Prologue – The Third Realm

When she concentrated she could feel it in the air around her, like a great cold emptiness that wished to seep into her skin and suck the life within her dry. She could always feel it somewhere in the back of her mind. A wrongness. A world without magic. And she had barely any magical ability to begin with! How could the mages who came here stand it?

Kaira cast a glance towards the man sitting next to the Empress at the large table. She knew that of anyone here he had to surely feel it as well, though she hadn’t heard any comment from him since his arrival. Someone must have warned him, she guessed. She’d heard whispers a week ago that there were locations similar to this in the Second Realm, places where the magic had been sucked dry. It sent an involuntary shiver down her back. What could have happened to this world for there to simply be nothing? The natives certainly seemed unaffected. In fact, they’d been rather strangely skeptical about the existence of magic at all but seemed to be content so far to let the First Realm “believe as they wished.”

One couldn’t help but wonder just how many more days the Empress planned to stay in the newly discovered yet backwards realm. It had its interesting points: being full of people, tall buildings, and many strange and interesting machines. But she couldn’t get past that feeling of wrongness that hung in the air. A feeling that somewhat unfortunately the Empress couldn’t feel herself, having no magical aptitude of her own.

Of course, rumors of the strange world abounded. Some believed the gods of this realm had long abandoned it, leaving it to be a husk of its former self, and the humans that survived left to exist without them. There was even a rumor that some of their gods had abandoned them for the Second Realm, as apparently the natives had stories of a horrid realm full of daemons, not unlike what little was known of the Second Realm, that they believe many of their people went to after their death. What a dark and miserable existence this world must be with something so grisly hanging over their existence.

The Second Realm and its foul creatures were apparently one of the topics on the roster to be discussed, as General Maldus had just finished describing some of the more common daemons to sometimes cross to the First Realm. Kaira was surprised they had allowed her to stay in the room, as normally herself along with any other women were dismissed whenever magical topics, particularly those related to daemons, were brought up. Not that she had been paying it much attention. She suspected the subject to be part of the continual ploy from the General to obtain some of this realm’s interesting weaponry, considering how morbidly interested some of Third Realm leaders here seemed to be in the Second Realm and its fiendish inhabitants, as well as how their weapons would stand in their presence. Kaira hadn’t seen them for herself, but she suspected they could only be fairly useless with no magic within them.

Kaira’s thoughts drifted as those at the table continued to discuss and trade the information both sides were willing to give. Her focus returned once she saw the old mage, who sat next to their Empress, slowly stand to his feet.

“As Her Imperial Majesty just graciously introduced,” he began in a quiet but smooth voice. “I am Magus Dofri. As I expect most of you probably know, a proposal was recently accepted to trade a few select students from our two realms between two of our magical academy and some of your own educational institutions. We had many to volunteer for the opportunity, and from those volunteers we have recently put together a select list of those who fit most everyone’s criterion of acceptable ‘transfer students,’ as I believe you refer to them.” He took a second to glance about the room but continued before anyone could respond. “I believe there may have been some unfortunate confusion on the matter however, which needs some clarification. We have many bright students who we hope may excel within your own academies, however our schools are notably magically focused. As a headmaster of one of these schools, I make an effort to accept in only the most magically gifted students in any given year.”

It was at this point that one of the natives interrupted. “If I may, Magus Dofri was it? I take this to mean you might not find many of those on our lists acceptable? Do you have some measure to test the… abilities that a person has?” Kaira couldn’t see all the native leaders at the table. However, she noted that at least one seemed to be scowling at the turn the conversation had taken and had continued to scowl as the man continued. “If so, I’m sure we could arrange to have the individuals from every country’s list tested. After all, we haven’t come to a decision on what students would be in the final list yet, regardless, and there have been many from most every country represented here, and several not, that have many students in mind.”

“We could. However, there was another concern many of our Magi had about the issue, and which also needs to be clarified.” The Magus continued. “At a previous meeting I believe it was suggested by the Magus who was in attendance that humans from this realm would assumedly have magical abilities. I don’t believe he was in a position at that time to simply make that assumption. Many Magi who were in the area at the time agreed and were asked by myself and a few others to discreetly find the answer without violating any of our agreements. From there it was quickly found that the humans here likely have capabilities similar to humans within our realm, though of course, as has been discussed before, this realm unfortunately has no found source of magic within it to be used. From there they went rather beyond what was asked of them and began to seek specific individuals in the area out and have, as I found out this morning, begun to gather a few of the more gifted individuals together.”

“Your Majesty,” A man with a rather red face spoke up suddenly, his generally low and monotonous voice tinged with a slight anger. “I believe we must request that your subordinates are somewhat better managed, or I fear we may have to discuss adjusting the limits of who is allowed across the gate. And do you mean to suggest that we have our transfer students be simply locals picked by yourself, Magus Dofri?”

How rude! Kaira couldn’t help every time but to be shocked at how candidly Her Imperial Majesty was occasionally addressed by these uncultured buffoons. With an effort she managed to keep her face from visibly grimacing, and kept her gaze off to the side, as was her duty.

Magus Dofri raised his hand, attempting to placate the situation as murmurs and whispered discussion spread through the room. “Let us discuss the matter of travel between the realms in a moment. Those who were tasked in answering our previous questions were unfortunately not rather politically minded and took it upon themselves at the time to begin finding magically inclined individuals in the area. We have found in our realm that many Magi and those with great potential are often drawn to locations with higher magical activity than normal. As we suspect the gate may be the only place within your realm in which magic exists at all, it’s been recently speculated that some of the strongest potential Magi of your realm may be already quite attracted to this city and the area around it. I imagine this is the reason why some instructions may have been conveniently ignored or forgotten, as these individuals may be harder to find should they show and then later decide to leave. With your approval, the search could of course be continued, but as of right now, several potential students have been identified already and are supposed to gather over the next two or three days.”

For several minutes Kaira watched as they quietly discussed amongst themselves this new information and what should be done with it. Eventually one of them stopped to question the Magus again and the room quieted down once more.

“And where can we find the individuals that are apparently being gathered? I imagine that regardless of what happens from here, we’d all at least rather like to meet them?” A rather tall, proud looking man spoke and glanced at those around him for their reactions.

“They are being told to meet at the Statue of Sveta Sofia.”