Two men walk the perimeter of the mall seemingly unaware of the commotion going on nearby. Unaware, or perhaps just completely oblivious to their surroundings. People are screaming and running away in fear of the malicious man named Gog, yet they think nothing of it. They carry on with their leisurely stroll through the mall talking as if nothing concerns them.
“Why was I dragged along with you?” Says the shorter of the two men.
“For science, obviously.” The taller man with a cap on replies.
“Your ‘science’ tends to end with us in a rather precarious situation.”
“Wait,” He stops his friend and points. “He looks like a good subject.”
“Ignoring others, as always.” The short man sighs and glances downwards. “Don’t you think he’s…” He glances back up and sees the back of his tall companion. “And he’s already gone.”
“You there! The one with the depressed face!”
Jon, startled to hear a voice yell across the mall, glances up to find a tall older man right next to him peering at him. “What do you want?” He says annoyed. “I’ve already had a rough day, don’t rub it in.”
Ignoring Jon’s pleading the man nods to himself a few times. “You’ll do.”
“Luther! Don’t bug the poor man, he doesn’t look in the mood to participate in one of your ‘science’ experiments.”
“C’mon Larry, you know how harmless they are.”
“Certainly, but that’s not where the problem lies. It’s what comes after that’s the problem. You tend to attract unforeseen problems to us.” Larry finishes speaking and grabs Luther by the arm like one would a problem child. “We’re leaving. This is the last time you drag me around like this.”
Luther brushes his arm off and addresses Jon again. “Who are you?”
Taken aback by these two new people, Jon has a hard time deciding whether or not to trust them. “I’m Jon?” He says hesitantly.
“Oh no, did you hear that Larry? He doesn’t remember his own name. This calls for immediate experimentation.”
“And I believe in magic.” Larry says sarcastically. “Leave the poor boy alone. We should be back home fighting off those nerkires invading our land.”
“And yet you use magic on a daily basis.” Luther retorts. “Don’t make fun of my work when I’ve already proven the existence of magic. Those nerkires are just jealous of it.”
“I’d say you’ve gone mad if I didn’t know you as well as I did.”
“Wait, magic?” Jon interjects. “You know about magic?”
Luther smiles, “Why yes, indeed I do. I’ve discovered seven basic elements; earth, air, liquid, aphotic, radiance, energy and celestial. The only one I know almost nothing about is celestial.” He nudges Jon. “This is where you come in. I’ve sensed an abnormal amount of celestial magic radiating from your body, though it is fading by the second. I need to experiment with it to determine its qualities. Would you be kind enough to offer your cooperation?”
“Don’t spew your nonsense here as well, nothing good will come of it.” Larry spitefully says. “How did you even come up with those names?”
“Larry, this is a serious moment for me.” He states firmly to silence his friend. “What’s your answer Jon?”
Jon ponders for a moment. “I will, on one condition." Jon pauses wondering if this gamble will work. "You need to teach me what you know of magic.”
Luther eyes light up. “It’s a deal. Absolutely the best deal I could have possibly made. What deity is smiling down on me that they’ve given me such a grand opportunity?”
Larry walks next to Jon, “Once he gets like this it’ll be a while before he calms down. Lead me to your home and I’ll get him to follow.”
Jon nods at the partner of the strange man called Luther and walks out of the mall with a slight spring in his step.
---- Leon’s Perspective ----
“Bad news.” Astred says to me, “Looks like our enemy has the stone.”
I look down from the roof to see people fleeing from the entrance, “I think I could tell that from a glance, but why would everyone be in a panic? If he has this much power, why doesn’t he just make everyone conform to his will?”
“Maybe his will isn’t solely to control?” Sakura asks.
“If that is the case, I fear what his plans are for that thing.” I pace along the roof deep in thought.
“Why don’t we just go after him?”
“No, I’d rather try to contain the damage to this part of the town. Fighting him right now might not yield the results we want. We need some sort of trump card.”
I continue to pace along the silent rooftop trying to come up with a solution to this problem. The only solution I can come up with is sealing the whole building so nothing can escape or enter. That feels like a bad solution though as many people will still be trapped inside. Hmmm, there must be some other way I’m overlooking. Perhaps, I just can’t see the solution yet and in that case, I should scout out my enemy and discover what his goal is. I frown at the idea of meeting the enemy, but I don’t see anything clear cut yet.
“We have no choice, it seems.” I finally say. “We need more information.”
“I’m all for whatever you decide.” Sakura immediately backs me up.
Astred sighs. “Fine, I don’t like trying to pry information from that wretched man, but if you can’t come up with anything I doubt I can do anything either.”
“Thank you both.” I smile at them, “Well, we should get going before there’s no more crowd. I’d like to use these people as cover for as long as possible.”
---- Jon’s Perspective ----
It was convenient for Jon that his mom had gone out with his siblings when he returned back home. She had left a note saying where they went, but Jon just glossed over the place and was just glad she wouldn’t freak out at him bringing home this abnormal person and his more 'normal' friend. He also could imagine how Zoe and Mikey would react and shivered at the thought of being made fun of by them. Either way, it was a blessing in disguise that they had left when they did. It should give Jon just enough time to hopefully deal with this situation on his own. No way was he going to drag anyone else into it. Even with this fortunate turn of events, however, Jon was starting to lose his patience. Luther had been examining him for at least an hour and it didn’t seem like there was going to be an end to it.
“When will you teach me how to use magic?” Jon asks as he finally loses his patience.
“Be patient. Unless you grew up with it, no one can learn two languages and speak both fluently without studying one intently.” Luther replied coolly. “I’m trying to discern the ability you have to harness the magic potential I can teach you, but it’s not promising.”
“Then what can I do?”
“Well, the most I could help you with is telling you what I know.” Luther sighs, “You’d have to figure the rest out on your own.”
“Then do that, I’d rather hear more about this magic than sit here and be studied like a lab rat.”
“Very well.” Luther claps his hands together, “Now, where should I begin? History or experience? Or perhaps even applications? Aha! I know. Let’s start with theory.” He cracks his knuckles, pulls up a chair and sits down facing Jon. “Now, as far as some people are concerned there are usually four different elements; air, earth, fire, water. Each person has their own viewpoint on those four elements and adds or subtracts more depending on their interpretation. From my studies, I’ve tried to simplify each element down to its basic form, hence how I got at least seven different magical properties. There could be more or there could be less, but the seven I found are quite distinct from each other that I have a hard time saying there’s less than seven.” He pauses to gauge his audience, “Stop me if you can’t understand anything.
“First and foremost, let’s begin with what I like to call the touched elements. These consist of earth, air and liquid and should be pretty self-explanatory. Earth deals with manipulating solid objects, air controls any gaseous substance and liquid is the ability to control the flow of any liquid no matter how viscous. These elements can all be felt in one way or another, hence why I call them touched elements as they all have some sort of feeling to them. Since each element in the set is only different from the other in property alone, once you’ve learned how to use one of them, the other ones should become easier to handle. I grew up around a lot of users of these elements so I have only a really basic understanding of them. If Larry would cooperate with you, he might be able to teach you the specifics of each one. He’s mostly an earth user.”
“Hold on.” Jon interjects, “I get the impression that you believe magic is just a normal thing. Why is that?”
Luther smiles, “You got me there. I wasn’t planning on hiding it at this point, but the truth is that I’m actually not from this world. I travel between worlds on a regular basis.”
“So you’re an alien?”
“Not something that different, just a different universe. Hence why I can understand most places I go to. There’s hardly any different between each world.”
“But wait, if that’s the case how did magic become the normal thing on a different Earth?”
“That’s a funny story actually. It happened around what we ended up calling the Age of Evolution.”
Jon’s eyes go wide, “So you actually evolved into different beings?”
Luther laughs, “No, that’s not even called evolution.” Luther pauses, “Wait, could you be referring to the theory involved with that?”
“Yes.”
“I see, so that still exists here.” Luther mumbles to himself. “We honestly don’t even acknowledge that theory anymore. It existed for maybe a decade before the idea was smashed to pieces by our development of magic. You see, we adapted to the magic we used.” Luther reveals the two small antennas on top of his head that he was hiding under his cap. “I happen to be a descendant of a race that primarily used energy as their magic. These things on my head act as a Tesla coil allowing me better access to magic on the fly.”
Jon sits there bewildered, “Then wait, is that true of all worlds? Is that theory debunked?”
Luther shrugs, “I haven’t seen evidence to convince me otherwise.”
“Then what do you believe about the origin of our world?”
“I haven’t formed an opinion on that yet. The people in my world believe it was from an unstable mass of magic that stimulated the cosmos into populating an empty space with life. They still don’t explain why only one planet sustained that life though. There’s too much coincidence for me to believe it was by accident, yet I can’t imagine that there was a being who created everything without having existed first. I just don’t think about that stuff though. I’m don't consider myself smart enough to discern those sort of things anyway. We are getting off-topic though. Shall I continue my explanation?”
“Sure.” Jon says disinterestedly.
“Good. The next set of elements I call the seen elements as they can’t be physically felt any other way. Aphotic is the absence of light, radiance is light and its various wavelengths and energy is anything to do with generating heat or electricity…”
Jon becomes lost in thought, drowning out all other noise. He can’t help but wonder what else might not be true in his world. If all universes are similar, then what is truth and what is lie? It would almost be better if the stone wasn’t real, then this mess would solve itself.
“Wait, not true?” He mumbles to himself. “Hold on, if what the stone creates is a lie... I got it!” Jon says a bit too loudly.
“Hmmm? What do you get?” Luther asks.
“Is it possible that magic can overwrite reality by seeing through lies?” Jon asks hastily.
“Well, yea, it’s possible.” Luther says a bit taken aback. “But I haven’t tested that theory.”
Jon jumps up from his seat. “Well, today’s your lucky day.” Jon rushes out of his room, signalling Luther and Larry to follow.
