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22. A History Lesson in Another World
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"It was almost 500 years ago that this world faced annihilation. All the races fought side by side, but at the same time, against each other. Daevro the human king of the once united land of Aelestros led a frightful army of man, elves, dwarves, beastfolk, demons, monsters. Hell. You name it. But he was the embodiment of evil. His only purpose was to conquer all and he almost did. Baerlinore, a human woman mage, who was of no important standing or was even known really, formed a group kind of like a party. Eventually their size just grew and grew as they thwarted various attempts made by Daevro to cut off certain supply routes or attack certain villages, just to get more reach. After various small battles between the two groups, eventually it ended up in a showdown between Daevro and Baerlinore. Somehow, they were connected. From the tales and even some of the witnesses, as elves live a long time, I've heard in passing that they both talked of being sent here from another world. That a god had put them on this world to fight one another and see whether good or evil would prevail. They both died in that confrontation… and hundreds of thousands of living beings with them. Kingdoms were leveled. Forests burned. The world cracked. That one battle was worse than any war that had ever been fought."
Maynard looked solemn as she ended her history lesson. It seemed as though she was trying to piece together what any of this could mean and how it could affect the world, but I never considered it would be that bad. That horrific... There's got to be more to it...
"And honestly I think that's all anybody really knows. Other than maybe the gods themselves. The real kicker is, it's hard to say who really was good and who was evil and which one really won. Unless..."
Unless?
"It wasn't decided and now it's happening again to find the true victor," she said putting her hand over her face as if hiding from the thought of it all. I stood in silence mmyselffor a moment and then just sat down like my legs gave out.
"I don't think there's anything we can do about it right now. So, once you're able to, I'll help you through the affinity tests. You might need another day at the least," Maynard said lifting her head back up, "This isn't something that's going to happen immediately, but it all offers many more questions than I have answers for. I'll try and see what I can find out, but you might have better luck in the human territories where it actually happened."
"Quack." I said trying to gesture my wing towards my throat.
"I don't want to let on to your party members just yet. This could be world-changing, or ending. You understand?" she said staring at me, "I'll recommend that they find a druid or a bird type beastfolk to join the party. Because yes, it will be best that you could communicate coherently more than 'yes' and 'no', but for right now, I'm afraid you're stuck."
She stood, came around, and picked me up to place me back on the pile of pillows, "Rest some more. I'll tell the others you're doing fine and will be ready to go soon."
Although my mind was racing, I just laid there and easily fell back asleep as all the weight and pressure and exhaustion I had felt from the recent battle, started to finally lift.
𓅹𓅹𓅹𓅹𓅭𓅹𓅹𓅹𓅭𓅹𓅹𓅹𓅹
The next morning I was awoken to the group in Maynard's office. They all had smiles on their faces. Happy to see me awake and well! Even Lyra. I hope I don't ever have to see that scared face towards me again...
"How is he?" Lyra asked.
"He should be all better now," said Maynard sitting down in her chair, "I hear the guild administrator was asked to send you on a quest."
"That's right. We're the talk of the town now," Wexel said smugly as Maynard frowned and rolled her eyes.
"I guess some guy has been looking for a piece of a minotaur for some years and wanted the party that brought him down to deliver it!" said Bea excitedly.
"Yeah, we don't know all the details yet, but it sounds like it'll be a journey," Lyra said smiling, "I just wanted to make sure Duc was okay first."
"Well, I think at this point you all know that he's no normal duck. When he was asleep I looked closer at his cells and they seem fused together at a cellular level with a foreign monster of some kind that I don't know of. I'm not sure what all that means for Duc at this time, but he seems to be in control of his faculties now," explained Maynard as she eyed me before going on, "I think it would greatly benefit you to find a druid or possibly a bird beastfolk to see what kind of communication he can do and maybe learn more about his origins."
"Oh wow, I've never thought to do that," gasped Lyra, "That would be amazing."
"Druids are a rare find," pointed out Wexel.
"And beastfolk..." Bea looked disturbed for a moment, "Um, they're not always so receptive to other races due to their past and slavery."
"That would be true coming from a human, but perhaps Lyra or even Wex... No. Lyra might be able to win them over," poised Maynard.
"We'll have to figure out the details and keep it in mind for sure," said Lyra nodding 'thanks' for the idea.
Maynard and I made eye contact for a brief moment and I gave her a nod as her plan seemed to work. "Now," she began again, after pulling out some funky looking glasses from a drawer, "I think it's time for your tests."
"Quack," I said, hopping along.
I finally get to see how I measure up!
"These crystal glasses will test how efficiently you use your magic. After everything you've been through, I think we can just do this here and get it done with," she said as she stepped to the center of the room gesturing the rest of the party backwards, "It'll be pretty simple. I will ask you to do an element and it will register how that mana develops within you and comes out. Basically, it can tell how well and how fast you do magic. It's actually an invention I came up with myself some 200 years ago."
Maynard put the crystal glasses on and took a step back as I stepped to the center of the room as well, waiting with anticipation.
"Just use it in front of you. Small. Contained. Because if you torch my office in any way, I'll give you a swift kick," warned Maynard as I nodded quickly in agreement, "We'll go in order. First, air."
I stood for a moment, inhaling down my throat, gathering what I felt inside and then exhausting it out with a small gust of wind. It always feels so long to me when I'm doing it, but to everyone else it must be in an instant, as Maynard quickly shouted, "S. Now fire."
I breathed through my bill, feeling the warmth explode outwards and creating a small fire ball as she chimed in again, "S. ...okay. Water."
I rolled my tongue around in my bill and closed my eyes, imagining a waterfall, but small and contained, and before I could open my eyes, "S! ...what? Okay. Finally, earth."
I planted myself, and like before when I gathered everything inside, this time I pushed it down to my feet as the floor began to rumble, "S! Stop!" Maynard said as I broke concentration.
"This is..." she began.
"Insane." Wexel chimed in, "Since when has magic worked like that."
"I don't understand," Lyra said looking back and forth at the both of them.
"It's one thing to have all the elements, but it's unheard of to be S Rank in them all. Well," Maynard paused, "Duc have you ever done or tried light magic?"
"Quack." I said as I flickered to the side slightly with the teleportation magic I learned off of the elven king Alastaire.
"...S. Teleportation? Where... what?" Despite our earlier conversation about how I might be a special being of some sort, Maynard was still dumbfounded at my abilities somehow. Did the heroes of the past not have skills like this?
"There's only one left. Dark magic. Have you ever done that before?"
I shook my head side to side indicating 'no', because I hadn't. I don't even know what branches of dark magic there are, but it's probably nothing I ever want to do.
"Dark magic. Hmmm. There's necromancy, blood magic, spirit convergence, and other various things. But the simplest I could think of for you after that display is shadow manipulation."
"Quack?" I questioned, tilting my head.
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End Part 22
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⋆༺𓆩The.Fellow𓆪༻⋆