Arcane Tethers

Chapter 4

"They're by a shed." Connor's subordinates are updating him on the situation by the coast. His implants keeping track of their positions in real time. "The woman is checking the surroundings. She doesn't spot us. Gold-3 hold your position." Their voices ring through the transceiver in his head.

They've been tasked by the boss to observe the two individuals that dug out an old man from the inside of a mountain. The people on his team don't know the significance of these three, but Connor, as head of The Hounds, know better. He's heard of a legend about the boss, about how he's the son of the son of an immortal being. How his lineage has been searching for an impossible being from another legend. Judging by the boss's reaction to the report, and his observations on the three by the coast, its hard to deny such possibilities.

"Gold-1, something's happening!"

The tattoos on his exposed arm start glowing purple, as he reaches his hand out towards a nearby rock. A nostalgic feeling washes over Einar, like stretching his legs after a really long nap. He'll only use the most basic of magics today, as to not shock the children that are standing in awe of him. He closes his left eye, leaving only the pure white right eye open as it starts to glow the same purple hue as his tattoo. He blinks a few times, getting the old eye to work can be hard when you've had them closed for multiple millennia. Eventually, he keeps them open, revealing to him the world as mages do. In this world, the once invisible tethers of reality reveal themselves to Einar. They twist and wind around everything and everyone that exists, binding it all to the material world. The tethers attach itself to all from the leaves on the trees, to the distant mountains that buried him. But that's not what Einar is looking for.

He reaches around the air, feeling for a singular tether that is attached to a large rock next to the shed. A moment later, he finds what he's looking for and grabs onto the tether. To the regular man, what he's doing looks like he's playing with an invisible rope, but what he does next will break all known human logic. He tugs at the tether, and the boulder moves with him.

Val and Alfie look at the spectacle in awe, as Einar brings the rock closer to him like its nothing. With a swift motion, he points his arm upwards, and the rock follows suit, floating in the air effortlessly.

"This is but the most basic of what I can do, as Grand Mage." He grins wide, teeth framed by his shaggy facial hair. He looks to the two, but they're too busy looking at the floating rock above his head. He lowers his arm and lets go of the boulder's tether, leaving it back by the tool shed. "This power is what puts us humans in equal footing with even the fae."

Alfie is speechless, mouth agape after witnessing real magic. Val, however, looks confused, "Wait, fae?"

Alfie awakens from his stupor at the sound of the word, and he looks at Val, also in confusion, "Fae!? As in, fairies?"

Einar's grin fades, confused by their confusion, "Yes, fae. Don't tell me you don't know of them, they're a race of mages and a huge rival to the human race!"

Val and Alfie look to each other for a moment, Val looks back at Einar with a somber look, "The Fae were wiped out three millennia ago. I thought you were the one that killed them all."

Val's words hit him like a raging bull. Her words linger in his head, refusing to accept what he just heard. The Fae are... Dead?

"Einar?" He hears a concerned woman's voice.

"Hey, old timer, you alright?" A man's voice shortly after.

Einar grips his stomach as it churns. Suddenly he feels the force of a mountain weighing down his mind. His head ached during the car ride but the words he heard now brings every wall crumbling down. He thought he could accept how much time had passed in stride; he is immortal after all. But the weight of the everything up til now is too much to handle.