The Unbidden: A New World (1) (Short Parts)

Part 52

"Aurias?" I asked while lying on my bed.

"Yes, Xavier?" He responded immediately.

"Is it possible to send me to the Ethereal plane?"

"Yes. Are you going to use it to practice your magecraft?"

"Spot on."

"I shall prepare for your departure post haste. It shall take approximately one minute."

After a minute had passed, I felt myself shunted into the Ethereal plane to a familiar scene. I glanced over to see Aurias was with me.

"Thanks," I nodded.

"Of course, Xavier."

I proceeded to begin training. I needed to work intensely in order to combat the dragons. I knew Jayde was quick with the sword, but I wasn't sure she was entirely capable of taking on beasts of such magnitude even with my help. Hell, I didn't even have faith in my own abilities! After spending several hours over the course of a couple days practicing defensive maneuvers and spells, I realized it was useless if I didn't have anything to test it against.

With that, I sought to get an audience with whoever was in charge of the secret training of mages. It started with me asking around casually with guards whenever there was at least one robed individual among them. I noticed that those who wore the robes were all elves – basically giving away who the mages were.

"Afternoon!" I approached the trio of guards.

The robed individual tilted his head down a little, preventing me from getting a good look at his face.

"Greetings, traveler. What can we do for you?" one of them asked.

"I got here recently and have been trying to figure out about the people who cast magic. Most people don't seem to know about it, but those who do talk about adventurers with magical powers."

The guards looked at each other with questioning gazes before looked at me.

"There are a couple adventuring groups that I have heard of who use magic, but they have authority to do so by the crown. No one else can, or does use it. Least, I believe so," one spoke.

"Well, there was that one elf who made some objects float, remember?"

The robed individual took a subtle step back.

"Oh yeah, I remember! I thought it was a trick of the mind or a trick though."

As the two guards began talking about the elf, the robed individual – who I knew to be an elf – had backed off several feet. When I titled my head curiously, the other two looked in the same direction.

"He looks just like the same guy!" one of them pointed.

The robed elf quickly turned and dashed off, to which the guards and myself followed.

"Hey, you. Halt!" one of them shouted to no avail.

The robed elf led us through an alleyway, down another street, and into another alleyway. A few more guards had joined in the chase. Unfortunately as we rounded the corner of a store to another main road, we lost track of the elf.

"Damn!" one clicked their tongue.

"You reckon he really was a magic user?"

"I reckon he had no reason to run otherwise."

"We should go report it, then," the other guards moved back to their patrols after asking the original two who they were chasing.

I slipped away quietly as the grouped up guards drew attention, creating a small tumult. With the seed planted, I tried the same tactic again somewhere else the next day successfully. One thing that bugged me, however, was that the guards were seemingly unaware of the elf's presence until I talked about magic. It was as though a spell hid their existence.

A couple days later I decided to go out to eat for the first time in a while. There was a local elvish dish called 'Mos'ra Carenthys' that was some type of fish I wanted to try.

"What's kind of fish is it?" I asked.

"One of the Puft fish found in the sea south of here. I can show you what they look like," the server motioned toward the kitchen.

"Please," I nodded, curious about the fish.

The server headed to a back room and returned with a small bucket moments later. Inside was a small, kind of cute fish. It was grey on top with white on the bottom, and had holes all over its body. It looked a lot like a fish from my world.

"What makes this fish make the dish so expensive?" I asked.

The server took a stick and poked the fish, which reactively expanded to nearly the size of the bucket. Where there were holes were now spikes.

"It is a very poisonous fish that requires very careful handling. The Master of this establishment has been working with it, and other delicacies for a couple centuries at the least."

A pufferfish? Edible? I never heard of someone preparing it well enough to eat it as the toxins were deadly to humans. A large hesitation washed over me. I pulled out a silver coin and flipped it.

"Whenever unsure, always flip a coin," I joked.

It landed on heads.

"Guess I'll be having that after all," the uneasiness in my voice was prevalent.

"Do not worry, sir. The Master has made this dish many times before," she smiled happily.