The Artifacts Of Elios (Book 1) (39 page)

“Hi,” greeted Shane as he continued inscribing the latest obelisk.

“Nice night,” Soaris nodded at the starry sky.

“You need to teach me how you do that,” Shane said as he looked skyward.  The Stars were brilliantly spread across the sky.  It
was
a nice night on this side of Eliom; it had been quite a while since Shane had observed the heavens far enough away from the lights of a city to see it this vividly displayed.

“Teach you how to do what,”
replied his father.

“For one, how
you travel from place to place without a portal and secondly how did you locate me”

“The location is pretty simple.  All I needed to do is query the Arc to find your instructor and you were bound to be close by.  If you had happened to leave your instructor somewhere else I would have queried your instructor which has a constant knowledge of your whereabouts.  As far as the teleporting that’s even easier as I use Lumen
Mastery to accomplish it but I have a glyph that can accomplish it for you until you are up to lumen mastery.

“Sounds like fun.”  Shane straightened up from etching the last of the glyphs he then imbued the lumen and activated the cloak and the barrier.

“I’m sure you didn’t come out her to teach me teleporting and locating, so to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?”

“It’s your mother and I.  Our mission here on Eliom is near completion and
she will never admit it but I can see it in her eyes; she misses her life on Elios and neither she nor I can leave until you assume the role of Dernier Chanson, it’s time you and I took a trip to the Arc so that you can begin to truly prepare yourself to return magic and become the Last Song.  You have traveled there in spirit but now it is time to do so in body as well.”

“Elios is that special then?” Shane asked
thinking of his mother.

“It is more than you can imagine.  It has two suns and knows no night.  It radiates
lumen like unto a thousand stars.  The magic, countenance, and glory of Elios are so great that only a Lumen Mage can abide there.  Children born there would perish if their parents were not skilled enough to protect them until they were able to master their own lumen.  Unfortunately many don’t.  This is one of the reasons that Eliom was formed; that there could be a lesser world that would allow more of our race to be born and live long enough to master their lumen and provide an abode for those that needed more time than the radiance of Elios would allow. 

Because of Eliom now all of our children will survive and less
likely to fall away and choose to be Allyant.  This world is almost complete.  The Allyant infection was not planned but it is but a moment.  I have faith in your destiny as Dernier Chanson that you will cleanse the Allyant influence and repair the World Glyphs.  My hopes are renewed that you and your children and your children’s children will eventually rise to abide the glory of Elios and you can behold its greatness with your mother and I as well as your grandparents and aunts and uncles.

It is time tha
t you learned the Laws of Wisdom from the Arc so that when this war is complete you can assume the role that you were born to fill.

Shane digested what his father had
just said.  It sounded so fantastic but it made perfect sense. While it seemed that the Elios had been very magnanimous in their rescue of the Luion there was definitely a higher purpose involved.  It even made him appreciate the benevolence of the Elios even more that they would share their powers with a race that had none and risk the world that they had created for the purpose of rescuing their own children.

Shane sighed torn between his father’s desire to repair the world that he had guarded for so long and his current commitments and growing sense of responsibility towards the
residents of Eliom “I have another twenty of these Obelisks to install; it should only take a couple of more hours, how about finding me then and we will go to the Arc.

Ari
Roger and Shew carefully watched the streets on the outskirts of Cliffs Port.  They had placed viewers on all of the main streets entering the city. They had warned the population of the pending invasion.  Most of the people had ignored the warnings stating that the crown was at war with Luion and would never attack its own people. The Luion population had fled north taking what they could leaving most of their possessions behind.

The three spies sat calmly in a familiar dock side hotel observing what they could.

“So there I was lying in an air vent and Stafford says …I
wouldn’t try backing up, I have a guillotine set up to cut you in half…
and I spout off with …you
wish you do, I taught you that trick.  It was the first thing I disarmed…
  So then I fire the guillotine that he had set up and I lop the head off of this low life rapist and pick pocket that Stafford had made to look almost exactly like me.  And Stafford says all serious
…I guess he missed the second guillotine…
Anyway while king prick and worthless Wendell are standing there I pour a bucket of sows blood and it runs out the duct and on to the floor.  A little while later Stafford is clanking around with a hook to get the pick pockets head and while he’s making all that noise I crawl out another way and get my arse out of town.”

“Sounds like you planned it very well,” commented Roger as he listened to the old spy recount his escapades with the CSS.

“You mean he planned it well.  I broke the plan.  He had given me a set of instructions and at the last minute I changed them.  I wasn’t even supposed to be at the palace but being paranoid I sneaked in and was crawling through the vents and I see this note hanging on the inside of the screen where I was going to climb out and it tells me where to find the body, the blood, and the guillotine, and to please follow instructions this time.

I tel
l you Roger old buddy, this guy is a scary guy to plan against because he never does what you think he will and he always knows more than you do,” grumbled Shew.

“Ok that’s enough bull-
splat from the grandfather crowd,” Ari reprimanded.  “My name is Ari, stop calling me Stafford.”

“I can’t get used to that name; you never did look like an Ari.  I called you Stafford for over fifteen years now you expect me to change it over night?”

Roger nudged the older man, “I know how you feel monsieur, he looks like a Stafford to me too.”

“Pay attention, it looks like we have a small company moving into the south part of town.  What do you know,” Ari smiled, “who do you think is leading them, our good pal Wendell.”

“I say we take em,” cackled Shew, “Wendell is going to wet his trousers when he see both of us still alive.”

“You both have those daggers I gave you?” 

Roger and Shew nodded in the affirmative. 

“Ok let’s make it quick and qui
et there are only thirteen of them.” Shane opened a portal in an alleyway ahead of their direction of travel. The men stepped through and it closed behind them.

As the guards passed the Alley in less than five seconds six of the thirteen were down with cut throats.  The surprise ended as Wendell turned suddenly as if he had suddenly known that there was danger. 

Wendell crouched and yelled for his men to attack. Two of the soldiers went after Shew and two more went after Roger, leaving Ari to face Wendell and the two remaining soldiers.  While Wendell held back, the two guards at his sides did not; they charged fiercely toward Ari.  Ari ducked their attack and charge toward Wendell.  Wendell reached to put a hand on Ari’s chest but Ari knocked him over and was reaching for him with a deadly thrust.  Unexpectedly Wendell twisted and rolled with inhuman speed avoiding Ari’s long knife.  Expecting the soldiers that he’d slipped to be coming back he turned; just in time to see the two soldiers collapse from no apparent wounds.  He immediately knew that Wendell was using some sort of magic.

Wendell and Ari were a blur of knives, fists, elbows, and arms.  Wendell was losing and as they locked weapons
, Ari slowly inched his blade to Wendell’s throat, Wendell spoke in a low gravelly voice that was not familiar, “I don’t know how you have resisted my attempts at siphoning your lumen and your energy but when that artifact runs dry I’ll be back for you and your life will be mine.  Suddenly the men that were fighting Shew and Roger dropped and folded like wet towels.  Wendell leaped thirty feet over their heads and ran back the way they had come.

“We better get out of here before the whole Infin army shows up,” Commented Roger.

“Something’s different bout Wendell,” said Shew as he headed back to the alley.

“Do you think?” Ari rep
lied sarcastically.

As the portal reopened Ari looked back in the direction that Wendell had escaped, dismayed that Wendell had fled but even more concerned as he realized that Wendell was more than he used to be; he was an Allyant.

Shane stopped by the Premiers office and told Jacques to pass the word that the boarder shield was now up and only unarmed people would be able to pass.  Noticing that Jacques had one of his communicators he asked that he pass that information to Ari and Roger as well.

Leaving the Premiers office he used a portal to go to his parent’s home and met up with his father, “I’m ready, what are the glyphs and how do I teleport?”

Soaris drew a single glowing glyph into the air in front of him.  I created this glyph using lumen magic; a lot like the way you created your welding glyph. 
To use it, if you have been to the location that you want to travel to, then think of it and put lumen into the glyph and away you’ll go.  This can be done with Glyph Mastery I only drew the glyph out for illustration purposes only.  If you don’t know the location then you will need to use the glyphs that you use for the global locator and to locate your destination and when you finally have it you picture it and then activate the teleport glyph. 

Shane used his ever improving glyph mastery and visualized the locator glyphs and located the large platform that the Arc rested upon the he mentally copied the glyph his father had created and in a blink he found himself standing in front of the large pyramid from his dream.  A moment later his father appeared at his side.

“I will wait for you here,” his father announced.  You must enter the Arc and request the Laws of Wisdom be taught that you might fullfill you calling.

“Wish me luck,” Shane replied.  Then he carefully reached out and touched the kero glyph that he had touched in his dream from months ago.

Shane found himself inside the edifice.  It looked the same as it had in his dream.  This time there was no goblet on the small table.

“Do you seek the Laws of Wisdom?”
spoke a voice.

“Yes.  If I am to become the Dernier Chanson, I must know and live the Laws of Wisdom,” he replied.

“It has been recorded that you sought the Laws of Wisdom spiritually are you ready to make that commitment physically?”

“Yes,” accepted Shane.

Then it shall be so.  You will receive the Laws in a series of dreams similar to the way you receive lessons from your instructor.  When all of the laws are within you and you have completed your training as a Lumen Mage you will return here and cup of choosing will be placed before you and the mantle of ‘Last Song’ will be placed upon you.