Champions Vol. 01

"Where the hell did all that come from?" he asked her, too surprised to be offended at her snide comment.

"My saddle bags, of course. It would have taken me a lot longer to conjure it from thin air," she replied with more sarcasm.

"Yeah, I saw that," David continued, ignoring her attitude, "but how did you fit so much gear into those tiny bags?"

Rolling her eyes at his naivety, she proceeded to explain the phenomena as though speaking to a child. "I'm a trader. That means I buy things from the people who make them, then transport those things to the people who will buy them from me for the best price. Do you see a big ass cart anywhere?"

She paused in her speech to make an exaggerated search of the area, even going so far as to lift up her horse's tail and look under it. The horse was not amused, and neither was David.

Before he could respond she continued, "Nope, no cart. That means I have to have another method of transporting my goods; thus my special saddle bags. They can hold far more than your average trader's cart, and are much easier to get down the often narrow city streets of Western Erosius."

"David is still learning about magic," Laurena interjected. "And even I have never seen an enchantment that powerful. They must be extremely rare."

"Yes they are," Sapphire replied to the acolyte, her expression suddenly saddening, full of pain and loss. "They were a gift from my mother to my father on the first anniversary of their marriage. She was very proud of his work, but hated how much time he spent away from her. Even when he was home he had to constantly spend time maintaining and repairing his cart.

"Those idiots that killed him were clueless about it. They were so busy beating him up for a purse full of coins that they didn't realize the fortune he had on his horse. The horse spooked that night, and ran off into the darkness. I eventually found her a few days later, still carrying his saddle, and these bags." She finished her tale by walking back to her horse, and stroking it affectionately. "If Moonbeam here hadn't gotten scared that night, everything my father worked for would have been lost with him."

Realizing how painful this topic was for the woman, David decided to change the subject to something that had been bothering him since the night before.

"Laurena, why didn't you tell me that the language of magic was English?"

Giving the soldier a disdainful look, as though merely speaking to him was a chore, she responded, "I know nothing of your English. The language of magic is Enochian."

"Well, what Sapphire spoke last night sounded a hell of a lot like what we're speaking right now," he said annoyed at her tone; adding the afterthought, "Although her accent was slightly different."

"Champion, I speak Aeolian, Dracian, and Enochian. I have never heard of English," Sapphire told him.

"Well we're speaking English right fucking now," he said to them both, "and it sounds exactly like what you used to cast that spell last night."

Laurena was growing confused, but Sapphire began to contemplate something.

"Champion...David...please answer a few questions for me, and I may be able to explain what is going on," she eventually said.

"Ok, I'm game," he responded gruffly.

"Is it true you are not from Erosius, that you are in fact not even from this realm?" she began.

"Yup."

"Then don't you find it odd that your language and ours is the same. I know for a fact that the foreign merchants that land in our ports speak in a different tongue than us, and most only learn ours well enough to trade," she continued.

She had a good point. Considering the vast number of languages spoken in his own world, it seemed ludicrous that he would happen to find himself in a completely different world with a bunch of people speaking English.

"Ok. Yeah, it's pretty odd," David said.

"Then you must also find it odd that I am currently speaking to you in Dracian, and you understood everything that I just said?" she asked him.

"Huh?" he asked her confused. "You're still speaking English."

Looking to Laurena for confirmation, he was surprised to see that she was staring at him in amazement.

"I did not realize that you spoke Dracian, Champion," the acolyte said.

"I don't. I'm speaking English," he insisted, growing frustrated once again.

"No David," Sapphire said calmly, "you are not. When I switched to Dracian, you not only understood my words, you spoke Dracian in return. What's more, when Laurena addressed you in Aeolian, you switched back and addressed her in that language."

Now he was confused as hell. He was somehow speaking languages he didn't know, without even knowing he was speaking them. That was just ridiculous.

"Alright, let's settle this once and for all," he said reaching into his left sleeve pocket and pulling out his blood chit.

It had over fifteen different languages spoken in and around Afghanistan printed on it, as well as English. Opening it up, he laid it on the ground and motioned the two women over to him. Pointing at the English text in the center of the page he commanded, "Read this."

Both women leaned in to read the text, and then shook their heads.

"I cannot read this David," Sapphire spoke first, "Neither can I," Laurena's words followed.

Exasperated David snatched up the blood chit to refold and return it to his pocket, when something caught his eye. Smoothing the paper, he looked at the Dari text, a language he did not know.

He could read it now. The words were still written with the Arabic alphabet that he had learned years ago, but now he understood the meaning of the words. He could read it easily. Looking further, he realized he could read the texts in Pashto, Hindi, Urdu, Farsi, and every other language on the paper.

Sapphire was right; he could speak, and apparently also read, languages he had zero experience with.

"Huh," was his less than loquacious response to this startling revelation.

"Care to elaborate on you eloquence, Champion," Sapphire teased him.

Sighing at all the strange crap he continued to have to deal with, David folded and returned the blood chit to his pocket.

"I can read all the languages on that paper," David explained to them. Then realizing they didn't understand his meaning, he elaborated, "I can read them all now. Before I came to this land I could only read two of them, and only one fluently. Now I can read all of them; over fifteen different languages that I have never studied and I can read all of them fluently."

Turning to look directly at Sapphire he told her, "I guess that means you're right. Apparently I can speak languages I've never even heard of before."

"A very useful talent," she said, mildly impressed. "If you have any magical aptitude at all, that should make learning to use it much easier."

David pondered her comment. Did he have any magical aptitude? How would he even know it if he did?

Sharing his thought with both women, he noticed different reactions from each. Laurena seemed a bit uncomfortable at the question, like a student who did not know the answer being called upon by her teacher. Sapphire seemed mildly amused by the question, as though listening to a child discover that they can use their fingers to prove that two plus two really does equal four.

"There is a very easy way to find out," Sapphire explained to him. "It is one of the first things my mother taught me to do with my magic, and it is the way that Dracians display their magical power to each other. I will teach you the words, and you will ask all your magic to collect in one hand and give off as much light as it can. The brighter the light, the more powerful your magic."

David nodded in agreement, it seem like a simple and effective solution to him.

{Note: All words found between [ and ] are in Enochian, the language of magic}

"Now repeat after me... [hear me my magic]..." she began.

Now that David was listening for it, he could hear the change in her accent when she switched languages. Thinking about what she said he repeated, "Hear me my magic..."

"No, you are still speaking Aeolian," she chastised him. "Focus on the idea of your magic, as though there is another spirit, not your own, resting in your body. Think of what you want to say to it, focus on nothing but it, and then make your request to it. Focus your mind, and then repeat my words... [hear me my magic]..."

Closing his eyes, David concentrated on imagining there was a glowing presence in his mind. And he needed to talk to it, convince it to help him with an important task that only it could do.

"[Hear me my magic]..." he finally spoke.

"... [and come to my aid]..." Sapphire continued.

"... [and come to my aid]..." David repeated.

"... [bring your all to my grasp]..."she chanted.

"... [bring your all to my grasp]..."he chanted.

"... [and turn night into day]..." they both spoke at the same time.

Surprised that he knew what to say before he heard her say it, David opened his eye to look at Sapphire, and saw his expression of amazement mirrored in her own. He also saw her hand glow very brightly, as though she had a 5 Kilowatt lighting tower attached to her forearm. Turning his gaze away from her hand painfully, he looked to his own hand and saw a soft, cool glow begin to shine.

"Well, it looks like I have a little bit of magic at least," he chuckled.

"It is actually more than you think," Sapphire explained to him. "Some humans would have trouble producing even that much light, and more than a few would find themselves with hands looking exactly like yours. So I think you have more than enough to begin..."

And her voice trailed off as they both noticed that the light in David's hand had steadily grown brighter as she talked, and was still increasing in power. Soon it was half as bright at Sapphire's, and moments later it was equally as bright. The soldier had to hold his hand above his head, because it had become too painful to look at. Soon all three of them had their eyes tightly closed, but they could still see the light increasing through their eyelids.

"How do I stop it?" the man asked, vision becoming painful even through his eyelids, and suddenly very worried.

"[Stop my magic return to your rest]," Sapphire and Laurena both shouted.

"Stop my magic return to your rest," David said.

"Focus on you magic, speak to it not us," Sapphire implored him desperately.

The light was too powerful; it felt like it was shining into his eyes through the top of his head now. Concentrating on the mental image of his magic David tried again.

"[Stop my magic return to your rest]," he said, and while light's increase in intensity had been slow and gradual, its reversal was sudden. His hand was back to its normal, non-glowing state in mere seconds.

Blinking his eyes he tried to work the afterimage of the light from them, but it was a slow process. The twilight of the day was pitch black to his abused vision. Sapphire quickly spoke her chant over again, exchanging the line [bring your all to my grasp] for [bring a tenth of yourself to my grasp] this time.

In the softer light of her once again glowing hand, the three travelers stared at each other in total shock. Eventually Laurena turned to Sapphire and asked, "What in the fiery realms of Hades was that?"

*** Chapter 19: Education ***

141930MAR13 DW

Campsite, On the road to Exitibus (Day 1), Erosius

The Dracian woman had no answer for the acolyte. Sapphire knew she was one of the most powerfully magical people in all of Erosius. She was more powerful than any full dragon she had ever met, even more powerful than her own mother; who was renowned for the magical creations that were largely responsible for the success of her husband's trading business. The young woman could do things with magic that only a few could even dream of, and yet her magic was a mere candle in the night compared to the blazing inferno of magical power held by the man before her.

"I'm not sure, Laurena," she began. "Perhaps it is because he is a Champion. I had always heard they were more powerful; and the last Champion, Ophelia, was a very accomplished sorceress. My father took me to see her in Exitibus many winters ago, and she could do things with magic that I had never seen before."

The young Dracian failed to mention that the Champion Ophelia had also cast the exact same light spell that day, and her magic was only a fraction brighter than Sapphire's.

"You saw the last Champion? But she died over twenty winters ago," Laurena exclaimed.

"I'm a Dracian...dragon-kin, acolyte," Sapphire reminded her in annoyance. "My grandfather will likely outlive my mother, and my mother will likely outlive me. Next season will be my fiftieth winter, and I have seen and done more than you could imagine."

"Okay," David acknowledged her placatingly. "Then does this mean one of you can start teaching me how to use this crap? Cause this whole not having magic thing sucks."

"I could teach you the basics, but I am not allowed to do so as an acolyte. Only full clergy are authorized this," Laurena told him, turning to look at Sapphire.

"What's in it for me?" she said.

"What do you want?" David responded.

Sapphire thought for a moment. What she wanted was to get back to avenging her father. While that task may already be complete, she still had a large reserve of anger that needed to be vented on those deserving of it. She just hoped that either Galen and / or Francos were deserving of it. She hated the thought that all the guilty were dead and now beyond her wrath.

"There is something you might be able do for me..." she began, thinking her proposition through. "...how much do you know of the men who attacked you?"

"Not much. They were part of the group that killed your father, right?" he answered hesitantly.

"Three of the men were. The fourth was a man named Lucius, and he was one of three others that returned with those eight from the abandoned village," Sapphire explained. "Astinus believed that those three had recovered from their ordeal, but his attempt to kill you indicates otherwise. I plan to seek out the remaining two, Galen and Francos, so that I might determine if they had any part in my father's murder. I want your help with this, in return for my help with your magic."

David did not like where this was going. Sapphire seemed determined to feed her need for vengeance, to the point of creating phantom enemies for her to vent her wrath upon. Also, he was already committed to a task, seeking Eros in the Field of Woe. The last thing he wanted was something that would delay that, forcing him to remain in this accursed world a moment longer than necessary. Not to mention, he was already on Astinus' shit list for the men he had killed so far. He doubted that he would get a pass for helping Sapphire kill more. However, he needed to learn as much about magic as he possibly could, if he was to have any hope of defending himself against it. And really, once he got to Eros Astinus could go fuck himself.

"If I agreed, what would you need me to do?" he requested.

"The first of the two, Galen, is rumored to be in Exitibus. The second is Francos, and I was told he owns a shop in Lexia now. I would need you to travel to these places with me, so that I can continue to fulfill my penance as your guide," she told him.

That sounded like a lot of unnecessary travel to him. Not Exitibus, as they were already traveling through it on their way to Eros. But Lexia was in the opposite direction, and he wanted nothing to do with that trip.

"How about a compromise," he offered. "We will travel through Exitibus on our current route. We can stop there long enough to learn of Galen, and you can question him about his involvement. But then we continue on to Eros, where we will part ways. After that you can go anywhere you like, but I will go my own way."

"That's acceptable," she responded, agreeing to his counter-offer. It was more than fair, since it would require little work on her part, and would gain her the time to pursue her own goal.

"What of your penances?" Laurena demanded of them. "Guiding the Champion to the Field of Woe is only part of your penance Sapphire, teaching David of my religion is the other. And Champion, do you really think your feelings about Eros and his love will change enough by the time you meet with him to be freed of your own penance?"

At the mention of their unwanted and unwelcome punishments, both glared at the acolyte. But it was David who responded.

"I don't give a flying fuck about your religion, or your penance. I agreed to it because I needed to get to Eros, so that I can get off this shit hole of a world. If he can send me home it won't matter, and if he can't then your penance is as worthless as your fucking religion," he spat at her with vitriol.

Laurena was shocked at his blasphemy. She looked to Sapphire for help in reaching the man, but she instead saw a look of complete indifference. The Dracian fully believed the Champion's penance to be unnecessarily harsh, and she cared little for its success or failure.

Turning back to David, Laurena implored him, "But you have to learn this. Your penance will never be fulfilled until you understand the nature of Eros' love."

Smirking at her viciously, David replied, "I'm supposed to let you two teach me of your religion. I am also supposed to report to the clergy along our route until I have come to realize the wrongness of my actions.

"Well let me make a few things abundantly clear right now. One, fuck your religion. Teach me whatever you want to, but I am perfectly happy being a non-practicing Christian and I'm not making plans for a conversion. Two, what I did was absolutely fucking right. The only thing wrong here is having some asshole tell me otherwise. Trying to punish me for it is just gives me extra incentive to hate your faith. So we'll go through the motions like we're supposed to, but once we get to Eros I'm done. Fuck your religion, fuck your god, and fuck your world. I'm either going home or I'll die trying."

Laurena had no response. She was shocked that he would openly defy the clergy. No one defied the clergy. They ran all of Erosius, and always had its best interest at heart. If the clergy set forth a penance it was well earned, and far better than being sentenced to servitude. David should be thankful for his penance...except he was not. He hated it, and refused to even try to fulfill it. Worse, he chose this knowing full well that it would lead to excommunication, which in their lands was the same as exile. None but the Dracians would interact with him after that. And even they would do so reluctantly, not wishing to upset their human neighbors. How could someone who was supposed to be Eros' Champion be so against his religion?

Realizing this argument was already going badly, and anything else she might add would only make it worse, Laurena stood up. She would go to sleep tonight, and try to think about the issue in the morning with a clearer head.

"Your words have been noted Champion," she said, "and I will think on them. Now I bid you both good night."

David just nodded, but as the acolyte turned to her bedroll Sapphire bade her good night in return.

"It's not my religion, Champion," Sapphire spoke quietly to David after Laurena had left. "I'm Dracian, and my faith is the same as my mother's. I know much of Eros and his love from my father, but I have never truly embraced him and his faith."

"I'm sorry if I offended you," David responded, lowering his voice as well.

"You're angry at your penance," she stated, matter-of-factly. "You are right to be. I'm by no means an expert in their religion, but Astinus seems to have discovered a crime where none existed. You defended your life against those who wished to take it. That has always been permitted by Eros. To punish you for this seems not only unfair, but extremely unlike that priest."