The Magical Boy Casimir

Peace is Short Lived, Training

The temple and monastery were simply huge, and they extended down into the mountain they were built on. There were tunnels to secret training rooms and rooms of meditation. It was amazing and overwhelming. Casimir had spent his first night quite sleepless. The hard floor was cold despite the mat. He shivered to himself as he thought about hot cocoa. He put on his clothes and walked into the main room he was surprised to see everyone in a meditation pose around a statue that looked remarkably like a buddha. Ryali skittered over to him with a pipe in her hand. Casimir spoke incredulously.

“They are all high!?”

“No! They have used Fae Smoke, its magical dust which helps you enter a state of self-hypnosis effortlessly. It will show you the things inside you need to deal with to unblock yourself and move to the next level.”

Casimir eyed the pink powder suspiciously. It smelled like roses and honeysuckle, which meant he like the smell, but what was in it? As she loaded the bowl, he did his best to sit in the lotus position. She sat across from him and took a huge hit off the pipe; a faint glow came to her whole body. Curious now more than worried, Casimir placed the pipe to his lips, and when he inhaled it was like the entire universe opened for him. So many feelings so many sights. He lay on the floor panicking. Everyone gathered around him as he faced his first time under the influence of Fae Smoke.

When it was said and done, Casimir woke up drenched in sweat. He had seen many things in his dreams, some of them were good, and some of them were bad, but he felt lighter somehow, and he did not hurt as much as he had before emotionally. It was like a huge weight had been rolled off his shoulders. He was lighter and freer than he had ever been that he could remember. He smiled at Ryali who smiled back.

“How long did I sleep?”

“3 days.”

“3 days!?”

“Yes.”

Casimir gaped at the comment. It felt like five minutes. How could what he had seen and been through have only taken five minutes in his mind, and three days in the waking world? As he sat agape, the High Sage made her way over to the new student. She smiled, and then to Casimir’s shock, she spoke straight into his head using telepathy.

So, you are this Casimir my grandson spoke so highly of… I have much work ahead of me.

Casimir did not know what she meant by that. Was it a slight, or merely an observation he could not be sure of? All he knew was she was right. He knew how to flee from battle, how to hide, that was what Abigail had taught him. She was not wrong in doing this, defence and being able to escape were particularly important, but now he needed to learn to really face the powers inside, and that meant facing his dark side head-on.

“Ryali, why did she not talk to me?”

“She has no tongue. During the last war, she cut it out so that even if they tortured her, they could not extract information from her. She is the greatest telepath on the planet, and no telepath had ever broken into her mind. She would have made a useless captive. She is hardcore, but you will learn that her methods work wonders.”

The next six weeks were intense. Cleaning the whole temple every day was a real task, and it was not a fun one. From chamber pot duty to sweeping the whole place, everyone took turns doing everything including the nuns and sages. There was nothing that one person was being asked to do that another was not. That was when things began to finally get interesting. A missive from the King arrived. It seemed demons had been spotted on the celestial border. Whatever that meant.

“Demons, which is what my problem is too. I have a demon hunting me. She has killed my mother, and she is going to stop at nothing until she takes my magic.”

Ryali nodded.

“Yes, a demon's thirst for power is second only to their ego. You are about to begin your real training, and when they happen, you will learn how to control all of you magics.”

Casimir nodded. He wanted to be able to do that because frankly, he wanted revenge. He wanted to make Zenduraka hurt the way he hurt, and he wanted to make the Dark Lord feel his wrath for setting in motion the things which led to the destruction of his entire way of life. He wanted some sort of control over something, and right now he was at the whims of others. Even from Avery. Despite their attraction, Avery was just using him, or so Casimir felt, for his powers. He had not seen Avery once since coming to the temple, and his yearning for the mysterious muscular man had him wondering if he flirted with every boy that way?

Meanwhile…

Reports were pouring in from all seven kingdoms. Demons were on the borders. In fact, they were surrounded by demons, and these were no normal demons, these were royal guards. Zenduraka had been busy raising an army and taking over the armies of other demons she slaughtered. She had enough demons now to surround all Faelund. Avery sat in the eighth spot while the people of the Council of Elders bickered and whined at once another about what they should do. Finally, he spoke quite bluntly. So bluntly in fact most were offended, and everyone was shocked.

“Could you all just shut your mouths?”

Everyone fell silent, mostly from shock.

“We will have our armies ready, but there is no one we can truly call upon for help at this time. We have been isolated for so long we do not really have allies outside of Fae creatures. So, we must prepare to handle this war on our own.”

Everyone was sobered by the real facts. He was right. Their disgust for humans had cut them off. Fae and Dwarves rarely got along. Witches and Fae were allies, but there were not enough active witches to really be of use. Still, Avery was not about to let the ones he could call upon out of his hands. He called upon Abigail and Jason. The two arrived within hours of receiving the summons. They were both shocked to be asked to come, but they knew they needed to. Jason was taken aback by all the beauty and amazing architecture in the lang of the Fae. He had heard about it but never witnessed it for himself. Abigail had been there many times and was not so impressed. They were ushered into the War Room and were looked over suspiciously.

The council member of the Fire Kingdom rose to his feet. Looking them over, he began his speech.

“Once again, we are bringing humans into something which does not involve them, and those demons would not be here had you not brought that boy here. If we are slaughtered our blood is on your hands, Avery.”

Avery rose from his seat and slammed both his fists on the table. His eyes glowing blue.

“You will not address me in that tone number one. Number two that boy may be the most powerful being alive right now, and the only way to keep that power out of the hands of demons is if he is protected. Do you really want to let the humans continue this task? They have not done so well thus far.”

Abigail and Jason both winced at the statement. It was a hard pill to swallow and know that your best plans and efforts had not succeeded in doing what you intended them to do. Abigail stepped forward.

“If I may Highness, we should seal the passage between this world and Earth. It will make getting in harder.”

She said her piece and stepped back. Murmurs echoed through the chamber. The passage between worlds had never once been closed. The flow of mana and magic from one world to the next was seen as part of the balance. If they closed that passage, what would happen to that magical flow. The Lady of the Air stood up.

“We simply cannot leave the Earthbound fae stranded, and what of the symbiotic relationships between our two worlds. Surely they understand this?”

Avery nodded. It was a huge risk of a thing to do, and he knew leaving anyone on Earth for any period would be dangerous for them. However, what good would it do to have the back door wide open? He placed his fingers together while thinking, and finally spoke.

“We will seal the passage if it becomes necessary. Until then it will remain open. This is a threat to both worlds and will face it with help from both worlds.”

With this he stood and left the chambers, he motioned Abigail and Jason to follow. They went down a long corridor to a room with a huge crystal in the middle of it. It was a resonance room. The crystal would resonate with the person in it using energy and magnify that power.

“These have not been used in millennia, and frankly the method of using them has been lost, but I believe our boy Casimir could do it. He has enough power and is determined enough to do it.”

Jason and Abigail looked at each other for a moment.

“Is this dangerous?”

“Oh yes, horribly. The last person to use them was vaporized, but they also defeated the Void Dragon Heshminork. As such we know they are a powerful weapon. Just one of many we hope to get into our hands to fight this war, and that is why we need your help.”

Abigail looked quizzically.

“What do you want us to do exactly?”

“You and your coven, along with Abigail and Casimir’s mission, if you choose to accept, is to hunt down the five ancient elven relics used by the hero Abrilynn. They should have enough power to slay Zenduraka, and then we will turn our eyes upon the Dark Lord.”

Abigail nodded. It was a thought, but a dangerous one. Those weapons were separated because of their power and hidden in temples and such around the Faelund realm. They would not be easy to retrieve, and there would be much peril ahead. Abigail looked down at Sheba.

“What do you think Sheba?”

She purred and meowed, and Abigail nodded her approval.

“I’m in.”

Jason also nodded.

“I am in too.”

Avery nodded his approval. With them looking for the relics, he could focus on keeping the demons from destroying the Faelund. That would be no easy task. There were thousands of them and finding Elven soldiers of a calibre strong enough to face them would be hard. Yes, all Fae had magical abilities, but just like humans, some were more skilled and adept than others. They needed the best of the absolute best to be ready, and it was an overwhelming prospect for Avery. He knew his people needed him, but all he could think about was Casimir. That poor boy must feel abandoned, but there were strict rules, no family, or friends during your stay at the temple, only training and focus.

Back on Earth…

Dark Lord walked into the grove with an insidious grin on his face. Several horrible creatures were with him. One was a living scarecrow with razor-sharp teeth, another looked like a marionette doll, but it sat atop a wooden spider with huge mandibles, and they both had glowing eyes and large teeth. The young girl they had captured begged and pleaded, but her cries were of no use.

“Worry not child, this will be over soon. Your sacrifice in this sacred grove will poison it and in turn its warden. Mua ha ha, ha-ha!”