Renaissance Magic

I - Countdown to the Faire - Monday, September 27, 1999

The most magical words that you could possibly hear when you are expecting e-mail are: "Mail Call!" Justin Moore had been hoping and praying for those two little words for weeks now. Finally, his computer spoke those words which inspire so much imagination. Was she back? What would she say? Only one thing to do - read it!

Justin moved the mouse of his computer over until the cursor arrow was on the mailbox icon of his Cynergy 4.0 browser and clicked the button. The computer brought up the mail program and displayed the incoming messages. There were two messages listed on the screen, but it was the second message which immediately caught his eye.

"Hey, Gwyn's back!" he said aloud to no one in particular. "'Bout time!" He moved the arrow cursor over Gwyn's message and double-clicked the mouse to open it.

'Dain:

Hello! How have you been? I have missed you so. It pains me to no end not to be able to communicate with you during the rest of the year, but forces prevent me from it. I wish things were different. Someday I wish to explain, but 'til then, please, trust me. My search is nearly complete. The one we search for will soon be known to my countrymen. I cannot wait to see you again, my love. I will be awaiting your arrival at the Faire Friday. 'Til then, my love, know that I am with you in spirit.

Love,

Gwynabeth'

Gwyn Davidson was a very unique woman. Justin had come to accept over the years he had known her that she would only write to him around the time of the Texas Renaissance Fantasy Faire where she worked. He had met her five years ago when, working as a tavern maid, she had accidentally bumped into him and spilt beer all over his leather armor. She had apologized left and right, but he told her that he was retiring that set of armor anyway. They had felt an immediate attraction and met that evening when she got off work. They spent the whole night talking about anything and everything.

Gwyn was four years younger than Justin with long dark brown hair and deep emerald eyes. Her hair hung down to her waist in soft curls and had smelled faintly of lavender. Over the years, they had developed a deep relationship and spent all of their free time together at the Faire. Justin spent every weekend there and camped out at the campgrounds Friday and Saturday nights. Gwyn would sneak out of the enclosed camp for the merchants and spend those nights with him most of the time, which only served to heighten his sense of romance and mystery. All in all, Gwyn was the greatest person in the world to Justin. A person he could spend the rest of his life with, if he could they could be together beyond the time of the Faire.

Gwyn was on a mission of sorts. Her and her people were in dire need of help where they were from, she explained vaguely, and they only knew of one person who could help. She didn't know who this person was, though, which is why they searched year after year. In her e-mail, she had said that they were close to finally finding this mystery person, which suddenly brought another thought to Justin's mind. Maybe they could finally be together on a more permanent basis when they did find this person. What a wonderful thought!

Justin clicked his mouse on the 'REPLY' icon above the message and started typing.

'My dearest Gwyn:

Hello! I am so happy to hear from you again after all these months. I have missed you so much. I wish we could be together during the rest of the year, too, but I know that your quest prevents such meetings. I know that I have been left in the dark about your search and I do rust in your reasoning, but it is hard. There is so much that I wish to know about you and it pains me to see you hurt by your own forced silence. I can see your torment in your eyes and your longing washes over me whenever you look at me. I am so glad that you are finally so close to finding your mystery person. Hopefully this would lift the restrictions placed upon you and maybe we could finally be together during the rest of the year. My love for you grows daily, but I don't know how long I can keep it contained to just seven weekends of sleepless nights, secret rendezvous', and blissful pleasure. I will be arriving at the Faire at around 8 PM on Friday, October 1st. Hopefully, you can meet me at the gates of our sanctuary. Only four more days, my love - only four eternally long days. Pray for them to fly by. Until then, my heart, know that my love will spread out over the miles - even time and space - to be with you!

Love,

Dain'

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Gwynabeth Davidson saved Dain's email message to his file. She was so happy to see him still around. It would have broken her heart if he were gone. She was excited about meeting him this year because, if her suspicions were true, they could be together soon. Dain didn't know or even suspect but, if her suspicions were correct, he would be their savior.

The Realm's champion would be the most powerful warrior and wizard that they had ever known. Who would have guessed that he would be from Earth instead of the Realm on Sytheria? Gwyn didn't pretend to understand the physics of inter-dimensional timeline divergences, but she was happy to be a part of the quest that had brought her into this dimensional reality. The quest had shown her Dain Thornhold, who called himself Justin Moore in this world. She was eternally grateful to the Fates for the love that she shared with him.

The Realm, on Sytheria, was so radically different from this technological monstrosity they called Earth. The scholars from her world of Sytheria could almost pinpoint the time of the divergence in the timelines that split the mirror worlds apart: the Renaissance. Earth had found technology and machines and had gone through the Industrial and Technological Ages while Sytheria had advanced in magic. As Earth used the magical energies of their world less and less, Sytheria had naturally siphoned off the energies for its own uses. There had to be a give and take, though, and as a result, Sytheria had never advanced beyond the Renaissance.

The Texas Renaissance Fantasy Faire was almost an exact mirror image of the city in which Gwyn lived in the Realm on Sytheria, but most of the people present at the Faire were merchants and vendors from Earth. There were only a handful of people there from the Realm. The magic only allowed a dozen people through the inter-dimensional rift.

Dain was the exception to the rule, it seemed: a man of Earth who could use magic. If he was the Warrior-Mage for which they sought, his power would no longer lie dormant once they got him to the Sytheria. He would have to learn how to control the magic. That was why Merlin was a member of Gwyn's Company from the Realm. He was the most powerful wizard on Sytheria, but once Dain made the migration to Sytheria and learned all that he needed to, he would be even more powerful than the legendary wizard. That is, if Gwyn's suspicions proved to be true.

It had been little things over the years that had led her to believe that Dain could be the Warrior-Mage. Little stories of odd occurrences that had happened in his life, for example: extraordinary luck at playing his favorite game of football. He held the national college level record for pass completions. The only explanation that Gwyn could come up with for his unbelievable luck was magic. Only a very powerful wizard or wizard adept could use magic on Earth, because the wizard would have to siphon the magical energies from across the inter-dimensional rift.

They would soon know for sure if Dain was the one for which they searched. Merlin had fashioned a necklace imbued with certain magical properties that would draw only a wizard to it. Only a wizard would feel himself wanting to buy it - needing to own it. Having been fashioned by Merlin, of course, he would be immune to its effects. A non-magical person would find themselves repulsed by it, however, and therefore would not buy it. It was to be placed in one of the shops run by the people from the Realm, where the Company could keep a close eye on it to see who would buy it. Hopefully, Gwyn thought, it would be Dain.