Another night spent running, for yet another quest from the eternal wizard.
The roar of a huge beast penetrated the silence of the night causing the few remaining dogs in the city to howl in despair.
The clatter of wooden slippers followed the howling of the terrified dogs, as the owner panted while she ran on the cobbled streets.
She carried a small satchel that she kept close to her heart, trying to keep the precious contents from spilling.
She weaved through the empty streets from one twisting end to end. Keeping a mad pace as she raced to her destination.
The clouds parted to shed some of the hidden moon’s light on her face, and if anything could be seen, it was her determination to arrive at her target.
She started to slow down as she entered a cul-de-sac, eventually she dropped her run to a walk and stopped in front of a big blue door.
She knocked the door twice, and waited, trying to regulate her breathing and speeding heart beats.
The door opened to a man with a long beard. “What took you so long?” He whispered at her as he dragged her inside.
The house remained unchanged since she left it this morning, and this was surprising.
Her host, AKA, adopted father, was in the habit of turning the internal architecture of the house on its head frequently, what with his “Experimental spells,” that he insisted were the only way to ensure that she was never detected by the roaming dragons.
This was what made her to run as if she was chased by demons, the mind wiped dragons, could be considered demonic any time of the day.
Her father used to tell her about a time when dragons were friendly, nurturing and caring even, but she found it very hard to believe.
All she knew was that the dragons ruled this world, and that the man who controlled them, only known as the Grey Man, was a ruthless tyrant who at this moment must be on another of his campaigns to conquer yet another country, or continent.
The Grey Man supposedly came from under the earth, a place her father called Agartha, and since then, he ruled with the aid of a huge army of man monsters and the infernal dragons, and this was all she could remember in her fifteen years of life.
It always seemed to her that the smell of sulfur and burning houses was all there was to smell around her home town, Dusseldorf.
“Lara, are you even listening?” The older man suddenly shouted at her, pulling her from her thoughts.
“Yes, Merlin, I am.” She pushed him and went inside the house.
“So, do you have it?” The eternal wizard looked at her hands, her waist, then at her face. “Where is it?”
“Here.” She pulled the satchel from the top of her purple dress. “He took all the coin I had on me and said that you would understand.”
“That weasel.” Merlin grabbed the satchel and pulled from inside the small vial with its green fluorescent liquid. He raised it to the candle sitting beside the entrance door, and peered deeply inside it. “I have to say, it is the purest we ever got from him, I think it is in fact worth the extra coin.”
Lara sighed. “Well, are you going to teach me the new spell or not?” She looked at the wizard who occasionally was called by his visitors, the eternal one or the eternal wizard.
She usually smiled when she heard the title, “Eternal wizard,” for her, it sounded absurd, even when Merlin used to talk about memories from a thousand years or more.
“What spell?” Merlin held the vial tightly as he marched deeper in the house.
“The one that you needed this vial for.” Lara hopped after him.
“Oh, this is not for a spell.” Merlin waved the vial in the air. “This is to fix the time Arcanos I have been collecting over the last thousand years.”
“Time Arcanos?” Lara pushed herself after Merlin as he went through the hidden door at the east end of the house.
The eternal wizard moved fast for a man supposedly older than time itself, Lara decided that one day she has to ask him about his secret, there has to be one.
“Yes, one day you will have one of your own.” Merlin put the vial on a table crowded with beakers, vials and test tubes.
He turned and headed to the store room at the back of his lab, and started to rummage around.
Lara followed, hoping to glean some of the old wizard’s secrets, anything she could from him, was usually worth the trouble and then some.
He started to pick small object which looked like tiny hour glasses, and started to give them to Lara. “Hold tight on them.” He pulled a rug that convulsed in his hands, threw it in the corner and went deeper into his cache.
Lara stood as he pilled the hour glasses in her arms. “I can’t hold any more.” She complained. “I don’t have a bottomless arm hold you know.”
Merlin ignored her and started to pile more of the hour glasses on the floor at her feet.
Finally, he stopped.
“Now, we have to fill them with the sweat of Chronos, and they are set to go.” Merlin clapped his hands loudly.
“Chronos?” Lara peered over his shoulder as he pulled each hour glass and touched one of the corners causing the hour glass to split into two halves.
“Yes, the old man you bought this vial from, is crafty, very crafty and some say he is immortal. He might be the only person alive to know the place Chronos sleeps at to be able to collect his sweat.” Merlin stood, grabbed the vial and went back to the hour glasses, and started to pour a single drop from the vial into each of them.
“Old Uly?” Lara watched as the Merlin sealed each hour glass and the liquid started to shine inside.
“His real name is Ulysses, and he is quite ancient.” Merlin moved through his routine fast. “One day, I will tell you all about him. When you are ready to go back to Agartha, I will tell you all you need to know.”
“Tell me more about Agartha, and maybe explain the whole ‘eternal wizard’ title.” Lara jumped as Merlin started to collect the filled hour glasses and headed to the exit.
“Not now, I have to meet with some templars about a kidnapping.” Merlin grabbed a satchel, dropped the hour glasses into it, and left the house.
Lara stood for some moments contemplating what should she do, then she grabbed her coat and followed after the wizard.
This story from Book 2 of The Chronicles of Agartha, coming to you this winter.
If you liked this story, then these as well: The End of Days, The Machine, Out of Beimini, and The Once and Future …..
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