THE RETURN TRIP TO ELIS
THE RETURN TRIP TO ELIS
"You don't have to serve us or wash my underwear. We just want to fill in our numbers. My teacher doesn't want to go to Elis with just the two of us. You can bring more people to join our convoy", Strega replied to me angrily.
The Mages of Prolis came to the continent of the Three Dynasties by just two of them, Master and student.
They planned to go to Elis to demand the return of the soul of Hanuman, the Ayen god, but they would look unimpressive to the apostles with their small team.
So, they wanted to gather a group of strong people to pad their numbers to appear more impressive to the apostles of Elis. That they believed would help them in their negotiations with the apostles.
The Mage of Prolis must enter a negotiation from the position of strength, at least from a first impression perspective.
"So, are you joining us or not? We are not going to pay you any money though", Strega told me and asked.
"What? Are you kidding? Who is going to work for free?" I asked her.
Strega came here on behalf of the Mage of Prolis not to recruit us as their companions to go to Elis.
"My Master wants to claim rightful compensation from the Conjurer Court and this escort should be enough for it", Strega told me.
In actual fact, Mage Narga asked Strega to come retrieve compensation for helping the Conjurer Court destroy Aggon the Devastating during the Shadow Conjurer Invasion.
Joining them on their expedition was the prize for her help.
"Okay, when are you going?" I asked.
"Soon, I'll let you know the date", she replied to me.
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"Are you sure you want to go to Elis with the Mage of Prolis? The Mage of Prolis is powerful, she might find out clues that we hid the monkey god," Rinna asked me worriedly.
"Spellmaster made sure there was no remnant magic of Hanuman on us, even the Mages of Prolis wouldn't find out about that", I replied to her to reassure her.
"Why do you want to return to Elis? There must be a reason", she asked me.
"Well, Hanuman is not safe as long as the Mages of Prolis are looking for him. I would need to make sure the blame for stealing Hanuman will rest on the apostles forever", I replied to her.
"In which case we must make preparations. Elis is not a safe place", Rinna told me.
"Don't worry, Elis is among the safest places for us now. We are the allies of the Church of All-seeing", I replied to her.
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After a short preparation, we met up with the Mages of Prolis to join them in their expedition to Prolis.
"Aren't we going to the Gate to Elis? That is the only portal to Elis", I asked Strega curiously.
Although we planned to travel to Elis, we didn't take the usual route through the Gate of Elis.
"We do not need to go through the Gate of Elis. We Mages of Prolis will go anywhere we want without passing through the check points and gates of others", Strega told me to my surprise.
"Do you mean you can go anywhere that you want?" I asked her.
"In theory there are no places in this world that we could not go with our magic vessel. Consider this a short cut to anywhere", Strega told me proudly.
"Do you have a Ziggurat of the Valhalla?" I asked her in a slip of tongue.
"Ziggurat of the Valhalla? Where did you learn about that?" Mage Narga asked me when she overheard our conversation.
"From the books in the library of course. You never know what kind of knowledge is found in the store of books", I replied to the Mage.
"Yaw Bulee, your magic is strange and your knowledge surprisingly vast to know about the ancient gods from space. Who are you really?" Mage Narga asked me suddenly.
"He is the apprentice of Galadriel, the Original Supreme of the Temple of Magic", Ratatouille replied to the Mage on my behalf.
"An original Supreme? That may be the only reason. The only magic users in this continent who has knowledge of advanced magic are the dead Supremes", Mage Narga told herself before she walked away, satisfied with discovering the answer to her own question.
"What is the Ziggurat?" Strega asked her teacher.
"The Ziggurat is the ancient relic of the old gods from space that could open Gateways to anywhere in the world or beyond it. Although we don't know how to use the Ziggurat, our magic vessel was built using the Ziggurat as materials", Mage Narga explained to her.
"There are Ziggurats in Prolis too?" I asked.
"There are Ziggurats in almost every world that the Valhalla gods discover", Rinna told me.
Suddenly, a large vessel appeared before us that looked like a ship shaped in the image of an enormous whale, summoned by the Mage of Prolis.
"Now get on our ship", Mage Nargar told us as the whale ship's enormous mouth opened.
"What is this ship?" I asked.
"I can sense Valhalla space magic on this ship. If I am not mistaken, the Mages of Prolis stripped out a Ziggurat of the Valhalla, using its magic to create this ship. It can navigate through the corridors of multi-worlds", Rinna replied to me as she marveled at the magic of the Prolis ship.
Rinna studied the magic on the whale ship. The insights she managed to get here would improve her knowledge of space magic.
"Close the ship", Mage Nargar instructed as the mouth of the whale ship closed behind us.
Before long, the whale ship moved, into a strange vortex that suddenly surrounded us. All at once, the whale ship plunged into a swirling vortex of strange energies.
The vessel found itself ensnared within a tumultuous whirlpool of potent mystical forces, capable of rending apart even the sturdiest of ships in our realm.
Yet, against all odds, the whale ship of the Prolis Mages withstood the relentless onslaught of the vortex's tearing might.
"This is not how we traveled through the Ziggurat's Stargate", I told Rinna quietly.
"The Mages of Prolis replicated Valhalla's magic but they are nowhere near the level of knowledge of the ancient gods. This is the best they could recreate from a Ziggurat of the Valhalla", she replied to me.