The Accidental Archmage, Edmund Batara [read after TXT] 📗

bent.

“Ah, I am sorry but I can’t tell you.”

“Can’t or won’t?”

“Can’t. One of those limitations I told you about. You’re smart, Havard, you can figure it

out.”

“How can I be sure that’s not another illusion?” Tyler remarked, pointing to Ivar.

“Not only stubborn and perceptive but also suspicious. You’re fighting the effects of the

potion, aren’t you,” said the Gothi with another laugh.

“This is really me. It is well-nigh impossible to impose a new illusion over a current one.

The images blur and merge. But my specific illusion is needed. I am a Gothi, a priest

slash holy man of the gods, the All-Father in particular. Apparently, graying hair is one

of the requirements of the job. The Jarls and warriors would be insulted if one younger

than them started ordering them around.”

“Your magical knowledge, what you call runic magic, obviously didn’t come out from the

blue,” observed Tyler.

“I had a benefactor. It is but a dispensation. Without magic, one can’t be a Gothi. A job

requirement. Not to mention that it would be a dead giveaway that one is not of this

world. Havard, as I mentioned, You. Are. A. Smart. Person. The potion doesn’t decrease your ability to think. Please don’t ask questions you already know the answers to or you

know I can’t answer.”

Tyler grinned.

“Okay. Sorry about that, Master. Your Padawan awaits your teachings.”

“I am not your Master. What’s a Padawan?”

“I was joking, Ivar. Another cultural reference based on a popular movie after your

time. Titled “Star Wars”. A series of movies in fact, all revolving around a central theme

of good against evil. Set in space. Man, you missed a lot of good movies.”

“That’s one thing I missed about Earth. Entertainment here is a bit low-grade. The

exciting ones need active participation. And a waiver of liabilities, as you legal experts

would say, in the event of death,” drolly replied the Gothi.

“Oh, then you do have 3-D movies,” joked Tyler.

“What’s a 3-D movie?”

“Man, I am really sorry about these modern references. You’ve seen movies during your

time, right? Those are movies in two dimensions. You’ve got a flat movie screen in front

of you. The movie appears as a series of moving photographs. In 3-D, you get to wear

special eyeglasses. These trick your brain into believing that you are in the scenes you

see. As all modern movies are in color, the experience becomes more believable. The

technology has already extended into television.”

“You’ve got a weird shocked expression on your face, Ivar,” Tyler continued, giving way

to a small laugh.

“So, this is how it feels like when you see the future. You do have a lot to tell me and

more surprises for me than I have for you.”

“Really? I expected the surprises coming from each of us to be roughly at par. Or in

equal value.”

“You forget I have been in Adar for only around eight months, plus or minus several

days. And about a month of that was spent in… seclusion, you might say.”

“With a harem of Nordic beauties? And all the mead you can drink?” Tyler couldn’t

resist the verbal jab. Inwardly, he was hoping the answer would be yes as that raised a

lot of possibilities for his distressingly active hormones. It was difficult to get a girlfriend

when one’s time was focused on earning enough. His interests and personality didn’t find any suitable candidate among the females in the office. Not that he would even

dare to start such a relationship. He didn’t want to lose his job and knew that it was

only because of his Aunt that he got accepted.

“More like a monk in a locked jail cell inside a convent within a huge barracks. There

were really beautiful women there, not girls, women! But nobody would talk to me.

Even the men! I tried to start a friendly discussion once or twice with some of those

beauties but they didn’t even look at me. They turned away and left without a word. I

didn’t think of pushing the matter. All those metal armors and wickedly sharp looking

blades and axes left no room for negotiation.”

Both men laughed at that.

“Let’s go back to the topic of Adar. Earth updates will come later, as agreed,” Tyler

decided, before his horny imagination got the better of him, “but first, answer me this.

Are there a lot of us here, and when I say “us”, I mean those from Earth.”

“Only very few, as far as I know. And this has reference to the 1900’s up to now.

Though my knowledge is limited to what I have seen and read. And what I know only

covers the territory of Skaney and nearby areas. But I also hear from those trading with

the Greeks, the Akkadians, the Phoenicians, and a few others. I haven’t had the

opportunity to travel beyond Nordic territory yet. For Skaney, I guess we two are the

only ones around here. Remember, Adar is a world. A planet. From my readings and

other information, its land area is immense. Nobody has mapped it yet. So I have no

idea where the other visitors from Earth are. Or how many are we. Curiously, the

deities refuse to provide information about what the planetary land masses look like. Or

even the names or nature of other civilizations we haven’t discovered or have not been

in contact yet. Adar appears to have a single massive continent, with numerous islands

around it. I hear some of these islands are also continental in scale.”

“How about those portals or gates or whatever they are?”

“The gates or portals seem to be randomly distributed and once used, close

immediately. There were bigger ones in Adar’s past but those are already shut. From

what I have read, the deities of Adar, and I mean not only the Nordic pantheon, appear

to frown upon the use of such existing entrances or exits. For some reason, they take

an active role in their closure. No new gates are allowed. I was told that these portals

are one-way gates. You come in through one gate and go back to Earth through

another portal, an exit portal to be precise. One opened from this side. Where they lead

also appear to be random. I have no idea whether the direction of these portals can be

guided. Randomness