When the Final Seal Breaks

2nd Entry

I just realized I never really explained why I started writing this last night. I still have to explain a few details, but basically after we met with the council for the fourth meeting and still had made no progress, Navar pulled me aside and suggested that I start a diary. It became clear pretty soon in the first meeting with the governing council that the lack of records of what really happened eight hundred years ago was a significant hurdle to coming to an agreement on how to proceed.

Anyway, I agreed with Navar- not because I thought that by writing it out now, I could prove anything to the council, but because once the final seal breaks, we will have proof that I was correct. Then, at that point, I'll probably be too busy to have time to take off to make a record of what has happened.

That being said, I will need to keep a tight reign on time. If I take one week off work as planned, I have five days of my time off. But, in this world, about eight hundred years passed when it was only fifteen in mine. Lucky me, the clock on my phone is still counting at the correct time. I set a calendar event with an alert to go off every 'day' at 8 PM, that way on the 5th day I will know I have to get back to the sealed forest.

I sure am glad we figured out how to charge my phone. Qi charging sounds fantasy enough without being in another world, but with just my vague explanation and some time to look at my phone, Eloitte managed to build a pad that I could convert my own magic into whatever charges a wireless charging phone. I sure hope its not going to damage it with wrong power level or anything.

Eloitte was very excited to investigate my phone, and was especially fascinated by photos. Unfortunately, it seems the shutter speed is also locked to my old world's time. The sensor didn't seem to detect any light.

Right now, we're travelling to the east. I'm shocked at how little transportation has developed since eight hundred years ago. Back in those days we mostly got around on foot or in carriages powered by magic. But it took way too much magic for your average joe to transport people, so I ended up being an engine a lot of the time. It seems to me that they're holding back asking me again. Or maybe I should say that the young lady at the helm keeps glancing over to me as if she expects that I would offer to take over. Its true that she looks exhausted but right now my main concern is the final crystal. Put simply, if we were attacked right now, I wouldn't even summon a single flame dagger as it would mean reducing the amount of magic directed at the seal. Then again, this young chauffeur seems to only know that something big is going down because Orleris is here, and she hasn't been briefed on any further details. Its not really my place to fill her in though, and quite frankly, this world doesn't seem to have a reason to be worried about anyone being attacked. Yet.

I asked Orleris why transportation still sucks. He glossed over the concern of being in danger while travelling as that's not a concern somehow. So, goods are primarily transported via teleportation that doesn't work on living humans, then we spent the last half an hour debating the living-ness of plants and meats needed for food while everyone else in the carriage avoided looking at us or offering an opinion. Ultimately, we came to the hypothesis that something about thoughts inside the mind of the teleportee was what would prevent it from working. It was a fun debate, and I'm recording it here because I'd love for this record to exist for when this world finally figures out how to teleport humans to see what manages to make it work.

Once again, I'm distracted by meaningless things though.

We should be arriving to the east tomorrow. If I'm being honest, I don't know what the current name for the city is. In the past, the region was called Easton. The name I thought I heard Navar say when he suggested we head there was very strange, and I'm pretty sure I misheard.

Since there's not much going on, I'll back track a bit and explain what happened after I found Orleris in the sealed forest...or rather I'd love to but my hand is cramping from writing in the carriage without a table, so I think I'll sign off for today here.

***

The carriage ride from the front line back to Central was quiet. He found it slightly ironic to read about her complaints about their transportation system when she had been riding in the finest closed top carriage available, with a professional handling the magic engine. Sure, given her capabilities she would probably outpace any professional, but the smooth ride was comfortable back then.

The carriage he was travelling in was more of a glorified open top cart. His driver was an injured recruit that wanted to go back to central to get away from the front line. His output for magic was unstable, so the cart jolted forward unnaturally now and then, often hard enough for the passengers to fall over, which also broke the driver's concentration and stopped them entirely until he could get it going again. Orleris funnelled his own magic into comprehension then braced himself in a corner to try to read, but after the one short entry found himself too exhausted to keep it up while travelling.

Teleportation.

Even the Demon Lord himself didn't teleport. He liked to jump wildly long distances, presumably through the use of magic, leaping in and out of fights whenever advantageous. Right after Lil had vanished, he had laughed loudly enough to halt the fighting, then jumped high up and ran away. The miasma stayed behind, and the fight continued, but he didn't stay.

On one hand, it was comforting to know that even the Demon Lord was restricted in the same way they were. On the other, its not like Orleris could keep up with those leaps.

In general, everyone had a kind of magic that resonated inside them. Things like comprehension, teleporting small objects, or other simple daily use type magic wasn't challenging to learn, but just like how Lil had her fire, Orleris' personal resonance was with stone. He was good at avoiding injuries by reinforcing his own skin, and he was good at breaking rocks. Not that he was exceedingly strong, but that was his magic.

So, maybe he could learn to jump in the air and leap after the Demon Lord with a lot of effort, but if instead he could manage to come up with a way to use stone and reinforcement to traverse terrain, he would find that much easier.

He put the diary away and pulled out the phone. The battery was at half.

All of her belongings were gathered together in just one small bag. She had a purse, her cell phone and the charger, a set of keys and buttons, the metal remains of the earring she had been wearing, and all that fit inside the shoulder bag she used to carry her sleeping gown and diary. It seemed like so little. At least, when the bag was handed to Orleris, that was the only thing that he could think of. The small bag of her personal belongings was all that remained. For a hero of legend, she really had very little presence.

He was aware of how important keeping the cell phone charged was, but it was an impossible task for him. Eloitte had built a slapdash conversion unit to charge the phone via magic without concern for efficiency because it was being used by a prodigy. All other concerns aside, Lil felt very strongly about not letting the phone die, so he began to focus all of his energy on the charging pad. Another jolt from the carriage driver almost knocked it out of his hands.

He had half a mind to teleport it right back to Eloitte, with a note asking for it to be made more efficient, when a terrible thought crossed his mind.

If Lil was sealed away into a stone, the same way she had sealed the Demon Lord so long ago, would she count as conscious?