of where we started the day. It would take us a few days to reach the capital city of Alsiger. The kingdom was named for the first ruler of the kingdom, King Kath. Not the best way to name a kingdom, but who am I to judge? Most towns back home are named in honor of a founding member or an older town. New York, for example. Or the ridiculous number of towns named Dwight from New England to North Dakota. There’s like eight of them.

  We rode through small towns sporting maybe one or two inns; the towns getting larger as we approached the capital city. We stayed at inns where I got curious looks, or at least I thought they were directed at me. Harper was unusual enough, and I was just another guy in a poncho. I hoped my clothes did not suggest my class. By the time we were within spitting distance of Alsiger, I understood the lack I had been feeling since I had got here. It was a longing for the hustle and bustle of crowds, buildings close together, and the comforting hum of thousands of people living their lives on top of each other.

  The increase in traffic since the first Kathelon town was nice too, and I realized the lack of people traveling on the same road as us had made me uneasy. I felt like I was, if not coming home, getting somewhere, I felt comfortable. Somewhere, I knew how to fit in. The capital city did not disappoint. The gates through the city walls slowed us down as we had to get in line to be checked and let through. And the Crowds! It was a delightful mass of people moving through the city like they were the lifeblood of a gigantic beast.

  There was such a variety of people, humans and… Elves? I was unsure. I hadn’t a clue about the other species moving through the city. But the variety! And none of the bullshit from home. It was like the variety of different neighbors made people not care about race. I remembered something from the psychology class I had taken to fulfill a credit requirement about in-groups and out-groups. And about the differing levels of in-groups, like family to neighborhood, neighborhood to side of town, side of town to the whole town. And so on to the level of country.

  Each level saw others outside of their group as enemies at worst, to friendly rivals at best. At least that’s what I took from it. I fell back into a comfortable rhythm of living in the city and followed the others through the streets, not staring at anyone or anything. Trying not to look the tourist, I only noted the turns we took and any interesting shops. I got concerned as we passed inn after inn, sporting odd and suggestive signs, and headed deeper into town. The buildings were nice at the gate, but they became nicer the farther we went. Until I wasn’t seeing shops, just residences. Fancy fencing and gates did nothing to hide the opulence of most of the buildings.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  We finally came to a massive building without a gate, with guards and a stable. Juan led the way to the stable, and the guards stopped him. “Are you on official business, sir? This is the Royal Library and is off limits to anyone unauthorized,” asked the guard with the coolest hat.

  Juan drew himself to his full height and looked down at the guard. “I am Juan Santino Venegas, Hero of the Dew-Kissed Rose, General-at-large of the Allied Army of the 12 Kingdoms, Master of the Three Bows of Harmon. Captain, I am here to meet with Eric the Wise, Wizard and Researcher to the Royal Court.”

  “Do you have any proof of what you say, sir?” asked the captain.

  Juan, keeping his eyes on the guard, puts his hand out and pulls a gorgeously carved bow of black wood, crackling with electricity. The guard’s eyes widen, recognizing what I guessed to be a unique and legendary bow. The guard captain, and all the other guards, smartly saluted with a fist to chests. “Thank you, General Venegas. You and your retainers are welcome to leave your horses with the stable hands. Please allow me to escort you to Wizard Eric.”

  Juan’s bow disappears into his inventory and he replied with a hand to his chest, “Thank you, Captain.” Harper and I dismount after Juan does and hand our reins off to the waiting teenagers before following. Harper muttered something under her breath about being called a retainer.

  The massive, carved wooden doors of the entrance to the library were so well counterbalanced, the guard opened one with the push of a finger. Past the doors was the entrance room, which I later learned is called a foyer, of the library exhibited various shades of marble, the floor a map of not only the kingdom, but of eleven other kingdoms on the continent. The colors of the different marbles intrigued me, as I had not seen marble in those shades. The vibrant walls were accentuated by finely carved wood trim that matched the themes presented by the brilliantly worked stone.

  “Hey New Guy!” Harper called to me, “No time to look at the pretty pictures, keep up!” She was waiting for me down the hall and I ran to catch up. The hall opened up into a massive cathedral, dedicated to presenting untold millions of bound pages. Maybe billions of pages. The shelves went up three stories, only broken by two higher floors jutting out from the walls. They looked wide enough for three lanes of traffic, yet from our low vantage point, it was still easy to see most of the shelves.

  The scope of the library was amazing, the bottom floor littered with sitting areas, rows of freestanding shelves, and wide tables. Other than the shelving on the outer walls of the massive room, the layout seemed almost chaotic. Or maybe it was more organic, because instead of causing stress, it felt comfortable. I wondered what Arilyn would think about this place, which led me to wonder how she was doing. I hoped she was okay wherever in the east she had gone with the Goddess Missana and her troupe. It was doubtful she was thinking of me, a random guy from a different world. God, I hoped she was. I hoped I’d see her again. Her beautiful eyes and sun-kissed hair.

  Harper and I caught up to Juan and the guard escorting him, and I brought my focus back to the library and away from the mental image of Arilyn’s smiling face. The guard captain led us past massive sweeping stairs that mirrored each other, going to opposite sides of the next floor. I noticed little oases of reading nooks with comfy looking chairs here and there as we got closer to a smaller set of doors that matched the front doors. Our escort knocked on the doors before entering with Juan on his heels.

  “Yes? Who’s there?” an old man in a fine red robe and disheveled, wispy white hair looked up from some old papers. “Ah captain! I was hoping to talk with you…” The old man stood up quickly, “Juan, you old goat! How are you? It’s been years… when did you get so old?” He rounded the table and embraced Juan warmly.

  “Eric, my friend. It is good to see you. How’s Elana?” Juan replied.

  “She’s good! Our 10th grandchild was born 2 months ago, and she has been happier than I’ve ever seen her.” He looked at Harper and me and raised his arms in greeting. “Harper! It is good to see you. Does my eye still freak you out? And a Mage! Juan, you brought me a Mage!”

  The captain put his hand on his sword and turned to face me, putting himself between me and the excitable old man. He drew his blade, holding it shakily in front of me, the flat side up and the point mostly aimed at my throat.

  I put my hands up, “Whoa, whoa! No need to draw on me. I’m not that kind of mage.” He didn’t put his sword away at my words, but advanced a hesitant step. The point of the blade seemed to brush my throat, causing me to freeze in place.

  “Captain, stand down,” Eric commanded. He walked forward, putting the flat of his hand on the sword, pressing it down. “Juan wouldn’t have brought him if he wasn’t still a good person. And I can see it in his eyes.” The captain slowly lowered his blade, yet did not sheath it. The old man walked up to me, his hands behind his back. He studied my face, then started walking around me. “What are you, early twenties? You working on your bachelors? Yes. Hmm. Tell me, what drove you to choose to be a mage? What part of the Midwest are you from? Minnesota? Chicago? No, maybe eastern Colorado by your accent. Hmmm. Nope, I’m sure you are not a threat right now. Hmm….”

  The quick questions overwhelmed me, and I wasn’t able to form answers fast enough. Like a Sherlock motherfucking Holmes, he read me like I was an open book. What, just because I’m not a book nerd, there’s no way I could know who Sherlock Holmes was? I watched a lot of movies. Deal with it.

  He quietly circled me, and I finally had enough. “I’m sorry, but who are you? And why are you studying me?”

  He laughed, “My name’s Eric. Wizard. Researcher. And you are what I have been waiting for all these years. A Mage that hasn’t changed yet!” he grabbed my right hand in both of his and shook it vigorously. I grinned uncertainly and looked to Juan, who shrugged. Like this is what he expected.

  “Nice to mee-” I had started to say when he pulled me into a hug. I felt slightly uncomfortable, though I had friends who were huggers. He released me and walked back to the table, grabbing a couple of strange, cube shaped items. I followed him past the guard captain that had been ready to skewer me. Though he had put his sword away, he still watched me warily.

  Eric handed me one of the items. “Hold this. I’ve got to take a few readings…” I held the curious item, some sort of cube with multiple cubes and gears within it. It seemed to be made of brass or gold, but I couldn’t be certain. The old wizard began muttering under his breath and the similar cube he held and the one I held started glowing. He stopped muttering and manipulated his cube and muttered some more. Mine stopped glowing.

  He took the item from my hands and set it on the desk. “There we go! Okay. I just need to plug this into the reader. And we’ll take a look at you.” He went over to a massive stone rectangle that looked almost like a coffin and an altar had a lovechild. He gestured for everyone to come over and pushed the glowing cube thing into a square hole at one end of the massive thing. The gears in the cube turned, along with what I had wrongly thought were smaller cubes and were actually tiny cylinders. Spots of greenish light popped into the air above it and tilted, becoming lines and curves. He muttered some more, and it coalesced into a floating picture of me in 3D, with a list of letters and numbers beside it. It took me longer than necessary to recognize them as my stats. The next things that popped up were a list of my spells, a list of skills, and my inventory. And a series of formulas.

  “I’ve been able to get readings on two other mages, but both of them had gone all ‘evil twin’ by that point. You are the first mage in decades that I’ve been able to study. And you haven’t gone bad. Yet.”

  I looked at everything displayed above the rough-hewn magical stone thing. “What’s the difference between their readings and mine?”

  “Hold on a moment, and I’ll show you.” He wandered off to a dusty shelf with many odd items on it. None of them looked like they had moved in years. There were two cubes similar to the one used to take my ‘readings.’ He looked at the two cubes and started reaching for one, then stopped for a few seconds before grabbing the other. He hurried back. “This was a man named George. He allowed me to take a reading in exchange for a couple of spell books. Useless to him, as they were wizard spells and he didn’t know the difference. But…” he pulled out my cube and stuck George’s cube in. “… as soon as it loads up, you’ll see the differences.”

  The ‘loading up’ of the other man’s information, which was so inanely out of place here, started out similar to mine. Only the color was different. Where mine was greenish, this was an orange bordering on red. George was similarly dressed to me, making me think I should buy some new clothes next chance I got, but was short and plump. His level, 22, implied some time spent here. But the spells. He had a lot of spells, like 60 of them. Some of which were not legible. Where mine had formulas, his had weird symbols. And then it stuttered. Like the whole light image just turned off and back on again. For a moment, I had an after image of… something... disturbing.

  “As you can see, his information is corrupted. And it had been when I took a reading. I got readings on people from our world and people from around here. All of them look normal, like yours. But George was abnormal. Like the first mage I did. She was… also corrupted. I don’t know why. But you are different. Why are you different?”

  “I don’t know. I chose the mage class because my little brother enjoyed playing one in games. And I figured, since he thought magic users were awesome to play, I would be better off being a mage. I knew nothing about it.”

  “He didn’t finish the tutorial,” Juan added, “If that helps.”

  “Interesting. So, you had no desire for the power offered by the mage class? Didn’t know about the Surge ability specific to mages?”

  “No! I didn’t know about any of that! I just want to get back to my life. To my family. All of this… Bullshit is too much. Don’t care about this world or having power or whatever. I. Just. Want. To. Get. Home.” Then I stopped, realizing I had yelled. I took a few breaths. “And I don’t want to become a monster. I don’t want to have control of anyone else. Please, can you tell me how to not go all evil and stuff?”

  Eric’s right eye drifted, but the look on his face was concerned. “I don’t know yet. I’ve been studying people’s classes and the math underneath it all ever since I found this magical artifact and the reading cubes. There’s just so much information.” He pulled out the corrupted mage’s cube and slipped mine back in. “You are the first mage I’ve been able to get a good reading of and I’ll finally be able to study the mage formulas thanks to your reading. Which may give me some clue as to why mages are so different from the other classes. Maybe it’ll point me in the direction of what the turning point is for mages.”

  “We ran into Missana on the road here and she told Finn a story. With some clues or ideas on her part, to why mages turn.” Juan said.

  The wizard’s eyes bulged. “She didn’t know? But she’s a god! How do the gods not know?” he exclaimed. “That suggests that this is something they had nothing to do with. What did she say?”

  “She told New Guy that it could be a demon or the nature of the magic itself.” Harper said. She was looking at the image of me and my stats, and she probably was not thinking about Eric’s lazy eye.

  “A demon, you say.” Replied Eric. He tapped his chin and then snapped his fingers before rushing out of the office. “I might have an idea of how to check that!”