Barrier

I had moved further away from the people preparing the festival, to avoid drawing unnecessary attention to myself. That way I could also try to find some answers without being interrupted.

I went to a more remote area, almost at the edge of the city, and near some trees I decided to sit. A light breeze swayed the grass, almost as if the spirits of the wind were greeting me. I concentrated and moving my hands and fingers gently almost in a magical circle in the air, I pronounced the incantation:

"Oh Lords of magic, those who created all life form, grant me your supreme gift.... DEPREHENDERE MAGICAE! *(detect magic)"

Detect magic was a subtle magic, if you were not a magic user, you would hardly notice the bluish glow in my eyes, which were like a lens for magical things as long as I could concentrate on the magic. This didn't use much mana either, but the fact that I was more tired these days made me hesitate to use too many spells, lest I fall into exhaustion again.

As I mentioned the magic words, I noticed something that terrified me. My hands started shaking and I felt my heart racing. Everything there was glowing, which meant that everything there was shrouded in magic...?

The situation was worse than I thought. What could I do in this case? None of my masters in the adventurers' guild ever mentioned a situation like this. Nor do I remember ever hearing or reading anything like this in any of the heroic tales and stories. It was an unusual situation. Looking up towards the blue morning sky, I could notice a magical reddish-tinged wall or dome with symbols surrounding the city. So I was trapped in a sort of magical barrier that prevented me from getting out of there. Magical barriers of this magnitude were not so easy to make. You would need a lot of low rank magicians or maybe A very powerful mage, rank C plus. It had been a few days and I was feeling more and more tired. It was likely that the food I was eating there was not nourishing me either, it might not be real after all. If I continued to be stuck in there, I would starve to death! I began to break into a cold sweat, as I tried not to lose my concentration on magic.

"Think Louie... Think!" - I muttered to myself as nervousness took over my mind.

I looked around once more, watching the faint rustling of the treetops. I leaned my head against the trunk, letting out a despondent sigh.

"A magic barrier... That explains all this silence, and also the fact that I don't hear any sounds of birds or insects. Animals can't get in, or have been kept out somehow by the barrier." - I say this with my hand running over my face, trying to reason about my realization.

I look at my bag for a moment. It was magical, so obviously it would be glowing, but I noticed that there were more things glowing in there that shouldn't be.

The diary, the pendant, and even the little bag of bread that the tavern keeper handed me glowed with the same slightly reddish glow. Somehow, the bread that was there was magical... This explains why even with this appearance, they seemed to satisfy my hunger and gave me a feeling of satiety greater than all the food I ate in the city. Maybe I should ration the few loaves of bread that were left, I had no idea how much longer I would be there.

I decided to check the diary and the pendant, which had been the reason I had decided to use this magic. As I suspected, both emanated a strange magical aura. The pendant was certainly a magic item, but I had never seen anything like it. It seemed to be some kind of key item or something.

I brought the pendant closer to the diary and it began to glow brighter. Intuitively I opened the blank pages and subtly words came out. The owner didn't want anyone to read it without permission, as it was written in faeri - an ancient language used by the first faeries to set foot on this world - and magically protected to make it look like there was nothing written there. At such times I appreciate my mother's insistence that I learn faeri as a child. I was a little rusty, but I could read.

IF YOU ARE READING THIS, THEN I MAY NOT BE HERE ANYMORE...

I STAYED HIDDEN FOR MONTHS, TRYING TO PROTECT THE SEAL, THE VILLAGE... AH... BUT HE... HE LOST HIS MIND. HE SACRIFICED THE VILLAGE TO BREAK THE SEAL, BUT IT DIDN'T WORK...

"He who?" - I spoke almost as if someone could answer.

When I thought about who "he" could be, the image of Noah came to my mind. The story of the tavern keeper still gave me chills to remember.

"Could Noah be involved in this?" - I felt a strange sensation as I continued to read the journal.

There was a small note on the last page of the diary, before the torn part. It mentioned an old cave, magically hidden to the south, near the sea. I hadn't mentioned it before, but Gerd was near a beach area. Further south, there were small fishing villages that maintained a small trade in culinary ingredients in the area, along with Gerd. I had not yet tried to leave in this direction. Maybe it was because of the tension in my mind in these strange days, or maybe I was so terrified and obsessed with getting out of the city that I completely forgot about this option.

While reading if there was anything else on this last page of the journal or even on the back cover, I focused my eyes on the torn pages that were missing? Could they be in this cave?

That's when I heard a noise that distracted me for a moment, causing me to lose my concentration on magic and it eventually dissipated. I had already gotten some information, even if it all just seemed like a big trap, so it wasn't that much of a problem but, I felt a chill as if someone was watching me. I quickly put the diary and the pendant in my bag and looked around. In fact, the silence bothered me. Not a creature, not even a single bird... It was then that I remembered something that didn't make sense.

"Wait... The lumines! They still appear around the campfire so... How do they get through that barrier?"

I remembered seeing lumines in the campfires I made in the forest but.... Inside the city there were none, except for the ones with Riff. Maybe they were the same ones that were attracted by the lanterns he tends, but...

"Riff is always in the forest... And he is almost always with luminaries... I wonder if he can get out of the barrier? What does that mean?" - I ended up getting distracted in these thoughts.