Renaissance Magic

II - Tuesday, September 28, 1999

Even twenty-four hours after Justin had read Gwynabeth's e-mail, he could still think of nothing else. He had been distracted all night at work and had almost gotten into trouble for not paying attention to which department's pallet he was putting the boxes from the delivery truck on. The numbers on the boxes had to match the department numbers painted on the wall above the pallets.

Something had been bugging him about how Gwyn had been acting towards the end of last year's Faire. She had been distant and when he had tried to find out what was bothering her, she would brush him off with a vague excuse. She was keeping something important from him and he feared that it had something to do with him. He had been afraid that he was losing her.

The computer in his home office beeped at him as it booted up the Cynergy 4.0 program. He clicked his mouse on the 'CONNECT' icon and those gloriously annoying beeps and whistles sang to him as he logged onto the internet. Not for the first time, he wished that he could afford a DSL connection, but seeing as how his mother's house where he lived was in the middle of nowhere, the phone company just wouldn't allow it.

"Hello, Master," the monotonous voice of his computer said in greeting and, "Mail call!" in mock excitement.

There was one new e-mail showing. He clicked on Gwyn's new message so he could read it and was surprised to find that it was very lengthy.

'My beloved Dain,

Hello. I hope this message finds you in good health and spirits. I know I have withheld a lot of information from you, but as the person for whom we are searching for becomes known to us, I feel that I can explain least some of it with you. There are still some things that I am forbidden to speak of, but I will try my best to satisfy your curiosity.

First, and foremost, you know that I love you with all of my heart and that I would do anything that would let us be together, not just during the Faire, but for all time. Because I love you, there are certain things about me that you have to know. Please hold judgment until we meet in person and don't think that I'm crazy. I am quite sane.

I know that I told you that I was from another country. I said that I was from England, which is not exactly true. I am from the area that you would know as England, but not you're England. Here is where my explanation becomes very hard to believe. I am not from your world.......'

Justin paused in his reading.

"What the hell is she saying?" he spoke aloud. "She can't mean that she's a space alien or something."

'....I know that by now you are probably saying, "Yeah, she's out of her mind!" Please, hear me out. I would never keep anything from you that would hurt you, my love. I will try to explain it all to you so you can understand.

I live in a world that is Earth's mirror - it's twin. It is in another dimensional reality, but very closely linked. Our histories were identical; however, there was a divergence in the timelines of our two worlds around the time of the Renaissance. Earth advanced beyond us when its peoples discovered industry and technology. Earth's magical energies dwindled across the inter-dimensional barrier to my world: Sytheria. All of Earth's magical peoples and creatures, such as Dragons, Faeries, Sprites, and Dwarves (true Dwarves, mind you), Gnomes, and the like, all migrated through the barrier to Sytheria. Elves were the last to leave. They thought that they could last on Earth and tried to halt the advancing of technology with the help of Merlin, a very powerful wizard of whom your legends still speak of. Actually, you have met him, for he is the same Merlin at your Faire.